In The Blowing Ashes

Chapter 11

Peeta

"Ouch!" I hear Katniss yelp in the next room. I don't know what she's doing in there. For the last week, she has been locking herself in her study for an hour or two and when she come out, she refuses to tell me what she was doing in there. I hear the lock click and look up to see her coming out, biting her finger.

"You okay?" I ask. She nods.

"Yeah," she says. "I just pricked my finger while I was," she stops and shakes he head. "It was nothing."

"Why are you being so secretive?" I ask her.

"It doesn't matter," she says.

"It seems to matter quite a bit to you," I say. "You spend enough time working on whatever you are working on in there."

"It isn't something for you to worry about, okay?" she says.

"Why not?" I ask.

"Because it isn't," she says.

"Katniss," I say and she shoots me a look.

"Just drop it!" she snaps. "Its none of your business!" She walks away as though I'm not even there and slams the door behind her as she disappears into the study again. I groan and go back to the sitting room. I sit down on the couch and Buttercup leaps up next to me. The old grizzled tom glares at me and I gently push him off the couch.

"It's not my fault," I say, even though I know he won't answer. "She's starting to worry me. She acts like nothing's wrong but every day, she comes out of that room with another cut or bandage on her hand." He just growls and I roll my eyes. I can't just sit here all day. It's honestly a waste of my time worrying about her. She's 23 years old and more than capable of taking care of herself. I guess sometimes I can't accept that very well. I get up and knock on the study door.

"Hey Katniss," I say. "I'm gonna go visit Haymitch for a little while. You gonna be okay?" Instead of yelling at me to go away like I expect, she opens up the door and slips out. She looks up at me and frowns.

"Are you leaving because you want to visit Haymitch or because I'm pushing you away?" she asks.

"You need some time to yourself," I say. "I get it. I'm stepping on your toes. So I'll let you have the house to yourself for a while. Besides, I should probably make sure he's feeding those geese."

"You don't have to go," she says. "We can do something here if you want."

"We all need a little time to ourselves sometimes Kat," I say. "I'll be back in an hour or two." She nods.

"Okay," she says. "Just be careful of that knife of his."

"I will," I promise and I gently kiss her cheek before turning and walking away. She watches me for a while and then slips back into the room of secrets behind that old wooden door.

I leave the house and walk the short distance to Haymitch's. The geese out front squawk at me as I walk up the front steps and knock on the door. There is no answer, so I let myself in. I find him passed out at the kitchen table and I sigh. After checking to make sure he is only passed out and not actually dead, I unceremoniously dump him out of his chair. It doesn't wake him, but unlike Katniss, I take his knife before dumping the water on him. He shoots up, looking around angrily and when he sees its only me, he grumbles and snatches the knife away.

"What do you want?" he asks. "Now that you and the girl are gonna be gettin' hitched, I thought you'd leave me in peace."

"She needs sometime to herself," I say.

"She's already sick of you huh?" he says. "I actually thought she'd of done that a long time ago."

"She didn't kick me out," I say.

"Well of course she didn't," he says. "She hates being taken care of, but she needs to be taken care of and she knows that."

"That doesn't mean we don't get on each other's nerves," I say. "Today, she practically bit my head off when I asked her what she's been up to lately."

"And what has she been doing that suggests she's up to something?" he asks.

"She keeps locking herself in the study and won't tell me what she's doing," I say. "And when she comes out, she's got some other cut or scrape on her hands." Haymitch leans back in his chair, laughing loudly. I give him a confused look. "What's so funny?"

"I thought you knew about that!" he says. "She hasn't told you anything about what she's been working on?"

"Just that it wasn't any of my business," I say.

"Well, I suppose it really isn't, but I can tell you that it's not anything for you really to worry about," he says. "She'll tell you when she's ready to."

"You're sure?" I ask. He nods.

"Now get out of here," he said. "I bet that right now that girl is tryin' to figure out someway to apologize for that temper of hers, although its your own fault for sticking your nose where it don't belong." I bid Haymitch goodbye and go back home to find Katniss waiting for me. She walks up with a worried look on her face.

"I'm sorry," she says. "There wasn't any reason for me to yell like that."

"I know better than to go on bugging you about things like that," I say. "I think we're both in the wrong here."

"I know," she says. "But I've decided to show you what I've been doing anyway."

"Why?" I ask.

"So you can understand why I was trying to keep it secret," she says and she grabs my arm, forcing me to follow her to the study. She opens the door, the sight takes my breath away.

Hanging on a mannequin, held together by pins and the beginnings of stitches, is the beginnings of a snow white dress. The way it's draped in simple layers of lace and edged in dark green ribbon, there's no doubt why she was hiding this.

For the last week, Katniss has been making her wedding dress, sewing and pinning it together piece by piece. When she sees my face, she sighs.

"Now do you understand why I was keeping it a secret?" she says.

"Isn't it bad luck for me to be seeing it?" I ask and she laughs.

"That's only if I'm wearing it silly," she says. "Besides, its no where near finished." I walk up to it and look at the lace covering it, delicate as a spider's web. I take it between my fingers and feel that it's a soft, silk-like material.

"Did you make this?" I ask her.

"No," she says and then looks down. "Gale's mother, Hazel, did." She looks at me uncomfortably and I guess I can understand that. She asked the mother of her former best friend, who could have been in my place had he stuck around, to help her make her wedding dress.

"Have you talked to him?" I ask her. She shakes her head.

"Not since I was shipped out of the Capitol," she says. "He hasn't tried and neither have I."

"Would you talk to him if he wanted to?" I ask her

"Would it bother you?" she asks.

"I trust you," I say. "If you wanted to talk to him, it wouldn't bother me."

"Then I really don't know," she says. "I think I'd have to meet him face to face to really know if I'd be willing to talk to him." I look at her and she smiles.

"It's hard to believe that we ended up this way," she says.

"You don't wish it was different?" I ask her.

"He abandoned me Peeta," she says. "You saved me." she walks over to me and wraps her arms around me. "And I wouldn't want anyone else beside me."