A/N: Finally some Katniss and Peeta in this chapter! Thank you for all of the reviews, I love to hear what you all think. I hope you are all enjoying the story and keep on reading. Please review!

My heart beat is so loud that I can't hear the music any more, it is fast and frantic. It feels like the world has stopped spinning and everything has slowed down. My hands are clammy and I fear the small box in my hand is going to slip, ruining hours of work. Eleven years have led up to this moment. This will be the first time I speak to her. It's crazy that all this time I have spent watching her and dreaming about her, we've never even had a conversation before. This has to go well. Breathe in, breathe out.

She turns her head slowly to look at me; her grey eyes are shining from the lights above. She looks breathtaking. She is smiling at first but then it turns into a look of confusion.

I try to say something but my mouth has stopped working. Breathe in, breathe out. I clear my throat and try again. "Hi, I'm Peeta," I smile with as much confidence as I can muster up.

"Hi," she smiles again politely, "No, I know who you are. You work at the bakery." Her eyes wonder off over my shoulder. I wonder what she is thinking about, I hope I'm not boring her.

"Congratulations, for winning," I say with a smile but a smile doesn't meet me back. Her eyes look sad and she looks to the ground.

"Thank you, but I don't see it as a victory," her voice is full of resentment and sadness. I can understand why, all of those children killed, gone, for no good reason. Children who will never get to grow up and be happy. Children who didn't even get a chance at life, through no fault of their own.

"I understand," I say but she looks at me in disbelief.

"You don't understand! You have no idea!" she growls under her voice.

"No, I don't mean... It's just...I'm sorry, it must have been hard for you," I string together as best I can. I can see the fight seep out of her and she looks sad again. "Sorry, I didn't mean to upset you, I should go..." I turn to walk away. What did I just do? I ruined everything. It was supposed to be the perfect magical moment where I would sweep her off her feet and everything would just be how I imagined. I sigh; things probably couldn't have gone worse than they had.

"Wait," I hear a quiet voice behind me. I turn around slowly to find her reaching out to me with a shy smile on her face, "thank you for the bread, while I was away."

"No problem, I'm glad I could help," I say honestly. I look to the floor to hide the blush that's creeping up my face when I spot I box. I forgot I had been holding it. "Oh, erm... I made this for you," I say with a shy smile, surely my face must be bright red. She looks quizzically at the small box that I'm holding out to her and then looks at me as if to ask what it is. I give her a nod and she slowly and carefully takes the box from me.

She opens the lid and peers inside. Her face is one of awe; she carefully takes it out of the box to study it in the light. She looks like she can't believe her eyes and she can't take them off the cake. Her mouth is hanging open, "you made this?" She looks up at me, "It's beautiful, and the flower... it's perfect."

I smile, I'm so glad that she likes it. That I did something that made her happy, "thank you, I'm glad you like it." I must be glowing.

"It's a Katniss flower," she says with a smile on her face still studying the cake, holding it up to the light. Then her face changes suddenly and she shakes her head with a frown, "I can't take this." She looks sad as she puts the cake back in the box and closes the lid.

"What?" I'm confused. Why can't she take it? Nothing is going the way I thought that it would.

"It's too much," she says shaking her head and offering the box back to me. She's looking at the floor avoiding my eyes.

"Katniss," I say my voice is intense and it makes her look up at me. I look deep into her eyes so that she understands what I'm about to say, "Take it. I made it for you. After all you've been through, with the games and everything else in your life, you deserve something special." She gives me a shy smile and blushes a little.

"And besides," I continue, "I wouldn't take it back even if you tried to make me." I laugh a little and she does too, she looks down at the little box and then places it on the table.

"Thank you," she says her voice is sincere and she smiles at me. The song is coming to an end now and some people are exiting and the dance floor, Prim and Gale included so I decide to excuse myself.

"Well, I hope you enjoy the rest of the evening," I say and she nods a thanks in return. She slowly turns around to greet her family but I have one last thing to say.

"And Katniss..." She looks back over her shoulder, "I'm glad you're back." She looks confused but she smiles again politely. I realise that it might sound very strange coming from someone she is speaking to for the first time and I try to make the situation less awkward for the both of us, "Yes, I've missed your squirrels." She laughs and shakes her head and returns to her family.

I walk away from her not caring where I am going. I am positively glowing, it wasn't the perfect encounter I had envisioned in my head over the years but it was a start. She had the cake and she said it was beautiful. I held my tongue at the time; I wanted to tell her that the flower Katniss wasn't as beautiful as the girl named after it. One step at a time.

I find myself sat back at the table with Cole and his date and Anise. A few more people have joined the table, friends from school; everyone is chatting and laughing together. I settle myself next to Cole and Delly. My mind is a million miles away as I can't stop thinking about Katniss. Someone nudges me on the shoulder. I return to earth to see Cole is looking at me with his eyebrows raised.

"What?" I ask confused. He shakes his head and laughs.

"I said, where have you been?" he said every word slowly and loudly as if talking to a young child. I hit him on the arm and shake my head.

"Well, I needed to talk to someone," I say very vaguely, my eyes wondering over to her table and lingering half a second too long. He catches my gaze and looks in the same direction, his head swings back to me with his mouth open in shock.

"You actually spoke to her?" he is stunned, "When did you all of a sudden become a man?" He teases me and laughs. I take him by surprise and lunge for him gripping him in a headlock. Now I'm the one laughing.

"What was that Cole?" I ask innocently. He back pedals trying to get out of the situation.

"I was kidding Peeta! You're the manliest man in all of Panem!" I scruff up his hair and let him go. He rubs his neck and sulks. I know he is only messing around, trying to get some sympathy off his date.

"Ah, I thought that's what you said!" I smile proudly and give him a friendly slap on the back.

"So go on then, tell me what happened" he leans in interested, I also see a few other heads turn in my direction eager to hear the story, one of them is Anise.

"I just congratulated her," I say much to many people's disappointment. There's only my father who really knows about my feelings towards Katniss but Cole isn't stupid he caught me staring at her enough times to figure out that I had feelings for her. He raises his eyebrows at me questioningly but I just stare him down. Everyone has lost interest by now so nobody sees the exchange, apart from Anise who is sat at the opposite side of the table to us. She's looking at us with a confused expression, like she's trying to read our minds.

The rest of the night goes by in a breeze, I don't do anymore dancing and so I spend the rest of the night talking to my friends, laughing and enjoying myself. I occasionally let my mind drift off and sneak a glimpse of Katniss. At one point I take a mental picture of her smiling so that I will always be able to remember how beautiful it is. By the time my face hits my pillow I'm exhausted but I know that my dreams tonight will be wonderful as Katniss is the only thing I can think of.