Real or Not Real? By Olivia Isbill
Chapter 8
Peeta POV
I wake up and turn over onto my side. The other side of the bed is empty. Katniss is downstairs. I get up and walk downstairs. She is sitting on the couch. Just sitting, thinking. I walk up behind her and hover my face over hers.
"Good Morning." I say. It seems to have startled her. Then she looks up and my face. She giggles and reaches up for a kiss.
"Morning." She says crashing her lips into mine. Her warm kisses always make me smile. I'm glad to have her be known now as Katniss Mellark. My wife.
"Have you eaten already?" I ask walking over to sit by her. She leans her head on my shoulder and shakes her head. We sit there silent for a minute. Than Katniss sits up with a weird look on her face. One I have never seen on her face.
"Peeta, my stomach hurts." She says. "Can you go make me some tea?"
"Of course." I say and start to walk into the kitchen. I brew some tea and walk back into the living room. I had her the glass of tea and sit back down beside her.
"Thank you." She says.
"You're welcome Katniss." I say with a grin. She takes a sip of the tea and sets it down on the coffee table. Then her head resumes its place back on my shoulder. It feels so familiar sitting like this. Like we did this before. In the first games. She would rest her head on my shoulder when we would share the sleeping bag. I begin to remember many things. Hijacking things. I remember me and her sitting on the beach. I remember giving her a pearl. I wonder If she still has that. I remember being attacked by the mutts and almost dying, but she saved me. I've saved her before too. With the bread. She always said she felt like she owed me for that. My intentions for that were never to get anything in return. Except for maybe her love.
I remember before the games. When I would stare at her during history. See her in the hallways. I knew since the beginning I loved her. Since the first day of school.
That day I walked into the school with my hand in my dad's. I was five. We walked through the school until we reached my classroom. We walked into the classroom and I automatically felt nervous. I hadn't been in school before, but neither had anyone else. I didn't have any friends yet. I wanted to make friends. I had too. I looked around the room, and then my father said.
"She that little girl over there?" He was pointing at this little girl with dark brown hair. Her hair was in two little braids. She had a lovely red plaid dress on. She had olive skin. She was beautiful. "I wanted to marry her mother. But she ran off with a coal miner. I can see why though, because when he sang, all the birds stopped and listened.". Maybe even her voice would make the birds stop and listen. My father gave me a hug and told me he would see me later. Then he walked out of the classroom. Later on that day we sat in our classroom and told everyone our names. I learned that her name was Katniss. Next we went to Music class. Our teacher asked everyone if they knew the valley song. I didn't but when I looked over at Katniss, her hand shot right up in the air. The teacher asked if she would like to sing it for us. Katniss looked like she hesitated but said yes. The teacher grabbed a stool and told Katniss to stand on it and sing the song. When Katniss started to sing, I knew that I wanted to marry her someday.
The birds stopped chirping outside when she started to sing. I'm not sure if anyone else noticed, but I sure did.
As I was remembering all these things I also had some memories distorted. Because I got hijacked. I remember her trying to kill me. Many times. With the nightlock, cutting me with a sword, and leaving me to die. I dismissed these thoughts immediately though because I knew that they weren't real. Then I started to remember what she told me when we were on the mission to kill snow.
"You're still trying to protect me, real or not real?" I whispered.
"Real." She answered." Because that's what you and I do. Protect each other."
After a minute or so, I drifted asleep.
I remember all the good things Katniss has done for me. So much. She has saved me so many times. She and Finnick did during the Quarter Quell. When I ran into the force-field. I don't remember much tough, I wasn't breathing for a while. She saved me at least 3 times in our first hunger games. She saved me from Cato, she saved me from blood poisoning, and then she saved me from Cato again. I could never repay her for all of these things. But I knew she didn't want to be repaid for it. Just like how I didn't when I gave her the bread. I did it because I loved her. She did those things to protect me. Maybe she did love me then. I will never know unless I ask.
"Katniss," I say after a while of remembering.
"What, Peeta?" She asked.
"During the hunger games, our first one, did you ever thought that you loved me?" I asked.
"Well, I'm not really sure. I thought I might at times." She continued. " But what does it matter now? I love you now. And that I know is Real." She said. We sat there for a while until I got up to make food. We ate. She went hunting. I sketched. Talked to Haymitch. That night we both had a peaceful sleep. A good night's sleep.