Author's Note: Honestly, I love the plot in this chapter, but I don't like the way it turned out. It's written in a horrible way, I admit that. I don't know why, though. So I love it and loathe it at the same time. Let me know what you think, even though I don't think that anybody here reads these Author's Notes anyway... I could as well write my credit card pin number here...

Chapter Ten

Dinner with Gale and Johanna is good, if a little messy. Peeta does most of the conversation; Johanna does most of the eating and Gale does his best to be a polite guest and get interested in Peeta's drawings. I do my best to talk with Johanna about babies and pregnancies and to avoid questions about my future children. All in all, it is an enjoyable evening and I am glad that they are here. It is nice to have someone our own age and that we know so well right here in District 12, even if it is only for a short time. In the evening, they don't leave too late, Johanna has to rest, even though she is the one who doesn't want to go.

The moment they leave I finally notice something. My mother is still not back from wherever Peeta said she was. Effie's, apparently.

"What were you saying about Effie?" I ask him, as I collect dirty dishes from the table. "Is my mother at the hotel with her?"

Peeta turns on the water and starts to wash the pans and glasses with a good dose of soap. "I guess so," he replies, "she had a nervous breakdown this afternoon, while you were still in the woods. She called from the hotel, I honestly couldn't understand a word she was saying." He grabs the dishes from my hands and puts them in the sink. "She was crying and then said something about your mother, asking if she still was a doctor and she said that she needed a doctor." He passes me soapy dishes and I rinse them. "Your mother took the phone from my hand, she knew it was a nervous breakdown straight away and was on her way with a calm look on her face, so I didn't think too much of it." He stops what he is doing and looks out of the window. "Now that she is not back, yet, I am starting to get a little worried, though."

I am worried too, what could have been so serious that required my mother to stay there all this time? I decide to go to the hotel in case my mother is not back before we finish the dishes. "What were you saying about Haymitch?" I ask, placing the rinsed dishes on the counter to dry.

Peeta looks at me and smiles. "I can't believe you haven't noticed it," he replies, "he's been missing for two days."

"Missing?" I ask. "What do you mean 'missing'?"

"Gone, disappeared," he says, "I can't find him."

I raise my eyebrows. "Are you sure he is not passed out in one of the closets? Have you checked the bathroom?" I ask matter-of-factly. "Have you checked the geese fence?"

Peeta chuckles. "I guess I would have noticed if—"

He is interrupted by the front door opening and my mother walking into the kitchen, a soft smile on her face as she sees us. "You had Gale and Johanna over for dinner," she says, first thing first. "I hope there's something left over for me."

"Of course," replies Peeta, drying his hands and grabbing a clean plate. He opens the lid of a pan and puts two spoonfuls of lamb stew on it. "Greasy Sae has cooked for an army, apparently." He puts the plate in front of my mother and pours her some water.

"How's Effie?" I ask her as I start drying the dishes.

My mother smiles softly. "Oh, she is fine, now," she replies, "I gave her some herbs and put her to sleep, but had to stay with her to see if she had calmed down when she woke up."

"Had she?" I ask.

"Yes, she was feeling much better and back to her usual Capitol behavior," my mother replies, slightly grumpily. I suppose she uses the word 'Capitol' as a synonym for 'annoying'.

"And she is there alone, now?" asks Peeta. "Is that safe?"

My mother finally brings a spoonful of stew to her mouth before replying. "She is not alone," she says, "I left her in good hands." She washes the lamb down with some water. "The hotel manager is there. He has to call me, in case anything happens."

I place the dried dishes and cutlery on the table for Peeta to put away. I like that we do things together in the kitchen, it's very homely. I smile involuntarily at the thought. I want to ask my mother what had caused Effie's breakdown, but I suspect an indefinite number of things: being away from the Capitol, deciding what to wear for the wedding, keeping the whole thing secret… I haven't seen Effie since the day she arrived, I am starting to think that maybe she wants to be a bit more involved in the preparations. For now, I am happy she is all right. I sigh. Look at me, caring about Effie. If someone had told me that I would be worrying for her the day she had reaped Prim, I would have never believed them.

"So, Effie is all right," I say, "now all we have to do is finding Haymitch."

My mother looks at me. "Haymitch is at his house," she replies. "Can I have some bread, Peeta?"

I glance at Peeta, who frowns back at me. "Is he?" he asks, passing the bread. "I haven't seen him in two days."

"I don't know what to tell you," she replies quietly, dunking the bread in the stew. "He is home now."

"Where did he go?" asks Peeta, insisting on the fact that he thought that Haymitch was missing.

My mother looks at her plate with interest and replies, "I think you have to ask him. I don't think he wants to reply, though."

"Why?" Peeta continues. "Where would he go here in District 12?" He is like a dog with a bone, and I think he does that because he is worried for Haymitch.

"Maybe he went to buy our wedding present," I suggest, a grin on my face. "I believe that he is obliged by law to get us a fantastic gift since he is the one that is going to give me away."

Peeta finally smiles and stops pestering my mother about Haymitch's whereabouts. I am happy that for once I am the one who lightens the mood in here. "I don't know if he is required by law, but we should tell him that, just in case…"

My mother smiles too and I am glad that now we can all go to bed with less things on our minds. And tonight I can actually sleep. In my bed. With Peeta. Just sleep. No nightmares. It sounds good. I smile too.

xxx

I am so wrong. As always. One might think I am starting to get used to being wrong, but it is not exactly like that. It slightly hurts my pride every time. Effie doesn't want me to stay with her and talk to her and let her organize my life. As a matter of fact, when I visit her, she is in a hurry to get me out of her room. I feel a little relieved and at the same time a little rejected. I decide to indulge in the pleasure of aggravating her and stay a little longer than she would like, though, after all I walked all the way to the hotel. So, I slump down on a chair and look around the room when she says that she is very busy.

"I hope you are feeling better than yesterday," I say, even though I can see that she is absolutely fine. "My mother said that you had a breakdown or something." I look at her a bit guilty. "I hope you are not overworking yourself for the wedding." Even though I have no evidence that she is doing anything for the wedding at all, I have abandoned the idea of her missing the Capitol, since she looks perfectly at her place there.

Effie smiles softly. "Oh no, I decided what to wear, I decided on the present, I know how to wear my hair and your mother and Haymitch filled me in with the details of the wedding, so I know everything is under control." She powders her nose and I see that she is wearing less make-up than usual. "I also talked to the prep team and they should arrive three days before the wedding." She shoots me a meaningful look. "Just in case there is extra work to do on you." She raises her eyebrows as to say that she knows that there is extra work to do on me.

"Sounds good," I reply, smiling despite the not so veiled criticism at my current physical appearance. "Then you are busy doing what?"

She seems to think about it a little bit longer than appropriate. "I have to write my review for this hotel," she says, seeming outraged that I forgot that she has such an important a job.

Right, because this is a hotel. I almost forgot that too. Not my fault, though, it doesn't look like a hotel at all. Effie's room is small and not a bit Capitol-like, I don't think her review will be very nice. I am wrong again, apparently. Effie explains to me that the hotel is based on a new concept, something that is in fashion right now at the Capitol: a bare, stripped down of every comfort, incredibly popular conception. Apparently it was Paylor who wanted this, according to her, it is a way for the Capitol citizens to experience life in the Districts. There is at least one in every District. The hotels are really much better than what the life in the Districts used to be, though, they are closer to what life is now. In a way it's what the Capitol came up with to unite the country even more. Naturally, Effie says that I don't have to worry, that there will be a luxury hotel coming out of nowhere in a few months time. Not everybody likes to give up comforts when they are on holiday. She is an enthusiast of this place, though.

Effie's ramblings about this hotel and Panem hotels in general is cut short when there is a knock on the door. Effie jumps to her feet and hurriedly checks herself in the mirror. When she speaks again, she is actually screaming. "I'm coming!" Then she turns towards me and keeps on screaming. "Katniss, I think you should go, darling!" She moves towards the door, without opening it. "This must be the owner of hotel, he needs to show me a couple of things around the place." She smiles broadly while I finally stand up and make my way to the door. "I will see you tomorrow, how about that?" She opens the door and I walk out. The door closes at my back just as hurriedly as she had opened it. I look at the door for a moment, confused, and finally make my way down the corridor and towards the hall.

It is only when I am walking towards my house that I remember that there was nobody standing in the corridor. I find the thing just a little bit strange.

xxx

Annie and her son are the next two guests to arrive. For once we are not waiting for them at the station, but it's not because we don't want to, but because Annie arrives two days earlier than we expected and doesn't tell us. Peeta and I comment that it's a wonderful surprise, Haymitch says that she is crazy, she must have forgotten the date, we should have expected that from her, and Effie says that it's a great inconvenience.

Annie and her son, Josh, are absolutely sparkling and lighthearted in everything they do. Josh is as handsome as his father was, resembling Finnick in an almost painful way. If I were Annie I would probably tear up every time I looked at him, a constant reminder of his father and the fact that he was no longer there. He has dark green eyes like his mother and bronze-colored hair like Finnick, and his little hands are quick at grabbing anything that passes in front of him.

When Annie rings at our door, the little boy in her arms, Peeta is the one who opens the door. Annie screams happily and the boy cries too and in a moment there is mayhem in the house. Peeta is overjoyed by the vivacity of Annie's son and, as Annie, my mother and I have each a cup of hot tea in the living room, he plays with him on the floor. Looking like a child himself.

"It is so good to be here," says Annie, "even though there is no sea here and it's much colder than in District Four." She sips tea from her cup. "I am so happy to be at your wedding, Katniss, you were at mine, it's just so nice. I thought you two were already married though."

I cough some tea back into the cup. "Yeah," I reply, while my mother smiles. "Lots of people think that. But let's talk about you, Annie. How have you been?"

Annie smiles broadly. "Busy," she says, "with a little child there's a lot of work to do. I am also teaching him to swim."

I look at the child, who is now lying on Peeta's stomach. "But he is so young."

Annie laughs. "He is almost a year old," she replies. "He has been swimming since the day he was born."

I suppose that's a tradition from District Four. If I had a child I would never let him go close to the water until I know he can swim. I know there is no logic in what I think, but still, I reckon that's dangerous for a toddler. Luckily I will never have children, so I don't have to think about this.

"So, where are we staying until the wedding?" she asks serenely.

I look at her to make sure she is not joking. She is not. "I'm sorry, Annie, I thought every guest had a place where to stay." I look at Peeta who is completely ignoring the conversation and is now making faces to make Josh laugh. "Peeta," I call him, "Annie has a place where to stay, doesn't she?"

Peeta looks back at me and stands up with the child in his arms. "Of course she does," says Peeta matter-of-factly. He tries to think hard at it. "With Haymitch?"

I shake my head and raise my eyebrows. "No," I say, remembering Haymitch's rule: "No crazy people in my house." She must have a house rented somewhere, maybe near Gale's. "Don't we have a list of places where the people are staying."

Peeta looks at me and I know he wants to say that the guests should take note of where they are going to stay, but he doesn't say it, not in front of Annie. "No, but I guess there is a place for her to stay. I think we should check the house renting center and in case they don't have her name there, she can stay here." He looks at Annie and smiles. "We would be happy if you stayed here."

But I think that she would be more comfortable if she had her own house and I think Annie thinks that too. Peeta checks the list of useful numbers that has been sent out to all the people registered with a phone in District 12. There are numbers from outside the District too. The house renting center number is naturally on it. It is useful.

Peeta digits the number and the call is transferred in no time. "Hello, yes, this is Peeta Mellark calling, I would like to know if you have a reservation for Annie Odair and her son." He waits for an answer. "Hmm, I see. Yes, the thing is she is a bit early, I was wondering if the house was available today." Another pause. "Well, right now would be really nice." He hums in assent. "Okay, thank you for your help." He hangs up and looks at Annie. "They say that the house that you booked is not available today, but it will be from tomorrow." He looks at me and then back at Annie. "How about, you spend the night here and tomorrow we help you settle down in the house in the Seam?"

"Oh, we wouldn't want to disturb you," she says.

"It's no disturb at all," says Peeta, still holding Josh in his arms. "We'll have fun." He raises Josh above his head and grimaces at him. Josh burst into laughter and stretches his tiny hands to touch Peeta's face. I smile without even noticing.

"Isn't he cute?" asks Annie dreamily.

"He is," I agree, "Annie, come with me, I'll show you your room while the kids are playing." I say, teasing Peeta who sticks out his tongue at me and makes Josh laugh again.

xxx

Minus three days to the wedding. I am starting to get nervous. I have never liked to be in the middle of the attention, and I soon will be once again. Coming down the aisle of the newly restored Justice Building during this new and improved type of wedding ceremony that is so unfamiliar to us. It takes too many elements from the frivolous wedding ceremonies of the Capitol. Just like Annie and Finnick's. So pompous and unnecessary. Haymitch will walk me down the aisle, there will be a ceremony and then a reception with music and so much food we will all feel too full to do anything but sleep afterwards. My prep team is arriving this afternoon and I have to start my beautify process – which, according to Effie, will take three days to complete – and then the wedding, starting at five in the afternoon this Saturday, May 1st. Paylor is actually coming to celebrate the wedding but Dalton is still invited, as a guest, the two of them, plus the Hawthorne family, Plutarch and Beetee are all arriving the day before the wedding. The Hawthorne family is staying with Haymitch; Beetee and Dalton have rented houses in the Seam, while Plutarch and Paylor have booked rooms at the hotel. The prep team is staying at the hotel too. I have heard that in the Capitol they have rehearsal ceremonies for the weddings so that everybody knows what to do and when to do it. I have decided that this is a stupid enough thing to do. I don't mind if the music starts a bit earlier than expected or if Haymitch trips over his feet when he is walking, bringing me down with him. Just want it to get over with.

The door opens and I see Peeta coming into the kitchen. "Well, you were gone for a long time," I say to him from over my third cup of steaming hot chocolate. I probably shouldn't be drinking so much of the delicious liquid, I haven't tried the dress in more than a week. That would be a funny surprise… not fitting into my dress the day of my wedding.

Peeta doesn't reply. He looks blankly in front of him. He goes towards the kitchen sink and splashes some cold water all over his pale face.

"Peeta, are you okay?" I ask as he turns and dries his face in a cloth.

He finally looks at me. "Katniss," he says, his voice raspy, "remember when we had sex for the first time and I told you that you made me a man?"

I look at him weirdly, not knowing where he is going with this. "Yes…"

"Well, today I found out that there is a part of me that is still a little boy," he says gravely, "and that little boy is crying in a corner of my mind now."

I am more confused than before. I stand up and go to him, I place a hand over his shoulder and squeeze gently. He turns towards me and hugs me tightly and despite the fact that he is taller than me for once I feel like I am a giant. He is not shaking though, he is quite calm actually. And now that I think about it, his voice is calm too. As if he is acting overdramatically.

"I thought you went to Haymitch's to get his set of pans," I say. Earlier in the week, Greasy Sae complained that she didn't have enough pans and frying pans to cook for the whole party attending the wedding. Not even if she put together my set, Peeta's and hers. So, the only other person that we knew that owned a set of pans – they came with the house – and didn't need them was Haymitch and Peeta had left two hours before to ask him if he could borrow them. "I didn't expect you to be gone for so long."

Peeta steps back and looks at me in the eyes. "I saw something," he whispers, "something that I didn't want to see."

"What? What did you see?" I ask him urgently. I'm worrying now.

He looks at me seriously. "Katniss, I saw something terrible," he says, then adds, his voice hushed, "do you want to know what happened to me since the moment I left the house this morning? Do you want me to repeat every single word I heard? Describe every single action and sound?"

"Peeta… what?" I ask him, grabbing his arms. "What happened? Just tell me."

He looks gravely at me and takes a deep breath. "Very well," he says, "sit down and I'll tell you everything."

I sit and he sits in front of me, I offer him my hot chocolate and he grabs the cup and drinks avidly from it. When he puts the cup back on the table he has a little chocolate mustache and I can't help smiling. I decide that I can't take anything he says seriously if he looks so funny, so I take a napkin and clean his upper lip.

"Thank you," he says. "Here we go." He takes a deep breath and starts his story. "It all started this morning, when I left to go to Haymitch's. I knocked on his door and there was no answer. I assumed he was away."

"You always assume that, Peeta," I say, without being able to restrain myself. "I think I see where this is going."

"Believe me, you have no clue where this is going," he says seriously.

I wave my hand. "You walked in and found Haymitch passed out, naked in a poodle of his vomit?"

"What? No!" he says sincerely disgusted. "Did that happen to you?"

I laugh. "I'm just teasing you." But yes, it happened to me.

He has to take another sip of hot chocolate to continue. "Anyway, I walked in and everything was silent. I called Haymitch's name a couple of times, but he never replied, so I just started to look for the set of pans by myself. There was no sign of them in the kitchen, and all the times I have been there, I couldn't recall having seen them at all." He taps the cup with his fingers. "But then I remembered that when we first moved in, the kitchenware was all stashed in the pantry. So I went to the pantry and, naturally, the light wasn't working." He sighs. "I had to leave the door open to see something in there, and well… to avoid being locked in. But the problem was that I had to move a lot of alcohol before I could reach anything at all. All the objects that came with the house were right behind a huge collection of wine and liquor bottles."

"I thought he didn't have any alcohol, right now," I say surprised. Haymitch said he would have stayed sober until the wedding.

"I think they are for the wedding," Peeta says simply, "he said he would take care of that. The drinks." He seems to think about that and adds, "there's enough for at least our wedding and ten anniversaries if you ask me though."

"Is that what upset you?" I ask, starting to think that he has really overreacted to just something simple like that.

"No," he replies dryly, "let me go on." He starts fidgeting. "I've been there only a couple of minutes when someone knocks on the door. I would have answered it, if it weren't for the fact that I was almost reaching the set of pans behind the liquor, I was on my fours and my foot was actually stuck under a set of knives that fell on it. Luckily, it was not my good foot. Plus, I knew that it was unlocked anyway." He sips some more hot chocolate. "In fact, the doors opens and… guess who comes in?"

I shrug my shoulders. "Annie?" I figure that could be a good answer because bedlam would be ensured with Annie and Haymitch in the same house. Maybe she was looking for another place to stay.

"Effie," he says emphatically.

I look at him blankly. "What's so weird about it?" I ask him. "I'm sure she wanted to give her opinion about what to he has to wear for the wedding."

Peeta looks at me with sympathy in his eyes. "Hold that thought," he says, "anyway, somehow, Haymitch arrives in the kitchen." He shakes his head. "I knock and call him and he doesn't reply, Effie arrives and he is there in five seconds." He sighs. "Well, to be honest, he says that he thought it was me at the door, because he heard my voice. During all this time, I am still in the pantry, still too focused on doing what I am doing without knocking over the liquor and the knives to let them know that I am there. At that very moment when I am almost reaching for the pans, which are still piled in their plastic, by the way, someone closes the door of the pantry."

"Well, you called after them, right?" I ask simply.

"No, I didn't notice that they had closed the door, because I had been behind all the wine and completely in the dark already," he replies, "so it is only when I manage to grab the pans and crawl back towards the door that I become aware of the fact that I am stuck in the pantry." He starts fidgeting nervously. "I was almost going to tell them that I was in there, when I start noticing that they are talking and I try to make out the conversation."

"You were eavesdropping."

He looks uncomfortable. "Involuntarily, yes."

I smile. "Oh, come on, Peeta, what kind of things might they ever have said to each other?" I mimic Effie's accent. "What color do you think I should wear with my hair?" Then my voice deepens and I try to sound like Haymitch. "Oh, I don't think I can wait until the wedding to get drunk, do you think I can have a glass of whiskey today?"

Peeta raises his eyebrows. "Almost," he says, "when I start to pay attention to them, Effie is saying that she has missed him last night."

I stare at Peeta, ready to hear a 'I got you!' coming from him. It doesn't come. He looks at me seriously. "Missed him in what sense?" I ask in a whisper.

He avoids my question. "Haymitch says that he missed her too, and I quote, 'he was cold without her'." My heart is beating a bit more furiously now. I have a very weird feeling about this. "Then he says that probably he was cold because he hasn't been drinking in almost two weeks, so if he had been allowed to have a snifter of liquor he would have been just fine. And he laughs at his own joke. At this point, Effie says that then he should drink every single day of his life because he will die alone and of a terrible death." He taps his fingers on the table. "I can see them through the door." He nods towards the door of our pantry. "You know, it has those slits to let the air come in and humidity go out." It does have slits and behind our door it's all completely dark, so I know they could not see him. "But now I really don't want them to know that I am there." He sighs. "Effie turns towards the door, but Haymitch grabs her arm. He says that she is an uptight, annoying Capitol tart and that she should loosen her corset, she replies that he is an alcoholic, that smells like geese and has greasy hair."

"That sounds more like them," I say, heartened.

"Indeed," he replies calmly, "then they kiss."

I make a sound that is half a moan half a cry.

"Haymitch kisses her, she kisses him back," he goes on, "he grabs her wig and throws it on the floor – by the way, Effie's real hair color is pink. Did you know that? – she starts unbuttoning his shirt, she murmurs that she is not wearing a corset anyway. He is surprised to see that she is not even wearing underwear and she—"

"Stop!" I say weakly. "Are you serious? Is this some kind of pre-wedding joke?"

"I am serious," he replies quietly. "And don't ask me to stop because you said you wanted to hear everything." I moan again and he continues, "Where was I? Oh yes, the corset part, he grabs her by her waist and sits her on the table." He looks at me. "They are naked now, so this is the part where I stopped looking. In fact, I am not sure what happened. But from the sounds, I can tell you that the strength of table was seriously tested – and by the way, we are never going to eat at Haymitch's again – and that Effie is loud when she is right in the middle of sex, while Haymitch sounds more like a pig."

I open my mouth to say something but Peeta raises his hand to stop me.

"They were there for an hour, Katniss," he says, "a whole hour, and when they left the kitchen it was not because they were done, they went upstairs, because Effie said that a lady like her could only stand a hard board under her delicate skin for so long." He sighs. "By the time they left I was crouching in a corner, emotionally damaged and with scars that will never go away."

I honestly can't help smiling a little. I know that the situation – even though, technically, it's really none of our business – is quite befuddling, but Peeta's way of telling it is just too hilarious for me to stay serious. "How did you get out of there?"

He blushes. "Well, I didn't move for a long while, too worried that they would come back. At first, I didn't think I would ever get out of there, but then I decided that I didn't want to die in the pantry of my alcoholic neighbor three days before my wedding, so I stood up and found out that the door was actually broken, so all I had to do was push it and I found myself in the kitchen. I leapt for the door and closed it as silently as possible behind me." His eyes are those of a scared kid. "They were still going on at it, Katniss," he whispers. "I could hear them from the kitchen. Effie is just so loud." He shakes his head. "Honestly, I couldn't believe my ears and eyes. Haymitch and Effie." He looks at the empty cup. "Who would ever thought it?"

Before I can reply, something dawns in my mind. "Oh my," I say, covering my mouth with my hands, "we should have known!" I stand up and place my hands on the table. "Haymitch was wearing lipstick that day, no not Haymitch, it was Effie's lipstick on his lips and that's why his glass had lipstick on the edge, and Effie had her wig all to the left, and Haymitch must be the cause of her breakdown." I nod to myself. "When Haymitch was missing, I'm sure he was with Effie, and she was waiting for him at the hotel, that's why she wanted me to go!"

Peeta is not entirely following me, half of the things I am saying he doesn't even know about. When they happened, I considered them too insignificant to be worth telling. But the signs were there, we were just too oblivious to notice.

"Oh no!" says Peeta suddenly. I look at him and he looks back at me, depressed. "I forgot the pans!"