A/N: Features lyrics to 'Ghruagach Dhonn' by Julie Fowlis.

*SEXUAL CONTENT FEATURED*

KATNISS POV

It had been a few days since my talk with Gale and I was at home chopping up herbs with Agnessa to prepare concoctions for her balms and such. Prim was finishing up some summer homework at the table nearby, having wanted to help with the herbs but when Agnessa and I learned that she had yet to even start it, we insisted that she needed to work on it. That particular morning, I was feeling a bit nauseous, and the smells of all the herbs certainly weren't helping. "Are you all right, dear?" Agnessa asked me in English, and I nodded. Like me, Agnessa had a Hebridean accent, but it wasn't nearly as prominent as mine. She had been born in Hebridia - the island of Leòdhas, I believe, which wasn't too far from where I was born, which was Uibhist - and came to Panem when she was only three years old. Her parents had the accent, but hers meshed with the accent of Panem as she grew up.

"Just a little nauseous," I replied, and in Gàidhlig - the language that both Agnessa and I spoke, being Hebridean refugees, "I usually get nauseous around my periods anyway. Perhaps it's coming on."

"Has it not yet?" Agnessa asked me, still in Gàidhlig. The reason we held this conversation in Gàidhlig was because Prim wasn't fluent in the language, so we could have more mature conversations around her without disturbing her.

"I haven't had it since before the Games," I confessed. I hadn't had it for very long before the Games, having only gotten it shortly before my sixteenth birthday, but since the Games, I hadn't had it. "Probably stress. The Games were incredibly stressful, and everything afterwards."

"Yes, stress can disrupt a period," said Agnessa. "Although, you should be starting to regulate again. You haven't been with a boy, have you?"

"Agnessa!" I hissed at my aunt, who I called by her name in the privacy of our home. My face turned beet red - I couldn't tell her about Peeta! God, I'd never hear the end of it!

"Well, have you? You know you're too young for a boyfriend," Agnessa said back to me.

"You're not my mother. You don't get to decide that for me."

"But I am your guardian."

"Since when? You certainly weren't before, when I needed a guardian."

"I think you should be tested."

"You're not making that decision for me."

"You're being incredibly evasive. Have you or have you not been with a boy?"

"What boy would I even have had time to be with, Agnessa?"

"You know which boy." So she knew about the connection between Peeta and me. She didn't want to say any names in case Prim was listening, which she likely was. I let out a huff.

"I'm not with anyone right now, Agnessa. You've nothing to worry about. I'm likely still just stressed. You've no idea about the nightmares I have that keep me awake at night." There. I managed to avoid telling her the truth and also not make it sound like I was lying. She eyed me suspiciously, then let out a sigh.

"If you insist, but a test wouldn't hurt."

"I don't need it, I'm fine. I'm just stressed."

"There's herbs I can give you for that."

"You've given them to me before and they really didn't help me. I'll be fine, I... I'll find a way to cope with it." I paused, trying to think of the best way to reassure her to get her off of my back. "I'll let you know when my cycle becomes regular again." We were all silent for a moment when we heard a knock at the door and Agnessa was the one to answer it.

"Oh, hello, Peeta! It's so good to see you!" I heard her say in English.

"Good morning, Mrs. Everdeen. I've brought some bread for breakfast," I heard Peeta say. I glanced towards the door, a hopeful look in my eye, and heard Prim snickering behind me, and I turned around and sent her a teasing glare.

"Your boyfriend is here," she said to me in a sing-songy voice.

"Hush, little duck," I told her as Peeta and Agnessa entered the kitchen, and Peeta sent a smile my way when he saw me. I couldn't help the smile that grew on my face when we locked eyes, nor could I hide the gentle blush that formed on my cheeks.

"Good morning, Katniss," he said to me cheerfully.

"Morning," I said, turning my face down. My hair was down, so I had a curtain of hair hiding the redness in my cheeks.

"Peeta, dear, you asked for some burn ointment?" Agnessa asked him as he set down the basket of bread on the counter behind me, and I raised my eyes to meet his.

"Burn ointment? What happened?" I asked, looking up fully and grasping one of his hands, finding an angry looking burn on his knuckles.

"Just bumped my hand on the side of the oven this morning. Nothing too bad, and nothing I haven't had before," he told me, placing his unburned hand over mine and giving me a reassuring smile. He then turned to Agnessa and started to follow her out of the kitchen and up the stairs. "Thank you again, Mrs. Everdeen..." he said as his voice and their footsteps faded upstairs.

"So you're having a girl problem, huh?" I heard Prim say behind me, and my eyes widened as I turned to look at her.

"You don't even speak Gàidhlig, how did you know what we were even saying?" I asked my little sister - technically, cousin, but I came to see Prim as my own little sister, whom I lost on our journey to Panem.

"I've picked up some words from when I've helped Mom, especially with the Hebridean patients. I know that ' sileadh-mìos ' is the Gàidhlig word for 'period' and I heard Mom say that word a lot," Prim replied.

"You're too clever for your own good, tunnag beagan ," I told her, calling her Gàidhlig phrase for 'little duck'. "I've been very stressed out since the Games and my body has not been responding very kindly, but I'll be all right. I'm sure I will return to normal soon, so there's nothing to worry about." She nodded silently, a knowing look in her eye telling me that she didn't fully believe me.

"Peeta's handsome, isn't he?" she said, resuming her teasing tone.

"Get back to your homework, Prim," I said with a chuckle, and after a moment, "...yes, he is very handsome."

"I knew it! I knew you liked him!"

"Shh! Prim!"

"You always stared at him whenever we walked by the bakery and you saw him lifting those bags of flour, especially if he wasn't wearing a shirt!"

" Prim! "

"And you loved to watch him at the wrestling matches!"

"He'll hear you!"

"Remember that match we went to? When Peeta wrestled his brother? What was his name again?"

"...Donnel, but they call him Rye."

"You locked eyes with Peeta's right before the big match - I saw it happen. And you watched him the whole match!"

"Oh she did, did she?" came Peeta's voice from the entryway, and I buried my face in my palms to hide my embarrassment as Prim laughed.

"Yes!" she exclaimed.

"And she used to watch me lifting bags of flour too, huh?" he asked, coming into the kitchen and placing his hands on my shoulders from behind.

"You know that! I told Haymitch you could throw a hundred pound sack of flour before the Games!" I hissed at him, refusing to remove my face from my hands.

"Why'd you tell him that, Katniss?" Prim asked me.

"Because he was undermining himself and wasn't telling the truth about how strong he was," I said, shaking off Peeta's hands so I could at least try to resume chopping herbs, but it was so hard with Peeta standing so close to me - close enough to make my core burn.

"And I told her that I wouldn't be killing anyone with a sack of flour," Peeta replied in a teasing tone.

"Not with that attitude, you won't," I replied, joining in on the fun just a little as Agnessa came back into the room.

"Right, shall we get started on breakfast?" she said as she came into the room. She glanced at me, then at Peeta, taking note of how close he was to me, and then spoke to me in Gàidhlig. "Remember what I said, Katniss. You're too young for boyfriends."

"Remember what I said," I said back in Gàidhlig, meeting her eyes. "You're not my mother."

PEETA POV

There was some kind of hostility between Katniss and her mother - aunt, I guess - but I couldn't tell exactly what it was since they were speaking in their Hebridean language. They made breakfast together silently while I cut the bread and when we ate at the table, it was mostly Prim talking about her homework and such. "Why don't we go on a walk together after breakfast?" Katniss asked me, and I swear my heart skipped a beat.

"Uh... yeah! Sure!" I said, probably a little too enthusiastically. I could see the firm look that Mrs. Everdeen was sending Katniss's way, but she simply ignored it. After breakfast was over, Katniss took me by the wrist and started dragging me to the door, but her mother called after her.

"Chan urrainn dhut carrabhaidh, Katniss! " she said to her daughter - niece - in Gàidhlig.

" Chan eil thu mo mhàthair, Agnessa. Fàg mi leam fhìn, " Katniss replied back, clearly irritably as we left the kitchen and headed towards the front door.

" Ach is mise do choimheadair agus nì thu na tha mi ag ràdh ," Agnessa replied back.

"Go ahead and stop me," Katniss muttered under her breath as we went outside, and she slammed the door behind her.

"What was that all about?" I asked her, confused as hell since I couldn't understand their language.

"Nothing to worry about, it's not like I'd listen anyway," she told me as we stormed off down towards the gate of the Village - or rather, she stormed off and dragged me along behind her.

"Is she mad about us being together?" I asked her, and she stopped and sighed.

"Remember during the interviews, she said I was 'too young to have a boyfriend'? Well, I'm pissed she even dared to say that because she doesn't have the right to make that kind of decision for me. She gave up that right a long time ago." She let go of my wrist and walked off, I following behind her.

"Oh... Wait... Does that mean... Am I..." I struggled to spit out the question as I followed behind her, but she was difficult to keep up with. "Katniss!" She stopped and turned to face me as I stopped in front of her. "Are you saying that... that I'm your boyfriend?"

"I think that's something we have to sort out first," she replied, and we continued walking. I was silent at first, simply because I didn't know how to respond. Did she want me to be her boyfriend? What did she mean by 'sort out'?

"Do you want me to be your boyfriend?"

"Do you? Want to be?"

"I mean... I kind of have to be, don't I? With the whole 'star-crossed lovers' and all..."

"But that's not real, is it?"

"No..." She led me to the meadow and I thought we were going to stop there, but she continued to the fence, pausing for just a moment, before she lifted a part of the fence high enough for me to pass through. "You're taking me to the woods?"

"Yes," she told me. "Do you not want to come?"

"Of course I want to come! I just didn't think... oh, nevermind!" I said, shutting up as I crawled under the fence, and she followed behind me. We walked for quite a distance before eventually coming to a very tall tree topped with thick leaves, and she started to climb the trunk. "Katniss, wait! I can't climb trees!" I said to her from the ground as she disappeared into the leaves.

"Don't worry about that," she told me, and a moment later, a rope ladder rolled down and stopped right in front of me. "What are you waiting for? Come on up." I did as I was told, grasping the ladder and climbing up and into the leaves, finding that what I had thought were thick branches and leaves was actually concealing a hidden treehouse of sorts. It was a small room with a single window and a tarp pinned to the ceiling - likely to keep the rain out. Inside of it was a chest in the corner, and I happened to notice it as Katniss pulled the ladder back up and stowed it away.

"What is this place?" I asked her.

"Just a treehouse. My uncle built it for me, when I wanted a place to hide. You see... I wasn't supposed to have any evidence that I had ever had a life before I came to Panem. No photographs of my family, no Fòlais family tartan... nothing. They wanted me to pretend that I was Archie and Agnessa Everdeen's eldest daughter and that I was never any other way. They tried to get rid of my accent, too, but I was already too old... They instead focused on teaching me English," she replied.

"Is that what's in that trunk?" She nodded, then she crawled over to it and opened it. She pulled out a green, maroon and beige plaid blanket and wrapped it around her shoulders, then she pulled out an old-looking envelope.

"This blanket is my family's tartan, Clan Fòlais. My mother wrapped me in it when our ship was attacked... it's the last thing I own of her, except for these." She handed me the envelope, gesturing for me to open it. Inside was a letter written in a language that I couldn't understand addressed to 'Eairdsaidh Èibhinndùn' and a few photographs. One of them was of a family - five young children, a man and a beautiful redheaded woman with strong curls. She was holding the youngest, a little girl who also had striking red hair. "That's my family, when I was about six years old. The next year, my mother had two more babies, Alasdair and Anndra, but I've got no photos of them." Katniss scooted closer to me so she could point to each member of her family. "That's me right there, the wee brown-haired lass holding the giomach that I had banded the claws of by myself."

"The what? The lobster?" I said, noticing that the little girl she'd pointed to was holding a lobster.

"Yes, if that's what it's called in English. We just called it a giomach ."

"You were so adorable when you were little! I mean, I met you two years later, but you already seemed so grown up then," I told her, and then I pointed to the two little boys on either side of her waving crabs in the air. "Who are they?"

"Cailean," she said, pointing to the one on her left, "and Calum," she said, pointing to the one on her right. "They were twins, a year younger than me. They loved to laugh and mess around and get into trouble, and they were very mischievous. They were identical in every aspect physically except that they were a mirror image of each other. We could always tell which was which, though, if you remembered which of their eyes was the blue one."

"Sorry, which of their eyes?" Katniss chuckled a little bit.

"Yes, Cailean's left eye was blue and he was left-handed, while Calum's right eye was blue and he was right-handed. Their remaining eye was brown, so they had two differently coloured eyes."

"That's really cool..." She then pointed to a taller boy standing by the woman.

"This was my twin brother, Dòmh. He was a lot calmer than Cailean and Calum, and was younger than me by ten minutes. I watched him get murdered by pirates... I still see his murder in my nightmares sometimes. He was stabbed through the abdomen... I still have the dress I wore that day, and his blood still stains it, but I won't pull that out."

"Katniss, I'm so sorry," I told her, shifting my arm to wrap it around her shoulders and pressing a kiss to her temple. "I can't imagine going through that..."

"You practically did, in the Games. So I suppose I was prepared after all," she said numbly, and with a sigh, she moved onto the little girl. "This was Ashilda. She was two years old when this photograph was taken. She didn't live past four. She barely had a chance to grow into her own individual person..." She then pointed to the two adults. "This here is my father, Dòmhnall, and my mother, Eilidh. My father was a scientist who worked with developing vaccines for various illnesses, and my mother was a midwife. I had started apprenticing with her the year before we left Hebridia. She's the reason I'm a midwife today. It's one more part of her I can hold onto."

"She was so beautiful, Katniss. You look so much like her."

"Ashilda looked like her. I looked like my father." She took the photos from my hand and shifted them, now showing me a photograph of Katniss and her three brothers, along with another little girl and boy, holding up some crabs. I couldn't help but smile at the image, as it was quite adorable. "Cailean, Calum, Dòmh and myself with my childhood friend, Ribinnean Muirreach and her little brother. We used to catch crùbagan , put them to sleep by rubbing their bellies and put on puppet shows with them."

"Are kroo-bakan 'crabs'?" I asked her, and she nodded.

"Yes, I suppose so. Dòmh never really liked having the big parts, and Calum was always the best storyteller. He reminds me a lot of you. You're so great with words, Peeta... just like him."

"Oh," I said, unsure of how I felt being compared to her brother. I felt her hand slip into mine as she swapped the photos again, this time to a picture of a little brunette girl sitting on the lap of a redheaded woman, laughing and smiling and both of their wild curls blowing in the wind. They were standing on some kind of cliff, maybe, and the ocean was in the background. There wasn't an ocean anywhere near District Twelve - at least, we were told there wasn't. We weren't allowed to even leave the District, and Katniss claims that most hunters don't travel far enough to find out.

"My mother," she said, "and me... She used to call me her 'eun beagan ', or her 'little bird'. She'd sing a song to me called ' Mo Ghruagach Dhonn' which meant 'My Brown-Haired Lass'. She loved to laugh and she could always find some reason to be positive no matter how terrible the situation." She looked up at me, just for a moment, her fingers running over the photograph as if to feel the moment. "She would have loved you, so much..."

"How does the song go?" I asked her quietly, and her cheeks flushed just a little as she looked back at the photograph.

"It's been years... but I'll never forget the words." She cleared her throat, and then she started to sing.

Hi ro ho, mo ghruagach dhonn,

'S ann ort fhèin a dh'fhàs an loinn:

Dh'fhàg siud acaid na mo chom,

An gaol cho trom 's a gabh mi ort...

Fuair mi do litir DiMàirt,

Dh'innseadh dhòmhsa mar a bha;

Gu robh thu a' tighinn gun dàil,

A-mach air bàta Ghlaschu...

She trailed off, seemingly trying so hard to fight off the tears, but failing, and she turned to me and began to sob into my shoulder. I held her tightly, pulling her into my lap and cradling her against my chest.

"Shh, honey, it's okay," I whispered into her hair, gently rubbing her back with my palm. I didn't say another word as she sobbed into my shoulder and held her until her shaking turned into the occasional hiccup. When she finally pulled away to look at me, her eyes were red and puffy and her cheeks were stained with tears. "You are your mother's daughter... She was beautiful, and so are you, and I'll bet she could sing so beautifully that the birds would stop to listen to her... just as they have now." She picked up her head and looked out the window, listening to the mockingjays whistling her beautiful little Hebridean tune. She smiled, then whispered something quietly to herself in Gàidhlig.

" Tha mi gaol ort, Màthair," she said quietly, looking out the window, and then she laid her head on my shoulder. "I wish you could have met her, Peeta... She would have adored you so much. She would have approved of my choice."

"Your choice?"

"Of a boyfriend." I smiled down at her, then pressed a kiss to her forehead. Katniss Everdeen - no, Fòlais - had just called me her boyfriend, and I couldn't be more happy than I was in that exact moment.

KATNISS POV

That day was a Thursday, and the next night, we had been invited to yet another dinner at the mayor's, but it wasn't nearly as fancy as the ball we'd gone to after we came home from the Games. This was a lot more casual - a monthly dinner invitation that the mayor extended to the victors of District Twelve. For years, it had just been Haymitch, who turned it down every single time, but Peeta and I didn't want to seem rude and therefore accepted the invitation without question. I dressed myself in a knee-length sapphire blue dress - one that I knew would go very well with Peeta's gorgeous blue eyes, and let my hair flow down my back in loose curls. When Peeta came to pick me up to walk over to the mayor's house, I found myself entranced by how handsome he looked in a grey suit with a sapphire blue tie to match mine - we hadn't even discussed what we were wearing and just so happened to match.

"Wow, look at you," I said aloud, blushing somewhat considering I hadn't realised I spoke my thoughts out loud. He smiled warmly, and I could have sworn I felt myself get drunk off of that gorgeous smile of his, so I continued. "You look very handsome, Peeta... but you always do."

"And you look so beautiful. You're always beautiful, but you take my breath away when you wear your hair down like that," he replied as I descended the stairs to my house and stepped into his arms for an embrace.

"The dress does nothing for you?" I asked, teasing him, and he chuckled.

"You make everything look beautiful," he replied, pressing his lips to my forehead. Suddenly, we were disrupted by the sound of a door being kicked open and Haymitch came sauntering out of his house, already drunk, and made his way over to the two of us.

"Well, don't you clean up nicely," I said, commenting on his somewhat cleaner attire. "What are you doing? I thought you never accepted the mayor's monthly dinner invitation."

"Can it, sweetheart. The boy talked me into this," he told me. "Hope you don't mind me intrudin' on your little date." I rolled my eyes, and the three of us started making our way to the mayor's home. "So," said Haymitch, breaking the awkward silence. He was walking behind us and Peeta and I were easily three feet apart. "Judgin' by the way y'all were before I came outside, is this romance a real thing now?"

"That's for us to know and you not to butt in about, Haymitch," I told him.

"If it's real, sweetheart, it'll make things a hell of a lot easier goin' forward. You two are together for the rest of your lives now," Haymitch told me. For some reason, that startled me, and I stopped and quickly turned to look at him with widened eyes. I stole a quick glance of Peeta, too, and he seemed mildly hurt by this reaction. "Relax, sweetheart. If it's real, it ain't a problem."

"Having my freedom of choice ripped away from me is a problem," I told him.

"I thought you said you chose me?" Peeta asked me, the hurt in his eyes now showing in his voice.

"I did! Peeta, I did!" I exclaimed, and then I lowered my voice. "But does it not bother you that you're practically being forced to stay with me? That even if we had an argument or we find later on that we just can't get along, that you couldn't leave and find someone else?"

"I don't want someone else, Katniss, I want you ."

"But what if you did? Forget the fact that you are totally in love with me - I know that, Peeta, and I'm glad, I really am! But what if - and I'm not saying this will happen - one day, you decide that you don't want to be with me? You don't get to make that choice, Peeta. We're stuck now." He was silent for a moment, and then he let out a sigh.

"I guess I can see how that would be a problem," he said. "After all, divorce is illegal in the districts. I see that exact situation in my parents every day. But Katniss, that won't be us. I will never give up on you. I just hope you don't give up on me."

"I didn't say I would," I told him, and I let out a sigh and looked at Haymitch. "What would happen if, god forbid, we do decide we don't want to be together anymore?"

"Snow might see that as defying him and the Capitol and y'all might lose your families," Haymitch replied.

"See, Peeta? That's the problem I have with this. We can't have the freedom to choose without our families being threatened," I told Peeta. "But that doesn't mean I don't choose you. Not that you even have any competition anyway." I could see him trying to fight a smile and I took a step towards him to take his hand in mine, and Haymitch let out a grunt.

"Keep that behind closed doors," he said, and he started walking again, breaking our hands and walking in front of us. Peeta and I glanced at each other and shared a small smile and I slipped my hand into his again and we followed behind Haymitch.

The dinner itself was relatively unmemorable. Haymitch was trying his best to appear as sober as he possibly could, but everyone knew he was drunk anyway. Madge was telling me about how she'd met one of the sons of the mayor of District Five and that she would most likely be betrothed to him. It wasn't unheard of for the children of mayors to marry among other mayors and the mayors were often selected by the president, however, Snow cared less about what happened in the higher numbered districts and generally, the mayor's oldest child, regardless of gender, would inherit the title. Madge, being the mayor's only child, would likely inherit the title, but would probably have to marry one of the sons of the District Five mayor.

Suddenly, I started feeling a little nauseous, and when we moved to the parlour to chat after dinner, I excused myself to find the toilet in fear that I would start throwing up. I heard a knock at the door as I was seated on the floor draped over the toilet. "Katniss?" I heard a male voice - Peeta's - at the door following the knock. "Hey, are you okay? You've been in here for a while."

"Just a minute," I said, pulling myself to stand up. My stomach lurched, and I hovered over the toilet in case I had to throw up, and waited for the wave of nausea to pass. I flushed the toilet so it sounded like I had actually been in there for a reason and washed my hands, then wet my face a bit and dried it off on a towel. After a moment more, I opened the door and was met by Peeta's concerned expression as he stood outside of the door.

"You don't look so good, Katniss. Are you feeling okay? Do you want me to take you back home?" he asked me, pressing the back of his hand to my forehead, which felt fine.

"I'm fine," I said. "Maybe something I ate that didn't really agree with me."

"You should let me take you back home. I'll talk to the mayor and let him know you aren't feeling well," Peeta replied, placing a hand on my lower back and leading me back to the parlour. "You stay here, I'll go and talk to him." He bent down to give me a kiss on the cheek and I waited for him to come back out, and when he did, he had with him some plain crackers. "Mrs. Undersee says these always make her feel better when she's feeling unwell. Both she and the mayor said they hope you feel better, and Haymitch is passed out asleep." I couldn't help but snort just a little as I took the crackers from him, biting into one of them.

"Thank you, Peeta," I said as we started to head towards the door. When we stepped outside, we could see that it was cloudy and over the mountains, we could see the occasional flash of lightning. "Looks like it's going to storm."

"We'd better get you home quickly then," said Peeta as we walked down the steps and out the front gate of the property. I finished the crackers quickly as we walked, and a gentle rumble of thunder caused me to stop and look up at the sky. "Katniss?"

"Just a moment, Peeta... I've always loved the rain," I told him.

"If you're not feeling well, you really shouldn't get caught in it."

"Back home, we used the rain for healing. Of course, the air was a bit saltier and saltwater does wonders for healing... Every time I had a cold or another illness, my mother and I would sit in the rocking chair in our barn with the doors open and just watch the rain, breathing in the damp air. The next morning, my illness was always gone."

"I was always told that if I got caught in the rain, I'd get pneumonia."

"That's most certainly not true. There's nothing wrong with getting a little wet from the rain." I smiled at him and took his hand in mine, and we started walking back to the Village a little slower this time. We felt the first couple of raindrops when we were maybe a mile or so away from the gate, and those little drops quickly turned into buckets and buckets of rain. Peeta and I both let out a squeal as we locked hands and ran towards the gate, Peeta slipping in a puddle and taking me down with him. We were laughing as we sat in that muddy puddle, rain pouring down all around us and soaking our clothes through, and I climbed on top of him and took his face in my hands. "You see? The rain is healing. You've been smiling ever since it started."

"I don't think that's the rain, Katniss. I think it's you. If the rain heals me, then you must be my rainstorm," he told me, raising a hand to brush a bit of wet hair off of my face. He looked so handsome there, drenched in rain with specks of mud on his face and hands, with his beautiful blonde hair stuck against his forehead. His blue eyes were shining, catching the light from a nearby street lamp - it was amazing that the electricity was still even on - and his smile was wide and brilliant. This boy, my sweet boy with the bread, was the kindest, most loving, amazing boy I had ever had the privilege to meet, and I was lucky enough to call him my boyfriend. He felt like so much more to me than just a boyfriend, though. He was my best friend, the one person in the world who understood me, who was quickly learning all of my secrets, who knew me better than I even knew myself. And what was I doing? Stringing him along, slowly letting him do little things like hold my hand or kiss my cheek. Why have I yet to give this sweet, wonderful boy my whole heart like he deserved? I know I didn't want to fall in love. I didn't want to turn into Agnessa, but Agnessa wasn't me, and I certainly wasn't her. Agnessa had never gone through the things that I had. She might have been born in Hebridia, but she spent her formative years in Panem. She wanted for nothing her whole childhood and her parents only cut her off because she chose to marry a miner from the Seam. I had lost my entire family when I was eight years old and I had to learn to navigate an entirely new world on my own not even speaking the language. I was stronger than Agnessa, and I knew that I would never shut down and lose myself the way that she did.

So with Peeta's face between my hands, I looked down into his beautiful sky blue eyes, eyes the same colour as the skies of Hebridia, and stroked his cheeks with my thumbs. I smiled gently, the rain pattering the ground around us, as his sky blue eyes met my stormy grey ones, and his lips, too, were pulled into a gentle smile. The words I wanted to speak were caught in my throat and I didn't know if I could force them out, but after taking a deep breath, they were finally dislodged, and they flowed out of me as easily as the rain fell from the clouds. "I love you, Peeta Mellark." His face fell from a gentle smile of a boy in love to an expression of shock at my admission of love for him, and before he could say another word, I lowered my face to his, closing my eyes and meeting his lips with mine. The kiss was gentle, at first, and sweet, before I began to hunger for more, and I moved my hands from his face and wrapped my arms around his neck to deepen that sweet and gentle kiss into something more passionate.

When we broke the kiss, it was because a rather large bolt of lightning struck a tree in the woods and we both startled, my arms tightening around Peeta's neck as I looked in the direction of the tree, and once I realised it was safe, I looked back down at Peeta again, who was watching my facial expressions. "Did you mean it?" he asked me. "Do you really love me?"

"Yes, Peeta, I do," I told him, running a hand through his wet hair and pressing my lips to his forehead. "Perhaps I love you too much for my own good, but that's okay. If I've learned anything from my sixteen years, it's that life's too short to hold out on a good thing. I want to be with you, Peeta, and I want to love you, if you'll let me."

"Of course I will... Katniss, you have no idea how long I've dreamt of hearing you say those words to me," he said, his hand finding its way into my own wet hair. And then, as if realising that he had yet to return my sentiment, he whispered, "I love you, too, Katniss Fòlais." He used my real name - my birth name, the name that tied me to my homeland of Hebridia. He drew me in for another kiss and broke it quickly, holding me tightly in his arms and refusing to let me go. "Let's get you home, Katniss. We're both soaking wet." I couldn't stop the girlish giggle that came from my throat as he stood and pulled me to stand with him, throwing his arms around me again and kissing my lips again.

"We'll never get back if you keep that up," I teased, and he chuckled.

"I'm sorry, I can't help myself," he told me. "The girl I've loved since I was eight years old just told me she loves me."

"And she'll gladly tell you again once we're somewhere warm and dry." He chastely kissed my lips one more time before he broke our embrace and we started running again towards the Village hand in hand. When we got there, I dug around in the little bag that was paired with my dress for my key, but I couldn't find it, and looking up at the windows, I could see that every light was off, which meant that Prim and Agnessa were either out or had gone to bed.

"Everything okay?" Peeta asked me as I frustratingly searched my bag.

"I can't seem to find my key," I told him, and he pulled my hand from my bag and took my hand.

"Then I guess you're coming to my house tonight." There was a mischievous glint in his eye as he led me to the stoop of his house, then he fished for his key in his pocket and unlocked the front door. When he led me inside, he went straight for the living room, starting a fire and then meeting me again in the foyer. "I'll get you some dry clothes to change into and then we can dry your wet clothes in front of the fire. How's that sound?"

"Sounds perfect," I told him, giving his hand a squeeze as he gave me another chaste kiss and went upstairs to his room. He came back with a pair of sweatpants with a drawstring and one of his t-shirts, handing them both to me, and I went into the bathroom to change. I took a look at my reflection after I had changed out of my clothes. I wasn't as skinny as I once had been, but I still didn't have all that impressive of a figure. I didn't have many curves, and my breasts were the same size as they were when I was twelve. Agnessa told me once that they may get bigger when I got my period, but when that happened and they remained the same size, I dismissed that as not happening to me. I didn't know what Peeta saw in me. I wouldn't call myself the ideal image of beauty, but I knew I wasn't hideous, either. To call myself hideous would be an insult to my mother, the most beautiful woman I'd ever known, because even I had to admit that I resembled her quite a bit, only lacking her sunset red curls. I decided, instead, to forego the clothes Peeta gave me in favour of a robe that hung on the back of the door, wrapping it around myself tightly, and when I met Peeta back in his living room, he was sitting on the floor wrapped in a blanket, his clothes drying in front of the fire. He looked up at me and smiled, but then his smile fell to an expression of curiosity as he saw me wearing the robe instead.

"Were the pants too big?" he asked me as I knelt down on the floor beside him, my eyes never leaving his.

"A little bit," I lied. "What about you? You live here, don't you have any clothes?"

"Well, yeah... I just... I don't know..." he looked away awkwardly, staring into the fire with a gentle blush on his cheek. I scooted closer to him and wrapped my arms around his neck, drawing his face to mine and pulling him into a kiss.

"I think we both know why we really didn't get dressed," I whispered to him.

"We... we don't have to do anything... if... if you don't want to..." he whispered back, his blue eyes showing his nerves.

"Do you not want to?"

"I always want to with you, Katniss."

"Then what makes you think I don't?"

"I just... I don't want to push you..."

"Peeta, we made love the night before we went into the Games. We broke down so many boundaries that night... I miss that night, and I miss feeling the way that you made me feel."

"M-made love?" he stuttered. "I... I thought you only wanted to... to do it just... just because..."

"I thought I did, too, but I realise now that you'd already clawed your way into my heart." I pressed my forehead against his. "We don't have to go all the way tonight, but I want to make you feel good." He smiled gently, then shifted his head so that his lips were on mine.

"Okay," he whispered, and then he kissed me again. We kissed passionately for a moment before I felt him lowering me to the ground and he hovered over me, shifting his lips down to my neck and kissing me there.

"Peeta," I groaned, my hands in his hair as I gripped the blanket that still covered his back.

"I love it when you moan my name like that," he whispered huskily into my ear before he began to kiss my earlobe.

"Can I take this off?" I asked, tugging on the blanket, and he gave me a muffled 'mhm' as he kissed along my jaw. I pushed the blanket off of his back and it slid down to pool around his hips and I let my hands roam his bare back. I let out another quiet moan as he kissed my throat and then he pulled back, sitting up just a little to look down at me and I let my hands roam over his strong, muscular chest. My fingers gently brushed the little blonde hairs that grew on his chest and I shuddered, and his hands slid up my waist and rested on my shoulders.

"Can I take this off?" he asked me, mirroring my question from earlier, and I smiled and nodded at him. I don't think he was expecting me to be fully nude beneath that robe because when he opened it and pushed it off of my body, his eyes widened and he gasped, averting his eyes for a moment before meeting mine. I couldn't help but giggle at him as I took his hands.

"You can look," I told him, placing his hands directly beneath my breasts. His eyes shifted downwards, eyeing my breasts hungrily before he slid his right hand up to cup my left breast and brought his lips down onto my right one. I moaned as his lips brushed against my sensitive nipple and gripped his hair even tighter when I felt him suck on it. " Peeta... " I said, and I felt his tongue flick out as a reward for moaning his name. "Peeta... Oh, Peeta..." He switched gears then, moving his mouth to my left breast and replacing his mouth on my right with his left hand. I could feel my core starting to heat up with the fire that this wonderful boy - my sweet Peeta - was igniting inside of me and I tugged on his hair, drawing his eyes up to mine. "Peeta... I need you..." He obliged me, abandoning my breasts and hovering over me once again to press his lips to mine.

"Katniss..." he whispered between kisses. "I want to taste you..." That alone was enough to almost push me over the edge. He wasn't even touching me yet and I was already moaning and writhing beneath him and I felt his chuckle rumble through his chest against mine. "I haven't even started yet," he teased.

"Oh, Peeta... you have no idea... the effect you can have..." I told him.

"I think that's my line," he told me, teasing me again, and he kissed me one final time before he started moving south. He met my breasts again, giving each nipple a flick of his tongue before he moved south again, pausing to run his tongue over my navel. As he moved further south, the blanket that had pooled around his waist shifted and I could see that he was still wearing his underpants.

"Take them off," I hissed, and he paused to look up at me as he chuckled.

"So demanding," he teased, and he sat up to slide his boxers down, allowing his very obvious erection to spring free.

"God, look at you!" I exclaimed, sitting up and reaching for him, but he stopped me by pushing my shoulders back against the floor.

"Ah ah, my turn first, then you can do whatever you want to me," he told me, and I sent him a glare. That icy glare quickly melted away as I felt his warm lips graze my pelvis and he trailed his lips down my inner thigh, and I nearly jumped when I felt his fingers brush against my most private area. I hadn't been touched down there since he touched me the night before the Games, so the feeling of his fingers as they brushed over my folds felt foreign, but good, and I felt myself raise my hips just a little to encourage him to do more. I could feel the vibration of his chuckle and his warm breath on my inner thigh, and then I felt his warm, moist tongue make its way from the bottom of my sex to the very top, stopping just before he met that tiny little bundle of nerves that craved his touch so badly.

"Ugh, stop teasing me, Peeta!" I groaned as he laughed, and I sent him another glare.

"Say it again," he said back to me.

"Say what?" I asked him, having said a lot to him that night.

"My name, and how you feel about me," he replied.

"You're so needy, aren't you?" I teased, and he once again licked me from the bottom and stopped again before my clitoris, causing me to hiss in response. " Peeta! "

"Say it and I'll give you what you want," he told me, and I picked my head up to meet his eyes.

"I love you, Peeta Mellark," I said, and I felt his tongue brush against that bundle of nerves, letting out a cry and gripping his hair very tightly in my hands. "Peeta!"

"Say it again," he repeated.

"I, uhgh... love you, Peeta..." I said between breaths as his lips wrapped around my clitoris, and as I felt him sucking on it, I bit down into my lip to keep myself from screaming. "Peeta... Peeta... Oh, god, Peeta..." I then felt him slip a finger inside of me, and then another one, and I groaned even louder.

"Let go, Katniss. Come for me, baby," I heard Peeta say to me. I couldn't hold on much longer. The combination of hearing his voice, as well as the sensation he gave me between my legs, was enough for me to clench my walls around his fingers and feel my release, and as I relaxed into the floor, my grip on his hair loosened. He picked his head back up to look at me, his lips glistening as he wiped his mouth on the back of his hand. "That was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

"You should look into a mirror more often," I said, trying to catch my breath. I then sat up and attacked him, pushing him down onto the floor and attacking his lips with mine. "My turn," I whispered into his ear. I took his lead and mimicked a lot of what he did to me - kissing him behind his earlobe, kissing his neck, flicking his own nipples with my tongue, as I made my way down to his manhood. I pushed myself up just a little to look at him, seeing the lust swimming in his eyes as I ran a finger up his shaft, and his face contorted into one of pleasure as I teased him.

"Katniss," he groaned, and I teased him with yet another finger running up his shaft. "You're going to kill me..."

"Not as funny when it's you getting teased, is it?" I asked him, and he only groaned in response. "It's your turn to say it again, Mellark."

"I love you, Katniss..." he groaned out, and as a reward, I wrapped my hand around his shaft and gently brushed his tip with my tongue.

"Again," I whispered, making sure to breathe on the sensitive flesh of his penis.

"Ugh, IloveyouKatniss ," he said, now rushed, and I couldn't help but chuckle as I rewarded him with another lick, and then I took him into my mouth. When we'd tried this before the Games, we weren't very successful, as I couldn't take as much of him in my mouth as I would have liked, so this time, I took maybe two inches in and hungrily flicked my tongue across his tip while my hand finished him off. I licked and sucked him as he writhed on the floor beneath me, crying out and gripping the blanket in his fists. "Katniss, I'm gonna come," he warned me. The last time he'd warned me, he told me to remove my mouth so he could come on his stomach, but I wasn't allowing that this time. "Katniss..." he warned me again, but I continued what I was doing until I felt his warm, salty fluids evacuate his tip into my mouth, and with a swift swallow to keep myself from gagging on the idea of what was in my mouth, I kissed his tip one final time as he came down from his release, climbing my way up his chest and pressing my lips against his shoulder. After a moment, he wrapped his arms tightly around me, pulling the blanket up and covering the both of us with it.

"I hope we get to do that more often," I whispered to him in the night.

"Any time you want, come and find me... I'll be happy to oblige," he whispered back, and I felt his lips in my hair. "Get some sleep... I love you, Katniss."

"I love you," I said back, being cut off by a yawn. I snuggled up against his chest and dozed off into one of the best sleeps I'd ever had.

A/N: Why is Katniss feeling so unwell?

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