This took way too long to write, but I hope you enjoy the end product! Thank you for your support.

Nine Ladies Dancing

'Everything all right, Katniss darling?'

They were better now than they had been, Katniss and her mother, but that didn't mean that teenage woes and maternal counsels flowed freely between them as they should have. Mrs Everdeen was still working hard, overstating her motherly intentions, trying to compensate for the months in which she had abandoned her daughters, become a human shell.

'Yeah,' Katniss said. She was perched on one of the rocking chairs, swinging herself into a stupor. 'Actually no. Mom, can I ask you something?'

Mrs Everdeen looked at her with such hope, such readiness, that Katniss thought she might be doing the right thing. Though she knew the question would be hard.

'When did you realise that you loved Dad?'

'Oh,' Mrs Everdeen's smile was tight, her eyes moving furtively about the room, 'well, it's hard to remember exactly when to be completely honest.'

'But why? Didn't it change your whole life?'

'Yes,' her mother replied, smiling softly.

'Then how can you forget that?'

'It wasn't something momentous. There weren't any grand gestures. It was just a sum of lots of little things, little ways we affected each other. Realising I loved him was just the last piece fitting into place. That piece completed us, but it was no bigger than any of the others.'

'Then how could you tell? How did you know it was love?'

'I was happy,' Mrs Everdeen replied. Her voice sounded wet with emotion. Katniss usually tried to avoid her mother when her voice got like that, but this time she stayed put.

'People can be happy without being in love,' Katniss dismissed.

'That's a different kind of happiness. The happiness you get from love isn't always as obvious, as potent. It isn't tied to one moment and washed away by the next. It's overarching, it stays no matter what happens to you.'

Until your love dies, Katniss thought. And then it destroys you, makes you leave everyone else you're supposed to care about to fend for themselves.

'It's not the same for everyone,' Mrs Everdeen told her knowingly. 'Your father and I fell so slowly we didn't know we were falling, but we fell deep. And that's how we lived, the same way we fell in love. But others love quickly, suddenly, the awareness of love hits them strongly. And there are some who don't even realise that they could love in that way until it happens to them. That has its own sort of impact.'

Katniss looked up at her with clouded grey eyes.

'What's the matter, darling?'

Katniss shook her head and drew her knees up under her chin. 'Nothing, I just…' She remembered every challenging thing that Bran had said, and Mr Abernathy, and Prim. She couldn't answer them. She couldn't answer herself.

Mrs Everdeen kneeled in front of her, careful not to touch her. 'Oh Katniss, these past days have been hard. They're making you change, and that frightens you. It's always frightening at first.'

'I'm not frightened,' Katniss lied.

'I was a teenage girl once too. And while you might not agree, I know my daughter. I know when she's afraid, long after she's learned to hide it. I just want to say: don't overthink it, don't fight it. Whatever happens with this true love of yours, orPeeta, you'll know how to face it. You always do.'

Katniss let her mom take her hand and squeeze, and to Mrs Everdeen, that allowance was something greater than any words of acknowledgement could offer.

…

The sun was setting by the Peeta knocked on the door. Katniss smiled at him when she opened it, not knowing when that had become the natural thing to do. He grinned back, but the familiarity of the scene was marred by the three strangers that stood behind him. And not just any strangers either. With their dyed hair and tinted skin and outlandish clothes, they couldn't be from anywhere but the Capitol.

'Are Prim and Mrs Everdeen home?' Peeta asked as he stepped inside. Katniss had to mask her distrustful glower as the Capitolites followed him, goggling at the interior of her house as if it were a museum display.

'Yeah, I'll get them if you want.'

'That would be great, thanks.'

Katniss lingered slightly, regarding the Capitol folk as if they were vipers in her nest and wondering if she could possibly leave them unattended here. Then Peeta flashed her a gentle smile, and she nodded and left. If these people were a threat, he wouldn't have let them near her house.

'Hi, Peeta!' Prim chirped. 'Thank you for those cupcakes yesterday. They were so beautiful!'

'So beautiful I had to persuade her to eat them just to restore peace to the house,' Katniss groused. 'Before that, it was "I'll eat them,"' Katniss thrust out her hand, before withdrawing it again, '"No, I won't. But they look so yummy, I have to eat them. But they're so pretty, I can't. Yes, I can. No, actually, I can't." For three hours.'

'Katniss,' Prim pouted, 'it wasn't that bad.'

'Three hours.'

'How did she convince you in the end?' Peeta asked.

'Not very fairly.'

Katniss grinned. 'I set Buttercup in front of them in order to witness his cupcake-eating prowess for myself. Unfortunately for Buttercup, Prim had eaten the whole lot before he'd even bared his fangs. The poor cat didn't stand a chance.'

'Brilliant,' Peeta said.

'Not brilliant,' Prim insisted.

Peeta nodded contritely. 'Not brilliant.'

'Hey, you're meant to be on my side.'

Peeta smiled sheepishly beneath the combined imploring stares of the Everdeen sisters and tactfully shuffled toward the door. 'Well, my bit's done for today. I'll be leaving you in the capable hands of Venia,' he gestured to the blue-haired Capitolite with golden tattoos adorning her forehead, 'Octavia,' he indicated the plump, pea-green woman, 'and Flavius.' The man had mad, ginger curls and was wearing lipstick of all things, a purple shade that made him look as if he had eaten a handful of berries and neglected to wash his mouth.

'What do they do?' Prim asked excitedly.

'What do we do?' Flavius asked. 'We are artists, like sculptors with live stone, painters with breathing canvases.'

Prim stared emptily at them.

'In other words, hair and makeup,' Peeta said, before wrenching open the door and fleeing.

'Peeta, don't leave us–!' Katniss began, but the door slammed midsentence.

'So, where can we set up? Venia, the most assertive of them it seemed, asked. For the first time, Katniss noticed the briefcase that each Capitolite carried with a distinct feeling of dread.

'What about the living room?' Mrs Everdeen suggested.

'Mom!' Katniss hissed. How could her mother betray her like this?

The two blondes guided the Capitol team into the designated room, foaming with courtesies and poorly hidden excitement. Katniss skulked in after them, as if her slow gait could render her invisible. No luck there.

'And here's the girl of the hour,' Flavius declared. 'Stand there, let's see what we have to work with.'

Katniss hunched in on herself, a non-verbal representation of "not a lot". Venia wasn't having any of this. 'We are going to make you shine! All of you.'

Prim jumped on the spot, clapping her hands.

They were sat side by side on the couch, watching with various degrees of enthusiasm as the three Capitolites unpacked their cases.

'I think we're going to need hair-removal treatments for these clients,' Venia was discussing with Octavia. 'They don't seem the kind to take care of those sorts of things for themselves.'

'Poor dears,' Octavia commiserated.

'Is there are bathroom I can use?' Venia asked Mrs Everdeen, holding up two fistfuls of creams and unfriendly looking metal utensils.

Of course we have a bathroom, but no, you can't use it.

'Yes, up the stairs.'

'You first, please.' Venia looked to Katniss officiously. 'Octavia and Flavius will sort out your hair and basic makeup,' she informed the other Everdeens. She packed her materials back into her case and marched with purpose up the stairs. After a firm shove from her traitorous mother and sister, Katniss followed.

'If you would strip down to your underwear, please,' Venia said once they were inside the bathroom.

'What?'

'Our clients typically undergo this process naked, but in consideration of your peculiar cultural upbringing,' Oh, we're peculiar, Katniss thought, 'I've made this concession.'

Katniss spent a few more minutes trying to protest, but it was like reasoning with an infuriated Gale. The woman may have been born into the non-threatening world of the Capitol, but there was iron in her usually only unearthed in harsher environments.

When Venia saw the amount of hair on Katniss's limbs, she had to claw at her mouth to prevent herself from shrieking. 'How do you survive like this?'

'As well as the next person, I think.'

'This all needs to come off.'

Katniss folded her arms protectively, which had an added bonus of covering her plain bra. 'I need it, for insulation.'

'Forget insulation. Insulation doesn't make you look fabulous.'

'What exactly do I need to look fabulous for?'

'You'll see,' Venia said with a short yet chilling cackle.

To her credit, Katniss gritted her teeth and didn't scream once throughout the whole hair-removal treatment, and by the time the session was over, Venia was looking at her with a newfound respect. 'All right, clothes back on and head downstairs. Send the next person up.'

As much as Katniss hated to admit it, her mother and sister were currently having the time of their lives, and that warmed her heart just slightly. Mrs Everdeen went upstairs next, passing Katniss with a face whose beauty Katniss barely recognised as her mother's. Katniss took the vacated spot and looked across at Prim. Her little sister was smiling radiantly, her lovely golden curls teased into a streamlined half up half down hairstyle. Then she turned back as Octavia began to pat her face with an odd pink powder that matched her skin tone.

They had propped a mirror she didn't recognise against the wall opposite her so she could watch as Flavius stepped behind her and examined her braid.

'You have such lovely, straight hair,' he told Katniss, although Katniss was sure that his elaborate, corkscrew ringlets had been painstakingly engineered. 'I suppose you keep it up in this braid all the time.'

'It's practical.'

Flavius tutted, his fingers already untying the braid. 'Not for today, it isn't.'

'What's happening today?'

Upstairs, Mrs Everdeen had begun to scream.

'I'm sorry, darling. I can't. I just can't.' He let Katniss's hair fan around her shoulders. 'Look at that. Stunning. You really should take more care of it.'

'Don't have the time,' Katniss murmured as he began to brush.

'There is always time for hair.'

All Katniss could do was sit and try not to fidget as Flavius rubbed creams into her scalp and sprayed mists into her hair until it fell thick and glossy around her face. Then he plaited a few finger-width braids here and swept it all up into a sleek updo.

'What do you think?'

Katniss considered her reflection, turning her head left and right. 'It's nice,' she said softly.

'Success!' Flavius crowed. 'Now, after Octavia's finished with that little darling over there, you can have your face done. And your nails,' he added, grimacing unrestrainedly when he noticed how unkempt they were.'

'How do I look, Katniss?' Prim asked once she had been released from Octavia's green clutches.

'Wow, Prim,' Katniss breathed, 'is that you?'

'Yes!' Prim squealed, and she looked so pretty and mature and radiant with happiness that Katniss supposed this whole experience wasn't so bad after all. Not if it could make her sister smile and love herself like that.

'Mind your hair up there,' Katniss told her in a moment of feminine concern as her sister walked to the stairs, the ornate, blonde arrangement swinging behind her. 'You have to take the dress off.'

'Undoes at the back,' Prim reassured her.

'There, now you're getting into the spirit of things,' Flavius told Katniss triumphantly.

Octavia took her down the final stretch, setting her before a mirror identical to the one before and examining her face. 'There's something there. I'll bring you down the beauty base zero.'

'What's that?'

'Just the foundations, something to smooth the skin, bring out the eyes, shape the lips. It enhances what you already have and gives us a good canvas to apply more stylistic makeup later on.'

'Why can't you just do all the makeup now?' Katniss asked incredulously.

Octavia easily matched her tone. 'Before we even know what dress you'll choose? What if the lipstick clashes? What if the ambiance is completely incompatible? It is never done that way, never done.'

Katniss sat in subdued silence as Octavia tended to her face and nails, while her mother sat on the other side of the couch, smiling dreamily as Flavius styled her hair. The young huntress had never known the kind of exhaustion that hit her after the primping was done, but it took a turn for the worst when the front door was opened and yet more strangers piled into the house. In this case, "yet more" translated as two mocha-skinned stylists, a man and a woman, who elected to wear chic, black, simple attire that Katniss infinitely preferred. Each wheeled a rack of what Katniss assumed were clothes, trussed up in black bags to protect them from the snowfall.

Without ceremony, the Everdeens were bundled up the stairs and divided, Katniss propelled into her bedroom by Venia and the male stylist, her family accompanied into the other bedroom by the rest of the Capitol posse.

'Hello, Katniss, my name is Cinna and I will be your stylist this afternoon.'

'He's a top fashion designer in the Capitol,' Venia whispered in Katniss's ear. 'You're so lucky.'

The man acted as if he hadn't heard, smiling pleasantly as he sized his latest project up. There was only the faintest hint of the Capitol on him in the gold that lined his eyes, and his voice was subtle and mellow, so unlike the nasal, clipped inflections that most Capitolites used.

'How has your day been today?' Cinna asked, as he whipped out dresses at light speed, holding them against her before discarding them as unsuitable.

'My house has been invaded by overzealous Capitolites who tried their best to skin me alive, but apart from that, it's been a hoot.'

Venia tutted, but Cinna laughed. 'We must seem so strange to you.'

'Yeah, but you're the first Capitolite I've met who's realised that you're just as alien to us as we are to you.'

'You need to meet more Capitolites then. They certainly aren't all as blind to the world as you seem to think they are. This dress is the one.'

He held it up, a resplendent creation of sunset orange. Venia helped Katniss to put it on, taking extra care with her hair, and fastened the matching cape that cloaked her down to her elbows. The material was unbelievably silky, holding her snugly by the torso but floating around her legs, supple as liquid. Venia converged on her with a palette of warm, autumnal colours and touched up her face.

'You'll look like fire among the snow tonight,' Cinna told her.

'I'll feel like an icicle though,' Katniss retorted, albeit lightly. The man was too likeable by a half.

'I wouldn't count on that.'

Prim and Mrs Everdeen were already waiting at the bottom of the stairs. Her mother was almost unrecognisable in a cornflower blue dress that restored the brilliance to her blue eyes, and Prim was transcendent in white. But they both gaped up at her in awe and as she awkwardly manoeuvred her long skirt down the stairs.

'Katniss, you look amazing!'

'You're so beautiful, darling.'

'Both of you do too,' Katniss mumbled, not stopping until she had reached the hallway mirror. When she saw herself, she was immobilised. The stunning girl that gazed back at her could be a hero, the princess of Prim's fairy tales. But she didn't really look like Katniss, and that was what she wanted to be.

'Your carriage awaits,' Cinna said, opening the front door. Outside was a car, a real car, sleek and black like a panther.

'This is the best day ever!' Prim announced, slipping on a pair of white, heeled boots and hopping over to the car.

Katniss's were a deep, earthy brown and pleasantly surprised Katniss with their ability to accommodate her light step. 'You're coming?' she asked with mild relief as Cinna slipped into the car behind the Everdeen girls.

'The others have to clean up, but I'll be there briefly to ease you into the situation.'

'What about Peeta?' Katniss couldn't help but asking.

Cinna shot her a significant smile, but left it at that. The car drove them as far as the town square, which had been transformed into a night-time wonderland. Patterned, globular lanterns and decorative flags had been strung around the perimeter of the square, their orange light softening the harsh monotony of the surrounding buildings. There was already a considerable crowd of people milling about, wolfing down purchases from the impromptu food stalls and debating with each other over what this event could possibly mean.

As the car pulled further into the square, the Twelve residents quickly clearing out of its path, six girls in exquisite dresses glided from the heaving masses and made their way to the centre of the square. A lone fiddle began to play a sprightly tune and the crowd gasped and pointed as the girls began to dance along, each as spry and graceful as a winter bird.

'Six dancers?' Katniss asked as they watched through the window, Prim's face bright with joy.

'No,' Cinna opened the door, all the while gazing meaningfully at them, 'nine.'

'Oh no,' Katniss said.

'Oh yes!' Prim chirped. 'This is so good! Come on, Katniss! Come on, Mom.'

Inevitable attention was turned on them as Prim, with unforeseen strength, dragged them from the car. Katniss felt herself go red beneath the stares, even though she knew she was playing the role of a beautiful girl tonight.

'Have fun, you three,' Cinna said from inside the car.

'And where do you think you're going?' Katniss demanded.

The man chuckled, and suddenly Katniss felt Peeta's absence even more keenly than before. 'I have one more job to take care of. Goodbye, Everdeens, it was lovely to meet you all.'

Katniss would have normally watched his car drive off, looking highly unamused, but the six dancers were skipping closer and she felt too endangered to stand still. The youngest of them, pretty in a light yellow dress that complemented her dark complexion, reached out to Prim and took her by the hands. Together they twirled back into the centre of the square, Prim giggling in delight. A brown-haired girl in sea green seized her mother and did the same. Katniss's nominated captor tried to pull her along, but Katniss wasn't ready to move with her and stumbled along the way.

'Watch your feet, brainless,' the girl snapped.

Katniss had prepared a barbed retort when she was swung wildly around to link hands with another girl, a golden, statuesque beauty that made her feel rather plain in comparison. Not that she cared about such things. The nine of them had now formed a circle, and they skipped round in an anti-clockwise direction to the accompaniment of drums, stopping after every four beats and tapping her feet in a certain pattern. With escape being an unlikely fantasy, Katniss fell to studying the steps until she could mimic them perfectly.

'You're not so bad after all,' the rude girl next to her said.

Katniss looked across the circle to Prim, who was kicking up snow as she went and beaming away. When Katniss caught her eye, the girl began to laugh, and against her better judgement, Katniss laughed too. And actually began to enjoy herself.

…

Everyone in Twelve wanted a dance with one of the girls in the beautiful frocks. Katniss found herself twirling around the square with complete strangers, traders from the Hob, boys she had seen about school. Not everyone recognised her for who she was. Gale danced with her stiffly for a while; Darius took her for a mad frolic across the square, from which Katniss emerged feeling a bit queasy. Little Jett jumped into her arms and trilled as she swung him around. Mr Abernathy transpired to be rather light on his feet.

'Where's Peeta?' he asked.

'I don't know.'

'So find him before he gets swarmed by your aggravating peers.'

'I don't think he's even here.'

'He'd have to be stupid to miss this, to miss you. Is he stupid?'

'No.'

'So find him.'

The dance ended, Mr Abernathy bowed and returned to his beautiful, dark-haired wife. Katniss scanned the crowd for Peeta. She trawled the crowd for him, scoped all the food stalls and deftly dodged all the suitors asking for a turn around the floor. Pulling her cape further around her, she stopped before the stall Mr Mellark was running, supplying the crowd with freshly made doughnuts and piping hot miniature pies.

'Have you seen Peeta?' she asked him.

The man considered her for a moment before pointing over her shoulder. Katniss turned to find Peeta, looking undeniably suave in a fresh green suit, hastening towards her.

'I was kidnapped!' he told her as soon as he was in hearing range. Katniss laughed as he seized her shoulders, dragging in deep breaths.

'What?'

'I was here, wrapping up the decorations for the square–'

'You did this?'

'Yeah, do you like it?'

'Everyone loves it.'

'Great. You see, I didn't get the time to hang around and see everyone's reaction for too long because Cinna ambushed me, dragged me into a car and carted me off into the den of those Capitol artistes.'

Katniss's mirth knew no bounds. 'Justifying the suit.'

Peeta nodded. 'Justifying the suit. I don't understand why this happened. It was just you and the other Everdeens they were meant to dress up, and…'

He paused, taking her in properly for the first time, and the act robbed all words from him.

'Um, Peeta?'

'How did I not see you? How did I do nothing but talk about myself like an idiot with you looking like that, standing right in front of me? Katniss, you look so beautiful tonight.'

Katniss cupped her face with her hands, as if that would stop the blush, and looked at him. She looked fixatedly at the way his styled ash-blond waves fell perfectly into vivid blue eyes, the way his sharp suit accentuated the power in his arms and torso, and said, 'You, erm, look,' handsome, gorgeous, irresistible, 'nice.'

Behind them, Peeta's father cleared his throat and said. 'You should ask her to dance.'

'Oh, yes. Thanks, Dad. Katniss, would you like to?'

'Why not?' Katniss whispered.

It was an impossible task for any appreciative teenager to pry the two apart for the rest of the night. At first, Katniss was tense in his arms, but Peeta soon had her in hysterics as he played the fool, performing the most horrendous dance moves in his repertoire.

'Where did you learn that one?' she asked gaspingly when Peeta ran on the spot, tripped on the crushed snow and fell over.

'My mother,' Peeta told her, accepting her hand up. 'I figured I looked stupid enough in this suit that I might as well go for full humiliation.'

From then on, they gambolled recklessly or glided smoothly, adapting to whatever the small amplified ensemble of violin, flute and tambour drums played. And when they had spent their energy, they retreated to a corner, revolving slowly on the spot, Katniss's forehead finding that comfortable perch on his collarbone again.

There was nothing else to call this but happiness.

'Katniss,' Peeta whispered tenderly, 'are you humming?'

She didn't respond, smiling to herself as she let her voice carry, entwining with the music. Her voice was a gift to him, something that she hoped could pay for even some of this contentment. Gently, Peeta tilted her chin up and rested his own on her shoulder so that her mouth was level with his ear. She sang the melody of the song until it finished, and when it did, Peeta drew back.

'Thank you,' he said. 'I know that was probably hard for you to do in front of me.'

'No, it wasn't,' she corrected. 'Not anymore.'

Peeta kissed her. It was an impulsive kiss, an outlet for too much pent up emotion, but it was as winningly gentle as he was, and Katniss found herself surrendering to it completely. His lips left hers, only to catch her mouth at another angle, skilful and affectionate. Her eyes had just fluttered shut when he withdrew with a harsh breath and scrambled away from her.

'Oh shit, I'm sorry.'

If Katniss had been astonished by the sudden kiss, she was completely disconcerted by its just-as-sudden denial 'What?'

'You are such an idiot,' he was muttering furiously to himself. 'You told yourself you could handle this. You thought you were in control. You shouldn't have taken this job.'

'Peeta.'

'Forget that. Forget the whole thing. I shouldn't have done that.'

'Why?!' Katniss shouted. She should have regulated her volume, exercised the usual control over herself, but she had put her heart into that kiss. She didn't want to be told that it was all for nothing.

'I can't do that to him. He's an ass who doesn't freaking deserve you, but that doesn't mean I can steal you from him. What sort of ass would that make me?'

Katniss's hand cracked across his face. Peeta clutched his cheek, watching her with wide eyes. 'Don't hit me.'

'Don't talk about "stealing" me, as if I'm some stupid object who can't decide anything for herself!' Katniss retaliated. 'I choose, ok? I choose between him and you. And there's no contest, is there?'

'You haven't even met him.'

'That's his problem, not yours. Do you know what Mr Abernathy told me earlier? Your employer shouldn't have sent you – noble, thoughtful, charming you – if he wasn't going to turn up himself.'

'So he made mistakes. That doesn't justify me to kiss you behind his back.'

'Stop being so good, Peeta. Act in your own self-interest for once in your life.'

Peeta laughed a breathless, disbelieving laugh into his hands. This wasn't the reaction Katniss had expected or wanted.

'What's so funny?' Katniss asked carefully, ready to withdraw herself. She had already put so much of herself on the line. She was in his hands. Peeta had the power to break her right there and then, and he might even know it.

'I never thought I'd see the day where Katniss freaking Everdeen was trying to convince me to kiss her,' he said, striding towards her, pulling her against him and kissing her again, firmly this time, no coyness left.

'He's going to fire me,' Peeta murmured against her lips.

'You still care about that?' Katniss asked incredulously, releasing the most un-Katniss-like squeak when he gnawed on her lower lip.

'I only wanted to keep the job so I had the excuse to see you every day.'

Katniss smiled giddily up at him before burrowing her face into his chest.

'Does your orange even go with my green?' Peeta asked as he cupped the back of her head.

Katniss looked up at him with one quirked eyebrow. 'You're the artistic genius.'

'Oh yes.'

She shook her head and rested it back on his chest. 'Look at who Prim's dancing with.'

Peeta did. 'Is that one of the Hawthornes?'

'Rory,' Katniss confirmed. 'Who knew?'

'Not me,' he said mildly.

They watched the two kids dancing for a while, bobbing shyly around each other.

'I guess we should be heading back soon. I mean, to our homes.'

'Don't leave,' Katniss said.

'Pardon?'

'If you leave, you'll have time to think things over, reassess the situation, and that annoying conscience of yours will creep back up on you. So you have to stay.'

'Here?'

'I don't know, somewhere. You've got me to like you. Don't throw it away. Stay with me, ok?'

Peeta kissed her temple and held her close. 'Always.'

AN: Trude: Thank you very much! Anonymous: I felt that I missed out some opportunities with the milking, but I'm glad you disagree. The Mellarks, at least some of them, needed coverage! And yes, that was indeed Clove.