Surprise! Told you it was done... I hope you like it since I had a lot of fun writing it!
Thursday
I went home to change my clothes as soon as I closed the bakery. I was dreading coming back to the house because I didn't know what mood Katniss would be in. My mother had picked today of all days to take her anger out on me.
I'd been baking when my mother barged in the kitchen, going on about how we'd been too generous with ingredients and now we had less money than the month before. She had skipped her Thursday outing after saying on Tuesday that it would be better if she kept a close eye on the new workers. Surely her sister suggested something about it, and now she had a new reason to hold a grudge against Katniss. Now she was in the middle of one of her usual rants about how my dad was too generous and I was too careless and how in general everyone in the world was just too stupid to do anything right. But now that Katniss worked here, so she managed to make it about her as well.
"And that rude girl, she can't even say good morning when I walk in the kitchen!" She was contradicting herself again, since two days before she had proclaimed that Katniss had no right to speak to her at all. I was just relieved that Katniss was doing deliveries and she wouldn't catch any of this. "So you tell that stupid girl that if she wants to get paid next week, she better start acting like a decent person." I sighed angrily.
"Maybe if you didn't tell her to never speak in your presence she would be more willing to say good morning, mother." Maybe it was not the best thing to say, but what really got her was my sarcastic attitude. I should have seen it coming since she had done this many times. But it still caught me by surprise when she slammed the oven's door shut when I was pulling out a tray. The shock not only made me drop the tray, making some of the rolls fall to the back of the oven and others to the ground, but It also made me burn the inside of both of my forearms as they got caught in the burning metal frame of the oven. I groaned in pain, she walked away with a satisfied expression.
I looked at my arms and tried to evaluate the damage. I had been burnt a lot of times so I knew it would be fine. I was mostly irritated at myself for letting her catch me by surprise and because she'd put plenty of force into slamming the door shut so it would also leave a bruise on my forearms, which would be harder to explain. I poured some cold water on my arms, which dulled the pain a little. I tried to roll my sleeves down to make it less noticeable. Maybe Katniss wouldn't see them. It was useless, the way I moved around my arms to bake made my sleeves go up anyway. And if I rolled them down too much the friction of the fabric and my skin was quite painful.
I had begun a new batch of rolls to replace the ones that had fallen on the ground when Katniss arrived. It was as if she knew, it took her a second to notice the furious red lines on my arms. She didn't say anything, she came up to me and took a hold of my arm.
"Peeta, what happened?" She asked in shock. Her fingers were encircling my wrist lightly, but I moved away from her touch so she wouldn't see how bad it was.
"Nothing, just an accident." I don't know why I lied. It wasn't as if she didn't know what things were like in here. Old habits I guess.
"Yeah, I bet." I felt her anger rise and her eyes gave me a steely look."Why the hell did she do that for?" She looked at the door that led to the shop, she seemed to be deliberating what to do.
"It doesn't matter." The more I said the angrier she got "If I'd paid more attention so I could've stopped her." She wasn't listening.
"That's not the point!" She lowered her voice but only out of consideration. "She can't just do this to you. She can't just hurt you whenever she gets mad!" I looked down. I had nothing to tell her."At least someone should tell her that." She crossed her arms tightly against her chest.
"Don't bother." I whispered. Her eyes were ignited, I could see she wanted to do something about it. For a moment I thought she might yell at her or even me.
"I have to go. I finished my deliveries. Tell your father goodbye for me." She was so clearly enraged it felt wrong to let her go like that.
"Where are you going?" I asked in a low voice.
"I'll see you later." And she left. I had been wondering about the look on her face for the rest of the day. Now we had to go to Delly's and pretend to be deeply in love. How could we do that when she could barely look at me?
She must think I'm weak. Like my mother always said. Maybe she thought I was weak because I didn't stand up to her when I could. God knows I'd been to much of a coward to even speak to Katniss and I had loved her for as long as I could remember. I was stronger than my mother and I could just stop her easily. But I wouldn't, because of so many reasons. Or I liked to tell myself that. That I had valid reasons... maybe that was just what I told myself. Like when my dad said that my mother had only broken a broom on Rye's back because she was stressed. But Katniss was so brave, she must know cowardice when she saw it.
I went in the house, with a speech on why I couldn't do anything to stop my mother ready for Katniss to hear it. I heard her moving upstairs. I put my apron on the back of a chair and went upstairs. Her room was open but she wasn't there so she had to be in the bathroom. I went to my room and started changing, I chose a long sleeved shirt. Maybe it would bother her less if she couldn't see it.
"Peeta?" She was outside my room.
"I'm almost ready." I said and I opened the door. She was wearing her blue dress and her hair was recently braided.
"Can you come here for a minute?" She was waiting for me outside my room. When she went into her room, I followed. Her bed was neatly made. I was once again overcome by how much her room smelled like her. "Sit down." She instructed and I did as I was told. I braced myself for a full blown argument. But she didn't look angry, she looked focused. She came out of the bathroom with a small piece of paper and a glass jar full of a greyish balm. She read the paper with stern concentration. When she seemed convinced she knew the contents of her paper she sat next to me in her bed. "Can you pull those up?" It took me a second to realize what the thing on the jar was for. I faced her on the bed and she faced me. Our knees bumped together when she got closer.
She winced when she saw the fringe of red and the line of bruises that was starting to appear. Her eyes soon turned angry again. "Prim said this would help." I stretched out my hands towards her, palms up since most of the damage was on the inside of my forearms. She took some of the ointment on her finger and began dabbing it on the angry burns with the gentlest of touches. The effect of it was soothing, my skin felt cool where she touched it. "There's nothing I can really do about the bruises, but I figured the burns were the most painful." When she finished she screwed the lid back on the jar. "Don't touch it." She warned when she saw me about to do just that. "You can put your sleeves back down in a few minutes, but let it absorb first." It didn't look like my skin would absorb it at all. Katniss noticed that and she glanced at the piece of paper I could now see had Prim's hand writing on it. It looked too childish to belong to her mother. "Or so Prim says." She put the paper down. For the first time she looked at me.
"Did it help?" She asked, her eyes looked as vulnerable as Prim's had been when she asked for feedback on her cooking. It was the first time I had seen a resemblance on the Everdeen sisters.
"A lot. Thanks." She looked reassured, and her expression disarmed me. She was taking care of me. "I thought you were angry at me." She looked confused.
"I'm not angry at you," She said angrily. I lowered my arms and she took my hands to make sure my arms didn't make contact with the fabric of my shirt. "But your mom is a bitch." She looked like she'd been saying that all day, and there was no doubt that she had if she had gone to her sister for help. For some reason I didn't mind that they knew. I trusted them. I had to smile when I noticed her taking a deep breath before speaking, she didn't sound angry anymore "I'm sorry she is this way. You deserve better."
"Well, I guess it could be worse." She rolled her eyes at me. I could see the anger returning to her in full force.
"You know what? I am mad at you." She let go of my hands and got up from the bed. I got up too, it felt wrong to be on her bed when she was mad at me.
"I'm sorry Katniss. I-" She interrupted me.
"No, don't apologize. I'm not mad at you because of this." She gestured towards my arms. "I'm mad because I feel that you think you somehow deserve it. And you don't Peeta." She tried to compose herself but her voice was angry. "And you don't have to apologize for what she did, but you should be angry at it. And stop making excuses." I sighed.
"Anger is not that useful for this." She sighed heavily and looked like she had expected that.
"I'm not saying you have to go and hit her." It kind of sounded like she was. "But maybe if you let yourself be angry at it sometimes, you would stop believing all the crap she says about you. Or that there's something you could do to right so she doesn't get mad and hit you. Because it's crap. Whatever happens, she is always wrong for acting like this. You don't deserve any of it." And suddenly, like she always moved, she grabbed my face in her hands, as if she wanted to make it clear that this was important. "You are good. People should be good to you, too. Especially your mother." I always felt like shit when my mom did things like this. It made me feel that I was worthless, clumsy or that I could've prevented her outbursts if I had been paying attention. But to have someone say it out loud, to acknowledge that it was wrong was strangely liberating. And for Katniss to say I was good, it really meant something to me.
"Thank you." I whispered. And she hugged me. I leaned towards her small body that felt so powerful to me, since I couldn't wrap my arms around her. She dropped her arms and moved away from me. I noticed the dress again. "You look beautiful." I had to say it, because it was true. She blushed slightly and pushed the hair behind her ears because it had come out of place.
"Let's go before I change my mind." Her voice got that same tone she got when she whined in the morning when she exclaimed that it was an ungodly hour for anyone to be awake. She looked at my arms again, the balm was mostly absorbed. "I'll put some more before you go to sleep. We'll have to do it again in the morning." I was looking forward to that.
There was still sunshine when we started heading towards Delly's house. After our talk I was in a much better mood and Katniss seemed happier now that she made sure my arms felt better. She was actually being overprotective. And I was loving every second of it.
"Does it hurt, now?" She was nervous because I had grabbed her hand and she was trying her best to not let her arm touch mine as we walked. Which made her walk in a sort of stiff and overly calculated manner. I laughed.
"It's fine! That think you put on me really did it's magic." I moved closer to her and she gave me a wary look. "If I bump into you I'll move away." She had also insisted on carrying the bread herself, she said I might hurt myself if I held it against my arm. Which was ridiculous since I could just hold the entire loaf in my hand.
"Why bring so much bread anyway?" She complained but she didn't let me help her.
"Because not all of it is for Delly." I said as I let go of her and ran to Haymitch's door and left the smaller loaf beside the front door. Katniss rolled her eyes at me.
"You've been doing that all week, what makes you think he's eating them? For all you know they're growing stale behind the door, or someone stole them." I shrugged and took her hand once I was back.
"Then he can feed them to the geese and at least Prim will be happy to see them getting fatter." She rolled her eyes again.
"You're enabling her!" I laughed.
"Prim was like that way before I met her. And you've been checking on the geese, too!"
"Because Prim asked me to. I haven't done much. Whenever I check on them they have food and water."
"You care about them already. And Prim is so lovely! You can't say she's not lovely just the way she is." Her eyes softened so much she had to make an effort to hold on to her sarcasm.
"Yes she is, but my efforts to make her more antisocial go to hell with one word from you." She was being stubborn. She liked that Prim was so kind, regardless of what she said. And I was beginning to think she liked me too.
"I promise that if Prim decides to adopt cute little Haymitch I'll have a talk with her." Teasing Katniss was lots of fun.
"You think you're joking, but I can see that happening." I laughed out loud at her exaggeration. This only made her continue her argument until we reached Delly's house. We bickered on kindness and altruism until the door of Delly's house was opened by a smiling Micah.
"Hey guys!" He said, letting us in. Their house was in an older part of the District so it was distributed similarly than Haymitch's. I could see Delly's taste all over the place already. She had made a great effort to make her house welcoming. Micah was clearly influenced by her efforts. His hair was well brushed and he was wearing a button down shirt and brown pants. Button downs always made him look lankier and taller.
"Hey Micah." Micah announced we were the last to arrive. He happily announced we were the last to arrive. I felt embarrassed about that but he was more than happy to absolve me. "But not to worry my friend, I know what it's like to be late for stuff. We're all newly weds after all." He winked at me, and I smiled not because of his childish comment but because I could guess without looking the kind of glare Katniss was giving Micah at the moment. The widening of his eyes told me I'd been right, he hastily told Katniss that her friend Madge was in the kitchen with Delly.
"I'll bring this to her." She said and took the bread with her. I smiled at her to encourage her. I was immediately taken to meet Ilke, Madge's husband. He was sitting on the couch and gave me a smile when Micah introduced me. It didn't take a genius to see he was already drunk.
"Want something to drink, Peet?" Micah asked. It was funny to witness Micah acting like host, he was more like big kid in our group of friends. Two weeks ago most of us were living with our parents. And now we were all married, had our own places and we were dealing with things too complicated for our years. Looking at him offering me a drink made me picture a child wearing his father's clothes. We were playing house right now, all of us.
"Water is fine." Ilke chuckled. I didn't even feel like he was laughing at me, he seemed a little out of it. Micah looked like a kid with a secret.
"Something stronger? My man Ilke was kind enough to bring some of the best white liquor I've ever had." Ilke nodded, looking proud. I had never personally met Ilke, but right away I thought how he didn't look at all like someone who would marry Madge Undersee. He was tall and had a muscular built to him. He had sandy colored hair and wide blue eyes that looked glassy and red at the moment. He had a wide smile and bright white teeth that seem unnaturally straight. And if his looks weren't enough to hint at an affluent background, his clothes cleared you of any doubts. He clearly didn't shop for clothes around here.
"My old man only gets the best." Ilke was actually younger younger than us, but now that I thought of it I could place him in a few of the parties that I've been too. Kids mostly just snuck around and got drunk, it was one of the few things we had to do around here. I'd gone to one with my brothers. It was the one time I'd had a drink and I hated it. It made me sleepy. And I was exhausted from a day of hard work. If I had a drink now, I'd surely fall asleep.
"No, I'm fine, thanks. Your dad works in the Justice Building?" Most people who had enough money to order things from the Capitol did.
"Yeah! He's the head of his department, he's in the administrative department. He's the guy that tells the Capitol what the District needs medicine, maintenance, supplies, you name it. And that has its perks… so if you need anything I'm the guy to get it for you." I decided right then that I didn't like Ilke. He seemed petulant. Not at all like I had pictured Madge's husband to be. She was such a shy and prudent girl.
"Thanks," I said and he looked satisfied. Micah seemed to have enough of being the gracious host and he dropped next to Ilke as he took a gulp off his cup. He whispered something to Ilke and the small living room was filled with his booming laughter.
"Peeta! I'm so glad you came!" Delly's appearance saved me from this conversation. "Come here! I need company while I cook." I left behind the guys' roaring laughter and entered the quiet kitchen feeling rescued.
"Where's Katniss?" I thought Madge was in the kitchen, too.
"Madge wanted to show Katniss the backyard. Since they were here before you we gave them a tour. But they're taking their time," She lowered her voice as she walked towards a pot and rustled its contents with a wooden spoon. "It looked like Madge needed some time with Katniss." She gave me a wide grin. "Which suits me fine because now I can interrogate you with no witnesses around!" This was exactly what I'd feared. I acted as If I didn't care, though.
"You're so dramatic! So was anybody else coming? I don't know why I had the impression that Micah was gonna have some friends over, too." She shook her head. She put a lid on the pot she'd been using and checked the oven before turning her attention back to me.
"Micah's brother Allman and his wife were supposed to come" I knew Allman, he was in the same grade as Miche had been. "but Ally had an upset stomach and was crying all day today so they decided not to come." I didn't even know they had a kid. I wondered if Miche had kids of his own now.
"When did Ally happen?"
"Three months ago. She's the cutest thing!" Delly smiled widely. She'd always been eager to start having kids. She confessed to me one day that her biggest dream was not having three kids but four. I just shook my head and told her to pass history first. We'd been in seventh grade then. "Thanks for the bread." She winked at me. "Now, for the important stuff." She had checked on every one of her dishes so she could stare at me while she asked questions. I knew her tactics well. "Katniss."
"What about her, Delly?" I asked reluctantly and she looked too excited to mind about my feelings.
"Tell me all about it!" I already knew what she meant "How can you say I am your best friend, Peeta Mellark, when I didn't even know about you and Katniss." Of course she was bringing this up, again.
"Oh Delly," she was so predictable. "I've already told you, Katniss is a very private person. Surely you've noticed." I said and she hadn't lost the sparkle of hope in her eyes.
"I know that, and I believe it to a certain point. But come on, Peeta, I've known you my entire life and I never knew you'd even noticed her? When did it start? Who approached whom and most importantly," she looked at me as she said this and unexpectedly smacked my shoulder with a strength I hadn't seen coming "When did you propose?"
"God, Delly!" I said rubbing my shoulder up and down. "You weren't exactly overly public about you and Micah either." She sighed in exasperation.
"That's completely different, Peeta! You knew we'd kissed that day after the last day of school and that we hung out sometimes. You and Katniss on the other hand happened completely out of the blue!" I knew this was true. I had an entire evening to make her believe differently. I only needed her to believe it, everyone else would get the story from her. We sat on a little table she had with two chairs beside it. I remembered seeing this at her mom's house. She chopped some vegetables as we spoke but slapped my hand away when I tried to help.
"I couldn't tell you, Dells. If I told anyone, even one person, it would have leaked somehow and Katniss wouldn't have liked it." I said trying to blame it on Katniss, to be honest her entire withdrawal from everyone else was our strongest argument. Even if it felt dishonest somehow. "And besides, you know my mother." She gave me a sympathetic look.
"How's that going by the way?" I sighed.
"They hate each other." Delly didn't seem surprised.
"Yeah, well, no surprise there. But you could have told me! I wouldn't have said anything!" she said and I raised my eyebrows in complete disbelief. "Peeta would you let it go already! I only told one person about that it's not my fault your brothers heard." She said blushing slightly but otherwise entirely unaffected. When we were thirteen I'd kissed Delly's cousin Vera because I was tired of her following me around and she had promised that if I kissed her she would leave. I made her swore she wouldn't tell anyone because I really, really didn't like her and truth be told because she was five inches taller than I was and could probably overpower me. Yes I had been shallow and immature but I was only thirteen. She kept to her promise. I, however, made the stupid mistake of telling Delly. My brothers teased me for months about it. Even now, whenever Rye remembered he made sure to mention it. Repeatedly. "Vera says hi, by the way," she had married at seventeen to a guy from the grade above her who happened to be related to Rye's wife's family. I glared at Delly.
"Years of torment from my brothers taught me better, Delly. I wasn't going to blow it, not when Katniss was on the line." My tone was suddenly serious and she looked deeply excited.
"Yes but now that everyone knows, will you tell me?" she asked, the meal finished. She tugged on my arm like we were ten again and she wanted me to sneak her some cookies. I always did. I gave her a grave look before I sighed.
"Fine, what do you want to know?" I said as if I was doing this entirely against my better judgment. Which was exactly the kind of confession that Delly loved best, the one given under coercion.
"Everything!" she yelled and then covered her mouth. "Everything," she repeated quietly. I laughed at her. "How did you even get her to talk to you?" this was more than just convincing her that we had been together, it was about changing their take on Katniss. Delly was particularly scared of her, now that I knew her better and I was less intimidated-less but not entirely since she would always intimidate me somehow-I thought it was so ridiculous.
"That was pretty simple, Delly, I just opened my mouth and said hello." This was true, in a way. Delly sighed irritably before she took a knife and started cutting the bread I had brought.
"You know I'm going to need more details than that." She said impatiently. I knew that tone only too well.
"Katniss traded with my father for a long time, so I saw her every now and then. Then when I finally gathered up my courage I was the one to answer the door when I knew she'd come and I said hello, like I said. She started trading with me and we talked whenever she went to the bakery. When I finally asked her out she said yes. And here we are." She didn't look even mildly appeased but she was slightly soothed.
"I can just imagine how annoying you were," she said with a smile "you probably made up any excuse to make her stay longer." That was just wonderful, it meant my story was plausible. And she knew me too well.
"I couldn't help myself, Delly," I said with a mischievous grin.
"You didn't, clearly. And when did you suddenly decide you liked her? You never said anything. I can't believe I didn't see it!" this was what troubled her most. That she hadn't seen straight through me. I didn't tell her the truth, though.
"I always thought she was beautiful, I can tell you that. But like the other idiots that noticed her I was too afraid to talk to her." I shrugged and she didn't even make fun of me.
"She never did speak to anyone, except Madge and…" she looked embarrassed but I knew what he was going to say.
"Gale Hawthorne," I said in a low voice. I didn't want Katniss to hear us. "That's why I didn't say anything at first too, but when he was reaped." I shrugged, she nodded.
"What's Katniss like, Peeta?" she said eagerly, a little girl's curiosity in her eyes. I would have refused to tell her anything and tell her to go straight to Katniss but I knew better than to expect that she would be cooperative at all to Delly. I sighed as I watched her cut some potatoes. I didn't even think about it I took the knife from her hands and started peeling them. She let me this time.
"She's incredible," I said with a tone of deep admiration I rarely ever let out. "She's honest all the time. She never tries to pretend to be something she is not," except when 24/7 she pretends we're together, not that she had much choice,"She is strong and fair and she surprises me everyday. No matter how well I think I know what she'll say or do, she does something entirely different that surprises me to no end. She is so kind, you should see how much she does to help others." This was true, so very true it ache me slightly not being able to go into the next room and kiss her just because I could. "And she's so modest, most people would brag about all the things she can do but not Katniss," I shook my head "she doesn't care about all of that. She lives for the people she loves." She was staring at me when I looked up at her.
"You really do love her, don't you?" she said with a wide grin. If she'd believed me before I cared about Katniss, she had no doubt left in her mind now.
"I really do. I don't know how you can love someone more than this." This was the kind of thing you could say a girl that was your friend that you would never tell a male friend without expecting a well deserved punch in the face. I whispered just in case Micah and Ilke were near the kitchen.
"I am so happy for you, Peeta. You deserve so many good things, I'm glad you found someone who appreciates it." Her voice turned sad. Her wistful tone told me she wasn't just thinking about me at the moment.
"How's married life treating you, Delly?" I said and looked at her, I tried hiding the concern in my voice.
"Well, not bad. Marriage is certainly not what I expected it to be, but I guess we all have problems at first." She said looking for reassurance.
"That's the part they don't tell you about before the reaping," I said sourly and she gave me a weak smile.
"Micah is a good guy, I know that, but I can't help to think that we were not ready to get married. In many ways, he is so much like a boy still." She said and I nodded. Micah was fairly immature when things came down. He was the kind of guy to pull pranks on others at school, the kind that would go running into the Hob when we were twelve just to prove he could. I didn't blame him for not being ready to get married, we just didn't have a choice.
"But he treats you alright?" I asked, worried that if he didn't I might have to talk to him.
"Sure, he just gets mad when he doesn't get his way. But don't we all?" I kept my smile to myself, I wondered what he would do if he had married someone like Katniss. Who reacted to most things with a glare and incredulity.
"Sure," I answered. Apparently even more complications came when you were romantically involved with someone and you had to live together. I had to concentrate on not looking miserable. The reason why Katniss and I got along so great at this point was simply because we weren't really involved. I sighed.
"Overall it's not to bad. But sometimes I worry. What if we don't fill the quota on time? What if there's something wrong with either of us-" I finished peeling the potato and held her hand. She patted it gratefully. Suddenly, Micah popped her head in the kitchen, looking significantly more drunk than before.
"Dells! I'm starving! Is dinner ready yet?" Delly sighed, looking slightly annoyed.
"Yeah, it's ready go to the dining room." She sounded like a tired mom.
"Cool!" He screamed and left the room. Seconds later we heard them laugh.
"So that's that." She was going to get up but I stopped her.
"You should come visit sometime. We can talk, have some coffee or something. Like the old times." Delly smiled.
"I'd like that." She said looking youthful again. And then she turned to the stove. "Can you help me get that sauce from the pan?" And just like that, the interrogation had to end. "Do you mind getting Madge and Katniss? Tell them we're ready?" I nodded and went to the backyard. It was really pretty. They had flowers and an actual tree. I was going to make a joke to Katniss about it, but then I saw them sitting at the end of the yard, as far away from the house as possible.
I was immediately alert. Madge was looking down to the floor in a lost expression and Katniss looked concerned. Furious, even. I caught her eye and questioned her silently, her expression softened but it was otherwise impossible to know what she was thinking. When I moved as if to approach her she didn't refuse.
"Um, Katniss, dinner is ready," I said and Madge looked up immediately as if she had just remembered they weren't alone in the house. She made an effort to look at me with a smile on her face.
"Hello, Peeta." Said Madge and gave me an embarrassed look.
"Hey Madge, are you guys hungry?" They both nodded and we walked silently back to the house. Madge walked in first. I knew things were bad when Katniss stopped before entering the kitchen and gave me a kind of hug. It was less than a hug because she was making sure not to hurt me, but she leaned her head on my chest for a second.
"What's wrong?" I whispered, my lips brushing her forehead. I put my hands on her shoulders. She shook her head and took a deep breath. I turned to kiss her temple and I brushed the hair from her face. She didn't look at me. She looked at my arms, my sleeves were rolled down.
"How are your arms?" She asked, grabbing them carefully.
"Better." As soon as she acknowledged what I had said she walked in the house, like that little pause she'd made hadn't happened at all.
We went to take our seats; Ilke and Micah were already there making loud and stupid jokes no one else found funny. They tried to include me but there was little I could add since I was so focused on Katniss for the time being. I didn't even care about our initial plan to pretend we were madly in love. To stay a part of the conversation with Micah and Ilke, I muttered something here and there, no matter what I said, they laughed like it was hilarious. Delly was sitting on one end of the rectangular table, Micah was at the head of it. Madge was quietly seated besides Ilke who ended up sitting across from me. Once he was telling a joke and he was moving his arms so violently that he accidentally tipped over an empty glass in Madge's direction. He didn't even bother to see if she was fine, she picked it up and put it back in place without directly looking at him. Watching them sitting next to each other sharpened the contrast of their personalities. The couldn't have been more different.
Delly served the food and for her sake, I did my best to start a conversation. I complimented her food and Madge did the same. However it was clear that the unpleasantness couldn't be broken. Eventually even Delly quieted down and focused on eating her food. The only people who seemed to be enjoying themselves were Micah and Ilke who seemed to drunk to even be aware than the rest of us were there. It was a very awkward dinner. I felt really bad for Delly, I knew her enough to know she would've like this to be the perfect evening.
By the time everyone finished eating I had decided that Madge had told Katniss something about Ilke, something so bad that Katniss looked like she could throw a knife at him at any second. I realized I couldn't do anything but try to make her feel better about it so whenever I could I would hold her hand or lean sideways to kiss her temple. She didn't react much to that, but when I stopped trying, thinking I had bothered her, I felt her hand sliding onto mine under the table. Her thumb traced little lines on the length of my thumb.
When it was time for dessert I managed to get Madge to sit besides Katniss with the excuse that I wanted to talk to Delly about something. Delly whose mood had increasingly decayed during the evening managed to throw me a glance of appreciation when we sat back down. Madge barely touched her food but I saw her saying something in a very low voice to Katniss. Delly looked relieved to have me next to her and she answered to all my meaningless questions about the garden, her house, etc. I made my best efforts to make her laugh, but I only got a couple of smiles from her.
"This was so embarrassing. Of all nights to do this, Micah gets wasted when we have company!" Delly whispered angrily when we picked up the plates and took them back to the kitchen. "He's never drank this much before, I don't know what got into him." She looked so embarrassed. I tried my best to comfort her.
"It's ok, Delly. Dinner was lovely." She rolled her eyes.
"You're full of it. I'm gonna kill Micah. I'm so sorry you guys. You guys seemed so bored." She looked defeated.
"No, don't even say that. We had fun. Katniss is worried about other things and we had a long day at the bakery today. But that's it. The food was delicious." Which was entirely true. At least the food part. She sighed, I know she didn't believe me. "But let me know when you want to visit." She smiled and gave me a hug.
"Thanks, Peeta. Katniss is lucky to have you. You're the only guy who didn't make a fool of himself tonight." I smiled.
"Shut up, Delly," I did my harsh tone voice "You know I'm high maintenance." She laughed and stopped me before I did the dishes.
Thankfully, the longest and most award dinner party in the history of Panem ended. I had relaxed with Delly while we talked in the kitchen. But when we returned to the dining room my concern returned in full force. Madge was hugging Katniss with a mixture of sadness and longing that was a little too much for just a goodbye after dinner party. Katniss whispered something to Madge and she nodded. They left, Katniss didn't even attempt to say goodbye to Ilke. When we said our goodbye to an embarrassed looking Delly and a passed out Micah I was relieved to say the least.
"What happened, Katniss?" I asked once we were a block away from the house. I had put an arm carefully over her shoulders so she wouldn't think I was going to hurt it. It was a little cool out, but it was hard to believe merely two hours had passed. Katniss was stiff but she did nothing to move away from me, on the contrary, she leaned into me.
"Its Ilke," she said without me having to specify. We could only have one thing to talk about. "He's being harsh on Madge. She's afraid of him. She says he yells at her all the time, he complains about everything she does and his mood changes constantly. She doesn't know what to do anymore." This wasn't strange. Not even a little. It was the kind of story that was frequent in District 12 and I suspected in all of Panem. I supposed it was all of the pressure, the whole thing weighing down on you and the obsession to have children. Soon. It brought out the bad side of people, and when the person was bad in his or herself already it only got worse.
"Did she say something to her father?" I knew it was pointless.
"She did. He only said it was normal for newlyweds to have disagreements and that she should be thankful that she'd had a husband like Ilke that had been kind enough to marry her." This seemed unfair. Madge seemed like a lovely person.
"Did Madge ever want to marry someone else?" I asked wondering if that could be another source for her anguish.
"Not that I know of. She just wanted to be left alone, I think. And it's not like she had a choice, it was arranged. He turned 17 just last week I doubt they knew each other very well." He looked much older than that. Arranged marriages were fairly common between the few wealthy people in 12. The District allowed you to marry even at 15, anything earlier than that was frowned upon. I remembered how my mother had tried to do that to Rye when he turned fifteen. My father had refused. He said his sons had a right to choose whom to marry. It was a sensitive topic with my dad. Since wealthy people were a minority, most marriages happened with some form of age difference. Ilke was probably the best prospect within Madge's age range.
"Do you think she will be fine?" I sounded childish but I didn't know what to tell her.
"I don't know." She said and I realized this was what worried her the most.
"If anything does happen, we will help her, Katniss." I said and she gave me a doubtful look. I knew she wasn't convinced, I wasn't convinced myself but we didn't really have much to do about it.
We walked the rest of the way in silence, me holding her close to reassure her and myself as well. The slight thought that Katniss could've ended up in a marriage like that frightened me. To my surprise, she was holding on to me, maybe she realized that in some ways, we were fortunate. We were strangers in many ways, but at least we respected each other. She only let go of me when she walked ahead to open the gate, as a reflex I looked back at Haymitch's house. As usual, there wasn't a single light on but to my surprise, the bread was gone. I smiled but didn't say anything to Katniss, who looked deep in thought.
"I'm going to change, then I can put the ointment in your arms before you go to sleep." She said once we reached the top of the stairs.
"I can do it myself." She looked tired, I didn't want to inconvenience her.
"I don't mind." She said before she closed the door behind her. When I came into her room she was sitting in the exact same spot she sat earlier tonight when she healed my arms. The difference was that she was wearing the loose shirt and shorts that she wore to bed. The same outfit that had been hunting my dreams since I last saw it. I sat in front of her and her eyes widened a little when she saw me. It took me a second to understand what was happening.
"Where's your shirt?" She asked, and I felt a little mortified for embarrassing her but I was still a little pleased with myself because she was still looking at my chest when she asked this. There was a faint blush in her cheeks.
"Sorry," I was not sorry at all "it gets hot at night I don't really wear a shirt. And if I tried to put it on after you put the ointment on my arms-" She was now making an effort not to stare. "I can put something on if you want."
"No, it's fine. It makes sense." She still looked nervous. I couldn't believe I had it in me to be able to get that reaction from her. I had to keep myself from smiling. She applied the soothing balm on me the same way she had before and when she was done she got up and went to the bathroom to wash her hands. Watching her walk away did all sorts of things to me. I was suddenly a lot less smug about her staring.
"Thank you, Katniss." I said, getting up.
"Peeta," She called out. I stopped by the door. She looked at me for once and then she looked away hastily. "I think-" she blushed and then she looked at me again only to immediately look away again, I couldn't help to smile this time.
"Katniss, you can tell me anything." I said trying to repress an actual laugh.
"I know, I just- I don't want you to take this the wrong way, I don't want to-"She only struggled like that when she talked about feelings.
"What?" I said moving a little closer.
"I'm just glad you asked me to marry you. You're good to me and Prim and everyone else, and that could've not been that way." In her own awkward way, she'd said the one thing I had longed to hear the most. She didn't regret marrying me. At least not now.
"I'm glad you said yes." I said smiling at her. She unwillingly looked at me. And unwillingly, she blushed deeply.
"Good night, Peeta." I was being dismissed in a voice that attempted to sound harsher than it was. I didn't mind even a little bit.
"Good night, Katniss." I left her room and she closed the door behind me. I smiled while I got into bed and I replayed the look on her face when she'd noticed my lack of clothes. I felt hope, like I really hadn't allowed myself to feel before. I thought she liked me. Even more than she knew.
Well that went in an unexpected direction for me, how about you? As usual, I would love to get your thoughts on the chapter.
Thanks to all new followers, favorites and to everyone who took time to write review! Things are already changing but I have a feeling they're going to change a lot more on the next chapter. So I hope you stay posted!
Next up: 1st Month's clearance.