Fire is Raging On (A Hunger Games Fanfic) [#Wattys 2016]

Chapter One

Peeta's POV

I have hardly got any sleep the past nine month. But that is what happens when you have the most precious baby daughter in the world, and I wouldn't change it for anything. Willow many only be nine months old but she is fairly advanced for her age. She can walk (she wasn't particularly fond of crawling), point out specific body parts, and can have a conversation with us (although she can't speak in complete sentences yet).

"Daddy!" Willow yells excitedly. She is smiling huge, her dimples showing, as she carries one of my paint brushes in her tiny hand.

I smile back at my little girl, "Thank you." I take my brush from her.

"Up! Up! Up!" she demands, her arms reaching for me.

I bend down and pick her up, cradling her against my right side. "Do you want to help Daddy paint?" I ask her. She giggles and claps in response.

I set her down in my art room and she runs, more like waddles, over to the child size table Katniss and I set up for her. After setting down multiple pieces of paper, I find Willow's paint shirt, which is just a youth small t-shirt. It's like a dress on her, but she'll fit into for years to come. It's covered in paint stains and surely more will come. I pour a small amount of the primary colors for her her. Willow is already learning how to mix colors together to get the secondary and tertiary colors. I've taught her to put the darker into the lighter to get a better mix.

After getting us both ready to paint I begin a new project. The focus is Willow painting. Paint covers her little hands as she smears the paint across the paper and table. She tries to use the brush like I showed her and it is a cute attempt.

It's moments like these that I cherish. It's moments like these that I wish I could have had with my parents. But that doesn't matter, I'll do better and more with Willow than my parents did with me. I'll always be there for my baby girl.

"Peeta?" I hear Katniss call as the front door shuts.

"In here," I call back, continuing to paint. I'm almost done now.

Katniss comes in the room and stands behind me. Her arms snake around my waist as she gives me a hug from behind. She nuzzles her face into my back and presses her lips between my shoulder blades. I move my arm back to encourage her to come around to my front. She complies, tucking herself into my side, and makes sure she doesn't get into the paint palette I'm holding.

"It's beautiful, Peeta," Katniss says softly, admiring the painting.

I'm not quite down with it yet. I still need to put the finishing details together. "Thank you," I say leaning over to place a kiss to her head.

"I don't know how you do it," she whispers.

"Do what?" I ask.

"Make such beautiful and perfect paintings." I open my mouth to say something, but she quickly covers my mouth with her hand. "I'm not done complimenting you," she scolds. I nod for her to continue. "You are such a good father to her. She absolutely adores you." I glance over at Willow who is still contently smearing paint. "I love you, Peeta Mellark."

"I love you, too, Katniss Mellark." I lean down and press my lips to hers.

At that moment, Willow notices Katniss is in the room. She drops the paint brush and attempts to run to Katniss, "Momma!"

"Hello there my precious darling," Katniss says bending down to pick up Willow. She doesn't seem to mind that Willow is covered in paint and getting some on her clothes. "Were you painting with Daddy?" Willow points to her table where multiple pieces of paint smeared paper lay. Katniss keeps Willow in her arms as she walks over to the table. "They're beautiful sweetie," Katniss praises our daughter. Willow giggles in delight. "And I think you need bath before dinner."

"Bath! Bath! Bath!" Willow squeals excitedly. She tries to get Katniss to let her down. I come over with a wet towel in my hands to clean the paint off Willow's hands. After the paint is wiped clean, Katniss sets Willow down. Willow smiles as she gets what she wants and hurries out the room most likely toward the bathroom, all while still squealing "Bath! Bath! Bath!"

Katniss laughs and starts following after Willow. "I'll get dinner started," I say as I start cleaning out my brushes.

"Okay I need to hurry and catch our daughter before she gets too impatient and starts playing in the toilet water again."

~FIRO~

Katniss's POV

"Dear Bread,'

'I'm sorry I burned you. You went to a beautiful stomach though." I hear Peeta say down the hall.

I laugh to myself at his odd sense of humor.

"What are you laughing about?" he asks entering our bedroom.

"You talking to yourself about bread," I say laughing more.

"I'm not talking to myself. I'm talking to the bread. Here I brought you some," he says handing me a plate.

It's still warm and the butter is melting across the top. "Thank you," I say before taking a bit of the delicious bread.

"Your welcome," Peeta murmurs. "Hey, what's that you got?" he asks sitting down on the bed beside me, indicating the paper in my lap.

I've never showed Peeta this. It's a letter from Gale, he gave it to me before Peeta and I got married. "It's a letter from Gale. He gave it me before our wedding."

"You never told me he wrote you a letter," Peeta says.

"I know. I didn't know how you would react. Do you want me to read it to you?"

"Only if you want to," he says humbly, even though I know he wants to know what it says.

"I want you to hear it," I say. I take a deep breath before beginning. "Dear Katniss,'

'I'm sorry for everything. I wish I could take everything back, I wish I could have just been your best friend and not made everything complicated. You're special Katniss, you broke the law for Posy, you volunteered for Prim, you risked everything for Rue. It's all you know how to do; you know how to protect. I wish I could be like you. I wish I didn't have this fire, not when it meant losing the one I loved more than anything. Be with Peeta. You have protected and taken care of everyone for so long, let someone else take care of you. Even if it's not with me, I want you to be happy.'

'Love, Your hunting partner," I finish quietly.

Peeta doesn't say anything, just takes the letter from my hands and puts it off on the bedside table. He take the plate from beside me on the bed and does the same. He puts his arms around me and I move to lay down. He lays down beside me refusing to remove his arms from around me.

"I love you, Katniss."

"I love you, too." 

Thank you for everyone's patience while I've been writing this so far, especially joshhutchersonlover2 for your continuous support.  I love you. 

Updates will be once a week on Saturdays like last time. They will absolutely be on Saturdays but the time could range from 12:00 am to 11:59 pm. 

Enjoy this chapter because it doesn't stay this sweet for long because a lot of shit ends up going down in the first 10 chapters. 

~ Alexis