Falling For You

Chapter 26

I spot Gale, leaning up against wall that leads to the living room. I walk over to him and stand next to him, so close I can feel the warmth radiating off his body. He glances at me, then back to the living room, saying nothing. "Have you seen this?" He asks. I follow his gaze and see Prim and Rory sitting on the couch together. I can barely make out what they're saying from here. Rory pinches Prim's cheeks, similar to the way I've seen some of the older people do with little kids in our district, and says something about her having chubby cheeks. She laughs at whatever he said and shoves him playfully. "They seem to really like each other, huh?" I move closer to him so I can hear them better. "Yeah." I watch them talk and something about them together reminds me of how Gale and I used to be. We stay by the doorway watching them, until my mom calls us for dinner.

When dinner's done, We all move to the kitchen to eat. I sit down next to Peeta with Prim on my other side, and Rory,Gale, and my mother sit on the other side of the table. Peeta and my mother made rabbit stew and potato soup, and Peeta baked fresh bread for dinner. I get a bowl of potato soup and fill my plate with rabbit stew. Then I pick up a knife and cut myself two big slices of bread. I take a bite of the bread first and glance over at Peeta. He just smiles and goes back to eating. While we're eating, Peeta places his hand on my thigh, making me blush. My heart starts beating faster and my whole body feels like it's burning. I can't wait to get him home. I glance over at him and see that he's trying not to look at me, but he knows exactly what he's doing. I try to act natural and eat my dinner, but my hormones are driving me crazy. Thankfully, before it can get too out of control, my mother distracts me. "Rory's been doing really good with the bow and arrow. He shot the rabbit we're eating tonight." My mother says, looking at me. She knows how much I miss hunting and how interested I am in Rory hunting. "Really? You shot this?" I ask, turning to Rory. "Yeah. I still need Gale's help sometimes but I'm a pretty good shot and I know how to set up snares now too." He says, animatedly. This must be exciting for him, being able to do something with Gale every Sunday. "I can't wait to see it some day. As soon as this baby is out I'll be back in the woods with you. I bet you'll be real good by then." I take a bite of my potato soup. "Yeah. You might actually have some competition then." Gale says, attracting everyone's attention towards us. "Maybe." I smile and go back to eating.

When everyone finishes they all move to the living room except for me and Peeta. "I've got this. You can go sit down." He says, trying to brush me off as he collects the dishes and puts them in the sink. "No. I want to help." I pick up a few of the remaining dishes and put them into the sink. "Katniss, seriously, go sit down." He starts washing the dishes while I get a cloth and some soap to wipe of the counter. "Peeta, seriously, no." I continue to wipe off all the counters and the table. I can tell he rolled his eyes at me, but I ignore him. He finishes with the dishes at the same time I finish cleaning the rest of the kitchen and we walk into the living room together.

Gale's sitting on the couch, Prim and Rory are on the floor, My mother is in the chair, and Peeta goes and sits down on the opposite end of the couch from Gale. I follow him to the couch and instead of sitting down between the two of them, Peeta wraps his arm around me, pulling me onto his lap instead. He keeps one arm around my waist and the other rests on my thigh. I shift around a bit, getting comfortable, and lean back. Just when I start to relax, I feel a small kick just above Peeta's hand, making me jump. "Did you feel that?" I ask. "No, what?" I move his hand up a little and I feel another kick, this time much harder. "Whoah! Did that hurt?" He asks, looking up at me. "Just a little. It's fine though." I feel another hard kick and I wince. I look up and realize we've attracted the attention of everyone else in the room. They're all staring at us, confusion clear on their faces. "The baby's kicking." I say. "I wanna feel!" Prim jumps up and Peeta moves his hand so she can feel it too. "You wanna feel it too Rory?" I ask.  He gets up and walks over to me and so does my mother. I let them both have turns feeling the baby kick then they go sit down. I glance over and see that Gale was watching us. "Can I?" I nod. "Go ahead." He moves closer to me and carefully places his hand in the same spot Peeta's hand was before. He pulls his hand away after the baby kicks and turns to Rory. "We should go. Mom's waiting for us." Rory nods and they both get up. Rory says goodbye to Prim and then they start to leave. I follow them to the door and open it for them. I stare at Gale, unsure of what I should say. "So, are we good?" He asks, staring back at me, watching for my reaction. "Yeah. We're good." I reach out to him and wrap my arms around him, hugging him tightly. I can tell he wasn't expecting this. It takes him a minute to hug me back. When we finally release each other him and Rory step outside. We look at each other for a moment, not saying anything. "Goodbye, Gale." I say. "Goodbye, Katniss." I close the door and wipe a tear off my cheek. I walk back to the living room and Peeta seems to sense something is wrong. "Are you alright?" He asks. "Yeah, I'm fine. We should go home too." I say, looking down at the floor.

A/N: please vote and comment I've got the next two chapters already partly written and so I should be able to update two or three times by next week.