Katniss grunts as she lifts the last box into the cart Peeta rented to move their things. It's more full than she had expected it to look, honestly.

"It's... It's not too late to change your mind- If you wanted." She turns to see Peeta standing awkwardly behind her, fiddling with his thick mittens. She can't help but to compare him to when he was a child. He looks so young with his giant coat and rosy cheeks, and downcast eyes.

Katniss takes a deep breath, glancing once more at her family home. "I'm sure."

He looks up at her with a relieved smile before nodding once. "Alright then. Let's get going before we all get frost bite."

She jumps up in the back of her cart with her mother and Prim, who's clutching Buttercup to her chest. He's wrapped in his own little coat, the spoiled hairball. Katniss watches as Peeta climbs up onto the front bench, cracking the reins and driving the horse forward. She scoots closer to Prim, throwing an arm around her younger sister to try and keep the both of them warm. She watches the Seam pass by, wondering if she'll miss it.

Thankfully, the Victor's houses are closer to the Seam than they are to the Town, and it doesn't take as awfully long to reach Peeta's home as she had thought it would. Once the cart came to a complete stop, she jumps down and offers her arms up to Prim, who skootches over to the edge. Katniss grabs her under the arms and swings her down as Prim lets out an impish giggle. Katniss smiles gently at her, leaning down to place a kiss to her cold forehead.

"Go take Buttercup inside," she says, patting her sister's back as she takes off towards the porch. The door opens and the only other district victor steps out, looking sober for perhaps the first time Katniss has ever seen. Prim stops as she reaches the door, conversing with him joyfully before running into the house as he waves an arm towards the door. He plants his fists on his hips, watching as Katniss helps her mother down next, before joining them.

"Need help, sweetheart?" He asks in his gruff tone, motioning with his chin towards the boxes and bags.

Katniss isn't amused at the nickname, and has half a mind to turn down his help, but Peeta beats her to it.

"Finally being helpful for once, Haymitch? You must be feeling awfully generous," he says with a bright smile, clapping his mentor on the back. "You can help if you're not going to drop anything." With that, Peeta reaches up and pulls the first box out, handing it to Haymitch. The second he has a hard time reaching, so Katniss holds out a hand.

"Here, let me help." She climbs back up into the cart, pushing the box towards him and lowering it into his arms. He smiles up at her before taking the box to the house. Katniss watches him for a moment, like she used to watch him carry bags of flour years ago, before going back to work. She pushes all the other boxes to the edge and grabs up some of the bags, slinging them over her shoulders and awkwardly climbing down.

Haymitch intercepts her halfway there, offering help, but she just mumbles something about the cart. Haymitch, also being a grumpy person of few words, takes it in stride and continues on to the cart.

She nearly runs into Peeta as he's coming back out the front door. They both blush and try to step around the other before he takes her shoulders and moves her to the left as he goes right. "There." He seems to realize what he's done and quickly takes his hands back, rubbing the back of his neck. "Uhm. There's a pile started in the living room." With that he hurries to help Haymitch with what's left.

Katniss steps into the mansion for the first time, and nearly collapses as the heat envelopes her. It was as if the height of summer had been trapped in the house until winter had had it's fill of tormenting the district. She closed her eyes and nearly moaned as she soaked up the very welcome heat.

"It's wonderful, isn't it!" Prim cries as she runs over to Katniss, grabbing her hand and dragging her to the living room. "Here, set the bags down here. Look at this fireplace! It's gorgeous!" Prim is practically bouncing around the room, a giant smile on her face as she points out everything to her sister.

Katniss watches her happily, finally feeling as if a large weight had been lifted off her shoulders despite not yet having set down the bags she still carried. She felt as if- for the first time since her father died- that she could truly take a moment to just breathe.

Tears well up in her eyes unbidden as she drops the bags at her feet. She sinks onto the couch next to her, trying to keep herself together. The last thing she needs is for Peeta to come in and see her crying. She wipes them away with her sleeve as heavy footsteps approach. She can already tell which set is Peeta's, his gait heavily uneven. She assumes it's due to the leg injury he gained in the arena.

"Ok, that's all of it," Peeta says as he sets down the stuff he brought inside. She can hear the door shut before Haymitch also enters the room with the last of their belongings. "If you'll follow me upstairs, I can show you to your rooms and give you the tour."

Prim jumps up and claps her hands together. "Ok! Come on, Katniss!" She grasps her sister's hand and yanks her off the couch, pulling out a startled laugh.

They follow Peeta as he shows them the kitchen- the huge kitchen- and the downstairs bathroom and laundry room. He takes them up the stairs, holding onto the railing and placing both feet on each stair before he continues to the next one. Katniss frowns to herself at how much his leg seems to still be bothering him.

"Here's your room, Mrs. Everdeen," he says, pointing to the first open door on the left. It's done in light violets and white linens with a beautiful vanity and matching shelf and dresser. Katniss raises her eyebrows at the beautiful simplicity of it and wonders at how perfectly it matches her mother. "And Prim's room is this one next to it."

The three women peek their heads inside as they had done with the first room, and Prim gasps dramatically. "Wow! This is amazing!"

Unlike the charming, simple room for her mother, this room is loud. The walls are all a pale pink besides the wall behind the bed, which is a gorgeous mural of a field of flowers. Among them Katniss can see the Primroses and violets, after her sister and mother respectively. The bed has sheer, sparkly swaths of fabric hanging from the curtain rods between the four posts. There's another door, which likely leads to a closet, and a large mirror and desk. Prim rushes in and spins around happily, taking it all in.

"Look, Katniss! This carpet is so soft!" He sister was shuffling her bare feet across the floor with a giddy grin. Unable to say no to her sister, Katniss slowly follows her in.

"Oh!" The carpet was really soft. "Huh." She turns back to look at Peeta.

"Did... Did you paint this?" She asks in soft wonder.

Peeta's cheeks pink again. "Yes, I painted all the bedrooms and a few of the other rooms shortly after I moved in. I found myself with a lot of extra time."

She's about to say something else when she realizes the significance of that. She looks around the room once more, thinking about Peeta painting this for Prim specifically- she assumes based on his answer- only a few months after he got back from the Capitol. He really had been planning this for a while.

She steps back outside of the room as her mother enters to get a better look as well. She starts talking quietly with Prim as Katniss returns to Peeta's side.

"Thank you," she says quietly as they watch her mother and sister smile and talk. "It... It was very sweet of you to go through all the trouble."

"It was no trouble," Peeta says quickly, his face aflame. He clears his throat and meets her eyes before looking away again. "Would- Would you like to see your room?"

She thinks of the grandeur of Prim's room and is suddenly worried to see her own room. She's not very good at showing appreciation, and is worried Peeta will think her indifferent if her room is done as... Thoughtfully as the last two.

But she nods anyways, the part of her that she shoved down when she became the soul caretaker of her family buzzing with excitement.

He walks further down the hall, points out his closed door on the right, and then motions to the open door next to it just a bit further down. She takes a deep breath and walks through the doorway.

And stops as soon as her feet hit the cream colored carpeting, just as soft as Prim's. Her breath catches in her throat as she takes it all in. The first thing she sees is the giant, darkwood, four poster bed with soft green curtains that sits directly in front of her. The bedding is all in browns and softs golds, and looks as if it could swallow her alive. Behind the bed and on the wall to the left is a perfect rendition of the tall trees of the forest she finds solace in. The details are so perfect she can practically hear the wind rustling through the leaves as she walks further in, jaw dropped and spinning to take the rest of it in. The wall with the door to the hallway depicts more trees and a small pond, with katniss tubers sprouting around the shore. Her breath catches once more as she remembers afternoons spent at the lake with her father, picking katniss tubers to bring home for dinner. The pond leads into a river that stretches across the next wall, with a door that reveals a large closet. She turns a bit farther and ends up looking back to the first wall, noticing the matching shelf and bedside table on either side of her bed. She finds herself following the trees up, up, up, until she's staring at the ceiling.

She blinks in surprise as she realizes it really is a ceiling. It's as if she's truly standing in the middle of the forest, looking up at the tops of the trees against a muted blue sky. Peeta must have spent days, no, weeks, on the ceiling alone. Each leaf is lined perfectly in gold as if the sun itself was trapped in the room with them. The light practically shimmered all across the ceiling and down into the walls. It's absent of a light fixture, as lamps hang on the walls, hidden within the paint.

She slowly turns to face Peeta again, her eyes threatening to overflow again.

"I-" Her voice cracks embarrassingly, so she closes her mouth. She doesn't even know what to say, anyways. Suddenly, Prim and her mother show up behind him, causing him to start.

"Oh, my..." Prim breathes. "Katniss, this is so perfect for you..."

Katniss swallows thickly before nodding, taking another long look at her room. She's never even had her own room before, and now she's got this... It's too much and she doesn't know how to handle it.

"Thank you, Peeta." She says finally, her voice thick with emotion. He's gazing at her as if she's the only one there; as if she was the one who painted this beautiful room for him. She owes him so much, and she has no idea how to begin repaying him.

"Alright, out with you. It's time for her to get ready, no?" Her mother says, ushering Peeta out the door.

"O-Ok. Your bathroom is the last door on the left. Take however long you need." With that he turned and walked back down the hallway.

The three girls stood there and listened as the stairs creaked before Prim clapped her hands once more, snapping them back to focus.

"I'll go get the stuff from downstairs. Katniss, you should take a bath!" Prim zoomed out of the room after Peeta.

Instead of listening to her sister Katniss walks over to the bed and gingerly sinks down on the edge. Her mother follows after, cautiously putting an arm around her shoulders and pulling her into a hug. She smooths her hair back the way she used to when Katniss was a child, and suddenly she can't hold the tears back.

Her mother takes a deep breath before she speaks in a low, soothing tone. "It's alright, Katniss," she starts. "Peeta is a good boy, and he cares so much for you. I know even you see it. It's... It's fast, and too early for you both, but..." She sighs and wraps both arms around her daughter. "Katniss, I know you're scared after everything that's happened. But if I had the chance, I'd marry you father again, and again if I had the chance. I'd go through it all just for the years we had with him. That love we shared was worth it, Katniss. And if you think this is what you want, then you have to believe it's worth it, too." She pauses, then adds, "Just... Don't do anything you'll regret. If you're having second thoughts-"

"I'm not," Katniss says quickly. "Just... Overwhelmed." They fall silent once more, which is fine for Katniss. She hasn't heard her mother speak that much since her father was still with them. And though she's loathe to admit it, she allows herself a few more minutes in her mother's arms, soaking up the comfort.