Peeta's POV
A few weeks after my tetanus shot, which still haunts me, Katniss decides we could start on the nursery. I don't think we should quite yet. It's still very early in her pregnancy.
"Please?" she begs.
"Isn't it a little early? We don't even know if it's a boy or a girl!" I protest, even though I know Katniss will win in the end.
"We can make it gender-inspecific," she retorts.
"Katniss, really? You're barely in your first trimester!" I look around the empty room. White walls. White carpet. Bare window. This room could use some help. It will end up as the nursery eventually so we could get started sooner and it will look nicer.
"Oh come on, it'll be great. You can paint a nice little mural," Katniss promises.
"Fine," I say begrudgingly. I lost an argument to Katniss once again. Going to the office, I retrieve some paint and when I come back to the room Katniss has a measuring tape and furniture catalog. "What on earth?"
"Just measuring for the crib, and the changing table and—"
"We need a changing table?" I ask.
"And an armoire and a rocking chair and—"
"I think just a crib will fit in here."
"Don't be silly. That's why I have the measuring tape." She treats me like I'm an idiot sometimes, even though I know it's playful and out of love…right?
"Whatever," I say, opening a can of paint. It's sky blue. I'm going to make the mural of me, Katniss and our child. We'll be walking through the woods. I begin to paint one wall entirely blue.
"What do you think of this one?" Katniss says, pointing to something in the catalog.
"I don't know, you pick something."
"They have to fit and match," Katniss mutters to herself. "Hey, what if we put the crib against the mural and then have the rocking chair next to it. On the opposite wall can the changing table and then the wall with the window can have the armoire."
"Fine, whatever. Are you positive it will fit?" I ask.
"I measured and they fit."
"What do they look like?" I wonder aloud.
Katniss begins describing the sets in vivid detail. "The crib has a headboard that is curved at the top and has a, primrose, engraved on it. The bars are perfect cylinders with a cylinder resting on top. The footboard is curved like the headboard but there is no engraving. The feet on the crib are like little claws, like a bathtub." I step back to admire the wall. It just has to dry for me to add on the next layer—the trees. "The changing table also has a primrose engraved on the headboard with cabinets on the left and right on the bottom. The feet are the same as the crib and it has two drawers beneath the table and an open cabinet underneath the drawers." I look at Katniss while the paint dries. Her hair falls in waves down her back. Her bare feet sink into the plus white carpet. The breeze from the window ruffles her tank top and her grey-green shorts end in the middle of her thigh. I admire her stomach in awe of the life growing inside. "—and the armoire is five feet tall, with plenty of space and two rods inside. There are a set of four drawers, two rows of two beneath the closet part. The whole set is…mahogany." The way she throws her head back when she laughs overwhelms me.
"It sounds great," I say, wrapping my paint-spattered arm around her waist as she giggles. "Are you sure it fits?"
"Of course, that's why I measured it, silly." She flips the page in her catalog. "Oooh, this curtain rod matches the set. It looks like a branch, the way the ends spread out. It even has little green leaves on it!"
"Let me see," I say, taking the catalog. "That looks really cool!"
"What should we do for the bumper and sheets? And we need some curtains for that cool rod," Katniss asks.
"I don't know, you pick something," I say.
"Stop being so passive! I chose the furniture, you choose the furnishings."
"Katniss," I plead. That isn't really my thing.
"Peeta," she mimics.
"Fine." I shoot a glare at her. "How about these nice white ones? It would look really crisp against the wood."
"Let me see," she says, taking the catalog. "Lace? Really Peeta?"
"What?"
"What about this white one," she says, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "The sheet is fitted, and solid white. It's silk and the set has something from each district. How cool is that?"
"Very," I say absentmindedly, trying to find the perfect shade of green for the forest.
"The bumper is 100% cotton and has scenery embroidered on it, trees, a lake, farmland. It's so pretty. There's even a couple boats on the lake. I still need to find some drapes. Maybe some colored ones. How does yellow sound? Peeta?"
"Oh, yeah. Umm, what?"
"Were you even listening to me?"
"Yeah of course, I just…" She shoots me a look that makes me sorry. "I just wanted to make sure the forest was perfect."
"Oh, okay. So, yellow curtains?"
"I don't know," I say honestly. I begin to paint the greenery.
"Maybe…sunset orange?" she says suggestively.
"That'd be nice."
"'Sheer curtains available in your choice of baby blue, red, soft pink, sunset orange, yellow, dark blue, white, grey or green. They are available in 54", 63", and 84" sizes,'" she reads off the page.
"Sunset orange of course. I don't know about length though."
"Well we don't want the baby getting caught in the curtains so about—" she measures how tall the window is—"the fifty-four inch size? It goes just below the windowsill."
"Perfect."
"I'll be right back," she says, racing out the room. I hear the bathroom door shut. While I'm perfecting the forest, I hear it.
Katniss's shrill scream.
Sorry it's not very long!