Chapter Twelve

Basking in the Afterglow

They lay together for several minutes as their hearts and breath settled down. Katniss stroked her fingers through his damp hair and his breath puffed hot against her neck. She felt an overwhelming sense of contentment and she gave in to the urge to warp her arms around him and just hug him. He snuggled into her embrace and even though the position they were in was starting to get uncomfortable, she was loath to let him go.

Just as she opened her mouth to ask him to shift over, her stomach gave a loud rumble. Her mortified gasp and Peeta's chuckle was cut off by an answering rumble from Peeta's stomach.

They both snorted with laughter at that, the leisurely after sex mood officially broken. Peeta shook his head and looked at her with dancing blue eyes.

"I guess it's been awhile since we ate."

"Yeah." Katniss agreed. Peeta pulled out of her, causing them both groan at the loss of connection. He got out of bed, padded to the bathroom to dispose of the condom then reached for his jeans when he returned to the room.

"I'll order us some food from the deli while you call Posy." He said, reaching for the phone on the dresser. Katniss nodded, moaning softly as she sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed. She caught the t-shirt Peeta threw to her with a smile of thanks. She slipped it over her head, grabbed her purse and went into the bathroom while Peeta ordered their food. "Can you call the hospital and check on Haymitch, too?"

Peeta nodded and she closed the door. Katniss dug her phone out of her purse and pulled up Hazelle's number. Before she pressed call, her eyes fell on her bare legs and the fact that she was wearing Peeta's shirt. She had the sudden thought that she should go out and at least put her underwear back on, if not get fully dressed.

They can't see you through the phone, she reminded herself. But that didn't stop her from worrying that Hazelle was just going to know what she'd been up too. Pushing that disturbing thought out of her head, she connected the call.

"You could just stay here for the night, Katniss. No need to spend the money on a room if you don't have too." Katniss heard just a hint of disapproval in her mother in laws voice after she explained what had happened. She barely managed to stifle a sigh.

"It's ok, Hazelle. We're going to head back to the house as soon as Cray clears it tomorrow. I'll get Post from school. Can I speak to her?"

Hazelle hesitated just long enough to let Katniss know that she was displeased before calling Posy to the phone.

Kat rolled her eyes in irritation. It was perfectly fine for Hazelle to arrange for Peeta to sleep in Katniss' house with just herself and Posy there, but it wasn't okay for Katniss to sleep at a boarding house on his dime? Seriously? Granted, after what she and Peeta had just done, she could say Hazelle didn't really have a right to be less than pleased.

Guilt niggled at her, but she refused to let it take hold.

"Hi mommy!" She let Posy's voice take away the rest of her discomfort.

"Hey baby. You've had a busy weekend, huh?"

"Yes! Gramma says we can watch Tangled before I take my bath. And I'm gonna stay here for the night. Is Mr. Haymitch ok? She said there was an accident." Her rapid-fire speech made Katniss' head spin but she couldn't help but smile.

"Haymitch will be fine, Posy." She'd heard the worry in her young girls sweet voice and she wanted to reassure her. "There was a fire in the barn, but he got out."

Posy gasped and Katniss could just imagine her daughter's stricken face. "The horses, mommy?"

"They're fine, too, sweetie."

"I love you mommy." Posy sounded relieved, but her voice sounded much softer than before.

"I love you too, baby. I'll pick you up after school tomorrow, ok?"

"Ok, mommy."

"Goodnight, baby. Be good."

"I will. Goodnight."

Katniss sighed as her daughter disconnected. She'd never lied to her daughter when she asked her questions. She just didn't see the point. She might filter her answers, but she never lied. She hated hearing the worry in Posy's voice, but it was better to hear the truth from her mother before the exaggeration she'd probably hear at school.

"How's Posy?" Peeta asked when she walked out of the bathroom and tossed her phone back in her purse. Peeta handed her a water bottle he must have walked down to the vending machine for which she took gratefully. She took a long pull before answering.

"She's ok. A little worried, but fine."

"You know, Rye would have kept her tonight."

"I couldn't impose on Rye and Delly that way. Hazelle's her grandmother. She already has a space set up for Posy."

"It wouldn't have been an imposition. The girls are thick as thieves now. And he knows…" Peeta trailed off, suddenly looking shy. It was strangely endearing on a man nearing thirty.

"How you feel about me." She finished quietly. He nodded.

"We're family, Katniss." He told her softly. Her lips curved up at this.

"Yeah." She agreed, her fingers pulling at the label on her bottle. Then, a memory long buried after Gale's accident and the years that had passed since, popped in her brain. She narrowed her eyes and looked at Peeta. "Did Gale know?"

Of all the things she might have expected, his loud guffaw of laughter wasn't it.

"Damn, you are clueless." He chuckled, shaking his head. She glared at him as her scowl slipped onto its proper place.

"So, that story about the two of you both tripping over the same log while hunting was bullshit, I presume."

"Well, yeah." He looked sheepish and he ran a hand over the back of his neck.

Katniss remembered that day. They'd been gone for hours, much longer than a normal hunt. Calls to cell phones had gone unanswered and neither Hazelle nor Peeta's brothers knew where they were. Katniss was just about to call Cray and threaten him to get a search party together when they'd both stumbled in. Bloody and stitched up, Peeta with a broken nose and two black eyes, Gale with stitches across his cheek and a sprained finger. Both of them two sheets to the wind.

Katniss had been so mad. She'd know the story was bullshit. Of course she did. She'd just let it go as some male bonding thing and rolled her eyes. Then cussed them both out proper for worrying her.

"You two were idiots." She decided with a snort.

"Yeah, probably." Silence stretched between them, the memory of Gale suddenly almost a physical presence in the room. She wondered how long his specter would haunt them, hoping he would find peace now that his two favorite people had found each other. A knock on the door had them both jerking in surprise. "There's the food."

Katniss nodded, sitting on the edge of the bed as Peeta dealt with the delivery boy. Her mind wandered again, to another memory. This one almost insignificant, barely a blip on the radar of her life, forgotten almost as soon as it happened.

"I don't get it. Why is he always hanging around?" Katniss glared at the back of the tow headed boy as he pondered the jukebox selections. They were sitting in Sae's Diner, splitting a plate of fries and sipping on cokes. Peeta had as usual been at Gale's house when she'd gotten off work. "Shouldn't he be at the bakery, baking something?"

"Calm down, Catnip. Mellark's all right." Gale said, bumping her arm with his elbow.

When football season began and both boys became starters on the team, the two boys became friends.

Katniss wanted to argue with Gale's statement, but of course she couldn't. Because Peeta was all right. And for some reason it irritated her.

"Just be nice. Or as nice as you can manage." Gale snorted when Katniss punched his arm.

"Don't worry, Gale. I'd probably die of shock if Kat did anything but scowl at me." Katniss jolted when Peeta slid back into the booth opposite them.

Gale chuckled as Peeta grinned and shot Katniss a wink. For some reason, that wink and the twinkle in his blue eyes had a rare grin flash across Katniss' face.

"Oh my god, an actual smile. Damn, Catnip. You're getting soft."

Katniss snorted and threw a ketchup-laden fry at both boys. Well she tried. Gale grabbed her hand before she could and ate his from her fingers, sucking the ketchup off with a smile. Peeta merely deflected the one she flung at him, carefully wrapping it in a napkin and avoiding the spectacle across from him.

"Yeah, well. Don't get used to it." She grumbled.

"Wouldn't dream of it," Peeta assured her, leveling those deep blue eyes on her. She pretended she didn't feel her breath hitch and gave him another small smile.

After that day, the three had become inseparable.

"Katniss, foods here." Peeta shut the door and set the bags on the small table by the door. She shook off the memory and stood up, stretching as she did so. The hem of his shirt rode up, exposing the high part of her thigh. Peeta stared appreciatively.

"You are so beautiful."

Katniss felt a hot blush flood her face and the rush of pleasure his comment caused. She shook her head and waved his comment off. Peeta smirked at her embarrassment but didn't insist.

"Haymitch is resting. Effie said that they sedated him when he started to shake, demanding his flask." They shared a look at that, both knowing that the days in the hospital and forced sobriety would be hard for the old man.

"Did he talk to Cray?"

"Yeah. They are looking for Thread." Katniss took a deep breath and nodded. Peeta started to unpack the food; two large roast beef sandwiches, the potato chips the deli was famous for, thick kosher pickles and a half-gallon of lemonade.

Katniss watched him as he pulled paper plates and cups out of separate bag. She watched the bunch and pull of his muscles under his skin when he turned away to put the bags to the side. The movements reminded her of that day she'd ogled him chopping wood. She felt that same pull towards him even though they'd just made love.

"You know, when we were teenagers, you couldn't say one of our names without the other. Gale, Katniss and Peeta. Peeta, Katniss, Gale. They three of us, inseparable." He smiled as he started sorting the food out and pouring the lemonade.

"Yeah. Peeta forever the third wheel." He said with a laugh.

"You always made me so nervous. And I never understood why."

"I did?" This seemed to be news to him and he paused in his movements to contemplate that. He smiled after a second as if he liked that idea.

""Yes. All the time. You'd come in the room and I couldn't help looking at you. My heart would thud and I could feel myself blushing. It got better over time but I couldn't ever fully relax around you." Peeta's smile faded and his brows drew together. She saw realization flash in his face.

"I think," she continued, moving over to him to stand close, her grey eyes meeting his. "I think I've always felt this way. Since the bread. You helped us when we needed it. Without expecting anything in return."

Peeta's eyes bugged and she swore she saw a hint of red tint the ends of his ears. "You know about that?"

"We all did. All of us in the Seam knew. But you and your father didn't want any acknowledgement." She reached out and clasped one of his large hands in both of hers, the warmth and steadiness of his palm and fingers seeping into her. The comfort of it sparking heat in her blood,

"Katniss, I was an 11 year old walking with his large blond father pulling a red wagon full of bread in the Seam. I wasn't exactly stealthy." Katniss chuckled at the image he painted.

"Yeah. I guess not. But you never sought attention or asked for anything. And you stuck with me."

"Katniss, what are you saying?"

Katniss studied his face, saw his feelings for her shining in his gaze as well as hesitant hope. She'd partially admitted it to him before, combining her feelings in with what she'd always felt for Gale. But she hadn't said the words for him alone. They had just joined their bodies, something he'd probably never thought would happen. As she looked at him, she realized what she always knew. This was always meant to happen.

Something about that knowledge freed her, let her feel lighter than she had in a long time, despite the drama surrounding her now. She felt wild and free and somehow grounded and safe at the same time. A smile pulled at her mouth, wide and beautiful and she watched Peeta's chest hitch at the sight of it.

"I think," she started, then shaking her head, the action making her dark hair dance around her shoulders. " I know I've loved you since the beginning."

Peeta's fingers tightened on hers, a look of disbelief on his handsome face. He closed his eyes, hiding their beautiful expressiveness from her. She held her breath, waiting, nervous around him yet again.

When he opened his eyes to look at her, there was dampness in them that belied the blazing heat emanating from the blue depths. He moved toward her, his arms wrapping around her waist.

"I'll love you 'til the end." He rasped before his lips claimed hers in a hot, hungry kiss. They didn't eat their dinner until much later.

A/N-I hope I didn't retread over any old ground on this one, but I guess I like it. Lol. I hope you all do too.

Oh and if anyone gets the ancient 90's tv reference, I will be properly impressed. I'll reveal next chappy for those that don't get it. It's paraphrased to fit the scene, but it's close to the original it's drawn from.

Also, I wanted to shout out to some incredible authors that I'm very humbled to be quasi associated with. CR Roberts-if you hate the bachelor, you will still ADORE Panem's Most Eligible. Mockingjayflyingfree-The Miner's Wife is perfection. It's the kind of writing I want to do when I grow up. (and I think I'm older than her. lol), GraphiteGirl Five to Twelve quickly became a favorite and I look forward to updates every week. I love her Rye Mellark. She should write a story just for him. GreenWool- Running Dry even though I think I'm a little afraid of how its going to end, I love it. There are more, but I'd be here all day. I just wanted to let you all know that your writing skills are something that I aspire to everyday. Thank you for your contributions. Jypz/Lisa