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everlarkficexchange · 3 years

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Mine

Author: @taylerwrites

Prompt 28: Modern AU: Bestfriends!Everlark took their shot at being lovers. But Katniss introduced Peeta as her “best friend” to a guy at a party (she was not used to calling him boyfriend yet). He was furious. [submitted by anonymous]

A/N: Hello! So, somehow, this story kind of took a mafia turn, and… I can’t say that I’m upset about it. I kind of tweaked the prompt a bit, in which they’re best friends that become more. But nothing happens until Katniss introduces Peeta as her bodyguard to a guy at a party. [Hint: she totally does it on purpose.] Also, the full version will be posted on AO3. Since I’ve been sick, I was kind of short on time.

Rating: E (Warnings: Dark/ Violent Themes; Age Gap; Possessive language/ behavior)

~~~~~

She’s used to this by now—strange guests in dark suits showing up at her grandfather’s house at all times of the day. Thugs, her nanny calls them one evening before bed. And they are, most of them, often wandering down the halls with a glint of ill intent in their eye.

“You stay in your room when they’re here. Do you understand?” her nanny asks, tucking away the last of Katniss’s toys in the white chest near her dresser.

“Yes, nan.”

Except, that night, she doesn’t listen. The sound of her stomach gurgling drags her out of bed and she sneaks down into the kitchen where Sae scolds her for wandering the halls so late at night.

She’s tiptoeing past her grandfather’s study, hands now full of mini blueberry muffins and a bottle of apple juice, when she hears unfamiliar voices, and… sobbing? Katniss stops, curious, and steps closer to peek through the small slit between the large mahogany doors.

There are two darkly dressed men standing in front of the fire, their rings catching in the warm glow as they gesture toward a hunched shadow behind them. The dim light in the study is barely enough to make out any significant details, but she easily sees the outline of a boy.

He sniffles softly, a muffled sound heard under the voices of the men in the room. Words are spoken quietly, and she strains to catch what they are saying.

“His parents… One of Coin’s men, I believe… What should we—”

She’s jostled from the door by a pair of firm hands, and she stares up into the fierce face of Purnia, her tight updo making the sharp angles of her face more threatening.

“You should be in bed,” is all the tall woman says before escorting her to her room.

~~~~~

Later, Katniss hears them bring the boy to the guest room across the hall. And she waits until she hears the click of their expensive shoes disappear down the hallway before she goes to her door and steps out—two muffins and the bottle of juice in her hands.

Quietly, she tiptoes across the hall to the door that is slightly ajar. She pushes it open, unsurprised to find the boy crying in the corner of the room. When she walks closer, she discovers that he’s an older boy, maybe thirteen or fourteen—a gangly thing with blond, curly hair sticking up around his head and oversized clothes.

He looks up when she steps on a creaky floorboard; his eyes are wide with fright until he realizes that she’s no real threat. Scrawny eight-year-olds aren’t as intimidating as old floorboards, it seems.

Katniss takes him in, now that she can get the full picture of him. And when she looks beyond the baggy clothes, he kind of reminds her of a scrappy character from one of her storybooks.

Except, he doesn’t seem so bad.

Wordlessly, she holds out one of the muffins, and he just stares at it. She jiggles her hand, encouraging him to take the muffin. And when he finally does, she offers him a toothy smile.

“Thank you, little one,” he tells her, which is confusing considering he looks like the little one at the moment. But she doesn’t question it as she sits beside him, her knees drawn up to her chest.

They eat their muffins quietly, and when he asks what her name is, her answer whistles through her missing front tooth. “Katniss.”

He nods and doesn’t say much else.

~~~~~

She watches the boy as he steps into the dining room, his eyes momentarily catching hers where she stands behind her grandfather in her plaid dress and too itchy turtleneck sweater.

He’s dressed in a black suit, the lights from the chandeliers above reflecting off his shiny, dark shoes, looking every bit like the influential guest her grandfather expects him to be. It’s a drastic difference from the state he arrived at the house in only two days ago.

However, his blonde curls still hang limply on his forehead, and the color of his skin continues to have a grey sheen. But his blue eyes reflect a bit of life in them, even if it’s fleeting, and she thinks that might mean something as he stands before her grandfather as still as a statue.

Her grandfather puffs out a cloud of smoke from his cigar, watching the boy with sharp eyes.

“Have you ever held a gun, boy?” The boy shakes his head. “People around here call me sir when they answer me.”

She can see his bottom lip slightly tremble, but he schools it with a blank expression.

“No, sir.”

Adult talk isn’t something her grandfather allows her to listen in on; numbers and business were of no interest to children. But as he talks to the boy, she gets to witness firsthand how regular people are turned into bloodhounds. It turns her gut a little, even though she doesn’t quite understand.

Yet, all she can do is press her lips into a thin line as the boy slips the silver signet ring on his left pinky finger.

~~~~~

He earns his first tattoo when he’s eighteen. It’s on the inside of his left wrist in dark ink, a snake wrapped around a rose, confirming he is owned by the House of Snow.

He’s no longer ‘boy’. He’s Peeta—a man now, another thug in a dark suit. Although… he isn’t.

Not to her.

Sometimes, she’d catch him reading in the library when he wasn’t doing a job for her grandfather, and she often marveled how he looked more like the boy she knew and not the man he’s become. His brows would crease in an expression of concentration, and not one of anger which appeared on his face often after running ‘errands’. And then the look would disappear when he caught her spying on him—not that she was ever being very discreet about it.

“Focus on your homework, little one,” he’d say, a small smile on his mouth. Katniss would blush and turn back to her reading for a bit before sneaking glances at him again.

Peeta is still somewhat of a mystery to Katniss, but he’s kind to her—unlike other guests that show up unannounced in her home who see her as the annoying nuisance in her grandfather’s shadow. He remembers her birthday, perching small gifts on the window sill in the alcove she normally hides in. And he never ignores her when he comes across her in the halls or is forced to sit beside her during dinner. Instead, he listens as she prattles on about her studies or what happened in the house while he was away on business trips.

When it dawns on her one day that perhaps they are friends, he merely smiles as she tells him this and doesn’t disagree with her. It’s at that moment that Katniss felt their friendship is valuable and something she needs to protect—even if Peeta sees her as a little one. Because friends look out for one another, even when they’re out past their bedtime with hands full of food.

“What are you doing out of bed, little one?” he asks when he finds her sneaking out of the kitchen.

“What does it look like?”

Peeta steals one of the blueberry muffins from her pile, a ghost of a smile playing on his lips. “It looks like you’re being a packrat. What happened to the food you brought to your room last night?”

“I ate it all.”

He watches her with an amused gleam in his eye and takes a bite of the muffin he stole. Then he opens her bedroom door and tells her to stay put. “Don’t wander the halls at night, little one. It’s not safe.”

And yet, he’s there the next night, stealing one of her treats and escorting her back to her room.

~~~~~~

The first time Peeta kills someone, she knows, because he cries—she’s no longer that naive to assume that ‘errands’ actually means something else. She hasn’t seen him cry in five years, yet when she finds him curled up in the corner of the guest room, he reminds her of the boy she met so long ago.

She takes in his marred knuckles, dried blood crusted on his skin, sealing wounds that hadn’t been there that morning. His hair is limp, and the suit he wears is in ruins with holes and a long gash in his side.

When his eyes find hers, they’re red with a bit of fear in them—no longer caused by squeaky floorboards and a scrawny eight-year-old.

Something conflicting tightens in her chest; one small voice tells her to go to her room like she’s been told many times before, and another tells her to stay. And because she’s never been one to properly listen to warnings, Katniss sits beside him, drawing her knees up to her chest.

She offers him one of the blueberry muffins in her hand, and it takes zero prompting this time for him to take it and slowly pick at the treat with shaky fingers. When it’s gone, she notices that the slight body tremors have stopped and his breathing is now even.

“Thank you, little one,” he says after a moment, and Katniss gives him a small smile.

He’s worth protecting.

~~~~~

Katniss can’t stop staring at him, and it’s… enlightening.

She doesn’t know when the perceptions of a kid are washed away by that of a sixteen-year-old, but she definitely notices how nervous or flushed she becomes when Peeta’s eyes land on her. It’s not that she’s never been shy around him before, but that was from a child feeling praise from someone she admired.

Now it’s from the fact that she’s never noticed the random gold flecks in otherwise blue irises, or that he is a head taller than most men she knew—his frame filling out the all-black suits almost too well.

And have pens and silverware always looked that small and fragile in his hands?

When he’d place a hand on her lower back to guide her out of a room, or gently move her out of the way, she’d jump from how it felt like it was burning her through her clothes. But Peeta never seemed to think twice of it, and would simply drop his hand after it served its purpose.

She isn’t blind to the fact that others have long since realized these discoveries about Peeta—apparently, she’s the last to know. Katniss also hates that this will never change how Peeta sees her because she’ll only ever be his little one, and he’s a man who still has needs.

One evening, she stumbles upon Peeta with one of his ‘gifts’ from her grandfather, a tall brunette she’d seen before who has a penchant for short red skirts. It takes her all of twenty seconds to realize what is happening in the dark corridor before she turns on her heel and goes to sulk in her room.

In her bed, she selfishly imagines what Peeta is like as a lover. She wonders if his lower lip would become a little fuller if she worked it between her teeth, or if the gold flecks in his eyes would disappear completely from lust. Would he grip her hips in his massive hands and call her a brat for being too rough? Still, how can she not be when someone else is currently touching what is hers?

And it’s from these fantasies that her hand travels underneath her silky sleep shorts, and she touches herself to thoughts of large hands and broad shoulders. When her orgasm washes over her in waves, her toes curling, she swears she can faintly hear the sound of expensive shoes stopping outside her bedroom door. Then, after a few seconds, the guest bedroom door closes and she releases the sigh she was holding.

The next day, he finds her in the library because it’s her birthday and he’s never missed a birthday in all nine years that they’ve known each other. He slides a rectangle box across the table she’s sitting at, but Katniss doesn’t look up, still embarrassed about what she’d witnessed the day before.

“I’m sorry, sweetheart,” he says, and this makes her look up because he only ever calls her that pet name when she behaves.

The look she finds is soft and maybe a little ashamed.

Ah, she stayed in her room… for once.

“Whatever,” she mumbles, glancing back down at her book that she hasn’t actually been reading.

“It’s your birthday,” he tries again.

“Yeah, I know,” she sniffs. “Thanks for reminding me.”

She startles when a hand suddenly covers the page she’s staring at, and she glances up to Peeta’s blank expression. “Don’t be a brat.” Something about that word makes her flush, and she knows it has everything to do with the way she thought about him saying it last night. “Open your present before I leave to run errands.”

Katniss huffs a little, and Peeta replaces his hand on her book with his gift. She eyes the delicate bow on top, faintly wondering how his large fingers formed such an intricate knot. Then she tugs on an end, watching it fall apart before she brushes it off and flips open the lid.

Inside lays a black pearl attached to a delicate gold chain, all perfectly nestled between a smooth dark velvet. It’s definitely different from the other trinkets she’s received from Peeta on her birthday, and she stares at it a moment longer to figure out what it means.

But Peeta must read her thoughts. Or her confusion must be so blatant on her face because he plucks the necklace from the box, and Katniss watches him owlishly as he walks around the table until he’s standing behind her.

She wordlessly pulls her hair off her neck, holding her breath when his steady fingers brush against her skin as he works the clasp on the chain. After what feels like eons (but was probably only thirty seconds), his hands fall and the pearl pendant dangles from around her neck.

Then he leans forward and whispers, “It means I’m yours, little one.”

~~~~~

It’s during one of her grandfather’s infamous soirées that she decides she’s tired of waiting for Peeta to make the first move. Surely it had been her age holding him back, but she’s nineteen now, and… nothing.

He continues to tease her with gentle (although chaste) touches to the small of her back, and sometimes grazes her bottom lip with his thumb when he pushes a loose lock of hair out of her face. And when she nipped at the tip of his thumb once, he merely shook his head even though his breathing had picked up slightly.

“We can’t,” he’d insisted, shaking his head. But he had kept his thumb in her mouth, a firm pressure against her tongue while he tried to regulate his breathing again.

She’s never been so frustrated in her life, but she has a plan.

She walks into the large sitting room wearing a black floor length dress that shows off a little more skin than what she’s used to. However, her heart soars to the ceiling when she notices the tall brooding figure standing near one of the long windows watching her with an unreadable expression on his face.

Good.

Katniss moves around the room with her mission in mind, making sure that she is always in Peeta’s line of sight. It becomes easier when a stocky gentleman with dark shoulder-length hair takes it upon himself to talk to her, and Katniss lays it on thick.

She touches his chest when he makes her laugh, slides closer to him when he whispers something in her ear. And when there’s a break in the conversation, she glances over to make sure Peeta is still watching—he is.

He still keeps his distance, except now there’s a firm set to his jaw.

Hm.

The gentleman—Marvel is his name—tells her about his travels in Greece and Katniss leans up to whisper replies in his ear, closing Peeta’s view off from her completely. It doesn’t matter what she says, what matters is that when she moves away from Marvel, Peeta is standing right there. And Katniss can’t help but smirk a little.

“Katniss,” he says, voice like a knife’s edge. It’s clearly meant as a warning, but Katniss’s grin grows wider.

“Who’s this?’ Marvel asks.

Never taking her eyes off Peeta’s face, she answers, “Oh, this is my bodyguard. Don’t mind him. He often plays nice.”

Then Peeta storms off, and Katniss can’t contain her triumph as she excuses herself and trails after him.

#taylerwrites #prompt 28 #Springtime Edition 2021 #submission

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seasonsofeverlark · 4 years

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Pumpkin Duck

Author: @mega-aulover

Prompt: How about Katniss taking Peeta to the forest during the fall for the first time to see all of the fall colors. [submitted by anonymous]

Rating: K

Author’s note: Special thanks to @jroseley for beta-ing. :)

____________

“You smell like a snickerdoodle Sweetheart?”

Katniss slammed the door of Haymitch’s man cave and sat down. She narrowed her eyes at her mentor. She was beginning to hate anything fall flavored related, including cinnamon. Most of all she grew a distinct dislike of pumpkin.

“Peeta’s still baking up a storm.”

“He claims he’s experimenting with recipes for the bakery,” she huffed. “But the thing is he’s making stuff that isn’t sold at the bakery.”

Haymitch handed her a beer. “So what has the boy done that has you spittin nails?”

She twisted the bottle cap angrily. “This morning he said he was going to create a pumpkin flavored macaroni and cheese. Macaroni and cheese shouldn’t be pumpkin flavored. For that matter pumpkins don’t have a flavor like tomatoes, apples, or broccoli.”

Haymitch lifted an eyebrow. “Broccoli?”

“Yes broccoli,” Katniss said, putting the bottle down.

“Sweetheart, have you seen my house, I have orange coming out of my ears. I found Effie changing out my tidy-whities for oranges ones with squirrels sitting on piles of leaves. It’s not even fall yet.”

Katniss hung her head. “Why don’t we make a run for it?”

Haymitch chuckled, “Effie’s got a tracker in me she’ll find me.”

Katniss laughed. Effie always seemed to show up wherever Haymitch hid.

“Fall’s like a week away Haymitch but he’s been driving me bananas.” Peeta yesterday dragged out his wok to make fried rice with pumpkins. She shuttered. “How do you do it?”

“We find them appealing, they put up with our crap.”

Katniss grimaced.

“No you don’t have the right to make that face. You and I both know Effie puts up with my geese and the boy puts up with muddy footprints all over the floor. Besides we are nuts about them.”

Her shoulders drooped, she did love Peeta. “He is cute when he wakes up in the morning with his wavy hair all askew.”

Haymitch grinned, he handed her half of his ham and cheese sandwich.

Having the normal food calmed her down. “He says he wants to be ready for fall.”

“Why don’t you do something for him?”

“Like what?”

“You like the woods right?”

Katniss frowned she wasn’t following. “Yeah.”

“His favorite time of year is the fall, and next week the fall starts.”

“Oh take him to the woods so he can see the real deal.” She had taken Peeta to the lake during the summer but never when the leaves were changing. Finishing up the sandwich she bounded out of the door. “Thanks Haymitch.”

“Don’t mention it,” Haymitch muttered.

Katniss walked by Effie who today was dressed in a bright orange jumpsuit with a hat that looked like a pile of leaves. She shook her head but managed a smile at her former escort. “Hi Effie.”

“Oh, hello Katniss, is Haymitch still cooped up in there?”

“Sure is, the game’s nearly finished,” Katniss paused and then turned to her former Escort. Haymitch needed a break and she needed help. “Effie how quickly do you think I can get camping equipment?”

“Why?” Effie turned around. “What do you have in mind?”

“Well Haymitch gave me a great idea. I know how much Peeta loves the fall, so I thought I would take him camping up in the mountains. The leaves change colors in the mountains quicker because it’s cooler.”

“OH,” Effie gasped. Her lashes with miniature fall leaves batted quickly as her eyes became brighter. “What a darling idea? What exactly do you need?”

“Well,” Katniss said, linking her arm with Effie. “First off I need camping clothing, and I need a large enough tent.”

“Ooohhh, I know some people who can help.”

Katniss grinned. “I also need this to be a surprise. You know I cannot lie to Peeta.” Now if she could only survive the couple of days of pumpkin wreaking havoc in her life.

“That is the utter truth.” Effie said.

The next day when Peeta returned to the bakery Katniss and Effie got to work. Katniss had to make sure the path was still there. Around here the leaves were still green, but high up in the mountains the air was colder and the leaves changed color quicker.

Her father had taken her there once. She was a small child but she’d been past the trail a dozen times when she hunted in the woods with Gale but she’d never explored. After the war when Peeta came back she took a walk. She discovered the trail and everyday she cleared it little by little until she made it to the peak of the mountain. It took three days and Peeta was scared out of his mind when she came back. He kissed her hard, yelled at her, and kissed her again. Her toes curled in her old boots at the memory of that passionate kiss.

“Look Effie,” Katniss shouted excited to find the trail. When she found the trail she was overjoyed.

“Oh dear this will not do,” Effie tsked. “We need someone to make a clear path, Peeta will not be able to get through there easily. I know who to call.”

Katniss wasn’t sure about the gleam in Effie’s eyes. But true enough within a day Effie had Thom and a crew working around the clock to clear a path up to the mountain that would be even enough for Peeta to make his way up the mountain.

A few days later she was in the mudroom looking bewildered at all of the packages Effe had brought over. There were boxes dozens of them of every size and shape. Katniss wasn’t sure how she was going to keep this from Peeta. He knew she was frugal and she just didn’t buy anything.

“Katniss,” Peeta said, popping his head in her mudroom.

Katniss looked up, surprised that Peeta had come home early.

“What is all of this?”

“Nothing,” Katniss said, hiding the orange plaid shirt behind her back. Horrified she watched Peeta pick up a box.

“Looks like Effie is trying to hide purchases from Haymitch.”

Katniss glanced down at the nearest box and indeed Effie’s name was on the shipping label of the boxes. “Erm…yeah,” Katniss nodded, she fought to keep her embarrassment from showing up on her face. “What are you doing home so early?”

“Well I wanted to make some ravioli, for dinner.”

Katniss eyes lit up at the thought of the fluffy pasta filled with oozing cheese or ground meat.”

“Yeah I got an idea for pumpkin flavored raviolis. I got the ingredients at the grocers,” he began walking away. “..they had these beautiful pumpkins.”

Her smile turned into a frown. “Great more freaking pumpkins,” she muttered under her breath.

The day before the great adventure Katniss sat outside with Haymitch.

“Effie is…” Katniss said to Haymitch a few days before.

“Determined?”

“Like a general in the rebellion,” Katniss said leaning up against the porch watching Peeta and Effie talk about the upcoming fall festival.

“You all set for tomorrow?”

“Didn’t you hear what I said about Effie?”

“I’m not talking about the trek, I’m talking about the…”

Katniss looked away…she looked at her beer. She drank it savoring the brew. “Yeah.”

“You, ready for this?” Haymitch leveled a look at her.

Katniss glanced toward Peeta, “I love him, even with his pumpkin obsession.”

“Good, that’s all that matters.”

The next morning all went awry. A huge storm pulled into the mountains and a deluge flooded the roads. They were stuck inside. Katniss sat by the window looking at the rain fall.

“Katniss what's wrong?”

Katniss turned around biting her bottom lip. She wanted to cry but instead she squared her shoulders. “Today is the first day of fall but.”

“Yeah I know it’s the autumnal equinox.”

Jutting her chin out with determination she said, “We’re making fall.”

“What?”

Determined, she went to his art supplies and said, “We’re making the fall indoors.”

“Kat?”

“Get your paint box Peeta,” Katniss said, marching upstairs to an empty room. They were going to have to do this backwards.

Peeta had his paints. “Okay are you going to tell me what this is about?”

“We’re going to make a mural Peeta. Big beautiful trees, one for each season.”

“Okay,” he looked around.

The words tumbled out of her lips, “I had this entire weekend planned we were going to go up into the mountains. We were going to eat fresh game and wonder at the colors of the fall. Then I was going to give you this.” Katniss took a small envelope and pressed it into his hands.

Peeta frowned. He opened the envelope and took out the card. She watched his lips move as he read what she’d written. Katniss delighted in watching the way Peeta’s eyes lit up bigger than the bonfire she planned cooking their meals on. “You wanna try?”

Katniss nodded.

“Real or not real, you wanna try to have a baby with me?”

“Real,” she whispered.

“Real,” Peeta uttered. Tears fell down his face.

“Yes,” Katniss pointed toward the room. “Wouldn’t this room make an amazing nursery?”

Peeta grasped her by the middle and swung her around. Katniss laughed. He put her down and then said, as he gathered his painting gear. “I’m going to make us something special, butternut squash soup, oh and some pumpkin bread…to go with pumpkin spiced duck.”

Katniss scowled; she loved Peeta but she still hated the pumpkin.

#everlark #everlark fanfiction #autumn #autumn 2020 #by mega-aulover #submission

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hockeysweetheart · 4 years

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@mega-aulover I made you a quick fic Happy Birthday again

Name of it ( thinks of one) Baby steps...

This is about Peeta becoming a father and his journey though fatherhood. Now I know how you recently lost your own father so this is another somewhat honor thing for him as well. I hope you like it... Hope you don’t cry to much But it is okay if you do I personally had a hard time not tearing up a bit writing this.

Now it is a little rough but I made it quickly it could use a bit of clean up... But I wanted to get this out for you

She shows me the Positive test . She is pregnant I am going to be a father.. This is our first child together...I go and talk to her belly and say hello I am going to be your daddy.. She thinks I am crazy but allows me. But she is just laughing at me… She tells me “well 9 months from now you will get to meet this child”… I laugh and say “ I can wait”. We Do make an appointment to make she she is pregnant and the baby is doing well. I am giddy as I leave for work that day. I tell my coworkers and every customer.. I tell them “ My wife Is pregnant”.. they all look at me like I am crazy.

I keep thinking of how I will be a father. The doctor appointments go well. Katniss gets bad morning sickness. But I am there all the steps of the way she has crazy cravings If she wants I try to get or make some combos are weird but I don’t judge.. I read some parenting books in my spare time. Katniss says it’s a waste of time maybe it is but I want to be ready… Being first time parents for the both of us we are excited. Katniss’s belly is growing everyday.

Around 21 weeks we find out the gender of the baby. Well its not until 22 weeks because Katniss’s sister Prim is throwing us a gender reveal party. Nothing big but small… for our close friends and Family The day comes and of course I bake all the goodies for the party… My coworker makes the cake But Lets me decorate it I have no clue what colour will be inside… Katniss and I cut into the cake and the colour is pink… We are both so excited… we would have been happy with either boy or girl…But I know one thing my little girl will be spoiled she will have her way to get her way with me… How do I know that now Because this little girl will be like her mother and she knows how to.

We set up her nursery lots of pink for her. It just happened that way. Katniss’s parents buy a lot of clothes for us. Some were Katniss’s old baby clothes… I paint some flowers on the wall…

One day we are just watching a show and suddenly Katniss moves off me and tells me the baby is kicking and asks if I want to feel… That is when it hit me for real it was like I was in a dreamland before… I say stumbling “ wow.. Uh... sh.. she is really in there”… Kantiss looks at me like I said something stupid… and says “ Really Peeta Mellark, you with smooth words are now stumbling” I laugh and say “ I guess this baby left me speechless” I lean in and Kiss her and she tells me “ for someone so speechless you are saying a lot of words”...Before I can speak it is her who kisses me to stop my words…

Katniss has a few contractions we go to the hospital and they tell us to go home because the baby is not ready yet…

I walk in after work and Katniss is standing in the kitchen with a puddle around her… she says “ I thought I was having a bad contraction and next thing I know my water broke, It happened a minute ago”… I tell her “ we need to get you to the hospital”…. I walk right out of the door Katniss still standing at the door “ Am I coming to she asks”.. Right I say in my head and go and get her and guide her towards the car “ Okay honey don’t walk to fast”… Katniss looks at me “ You are treating me like I am about to burst”. Well the baby could come anytime so she just might…On the walk to the car that is about 2 feet away we have to stop a lot so Katniss can have a contraction and when it’s over we move on… She was literally in the doorway when one hit of the house… When we reach the car I open her door and buckle her in… she says “ Peeta do you have the baby bag” Crap I knew I forgot something. On our last appointment the hospital did help us figure out the car seat so that’s already in.. I walk back into the house and grab the baby bag and walk back to the car. When I get there she is having another contraction I ask her “ Have you been timing those”… She looks me dead in the eye and says “ No I am just winging it over here or course I have that was 2 minutes apart from the last one”… I drive fast enough that Katniss is not telling me faster… we Arrive to the hospital and Katniss is in a room before we know it… Seeing her in pain is hard for me… All I can do is let her hold on to me.. The doctor comes in and says “ ready to have a baby” if Katniss’s glare could kill she says “ No I am just here because I really like hospitals”… The doctor gives me a look and I just smirk. I want to tell him “ That is nothing buddy you should see her at home” But I keep quiet.. They check on the baby say everything looks good… Katniss is in active labor…. When she feels it’s time she is holding onto my hand so tight it hurts but I let her… I support her though it. The delivery nurse says I see the head Katniss you are doing so well one more Push.. She is screaming out of pain this whole time and gives one more push… Then I see my daughter who is crying… They put her on Katniss she is beautiful and perfect to me. I cut the cord and they take her to clean her up and make sure everything is okay… Then I hold her for the first time… She has my blue eyes and Katniss’s hair colour. She has my nose and Kantiss’s lips… I cannot stop looking at her… I am whiping tears away from my eyes I ask Katniss “what do you want to name her?” she Answers “Everleigh. Her name is Everleigh” She looks at me and asks “ Do you have a middle name?”… I tell her “ Raine”… Katniss says “ Everleigh Raine I like it”.. Me still holding Everleigh I ask her “ Like your name”… I am wiping tears from my eyes I tell her “ I am your daddy”.. and I give her a kiss on the cheek… Katniss and I spend a few hours with Everleigh before family and friends come to see her… I am handing her to family members as they come and visit. I am surprised when My brothers and father comes and see her…

A few days later we leave the hospital Katniss is healing well. We bring Everleigh back for appointments… We go home and start our new life as parents… Katniss carries her into the nursery and sets her down in the crib….I walk over at her… Everleigh sleeps though the nights. Sometimes we wonder what we got out ourselfs into but say we wouldn’t change it.

Soon she is crawling Walking and Talking hitting all the milestones… Her baby teeth are coming in. Some nights she keeps us up and some she sleeps though. I remember her first steps Katniss brought her to work and we sat on the floor trying to get her to walk between us and she took her first step… and for the record her first word was dada as much as Katniss says no it was wasn’t. she is growing way to fast Katniss tells me not to blink and I will miss it..

Next thing I know she is 5 years old. She now has a younger brother… Katniss and I bring Everleigh to school for her first day.. Her hair is in 2 braids and she wears a red plaid dress like I recall Katniss wearing on her first day of school… Ev is a little shy but she warms up pretty quick.. I am fighting back tears my baby girl is growing up too fast for my liking.. It seems like last week she was only taking her first steps

She is now 16 Where did time go. I Have 4 kids now. Everleigh is still my little girl she will forever be… And same with my other daughter Oakley… My two sons Kaleb and Carson are very protective of their sisters.. all are growing up so fast.. Everleigh sure got her mothers attitude not always a good thing. But she gets good grades so do my other children Katniss is right you blink and you miss it. One day Ev comes home and tells us she is interest in a guy. My first instant is to get Katniss’s weapon… But I say when will we meet him… A few days later she brings this tall guy who doesn’t look like 16 he is a year older then her Ev told us. He looks at least 20… He looks scared when I invite him in good I have done my job… Everleigh comes up to him and says Mom. Dad this is Nathan Hawthorne… Katniss nearly chokes on her tea at the last name… she tries to cover “ Well that is wonderful honey”. Everleigh asks “Mom what is wrong” I try to cover “ So who are your Parents Nathan”… Nathan answers “ Gale and Madge”.. Kartniss lets out a sound Ev says “ Mom do you know him” I grin and say “ Oh yes she knows him all to well”.. Katniss tells Ev “ Gale and I were friends never in a relationship we tried but then I met your father”…Everleigh tell us “ That’s great then you guys know each other”… Everleigh asks her voice she knows I have a hard time to say no too “ Daddy can I date Nathan”… I look at Katniss and Nathan and Everleigh and say “ Yes you have my blessing but Nathan you hurt my little girl you will have me to answer too”…

They have been dating for a few months now… Everleigh comes home in tears… Katniss comforts her… I ask her what happened. She tells us Nathan cheated on her… I march out of the door and Katniss comes after me and says “ Where do you think your going”… I tell her words I never thought I would say “ To the Hawthornes ”… She says “ Well you are not gonna stop me from coming are you”… I am shocked and say “ Guess not”… Katniss gets into the car as we drive to Gales and Madge’s house.. I knock on the door and Gale answers the door he says “ Heard our kids are dating” I tell him “ Not anymore”.. He said “ Oh, why don’t you come in”.. I go into their house and Katniss follows she says “ Hi Gale” and walks right past him and gives Madge a hug… we all sit in the dinning room I explain everything. Madge says “ We had no idea we are so sorry about that” Gale asks “ are you sure its our Nathan we are talking about”.. Katniss says “ Unless there is another Nathan Hawthorne”… Just then Nathan and another girl walk in… he said “ Oh no” when four pairs of eyes look at him… Gale says “ Nathan where is Everleigh?”… Nathan says “ umm she broke up with me, This is Ashley”… I stand up but Katniss grabs my shoulders. I get out “ Then why did my daughter say you cheated on her”.. Ashley chimes in “ Wait you told me that you guys broke up weeks ago” Nathan starts to sweat “ umm ummm”.. Ashley says “ now your speechless well guess what your single now”.. Katniss beside me is trying hard not to loose it… Ashley literally walks out and says “ Mr and Mrs Mellark I have to go apologize to Everleigh” Katniss says “ you know where she lives she might still be on the couch crying her eyes out”. After Ashley Leaves Gale turns to Nathan and says “ Nate I thought we raised you better then that”…Katniss says under her breath “ Runs in the family” then we leave and head home… When we arrive we see Everleigh and Ashley talking… Laughing… well at least one good thing has come out of this day… Everleigh has a few heartbreaks and I realize I have to do this again…

A few short years later I am getting ready in a suit.. To Give Everleigh away… She is now 23. Since she got engaged we reflected back on her life. I still have one more daughter to give away if she chooses to.. Her Husband to be is one awesome guy. He reminds me of myself. He showed me he would put her first. His Name is Cody Mason. His mother is Johanna. His father is not in the Picture but Johanna must of done something right. We have known Johanna for a while now… years. Cody is only 4 years older then her… They started dated in college as My baby girl left to go study at District 7 college… She brought Cody home for one break and I instant knew this man who be my future son in law… The other children are growing up to fast as well as Oakley looks so grown up in that brides maid dress and My oldest son Carson is going to go to school in the fall Kaleb and Oakley I still have at home but I will blink and I will prepping for 3 more weddings before I know it. I knock on the door to see if she is ready.. And she looks at me and says. “ Yes I am, The real question is are you ready” With tears threatening to make an apprentice I say “ never ready to let you go but I know this the right man for you”… Ev gives me a kiss on the cheek and whips away a tear that escaped me.. and gives me a big hug… We walk down to the chapel the wedding will be in and I get in place and the doors open and I walk her down the aisle.. when I am asked who gives her away I say her mother and I… they give us hugs and I go and sit down and watch her get married… she is now A Mason… I get flashbacks… Everleigh and I share a father daughter dance that is when It hit me.. Katniss and I give a speech …

Before I know it I am In the Hospital room holding my first grandchild…

#thg #The Hunger Games #Hunger Games #catching fire #CatchingFire #mockingjay #for you #happy birthday #everlark #fanfic #quicky #mega-aulover #hope you enjoy it #katniss everdeen #katniss and peeta #Katniss #Peeta #Peeta Mellark #everlark fanfic

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mega-aulover · 5 years

Text

His Dream Girl

A/N: For @white-dandelion-seeds who made this beautiful drawing. I was inspired to write this story, though I couldn’t decide how to end it so there are three endings. Yup...You to choose which one you like the best. A huge thank you to @norbertsmom for betaing and challenging me to write a third ending, Thank you to @butrfac14 & @lovely-tothe-bone for lending me your ears last night, and giving me sound advice on this story.

Rated G

Peeta wiped the sweat off of his brow as he mopped the floors of the bakery. His eldest brother Marcel had long left to be with his family. As the singleton of the family, Peeta was allowed to live in the apartment above the bakery.

"Peet, why don't you go upstairs and call it a night," his dad said, coming out of his office.

"I'm almost done, and besides tomorrow the bakery is closed, dad."

"Precisely, the bakery is closed and this can wait until tomorrow."

"Well to be honest," Peeta said, rubbing the back of his neck. "I had plans to revise the menu."

"Peeta, Marcel is more than capable to revise the menu seasonally. Let him do it. After all, this will someday be all his."

His father's reminder hurt because Peeta loved the bakery. He didn't mind the monotony of getting up early and going to sleep late. Peeta didn't have a personal life; the bakery was his mistress.

His father gave him a worried look. "Peeta it's Saturday night. Most men your age are out having a good time. Son," his dad put his hand on Peeta's shoulder. "Frankly I'm worried about you. You don't have friends. You don't have a girlfriend. You don't even go out with Nikko when he's in town."

Peeta's lips thinned as he smiled. He didn't go out much and he wasn't interested in having a steady girlfriend. He didn't have an excuse either as to why he preferred being alone. Not one that he could tell his father. Because there was someone in his life, Katniss. She'd been in his life since he was a kid.

"Just think about it, Peeta " his father sighed before leaving.

Peeta closed up for the night, went upstairs, and got ready for bed. He was excited to go to sleep, excited to see Katniss. It started the year they moved away from District Twelve. He was so lonely in the Capitol not knowing how to fit in.

Marcel, his older brother was turning 13 and was a natural athlete. He instantly became popular. Nikko, his other brother was going to be nine and was a charmer. He too found his niche. Peeta was different, he was sweet and shy. Although he could be as charming as Nikko, Peeta kept people at a distance.

It was during this time he had the dream of a land that was made up of candy. Katniss appeared out of the mist wearing a plaid dress and folded white socks with black shiny shoes. Her hair was braided up into two braids and she had the most extraordinary silver eyes. They became instant friends.

From the tender age of seven, he spent the majority of his nights with Katniss. Even years later was still a boy whenever he dreamed and they had the most fantastical adventures. Life was simpler for a seven-year-old.

As time wore on and he matured in body and spirit Katniss became the standard of the type of girl he wanted. Then one day she became the girl of his dreams. He knew she was make-believe, but sometimes she seems so real. As if somewhere out there in Panem Katniss existed.

There were days his entire body tingled as if she were near. All Peeta could say was that Katniss was the only person he could be himself with and he could share all of his dreams with. As he got into bed and settled in he couldn't wait to see Katniss.

Candy land, everything around him was a ginormous piece of candy. Peeta ran through the sweet-smelling grass toward the musical notes that filled the air. He went past the candy cane forest, the cotton candy range of mountains, and the chocolate milk falls. Deeper into the lollipop forest until he reached a clearing and saw Katniss standing on a swing made from a cookie, gently swaying back and forth, a sweet melody pouring from her lips.

Her hair was braided into two pigtails. Her red plaid dress was the same one she’d worn on that first day of school. Peeta marveled at her glittering silver eyes. He stood rooted to the ground unable to move. It was the call of the siren and he would willingly follow it to the end of the earth.

Katniss stopped singing.

“Please don’t stop.” The words came out of Peeta’s mouth before he could stop them.

Katniss jumped off the swing and walked over to him. “I’ve been waiting for you. What took you so long?”

“Couldn’t fall asleep.”

“Oh, come on lets play!” She held out her hand. “Don’t you want to play with me?”

Peeta eagerly nodded and followed her.

As they walked toward the swings, she turned to him and said, “You smell like a cookie.”

Peeta blushed. He didn’t want to be known as the boy who smelled like cookies or bread. He wanted to be heroic. Smelling like the bakery wasn't very good in his opinion.

“You smell heavenly, like home.”

Her words instantly changed his perception. “I do?”

Katniss giggled then impulsively took his hand. “You do. Come swing with me.”

Peeta followed and they sat on the swings and began to sway themselves higher and faster. Both laughed and played.

Later, they were laying on the grass when she blurted, “I am an archer.”

“You are?” Peeta was surprised. This was something she’d never told him.

“Yes, I am a very good one, world-renowned, like my daddy.”

Peeta smiled. He liked it when he learned something new about her, a new tidbit that made her seem so real. “I am a baker like my dad.”

“Oh, is that why you smell like cookies and bread?”

Peeta sat up and smiled down at her, her silvery eyes glowed. His heartbeat quickly in his chest, gripped with tender sentiments toward his friend. “Yeah.”

She sat up and touched his face. “I wish you were real.”

“But I am real, Katniss. I am.”

“If you are real, tell me one real thing about you?”

“I have two brothers, one cannot bake, he burned down the bakery and that’s why we moved.”

“You lived at the bakery?”

“We did, but we moved,” Peeta said sadly.

She nodded, though he could see her mind working. Her eyes shined brighter than the sun as she processed the information. She took his hand in hers. “One day we’ll find each other.”

Peeta nodded, but he wasn’t so sure. This was a dream after all, wasn’t it? He questioned himself, questioned why this all seemed so real. He pushed the thoughts out of his mind. He tapped her then yelled, “Tag you’re it!” and ran away before she could tag him back.

The game of tag lasted throughout the night. When the bright star on the horizon began to crest brilliantly in the sky Peeta knew this was the end of his dream.

“I don’t want to go,” Katniss pouted.

“Neither do I.”

They clutched one another, neither one wanting to be the first to go back to their lifeless barren land.

“Don’t leave me,” Peeta begged.

“I don’t want to. I want to stay with you,” she said burying her head in his chest.

Peeta wound his arms around her tightly, not wanting to let go.

“Find me,” Katniss said with tears in her eyes. “If you are real, find me,” Katniss clutched at his arm as she was pulled away from his arms.

“Katniss!”

“FIND ME!” Katniss screamed, her hand outstretched as she was pulled away and disappeared into the bright light.

“I promise, Katniss,” Peeta swore as he too was pulled toward his own reality.

Peeta closed his eyes and things slowly began to morph around him. He exhaled as his lashes fluttered open. He groaned as he turned over in his bed. It took him a full minute to realize he wasn’t a child anymore. He was an adult.

Rubbing his eyes he stared out into the semi-darkened room. He could still hear Katniss' laughter, hear the sweetness of her song, and the innocence of their shared moments.

Peeta had been having the same dream since he was a child. The dream felt so real that after his last disastrous relationship he thought perhaps he should try to find her, the girl with the golden voice.

As his day moved on her voice beckoned him. He could hear her begging for him to find her and when he closed his eyes he could see the desperation in her eyes.

“Peet, son you okay?” His father asked.

“Yeah,” Peeta said crumpling the image he’d been making of Katniss.

“What’s wrong?”

Peeta didn’t say anything.

“Look, you’ve been working really hard in the bakery. We’ve been talking. You’re the only one of us that hasn’t taken a day off, let alone a vacation.” His father took a deep breath. “As your boss, I am ordering you to take a paid vacation, 30 days, starting tomorrow. As your dad, I hope you have a good time and live a little. You’re 25, not 55, and frankly, you act older than me!”

Peeta was shocked by his father’s truthful words. His entire life revolved around the bakery, even though there was a good chance he wouldn’t inherit. That distinction would fall to his eldest brother Marcel. Nikko had no interest in the business. He was a model, only interested in looking good and getting pretty girls.

The forced time off was the door he needed to try and find the girl from his dreams, if she was real. Honestly, Peeta didn’t think she was, but the way she behaved in that last dream caused his skin to tingle.

He thought it would be easy to find her so he logged onto National Directory and typed her name into the system. He told himself there couldn't be many Katnisses. He was wrong. There were at least 100 Katnisses throughout Panem. It threw him off.

Panem wasn't a huge country. They did have thirteen districts, not including the Capitol. However, there weren't a lot of people. The population diminished after the great rebellion where the districts were freed from the Capitol's reign after the dark days.

He tried from his home to eliminate as many possibilities as he could but he didn’t have all of the resources he needed. Then it occurred to him, he knew a great number of details about his Katniss. There was only one place that could possibly help him on his quest.

Peeta traveled all the way to District Three where the National Registry was located. The National Registry was a massive library that stored important information from all of the districts. Anything printed of social importance, books, media, and all sorts of historical data was stored there.

Peeta mused if Katniss was real, her claim to be a renowned archer would have been written about. She or her father would have been in the news. He’d made his request at the information desk. One of the researchers showed him how to look it up.

As he looked for a desk to use, he saw the backside of a woman with a long dark braid just ahead of him. Her steps were quick and silent. The way she walked reminded him of his friend. Another patron brushed by him and he lost sight of her.

Peeta rubbed his face. He had landed in District 3 sometime this morning and had come here straight after checking into his hotel. He was hungry and tired.

He found a chair and began the process of looking up information. So far he eliminated about a third of his list. Many of them were too young or too old. His back ached. He sat back, rubbing his neck. It was then he felt as if someone was watching him. He looked up to see a blonde girl staring at him. She stood up and walked over to him.

“Hi, I’m Primrose.”

He raised an eyebrow. She looked to be seventeen or younger. “Hi.”

“This may sound forward, but what are you doing tonight?”.

“I am sorry Primrose, but you’re too young for me.”

“No!” Her eyes opened wide.

“No,” Peeta grinned. “I thought you were asking me out.”

“I am, but not for me.” She sat at his desk, pushing her blond hair over her shoulder. “I should start over. I don’t ask guys out, but,” she took a folded piece of paper from her back pocket. “I’m trying to do good deeds.” She flattened out the paper on the table. “As part of my humanities class, I have to do good deeds, bring a stranger to have a home-cooked meal.”

Peeta skeptically glanced down at the paper. It was a syllabus for her humanities class and part of the class grade was to do a good deed every day.

“Please, all you would have to do is have dinner with us tonight or even tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow,” Peeta said. Tonight he wanted to sleep and shower. Maybe order some take out.

“Really oh that’s great. Okay, so all I have to do is find a good deed for today. Thank you, oh and please you have to fill out my notebook tomorrow. My professor, she might email or call you.”

“Sure,” Peeta said as he watched her place a paper with her address on the page.

“Great, I will see you tomorrow night, 5pm sharp.”

Primrose ran back to her seat, collected her things and left.

“Ah sir,” a slight woman with glasses approached.

“Yes,” Peeta was hopeful she had the information he needed.

“There has been a problem with the digital files, our servers are down currently. We have a technician working on it. The information you seek will not be available until our servers are back up.”

Peeta nodded.

“You can come back tomorrow and hopefully they will be back up,” the woman said.

“Alright,” Peeta sighed. “I’ll be back tomorrow.”

“Have a good evening.”

“Thank you,” Peeta said packing up his things.

**** Pick Which One is Your Favorite, but choose wisely.**** Let me know which is your favorite have fun reading!

ENDING #1

He got in his vehicle and began to drive back to his hotel. As he drove, he stopped by a diner. He took the spot abandoned by a green car with the license plate wood4me. He grinned at the car and it reminded him Katniss' favorite color was green.

He walked into the diner, ordered a soup and a sandwich. When he finished, he was tired but didn’t want to go to the hotel just yet. He asked the waitress if there was a place to relax. Many districts had a sort of local watering hole where the locals went to. He was curious about what they had locally.

The woman gave directions to a repurposed abandoned building. He walked into the building. It was run down, but most places where liquor was sold looked like this.

Peeta sat down at one of the tables. He didn’t come to drink, he didn’t have much taste for the consumption of spirited beverages. What he liked about these places was the ambiance. There were local musicians playing, his feet tapped on the ground. He liked music although he couldn’t carry a tune.

Peeta closed his eyes finally feeling relaxed. It was then he heard a sultry voice that vibrated so deep within him his body became alive as if hit with a thousand bolts of electricity. His eyes popped open, “Katniss,” he whispered.

There she was, a grown version, with waves of dark hair that framed her small lovely face, silver eyes the color of the moon, and her unforgettable voice. He clutched his chest to keep his heart from bursting out. He couldn’t react. He sat there listening and when she was finished singing, he forgot how to move his legs. She’d disappeared. Peeta ran out into the street looking for her. Somehow he missed her.

Miserable, he went back to his rented car and drove to the hotel. He couldn’t believe it, she was here. As he prepared for bed, he hoped he could dream of their place, maybe talk to her. That evening, however, due to a noisy couple next door, he couldn’t sleep.

In the morning he overslept. His day didn’t get better as he went to the National Registry again, the servers were still down. Sighing, he went back to his hotel room and watched television until it was time for him to get ready for dinner.

He stopped at the diner that he’d ate at the evening before and picked up a chocolate cream pie. He didn’t want to come empty-handed. He stood at the door of the quaint home, with his hand poised to knock on the door when he heard voices coming from the other side of the door.

“Primrose, for all you know he could be a murderer.” He heard a growl from the opposite side of the door.

“Trust me, he didn’t look like a vagrant or a killer. He looked like a nice guy who needed a good meal and hospitality.” Peeta recognized Primrose’s voice.

“Hush girls.” He heard another voice that was softer, motherly.

Peeta took a steadying breath before knocking on the door.

The door swung open and there stood Katniss.

“Katniss.”

“Peeta.”

They couldn’t move, couldn’t stop staring at the other.

Her scowl disappeared; her eyes sparkled. “You found me,” she whispered.

Peeta nodded.

“Katniss you’ve got to let him in…” Prim’s words faded as she looked between them. “You guys know each other?”

“He’s my dream guy,” Katniss said.

Peeta couldn’t disagree. He was her dream guy and she was his dream girl.

ENDING #2

He walked into the diner, ordered a soup and a sandwich. When he finished, he was tired but didn’t want to go back to the hotel just yet. He asked the waitress if there was a place to relax. Many districts had a sort of hangout place where kids, teens, and adults could all go.

“You can go to the movies?” The waitress said.

“Movies?” Peeta had only seen movies on the television.

“Yeah around here we have a theater where you can see movies from before the dark days. I think tonight they are showing Sleepless In Seattle. Everyone is really excited about it. You should get going if you want to get a ticket.” The waitress gave him his bill and the directions.

After paying, he followed the directions to a large building with beautiful masonry work. He was enamored with the architecture. He was the resident artist in the bakery. He appreciated beautiful things. He walked up to the window and paid for one ticket.

As he entered the room, he was taken aback by the giant screen suspended in the front of the room. There were rows of plush seating with numbers on the rows and letters on the floor. Peeta looked down at his ticket to determine where he would be sitting.

It was then he heard Katniss' laughter. His head whipped toward the sound; he spotted a couple. They were below, from his vantage point all he could see was the side profile of a young woman in a leather jacket. A tall man walked by her, he grabbed her hand as they were led to their seats. Peeta’s heart was in his throat, as he watched her laugh at something the tall man said.

Peeta shook his head, from afar he couldn’t tell what color her eyes were. However, he discounted the couple, this wasn’t his Katniss. She would have told him if she was involved with someone.

Finding his seat he settled down and soon the lights lowered and the movie began. The premise of the moving was a woman who was in love with a man she’d heard over the radio and both couples were obsessed with another movie called An Affair to Remember.

Peeta made a mental note to see if he could find this movie, his curiosity was more than piqued. It mirrored what was going on with him. He felt that Katniss was within his grasp, but he kept on missing her. He couldn’t wait until he finally met her.

When the movie was over Peeta went back to his hotel room and fell asleep.

“Peeta,” Katniss ran to him, her silver eyes sparkling.

“Katniss,” Peeta ran toward her.

They met in the middle and hugged each other.

“Are you looking for me?”

“Yes, I am.”

“You are,” she squealed with happiness. “It’s just like in the movie I saw tonight.”

“Movie?” Peeta asked. His heart pounded in his chest.

“Yes, Sleepless in Seattle.”

“Katniss, I saw the same movie tonight,” Peeta grasped her hand.

Her eyes widened like saucers. “Are you in District Three?”

“Yes.”

“Then meet me in Latier Park at noon at the fountain,” Katniss urged.

Peeta nodded excited. “I’ll bring yellow daisies. I can’t wait to meet you.”

“Me too,” Katniss said. Then she gave him a mischievous look. “Tag your it!”

Peeta laughed and together they played happily with the knowledge that the next day they would be reunited.

When the morning came, Peeta jumped out of bed. He showered and made sure he looked his best. He found a flower shop that had yellow daisies, then he found the park.

His hands shook as he stood by the fountain. Peeta looked at his watch. He was early. He hoped she liked the way he looked. He wasn’t as tall as his eldest brother or as good looking as Nikko.

“Tag you’re it,” a sultry voice said behind him.

Peeta spun around to find her, the girl who he’d been searching for. She wasn’t tall but her eyes contained all of the mysteries of the universe inside of them. “You’ve found me.”

Katniss smiled and her entire face lit up. “I can’t believe it’s you,” she whispered with awe.

Peeta shifted closer.

She tilted her head up. Her hand spread on his chest. He slid his free hand on her cheek. Her breath fanned on his lips just before he kissed her. She gasped just before a small moan escaped her lips.

Peeta pressed his lips, deepening the kiss, the flowers forgotten as he held her, smelled her lavender scent. Peeta felt as if he could fly. He would lasso the moon and bring it down to earth if she asked. Her hands grasped his shirt as they slowly parted for breath.

“Wow!” Katniss said.

Peeta grinned.

“You are my dream guy!”

“I want to know everything about you,” Peeta took her hand and squeezed it.

“I’ll allow it,” Katniss said.

They spent the day talking, laughing, and sharing. When four-thirty arrived, he recalled the poor student. “Oh shoot, I have to go meet a student. This young girl I met yesterday.”

“Another woman?”

“It's this young girl who said I had to eat dinner at her house, part of a good deeds thing she is doing in class. You wouldn’t mind coming with me?” Peeta asked suddenly, not wanting to let her go.

“Sure.”

“Great, do you want to drive with me or do you want to follow me?”

“I’ll follow you. This way I can show you where I live afterward.”

Peeta blushed.

“I’d like for you to meet my family.”

If this were any other girl, he would have been freaking out by that statement, but this was his Katniss. He knew her all of his life. They departed and he followed the directions to Primrose's house. He pulled up to the curb and found it strange that Katniss pulled into the driveway.

When he got out, her face looked perplexed. “This is where you were going to have dinner?”

“Yes,” Peeta nodded. He took her hand. “Do you mind?”

Her eyes took a mysterious glint he couldn’t read. “No.”

The front door opened, and Primrose spilled out. “I thought you weren’t going to come. Katniss what are you doing with my good deed? Peeta what are you doing with my sister?”

It dawned on Peeta the irony of the situation. They were joined by her entire family. Her father gave Peeta a serious look. “Who is this young man, Katniss?”

There was a pregnant pause as they both looked at the other. Peeta wasn’t sure how he was going to explain their connection. It was too mystical, to out there for normal people to comprehend.

“This is Peeta,” Katniss said quietly, blushing. She reached up on tiptoe and placed a kiss on his cheeks. “Dad he’s the man of my dreams, the man I am going to one day marry and share my life with.”

And they did and lived happily ever after.

ENDING #3

He walked into the diner, ordered a soup and a sandwich. When he finished, he was tired but didn’t want to go to the hotel just yet. He asked the waitress if there was a place to relax. Many districts had a sort of public space that people took their dogs for walks, where couples had picnics or took romantic strolls. It often had play areas for children.

“There’s a technology fair complete with rides; it's in the main square. If you drive up the road and make a left on Main Street you'll see it," the waitress said as he signed the check and tipped her.

It occurred to Peeta he needed cash. He spotted a bank with an ATM. He parked the car and ran across the street. He could hear the fairgrounds music. Peeta was not watching where he was going and he ran into a poor woman who was leaving the ATM booth.

"I'm so sorry," Peeta said, feeling badly for nearly running her down. She put her hands on his chest to steady herself.

An electric jolt went through him. How long they stood there just simply staring at one another, he didn't know. She wore sunglasses and he couldn't see her eyes. Her hair was braided and pinned up. Her skin was kissed by the sun, and she smelled like lavender and pine. His mouth went dry. His body tingled. But then Peeta remembered this couldn't be Katniss. He shook his head.

"Sorry," he muttered moving past her. She stood on the pavement staring at him before disappearing into the throng of people.

There was something about that girl that he couldn’t shake off as he followed the people toward the fair. It was a nice night and although he was tired, he needed to get his nervous energy about the trip out of his system. Peeta stayed at the fair until he couldn’t walk anymore. It was still light out but his internal clock was all messed up. He needed a good night's rest.

He was heading out when he saw a group of people gathered around the girl he’d bumped into earlier. She had a trophy in her hand and there were people gathered around her, some were taking pictures. He raised an eyebrow wondering what she’d won the trophy for. She nearly dropped the trophy as the cameras flashed in her face. He supposed it’s why she wore the sunglasses.

Leaving the fairgrounds he bumped into Primrose.

“Hi,” she greeted.

“Hi,” Peeta said slipping his hands in his pockets. “Were you able to do your good deed for the day?”

“Yup, I bought someone a slice of apple pie.”

He grinned.

“Primrose,” a tall man with silver at his temples called out.

“Oh dad, this is the guy I told you about earlier. The one I invited to dinner at our house tomorrow night.”

Her father was tanned and had striking gray eyes. He was the kind of father that was protective over his children.

“Clifford Everdeen.”

“Hello sir, I’m Peeta Mellark.”

“Mellark?” He sounded surprised by the last name.

“Yes, have you heard of us? We’re bakers from the Capitol.”

“No, but I knew a Mellark family from District Twelve.”

“The very same Mellarks. My brother Nikko burned down the bakery there.”

“You’re Ed’s son?”

“You’re from Twelve?”

“Yes, we moved here when our eldest daughter got a scholarship to attend a gifted school for athletes. Shortly after your family moved. Well, I have to go, but I look forward to dinner tomorrow night.”

“Thank you, Sir. I look forward to dinner too.”

Peeta watched them walk away. Father and daughter were as different as night and day. It was funny the way some families took after each other and some didn’t. When he was a kid, he looked so much like his brothers there was a time when he and Nikko were together, they looked like twins.

That night he went to bed and was delighted to find himself in the garden. He ran to Katniss and tackled her to the ground. Katniss, however, was upset.

“Why are you so grumpy?” He questioned.

“Nothing.” She turned around and kicked the tree.

“I’m looking for you.”

She spun around quickly. “You are?”

“Yes,” Peeta smiled.

Her entire face perked up.

“So why are you so upset.”

“I met someone today,” she said.

“You did?” Peeta sat down, not sure he wanted to hear what she was going to say.

“I didn’t talk to him or anything, but I felt butterflies,” she said with vehemence. She turned to Peeta. “I don’t want to feel butterflies with anyone else but you. I’ve been waiting for you, Peeta. But this boy, I don’t know if I can say no to him.”

Peeta was shocked by what she was implying. She’d been waiting for him, and in many ways, he’d been waiting for her as well. He’d been using the bakery as a buffer so that he didn’t have to go out with other girls. He often felt as if he was cheating on Katniss when he went out on a date. “You like him?”

She nodded.

Peeta took her hand. “Look Katniss, even if you’re married I will still want to be your friend, always. I just want to be in your life.”

Her arms went around his neck.

“We’ll always have our dreams,” Peeta promised.

“Okay,” Katniss pouted.

“Come on, let's go on the swings. I bet you I can swing you to the top of the marshmallow clouds.” He led her to the swing and gently pushed her.

Their play was bittersweet as Peeta had an inkling this would one day end and they were not ready for that. Katniss held on to him until the very end.

When he woke up Peeta had tears in his eyes. He was determined to find her. He dressed and got ready for the day. When he went outside his car had a flat tire. Peeta was frustrated, his day was not starting out on a good note. He didn’t get to drive out to the Registry. Not that it mattered because when he called to see if the material was ready he was told the servers were still down.

The only highlight came when he participated in a baking demonstration at the hotel. He made cheese-buns. He managed to save some for the evening’s dinner. He arrived promptly and was greeted by Mr. Everdeen.

“Welcome,” Clifford said inviting him in.

“I’m Jasmine Everdeen, Primrose’s mother. I knew your father.”

“You knew my dad?”

“We grew up next to one other.”

They moved into the living room and were chatting amicably when the door blew open.

“Kitten,” her father said, raising an eyebrow.

Peeta stood up when he saw the girl he bumped into last night. She was still wearing her sunglasses. Her mouth opened up slowly feeling that thing once again even though she scowled at him. “Hi, I’m…”

“Never mind let’s get this over with,” she growled. “Is dinner ready?”

Peeta slid his hand to his pocket. He had never felt a connection to anyone before like he felt with this girl yet she was rude to him.

He took a deep breath remembering his conversation with Katniss the night before. He would settle for being her friend if she decided to pursue this guy she’d met. He wasn’t sure he could do that even though he was wildly attracted to the woman before him.

“Kitten, take your sunglasses off,” Clifford said.

Katniss shook her head standing arms akimbo.

"Kitten we've been through this before. Your mother and I raised you right and right now you are not being polite to our guest."

She turned her head, smiled and raised an eyebrow. “I am here under the pretense of having dinner with my family, but you want to set me up with this…this…” she pointed toward Peeta.

“Actually, you’re wrong. I invited him so that I could fulfill my good deed project, sis,” Primrose piped up. She looped her hand around Peeta’s arm. “You can sit near me.”

Katniss pursed her lips but didn’t take off her sunglasses.

“So what brings you to District Three?”

“It may sound weird, but I am looking for someone. A childhood friend.”

“Let me guess, you lived in District Three and wanted to reconnect with her, how sweet,” Katniss smiled even though her words were dripping with sarcasm.

“No, I’ve never been to District Three before. This is my first time.”

“That’s why you were at the registry?”

“Yes, she has a unique name but there are over 100 people who have her same name.”

“Oh that is so sweet,” Jasmine said, passing the potatoes.

“Where did you get these rolls? These are great,” Katniss said, ignoring her mother’s comments.

“I made them. They’re cheese-buns.”

Katniss dropped it on the side of the plate as if they were laced with arsenic.

“He’s a baker in the Capitol.” Clifford stole her bun. “Your disgust is my gain.”

Peeta swore behind her glasses she was giving her father a not so nice look. He didn’t understand why he wanted to haul her off and kiss her breathlessly when she was being rude to her own family.

“So, you’re a baker,” Katniss said, taking the bun from her father’s hand.

“Yeah, he lived in District Twelve,” Primrose said smiling. “These are heavenly.”

“District Twelve?” Katniss’s voice cracked.

“His brother Nikko burned the place down. You were too young to remember,” Jasmine said as she passed the steak.

“So how do you expect to find this friend,” her voice sounded hard as if she was also fighting the attraction between them.

“Well I know she is a renowned archer, and her name is…”

“Katniss,” she whispered.

“Yes.” Peeta felt chills running up and down his spine.

Katniss leaned over, placing her hands on the table. “Tell me something real about you?”

“I have two…” He spoke and she began speaking the same words as him.

“Brothers and one cannot bake.” Tears were sliding down her cheeks.

Peeta stood up and with trembling hands, he removed her sunglasses. “Katniss.”

“Peeta,” she whispered.

“What’s going on here?” Clifford asked, confused.

“Cliff, don’t you see? They’ve been searching for each other. You remember what they were like as kids.” Jasmine said.

“You mean,” Clifford sat back with a large grin on his face. “He’s been searching for her just the same way she’s been looking for him.”

Jasmine got up. “Come along, let’s give them their privacy.”

“But I’m hungry,” Prim grumbled.

“Nonsense, you just want to be a busy body.” Jasmine ushered them out of the dining room.

“Hi,” Peeta said. Everything around him melted as he looked into her wonderful silver eyes. “Tag you’re it. I’ve found you.”

Katniss laughed right before she kissed him.

Peeta’s toes curled in his shoes. He’d finally found his dream girl.

#Mega-Aulover #hope you enjoy it i wanted to make you simile #Story Drabblet #Peeta Mellark #Katniss Everdeen

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whiskeykneat · 5 years

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One More Saturday Night [2]

CHAPTER TWO

Smoke curls upwards from the cigarette dangling out of Joanna's mouth as she looks Gale up and down. It's near ten o'clock, long after the street lamps have clicked on, and the air outside the carhop smells of oil and grease. Gale has just gotten off his shift at the mine, he's scrubbed and scrubbed at the coal dust in the seams of his hands, but with back to back twelve hour shifts, they'll never be clean.

The letter that came this morning from the capital is burning a hole in his pocket.

He'd taken one look at it sitting forlornly on the kitchen table next to his warm dinner, and when his mother's step had creaked on the bottom stair, Gale didn't have to look past the washtub curtain to know that she'd been crying, he could hear it in her voice.

[[MORE]]

I'm going out, Ma, he'd said, but hadn't stopped her when she'd drawn him tight to her thin body for a fierce hug.

You tell Katniss, Gale. Tell her tonight, Hazelle had whispered, wiping her eyes. And give her my love.

"Katniss?" Joanna purses her red lips, sucking on the cigarette so hard he can imagine what those sinful red lips would look like wrapped around his cock, and Gale gives her a once-over of his own. "She's working. Took my shift." She brushes past him, letting him feel every inch of her pointy brassiere pressing up to his chest. "You're gonna have a hard time prying her from that dump up to Lookout Point tonight." Joanna rolls her eyes, nodding towards the parking lot, full of every warm-blooded teenager in town, as if there's nothing better to do on a Saturday night in 1964, in every house in town a television, on every radio the sound of the devil's music.

For the times they are a-changin’...

"You could come up to Lookout Point with me." Joanna's red nails lightly trail down his forearm, and goosebumps pimple along Gale's skin. She looks up at him from under her lashes, biting down on the tip of her thumb. And he considers it for a moment, he really does, but he's been down that road before: sinking down into her warm wet softness, hearing her mewl as she claws his back, begging him to empty himself inside of her, anything to fill the gaping hole inside them both.

Joanna purrs as she runs a finger up his chest, playing with his collar. "It ain't as pretty, but we can go down to the Slag Heap if you've a mind to get ham-hocked." There's no reason he should refuse her. Thom will be there, after all, and every other man on the crew. Right now, nothing sounds better than drinking so hard he can't see straight, anything except thinking about the letter in his pocket.

Gale looks down at Joanna for a moment, and he hears what she's saying to him, offering him a way out tonight, a way to forget that in two days, he’ll be on a train to his army training, where they'll put a gun in his hands and send him off to the jungle, and there will be no more Saturday nights like this one, where all he has to worry about is which pretty girl he’ll be taking home.

(All of them. None of them. Any of them except the only one he wants, the only one he's ever wanted, the one he can never have at all.)

He fingers the ribbon wrapped around his wrist, threadbare now, but once as sky blue as the bottles that hang from the chinaberry tree outside his mother’s front door -- as if it is what is keeping him tethered to this town, like a candle burning against the darkness. "Nah, not tonight."

"Well, if you want something to take the edge off, you know where to find me." Joanna pouts dramatically, one hand on her hip. She winks, then, and leaves him, a cloud of Chanel in her wake.

As if his body has a mind of its own, Gale finds himself hopping back in the truck, and bringing it around to the parking lot. The carhop is jumping tonight, hormones and energy pumping out of every sleek car, on beat with the music.

Stay… just a little bit longer…

Gale parks in the back, near the tree line, and cuts the engine. The place is full of Townies, all dressed to the nines, the boys with shaggy Beatles hair and the girls in mini skirts and beehives. In his work denim and his button down plaid shirt, Gale feels suddenly old beyond his years and out of place, as though he's peeped into a pinhole camera of an era gone by, one he never belonged to, was never a part of. These boys have never spent twelve hours down in a mining shaft, working every muscle as they lay waste to the mountain. They've never left school to become breaker boys, separating the impurities from the coal. They do not know what it's like to descend down into the darkness, day after day after day, until it is like you have never known the light.

“What would you like?” The voice, a car over, arrests him in his tracks, and Gale feels his whole body shiver with recognition.

It's the voice that's haunted his dreams since the summer of 1961, sleepy afternoons and strawberry kisses. It's the haunting melody of the piano drifting through the dusty air as he makes his way to the mine in the dawnlight, pricking memories long buried: of her in his arms, twirling around in that big, empty gazebo. That slate-tiled gazebo, with the big cupola, with lots of shady corners for stealing kisses. It was where Madge Undersee had her debutante ball, as Gale watched from the shade of the sycamore tree in his ill-fitting suit, and knew he could never be a part of her world.

He'd taken employment in the mine the very next day, and the day he'd turned eighteen he'd gone down in the pit for the first time, the memory of the girl he could never have seared forever on his heart.

•••

Gale hasn't seen Madge Undersee since the morning after the debutante ball, when he'd met her under the sycamore tree just past the edge of the sprawling gardens, where once he'd carved their initials together: M+G.

She'd been wearing white, he recalls: a frothy camisole, so fine he could see the outline of her breasts and feel the answering swell in his denim jeans, and pine green silk pajama pants that hugged her delicate curves. Gale knew that if he touched her, the silk would whisper over her skin, that she'd make a little moan in her throat, and that her lips would be velvety and plush, tasting of clouds and cream as he parted them with the tip of his tongue.

If he kissed her, he'd be unable to finish what he came to do, and that's the one thing that killed him, to take the only thing good and fine in his world, and make what lay between them something cheap.

He thought about her father, and the suitcase of money, money that could have fed his whole family for a year, and bought a new house besides, were he the kind of man who didn't have his pride, the kind of man who didn't know right from wrong. He was seventeen, but he's been a man since he was twelve, the night his father died and mantle of responsibility, of family, came to lay on his shoulders.

Madge smiled up at him, handing him a tiny teacup filled with black coffee, his big, rough working man's hand nearly engulfing her own. For a moment, he let his hand linger on hers, until her cheeks turned pink, and then he took a step back, the space between them thick with words unspoken. There was an eyelash on her cheek, he wanted to blow it off, he wanted to make a wish. But the time had passed for such foolish fancies.

My daughter is not for you, Gale Hawthorne, Mayor Undersee had said gently, the suitcase lying on the table between them like Pandora's Box, the sounds of the party drifting up from below. There was a line of coal smudged along the cuff of Gale's suit jacket, and he tugged at his sleeve, feeling the poorly constructed seams give out just a touch.

The tux belonged to Thom's pa, who was as of a mind as Gale's in that a suit was only for marrying and burying. Not fucking around at a party to impress some high class piece of tail. Gale had never wanted to deck the elderly man more in his entire life.

I wanna hold your hand, crooned Paul McCartney on the record player.

Under the ancient sycamore tree, Madge's eyes were as deep and blue as the Delft china plates in the display case at the five and dime, and the little gold flecks danced like specks of sunlight as she gazed up at him. When he spoke, tears sprung to her eyes, and her teacup fell to the roots of the tree, shattering and spilling like the sound a heart makes when it breaks beyond hope or repair.

High in the tree, a pair of mated bluebirds sang, to usher in the morning.

•••

There she is, Miss Prim and Proper, the Debutante herself: Madge Undersee. And she looks better than ever, if that's possible: golden and slender, with legs that go on forever. Gale can't help but drink every bit of her in, as if he hasn't been able to stop thinking of her since the day they parted, as if he’s never thought about walking up to the front door of her house and asking if she's home. But he heard from Katniss that Madge went up to university in Charlottesville, and he’d thought that after that, she'd never return.

He's heard a rumor that Madge got engaged, that she's marrying Seneca Crane, the son of a senator, the china already picked and the invitations sent out.

If that's the truth, why is Madge working at the carhop? She should be making her wedding trousseau. She should be shopping all over Paris with her Daddy's money, and buying French lingerie for that stuck up rich man, to lie in his big bed with the hundred count sheets, and let him taste her sweetness.

Like clouds and cream. Like strawberries.

"Fuck!" Gale presses his forehead to his hands, which are clenched on the steering wheel.

He should drive out of here right now. He should go home and get a good sleep in his own bed. He should… But he won't. And, catching himself rubbing the satin ribbon around his wrist again, he knows why.

Madge Undersee.

He's halfway out of the car already when he hears her voice again, and this time nothing can stop Gale Hawthorne from getting what he's come back for, from the one person he can't leave behind without saying goodbye.

•••

“Please, please don't.” Madge vainly bats at the hands groping her ass, and for a moment she's back in the frat house, trying to push Seneca off of her as his tongue goes down her throat and his knee forces her legs apart.

You're so frigid, Margreta. Don't be such a goddamned prude.

“You heard the lady. She said no.”

It's like she's imagining things. Gale Hawthorne. Standing between her and Cato Curlew, steel in his tone. His voice ripples with command, and Madge feels a trickle of warmth low in her belly, though she's still angry with him, after all these cold years apart.

Why is he here now, when he's stayed away for so long? Doesn't he know that she no longer needs him, that she stopped waiting for him long ago? “I don't need your help,” Madge informs Gale’s broad shoulders. “Go away.”

She can hear the sneer in Cato’s voice. “That ain't no lady.” He spits a stream of tobacco on the asphalt. “Everyone with half a brain knows that she's been spreading her legs for any Seam bastard who asks since she was sixteen.”

Gale grabs Cato by the shirt, and blood sprays against the mirror on the door. Cato comes out swinging, shaking his head like a bull before he charges at Gale. Madge screams, and they all come running, the boys laying bets, the girls huddled to the side and watching through their fingers, titillated and horrified all at once.

The two men square off on the blacktop, Cato big and square and stocky, Gale tall and broad-shouldered but with a latent strength honed from years swinging a pickaxe. Cato is bleeding from the nose, and his fists are up as he and Gale circle one another. Madge has heard the stories, Cato killed the last man he fought in a brawl, down in Wheeler.

“Don't! Stop!” She tries to dart between them, but Wheatley Mellark grabs her arm, hauling her back.

“You'll just make it worse,” he murmurs in her ear.

“Get him, Cato!” Cato’s friend Marvel cups his hands and lets out a wild yell, and Cato surges forward like he's been shot from a cannon. “Show that Seam bastard what we do to coal miners who think they can touch Town women!”

Madge is pale, she is shaking. “Stop them,” she begs Wheatley and Delly, who has appeared at her other side, a serious look on her face.

Gale and Cato circle one another on the gray, cracked asphalt, dust rising in the air.

“That's right,” Gale taunts, his voice deep and carrying. “These dirty, coal-stained hands have touched Town women… While you're at your office with your secretary, I've been plowing your girlfriends… Your wives… And your momma, Curlew.”

Cato roars, and charges Gale. Gale dodges Cato, turning and socking his fist into Cato’s jaw. Cato spits out blood, lunging for Gale, and then both men are on the asphalt, rolling over and over with the smell of heat and blood in the air.

“Stop it! Gale Hawthorne, stop it right now!” Katniss comes gliding across the pavement, but Peeta Mellark, near the edge of the crowd, catches her arm, his mouth moving in words that Madge cannot make out, even if she wanted to.

She can hear nothing except the thud of flesh on flesh, and then Gale is on top of Cato, punching and punching him, and suddenly the wail of police sirens can be heard coming down the avenue, and Madge snaps out of her coma.

“We have to go!” Madge yanks on Gale’s arm, hard, and he resists her for only a moment before snapping back into focus, his dark gray eyes gone soft as he looks at her. She doesn't want to think about what that means, not right now, not when this could all be taken away in an instant. Cato is Town, and his daddy is a rich man besides. Gale is Seam. A night in jail would be the lightest of sentences Gale could pray for.

So instead, Madge leans forward, cupping Gale’s jaw, and whispers in his ear, “Now,” and Gale, stumbling like a drunk in the dark, doesn't question her when she jumps into the truck beside him and grinds the gears, and they speed off into the night.

•••

“You're an idiot.” Madge presses the damp napkin a little too hard to Gale’s jaw, and he winces, trying to pull away. “You know that?” Her voice is low and furious, and he thinks he's never been more intrigued by her than at this very moment, all her ladylike poise gone, the air between them crackling like lightning about to strike.

“Maybe if you had stayed where you were supposed to be --” Gale growls, turning his jaw from her ministrations. “On your side of town -- Then I wouldn't have had to step in in the first place!”

“I don't see how it's any of your business where I spend my time, or who I spend it with!” Madge pushes on Gale’s chest, and he laughs darkly. “What's your problem?”

“You are! If you had just stayed in your place -- the princess in her tower -- instead of slumming it --” He’d kill any man who touched her without her permission, she has to know that.

Tears spring to the corners of her eyes, and for an instant Gale feels like a monster for wounding her, but -- You deserve this, he reminds himself. She can't know that all he wants to do is to take her in his arms and kiss her tears away. He's already made his choice.

“I…” Madge turns her face away for a moment, composing herself. He wonders if she still sings to herself in her head. He wonders why he can feel the space between their bodies so keenly, why he still wants to pull her close, to open the door they locked so long ago. “I think you should take me home.”

Gale swallows, turning his face to hers. In the moonlight, her profile would look at home stamped on an antique bronze coin, too beautiful to be anything but legendary. Wars have been fought over women like Madge Undersee, in times of old. She's everything that's wrong and right for him, and even though his heart says it's right, his mind whispers that it's wrong, wrong, wrong.

Gale leans toward Madge, who tenses, and as he wraps a finger around single golden curl, she turns her face up to him with a question in her eyes, that indent on her lower lip enchanting him as it did when he was a boy, begging to be explored by his tongue. His hand comes up, and he caresses the line of her jaw, feeling her tremble uncontrollably at his touch. “What are you so afraid of?” Gale whispers huskily, even though he knows the answer.

What he isn't expecting are the next words out of her mouth.

“I don't want Daddy to hear about…” she waves a hand to encompass their surroundings, or maybe the events that have taken place. “...this.”

“I didn't ask for his damned approval.” His laugh is rusty, as though it's been a long time since he's had anything to laugh about. “I bet Daddy approves if he's got cash in his pockets instead of coal.”

Madge reels back, as if she's been slapped. “Fuck you.” Before Gale can process what's happening, the car door slams behind her, and she runs barefoot across the dark parking lot, and straight into the Slag Heap.

“Fuck!” Gale slams his hands on the dashboard, wincing. He leaves the door swinging, and runs after her.

She's standing at the bar when Gale catches up to her, her shoulders heaving, downing a shot of something amber, the heady scent of it already purring on her skin. “What do you want?” She slams the shot glass on the bar with a hiss, and Gale grabs her by the shoulders, unsure of what he intends to do right up until this moment.

“Another shot,” the bartender drawls, and Gale slams it down, and then he's kissing Madge Undersee, his hands cupping that little heart shaped face, his thumbs stroking her jawline, the taste of her as raw and real as though it's been home all along, as if he's never known it until she's back in his arms, pliant and soft, nipping at her bottom lip, his tongue meeting hers, tasting of amber and cream and the mist that rises off the mountains in the morning.

Madge pulls back, and slaps him, hard. “You bastard.” There's a round of shocked applause, led by Joanna, who blows Gale a sultry kiss and a wink, leaning against her pool cue before lining up her shot.

But Gale isn't here for Joanna tonight. “Madge!” Gale bellows, past caring what anyone thinks. His long strides overtake her in the parking lot, and he finds her leaning against the cab of his truck, her shoulders shaking.

“Get me out of here, Gale,” Madge whispers, her voice raw.

He touches her gently, as though she is a wild doe that might startle or frighten, and she surprises him by turning around and falling into his arms, her face pressed to his chest, her heart matching the beat of his own. He lifts her tear streaked face with one finger, and then she stands on tip-toe, and they are kissing again, slow and soft and sure, as if all the time they've spent apart has been leading up to this moment.

#gadge #gale x madge #the hunger games #gale hawthorne #madge undersee

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everlarkbirthdaygifts · 5 years

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Happy Birthday, outofthemarr!

Apologies for the delay on your gift, @outofthemarr. We hope you had a wonderful birthday back on March 2nd, and got exactly the presents you were hoping for! To bring back the birthday feels, @ally147writes has written a story just for you!

AN: Sorry again to @outofthemarr for the delay on your gift. I had a wisdom tooth removed a few days ago, and I’ve been a little loopy on pain meds since. I’m sorry if the story reads like it was written by an author on pain meds, but I fear that’s exactly what happened...

I tried to blend your friends-to-lovers and angst requests together, but I’m not sure how well it worked. This is yet another drabble I’d like to revisit, but since I’m doing my Masters this year, I can’t make any promises. I hope you’ll enjoy this little fic anyway :)

Unbeta’d - all errors are my own.

It’s got to be below freezing out, but Katniss can’t even feel the biting chill through her haze of indescribable, barely coherent rage.

Technically, her plan went off without a hitch. A little too well, maybe. Last she saw, Madge and Peeta were sitting on the sofa together, matching blond heads and pale hands and pink lips so close to each others that they almost melted into one entity. Pretty good, considering she only introduced them half an hour ago.

So why, now that she’s enacted her master plan, does she want to gouge Madge’s eyes out with the pointy end of her heel?

She closes her eyes and sucks in deep breaths that come back out in dense clouds. The music from the house thumps in her ears like another heartbeat. It’s probably poor form to ditch your best friend’s twenty-first birthday party, but Katniss doubts Peeta would appreciate the bloody show of violence, especially now that he’s getting on with Madge so well.

“God, Katniss, it’s freezing out here!”

She spins on the damp grass and almost takes a tumble. Peeta darts to her side in a second and grasps her shoulders, keeping her upright. She turns her face up to meet his, bright and like marble under the moonlight, his curls almost white.

“Careful,” he whispers in the small space between them.

She wraps her arms around her middle and scowls. “Thanks,” she mutters, taking a quick step back. If he notices her scowl, or her lack of inflection, he’s sweet enough not to say anything. Instead, he buries his gloved hands in his pockets and smiles at her, that same, sweet, irresistable smile he’s been flashing at her since they were five years old that she’s never been able to say no to.

“What are you even doing out here?” he asks her. “We were about to cut the cake.”

She shrugs, since she’s not really able to explain it to herself, either.

“Shouldn’t you go back to Madge?” she asks, with more bite than she intends.

He keeps smiling at her. “Madge left ten minutes ago, Katniss. Besides, I want to be out here, with you.”

Something in her stomach jumps at his words, something she buries just as quickly. “That’s a shame. Didn’t you like her?”

“I liked her fine. She seems like a nice girl.”

“That’s great.” She swallows; something sour is rising in her throat. “I’m glad.”

“Are you, now?”

“Of course, I am.” She coughs. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

His smile grows. “You were glaring absolute daggers at her before you came out here. Confused her to no end, especially since she seemed sure she came here with you tonight.”

“What do you mean? She did come here with me.”

He laughs this time, full and loud, echoing on the cold air. But the sound doesn’t fill her with the same warmth it normally does.

“What’s so funny, Peeta?” she snaps.

He sobers almost immediately and reaches out to take her cold, clammy hand in his. The touch soothes and burns in turn. Has it always felt like this?

“Madge thought she was on a date with you, Katniss,” he tells her. “Not that you were trying to set her up with me.”

“Wait, what?” The words jolt her out of her rage, if only for a moment. It takes everything within her not to gawk, though she supposes it goes a long way to explaining why Madge was so forward and touchy-feely with her in their shared music composition class. Which is now going to be horrifically awkward.

He smiles even wider again. “You really have no idea, do you, Katniss? The effect you have…”

“But you looked so… cosy.”

“Kind of have to get cosy if you want to be heard over the music in there.” He lets out a little chuckle. “She was asking me what it takes to hold your attention, since she reckons she can’t seem to keep yours.”

“And what did you tell her?”

“I told her that if she wanted to know, she’d have to get in line.” Before she can ask what the hell he means by that, he drops her hand between them and leans against the tree at the centre of his yard. He watches her carefully. “What’s up with you tonight, Katniss? Something on your mind?”

“Nothing,” she mutters. “Just… tired, I guess.”

“You can go upstairs and lie down, if you want.” He shrugs. “Not like you’ve never spent the night here before.”

She shakes her head. “I’ll be all right.”

“Awesome. Then maybe you can help me out with something?” He slides down the trunk of the tree and lands with a muffled thump on the ground. He pats the ground beside him, not letting up for a single second until she rolls her eyes and joins him.

“Like what?”

“See, I’ve kind of got this hunch.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah. I’d kind of hoped for a while, but seeing everything before… I kind of wonder if maybe I’m right.”

“Seeing what before?”

“Well… I’ve kinda gotta start at the beginning.” He stares at his knees draws a deep breath. “See, I’ve got this crush.”

Now she feels the cold. It grips like a vise around her heart, squeezing and squeezing until she’s not sure there’s anything left to wring out.

“Oh?” It’s more of a disembodied noise than a word.

He quirks his head to the side and regards her thoughtfully. “Yeah. Well… maybe crush isn’t the right word. It’s probably more like full-fledged adoration by now, I’ve carried it with me for so long.

“See, I met this girl when I was five. Maybe you know her. She had these long, black braids and wore a red plaid dress. She sang like an absolute angel, and I haven’t been able to shake her since.”

Katniss swallows the growing lump in her throat. Because he can’t possibly — he isn’t —

“Sounds annoying.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I got used to it. I’m not really all that sure what my life would be without it, you know?”

She lets out a sound like a squeak and says, “Yeah, maybe.”

“Anyway,” he goes on, nudging her playfully with his elbow. “I saw something tonight, in the way she looked like she wanted to murder another girl for touching me, and it kind of made me think that maybe this whole unrequited crush thing that I’ve kinda built myself around isn’t quite as unrequited as I first thought.”

He shifts a little closer, then closer again, until they’re sharing the air between them. She doesn’t mind the proximity. Not really. Not at all.

“Why did you bring Madge tonight, Katniss?”

“Because I thought she’d be good for you,” she whispers back. “I’m not good for you, Peeta. We both know that.”

“No, I don’t. You don’t. All you know is what you’ve built up in your head, and it’s only half the story.” He pulls his gloves off and takes her cold face with his warm hands. “You’re more than good for me, Katniss,” he tells her, fiercely, and the wonder of the words settles deep in her bones. “You’re perfect. I’ve known it since we were children.”

“Don’t make it weird,” she says. A shaky smile grows on her lips.

He rolls his eyes and tips his forehead against hers. Again, not entirely foreign, but fraught with a whole new meaning. “You’re making it weird.”

She sighs and presses herself closer. “You’re going to regret this, Mellark,” she warns him.

He beams at her, the widest, most wonderful smile she’s ever seen, warm and familiar and so, so new all at once. “I don’t see how, Everdeen.” He slides his nose along hers, teasing her. Igniting her. “Let me prove it to you? Please?”

She nods, jerky, but sure. And when those millimetres between their lips close, and his hands rest on the sides of her neck while hers go straight for the curls they’ve been itching for all night, she finds she doesn’t mind that, either.

Not really.

Not at all.

#everlark #everlark fanfiction #everlarkbirthdaygifts #everlarkbirthdaydrabbles #fan fic #by ally147writes

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