Disclaimer: I own nothing. Just working with the idea.
A million thoughts were running through her head. Why was she dreaming of him? Why did she let him kiss her? Did she like it? Why was she letting it get to her? And why the hell was she going along with it? What the hell?! She rubbed her face furiously at the realization of what was happening. Katniss throws herself onto the couch and yells into the pillows.
It would help if he wasn't so good looking and he seemed nice enough. What was she going to do? Technically, she was his wife, but there was no way she was just going to abide by all he said. But could she be mean to him when he was pretty much in the same situation as her? Peeta didn't want to be here just as much as she didn't, if not more. She could be all Katniss-like but where would that get them? Their living situation would just be tense and she didn't want that. They would have to make the best of their situation. The word he said earlier rung through her head - amicable.
"Yea. That's what we'll be." Katniss says out loud, almost like a mantra for herself. "And no more eye raping him, Katniss."
"Hey," Peeta startles Katniss out of her thinking as he makes his way in from outside with all their bags. Katniss bolts from her seat on the couch and runs to him.
"Let me help." She tells him.
"I got it." Peeta tells her. Of course, Katniss doesn't listen and takes some of the bags from him. Peeta puts the rest of the bags down and smiles at Katniss briefly, before he frowns at her. "Didn't I tell you to get some rest?"
"What? And I'm going to listen to you?" It just comes out. Katniss-like. She wanted to yell at herself. When she just agreed to try and be nice, she gives him a snide remark.
Peeta pinches the bridge of his nose. "Maybe you should take what I say under advisement." Katniss gives him a look. "I said maybe." He plops down next to her.
"So…" Katniss starts. Peeta looks at her, waiting for her to continue. Katniss has to keep her smile back as she looks at him. God, he's sexy. She turns away from him hiding her blush. She might as well throw her new resolve out the window.
"What?" Peeta asks her. He grabs the hand she has lying between them which makes Katniss instantly whip her head around.
"Peeta…"
"Wow, that's a nice rock!" Peeta exclaims as he looks at the ring on her finger. "Who knew Haymitch would splurge a little?!" Peeta laughs and shakes his head in disbelief.
"Oh." Katniss quietly berates herself for thinking that he had other intentions for touching her hand.
"Well, maybe we should go over the house rules." Peeta tells her.
"Okay…" Katniss calms herself. This was her chance to listen to him and just nod along. Be nice, she tells herself because following rules, was not her strong suit.
"I only have two rules. Rule number one: don't go anywhere without me. My job is to protect you and I have to know where you are at all times."
"So, I can't go anywhere?"
"I didn't say that. I would prefer we not go anywhere we don't have to outside of work, grocery store, you know the necessities. But, if there's anything you want to do, you let me know and we'll figure it out."
"But what if I need something?"
"Like?" Peeta inquires.
"Umm…" Katniss racks her brain. "Ooh! Okay! What if I'm craving something…like tacos?"
"Tacos?" Peeta watches Katniss shake her head. "What? In the middle of the night?" He watches as Katniss again shakes her head. "I don't remember reading in the file that you were pregnant.."
Katniss face drops. She crosses her arms over her chest and scowls at him. "I am not pregnant!" Katniss yells at him.
Peeta raises his hands up innocently, "Why else would you want tacos at 2 am?"
"Because they're open! Haven't you ever had the munchies before?"
"I don't think I've ever woke up and was like 'Hm, it's 2 am. I want tacos! Let me just hop in my car and go get some!'" Peeta tells her.
"That's exactly what I'm talking about! Katniss scowls making Peeta laugh.
"I don't know how I'm going to feel if you wake me up in the middle of the night for food…"
"Wait! I don't get my own car?!" Katniss suddenly realizes.
"Why would you need to drive?"
"Because-"
"Rule number one-" Peeta tries.
"No rule number one! I can't go anywhere without you! I got it!"
"So, I'll drive you everywhere. Consider me your personal chauffer for the time being."
"No! That's not fair!" Katniss yells at him
"What?!" Peeta laughs incredulously.
"You heard me! You drive! Why not me?! Why can't I drive?!"
"Because women are awful drivers." Peeta says with a smirk. He knew where their conversation was headed and he just wanted to push her buttons.
"I can't believe you just said that!" Katniss stands up from the couch in anger.
"Calm down! I'm kidding! I'm sure you're an excellent driver." Katniss is still seething. "Compromise?"
Katniss looks over to him. "How?"
"We can alternate. I drive, you drive. As long as we're together, I don't care who drives. Okay?" Peeta asks her, hopeful that she'll concede. Katniss has calmed down and sits next to him again. She nods her consent and lets him continue.
"Rule number two?" Katniss asks.
"No secrets." Katniss quirks her eyebrow at him. "I don't mean deep dark secrets. If there's anything not right or something that makes you uncomfortable, don't hesitate to tell me. It's pretty much the difference between life or death."
"Well, I don't really like this couch." Katniss bounces around on the couch a little. "It's kind of stiff."
Peeta sighs. "Is it fun to play devil's advocate?"
"What? I'm being nice." Katniss tries.
"Haymitch warned me." Peeta mumbles under his breath. "That's not really what I meant, though. I figure, you're a smart girl and anything amiss, you could point it out to me."
"Fine." They sit in silence for a minute, contemplating what could possibly ever go wrong. Suddenly, Prim pops into her thoughts. "How's my sister?"
Peeta looks at Katniss with a somber expression, "She's fine."
"Where is she?"
Peeta sighs. "For her safety, only Haymitch knows."
"Can I talk to her?"
"It's too dangerous, Katniss."
"But what if I never see her again, Peeta? How is that fair?"
"Katniss, you'll see her again." He looks to her, but she doesn't seem convinced. He places a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, I'm not going to let anything happen to you. You know you got paired with the best agent, right?"
Katniss chuckles. "I might have heard that once or twice."
"Okay, so don't stress."
"It's hard not to when I can't talk to my sister or you're laying out survival rules."
"I know and I'm sorry, but I'm just being realistic. But I'm also going to do my best to make you as comfortable as possible." Peeta gives her a small smile which she mirrors back.
"Thank you."
"You're welcome." Peeta chuckles making Katniss give him a curious look.
"What?" She asks.
"I knew you weren't all hostile. You're a big softy, aren't you?" Peeta tells her as he stands from his spot on the couch. Katniss rolls her eyes and stands as well. She walks past him and pushes him back onto the couch.
"Shut up!" Katniss tells him as she makes her way to the base of the stairs. "I call the master!" She shouts as she climbs the stairs. Peeta quickly stands and follows her up the stairs. "How many rooms does this place have?" Peeta hears her yell as he walks into the room behind her.
"Three. So, no problems with the sleeping arrangements." He tells her as he leans in the doorway "Unless, you want to share." Peeta states.
Katniss was happy she was staring out the window, where he couldn't see her. She rubbed her forehead at his comment. He was giving her ideas which, if she wasn't careful, would lead to disastrous results.
"You'd like that, wouldn't you?" Katniss responds at him over her shoulder.
"Sure. I could keep an eye on you at all times." She turns to face him and notes that Peeta is serious at what he says. They stare at each other for a moment and Peeta tilts his head curiously at her. Katniss smirks at him. He was cute and this wasn't a time to play with her.
"Oh…" Katniss saunters over to him and places both hands on his chest. "Maybe we christen the bed…" Katniss gestures over to it with her head.
Peeta's face drops, "What?! Katniss, I'm not sure you understand-"
"Yea, I'm sure you hovering above me is the perfect way for you to keep an eye on me."
"Umm…" Peeta's mouth goes dry as the words escape him. She couldn't be serious, could she? Peeta watches as Katniss steps a bit closer and leans her face up to his. Peeta swallows as her lips are only a couple inches from his. Katniss' hands run down from his chest and stop at his belt. Peeta catches her hands and stumbles backwards out of the room.
"What's wrong, Peeta?" Katniss teases.
"I umm…was I cooking something…no…" Peeta quickly racks his brain. "Work…I don't know!" He shouts as he basically runs out of the room. Katniss chuckles at his distress. At least she wasn't the only one feeling the heat now. "Who says you get the master anyway?!" Katniss hears him shout from somewhere in the house.
"I do! I already called it!" She shouts back as she makes her way out of the room to find him. She sees him as he walks out of the other room that was upstairs.
"You're lucky this room is big enough."
"Oh am I now?" She gives him a smirk.
"Yes! And cut that shit out!" He gestures at her.
"What shit?"
"You can't come on to me like that because next time, you might not get so lucky." Peeta tells her while running a hand through his hair.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"I'm going to win this game, Katniss. You don't play with me."
"Oh really?" Apparently, Peeta didn't know Katniss that well, because she never backed down from a challenge.
"Yea. Because I'm a man and next time, I'll ravish you or something." Katniss is laughing so hard now.
"Don't laugh." Peeta tries to say it with a straight face, but he can't contain his laughter. "Look, Katniss, don't make me make up another rule."
"Hey, you said no secrets."
"Keep those to yourself." He tells her.
"You're the one who started it with that sharing the bed comment of yours."
"I was dead serious!" Katniss rolls her eyes at him. "And I never said anything about bed sharing. Room sharing, maybe. We could get two beds and be roommates. How was I supposed to know your mind was in the gutter?"
Katniss blushes furiously. He was right. He had only mentioned sharing a room and he had kept a straight face through the whole thing. Katniss brought both her hands up to cover her face. She was making their relationship more awkward by the minute.
"Oh, god!" Katniss mumbles.
"I think it's good!" Katniss gives him a look, which Peeta defends by putting his hands up to explain. "Our relationship will be more believable to the public. Actually, it's brilliant!" Peeta happily exclaims as he makes his way downstairs.
"Peeta?" She calls after him. She follows him downstairs and sits on the couch. "What do you mean public? I thought we weren't going anywhere?"
"What? You think we can just stay inside forever? We kind of have to go to work, where we'll be forced to do this thing called socialize." Peeta pulls a couple suitcases into another room downstairs. "Not to mention we have dinner with the cheerful weirdo across the street tomorrow night."
"Who Finn?" Peeta cringes when he hears her give him a nickname. He suddenly didn't like Finnick again. "He seems nice." Peeta throws his arms in the air in frustration.
"He seems nice…" Peeta mocks her as he makes his way back into the living room.
"What?"
"I'm sure he's nice." Peeta says instead.
"And cute. Too bad he's married," Katniss trails off.
"You are too!" Peeta shouts to her from the other room.
"So, I'm not allowed to look?"
"Is that the way you talk to your husband?" He asks, his voice with a slight hint of annoyance.
"Rule number two…" Katniss throws in his face.
"Fine! Keep your secrets! See if I care!" Peeta slams the door to the room he was organizing and silently curses. If Katniss was trying to make him angry, it was working. Peeta quickly shook his head in confusion. But what the hell did it matter? They weren't really married and she could look and have opinions about whatever she wanted. For whatever reason, it bothered him and he couldn't shake the feeling.
Meanwhile, Katniss wasn't too happy with herself. What happened to being nice? She picked up one of the pillows from the couch and smothered her face into it. She slowly pulled it away which gave rise to more confusing questions. Why was he mad? He didn't like what she had said, but why? The overall question being: What the hell?!
"Peeta?" He hears her from the other side of the door. He hears her mumble something to herself then he hears the knock on the door. "Sweetheart?" The nickname makes Peeta laugh. The way she said it was strange, like she'd never said the word in her life. He chuckles again before walking over to the door and opening it.
Katniss stood there, wringing her hands. "Peeta, I'm-" She's unable to finish as apologizing is another thing she wasn't great at.
Peeta raises his hand. "Don't worry about it. We're both just tired and this is new for the both of us. Why don't we call it a night?" Peeta starts grabs one of the bags still by the door and makes his way towards the stairs. "Honey!" Peeta says with a smirk.
Katniss rolls her eyes and throws her head back in frustration. "I knew I wasn't going to hear the end of that."
Don't kill me over this chapter. I already know it's not my best so go easy on me. I promise it will get better.