Chapter 74: Peeta Mellark
I adjust my suit coat over my shoulders as I steal up the stairs of Annie's mansion and into a back bedroom. Haymitch is right behind me, stealing glances at his watch and looking out the window at the setting sun, sinking towards the waves on the horizon.
Poking our heads in the door, I pause for a moment to take in the sight of Katniss, my wife, adorning her mother in an immaculate wedding dress. I've always known that my Katty got her beautiful looks from her mother, but I have never been able to appreciate until now that my mother-in-law is indeed a strikingly beautiful woman, well into her forties.
"Is she coming out?" I press.
Katniss turns back to me, smiling radiantly. "If Beetee is that anxious, you can tell him to get his butt up here and he can make an honest woman of my mother again by getting hitched in an attic! His bride is almost ready."
Raising my hands in supplication, I make a sweeping appraisal of my wife in her own blue dress; she notices, and blushes furiously, though after a handful of years of marriage, I can tell: my Katty is terribly pleased that I am undressing her with my eyes. Her blue Reaping dress is quite faded now, but she never ceases to look like a knockout in it; I'll always maintain that my own bride looks exquisite in blue.
Katniss didn't wear blue for our wedding, not that I minded. Much as it is here in Odair, Everdeen has kept the tradition of their women wearing white dresses to marry in. Back during the days of Snow, Merchant mothers passed down to their daughters the family wedding dress. It was considered a family heirloom and a right of passage. Even more than a decade after the revolution, not many in Everdeen have re-accumulated the wealth to own their own wedding dresses; they're mostly just rented now.
That is the dress that Mrs. Everdeen is now adorned in – a rental. Apparently, it was actually Annie's wedding dress from when she married Finnick, and then a couple of years ago, remarried to Pollux.
Haymitch and I wait outside on the front stoop, my mentor fumbling for his flask.
"Boy, shouldn't you be down at the altar? You're the Best Man, you know!"
"And you're escorting the bride down the aisle. I'm just going to make sure you get Belle there before she trips in the sand thanks to your drinking!" I try to make a grab for the flask, and miss; Haymitch is just too quick.
Katniss finally comes out, her blushing mother on her arm. Lifting her eyes to Haymitch, Belle Everdeen smiles, biting her lip. "Well?"
Bloodshot though they are, Haymitch's grey eyes are nonetheless blinking. "You look…. beautiful, Belley. I'd marry you myself, 'cept Effie would have my head!" The pet name he uses for my mother-in-law surprises me, though it really shouldn't – Haymitch was apparently classmates with Katniss's and my parents when they were in school, and in the case of Belle and my dad, even friends.
Belle Everdeen just smirks, looking so much like Katniss when she gets prissy. "I'm glad, Haymitch. Shall we?"
Haymitch gallantly offers her his arm, ready to escort her to her future. Katniss grabs my own hand. "Let's go get into our places." She's smiling weakly, and I can't figure out why. It probably isn't over the fact that her mother is marrying again, to a fellow Victor and friend we all respect – Katty had made peace with her mother's choice and offered the couple her blessing a while ago, and has come around to accept Mrs. Everdeen's desire to wed again quite nicely.
I leave Katniss with a kiss at the head of the altar, stretching out towards the tide at the edge of the beach, before hustling down the row of folding chairs to stand at Beetee's side. I was surprised though touched when he asked me, and we get on fine.
Little Finnick Odair, Jr. is the ring bearer. He's the spitting image of his dad, young and precocious, and Annie is beaming as she tries prompting him to keep going from where she is in her seat, Pollux's arms around her swollen belly; they'll be due with their first child – a girl – in a few months.
"Ooooooh!" Annie says just then, turning all the way around in her seat when Katniss, the Maid of Honor, is about halfway down the aisle to me.
Haymitch and Belle step into the light of the setting sun, and I feel Beetee's breath hitch beside me. When they reach us, Haymitch passes Belle off to her future and the couple joins hands as a minister begins his sermon. Pollux goes off to one side to light the bonfire, the giant blaze reaching sky-high, while Katty and I drape Belle and Beetee in a golden fishing net.
Belle and Beetee exchange vows, and the minister smiles between them. "I now pronounce this couple husband and wife. You may kiss."
Standing with the support of his cybernetic legs, Beetee takes Mrs. Everdeen in her arms and kisses her deeply. Captured in the light of the dying sun, Belle returns the kiss fervently, melting up into as she closes her eyes happily.
The newlyweds are forced to break the kiss a little earlier than they would like when Finnick Jr. and Annie start splashing them with water from the surf. Annie and Pollux then begin to sing the traditional Odair wedding song – a sea shanty, really:
"I tell ya of young man in black-and-white coats, and it's say, to the port side, heave ho! You'll cart your bride off in a flat-bottomed boat to mysterious fathoms below…"
"Not exactly well-wishing, is it?" Haymitch hisses low to me, as Belle takes Beetee's, her new husband's, face in her hands and kisses him passionately again. "To hear Cresta sing it, it sounds like the happy couple's boat's gonna sink on the honeymoon!"
I can't help but burst into laughter as Beetee and Belle cross over to the roaring bonfire. Toasting a bit of bread that I provided them, they share the toast and seal it with a kiss in the light of the bonfire flames. Then Beetee sweeps his bride off her feet and carries her away to, indeed, a flat-bottomed dinghy standing by and ready to set sail. It's tradition for couples married in Odair to go offshore for their wedding night before beginning their honeymoon. The poor Victor's cybernetic legs give out just as he and his bride step inside the dinghy, and my poor mother-in-law is ceremoniously dumped in, but she just laughs.
Feeling Katniss drift into my side, I sling an arm around her and she snuggles into me, watching Pollux, Annie and our little godson wave goodbye to her mother and Beetee as they sail off over the tide and into the sunset. "I just want her to be happy…"
"She is," I press a kiss into her temple. "Though the marriage is hardly conventional. What a couple! Your mother and Beetee! Who would have thought?"
Katniss winces. "You weren't the one who caught them in bed together," she mutters. "But, yes. I suppose they do…. suit each other, though I wouldn't have pegged them."
"Well, we certainly weren't!" I laugh.
"Hmm." She kisses me once, pretty fiercely, smiling into my lips. "Perhaps not, but we still make it work. And I am ever so happy we did."
Belle and Beetee's boat is still anchored to shore, mind, via a stake driven into the sand. The anchor line itself is actually fused to the stake, rather than simply tied off, to see that the rope doesn't break and accidentally send the newlyweds adrift out to sea.
The happy couple is therefore perfectly safe to bob just off the coast of Victors' Island and have some time alone to presumably consummate their marriage. So I am a little wary of paddling out here in the middle of the night while we are not anchored to shore.
"Annie, remind me, what is the point of this again?" I ask, turning to where my fellow Victor is at the oars. "Let's just leave the lovebirds be!"
"Oh, hush," Annie admonishes me lightly. "It's just a District Fo…. Odair superstition. Besides, a little prank never did hurt anyone, least of all two crazy kids in love!"
She goes back to chittering with Katniss at the far end of the boat, which surprises me. The genuinely fond relationship that has blossomed between my wife and the sweet redheaded widow of Finnick Odair is something I did not expect – most of all, because Annie seems to be the only one who is able to bring what can only be described as 'girl talk' out of Katniss. My Katty has never been quite so feminine around most other people, and that's partially because she'd be the first to admit how she has never been very good at making friends, especially friends who are girls. My bride has certainly never gotten this way around Johanna – the likely future Mrs. Gale Hawthorne is just as averse to all things girly as Katniss is.
As I watch her, I can tell my love is anxious about something, the way she is whispering, almost gossiping to Annie so. Annie's facial expressions are only leaving me more curious, as she seems one tick away from being unable to contain herself or her excitement. This only makes Katniss's look of dismay all the more baffling. Smiling easily, I navigate to the opposite end of the boat, switching places with Pollux to keep the vessel at an even keel, and steal an arm around my wife.
"And what are you lovely ladies twittering about, my little flower?" I give her a warm, wet kiss, which Katty allows, sinking into it almost desperately. Then, she seems to remember herself and reluctantly twists away.
"N-nothing," she smiles weakly. "Just feeling a little…. peckish, is all."
"Sounds like something Effie Trinket might say!" Annie giggles, rubbing her bloated stomach.
But I'm concerned. "What, are you seasick? Do you need to throw up?" She certainly looks green around the gills.
"Just hurl over the side, Sweetheart!" Haymitch calls from the opposite end of the boat. "The fishies love throw-up!"
"Throwing up's a dirty habit!" Finnick Odair Jr. offers up, in my view rather obnoxiously, but I daren't say so. Little Finn is Katniss's and my godson, and my Katty never dares let anyone criticize her little godbaby.
"Nah, that's spitting, kid. Besides, if we're talking about habits, I know a worse one!" Haymitch smirks impishly. It takes a full minute for Little Finnick to clue into the fact that he's been picking his nose.
"Sssssh…." Annie hisses. "We're getting close!"
I can barely make it out, but there is a dark shape floating upon the water. The little dinghy the new Mr. and Mrs. Beetee Latier sailed away in, and from its general direction, we can hear what sounds like moaning.
"Huhhh….. Uhhhh….. Mmmmmm… Oh, fuck, yes, honey! Just like that…." The voice seems to belong to a woman.
Katniss cringes, bowing her head down into her lap pointedly. It's one of her odd little quirks that I love about her. She is often the one to take charge in the bedroom, especially when her hormones are going haywire and she's practically begging for it, but when it comes to overhearing details over other people's sex lives, she clams up. She's not a prude, but she is sensitive about discussing such private things in public company.
Or, say, walking in on two people making love – particularly when one of the people currently locked in post-martial coitus and bliss is her mother, shagging someone who isn't her father. Katty says she once caught her mother and Beetee in the act, and now I'm afraid to ask her what happened.
By the light of the full moon, Annie, Finnick Jr. and Pollux share knowing grins. Whipping around the spotlight mounted onto the lifeboat's starboard side, they switch it on, casting the dinghy in a bright, luminous glow before banging on cowbells and other odds and ends lashed together to form an instrumental chain.
"AHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The Odairs scream and holler with mad glee.
I yelp and cover my eyes over what the spotlight has exposed. My half-naked mother-in-law, passionately on top and loving up her new husband, gives a startled shriek of mortification before tumbling off her lover and over the side. At least the boat doesn't capsize – we should all be so lucky.
"Ack!" Beetee chokes, thrashing about and trying to cover his own unclothed form before desperately peering over the edge of the dinghy, searching for his wife. "Oh, Belle!"
Surfacing and tucking her long, blonde hair out of her face, the new Mrs. Belle Latier (formerly Everdeen, neé Foley) actually recovers with enough sense of humor to laugh. "That'll cool a girl off!" And she allows her husband to help her back into their love vessel, though the couple hastily redress, both pink in the face. They cuddle together, allowing us a tiny encore of a light kiss on the lips while we all try to pretend we didn't just see… stuff. I don't think I'll ever get over the trauma of having my mother-in-law accidentally flash me, showing off all her assets.
Pollux, Annie and Little Finnick, however, don't seem bothered at all, reveling in the mirth of pulling off a good joke, even if it is, as they say, traditional.
Katniss has been avoiding her mother and new stepfather's eyes the entire time, lips pursed, hands folded in her lap. I lift her chin with my finger, smiling easily.
"Katniss, really… are you OK?"
She actually whimpers, lip protruding out and I can see the moonlight catch her deep grey eyes as they fill up with tears. Then, she lets loose a strangled sob and twists away from me, weeping, face buried into her skirts.
I feel my heart break, and look to Haymitch for help. "Was it something I said?" For some reason, Annie also is avoiding looking at me, which tells me she knows something about my wife that I don't.
Slowly recovering from being caught in the act of consummating her new marriage, Belle tries reaching out to our lifeboat and her eldest daughter. "Katty? Baby girl, what's wrong?"
"Nothing," she sniffles, turning away. "I'm fine."
I wince. Maybe this is about Katniss once again coming across something she shouldn't have. Belle must think so, too, for now she looks uncomfortable.
"Is this about me and….?"
"No! No, I… I think it's wonderful, Mother, really," Katniss's smile might still be weak, but it is genuine. "I'm happy for you, it's just that…" She meets my eyes again, which seems to set off a fresh round of tears.
My eyes narrow in concern. "This is about me, isn't it?"
"NO!" Katniss whimpers, reaching for me almost desperately, needing me with a strength I've only seen from her but a handful of times before. "This is about me. I'm such a horrible wife. Peeta, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry…."
"Katty girl, what are you talking about? You're everything I've ever wanted and more! Here:" With some light struggling, I draw her into my side. "Now what's this all about? Huh? Talk to me."
She doesn't. Many seconds go by where we just bob along, everyone studying her expectantly. Finally, I try to coax whatever it is out of her again. "Sweetheart, I can't help you if you don't tell me what's bothering you…"
She sniffles. "I don't want to talk about it…"
"Well, tough," I start to get testy, losing my patience. "I'm your husband, I'm supposed to support you, for better or worse. So no, we HAVE to talk about it!" I leap to my feet in the dinghy as my voice also raises to a frustrated shout.
"I don't WANNA talk about it!" Katniss matches me, tears hot and streaming down her face. She sounds panicked.
"WE HAVE TO TALK ABOUT IT!" I bellow, vaguely aware of everyone else in the two different boats desperately trying to look at anything and anyone but us.
"N….NOW?!" Katniss squeaks, her voice still stuck in a shout that now comes off as almost comical.
Haymitch finally decides to play ref. "OK, I'm sorry, I'mma just weigh in here. Now, I like a marital spat as much as the next guy, but… have either of you noticed you're arguing standing up in a lifeboat in the middle of the fucking ocean?!" Still glaring at each other without still fully understanding how we got to this point, Katniss and I both ignore him.
"Why won't you share with me? Huh? What are you so afraid to tell me?"
"Because then I'll have to go through with it, even though I'm still not sure what I want, and it scares me to death!" Katniss screeches.
I'm not following this at all. "Go through with what?!" My blood turns to ice. "You're not divorcing me, are you?"
"What do you think?" Katniss's gorgeous grey eyes are a tempest as she tosses her long strands of chestnut curls out of her face. "If I was planning that, we wouldn't be shagging like goats in our bed every night, would we?!" Annie too late clamps her hands over Finnick Jr.'s ears. Beetee is biting down on his lip so hard, it's drawing blood. Awkward, Pollux clearly signs with his hands, even though I speak very limited and broken Avox. Haymitch is grinning like a loon.
"Then what? What has got you so hot and bothered? Why are you acting like this?!"
"Because I'm hormonal as hell and I'm PREGNANT, that's why!" Katniss hollers for nearly the whole coast of Odair to hear.
My blue orbs expand in the moonlight. My tongue is hanging out of my mouth so stupidly, maybe someone should cut it off and I can be an Avox too. Then Pollux can have lots of fun teaching me sign language, because I highly doubt I'll be able to speak again.
Still, I somehow manage to, spluttering, "Are…. Are you serious?" And now I can clearly see things in a way I hadn't before. The way Katniss's blue Reaping frock is clinging more tightly to her womanly curves than normal lately. The way her gorgeous breasts have ballooned and giving me much to play with on late night romps. The way she seems to glow, even without the current backdrop of moonlight and with a so perfectly adorable Katniss scowl sporting her face.
Tossing her nose in the air, she sniffs. "I'm eight weeks along."
We're still standing up in the lifeboat. Slowly, the grin dawns on my face as the news washes over me. Pregnant. My wife is pregnant.
Grinning unabashedly, I throw my arms wide. "Katniss Magenta Everdeen Mellark, I LOVE YOU!"
Katty is gaping at me, blinking owlishly at how I seem to have gone quite mad. Her cheeks are flushed pink and she ducks her head shyly, shaking her head.
"You think I'm kidding, but I'm not: you've never been more beautiful to me then right now. So, I'll say it again: KATNISS MAGENTA EVERDEEN MELLARK, I LOVE YOU -!"
I fall out of the boat. I fall out of the damn boat after losing my balance and nearly capsize everyone else as well. As I surface, coughing and spluttering, I am just in time to see a deeply concerned Katniss swan dive gracefully over the side of the little boat and swim to rescue me. The second she is within reach, I yank her close and kiss her desperately, not caring that we're both soaking wet.
She whimpers and squeaks a little in protest, but when, under the water, I shove my leg between her parted thighs and insistently rub her there, she yields, parting her lips for my tongue now and her silky hands dancing into the nape of my neck and purring like a kitten. With an ardor that even takes me by surprise, she kisses me back.
When we finally break the kiss at last, gasping, Katniss is gazing at me as though she's never seen me before.
"You'll really help me through it? You'll stay with me, even though I once said I never wanted kids and it broke your heart because you always have, and…"
She's rambling adorably, and I kiss her again to shut her up. "Yes, always."
Tears pool in my angel's eyes once again and she smiles weakly, still scared and unsure but willing to try. And I couldn't love her more than I already do, for being so brave, for agreeing to go through with bringing these babies to term for me. To make me happy. "OK…."
And laughing, we embrace and passionately kiss, still treading water and bathed in the light of the full moon as our loved ones smile down on us with congratulations.