Complications

Peeta did his best to dry his hair with his towel and then walked out of Katniss's bathroom. She was sitting on the edge of her bed drumming her fingers against her thighs. Her face brightened when she saw him and he smiled at her. "Ready to go?" She asked him.

"Sure." He put his hands in his pockets and Katniss got off the bed. She hooked her arm though his and they walked down the stairs together. They ate breakfast quickly and were putting away their dishes when Katniss's mom came downstairs.

"You don't have to talk to her." She said coldly, pulling him to the door. She pulled on a pair of shoes and when she straightened up he planted a kiss on her head. She gave him a small smile and he brushed her cheek with his knuckles before taking her hand.

He opened the door for her and then shut it. He vaguely remembered where Haymitch lived but Katniss led the way. They stepped up to the door and knocked on it. They waited a while but nothing happened. Peeta knocked again, a little harder this time. He was about to knock again when the door opened.

A very hung over Haymitch stood before them. "What are you doing, pounding on my door so early?"

"I'm sorry, but we have something to ask you."

Haymitch didn't respond, just squinted at the pair of them.

"Haymitch did you hear what I said?" Peeta asked.

"Yeah, yeah, come on in, I guess." He pushed the door open more and disappeared. Peeta and Katniss glanced at each other before they entered.

Haymitch's house was absolutely filthy. There was stuff all over the floor, coating the furniture, and the whole place needed to be dusted, swept, and mopped. And then maybe once more to be sure all of the filth was rid. "Nice place." Peeta muttered.

"I heard that." Haymitch called.

Katniss squeezed his hand and then went to where Haymitch's voice came from. He was seated in his kitchen at a large oak table. His kitchen was no exception for a mess. There were dozens of dishes stacked in the sink, containers of food left open on the counter and several cupboards were left ajar. Peeta's jaw clenched when he saw the counter was also lined with bottles of alcohol.

"Sit down, sit down." Haymitch mumbled, gesturing to some chairs. They sat down and folded their hands in their laps. Haymitch looked at them expectantly. "Whaddaya want?"

"Well…" Katniss started.

"We were wondering if it were possible-" Peeta continued.

"For Peeta and I to be able to live together. Not with our families but just he and I in our own house." Katniss finished.

Haymitch was silent, just looked back and forth between the couple. "Well, you two will have to go on the Victory Tour in a couple of months."

Right. Peeta thought. He had been so focused on Katniss that he had completely forgotten.

"So, that's a couple of months. We don't want to live with our families anymore." Katniss said plainly.

Haymitch raised his eyebrows. "And why is that?"

"Because they don't…" Katniss hesitated so Peeta put his hand on her knee. "They don't understand how we feel about each other."

"That's the big deal?" He said after a while.

"Can we get our own house or not?" Katniss asked.

"I don't know. You were given one house each and that's all you're going to get. If you want to live together then I don't think that I can help you. Now, if you wanted your families to leave your houses then that could happen because the houses are signed unto you two." Peeta and Katniss were both silent. "I'm guessing that's not an option."

"Not really." Peeta admitted.

"I will not kick Prim out of the house." Katniss said firmly. "She hasn't done anything."

"Then I guess your house isn't a choice." Haymitch said pointedly.

"Well, I'm not asking Peeta to kick his family out of his house either." Katniss said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Well, sweetheart, I don't really know what you're expecting me to do." Haymitch said, spreading his hands.

"You don't have anything else you can say that will help us?"

"I told you. Your houses were signed unto you two, so you have the authority to do whatever you please. If you don't want to kick your families out of your houses then they are going to stay there. But then that means that there is no house for you two alone. Unless you want to go back what you lived in before, then there's nothing I can do to help you."

"Wait, did you say go back to where we were living before?" Peeta asked.

"Yes, please don't make me repeat myself." Haymitch said, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I'm sorry." He said. Then he looked at Katniss. "What if we move back to my old place? I know it's not anything like the houses we are living in now, but it's pretty nice considering our District's standards."

"You still own that house?" Katniss asked, her eyes brightening.

"Yeah, no one could afford to buy it so it's kind of ours, but we're not using it anymore."

"Do you think we could?" She turned to Haymitch. "Do you think we would be allowed to do that?"

"Sure. But if none of you are going to be living in your current houses, then I think that they might be taken away from you."

"What?" Katniss demanded.

"The houses are yours as long as one of you two live there." he pointed at them with each hand. "If you were to move out then your families wouldn't be allowed to live there anymore."

Peeta and Katniss were both silent. Haymitch sighed. "You two won the Hunger Games. One of the perks of that, other than surviving, is getting your own house in the Victor's Village. If you were to not live there, then that house would no longer be yours, so your families wouldn't be allowed to live there. It's not their house; it's yours."

Peeta ran that through his head a couple of times. He didn't find it ideal to kick his family out of their new house. But then again, his mom would never respect Katniss, and she would never get over what had happened to him. He took a deep breath. "Okay. Since we still own our old house, I'm going to ask my family to leave."

"Peeta, no you don't-" Katniss began but stopped as Peeta put up a hand to silence her.

"They'll have a place to stay." He reasoned. "I'm not exactly happy with my mom right now, anyway."

"But it doesn't mean you have to kick everyone out of your house!" Katniss's eyes were pleading. "Peeta, you don't have to do this. Not for me."

"Katniss, I'd do anything for you. You know that."

"But don't do this! This is too big." Katniss said, grabbing his hand. "I will not let you make your parents and brothers leave just so we can live together."

"But I thought you wanted us to be together! You brought it up!"

"I know and I do! But I can't ask you to kick your family out. I won't let you."

"You don't have to let me do anything because it's my choice!"

"Well, I'm not going to just sit and watch you make your family leave their new home!"

"HEY!" Peeta and Katniss both fell silent and their heads snapped to look at Haymitch. "I think you should continue this conversation elsewhere. It seems as though things have gotten a little too complicated and I'd rather not have to listen to it." He looked a little mad, but mostly annoyed.

"You're right. Sorry, Haymitch, we'll be leaving now. Thank you for the help." Peeta said, standing up.

"Are you sure I helped you?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

Peeta glanced at Katniss as she stood up, whirled around and left. "See you around." Peeta said. Haymitch gave a sarcastic salute.

"Good luck." Haymitch called after Peeta. I'm gonna need it, Peeta thought. When he got outside Katniss was already walking away. He jogged to catch up with her and put a hand on her arm. She whipped around and pulled her arm away.

"Don't!" she said.

"Katniss! What's wrong? What did I do?!" he said desperately.

Katniss let out a strangled noise. "You're just so willing to do anything for me! You'd throw your family out of a brand new house just so that we can live together! Peeta, you allied with the Careers in the Games so they wouldn't find me, you would have rather died than let me go get the medicine for you, and you wanted me to kill you so that I could go home." Tears formed in her eyes and her voice was trembling. "Do you know how that makes me feel?"

"I'm sorry," Peeta whispered. Katniss shook her head and it looked like she was trying really hard not to cry.

"It makes me feel awful. Because the things that I did for you, I did for myself too. You are so selfless, Peeta. And I'm so selfish. I don't know how you love me," she finished sadly, then let out a little sob that ripped out Peeta's heart and tore it in two. He stepped forwards and enfolded her in his arms. He rested his cheek on her head.

"I just do. You're not selfish, Katniss. Her hands tightened in his shirt but she didn't say anything. He kissed her hair and closed his eyes. Why did everything have to become so complicated? "I love you." He whispered.