Peeta's POV
"Katniss, wake up," I say, giving her a gentle shake.
"Mmmph."
"Effie and everyone will be here soon!"
"Ugh," she says, waking up. "This should be good."
"I made some pancakes, come eat before they arrive," I insist.
"Fine," she says, getting out of bed. We go downstairs and I give her some pancakes. "Peeta, these are delicious!"
"Thank you!" I say.
"Hello, hello! We have a big, big, day ahead of us!" We hear Effie come in.
"Ever heard of knocking?" I ask.
Ignoring my sarcastic comment, Effie examines the place. "We need to spruce this place up."
"Those are Peeta's paintings and I happen to think they are beautiful," Katniss says defensively.
"Katniss, go on upstairs. We're going to follow you though a day in the life. Our new prep team is going to put you at Beauty Base Zero. Peeta, I want you to clean up then you're going into that bathroom," she says, pointing at the downstairs bathroom "to be remade to Beauty Base Zero as well."
Once we're at Beauty Base Zero, we are instructed to go upstairs. "Get in bed, pretend to be sleeping. If you could be cuddling, maybe with your arms around each other or something," Effie suggests.
We climb into bed, and wrap my arms around Katniss. We close our eyes and pretend to asleep. Katniss turns and I open my eyes, trying my best to look like I just woke up. I can sense that Katniss is doing the same. "Good morning honey," I say, kissing the top of her head. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Effie swooning, she's so touched. And Capitol. Katniss looks at me and kisses me good morning.
"I love you," she says.
"PERFECT!" Effie shouts. "Turn off the camera. Let's go have breakfast."
"We already did," Katniss says.
"Well pretend. Okay, Katniss. I want you to be making some tea while Peeta pretends to make pancakes."
Pretend to make pancakes? What? "Um, I don't think I'm really a good enough actor for that," I say.
"Sure you are!" Effie declares. Why is she in charge of this anyway?
I take a tortilla that Effie hands me and stick it in a frying pan, and pretend it's a pancake.
"Fabulous!" Effie mouths at me front behind the camera.
"Mmm, that looks delicious, Peeta!" Katniss says, as she kisses my cheek. "I love your pancakes."
"Thanks, darling," I say, smiling at her.
"CUT!" Effie shouts. "KATNISS! WHY DID YOU SAY 'PANCAKES' WEIRD? NOW EVERYTHING IS MESSED UP!"
"Because I don't want to lie and say pancakes when it's actually a tortilla. Didn't they teach you that lying is bad in the Capitol?" Katniss answers. I try to hold back a laugh but fail.
"I HAVE HAD IT UP TO HERE WITH YOU PEOPLE! Forget the day in the life. They make it impossible," she complains.
I say, "Effie, how hard are we? We've only done one scene." I put my hand on her shoulder but she shrugs it away angrily.
"PEETA. YOU WERE THE GOOD ONE!" she exclaims, obviously infuriated. "Alright, let's do the interviews. We'll just have to add more questions to take up time." Katniss and I groan in unison. "You should have thought about that before you messed around," Effie retorts.
"Where do you want the interviews to take place?" I ask.
"The backyard, if we could."
"Works for me," Katniss says.
"Wonderful," Effie says in her most Capitol way possible. I roll my eyes.
Outside, I sit down against a tree next to Katniss. Effie sits in a very lady-like position to ask us questions. I smile at Katniss and she returns the favor. "I hope this goes well," she whispers to me.
"Me, too."
"So," Effie begins. "What have things been like for you since you got married?"
"Well," Katniss says, "We've been doing normal married couple things."
"Like, sex?" Effie says.
"Um," I say, my face turning bright red. I look at Katniss and hers is even redder.
"We don't release that information to the press," Katniss wittily responds.
"More like bickering, eating, running errands," I explain.
"So, no sex?"
"WHY ARE YOU DWELLING ON THAT?" I shout.
"CUT!" Effie exclaims.
"That's not very appropriate," Katniss says. "And very unlike you."
"That's what the Capitol wants to know!" she defends.
"And you know this how?" I ask.
"We took a poll."
"The citizens of the Capitol took a poll and the majority wanted to know about our sex life?" I ask.
"Well, yes," she says.
"What else did they want to know? We should be briefed on the questions before being forced to answer them," Katniss says.
"They want to know if you have kids, but that's a no."
"Anything else?" I ask.
"They would also like you two to recount your traumas for them," Effie says, quieting down at the end.
"NO. THEY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT WE'VE GONE THROUGH AND WE'RE NOT GOING TO JUST SIT BACK AND TELL THEM HOW MUCH FUN WE HAD BEING FORCED TO KILL PEOPLE FOR THEIR ENTERTAINMENT THEN TALK ABOUT HOW SAD IT WAS THAT WE PILLAGED THEIR BEAUTIFUL CITY!" Katniss exclaims, furious.
"Calm down, honey," I say, rubbing her arm.
"I CAN'T CALM DOWN WHEN I'M SO MAD!" She screams.
"Er, Effie. Could you give us a short break?" I ask.
"Fine," she says, with a twist of her head that makes her wig tilt. She goes inside, likely to snoop and find out about our triggers to make more fun for the Capitol.
"Katniss, baby. Think about this. The sooner we get this stupid thing over with, the sooner it airs, the sooner people forget about it, okay?" I say gently.
"But it's just so frustrating. The Capitol is still so invasive. I can't seem to escape Snow's nosy wrath," she says.
"Snow is dead, he can't hurt you anymore," I assure her, rubbing her back.
"It's still so hard," she says.
"I know," I say. "Getting past the pain is impossible, I know. I still feel so sad and abused and hurt. I'm hardly even me anymore. I'm hanging to last shred of pre-games Peeta."
She throws her arms around my neck. "Don't let go."
"I guess we should continue with the interviews, get it over with."
"Yeah, you're right," she says as we stand up.
"Are you two done yet?" Effie asks shrilly.
"Yes," I say in monotonous voice.
"Great!" Effie is completely unaware of our irritation at her. "So, have you two thought about starting a family?"
"We have, actually," I say.
"We just can't decide. We're on again, off again. One day I want kids and Peeta doesn't, the next it's the opposite so we just decide to wait for a long while," Katniss explains further.
"I have always wanted kids whereas Katniss only decided recently that she wants them," I add.
"It's complicated," she says. "I want kids, but I can't because I'm afraid."
"Afraid of what?" Effie pries.
"Afraid I'll fail him or her. Afraid I'll fail Peeta," Katniss says.
"You could never fail me," I remind her. "I constantly remind you."
"I know, but it's still concerning for me. I love you, and don't want anything to hurt you," she admits.
"You think you failed everyone but you didn't," I insist. "Not even close."
A tear rolls down Katniss's cheek. "Prim. I volunteered for our first games to keep her alive. But in the end, she was gone too. Gale, I hurt him tremendously when I knew I could never survive without you. And now he's seeking his revenge. Rue died during our alliance. My mother couldn't stand to be near me because I'm just a ticking time bomb. Any minute I could explode and the world would fall down in shambles. It's a risk I'm just not willing to take."
"Katniss," I say softly. "I think you're perfect just the way you are. I also have and always will, you understand that, right?"
"I know you think that way, but I don't know how," she says.
I wipe a tear from her face. "Look at me. You are beautiful. You are incredible. You are brave. You are sexy. You are kind. You are perfection. Don't you ever forget that."
"CUT!" Effie calls, ending our heartfelt moment.
"We were having a moment!" I complain.
"Yes, well. Moments happen and then they end," she says flippantly.
"Ugh. Capitol people," Katniss says, accompanied by an eye roll and flip of her hair.
"Well," Effie says impatiently. "Go sit against that tree."
"Okay, okay. We're going," I say, sitting next to Katniss, her hand in mine.
"Who does the most cooking?" Effie asks.
"Probably Peeta," Katniss giggles. "I offer, but he doesn't want me to work too hard, even though a meal once in a while is pretty simple."
"I agree, but I just prefer for Katniss to do her own thing and have to worry about too much housework!" I explain.
"Do you ever regret get married, especially so young?" Effie questions.
I look at Katniss, remembering the time I implied that I wished she were dead. She remembers that part, too, I notice. "Actually," I begin. "There was one time where we had a spat, but otherwise, we're—"
"So happy, couldn't be better," Katniss interrupts.
"Can you tell us what it was like, being reaped for the first time and Peeta, being picked when Katniss was, knowing you would never be able to see her again?" asks Effie.
"Well," I say, "I was kind of upset that I'd never see her. And I knew I couldn't live without her."
"I only recognized him as 'Peeta Mellark, the boy who saved my life' and I was thinking, 'Hopefully someone else will kill him so I don't have to,'" Katniss adds. "But the odds hadn't been in my favor so far. But it turned out alright." She kisses my forehead.
"What was it like in the arena?" Effie asks.
"I was going to do whatever it took," a lump forms in my throat, "to keep her alive."
"At first, I didn't care, as long as I won. But I fell in love with him." She begins to weep. I rub her back. "You're better than I deserve."
"No," I promise her. "It isn't about deserving. I love you and you love me. That's all that matters."
"PERFECT!" Effie shouts. "CUT!"
"Every time?" I ask, annoyed by Effie's talent to ruin any special moments we might have.
"Yeah, Effie? Why?" Katniss puts in.
"That's confidential, sorry," she answers.
"Did we get enough stuff?" I ask.
"I guess it'll have to do. I need to interview other people, though. It'll air sometime next week," Effie promises.
"Alright then," Katniss says.
"Goodbye, Effie!" I call, shooing her over to Haymitch's house.
"Um, bye," Effie replies.
"C'mon," I say, putting my arm on Katniss's shoulder. "Let's go inside."
"Peeta," she says. "I want to talk to you about something."
"Go ahead, anything," I say, prepared for her speech on not having children.
"I think I want to have a baby with you."
"Really?" I ask, skeptical. "What influenced your decision?"
"Nothing, really. I just like the idea of junior Peetas running around the place. It'd be nice."
"Are you serious?" I ask, just to be sure.
"Yes, of course I'm serious." I just stare at her. "Peeta? Peeta? Are you okay?"
"Oh, yeah. Definitely," I say, shaking my head. "So you…want kids?"
"Yes, I do."
"Positive?"
"Are you trying to talk me out of it?" Katniss asks.
"No, of course not, just, are you sure?"
"YES I AM SURE OKAY PEETA?"
"Alright, let's do this then," I say, herding her inside.
"Yes, let's."
We go inside and she jumps into my arms, kissing me, her legs wrapped around my waist. I carry her upstairs like that and he runs her fingers through my hair. I take out her braid and we flop on the bed.
Okay, should I make the sex scene more or leave it be?