"Peeta, we couldn't live in the castle," Katniss tells me as a I help her pack up her belongings in a more organized fashion.
"Katniss, you're my friend and I..." I know what I want to say, but I don't say it. I mean, I can't just up and tell her that I love her. I place my fingers on her chin and make her look at me. We face each other and lean in closer and closer. We both close our eyes and just as our lips are about to crash—
"Peeta! Sweetheart! The carriage is ready—" Haymitch shouts. "Oh. Woops. Looks, like I ruined the moment again," he says. I'm not sure whether or not he's sober. I grunt at him and put the last load of Prim's folded clothes into her small pastel blue suitcase. Haymitch stumbles out of the room, which confirms my conclusion.
"Yep, he's definitely drunk," I say and Katniss laughs. We then hear a loud crash and rush out of the room. Haymitch fell down the stairs into a bunch of pots and pans. Effie looks disappointedly at him and Plutarch laughs.
Katniss' concerned look makes me laugh.
"Don't worry. He'll be fine. This happens all the time at the castle, except with way more stairs."
Katniss looks curiously at me and I laugh and kiss her cheek. She rolls her eyes before cracking a smile and walking back into the bedroom. She grabs her and Prim's suitcases and I grab her game back full of all belongings that are not clothing. In the kitchen we meet Prim, who is now dressed in one of my cousin- in-law, Glimmer's dresses from when she was about 5. It's mint green, with puffy sleeves and a dark chocolate colored belt. She is also wearing white leggings and mint green pastel pink dress shoes. Her hair is tied into pigtails with baby yellow ribbons.
"You look ravishing little duck," Katniss says putting down the suitcase and extending her arms for a hug. Prim runs into her arms and Katniss picks her up and twirls her in the air.
"Come along darling. We have a lot of work to do," says Flavius, one of the castles designers. Honestly, I wonder about the people our castle hires. I mean, I've never seen anyone dress wear stranger clothes than the designers Octavia, Flavius, Venia. Even my personal designer, Portia, doesn't dress normally. Cinna, who is to be assigned to Katniss, is the only one I've seen wear some decently normal clothing. The only odd thing about his is his gold eyeliner, which bring out his brownish, greenish eyes.
Venia takes Prim out of Katniss' arms and puts them into mine before whisking Katniss back up to her room with a bunch of equipment and a cart full of dresses. Eventually, in comes Cinna with a giant bag no doubtedly filled with makeup and hair products. Katniss doesn't have very many fancy dresses. She used all her fancy dresses and neat clothing to visit me in the woods. They weren't really fancy compared to what girls wear to bed at our castle and she used them all up during our meetings until she ran out and was a little less self-conscious. I wonder how beautiful she'll look in one of the castle's gowns.
My question is answered when the most radiant and beautiful girl to walk the face of the earth shyly steps down the stairs. I run my hand through my hair and look up at her with a big, goofy smile. I can hardly get my words out when I say, "You look amazing Katniss." She takes my arm and Prim follows behind as we make our way to the carriage.
We arrive at the gates of the castle. When I step out of the carriage, I see most of the kingdom cheering for me. I pick Prim up and set her down next to me and the audience gives a big round of applause for the adorable new little girl. I extend my hand to Katniss and even though they only see her hand take mine they cheer louder than before. I grab her by the waist and lift her out of the carriage which makes the crowd roar with admiration and when I pull her down into an embrace the crowd erupts with screams. Yep, Haymitch has definitely been telling people that Katniss' my girlfriend and it doesn't help that we were yelling for eachother, trying to protect eachother back at her cabin. Not that I mind being able to hug her as much as I want. We pull away. I wrap an arm around her waist and pick Prim up with my free arm. Katniss clings to me and I bet it looks like we're walking The Games Choice Awards on TV.
We walk into the castle where my cousins Cato, Marvel, Thresh, and Rue are waiting.
"Looks like you've got another playmate," I tell Rue. She's almost 8 and her only friend that's her around her age is Rory, another cousin, who is nine. I put Prim down and she approaches Rue. The two look at each other with big smiles.
"We're here to show you to your quarters," Marvel says.
"Follow us," Thresh says and they lead us through the castle.
"You know," Cato says walking closer to Katniss. "This is a big and hollow castle. Feel free to hold me if anything scares you." Katniss clings tighter to me and sticks her tongue out at him. I glare at him and grunt/growl. He backs off a bit; he knows better than to mess with me.
I open the door to her room and she stares at it jaw dropped and eyes wide. So she's probably never had more than what was in that cabin?
"Peeta I can't—" But I cut her off by scooping her up and dropping her on the bed.
"Peeta!" she yells.
I laugh, before taking her into my arms and kissing her forehead. Out of the corner of my I see Cato glaring at us, specifically me. I also see Thresh shoving Cato and Marvel out of the room.
When they leave I start tickling Katniss who is roaring with laughter. After about three hours of giggling and goofing around Katniss sits on her bed and I lie down on her comfy rug.
"I'm sorry, Peeta," she says and look curiously at her.
"For what?" I wonder.
"For getting upset with you. I shouldn't have," she says.
"It wasn't your—"
"Don't tell me that because we both know I shouldn't have pushed you away like that." I sigh. There's no convincing her otherwise. One thing I've learned about Katniss is that once she's made up her mind on an opinion there's no changing it. I wrap my arms around and hold her close and we just sit there in silence for for who knows how long.
Rue and Prim come to get us for dinner and they're with Caesar Flickerman and his camera crew. Katniss and I walk hand-in-hand to the dining hall. There waiting for us is two empty seats between my mother and Cato. I sit Katniss down next to my mother and smirk triumphantly as I sit beside my glaring cousin. I look at who's sitting next to Cato and groan. It's flirty, nasally, and annoying Clove. The same Clove who's had a crush on me since the 7th grade!
"Hi Peeta," she says all flirty.
I roll my eyes. "Hi, Clove," I grunt. Through the dinner Rue, Prim, and Rory talk to each other and Clove and Cato shoot me and Katniss flirty looks. Everytime she notices me noticing I pretend to suddenly be interested in the ribbon tied in Katniss' hair, which make Clove growl at her. Katniss barely eats three dinner rolls before having to go to the bathroom before it all came back up. She's not use to food this rich. She just sat there staring at the floor her hand locked with mine.
"May we be excused?" I ask. My mother nods. "Come and Katniss," I say taking her other hand and leading the two of us out of the dining hall.
I stroke Katniss' hair til she falls asleep and go to my room. I wake up to screaming coming from Katniss' room. I sprint and kick the door open to see Katniss thrashing and screaming for her dad. I shake her awake.
"Peeta," she breathes as sweat trickles down her forehead. I wrap my arms around her.
"Yeah, it's me. It's alright, it wasn't real," I tell her while stroking her hair. After a while I pull away. "Are you okay now?" I ask. She nods. "Okay," I say. Just as I'm about to leave she stops me.
"Peeta?"
"Yeah?" I ask.
"Will you stay with me?"
"Sure," I say. I climb into her bed and stroke her hair. She clutches tightly to me, I wrap my arms around her, and the two of us fall asleep.
This eventually becomes a habit, but I usually wake up and leave before Flavius, Octavia, and Venia come to prep her for Cinna.
One day on a really bad night for her I accidentally oversleep and that day Cinna actually comes with Flavius, Octavia, and Venia followed by a CAMERA CREW! We wake up to see Caesar and his cameraman hovering over us. Katniss screams and scurries out of the bed and I nearly swear at the top of my lungs. My mother and father come running up the stairs and I groan/sigh. Just what I need. More explaining.