Fighting for you: Always

Finally

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Katniss POV

I wake up, still sleepy but also still enveloped in Peeta's warmth; it's just like the pre-hijacked Peeta used to give me, and I love it. It makes me feel so safe, safer than being anywhere else can make me feel.

God, I love him so much.

It's stupid, I mean considering how much I love him I shouldn't still embarrassed to tell him, face-to-face... Is it normal? If it is, I wonder why? Is it because I think he won't say it back- no!

I don't even want to think of something negative when I feel so happy.

And safe.

I wriggle further into the embrace, trying to distract myself from my previous thought.

'Morning Katniss,' Peeta's husk, morning voice makes me shiver with happiness, if it's possible to shiver when I'm so filled with Peeta's radiated warmth. 'Morning,' I reply, I don't know how long we lay there, just wrapped in each other but it's only when the head doctor comes in to check on Peeta do we separate.

Peeta has to stay in the hospital for another three days and not once do I leave his bedside. Annie comes up to visit a few times and to make sure I'm alright , Haymitch too but I'm just fine sitting by Peeta's bed, holding his hand.

The day Peeta gets discharged from the hospital, I race home ahead of him with Annie and together, we make a picnic. Peeta is barely in the door before I'm making him turn around, to head out again; I know exactly where I'm heading.

It takes about an hour to get to the lake normally, and it's takes slightly longer with Peeta because of his prosthetic leg and all but the wait is always worth it; every time I travel there it takes my breath away. Only me and my Dad, and Gale, have been there before and I really want to share my secret place with Peeta.

And his reaction is just what I hoped for.

His face breaks into a expression of amazement mixed with shock, good shock though. And I'm not surprised, the lake does look a special kind of breathtaking today. The willow trees surrounding the lake are draping their leaves in it, causing ripples to appear in the lakes clear, blue surface. Butterflies are fluttering around the patches of flowers that are dotted here and there, fish occasionally jump from the depths of the lake upwards towards the mockingjays circling overhead.

'I didn't even think something this beautiful could be in district 12,' Peeta utters as we draw closer to the lake itself. 'Well, except you of course!' Peeta's sweet comment brings an uncharacteristic blush to my cheeks and I turn even redder when he kisses my cheek, brushing his soft lips against it. I don't correct him that the lake is actually outside 12 because I just really don't want to...

Still blushing, I lay out a blanket and start unpacking the picnic basket. We eat, laugh, talk, even devising this game where one person has to throw a strawberry in the air and the other has to catch it in their mouth. Peeta is exceptionally good at this game and I suck badly at it, always falling backwards in an attempt to catch it but missing the flying strawberry anyway.

On one particular occasion, Peeta throws the strawberry short of me so I launch myself in his direction to try and catch it. I end up knocking into him and we roll over and over before coming to a stop, me led on top of him, looking into those beautiful blue eyes.

'That one was all your fault, it was a bad throw!' I exclaim, I don't seem to able to lift myself off of him, I think it's mainly because I don't want to, to tell the truth... There was this pulsing warmth that starts from where his chest is pressed against mine, spreads right to my toes and fingertips, filling my insides with sparks and butterflies, all at once.

'Oh, and all the others you missed were just bad luck then?' Peeta says, a teasing smile spread across his face.

'Obviously!' I say, starting to laugh a little. Peeta chuckles along too and then he stops suddenly, the creases by his eyes and the dimple he gets from smiling, sweep off his face and are replaced by a look of ultimate softness. The voice he speaks in next is just as soft, almost a whisper.

'I love you, Katniss.'

I think I stop breathing, I'm not kidding. I have to program my brain and tell it what to do.

In and out

He said he loves me

In and out

LOVE. He said he LOVES me.

In and out

The person I love, loves me too.

In and out

I look deep into Peeta's eyes and let myself get sucked into them, while I whisper back, 'I love you more.'

Peeta's sighs in the happiest way possible, as if he's melting inside at my words; he tilts his chin upwards slightly so now are lips are just centimetres apart and the tips of our noses are touching.

'That's not possible,' Peeta utters, and I fill with such happiness it's unbelievable. The sparks in me are flying now and the butterflies are going crazy, it's all I can do to keep myself from kissing him right now. I want to feel his lips on mine again, the way they haven't felt for months. I want to feel that hunger again, like I did on the beach. I want to just kiss him and kiss him and kiss him, never to stop.

'Wanna bet?' I reply and I can't do it any longer. I lean forward, closer to him, closing the tiny gap between us.

And if I thought I was feeling sparks before, it's nothing to what I feel next.