Katniss led Peeta downstairs, silently thankful that they had been granted practically the entire morning to adjust to the changed parameters of their relationship. To say that Katniss was shocked to have been allowed even that small concession was an understatement, and she really should not have been surprised one bit to see Grandmother and Lissah Mellark waiting at the bottom of the stairs.
Nevertheless, she felt a startled twinge at the sight of their expectant, smug faces lurking in the entrance hall of the Stone home.
Peeta's hand gripped hers tightly as they cleared the last step and stopped to face the two matriarchs.
"Dare I assume that you fulfilled your obligations, girl?" Grandmother asked in her trademark dry tone, looking directly at Katniss. "It would be a shame for Primrose to suffer for your weaknesses." Katniss opened her mouth, angry words ready to tumble from her lips, but a squeeze of Peeta's fingers halted her retort.
"We handled everything perfectly, Madame Stone," Peeta interjected firmly, his back straight and proud as he stared down at Grandmother. He pulled Katniss to his side and kissed her head softly. "Katniss and I are a pair, and we share in responsibility of the night and everything after. It was no obligation." Grandmother looked amused while Mrs. Mellark curled her lip.
Peeta glanced at her sideways, shooting her a brief look as if to say play the game, Katniss. Understanding passed through her immediately. He was setting a precedent.
By showing Grandmother and Mrs. Mellark that they were a unified front, at least a small part of the adult's control over their lives was broken. They might have dictated Katniss and Peeta's actions, but they could not control their emotions.
It occurred to Katniss that she hadn't been the only one dreaming of the day when she would be out from under the thumb of her guardians.
"We're quite happy," Katniss added while glancing up at Peeta with a loving expression, and found that she did not have to reach very far down to access the feelings that corresponded with the look. His mother surveyed them suspiciously.
Katniss watched varying levels of emotion play out on Lissah Mellark's face as she stared at her youngest son. His newfound sense of assertiveness obviously came as a surprise, and Katniss could tell that she was struggling to not beat the defiance out of him. Katniss was on high alert, and felt almost nauseated with the intensity of the realization that she would not be able to stop herself from physically attacking Mrs. Mellark if the woman touched her husb—Peeta.
"You're a fool, boy," his mother finally sneered. "And if you think that girl wants you for anything other than what the Stone's spelled out in the contract, then you are even more so of a lovesick fool than I ever imagined."
Peeta schooled his features quickly, but not before Katniss saw a shuttering emotion -a flicker of self-abasement- pass like a shadow over his face. His mother had been fostering Peeta's self-loathing for years, and Katniss was sickened to watch him absorb the poison that his mother doled out so liberally.
"Peeta, this is incredible," fourteen-year-old Katniss said, tracing a finger over one of the drawings that he had shyly slid over to her. They were in his bedroom, taking a break from studying for the History of Panem exam that was being given the next day at school.
"You really think so?" he asked with earnest eyes.
"Yes! Look at the houses, and the trees. Oh, I even see a bird cage in one of the windows!" she exclaimed, pouring over the whimsical yet fully rendered sketches.
He smiled and blushed lightly at her praise, not entirely used to being complimented on his hobby by anyone other than his father.
"You should be designing communities somewhere like the Capitol," she said seriously.
He laughed and bent his head next to hers, looking at his work. "I don't want to live in the Capitol," he said near her ear. "There aren't any olive skinned girls with sharp tongues to keep me in line," he joked, pulling her braid playfully.
She looked over her shoulder at him and shook her head. "Your talent is wasted here, Peeta. You should be creating real cities, not cookie houses and spun sugar forests in the bakery."
He looked both stung and deeply flattered at her words.
"Kat-"
The door flew open, and Lissah Mellark scowled at them from the doorway.
"What are you doing, boy? Dawdling in your room while your father needs you downstairs for the late afternoon rush, that's what," she accused him, stalking over to his desk and looking at the drawings scattered over the wooden surface.
"And what have I told you about wasting your time with this garbage?" she all but screamed at him, Peeta flinching as if expecting a blow. "We've wasted good money on your paper and art supplies. The least you could do is draw a nice cake pattern or something useful," she spat out, cuffing him on the side of the head.
Katniss glared at the woman, hate burning in her eyes.
"And you. Shouldn't you be at the apothecary? Lazy children," Mrs. Mellark muttered, the force of which she swept out of the room sending Peeta's sketches fluttering to the floor.
Peeta was quiet as he gathered up his papers. Katniss dropped to her knees and helped him.
Peeta stayed in his kneeled position on the floor long after they were done, unmoving and slumped over.
"Don't listen to that witch," Katniss whispered, laying a hand over his.
"She's right, you know," Peeta said in defeat, not meeting her stare. "My drawings are pointless."
"Don't ever say that again," Katniss said fiercely, leaning forward impulsively to wrap him in a hug.
You're the most talented person I know, Peeta," she said into his ear. "And one day, you're going to do great things. I know it."
"If I grow up to never treat my family like that," he said against her neck, "then that's the greatest thing I'll ever do."
"I love Peeta," Katniss blurted out without thinking, a deep-seated, angry fire stoked and raging at the cruelty Lissah Mellark was capable of, even in the aftermath of her contractual victory. "I couldn't be more pleased with our match," she all but hissed at his mother. "Our one regret is that we were not able to come together on our own terms."
"Yes," Peeta added, staring down at Katniss, a mix of emotions flittering across his face at her words. "It's true. I only wish that I could have asked her to marry me without the looming cloud of threats and disownment hovering above us," he said wryly. The truth behind his words could not be missed.
Grandmother looked slightly skeptical at Katniss' statement, but gave a small shrug. "I must admit, after your Grandfather and I explained the marriage arrangement to you, I halfway expected to find that you had run off with that Hawthorne boy in the middle of the night." She stopped at Katniss' facial expression. "Oh, come now, girl. You had to know that we were very well aware of where you went the night after we sat you down."
Katniss opened and closed her mouth. "It's fine," Grandmother waved her hand towards Katniss in a dismissive gesture. "Hawthorne is your husband's problem now."
Peeta's hand was suddenly a stiff rock clenched inside her own. She didn't look at him.
How could she say that in front of Peeta? Katniss thought angrily. Both of these women are absolutely evil.
"Well, all the more reason to get the marriage license today," Lissah Mellark interjected sharply. "But for now, the bakery isn't going to serve customers on its own. Mill is handling the morning crowd by himself, and I think we've indulged your laziness for long enough," she snapped at Peeta.
"Peeta's taking the morning off," Katniss said calmly, meeting Mrs. Mellark's eyes easily.
"What!-"
"You want us to get the license today, yes?" Katniss pushed with a tight smile. "We also have school. We can only do so much."
"Oh, let the boy go, Lissah," Grandmother said indifferently. "He's all but married now, a grown man. Can't keep him tied to the apron strings forever," she cackled at her own jest. No one laughed with her.
"Fine. But tonight, we will discuss the toasting," Mrs. Mellark announced reluctantly, clearly trying to gain the upper hand again.
"What's there to discuss?" Katniss frowned. This woman was really too much.
"This isn't the Seam, Katniss," the blonde woman snapped in disgust. "Like it or not, you two are from some of the most well-respected Merchant stock in District Twelve. We're going to have a proper toasting ceremony for the town to see. We can invite the Undersees!" she brightened. "You're friends with the daughter, aren't you?" She eyed Katniss warily, as if she couldn't quite believe that she was connected to someone so high up on the District social ladder.
Stock. That's how she sees us, Katniss thought. Chattel to carry on the family name, to show off as a spectacle.
"She's right," Grandmother said concisely, looking strangely cross at having to consistently agree with Lissah Mellark. "Without a proper toasting, it seems as if we're ashamed of the match, or that we have something to hide. It's classless and selfish to celebrate a toasting in private."
Peeta and Katniss looked at each other. "Fine," Peeta said for both of them, his voice reserved. "The toasting is up for discussion—later," he added, his voice sharper than Katniss had ever heard directed toward his mother. She would be lying if she said that she didn't enjoy it.
Grandmother made a swift motion with her hand, as if to say it's done. "The apartment above the apothecary has been prepared for you both," she announced, as if she were the most generous human in all of Panem. Yes, from my sister's slave labor! Katniss thought to herself angrily.
"We'll all meet there when you return home this afternoon. Also, we'll want to see the marriage license," Grandmother added. Mrs. Mellark nodded in agreement.
"Yes. No tricks," Peeta's mother glowered at Katniss specifically. "Just because you allegedly spread your legs for my son last night does not mean that I trust you." And your latent Seam tendencies, was the implication behind her words.
Peeta squeezed Katniss' hand tightly. It was the only thing that stopped her from raking her fingernails across the older woman's face. For her to cheapen what she and Peeta had done together was an insult too heavy to endure.
Katniss was surprised to see Grandmother frown at Lissah, her face a mass of wrinkles, but the apothecary mistress did not comment on the other woman's words. "Dram and I shouldn't have to sign anything," she said instead. "Young Mellark here is eighteen, and a property-inheriting male," she twisted her lips thoughtfully. "Even so, we'll want to see the license," she repeated again.
"Yes, Grandmother," Katniss said stiffly. These acts of obedience smacked at her very nature.
"Well, if that's all," Mrs. Mellark said with barely concealed irritation, no doubt put out with having to help tend the bakery in Peeta's stead.
"Good day," Grandmother nodded tersely at the other woman, effectively dismissing her. Her blue, faintly rheumy eyes focused upstairs, towards Katniss' bedroom. "I have some business to attend to myself."
Katniss thought she knew what that might be.
She muttered a terse goodbye on behalf of herself and Peeta, and all but pulled him out the door, both of them ignoring Mrs. Mellark as the woman sulkily turned towards the bakery.
"Well, that was awful," Katniss huffed out, stopping at the bottom of the front steps of her house. Peeta laughed a little but seemed distracted.
"It could have been worse, I guess," he shrugged, his eyes strangely distant. "At least they didn't run that bed sheet up a flag pole in the middle of town square." Katniss scoffed slightly but thought about her Grandmother, no doubt making her way purposefully towards Katniss' bedroom.
"Hey," Katniss leaned into him. "Thanks for supporting me in there. I thought your mother's head was going to explode when we basically told them that they did us a favor by forcing our hand with the marriage." She smiled, but Peeta did not.
"They want us to feel helpless, Katniss. They're realizing that they need us more than we need them, and that scares them," Peeta said, staring off into the distance, towards the Justice Building. "It doesn't seem like that now, because we're apprenticed and still technically living under their guardianship. But someday…in the not so distance future….we'll be taking over their legacy. We just need to bide our time," he said, looking at her again. Her eyes were wide and slightly confused at his words.
He took a breath. "And when that time comes," his eyes looked wounded at this, "you'll be free to make your own decisions. Prim will be of age. Maybe we'll have a child— maybe we won't," he added quickly. "But even if we do, and you want to let us go— you want to be with someone else, I'll understand."
Katniss looked at him sharply. There was so much that she found wrong with that statement, but the retort on her lips was interrupted by a blonde, pony-tailed rocket shooting her way from across the street.
"Katniss," Prim cried, running at her with full force and launching her small body into the older girl's arms, practically knocking Peeta out of the way. "Are you okay? I was so scared. I didn't know what was going on!" she sniffed, her cornflower blue eyes wide and traumatized. "I thought you were being sent away. Grandmother told me that I am to pack your things this afternoon when I come home from school, but neither she nor Grandfather would explain anything."
"I'm fine, Prim," Katniss murmured, kissing the crown of her sister's blonde hair. She held her tightly and met Peeta's eyes over Prim's head. He moved as if to give them privacy, but stopped when she mouthed stay.
"I'm sorry that you were so worried. And that you have to pack my things," she frowned, looking down at her sister. "That sort of stuff is going to change soon." She was dutifully obeying their grandparents, and she'd be damned if she was going to let them treat Prim like a second class citizen any longer.
"What's going on, Katniss?" Prim asked again as she pulled away, her lip quivering slightly.
Katniss sighed, and pulled her down to sit on the steps in front of their house. She looked up at Peeta, at a loss of what to tell her sister.
"Well, how do you feel about having a big brother, Prim?" Peeta stepped in and saved her.
"You mean…? You two?" Prim's mouth dropped as she looked back and forth. "You're getting married?"
Katniss watched her sister's face and nodded carefully.
"Oh! I knew it!" Prim squealed suddenly, reaching out to clasp both of their hands in her own. "This is wonderful news."
"It is?" Katniss asked in surprise. Peeta cocked his head at her with a frown. "I mean, it is," she corrected herself hastily, making a sorry face at Peeta.
"Yes!" Prim laughed with sparkling, relieved eyes, suddenly all smiles. "You two are just so perfect for each other, and you're already so close. I mean, I know Gale always seemed to be an obvious choice but you're too much alike," Prim made a face. "All brooding and serious."
Any tension that had entered Peeta's face at the mention of Gale immediately melted away at the end of Prim's statement, his smile radiant.
Katniss gaped at her. The thirteen year-old had insights into her life that Katniss hadn't ever spared a thought for. Prim was constantly proving how much more mature she was than her older sister.
"You even look alike," Prim added, her pert little nose wrinkling. "It's too strange."
"Prim," Peeta said seriously, squeezing the girl's hand, "I'm going to name a cupcake after you."
Katniss rolled her eyes but couldn't hide her smile at Prim's enthusiasm. Her sister was happy; she wasn't upset, she wasn't sad—that was of the utmost importance to Katniss. Granted, the younger girl did not quite understand what exactly was involved in the arrangement of their marriage, but that didn't matter. Prim adored Peeta, and he had always loved Prim like his own sister. That was good enough for Katniss.
She couldn't help but think of Gale, who so cavalierly disregarded her concern for Prim in one breath but promised to take her away with them in the next. That wasn't enough.
"So, when is the toasting?" Prim was asking Peeta excitedly. He shot a helpless look at Katniss.
"Mm, we're not sure," Katniss evaded. "We're supposed to be talking about it as a family tonight," she added, making an exasperated face.
"Katniss would be perfectly happy with a signed piece of paper from the Justice Building and a burnt piece of toast shoved in my face," Peeta told Prim in mock seriousness, poking her in the side. She giggled and flicked his nose.
"What, and you wouldn't?" Katniss asked, genuinely surprised.
"Well," Peeta said hesitatingly, straightening slightly. She cocked her head at him.
"I guess I wouldn't hate a formal toasting with all our friends and family, and some of the townsfolk," he finally shrugged, looking at her honestly.
Katniss regarded him for a moment.
"Is it so wrong that I want to show off my wife?" Peeta asked softly, starkly reminding Katniss of his emotional declaration the night before. Prim all but cooed at him, elbowing Katniss in the side.
"Okay," Katniss said, biting her lip.
"Okay?" he asked with raised eyebrows, a small smile playing on his lips. "That's it? No argument?"
"Nope," she said, popping the P at the end. "We'll have the toasting of your dreams, little girl," she teased him. Really, it's the least I can do for you for putting up with me. And, it will get our wardens off our backs.
"Okay, okay," Peeta laughed good-naturedly at her mocking words before turning to look at Prim again. "It's time for you to head to school now, isn't it?" he scolded her gently. "And without us to stop you from dancing in the streets and talking to everyone you see along the way, you'll probably be late if you don't start heading off now."
"What about you two? We always walk together!"
"We have to make a stop," Katniss informed Prim.
She pouted a little. "Okay…we have so much to talk about, though," Prim said with a significant look at Katniss, and she had to wonder if her innocent little sister suspected more about last night than she had originally let on.
After Prim had been finally convinced to head off for school, Katniss and Peeta started their own walk towards the Justice Building.
"Peeta," Katniss stopped him in his tracks. "You're limping."
He looked around himself in a baffled manner, as if he hardly noticed. "Maybe a little," he said with a shrug. "I think I just stepped off your stairs wrong." Katniss frowned and touched his hip lightly, her face skeptical.
Katniss sat huddled behind the pig pen that belonged to the town baker. She had just unsuccessfully searched for food in the trash cans in the alley way, and was now fully prepared to die from starvation and exposure. After the baker's wife had run the eleven- year-old away from the scene, Katniss had all but collapsed in the rain and mud.
I'm sorry, Prim, she thought to herself tiredly. I failed you.
Suddenly, a warm glow appeared from the back door of the bakery as Peeta Mellark, a boy she barely knew from school, appeared in the doorway. He was an angelic silhouette in the hazy radiance of the bakery lights, and his arms were clutching something that teased her nose with forbidden delights. Katniss despaired at the smell of salvation that was so close, yet so far away.
Thump. Thump.
Her eyes widened as she realized what had just landed mere feet from in front of her. She willed her body to crawl forward and clasp the bread that Peeta Mellark had just thrown her way. Katniss had just shoved the warm loaves under her shirt and made her way out of view when she heard screeching from the bakery.
She turned around to see the baker's wife strike her son squarely, the boy stumbling off the steps and landing hard on his side in the mud.
"It doesn't hurt," Peeta assured her.
Katniss suspected differently. Peeta hadn't walked with a limp in years, though she could easily remember both the overwhelming gratitude and crushing guilt she felt when an eleven-year-old Peeta shuffled into school, his left leg pulling behind him in a slight drag for months. She remembered how the merchant girls, like Andes Ladd and Shira Clash, had fussed over him and made a huge show of carrying his books around, Peeta's face bright red with embarrassment at the attention of the girls and the good natured ribbing of his friends.
But now, not even carting around the heavy materials at the bakery affected him, as the injury that had damaged his hip years ago had long since healed. His gait was only ever pronounced when it was going to storm—a nod to the lore that her father had once told her in regard to weather and the effect it has on people's bodies— or when he engaged in especially physical activities that moved his body in unaccustomed ways.
Katniss cringed as she vividly recalled the awkward angle of his body last night as he tried his best not to crush her, or compromise her comfort in any way that wasn't absolutely necessary.
"You were so concerned about my well-being last night," Katniss murmured, looking lost. She was already failing him in so many ways.
She touched her stomach with self-conscious guilt. "I didn't even ask how you felt this morning," she iterated, looking at him miserably. "And look. I hurt you."
Peeta looked genuinely surprised at the concern in her voice, and peered at her stricken face. "Hey, hey," he objected gently, pulling her into his arms. "You didn't hurt me. Last night was the best night of my life," he spelled out firmly.
She wouldn't look at him.
Peeta tipped her chin back with his hand. "I would literally lose my leg if it meant that I could wake up next to you every morning," he joked, but his eyes were serious as they met her grey ones. Katniss tried not to stiffen in his arms. She still wasn't used to these blatant declarations of affection from her best friend yet.
"Let's hope it never comes to that," Katniss tried to smile and help bring back the levity to their conversation.
Peeta had a knowing look on his face, though, as if he could read her mind. "I guess this means that you'll have to be on top next time," he said slyly, and laughed at her face when his statement finally registered.
Katniss pulled back and punched him lightly on the arm. "Shut up," she mock glared at him, but he looked far too pleased with himself for her to be annoyed, "or you'll lose that leg sooner than you think." She grabbed his hand to soften her words, and they swung their interlocked fingers back and forth as they walked through the town square. Katniss was careful to surreptitiously slow down her normal walking speed, hyper aware of Peeta's slight limp but not wanting to make an issue out of it.
Katniss could feel the stares of some of their classmates along the way, most of them obviously on their way to school. She recognized that they would have some explaining to do today, but was single-mindedly focused on getting through one task at a time. She looked over at the butcher's shop just as Shira Clash sauntered out, fluffing her hair vainly. The blonde girl eyed them quickly before doing a double take at Katniss and Peeta's clasped hands.
Katniss smiled at Shira sweetly and moved closer to Peeta as they approached the other girl. She pulled him down to kiss him on the cheek softly as they passed by, and she could feel the weight of Peeta's eyes on her profile as Shira all but gaped at their display.
"Admit it," he whispered in her ear. "You enjoyed that, didn't you?"
"I always enjoy making Shira Clash squirm," she shrugged, but smiled slightly.
"Well, we're madly in love, so it's all right to kiss me anytime you feel like," he joked, nudging her slightly.
They teased each other back and forth on the way to the Justice Building, and Katniss felt a weight lift from her chest. They would be okay. If this is what married life would be like -playing, laughing and loving with her best friend- then she thought that she had been terrified for no reason.
"So you went to see Gale the night before last," Peeta hedged suddenly, breaking their comfortable bubble as they neared their destination. Her heart dropped. Every time she thought about Gale, it was like salt rubbed over a quiver burn.
She looked at him with a sigh. "Peeta…"
"It's okay," he said quickly. "I'm not angry or anything. I mean, how could I be?" he asked with a slight edge to his voice. "He's your closest friend."
"Yes, but so are you," she said slowly, deliberately meeting his eyes. She stopped in the middle of the street, forcing him to stop with her, ignoring the bustle of the townspeople around them and the curious looks they were attracting as she grasped both of his hands in her own.
"But Peeta. You're my lover. And my husband, well, soon to be," she stumbled over her words, waving towards the Justice Building in front of them.
His eyes all but blazed at her. "Your lover," he mouthed the words, his lips carefully forming the letters as if to taste the very sound of them.
She gazed at him seriously. "You see?" she said, raising a hand to cup his cheek, channeling all of the emotions that she was capable of feeling into that one small gesture. "There's no competing with that."
He searched her face intently. "I love you, Katniss."
She felt a stirring in her heart, the rooted tendrils that Peeta had planted there responding to his words powerfully, growing into sharp little shoots. The feeling was almost painful, and frightening in it's intensity.
The swift need to run away appeared like an old, unwanted friend. It would be so easy— to flee the steps of the Justice Building and escape into the fresh forest air; to crush the vulnerable, rooted soil of her heart. She looked around distractedly, watching as the townsfolk walked by in a flurry of shapes, her eyes blurring slightly. She felt like she was floating away, like she was lost, like…
A gentle hand cupped her shoulder, anchoring her back to Earth. She met Peeta's eyes, filled with love, understanding, and most of all—patience.
And suddenly, she knew.
I can't leave you.
She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him lightly on the mouth, chuckling against his lips as he let out a surprised noise. "Let's go get that in writing," she said, pulling back to smile at him, resting her hand lightly on the hip that he injured on her behalf so long ago.
"Get a room! Damn kids," a voice grumbled from beside them. They looked over to see the town drunk -who also happened to serve as District Twelve's only living Victor- stomp past them towards the train station.
"I guess that means we shouldn't expect to see you at the toasting, Mr. Abernathy?" Peeta called after him with good humor, watching as the grizzled man sent a rude gesture back with his fingers.
"Must be in withdrawals, the old bastard," Katniss muttered as they walked up the steps of the Justice Building. Peeta shrugged but was distracted, his eyes gleaming with anticipation as he led her to the short line of people waiting in front of the License and Acquisitions queue.
"I can't believe we're doing this," Peeta said, awe in his voice. "I wish I could draw this moment, right now." He looked around at their surroundings intensely, taking in the aged wooden counters and scuffed stone tiling as if they were something precious to behold.
Katniss knew without a shadow of a doubt that what he was committing to memory would later be immortalized in pencil and ink, painstakingly sketched and fiercely protected by a clear sealant made of boiled water and small amounts of costly flour pilfered from the bakery in secret.
She smiled at him genuinely, but felt a nervous churning in her stomach, butterflies taking a winged flight there. For all of her bravado last night and today, actually being in this building, waiting in line, mere moments from officially signing her independence away, it was…
"Next!" called the grating Capitol accent manning the License desk.
"That's us," Katniss said lowly, moving forward and clutching Peeta's hand as if it were a lifeline. She didn't know why this felt like such a huge thing. She and Peeta had completed a far more complicated and lasting marriage ritual last night. This was nothing, in the scheme of things—a formality, really, she told herself.
"Names and inquiry of business?" asked the androgynous Capitol attendant in front of them, all green skin and purple eyes and bored tones— and obviously very ready to take the Friday train back to the Capitol. Katniss tried not to stare at the creation, but failed miserably.
Peeta nudged her lightly in admonishment before answering on their behalf. "Peeta Mellark and Katniss Everdeen, marriage license," he said with a winning smile.
He or she finally looked up at him in interest. "How romantic," it cooed. "And you're so handsome, for a District Twelve male." It looked over at Katniss skeptically, as if to say and how did you get so lucky?
"Thank you. I'm very fortunate," Peeta beamed down at Katniss and pulled her close. The Capitol attendant looked charmed, and Katniss noted that this one was much friendlier than the person who had handled their apprenticeship licenses.
Or maybe it's just the Peeta Mellark effect, Katniss thought, both the attendant and herself looking up at him in fascination. The green skinned Capitolite looked absolutely dazzled.
Between her reassurances about Gale, a very public kiss and their marriage status on the verge of becoming official, Peeta was fully on, his classically beautiful face radiating with joy and masculine pride. It was a sight mesmerizing to behold, and it was because of her.
"Any how!" chirped the green thing, tapping its bejeweled fingernails quickly against a small square tablet that resembled a miniature version of the monitors that aired the Hunger Games every year. "Just put your names here for me, if you please!"
They gingerly pressed their fingers against the cool glass of the tablet, writing their names awkwardly with their fingertips. The attendant giggled at their obvious discomfort with technology.
"You both seem awfully young to be getting married," it chattered while tapping on the tablet again, "but I love a good love sto—ry…" the chipper voice trailed off and compacted tightly.
Peeta and Katniss looked at each other uneasily.
"Is something wrong?" Peeta asked politely, confusion lacing his voice.
Wide purple eyes regarded them sympathetically.
"I am ever so sorry," sighed the creature," but your license has been denied."
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A thousand apologies. I didn't send out teasers nor have I responded to reviews yet. I honestly didn't expect so many reviews and for so many people to like this story. I swear I'll do better. You are all stellar human beings, and I appreciate your feedback more than you know. I may buckle down and get a beta soon because I think it might make this process faster.
Just a little shameless fic whoring: I have another everlark story, if you're interested in very AU fics that are kind of twisted and lemony. It's called Heartsick, so check it out if you're inclined. In addition to the stories I've listed on the last chapter, you should be reading:
The Grandmentor by silvercistern
Hope in the Darkness That I Will See the Light by deathmallow [archive of our own]
The Same Mistakes by politiksandprose
Someday by Bleedtoloveher
Come Home by peski0piks
Also, I'm now cross-posting both of my stories at AO3 as misshoneywell, so in the event my fics are taken down, that is where I will be. Hit me up on tumblr (my new url is hemsworthys dot tumblr dot com) if you're interested in my happenings/posting news. My ask box is always open.
Special shout outs to frostingpeetaswounds, silvercistern and deathcabforbritney for Tumblr solidarity.
Reviews = love.