Chapter 2: A Wife Once More

The Quarter Quell ends in disaster, with no Victor and six survivors, my daughter and her possible lover among them. Katniss and two of her Victor colleagues are rescued by District 13 from the arena and brought to their headquarters, where I have been living for the past few days ever since escaping with Prim and Gale from the firebombing of District 12. My youngest girl and I have been put to work right away as Healers, and we are doing our best to treat survivors. When Katniss arrives, it is a surprisingly emotional reunion between two people who have never been on the best of terms - you might even say we were estranged for a time. Katniss appears quite broken, and I know it is because Peeta has not been recovered and she has received no word. In a way, I know how she feels - there has been no word on Darius's fate. If he made it out of the Capitol. When I inquired after him to Thirteen's investigative unit, they conducted a search, but he is still reported missing.

One morning, I am alone in my hospital quarters doubling as my office, cleaning up and doing some paperwork. Picking up a carton of vials, I turn around... and nearly drop it when I see who is at the door.

His hair has grown longer, which makes him even more handsome, and his white uniform has been replaced by a ripped, white tunic. But he is safe, here and alive. My astonishment is all that restrains me from running into his arms, for I drift closer in an almost trance and whisper, "What are you doing here?"

Darius just smiles and takes my hips, pulling me closer. I stare up into his face, gaping. "Belle," he smiles. "It's me."

I peer at him. Run a hand through the tendrils of his red hair. Gaze into his eyes. "It is you!" I gasp out.

Darius beams. I glance askance, suddenly feeling quite shy. I open my mouth to say something...

... and get a mouthful of Darius's plundering tongue instead. Quite suddenly, he grips me by my forearms, yanks me up against him and kisses me passionately on the mouth. I let out a squeak, and the vials tumble from my arms, the glass shattering and medicine splashing at our feet everywhere. This is insane... I am being thoroughly kissed by a man who is only in his early 20s, not much older than my daughter... and close to half my age. I have never kissed a man since my late husband...

In the next moment, however, I moan in acceptance and drape my arms about Darius's neck, my lips twitching into his as I kiss him back. His mouth opens to me when he groans and our tongues are soon battling for dominance. I feel Darius's hands glide down to my waist, and then past it. He grabs a fistful of my bum with a calloused palm, cupping the curvy flesh of my arse cheek and groping me quite boldly. I should knee him in the groin for being too forward. I raise my leg to his waist instead, hooking it there as I am fully aroused. Darius pushes his hips against my center, thrusting them out so I can feel his lust for me. Darius kisses me more insistently, his teeth grazing my lower lip, and I groan again, my eyes fluttering closed in dreamy pleasure. "Mmmmhmmmmmm..."

The door suddenly bangs open and we break apart, our arms still around each other. Katniss is standing in the doorway, mouth agape at walking in on her mother openly kissing another man who isn't her father.

"Katniss," I breathe. "I can explain..."

I don't get the chance. Katniss flees. As soon as we are alone again, Darius drops a kiss to my ear.

"Do you want to go after her?"

"She'll come around," I find myself saying hopefully.

"Belle?"

"What?"

"... Will you marry me?"

I look at him. Study his face and size him up. I have been lonely for so long, and with this war, there is the chance for a new beginning in whatever little time we have left. So, I surprise myself when I smile and say, "Yes, I will."

Darius beams, and drawing my face close, kisses me again...

... And when we break apart, it seems, I am in a simple wedding dress and my new husband wearing his Peacekeeper uniform, in the District 13 chapel and with guests cheering. Glancing out into the crowd, I can see Primrose beaming, Katniss giving us a weak smile of approval.

Then my eldest girl's face goes ashen as she spies someone from across the room. She suddenly breaks into a run and throws her arms around a rescued Peeta and unabashedly kisses him. She breaks apart looking flushed and flustered but a giddy Peeta just takes her hand and leads her into a darkened corner...

Katniss's POV

I watch as Mother and Darius the Peacekeeper embrace and kiss. I still find it a little unconventional, my mother marrying again and to a man half her age and yet... I feel happy for them. Glancing around the reception hall, I catch a pair of blue eyes and freeze in astonishment.

It can't be him. He can't be real, striding up to me and with Haymitch by his side. But he looks healthy and whole and alive, and he is smiling that smile I secretly think is adorable, and before I know what I am doing, I am running and leaping into his arms and kissing him without caring who sees.

When I break the kiss at last, my face burning when I realize what I have just done, I gaze up into Peeta's face, lashes fluttering, to profusely apologize, but he is just beaming.

"Come here."

My old walls go up, and I glance at him warily. "Why?" I ask with suspicion.

But Peeta just takes my hand and leads me into a darkened corner of the reception hall. Before we have quite gotten there, he whirls around and kisses me full on the lips, each of his hands gently framing my face.

"Mmm!" I squeal in shock, stiffening as I hadn't realized what he was going to do even as he was doing it. My eyes pop open wider but Peeta's are fully shut. Then, quite unexpectedly, I feel my arms droop lazily about his neck as I kiss him back in acceptance. I have forgotten how to breathe and don't care if I ever learn again. His lips pressed against my own are softer than my wildest fantasies and he smells like cheese buns...

It is the best kiss of all time.

Belle's POV

I carefully shave my legs in preparation for my wedding night. Darius will be moving into my apartment and sleeping with me in my - our bed, with my girls sleeping in the next room. However, Katniss is staying over at Peeta's newly furnished place tonight (she left with him in a deliriously happy haze after the wedding reception) and Prim is staying with the Hawthornes. Hearing a knock at the door, I pull my bathrobe tightly around myself and go to answer it.

And there is my husband, just off his patrol of the District 13 lower levels. His sea-green eyes are warm and impossibly anxious, his face placid.

"Hi," he greets nervously. I suddenly feel very nervous myself - even more so than while we were exchanging our vows.

"Hi," I echo. "Come in." I hold the door open wider, letting my husband pass, and close the door behind us.

The drapes are drawn tightly, and in darkness, I straddle my husband. I shuck my bathrobe off of my shoulders, pull the little top over my head with a flourish and unclip my bra so that my breasts hang free. Darius cups each in his giant hands, his face slack in awe. Wordlessly, I lower myself onto him and kiss his lips deeply. Wriggling our bodies together and gradually working up a sweat, we begin to make love.

"Uhhhh... Mmmmm... Hmmmm... Huhhhhhh! Uhhhh!" I groan as Darius slams up into me and I bounce up and down on his member, so that my rear end saucily smacks down onto his thighs with a delicious slapping sound. At last, I seize and wilt like a noodle on top of Darius as I cum all around him.

"Don't... don't stop," I pant as my husband continues to thrust. I squirm. "Fuck, Darius! I want your child deep inside me." This spurs him on with another weak slam, two, before he spills all he has deep inside me with a grunt. Kissing each other passionately, Darius and I roll across the bed in each other's embrace before falling asleep in each other's arms.