Just a note on the setting - this is definitely Panem AU. I don't refer to the Reaping, The Hunger Games, Snow's rule - none of it. So the living conditions will be milder than in a canon story.

Many thanks to akai-echoand thegirlfromoverthepondfor their constant support. I'm lucky to have such great friends!

Part 1 - The Predicament

Katniss heard him long before she actually saw him.

The crunching leaves and snapping branches as he walked could literally be heard echoing through the forest for miles around. Just from the sound alone, Katniss knew something was on his mind. She picked up speed, no longer able to enjoy the early spring sunshine or the crisp morning air as her concern for him continued to grow. She'd been going down this path to meet with Peeta for so long, her legs carried her almost automatically to the small house in the woods, on the edge of the lake where she once swam with her father.

When she arrived, she caught sight of Peeta, hands tugging his hair, staring down at the ground, pacing compulsively as if he were determined to squash every single twig and stone down into the hard earth. When Katniss burst out from the path, he stopped pacing and hurried towards her, scooping her up into his arms for a kiss before she could even say "Good morning,"

Katniss stiffened from the shock but relaxed just as quickly, melting into the familiarity of his warmth and steadiness. His mouth was unbelievably soft - she'd never get used to how kissable his lips were. He stole her breath away and the preoccupation of only a few moments ago was forgotten as he suddenly broke away, leaving her dazed and unsteady. He tugged her to the door of the tiny cabin that had become like a second home to them, the only place in all of Panem where they could be who they were truly were without fear or consequence.

They burst through the door, which Peeta promptly shut and locked, and proceeded to tear at each other, clawing their clothes from each other's bodies. It had been a three days since Katniss had last been with Peeta and, in the interval of time between their meetings, she missed him in an aching, physical way. Pressing her naked skin up against his, the way they were now, their clothes strewn in a haphazard disarray on the floor, only served to make her more feverish with want.

Peeta backed Katniss to the bed in the corner of the one-room edifice as she latched on to tender skin of his shoulders, kissing and biting her way up his neck. She felt the vibration of a tiny grunt as he pushed her onto the bed. He kissed her, furiously, with a hint of desperation that sent a stab of worry through her fog of lust and desire but it soon disappeared when he settled between her legs, running his calloused fingers over her already wet core. Sighing with satisfaction he sank into her waiting depths without preamble. Katniss briefly noted his impatience but all rational thought became lost when he moved his hips, rolling them slowly against her, a sweet contrast to his fury of only a few moments ago. She rocked with him, her belly on fire as he drew back and sank into her again, slowly and under control again.

Peeta kissed her as he moved, cupping her cheek as if it were made of thin glass, like the colored panels on display at the glazier's. His sudden shift in mood brought the worry back to Katniss's consciousness and she raised her hand to cover his.

"What is it?" she whispered, sure that his behavior was not just a result of him missing her.

Peeta bit his lip, as if he were on the precipice of revealing his every thought but instead paused, holding it back. "I love you," he said instead.

Before Katniss could get more from him, he'd slipped his hand from her hold and dragged it between them, searching for that bundle of nerves from which all of her pleasure radiated. With sure fingers, he swept over her, pressing as he kissed her, winding her body into a tight spring of feeling. He slid in and out of her again and the explosion of sensation from his fingers and his cock brought Katniss rapidly to her peak. He moved his hips quickly now, snapping and reaching as she fell apart around him, the waves of intensity swirling outwards from where they were joined. Katniss cried out his name as the powerful shock of pleasure ripped through her. She wanted to laugh, cry, and scream, all at the same.

Peeta followed soon behind her, shuddering with his release. He collapsed, breathing wildly, his skin damp as he dropped his head onto her shoulder, seeking control of himself again. Katniss loved this part, the part where he was too weak to move, too overcome to keep his body from pressing heavily down onto hers. He collapsed from the excess of too much...everything. His abandon lasted just long enough to almost render his weight unbearable before he shifted onto his back, pulling her into the spot that was reserved solely for her, in the crook of his arm.

After a few moments, when she was sure he'd come back to himself, she turned her head up to look at him. "What was that all about?"

Peeta sighed heavily, rubbing his face with his hand as if to wipe away whatever was troubling him. Katniss shifted, bringing herself to rest on her elbow to look down on his. A lock of his ashy-blond hair clung to his forehead, which she swept away with a careful movement of her fingers. "Tell me," she pressed, seeing his boyish features change, his preoccupations crinkling the smattering of freckles on his nose, deepening the lines around his brilliant, blue eyes.

"Mom," he said, as if that explained everything which, knowing Mrs. Mellark, really did.

"What did she do now?" Katniss asked, her eyes narrowing involuntarily.

"You know," he said, suddenly slamming his fist down on the mattress. "It's already bad enough that I have to sneak around to see you, as if we were common criminals because of her. No, she has to hold the bakery over my head to get me to do what she wants!" he exclaimed, his anger causing his skin to flush.

"Wait...slow down. I don't understand," she said.

"When dad died, he gave me the bakery. It's written in the will. You would think that would be enough to keep her from being all...megalomaniacal about it!" He sat up, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and Katniss knew the pacing would start again. "The problem is, he didn't specify when or under what circumstances I would inherit the business so, technically, she could hold on to the bakery until the day she dies. She could ask me to leave until she is forced...by mortality, to ceed ownership to me. She could even sell it while it is still hers and that would be the end of my claim."

"Peeta, you're not making any sense," Katniss sat up, pulling the quilt of the bed over her as Peeta paced the small cabin, as naked as the day he was put on this earth. Katniss derived an infinite amount of pleasure from just watching his body move but scolded herself to keep from being distracted from what he was trying to say.

"Mom won't sign the bakery over to me like she promised she would. She said the only way she will hand over ownership is if I marry a Merchant girl," Peeta tugged at his hair again, making them all stand on end.

"Just stall her. I mean, maybe she'll change her mind...with time. She's not planning on working until the day she...you know…" Katniss sputtered, not sure what to say to him.

"Katniss," he said, sitting at the edge of the mattress, and taking her hand in his. "Even though we don't show it in public, she knows the way I feel about you. She doesn't approve of us - she'd just as soon toss me out on the street as see me married to you…"

"I know…" she said in a small voice. "She hates me…"

"It's not just you. She hates anybody from the Seam. It just so happens she hates you particularly a lot," Peeta joked weakly. "But I can't marry you until I know the bakery is mine and I can take care of you, of us..."

"You know, I don't care about any of that.." she protested. This was an old argument between them.

"Yeah, I know you don't, but I do. I want you to have a good life, Katniss. You've earned it. And dammit, that's my father's family bakery! She's threatening to sell it off if I don't do what she wants. I can't let the bakery, which has been in our family for generations, just get sold off like that! I can't do it!"

"She'd do that?" she asked, knowing full well that there was no end to Mrs. Mellark's cruelty. "Would she really just sell it?"

"Yes, she would! What does she care about the Mellark family? As far as she's concerned, she doesn't have to worry about it anymore now that Dad's gone."

Katniss stood also as all the pieces of their conversation began to fall into place. She felt a fist of ice close over her heart. "So, what are you saying? You're going to go find somebody to marry? Is that it?"

"Wha-what? No!" Peeta stopped pacing and gripped Katniss by her arms. "Are you out of your mind? You're the only person I want," he pulled her into him and squeezed her to him, crowding out her sudden terror and replacing it with his presence, his love. "If push comes to shove, I'll let her sell off the bakery and I'll try to open my own business. If I have you, I don't care," he buried his nose in her hair, kissing the crown of her head. "I'll bake bread in the Seam. As long as you don't have to do without."

Katniss held onto him in turn but she knew that losing his father's bakery would be a blow to him, no matter what he said about it. It was more than just having an employment, which clearly mattered to him. It was about keeping his father's bakery in the family and not allowing it to fall into the hands of strangers. Mrs. Mellark knew this and was using this weakness against Peeta to get him to conform to her expectations. His older brothers had left - the middle son had gone to District 4 to work the fisheries while the oldest married the butcher's only daughter, making him the heir to their shop. That left Peeta in Mrs. Mellark's claws and she was clearly making the most of her advantage to control him.

Leaning back, she took in his worried features, his frustration, the clear misery in his eyes. Katniss couldn't stand to see him unhappy. How could his mother even tolerate it?

"Maybe...maybe you should just do what she says…" she said in a small voice. Even saying it was enough to rip her heart open but she was strong. If it was for his own good, she could do this. "Your life will be a lot easier if you don't have to fight her about me every step of the way."

Peeta froze, his face darkening as she spoke until he looked like he would set fire to something. "Don't even say that to me. I'll compromise on everything else. I'll even let the bakery go. But I'm not going anywhere without you."

"Peeta…" she pleaded but he stopped her with his lips, kissing her until she was breathless.

When he pulled back, she was dizzy and felt her legs turn to rubber beneath her. "I don't want to hear it. We'll think of something. But you're it. I don't want anybody else."

"Neither do I," she said as she kissed him again. She didn't know what they were going to do or how they were going to get out of this predicament but she shoved that preoccupation to the back of her mind as he led her back to bed. They'd make love slowly this time and they'd let themselves get lost in it for a few hours, maybe the day, if they could manage it. But the problem would still be there, staring hideously back at them, and Katniss had no idea how they were going to solve it.

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