Chapter 4: The Toasting

The next afternoon finds Katniss and her Aunt Hazelle working with the Merchant tailor's two wards – Seam girls, Bristel and Leevey - in the tailor shop. The Town tailor has never been quite as prejudiced against those in the Seam, and ever since Thread's crackdown leading hunting to become scarcer, he's been kind enough to offer Hazelle and Katniss a helping hand. Hazelle's talents as a seamstress and laundress got them in the door, and so far, neither she nor Katniss have disappointed.

By now, they have graduated to helping to close down the business for the day; Mr. Snip, the tailor, is getting on in years and is leaving early more days than not. The women are quite content in their sewing while also adjusting the finished dresses and pressed suits on display.

Katniss herself is usually a reliable, studious, quiet worker. Today is much the same, except there is a dreamy smile on her face, and a bubbling quality to her. Hazelle is happy to see her niece so exuberant, if also a little leery as to what could possibly be the cause of it. Gale wouldn't shut up last night about catching Katty with a boy from Town – apparently, there had been a heated argument between him and some of the roustabouts in that Townie gang (Rye Mellark's name was consistently floated as one of the main actors). Hazelle is internally trying to shrug it off – Gale's blood has always run hotter than hers, he is much like his father in that way. Her best friend and sister-in-law, Belle, grew up Merchant herself, and birthed two beauties who are half-Merchant. Besides, Katniss has been a late bloomer when it comes to boys; that she is now starting to notice any at all – no matter which side of the tracks they come from – leaves Hazelle feeling relieved. A District Twelve woman's place should be in the home, with a husband to provide for her and children. Still, her son's lecturing on the dangers of Merchant men is starting to get even to Hazelle, infusing her pleasant curiosity regarding her eldest niece with a tempered… caution. The Hawthorne matriarch recalls the biting jabs that Gale and Katty had squabbled in just this morning, leaving for work.

"You keep away from him, as long as you are in my house!" Gale had nearly thundered, trying to exert his authority as the man of the household. The identity of the "him" had been left ambiguous, making Hazelle wonder exactly how long this… infatuation on the part of Katniss has been going on. Certainly, her niece was vehement as she bit back, untamed, "I'm a grown-up now, Gale – I'm going to think for myself!"

Watching her now, Hazelle thinks, Katniss seems…. day-dreamy, for lack of a better description. Unusually playful. She had never been much of a girly-girl – that has been Primrose's domain – but now…

Snip's wards are exchanging wry looks. "Did Thom take her out to the Slag Heap?" one posits in full earshot.

"Thom? Why would it be Thom?" Katniss almost mocks the question, pouting her lips and now sending the other girls' intrigue into the stratosphere. Hazelle primes her ears for listening, if not quite for gossip, quietly. It feels like a hook of granite is digging into her stomach, exacerbating her growing concern. "Bristel, Leevey, can you keep a secret?" Katniss chitters, then seems to think better of it. "No, I won't tell you."

"She'll Toast the bread with Thom for sure!" Bristel crows.

"I will?" Katniss toys.

"She's certainly mooning for him!"

"I am?"

"I will? I am? She's squawking like a mockingjay! What is going on with you, Katty?" Leevey presses.

Katniss doesn't exactly say what – or, more importantly, who is involved – but Hazelle was a young Seam girl once herself, and she knows: her niece is in love. She prays for Thom's sake that it isn't anyone other than him. But then again, if it is Thom, why would Gale be so angry? Whatever the answer, Hazelle is almost afraid to demand it.

Bristel and Leevey leave right at closing, so Hazelle and Katniss remain alone in adjusting the mannequin displays out of sight. Sunlight and moonlight can be detrimental to a cloth's fabric in equal measure, when left exposed for too long, and the setting sun is blazing through the windows.

"Why don't you hurry on home, dearie? Primmy no doubt needs looking after, and Gale will be off of the lifts soon."

"Prim's just fine hanging around Rory," Katniss shrugs. Her sister and Gale's kid brother were in diapers together and have been inseparable cousins from the start. Katniss thinks Rory is disappointed that he and Prim are related, and perhaps would even have a crush on her were that not the case. "You go ahead, Auntie Hazelle, I will lock up!" She daren't look away towards the back door even as she breathlessly anticipates what will come through it, lest she tip off her father's sister. He promised he would come at sunset… where is he? Katty wishes that her aunt would hurry up and head out of the shop already, but Hazelle is being slow about it.

Enough that she is still there when an exuberant blonde-haired boy suddenly bursts in through the back door, shining eyes only for Katniss until he pulls up short on the realization that they are not alone.

Katniss is biting her lip, her large, grey eyes on the verge of panic as she glances between this boy and her aunt. Hazelle doesn't know whether to frown or smirk, and decides on the latter but barely. "'Oh, you go ahead, Auntie! I will lock up!'" She manages a pretty good imitation of her niece, the tone high and mocking, but not cruel. That she saves for the strapping lad now making eyes at her brother's eldest girl. "And who are you? Just who do you think you are, coming here? Do you have any sense at all, or are your feet not on the ground?"

Peeta's answer is surprisingly charming – disarming, in fact – as he actually smiles at the lady. "Hardly, ma'am. It feels more like we're twelve feet in the air!" Smoldering blue eyes lock back onto Katniss, and the girl dares to flit right into his arms, turning about in the embrace to eye her aunt warily. "Auntie, you won't tell Gale what you've seen, will you?"

Katniss is back to biting her lip, stormy grey eyes cajoling, pleading, and damnit, she must be taking lessons from Primrose, because Hazelle can do nothing but relent. "How can I see what's apparently twelve feet over my head?" she quips, before sashaying towards the door. "You be home before it's dark, otherwise no supper!" And she finally takes her leave, a small grin actually threatening to upturn her face.

Back in the shop, Katniss beams, letting out a happy sigh as she leans into her lover.

"See? What were you worried about? Your aunt's nice! I think she likes us!"

Katniss smiles weakly. "For now, anyway." She teasingly wags a finger in his face. "You, Peeta Mellark, better act like a perfect gentleman of the Capitol, or…"

"When have I ever not?" The grin he sends her way casts her stomach into flip-flops. Katniss just bites her lip, floating back into him and gazing up into Peeta's handsome face.

"Peeta…. I heard Gale and Thom last night talking about some sort of fight, with your brother and his friends. Is it true?"

Peeta nods, still grinning. "Yeah, but I talked them into deploying their best men, one-on-one. And it's just a fistfight! Your cousin and Mist Berryhill will take a few whacks at each other and then stagger off. It'll be practically harmless!"

Katty levels him with a serious, practical look. "You must go and stop it," she pleads, chiding. "Two people fighting is too much fighting! There shouldn't be one at all!"

Peeta's face dips a little. He thought he had been terribly clever in manipulating, practically tricking, the cousin of his lover and his own brother into watering down their precious rumble into a gentleman's duel. But Katniss wants different… and what Katty girl wants, she gets. Peeta sighs and sends her a soft smile.

"If that's what you want."

She nods solemnly. "That's what I want. Will you promise?"

"All right, then – I promise." He picks her up by her waist and sets her on the counter. "And tonight, after I stop the rumble that wasn't really a rumble to begin with… I'll come by for you."

"I'll wait for you on the roof!"

"No. Not the roof," Peeta sounds quite serious. "I'll come to your house!"

"But my cousin…."

Peeta worries his bottom lip.

"What about your house?" Katniss asks innocently. And at this, Peeta cringes. "My mother wouldn't like it. She dislikes most people Seam. The most measured she would be is calling you plain, and you are certainly not that!" Despite having heard about the Baker's wife's reputation as a witch, Katniss giggles at being called attractive, blushing down to her neck.

"I take after my mother – delicate-boned," Katniss hops off the counter and sashays over to a mannequin in a frilly dress. Peeta watches, brimming with amusement, and plays along by speaking to the mannequin as if it is a real person. "May I have your daughter's hand?"

"She says Yes!" Katniss squeals. Before they know it, they have set about casting mannequins as the characters in this little play. "There you are, Primrose," Katty tuts, admiring her Maid of Honor. "You look like a tiny angel!"

"Here we are, Rye!" Peeta brushes down a headless tuxedo. "Birth to earth!" The scene has now been set, framed around the hearth in one corner.

"Look at that!" Peeta laughs at the one mannequin. "Your mother is crying…"

Time seems to slow as it dawns on Katniss and Peeta what they are doing – creating a Toasting. Spying some bread in a nearby pantry cupboard, Peeta almost reverently takes it out and light a small cooking fire in the hearth. Very methodically, he toasts two slices of bread over the open flames, hand over hand, before passing Katniss a piece. She takes it wordlessly, lifting her grey eyes to his. Their gazes lock. Kneeling before the fire, they each feed each a piece of the bread, then join hands while gazing deep into each other's eyes. Every word that is spoken next is weighed heavily, deliberately:

"I, Katniss Magenta Everdeen, take thee, Peeta…"

"I, Peeta Joseph Mellark, take thee, Katniss…"

"For richer…"

"For poorer…"

"In sickness…"

"… and in health…"

Once Katniss and Peeta have finished giving their vows, Peeta inches closer, in his eyes a question. Katniss tilts her head and gazes at him, blinking innocently.

"What?"

"I…. I just wish I could freeze this moment – right now – and live in it forever."

"OK."

Peeta smirks, but his eyes are still questioning, amazed, like he can't quite believe this is really happening. "Then, you'll allow it?"

Katniss nods. "I'll allow it." And then, tilting her head again, her eyes solemn, she permits her… her husband to kiss her, the touching of their lips in marriage bathed in the glowing flames of the hearth as well as those of the dying sun.