It All Began With A Dare

by xoxopercafanaticxoxo

Peeta Mellark and Katniss Everdeen's paths would've never crossed before the games after that night in the rain... if it wasn't for that dare. After another accidental meeting and drama, Peeta decides to become Katniss's friend, maybe even more? Katniss relents and the two of them go on simple 'outings' that eventually bring them closer and closer together.

12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

Disclaimer - I don't own Hunger Games or any of its characters.

Thanks to canadianboy98, FirePearl97, veronique2, JoelHGLover00, PeetaLover1116, ShortySC22, MaidenAlice, jenjentheboscostick, eekabeeka, , .969300, Jade, ,

Thanks for reading/favoriting/following/reviewing you lot!

Warning: There is swearing in this chapter.

Katniss -

Peeta trails a little way behind me. I still feel a little pissed off. Not at Peeta, of course, just pissed towards his mother.

Seriously? How messed up is his mother? Peeta, I know, is really kind and friendly. His mother is lucky to have him as her son, I know that if I was in her place, I'd be blessed to have him.

And, obviously, no parent should harm their child, no matter what the circumstances were. It just wasn't right. I hear Peeta's loud, clumsy, footsteps behind me. I almost smile at the sound.

"Katniss?" Peeta asks softly, his footsteps speeding up so he is beside me. "Are you angry at me?" He queries.

I sigh. "No, I'm not." I say, casting a quick glance at him.

Peeta chews his lower lip. "Well, you are acting like you are." He points out.

I take a deep breath. "No, I'm not angry at you." I tell him.

Peeta purses his lips. "You are angry though." He gives me a glance. "Is it because of that bruise?" He questions.

I huff. "What do you think?" I ask coldly, spinning on my heels to glare at him. "Tell your mother to stop treating you like that! I know she yells at you, I know she hits you, almost everyone in the town knows!" I exclaim.

Peeta's eyes go dark. "They do?" His tone goes cold as well.

I roll my eyes. "Its no secret." I snap.

Peeta bites his lower lip and looks at me, his face a turmoil of expressions. He doesn't reply, but shoots me a question. "Why are you yelling at me like that?"

Instantly, I feel guilty. I shouldn't be taking my frustration about this onto Peeta. Its not his fault. "You're right. I'm sorry."

Peeta gives me a surprised look, obviously not expecting me to apologize. I wasn't either, but I don't care. "What?"

I harden my expression. "I've got someone else to be angry at Peeta."

Peeta instantly catches onto my meaning and his eyes widen in shock. "No!" He stammers. "Don't start a fight with my mother, please!" He begs.

I snort in disbelief. "Seriously? She needs to know she can't treat you this way." I state calmly, firmly.

Peeta sighs. "Just leave it okay? Its family business." He mumbles weakly. I stare at him and he meets my gaze evenly. The two of us stare at each other, the two of us silently daring the other to surrender.

"Fine." I mutter hesitantly, still far from giving up. "But, if I do see her again, she'll get a warning." I warn him swiftly. Peeta lets out a breath and shoots me an unreadable look.

"Shall we catch up to Rory and Prim?" He offers, I nod and the two of us walk down the path towards the Seam.

The two of us reach the two of them who are holding hands. Peeta and I exchange an amused look and sneak up behind the two of them. Well, Peeta tries to at least. He barely takes
a couple of steps towards them until they turn to look at him. Rory with raised eyebrows, and Prim with an amused expression plastered on her sweet face.

"Sneaking up on us are you?" Prim teases Peeta. "You need to do better than that. You walk like a bear on stilts."

Peeta reddens and nudges Prim gently. "Hey! At least I tried."

Prim giggles and Rory flashes Peeta an amused look.

The four of us continue walking towards the Seam. When we reach our shack of a house, I can't help but glance at Peeta to see his expression. Unfortunately, his body is turned away from me and I see his head go up and down as he scans the house.

Prim turns the doorknob and lets us all in. "Mother? Are you home?" She calls.

In answer, mother walks into the hallway. A smile graces her face but it vanishes immediately as her eyes land on Peeta.

"Mr. Mellark." Mother manages, shock and confusion evident in her voice.

Peeta looks a little awkward at the title but he smiles at her. "Nice to see you again, Mrs. Everdeen." He responds politely. "I'm sorry if I'm intruding, but I just wanted to walk Katniss and Prim home." He explains.

My mother looks startled a little at this and flashes me an unreadable look. "Its alright, you're not intruding."

As if on cue, Buttercup appears. Instantly, he hisses and gives all of us, excluding Prim, an obviously disgusted look.

"Come on, Rory! Lets go do our homework together. I didn't understand what the math teacher was saying in class. Did you?" Prim drags Rory into the living room and I see them settle down on the couch together.

Now, my mother, Peeta, and I are standing in the hallway awkwardly and probably looking like idiots.

Mother shoots me a look that says: Are you involved with this boy? If you are, we must have a talk.

I simply sigh.

"Peeta, do you want to go for a walk outside?" I ask, avoiding my mother's gaze successfully.

Peeta starts but a grin quickly falls onto his face. "Of course!" He says eagerly. Then he reddens. "I'd like that." He adds, obviously trying to sound a little bit more cooler.

I can't help but roll my eyes at his lame attempt. He just sticks out his tongue at me in return. Yes, that's very mature of him, I know.

"Nice to see you again, Mrs. Everdeen." Peeta says, waving a hand in farewell as both he and I leave.

"I'll be back before dark, mother." I tell her, avoiding her eyes. I know that she'll want to have a conversation about this later. I don't want to deal with it now though, with Peeta here.

"Okay, make sure you are, Katniss." Mother tells me, a little warning in her tone.

Peeta and I walk out of the house, him shutting the door behind me. "Where to?" He questions.

I shrug. "Lets just walk wherever we do." I simply say.

Peeta raises an eyebrow at my response but he nods all the same. "Sure.

There is silence as the two of us simply walk down the Seam. "I like your friends." I say, breaking the silence.

Peeta smiles. "I'm glad you do."

"They are nice. You pick good friends." I tell him.

Peeta nods. "I'm sure you do as well." He offers. There's an underlying meaning in his words though, but I don't understand what he's trying to say. I keep quiet about it though.

I think about Gale and I feel a pang in my heart. How was he doing? I haven't really talked to him yet. Rory hasn't brought him up either. Did he hate me? Did he even miss me? Probably, after all, he did tell me he had strong feelings towards me. I look over at Peeta. I purse my lips and wonder if I should ask Peeta for some advice.

I decide against it.

"Tell me about yourself." I blurt out unexpectedly. Peeta raises an eyebrow.

"Okay sure. What do you want to hear?" He asks.

"When did you first begin painting? Or starting any art stuff?" I question.

Peeta grins. "Well, my art stuff came from my eldest brother, Myles. It was for my third birthday. It was a box of colored pencils and a sketchbook. I started drawing as soon as I got it. It was much better than the other presents I received. I mean, I did like them, but Myles was my favorite."

I nod, a mental image of a three year old Peeta enters my brain and I couldn't help but let a smile tug at my lips.

"I wasn't very good at first. I was actually pretty bad." Peeta chuckles, the corner of his lip quirking up a bit. "Well anyways, when I hit the 7 year old mark, my artistic skills started kicking in and I asked Rye or Myles if they could well... um... pose for me so I could draw portraits of them."

I feel a little giddy at the thought of Rye posing for a drawing. I picture him sitting on a stool, fidgeting uncomfortably, Peeta telling him to settle down and Rye shooting back a remark.

"Rye, of course, did not agree. Myles, I know, liked me a lot more than Rye. I got him to pose and my drawing of him turned out decent. Myles told me I had a lot of potential and the next day he baked a cake just for me with tons of decorations. I later found out that he wanted me to draw it. He said it could be practice and that later on we'd put it on sale so it wouldn't go to waste." Peeta smiles as he recalls the memory.

"Myles must be very kind." I state. Peeta grins.

"Yes, he's one of the nicest people to ever walk to earth, in my opinion." He agrees.

A thought pops into my mind. Peeta has told me a lot about himself, yet I haven't really talked to him about me. "Do you want to go to the forest?" I offer, eager for him to say yes.

Peeta pauses, then raises an eyebrow. "It will get dark soon, and you promised your mother you'd be back before it was dark." He reminds me.

Right now, however, I could care less. "Its fine." I say. Ignoring Peeta's concerned look, I ask him again, "Do you want to go out in the woods? I want to show you something."

Peeta considers this, a slow, fond smile appearing on his face. "Of course. Lead the way, Katniss."

At that moment, when he utters my name, I feel a little tingle running from the tip of my toes to the top of my head, warming the insides of my body until I feel as if there is a blazing fire inside of me. However, that feeling passes away as quickly as it came, leaving me a little confused and overwhelmed by the sudden appearance of that fiery warmth.

"Katniss, you there?" Peeta waves a hand in front of my face, concern showing in the tone of his voice as well as his expression.

I shake myself, awakening myself from my daze. "Yeah, I'm here. Kind of zoned out." I say, avoiding his gaze.

Peeta just nods and follows me as I walk down the horrible, dirty, gravelly, road towards the hole in the fence that leads to freedom.

Peeta -

I crawl through the hole, feeling like an idiotic, clumsy bear trying to squeeze their head out of a honey bee nest. Not that I've ever seen that happen, I just heard of it. Katniss is dusting herself off and looking around the forest.

I wonder what she wants to show me. It must be something important if she is ignoring her previous promise to her mother. I get up on my feet and dust myself off as well, staring at Katniss and realizing how wonderful she fits in with the scenery. You could paint her amongst the trees and it would turn out beautiful.

"Follow me." Katniss breaks the silence and enters a slow jog and I jog beside her, casting her a quizzical look.

"Could you give me heads up on to where we're going? I mean, I don't really want to walk into a death trap." I joke.

Katniss rolls her eyes at me. "Its a surprise. I'm not going to tell you." She smirks, and I feel as if I'm going to collapse. She looks so... freaking cute when she does that.

"Fine, fine, then." I stick out my tongue playfully at her and then run face first into a tree and fall down on the ground.

Katniss gasps and halts. "Peeta? Are you alright?"

Flushing furiously, I get up on my feet and feel embarrassment radiating off me in waves. "Sorry." I stammer. "Didn't mean to. Wasn't looking where I was going."

I trip over my feet and slam into Katniss, sending us spiraling onto the grassy ground of the forest.

I feel Katniss's warmth breath hit my face. With a start, I realize I am hovering above Katniss, our noses barely inches apart. Her eyes are wide as they search mine, I can see a lot of emotions in them. Shock, is one of them. Worry, is another. And then... another emotion I have never seen with Katniss.

I don't move. I know I should, but I don't. In fact, Katniss doesn't move either. The two of us are just there, lying on the forest floor, none of us moving an inch.

Katniss swallows roughly, and I feel my heart pounding in my ears. Then... Katniss, does the unthinkable next, she closes her eyes and I feel her warm breath tickle my face.

Summoning up all the courage I have left in me, I lean forward, close my eyes and -

And I hear a voice that instantly turns me cold.

Author's Note: Ooh, a cliffhanger! *Cue evil laughter*

Anyways, I'm really sorry for the long wait, I hope you'll forgive me. I know its not that long either :/ I promise with the whole of my heart that the next chapter won't take this long to be published ;)

On a happier note, the story passed 9,000 views :) I'm so happy! I am glad that people actually looked at this, I know my writing's not the best, but I am happy to know that some people take the time to try it. Also, as for reviews, we hit the 90 review mark! *Cheers*

Hmm, how'd you like this chapter? I know its not my best writing, but I didn't want you guys to wait any longer for this. So, tell me what you think :) Oh! And who do you think the mysterious person is who ruined the KP moment? How dare he! Guess... I wonder who... Oh wait, I already know! Mwahwahhwah! Lol... I know, I'm creepy, but whatev.

Anonymous Reviews:

JoelHGlover00: Hehe, and no, I'm not in America. Devil May Cry is epic, but Dante doesn't look as epic as he did before, in my opinion. Oh yeah and for your second review, I didn't really understand what you were trying to say... xD Sorry about that. And for your third review... here is the update ;) Thanks for reviewing!

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