My Shelter
A short high school Everlark drabble.
Peeta and Katniss are best friends since kindergarten. They are volunteers in an animal shelter. Peeta can't get himself to confess his love, and Katniss is clueless. Fun fluff.
I miss writing very much, so I wrote this fanfic to blow off some steam. When life is stressful, Everlark always saves the day. Un-betaed, because I just wanted to write.
P.S. Suzanne Collins owns The Hunger Games Trilogy. I'm only having fun!
"Peeta, cut it out!" Katniss shouts as her best friend blows a breath of air in her left ear, tickling her and filling her eardrum with sound. She fell asleep on the steps again, leaning on the primrose plant boxes beside the school steps. She smacks his shoulder strongly, making him use his bag as a shield.
"Okay! Okay!" Peeta concedes, hands up like he was caught committing grand theft. "I couldn't resist!"
"You just couldn't give me a moment of peace?!" she huffs as she fixes her sling bag that has fallen a step below. Thank goodness she tied the string of her bag when she sat down half an hour ago. Only a few pencils had fallen out of the opening, and she quickly picked them up to stuff them inside her bag.
"Peeta!" she retaliates once she turns around to her best friend.
Peeta Mellark is poised on her side, full lips puckered up like a big fish with his sky blue eyes closed shut. A dreamy expression plasters his face as he slightly leans towards Katniss while hugging his orange backpack to his chest.
"Stop your daydreaming, Peeta Mellark! Just go and catch Delly Cartwright in the field already!"
I wasn't thinking of Delly. I was dreaming of you.
Peeta Mellark has been in love with his best friend for eleven years.
Ever since he was five.
When she sang the Valley Song in kindergarten.
He was a goner.
Dear Lord, why did I do that?! I almost kissed her!
"Come on! The bus is here!" Katniss grabs his hand and jumps the two steps down before pulling at Peeta to sprint towards the district bus together.
You can hold my hand forever. I'll never let you go, baby.
Katniss checks on her only friend, looking if his prosthetic leg is giving him trouble today. When she sees him keeping up with her and holding tight, she waves at the bus driver to wait for them.
"Hello Haymitch," she pants. "Is Henry with you?"
"Why hello there, sweetheart," the forty-something bus driver wearing a white company shirt greets as the two stand in front of him - still holding hands. He leans on the metal box where passengers drop their coins and points his thumb to where his dog lays. "Henry's there behind me."
"Did you walk him this morning?" Katniss asks with a demanding but friendly tone.
"Yes, mam."
"Give him a bowl of milk?"
"Sure did."
"A hug?"
"Effie beat me to him first, but I did get my loving after," he says and then presses the button to close the door. "Go on and find your seat there, kids."
The handicap seats behind the driver are vacant, so Katniss takes purchase on them. She often sits there because the D12 bus is never full, and she likes to see where the bus is going.
"Henry, come," she commands, and the blonde Labrador retriever jumps to lay his head and paws on Katniss' lap. She strokes his soft and thick fur, earning a moan that can only mean that he's enjoying the attention.
Peeta takes the seat right beside Henry's plump rump. Henry's a big dog with a big behind, and Peeta almost fell off when Haymitch passed a hump in the road.
Scooting a little more into the long seat, the furball allows him space while wagging his tail up and down, smacking Peeta in the face a couple of times. His adorable behavior becomes rewarded with back massages. Lucky dog.
"So how's school today, kids? Anything exciting?" Haymitch asks, checking his young passengers through the rearview mirror. He's grown fond of the pair, being the D12 bus driver for over twenty years.
"Peeta's been daydreaming about his crush all day, and trying to find a way to confess his undying love," Katniss reports mischievously, earning a throaty laugh from the old gruff. "And kiss her too!"
If you only knew. I only want to kiss you. You and only you. Just you.
Peeta sneaks a look at Katniss on his left, focusing on her mouth as she bites just a little portion of the pink flesh inside of her bottom lip. It's a bad habit, but all too endearing and very cute (or sexy, depending on his desperation). For the longest time, he had wanted to be there, to taste her and drink her in. Ever since his second brother gave him tips on how to kiss a girl more than four years ago, it's all Peeta could dream about when Katniss was so close to him. He had never tried it of course, despite the many chances he had. With Katniss' father's death, she needs their bubble of friendship more than ever. He wouldn't dare break it and was determined to wait for her to find healing and be ready for a relationship beyond what they have now.
"You know? A sure way to a woman's heart is through her stomach," Haymitch advises as he turns right to the Justice Building. "I got my Effie by buying her your Dad's pain au chocolat. Went on many dates after that."
"Oh, he's trying that approach all right," Katniss declares while inspecting Henry's ears. It's clean and healthy, and she's glad that the dog she and her sister, Prim, once fostered from the shelter, now belongs to a caring family.
"He bakes half a dozen cheese buns every morning for her. Brings them to school in a neat box with a green ribbon, but he never 'fesses up," Katniss rambles on, spilling Peeta's secrets.
"Without success, huh?"
"Yes, without success."
If only she knew the truth.
All those cheese buns are really for you. Delly doesn't eat carbs at all, but I'm glad you never really notice it. I will bake you cheese buns for all eternity.
"I'm not complaining, though. I don't mind getting half a dozen warm buns before first period. Peeta always chickens out when he sees his cheerleader slash student body president crush, so he ends up shoving them my way. We shouldn't waste food."
Sorry for shoving them to you. It's the only way you'd accept them. I wish I could hand them to you properly, lovingly, but that would be weird for you.
I wish I didn't have to waste so much time ...
The love of my life. My forever amore. I can't screw things up with you. I'll die.
"You get the lot every day, huh?" Haymitch sneers, opening the door again at the next bus stop. "You unlucky girl. Maybe he needs some liquid courage?"
"Oh, Peeta doesn't drink alcohol. He's not into that stuff. He drinks tea and never puts sugar in it."
You noticed!
"So what's so special about this girl huh, kid?"
"Peeta? Hello, earth to Peeta?" Katniss snaps her fingers in front of his face. He's deep in thought all of a sudden.
When her attempts don't work, Katniss taps his cheeks, her slender fingers touching the lobe of his ear. Electricity spreads throughout his body, and he catches her hand, surprising Katniss with his quickness. Grey eyes meet blue.
You're so beautiful.
Slowly, as if handling a delicate flower, Peeta lowers Katniss' hand, placing it on Henry's coat and then rubbing his thumb over her knuckles. He doesn't linger even though every fiber of his being wants to just hold her.
Haymitch clears his throat, a wide grin on his bearded face.
"Ummm ...," Peeta begins, then shifts in his seat.
Katniss continues to run her palm on Henry's coat, looking out the window, a gentle and sad smile laces her eyes. She breathes out a deep sigh. She looked confused and happy at the same time.
"She's really beautiful, Haymitch," Peeta begins, looking serious and hushed. "She has long, flowing, dark ... Uhmm, I mean, blonde hair. Her complexion is natural and lovely. She doesn't need any make-up to make herself pretty. She's just beautiful the way she is," he describes slowly with the voice of a man who is very much in love.
Peeta steals a look in Katniss' direction. It's quick and subtle, but Haymitch sees everything. As a matter of fact, he knows everything - even the competition that is Gale Hawthorne. He's a football jock who started volunteering at the shelter two years ago as part of his community service for disrespecting an officer of the law. He's a hothead, that one. Totally into Katniss, though. A tough competition.
"Is she high maintenance? Cheerleaders can be a pain in the ass."
Shaking his head while smiling, Peeta gives him a firm no. "Not at all, Haymitch."
"Good. Tell me more."
"She's loyal to the ones she loves and protects them fiercely. I love that about her. She'd do anything for them, actually. Even give up her life."
"You know that much, kid?"
I do, actually. She single-handedly took care of her mom and sister when her Papa died.
That's just what Katniss does.
"I freely assumed ...," Peeta replies instead.
"Her family adopted two dogs three months ago, Haymitch," Katniss states, adding to their conversation. If she caught the farfetched description of Delly, she didn't let on.
Yeah, but that's nothing to the years you've volunteered at the shelter. Buttercup (a mangy cat) and Caesar (an abandoned dog) wouldn't be alive if you didn't foster them and nurse them back to life. You're always saving someone, Katniss Everdeen.
My spring fountain of life.
"Aha, so you like her then?" Haymitch comments as he stops at a red light.
"She's all right. A bit too talkative, but Peeta likes her so ... I try to like her."
I really like you ... scratch that ... I love you.
"Best for you to go get her then, kid. An older guy might steal her from you," Haymitch says and winks at Peeta. He was referring to Gale Hawthorne.
"Yeah, a lot of boys like her, but she doesn't notice any of them. She doesn't know the effect she has."
"Okay, we're here," Katniss declares and slowly stands up, stopping their conversation. Henry jumps off the seat and wags his long, hairy tail as a goodbye.
"I'll see you around, boy. Be good." Katniss rubs the loose skin under his neck before laying a kiss between his eyes. Henry most definitely is a lucky dog.
"See you around, Haymitch." Katniss hops off the bus first, fixing her sling bag over her shoulder on the sidewalk.
"Hey, kid," Haymitch whispers to Peeta. He pivots and steadies himself in the handrail. "What are you gonna do?"
"I don't know ... but I volunteered at the shelter years ago, didn't I?"
Thank you for reading! Sorry about the sad ending. I still have to think of the next chapter. This is up to where my time allows me to write before I absolutely have to return to work.