Katniss Everdeen, twenty-eight and divorced, returns to her hometown for her high school reunion and runs into former babysitting charge turned teacher, Peeta Mellark. Modern Day AU.
I was thinking about this story since I mentioned this to @little-lynx. This was the first story Hubbs edited for me. We actually collaborated a lot with this story which I really enjoyed.
Characters: Katniss and Peeta’s daughter, Katniss...
Pairings: (Peeta x Katniss, but they’re not the center of the fic)
Warnings: Emotions and feelings...
Rating: K+
A/N: I don’t know if there are official names for Katniss and Peeta’s children, but I went with a popular headcanon one for the daughter.
I dreamt with a girl, way older than me. She wore her light blonde hair in braids, and her dress was so, so white, I had to squeeze my eyes shut for a moment. When I looked again, there was a small goat, with a coat as clear as snow, by her side; a goat just like the ones I see prancing around in the fields. The girl held one side of a ribbon in one of her hands... and the ribbon was beautifully tied around the neck of the goat. The girl looked at me… and her eyes were so clear, they reminded me of my grandmother's!
Then I woke up, after the afternoon nap. I told mom about my dream, and I thought maybe she would know who she was?... I thought she would tell me.
But instead, she cried.
I was so shocked. Mom never cries. Except, sometimes, when she has those scary dreams, and papa has to comfort her. And at times when, like this time, I just don’t understand what’s wrong. What makes her cry? I never understand. But it makes me so sad I want to cry too. I touch her hand, and hold it tight. I rub her hand gently, as I see her eyes lost, and unfocused, gleaming with water. I start to cry too.
“I’m sorry, mama”, I try to tell her. But then it’s like something snaps back in place in her, and she turns to look at me, her eyes truly seeing me, widening slightly. She holds my hand, more tightly than I had done, and she touches my face, grazing it with her fingers. Her eyes are still watery, but she smiles.
“Don’t say that.”
She scolds me; but papa is better at scolding than her. I sniffle, and she wipes away my tears. “You did nothing wrong. Nothing wrong, you hear me? You are not to blame for the dreams you have. Never.”
Her voice becomes softer and softer, and I throw my arms around her waist, while she brushes my hair with her hands. She smells to mom, and I feel so safe, and warm, I could stay there, all day. But still-- I wonder if papa will be home soon? He took my baby brother for a walk (although my baby brother can’t walk), and I would love for him to hug me, too.
My mother carefully makes me look up, a very small smile on her face. Her smile is something I’ve seen sometimes. It’s sad, but it’s not. She’s remembering something, but I don’t know what it is.
“One day, I’ll tell you… I’ll tell you all about it. But for now... “ She makes a very long pause, until I think she won’t speak anymore. But then she does: “Do you… remember that I’ve told you about your aunt Prim?”
I’m not sure, and I look at her quizzically. Her smile widens just a little.
“Just… make sure to remember her name. I’m sure… she knows yours.”
I didn’t really understand, but I nodded anyway. Seemed like the right thing to do. Anyway, it wasn’t really hard to know my name. You just needed to look outside. Especially in the meadow! Like the song, there were trees with my name all around. Aunt Prim, wherever she was, must have liked them too. In my dream, she was standing right beside a willow.
Come to think of it, she must have been in the meadow.
Katniss Everdeen has never been interested in boys. But that hasn’t stopped her best friend’s younger brother from being interested in her. And there’s always a first time for everything.
On the personal side, the last few months have been fantastic for Peeta. On the professional side? Not so much. When a long-awaited opportunity comes up in New Mexico, he jumps at it.
Katniss loves summers, really she does, and as a teacher, she gets the opportunity to savor (wallow in) every minute of it. By mid-July, she’s about ready to go all Jack Nicholson in The Shining at any moment. If Peeta’s heading out to New Mexico, she’s going to tag along.
Luckily, nothing has ever gone wrong on a cross country road trip.
If you pressed Peeta Mellark, you might be able to get him to confess his teenage crush. And why shouldn’t he? Ms. Everdeen, his ninth grade biology teacher, was young, kind, attractive, and most of all, unattainable. What high schooler wouldn’t be interested? But now that he’s twenty-five and back home for a while, Peeta might just have a shot at turning fantasy into reality.
Katniss Everdeen was done with blind dates, Internet dates, speed dates, any kind of date - and if she didn’t want to be a third wheel, then she’d just damn well spend her Friday nights at home. Problem solved…until her irresistible new co-worker gives her a whole new set of problems she hadn’t anticipated.
A submission for Prompts in Panem (Seven Deadly Sins), Day 1 - Wrath.
Gymnophoria - The sensation that someone is mentally undressing you.
A companion piece to Apodyopsis (Katniss’s POV) which can be found here. Many thanks to @akai-echo for requesting this story and just being a great person all the way around. I had a lot of fun writing this one.
Rated M for Mature Situations, Peeta’s POV
Peeta barely made it up the hill before he parked his older-than-dirt Toyota on the hill outside of his favorite client’s house. The transmission was going on the rust bucket but he was hoping the truck would make it to the end of the month, when he could afford to get it fixed. Finnick, his roommate, offered to give him a ride on his way to work but Peeta thought his craptastic wheels could get him there without giving out, especially as he had just added the transmission fluid. Plus, he’d agreed to head over to his parent’s bakery in the afternoon to help out. However, from the grinding vibration coming out from under the truck and up through the gear shift, he realized he might have overestimated his good luck.
Pulling the emergency brake to keep the truck from rolling away, Peeta paused to run his hand through his thick, wavy hair. He was annoyed and frustrated, not just because he was about to blow half his savings on a moving money pit. He was doubly upset because he’d have to suffer the indignity of having his truck break down in front of Ms. Everdeen’s - er - Katniss’s, house.
He still had to mentally kick himself to keep from calling her Ms. Everdeen out of habit. She’d asked him to call her by her first name and he did, every time she offered him iced tea after a grueling session in her yard. But even now, he still had trouble with that step of familiarity, even though she insisted on it every time they spoke.
He pushed air out between his lips, trying to get his anger under control. Of all the places where he had to pull the loser card, this was the absolute worst. Even for months before, he had been coming out every Wednesday to do her yard. It had already become his favorite gig. Not because of the lawn itself - the shape of the slopes around her house and the thick grass actually made him work harder than for his other customers. No, he liked coming out to do her lawn because then he had a chance to catch a glimpse of her, even if it was only at the end, when it was time to pay.
The short of it was, he had a crush on the reserved, writerly lady who lived in the house on the hill, a person he never dreamed would give him the time of day. And now that he seemed to be making headway with her, this had to happen. He got out of the truck, slamming the door more viciously than he ought to, hoping that the infernal machine would evaporate and be replaced with a respectable truck that actually worked.
He opened the doors to the small trailer hitched to the back of his truck, rummaging inside for his equipment. He wanted to tidy up her mulch this time, which was starting to lose it’s vibrant, ochre color to the onslaught of the sun. Tossing the heavy bag over his shoulder, he made his way up the drive and dropped it next to the hedges. The day was already hot so he took off his short-sleeved shirt, revealing a worn wife-beater underneath.
As he worked, he wondered what she did while he was in her yard. Of course she would be hard at work on her book, plugging away at her computer while he dug under her bushes, mowed the lawn or raked leaves. He wanted to talk with her, get to know more about her but it was probably best that she left him to his tasks - neither of them would be able to get much work done if she were outside, chatting with him. In fact, thinking straight was an actual challenge when she was around because she was, hands down, one of the most attractive women he’d ever met.
He emphasized the word woman, because he was surrounded by girls all the time. Young students, actually, trying to get through school like he was, racking up the course credits, college debt and life experience within the controlled confines of their university. Not to say that he didn’t love each and every day of his college life. He did.
But there was something about Katniss that made all of his preoccupations trivial. While he was hacking away at yet another paper or research project, juggling his jobs, his wrestling tournaments, helping out with his family’s bakery and engaging in his ongoing, cosmic struggle with his truck, she seemed to have it altogether. She owned her own house, ran a successful blog (he suddenly became interested in archery the moment he realized that she kept an archery blog), had a book deal and probably owed a working vehicle. To someone like him, just coming up in the world, her self-sufficiency appeared epic.
And that both turned him on and intimidated the hell out of him.
Sliding on his gardening gloves, he distracted himself by getting back to work, shoving the old, discolored mulch into a giant, black plastic bag which soon bulged with detritus. While he worked, he felt a familiar tingle at the back of his neck, as if someone was watching him. But when he stopped to look around, there was no one to be found. A glance at the large windows of Katniss’ study gave nothing away, just like the owner herself, so he shrugged and returned to his work until the bag was full and the mulch set in place.
After another hour, he stood and admired his work. The garden had the vibrant contrast he so loved, with the rusty red mulch against the green, manicured hedges that edged the yard. He pushed the lawnmower across the walk, his skin covered in sweat and flecked with dirt from his efforts. The strange sensation of being stared at returned, making him glance around again, as though someone was watching him intently, studying him down to his every atom. It gave him a prickly, uneasy feeling but again, his environment was empty and the house stood as it always did - cozy, inviting, and jealously guarding its contents. He was outside, but inside, it held something valuable that he might never have a chance to get to.
That last thought made him slightly moody and he silently chided himself. He was too old for this kind of crush but there he was, crushing on Katniss the way he had crushed on his kindergarten teacher. Scowling at the memory of his devotion to Mrs. Martin, who rewarded him with stamps and stickers of approval, he pushed the lawnmower with a certain fury. At one point, he shoved it so hard under one of the bushes, he made a mess of his newly laid mulch and had to stop to adjust the spot again.
His mind kept wandering to Katniss and he thought of the last week. Katniss had invited him inside and he’d found her wearing tiny beige shorts with an emerald-green tank top, perhaps seeking relief from the excessive heat. It was nothing elaborate - she might have even slept in them for all he knew. But he’d had to make an effort to think of something - anything - that would relieve him of the tension of her nearness to him as she moved about the kitchen. He’d finally had to visualized his boss, Haymitch, keeled over from a hangover to help distract himself from her nearly perfectly shaped legs, or the way the hem of the shorts rose each time she bent to reach across a counter or into a sink. She was just so damned pretty, it made him both uneasy and elated at the same time. There had to be somebody in her life who claimed her, probably someone really put together, someone successful, someone whose car actually worked.
With a heavy sigh, he got to work until he was finished with the mowing and trimming. He carefully packed his supplies back into his trailer and locked the doors. Removing the heavy gloves, he wiped his hands on his pants, glancing up at the house. Katniss had told him she didn’t want to bother with the online payments so she still paid by check, one of only two customers who still did that. So he made his way up the walk, his stomach twisted into a knot of anticipation. He looked down at himself - sweaty, smudged with dirt and leaves and tried to dust himself off. He had a small towel that he unfolded and used to wipe his face and the back of his neck. When he stopped on her doorstep, he was as clean as he could be, under the circumstances.
After the second ring, she appeared. She was barefoot, in a simple green summer dress. The spaghetti straps exposed the perfect definition of her shoulders and arms muscled by the constant use of her bow and arrow. The front of the dress, though v-cut, was demure, even girlish, right down to the slight flair at the hem that swept her knees. And it made the sweat pop out on the back of his neck all over again.
“I…I finished up outside,” he said stupidly, the fact of him having finished being a fairly obvious and useless observation.
“I saw that!” she said, with a flush of her cheeks that made her dark skin shine more brightly. “You…you did a really good job with the mulch.”
He smiled, glowing with the compliment. “Have you been outside yet?”
She shook her head. “No. I haven’t. I saw you from my office.”
He raised his eyebrows but said nothing more. She had been watching him! He thought of the opaque windows of her office that reflected only the sky from the front yard but refused to reveal any of its secrets to him. And he imagined her beyond the darkened glass, peering out at him. Goosebumps puckered his skin as he wondered how long she might have been watching him work.
“I hope you liked what you saw,” he blurted out, balling his hands into hard fists until the nails bit deep into his palm. What the hell was he thinking?
“Maybe I did,” she said, turning to the credenza behind her and pulling out a checkbook from the drawer. She invited him to step inside but he shook his head. “Come in,” she insisted. “I’ve got unsweetened ice tea. My specialty.”
Peeta frowned apologetically. “I’d love to but unfortunately, I told my folks I’d head over to the bakery to help them out this afternoon. I’m sorry.” And he really was. He would have much rather spent the afternoon with her than go to the bakery to unload the delivery truck.
“Oh,” Katniss said, her voice appearing to betray a hint of disappointment that he was sure was just his wishful thinking. She wrote out a check, stuffing it in an envelope before turning to hand it to him. “Maybe next week,” she said, her face once again serene and unreadable.
“I’m already looking forward to it,” he said, nodding his head before saying goodbye, turning reluctantly away from her. She had the most mesmerizing grey eyes, eyes which now followed him down the drive to the truck. He was sure she was still watching him as he climbed inside and put the key into the ignition, turning it on.
The engine roared angrily to life, which filled Peeta with relief. Snapping his seatbelt on, he shifted the gears, ready to take off when the transmission gave a high pitched whine that turned into a sound like gravel being ground down in a blender.
“Not now…” he muttered, cranking it again, pausing before trying to get the little truck in gear. The transmission began its howl and Peeta was forced to shut it off again. His mind went momentarily blank before he slammed his hands against the steering wheel, swearing profusely. He dug around in the glove compartment for his cell phone and pulled it out. He could call Finnick. Or one of his brothers.
His mind whirled with the possibilities as he turned the phone on but the screen only flickered momentarily before it flashed in warning. He stared at the small device, which now mocked him with the tiny lightning symbol and the thin red line on the battery.
“It’s dead? The battery is dead?” He said before resisting the urge to slam the phone against the ground. He nearly laughed and would have, actually, if he hadn’t been parked outside of Katniss’s house, where she could view the spectacle of his loserdom in action. He ran both hands through his hair. There was no help for it. He’d have to ask Katniss to use her phone.
He made his way up the driveway again, this time carrying dread instead of anticipation in the pit of his stomach. He really would have liked to leave another kind of impression on her but it couldn’t be avoided.
After several knocks, the door opened to find Katniss, staring up at him in wide-eyed surprised.
“Peeta?” she asked carefully.
“I’m really sorry but my truck broke down and I was wondering-” he began but she had already stepped outside to peer down at the truck.
“What’s wrong with it?” she interrupted.
Peeta signed, spreading his arms uselessly. “The transmission is going on it.”
Katniss wrinkled her nose. “Oh, that’s bad.”
“Yeah,” he said sheepishly, “And I might have forgotten to charge my phone…”
She turned from her contemplation of the truck and stepped back inside. “Well, come in, you can use the phone here in the living room.”
He stepped inside, unable to catch a glimpse of her face as she shut the door, her thick, normally braided hair swinging loose and free, hiding her from his view. He loved the thick, dark color, nearly blue black in its intensity, and wanted to bury his hands in it. Instead, he pushed the unwanted image away as he followed her to the living room.
He had only ever been inside a handful of times and had paid little mind beyond the kitchen, his eyes always captivated by Katniss as she moved. But now that his mind had other things to dwell on, he was able to observe interior, if only obliquely. As she handed him the wireless receiver, he noted the fine wood, the simple, yet elegant design, the way she used books and odds and ends, possibly from travel or just simple good taste, to decorate but not overwhelm the living room. He found it all more soothing than he anticipated as he dialed, and left a message, first for Finnick, then for his brother. He finally set the phone down on the small table in frustration.
“No answer?” she asked from the doorway where she watched him.
He shook his head. If he had to pay a tow truck to get the truck and pick him up, he’d probably end up broke before he even got to the repairs. He thought of maybe asking his parents for a loan but could already hear the sound of his mother’s ranting and raving in his ears.
“They’re working, I guess,” he said slowly.
She stood quietly before she perked up. “Do you have Triple AAA or Road Side Assistance?”
Peeta peered back at her, then down at the phone again. He wondered if he burst into tears right there and then, would it irreparably damage his image before Katniss forever. Tempting, but he took a deep breath and opted to simply shake his head instead.
“Ah,” she said. She walked over and took the phone where he’d set it on the table. She hit a programmed number and waited a moment until someone picked up on the other line.
“Yeah, it’s me. Listen, the guy who does my lawn, his truck broke down. Do you have a tow truck you can send over…? This afternoon…? Hold on,” Katniss looked up. “Do you have a couple of hours to spare? My friends said she’d have a tow truck ready by two o’clock.”
Peeta’s eyes widened. “Yeah…I mean, sure, of course. Who-”
But Katniss had returned to her conversation. “Okay, it’s fine…Thanks, Jo, I owe you big time…I know, I know.” They exchanged a few more words before she hung up.
Turning towards Peeta, she explained, “My friend, Johanna, owns a shop down on Lindon and 7th Street. She does mostly body work but she also has a couple of tow trucks which she sends out when the insurance companies call.” She looked at him and gave him a slow smile. “You really should get AAA. It’s a life saver.”
Peeta nodded. “I always mean to but…”
Katniss nodded sympathetically. “That’s the kind of thing I do for my sister. School keeps her so busy, she doesn’t have time to really get stuff like that done.” Her eyes swept over him, looking him up and down, her expression unreadable. “I bet you’re hungry. Come on.” She turned, expecting him to follow, which he did.
He felt strange now that the crisis having been averted. As he followed, he watched her hips sway and, if possible, became both more intimidated and more aroused by her. He had the feeling that, no matter what obstacle she met, she’d be unstoppable, finding a way to climb over or around it. He knew independent women - they were the leaders at school, the ones who kept the perfect notes and organized the perfect rallies and parties.
But Katniss was at another level. She had real-life power and he felt like a five-year old in her wake.
Peeta glanced around corridor, taking in the simple, clean lines and tasteful decorations - mostly photographs of a beautiful, blond-haired girl. He stopped for a moment, indulging his curiosity. Posing playfully, the girl had blue eyes and golden locks of hair that fell over her shoulder. She bore a passing resemblance to Katniss, in the shape of her eyes and the gentle sweep of her chin but otherwise, the girl could be Katniss’s opposite.
“That’s her. My sister,” she said and he realized she stood at his side, admiring the photograph with him. Her sudden proximity made his chest muscles spasm painfully but he ignored the discomfort and struggled to sound normal.
“I can see a resemblance,” he nearly gasped, glancing briefly at the other pictures.
“Yeah,” she responded, oblivious to his discomfort. “She goes to your school, you know. You probably haven’t seen her, though. She’s in the School of Medicine.”
“You’re right, I haven’t,” he said. “I’d have remembered her.”
Katniss smiled, her face becoming wistful. “She’s smart as a whip. And so pretty.” She indicated to a photo next to the close-up, where Prim was holding perhaps the ugliest cat he’d ever seen. “And one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet.”
“You trying to set me up?” he laughed nervously, glancing at her now flushed cheeks.
His comment seemed to catch Katniss off-guard. “No!” she nearly shouted, then visibly controlled herself. “I…I mean, if you…she’s not…you don’t…”
He shook his head, cursing himself for offending her. “I was just kidding. I kind of have my eye on someone else, if you want to know the truth.”
“Oh,” she said quietly, then turned towards the kitchen and he followed, still berating himself for his carelessness. Why on earth would she want to set someone like him up with her sister? He was just a college kid moonlighting as a part-time gardener with a ripped up truck. He would never be up to par.
She set out two places, quickly pouring iced tea out for both of them. “I added a little fresh orange juice to it this time, just to try something different,” she said, inviting him to take a stool opposite her at the breakfast island. Her shoulders were notably more slumped and her mood now seemed less playful than before. It concerned him because he couldn’t imagine why she might be upset.
He looked away from her and took the glass that had been already set out for him. He was pleasantly surprised by the flavor, the tang from the orange pulp bursting on his tongue. Though it was sweeter than he usually preferred, he rather enjoyed the conflict in flavor and complimented her on it.
“It’s good,” he nodded approvingly, smiling again at her. She flashed a look up at him, her grey eyes wide and expressive before she glanced down at her glass again. The compliment brightened her mood and she cocked her head to the side, indicating the counter behind her, which was covered with half-sandwiches, salad and a large bag of chips.
“I was making myself a sandwich when you rang. Would you like one?”
Peeta’s stomach rumbled in response, warring with his nerves, which were in full force. “I don’t want to trouble you.”
“No trouble at all, Peeta. They’re nearly made.” she smiled again, rising from the chair to prepare two plates for them. “You can wash up in the guest bathroom, just down the hall.”
He nodded obediently, rising to make his way down the corridor in the opposite direction of the way they came. The house had a wall of windows in the back, with cozy recliners and throw blankets that looked out on the vast yard. A discarded book lay on the chair, half buried in the throw. As he stepped into the bathroom, he wondered what it would it be like to sit there, basking in the view, in Katniss’s warmth.
When he returned to the kitchen, she’d set a heaping plate of sandwiches with potato salad, pickles, chips and fruit on the counter. She was already seated, waiting patiently for him.
“Eat up,” she said, taking a sandwich with her small, slender hands, eating with relish.
Peeta was insanely hungry but didn’t want to appear like a mannerless beast, on top of every other impression he was making on her, so he ate slowly, taking only two sandwiches. Katniss chuckled.
“You know you want more. Don’t be ashamed. There was a time I used to go to bed hungry so you don’t have to be embarrassed in front of me.”
He watched her as he spoke, this small revelation startling him. “I didn’t know that,” he said finally.
She simply shrugged, dusting her hands and leaned forward on her elbows, her hair sweeping over her shoulders like a wave rolling in over hills. Even the smell of her from where he sat - a woodsy, evergreen fragrance mixed with a subtle undertone of musky female - was perfect and the realization made an ache swell up from the pit of his belly up through his spine and shoulder blades. It was the ache of want and he was having a hard time keeping it in check.
“My father died when I was very young. My mother and sister and I struggled for a few years after he passed. But we got through it,” she smiled wistfully, her mind lost in a memory. “I’m not shy about eating and I want the people near me to have more than they need because…well, let’s just say I feel better with a full pantry and a well-laid table.”
“I get that,” he said, smiling at her candor and wanting to reward her with something of his own. “My family own the Mellark Bakery down on Sunset. You know the bakery?”
Katniss’s eyes widened. “Yes! I go in there sometimes. I didn’t realize you were related to Mr. Mellark.” She leaned in towards him. “Did you know that Mr. Mellark was sweet on my mother when they were both young?”
Peeta’s eyes widened in shock. “No way!”
“Way,” she laughed and the deep, throaty sound sent butterflies through his veins. “Ask him one day, but not in front of your mom,” she wrinkled her nose slightly but continued. “He was totally into my mother and if she hadn’t married my dad…”
“We’d be related!” Peeta blurted out.
She wilted slightly. “Oh, I forgot. Yeah.” She brightened again. “I can’t believe you are one of those Mellarks. What a small world.”
“Yeah, small world,” he chuckled, taking a sip of his tea as she put two more sandwiches on his plate.
“Make me happy,” she said with twinkling eyes. “Eat up.”
He nodded, thinking he’d like nothing more than to try to make her happy. They chatted about odds and ends - her blog, his brothers, tuition fees, the weather, even about flour, of which he knew entirely way too much about.
She made coffee afterward and invited him to sit outside. The day was very warm but Katniss’s patio was shrouded in heavy foliage which rustled when the breeze whispered through the leaves. She invited him to sit as they watched birds soar over a distant hill, the intense silence that surrounded them punctuated by the occasional car engine in the distance.
“It’s nice to write out here, isn’t it?” he asked. She was reclining on a chaise lounge, her long legs stretched before her. She was perfectly sculpted from the taut muscles of her smooth thighs to the tips of her toes.
“Mmm…” she said, sipping her coffee. “I write in my office but I edit out here. I’m weird,” she said.
“You’re not!” he protested. “You’re…” he wanted to say exquisite, divine, perfect, amazing but settled on “You’re your own person.”
“That may be,” she said.
Peeta cleared his throat, one curiosity still unresolved. “So do you…do you have a boyfriend or something…you know, someone special?”
Katniss’s eyes widened, before a slow smile spread across her lips. “I used to. But I don’t anymore.”
“I’m sorry,” he said, not even feeling a little bit sorry.
“I’m not. We’re still friends. It just wasn’t for us. You know, the whole dating thing. We’re better off as friends.” She glanced over at him, a wicked gleam in her eye. “Why? Are you trying to set me up?”
Peeta sat up a little straighter, nodding cooly though his heart might leap out of his chest. “Maybe?”
Katniss dipped her head, her face suddenly hidden behind her hair. “And who would this lucky man be? An older brother? An uncle?”
He got up to sit near her legs, which were crossed at the ankles. “Or me?”
Her eyes widened above her coffee cup, a faint flush racing over her cheeks. “You?” She turned to set her coffee cup down on the table next to her. “You don’t mind that I’m ten years older than you?”
“Eight. You’re eight years older than me,” he corrected.
“How do you know that?” she asked, sitting up, her leg brushing against his thigh, sending electricity over the surface of his skin.
“It’s on your blog,” he answered. “And no, I don’t mind that you are older than me if you don’t mind that I’m broke most of the time and my truck is a wreck.”
She chuckled, her voice low and warm like springtime in the mountains. “I know something about being poor. If I’d have minded, I would have driven you wherever you needed to go and had Jo take your truck to you.”
“Did you lie to me?” Peeta said, astonished and not entirely displeased.
“Not lied. Just…forgot…to mention that it was an option.”
Her mouth captured his entire attention and he wondered what she tasted like. As if she’d read his mind, she leaned in, not waiting for him to mull it over, and pressed her lips against his. He felt everything in that instant of contact - relief, heat, satisfaction and hunger. The combination took his breath and all his fears and swept them away.
She pulled back slightly, studying him, a wave of uncertainty flitting across her face, and he was seized with a powerful desire to wipe it away, to make her feel the same certainty he felt. Running his fingers through her hair, he pressed them against the nape of her neck, pulling her towards him to press his advantage. He swiped the tip of his tongue along her lips before dipping inside, tasting the coffee mingled with the flavor of Katniss. She kissed him back with equal enthusiasm, causing him to fall into the grip of a ravenous hunger. He was a lucky little shit to even touch a woman like her and if she let him, he would make her hunger for him the way he did for her.
He pulled back to catch his breath, nudging his nose into her thick, dark hair, absorbing the smell of her, his lips coasting along her skin. Her small moans of pleasure prodded him forward, where he left a shower of kisses along the exposed skin of her neck and shoulders. He would have eaten her up, right there and then but she pulled back, tilting her head as if listening for something.
“Car door,” she said, smoothing her dress out. “Your ride’s here.”
Sure enough, a second door slammed, followed by voices floating in from outside. “Oh, right,” he said, not trying to mask his disappointment, which made Katniss smile.
“Don’t worry. It’s not like you don’t know where I live.”
“You’ll let me take you out?” he asked, running his hand in his hair, pulling bits of leaves from it and reasoned that he was not exactly at his best anyway. He dusted himself self-consciously but Katniss stilled his hands with her own, standing and pulling him to his feet. Just the brisk gust of her perfume as her skirts swayed was enough to confound his thoughts again.
“This Friday. Eight o’clock. You pick me up if you get your wheels or,” she said, her voice still raspy with the heaviness of their kissing. “I’ll come get you.”
“You’ve thought it all out, haven’t you?” he said. Even her decisiveness left him in awe.
She stood on her toes and left a lingering kiss, full of promise of things to come. “You have no idea.”
XXXXX
There are some thoughts of a third part but with MoreS2SL and PiP, we will see. In any case, I have a collection of my drabbles for this meme, which I think I enjoyed more than most others. You can read those stories here. At some point, I’ll put them up on ffnet too. Thanks for reading!
Just want to thank you for all your efforts. This site provides a real service. Would you be able to list stories where Katniss is older then Peeta?
Awww, thank you! And here are some older!Katniss stories:
Not Quite - flythruflames
Tides - JLaLa
And the feeling coming from my bones says find a home - annieoakley1
untitled ficlet and part 2, Heavy Duty Machinery (written for Freaky Fic Friday, so beware of the nsfw gifs if you click the links) - Baronesskika (and this untitled ficlet seems to be part of the same universe)
If I Could Change Your Mind - flythruflames
Hot Buns, Honey Buns - everydayescapeartist
The Third Wheel - sponsormusings
Mrs. Hawthorne - kismet4891
and at once I knew I was not magnificent - atetheredmind
