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lemonluvgirl · 1 year

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New Everlark Fall Fic

*very lightly beta read*

The wind was kicking up as Katniss exited her modest home on Seam street.

Outside the whole world had been turned to muted gold. The trees were painted through with streaks of orange and red to herald the reign of autumn over all nature.

The breeze felt pleasant as the setting fall sun spread its final rays of warmth over the surrounding region, but Katniss knew that once the sun had set the air would turn thinner and chillier as the night wore on.

That was why she made sure to tell her little sister to button up her sweater.

“I’m thirteen, not three, Katniss,” Primrose Everdeen grumbled under her breath even as her delicate fingers moved to obey her older sister. They were only four years apart, but Katniss was as protective of Prim as any mother was of their own child. It was just in her nature.

“Anyone can catch a cold at any age, or don’t they teach you that in your fancy medical courses?” Katniss teased. In actuality she was extremely proud of her little sister, who had been chosen out of hundreds of other students in the district to be accepted into the Twelve’s very exclusive youth medical training program. They only took the very best kids, who showed the most potential. Katniss had been considered once, when she was thirteen, due to her practical knowledge of local plants and herbs, but her squeamishness around blood and patient nudity had ruled her out as a serious candidate.

Twelve was still one of the smallest districts in the country, and although things had improved in recent years after the 2nd war was fought and won to free the districts, it was still by and large a mining community. 75% of adults worked in mining or mining related jobs, and the other quarter were identified and trained from a young age to work essential jobs in medicine, teaching, and law enforcement. Katniss herself was apprenticed to the local tanner, and when she graduated in two years she would be able to help expand the dwindling business to meet the needs of their growing district. It wasn't a glamorous job, by far. It was often foul-smelling hard work, but Katniss felt she was lucky to not end up slated to work in the mines, like so many of her other classmates.

Her brilliant little sister Prim, she had always known, was meant for much bigger and better things.

“Courses on the human immune system don’t start until next semester,” Prim said with a small smirk, “but yes, I am aware that anyone can get sick, at any age.” She finished with a small laugh, and turned back to her big sister with blue eyes large with excitement, glad for any excuse to talk about her new studies, which of course her big sister knew, and worked into conversations readily just to see her little sister smile so freely.

“Did you know that catching a virus from being outside in cold weather for extended periods of time is a huge misconception, actually, it's the congregation of large groups of people in small spaces…” Prim prattled on and Katniss paid attention to the joyful gleam in her eyes, more than her actual words as they headed towards town and the reason for their late afternoon excursion.

The No-More-Reaping Festival.

***~***

A drop of sweat slipped from Peeta’s hairline and trailed precariously close to his eye as he transferred the freshly made batch of cinnamon twists from the third oven to the cooling rack. Peeta blinked repeatedly and tilted his head in order to encourage the sweat droplet to alter its course.

It worked.

The bead of perspiration trickled along his hairline, lodging itself finally in the slightly overgrown ashy blond curls that peaked over his ears.

With a sigh of relief, Peeta adjusted the tray’s placement on the cooling rack to make sure it was secured properly, before picking up the edge of his apron and mopping up the excess moisture that was dotting his forehead.

He was sweating like a roast pig.

But 12 hours working 4 ovens and baking for an entire district will do that to you, he thought with amusement.

“Peeta, how’re the twists coming?” a familiar deep voice called out from the kitchen entrance.

Sure enough, when Peeta looked over he saw the graying mop of ash blonde waves and bright blue eyes so much like his own, only a few decades older, staring back at him.

“All done, Dad,” he replied proudly, extending his arm in a sweeping motion as he gestured towards the cooling rack.

His father beamed in response.

“That’s great Peeta! Right on schedule, as always,” he praised.

Peeta gave his father a humble smile in return and wiped his palms on his aprons.

“Why don’t you go and wash up?” his father suggested, and Peeta looked back at him in surprise.

“Now? But it's only half past five! We’ve still got to transfer everything to the outdoor stand, and then set up and-” Peeta’s list was cut off by his father’s amused laugh.

“That’s what your brothers are for Peeta. They might not be my apprentices, so they don’t have to help bake for the festival, but they still live under this roof and have to pull their weight around here. You’ve done enough for today. Take the rest of the night off.”

Peeta stared back at his father in bewilderment. He had assumed he’d be working the entire festival since he was officially apprentice to the only baker in district 12.

“Go on!” His father ordered jovially, “Go meet up with your friends! You’ve been working too hard lately!” his father added with a laugh and a friendly slap to the back when Peeta couldn’t seem to shake off his surprise.

That got him going.

With a jolt he sped up the stairs and made a dash for the bathroom, speeding by and jostling his middle brother who had been heading for the bathroom as well.

“Hey! I was going to take a shower next!” Rye complained loudly from the other side of the door as Peeta anxiously stripped off his dirty work clothes.

“Dad said to tell you to head to the kitchen!” Peeta called back through the door, and turned on the water of the shower to help drown out the curse words and indignities his brother lobbed against the door before retreating downstairs to help their father pack up the sweets they’d be selling for the No-More-Reaping festival.

***~***

The festival didn’t officially start until 7pm.

Yet, Main Street was lit with strings of glowing bulbs strung between the trees and lampposts overhead. The town square itself had been transformed with quaint decorations of hay bales and baskets filled with fall harvest vegetables, like squash and pumpkins. At the front of the square a stage was set up, but stood empty at the moment.

The sides of the festival were lined with activity though, because even an hour and a half early many of the food and game booths were open. A handful of the vendors were handing out small free samples or free turns to play.

That’s why Katniss always made sure she and Prim came to the festival early each year.

It's not that they were hungry per say, but every little bit helped ever since they had lost their father in the last big mining accident to befall District 12 six years ago. They got by alright on their father’s accident payout checks that arrived every month, but their mother had never recovered from the loss of her husband, she was still despondent and unreachable most days, and consequently never got a regular job like many of the other miner’s widows had been forced to do in order to make ends meet for their large families.

Luckily, their family had been small enough that if they budgeted well and also subsisted with Katniss’ hunting, they were alright. In fact, it was her hunting that had helped her claim the coveted spot as the tanner’s apprentice. The fact that she shot her kills in the eye every time, wasting none of the hide, or meat, was widely known and respected. The tanner decided that it was more beneficial to choose an apprentice who had ready access to pelts on a consistent basis, even if she was kind of tiny, and a girl to boot.

Once Katniss graduated, she’d start earning a real wage and then things would be even better for her and Prim. Kantiss mused, as she sipped on a small cup of spiced apple cider.

“Mmm,” Prim intoned happily as she chewed on a cranberry she had plucked from her sister’s cup.

“Ok, where do you want to go next?” Prim asked after she had swallowed the tart little berry.

Katniss shrugged, she didn’t really care much for the games or contests at these things. They were just distractions from the food in her opinion. But she knew Prim loved the entire festival, from the stupid bobbing for apples contest to the late night historic recounting the mayor recited every year.

They’d probably end up walking the entire festival circuit twice before the night was over. So Katniss ambled in a random direction while Prim practically skipped at her side.

“Well, if you leave it up to me you know where we’ll end up!” Prim said with a mischievous glint in her eye, before turning in the direction where both sisters could hear short strains of melodies ringing out. The musicians were already tuning their instruments.

That stopped Katniss short, and she groaned.

In times past dancing in the square with Prim had been fun, a way to keep warm as the night grew progressively colder. But recently, in just the past couple of years, Kantiss had come to dread the dancing portion of their festival.

Every year there were more and more boys, who were determined to intrude on their sisterly fun. Always asking to cut in, or if they wanted some cider to drink, or if they wanted something stronger than cider.

Katniss had been tempted to break Corey Carwright’s nose last year when the little sneak kissed Prim’s cheek after she agreed to dance a reel with him. No good, presumptuous little weasel. But Prim had stayed her hand, and the Cartwright boy had given Prim a wide berth for the rest of the festival, and the rest of the year after Katniss had promised hellfire and retribution to any boy foolish enough to make designs on her precious little sister.

Katniss wasn’t anxious for a repeat of last year, and so she dragged her feet when Prim tried to usher her towards the dancing arena set up in the middle of the square.

“Come on, Kantiss!” Prim cajoled with a pleading look as she fixed her large blue eyes into two wide pools of beseechment.

Katniss huffed, and grumbled, and threatened bodily harm to any boy who tried to take liberties, but eventually she gave in and followed her sister. They claimed a coveted spot near to the stage just as Mayor Undersee began his opening speech.

“Welcome ladies and gentlemen of District 12! Tonight we celebrate the end to years of tyranny and oppression, a hard fought end to years of hunger and grief. On the 25th anniversary of the last Hunger Games ever fought, we strive to keep the memory of The Last Victor alive. We, of District 12, are honored to have been the District that The Last Victor called home. We are honored and grateful to have been the start of the rebellion that sparked the war that freed all the Districts of Panem, even though it came at a great cost. That is why every year we gather together to make merry on a night that once brought countless families grief. 25 years ago, four families sent away four of their children to fight, and die in the Quarter Quell. That night was filled with tears and a bitter longing for the day when every family would be free of the fear of The Reaping. Then, many more families lost sons and daughters in the war against The Capitol. All of those lives lost, all that blood shed, to bring about one simple thing. It is a freedom every father and mother alive today can now enjoy, as we watch our children play and frolic as children should, without anxiety of a future filled with Reapings. With a future marred by the shadow of The Hunger Games. So tonight, I implore each and every person here, from the age of 2 years old to 92. Be happy! Be merry! Be free! Countless died so that you could see this come to pass. Honor them by making the most of it!”

A great cheer went up as the mayor concluded his speech and the band on the stage took up their instruments and started playing a lively fast tune right away. Prim grabbed her sister’s hand, and Katniss smiled a real smile, large and free, because she was glad she didn’t have to imagine living in a time when her little sister’s name might be called in a Reaping.

She laughed as she and Prim spun around, forgetting about the usual worries of meager finances and a coming winter. And just for a moment Katniss Everdeen was a girl of 17, happy and unburdened.

***~***

She looked radiant as the late fall sunset as she twirled around the square with her little sister. She was wearing a blue wrap dress that floated around her hips and billowed in the breeze underneath her usual too large leather jacket. She had brown colored stockings on, and plain flats on her dainty feet, but her beautiful dark hair was coiled around her head in a maze of intricate braids, with little pieces left to frame her delicate heart shaped face.

Peeta stole glimpses of her from the corner of his eye as she danced song after song with her sister, always turning down any offer she got from the boys her age.

It was a widely known fact that Katniss Everdeen didn’t fraternize with the opposite sex, or anyone for that matter. People had lots of theories as to why. Some speculated that she still held a candle for the miner’s son, Gale Hawthorne who had been recruited out of high school for a specialist engineering program and had relocated to District 2 a few years back. There had been talk that the two of them were an item when Katniss was still in middle school and Gale was in his first year of high school. They were hunting partners for a few years after the mining accident that claimed their father’s lives and forced the new government to revamp the entire mining infrastructure to make it more secure and sustainable. But Peeta always personally thought she didn’t have the look of a girl in love with a memory, or in a long distance relationship. When she came to trade her game at the back door of the bakery, or when he sat beside her in history at school, she had the look of a person who didn’t have the time or energy to waste on romance.

So, for a boy who’d been in love with the same girl since kindergarten, he resolved to bide his time. She might not be ready for romance right now, but maybe she would be one day, when her little sister was settled in her medical training program as the new District doctor, and Katniss herself took over for the tanner.

He could wait, Peeta told himself.

But then Katniss shrugged off her leather jacket and draped it over a nearby chair and suddenly he got to see her newly developed curves in motion. The swaying of her gently rounded hips tested Peeta’s resolve.

He wanted to throw caution to the wind to ask her to dance with him, no matter that she would probably turn him down like every other poor fool before him.

Instead Peeta beat down his more impulsive side and downed more of the spiked cider his friends were passing around, and he chewed on the corner of his bottom lip. He tried very hard to ignore the flush of her cheeks and the sparkle in her eyes as she laughed and kicked out her feet in time to the music.

But he wasn’t sure he would ever be successful at ignoring Katniss Everdeen at all.

***~***

As the night wore on, Prim danced more and more with her friends, other girls her age and even a few boys, though Kantiss kept a sharp eye on those coed interactions.

Colin Cartwright steered clear of the Everdeen girls, and stuck mainly to his big sister and her friends, lucky for him. Prim and Katniss even took a few breaks from dancing to play the booth games and eat the cheaper snacks the vendors were selling. The cinnamon twists were especially delicious.

All in all the night was going splendidly. It wasn't until Kantiss was taking a water break from a particularly upbeat rendition of the old District favorite, ‘Still Comes a Crawling to You,’ that things started to go sideways.

Prim bounded up to her with a great big smile on her face, the one that meant she wanted something.

“Katniss, Marcee McAffey invited me to sleep over at her house tonight!” Prim squealed in delight.

Suddenly Katniss’ carefree attitude dissolved into the rapidly cooling air, and a familiar frown started to form on her young face.

“Please say I can go Katniss! It’ll be so much fun! Odette and Gia are going to come as well!” Prim argued preemptively. Katniss was much more comfortable with Odette and Gia, who were residents of Seam street like her and Prim. All three girls were in the medical youth training program as well, with Odette and Gia training to become midwives. But even with the reassurance of the other two girls, Katniss still wasn’t sold on the idea of her little sister staying over at a rich girl’s house in town.

Marcee McAffey was the daughter of the mine doctor. And although Prim came into contact with their family because of the medical training program, the position of mine doctor was still fairly new, having been created only five years before in response to the death of many miners after the last tunnel collapse. The collapse that Katniss and Prim’s father had died in. Officials who investigated the collapse after the fact had argued that if a trained medical professional had been on site at the time of the tragedy, many men could have been saved. So, the government sent Doctor McAffey to District 12 to ensure that if anything like the horrid collapse ever happened again, some of the miners would have a fighting chance.

Despite the fact that Dr. McAffey was well liked by the miners and Seam residents, Katniss still had never gotten over her wariness of him. He and his family were from District 14, or as many still called it, the old Capitol. Even though he was not a part of the generation that had enslaved and oppressed the people of the Districts during the time of the Hunger Games, his grandparents had no doubt grown up in that era.

She worried, however subconsciously, he might think that all District born people were beneath him in some way. Less educated, less cultured, less human.

Katniss had still been a child when her father first explained the concept of the Hunger Games to her, when she came home from school asking questions. She had been unable to understand people, many of them parents themselves, had been ok with sending off children to fight to the death in a horrid pageant of violence. Her father had explained, with some difficulty, that people in the Capitol back in those days had seen the citizens of the Districts as something less than human and therefore, thought almost nothing of sending scores of children to die year after year for their entertainment.

It was a lesson that had shaken her down to her bones, and still shook her to this day. However, her father had also told her that people could change their minds, and their hearts if they truly tried. That was why the districts gave the people of the Capitol another chance, and instead of wiping them all out they opted to vote them in as the 14th District of Panem.

Katniss did not want her little sister staying in the home of people who held to old beliefs of Capitol superiority, but she also didn’t want to judge them without proof. Therefore, she resolved to go meet the McAffees and ascertain what kind of people they were.

Without saying a word, Kantiss grabbed Prim’s hand and marched over to where the Doctor and his wife and daughter were sitting at the edges of the dance area, ignoring Prim’s questions along the way.

“Thank you for inviting Prim to the sleepover. But my mother is very strict about who Prim spends time with,” she stated flatly, without so much as an introduction.

At this statement, Marcee McAffey’s face fell, and Prim let out a shocked little squeak.

Mrs. McAffey looked confused and slightly affronted.

But Dr. McAffey remained remarkably unperturbed.

“Ah, well that’s understandable. Can I assume you’re Katniss, Primrose’s older sister?” At this Katniss nodded, and the doctor continued, “Is your mother here? So that we can meet her and discuss things?” Dr. McAffey asked amiably.

But Katniss simply shook her head.

“My mother wasn’t feeling well enough to come to the festival. But she left me in charge of Prim. I’d like to ask you some questions before I give permission for Prim to go to the sleepover,” Katniss said.

“Katniss!” Her little sister tried to admonish her. Prim was starting to feel embarrassed and annoyed, but Katniss wouldn’t budge.

“Oh, I see,” Dr. McAffey replied with an accepting nod of his head. “What would you like to know?”

“How are you liking it here in District 12?” Katniss asked, eyes narrowed in concentration.

Mrs. McAffey laughed at her question and Katniss frowned, she did not like being laughed at.

She was sure that the woman was amused by the simplicity of her question, and probably thought Katniss was a little dim witted. But Katniss wanted to see what kind of answers they would give. If they would admit to missing District 14 and all its modern conveniences, or if they would try to lie and save face by saying they loved it out here in backwater little District 12 where people still died of black lung and the flu every winter.

But then Dr. McAffey put his hand on his wife’s forearm, in a gentle but restraining manner. And murmured, “Jean,” with a hint of rebuke.

“Forgive my wife, we’ve lived here in 12 for over five years so it seems a little strange for someone to be asking how we like it, this late in the game,” Dr. McAffey explained.

Katniss only narrowed her eyes even further at his choice of words. Game. Was that what his assignment here in District 12 was to him? She wondered.

“But to answer your question, we have made District 12 our home and are happy here. Happier than we could have ever been in District 14.” The doctor elaborated in an even tone.

“Happier? Here in 12?” Katniss asked incredulously.

Dr. McAffey nodded, and seemed sincere. But Katniss wasn’t willing to let it go at that.

“How so?” she prodded, and the doctor smiled gently at her in response.

“If we would have stayed in District 14 we could have had quite a comfortable life. Doctors are needed in every District as you can imagine, but we chose to come here, to 12, so that we could make a difference. Once we heard about the need for medical professionals in the outer districts, we made up our minds to volunteer,” the man told her in a very matter of fact voice.

Katniss blinked back at him in surprise, trying to process what she had just heard. She had always believed that the position of mine doctor had been assigned. She had no idea why anyone from the inner and more affluent districts would volunteer to come out here to a place like 12 where some areas still struggled to get running hot water and reliable electricity.

“Why?” she asked again, posing the question more to herself than anything, but Dr. McAffey still answered her as if she had asked him directly.

“That answer is simple, to repay the Districts for freeing us from the tyranny of President Snow,” Dr. McAffey replied, daring to use the name of the most hated and reviled man who had lived in the past century.

Katniss’ eyes grew wide, at his frankness and his use of Snow’s name. In recent times most people used it in place of a curse.

“You can go with Snow for all I care!” or “Why don’t you keep Snow company in hell!” were common examples. So it was unusual for someone to mention the evil man in casual conversation.

Despite her speechlessness, Dr. McAffey went on.

“A lot of people from the Districts aren’t aware of just how oppressed people from the old Capitol really were under Snow’s regime. They were spied on constantly, in their own homes, watched by the secret police and their own neighbors. Anyone suspected of not conforming to the ideology of Capitol supremacy was turned into a mute slave, or summarily executed. My own grandfather helped treat the surviving Hunger Games’ victors while he was alive. His biggest regret was that he was unable to help the victor from your district, the Last Victor, Haymitch-”

“Don’t-” Katniss interrupted him, with a slight shake of her head. Hearing the Last Victor’s name always upset her for some reason. Maybe because her father always spoke of him with a respect that bordered on reverence, or maybe because his story was just too tragic to remember on a night when everyone was supposed to be celebrating their gains instead of lamenting their losses.

Dr. McAffey simply inclined his head in acquiescence, noting the sheen of her eyes, and the tightness of his lips. He supposed maybe Katniss might have been a distant relative of the man, the hero of 25 years ago who had stood up to the Capitol, to Snow, and all their combined fury and refused to back down.

“My grandfather’s name was Dr. Felix Aurelius and it's because of him I became a doctor. Though he specialized in the healing of the mind, whereas I was only smart enough to become a general practitioner, he implored me to continue working with and for the people of the Districts,” Dr. McAffey elaborated.

“He always said we owed you, especially in District 12, a debt we’d never be able to repay, for opening our eyes, and for giving us the courage to fight back despite the odds being against us,” Dr. McAffey finished his speech in the same quiet and even tone he began it in, but his eyes held a special spark that resonated with Katniss, through and through.

Katniss took a deep breath, and weighed the man’s words in her head with the impression she got from him. She had always been a good judge of character and she trusted her instincts in this case. That and she knew Prim wasn’t a little kid anymore. She was growing up and Katniss would have to start making allowances for her to interact with people her own age. She couldn’t keep her locked up in their little house forever or Prim would start to resent her, which was something Katniss never wanted to happen.

“Alright, Prim can go to the sleepover, as long as it's only girls, and they go straight from the festival to your home, and they are supervised properly the whole time,” Kantiss acknowledged with a small inclination of her head and Prim let out an excited squeal, which Marcee immediately echoed back as she jumped up and wrapped Prim in a girlish hug.

“But just so you know, I’m the best hunter in the district and my mother was apprenticed to the apothecary before she married my father. She knows all sorts of herbs and plants. You take good care of Prim, and all those girls, or you’ll be hearing from us,” Katniss said with as much dignity as a 17 year old could muster while threatening a full grown adult man.

Dr. McAffey did his best to keep his expression neutral even though Katniss thought some part of him might privately be amused at the idea. But Katniss was dead serious when it came to protecting Prim. She was the one person Katniss would give her life for in a heartbeat, no questions asked.

“We could arrange to have Prim call you before bed and also in the morning if that would make you and your mother feel more comfortable,” Dr. McAffey offered graciously, and Katniss felt better about the decision already.

“That would be good, yes,” Katniss accepted the offer with equal grace and Prim turned around and hugged her tightly.

“Thank you!” she whispered into her big sister’s ear. Katniss hugged her back with equal force and whispered instructions to follow should anything go ary.

Then Prim broke away to confer her excitement to Macee, and the two were soon joined by their other friends, Odette and Gia until the four of them resembled a giggling, squealing mass of high pitched anticipation.

Mrs. McAffey came up beside Katniss then and gave her their address and telephone number, with an ironic smile and a comment about how it wasn’t the girls Katniss needed to be worried for, if anything it was them as the adults who’d be outnumbered tonight.

Katniss hid a laugh behind her hand and waved to Prim as the group set off, followed closely by the McAffeys, who walked hand in hand while the girls discussed the sleepover activities they wanted to indulge in, in loud voices.

After their group had disappeared from sight Katniss looked around and found herself alone at the harvest festival for the first time in her life.

It was only nine o’clock and she suddenly had no idea what to do with herself.

***~***

It was nine o’clock and Peeta had no idea what to do with himself. He had danced a few clumsy reels at his friend Delly’s insistence, but none of the girls here tonight left any lasting impression on him.

Well, all except for one, and Peeta couldn’t seem to think up a way to approach her.

He scanned the crowd for her dark braided crown and blue dress, expecting to find her small blond sister by her side.

But no, she was alone, and more than that she seemed almost sad.

This would not do at all.

Peeta wasn’t sure if it was the slightly vulnerable and lost look on her face or the small buzz from the three cups of spiked cider he had consumed over the course of the night but suddenly he found himself walking over to where Katniss stood apart from the crowd, watching the festivities with a detached sort of expression.

When he was about three yards away her gaze suddenly snapped up in his direction as if she could feel him looking at her and gazes locked.

Katniss looked at the blond merchant boy coming towards her.

Well, nowadays Peeta Mellark looked more like a broad shouldered young man and less like the sweet-faced boy who was kind enough to bring over a basket of breads from the bakery when her father died when she was eleven years old.

She glanced around to see if she happened to be standing near one of his friends or something, but she was as alone as she had been when Prim left.

He gave her a small, friendly smile once he reached her. Katniss’ brow only furrowed in confusion.

“Nice night, huh?” Peeta asked casually, as if they chatted all the time. The truth was they had never really spoken before, at least not outside of school and the banal politeness that was expected there.

“It's alright I guess.” Katniss answered suspiciously. She wasn’t sure what he was doing here, approaching her and making small talk.

“You looked like you were having fun earlier, dancing.” Peeta commented and turned to face the area of the square where people were still dancing jovially.

“Uh, yeah. The music’s good this year.” Katniss replied without thinking, because she was still mostly caught off guard that Peeta Mellark was speaking to her. More than that, he had sought her out to have this strange quasi-conversation. He was known to be exceedingly friendly and popular, but he’d never extended that reputation to try and include the district’s solitary and taciturn huntress.

“Yeah. The band’s got a much better fiddler than last year.” Peeta added, still not looking at her but staring now fixedly at the musicians on the stage.

Katniss nodded in agreement, still shooting him confused looks.

“So why aren’t you dancing anymore?” Peeta asked after a moment.

“My sister’s my partner every year. She left.” Katniss replied matter of factly.

“Oh.” Peeta nodded understandingly and stole a sideways glance at her.

“And Prim’s the only one you’ll dance with.” He said it like a statement, not a question.

“Yes.” Katniss replied affirmatively, almost defensively.

“How about food?” Peeta mumbled.

“What?” Katniss asked, turning towards him sharply. His cheeks pinked at her sharp tone.

“Food? Do you like any of the food this year?” He said after he cleared his throat.

“Um…there were these cinnamon things-” Kantiss began,

“Cinnamon twists! Yeah, I made them with my dad this year.” Peeta interjected excitedly, shooting her a proud grin.

Katniss just blinked at his sudden enthusiasm.

“Oh, so I guess that means you were chosen for the apprenticeship to the bakery?” She asked after a moment of too long silence.

“Yes, to the great relief of my father. He was afraid that out of his three sons, none of us had inherited the baking gene.” Peeta replied with a wry chuckle, seemingly unperturbed by her dismal conversational skills. .

“How fortunate for him. And are you ok with that? Becoming a baker?” She asked, her curiosity getting the better of her.

“Oh, yes. I always wanted to keep the family tradition alive. It might not be glamorous but baking puts a smile on people’s faces. I think that’s gotta have some value in the scheme of things.”

Katniss privately thought simple jobs like feeding and clothing people had a lot of value, but she was afraid if she said that out loud it would sound ridiculous, so instead she nodded her head in agreement and studied Peeta out of the corner of her eye.

His cheeks looked windswept and the tip of his nose looked cold, but his blond eyelashes caught the light of the suspended bulbs overhead. They were so long, she wondered how they didn’t get tangled up together when he blinked.

“Would you-”

“Why are you-”

They both started speaking at the same time and shared a quick, awkward laugh.

“You go ahead.” Katniss recovered first and prompted Peeta to speak.

Peeta lifted his right arm and rubbed at the back of his neck nervously before he spoke.

“Do you want to take a turn around the festival together?” Peeta asked cautiously.

“Like, just walking?”

“Well, I thought maybe we could play some games and eat some more of those twists. I could probably get them for free since I know the baker.” Peeta finally said, and he added a playful smirk at the end that almost tugged a smile onto Katniss’ own lips.

Almost.

“Why?” She asked incredulously.

“Because it's a festival, and we should be having fun. I mean, this is all for us you know,” Peeta tipped his chin up toward the festivities, the people dancing and eating, and talking, “It's supposed to be a celebration of our unfettered youth. No more reapings, or hunger games. Just music and dancing and a good time.” He turned towards her then, and gave her a shrug that seemed like an invitation.

Katniss studied him for a moment, his ash blond hair curling over the tops of his ears and his blue eyes that seemed like a piece of the noon day sky broken off and captured in his open stare.

“Ok,” She said, surprising both him and herself.

“Yeah?” Peeta asked, blue eyes practically glowing with poorly contained excitement.

“As long there will be more of those cinnamon twist things.” Katniss said sternly.

“I’ll get you as many as you want, if you show me how you got the top score on the ball toss game.” Peeta promised with a sweet smile, that was just a tiny bit shy and compelling.

“Baked goods first.” Katniss ordered and Peeta laughed deeply and freely as he took her elbow and hurried towards the bakery stand.

Part 2 Coming Soon

#fall 2022 #everlark #thg #fanfiction #autumn #lemonluvwrites #my writing #romance #fall feels #no games au #no reaping

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