December 14

Peeta noticed the department store was quiet for having only 11 days left of the shopping season. That didn't bother him, though. Maybe it would make talking to Kat a little easier if she didn't have hoards of people trying to have their packages wrapped.

Peeta made his way to customer service where he hoped she would be working again today. "You have got to be kidding me?" He heard the all-too familiar voice before he saw her.

"The next day, Blondie? You couldn't have waited a little longer?" Jo was holding a pair of scissors and wrestling to wrap a very large box. "God, you are so obvious," she choked out between snorts as she continued to cut into a roll of sparkly red, Santa paper.

Any warmth Peeta had felt for Jo yesterday as he had exited the store had quickly faded by now. "Well, is she here?" he asked, his words laced with annoyance. It had taken a special amount of courage to come back the next day, and Peeta had hoped Kat would somehow see that.

"She's at lunch. Left about 5 minutes ago," Jo informed him.

"How long is lunch?" he wondered.

"One hour, but I don't mind entertaining you until she gets back." The screwy smile on Jo's face told Peeta exactly what she was thinking. "I can take a short break," she added, nodding her head in the direction of the store room.

"So, are you friends with Kat, or just co-workers?" Peeta asked her, choosing to ignore her comments.

"Why? You lookin' for information?"

"Just wondering how much time I'll have to spend with you if I can get Kat to go out with me," he replied truthfully.

"You seem pretty sure of yourself," Jo responded. "Look, you're hot and all, but that ain't exactly gonna float Kat's boat. Besides, what makes you think I'll tell you anything? What if you're a serial killer? Or a rapist?" Joe questioned.

Peeta rolled his eyes and scrubbed his face with hand, tired of getting nowhere in a very short span of time. "I'll come back later. When is your lunch break?"

"Why? You wanna buy me lunch?" Jo asked coyly.

"No, I wanna come back when you're not here," Peeta replied quickly with a smirk.

"I'll be a good little lunch date, I promise," Jo acted innocent, tucking her chin into her shoulder and batting her eyelashes. Peeta held a small battle in his head about what to do. On the one hand he needed to kill some time, and he was hungry. But on the other, did he really want to spend time with this girl?

I'm probably going to regret this, was the last thought he had before he spoke.

"You can go with me to lunch on one condition," he started.

"Name it," Jo ordered.

"Keep your lewdness to yourself?" Peeta challenged her.

"Never," Jo countered as she grabbed her small purse. "Well, now that we got that out of the way, let's go grab some grub!" Jo laced her arm through Peeta's and cackled at the way he rolled his eyes. "You're going to learn to love me, Blondie."

They walked across the street to a small diner and sat down in an empty booth. Peeta ordered a club sandwich and a water, while Jo ordered two rubens with fries and a large coke.

"Hungry?" Peeta asked, incredulous that such a small girl could eat that much food.

"Gotta have something to take home for dinner, and since you're paying and all…" Jo winked at him as she let her words trail off.

"I don't think I said that," Peeta replied.

"You didn't... I did." Peeta didn't know whether to love this girl or hate her for her no nonsense attitude.

"So, you're into Kat?" Jo started off their conversation by getting straight to the point.

"I think she's gorgeous, and I would be lying if I said I didn't want to ask her out," Peeta said.

"Well, here's something you should know first," she offered as Peeta leaned in closer, intent on learning anything that could help him win the elusive girl's affections. "Kat's a tough nut to crack. She's had it rough and doesn't tend to trust people too much," she offered.

"Oooo-kaaaaay," Peeta drew out his word, inviting Jo to continue.

"Just don't be all smother-y. Kat's going to take some time warming up to you. To anyone, really. I've known her for six years and I still have to pry things out of her. But, she's totally worth it for anyone who wants to put up the patience to get to know her."

Jo's admission of Kat had Peeta even more excited about this girl. He had laid in bed the night before, unable to retreat the thoughts from his mind of her silver eyes and the way her hair flowed down around her shoulders and arms as she had wrapped the package he had brought her. If he really wanted this girl, then he had better listen to Jo's advice.

"Oh, and another thing," Jo shared in between gulps of her soda, "she hates being called Kat. I'm the only one that can get away with it. Her name is Katniss."

Katniss. Peeta let the thought of saying her name over and over roll off the tip of his brain. He liked it. No, he loved it.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Okay, I have to share something. Every time I start to write that Katniss "wraps his package" I laugh really hard. I've done it twice and then had to go back and change it. I thought about just leaving it to see if anyone else got a kick out of it, but in the end I decided not to make this story too corny. It reminds me of the drawing floating around on Tumblr of Peeta with mittens. Lol!

I haven't bothered my beta girls with any of this, so sorry for mistakes. I mean, how hard can it be to get 700 words right? I should rethink writing fic's if I can't get a drabble correct! Anyway, they are about to beta my almost 10k word PiP submission for Holiday Everlark. T - you had no idea it was so long, did you? What freedom were talking about? *wink*

Thanks for reading! Please review! Hope you likey!