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Here’s another part to that Which Brings Me to You fic. This one goes out to @mollywog because I know how much you love Katniss and Finnick. Part 1

While the older generation clear out of the venue the moment news of the cancellation, spreads. Out back, most of the younger crowd are still nursing drinks and playing yard games like it’s a regular old Saturday at the local winery. Thankfully, they’ve also set out a small buffet with some of the food they’ll no longer be serving for the reception.

Sadly, the cake is not among the offerings.

Katniss spots Finnick chatting with a few people at the bar, and freezes. “I’m going to grab some waters,” she says to Peeta. “You go get food. I want two of everything,” she says with a gesture towards the far side of the grounds.

“Yes ma’am,” Peeta says, completely oblivious to the threat on his life.

She steps up to Finnick and gets the bartender’s attention. “Have you spoken to Annie?” She asks him. 

“Yep,” he says. 

“Is she with Johanna now?”

Another nod. 

“What happened?” Katniss asks. 

“Apparently Gale put a down payment on a house down the block from his mother. He wants them to move home and start cranking out kids yesterday.” Finnick pauses to take a swig from his beer. “Jo figured they’d live in the city for another year or two before they settled down like that.”

“Yikes,” Katniss says, accepting two ice waters from the bartender. 

Finnick takes note of the extra glass. “You know, your drunk uncle was telling the craziest story before about catching you in flagrante in a coat closet.”

She purples. “Snitch,” she mutters under her breath. 

Finnick howls. “The lady doth not protest at all!” He wiggles his eyebrows. “Who was it?”

“You should be thanking me,” she says haltingly. “It was with your romantic rival.”

It takes Finnick a moment to place it, because, as suspected, a rival to Finnick in any department is laughable. “No shit. Annie’s ex boyfriend?” He laughs. “You know he was going to try to fuck her this weekend, right?”

“That’s why he was licking his wounds in a coat closet.”

“I bet he was licking something?” Finnick says. “Since when did you turn into such a minx?”

“Since the 2019 Dry Wagner hit my blood stream without any Swedish meatballs to be the voice of reason,” she says, sipping on her water. 

“Always thinking with your stomach.”

“Plus, he’s kind of charming.”

“Uh uh, we don’t like that guy?” Finnick says, waving his finger. “You remind your booze addled brain that it’s bros before hoes.”

“Oh, now it’s like that?” She says cocking an eyebrow. “What about all those nights when your bro settled the bar tab so you could hoe around for the night?”

He glares at her. “Are you sobering up already?” He nods toward her glass. “Was it that bad?”

“Wouldn’t it be worse if it were the other way around?”

“Touché, Everdeen.” 

He reaches into his jacket pocket, then slaps something on the bar top in front of her. When he lifts his hand, she sees that it’s a condom. Her cheeks blaze as she checks over her shoulder to make sure nobody nearby has seen, then she tucks it discreetly into her clutch.

“Why do you have a condom?” She asks. Him and Annie are exclusive and fairly serious, and have plenty of room in their hotel room to store prophylactics.

“Because people at weddings make bad decisions,” he says. Tipping his head to reach her eye level he adds, “Look in a mirror.”

“Don’t worry about me,” she says. Across the lawn she catches sight of Peeta carrying two overflowing plates to an empty cafe table. “Peeta Mellark is harmless.”

She taps her glass against Finnick’s bottle and bids him farewell. 

“What was that about?” Peeta asks as she approaches his table. 

He’s scooping some humus off his plate and there’s a little dot of it on the corner of his mouth. She wipes it off with her thumb, and he lifts his eyebrows curiously in response. They were sucking face in a closet 15 minutes ago, why shouldn’t she be allowed to touch his mouth? She dabs her thumb against a cocktail napkin. 

“I was convincing Finnick to spare your life,” she says. 

He looks past her to where Finnick is still at the bar, then gulps his water. “Fuck, that’s Finnick?”

“You’re welcome,” she says, digging into her plate. 

They eat quietly.

“I wasn’t trying to get back together,” Peeta says abruptly. “With Annie,” he elaborates.

Katniss’s mouth is too full of lobster Mac and cheese to answer.

“We’ve been broken up for years,” he goes on. “It’s not like I’m still hung up on her.”

“You just wanted to get laid,” Katniss mumbles around a mouth full of food.

“Thanks,” he says wryly. “It’s nice to see how little you think of me.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, you invited her to your room to help pick out your tie,” she says.

He shrugs. He’ll give her that one.

“It’s hard for me to come home,” he says. “I don’t have a hundred aunts and uncles to fawn all over me.”

“Consider yourself lucky.”

“What I mean is, it’s lonely here.”

Katniss frowns. Peeta had plenty of friends growing up, but she supposes most of them have moved away. He has. She doesn’t blame him. His parents owned the local bakery, and his mother was… not her favorite person.

“Fine,” she says, cleaning the last crumbs from her plate. “Consider your good name restored.”

“What’s your excuse?” He says, leaning his elbows against the table.

“Excuse for what?” She says.

“Ravaging me in a coat closet,” he says.

Now it’s her turn to play coy. She’s run out of food to distract herself, so she picks at his plate instead. “You said you had a crush on me.”

“Was that all it took?” He says with a laugh.

“I didn’t realize you ever noticed me.”

He laughs again, but there’s something shy about it now. His cheeks are all ruddy from blushing. “I’d say there were a solid few years around puberty where you were the only thing I noticed.” He scrubs a hand over his face. “God, that was embarrassing. Is it too late to blame that on the alcohol.”

She bites her lip. “I went to one of your wrestling matches once,” she confesses. It was some sort of state match their school was hosting and she got roped into volunteering. She’d finished her shift at the refreshment stand, and her ride, Madge Undersee had to stick around through the final match because her father, the Mayor was handing out the medals. 

Anyway, Peeta was up against his brother, and while they were waiting for their match to start, he was doing all kinds of stretches. Katniss never really considered herself to be hormonal. A lot of her peers were obsessed with sex, while to her it was just a thing that people did sometimes. But she thought about those stretches, and the way he kept adjusting himself in his singlet more than she’d ever care to admit.

“I, uh, noticed you too,” she says. “A lot.”

He drops his head against the table in mock anguish. A moment later, he peers back up at her. “Seriously?”

She shrugs.

“What do you think would have happened if we talked?” He says.

She doesn’t really know. She’d definitely be too insecure to be as forward with him as she is right now. In fact, he’d probably lose interest pretty quickly.

“Who knows,” she says. “I could have been prom queen.”

“Here I was thinking I could have been happy,” he says. He grimaces. “Too much?”

She hides her blush behind her glass. “A little,” she says.

His eyes scan the manor grounds. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever been up here before,” he says.

She’s grateful for the change in subject. “Really? I used to go camping up here when I was a kid,” she says. “There are some trails that wind up the side of the mountain. You can probably get to one of them from here.”

“The place looks pretty well fenced in.”

“In my neck of the woods, we treat fences as suggestions, not barriers.”

The limo company has managed to get a driver and a bus lined up, but it won’t be here for another hour, so they have some time to kill.

They walk along the perimeter of the grounds, in search of an access to the trails. At the same time, Katniss tugs gently on the chainlink fence to find a weak spot. When  it finally gives, they climb through. It’s obvious they aren’t the first people to stumble across this shortcut, and they follow the packed down path that cuts through the brush.

Katniss points out a few plants and the bird calls she recognizes. At one point she even plucks a leaf from a tree and holds it against his hand to show him how to identify it. 

“What’s with the crash course in survival skills,” he teases, still twirling the leaf between his fingertips. “We are coming back, right?”

“You are,” she says. “You’re too loud. But I like the idea otherwise.”

Katniss loves the woods. It’s the closest she’ll ever be to her father again.  

They encounter the clearing for a trail fairly quickly. In fact, she can still see the manor from here. Regardless, Katniss takes note of the numbers on the plaque.

“You’d live in the wilderness all on your own?” Peeta says.

“Sure, why not?”

“Sounds lonely.”

She looks at Peeta thoughtfully. He’s mentioned it before. Not wanting to be alone. 

“How long were you and Annie together?” She asks.

He wasn’t expecting the question, and it takes him a moment to conjure an answer. “Two years?” He says it like a question, as if Katniss has the correct answer written down somewhere. 

“Two years?” Katniss repeats. She’s never kept anything going longer than six months, she doesn’t think. She typically bails as soon as the L-bomb is dropped.

“It was a long time ago. Back when we were in school.”

Katniss is less concerned about that part. “Was that your longest relationship?”

His nose wrinkles. “That’s hard to say. I think most of them have been around two years.”

“Most… how many two year relationships have you been in?”

He starts counting on his fingers while he rattles off names. “Five,” he says.

“You’ve had five long term girlfriends?” She says, incredulous. “And you never married any of them?”

“It never felt right,” he says with a shrug. “Like you should know. Right?”

“I’m the wrong person to ask.”

Katniss isn’t wearing heels, but her flats aren’t too comfortable either so she peels them off, and lets them dangle from her fingers.

“Okay, your turn. What was your longest relationship?” Peeta asks.

She has to think about it.

“I dated this cop once. Darius.” He told her he loved her the first day they met, so she knew he didn’t mean it. Until he did. “That lasted eight or nine months.”

“I’m trying to imagine you with a cop. Just in the last thirty minutes I’ve watched you barrel through three ‘Do Not Enter’ signs.”

“He got me out of a lot of fines,” she admits.

It’s getting cold as the evening sets in, and Peeta shrugs out of his jacket to hand off to her. She’s practically swimming in it, but there’s something thrilling about being wrapped in his warmth. The lapel even smells like him.

But then the reality sinks in. Taking his jacket could be the start of a two year commitment.

“How about your shortest relationship?” Katniss asks.

“I don’t know, like six hours,” he says. “Unless we aren’t counting those.”

Phew.

She grins. “Ooo, I can still set a new record.”

He bumps his shoulder against hers. “Yeah, you can go ahead and try.”

The trees begin to thin as they reach the lookout point. From here you can see for miles, and she points out the flickering light in the distance where their hometown sits.

“It’s nice,” he says, but he seems distracted. “I could probably learn a thing or two from you,” Peeta muses as they look out at the vista.

“What about?” She figures he’s going to ask her something related to camping or hiking.

“Not getting too attached,” he says instead.

“So you don’t like being alone. There’s nothing wrong with that,” she says. “Besides, it takes two people to make a relationship last that long. They must have been getting something out of it.”

“Well yeah, I give good head,” he says.

She thinks he’s joking, and chokes on a snort of laughter. Her laughter dies when he doesn’t join in. “Oh, you were being serious!” But then she’s laughing again. “No wonder Finnick hates you!”

He smirks, pleased by the news. “Okay, what about you?”

“Do I give good head?” She asks haltingly.

“You don’t have to tell me that. You can just show me later,” he says with a dismissive wave of the hand. “Would you rather be alone?”

“Sometimes.”

“Not tonight, though,” he reasons.

She shakes her head.

“Even with a serial monogamist?”

“Well I didn’t know about that part,” she says. “But I’m not worried. I’m a skilled rock climber. You say the wrong thing and,” she claps her hands together and whistles, “I’m out of here.”

He steps towards her with a grin. “In that case, can I have my jacket back?” His hands dip inside the jacket to grab her hips.

They circle one another until he has her backed against a tree. Then they’re kissing again. It’s even better now that they’ve sobered up a bit. The move of his lips are intoxicating in their own right. He’s a really good kisser.

And his hands. Those are good too. He palms her breast through her dress, while the other sweeps down her skirt, pushing the fabric aside. He wedges one thigh between hers. The friction right there.

Their bodies begin to move. They’re alone here, with no meddling family members to interrupt them. She reaches for his belt and begins to unbuckle it.

His hands cover hers to still the movement.

“I don’t think we should have sex,” he says. 

“Why not?” She replies, and steals another kiss. He returns it eagerly. “I have a condom,” she adds. 

He groans against her mouth, the pressure of his thigh between her legs pushing her more firmly against the tree trunk. His hands find hers, fingers lacing together, he braces them over her head.

“I’ve been having a really good time tonight,” he says. 

“Me too.” 

He turns his face away before she can get another kiss in. “And I’d like for it to continue.”

“You afraid I won’t stick around to cuddle after?”

“Five minutes ago you were threatening to repel down the side of a mountain to get away,” he reasons. “So, yeah, I wouldn’t put it past you.” He gives her a kiss. “I like talking to you.”

Her hips wiggle against his. She can feel the entire length of his cock straining against his pants. She gasps when he thrusts back. So good. “I feel like we’re saying a lot right now,” she says.

He catches a strand of hair behind her ear, and his fingers linger on the side of her face. It feels nice, so she leans into it. He’s looking at her with hooded eyes that are easy to get lost in.

Then he has to go and say it. “What if I want to see you again?” 

Uh oh. She begins to extract herself from his embrace immediately. He takes the hint, and steps back to give her space.

“This is a bad idea,” she says.

He pinches the bridge of his nose with a grimace. “I’m sorry,” he says. Clearly, he’s blown it. “I don’t think I can do this. I can’t just fuck you.”

“You don’t want to sleep with me unless I go out with you first?”

“That’s not what…” he’s getting slightly exasperated. “Don’t try to make it sound weird. That’s how it usually works! Intimacy isn’t just physical.”

“Peeta…” she says.

“How about this?” He says. “We wait until midnight. For the next 5 hours, we keep our hands to ourselves, and just get to know one another. Then, if we make it to midnight I’ll give you anything you ask for.”

“Anything?”

He kisses her again. Slow and deliberate. It’s the type of kiss that makes her knees go weak.

“And if I’m not interested?” She says, but his mouth quirks because her dissent is so transparent.

“Then I wish you a good night, and we go our separate ways,” he says. His eyebrows lift. “What do you think?”

Katniss frowns. “I think the shuttle will be here soon,” she says.

He nods, and lets her take the lead. The walk back is quiet.

When they make it back to the manor, the sun is hanging low against the tree line, and the venue has grown surprisingly quiet. 

The ballroom has emptied out, and the bartender is breaking down his setup and counting out tips. The parking lot has also emptied out, only a scarce few cars remaining. 

“We missed the shuttle, didn’t we?” Peeta observes. 

“It would appear so,” Katniss says. 

He pulls out his phone and unlocks it. “I’ll call you an Uber,” he says, tapping on the screen.

“No wait,” Katniss says, covering his hand with hers. “What about the cake?”

#Things that I write #thg drabble #thgdrabble

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DAWSON'S CREEK 3.15, Crime and Punishment

#pacey and joey #otp forever #lol anytime in my writing #when I’m like ‘they make a face’ #it’s usually this type of sequence #they just did it so well

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Binary sunset brought me back to the everlark fandom ☀️ a thousand dandelions for you and your brilliant mind, may it never cease to churn the brilliance that you’ve unceasingly given for so long 💗

Aw, thank you so much! That story was definitely a labor of love, and the readers were so encouraging! I had to finish it for them! Glad you enjoyed it!

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So @jhsgf82 asked me to everlark the movie Which Brings Me to You, and I wrote out a synopsis with no intention of writing it. Anyway, after finishing off my last WIP, I was going to wind down by reading Funny Story by Emily Henry, and I can not get into it… so I wrote this drabble instead. Katniss and Peeta as two cynics engaging in a disastrous wedding hookup…

“How are you feeling?”

Katniss hasn’t even lifted her glass of Riesling before she’s asked the question. It’s her Aunt Maysilee, but not in a familial way. “Aunt” as in her mother’s friend, since Katniss was a kid, and now, even at 30, they’re still carrying on with the charade. 

Katniss takes a sip of her wine. “I’m well,” she says. 

Aunt Maysilee inches a step closer than necessary and lowers her voice. Nothing like a wedding to facilitate the juiciest of gossip. 

“It isn’t too late,” Aunt Maysilee says.

“Pardon?”

“To tell him how you feel.”

“Who?”

Maysilee leans close enough for Katniss to smell the powder of her foundation. “Gale,” she says. 

Katniss chokes on her wine. 

They’re both invited guests at Gale’s wedding to someone who is most certainly not Katniss. 

“We’re just friends,” Katniss says, which is a far more diplomatic response than what initially comes to mind: Are you out of your fucking mind?

“We’ve all been saying you’re destined for one another. Ever since you were kids and you’d be following him around.”

“It’s never been like that,” Katniss says, taking a long pull from her drink while her eyes scan the room for an escape. 

They’re at some historic cottage in the mountains just outside of town, where the trees are dense and lush. Both bride and groom love the woods. Katniss does too, but again, she’s not the one getting married. 

The ceremony is running late, so the cocktail hour in the parlor has started early, and people’s inhibitions are already too loose for comfort. Katniss wishes the DJ would start up some obnoxiously loud music to help drown out the conversation. Or at least they could pass around some hors d’oeuvres to soak up the alcohol. 

“He’s like my cousin,” Katniss emphasizes. In fact, she calls his mother Aunt Hazelle, and in her case, she actually means it. 

Just last night at the rehearsal dinner, Katniss had been helping clean up, and Hazelle had pulled her aside to say she wished she had a daughter just like her. 

“Don’t let Posy hear,”Katniss had joked. Hazelle already had a daughter. 

“You know what I mean,” she said. Katniss hadn’t, but now as she empties her glass of wine, she thinks she does. 

Everyone has lost their minds. 

Katniss scans the crowd for her sister, who would make a wonderful buffer. She orders another Riesling and excuses herself from Aunt Maysilee. 

Prim is nowhere to be found, and Katniss is on a direct collision path with Aunt Effie (by marriage in this case) who is potentially the worst gossip of all. She hasn’t seen Katniss yet. She’s still gushing over another guests wardrobe. It should be noted that Aunt Effie is the only guest in attendance wearing a hat, and the hat is large enough to block the sun for every guest in attendance. 

Aunt Effie begins to turn in Katniss’s direction, and Katniss cringes, concerned that the brim of her hat may take out an expensive looking wall sconce. 

Katniss reaches for the nearest doorknob and ducks inside, slamming the door shut behind her. 

It’s the coat closet, which was probably a cellar at some point, until the building was turned into an event venue. There are three coat racks lining the walls, and a man crouched away in the corner. 

She jumps at the sight of him. 

“What are you doing here?” She demands. 

He looks up at her sheepishly. It’s at this moment she realizes that she knows him. It’s Peeta Mellark. Which leads to more questions. Why would Peeta Mellark be at Gale Hawthorne’s wedding?

As far as she knows, Gale and Peeta have never spoken. Hell, she was in the same class as Peeta from grades K through 12, and she’s not even sure they’ve spoken. Their town was reasonably small, but the cliques ran deep. 

“Hey, Katniss,” Peeta says. “Just taking a breather.”

“A breather from what?” She says, admittedly, a little on the harsh side. “What are you doing at Gale’s wedding?”

“The bride,” he explains. “It’s Johanna’s wedding too. We’re friends from college.”

Right. 

Katniss is struck with a thought. If she’s hiding because half the wedding guests thinks she’s in love with Gale…

“God, you’re not in love with her, are you?”

His eyes widen. “That’s an interesting take,” he says. Peeta has better forethought than Katniss, because when he sought refuge in the coat closet, he came prepared with an entire champagne bottle, which he takes a swig from. “Unfortunately, it’s not that scandalous,” he says. “My ex is here.”

Katniss finds this, nonetheless, intriguing. “Who?” She says.  Peeta definitely dated around in high school, but she doesn’t recall him ever with anyone from her circle of friends. 

“Annie Cresta,” he says. 

The name is familiar. “Finnick’s date?”

Peeta winces. “You know him?”

Katniss doesn’t mention she played a part in setting them up. “So what, your ex is here. You had to know she’d be here. She’s in the wedding party.”

“Yeah,” he agrees. He takes another drink. “It’s just…” Katniss sips her wine with bated breath. She is happy for drama that does not involve her. “We’ve been texting recently. Friendly texts.”

“Isn’t that good?”

“Friendly,” he emphasizes. 

She cringes. “You’ve been sexting?”

“Not explicitly,” he says. “Just incriminating.”

Her eyes widen. “Pictures?”

He shakes his head with a laugh. “Why would I send her pictures of my dick? She knows what it looks like.”

Her eyes dip down to his lap. No wonder she and Peeta have never spoken. Five lines in and they’re talking about his penis. Her cheeks turn pink, and she empties her glass to cover it. 

“I didn’t realize she was seeing someone,” he explains. “So I sent her my room number and said we should hang out.”

“That’s what you’re worried about?”  

“What if he saw the text,” Peeta says. 

“Finnick’s not the jealous type,” she says with a laugh. “You’ve seen him, he has no reason to be.” 

Finnick Odair is a freaking Adonis, the perfect male specimen. 

“I get it, he’s real dreamy,” Peeta says flatly. 

“It’s not like you’re so bad yourself,” Katniss says before she’s really considered the implications. Peeta’s always been well liked, and, okay, good looking. She should not have had two glasses of wine on an empty stomach.

“What are you hiding from?” He asks, saving her from her misery. His nose wrinkles as he recalls the earlier part of their conversation. “Ew, you’re not in love with Gale, are you?”

“Our family wishes,” she says. She tips her glass back to try and catch the last few drops that are holding out. Peeta offers his bottle, and she takes that as an invitation to sit beside him. It’s only as the mouth of the bottle touches her lips that she realizes she could have refilled her empty glass. 

Too late.

“I’m dreading that part of the wedding. The ‘speak now or forever hold your peace’ part. There are about half a dozen people who may stand on my behalf. The mother of the groom included.”

“If it helps, I don’t think they actually ask that in real life,” Peeta says. “I mean unless the officiant is jonesing for a dramatic plot device.”

Katniss fills her glass with half the remaining bottle and hands it back. Her Uncle Haymitch is officiating the wedding, and it’s not that he wants her with Gale. He’s just happy to take any opportunity to humiliate her. “I wouldn’t put it past him,” she says. 

“You still haven’t answered the question,” Peeta says. 

“Hmm?”

“You and Gale.”

“No,” she says, shaking her head adamantly. “There’s nothing going on there.”

“Are you sure?” God, not him too. “It’s just, the wedding was supposed to start two hours ago, and there isn’t a bride or groom to be seen.”

“You think they got cold feet?” She says. 

“They definitely got cold feet.” He stretches his legs out to relax in a more comfortable position, the bottle of champagne rests on the inside of his thigh. She’s looking at his crotch again. 

“Johanna’s my friend,” Katniss says, sipping on her glass demurely. 

“Yeah, and she asked me about you once,” he says. 

“She asked you?”

He shrugs. “She knew we grew up together.”

“But we weren’t friends,” she points out. 

“I saw enough.”

She narrows her eyes. “What did you tell her?”

“That pretty much everyone had a crush on you.”

“Yeah right,” she says, snorting into her glass of wine. 

“It’s true!” He says. He must be drunk, because she notices now that the tips of his ears are red. “I know I did.”

“You liked me?” She says slowly. “You never talked to me.”

“I thought you had a boyfriend,” he reasons. 

Her eyes widen when the pieces fall into place. “Gale?”

He makes an obvious looking gesture.

“And you told Johanna this?” His smile is full of chagrin. “Christ, Peeta,” Katniss says shoving his shoulder. “I’ve gone axe throwing with her! She could have killed me!”

“I’m sorry, okay!” He says. “Here, let me make it up to you,” he offers by topping off her glass. 

They’re sitting close, and when they hold the bottle and glass between them, their foreheads are touching. She feels a jolt of something pleasant at the contact, and makes no attempt to move away. 

His eyes lift to meet hers. He’s always had the nicest eyes. They’re this gorgeous shade of blue, which is only accentuated by his long, thick eyelashes. She wets her lips. 

“So you two have never,” Peeta says carefully. She shakes her head, although she’s not sure why the news is so important to him. He clears his throat and drinks from his bottle. 

She settles back against the wall and sips from her glass. She’s past the point of a good buzz, and heading toward something dangerous. “I can’t finish this,” she admits. He takes the glass and empties it in one gulp. 

“I’ve got an idea,” she says turning to face him. Her chest grazes his arm in the process, and it’s impossible to ignore because his eyes immediately dart to where they’re making contact. She takes in a shallow breath, which comes off as “heaving bosom,” if the glazed over look in Peeta’s expression is any indication. 

“Huh?” He says dumbly, his brain cells obviously impacted by both the alcohol and diverted blood flow. 

“I’ve got an idea,” she repeats. “To divert attention from our current situations.”

He bows his head slightly and his nose brushes against her bare shoulder, and, wow, okay, that felt pretty nice too. “Yeah, me too,” he murmurs, and she can feel his lips on her skin as he forms each word. He’s nuzzling her neck now, and she’s tipped her head aside to allow it. 

“We can pretend to be each other’s date,” she manages to say around a sigh. 

He chuckles against her throat, and holy shit. She grips the nape of his neck to hold him there. “Seems a little desperate,” he says. 

His breath is hot against her cleavage, and it’s not like her dress is low cut, but the way her back is arching toward him, it’s definitely enhanced. 

“What do you suggest?” She asks. 

“Let’s skip the wedding.”

“And do what?”

“I’ve got a few ideas.”

And then they’re kissing, her mouth plying beneath his as he licks his way past her lips. She moans, audibly, which she would usually find mortifying, except then he’s pulling her into his lap, and they’re both struggling to push her skirt up her thighs. His fingers dig into her ass, tipping her hips forward. 

Fuck! That feels good. 

She’s just started to grind against his erection through his pants when the door snaps open. 

“Occupied!” Peeta shouts, but the intruder is undeterred. 

Katniss extracts herself from Peeta’s embrace and stands, coming face to face with her Uncle Haymitch. Worst possible outcome. 

“I couldn’t find my jacket,” she says. 

“I doubt you’ll find it in his pants,” Haymitch deadpans. 

Peeta steps beside her. “We were just…”

“I don’t care,” Haymitch cuts him off. “The wedding is off. Everyone will be coming for their coats, so I suggest you look for your jacket elsewhere.”

“We weren’t…” she starts to argue, but realizes it’s futile. She storms out of the coatroom. 

Peeta is hot on her heel. “Are you going back to the hotel?” He has the nerve to ask. 

“Seriously?”

“Uh, yeah?” He says, clearly confused. “Barring the interruption, I thought things were going pretty well.”

“The wedding was called off!” She reminds him. 

“I doubt that had anything to do with us hooking up.”

“You’re unbelievable!” 

The parking for the manor was limited, so they’d arranged a shuttle service between the hotel. Unfortunately, the shuttle wouldn’t start up again until after the reception was scheduled to end, and guests were desperately inflating Uber surge pricing, while the maid of honor was negotiating a new shuttle schedule with the limo company. 

Katniss stops short when she sees her Aunt Effie emerge from the Uber line. 

“Katniss, my goodness, you’re still here!” She says, absolutely aghast by all the scandal. “We thought you’d left.”

“Why?” Katniss mistaking engages. 

“Presumably to run away with the groom,” Peeta offers over her shoulder. “Home wrecker,” she elbows him in the ribs. 

“Come now, darling,” Effie says waving her over. “There’s a car on the way.”

The last thing Katniss wants right now is to be surrounded by her gloating family members, salaciously speculating over how things ended. Especially what role Katniss played in it. Which, she did not. Too bad her alibi is that she was drunkenly hooking up with a near stranger in the coat room. 

“I already have a ride,” she says, gesturing to Peeta. 

In his defense, Peeta puts on a brilliant performance of acting sober. He gives a responsible looking nod, then waves as they climb into the SUV that’s just pulled up. 

As the car pulls away, Peeta muses, “What do you think they do with all the food after one of those.”

She moans with more enthusiasm than when they were fooling around before. “I thought you’d never ask.”

#Everlark #thg drabble #thgdrabble #things that I write

[absnow]

Completed fic on AO3

You guys, I finally worked out the THG/Star Wars fic I’m never going to write! Katniss and Peeta are both Jedi being trained under Haymitch Abernathy. Peeta has followed the typical life of a Jedi, being taken to the academy as a young child, while Katniss is 16 when she’s discovered, and Haymitch takes her on as a pupil despite the reluctance of the Jedi council.

There’s animosity and competition between Katniss and Peeta while they train, but they eventually form an attraction, and start sleeping together, which isn’t against the Jedi code, until Peeta confesses that he’s in love with her, a sentiment that Katniss doesn’t yet return.

War soon breaks out, and Katniss thrives on the battle field, while Peeta is assigned to protect the Capitol, where he’s manipulated by the Grand Chancellor Snow. Peeta’s hijacked to the Dark Side, and leads an attack on the Jedi, killing Haymitch in the process. Katniss is forced to confront him, and they have an epic duel which leaves them both badly burned and Peeta loses a leg. With the Empire taking over, Katniss goes into hiding, while Peeta becomes Emperor Snow’s right hand man.

While in exile, Katniss realizes she’s pregnant and gives birth to twins. To keep them safe, she sends them away. She sends her son to her sister Prim, who is under the protection of her old friend Gale, and she sends her daughter to Senator Finnick Odair, a trusted friend, who is a part of the royal family of a prominent core world.

The children are safe, until a growing rebel presence appears in Finnick’s sector of the galaxy. Peeta is sent to occupy the palace and crush the rebellion, but while there, he encounters a spunky young “servant” girl, with a striking resemblance to his arch nemesis.

#two years later #Star Wars!everlark #it’s done!

[absnow]

I did it! Hopefully posting it tomorrow! 🤞🤞🤞

Ugh, you guys, I have one scene left to write for Star Wars!everlark, and it’s the hardest one.

#lolol it’s all word vomit that I wrote out of order #but I FINISHED #and that’s what’s important #my soul has been cleansed of WIPs

[absnow]

Ugh, you guys, I have one scene left to write for Star Wars!everlark, and it’s the hardest one.

#Star Wars!everlark #I feel like everyone can guess which one it is #*puts duel of the fates on repeat and prays*

[absnow]

Ok another everlark fic idea lol. One based on The Idea of You, the Anne Hathaway movie that's coming out on prime, so we'll have to wait to see it first. (it's based on a book which I hadn't heard of til the movie and when I looked it up, everlark would have to have a different ending lol). Younger famous musician peeta falls for older katniss.

This is another one where I’ve only been exposed to the premise. I have such a hard time with age gaps, because Peeta and Katniss have this clearly set peer dynamic, and Peeta more emotionally mature than Katniss. Like I can buy him being older, but when it’s Katniss, it’s more of a stretch.

I guess I would follow the premise where either Katniss is Prim’s mother, or Prim is her much younger (like 20 years age difference) sister. Katniss takes Prim and Rue to Coachella, and feels deeply embarrassed about how out of touch she is.

Meanwhile Peeta is an old soul in a totally unpretentious way (he swears) and is also over it. He and Katniss flirt over overpriced water bottles. She obviously has no clue who he is. Peeta asks for her Insta handle so he can DM her, and she has no idea what he’s talking about so he asks for her number, which she writes down on a physical piece of paper. Peeta is perplexed, but endeared.

Fast forward to his set, and Katniss is like “holy shit I just gave that guy my number.”

He texts her to see if she wants to hang out backstage after the concert and she ghosts him, because she’s got her teen with her, so no. But then he texts her again a few days later and her friends convince her to go fuck a rockstar.

Things get complicated when Peeta wants a serious relationship, and Katniss has to decide if the media scrutiny is worth the effort.

#bad fic ideas

[absnow]

what if you everlarked fleabag?? prim as the dead friend and peeta as the hot priest?? the ending remains the same?

Shockingly, I have never finished Fleabag. I think I only got through the first or second episode, so I never reached the Priest arc!

Based solely on the premise, I’d probably keep Prim alive and play off the Fleabag/Claire dynamic. I’d swap the dead parents to match Katniss, and her mother would be marrying their godfather, Haymitch.

Katniss would unintentionally seduce the Hot Priest in her typical, oblivious Katniss manner, until they end up in bed together the night before Katniss’s mother’s wedding. Peeta would already be struggling with his commitment to the Catholic Church before encountering Katniss, and his attraction to her would be the catalyst for him leaving for good.

He would very dramatically (hilariously) confess to their tryst while officiating the wedding and declare that the ceremony would be invalid if he carried on with the sham in true “she came here with me” fashion.

Obviously Everlark would stay together.

#bad fic ideas

[absnow]

Ooh, Everlark me this…working their first shift together, their schedules never matching up before

So here’s my take on a post-pandemic office romance, even though it doesn’t quite match the prompt perfectly...

“Welcome to your new hybrid office,” Effie Trinket says, leading them down a corridor into their new workspace. The building has changed dramatically in the last two years. The old cubicles have been ripped out in favor of standing desks and sleek glass walls.

“As you can see, there are no longer enough desks to accommodate everyone, so we’ve divided everyone into two teams, based on needs for collaboration. Welcome, everyone, to the A-team. You will be in the office at an assigned desk on Mondays and Wednesdays. Fridays will alternate.”

She steps up to one of the new workspaces. “As you can see, there are two sets of drawers at each station, and two lockers for personal effects. We ask that you store all of your supplies between shifts. This isn’t a roommate situation. This is solely your space when you’re in the office.”

Katniss meanders around the office until she finds the cube she’s assigned to. There are two slots for nameplates and hers is on top in the “A” slot. The “B” slot reads “Peeta Mellark.” He must be new.

She sits down and unpacks her laptop. There’s a docking station with two monitors, an improvement from her home setup. She picks up to mousepad and moved it to the left hand side, where she usually keeps it.

She opens the drawers that are marked with an “A” to check the contents. There are a few basic office supplies already inside, and a set of keys to lock the drawers and her locker at the end of the day.

She turns in her chair to look out the window. Previously, with the cubicle walls, she was boxed in and only saw polyester and fluorescent lights. The view from the building is actually pretty nice, she realizes, but as she looks around the new sleek office, it feels kind of sterile and empty.

……

When she comes in on Wednesday, there’s a candy bowl on the desk, filled with some European blend of chocolates. There’s a post it note attached that reads:

Is it okay to keep this here? Help yourself!

She stares at the bowl in contemplation. She kind of assumed the cleaning staff would disinfect and erase the previous occupant each night, but apparently they’re lax about communal candy dishes.

Her resolve lasts for about 6 seconds, before she picks out a piece to try. It’s delicious, and she figures she’ll eat half the bowl by the end of the day, if she doesn’t watch herself.

While she eats her second piece, she looks at the post it note more closely. She digs out the pad from her desk drawer to compare. He’s got the giant 2x4 inch pads, while she’s got the dinky little 1x2 inch ones that you can hardly fit any words onto.

She jiggles his desk drawer, but it’s locked.

Where did you get these???

She squeezes on her tiny post it to better demonstrate her dire situation.

When she comes in on Friday there’s a fresh pack of jumbo post it’s waiting for her and a note that reads:

I’ll never reveal my sources.

On Monday, she brings in a bag of chocolate to refill the one she single handedly emptied. She even goes to World Market to pick out something fancy, because Hershey Kisses don���t seem appropriate.

……

The desk chairs are ergonomic, and have about 50 settings. Every morning when she comes in, it never feels right. The mouse is easy enough to move, and the desks are programmable to 4 saved settings, so each person can have a custom sitting and standing height. But the chair is entirely manual, and she spends the first 15 minutes each morning tweaking settings until things feel just right.

She discovers more about the chair than she’s ever cared to learn. The armrests alone flare in and out and go up and down, and even shift forward and back. However Peeta sits in this chair, Katniss sits the polar opposite.

It makes her wonder how he looks. She’s never even seen him before. She looks him up in the company directory, and is disappointed when his picture is some wide shot of him hiking. He’s got sunglasses and a baseball cap, so she can hardly tell what he looks like. She can’t really judge, since her profile is still the default, anonymous outline.

She looks at his picture again. He has a nice smile.

......

She decides to get a plant. Their desk is near a window, and gets decent lighting, she thinks a plant will do well there, and it’ll make the space seem less stuffy.

She gets a small snake plant and puts it in the corner, tucked behind one of the monitors. She leaves a note next to it saying:

You mind?

When she returns, a message has been added:

Are you sure? Co-parenting a living thing seems like a pretty big step...

She rolls  her eyes and leaves the note:

Just don’t water it, okay?

His response is:

What is it? A gremlin?

One day, while she’s working from home, she gets an e-mail.

Python’s thirsty, it reads, above a picture of their plant. 

She barks with laughter. She hadn’t told him what kind of plant it was, so he must have googled it. Then given it a name. She hides her smile behind her hand, which is silly, since she’s sitting alone in an apartment.

Don’t water it! she replies.

On Wednesday the soil feels dry enough, and she sends him an e-mail instead of writing on a post it, because then she won’t have to wait until Monday to hear from him again.

Please water Python tomorrow. Not too much.

He replies almost instantly.

I’ve been watching YouTube videos. I’m ready for this.

......

There’s a company picnic early in the summer, and for the first time she can remember, she’s actually looking forward to it. She chats idly with a few coworkers she rarely sees since they’re on the alternating shift, but she spends most of her time scanning the various work groups in search of Peeta.

She still hasn’t actually met him in person.

She knows he’s in the graphics department, and tries to find some familiar faces from that group, but she never finds him.

......

He’s sitting at her desk -- their desk, and is startled when she approaches.

“Hey, can I help you?” he says, turning in his seat. 

“This is my desk,” she explains.

Recognition flashes. “Katniss!” he says, then flashes that same smile from his picture. His face pales. “Is it an A-week?” It’s a Friday. “I’m sorry, I just get back from vacation, and I’m kind of disoriented.”

It’s a B-week, and Katniss knows it, but she was kind of going crazy wanting to see him, and now she’s trying to figure out a sane explanation for just showing up out of the blue. “No, no. I -- um, I forgot something,” she says. Which is a stupid thing to say, because now she has to figure out what that thing is. She opens the desk drawer that she never locks, and picks up a notebook. “Have some notes, for a meeting later,” she explains. Maybe she’s not a terrible liar after all.

“Oh,” he says, and scoots the chair back. “You can have the desk today, if you need it.”

“No, it’s okay. I was in the neighborhood,” she says. “I’m addicted to the pastries downstairs, so I end up coming here almost everyday for coffee.”

His smile broadens, and Katniss is almost caught off guard. Is she good at flirting?

“You mind if I join you? I could use the caffeine boost.”

“Sure,” she says.

They walk to the elevators together. She hugs her notebook tightly against her chest and he keeps his hands in his pocket while they ride to the bottom floor.

“You know,” he says, after what feels like a year of silence. “I’ve kind of, sort of been dying to meet you. It felt like having an imaginary friend. I was starting to think you might not be real.”

“I know what you mean,” she says. “It’s a weird arrangement, isn’t it.” He’s cuter in person than in his picture and she has a hard time looking at him.

“You should e-mail me whenever you’re getting a pastry,” he says. “I can come say hi.”

She grimaces. The pastries here are great, but she doesn’t actually go there daily. She lives on the other side of town.

“Or not...” he says when she doesn’t answer.

“No, it’s not that,” she says quickly. She takes a deep breath. “I didn’t come here for my notebook,” she admits.

He lifts his eyebrows. “Or the pastries?” he says slowly.

She shakes her head.

He purses his lips, and nods in understanding. “Look, if you don’t trust me to look after Python, we should probably hash out a custody agreement.”

She feels the tension ease, and has shaken off the embarrassment enough to smile again. “What are you suggesting?”

“How about drinks? Tonight, if you’re not busy. We can pick neutral territory, some place between your place and the office, so we can keep the conversation civil.”

“Okay, yeah,” she says.

He grins. “Great, then, it’s a date.”

#lolol #I’ve been thinking about this drabble every day #because at my new job I’ve been assigned a new office #but it’s still in the reservation system #so I have to reserve it every day #and someone books it every Monday before I can #so I book the office across from it #and this person changes the desk height and the chair settings and only uses it for like an hour #AND IT IS THE BANE OF MY EXISTENCE #*hashtag* imagine your otp

[absnow]

Me singing “But Daddy I Love Him” on repeat with my eyes closed and ears plugged to forget who the song is about.

#I wish she faked it #and pretended it was about Travis #like the whole album I’m like oh honey #you’re too old for this shit #but here I am listening to it so jokes on me!

[absnow]

DAWSON'S CREEK (1998-2003) Season 3, Episode 22 - The Anti-Prom

#dawson's creek #pacey and joey #otp forever #I’ve been sitting here thinking about for too long #how the randos they went to school with #had probabaly been observing all of this from afar #like at the start of the year being like are pacey and Joey friends now? #weird #to holy shit are they caressing each other on the dance floor? #wtf? #like that would be hot gossip for decades

[absnow]

“I’m having his baby! No I’m not, but you should see your faces!”

#thg #cackling

[absnow]

Does anyone else feel personally victimized by Microsoft calling out their unnecessary comma use?

#obviously this is only for emails #and not my fanfic where the commas are free flowing and detrimental to the sentence structure

[absnow]

Me working on the 7th chapter of a fic that was only supposed to be 2 parts: I think I need to split this into another chapter…

#fanfic problems #I wish I could finish you

[absnow]

Got another one for you to potentially Everlark! "Which Brings Me to You." I've only seen the trailer, but I feel it has potential!

Synopsis:

Two romantic burnouts, Jane and Will, are immediately drawn to each other at a mutual friend's wedding. After a disastrous hook up in the coatroom, they spend the next 24 hours trading candid confessions of messy histories and heartbreaks on the off chance that this fling could be the real thing.

Oh, I think I’ve scrolled past this one before. Okay, based only on the premise and nothing else…

The wedding is between Gale and Johanna, and neither one has shown. People have been making themselves comfortable at the cash bar while they wait. Tired of Gale’s family approaching to say they always thought he’d end up with her, Katniss ducks into the coat room for a reprieve. Someone else has gotten there first, though.

Peeta and his girlfriend broke up six months ago, but are both good friends of Johanna, and thus, were both invited to the wedding. Hoping to clear any awkwardness, Peeta sends a text a few weeks before the wedding, and they engage in some flirty messages. At least he thought they were flirting, because now she’s shown up with her new boyfriend, and Peeta’s desperate to avoid them.

Katniss and Peeta decide to commiserate over a bottle of champagne in the coat closet. They’re just about to get somewhere (*kiss, kiss*) when, surprise! The wedding has been called off, and everyone has come to retrieve their coat.

Shaken by the bad omen, they spend the rest of the evening meandering the venue grounds and raiding the kitchen for a slice of the abandoned wedding cake.

#bad fic ideas

[absnow]

Binary Sunset: Chapter 6

“Peeta,” she says. He looks at her, and she wishes he wouldn’t. She keeps her eyes on the controls. “Nothing ever happened between Finnick and me.” His laughter is strained. “Okay, whatever you say,” he says only to humor her.

Read on AO3

#Things that I write #lolol see you in another year #I DONT WANT TO WRITE THE BAD PARTS #it’s too hard! #Star Wars!everlark