Chapter Eight

We can talk too?

"Sure we can," I mutter as I clomp down the stairs. Mom is sitting at the kitchen table, her face in her hands. I rush over to her. "Mom, what's wrong?"

Mom's eyes go to me and I flinch when I see the tears. She wipes them away with a light reply. "I'm fine."

"Why are you crying?" I was scared of tears, but I was still worried. Mom used to cry for hours on end and I got immune to it. Now that she was back, here for me and Prim, I hadn't seen her cry in the past few days. Here she was, however, crying again.

Mom sighs, defeated. "I just don't want you to go."

I join Mom at the table and take her hand. "We'll be back before you know it." We'd be going on the Victor Tour in three days.

"I know," Mom says in resign. Her eyes go to my tense posture. "C'mere," she surprises me by getting up. She tugs me up the stairs and sits me down on the edge of my bed.

"What's going on?" I ask as she sits behind me. Her hands go to my shoulders and she begins to knead the tight muscles. She speaks before I can ask any other questions.

"You're so tense," she mumbles to herself.

I laugh and murmur, "Why would that be?"

She huffs, not pausing. "You've got a lot of pressure on you."

"Tell me about it." I grunt. Mom's hands are hard from work, but she forces my hard muscles into submission with gentle movements.

Mom giggles. The sound both surprises me and makes me smile. "For one thing, you have to worry about-"

"I was joking," I laugh. Mom was actually going to tell me about it. "What about you, Mom? I know you've got a lot on your plate too."

I feel Mom's hands heat up and I grin, knowing she is blushing. "Just the usual, Katniss. Cleaning the house and teaching Prim so she could carry on the legacy-"

I cut her off. "Prim is carrying on a legacy? Legacy of what?"

Mom says knowingly, "You're not the kind of girl who would sit down and treat wounds."

I bluff, knowing she is right, "I could."

"If you wanted to." Mom says.

I sigh, caught. "Right."

Mom laughs at my tone.

Prim walks in with Buttercup in her arms. She looks at me and Mom lying on the bed and she stops.

"Am I interrupting?" She asks timidly.

I beckon her over with a jerk of my chin and a smile. "No, silly duck."

Prim smiles and walks over. Buttercup starts to growl and she sets him down with a glare. Buttercup races out of the room and pauses by the threshold. He hisses and I hiss back. Buttercup crouches down and I sit up, only for Mom to tug me back down.

"Leave him be," she says motherly.

I look at her in disbelief. Prim climbs onto the bed and settles on the end. Mom and I exchange glances.

"You can be in the middle, Primmie," Mom says with a smile.

Prim sits up and I hide my smile when I see the indignation on her face. "Primmie?" She echoes.

Mom starts giggling and I watch the sound change Prim's face. Prim's blue eyes soften and she smiles. Mom and I scoot over and Prim settles between us.

Prim glances at me. "Hi, Katniss."

"Hi, Primmie."

Prim grimaces, but I see the laughter budding in her eyes.

Gale peeks at me from over his shoulder. "Just go say hi."

I look at him in disbelief. "Hi won't fix anything."

"Maybe," Gale says, turning to me. "But it'll soften him up."

We are standing in front of Peeta's bakery. I can see Peeta kneading dough into shape. He glances up every now and then. He turns pink for a moment, but then he bites his lip, and the pink fades away. Scorn replaces the embarrassment.

"Gale," I look at him, timid. "He's mad at me."

"I'd be too," Gale says bluntly. I hang my head and Gale pats me on the arm. He really wants me to go talk to Peeta for some reason. "Just go in."

I look at him and then back at the door. I jump back when I see Peeta holding it open.

His blue eyes are calm. "Are you going to come in?"

Chagrin rushes over me and I walk right in. I glance behind me to see Gale walk down the road. My jaw drops in confusion and I look back at Peeta to see him smiling.

"Hey, Katniss." Peeta says.

My eyes go to his hand going to my arm and I am full of panic when he pulls me in. His calm blue eyes ignore the shake in my hands.

"You came just in time," Peeta goes to the oven. He stops to pull on mitts before he opens the oven. He pulls out a cake and sets the cake on the stove.

I try to ask in a steady voice, "What am I in time for?"

Peeta glances at me. "For the icing."

Peeta is laughing.

There is something strained about the laughter in his voice, but he is laughing. At me.

"That's not how you ice a cake," Peeta chuckles, holding up a napkin.

I lick the icing from my lips and feel the heat in my cheeks. "I've never iced a cake before."

"I can tell," Peeta grins. He sets down his spoon and dives at me. I lurch away and land on my back. Peeta falls right on top of me, and amusement rushes over me when he tries to wipe at my face.

"Let me wipe it off!" Peeta mumbles loudly as I try to push him off of me.

Giggles take away my voice. "I like the icing!"

Peeta scoots forward and sits on my lap. His eyes meet mine for a brief second. "I can tell." His voice is off with something sweet.

Laughing, I try to crawl backwards with Peeta still on me. His blue eyes are glowing and he aims the napkin at my lips. He lurches forward, the napkin is suddenly gone, and all I feel is his lips on mine.

The game is suddenly gone. I am suddenly filled with tiny fireflies of affection. They buzz in my stomach and erase the tension between us. Peeta sighs in a wistful, contented way. I am torn between pleasure and desire. I want more of Peeta's kisses. The icing makes them so much sweeter-

"Oh!" Someone squeaks above us.

Peeta and I fly apart. Peeta crawls backward so fast, he ends up right in front of the oven before I can blink. I make it to the wall behind me, startled.

Our eyes travel up to the person who interrupted us, and I am mortified when I see that it is Effie and Haymitch.

Haymitch's eyes go to me and he glances at the two of us before he grunts. "Sorry to interrupt your face-eating secession."

Peeta says quickly, embarrassed. "We were icing a cake."

"When did the cake become sweet heart over here?" Haymitch gestures to me with a sly grin.

I put my hands over my red face, blushing. I moan before anyone says anything else.

"Why are there cameras behind you?"

Peeta groans and the shaky smile that arrives on my face surprises me. Effie begins to explain, her voice high-pitched with something I don't know.

"We were filming Peeta in his element," she says calmly. I look at her to see her glance back at the cameras. How could I have missed them? They were big, bulky, and shadow black in a sunny yellow bakery.

"And then you showed up, sweet heart," Haymitch says, sounding somewhat relieved. "This went better than I thought."

Peeta glances at me, his cheeks still a lovely shade of pink. Effie speaks before he does.

"Of course, we have to thank Gale for-"

"Gale was in on this?" The words come out as a squeak.

Haymitch nods and his blue eyes darken. He glances at Peeta in the same moment Peeta glances at him. The look they exchange makes something in me go cold and harden.

"I'll be back later," I huff. I peel myself off the floor and stalk out of the bakery. I don't hear the door close behind me. Instead, I hear footsteps.

"Katniss, wait!" It's Peeta.

I turn and wait for him to catch up. He starts talking quickly.

"I'm sorry we had to do that," he says. "I knew you weren't going to come on your own-"

My eyebrows lift. "I was standing out there an hour before Gale showed up."

Peeta crosses his arms. "I'm not trying to get into an argument with you."

"I'm not either," I say pointedly. I hear him sigh and I try to make myself more approachable. "What is it, Peeta?"

Peeta smiles for a moment. "I'm glad you came by to see me."

His words make an unexpected smile warm up my face. I can see Effie and Haymitch watching us in the window of the bakery. One of the cameras is sitting in the threshold of the door, its lens trained on us.

"I didn't want to make you mad at me," I say. My eyes find my snow-boots. "I'm sorry what for happened in the arena."

"You got us both out," Peeta says soothingly, surprising and angering me. He should be the one being soothed. "I can't fault you for that."

My eyes go to his from the snow and I smile in relief. That was an apology if I ever knew one. "You forgive me?" I ask, just to be sure.

Peeta nods, eyes aglow, but I watch them darken. "We're not out of the arena, Katniss." He hisses quietly.

I shake my head, confused. "Yes, we are."

"No," Peeta whispers. His eyes gaze into mine. "Not yet."

Fear washes over me as his words sink in. Does he mean the Victor Tour? "The Victor Tour will be over soon," I mumble quietly. Peeta doesn't want the cameras to pick this up.

Peeta gazes at me intently. He is trying to tell me something. . .

"Oh!" Peeta exclaims, startling me. His eyes glance at the camera before they rest on my face again. "You have another eyelash."

That old trick? I play along and arch both eyebrows. "Oh, um-"

"Yeah, it's right," Peeta pretends to reach for something by my eye. His hand caresses my cheek and he leans in. Our lips touch and while it is not as sweet as the kiss with the icing, something about this staged kiss reassures me.

Peeta and I are on the same page.