The Hunger Games - Oneshots

1.

Peeta hummed aloud merrily as he worked. The small kitchen was filled with the aroma of freshly baked breads. With a loaf in the oven, another one ready to go and one on the way, Peeta was content at keeping busy — after all, it kept his mind clear from his "episodes."

Peeta had been doing quite well over the past few years, with only a few episodes in that time. He could usually tell when they were coming and had learned how to control them, but Beetee insisted on supplying Peeta with countless pills to counteract them.

They often argued about it, both consistently holding their point and both refusing to back down. Katniss stayed quiet through the whole matter — of course she wanted what was best for Peeta, but she wasn't sure whether to trust Peeta or the medication for his lack of episodes over the years.

At this moment, Miss Everdeen — soon to be Mrs Mellark — was out in the forest hunting and gathering. Peeta couldn't get the idea out of his head; he and Katniss were soon to be married. They had talked about it for a while before Peeta actually popped the question.

Another more questionable topic of discussion in the Everdeen-Mellark household was children; Did they want any? How many? Were they ready for that step? Of course Peeta knew he wanted kids — Katniss knew this too, but there was always something blocking her final decision. She had once confided in her ex-best friend Gale that she would never have kids, and some part of her still holds onto that little confession.

Speak of the devil; Katniss Everdeen, with her soft leather jacket and boots strides into the kitchen to be greeted by her flour-faced fiancé. The chill of her cheeks is countered by the heat in the kitchen. Dropping her game bag to the floor and shimmying out of her jacket, Katniss moves to place her game in the fridge to sell later.

She takes a seat at the table opposite Peeta and watches while he works. He never stops baking and developing recipes. They have enough bread in the pantry to feed all of Panem twice! But it doesn't bother Katniss, she knows it does him good to keep busy.

Peeta moves like lightning around the kitchen, grabbing ingredients from here, scribbling down notes over there. If she didn't know any better, Katniss would say her fiancé had superhuman speed. Beads of sweat trickled down his forehead as he worked, strong muscles kneading the dough. Pulling and stretching until it's the perfect consistency.

Katniss' smile catches Peeta's eye and he returns it generously. He cocks his head to the side to beckon her over.

"C'mere, I want to show you something," he says, his voice rough.

Complying, Katniss stalks to her fiancé's side as he continues to work, dividing the dough he was working on into eight small pieces and rolling them out like lengths of rope.

"I've been developing this new method and I think it's would really sell. Would you like to learn?" he asked, proud of his work. This wasn't the first time Peeta had taught Katniss to bake bread, though if she done it right it would be the first time she didn't make a mess or burn it.

At first, Katniss was prepared to say no, but after seeing the pride on her fiancé's face how could she?

"Okay so we start off with these eight pieces and lay them out like octopus legs, and clamp them all together at the top." The brief instruction continued like this as Peeta explained how to begin, but it soon became vastly complicated.

"You ready," he asked Katniss, glancing up at her cheekily. She nodded her head wearily, fully aware that she would never take in the following information.

Peeta started off slow; "We start by placing strand eight under seven and over one." This seems simple enough, Katniss thought.

All at once Peeta took off like a rocket and began weaving the strands together at a lightning pace, showing off to his fiancé. "Then we go eight over five, two under three and over eight, one over four, seven under six and over one."

Once finished the first round, Peeta stood back and looked straight at Katniss whose eyes were fixated on the dough, still trying to grasp the method. He let out a joyous chuckle. It's not that he had anything to prove to Katniss, he just like to tease her and show off sometimes — which is very much allowed in Katniss' book.

Just before Katniss took in the last movement, Peeta started again repeating the movements to create the perfect braided loaf. Once finished the uncooked loaf looked like an abstract art piece worthy of the front shelf in a glass case. Katniss was mesmerised by her fiancé's ability to create art in baking.

As he waited for her to soak up the last of the movements, Katniss pulled her eyes away from the loaf and placed a delicate kiss on Peeta's floury cheek before smiling and murmuring a barely coherent "you're amazing, love, can't wait to taste it, I have to take a shower," before slaking out of the humid room.

Peeta stayed behind and looked on after her, love filling up his heart. Ever since he could remember the mere sight of this woman brought a wave of joy over him, he couldn't believe she was finally going to be his. Peeta's mind wandered off in this way for a short while before: BRRRRRRINGGGGGG!!! Peeta leaped out of his skin, most of it still stuck to the ceiling. Peeta was shocked back to reality as the pre-set timer went off.

The End.

______

Hello everybody!! Thank you for reading my one-shot, it's nothing amazing but the idea popped into my head and I couldn't shake it away so . . . here we are.

Stay tuned as there will be more to come. I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you next time :)