Disclaimer: The Hunger Games Trilogy is property of Suzanne Collins. This is a parody fanwork by fans for fans. No money was made off of the creation of this fanwork.

Unrequited, Unabashed, and Unwavering
by FanficAllergy and RoseFyre

oOo

Title: Unrequited, Unabashed, and Unwavering
Theme: 21 - Extraordinary
Words: 2250
Summary: Five-year-old Peeta didn't want to go to school. He just wanted to stay home at the bakery. Not even the allure of meeting his soulmate could change his mind. Pure fluff, soulmates AU.

oOo

Peeta clutched desperately at his father's hand, unable to let go. Something horrible might happen if he did! Tears welled up in his eyes. He blinked, trying to push them back.

He didn't succeed.

It was the first day of school, and five-year-old Peeta Mellark was absolutely, completely, and utterly terrified. He didn't want to go to school. He wanted to stay home with his Papa. It was safe there and smelled of cookies. Peeta liked cookies. He was sure he wouldn't like school. Or rather, school wouldn't like him.

As they neared the boxy red-brick building, his father knelt down in front of him, wrapping his strong warm arms around the shaking boy. His gentle hand wiped a tear off Peeta's cheek. "Don't worry, son, I'm sure you'll make lots of friends."

"But… but what if they don't like me?"

Matz Mellark ruffled his son's hair. "Then you'll make them like you. Use those words of yours. You always know exactly what to say to make Mrs. Undersee smile. You'll do just fine with the other kids."

Peeta nodded, snuggling closer to his father. "But what if I fall down and people laugh at me?"

"Then you laugh at yourself and pull yourself right back up."

"But what if I'm called on in class?"

"Then you answer the teacher's question."

"But what if I don't know it?"

"Then you'd better pay attention."

"But what if-"

His father placed a finger on his lips. "No more what ifs, Peeta." The baker's gaze fixated on something over Peeta's shoulder. "Can I tell you a secret?"

Peeta's eyes widened and he nodded. Papa didn't tell anyone secrets, not ever.

"You see that girl over there?" The baker pointed at a little girl in a red-checked dress with black hair in two neat braids.

Turning around in the safety of his father's arms, Peeta looked at the other child. "Uh huh."

"I used to be in love with her mother." His father smiled ruefully. "But she ran off to marry a coal miner."

Peeta stared at his father, his eyes growing wide. "A coal miner? But why?" He couldn't imagine anyone turning his father down. He father was the best father in Panem. He was kind. And funny. And smelled like cookies. There was no one better than his father. No one!

"He was her soulmate." The baker shook his head, his mind in the past. "But I think, even if he weren't, Violet would've married him anyway."

Peeta screwed up his face into a question: why?

"He has a voice that can make the birds stop and listen. It was the most amazing thing I ever heard. I knew I didn't stand a chance after that. So I didn't even try."

Peeta didn't know what to say at the sad look in his father's eyes, so he just reached up and patted him awkwardly on the cheek. "It'll be okay, Papa. I won't run away with a coal miner. I'll stay with you and Mama forever."

Matz swept his son into a hug. "That's my sweet boy."

oOo

School was boring. B-o-double-r-i-n-g. Boring. Peeta's teacher just droned on and on and on forever. Half the class rested their heads on their arms, drifting asleep to the songs of the mockingjays outside the open windows, while the other half doodled on pieces of paper or their desks. Peeta was firmly in the latter group, having filled up one sheet in his notebook with designs for cakes he wanted to make and another with whatever happened to catch his eye in the classroom. At the moment, he was trying to draw the girl in the red-checked dress, but he couldn't quite manage to get her braids to come out right.

He was frustrated.

So when the teacher said, "Okay, kids, line up in front," Peeta sprang to his feet, eager to do something, anything, to alleviate the boredom. The rest of the class just as quickly followed suit.

The thirty-five kids milled around the front of the classroom, trying to figure out what was going to come next.

After organizing the group into a haphazard semi-circle, the teacher answered their unspoken question with, "Okay, class, who here knows the Valley Song?"

As one, the students froze.

The Valley Song? Everyone knew the Valley Song. But what would happen if you said you did? Would you be forced to sing? In front of the whole class? With everyone watching? No way was Peeta gonna raise his hand.

The kids around him all seemed to have the same thought, shoving their hands into their pockets and taking half a step back.

But from the far left, near the edge of the group, a hand attached to a red-checkered arm shot up into the air. "I do! I know the Valley Song," the little girl he'd tried to sketch called out.

"Great!" The teacher smiled brightly. "Okay, Katniss, why don't you come up here and sing it for us?"

Peeta let out an internal sigh of relief. He was really happy now he hadn't raised his hand.

The little girl, Katniss, didn't seem fazed by her audience. She cleared her voice a little bit before opening her mouth to sing.

"Deep in the Meadow,

Under the Willow…"

As the notes tumbled from her lips, Peeta stared at her in awe. Her voice was beautiful, clear and bright, like the stars on a cold winter's night. All of the kids were as enthralled as he was.

And that's when he noticed. It wasn't just the kids who were entranced, or the teacher. Even the mockingjays outside had stopped to listen to this little girl's voice.

In a flash, he understood why the woman his father had loved had run off with a coal miner. If she asked it of him, Peeta would do the same. If she asked him to, Peeta would follow her even into the Hunger Games. For Katniss, he'd do anything. Anything! Just so long as she sang to him with that remarkable voice. His heart pounded against his ribcage, he never wanted her song to end.

When she stopped, Peeta felt like a part of himself was missing. He would do anything to hear her sing again.

oOo

At lunch, he screwed up the courage to talk to Katniss, deciding to skip eating first. Maybe she'd want to eat lunch with him. Maybe if he shared his cookies she'd sing for him.

He found her sitting alone under an old apple tree, picking dandelions and blowing the white seeds away. He paused in his tracks, trying to figure out what to say. Nothing sounded right. He scuffed his feet nervously in the dirt.

She looked up at the sound, a half-blown dandelion held loosely in one hand.

"Your voice made the mockingjays stop."

The dandelion fell. She stared at him in shock, her gray eyes wide as pie plates.

The silence stretched on between them and the longer it lasted, the more nervous Peeta got. Finally, unable to bear it any longer, he broke out into a stream-of-consciousness babble. "I meant, your voice was pretty. Like really pretty! Everybody stopped to listen, even the birds. Please don't be mad at me?"

Katniss got to her feet, her hands bunched in the sides of her dress. She opened her mouth, then closed it. Then opened it again.

Peeta waited breathlessly for her to say something.

But she didn't. Instead, she turned and ran like she was being chased by mutts out of the schoolyard, away from him.

Peeta's heart shattered and he curled up into a ball, arms around his knees, tears in his eyes.

He'd said the wrong thing! She hated him. She'd never sing for him now.

Letting out a little wail, Peeta darted from the playground. He'd been right. School was horrible. He was never going to school again!

oOo

Peeta sat on the stool next to his father as he worked in the bakery kitchen, a slightly burnt uneaten cookie clutched in his hands. The baker had taken one look at his son's dejected face and early arrival and known something had gone horribly wrong. Rather than push, he'd given his son a treat and waited for Peeta to tell his tale.

Peeta held up the cookie and considered taking a bite, but let his arm fall. "I don't deserve this," he mumbled.

"Why, son?"

"I gave her a compliment and she ran away."

"Who?"

"Katniss."

His father didn't say anything, just kept rolling dough to make cookies.

"You know, the girl you pointed out to me."

"Mmm." His father nodded, flipping the dough and rolling out the other side. "Was it a real compliment?"

"'Course it was! All I said was I liked her voice!" Peeta blinked rapidly, trying to hold back tears. "She didn't have to run."

"I'm sorry, Peeta. Maybe she got scared."

"Of what?"

"Maybe she thought you were making fun of her."

"But I wasn't!" he wailed.

"I-" The baker's voice was cut off by a knock at the back door. He gave his son an apologetic look as he brushed his hands off on his apron. "I'm sorry you had a bad day, Peeta. We'll talk about it more later." He crossed to the door and opened it, revealing Katniss's father on the other side.

Peeta's heart sank. Oh no! Katniss had run home and told her father everything and now her papa was here to take his revenge! The cookie in Peeta's hands crumbled.

"Matz," the dark-haired man greeted, seemingly unaware of Peeta's terror. "Pleasure to see you."

"You too, Solomon. How are things doing at the Everdeen household?"

"Fair enough, can't complain."

"Pleased to hear it. So what brings you to this neck of the woods?"

The man, Mr. Everdeen, reached behind him and drew forth a little girl in a red-checked dress. "It seems something exciting happened today at school. Katniss here was telling me all about it. Thought we should stop by to share the news."

"Oh?" There was something in his father's tone Peeta couldn't identify.

Mr. Everdeen nudged Katniss forward, patting her on the back. "Go on, duckling. Tell the nice young boy what you need to say."

Katniss looked stricken. Her eyes darted from her father to the baker to Peeta, the whites showing clearly around her slate gray irises. She took one hesitant step forward, then another, then another, until she was standing in front of Peeta, the tips of her brown leather boots pushing the remains of his mangled cookie around the floor.

Just like before, she opened and closed her mouth but no words came out.

He was confused. Why was she here? Why was she supposed to say something to him? "Katniss?" Peeta asked.

At the sound of his voice, her eyes flew to his. Peeta felt a jolt of something surge through him.

"You have really blue eyes," she blurted out, then slapped her hands over her mouth in horror.

Peeta stared at her, the words of comfort and thanks dying on his lips. He knew those words. Those were his words! The words his soulmate was going to say to him when they first met. Scrawled along the top of his left foot in barely legible green was *You have really blue eyes.* They were the first thing he'd learned to read. And he'd dreamed about meeting their speaker.

And now it'd happened.

Peeta couldn't believe it. Katniss was his soulmate. The little girl with the amazing voice was his soulmate!

He got to his feet and grabbed her hands in his. "Are… are you… please say you are!"

She nodded, pulling her hands away to roll up the sleeve on her right arm. There, in a rich orange, were the words *Your voice made the mockingjays stop.*

He reached out to trace his fingers along them. They were real. She was real.

"I'm sorry I ran away. I was… I just… I was scared I'd say the wrong thing. No one's ever said my words before and I didn't wanna screw it up." The words tumbled out of Katniss's mouth like a waterfall.

"You're saying you wanna be my soulmate?" Peeta's voice was tinged with hope.

Katniss nodded. "Uh huh." Then she paused, looking around the comfortable kitchen, her eyes lingering on the racks of bread cooling along one wall. "If I'm your soulmate, does this mean I get to eat bread every day?"

The two adults laughed. "You can eat bread every day if you want," Peeta's father said, smiling at the girl. He nudged Mr. Everdeen. "So, Solomon, looks like we're going to have to have a bit of a talk. Peeta here promised me he wouldn't run off to marry a coal miner."

Mr. Everdeen shrugged ruefully. "I can't fault the boy's heart. He'll take good care of my Katniss."

"Of course I will!" he proclaimed.

Katniss tore her gaze from the bread and looked at him, her jaw set. "If you're gonna take care of me, then I get to take care of you. It's only fair!"

His heart felt like it was about to burst. This was just what he wanted. "Forever and always. And you'll sing to me?"

Katniss nodded once. "Always." Then she cuddled up against him and started singing the Valley Song.

Peeta sighed. Everything was right with the world. And maybe, just maybe, school wasn't as horrible as he'd thought.

oOo

AN:
Written: 11/1/16
Revised: 11/10/16
Betaread by: JavisTG, Xerxia31

Written for Prompts in Panem, The Final Tribute - the One Who Got Away.

Dedicated to Alliswell. You're awesome and we love how much you cheerlead for us!

So adorable five year old soulmates are adorable. This sort of completes the trio of the three times Katniss and Peeta could have met and exchanged soulmate words canonically. As always, the concept of the first words that your soulmate speaks to you being written on your skin is credited to amusewithaview.