Maybe It Can Be Real

Chapter 18

ALL RIGHTS GO TO SUZANNE COLLINS. I OWN NOTHING.

ENDING OF LAST CHAPTER:

When I finally pull away, his shirt is soaked. I wipe my face and sniffle.

"Sorry about that," I say as I brush his shirt.

He chuckles softly. "You have nothing to be sorry about."

I kiss him quickly and pull away. "How did I get so lucky to have you?", I ask him.

****

He shrugs. "It was just meant to be, I guess."

I giggle and say, "Whatever you want to think, Breadboy."

"Hey, I was trying to have a serious moment and you ruined it!", he pouts. "In all seriousness, though, did that letter help?", he questions.

I sobered down. "I haven't really thought about if it helped or not. I mean, I just wrote it, so I haven't had much time to get 'closure'," I reply while making quotation marks with my fingers when I said 'closure'.

He scratches the back of his neck and says, "Right.... That makes sense."

He grasps my hands and plays with them. "So, what do you want to do the rest of the day?"

Without even thinking about it, I blurt out, "We've been so focused on me lately. We need to set up a room here for you where you can paint."

Peeta shakes his head. "No, we don't have to do that. Besides, I'm fine with focusing on you," he says with a smile.

"Well, I'm not fine with it," I indicate. "Everyone needs attention. Plus, I'm not important."

He scoffs. "Yep. Not important at all," he replied sarcastically.

"But I'm not!", I protest. I grab his hand and pull him to the door. I throw his jacket and shoes at him. "Put these on. We're going to the store!", I exclaim.

"But I was just there!", he whines.

"Too bad, so sad," I reply with a smirk.

I slip my jacket and shoes on. After Peeta throws his jacket on, I grab his hand and drag him out of the house.

I intertwine our fingers and swing our hands. I take a deep breath and look around. The district is looking better. There's still rubble in places, but small houses are built. I'm sure they'll be made more 'livable' soon.

People are starting to filter back into the district. I see a fair amount of people out and about right now.

I glance to my right and I see someone staring at us. They're hidden somewhat behind the corner of a house, but I can still see them. My footsteps falter for a second.

"Are you okay?", Peeta asks.

"Uhm, sure?", I reply. "There's someone staring at us," I whisper. I jerk my head in the direction of the person. I was trying to be discreet, but it probably didn't work.

Peeta nonchalantly looks over and his eyes widen when I assume he sees the person.

"Let's just keep walking," he says quietly.

I shiver. "Why would they stare at us?"

He chuckles. "Katniss, you do realize who we are, right? I guess it makes sense for them to stare."

I say, "Oh," as the realization dawns on me. "That does makes sense."

He nods his head. "Drawing the subject away from that, why are you dragging me to the store again?"

"We're getting you painting supplies for an art room!", I declare.

"Which house? Yours or mine?", he asks.

"Technically you've been living at my house, so my house." I think for a minute. "You're at my house all the time. Do you just want to move in with me?", I ask.

"Sure. Why not?", he answers without hesitation.

I smile. "Awesome. We can get stuff from your house on the way back."

"Sounds good," he replies as we walk up to the front of the store.

****

I trudge along carrying bags that take some effort to lift. We ended up getting a little carried away and getting all kinds of paints, brushes, pencils, and artsy stuff like that. Half of it I don't even have a name for, but Peeta said that he could use them when I asked if he needed it.

I think he feels bad about getting all this stuff when he feels he shouldn't. People need to splurge every once in a while, considering we weren't able to before.

He's quiet pretty much the entire walk home. He looks pretty deep in thought, too. I nudge his arm with my elbow.

"Are you alright? You're quiet," I say.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he replies with a smile.

I nod my head and look forward.

****

I plop down onto the couch and stretch out. My eyelids flutter closed. After Peeta and I brought the art supplies back to my house, we set up the room and moved some stuff from his house to mine. We just finished eating dinner, and I'm exhausted.

Peeta sits down and puts my legs on his lap. He rubs my legs and asks, "Do you wanna go to bed? You look wiped out."

I just nod my head in response. Before I can get up, though, he picks me up and carries me upstairs. He lays me down and covers me with the blanket.

"Thanks," I yawn. "Goodnight, Peeta. Love yah," I mumble sleepily.

He laughs a little. "I love you too."

I fall asleep directly after he says that.

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Hellooooo!

Here's a chapter! I was going to make it longer, but I'm tired and I have to go to bed. Sorry):

I don't have much to say this author's note. Hmm. Weird.

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Shoot straight and be brave my fellow lovelies,
Weezabeth <3