A/N: I really do apologize for the short chapters, but I'm reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeealy busy! And thank you all so much for the compliments! I LOVE YOU!
Chapter 21
Katniss POV
Effie opens the door, singing a hello to us, inviting us in. I see something register in her face when she sees my black eye, but she smiles and opens the door even wider.
I've only been in Peeta's house once, but it looks like she has completely redecorated the place, amd we see the entire livgn room is cvered in wedding picures, photos of dresses, different kinds of fabric, and countless other piles of paper, pens, and lists.
"I'm feeling a little woozy." I say to peeta, clutching his arm for support. He slips his hand into mine, and squeezes it. We walk forward.
She explains to us that we will have to choose a color scheme, venue, and date. It takes us hours to do just this. We decide on traditional white, nothing really else for color. When she forces us to pick another one, I blurt out, "Orange!".
"Orange it is." Effie says, writing something down in a giant book she has sititng on her lap.
Effie tells us she wants to have our wedding at the end of the month.
"This month?" I ask, in shock.
"Yes, dear. We can get it all done by then. I'm thinking we'll leave Peeta down here now to desgin the cake, I assume he's going to be making it, or at least will want to be part of the process of making it."
She grabs me by the arm.
"And WE will go upstairs, and try on wedding dresses, I brought quite a few with me."
I look at Peeta for help, and she pulls me away, and up the stairs.
She was severely understating it when she said she ahd brought "a few". The entire room is filled with dresses, on racks, hanging on the walls...
"Wow." I say. She smiles, then starts runnign around the room, picking several dresses off the racks.
"Try these on!" She says, and I do. With each one, she writes something in her big book.
After trying on what seems like hundreds of dresses, I'm done. Halfway through trying them on, Peeta comes up the stairs, and starts to open the door.
"Hey, I'm going-" But Effie runs over, and slams it shut.
"You may not come in here, Katniss is trying on dresses!"
"Okay..." He calls through the door. "I'm done designing the cake, I'm gonna be over at the house."
"Okay, see you soon!" I yell.
But Effie has other plans for me.
I am there for another four hours. She has me re-try on dresses, wokring through some sort of elaborate elimintaion process. I do get some say, but not a whole lot.
In the end, I'm wearing a long strapless dress with a beauitful beaded corset top that laced up in the back.
"I love it, Effie." I say, looking at myeslf in a full-length mirror. I take off the dress, and hang it up.
"Well, good. Now that we have the dress under control, we should start-"
"Effie! I am tired, we just spent four hours trying on dresses. We can do the rest of this tomorrow, we have a while."
"But-"
"Now I just want to go home and spend time with my finacee. Goodnight."
And with that, I walk out of the room, down the stairs, and over to my house. I kick off my shoes, and find Peeta on the couch. I curl up next to him, kissing him on the cheek.
"What is your definition of 'soon' exactly?" He asks.
"Whenever Effie will let me go. I finally escaped." I smile, and he does too.
"I'm glad." He kisses me. "What does the dress look like?"
"I've been sworn to secrecy." I say with a wink. He pouts, but I just roll my eyes, and get off the couch.
"Where are you going?" he asks.
Instead of answering him, I go to the kitchen, and get myself some cake. I mix it all together, and go sit back on the couch. I start eating the cake, and Peeta looks at me, an eyebrow raised.
"Still edible?" He asks. I shove a forkful into his mouth. "Very." he says.
"So, how about those cake plans?" I ask when we've finished the bowl.
"I've been sworn to secrecy." He says with a smirk. I lean in, sitting on his lap, our faces so close our lips are almost touching.
"I think I'll find a way to work it out of you." I murmur.
"Never." he whispers, closing his eyes.
I stand up, walking away.
"Fine then."
He laughs, and scoops me up, carrying me up the stairs to the bedroom. He throws me onto the bed, and climbs on top of me, putting his face very close to mine.
"We find ourselves in this position quite often, don't we?" I ask him.
"Not often enough." He says, leaning down and kissing me gently. He breaks away after a second, but I pull him back down, knotting my fingers in his hair. He wraps his arms around me, rolling so I'm laying on top of him. Our feet tangle as I kiss down his neck, and up the other side, finding his mouth again. His arms tighten around my waist, and I break away.
"What, is everything okay?" He asks.
"I just don't want to..."
"Oh." He says.
"Not that I don't want to! I just think we should wait, I mean, what if I-" But I freeze, my entire body coursed through by a chill.
"What is it? Katniss?"
I climb off him, and stand in to doorway, back to him.
"I'll be back in a little bit."
In a daze, I walk down the stairs, slip on shoes, and walk outside, and to the store. I vaguely hear the small bell jungle as I walk to the back of the store. I pick up the pouch, and not finding my voice to ask where Sae is, I leave the money on the counter and walk out.
I walk home, up the stairs, and into the bathorrm, shutting the door behind me and locking it. With shaky hands, I take the preganancy test out of the bag, and follow the instructions. I wit an agonizingly long time, and the let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding.
Negative.
I open the bathroom door, and see Peeta, sitting on the bed. I instantly burst into tears, and walk over to him. He holds me close, and, trembling, I start talking.
"I'm sorry for leaving you like that."
"Are you alright? Where did you go?"
I look at him.
"I went to go buy a pregnancy test." I see a flicker of emotion in his face. Hope? That causes fresh tears to spring to my eyes as I shake my head slowly.
"It was negative. I was just so worried, because I don't want anything, especially not before the wedding, and..." I stop being able to form words, so I just cry.
"It's okay, Katniss."
"I'm so sorry!" I wail.
"Why are you sorry?" he asks.
"Because! You want kids, and I don't know if I'm going to be able to give them to you! I caertainly don't want them now, and I'm sorry for that."
"You don't have anythign to be sorry for. I will love you, whether or not we have children. Would I love them? Yes, and I'm know you would too. But I don't want them if you don't. I'm sorry you were scared you were preganant. You explicitly said you didn't want to do anythign until we were married, and yet I persisted. I'm sorry."
"Oh trust me, it was a mutual decision." I say to him. He kisses me softly.
"I love you."
"I love you too, more than anything. And it kills me to know I may not be able to give you everything you want."
"Katniss, you don't get it."
"Don't get what?"
"YOU are everything I want. As long as I have you, I'm the happiest I could be."
I hug him. I bury my face into his chest and say, "I'll try."
"You really don't have to, Katniss."
"I... I don't want to make any decisions before we get married. But... I'll try."
He kisses me once more, and I fall asleep.
The next day is filled with wedding planning with Effie. We pick where and exactly when, and she hand-writes the invitations on fancy paper. Peeta and I put them in envelopes and write addresses on them, and put them in a bag to mail out.
When I'm handed one with my mother's name on it, I pause. Peeta places a hand on my arm.
"If I could invite my parents, I would."
I look at him, and smile slightly. I put the fancy card in an envelope, and write her address on it. I put I in the pile, and we finish up quickly.
When we're done, we go over to Haymitch's house to deliver the invitition personally. As soon as we open the door we're immideatley hit with the smell of liquor. We see Haymitch passed out on the couch. Peeta goes over and wakes him up. Haymitch grumbles a few profanities, but sits up.
"What?" He asks grumpily.
"We have something to tell you." Says Peeta.
"Well tell me soon, I'm not a patient person."
"We know this already." I say, and he glares at me.
"What we would like to say," says Peeta, taking my hand, "Is that we're getting married."
"Wow." says Haymitch. "How'd you convince her?" He asks, nodding to me.
"I said yes. Voluntairly."
"I knew it was only a matter of time before you two got hitched." I remember what he told me so long ago, that I was going to have to marry Peeta. "Although, I thought it would be under different circumstances." We nod.
"The wedding is at the end of the month." Says Peeta.
"Jeez. Who made THAT decision?"
"Effie." I say. "She's has designated herself the title of wedding planner."
"Crazy clown lady is in town. Joy." He says.
"Actually, Effie wanted you to-"
"Woah, woah, woah. Before I get involved in anything with that woman, I'm going to need some serious alone time with my bottles."
"Oh no you don't" Says Peeta. "You're going to have to be completely clean for this. I'm serious."
"And what if I refuse?" Haymitch questions.
"Then we'll have Effie come over here and convince you." I say.
"Fine." he says. "But there betetr be appropriate refreshments at the reception."
Peeta lets out a laugh.
The next week and a half is filled with cake tastings, dress fittings, dance classes, makeovers, and so much planning. By the end of it, we have the wedding planned down the the last minute detail, and we are exhausted. Peeta and I have don nothing but think about the wedding, we haven't gone to work, Effie has insisted on paying for everything.
Peeta and I lie under the willow trees, our first time with just each other in what seems like forever.
"We planned a wedding in two weeks." I say. "I didn't even know that was possible."
"One more day." he said. "There's tomorrow, then the wedding."
"Wow." I say.
"Any second thoughts?" He asks.
"Absolutely not." I say.
"Wow, I just rememebred something!" He says after a pause. "Something we haven't planned yet."
I gasp dramatically. "Something we haven't planned? What could this be?"
"The honeymoon."
"Oh!" I say. "I'm sure Effie has something in store for us."
"Don't you think that's something we should decide on our own?" He asks.
"Well, what did you have in mind?" I ask him.
"I don't know. We could go skiing in 2. Hiking in 7. A beachy vacation in 4."
"Ooh, that sounds nice." I say.
"4 it is. We'll take a train after the wedding."
I smile. "Sounds like a plan."
"Everything about that day sounds nice."
"Effie's not going to let you see me all that day, not until I walk down the isle." I say.
"Not even first thing in the morning?"
"You heard her." I said. "She's going to have me spend the night over there."
"So, tonight is the last night we have together before the wedding?"
"Correct."
"So... Why don't we..."
"No." I say, getting up, walking towards the house.
"Hey!" he calls after me. "Katniss!" he gets up, and runs after me. He stops me, and slips his arms around my waist.
"I was kidding." He says, kissing the top of my head. I turn around and face him.
"You better have been."
The next day, we sleep in as late as we can. When we're both fully woken up, we go downstairs to eat
"You had a nightmare last night." Peeta says, mouth full of cereal.
"I did?" I don't remember him waking me up.
"Yes you did."
"Any idea what about?"
"No, after I woke you up, you went right back to sleep."
"Oh."
"What if you have a nightmare tonight? And I can't get to you?"
"Effie's pretty irratible when it comes to interrupting sleep, she'l find a way to wake me up."
"Okay..." He says, unconvinced.
We go over to Effie's, and she sits us down on the couch. She sits down in a large chair, and pulls out her big book.
"Now. Katniss, your dress has been fitted prperly, correct?"
"Yes."
"And Peeta, you have the cake under control?"
"Yes."
"Katniss your maid of honor will be?"
"I hadn't really thought about tha-"
"Me, then, thank you very much for asking, I'm honored. Peeta, who will your best man be?"
"My brother."
"Alright then. Do you both know what times you will need to be where tomorrow? I will be with you both, back and forth, all day, but just to make sure."
"Yes we do." I say, squeezing Peeta's hand.
"Good. Now, I'll go chack in with Haymitch, and when I get back, you two musn't see each other until tomorrow at the ceremony!" She claps her book shut, then leaves.
"Hey, it's not that long." I say, looking at him. "Plus, don't you have some sort of bachelor's party to get to tonight?"
"Yeah, my brother's got soemthing planned."
"Well, make sure you don't fall in love with any scantly clad women while I'm gone, okay?"
"I promise." He says, kissing me.
He left, several kisses later, and Effie arrived telling me the schedule I'd have to maintain for the rest of the day, some elaborate spa sort of treatments, done to me by none other than my prep team.
After being scrubbed, buffed, polished and waxed, I burned all over, and when I looked at myself in the mirror, I practically glowed.
They gave me a special mix to put in my bath that night that was supposed to help the burn go away, and relax me so I could get to bed faster.
After the bath, I did feel signifigantly sleepier than before, so I changed into the most plush pajamas I've ever felt in my whole life, tucked myself into the queen sized bed, and fell asleep.
A/N: I'M SO EXCITED TO WRITE THE WEDDING SCENE! I came home to sooo many emails today about favorites, and reviews, and I was so happy I almost started crying. Seriously guys, it's amazing, and I love you all!