Our Love Will Remain - The story after Mockingjay

Chapter 5

We stay in the Meadow for two amazing hours. Mostly, we kiss, but we also cuddle and look at the stars. I feel so safe, sitting there in his arms, resting my forehead on his chin. He has his arm around my waist and keeps kissing my left hand. If I would have seen some other couple doing it, it might have looked weird. But right now, nothing feels more natural. He kisses it everywhere. On each fingertip, on each knuckle, on the back of the hand, and finally, the ring. He repeats this over and over again, and I feel more at peace than I have felt in many years. We are getting married. Me and Peeta are going to get married. This man is now my fiancé. This man is going to be my husband. He will be mine forever, and no one can take him away from me after that. I feel so happy that I get butterflies in my stomach. Suddenly, the kisses on my hand start getting slower and slower, and after a while, they stop, Peeta's lips resting on my hand. I open my eyes. Peeta's eyes are closed and his breaths are heavy. I can't help but smile. Oh, I love him so. My future husband. I would want nothing more than to let him sleep, but it's getting cold. Actually, it is pretty cold already. I realise that I have to wake him up, we should be going home. I start to stroke his forehead and chin.

"Wake up, wake up, honey." I say with a sweet voice. I have never been the one to use petnames, but now I love Peeta more than I ever have before, if such a thing is possible, so it only feels natural. He winks his eyes a few times and then looks at me with big, blue eyes.

"Oh, Katniss, I'm sorry I fell asleep, I just felt so at peace that I couldn't help it." he says apologetically.

"I love you." I say, and pull him up from the ground. Then I hug him tight and give him a quick kiss.I remember what he had told me earlier. "More than anything." I finish my sentence. He gives me a kiss too, and replies:

"I love you too, Katniss. You mean the world to me."

We exchange smiles and take each other's hands. Peeta puts his arm around me. We walk towards the Victor's Village, the moon being our only witness.

PEETA

I look down at the wonderful person resting her head on my chest. I can't even put into words how much I love her. And to even make things better, she agreed to be my wife just yesterday. I think she liked the ring that I picked up from the jewelry two days ago. I had brought the pearl to the jeweler two months ago, and asked him to make an engagement ring out of it. He said it would take about two months to make it, because he had to send the pearl to the Capitol, he wasn't able to make the ring himself. I also asked him to have the word 'Always' engraved into it. Then, three days ago, he called me and said that the ring was back and ready for pickup. When I finally had it, I had no idea when to ask. The moment presented itself quite easily when she suggested a visit to the Meadow. It was not diffiicult to put the words together, they sort of came out without thinking. It's not hard to ask a woman to marry you, if you are truly in love with her. That, I learned yesterday. I lean down to kiss her head. I have been stroking her hair the whole time I've been awake, and now I slide my hand down to her waist. I rub the soft fabric of her nightgown between my fingers. Silk. I haven't seen it many times, but I love the smooth feeling of it, so when I saw the nightgown in a shop in town, I didn't even hesitate to buy it. I knew Katniss would love it too.

"I love you, Katniss." I whisper into her hair. It smells like flowers and something else, that I can't place. The only thing I know is that I love that smell. I feel her move a little, and see her eyelids open to reveal a pair of beautiful gray eyes.

"Hey." she says, and leans up to kiss me. "How was your night?" she adds.

"Good, actually. I haven't slept without nightmares two nights in a row since before the Games." I say, kissing her back. "What about you?" I feel a little bit worried. I hate to hear her screams in the night, I know how much she is hurting.

"Nothing." she says, and I feel relieved. "I haven't either." she says.

"I can't believe you belong to me, and only me, forever. It's like my biggest dream come true." I say, staring out in the air.

"I could say the same to you, my beloved fiancé." she says with a big smile, and rolls onto me. She gives me a deep kiss, and then places her ear against my chest, closing her eyes. I do that too. We lay there for I don't know how long, and I feel like we have gained a bond to each other that we never had before. Nothing could take her away from my life now.

We finally leave the bed when she starts to feel sick. She was free of it last night, because she had taken her medicins, but now they have lost their effect. I hold her hair back once again, like I did last morning, and when she is done and has washed her mouth, I kiss her. We break away when she says:

"We should tell Haymitch. And Mother. Even though she is far away and probably won't come to the wedding, I'm sure she would like to know if her daughter is getting married." I agree. We should definately tell her. And Haymitch. I suppose he won't think it's such a big deal, he doesn't think that of anything. And by the way, I think he always knew this would happen. Rebellion or no rebellion, peace or no peace.

"I think we should start planning it soon, I mean the wedding. Nothing too big, I think. A small private wedding, with people like Haymitch, your mother, Annie and her son, Greasy Sae, Johanna, and Gale as our guests." I added Gale to the list, because I think that he would like us to invite him, even if he might not want to come.

"Yeah, that sounds good. And I want to do the toasting. Even if we already have a house, I would want to do it. It just feels right." she says, hugging me. I nod, and put my forehead against hers.

"You love me, real or not real?" I whisper.

"Real. A million times real." she answers, and I lift her up in my arms, starting to kiss her like my life depended on it.