It's been awhile and we've gone through some changes.

The characters of The Hunger Games Trilogy do not belong to me.

Fated to Love

Part Two, Part Twenty-Two

"Katniss."

Silence.

"Katniss, sweetheart. You have to talk to someone. Yes, I know that Peeta messed up…I mean he really messed up, but you can't just hide."

There was a shuffle and the specter by the studio window turned to her mother and Uncle. They looked at her drawn grey eyes and gaunt figure. Had she even eaten that week? This horrible week where there had been nothing but silence from both herself and Peeta?

Hani didn't know what to make of the situation. She could understand Peeta's angle on things. He was afraid; afraid that Katniss would do exactly what she was doing—retreating. She could also see Katniss' side. Her daughter had been left vulnerable; she had opened her heart to a phantom stranger and was tricked by the man she loved.

"Katniss, you need to snap out of this," Haymitch said firmly. "I know that we've all been walking on eggshells since you were in such a fragile state, but you've grown from that. You're stronger than you think and I know that you are better than this." He approached the shadow of what was once Katniss, putting his hands on her shoulders. "This is not my niece—this silent, sullen creature."

Stony eyes met his gaze. "Get out."

Hani moved towards her daughter, but Haymitch's arm shot out from his side blocking her way.

"Do as she says," he told his sister, a smirk on his worn lips. "Katniss is getting her fire back."

"Peeta."

A groan, pained and heavy with liquor, escaped his dry mouth.

"Peeta, get up!"

He shot up, finding Rue and Johanna standing before him. Smacking his lips, Peeta could taste the remnants of the bottle he finished off…an hour ago?

"What time is it?" he asked.

"It's 8 in the morning," Johanna responded tersely. She cradled Mason against her while glaring at him. "You have an office to run and people to meet with."

"Yes…" He pushed himself up, nearly staggering into the bare wall of the nursery. "I'm getting up."

Rue looked to Johanna. "I'll deal with him." Her hand went to his back. "Come on. You need to shower…"

"You are not coming with me," Peeta grumbled as his assistant moved him in the direction of the master bathroom.

"Oh, please. You have nothing that I haven't seen and completely disregarded in my teen years," Rue told him. "A penis is just a penis."

Peeta looked over his shoulder blearily. "And, a vagina?"

"Is a magnificent thing to behold," Rue retorted as she pushed him into the bathroom. "Now, off with your clothes."

He nodded, but suddenly felt himself sway as he stumbled down onto the swiftly shut toilet seat cover. His stomach was hurting and it had nothing to do with the hangover.

"I miss her."

Rue knelt down in front of him. "I know, Peeta." She gave him a sympathetic smile. "But, you screwed up—even if you had the best of intentions." His assistant snorted to herself. "I probably didn't help. I gave you Mamie."

"You were helping a friend and your boss," Peeta said. "I brought Mamie to life with a lie." He stood removing his shirt quickly. "I got what I deserved."

"You can wallow in self-pity." Rue took his shirt, folding it before placing it on the sink counter. "But, who is that going to help in the end? Will it make things hurt any less? More so, would this even convince Katniss to consider forgiving you?"

Peeta walked over to the shower, turning the nozzle on, as he toed off his shoes. "No, it wouldn't." He met her eyes, blood-shot and damp, as the room filled with steam. "Do you think there's still hope?"

Rue went to him, pulling him into her embrace. "There is always hope."

For the first time in a week, Peeta felt the hint of a smile on his face. He kissed the top of his assistant's head.

"Thank you, Rue."

"Don't mention it." Her hand went to his bottom, giving it a light tap through his pants. "This is so damned unfair! You don't even work out and you drink like a lush—but your ass is firm enough to bounce quarters off of!"

"It looks even better with the pants off," he retorted with a teasing grin.

She rolled her eyes at him. "I'm going to wait outside."

Uncle Snow stood up, letting out a cough to garner everyone's attention.

"Should we call this meeting to order?"

The family, sans Katniss and Peeta, had all gathered at Arena to talk about the couple.

"I'd like to go on the record and say that I feel really bad about hiding this from them—" Prim said as she sat in the chair adjacent to her mother's. "—especially from Katniss."

"We all need to discuss this," Haymitch said diplomatically with Mason cradled in the crook of his arm. "Because, it's not just them suffering."

"The whole family is suffering," Johanna added. "Rue has had to come to the Mellark Compound almost every day to get Peeta out of the nursery." Her dark eyes were suddenly watery. "And, crap—I hate seeing him like this."

From across the round table, Hani handed Johanna one of the restaurant's cloth napkins. "Lack of sleep?"

"And, hormones." Johanna swiped at her eyes hastily. "This is the shits."

"Wait until Mason is older," Hani told her. "You'll miss this time."

"As we were saying—" Uncle Snow interrupted. "—I was thinking that maybe we need to plan some sort of tête-à-tête between them."

"We just got Katniss talking, Coriolanus," Hani said plainly. "She nearly kicked Haymitch and me when we went to her house."

"Peeta has fallen off the wagon," Johanna informed them.

"Those two." Cato, from his seat next to Prim, shook his head. "It's always either really bad or really good."

"Their relationship has always been…tempestuous, I must admit," Uncle Snow remarked. "But, we are a family whether they're together or not."

"I want them to be together," Prim told everyone simply. "My sister was happy and so was Peeta—when they were with one another."

"I agree," Hani replied. "But, Katniss is stubborn."

"And, Peeta is pig-headed." Johanna reached for her son and Haymitch easily made the transfer. "Thanks, hon. Can you grab a nappie?"

"Speaking of couples, what's up with you two?" Cato asked, looking between the new parents.

"None of your business," Haymitch stated distractedly. He stood to get the diaper bag. "What happens between me and my wife is none of your concern."

Suddenly, Katniss and Peeta were no longer the subjects of conversation.

"You look tired," Gale remarked.

"Blow me," Katniss grumbled as she reached to pick her cup of coffee from his table.

"I don't think Peeta or Madge would allow that." He sat down next to her on the couch. "So…Peeta hid the Toad painting from you…and pretended to be an old woman."

"Yes, Mamie wasn't real." Katniss looked to him, chewing her bottom lip so hard that she could feel her skin break and the metallic taste of blood on her tongue. "I told her…Peeta…things about, well…him and of Toad. We talked about marriage and falling in love."

"You told Peeta things that he already knows about your relationship," Gale stated bluntly.

"Yes, but it's not that! It's the invasion of privacy, the whole issue of trust, and the feeling like I've had the wool pulled over my eyes!" Katniss put her cup down. "If he could lie about that, then what's to say that, later on, he's not going to do it again."

"Katniss, look at me." Her eyes snapped to Gale's, solid and full of empathy. "Deep inside, do you honestly believe that he would do any of this to hurt you? After all that's been said and done between you two? After all the effort each of you put in in order to be together? After Toad?"

She looked down at her lap, trying to pull every memory, every conversation, every gaze, every kiss trying to find deceit in each corner of their new relationship. However, deep inside, every motion and thought from him felt like the truth.

"The word of the day is 'forgiveness'." Gale gave her a smile. "You could argue every point in the book. You're stubborn enough to pick it apart—but in the end, it will all come down to whether you are willing to forgive the person you love and move on."

"When the hell did you get so smart?" she asked in a thick voice.

"I'm in love with a girl who seemed impossible to forgive," he replied and flick her nose affectionately. "And, you did."

"Love has made you soft, Gale," Katniss snorted.

Gale looked to her for a moment before replying.

"I hope love can teach you to trust, Katniss."

"What are you doing up?"

From the doorway, Peeta watched Johanna feed her son a bottle of formula. He walked into the nursery quietly, not wanting to bother the tranquil moment between mother and child.

"I couldn't sleep," he admitted, sitting on the space in front of her chair. "There's just too much of her and Toad in our suite."

"Why did you hide the painting?" Johanna asked curiously. She pushed the ball of her foot against the carpet to continue the rocking motion. "You could've told her weeks ago."

"Because once I had her, I didn't want her to go," Peeta replied. He pulled his knees towards his chest. "Since she and Toad left, I felt like I was living this half-life. Like every smile, every laugh I had after them didn't feel real."

"We tried to help you, Peeta," Johanna said, her lips beginning to tremble. "All that time…"

"I know." He reached, placing a hand over hers. "I can't imagine how it must have felt. But, I'm glad that you had Haymitch and now Mason." His thumb moved over her fingers feeling the thin gold band. "Does everyone know about this?"

"Yes, thanks to Haymitch and his big mouth," his cousin muttered, a small smile on her lips. "I wish you had been there. We had to make due with Hani, which we wanted, some random City Hall official, and Mason as witnesses."

"It wouldn't be like either of you if it wasn't discreet," Peeta told her with a grin. "I'm happy for you."

Johanna yawned. "I appreciate it."

"Why don't you take a nap?" He stood up. "I can take Mason."

His cousin smiled. "I'll take you up on that." Slowly, Johanna stood and carefully maneuvered Mason into Peeta's arms. "Watch his head."

"I've held a baby before." Peeta looked at his nephew smiling tenderly at him. "I've held a boy much smaller than this guy." He cradled Mason to his chest as he settled into the rocking chair. "Get some rest, Johanna."

Leaning down, Johanna pressed a kiss to her son's hair and then her lips went to Peeta's forehead.

"Goodnight, Peeta."

Peeta nodded, focusing back onto the sleeping boy. Mason breathed deeply, a small smile on his tiny lips. A sudden, overwhelming rush of love clamped onto that stone piece nestled in his chest.

"Hey, Peeta?" He looked up to find Johanna watching him, her head resting against the doorway. "How did you know that the painting was Toad?"

He pushed down the sob in his throat.

"Because a father knows his son."

"Does anyone have an idea on how to bring them together?" Hani asked.

"We don't."

Everyone looked to Johanna seated serenely at the table with the rest of the family. Haymitch looked to her in surprise, their son cradled in his arms. Prim and Cato looked to one another before turning to the new mother.

"What do you mean?" Coriolanus asked his daughter. "If we don't, who knows what will happen to us? To them?"

"We are not going to stop being a family," Johanna assured the group. "For better or worse, we're all bound—even if they aren't together. Even if this—" She waved her hand between herself, Haymitch, and Mason. "—never happened, we would still be close."

"Peeta and Katniss are miserable," Cato reasoned.

"Yes, but they're also grown-ups," Johanna pointed out. "We can't fix them. They're going to have to want to fix themselves. It's tough love, but only they know how to repair their relationship."

"Johanna is right," Hani declared. "We should stay put and let them figure it out on their own."

"And, if they don't get it together?" Prim asked.

"Worst comes to worse, we lock them in a room and let them have it out," her mother replied. "Now can we have dinner together—as a family?"

They all agreed, just a little more solemnly.

What no one realized was that something was already being done.

Peeta stood in front of the studio, ringing the doorbell once, waiting in dreaded anticipation.

Katniss' steps were soft, so he was surprised when the door opened suddenly and she stood before him in a long cardigan and pajama pants, slippers on her feet. Her hair was haphazardly braided as if she had rushed to fix her thick mane.

She didn't say a word, only widening her door to allow him in.

Taking the wrapped package next to him, Peeta shuffled past her, trying to subdue the urge to breathe deep when her sweet scent danced into his nostrils. Instead, he quickly walked up the stairs. Katniss followed silently, her quiet steps trailing behind him.

In her studio, Peeta placed the package on her table before finally meeting her weary eyes.

Katniss' eyes had always been beautiful to him. They were the first thing he noticed when they first met. Even behind those horrid but always cute glasses, they shone so brightly with life.

Five years later, he was desperately wishing for that light to come back, especially when she looked at him.

She looked listless in the evening glow. "What do you want?"

"I thought that I should give him back to you," Peeta started. "It's what Mamie—" She flinched at his pseudonym. "—would have wanted. It's what I want."

He remained in the same spot, next to the table, as Katniss sat down in front of the wrapped canvas, looking at the plain package and not at him.

"I should have never lied to you. But, at the same time, I don't regret being able to read your words. You are a kind, compassionate and loving person, Katniss. I'm happy for every moment that we got to be friends. I know that it might take a long time—if you give me time at all—to earn back your trust and love. I'm not going to stop trying. However, it's just going to be me—not Toad or Mamie."

The room went silent for a moment and though part of him hoped that she would respond to his words, Peeta also knew that it was a far reach.

"I should go now."

"Why?" Katniss looked up at him, her eyes shining. "Why did you do it?"

He gave her a sad smile.

"For all the bravado that everyone thinks I have, I'm nothing more than a man who is afraid that the woman he loves won't love him just as he is."

Peeta leaned down, kissing the top of her head. She, thankfully, did not move away.

"Goodbye, Katniss."

He turned quickly, praying that his feet would actually move.

"Wait."

Katniss stood, going to the table by the bed. Pulling out the drawer, she retrieved something before turning back, the object in her hands and pressed against her chest.

"Here."

She held out the Mockingjay pin that she once gave to him.

Peeta looked at the piece in surprise. Was it a peace offering? A goodbye token?

"What does this mean?"

Katniss looked to him, simply shrugging. "I don't know."

He nodded, pocketing the pin quickly, before heading down her stairs.

When she was sure he was gone, Katniss went to the wrapped canvas. She ripped at the covering, her heart clenching when Toad's large, happy eyes were revealed. Those eyes had been missed, though they made nightly visits in her dreams.

When the painting was completely unwrapped, Katniss brought it to the bare canvas in the divide between the dining room and kitchen, sitting down and savoring the warmth that Toad's face brought back to her weary spirit.

She had always been truthful to Toad. They had roamed Paris together, getting to know the city as she healed from her losses.

In the end, they had only each other.

Katniss didn't want it to be that way.

"It looks like it's just you and me again, sweetheart." She sat in an adjacent chair, wrapping her arms around herself. "Not like we never had a good time together, right?" Her attempt at a smile fell on unseeing eyes. "I know what you're thinking—that I shouldn't be mad at your father and that he was just afraid of losing me…"

She smiled to herself, remembering the gentle brush of Peeta's lips on her hair.

"The truth is that I'm not angry at him," she said, blinking back her tears. "I'm angry at myself, Toad. I'm angry because I forgave him right away. I still love him. But, what does that say about me?"

As expected, like herself, Toad had no answers.

This is a short chapter—perhaps more of an interlude. It was kind of needed with the crazy week we've had. I just didn't feel the need to spend more time in an angst-filled 'tude.

Honestly, I don't think they'll be apart for much longer.

Anyway, I found that this chapter was short but sweet and has some of my favorite lines in the whole story!

I hope you're enjoying so far.

We are getting to the nitty-gritty. I think FTL will be finished by Christmas.

Next, Chapter Twenty-Three—Peeta drops huge news that effects everyone…even Madge. Katniss takes a giant leap.

Until then, JLaLa