Happy birthday! Love you Summer you little crazy sexy Loki lover! 13 years old, you're growing up so fast. I hope you like this fic. I settled for a Peeta centric, because we all love Peeta ;)

I don't own the hunger games.

No one forgets their first kiss, that step towards the world of love. Mine may not have been the height of romance, but there was an innocence to it that I don't regret.

My first kiss wasn't Katniss; no it was long before the games. I was around 11, we were playing a silly game, the girls were chasing the boys and they were supposed to kiss them if they caught them - not that the girls usually ever kissed the boys. This particular day I was caught by Madge Undersea. I vividly remember her: curly blonde hair, sliding into my face when she tackled me from the side, and a faint scent of strawberries. She clutched my shoulder for a few seconds pausing in the way all the girls did when they caught a boy, should they take a chance or not? A few people chanted and clapped.

"Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!"

She looked up at me ever so shyly with those bright blue eyes, and in the awkward fashion of boys and girls that age took my hand. She leaned into me and I decided to follow suit with a kiss lightening quick, to the hoots and whistles around us. For a few weeks after that we had blushed and bumbled our way around each other before we both agreed to just be friends.

…

Katniss, she had looked so beautiful standing there in the cave just as the sun appeared, pinks, oranges and purples all blending together and reflecting in Katniss' eyes. It was beautiful, even though inside I knew it wasn't real. I don't think she realised I was awake, most of the time she presumed I was asleep, it gave me a great chance to just watch her, with out any of the covers she put on for me.

It was so hard to tell what she felt. Like, what did I really meant to her. It was so real for me, but did she feel the same way, or was it all for the cameras? We were kissing and I was being more intimate than I'd ever been with anyone before, and yet we didn't talk about feelings properly. There were sweet words whispered, endearments that the Capitol would lap up. But it was all so painstakingly fake, and whilst it carried on there was a voice at the back of my mind that said the same things to me, nagging and nagging. She's just using you, she has Gale why would she want you? All this is for the Capitol. She's going to ditch you as soon as she gets the chance. Would Katniss actually do that to me?

She brightened considerably when she noticed I was awake and promptly leaned down to kiss me, and I had considered pushing her away. Asking her what it meant to her. But I had a part to play and I had to stay focused on staying alive.

…

And there is one kiss I will definitely never forget, it was supposed to be my last as we consumed the suicidal berries which glistened ever so innocently in our hands moments before. Followed dramatically by our kiss. It was a statement without words; we were showing the Capitol that we were more than just a pawn in their games. I'm not sure if Katniss fully understood what we were doing at the time, and if I'm honest I didn't either. Not the scale of what we'd started.

…

Whilst my heart had stopped and I was unconscious I don't really remember anything, no voices, or a light in the distance, it was just dark and unmemorable, like a dreamless sleep. When I suddenly felt someone's lips on mine, my first thought was that it was Katniss waking me up. Except this was a strange sort of kiss, like the person seemed to be blowing air into me. And then I opened my eyes giving a small cough, trying to feel my lungs again, and got the shock of my life to see Finnick Odair backing away from my face. I quickly closed my eyes again wondering if this was all some strange dream, I tried to recall what happened and remembered hitting something, and then feeling like I was standing inside the fire at the bakery. Then nothing. The force field.

"Peeta?"

Katniss was there next smoothing the hair away from my face, tears streaming down her cheeks. I was immediately concerned about her and gave a quick comment trying to calm her down.

"Careful, there's a force field ahead."

Not that it was really much help, as she choked on her tears and attacked my lips. The tears seemed real, especially for an awful actress like Katniss, and I started to wonder if she cared about me a little more than she would admit.

…

It made me a little sad and yet a little hopeful, the kiss on the beach after I gave her the pearl and the necklace. It was the first kiss where there seemed to be some actual passion, a real need, and it gave me some hope. Such a dangerous emotion, hope. You can be sad all you like and know the girl you love doesn't really love you back, but when she kisses you like that, you wonder. You think that maybe if you keep on trying maybe she'll feel the same way. Like you could somehow will her into loving you, if there's already a foundation there to build on.

That was the first time I thought Katniss might be in love with me.

…

'Stay with me.' She had said.

She broke through to me with the kiss, in a way that reminded me of a story, the ones my father used to tell me on nights when my mother wasn't around. The kind where anything could happen if the couple loved each other enough and a kiss could heal anything. Though there were no sparkles or fireworks, just a sudden awareness of Katniss and how much she needed me. Maybe she could love me even though I was crazy. A monster.

Nothing really mattered anymore, except her.

'Always.'

…

This was it, the seal between me and Katniss, not the exchanging of rings or the declaration of man and wife, but the toast. I wasn't lying to the Capitol about the tradition and it really meant a lot to me, my family had done it for generations. I'd made the bread myself the night before with a little help from Katniss who seemed to enjoy wiping flour on my nose, and watching me move around in my apron, completely in my element.

It was as we saw the flames engulf the bread I grinned, thinking how well it represented us: the girl on fire and the boy with the bread.

And when it had been buttered and we fed each other pieces, we kissed, the taste of bread still on her lips and the knowledge I was kissing my wife.

If it was possible I loved her more than ever before.

…

It's our first ever holiday, me, Katniss and little Loretta. We've come to stay with Annie for a while, she needs company and we'd never been to a beach without having to fight for our lives, so we thought we might give it a try. At the moment I lie on the sand with Katniss's head on my stomach, my hand absently stroking through her hair. She's thinking about something, I can tell by her furrowed eyebrows. She likes the sea; the methodical beat of the waves calmed her.

"I'm going to join Loretta," I pause for a second remembering the kisses, "I really, really love you," I kiss her on the cheek and stand up wiping off some sand sticking to me. I see her look of slight surprise at the sudden sentiment; I can understand almost all the little Katniss Everdeen facial expressions by now. I shrug. "Just thought I'd say it cause it's true."

"Love you too." She murmurs, and gives me that smile that still makes my heart skip and my head dizzy.

The sun beats down as Loretta screeches with Annie's boy and the other children as I start splashing after them. I quickly glance back and Katniss gives a small wave and I know she's watching over me; we still do that sometimes just to make sure the other's there. Maybe the paranoia will never go away. But right now I couldn't think of any other place I'd like to be.