Chapter Nine
Behind him he saw the brown haired girl who looked so tiny compared to his imperial form. He stood at 6'1 while she was only a measly 5'7.
"Yes dear?" his eyes shifted from the table where he held support from the mirror to the woman standing behind him.
"Was that your father?" she traced the lights of the electric portrait.
Snow sighed long and deep. "In all pretenses I suppose you could say that,"
"Whats that supposed to mean?" Katniss's yellow shirt brushed against his hand.
"Some things are better kept under lock and key," he lead her to their room.
She pulled away from his touch and got angry.
"Well I think I have a right to know now that I'm getting married to you!" Katniss snapped at him.
Snow contemplated for a minute and finally sighed long and burdened.
"I was not really born in the Capitol," he sat down on the couch with his head in his hands.
"What about your father..the first President Snow..." words left her.
He took her hands. "He adopted me. After killing my family in District 10," Snow half expected her to not care.
"I'm sorry. So you know.."
"What it's like? Indeed I do," his huge hands went to her face.
They laid together in the parlour taking silent solace in each other's company.
No words were said but their breathing and sighs.
Yet both knew what the other was thinking.
"What was District 10 like?" she asked.
"It was quite a poor district. Mainly a livestock district, but everyone knew each other and we all helped in our work. My father was a farmer and that man worked until the veins in his head looked about ready to pop out of his head," he laughed, this time it sounded genuine.
She laughed with him. "My papa was a good man too. He taught me everything he knew. How to hunt and sing and survive. He was..." Katniss stopped mid sentence.
"The reason you won the games?" Snow's left eyebrow raised.
"You could say that," she shrugged.
"She's a beautiful child," he looked over to Prim's sleeping form as her barely developed chest heaved up and down.
"She looks more like mom than I do. And she's quite a better person. Where I have a talent for hunting, she loves to heal. She picked up this ugly as shit cat once and insisted on taking care of it," Katniss rolled her eyes.
He kissed her lips gently while gripping the back of her head.
"Aren't you happy you agreed to save her?" Snow held her close as he broke away long enough to talk to her.
"That's the reason why I'm doing this," Katniss looked at him.
He turned his body away and sighed. "I understand..."
"The wedding is in a week," she looked idly at the clock on the wall.
"No doubt there will be a HUGE media spectacle. With Caesar Flickerman at the the helm. But I will try to reduce it to the best of my ability," his arms wrapped around the girl on fire's waist.
"Why am I welcoming your touch?" she looked at the clock.
"Maybe you're growing on me," he pondered hopefully.
Her form shook with laughter at the absurdity of it all, but then she wondered, was it really absurd? Or was she really growing on him?