Standing on the rooftop
There's all these people watching
Hard to find the words
When you got so far to fall
Just trying to keep a secret
And never tell a soul no no
Take another drink so
I can loose control

I
I want you to
tell me that you want me, just want me too

Dave Matthews Band- Rooftop.

Winter

By: Cassandraishere.

I do not own the Hunger Games.

This was inspired by one too many romantic comedies set in Christmas time. Enjoy

December was a tough month for District Twelve, it bared heavy blizzards and long dark bitter nights. People grew ill easier and food became scarce. There wasn't any game to hunt, not that Katniss needed to hunt anymore. She was a victor now, filled to the brim with riches. She was in need of nothing, she hungered no more nor did she grow cold. Her house was equipped with all commodities known to man. She could survive the harsh winter easily as she wallowed in the darkness in her heart.

On this particular evening Katniss sat at the kitchen table helping her sister Prim pack up her medical supplies with their mother. The Everdeen healers had lots of work to see. They had hundreds of frostbitten citizens to tend to, flues to medicate, and hypothermia to spot. It seemed as if everyone was busy this winter. Her family had the sick to tend to, Haymitch had alcohol to drink, Peeta had bread to bake and people to help, and Gale had a mine to work at. Katniss had nothing else to do than observe Peeta's coming and goings. On more than one occasion she found herself watching him shovel snow.

Their fingers worked fast for the supplies were packed quickly. Her mother and sister pulled on their coats and wrapped themselves in their scarves. They were gone in a matter of minutes.

Katniss momentarily considered visiting Haymitch but quickly decided against it. He was probably unconscious by now among the furs he had draped strategically across his living room. They were there for his comfort, he blacked out so often because of alcohol that he had premeditated a way to prevent any muscle aches.

Instead she settled in her own living room with a hot mug of tea among her own sea of furs. There was nothing else for her to do but sit and think.

She wished she had something to occupy her time with, something of use. She couldn't carry out her trade and had no other useful skills. She could patch up a roof to prevent a leak but the snow was too heavy now among the rooftops for her to put that skill to any use.

She wondered what Peeta did.

He seemed very busy, and she knew that he was using his time to help the members of District Twelve on their time of need. He left early in the morning and returned close to midnight. She couldn't imagine what could possibly take that long.

It was near midnight and Katniss considered making another pot of tea. She was fighting sleep as she set down the kettle when someone knocked on her door. She froze for a second, puzzled. She never had any visitors, other than the occasional patient of her mother's no one ever came to her door. She was prepared to give directions to her old house in the Seam when she opened her door to an unsuspected sight.

Peeta Mellark stood on her doorstep with snowflakes in his hair.

He wore an expression similar to her own; dark bags under his eyes and heavy eyelids he fought to keep from drooping. She wrapped her arms around her shoulders at the sudden chill that escaped into the house since they stood staring at each other for an unmeasurable moment.

She was startled by an unfamiliar flip of her stomach and the stuttering her heart gave as she was sucked into his indigo eyes.

"I have all this left over bread," he explained and motioned towards a paper bag in his hand. He cleared his throat "I figured you could have some use for it."

Katniss took the bag he offered and peaked inside. It was an assortment of different loaves. They all looked hearty; they would make for a good meal. She smiled her thanks.

"Thank you, Peeta. You really didn't have to."

He shrugged "It was no issue, I bake too much." He began to turn towards his house. There was a single path of footsteps from across the street to her doorstep. His footsteps, fresh and new, it was as if it were only him and her in the world.

Only then did she notice the way he shivered. His cheeks were bright red as was his nose; his lips were looking a little too pale for her liking.

She reached to grasp his upper arm before he turned away from her, startling him. He turned to look at her questionably. She tugged on him lightly, pulling him inside "Would you like to stay? You're freezing and we're due for a blizzard soon, I wouldn't want you to be stuck in your house by yourself."

He began to decline her offer when she pulled on him with more force "It won't be a bother, Peeta. Come in, please."

He hesitated momentarily but nodded nevertheless. She closed the door quickly behind him as he pulled off his snow boots and shrugged off his coat shedding snow as he went.

She hurried to fetch him a mug of tea and he quietly followed her into the kitchen. He looked about the room curiously, his kitchen was fairly similar to her own, yet he seemed focused on the small details; suck as the embellishment on the kitchen rags and the drying herbs.

"No sugar." He said softly, his voice a deep rumble that sent an odd shock through her body "Sugar makes it taste funny, don't you think?"

She smiled "Funny is accurate, yes"

He chuckled at that, it was a nice sound, warm and deep and happy. Katniss herself didn't smile or laugh often, but seeing Peeta smile made her lips curve up as well.

She handed him his mug and ushered him into her living room, practically smothering him in the warm furs. He laughed lightly at her as she buzzed about attempting to bring the room to a warm enough temperature.

"I'm fine, Katniss. I'm not sure if you've realized this, but I grew up in District Twelve as well, I'm sure I can survive winter." He grinned as she stopped in her tracks to stare at him with her hands on her hips. He found her expression adorable, especially when she pouted like that.

Katniss sighed and shook her head, a smile tugging at her lips "You're right. I'm sorry; I just wanted to do something useful…"

Peeta patted the spot beside him on the couch "And babying me is all you had? Should I come here more often?"

Katniss laughed as she settled among the furs beside him and picked up her mug from the coffee table "I believe this is more of a once in a blue moon thing. Don't strain your luck."

Peeta sucked on his teeth "Damn, I was hoping this had more to do with my breathtaking appearance."

They both burst out laughing, honest full laughter that destroyed any tension between them. They turned and positioned themselves so that they sat crossed-legged facing each other, the fires flickering warm light danced across their features highlighting the laughter in their eyes and the almost permanent upwards curl of Peeta's lips. He informed her of mundane occurrences in their District, such as the birth of a new child or the shoemaker's shortage of boots. His voice was deep and musical, efficiently drawing her in and having her hanging on every word. They had never spoken like this before, like friends. It was easy and comfortable, like breathing. Topics continued pouring out for them one after the other. They actually spoke over each other on more than one occasion, both giddy to speak, as if they would never speak to each other again. Katniss found herself telling him about her most recent hunting trip, how disappointed she was to see that it was the time of year for animals to immigrate elsewhere. Peeta was telling her about Rye's latest conquest and Katniss laughed, saying that Rye had to be dating every woman in the District again since must have gone through all of them already. As Peeta shook his head mockingly a large curl of his golden hair fell before his eyes, Katniss was smoothing it away before he had time to reach up to touch it himself.

Katniss' breath caught in her throat as her fingers lingered and ran across his cheek, electrifying warm radiating from the spot she touched him, raising Goosebumps along her arm. Peeta's stare held hers, boring deep into her soul and holding her there, with her heart stuttering and her cheeks flaming. The darkness of her skin looked nice blushing, in Peeta's opinion. She dropped her hand and looked away, reaching for the tea pot and offering him a refill.

He shook his head "I'm fine, thanks."

They were silent for two long minutes as Katniss drank from her tea. Peeta watched her the whole time, before shaking his head to clear his mind.

"How's Prim doing lately?" he asked carefully and conversation erupted again both attempting desperately to put the awkwardness behind them.

"We've got much more snow than usual, it's even seeped into the boots Cinna made for me." Katniss informed him while dropping a much too large –to Peeta's standards- spoonful of sugar into her tea. "I have no idea how I'm supposed to dry the stuff and not ruin it."

Peeta poked her side playfully "Katniss Everdeen cares about what state her clothes are in? What a revelation."

Katniss laugh evolved into snorting "Oh, shut it."

They sat in comfortable silence for a minute or two, simply watching each other. Such an action would be uncomfortable with any other person but each other, they did it often enough. Peeta studied the depth of her silver eyes and Katniss counted his eyelashes. Was it normal for a man to have such long eyelashes? The fire cast their shadow along his cheekbones and for some reason she found them fascinating. Her eyes flashed, for once they were clear to him, as if she wasn't hiding anything and was simply sitting there, wide open. He could see forever in her intelligent eyes, it was as if the grey color of her eyes evolved the longer he looked at her.

Eventually he yawned while Katniss was in the middle of complaining about being useless. He rubbed his right eye and leaned back in his seat. He didn't want to fall asleep; he was perfectly content spending the night talking with her but the human body can only take so much sleep deprivation. He put his cup on the coffee table and dreaded the words about to come out of his mouth, but he never got to voice them, she cut him off.

"You don't have to leave." She murmured softly "I don't want to sleep, you don't want to sleep, and you may as well stay. I could get coffee or something."

He chuckled and shook his head "Your mother will be home soon and I'm sure she'd object us staying up all night."

Katniss sighed and nodded following him to the door, she watched him lace up his boots and button up his jacket.

"Good night, Peeta." She said with obvious reluctance.

He smiled and nodded "Good night."

Only they were both in for a surprise when Peeta pulled open the door.

Snow was blocking the doorway.

Peeta let out a low whistle "That's new."

Katniss gaped at the snow "I didn't think that was even possible."

"Well I guess I'm staying here." Peeta concluded as he tugged off his wool cap and looked over the snow once more "So a blizzard, huh?"

Katniss cracked a smile "Come on, we'll play chess or something. Coffee?"

"I'm in." he nodded and closed the front door.

It was now two in the morning and Katniss was being royally beat by Peeta in probably the shortest chess match of all time. She was no good at board games, they involved too much planning and Katniss had always been the type of person to act on instinct. Peeta was very good at chess; he had always been good at planning after all.

He looked up from his coffee; he took it with a half-and-half serving of milk and coffee. The exact same way as Katniss did, to her surprise, with a ridiculous amount of sugar. He didn't really like sweets that much but coffee was a very bitter drink. He looked at her with a smug smirk and leaned back in his seat.

"You're trapped, Everdeen?"

Katniss glared at him and ended up smiling "Shut up." She rolled one of the few pawn's she'd managed to get from him between her forefinger and thumb. Every single move she could produce would end up in an opening for him to say that word, 'checkmate'.

Finally she gave up, and reluctantly moved her knight, already knowing she would lose. Peeta laughed at her expression and very softly leaned over to whisper "Checkmate."

She glared "You cheated."

"Did not!" he raised his eyebrows and had to try really hard to hold in his laughter.

"Did too!" she grinned and shook her head "no more chess then."

He had to laugh now "Okay Katniss."

They sat there starring at each other "I like this." She said with a curt nod.

"Like what?" he asked as he cleared the table from the game pieces.

"This." She motioned at the air between them "Us like this."

He raised his eyebrow "Trapped in your house because of an abnormal amount of snow? I object."

She smiled "No. I meant, Katniss and Peeta, the friendship edition."

"You make us sound like some sort of product."

She rolled her eyes "Could you be serious for a minute?"

He gave her a look "No, I believe I can't." he smiled and wiggled his eyebrows while looking cross-eyed.

"I'm being serious, Peeta." She said with an air of finality "We should do this more often."

He smiled kindly at her "We should." He stood "Come on, let's do something else."

They ended up on the couch together again, sitting closely since the furs could only cover so far. Peeta leaned back, his eyes falling shut every now and then as Katniss hummed a forgotten tune under her breath trying to keep her mind occupied. She had to stay awake; she had to stop staring at the angular shape of Peeta's jaw, or the gentle curve of his lips.

"I haven't slept well in forever." He said as his eyes fluttered open. Every time she looked at them it was like a shock to her of pure electricity. They were just so pure, clear, electrifying, and deeply blue; such a startling shade of indigo, so bright in this world of darkness.

"I haven't slept well either." She admitted and without thinking laid her head on his shoulder, she stifled a yawn.

"Nightmares." Both of them stated at the same time.

She glanced back up at him. His eyes were closed again, his golden hair falling in loose messy curls, hair sticking out in odd directions. He looked nice. Katniss guessed that he was attractive, she wasn't blind. She hadn't paid much attention to him before, because she had never been this close to him in such a relaxed matter, she had never had much time to analyze him. But now she did, and he was handsome indeed.

"Stop looking at me, it's impolite." Peeta teased with a grin, his eyes still closed "What would Effie say?"

"Oh, don't remind me of her." She cringed "she might materialize or something."

He snorted "Peeta, comb your hair, this is a gala." He said in a high pitched voice.

"Katniss, smile! And do not slouch young lady!" Katniss grinned, her own impression of Effie hitting closer to the original.

They laughed and tried not to think about the guarantee of seeing Effie again, when their mentoring duties were to be put into action. The Quarter Quell was coming up and they didn't want to know what fresh hell was waiting for them around the corner. Instead they snuggled closer to each other and wrapped the furs around them tighter.

"Peeta, lay down." She commanded "We're sleeping here."

He frowned and opened his eyes to look at her "Wha-"

"Shh, I'm tired, just sleep." She pushed him gently and laid her head on his chest. Automatically he wrapped his arms around her "Good night, Peeta"

"Good night, Katniss." He yawned.

By the time the rest of the Everdeen women got home it was well into the next day, past two in the afternoon. A group of miners had offered to take them home and help shovel the snow off their doorway, a way of thanks for taking care of their children. Prim leapt into the house, shedding her gloves and scarf as she called out to her sister, saying something about needing to gather more herbs. They had their work cut out for them.

She stopped short when she found her sister, still asleep, wrapped around Peeta so close their noses touched and there was no way to know where she ended and he began. There was no way she would wake them, they both needed the rest and could probably do without the awkwardness of having her there when consciousness came.

Instead of saying anything, the oldest of the three Everdeen women grabbed another blanket of fur and draped it over them. Gently she combed hair off both of their faces and mumbled a silent "Sweet dreams." Before guiding Prim out of the room and closing the living rooms French doors behind her.

Let them have this silent and sweet moment for them, alone.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review.

Cassandraishere.