Together

Chapter 21

Peeta P.O.V.

"What's the matter with you?" I ask Willow as I walk through the front door. She's sitting on the couch with her arms crossed and a pout on her face.

Willow looks up at me. "Mommy mad," she says. I try not to laugh as I sit down beside of her.

"What's Mommy mad about?" I ask her. She just looks at me. "Willow, are you being dramatic?" She shakes her head. "You want me to talk to Mommy?"

"Yes," she whines. I have to bite my tongue to keep from laughing.

"Where is Mommy?" Willow looks at the stairs and then back at me. "Okay. You stay right here and I'll go talk to Mommy," I tell her as I stand up off the couch. I go upstairs and find Katniss cleaning in Willow's room. I walk into the room, but Katniss doesn't notice me.

"What are you mad about?" I ask her. She quickly turns around, obviously startled, and gives me a weird look.

"Peeta, what on earth are you talking about?" Katniss asks as she walks over to me.

I start laughing. "Willow told me that you were mad."

Katniss smiles and rolls her eyes. "No. She's mad beacuse I was trying to clean up her room and she kept going behind me and messing it up, so I told her to go sit down until I got done. But I didn't say it like I was aggravated or anything."

"Well, she's downstairs pouting."

"Gosh. I'm telling you, we have a drama queen on our hands," Katniss says as we walk over to the stairs. "Willow!" Katniss calls for her. Willow comes over to the bottom of the steps. "Come here." Willow carefully climbs the steps  and Katniss picks her up.

"I wasn't mad at you, okay?" Katniss says. Willow nods her head. "You were messing up your room and I was trying to clean it."

"No," Willow says. 

Katniss laughs. "Do you not want your room clean?" Willow shakes her head. "Then what is it supposed to look like?" Willow climbs down out of Katniss's arms and runs to her room.

Katniss and I watch Willow as she goes over to her toy box and soon, toys go flying everywhere.

"Willow!" Katniss gasps. "I just cleaned that mess up."

"Yep," Willow says as she smiles at Katniss.

"You did ask her what her room is supposed to look like," I say.

"Yeah, I should've known better than to ask a question like that to our daughter," Katniss laughs. When Willow gets done, she looks back at us and smiles.

"I done," Willow says proudly. Katniss rolls her eyes and I kneel down on the floor.

"Come here," I tell her. She runs over to me and smiles. "Do you see the mess you made?" I ask her. She looks at her room and then back at me.

"Yep," Willow answers.

"Well, Mommy had just cleaned this mess up," I tell her. "So why don't you be a really good girl and pick your toys back up?"

"Okay, Daddy," Willow says in a sweet tone. I kiss her cheek and she starts picking up her toys. When she's down, she comes back over to me.

"Good job Willow," I tell her.

"I good girl?"

Katniss and I start laughing. "Yes, baby," Katniss says. "You're a good girl. But you need to go downstairs to the living room and pick up the toys in there."

"No," Willow whines.

"Yes, come on. I'll help you," I tell Willow. She takes my hand and leads me downstairs. Once the living room is cleaned up, Willow lays down in the floor.

"What are you doing?" Katniss asks her.

"Sleepy," Willow replies with a yawn. Katniss picks her up and lays her down on the couch.

"Isn't that better than the floor?" Katniss asks her. Willow nods and then she's out of it.

"She wore herself out," I say as Katniss and I sit down on the floor in front of the couch.

"Apparently," Katniss says. "Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. Haymitch came over today and you'll never believe what happened."

"What?" I ask.

Katniss starts lauguing before she can say anything. "Willow called Haymitch 'Grandpa'"

"She did not," I laugh.

Katniss nods her head. "She absolutely did. Trust me, I didn't believe it at first either."

I shake my head. "And we wonder why she's so rotten."

"Haymitch seemed pretty happy about it," Katniss says.

"Well, duh. We both know that he has to have been the one who taught Willow to call him that."

Katniss laughs and turns her head around to look at Willow. "You know, it's really hard to believe that there was a time when I didn't want any of this," Katniss says as she uses her fingers to gently brush Willow's hair out of her eyes. "But now that I have it, I wouldn't trade one second of it for anything."

"Neither would I," I say truthfully as I reach over and take Katniss's hand in mine.

"Getting to watch her grow up happy and knowing that we are giving her the best childhood possible, it makes the reality of everything that we've had to do to get here so much easier to bear." Katniss stops and takes a deep breath. "Do you think she'll be disappointed in us when we tell her?"

"Katniss, we still have a few years before we have to worry about that," I tell her.

"I know," she says. "But you didn't answer my question."

I sigh. "I hope that she won't be," I say. "But I don't know for sure."

"What if she thinks thay everything we've told her up to that point has been a lie?" Katniss asks as she stares at Willow. "What if she decides that she can't trust us anymore?" Katniss looks at me and I can tell that her anxiety is about to get the better of her. "Peeta, what if… What if she…"

"Katniss, calm down," I say as I gently grab the side of her arms. "It's like I said, we still have a few years before we have to worry about it. Okay?" Katniss nods her head and I pull her in close. 

"It's just that I think about it all the time," Katniss says. "How we're going to tell her. How she'll react. Th nightmares that it will cause her."

"Listen to me, Kat. I think about that too. Instead of worrying about telling her, just think about how blessed we are that she doesn't have to go through it all like we did."

"Okay," Katniss says. "Peeta, promise me one thing."

"What's that?"

"That we'll make sure she knows how much we love her before we tell her."

I smile at her and nod my head. "Yeah. I promise."