If you feel like a prompt: Katniss and Peeta both massively crushing on each other during Halloween, and they’re both clueless that the other one feels the same way
This prompt was so good I kinda ended up writing 4k words on it...oops. Since it's so long I've posted it onto ao3 first, but I've included a little intro after your Halloween song!
(Not a) Couples Costume by thesweetnessofspring
“This is…surprisingly a good costume,” Katniss said as she looked at the picture of a plastic smile model with a Princess Leia costume up against the vinyl bag. When Johanna said she had a costume for Katniss to wear to Delly’s party tonight, Katniss had assumed there would be less of it. Slave-Leia instead of A New Hope -Leia.
“Just avoid the obnoxious Star Wars fanboys,” Johanna warned. “Unless you enjoy three hours of regurgitated Twitter discourse.”
People wanting long conversations with her had never been a problem for Katniss, so she figured the costume would be safe. Katniss moved into the bathroom to change and Johanna scoffed, “You can’t even strip in front of your oldest friend, how are you ever going to lose your virginity?”
“Shut up Jo!” Katniss shouted from behind the bathroom door. She’s only eighteen and less than six months out of high school. It’s not weird she hadn’t let some random guy from her job at the pool over summer near her vagina. Her RN mother had been sure to lay out all the risks with being sexually active and prep her with two forms of birth control since she was sixteen. And she was secure in her decision to be selective about what she let inside or near her body.
Of course, that didn’t mean…after a few dates at least…
Oh hell, who was she kidding? There was a guy and maybe Katniss wouldn’t be ready for everything yet, but during Professor Wiress’s lectures she’d wondered more than once what it would feel like to have his hand between her legs.
Katniss observed in her underwear-clad form in the mirror. She might have small breasts and narrow hips, but she’d never been worried about her appearance before. No, unfortunately, Katniss knew the real reason this guy would never want to see her naked was because of how odd and unsociable she’d always been. It hadn’t bothered her brief summer fling or her equally unsocial ex-boyfriend, but Peeta Mellark was different.
They’d been in the same year growing up, but while Katniss skirted to the edges, avoiding any sports or clubs, Peeta’s been at the center of them all: football, wrestling, student body treasurer, art club, Key Club. She’d notice him observing her sometimes, though she noted it probably had to do with him pitying her.
They shouldn’t have ever interacted, even. Peeta had been recruited to play football across the country on a scholarship and Katniss planned on taking community college classes while she figured out the next steps. But then Peeta broke his leg the last game of the season, lost his scholarship, and wound up in the same biology class as Katniss at the end of August.
That alone hadn’t been a guarantee they’d ever speak, and Katniss knew Peeta would have continued to not notice her if Professor Wiress hadn’t instructed them to make groups of four for their experiments and projects. Johanna was one of Katniss’s few friends, and she’d started dating Delly over the summer, who was Peeta’s friend. That’s how they’d all ended up in an odd collection of two sapphics, an All-American boy in the twenty-first century, and the girl who never knew what to say to anyone.
Katniss velcroed the collar of the long white Princess Leia dress around her neck and took a deep breath. There’s no need for her stomach to feel like a whirlwind of leaves across the sidewalk. She reminded herself again that it was biological. She was in her prime childbearing years according to her body (though she swore it’d be at least ten years before popping out any of her own) and the procreative imperative was strong. She’d be a fool not to recognize Peeta as an ideal mating partner. Yes, he was handsome and strong, but he was also incredibly giving and kind and creative and could create social connections where Katniss was only met with silence. She could, she would , crush this crush into nothing. She had to when she had nothing to offer to Peeta in exchange that any other girl didn’t have herself.