A week had gone by and my mother left to head back to District 4. When she left I felt a little tug at my heart, but not incredibly so. Our relationship didn't change drastically in the week and a half she was in town, but we did get a better understanding of each other. I learned that she was living with Annie and Finn, although she traveled around most of the time and wasn't there very often. We spoke some of Prim which was difficult, to say the least, but I knew it helped my mother heal a little. I suppose talking about the personal side of her helped her feel like she really had existed instead of her simply being a memory others couldn't share.
As I walked inside the house after her dropping her off it was still late afternoon and Peeta wouldn't be home for a few hours because he was teaching a class that night. I changed into some comfortable clothes and thought I would head down to the bakery to see what was going on. As I walked neared the bakery I heard footsteps nearing me.
"Katniss, wait up!" Gale yelled. I shut my eyes pretending I hadn't heard him, but it was no use, he had caught up with me. I had avoided him since my birthday. I didn't want to deal with him if he was going to act the way he had that night. As I opened my eyes I looked towards him, trying to hide my frustration behind a thin smile. He noticed it though. "Well don't look too happy, Catnip," he sighed. I lowered my smile and tried to give him a genuine one. "Sorry," I said half-heartedly. "Well, I was going to say that I'm leaving tomorrow. I've been trying to tell you these last few days but you were never available, conveniently," he said with a hint of bitterness. "Well sorry, my mom was in town. I hadn't seen her in more than two years." I said defensively. "You haven't seen me in more than two years either, you know," he shot out. I couldn't help but roll my eyes.
"Look Katniss, I know you're still holding Prim's death against me and as much as I can try to tell you I didn't know about it, I know you won't believe me," he said, stepping closer and grabbing me by my shoulders as looked away from him. "But you've got to believe me when I tell you I need you just as much as he does," he said, nodding towards the bakery, "if not more so." I tried to break free from his grip, but he was stronger than I was. I looked up at him and tilted my head to the side, giving him my most disdainful look. "You won't admit it, but you know it's true!" he continued. "Just give me a chance. I can love you more than anyone ever could. Even more than he could, if you let me! We're made from the same fabric, Katniss. I want to give you everything. I don't care what I have to do to prove to you I would have never hurt her. I would never hurt you," he said as he rested his forehead on mine. I couldn't answer; partly because I was too upset to give an answer, but also because my insides were turning. Before I could push away from his softened grip he pulled me in closely and kissed me longingly. Right there in the middle of the street. I pried myself from his grip and slapped him so hardly that my own hand stung.
"How dare you come here after two years and act like nothing happened! I don't care if you weren't involved in Prim's death. You had the choice to come back in those two years, but you didn't. It's never going to happen, Gale. Ever." I said and tears began to come to my eyes. I turned to the bakery to see Daigle standing at the entrance. I quickly ran towards him and left Gale on the street.
As I entered the bakery I sat down on a stool and Daigle brought me a glass of water. As he stood there I wiped the few tears that had fallen off of my cheeks and pushed my hair back into place. I smiled at him and he asked if everything was okay. I nodded, "yes, thank you." As he stood there I told him to not worry and get back to whatever he had been doing. As he left towards the ovens I finished my drink and tried my best to calm down. As I sat there spewing vitriolic thoughts of Gale in my mind I remembered why I headed over here in the first place and began heading upstairs.
I could hear Peeta clearly over the laughter of a group of children in the art room. I stood outside of the door as he continued telling them one of the stories he shared pretty often. Although I had heard it no less than a dozen times, listening to the children's reaction to it made it that much better and I couldn't help but soften a little and laugh. As the noise quieted down I heard him giving the kids instructions as I heard him walk slowly, but loudly as usual, around the room. I peeked in and he saw me and smiled, motioning for me to come in. He greeted me with a soft kiss on the cheek and led me to a chair in the back of the room. He left me and began walking around, observing the students' work. There were about nine of them in the classroom and in the front was a sculpture of a fox along with Peeta's drawing of the fox.
I sat there for the next hour or so silently observing the students and Peeta as the students continued their paintings and Peeta gave them each advice or a nod of encouragement. His gentleness with each of the students softened me and I calmed down in the quiet room; so much so that I fell asleep in the chair I had been sitting in. I woke to Peeta trying to wake me up and a few students huddled around him giggling. He smiled and I jolted awake at the sight of all the little faces around me. He shooed the students away to pack up their things and he knelt beside me, rubbing my arms to help me wake up. It was almost night outside and the class was over. The students filed out and Peeta reminded them to grab a cookie downstairs before they left. As he stood there with a hand held out to help me get up, I took it and slowly wandered towards the door while he put his things away and turned the lights off.
As we walked downstairs we heard the last of the students leave. Peeta told Daigle and the other boy working in the bakery to head home, that he would clean up tonight. As I sat down on the stool I had occupied earlier in the day the two boys left, Daigle giving me a faint, sympathetic smile as he left. Peeta headed back without noticing this and began whistling while he cleaned up in the bakery. I followed him back a few moments later and watched him as he pushed up his sleeves and began scrubbing a few pans and bowls. Noticing me, he smiled and continued whistling as I leaned against the wall. I sat there staring at him as I wanted to go home. When he finally finished he put up his apron and grabbed my hand to lead me out of the bakery. As we walked back to the house Peeta shared a few anecdotes from the day and reminded me it was the weekend tomorrow, following which he asked what I would like to do since we no longer had my mom at the house. As I thought about it we came up to the house and I noticed a small envelope wedged between the door and its frame. Peeta reached for it first and since it had my name written on the front he handed it to me shrugging.
"Dear Katniss, Be happy.–Gale"
I crumpled the note and shook my head as I followed Peeta inside. "Who's it from?" "Gale. He's leaving tomorrow." "Oh, okay." As we walked inside we found a pot on the stove and another note.
"I thought I'd leave you something since neither of you seemed to be here to fix a decent meal.- Sae"
I smiled at this note as Peeta opened the pot to find a still-warm rabbit stew. We looked at each other and smiled since both of our bellies were making noises loud enough for each of us to hear. Peeta filled two bowls while I grabbed a few spoons and filled a few glasses with water. We kicked our shoes off and ate on the couch instead of at the table. Since Peeta finished first, he set his bowl aside and pulled my feet up onto his lap so he could rub them while I finished my food. "So how was your day, my sweet?" He asked. I tried to brush off the question with a simple shrug and "it was okay," but it didn't work. He cocked up an eyebrow at me and began to tickle my feet. Despite having tried this before he seemed to forget that I still had thick calluses on my feet that prevented me from being ticklish there. I gave a smug smile and nod and continued eating. He stopped and looked at me a bit more inquisitively, but then dropped the subject.
"So you never said. What do you want to do tomorrow since we're both free?" He asked. "I don't know. We could just hang out here," I threw out, wanting to avoid the town as much as possible for fear of a run in like earlier today. "How about we go do something outside? The weather's nice and it's getting stuffy being indoors all day," Peeta said, not sold by the indoors idea. Trying to think of a quick idea that didn't involve going into town I quickly shot out, "We can go to the woods."
He perked up at the idea. "Are you sure I wouldn't ruin it for you?" I was a bit confused by what he meant by it but I shook my head no. "No. Besides, I have the perfect idea. We don't need meat anyway. We can go swimming." His eyes got big at the idea since I realized I hadn't finished teaching him how to swim. "Okay, I'll teach you how to swim first and then we'll both swim. How does that sound?" His face relaxed a bit and he smiled at the idea. "Sounds good to me." Swung my legs off of his lap and reached to grab his to which he scrunched up his nose and shook his head. "That's probably not sanitary. I've been on my feet all day. Who knows what's on them." To which I laugh and pushed him off the couch, "then you better wash them before you get in my bed tonight, Peeta Mellark!" to which he made a sloppy military-style salute and ran upstairs.
By the time I got up there after cleaning up downstairs he was finished in the shower and towel drying his hair. I walked in while he was facing the window and stared at him for a moment. He hadn't put a shirt on yet but you could see the muscles and the scars that stretched across his back. He turned around to catch me staring and smiled at me as he picked up a foot, "clean, like requested." I smiled and gave a firm nod before heading in to the bathroom to shower and get ready for the night.
When I came out Peeta had fallen asleep with the lights on. I walked quietly around the room shutting the lights off, and crept into the bed, trying not to wake him up. It was a futile effort. "Oh, I'm sorry," he said, reaching for me and pulling me closely to him, trying to wake up. As he began kissing me softly I kissed him once and laid my head on chest, encouraging him to go back to sleep. "You've got a big day ahead of you tomorrow," I reminded him. "Yes I do," was all he said as he smiled and kissed the top of my head before falling asleep again.
Sorry for the delay in updates. I've been under the weather. And sorry for those who may be disappointed with no engagement in this chapter. I promise it's coming though.