Rising From The Ashes

Chapter 11 We Were Never Normal

Peeta's P.O.V.

I can feel my heart burst at the sudden confession that Katniss has given me about how I am the only one she has brought to this beautiful lake with her. Just me, not Gale. Me.

"Katniss...Thank you for opening up and showing me a place that is so close to your heart. It mean so much to me," I tell her as I tighten my embrace around her. I can feel her try to push herself even closer to me, with her head resting in the crook of my neck and her arms wrapped tightly around my middle. This is what being loved feels like. Of course I know that, most of my family loved and cared for me before their passing, but it has just been such a long time since I felt the familiar warmth that grows in my heart when I see love and not pity or fear in the eyes of the ones I care about.

"Peeta you mean just as much to me as my father does, same as...Prim," she whispers, as I look down at her. I'm not sure what is running through her head at the minute, but she has a distant look on her face at the moment. Memories are probably the reason, I know how it feels. On rare occasions, whenever I look at baked goods, or even a old-looking sketch pad, I'm reminded of my time in the bakery and the sketches I would make when I was able to have the time to actually explore my talents with home-made paints.

"Why don't we start heading back,"I kiss the top of her head. "Then I could make you some, oh I don't know? Cheese buns?"Just when I finished my sentence, her head snaps up to look at me.

"Really?" I nod my head to confirm what I have said. "Race you back home!" Katniss yells as she bolts out of my arms and in the direction we came from.

"Katniss!" I yell out, trying to keep up with her. She's light on her feet while I smash everything in my way but still able to keep up with her, actually right behind her.

"Come on! You don't want to be a sore loser now, do you?!" She yells back to me over her shoulder.

In through the nose, out through the mouth, I remember the method my wrestling coach would always tell us when we would go out for a run during the season. Pumping my arms even harder than I was before, I just past by Katniss and continue on the barely-there path that leads out of the forest. I'm almost to the edge of the forest when I hear a big thump. I stop dead in my tracks.

"OW!" I hear the faint yell coming from behind. Of course, it is Katniss.

"Katniss?!" I shout as I sprint back to the sound of her whimpering. I come to the view of her on the ground grasping her left ankle, I gasp out a faint,"Are you okay?"

"I think I twisted my ankle when I tried to jump over that big tree root. Guess I'm just as clumsy in my natural habitat like I am in the high heels Effie insisted that I wore," she chokes out a laugh.

"Do you think you can walk?"

"I think so, help me up," I grasp both of her outstretched hands with my own and lift her off the ground. Once some of her weight is added onto her ankle, I see the pain wash over her face, I shake my head at her.

"No, you're not walking on that ankle," before she could argue, I turn my back to her and bend my knees a little. "Hop on."

"Pe-" She starts.

"I said,'Hop on,'"I say to her over my shoulder. I hear her sigh in defeat. I feel her place her hands on my shoulders and leap into the air and onto my back. With my hands wrapped around the back of her thighs, I begin the journey back home. " You know you're gonna have to stay off that ankle for awhile, right?"

" Yeah, I know," she mutters back. Her arms then gently wrap around my neck. " This sucks." Walking very carefully through the forest, I feel Katniss rest her head against the back of my own. After about ten minutes, we finally exit the forest and start towards the house. Getting closer to the back of her house, I see Haymitch sitting on her front porch, nursing a bottle of liquor, or what's left of