Thank you all so much for sticking with me, and this story! I've gotten so attached to it! I hope you all are loving it too.
Merry CHRISTmas loves! Leave me presents (as in Reviews)
-thamockingjayandpeeta
"So she was saying that the Universe had it so that you and Katniss got together?" asked Haymitch right before we boarded the train home back to 12 the next day. We had said our goodbyes to everyone, Mrs. Everdeen and I hugging for a long time. Katniss had asked what that was about, as she hadn't asked last night, and I told them all about my conversation with Mrs. Everdeen.
"Basically," I responded.
"And here I thought it was because the odds were ever in our favor," Katniss said. Effie giggled and I smiled.
"Basically she was saying Katniss and I got together as a way to making things right between her and my father, not that Mrs. Everdeen was wrong in marrying Mr. Everdeen."
"So you know what the means, then, don't you kid?" Haymitch's eyes were twinkling.
"No, what?"
"That one of you and Katniss' kid is gonna hook up with one of Gale's kids."
I stared at my mentor, dumbfounded, as he and Effie started laughing.
"Face it. Gale's going to be around for the rest of your life."
"Yah, it'd be funny if Peeta and I were ever gonna have kids," Katniss muttered, and she folded her arms across her chest, a scowl on her face.
"You still don't want kids, Katniss?" asked Effie. "With Peeta Mellark? The entire world wants to sleep with him, you know. Why, if I were your age… I'd give you a little challenge, I think."
"If one more person says that," Kantiss exploded, "I swear I'll—" but Haymitch, Effie, and I laughing hysterically drowned out what she would do.
"Your jealousy is so amusing," said Haymitch.
"I'm not jealous." She looked away from all of us, and we burst into laughter when we heard Katniss mumbling things like, 'First Johanana,' then 'naked in an elevator,' followed by, 'President Paylor,' and finally, 'Effie."
"What was that dear?" I asked, and I swear if looks could kill I'd be dead.
It didn't stop me from chuckling, though.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
I was immensely relieved to be back home in 12. Mostly because it felt like the holidays here. People were joyful and happy, and Christmas carols could be heard blasting out of the shop's windows. The Capitol celebrated Christmas, but with fancy dinner parties and playing dress up.
And there was no snow.
How on earth could a person celebrate Christmas without snow?
This, coming from a place that only started celebrating Christmas a few years ago. But that's so not the point.
We were welcomed home with clean white powder, the air fresh, crisp, and cold. With the new buildings and shops 12 didn't have the same smell it used to.
Or maybe because we were happier now so it didn't seem as bad.
Haymitch bid us goodnight and made his way to his place. We said goodnight as we made our way to ours.
"Home sweet home," I sighed, content.
"It's great to be back," agreed Katniss.
"I'll go looking for a Christmas tree tomorrow," I told her as we made our way upstairs, the suitcase still in my hand.
"There are a few decorations I need to pick up too."
"Might as well do the holiday shopping."
When we got to the room Katniss sighed and flopped on the bed.
"What's on your mind?" I asked her, sitting next to her.
"One year I'd like to invite everyone here for Christmas. Not this year. I think I've had enough of everybody. But one year. I think it'd be nice."
I smiled. "I'd love that."
True to my word I set off into the woods during lunch with a few men from town the next day. There were a couple of lots that sold trees but Katniss preferred the trees from the woods. Every year since the Districts started celebrating Christmas again Katniss and I had had a tree in our living room. This year I wanted a small one in our bedroom as well. And I got one for Haymitch. He'd probably grunt and grumble but secretly he'd be happy.
Four guys helped me with my trees while two guys made their way to Haymitch's, who I knew wasn't home. Sometimes during the day he went into town and had meetings—I presume with Paylor— along with a note explaining to Haymitch that Katniss and I would be by later to help decorate it. I could hear the geese as they guys started to disturb their peace.
I put the smaller tree up in our room, near the window, and placed the larger one downstairs. As I did I thought about the families that would be moving into Victor's Village soon, per our request to Paylor. It'd be nice to look out the window and see Christmas decorations and lights.
I had the guys drive me back to the bakery, all the while thinking of me and Katniss' first Christmas together, three years ago. It was pretty lonely, as people still hadn't really moved back to 12 yet. Haymitch, Katniss, and I spent the day unsure of what to do. It was only after watching a few Christmas movies that we realized we should have had a feast, decorated, and spent it with family and friends.
I had written Effie the next day for advice on how to celebrate Christmas, and she had sent me back several pages worth of ideas. We had come a long way since then. Now we had made our own traditions, and now that there were more people in 12 everybody got into the holiday spirit.
The school started putting on Christmas plays. It was a good way to bring the community together. Normally the week of Christmas there were different shows: one night a choir would sing, the next night the band would play, and the last night the students put on a play, normally A Christmas Carol or The Nutcracker.
Katniss and I made sure that we supported at least one of the events, if not all. Ideally we liked to show support, but with Christmas being so close to the anniversary of Prim's death, some days Katniss wouldn't even get out of bed. On days like that, she couldn't go and support.
I was hoping with the memorial service we'd be able to avoid that this time around, but only time would tell.
In the meantime, we'd decorate the tree and house.
I found Katniss waiting for me at the bakery when I got back. She was sitting on the stair, about a dozen shopping bags next to her.
"I hope I didn't keep you waiting for long in the cold," I told her, bending down and kissing her. I meant to give her a little peck but she wrapped her arm around my neck and pulled me in for a deeper kiss. When we parted I looked at her, breathing heavily. "What's wrong?"
"I thought you'd be back by now. I've been waiting for an hour. I even went to Delly's hoping you'd be there." Her eyes were dark. "You scared me."
"I'm sorry." I sat down and cupped her cheeks in my hand. "I took longer than normal because I decided on a whim to get Haymitch a tree, too. Then we had to set the trees up. I had no idea you'd be waiting for me at the bakery."
"I didn't mean to panic. That's why I just sat on the steps. I knew you'd come back."
"I'll always come back," I told her, kissing her again. I helped her up and we made our way into the bakery. "What all did you get? I wasn't expecting so many bags."
"I randomly got into the spirit," she said with a sheepish grin. "I got a little of everything. I also got some things for the bakery. I was hoping we could decorate it together."
I stared at her, trying not to make too big a deal about this, because honestly Katniss was not the most romantic woman in the world. So instead of gaping in shock I smiled and said, "Sounds like a good idea."
We decorated in red and green and strung lights along the wall that named all the different breads in each District. I also painted snow angels and snowmen on the windows and stars on the door.
It wasn't much, but it was festive.
"Do you want me to wait for you to get home to start decorating?" asked Katniss.
"I'll just shut down the bakery early. No one's coming. It's getting too cold out."
The temperature was rapidly dropping. It'd been snowing on and off since November, but today had been one of the colder days, and it was only getting colder. Katniss and I bundled up in our jackets and I grabbed the bags as we made our way home, looking at the houses with their Christmas decorations.
There was definitely a hint of Christmas in the air, and I couldn't wait to get home and add our own decorations to the house.
We put a large Christmas wreath on the door with a tiffany blue and gold bow with white lights. We strung white lights in the window and garland with gold lights along the stairwell. We hung tiffany blue and white stockings in front of the fireplace with Peeta, Katniss, Haymitch, and Effie painted in gold.
I told Katniss I wanted to run upstairs and shower before decorating the tree. I did shower, but I also wanted to put the finishing touches on our tree in the bedroom—the tree Katniss didn't know about. I had started decorating it earlier, which is another reason I had been so late to the bakery, but there were a few things I needed to finish.
The Christmas tree had colored lights and tiffany blue, gold, and white ornaments. A large Mockingjay topped the tree instead of an angel, since Katniss—the Mockingjay—was my angel. Pinecones, some painted metallic gold, also hung for decoration. My gifts were already wrapped and under the tree. Katniss would have to add hers later.
I turned the tree lights on, allowing the glow to light up the room, and then made my way to the shower. When I finished showering I dried off and threw on a pair of sweats and a tank top.
I walked downstairs and nearly stopped from shock when I heard Katniss singing.
She never sang.
I listened as she sang something about having a Merry little Christmas, and troubles being miles away, wondering where she'd heard such a beautiful song.
"You can come in now. I know you're eavesdropping," she called out. "I heard you coming down the stairs."
"I wasn't eavesdropping. I was listening," I told her with a smile.
I found her at the front door, struggling to reach up and tie a—
"Mistletoe?"
She blushed. "Can you help me put it up? I'm not tall enough to reach it."
I smirked at her and picked her up so that she could tie the mistletoe to the top of the door.
I started to walk away, saying I was going to start dinner, when she said, "Don't I get a kiss?"
I turned around to peck her on the lips when she snaked her arms around me and pulled me into an unfathomable kiss.
I guess dinner would have to wait.
When she parted her lips for me I slid my tongue into her mouth. When I felt her melt into me I picked her up, making my way to the bedroom.
Her hands were under my shirt, cold from the door being open, but I didn't mind the contact to my flesh, because she was making me hot, so hot.
When we got to the room her face was flushed, her eyes dark with desire. I opened the door and made to drop her on the bed when I felt her attention go elsewhere.
I caught her gaze and saw her eyeing the tree.
She slid down and walked up to it, her mouth open in awe.
"It's beautiful," she told me.
"It was supposed to be a surprise," I told her. "We'd never had one in our room before."
She fingered the trinkets and stared at the mockingjay on top.
Then she turned to me, slowly, and it's crazy, really, how well I claim to know her, but she can do things like this, like jump into my arms unexpectedly, and surprise the hell out of me.
We didn't even make it to the bed.
We made love right there, on the floor, next to the tree. She was frenzied at first, but I slowed things down, significantly so, because this was the first year we had a Christmas tree in our room, and it'd be the first time we made love underneath it.
She sighed in satisfaction when I entered her, and I slid in and out of her with ease. She was so wet, always wet for me, and I moaned when she came for the first time. I stared at her—I loved to watch her cum—and saw her hair fall around her, her chest heaving up and down.
I was unprepared for her to flip me over, but when she climbed on top of me she slithered down and buried her face in my neck. When I gripped her hips I pushed myself harder and deeper into her.
Her forehead rested on mine as her lips brushed my own. I could feel her breasts jiggling as she rode me, just like I could feel her breath tickling my nose.
She threw back her head and came again, but I wasn't finished with her yet, so I forced myself not to cum.
I pushed her off of me, still stroking, and forced her to sit up into my lap, her legs wrapped around my waist, her arms wrapped around my neck. She crossed her ankles as I wrapped my arms around her waist, pushing her in deeper.
"Shit," she groaned out, whimpering, begging, pleading. "More. Don't stop. Yes." She wasn't speaking in coherent sentences, but she was doing better than me, because I was speechless. I felt like if I made a sound I'd explode.
She came a third time and I couldn't help it: I moaned out her name, repeating it like a song, pounding, stroking, gasping.
Katniss called out my name and untangled her arms from around me, placing them on the floor and leaning back, thrusting up her hips to me to meet my own thrusts. She grunted with pleasure and I kept this up for as long as I could before I switched our positions, this time placing her legs on my shoulders and entering her.
It didn't take me long to cum after that, and she quickly followed.
Breathing heavily I sunk down to her, burying my face into her neck.
"Merry fucking Christmas," she whispered.
I grinned at her language. "Merry Christmas."
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
After we got dressed again we made our way back downstairs and into the kitchen where I started on dinner.
"We should eat with Haymitch and go decorate his tree," Katniss suggested, and I nodded my agreement. While we waited for dinner to cook we decorated the big tree downstairs in the window. We kept the same color theme, but the decorations were a lot more extravagant on this tree; lots of gold, tiffany blue, brown, and silver. We also decorated it with pinecones, acorns, popcorn, and apples. This tree had a brown angel atop it, which we named Rue.
Afterwards we stepped back and admired our tree.
"It's perfect," said Katniss.
"Real," I responded.
Dinner was almost done when the phone rang. I answered it and had to blink back my surprise at the voice on the other end.
"Hey, Gale," I said. "Katniss just went upstairs to wash up for dinner. Can she call you back?"
"I… just tell her Merry Christmas for me, okay?"
I paused. This was the first time he'd called for Katniss, and I felt like it was important that I didn't turn into the messenger. "Give me your number and I'll have her call you back."
He gave me the number and a few minutes after we hung up Katniss made her way downstairs. I told her Gale had called and she went upstairs to call him back. She came down a few minutes later, a small smile on her face, and wrapped her arms around me.
When dinner was finished we made our way to Haymitch's. Without knocking on the door we made our way inside, but stopped dead in our tracks.
"Don't you people knock?" muttered Haymitch.
"We never had to before," Katniss said, turning red.
Haymitch finished buttoning his shirt, his eyes clear and amused, as Effie cleared her throat and fluffed up her hair. Thankfully she was fully clothed.
"If we had known Effie was here we'd have knocked," I told Haymitch apologetically.
"I came early," she said.
"That's an understatement," muttered Haymitch, causing Katniss to blush again. Effie shot him a look and he cleared his throat.
"I was going to come over tomorrow." She stood up, still embarrassed at nearly being caught in the act, and hugged us both.
"If you were going to come here so early why didn't you just ride back to 12 with us?" I asked her.
"I wasn't supposed to be here until the end of the week but Plutarch said I deserved an early vacation. I packed my bags and caught the next train. So… to what do we owe this surprise?"
"We thought we'd bring Haymitch dinner and force him to decorate his tree."
"But I see that's already done," said Katniss, noting the decorated tree and the unfinished bowls on the table.
"Aren't you two so sweet," Effie beamed. "I'm so sorry."
"I'm not," said Haymitch. "Leave us in peace."
I smirked. "I guess we'll see you tomorrow," I said.
I started to leave but Katniss was still standing there, clearly dumbfounded, staring at Haymitch and Effie as if she couldn't grasp the concept.
Snickering I grasped Katniss by the elbow and headed back to our place.
Merry Christmas indeed.
Totally realized this could be a Christmas one-shot. I might repost it as such. I hope you all enjoyed this little Christmas chapter. You all take care.
Til next time,
-thamockingjayandpeeta