A/N: Mild sexual content mentioned.

PEETA POV

The day before the reaping was finally upon us - the third of July, 2160. Katniss and I had now almost been together for a full year, and in that year, we met officially, made love, almost died, managed to survive a deadly child-killing game, fell in love, got married twice, sacrificed so much for each other and had a baby. Quite a lot for one year. On the day before the reaping for the Quarter Quell, Katniss and I went to the woods together with Lark, strapping her to the front of my chest as we made our way through the woods. It had been a couple of hours of traipsing through the woods when I stopped her. "Katniss, where are we going?" I asked her, my legs sore from all that hiking.

"You'll see," she told me, taking my hand. "It's not much farther now." Another twenty minutes of walking and Katniss stopped beside a rather large bush. "Close your eyes," she told me, and I did, and I felt her take my hands and lead me through the bush. There was a hard rocky surface underneath my feet now and she pushed me from behind until she stopped me by gripping my shoulders. "All right, open them." And I did.

The sight that met me was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. Before me was a body of water - a lake, as it was called in geography class - surrounded by the mountains of District Twelve. It was a deep blue colour, flat until the wind blew and rippled the surface. My god, was it incredible. I knew now why Katniss had wanted me to bring my sketchbook so badly. She sat down on the rock, and then I sat down beside her, lifting Lark out of the little harness that we had made out of one of Katniss's scarves and passing her to her mother to feed her. Lark was now a little under five months old and full of giggles and laughs and smiles. She was a very happy baby, and she knew she was adored by both of her parents. She had a mess of honey golden curls on her head and the prettiest stormy grey eyes of anyone I'd ever seen, save for her mother, and it was clear that she had the Mellark smile.

"This is the lake my uncle took me to several times before he died. He taught me to swim here, and I wanted to share that with you and Lark. Hopefully one day, we can teach her to swim... and you, too," said Katniss, and I chuckled.

"Only if you want to see a disaster," I told her. "It's really beautiful... Maybe after the Games, we can come back and you can teach me."

"Maybe..." A moment of silence passed, and Lark fussed a little in Katniss's arms. She pulled down her tank top to expose her breast and held Lark against it, and Lark latched on hungrily and suckled. "I don't want to take her to the Capitol," Katniss said suddenly.

"I don't, either," I replied. "I don't want you ever setting foot in the Capitol again."

"That'll never happen. All victors are required to go to the Capitol whether they're mentoring or not," Katniss replied. "I just... I just wish Snow would leave Lark alone. I don't trust him. He's going to want something from her since she's safe from the reaping."

"If I have anything to say about it, he'll never lay his filthy hands on her," I told her.

"...he already has..."

"What?"

"He demanded I let him hold her, when he came to visit when she was two weeks old..."

"And you didn't tell me why? " I demanded.

"I was afraid you'd be angry with me... I didn't want to risk him taking away his promise to spare our children from the reaping if I didn't let him hold her." I let out a sigh.

"No more secrets, Katniss. Okay? Especially if they involve our daughter. If someone so much as looks at her, I want to know who it was. I want to know the names of everyone in the Capitol who holds her and I want to know why." Yes, I was a hypocrite by telling her 'no more secrets', but knowing what I did to protect her bargain with Snow would hurt her and anger her more than what it's worth, so it was safe to keep that information from her.

"Peeta..."

"You're not the only one fighting to protect her, Katniss. She's my daughter, too, not just yours. I want to keep her safe as much as you do."

"I know... I'm sorry. I don't want anyone in the Capitol to hold her, I don't trust anyone."

"Neither do I." I let out a sigh, then scooted closer to her and brushed a curl out of Lark's face. "A year ago today, I never thought I'd be where I am today. Didn't think I'd get reaped, didn't think I'd marry the girl of my dreams, didn't think I'd have a beautiful little girl..." Katniss smiled as she watched our daughter feed from her breast. "Do you think we'd still be here? If Prim's name hadn't been called and I hadn't been reaped?"

"Probably not where we are currently, but... I do think we would have happened anyway," Katniss replied, and then she looked up at me. "Remember I told you that? Eventually, one of us would have worked up the courage to properly speak to the other, or Madge would have initiated something. She knew I... watched you, sometimes... I knew she had some sort of trick up her sleeve. She told me at school, before the reaping that if we both survived it, she'd plan some big surprise for me, and I have a feeling that that 'surprise' would have been forcing us to meet."

"My childhood friend, Delly Cartwright, was planning something similar, only she wasn't calling it a surprise. She said she was going to find a way to make us talk to each other."

"I would have liked to see that. I wasn't as friendly as I am now. You brought that out in me." She looked back down at Lark. "You brought back the version of me that died along with my family..." I wrapped an arm around her shoulders and kissed her temple, then rested my head on hers. "How are we going to get through the reaping? Two children and their mothers are going into the arena... What if one of them is Prim? And Agnessa?"

"It won't be, Katniss. Snow said part of the deal was he wouldn't rig the reaping against Prim, and she has only three slips of paper in that bowl. There's so many more names that could be chosen over hers."

"That's what I told her last year. She had one slip of paper in there then, and that was the one that came out."

"I know... and I had sixteen compared to your what, forty something? And your name wasn't drawn."

"But Prim's was."

"It won't happen again. I promise you it won't."

"But what if it does?"

"Katniss, it won't." She let out a sigh, and Lark detached herself from Katniss's breast. Katniss adjusted her shirt again and held Lark up over her shoulder, gently patting her back.

"It's not going to be easy, is it? Watching our tributes die..."

"We won't have the same mentality as Haymitch. We're going to try our best to get those kids out of there. Maybe after us, District Twelve will have more sponsors. And I'll talk to people and get the sponsors - maybe Lark can help with that, too. People in the Capitol seem fascinated with our lives."

"None of them are holding my child."

" Our child, and no, I won't let anyone hold her, but maybe her being there can help us get sponsors for our tributes." It was Katniss's turn to sigh, and she lowered Lark down to her lap. I gave her one of my fingers, which she gripped excitedly and giggled. "We'll get through this... I know we can."

"You said you had sixteen entries..." Katniss said, breaking a moment of silence. "We get one entry our first year, two the next, then three, then four and then five. We were sixteen, you should have had fifteen. Why did you have sixteen entries?" I let out a sigh.

"When I was thirteen, we... we weren't doing well. Merchants struggle too, sometimes, contrary to popular belief. I took it upon myself to... to sign up for tessera that year, so we could supply the bakery..." I confessed.

"Peeta, how could you do that?"

"I got chewed out for it later. It was one of the few times I thought my mother might actually have held some kind of love for me, before we got better, but it was too late. Once you sign up, you can't just take it back, so we used it, of course, but I was made to promise that I would never do it again."

"You're too good for this damn world," Katniss told me, then she leaned her head against my shoulder. I rested my head on top of hers and we sat there together for quite a while, just enjoying the serenity of the lake while Lark either sat or napped in our arms.

The reaping was upon us the next day. Our prep teams came early in the morning to get us camera-ready, and we were informed that Katniss would be holding Lark with her onstage, so Lark had her own prep team. Katniss had her three members, and since I was so low-maintenance by Capitol standards, my two-person prep team divided up, one tending to me and the other tending to Lark. Katniss wasn't happy about some Capitolite touching our daughter, but I had known Freesia, the member of my prep team who prepped Lark, since I was in the Games the previous year, and between her and Enyo, Freesia was definitely more trustworthy. We were then driven to the Justice Building to wait until it was time for the District Twelve reaping, of which we would stand onstage beside Haymitch. The previous year, Haymitch had stumbled onstage and fallen off, but this year, I personally made sure he was sober enough to maintain a decent appearance onstage. If I wanted to try and get more sponsors for our tributes, we needed to maintain a certain look, and Haymitch sloppily staggering around the stage making us the laughingstock of the country wasn't going to cut it.

The mayor went into the same speech he gives every year about the Treaty of Treason and the reason for the Hunger Games, and then Effie came out dressed in an orange monarch butterfly dress to speak about the Capitol and show the same video we watch every year, and then when the video ended, she smiled cheerfully. "Now, it is time to select the tributes for this year's Hunger Games! May the odds be ever in your favour! As always, ladies first..." Katniss stilled beside me, her arms holding Lark tightly against her, and I turned my head slightly to glance at her. Effie reached into the bowl and pulled out a folded slip of paper, opening and smiling as she read the name. "Penelope Ruewood and Thelma Ruewood."

A fourteen-year-old girl, dark-haired with her hair in two braids, was brought up to the stage, along with her mother, who was brought over from the section where mothers of eligible children stood. The mother was middle-aged, with dark hair like her daughter, and looking frail. Penelope was thin, too, being a Seam girl, and I had a strong feeling that she and her mother both were never going to make it. Beside me, Katniss let out a gentle sigh of relief - Prim was safe for another year, and so was Agnessa. My family was safe, too, with me, the youngest, being the only one still technically of reaping age at seventeen, Rye having aged out the previous year, and I wasn't even eligible anymore as a mentor.

"And now, the boys," said Effie, and she reached into the big glass bowl for another name. Katniss stilled again, worried for the Hawthorne family. Gale's oldest younger brother, Rory, was Prim's age at thirteen, and he had to take out tesserae this year, but that was no guarantee that he'd be selected. If he was, Katniss would lose both him and Gale's mother, Hazelle, who was an absolute sweetheart. I didn't know them as well as Katniss had, but I still feared for them as Effie unfolded the paper and read out the name. "Sage Darcy and Eliza Darcy." Another Seam name.

Sage Darcy was seventeen years old and he looked a little stronger than Penelope. He was known for doing a bit of hard labour around the district with his father, when he wasn't in the mines, so he likely had a better shot of winning than Penelope and her mother did. Sage's mother, Eliza, however, was also a bit on the frail side, and she had a nasty cough. Eliza Darcy wasn't going to last long in the arena at all, and if another tribute didn't kill her then whatever illness she had probably would.

When the tributes were saying their goodbyes to friends and family, Katniss, Haymitch and I made our way to the train station to say goodbye to our families. Well, Haymitch boarded the train to get a drink and Effie went up to keep an eye on him, while Katniss and I said goodbye to our families. "It won't be forever. We're definitely coming back this time," I told Prim, who was hugging me tightly after hugging Katniss. My father was currently holding Lark and he and my mother were saying their goodbyes to her.

"It's still scary to think of you all going to the Capitol. And Lark, too," Prim told me.

"Are you two sure it's smart to bring Lark?" Agnessa asked us, not knowing why we were really bringing her with us.

"Victors bring their children with them," Katniss lied, and I nodded in agreement.

"It's a requirement to bring your children with you when you're a victor," I chimed in. Dad handed Lark off to Mom and he approached me, then pulled me in for a tight hug.

"You do what you can for those kids, son... I know you'll do good by them," he told me.

"I will, Dad. I'll try my best," I told him, squeezing him back, and he kissed the side of my head before pulling back from the embrace and giving me a smile and a squeeze of my shoulders, and then turned to Katniss to give her a tight hug, too.

"Bring me back something fancy from the Capitol," Rye told me, giving me a rough pat on the back before pulling me in for a tight hug. "Take care of her, little brother, your kid," he whispered into my ear.

"I will," I told him, and he pulled back to smile at me and ruffle my hair. Mom then approached me next and handed Lark back to me, and then she pulled me into a hug.

"You be careful out there," she told me quietly.

"I will, Mama," I said back. Our relationship had improved immensely, although there were still moments where she yelled at me if I made a mistake. She always apologised after and went upstairs to the apartment above the bakery out of embarrassment, but she was doing better. My brothers followed my lead in repairing their relationships with her as well, although they'd probably never see her as a mother. To them, she was just some relative that had always been mean to them but had a change of heart, and my mother unfortunately had to accept that, but to me, she was my mother, and I did love and treat her as such. I gave her a kiss on the cheek and let her say another final goodbye to Lark, and then we were ushered onto the train, as the tributes were about to join us. I held Lark securely in my arms and Katniss gripped my arm tightly, and Effie fussed over Haymitch's appearance just before the tributes stepped onto the train. I still wasn't ready to meet them, but the time to prepare was over as the tributes stepped onto the train.

KATNISS POV

I observed the four tributes standing before me, all of them looking nervous and frightened - well, all but Sage, who looked hard and neutral. Was this how we had looked last year, when we thought we had no hope of surviving? I wanted so badly for us to bring all four of them home, but I knew that after the stunt Peeta and I had pulled, they weren't going to allow two tributes to come home again. The gamemaker who had, Seneca Crane, was now dead because of his change of heart, and the new one likely wasn't going to make the same mistake that he did. Only one tribute was coming home this time, and it likely wasn't going to be any of the four standing in front of me. The eight of us - Effie, Haymitch, Peeta, myself, Penelope, Thelma, Sage and Eliza - all stared at each other in silence until a belch from Haymitch broke the silence, and Peeta looked at him with a huff. He then turned to the four tributes, handing Lark to me and stepping forward to reach out a hand.

"Hi there," he started. "Welcome, I guess, and uh... I'm... very sorry this has happened to you."

"Are you really?" Sage asked suddenly, startling us both. Peeta looked at him - Sage was in our year and was our age, and he was always quiet in school.

"Of course we are. We were you last year, we know what it's like to be in your shoes," Peeta replied.

"But you came back alive. We probably won't be. People don't care about District Twelve," Sage replied bitterly.

"And we're hoping to change that," I chimed in quietly, and Sage directed his glare at me.

"Is it really appropriate to bring a baby to the Hunger Games?" he asked.

"Capitol requirement," Peeta told him. "Have a seat, if you want advice."

"I don't want advice. I want to spend whatever time I have left with my mother," Sage replied.

"Sage," Eliza said, her hand on her son's arm. "Don't give up hope yet... You're going home, I'll make sure of it."

"No I'm not! None of us are!" Sage spat back. "Where is my room? I don't want to be around any of you."

"I'll take you to it," said Effie, concerned about his behaviour, and she led him out of the car.

"I... I'm sorry, about his behaviour," Eliza said to us.

"Happens sometimes," said Haymitch. "People get angry when they're bein' sent off to die. At least none of y'all ain't criers."

"Haymitch," I said to him, warning him to shut his mouth, and he made a face at me.

"Why don't you all go off to your rooms, then? It's been a stressful morning and we've got a couple of days before we arrive in the Capitol... We can talk over dinner," Peeta said, and the remaining tributes were escorted off to their rooms. I sat down in a chair - the same chair that Peeta and I had sat in when we were tributes the previous year, and held Lark on my lap. "This is going to be difficult, isn't it?"

"The girl don't seem so bad, but the boy might be a problem," Haymitch said. "Don't worry, that ego will get him killed off quickly."

" Haymitch! " I hissed at him. "That is not the mentality we're choosing to have!"

"It's the Hunger Games, sweetheart. It is what it is," Haymitch replied, and he sauntered off to God knew where. With a sigh, Peeta sat down beside me, and I passed Lark over to him. She went after his nose with her tiny hand and he kissed her little fingers, making her giggle.

"This is going to be harder to get through than I thought," he told me. "How are we gonna save these kids? Penelope hasn't said a word, Sage has pretty much decided that he hates us, and both of their mothers are frail and ill! And Haymitch is even more hopeless than he was last year! We're not bringing anyone home this year..."

"I don't know..." I told him. "We'll figure it out as we go, I suppose. We can't give up on them, even if they seem hopeless. We didn't want Haymitch to give up on us, so we can't give up on them."

"You're right... We'll do what we can... but if Sage makes one more asshole remark, I'll punch him."

"No, you won't. Imagine how bad it'll look for a mentor to punch his tribute."

"It'd make me feel better." I couldn't hold back the chuckle I let out. "He doesn't respect us at all, Katniss. I'm serious."

"He's our age, Peeta. To him, we're just kids from his class. Maybe he'll listen to Haymitch better."

"Yeah, as if Haymitch will be any help. He's already given up."

"He gave up on us until we showed him we weren't worth giving up on. We'll make sure these kids do that, too," I told him, placing one of my hands on his knees. I then sighed. "I wish I could say the same about the mothers... I know what it's like to lose a mother in a violent manner..."

"I can't imagine losing mine like that. It must have been so awful," Peeta told me, placing one hand over mine. Lark was sitting on his lap grabbing at his fingers, wanting to put them in her mouth, but Peeta's hand was firmly around her midsection. She fussed just a little, and as she bounced on Peeta's lap, I could have sworn I saw a flash of white in her mouth. With a finger, I opened her mouth and noticed a bit of white sticking out of her bottom gum - her first tooth.

"Blimey, look! Her first tooth's coming in!" I exclaimed, and Peeta looked down to see for himself.

"Look at that, sweetie! You've got your first tooth!" he said, bending down to kiss the top of her head.

"No wonder feeding her has been more painful," I said. "I should see if I can get her an ice ring or something to suck on, I can imagine she's in pain." I stood up and kissed Peeta's forehead, then went off in search of something I could freeze for my daughter. Just the thought of Lark hitting one of many milestones was enough to pacify my thoughts only for a little while, but they always went back to the fact that I wasn't going to get any of these kids, or their mothers, out.

PEETA POV

When we arrived in the Capitol, the tributes were ushered off to be prepared for the chariot parade, while Katniss, Haymitch and I were ushered off to Victors' Hotel to settle in and get changed. As the previous year's Victors, Katniss and I were obligated to stay in the Victors' Suite, the same place where I had satisfied all of Snow's buyers who had paid to see our wedding night. It hurt to be in that room, and the discomfort must have shown on my face because Katniss placed a hand on my shoulder and rubbed it gently. "You okay, mo ghaol? " she asked me, and I quickly hid my uncomfortable expression with a pained smile.

"Yeah," I said. "It's just... not home..."

"Oh, I can understand that," Katniss replied, and she gave me a gentle kiss on the cheek before placing a chaste kiss on my lips. "I'm going to get Lark settled down for her nap. Haymitch wants to stay back for the chariot parade, now that he's not the only mentor, so he offered to keep an eye on her."

"Doesn't Snow want her at all the events?" I asked her, confused.

"The parade doesn't feature the mentors, so I'm sure it'll be all right. Besides, she's fussy right now and needs to rest. She didn't like the motion of the train," she told me, and she went to the next room to put Lark down for a nap. Shortly after, Haymitch joined us, a filthy laugh on his face.

"Y'all should head on down to the Lounge, it's a great time," he said to me through laughter.

"Why aren't you down there?" I asked him.

"I had enough of them fuckers, but don't worry, I'll be seein' plenty of 'em. You and the girl go on down, I'll watch the kid," he replied.

"Katniss is putting her down for a nap right now but I'll go tell her," I told him. Katniss didn't really want to go down to the lounge, but I talked her into it anyway - or rather, kissed her into it, because I apparently 'kissed her so damn good, she doesn't want to leave my side so she can keep demanding those kisses'. When we got to the elevator, Katniss shoved me up against the wall and practically shoved her tongue down my throat, and of course, I wasn't complaining - that is, until it stopped on the floor of the lounge and the door opened, revealing us to everyone who was near it. "Katniss... Katniss... people... watching... us..." I said between her kisses, and she finally stopped, turning around and blushing a furious shade of pink.

"Shouldn't have said anything. Wouldn't have minded the show," said Johanna Mason rather snidely, and a couple other mentors chuckled. Katniss glared at her, and I took her hand and led her out of the elevator.

"Nice to see you again, too, Johanna," I said to her as we walked past her, and I led Katniss straight to the bar.

"I can't drink, it'll get into my milk and then I can't feed Lark!" Katniss said to me as we arrived.

"All right, two juices please," I said to the bartender, who obliged. "One thing Haymitch said we should do is make friends with these people. They're the only ones who have any idea of what we went through."

"I don't want to make any more friends. I'm not good at it," Katniss told me.

"You and Glitter Pash seemed to get along well. There she is over there, why don't we go and talk to her?" I suggested, pointing out Glitter Pash sitting by herself sipping a drink as she watched the recap of the reapings, but Katniss shook her head. "What about Annie Cresta? You guys seemed to like each other, speaking the same language and all."

"I don't think it's safe to speak Gàidhlig here..." Katniss replied, taking a sip from her drink.

"Katniss, honey, I love you, but you've got to help me mingle with these people. I can't meet all of them in a day. One of the things Haymitch told me about mentoring was that we had to befriend the other mentors, get them to like us so that way they could talk up our tributes if they lose theirs to get sponsors."

"When did Haymitch give you mentoring lessons?" she asked me, raising her brow.

"When I asked him, which you never did," I replied, and she scowled at me. "I know, I know, I'm the social one in this relationship. It'll be okay, just go and talk to Annie or Glitter or, I don't know... Cecelia, Mags, maybe Prodigy... Haymitch said Chaff was a nice guy, and Finnick was cool, too, when we met him Four. I'll take care of the rest, okay?"

"Peeta, I don't want to talk to anyone, all right? If I'm being honest, I want to take you upstairs right now and fuck you until your cock falls off, but clearly that isn't going to happen, so I'd very much like to go and lie down before we have to meet the tributes at the parade. All of this activity is giving me a headache," she told me, and I let out a sigh.

"Fine, but at least say hi to Glitter, Annie and Mags. Glitter was your bridesmaid and Annie and Mags are both Hebridean. Then you can go back up to the room and I'll stay down here and try to make friends. Okay? Does that sound good?" She scowled at me some more, and I returned it. I had gotten good at mirroring her scowls in the eight months we had been married.

"Fine," she said. "But I'm finishing my drink first."

"Thank you," I told her, and I bent down to kiss her forehead. "Trust me, I think they'll really appreciate it. Annie's only been talking to Mags and Finnick, Mags isn't really talking to anyone and I've watched Glitter glance over here at least three times, probably hoping you'll go over and say hello."

"Why doesn't she just come to me?" Katniss asked stubbornly.

"Go talk to her," I replied, equally as stubbornly, and she huffed.

"You owe me for this," she told me.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll let you fuck me until my cock falls off later. Go make friends on the playground, child. Daddy wants some dad time," I replied playfully, and she gave me a shove, causing me to spill my drink all over myself, before she went over to where Annie and Mags were sitting.

" Halò, Mags agus Annie, " she said in Gàidhlig to the two Hebridean women, and both of them beamed at her when she approached them.

" Halò, prìseil. Ciamar a tha thu?" the older of the two women asked her.

" Ceart gu leòr, agus sibh, a mhnathan?" Katniss asked the two of them. I had no idea what any of them were saying, but I smiled to myself and finished off what was left of my drink, and then set it down on the counter of the bar.

"Can I get another with a splash of something? Whatever you've got," I told the bartender, who again obliged me. Just as I was about to take a sip, Finnick Odair approached me, his hands behind his back.

"Sweet, isn't it? Your Hebridean wife, my Hebridean girls... They bring out the best in each other," he said to me.

"I'm just glad she has someone to bond with. Katniss... well, she doesn't..." I began, trying to find the best way to word it in case it got back to her.

"Play well with others?" Finnick finished for me, and as much as I agreed, I couldn't say that.

"I don't think I'd particularly say that ... She just... has a hard time making friends. She doesn't have any female friends back at home. Well, there's the mayor's daughter, but they're not all that close, and her sister of course, but neither of them really... know what it's like, you know?" I replied.

"Must be hard not having any other female victors from your district. All the others have so many," Finnick replied.

"Doesn't eleven only have one male victor?" I asked him.

"He wasn't always the only male victor. He says the victor of the 5th Games was also a man, but he died some... I don't know... twenty years ago?" I nodded, wondering why Finnick and I were even discussing this. "Haymitch must like the company. I've only known him for, now, eleven years, and in all eleven of those years, he was always very lonely."

"We definitely keep him on his toes, that's for sure."

"Where is Haymitch, anyway?"

"Upstairs, babysitting my daughter."

"You brought her with you?" he raised a brow suspiciously.

"Capitol orders," I replied as nonchalantly as I could, and he nodded with understanding.

"I know a thing or two about Capitol orders... and I know you do, too," Finnick told me, giving me a look that made me a little nervous. I tensed up just a little, unsure if I could trust this man, and he chuckled. "District Twelve, you're full of surprises, aren't you?"

"Chock full of them," I replied. "Excuse me." I made my escape, joining Katniss at her side and taking her arm in my hand. "Hello, Miss Cresta, Ms. Flanagan, excuse us for just a moment." I dragged a rather confused Katniss away from the two District Four women.

"Peeta, what are you doing?" she hissed at me. "We were actually having a rather lovely conversation about the sea!"

"I don't trust Finnick, therefore I don't trust Four," I whispered to her as quietly as I could, knowing for sure there were cameras and microphones in the room. I hoped it was too loud for them to really catch anything, but I was also certain that it looked suspicious for Katniss and I to stand off to the side whispering to each other, so I kissed her.

"What was that for?" she asked me.

"I think I want to take you up on that offer to head back up to our room, kick Haymitch out..." I replied, trying hard not to look suspicious.

"But what about-" I kissed her again to silence her.

"Let's go say hi to Glitter first and then we'll go upstairs," I said, and then I dragged Katniss over to Glitter, who was watching a recap of the reaping in District Ten. "Glitter, hello! It's good to see you again!" She startled somewhat, but then looked up at Katniss and I and smiled.

"Oh! Hello, Katniss, Peeta," she said with a smile on her face. "How's your first year of mentoring so far?"

"Pretty good actually, I think I rather enjoy being on this side of the Games," I said, sensing that it was something the Capitol would want to hear. Katniss glanced at me out of the side of her eye, feigning a smile at Glitter.

"Katniss, I heard you had the baby. How is she? Lark, right?" Glitter asked Katniss, who nodded.

"Yes, she's quite well. Napping now, she... didn't like the train ride very much," Katniss replied.

"Oh, poor thing. She must be so tired," Glitter said.

"Good thing, it means she'll sleep, which means Katniss and I will finally have time to catch up on sleep. She's only just started sleeping through the night," I chimed in. "Speaking of that, Katniss and I think we're gonna try and sneak a small power nap in before the parade, but we just wanted to pop over and say hi."

"Oh, of course! That sounds like a good idea, actually, although of course it wasn't nearly as long of a journey for us in District One than it was for you in District Twelve," Glitter said. "It was great to see you two! Will I see you later tonight?"

"Depends on if Lark is still fussy. She gets extra cranky around large numbers of people when she's fussy," Katniss told her.

"Just like her mother," I said, teasing Katniss, but she only glanced up at me before looking back at Glitter. "Anywho, maybe we'll see you later or we'll see you tomorrow when the tributes are at training." We said our goodbyes and then made our way back to the elevator, waving and saying hello to a couple other mentors as we passed them, and once we were in the elevator, Katniss broke her silent spell.

"Peeta, what's gotten into you today?" she asked me.

"You, hopefully. I've been very eager to slip out of there and make our way back up for... you know..." I said to her, cornering her in the elevator and closing the gap between us.

"Peeta, ever since you spoke to Finnick, you've-" I kissed her to silence her, and she shoved me away. "Why the hell do you keep doing that?"

"Because I'd much rather kiss your lips than listen to you talk," I said, motioning with my eyes up to the ceiling hoping she would get the hint, and she did, finally. Her expression of irritation melted into one of understanding and she pulled me back into her arms and brought her lips to my ear.

"We can talk later," she whispered quietly, and in case the microphones picked that up, she added, "For now, I just want you, in a nice warm bed, eight inches deep inside of me."

" Nine inches. They measured it last year," I told her, and she raised her eyebrows at me.

"The fuck?" she said, and I laughed.

"Apparently, it's something they do for all the male tributes. Why? I don't know. I think they measured your breast size, too." I knew exactly why they did that. In case a male tribute that won was considered particularly attractive, the Capitol wanted to know the size of his penis when fully erect so Snow could sell him off to horny Capitolites. This was something Haymitch told me when we were at a fuel stop on the way back to Twelve after mine and Katniss's Capitol wedding, but of course, I wouldn't tell her that. When the elevator let off on the top floor, Katniss and I were giggling the whole way to our suite, and when we opened the door, Haymitch was passed out on the couch, Lark fast asleep on his chest. Katniss and I shared a glance.

"So much for you being eight inches deep in me," she said.

" Nine , Katniss. Don't shortchange me," I told her, poking her in the side. "Guess we're taking that nap after all."

"Or we can just be very quiet," Katniss replied.

"It's not as fun when you're not screaming my name at the top of your lungs," I told her, lowering my head to her neck to kiss it.

"Then let's pretend we're unmarried, still living in separate houses, and you've snuck in through my bedroom window and we're trying to not wake up my family," she replied seductively, giving me her world-famous 'fuck me senseless' look, but I was hesitant. "Peeta..."

"If Haymitch wakes up and catches us, we'll never live it down," I told her.

"I don't care what he has to say. Let's play a game called 'Don't Wake Haymitch'," she said, dragging me towards the rather large bed towards the back of the room.

"God, you always know how to get what you want, don't you?"

"Mhm, now take me to bed, Peeta." I picked her up and carried her the rest of the way to the bed and we climbed under the covers, watching the couch for any movement as we quietly undressed. I struggled when slipping the condom on just a little, and Katniss tried to rush me.

"You're the one who wants to put space between Lark and her little sibling," I reminded her. "I am perfectly content never putting this thing on if speed is what you're after." She huffed.

"Well, put it on but hurry up! I swear, the moment you start going in, he'll wake up," she hissed at me, and I chuckled.

For the record, we did not get caught, and we pretended we looked flush because we'd had a few drinks downstairs in the lounge and laid down for a nap. Haymitch was none the wiser - at least, we hoped he wasn't.

A/N: Will Peeta's suspicions towards Finnick Odair affect the outcome of his tributes in the arena? What plans does Snow have for bringing Lark to the Capitol?

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