KATNISS POV

"Think you're ready for this?" Peeta says with a slight laugh from behind me as his slides his arms around my waist.

"Not in the slightest." I say, turning to face him while trying to hide how truly worried I am.

I'd never met Peeta's family before, I'd only heard stories from him; most of which seems nice …. For the most part. Peeta loved and treasured his family immensely, that much was noticeable from watching him talk about them. Yet, I couldn't shake the nervous feeling in the bottom of my stomach. From the stories Peeta had told me about his family, I already knew a little about each of his siblings and his parents, and that's what was worrying me. His Mum didn't exactly seem like the type of person who was willing to meet you halfway. From what I'd heard she was only ever slightly invested in mothering Peeta and his two older brothers. His Dad, on the other hand, seemed like the polar opposite; Peeta looked up to him and was excited for me to meet him. He seemed like the warmer one of the two, which made me feel a little at ease. But nervous nonetheless.

"You look … Scared?" Peeta asks quietly, gently tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.

"What if they don't like me?" I reply quietly, biting my lip intently.

"That's impossible." He smiles sweetly "My Dad already loves you. Alex and Ryan, honestly, will probably forget we're there after twenty minutes. As for my Mum, well … she barely likes me so I wouldn't take it too personally if she doesn't want to be your best friend." The tone of his voice is light while attempting to brighten my hopes, but there's something in his eyes that tells me he's portraying his family honestly.

I look up to find his eyes on mine and an encouraging smile on his face. "I'll be by your side the whole time. I promise." He insists brightly.

"OK." Is all I manage to get out.

He takes my hand and pushes open the front door, leading me into a circular entrance hall lined with photographs. Peeta looks down at me, lets out a slight laugh and squeezes my hand. "Breathe, Katniss, they're probably all up stairs."

"Oh, right, yeah." I say taking in a deep breath. Instantly I'm greeted with the smell of fresh bread and cinnamon, which is a surprising comfort. I turn to the wall nearest me and scan through the photos. Peeta and his brothers sure do look alike; all blonde, similar heights, similar builds. The main thing that separates them is their eye colour, Alex and Ryan, his older brothers both appear to have brown eyes, whereas Peeta's bright blue ones stand out instantly. My eyes stop at a photo of Peeta where he looks about eight, dressed up head to toe, in black leathers, standing next to a motorbike about twice his size. He has something between a smirk and a grimace on his face and I can't help but let out a laugh. Peeta sees the photo, lets out a sigh from behind me and covers my eyes with his hands.

"I think that's enough of that." He laughs.

"You used to be pretty cute." I smile, trying to pry his hands away.

"Used to be?" he feigns shock, finally removing his hands to wipe away fake tears. "C'mon." he puts his hand on my back and guides me through the hall way.

We reach the end of the hallway and enter a living room where two of his brothers sit, tossing a small ball across the short distance between themselves. Alex, the older of the two notices almost immediately as we walk in, tossing the ball to his brother without looking at him. Ryan follows Alex's eyes until he notices the two of us, flinching away as the ball hits him squarely in the chest. I look up to find Peeta shaking his head at his brothers before looking down to meet my eyes, giving me an encouraging smile.

"Katniss, these are my brothers, Alex and Ryan." He says looking between the two. "Guys this is Katniss."

They each looked me up and down rather quickly before looking at me with a smile. I look up to Peeta with a slightly un-easy look on my face.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Katniss." Alex smiles warmly before turning to Ryan with a smug look. "Told you he wasn't making her up."

Ryan pulled a face at Alex before looking between Peeta and me "Yeah, you're all Peet's talked about since you got back from your little holiday." Ryan comments with a smirk.

Peeta's face had turned a little red, practically confirming what Ryan had just said. I couldn't help but let out a small laugh, squeezing Peeta's hand gently.

"Seriously though Peet, when you showed us a picture of the two of you I was pretty sure you'd photo-shopped it, but I'm starting to second guess myself." Ryan says thoughtfully at Peeta, a slight smirk still on his face.

Peeta raises an eyebrow at his brother, shaking his head at him before turning to me.

"You'll have to excuse Rye, there's not much of a filter between his brain and his mouth; so feel free to ignore anything he says." Peeta tells me smiling, his cheeks still slightly red. Behind him Alex is laughing in agreement, while Ryan simply sits there looking between the three of us.

He leads me away from the living room and up a short flight of stairs and gives me a weary smile before we reach the landing.

"Sorry about them." He motions his head back toward the living room.

"It's fine." I insist.

Once we reach the landing, he leads the way into a large kitchen area where a tall man, who I presume is Peeta's Father, is bustling around. We reach the counter before he turns around, noticing us with an unmistakable smile on his face. His Dad was tall, clearing six-foot easily, his hair-line was receding, but did nothing to revert from his blonde hair. He had bright blues eyes and it immediately made sense about whom Peeta had acquired his from. They were quite the same stunning shade of blue, but at least it made sense now.

"Dad, this is Katniss." Peeta says with an unmistakable smile in his voice. "Katniss, this is my Dad."

"Katniss! It's so great to finally meet you, Peeta has told us a lot about you." Mr Mellark says with a beaming smile.

"It's really nice to meet you too, Mr Mellark." I smile, trying my hardest to ensure that my nerves didn't make their way into my voice.

"Peeta here hasn't stopped talking about you since you all got back from your little holiday." Mr Mellark grins, looking between the two of us.

"Dad." Peeta says quietly, growing red again.

"Sorry, son. It's just nice to finally meet her." He says humbly. I can't help but let out a little laugh at Peeta reaction to his Dad's words.

"Is Mum around?" Peeta asks, biting his bottom lip intently.

"Yeah, she's in the office finishing off some book work and filling orders for the bakery." He smiles. Mr Mellark had such a warm, friendly smile, it was hard to feel nervous around him.

Peeta gives me a nervous look and heads a few metres down a bright hallway, stoping in front of a half-open door. He knocks gently before lightly pushing the door open. His Mum doesn't look up as we enter, she merely continues punching numbers into a calculator.

"Mum, do you have a second?" Peeta asks, looking down at me with a slightly concerned look on his face.

"No, not really Peeta, what is it?" She asks, still not looking up.

"Oh." He says, noticeably disappointed "I just wanted to introduce you to Katniss."

At the mention of my name, his Mum stops her bookwork momentarily and turns to look at us. Peeta has a weary look on his face, and I'm sure I do too. Like his brothers, his Mum looks me up and down too, but this time I feel more scrutiny in her eyes.

"Hi Katniss, it's good to meet you." She says, he voice sounding detached and unsure.

"Yeah; it's great to meet you too." I tell her with a smile, certain my nerves were cracking through my façade this time.

The two of us stand in the doorway, unsure of whether or not to continue the conversation further, until his mother makes the decision for us.

"Peeta, I've got a lot of work to finish, I'll talk to the two of you over dinner." She says with a sense of finality, turning back to her books.

"Ok." He says quietly, taking my hand and leading me away from the office. We follow the hallway a little further before he turns the handle on the door of the room I presume is his.

Despite the grey colour that decorates the walls, his room is quite bright and open, welcoming really. There's a double bed pushed against the corner of the room, a desk and a bookshelf next to it. I can't help but smile as I notice there are still a few boxes that sit unpacked next to his wardrobe.

Peeta sits on the edge of his bed and puts his head in his hands with a sigh. He runs his hands through his hair before looking up at me with a sad smile. I take a seat next to him and he immediately puts an arm around me, pulling me closer.

"I'm sorry about her." He mumbles with a frown. "I mean, I wasn't expecting much but I thought she might have put a little bit of effort in, at least."

"It's ok, Peeta, really." I tell him with a smile, taking his hand in my own and vying for his eye contact.

"No it isn't, it's not fair to you. Y'know, I wasn't even keen on moving here in the first place, so I thought she might have been the slightest bit happy that I'd found someone like you." He says, looking at the floor.

"Hey, look at me." I wait until his eyes meet mine once again "I love you and however your mum reacts to me isn't gonna change that, ok?"

"I love you, too." He says sounding a little happier now, before he leans to kiss me. I run a hand through his hair before we pull away.

"Thank you." He smiles, planting a gentle kiss on my forehead.

We sit in his room together for the next half hour, laughing and talking about his brother's' reactions to us.

"Ryan was adamant I was making you up." Peeta laughs "And Alex didn't even know what to think."

"Why were they so shocked?" I ask curiously, raising an eyebrow.

Peeta looks at me incredulously and raises both his eyebrows. He slowly starts to shake his head from side by side, a smile creeping onto his face.

"You're gorgeous Katniss, they never – in a thousand years - would have believed that you would go out with someone like me." He says slowly, almost in order to ensure that I understood what he was saying.

I couldn't help but let a smile spread across my face, but the way Peeta had said 'someone like me' had left me feeling faintly concerned.

"I don't understand why they're so shocked because I don't think I'll ever understand what I did to deserve you." I tell him honestly, not letting his eye contact stray from mine.

He smiles, a slightly crooked smile, and leans in to kiss me again, winding his hand through my hair. As we pull apart I notice another small pile of boxes that have been left unpacked.

I raise an eyebrow at him and smile. "You still haven't finished unpacking?"

"Oh yeah." Her turns his head in the direction of the boxes. "Poor form, I know; we've been here for what … five months now and I'm still going. It's mostly stuff from when I was little, I think."

Peeta gets off his bed, picks up one of the boxes and brings it back, pulling the tape off of the top as he goes. Setting it down on the bed, he lets out a laugh and pulls out a bright red superhero cape. I let out a small laugh and watch as he turns the cape back and forth in his hands.

"This was totally not mine." He says with a guilty look as he tries to hide his smile.

"That's a shame; it would have looked pretty great on you." I insist, taking it from his hands and tying it around his neck. He raises an eyebrow at me, but doesn't seem to object.

"You're the best looking super hero I've ever seen, that's for sure." I tell him with a laugh.

"Is that so?" he takes a few steps closer to me, a sudden intensity in his eyes. I nod without taking my eyes off of his. Peeta grins suddenly and playfully tackles me onto his bed, landing next to me.

Simultaneously, we lean in to kiss each other, running my hand through his hair once again. There's a knock against his bedroom door and reluctantly he pulls away and sits up.

"Yeah?"

Ryan pokes his head around the door, giving Peeta a strange look as he notices the cape. "Dinners ready."

"Ok, we'll be out in a minute." Peeta sighs and offers me a hand, gently pulling me up.

He takes a few steps toward the door before I quickly grab his hand and pull him back toward me. I reach my hands up and untie the cape that was still around his neck and laugh.

"Thanks." He smiles "That would have taken some explaining." He leans down to kiss me again before looking at me with a sigh. "And now comes the fun part."


Hey guys! thank you all for the response to the first chapter, it was really great to see that you were enjoying it so far! Please R&R and let me know what you thought of Peeta's family so far