Hey, y'all. I just want to warn you that this story definitely earns its M rating. Everything Everlark does in my writing comes from a place of love. That being said, sometimes Everlark want to get a little down and dirty ;)

Thanks for reading and I would love a review to let me know what you think.

I don't own the Hunger Games or any of the characters therein.

Open to Me

I'm exhausted as I lumber up the porch stairs arriving home after a fourteen hour shift at the bakery. I frequently endure long days like this since I opened the business six months ago. I have two assistants that help, but when scheduling conflicts arise, I'm usually the one that covers it. It's my bakery after all and both of my employees have spouses and children that, rightly, are their priority.

The only thing I want right now is to get inside and let Katniss draw a hot bath that we can soak in together. The thought of her sitting behind me with her legs wrapped around my waist and her strong hands kneading the knotted muscles of my shoulders and back makes me want to weep with longing. But I should know better than to get my hopes up for that; the past few weeks have been difficult for us…

I've come to realize that the intimacy that we have achieved over the year and a half since I returned to the district is a very fragile thing. If you would have told me two weeks ago that Gale's return to the district would almost entirely erase the closeness between me and Katniss I would never have believed you… But here we are.

The three months preceding his return had probably been the happiest of my life. Following the night when Katniss and I made love for the first time and she finally admitted that she loved me- 'Real' she had whispered in a voice thin from exhaustion and gruff from her deep moans- we had barely been able to keep our hands off each other. It is amazing how quickly I became accustom to having her several times a day, whenever the urge took us and wherever we happened to be. She still had some reservations, some intimacies she wouldn't allow, but I was succeeding in whittling them down every day. Until one morning two weeks ago when our doorbell had rang unexpectedly and Gale Hawthorne was on the other side.

Hazel had decided that she wanted to move back to District 12 with Vic and Posy (Rory was opting to move to District 2 with Gale), and so Gale had come to help her with the move and make sure she was settled in. It's obvious to me that Hazel's move offered the perfect opportunity for him to check-up on Katniss, as well. I can't say I necessarily blame him; if the situations were reversed I wouldn't be able to resist doing the same. I would like him to just leave, but I don't blame him for wanting to come- and I don't blame him for what has happened between me and Katniss since… The blame for that rests solely with Katniss.

As soon as I open the door to our house the frustration that has been simmering under the surface for the past two weeks sparks up despite my exhaustion. The entire house is dark and quiet as though she hasn't been home all day. I don't know why I expected anything else; she has spent nearly every hour of sunlight for several days in the woods with Gale. They have brought in enough meat together that our freezer, along with Hazel's and Haymitch's are packed full, and we've had to start giving it away. I'm honest enough to admit that the feeling that is eating away inside me is jealousy. I know Katniss would never actually do anything with Gale- she would never be so disloyal. What bothers me is the thought that maybe she regrets that she can't. I am terrified that with their tentative reconciliation she is realizing that she does have feelings for him after all. And I can't help but think that this must be the case. What else other than deep genuine feelings for him could cause her to even consider forgiving him for his role in Prim's death?

Sighing loudly I attempt to push down the bitterness that is threatening to well up inside me. I drag myself upstairs to the bathroom attached to our bedroom and run the shower as hot as I think I can stand it. I'm not sure how long I stand their letting the hot jets beat down on my sore muscles. It is doing nothing to relax me. In fact, it seems as though the hotter my skin gets the angrier I become.

I have enough self-awareness to realize that I am not the same boy I was a few years ago. The games changed me- the Capitol changed me. There was a time when I would have just blindly accepted any scrap of herself that Katniss was willing to give to me, but the past few weeks has showed me that I am no longer willing to accept that. I was prepared to die for this girl, I endured torture for this girl, my mind was robbed from me and yet I found some way to come back to her! And now Gale-fucking-Hawthorne was going to just waltz in here after everything and just erase all we had worked for, all we had built together!

I am fucking fuming by the time I hear her arrive home, calling out for me from downstairs. I shut off the shower, wrap a towel around my waist, and storm out of the bathroom, my prosthetic slipping on the tiled floor as I go.

I am just retrieving a duffle bag out of our closet as I hear her enter the bedroom. "There you are," she says as though I am the one who has been gone all day- as though I am the one whose presence has been unaccounted for for the past several days.

"Yup. Here I am," I say as I yank open my top dresser drawer and begin stuffing fistfuls of whatever I grab into the bag.

"What are doing?!" she asks, her voice escalating.

I snort derisively, "I'm not going to play passive aggressive with you, Katniss. I'm fucking leaving, what does it look like?"

The look of shock and panic on her face just pisses me off even more. What kind of spineless piece of shit must she see me as to assume that I would just wait idly by why she spends every waking moment with another man? "Peeta, what's going on?! What happened?!"

"Why don't you tell me?! I have been at work all day- fourteen fucking hours! You were the one who was off traipsing around the woods with another man! The same fucking thing you've been doing for days now! So why don't you tell me what has happened?!" I begin breathing hard through my nose, trying to calm down, because I don't want my anger to trigger a flashback.

I now see a flash of anger join the panic in her eyes and she grabs the bag in my hand and yanks it. The movement is unexpected and she succeeds in pulling it out of my hands. "You were the one who encouraged me to spend time with Gale, Peeta! You were the one that said I should try to forgive him- that it might help me heal and move on! So, what, now you are going to accuse me of fucking him?!"

"I haven't accused you of anything! But you have to admit that there is vast difference between trying to forgive him and what has happened here! So I just want you to come out and say it! I want you to tell me what we both know-"

"What are you talking about?!"

"YOU WANT HIM INSTEAD!" I scream, giving up any hope to control my temper. "You have wanted him so much that it doesn't even matter that he murdered your sister… and you want him now…"

She steps back involuntarily as though I just smacked her in the face. "How could you possibly say that to me? How could you ever say that Prim's death doesn't matter to me?" she asks with quiet intensity.

I pull the bag I was using to pack out of her hands and look away. I know bringing Prim into this is a low blow. "I'll just get out of your way, Katniss. There may have been a time when I would've acted like a dog at your table, begging for scraps, but I'm not that man anymore." I shove a couple more items in the bag and turn to march out of the room not caring that I am still wearing nothing but a bath towel around my waist.

"Peeta!" she screams, her voice shrill with panic. "Please don't do this! I don't want Gale. I have never wanted Gale! Not the way I want you."

I pause but don't turn around as I say, "You don't want me… You haven't wanted anything to do with me since he arrived."

"That's not fair," she says, coming up behind me and placing a hand on my shoulder to turn me around. "You have your share of the blame for the distance between us, too. I wasn't even going to see him and you convinced me that I should." I just stare over her head at a spot on the wall, avoiding her imploring eyes. When I don't respond to this she continues, "So I agreed to hear him out, for you. And when I got home that night you wouldn't even look at me."

I can't deny the truth in her words. I did encourage her to talk to Gale, because I honestly did believe that it would help her to lay some demons to rest. I didn't expect her to actually willingly start spending time with him. And I didn't count on the fact that the thought of her reconciling with him would eat at me the way it did. That night when we went to bed was the first time since our relationship became sexual that I didn't reach for to initiate something.

"Dammit, Katniss. You know that doesn't justify the fact that you have frozen me out for the past two weeks," I say quietly, still not looking at her, my jaw flexing as I clench my teeth in an attempt to conceal the depth of the emotion currently surging through me.

I feel her small, cool hands on either side of my bare waist and she places a small soft kiss to the center of my chest, just over my heart. "You didn't want me that night… It was the first time you didn't want me." She pauses for a long time and then, "I was afraid you wouldn't want me at all anymore." She never has handled vulnerability well.

Her last words finally induce me to look at her and her silver eyes are full of heat and wet with emotion. "You have to stop shutting me out, Katniss. You have to stop putting up barriers between us."

"I don't have any barriers-"

"Bull shit!" I cut her off. "I want you to drop all of the reservations. I am always open with you, so attuned to you that I feel raw. But you're not. I want you to trust me completely, but you won't-"

"I do trust you completely!"

I shake my head, and look down. "No you don't."

"Yes I do!" she says emphatically, sliding her hands down my waist to push the towel off my hips.

"What are you doing, Katniss?" I ask finding her eyes again. I am ashamed to hear my voice hitch just a little.

"I'm going to prove it to you… No reservations, okay?" she keeps her eyes on mine as she slips smoothly down onto her knees.

I cock responds immediately to her proximity, getting hard astonishingly fast. I hold my breath as I feel her cool grip around the base, waiting in anticipation for what I know is coming. My knees buckle at the first touch of her hot breath whispering across the tip, and I think they might give out entirely when I feel her lips touch the head in a soft kiss. She has never done this before. I have suggested using our mouths on each other, but she had not, up to this point, consented, this being one of her lingering misgivings. I can't stop the loud groan I emit when I feel my head enveloped by the hot wetness of her mouth. It's clear that neither of us is entirely sure how to proceed, but she must be doing alright because the way she is pressing her tongue along the underside of my dick feels so good I think I might pass out. My hands reach out and tangle in her hair of their own accord and I can't stop my hips from thrusting forward in small, shallow nudges that push me a little deeper into her mouth.

When I manage to open my eyes again to look down at her I see that her eyes are trained on my face. She looks so fucking hot like this, with her mouth stretched wide to accommodate me and her eyes taking in every nuance of my response. Judging by the heat and the lust that I see in them it obvious that she is as excited by this as I am. It takes every ounce of will in my body to pull my hips back far enough that my cock slips out of her mouth.

She is breathing as hard as I am when I grab her roughly under her arms and use my body to crowd her backwards until her legs hit the bed and she falls back so that she is lying down with me standing over her.

"Why did you stop me?" she asks breathlessly, propping herself up on her elbows and greedily taking in the sight of my naked body.

"Because, I want you open to me. Not the other way around," I say as I grab her behind the knees to bring her lower legs up onto the bed and pull her toward me so that her ass is right at the edge. Once I have her where I want her I begin to unceremoniously undress her. As I am untying her shoes and pulling them off along with her socks, she sits up just enough to pull her shirt off. I watch as she reaches behind her back to unfasten her bra and then pulls it forward down her arms to draw it off. She lies back down to give me an unfettered glimpse of her upper half and I admire her breasts as they rise and fall with each of her heavy breaths.

"Touch yourself," I tell her as I begin unfastening her pants and peeling them down over her hips and off of her legs. I love watching her small hands skating over her bare skin. When she reaches her breasts she looks directly into my eyes as she squeezes them and plucks at her small brown nipples.

I continue to watch her work as I rub my hands up the inside of her thighs, spreading them as I go. Once I reach the top of her legs I lean down and place a kiss directly on her mound over her underwear. "Peeta!" she gasps and, taking her hands off of herself, tries to push my head away.

I grab her hands and place a kiss on the back of each one before I return them to her breasts. "I didn't tell you to stop," I say quietly.

"Wait," she says panting as she watches me lower my head back to between her legs. "You can't do that, please." Her refusal to let me taste her has been a source of frustration for several weeks now. I would never want her to do anything she wouldn't enjoy, but I know that is not the issue. She won't let me because she wants to hold back a part of herself. To me this represents breaking down the last of her defenses.

I don't respond to her plea as I reach up for the waistband of her simple cotton panties and begin to peel them off. I don't miss the way they are saturated with moisture. I look up and meet her eyes before I speak, "You're so wet, Katniss. You've missed me, haven't you?"

She nods her head silently and bites her lips trying to contain a moan. She is still shy about the noises she makes, but I know that as we continue she will be overcome to the point that she won't be able to repress them. Our experiences together thus far have taught me that.

She whimpers a little as I lower my head to her center and inhale deeply to take in the scent of her arousal. "God, I've missed you too, Katniss."

She is watching me closely, tensed up as she waits for me to put my mouth on her. I take pity on her and start by just running my index finger up and down her slit, coating my finger in the moisture from her body, relishing in the little squeaks she emits every time I press across her clit. "Your mine, Katniss," I say firmly. She squeezes her eyes shut and just nods her head, but that isn't good enough for me. Not after everything she has put me through these past two weeks. "Tell me. I want to hear you say it." I slip my index finger inside of her to feel her tight wet grip.

She can't stop the moan that rises out of her throat. "Yes!" she exclaims, "I'm yours, Peeta! I will only ever be yours!" Her impassioned cry ends with a whimper as I slip a second finger inside of her. She is pushing her hips up in shallow nudges, clearly trying to encourage me to move my fingers in and out.

"And I'm yours," I whisper into the skin of her inner thigh. "It's just you and me, Katniss. Always." She nods her head whimpering as I begin to thrust my fingers softly. She is so wet that soon my palm and the back of my hand are covered in her arousal. "You need to trust me completely."

"I do!" she cries between gasping breaths.

I pull my fingers out of her and say, "Look at me, Katniss." When she has complied I hold her gaze directly as I slip my index and middle fingers that are still wet from her body into my mouth and suck every last drop of her off of them. Her eyes widen as she watches me, unadulterated lust evident in them. I can't control the low groan that builds in my chest and escapes me as I finally taste her for the first time.

Pulling my fingers out I say, "Then will you let me do what I want to do?" and she doesn't even hesitate before she nods her assent this time.

I need no further invitation and, pressing both of my hands to the insides of her upper thighs to spread them wide, lower my head to her center. I press my tongue between her folds and run it up and down a few times letting her completely fill my senses- the taste of her filling my mouth, totally immersed in the tangy scent of her arousal, feeling her heat and moisture coating my nose and chin, hearing her moans mingled with the wet sound of my mouth working on her, and taking in the sight of her flushed skin, of her beautiful face contorted in passion. She is so close by the time I actually take her clit into my mouth to suck gently, that it only takes a few moments before she comes hard around my mouth. I stay with her until she comes down form her climax, lowering my mouth every now and then to lap at the moisture seeping from her core.

She is as limp as a wet rag when I finally rise up to settle myself on top of her. "Are you okay?" I whisper. She cracks her eyes open and nods at me slowly and then surprises me by gripping the back of my neck to pull my face to hers for a hard kiss. I realize that this is the first time we have kissed in several days. I moan into her mouth letting her sweep her tongue into mine, tasting herself vicariously through me.

When we break away to take a breath I put my hand to her face to make sure she is looking directly at me and say, "I love you so much, Katniss. Don't ever doubt that I want you ever again."

She presses another kiss to my lips and then captures my lower lip in a soft bite before she responds, "Don't you ever doubt that you are the only man I will ever want."

After that we don't speak again as I push myself up to kneel between her legs and wrap my arms around the backs of her thighs, pressing her legs up toward her abdomen so that she is more open to me than she has ever been. I prop my arms on either side of her chest so that they hold her legs in place as I slip into her and thrust hard. She is still so wet and getting wetter that I glide smoothly, farther inside her than I have ever been before. She moans loudly and it could easily be from either pleasure at being so full or distressed at being so stretched. I hold still to let her adjust to the feeling, but soon she is trying to thrust her hips upward so I take over again.

Being with her like this again- it is like balance has been restored to my universe. I thrust into her steadily, pushing hard to satisfy the lingering need to mark her as mine. Soon her loud moans transform into her screaming my name over and over, "Peeta! Peeta! Peeta! Oh fuck! Peeta!" and then she dissolves into keening cries as she comes again. The feeling of her walls contracting around me and the moisture form her orgasm flooding over me is all it takes for me to follow her, my mouth gaping in a silent cry as spill myself inside her.

We lay together in the aftermath, both of us too exhausted to even care that we are laying in the wet mess we have made. She begins shivering as the perspiration on our skin cools and I finally maneuver to pull the comforter up over us. Katniss curls tightly into my side as she nods off and I hear her whisper into the skin of my chest, repeating what I told her earlier, "Just you and me, Peeta. Always."

A small smile lingers on my face as I begin to drift off as well. I think tomorrow I will tell Gale it's about time he gets on a train and carries his ass back to District Two.

Hope you enjoyed! If you liked this you can check out my other one-shot, A Change of Hear,t or my multi-chapter WIP, When You Were Young.

I am on tumblr (plumgal1899) where I post Everlark drabbles and Everlark artwork if you are interested in checking that out.

Thanks for reading. I'd love to hear what you thought!