I do not own The Hunger Games

Chapter Seven-Laughter, the Lake, and Lamb Stew.

(Katniss)

We were living the usual schedule, working on our book after breakfast. If I'm perfectly honest, I love the schedule. It keeps my mind off things, till I'm given my perfect opportunity to mull things over alone in the woods. Anyway, it was this morning that something new re-entered my life, laughter.

Peeta and I were working on the book and he was telling me a story about when he dropped a flour bag on the floor, and it exploded everywhere. All in his air and on his face, and he said that it touched every square inch of the room he was in. The thing that made it so funny was that he was trying to use hand gestures to explain the "explosion" and in that attempt he smeared his hands all over his face and through his hair. I was watching him and I guess the book has put me in a much better mood, so I started laughing.

I laughed like I hadn't laughed in years.

After the sound first escaped my mouth I slapped my hand to my face and my eyes widened in shock, I looked at Peeta like I had done something wrong and he took my hands off my face, a huge smile of surprise stretched across his face.

"No, no it's okay. You can laugh! You can laugh Katniss!"

His hair was a mess, and it sent a turn through my stomach and my heart rate sped up. I wasn't sure what that meant. But his smile, oh that smile, it was huge and showed every single one of his teeth. I hadn't seen it in so long, so I couldn't help it, I laughed again. I fell into his arms and laughed my head off, he held me and after a second he was laughing right along with me. After a minute when my laughing settled down he let me go and I leaned back in my chair.

"Okay one thing," he said with an exasperated sigh. "What was so funny?"

"Your face, your hair. Covered in flour." I chuckled again at remembering. "But what was really funny was the way you explained it with your hands." I said, laying his hair down with my hands. He laughed softly again, and locked his eyes with mine. I gazed into his blue eyes, once again seeing the dandelion form in my head, and that little bubble of hope moved around in my stomach again.

"Well, then that story most definitely has to go in the book, and we have to write down the details of your laugh. I've never heard anything like it."

Later that afternoon, I went hunting, but just as I was walking out the door Peeta grabbed my arm, turned me around, and placed a soft kiss on my lips. The hope tickled my insides again, and there was that other turn in my stomach again.

"See ya in a bit." He said and smiled with his lips.

I hugged him and was on my way.

I walked through town, and across the meadow; which was turning green again. I wondered how, because as far as I know, nobody has seeded it. I stopped at the fence, out of habit, and checked for the buzz, which of course, wasn't there. I think they are going to eventually take all the fences around the districts down, but they had more important things to do for now.

I decided to take the long trek to my father's lake. I hadn't been there in a while, plus I didn't want to go to the rock, I was tired of thinking about Gale. Once I reached the little house by the lake I thought of Bonnie and Twill. Two more people that died for me. I felt some more guilt, but I wondered if they maybe were still alive, living free in the woods. That'd be nice, they'd be safe, I knew it was unlikely, but I was trying to learn to have hope again. I sat by the lake for a long time, and mainly thought of my father. That great sorrow I'd felt for a long time was replaced by almost a thankfulness that he had been in my life, that I'd known him. Without him I would not know how to hunt, I would have been long dead, and even if I had made it, I would have never survived the hunger games. Also, his plant book is what gave me the idea for the memory book. For the next while my mind wondered around from happy memories to sad memories.

I had to lay down on the bank when I thought about Prim, it was still too much to handle.

Then I thought about Peeta. About the questions he asked me a few days ago. Did I love him before he was captured? Well of course. But was it romantic? There were those kisses, and the times I was so broken, so worthless when he was gone. I couldn't function. That had to be something deeper than me just caring about him like there was no tomorrow, of course at the time, tomorrow was a very uncertain thing.

I thought about the pearl. The one I still had in my pocket. I used to roll it over my lips when I missed Peeta. I took it from my pocket and held it in my hands, looking at its beauty. It reminded me of Finnick. I smiled remembering him swimming around like an idiot during the Quarter Quell.

I used to always hide behind the games, or even Gale when my feelings about Peeta were questioned. But the games were over, and Gale was gone, in two, probably kissing someone else. It's not that I wanted Gale like that, I didn't ever really. I just, it was still hard to think of him with someone else. Even if there wasn't anything romantic between us, Gale was still mine. He was my hunting partner, best friend, and a big reason my family and I lived through those years before my games. So much for not thinking about Gale today. Anyway, there was nothing to hide behind now. All that was out in the open were my feelings.

I decided to head back to house, because it was getting dark. I'd been there longer than I thought. Once inside, Peeta was in the kitchen as always. I sat down at the table and was hit by the amazing smell of my favorite foods.

"Lamb stew." I said with a smile.

"You've smiled a lot today."

"It's been a good day." I say truthfully.

"You know, my dad used to tell me about this. That after a bad thing happened, everything got better, you'd always have your bad days, but some days would almost feel like things were normal again."

I thought over my day. It was pretty normal. The pain when I woke up this morning hadn't been as bad; it had been easier to get up and downstairs. I had hummed a happy song my dad used to sing when we came home from hunting. I had laughed and smiled, and kissed Peeta. The only time things seemed bad was down by the lake, but I knew that was good for me, to think over things. Peeta was right, things may actually be improving. I'd never really be the same again, well to be honest; I'd never really feel like Katniss again, but I could be happy, if I tried really hard; if I set my mind to it.

I nodded at him and said, "Yeah, your right. You know we should take the leftovers down to Greasy and Callie."

He smiled, again, that has to be a new record, "Great idea."

He handed me a bowl of lamb stew and I thought back to that time in the war when he handed me a can of the stuff, it was one of his first real signs of Peeta coming back to me. So I absolutely loved lamb stew.

Thank you for reading you beautiful people! I will try to have the next chapter up soon, but I'm in school again so, just hang in there with me please! Remember to please review, and if you could tell me what you might like to see out of the story I'd love that! I have the main idea with what I'm going to do, but I'd love suggestions! (By the way, the next chapter will obviously be this from Peeta's POV, but I am also going to include their walk to Greasy Sae's and that night in his chapter!)