A/N: Right about now you're wondering where my head is; I'm not sure. I promise, less of these crazy un-Hunger Game universe ones. Just these for tonight. -Taryn

05: Curse (AU-ish)

"How did you know?" I asked, rolling to him.

Peeta tilted his head down toward mine and considered me for a moment, eyes wandering about my face. "I was passing through southern territory, in District Ten, when a strange mist enclosed me. A creature came, tall, and pale, and with–"

"The most mournful face!" I said, and laughed.

He smiled, too. Slow, loving. "You know of what I speak?"

I told him of the freed mutations after the rebellion hundreds of years ago and of how they've grown strange, developed abnormal, and Peeta nodded. "He is of the ancient folk."

"Yes."

Peeta grinned. "He showed me that day, in the cave."

I rebuked some at the implication. My mind ran through everything that had happened to me concerning caves and Peeta, and inevitably, rooted into my most unforgettable memories was our first Hunger Games. I wondered what he was shown; the kisses, the deceit, my head wound? Even now, after all these years, and all that had happened (and even now, lying naked, with this man), I still felt stunted as easily as a girl at that memory.

"Now that is a memory to treasure," Peeta said, kissing my neck, my shoulder, his voice light and teasing. "Our first kiss.. you, the girl I'd been in love with since I was five taking care of me. All those things I said by accident, fevered induced. Heating each other up from the cold and rain with our bodies..."

"Careers howling for our blood." I did not smile, for my mind had jumped then to that moment later, when Peeta had lost his leg to the mutts, and of the war, Mockingjays, and District 13..

Peeta was looking at me, his smile gone, but his face still relaxed. "They aren't here now."

"But they—"

"Shush," he said. "That does not matter. Not here, not now."

"Peeta," I said, my voice cracking, trying to sound more in control, but he gathered me tight, and held me, and I knew then that whatever I said, whoever else I had loved or lost, whatever other life we were doomed to live, this man would always be... would, quite simply, always be.

Later, after we had made love again, I looked over Peeta's shoulder, and laughed.

"What?" he said, rolling off me. Then he jumped, using his hands to cover his nakedness, and I laughed the harder, not bothering to hide mine.

We were encircled by a type of mutt I knew well, a small, white bodied creature with copper colored fur, and the brightest most brilliant grey-blue-gold eyes. They nosed the grass and peered at me; they knew me well, from hunting, I had always shared my entrails with them; it was not as if they knew I was otherwise preoccupied. "They are happy," I said. Then I added, and where these words came from I have no idea, "They are our children."

I waited to see Peeta grow anguished at the mention of our long dead children, but he did not.

"Then they should be in bed," was all he said, tartly, and I rolled over, my sides aching now with my laughter, and the mutts scattered at the loud sound.

And then, yet more time later, Peeta had decided to ignore the forest about us, with its strange creatures, and began a long, slow, sensual stroking of my body. I loved it. I sighed, and arched my back, and begged him never to stop.

"Will you do something for me?" he said.

"Anything," I groaned, "so long as you complete here what you have begun."

He lowered his head, and ran his tongue about one of my nipples, and I clutched at his hair, and thought I would die with the strength of my wanting. "Next time," he whispered, lifting his mouth momentarily, agonizingly, "will you promise not to give up on me? Make me remember. I forget.. every time.. and I don't want to, Katniss. You watch over this land, will you shelter me, too?"

"Peeta..."

"Promise this to me."

"Yes. You did not have to ask."

He grinned, moving his head just enough that his tongue could now draw the other nipple deep into his mouth. For a long moment there was no talk, only the soft sound of my moan, and his heavy breathing.

"Then my future is assured," he whispered, and he moved, pivoting across my body, burying his hands tight in my hair, his face only inches from mine. "The mournful creature showed me many things." His body was moving over mine now, and my legs, of their own accord, parted under his weight.

"Yes?" I whispered.

"Of how we are cursed."

"As everyone."

He smiled, but only briefly, his body moving very slowly, very teasingly atop mine.

I wriggled, trying to tempt him inside, but for the moment he stayed a breath away from entering me. "The creature showed me more than the past."

"Yes?" That was more moan than inquiry.

"How Snow one day, too, will be reborn."

"Yes." Then I had a sudden, horrible thought that I could hardly bear, and my body fell still beneath his. "Peeta–"

He kissed the tip of my nose. "I know," he said. "I know that he'll use me, like he did before. And I know how it will damage me, and I am content enough with that. What I am upset about is you. Don't let it hurt you, okay?" He was staring at me, boring his eyes straight in mine. "It won't be me. Kill me when he uses me. Okay? You couldn't kill me when I was the baker's son and you were from the Seam, but when this time comes... kill me."

"What if you don't come back?" I breathed.

"Promise this."

"I just promised you I'd shelter you!" I objected, whispering harshly, rather than shouting. I tried to fight the natural scowl which took over my expression, but it won.

"Yes, me," he said. "Not when I'm Snow's creature."

"How will I know the difference?"

"I'll be howling for your blood."

The conversation was depressing me. "That isn't until–"

"I know," said Peeta, smiling again, the skin around his eyes crinkling slightly. "This is a long path you travel, my love. A long way to go."

"I can han–."

"Real or not real.." I was silent. His smile died, and the sadness in it was stunning. "You killed yourself?"

I was shocked for a moment, particularly irritated at the mutt he'd talked to. What had he seen? I knew my own extent of what would've been shown.. but.. "Peeta.."

"You couldn't handle that, could you?"

"I.." was out of words. Then I found my old spunk and snapped, "The kids were grown and gone. You were gone. Haymitch.. Gale... Primrose.. everyone.. I was old and useless..."

Peeta dropped his face to the side and nuzzled my neck. I stared passed his head. "We would have waited. We were waiting for you. You didn't have to hurry.."

I bit into my cheek, and my hands moved on their own accord across his back and around his shoulders, tracing lines into his new skin, unscarred, and unburned. "I needed you. I didn't think you were impatient. I was."

I felt the smile against my neck before he pulled back to look me in the face and knew he'd let it go; it was the past after all, and considering how many times we'd had this same conversation in a more recent past, he couldn't hold onto the grudge.

"Oh, sweet odds, now I've made you cry!"

I started to laugh through my tears, and, determining that I'd had enough of his teasing, I pulled him down and into me. "At least you will never hear me say 'No!' again!"

"I love you." And we made love well until dark.