A/N: Explicit sexual content mentioned. Little bit more than my virgin writing from before.
PEETA POV
The two words I never thought I'd hear uttered from her lips were the words 'I'm pregnant', and I heard them uttered to me last night. She lay asleep beside me in my arms, but I couldn't sleep. I had too much on my mind to sleep. I always thought that children would come later, if at all, not right away. I thought we were being careful, but I guess we weren't being careful enough. I was conflicted. On one hand, I wanted to protect her and keep our baby safe, but on the other hand, I knew she'd never forgive me if I let her miss out on the Siege. I looked down into her sleeping face, which was as beautiful as it always had been, but perhaps even more so, now. The longer we were together, the more I fell in love with her. I smiled at her as she slept, then began to stroke her hair until I found myself joining her in slumber.
Two days after the attack on the Nut and the blockade of the Capitol, the rebel forces attacked the dam, cutting power to all of Panem, excluding District Fourteen. The Siege of the Capitol would begin in two days. Two days left of the Panem that we have known all of our lives, of the Panem that had existed since the planet fell into chaos barely a century ago. Panem as we knew it was born in the year 2057 from the ashes of the former United States of America. Panem, like the United States, would burn, and from its ashes will rise a new Panem. A safer world for Katniss, and a safer world for our baby. I was anxious as I counted the days until the Siege, and I kept Katniss very close to me. She didn't fight me, because she understood that I was anxious about the outcome of the war. What if we did lose again? That was highly unlikely, given the damage we've done to the Capitol and its resources.
"I think it's time we unveil our surprise," Calum told me when Katniss had briefly left my side to run to the bathroom. She was gone only for a few minutes, but those few minutes were ice cold without her to keep me warm. I nodded my head in agreement.
"Tonight, then... Invite only tonight, and tomorrow, everyone else can have it," I said, and Calum agreed.
We held a brief senate meeting that afternoon, the last before the Siege, and hopefully, the last of the old world. Everyone was somber and quiet. We all knew loss. All of us had lost homes, family, friends, pieces of ourselves, and some of us had lost all of those things. There were no disagreements, just messages of hope as the districts supported one another in preparation for the Siege. Our team would fly out tomorrow and stay overnight in the base that had been set up on the outskirts of the Capitol in District Ten, and the next day, teams would converge on the Capitol from all entrances, and the Siege would begin.
"I can't believe it's finally here," Katniss muttered to me with a tone of melancholy when the senate was dismissed. I held her hand and gave it a tight squeeze.
"I know," I said, feeling the exact same way. That evening at dinner, we all sat at our table for dinner - myself, Katniss, Calum and Cailean, Carolina, Gale, Johanna - but none of us really wanted to eat. Carolina was seated closely to Calum, and Johanna was beside Gale, who was rubbing her back as she stared at her food.
"Tonight, I want all of you to meet in 2134," Calum said to the table. "The surprise that Cailean, Peeta and I have been working on forever is finally ready, and I want us all to be the first to enjoy it."
"And the last," said Johanna bitterly. Johanna wasn't going on the mission - evidently, Gale had refused to allow her to, and frankly, I don't think she minded. It must have slipped my notice when they had started a relationship, but it meant that I didn't have to worry about him pining over my wife anymore.
After dinner, Katniss and I went up to the beach for one last time, listening to the sound of the waves crashing on the shore and feeling the sand between our toes. Also on the beach was Finnick, Annie, Killick and their little daughter, Ariel, and they were the picture of a perfect family. We didn't want to disturb them, so we kept our distance, and Katniss and I sat close together as we watched the sunset. My hands rested on her abdomen, where the life inside of her grew. "We should name it," I said, breaking the silence.
"It's just a clump of cells," she told me, placing her hands over mine and watching them.
"So were we, at one point," I told her, and she was silent. "I like the name Lark, for a girl..."
"Lark Mellark? She'll be the laughingstock of her school," Katniss replied, and I chuckled.
"It's cute though. Little Lark Mellark... And you said in Hebridia, you have middle names?"
"We don't need to do middle names..."
"I like it. What about Lark Meadow Mellark?"
"It is a pretty name," she admitted. "And if it's a boy?"
"Hm... Well, we both have a brother with a similar name... What about something along the lines of Dòmhnall and Donnel?"
"Like Donald?"
"I like that. Donald Mellark."
"Donald Willow Mellark." I bent down to kiss the top of her head.
"Our children will have the names of nature."
"Little hippie names."
"What names?"
"The people who kickstarted the antiwar revolution, now two centuries ago... they were called 'hippies'."
"Then I guess we'll have little hippie babies." She chuckled gently, then looked up at me as I met her eyes.
"I miss the meadow..." she muttered, and I ran a finger down the side of her face as she reached up to take my hand.
"We'll see it soon," I told her. The Odairs went inside before we did, and we went back in when it got dark. Remembering Calum's request, we went to Room 2134, the room that Calum, Cailean and I had been working on for so many weeks. I left Katniss's side only for a moment to stand beside Calum and Cailean as we stood in front of a small crowd made up of Johanna, Gale, Carolina, Finnick and Annie, who must have found someone to watch their children for the evening.
"Hello and welcome to the grand unveiling of..." said Calum, and he cut the ribbon he'd placed on the door and pushed the double doors open to reveal, "the Game Room!" The crowd looked amused as they looked inside, noticing a series of games like darts, a pool table, a ping pong table, couches, tables, a bar, a kitchen and so much more. "Don't waste time, get inside!" As everyone crowded inside, Katniss stopped beside me and pulled me into her arms.
"So this is the big surprise you've been keeping for weeks?" she asked me, her chin on my chest and her eyes meeting mine.
"What? Not impressed?" I asked her, catching her chin with my finger.
"Incredibly impressed, and I'm looking forward to kicking your ass at ping pong," she told me, and I laughed and pressed my lips to hers.
"You are on," I told her, and we went inside to join the rest of our friends.
KATNISS POV
I did kick his ass at ping pong. Three times, in fact. The first time, I thought he was just letting me win, but then I realised that he truly did suck at the game and I stopped after three victories to let him keep at least some of his dignity. A group of us joined a game of pool as well, with Finnick impressing everyone with his skills. We listened to music from an old device called an iPod that Cailean had found on a mission and danced together, laughing and making memories that we may not ever see again. Perhaps about two hours in, Johanna summoned us all to sit on the couch.
"So I found out about this game called beer pong," she said. "You set up a bunch of cups full of beer on either side of a table and you try to throw a ping pong ball into it and if you succeed, the person standing in front of it has to drink that cup and you continue until either you run out of cups or you're too drunk to carry on."
"That sounds amazing," I said. I was seated on the couch with one leg under my bum and Peeta's arm around my shoulders. Given the fact that tomorrow, we would be within arm's reach of the Capitol, I wanted to spend as much time with him as I could. Who knew if we had much left?
"Wanna test it out?" Johanna asked me, and before I knew it, Peeta and I were on either side of the ping pong table with nine cups each in front of us. Both sets of cups did have beer in them, but I would be drinking water because I 'didn't like the taste of beer'. Peeta smiled at me when I said that, and he was right when he said I'd be more careful. "Right, so Katniss, you take the first shot at Peeta's cups." I aimed my ping pong ball at the center cup, then threw it in the air and it landed perfectly in the cup, and the rest of our little group clapped. "Now Peeta, you drink that." He did, and then set the cup aside. "Since Katniss threw the ball in the cup, she gets another turn." I repeated my aim and again successfully sank the ball into another cup.
"Where's the fun for me if I get drunk before we've hardly even begun?" asked Peeta with amusement.
"All right, all right, everyone gets the gist. Boys against girls?" asked Johanna to the group.
"But there's five boys and four girls," said Calum.
"We're not worried," I said, reminding him of the two points I just scored.
"Oh really? Want to make a bet?" asked Finnick with a sly smile of amusement, and I returned it.
"Oh, you're on," I said. "If we can kick your asses with one less member, you lot have to jump off the rocks at the entrance into the water in your underpants."
"No way, that's too cold!" exclaimed Gale.
"And if we win?" Finnick asked me.
"Then we do it," I said.
"No bras," said Cailean mischievously, and I laughed.
"You're on," I said, and Finnick and I shook on it. The boys learned quickly that they'd made a mistake when I sunk three balls in a row.
"It's not fair, she's the straightest shot I've ever seen!" Peeta exclaimed.
"You've got Gale, that must count for something," I said back, reminding them of the fact that Gale was a pretty straight shot, too.
"That would be great, if he actually managed to throw a ball in a cup!" Finnick exclaimed, resulting in a laugh from the group. The boys lost, of course, and they all stood outside on the rocks in their underwear shivering from the cold of the night air.
"Go on, you bunch of chickens," I said, a camera in my hand as I waited for them to jump in.
"Have some mercy on us, woman. It's cold as hell!" Finnick exclaimed, and I let out a laugh.
"No mercy - you made a bet and you lost!" I said back.
"In the drink you go!" Carolina exclaimed.
"Hold hands on your way in," said Johanna. They didn't, but it took the five young men a few moments to gather their courage before they jumped into the icy cold water.
"It's so cold!" Finnick cried out.
"Can this torture be over with?" begged Calum as the four of us girls laughed at them.
"Not yet!" I said, handing the camera to Annie as I stripped down to my undergarments and jumped in after them. Carolina, too, joined us, and there were now seven of us in the icy cold water laughing and splashing one another. I saw Johanna sit down, Gale climbed up and out of the water to join her. I was seated on a rock that was mostly submerged and I was joined by Peeta, who swam over to me.
"Hope you're happy you made an icicle of me," he said as he joined me on the rock and captured my lips in a kiss.
"This is one of the highlights of my life and I will be holding onto that video forever," I told him.
"You filmed this?" he asked, but he was smiling, and I leaned in to kiss him but instead, shoved him off of the rock and back into the water, and he splashed me as I laughed. Soon, pretty much everyone was jumping back into the water - well, all but Johanna. Gale had left her side to help Calum capture Carolina and toss her back in, and I sat beside Johanna.
"Don't you want to join in on the fun?" I asked her, and she shook her head. "What's the matter?"
"Can't swim," she lied.
"Johanna, you and I both know that that isn't true," I told her. "What's really bothering you?" She was silent for a moment.
"We're just kids," she said. "All of us. Finnick is the oldest one here, and he's hardly an adult... The rest of us are barely into our twenties."
"I get what you mean," I said, watching the chaos in the water. "We might be kids, but it's kids who change the world. It's always been the young who incite rebellion and it's always been the young who do everything they can to change their futures."
"I know... I guess it just surprises me, that we're all so young. Not because it's us falling into an endless cycle of the young trumping the old, tossing away the old ways in favour of new ones... but because we're all so young, but we don't look it, or feel it," Johanna replied.
"We all have lived a lifetime, and yet, we've barely lived at all," I said. "I understand you're not coming to the Siege?" She shook her head.
"Give Snow hell," she told me. "Make him pay for everything he's done, for the lives he's ruined... for the lives he's taken."
As it hit midnight, it was time for us all to wind down, as the next day meant that all but Johanna and Annie would be going to the Capitol to prepare for the Siege. Peeta and I shed our wet undergarments and collapsed into our bed nude and holding onto each other as if we'd never see each other again. He stroked my hair gently and gazed into my eyes, and I held his other hand tightly and buried my other hand in his hair beneath his head. "One last time?" he whispered to me.
"It won't be the last time," I whispered back.
"But what if it is?"
"It won't be. I'll make damn sure of it. You're not allowed to leave me, same as I know I'm not allowed to leave you." He smiled gently, sadly, and ran a finger down my face. "So instead, say to me, 'one more time'?"
"One more time, then?" he asked again, and I smiled and nodded, and he sat up on his elbows to hover over me and kiss me with more passion, hunger and desire than I had felt him kiss me with in a long time. This wasn't a 'I see you everyday but I still love you' type of kiss, this was a 'let's seize the moment and make it count, because we might never have the chance again' kiss. I'll bet it was the same kiss that Calum and Carolina were sharing that night, and definitely the same kiss that Finnick and Annie were sharing, and maybe even the same kiss that Johanna and Gale were sharing. He broke the kiss for a moment. "Should I get a condom?"
"What's the point? I'm already pregnant," I told him, and he nodded and smiled, then resumed kissing me, his hand finding its way to my breast and his thumb rubbing circles on my nipple. I groaned with pleasure as I ran my hands through his hair and kissed him with hunger and lust, and when his lips fell to my neck, I let out a louder, longer moan. "Oh, Peeta..." He started moving south. His lips brushed against my collarbone, my breasts, both of my nipples where his tongue came into contact with them, and then he went even further down. I felt his hands slide to my hips and I felt the warmth of his trail of kisses make their way to my vagina, and god, the explosion of pleasure that went through me the moment his tongue came into contact with my clitoris. Being an obstetrician, I of course knew the name of every part of my anatomy, but Peeta didn't - he called my clitoris 'my little bean' and I didn't have the heart to correct him. His tongue rubbed little circles on it and I arched my back into him begging for more, gripping the pillow as I moaned and groaned and muttered his name under my breath. "Peeta..."
"Katniss," he whispered as his lips came into contact with my skin, and I felt two of his fingers slide into me as he climbed his way back up and kissed my lips, the taste of me still lingering on them. This wasn't the kind of lovemaking that went on between two teenagers who fumbled clumsily the way we had the first time, this love was mature, aged well beyond the years that Peeta and I had between us. I moaned into his mouth as he kissed me and slid his fingers in and out, and when he pulled them out to steady himself over me, I pushed him down so that his back was on the bed and I held his wrists against the mattress as I kissed his neck. "Taking initiative, I like that," he whispered, and I giggled into his neck as I kissed it, and then it was my turn to move south. I couldn't fully take him into my mouth, recalling how I choked and he laughed the last time I tried that, but I took him into my hand and licked his tip, then his shaft, and he moaned with pleasure as I started moving my hand up and down. "Katniss..." he whispered into the night. Where I was sitting, he couldn't reach me, so I reached my hand down to rub little circles of my own on 'my little bean'.
God, how I loved this man. We'd been through so much, from hardly noticing each other to having to kill each other, from refusing to do so to pretending that we were engaged and madly in love, from being thrown into the arena yet again to confessing our love for one another, from our growing relationship to our marriage, to two years of being apart, to being reunited again, to our first time making love to one another, to the life that we created that grew inside of me, to the moment that we were in now. I felt his hands in my hair as I groaned from my own self-pleasure and continued to lick and rub his penis. "Katniss..." He wasn't moaning my name this time, he was calling me, and I picked up my head to meet his eyes, which were desperate with a desire for me, and only me.
"Yes, Peeta?" I responded.
"I need you... now..." he whispered, and I smiled as I continued to hold him in my hand and climbed my way to him, kissing him and allowing him to taste himself on my lips.
"Your wish is my command," I told him, and I sat back up and guided him into me as I sat down on top of him, letting out a groan of pleasure as I wrapped around him and pushed his full length into me. I moved back to his lips, kissing him as I rocked my hips up and down, up and down, again and again, both of our hands getting lost in each other's hair. He then turned me over so that I was back on my back and he continued to pump gently into me.
"Oh, Katniss... Katniss..." he moaned, moving his lips to my neck as I cried out his name with pleasure. I could feel the pressure building up within me and I knew I was about to explode. My moans became louder, my grip on his hair became stronger.
"Peeta... Peeta! " I cried, feeling my release, and moments later, I felt his within me, matched with his own cry of my name, and he collapsed on top of me, both of us panting and glistening with sweat. I held him against me and stroked his sweat-soaked, salty ashy blonde hair and I wiped away the beads of sweat that formed at his temple, kissing the spot as I caught my breath. "I love you, my perfect, handsome Peeta."
"I love you, Katniss..." he said breathlessly. "You have no idea how incredible you are..."
"If it's anything how you make me feel, I can take a guess," I said, and he chuckled as he turned his head to kiss my face, then he picked up his head to kiss my lips. "You ready for round two?" I whispered to him, and he laughed. There was a round two, and a round three, and as we were about to consider a round four, we fell into a deep and happy slumber, wrapped up in each other's arms, unable - no, unwilling - to let go.