Summary: "'I still watch you. When you go out to the woods, when you come back with squirrels to sell. When you stop to look at the primroses I planted.'" Peeta asks Katniss to sing. Set after Mockingjay Part 2, before the epilogue scene. One-shot.
Prompt: "You never sing these days."
A/N: Written for Reddit activity on r/FanFiction.
Songs Of Hope
"You don't sing anymore." Peeta quietly told her, picking at the grass in the meadow. "Your voice is beautiful when you sing."
Katniss didn't look at him. Instead, she looked out over the grass, towards the trees of the woods she had always hunted in. The sun was setting behind them, its final rays outlining the trees. She could hear the birds tweeting in the distance, the crickets nearby chirping as they stirred for the night.
She had always loved it out there in the meadow and the woods. It was the one place where nothing was trying to kill her, the one place she could think clearly; the one thing that never changed throughout the chaos of her life.
"Katniss?" The boy beside her inquired.
She sighed and turned to look at him. "Do you want me to sing?"
"That'd be nice." He murmured, his voice as gentle as always. For a moment, he seemed almost like the sweet baker's son he was before the Quell and his hijacking. "You know, even the birds stop to listen when you sing."
"I remember." Katniss replied. "You told me that back in the cave in our first Games."
"I wasn't sure if that was real or not." He admitted.
"It is." She assured him.
"Sing." Peeta urged softly.
"Okay." She agreed.
"Down in the valley, valley so low,
Late in the evening, hear the train blow.
The Train, love, hear the train blow.
Late in the evening, hear the train blow.
Go build me a mansion, build it so high,
So I can see my true love go by.
See him go by, love, see him go by.
So I can see my true love go by.
Go write a letter, send it by mail.
Bake it and stamp it to the Capitol jail.
Capital jail, love, to the Capitol jail.
Bake it and stamp it to the Capitol jail.
Roses are red, love; violets are blue.
Birds in the heavens know I love you.
Know I love you, oh, know I love you,
Birds in the heavens know I love you."
He recognized it. His eyes lit up with a small spark of happiness. "The Valley Song. You sang it at the music assembly in school. Real or not real?"
"Real." She told him. "You told me that you watched me walk home every day after that."
"I did. Every single day." Peeta nodded. "I still watch you. When you go out to the woods, when you come back with squirrels to sell. When you stop to look at the primroses I planted. I even see you watching me, sometimes." His tone hardened a little, sadly. "You still don't trust me."
Katniss swallowed back a lump of guilt. "I want to. Peeta, I really do. It's just...we've been through so much."
He gave a sad smile. "I understand. But I'm getting better. One day, things might be like how they used to be. Then we can go back to being friends."
"I hope so." And she meant it.