Chapter 21

Saturday, May 26, 2012

6:51 PM

A/N: Enjoy the chapter!

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot of this fanfic.

Starflight12

...

[KATNISS POV]

Peeta's finally allowed out the hospital and is moving into a compartment. Which we will be sharing.

I arrive at Peeta's room and see him sitting on his stripped bed, his simple belongings in a duffel bag down on the floor.

"Hey," I say to him, getting his attention.

He looks up at me happily and jumps off his bed and comes to give me s kiss on the cheek. "Hey Babe," he replies, wrapping his arm around my waist.

It's so nice to have the Peeta that I know and love back to normal.

We leave his room and head down to our new compartment which is right next door to my parents and Prim's compartment.

We unlock the door and walk in. It's exactly the same as the one next door, except when Peeta gets his hands on paint and stuff, the room will never be the same.

I had a room for myself and so did Peeta, however they were on the opposite side of the compartment.

Peeta grasps my hand and sits me down on the couch beside him. He looks at me intently.

"Can you please fill me in on everything I missed? I missed out on a lot of things, real or not real?"

"Sure, and real. I start with when I got back after I lost you. Well I ordered for a rescue party but Coin wouldn't allow it, so I began to train to prepare to do a secret rescue for you. I met Finnick who is now one of my best friends and you are going to like him. He's very sarcastic and hilarious. But he also tied me back to reality—almost literally," I say, laughing.

Peeta's smiling and understanding face turns to protective. "He tied you up? Are you okay? Are you hurt? I want to see this Finnick," Peeta starts to stand up and makes for the door to hunt down Finnick.

"Oh no, Peeta, Finnick taught me how to distract myself by tying knots in a rope so I wouldn't get caught up in all my thoughts about you when you were tortured as well as so I wouldn't keep blaming myself for not saving you when you were so close," I explain, grabbing his hand and pulling him back to me.

"What? Oh Katniss, I'm sorry for all the trouble I caused. I'm not going anywhere else now. What else happened?"

I pause, debating if I should share the news about Gale pretending to be him, but I decide against it. Peeta doesn't need to know and doesn't need the stress about dealing with Gale. Anyways, it's already dealt with and I think everyone who heard that lie already knows the truth about who the real Peeta is.

"Well, there's not really anything else, but tomorrow we have a meeting with President Coin. She probably wants to reinstate our marriage that was stopped," I say sadly.

Peeta watches my facial expressions and then places a finger under my chin to move my face towards him.

"Do you not want to marry me, Katniss?" he asks, his voice trembling.

I gasp when I realize how that must have sounded. "No, no, Peeta. I want to marry you, if you still want to, but I don't want a big District Thirteen wedding or any big wedding of any kind. I just want a small wedding. Or, you know what's even better?"

"No, what?"

"A toasting," I reply.

"What's a toasting?"

"A toasting is where instead of a wedding, the bride and groom take a loaf of bread and break it in half, and then toast their pieces and feed it to the other. It's a tradition passed down from generation to generation in my family. And to make it more official than it is, you have your family members witnessing the toasting. And with a toasting, we'll be more married than anything. At least in my opinion," I explain.

"A toasting, you say?" Peeta murmurs.

[PEETA POV]

I roll over onto my other side, trying to stare at the twenty-four hour clock on my bedside table. I still can't understand it, seemingly so since the venom has eaten away my early learning from early elementary school. All I know is that it's late.

Why I'm up is a mystery. I know i have a lot on my mind, like how I'm going to fullfil Katniss' wish for a toasting, and I swear that I heard a scream from across our shared compartment.

I drag sleep ridden self from my cozy bed and order my foot to hobble across the cold tiled floor as I grasp the wall for support since I didn't put my prosthetic.

Sure enough, when I'm outside of Katniss' closed bedroom door, I hear her screaming. What for?

I place my hand on the doorknob and begin to push the door open when I feel my head getting hazy.

No. No no no no no! This cannot be happening. I cannot be having a flashback. I have to comfort Katniss, not become a murderer!

I grab a hold of another door hand and brace my hands on it till I can get a hold on of reality. I start to remember some ways on controlling my flashbacks. Repetition. I begin saying everything that I know is real and begin to say it over and over again.

"I am Peeta Mellark. I love Katniss Everdeen. I am going to marry Katniss. I have been in the Hunger Games. I have been tortured. This is why I act like this sometimes. This behavior is not proper. I know the truth. Katniss is good. I am Peeta Mellark..." I recite to myself. I feel myself calming down and I am this much closer to helping Katniss.

Suddenly Katniss screams out again and her scream reminds me of mutts and I am back in a flashback. Darn it!

I no longer know what to do to keep me in reality so I do the stupidest thing possible that puts Katniss in danger. I go to her room.

I open the door and peer into her room, looking for the vicious mutt that wants to kill me and I want to kill. Finally I see her. Laying there in the bed, thrashing around with tears in h eyes, calling for help and for me.

I don't know what happened, but when she called my name with despair, the villain inside of me died and I immediately remembered what I came here for.

I hobble over to her bed and slowly lower myself to the mattress. I lay facing her with her back towards me in a spooning form. I place my hand on the edge of the mattress to protect her from falling off the edge of the bed, and the other underneath her head, while still being a gentleman.

I moved close to Katniss' ear and spoke in a soothing voice, "Katniss, babe, it's okay, it's only a dream."

Her sobbing slowly diminishes as she leans into me.

I caress her cheek with my thumb and wipe away her tears as both her and I slowly drift to sleep.

Before I fall into a deep sleep, I think to myself, Whatever it was, it was just a dream.

A/N: Well? Please Review!