A Never Ending Story ~Everlark~

The Girl On Fire

Peeta's POV~

"She abuses me...." I blurt out. I wish I didn't because I think I scared her. Her eyes widen as I said this and I see tears forming in her eyes.

"S-she w-what?!" She says loudly
"Katniss please calm do-"
"How can I calm down?! That's not right Peeta!" She starts screaming with pure anger and rage.

Next thing I know, she darts into the back where my mother is. Oh no. This isn't going to end well. My mother will probably hit her, or even worse! I can't let that happen. I run after her as fast as my body could and I reach her right before she opens the door. I grab her arm and carefully yank her away.

"If you talk to her, she will hurt you. I'm not letting that happen." I say seriously.
"I'd rather her hurt me than you! You don't even deserve being hit. Your innocent and I don't understand why she should ever have the thought in her mind to hit you or hate you." As she says this I get lost in her words. I know she's right, I don't deserve this, I did nothing to my mother to make her hate me.
"You know what, fine. You're not talking to her....I am." I say and walk in the door.

I find my mother putting the ingredients in for making bread and I slowly walk to her. I'm scared, but I will have to suck it up. It's now or never.

"Mother? Can I speak with you?" I say sternly. That came out way better than I thought it would. She just gives me this look that says 'you did not just say that'. Yet, she stays still.

"Yes." She says coldly. We walk over near the other counters and I stop her. I see Katniss peaking in to see if she hurts me. I'm thankful but I don't want her to see.

I wait a long silence and decide to speak up.
"Why do you hate me?" I ask. She stares at me, deep into my eyes. She does this for 5 minutes and answers.

"You're too innocent and perfect. Just. Like. Your. Father." She says glaring at me.
"That's not a valid reason. You should be proud. At least be happy and nice to me once in a while. All you ever do is scream at me for the slightest things I hit me constantly. Why? You have no right to treat me like I did something wrong. Last time I check i tried being everything you wanted. Guess I didn't try hard enough." I say coldly. She looks at me with fire in her eyes. She conjuring up a response.

"I never wanted you. I never did and I still don't. I can't even believe that disgusting perfect man, you call 'father' even persuaded me to have you. Your nothing to me." When she says this. It shatters my heart completely. I glare at her. I look at the door and see Katniss. Not only Katniss. My father. He looks disgusted and heart broken. Mother turns around and gasps in shock. He walks slowly to her.

"I hope you know, that Peeta is an amazing man the way he is. The fact you hate him because he's too innocent or perfect is the worst reason to give someone. I did not persuade you to have him, I told you I wanted him. You agreed. So how is this my fault? He's the best thing that happened to me and I don't care what you say. He's MY son. And I will cherish him every minute I'm with him," he steps closer to her.
"Get. Out." He says glaring at her. She throws her apron on the floor and tries to walk out but Katniss stops her.

"If you think you can treat Peeta like that without me getting involved. You're WRONG." Katniss says. She basically has flames all around her. That's the girl I fell I love with when I was 5. The girl on fire.

My mother lifts her hand in the air to smack her. Suddenly I black out and find myself gripping her hand behind her back and stopping her.
"If you touch her, you'll never hear the end from me." I say with pure rage in me. I've never had this before.

I let her go and grab Katniss to protect her incase. She gets perfect posture and looks at all of us. Minutes later, storms out. I've never been so relieved in my life. I'm awoken from my thoughts, with a sobbing Katniss in my arms. I'm not sure if she's upset over what happened or if she's upset she almost hit her.

"Katniss, it's okay don't worry. I'm here shhh." I say soothing words to calm her down. As her sobbing slowly beings to quiet down and it becomes sniffles she pulls away.

"I was so scared she was going to hit you. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I saw her hit you." She says sniffling I feel bad she had to see that.
"Don't worry about me." I say hugging her again. After a few minutes we pull away even though I wish we didn't.

I turn around to see my father. The look on his face is so heartbroken and helpless. He loved her, yet she didn't love him. I look at him and tears form in my eyes. I can't even bare to see him like this. I go up and hug him and for the first time ever. He cry's. I cry with him for a while because it's going to be hard without some extra help.

"What are we going to do dad?" I ask sniffling. "We need extra help."
I hear a cough behind me.
"I'll help...if it's okay with you Mr. Mellark. I don't need to be payed." She asks as her face gets a bit red. I smile and look at my dad.
"Yeah! That would be perfect. Don't worry I'll pay you. Thank you Katniss. I'm so thankful. " He says with a warm heart. He may be heart broken but he still has a warm helping heart. That's why I look up to him so much.
"You don't need to thank me. I just helped you with down thing that needed to happen." She says. We all group hug and decide to get started. She puts on my mothers apron and gets ready to start.

"Okay so I have all the ingredients all ready there for you. I'm going to stand by and watch. All you need to do is pour all these in and mix. Then I'll show you how to knead the dough. Okay?" She nods and smiles. She walks over to the place with everything measured out and begins pouring them in.

After she's all done mixing everything together. I get up and start showing her how to knead the dough.

"All you do is this, push it on the counter and knead it with your knuckles" as I say this I show her. After I let her try she struggles.
"Peeta! Please help I can't do this." She says pouting. I go over and decide to do this one. She did mention before we started that she sucks at a cooking and baking.

After I knead the dough I put it in the oven. As I turn around I see Katniss with a handful of flour. Oh no. FLOUR WAR. She throws it at my face and all I see is white powder every where. I brush it off my face while I grab a huge handful and throw it on top of her head. She gives me a look of determination and grabs a small bag full and pours it on top of me.

We do this until the whole kitchen is covered with flour. While we clean up, or should I say I clean it, She cracks an egg on my head. I look at her and we just burst out laughing. After I'm done cleaning the bread is finally done. We pull it out and Katniss' eyes widen so big. It's like she's never seen bread before.

"Wow! It's so perfect!" She says in awe.
I mumble under my breath..

"Just like you..."