Disclaimer: All the genius for the characters goes to Suzanne Collins, and to Pixar for the plotline (Loosely from "Up!")
Chapter 2
Peeta had been working on the cookies all morning, but just wasn't getting the hang of it. His first two batches turned out lumpy and hard. "They look like they have warts," he had told his father, who could not hold in his laughter at the silliness of his youngest son. Peeta, however, did not find this funny in the least, and his brilliant blue eyes brimmed with tears threatening to run down and stain his cheeks.
Upon seeing his son in a state of distress, the elder Mellark swallowed his laughter quickly, and thinking on his toes reassured his son, "That's okay. That's why you're practicing, so your mission will go smoothly." This earned a small but sad closed mouth grin from Peeta, which didn't quite reach his eyes. He wiped his nose with the back of his sleeve as he sniffed one last, sad sniff.
Making another attempt to cheer him up, Mr. Mellark said, "You know, I think these are perfect."
Peeta looked at his father as if he had just said he was the Lucky Charms Leprechaun. "How?" he asked, his voice distressed, yet curious.
"Well," his father continued, lowering his face to be closer to his son's, and his voice along with it, "they are so hard, that if the enemy comes-"
"Shhhhhhh!" Peeta interrupted his father, putting his little pointer finger against his father's lips with his right hand, and doing the same to his own lips with his left. Whispering through his finger, Peeta went on, "I don't want them to know we're on to them… They're everywhere," he finished as he looked under the table now at his back as he was turned to his father, making sure they were alone.
"Oh! Sorry!" Mr. Mellark whispered, also through Peeta's finger at his lips. "As I was saying," he continued, dropping his voice even lower, making Peeta drop his finger and lean in even closer, "if the enemy comes up behind you or tries to attack you, you can just throw these cookies at them. One hit with a lumpy sugar cookie to the head would be enough to drop even Darth Vader through his helmet!"
The look on Peeta's face was priceless, his father decided, wishing he had the camera there to take a picture of it. Those big blue eyes with blonde curls falling into them under the brim of his Indiana hat, dried raw egg smeared across his right cheek with a bit of the shell sticking to it, a dusting of flour on his eyelashes, smeared on his cheeks, and a bit of batter splashed across his nose made for quite the sight, but it was mostly his eyes and slack jaw that made his father bite his tongue in an attempt not to laugh as Peeta looked at him in utter, innocent, confusion.
"Dad," Peeta slowly said. Mr. Mellark raised his eyebrows in response, still biting his tongue. "Have you been sneaking sugar cubes while I was working on my cookies?"
His son's question left him completely confused, so he released his tongue and said, "No, why?"
"Because," Peeta started, as if it was obvious, "whenever Finn visits and we sneak sugar cubes, mom says we get crazy and say silly things that make no sense. And, well, you started talking about throwing cookies at people's heads, and I thought-"
"You and Finn sneak sugar cubes?" his father cut him off. Peeta's mouth simply shut as his cheeks turned red.
"He made me do it," he finally answered, looking down at the floor, kicking his leg as if to scuff the floor even though the height of the stool made that impossible.
The guilt on his son's face was enough for Mr. Mellark, so he just said, "Why you little…" and started tickling Peeta, who screamed and started giggling uncontrollably. Just then, they heard the bells at the front door jingle, meaning they had a customer. "Just a minute!" he yelled to the front of the bakery, then looking back at his son. "Come here, you," Mr. Mellark said, picking Peeta up around the waist with his left arm, and held him to his hip so that his face was facing forward beside his father's belly, and his feet dangled behind him. "After that little admission about the sugar, I can't leave you alone in here." Peeta just giggled again and they continued on to the front counter from the back of the bakery, or as Peeta called it, 'Mission Control'.
When they reached the spot behind the register, Mr. Mellark opened his mouth to ask how he could help the customers, but Peeta beat him to it, looking straightforward from his position in his father's arm with that gigantic grin, and saying, "May I help you?"
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Katniss beat Gale to the bakery by a long shot. By the time he got there, she was sitting on the top step right outside the front door of the building that held all those sweet treats, having mostly caught her breath.
Gale bent over and leaned on his knees, taking deep breaths as he huffed out, "Man…. Catnip….. How did you….. Get so fast?"
"I've always been fast," Katniss retorted.
"Nu-uh!" Gale half yelled, half whined at her, which earned him an eye roll and a smile.
"Come on," she said, walking back down the steps and grabbing his elbow to pull him into the bakery with her.
As soon as they stepped inside, they heard the bells jingle above the door, and was that… Giggling? Then, "Just a minute!" came a man's voice from the back, and Katniss lost herself in the smells of the bakery – breads, pastries, they all seemed to combine and made the air smell of yeasty, sugary, buttery goodness. She was nearly drooling when a large, happy looking man, whom Katniss immediately decided she liked, came walking out from the back room of the bakery, carrying a little boy wearing some sort of costume and his face covered in baking ingredients. The little boy looked at her, grinned a contagious grin, and said, "May I help you?"
As if on cue, her stomach growled very loudly, causing the large man to laugh a deep, friendly laugh, Gale to point at her and laugh, her cheeks to blush, and the little boy to grin even wider, if that were even possible. Katniss was too embarrassed to talk, so Gale said, "Yes, we have ten dollars and want some cookies. That would buy us twelve cookies, right?"
"That is correct," the man said, making Gale smile with pride at Katniss. "You hear that, Catnip? I was right!"
Katniss rolled her eyes at him again when the little boy asked, "Catnip? That's your name?"
"No, it's not, thank goodness," Katniss answered, continuing, "It's just my nickname. My name is Katniss. Katniss Everdeen."
"Oh!" the man, who is still holding the little boy on his hip exclaimed, "Everdeen! I know your parents! I haven't seen them in a long time. I'm Mr. Mellark, I own the bakery," he finished with pride. Katniss just smiled a polite smile that her mother had taught her, telling her to not scowl so much.
Gale had been staring at the little boy ever since he asked about her nickname, and it was not at all a nice stare. It was the look Gale got when looking at someone who had a toy he wanted. He finally piped up and asked the boy in a taunting voice, "What's your name? 'Bread Boy'?"
"Kinda," was the little boy's reply. "My name is Peeta. It is a kind of bread," he stated with pride. Gale looked like he didn't know what to do, since Peeta had, unknowingly, shot down his jab. At last he stammered out, "O- oh. I was saying because it looks like you have bread all over your face, so… Yeah. I'm just going to call you Bread Boy. Bread Boy and Catnip."
Katniss glared at Gale, who was glaring at Peeta, who was smiling at Katniss, his chin resting on his left fist as if his elbow were propped up on an invisible table."Katniss," Peeta said, as if testing it out, and bringing her attention back to him. "I like it. It's pretty. But if we're giving nicknames, I'm going to call you… Kat. Is that okay?" Katniss thought about it. "I guess so," she finally said. She kind of liked it, and the smile it brought to Peeta's face she liked even more.
"Good!" he said excitedly, then turned to Gale. "And you…" he trailed off as he thought, pretending to stoke an invisible beard. "I will call you… Grumpy. Like from Snow White?"Katniss laughed loudly. "Yes! Grumpy!" Peeta once again smiled, and Gale got that mean stare again and directed it at Peeta. Katniss's stomach growled again, causing them all to laugh.
"Dad! Put me down!" Peeta said urgently to his father. Once he was on the floor, he ran to the back room, and came back with a tray full of steaming rolls that made them all quiet down and stare. The tray was a little too big for Peeta to carry, so his father took it from him and asked, "What's this for, son? They wanted cookies, not cheese buns." Katniss stared at the tray and stuttered, "Ch- chee- cheese buns?" and her stomach growled it's loudest growl yet, causing Peeta to grin at her, and then turn to his father to explain. "I know, but cookies won't do anything for that growling monster in her tummy." Katniss giggled then Gale's tummy growled, causing everyone to look at him in surprise, his cheeks flushing and a surprised look on his own face. Before anyone could make a sound, Peeta's tummy growled. This time all three children ended up on the floor rolling and laughing. Finally, Peeta was able to catch his breath and talk again and said, "See, dad? We all have tummy monsters that we have to feed, and they only like cheese buns."
"And cookies!" Gale chimed in, having stood up and caught his breath enough to speak as well.
"Alright, alright," Mr. Mellark said, walking the tray over to a nearby table and setting it down in the middle. Katniss, having been the last to recover from the laughing fit sat down first, Peeta and Gale sat on each side of her, and she was about to dig in, when Gale stopped her. "What?" she asked, getting very frustrated, but it soon turned to worry when she saw the evil smirk on his face. "Let's have a competition. See who can eat the most the fastest." Katniss looked at Peeta, who was grinning and nodding rapidly in agreement. Boys, she thought, but sighed and nodded in agreement. "Ready, Bread Boy?" Gale asked, and Peeta replied, "Ready!" Gale turned to Katniss. "Ready, Catnip?" Oh, now he did it. Not only was she ready to start, she was ready to beat him at his little roll eating game. "You bet I am, Grumpy," she said with a mischievous grin growing on her face. "Mr. Mellark?" Gale turned to Peeta's father. "Will you be the referee and time us? Set a timer for like, 5 minutes or something." Mr. Mellark agreed, but shook his head as he went to get a timer. He turned it to five minutes, and said, "Ready? Set? Go!" and with that he set the timer down on the table, and the children began stuffing their faces with cheesy goodness.
Gale started by shoving three whole rolls into his mouth, but it became a giant wad of doughy cheese and he was having a hard time chewing and swallowing. Peeta was eating them one by one, but a whole one at a time. Katniss just ate normally, and because of that, she didn't get sick from too much of the rich cheese at once like the boys did. They were groaning and chewing slower and slower while Katniss ate roll after roll without any problems, except the growing grin of victory on her face that made it harder to chew with every bit it grew.
"Uncle!" Gale called through a mouth full of buns. "Katniss, you can have all but one of the cookies if we stop now. If we don't, I'm going to be sick."
"All but one?" Katniss asked to make sure she heard him right through the wad of bread in his mouth. He nodded. "Cross your heart?" she asked. He nodded and groaned as he lifted his hand to draw the 'x' over his heart. "Okay," Katniss said, and continued to eat the rest of the cheese buns. Peeta had eaten about five and given up, so he went to get the cookies, coming back with his face clear of all the baking mess that had been plastered to his face this whole time, and set the cookies beside Katniss.
She reached in the bag and pulled out a hard, lumpy sugar cookie. She turned to Peeta who was snickering. "D- did you make these?" Katniss asked him, trying to be nice. "Yes, this morning!" Peeta replied enthusiastically. Gale stared at the cookie and said, "You can have all of them, Catnip. They look like they have warts."
"Ew!" she squealed. "Nope you get your one cookie, Gale. You crossed your heart." And with that she tossed the cookie at him and it hit the side of his head with a loud thump, then landed on the floor in one piece. "Ow!" Gale said rubbing his head where the cookie had made impact. "Bread Boy, did you put rocks in these?" Peeta looked at his father and the two of them laughed.
A/N: Well, here is chapter two! If you have any ideas or suggestions for this story, please PM me, or leave a comment/review! (Comment/review/follow anyway. You know you want to. :P)
Also, you can find me on tumblr: Konzelwoman
And once again, Disclaimer: All the genius for the characters goes to Suzanne Collins, and to Pixar for the plotline (Loosely from "Up!")