Chapter 20: Love at First Sight
"Huhhh….. Uhhhh….. Ermmmmmm….. Oh, fuck…. That's it, yes, yes, Danny! Fuck me harder!"
The full moon is bathing us in an ethereal glow, as, resting my palms lightly on his chest, I bounce up and down on my husband. The squelching sound of our sweaty bodies slapping together in heat is music to my ears. Danny had woken me up in the middle of the night to have sex, palming my breasts through my nightdress until the pebbling of my nipples caused me to awaken with a hiss.
At first, I had tried to beg off – being mother to three young boys all under the age of 8 can be extremely exhausting – but my lover had insisted, slipping a finger, then two, into my dampening pussy until I let out a huff. Rolling over, I had swung one creamy thigh across his hips to straddle him.
Now, we are almost chest-to-chest, my boobs jiggling in Danny's face as he tastes them while we make love. We do our best to be quiet, for the sake of our three little boys, but the way that Danny is thrusting up into me is causing me to moan louder and louder. His tongue lavishes my nipple and I throw back my head with a groan.
"Harder…." I breathe. "Faster…. Faster…." My breathing is coming in rough gasps and Danny growls, palms gripping my hips as he jerks up into me. I have to bite down on my lip until I draw blood to keep from crying out with a wail.
"I'm…. cumm-ing…" I snarl and then my cunt clenches. "Fuck, Dannel!" I orgasm all over him, trembling. A moment later, I feel him shoot up into my vagina and my drenched body strewns across him, utterly spent.
Locked in post-coital bliss, the only sound that of our breathing returning to normal, it is not difficult to hear the sharp rap from all the way downstairs. Still, for a few moments, I pretend I didn't hear it. Perhaps it is a stray tree branch rustling against a windowpane in the boys' room.
When the knock persists, however, I groan, this time out of annoyance, and roll off my husband, softly kissing his lips.
"Don't worry," I croon. "Whoever it is, I'm going to take their head off with my naginata…." My sparkling, azure eyes drift down to where his manliness is still at attention, a vein in his cock throbbing. "And then I'm going to come back up here and finish you off with a good suck."
Danny moans and steals his arms about my waist, trying to pull me against him, but I squirm away. "Patience," I coo, brushing my lips across his again. "I'll be back."
Adjusting my nightdress over my bare breasts once more, I fumble for a bathrobe over the hook and steal that around myself too, padding down the stairs and across the first floor to the foyer. In my sex-dazed and sleep-deprived state, I forget to arm myself with the good old naginata on the far wall. I decide my thoroughly annoyed face will have to be my weapon of choice, as I yank the door open and scowl at the person who dares to stand on my front stoop in the middle of the night.
The woman staring back at me appears to be about my age, with beautiful and unblemished, russet-colored skin. Despite the glow of the lantern she holds aloft, I can tell her flesh is not the olive tone of Glen's. Still, one look into her stormy grey eyes and I can deduce immediately this woman is Seam.
I cock a displeased eyebrow. "You're brave, to hike all the way up Victors' Hill and disturb a sleeping family in the middle of the night."
To her credit, this woman does not shrink away in fear, merely tips her head in deference. "Apologies for waking you, Miss Donner – Mrs. Mellark, excuse me," she correct herself, "but Glen Everdeen sent me. His wife is in labor."
Any lingering anger towards this woman – the old adage of don't shoot the messenger really does exist for a reason – vanishes in the next instant, as the rouge color in my cheeks from making love to my husband drains away, leaving my porcelain skin ashen. "Belley?" I had known my best friend was expecting another girl, but…. "It's too early! She still has a few weeks left!"
The russet-colored woman shakes her head. "Not anymore, I'm afraid. Come. It's an at-home birth; the Everdeen place is not far into the Seam, a stone's-throw from the mines."
Perfect. I can always see the mines clearly from the top of the hill. Reaching back into the foyer, I help myself to Danny's fleece coat to keep out the winter's chill. Thank goodness the camera crews left the day before last, following the Victor of the 61st Hunger Games – Crystal Flute of District 1 – like hounds. I briefly debate racing back up the stairs and telling my husband he'll have to wait a little longer for that promised blowjob; I'm going out. I decide against it – I don't want to risk waking the boys any further, and truth be told, my husband has probably already drifted off again. It's just as well: when I do get back, I'll take him deep in my mouth and suck until he awakens. Payment in kind for how he woke me up for sex.
Closing the door and locking it behind me, I follow this young woman down the hill and into the dilapidated shantytowns of the Seam. We pass by the old Abernathy place – now abandoned – and I turn my face away, wiping at my eyes. The biting cold nearly freezes the tears to my cheeks.
At my side, the young woman's face almost swims through the air as the lantern bobs ahead, its light casting shadows on her face that make her out to be almost ghoulish. Her expression is grave, no-nonsense, but her voice is friendly enough as she introduces herself, "I'm Hazelle Hawthorne. Glen Everdeen is best friends with my husband."
I nod, almost ready to introduce myself, then think better of it. This woman knows who I am; I've been a Victor for over a decade, not to mention a regular presence at both my parents' candy shop and the bakery owned by my in-laws. "I've been best friends with Glen's wife since we were small."
Hazelle nods absently. "Belle is a lovely lady. Her Healing remedies have been a godsend for us Seam folk."
I nod, voice tentative as I float. "I'm…. I'm glad to see she's made some friends." I sigh. "Apart from my husband and I…. and my sister, though that reconciliation was fairly recent…. most everyone we knew in Town has disowned her."
Hazelle turns to glance at me, expression beclempt. "Her arrival certainly caused quite a stir, after she and Glen married. It took a while for people to trust her, at first." She turns left, pushing back the latch on a picket gate that swings in on only one hinge. We are in the direct shadow of District 12's largest coal mine, not two yards further down the path. "And we're here."
I am ashamed to say that in the nearly six years they have been married, I have never once set foot in my best friend's new home. Whenever Belle, Glen, Danny and I have gotten together, we have hosted them on the hill in our mansion at Victors' Village. The small, two-story house isn't in disrepair like the deserted Abernathy estate, but it is not the lap of luxury either. The sparse lawn grass hasn't shot up tall enough to be considered overgrown, but it is well on its way. Ascending the porch, Hazelle knocks urgently on the door, which swings open after a moment so that the lantern can bathe in its glow the face of a man with jet-black hair and the stubble of a pepper-grey beard. Upon spying me, he glowers at me mistrustfully.
"This house is crammed enough without you being here, Victor," he spits. I cock a ruffled eyebrow at his rudeness; Hazelle, for her part, appears mortified.
"Clay!"
"Clay Hawthorne, shut your trap and sit down! That's my sister-in-law you're shouting at." A booming voice carries its way through the foyer and Clay stands aside for Glen to greet me with a hug and kiss on the cheek before bringing me furtively into his humble home. We follow him up some rickety old stairs to a second-floor landing. At the door directly before us, an amber glow cracks out from under the doorframe. I can hear painful cries coming from inside.
"How is she?"
"She had an easier time of it bringing our first bundle of joy into the world, and that's the God's-honest truth." Never, not even on his hasty and danger-fraught wedding night, have I ever heard Glen Everdeen sound so frightened.
At the far end of the hall, more amber glow casts slices of light across our faces, also backlighting the silhouette of a tiny figure, clutching a teddy bear.
"Daddy? How's Mama?" The little girl – but two days older than my youngest son – has her one thumb drifting close to her mouth, though she refrains from sucking on it nervously long enough to ask the question. An impossibly soft expression comes over Glen's ruggedly handsome features and he crosses in three quick strides to his daughter, picking her up and nuzzling her close.
"It's all right, Katniss, little root. Mummy is just doing her best to welcome your little sister. And hey, look…." And he turns both of them in my direction, pointing even as Katniss buries her face shyly into his chest. "I brought a visitor. Your Auntie is here. Auntie Maysilee."
Katniss's doe grey eyes peek out at me warily. "H-hello, Auntie," she mumbles, remembering her manners. I beam at my goddaughter tenderly. I've only ever seen Katniss a few times since she was born – mostly when Glen will stop by the bakery with her and I've been working the ovens in the back. Dannel always slips her a sugar cookie for free when he knows his mother – who can be a bit stingy – isn't looking. One of these days, I will have to invite her up to play with my boys, provided I can get Rye to behave; he can play a bit too roughly for even his brothers' tastes.
"Hello, Katniss," I coo. "My goodness, you've gotten so big, you're practically a district lady. Would you like to come with me to see Mama? I'm sure she has been asking for you."
I am quite sure that Belle has been using whatever voice she has to yell obscenities at everyone in sight – I did quite a bit of cursing in my day, having gone through labor thrice myself.
Katniss nods meekly and allows her daddy to carry her towards me and we all enter the room together.
Belle is propped up by what is likely every single pillow that could be found around the simple house. She turns her head, face easing into besotted love.
"Katty, dear…." she beckons to her little one, and Glen sets Katniss down on the edge of the bed. Glancing past her, Belle actually manages a drained grin. "Maysie…. Glen promised me he'd fetch you."
I pull up a chair to her bedside, clutching her clammy hand in my own. "I'm here, Belley. Sisters, remember?"
Belle beams sentimentally, then nods to an attendant – an aging crone who must have been the closest thing they could summon in a midwife, at this time of night. "Greasy Sae, bring her here to me."
The old woman passes a pink bundle into Belle's arms, and my best friend turns the crook of her arm outward, towards her daughter. "Katniss, darling… there's someone I want you to meet."
For a moment, Katniss glances back to me. I give her an encouraging nod and a smile, and she turns back to the little squirming thing in her mother's arms, peeking over the pink flaps in the blanket. Craning my neck as well, I am floored to see tufts of blonde hair – even more homespun golden in shade than my Danny's and my Peeta's. Teeny lashes flutter, and I glimpse blue eyes…. blue as a summer sky….
If anyone in Town saw this child absent her father, they would swear she was Merchant. Even this baby's skin coloring is identical to Belle's.
Belle is beaming from ear-to-ear. "It's Primrose." Scanning the room, I can see Glen sagging against the doorframe in abject relief; behind him, Clay and Hazelle Hawthorne are craning to get a better look, obviously yearning to enter the bedroom proper but uncertain.
Katniss peers down at baby Primrose, then back up at her mommy, before silently holding out her arms. In her smoky eyes is the silent asking of a question. Nodding eagerly, Belle passes her youngest to her eldest with a warning to "Mind her head."
Katniss bounces the little thing, staring in abject wonder, before tightening her grip covetously. The baby squirms a little and whimpers, but doesn't cry out. "Mine!" Katniss chirps.
We all burst out into chuckles. Clay steps into the room and pumps Glen's hand. Hazelle flits over to the bed and she and Katniss exchange a glance as they both study the infant together.
"Hazelle, would you be godmother?" Glen asks, heartfelt. He smiles at me apologetically - as if he needs to! "I'd ask you again, Maysilee, but…."
"It's fine," I shake my head, stealing an arm around Katniss. "I've already got a goddaughter anyway." Katniss stares up into my loving smile, blinking owlishly, before hesitantly smiling back. I kiss the crown of her chestnut hair.
The navy blue sky is only just beginning to turn as grey as my goddaughter's eyes when I set out for home. I steal into Danny's and my room to find my husband fast asleep, still half-naked from the waist down. Smirking impishly, I crawl over to him and put my lips around him, taking him deep into my throat before I suck.
My husband awakens to quite the Good Morning, and jovially lets me pleasure him until he cums in my mouth.
About a year later, I am standing in the school play-yard while I fuss over Peeta's little suit and hand him his lunchpail.
"OK, now you be nice and quiet during Circle Time or whatever activity Teacher has you doing. Mind your manners, and always use your inside voice," I remind him.
Peeta nods dutifully. "Yes, Mommy."
I beam at him wetly. "That's my best boy." Kissing his forehead, I have to fight to tamp down the lump in my throat; if I let it loose, it will turn into a sob. Standing behind us, Danny is scanning the crowd of parents' and kids' faces before I see him focus in on one and nod to me.
"Guess whose first day of school is also today."
Turning, I follow his gaze. The Everdeen family is in the corner of the play-yard, Belle cradling a sleeping, year-old Primrose. My goddaughter, Katniss, is fearfully clutching her father's hand and scanning the other kids warily.
Chancing a peek at my youngest son, I am shocked to find him literally gawping at my best friend's family – specifically, on the little girl holding Glen's hand. He's completely transfixed; he can't take his eyes off her.
"Peeta, close your mouth," I chide gently. "You'll catch flies." He obeys, clamping his jaw shut. Danny seems more amused by the sight, kneeling at Peeta's side and nodding in the Seam family's direction. He's whispering something in our baby boy's ear, and I have to praise my husband for remembering that it's rude to point.
"See that little girl? Her mother is dear friends with me and Mommy."
"Really?" Peeta breathes, enraptured.
"Uh-huh. You wanna go talk to her?"
My son bobs his head like a bobblehead toy, and a distant memory, of little Gilla Callan (now more than a decade in her grave) doing the same thing after we attacked Brutus, flashes to the surface. Slowly, we float over to the Everdeen family.
"Fancy seeing you here," Danny cracks.
Belle smiles softly at him. "Hello, Danny."
Glen shakes his hand amicably. "How's business, Dannel?"
Peeta has reverted back to staring at Katniss. Now smiling myself at the adorable sight, I surreptitiously nudge him with my foot.
"Peeta? Would you like to say hello?"
My baby jerks startlingly, but remembers his manners. "Hello. I'm Peeta. I'm going to marry you."
We all freeze: I lock eyes with Glen, who thankfully seems deeply amused (and perhaps a little impressed) by my son's boldness. Danny and Belle glance at each other, before letting out awkward chuckles. As for my son's intended bride, she is blushing, but her expression is also puzzled, as if she doesn't quite know what the word married means. Perhaps she doesn't; she is only five, after all… yet, Peeta does, and he sounds so sure, that I find myself almost accepting the declaration. Like it is fate. Destiny. I recall Belle and I fantasizing, while we were pregnant together, about the babies in our wombs growing up and one day getting married. I find that old saying of my own mother ringing true: Be careful what you wish for.
It may not happen, but if it does, I do know that I would be content with having my goddaughter become my daughter-in-law.
Glen chuckles. "Many happy returns. When's the Toasting, my boy?"
Peeta tilts his neck all the way back to look up at his future father-in-law with a toothy grin. "I turn 6 next spring. Could we have it then?"
We all laugh again; Katniss awkwardly shifts from foot to foot, finally tugging at her father's shirtsleeve. Glen smiles at her, nodding. "Well, we'll talk details later, Peeta. Right now, I think you and my daughter had better get to class. Would you like to walk with us?"
Peeta nods eagerly while turning back to beam at Katniss (anything to remain near her) who still seems flustered. Taking Glen's free hand, he allows the man to escort both children into the marble building.
"Glenny, Primrose and I will wait for you by the gate!" Belle calls.
"That's fine, dearest!" Glen casts over his shoulder. Soon, Danny and I are left alone in the play-yard. We stand there even past the final bells chiming, and Glen hustling out of the building, granting us a quick wave as he makes for the front gate.
I dash for the schoolhouse, ducking under the expansive windows that look into the assembly hall.
"Maysie!" Danny laughs as he follows me to hide under the windowsill. "What are you doing?"
"I can't help it," I strangle out, my voice teary. "I can't just leave him here!"
"You did for Jonadab and Rye. This is part of growing up. If we don't leave him now, we never will. It's his first day of school – let him explore for himself."
"Oh, sure – what else does he possibly need to learn?" I retort sarcastically. "He proposed marriage before he's had a chance to learn his ABCs!"
Danny just laughs. "Well, we Mellark men have never been known to do things in order."
I wrinkle my nose at my husband, with a bemused frown. "We did, thank Panem."
"Not what I meant!" he laughs. Peeking over the sill, he shushes me. "Listen!"
A crystalline alto floats out through the glassy panes to us. Peering inside, we can see Katniss standing up onstage before an entire school assembly, singing the traditional Valley Song:
"Down in the valley, valley so low…. Late in the evening, hear the Train blow…."
If her looks can break hearts, her voice – perfect like Glen's – will do just as much damage. Indeed, it appears to already have.
"There!" Danny points, interrupting my thoughts, and my eyes follow his finger. Like a heat-seeking missile, I pick out the blonde crown of my youngest son. Even though I can only see him in profile, he is seated perfectly still, watching his wife-to-be with absolute raptured awe.
Side-eyeing each other, Danny smirks. "Yup. Someone definitely has a crush."
"Hmm," I purr. "It looks worse than that. Danny, I think our baby boy is well and truly in love." My voice catches on the last word, and my lip trembles, a single tear leaking from my eye. I feel lips butterfly kiss along my skin as Danny pecks it away, holding out his hand to me. "Come on, darling. Let's leave the little ones to their fun."
Smiling wanly, I stand and loop my arm through his, as we exit the schoolyard.
"Dannel?" I ask, smiling shyly, flirtatiously. "Did you have many crushes? When we were their age?"
Of course, I know about Belle, so his answer surprises me. Stopping fully and turning to me, my husband is radiant, his blue eyes smoldering as he rumbles, smooth as a lover on a Capitol soap opera:
"I'm still having one."
I giggle, beaming and he dips down to kiss me thoroughly.
