Preface
we've got tonightPosted originally on the Archive of Our Own at /works/14456010.
Rating:
Mature
Archive Warning:
Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Category:
F/M
Fandom:
The Hunger Games (Movies) RPF
Relationship:
Katniss Everdeen/Peeta Mellark
Character:
Peeta Mellark, Katniss Everdeen, Primrose Everdeen
Additional Tags:
Military, second chanses
Collections:
Everlark Fic Exchange - Springtime 2018
Stats:
Published: 2018-04-27 Words: 1130
we've got tonight
by Jobanana
Summary
Prompt 17: Saying i love you at the wrong time. [submitted by @xerxia31]
I was late for this lol! but this is my submition to this project
" Katniss was dancing with Thom when she felt a hand on her shoulder. The voice was familiar, and she turned to see a brilliant blue to his eyes that she had seen before. He had a buzz cut, but she could make out a rusty blonde shade to it. "
Notes
See the end of the work for notes
we've got tonight
"Come on Kat, don't be sad. You're graduating today. It's a good day," her sister tells her.
They are looking at their reflections in the mirror. Katniss is dressed in the blue gown that belonged to her mother when she was younger. The dress is a little short, but otherwise, it still fits the way it did four years ago. Her body hasn't changed much.
He's the only thing that is missing to make the picture complete. Today could've been like prom all over.
Prom was when Katniss realized that she was in love with her best friend. They had been best friends since age 5, she never felt that way until that moment, when Peeta held her in his arms as they slow-danced.Dammit if she doesn't miss him right now.
She never even thought about not having a date for prom. Having a boy best friend canceled that out, right? Like having a built-in plus one, familiar and comfortable. No awkward waiting for someone to ask you to go with them. Nevertheless,when Peeta asked her, she felt relieved. She laughed a little bit. He was so dramatic about it. A Reese's Peanut Butter Cup tied to a balloon on her desk. Then she found a sunflower on her locker at the end of the day. When she got home, she found a candy ring on her door and a note underneath it that read, "Prom with me? P." She called him immediately.She felt giddy with excitement like she had never felt before. It ended up being one of the best nights of her life and the first time she had danced with someone other than her dad.
It was in that moment that Katniss knew she loved him. When she looked into Peeta's eyes, she thought about everything they'd gone through together, including her parents divorce. The night her mom and dad sat her down and told her, they said that they were just too different, she ran away. Katniss went to the only place where she felt safe, to their hiding place in the woods. Peeta knew where she was, having gone to the woods with her so many times. He held her and let her cry without a word.
There were times that she returned the favor for him. No one knew about his mom's abuse, and subsequent admission into a mental hospital when they learned about her mental condition. Katniss had been there with him that one and only time he went to visit his mother, to say goodbye to her. Katniss was amazed at how he forgave her. She wouldn't have been able to do that.
They were each other's first kiss at twelve. It was awkward to say the least, it was sloppy. All those nights calling each other on the phone to do homework and just talk, a lifetime worth of memories together. All of these were the moments that led up to Katniss seeing her best friend in another light.
But after prom, reality hit.
The memory made her angry. Peeta came to her door and announced that after he turned 18 he was going to enlist in the military because he wanted to do good by his family. Upon hearing this, Katniss wanted to cry and scream. She was ready to grab him by the shoulders and shake some sense into him, to tell him that she needed him, but … no she could never do that. His light is too bright for her to be selfish and not let the world see it. She had to let him go, so she turned her back on him.
At first, he wrote almost every single day, telling her about his training and the guys in his troop, his older and sometimes rude commander, and the food. After a few weeks, Katniss relented and wrote him letters as well.
She told him about her college life and how Prim got Buttercup and how she hated the thing. She also told him that her mom was dating again, and how she wasn't talking to her mother.
However, as the months passed by, the letters became so far between that she was surprised when she got one. After a year, there were no letters at all. And four years later, when she still hadn't heard from Peeta,it hurt just as bad as when he left for the first time.
She wrote one last letter, and she was the most honest she'd ever been, her last attempt at salvaging their friendship. It might not have been the right thing to do or the right place, but she needed him to know. She wrote down those three little words "I love you," with a shaky hand.
Glancing at her image on graduation day, Katniss reminds herself that today is all about her, not him. After all, she would be graduating college and getting a job. She was moving on with her life, and Katniss could almost be happy. Almost.
"Yeah, you're right. I won't be sad anymore," Katniss says to Prim, and she means it. Almost.
The ceremony was a blur, but the after-party was fine. She danced and drank with her friends and Prim. At one point, Finnick and Annie disappeared for awhile, only to return with a severe case of sex hair.
Katniss was dancing with Thom when she felt a hand on her shoulder. The voice was familiar, and she turned to see a brilliant blue to his eyes that she had seen before. He had a buzz cut, but she could make out a rusty blonde shade to it.
"Kay-Kay?" he asks, calling her the nickname he gave her when they were seven.
"Peeta?" It's such a dumb thing to say because it's obviously him, but somehow different. He's taller and bigger with the shadows of a couple of tattoos and dog tags around his neck that she can see though the plain white shirt he has paired with his uniform pants.
"You didn't think I would miss your graduation, right? I'm sorry I'm late, but I'm here now."
Thom is gone when she turns around to apologize to him for basically forgetting about him.
She turns back to Peeta, and he extends his hand out to her. she dismisses his hand and throws herself in his arms, looping her arms around his neck and she begins to cry a little bit harder when she feels Peeta holding her tightly to his body.
" It's ok. I'm here now." he said to her hair and even thought she knows he most likely to return to his life after this dance, she is choosing to live in tonight, she has a million and one questions for him but right now he's here.
Afterword
End Notes
A/N: Thank you, thank you so much to @mega-aulover , @norbertsmom and @marzgaperez for helping me with their mad beta skills and as a result you can actually read this piece
i hope you like!!!!
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we've got tonight Preface we've got tonight Afterword