Note: AU Fic, tumblr prompt fill

The pavement gives off waves of heat, as Katniss climbs from her patrol car, electronic pad in hand. She's on traffic duty and this is the third person she's stopped for speeding in the last hour. Climbing in and out of her car shouldn't be a workout, but in this heat she's already sweat through her polyester uniform.

Two feet from his window, the man in the black Volvo rolls it down, and she's not really paying attention behind her mirrored sunglasses, when he interrupts her rehearsed questioning. Are you aware of just how fast you were going?

"Katniss Everdeen!"

Her eyes flick up from her pad.

"This is a surprise," he continues, smiling broader than any man should when he's about to be stuck with a speeding ticket, but then, the Mellarks always were rich and careless. "Peeta Mellark."

"I remember."

She suddenly remembers a lot about her classmate. It comes back to her in a rush that isn't quite nostalgia, because she hated high school and he was the kind of guy that probably loved it.

She hates that he can probably see the sweat circles at her neck, and she cranes her head to the side in a futile attempt to escape the cling of the hot fabric.

"Would have never thought you would turn out to be a cop."

"Police officer," she corrects.

"Right. You were always so anti authority. Hanging out with… what was his name, Gale?"

Katniss hums, looking back down at her pad. Why didn't she take a closer look at the information his license plate pulled up? She should have noticed the name and better prepared herself for this. "Somehow I was still accepted at the academy, despite my delinquent past, I guess."

Did Peeta really think smoking cigarettes behind the bleachers meant she was a bad kid? And how did he even know she hung out with Gale?

"I didn't mean it that way. It's just not what I imagined you'd be doing. Maybe something with music. You were so talented."

She blinks behind her glasses. "Everybody's got to eat."

He reaches for something in his console, and Katniss wrongly assumes it's his proof of insurance until he hands the brightly colored card through the window to her. "Well, if it's about being hungry, you can always stop by my bakery. We don't have doughnuts, but there's probably something you'd like."

"Ha ha," she replies, pinching the card between her fingers. "Doughnut jokes. Original."

The address reads District 13. Only one district away. She didn't know he lived so close by. Someone like Peeta should have gotten the hell out of Dodge. Particularly with an awful family like his. He always seemed different from them. Nice even.

"Sorry," he says with a shrug, his palms drumming against the steering wheel. "But really. It'd be nice to catch up, while you're not writing me a ticket."

Katniss stiffens. "I have to write you up."

"Yeah, that's fine. Do your thing. Just promise you'll drop by some time."

Katniss looks at the card and back at his smiling face with those crazy long lashes catching the sunlight.

"I'll ice a cookie with your name on it. Say you'll come?"

That's when she remembers the only Valentine she ever received—a heart shaped cookie, iced in pink with her name written across it. Left every year on her desk without any clue as to who gave it.

"Yeah. Maybe."