The Hunger Games does not belong to me
Katniss POV
I wake up on the couch, not suprising that Peeta didn't move me to my room. Where is he anyway?
"Peeta?" I call through the house, but theres no answer. I decide to walk over to his house.
"Peeta?" I call through his house this time. I get an immediate response.
"Katniss, what are you doing here, you should be resting your head." he told me calmly but with a firmness in his voice.
"It doesn't even really hurt anymore." Ok, so I lied to him, my head is throbbing, but one lie won't hurt him so I let it slide.
"You're lying. I know you Katniss, your head is killing you, and I'm about to carry you home and lay you down on the couch and you're not going to get up for the rest of the day so you give your head time to heal." Am I really that easy to read, or is he just an expert on me.
"You're right, I'm lying. Could you lay off though. This.." pointing at my head, "is not your fault, its Snows. So you can stop worrying. I will never ever stop loving you, no matter what you do to me. You have to understand that. Ok?" I almost yell at him. Instead of reciprocating my argument, he just kisses me. Then he picks me up and takes me over to my house. On the way there I'm totally shell-shocked because that was not what I was expecting at all, so I don't speak until he gently lays me on my bed.
"KAtniss, what the hell? Do you really have to argue with me every single second about everything? Stop pretending its not my fault for hurting you. Capitol Peeta lives inside me, and until you can accept that I can and will hurt you during an episode, we can't be around each other." this is the most angry I have ever seen him. "What if I don't just hurt you next time? What if I killed you? Do you know what my life would be after that?" his voice slowly dies down and I can tell he is picturing this and the guilt that he can do that is flooding to the surface.
"Shhhh, Peeta. It's ok, and it will continue to be. I know you, and I don't think you would ever kill me. Just to make it better for you, next time I will have Haymitch come over and help ok? You have got to understand though, even if something like this ever happened again, I would never leave or let you leave. I love you Peeta Mellark, and there's not a single thing that could change that fact." Finally, I got it off my chest and the realization of what I just said almost shocks him I think, I don't know why though. He has known I love him for a while, hasn't he? He just looks at me though, I don't know what kind of look it is, one of disbelief or one of returning love. I've found myself puzzled at this blue eyed boy before, so I really don't know why I'm surprised. Even though only like 20 seconds has passed, it feels like forever until he responds.
"You don't know how long I've waited to hear you say that. Katniss, I love you too, more than you will ever know. Ever since that day when I threw you the bread, I knew there was something more powerful than the both of us, and we've both found it now." He has that smile that I dream of again and we kiss, with the all the passion either of us can manage to express at this moment. He is mine and I love him more than anything in this world. I'm so lucky to have this amazing man in my life. He loves me and I love him, this is more than I could ever ask for in a million years.
We make a mutual decision that it is wasteful to have two houses when we have more than enough room in one house for the both of us. The question is which house? This takes no time to decide, we will stay in mine. He knows I couldn't bear to leave here when there is so much of Prim here. He is all moved in by dinner. He decides to try to teach me to make bread, that plan wasn't at all successful. We did however get into a flour fight in which my face was completely covered by it, and so was his. I really have never been happier than when I'm with him, I can only hope he feels the same way.
Peeta's POV
I can't help but look into her grey eyes and fall for her even more. She is my world and no one, not even myself will take her away from me.
"I should bring you into the kitchen to help more often, you make it entertaining." I say with a laugh, she just looks at me with a smile like she's planning something. Before I know it she grabs a handful of flower and plops it on my head.
"I had no idea you look so good in flour." she tells me laughing.
"Well, I've had no one cover my face in it before."
"That's too bad." Then she leans in and kisses me, I put my hands around her waist and she kisses me even more. We break away to get air and Haymitch walks in.
"Makeup did we?" he says with a laugh "Hey sweetheart, hows your head?" obviously directing the question towards her.
"It hurt a little earlier, but now I'm ok." she smiles that glorious smile she thinks she doesn't have.
"Anything to do with lover boy over here?"
"Hello? I'm right here guys." I say
"Yes it has everything to do with him." with a quick grin before pulling me into a quick kiss
"Will you guys wait until I leave?"
"Can you make it quick?" I laugh at him
"Seriously?" he replies "Kid, I hate to pull you away, but I really need to talk to you."
"Why?" Katniss asks with an uneasiness about her face
"Just let me talk to lover boy, sweetheart."
"I'll be right out, just give me a minute." I tell him calmly then turn back to Katniss. Her face still looks worried.
"Why does he need to talk to you now?"
"I don't know yet, but as soon as I do I will fill you in." I tell her with a reassuring voice. I wipe some flour off her face and I tell her she should go take a shower and I will clean up the kitchen. She agrees, but I sincerely hope she does what I asked her, because I have no idea what this is about.
I walk out to the porch, and I see Haymitch smirking as I walk out cleaning flour off my face.
"We need to talk about your episodes kid."
"Ok, what are your questions?"
"Is she in danger because of them?"
"I don't think anymore as long as I'm aware of my triggers and risky situations like the bakery."
"Ok. How often do these happen?"
"They are unpredictable."
"Does she know this?"
"Yes, she does."
"Are you guys living together? I saw you bringing stuff from your house over here."
"Yes. We are living together."
"Do you have your own room to sleep in?" he almost growls at me
"No" I say quietly
"I'm going to ignore that statement. Seriously, your episodes though?" He tells me calmly. I think this is suprising I have to admit.
"Anyway, the episodes are getting less frequent, and I have tried to convince her that she is unsafe with me here, but we know how stubborn she is."
"Yes, I do. I mostly admire her for that, but not when her safety is on the line."
"Haymitch, do you really think that I would kill her?"
"I think that during an episode you could get close to it, but never actually succeed."
"Really?"
"Yes kid, I have mentored you both for two and a half years, you love that girl. Contrary to what Snow made you believe, you love that girl, even when you are sucked into that pit of hate and misery. If you were about to do anything that drastic, you would snap out of it."
"I believe you on some levels."
" Well get to the point where you can believe me on all levels. Now I'm going to go home and leave you guys to your dinner."
"Haymitch." he turns around "Thank you for caring about us."
"No problem kid."
He walks away and I realize just how nice that conversation that was. Especially coming from Haymitch. He believes he is incapable of feeling emotion because of what the Games did to him, he is deeply mistaken. The Games may have had some affect on his ability to feel emotions easily, but not completely.
Katniss POV
This is one of the only dinners we have had alone before. After our declarations to each other today, I have no idea what's about to happen nor what I should wear. I open my closet and find all the dazzling clothes that Cinna made for me. Cinna. I close my eyes and see him, explaining to me about the fire clothes and I catch a glimpse of his gold eyeliner. Then I come crashing back to reality and I'm on my knees just crying because I know Cinna's death was my fault. I look around to see if Peeta came up here, he didn't. Good. I don't want himself to see me like this tonight. I wipe my tears and I stand up almost wobbling. I can't deal with this right now. This is mine and Peeta's night to celebrate moving in together. I decide on a summer dress, orange because that's Peeta's favorite color it has different shades of orange, red, and yellow. I know he will love it. I put the dress on, quickly brush my hair, and head downstairs. There I see the man I love by the table. I'm alarmed at how gorgeous the table looks. Table set, candles lit, and my most important person in the world standing behind a chair just waiting. His face looks absolutely taken aback by the sight of me. All he says is
"Wow." I can tell my cheeks are turning very red at this moment, but somehow I don't care. He meets me at the bottom of the stairs kissing me on the cheek and then escorting me to the table, where he pulls the chair out for me and then scoots it back in. Then he goes to sit down himself and we eat almost in silence, not awkwardly, just out of pure need to savor the moment. When we are done, I do the dishes while he finishes cleaning up the kitchen. Every couple of minutes he comes up behind me to kiss my neck though. When we get done with cleanup, we go to the backyard, and there again I find a surprise. As I walk out, I see gold lanterns hanging from clothes lines and in the middle of the yard, I find a gold blanket placed at the exactly right spot to look at the stars without obstacles in our way. He looks over at me to see if I'm enjoying his surprise and I happen to be almost crying from the pure bliss. When he sees the tears, he quickly wipes them off.
"Why are you crying?" his voice is full of concern
"Just this, you, all the effort you put into this. It looks amazing, thank you for all of this." With that I pull him into a kiss that I'm guessing he was not expecting. He responds by putting his hands gently on my waist and pulling me in closer, if that's even possible. When we break off for air, he looks at me in a way that makes me feel wanted, and not scarred. When I look into his eyes, my head goes spinning, but not from my concussion. How did I ever end up with this handsome caring man? I start to lose my balance and as if he can read my mind, he puts an arm on my waist and catches me. Then we head over to the blanket where we lay down and just blissfully look at the stars as if there is no tomorrow. Again, as if he can read my mind, he turns to his side and starts to kiss me softly. Then as if its our first time doing this, he opens his mouth and lets me decide whether I want that. I took the offer graciously, then when he decided to break away, he didn't for all but a second. No, he started kissing my neck, then my shoulder. I think he could tell that I wasn't ready for it all, so he went back to kissing my mouth. When he broke away the second time, we decided to go into the house, since we have neighbors and even though we aren't doing anything totally inappropriate, they probably don't want to see us making out. We get inside head to the couch and just pick up where we left off. This time though, I am the one to initiate more. I start kissing his neck and I take off his shirt. He leans down on top of me and starts kissing me again, he never does anything that I haven't indicated I was ready for. While he is on top of me and we are just making out, I decide as much as I want this to happen, I don't think it should happen tonight. Although every aspect of tonight was perfect, I suddenly realize that I'm not stable enough within my mind to take this huge step in my life. So I start to pull away, and Peeta looks at me. For a second, he looks confused and then understands. Instead, we talk for hours on end and when I'm about to fall asleep he carries me upstairs to our room. I will have to get used to that. Our Room, despite him declaring his love for me so long ago, I never would have thought that we would be sharing a room, or a house at this moment. When we get through the door, he gently lays me down on the bed and climbs over into bed himself. While putting his arms around me, he quietly whispers
"I love you." Then we glide blissfully into sleep.
You guys are amazing for reading. I sincerely hope you enjoyed it. I should be able to update it within 2 days. Please keep reading. If you leave a review, I will reply to it as soon as I can, I really want to know what you guys think, positive, or constructive critism =) You guys rock.