The Sunset Castle by thesweetnessofspring
If it had not stormed on a certain March morning, Peeta Mellark's whole life would have been entirely different. Peeta Mellark, twenty-nine and unwanted, lives under the control of his family: dependent on his oldest brother for his livelihood, in the shadow of his handsome older brother, and bearing the insults and hands of his mother. But then he learns that he has at most one year to live and he refuses to spend it like he has for the past twenty-nine. He begins keeping company with the drunken district handyman, his sick ward, and the mysterious forest woman, Katniss Everdeen, while he lives out his sunset in all the colors he can find. Based on L.M. Montgomery's The Blue Castle
Read Chapter One | Read Chapter Four
It was Uncle Plutarch's birthday dinner that the family spoke of as "the time we realized Peeta had gone nutty." But before the larger clan understood, his brothers and mother got their first introduction to Peeta's new attitude.
One thing was that Peeta didn't pretend to be busy at the bakery anymore. He woke up, made the bread, decorated the cakes, and then once his work area was clean, sat down by the window to read Joan Foster. When Jam asked him about this, Peeta replied, "There's nothing else to do."
"I'm keeping you in food and clothes and a roof," Jam said. "You're to work all the hours the bakery is open."
"Perhaps you ought to shorten the hours then," Peeta said. "I get no satisfaction busying myself when there's nothing to be busy over."
continue reading on ellipsus