Victors and Mentors

Tell Them You Love Me

Peeta's POV

When Katniss was "acting in love" with me, I wasn't acting. Before I drifted off to sleep I thought about Katniss really loving me. But I know that's impossible. Katniss loves Gale. I see them going into the woods together or going into the Hob. The way they look at each other . . . Katniss could never look at me like that.

She's still asleep, her head on my chest, her arms wrapped around me. She didn't have any nightmares tonight. Little does she know that I did. 

I told Katniss I loved her and got down on one knee with a Capitol ring of gold and diamonds. She said no and turned away, but  Gale came with a ring of twig and proposed. She said yes. 

I wish I had dreamt of mutts. 

Katniss shifts against me and I look at her. The way her eyelashes flutter, the way her dark hair falls down her shoulders, but what I can't stop looking at is her lips. Rosy red lips that I yearn to put my own on. My eyes flit towards the camera in the corner of our bedroom. 

"Good morning," I say, kissing Katniss. Her eyes flutter open and she instinctively kisses me back. 

"Peeta?" she asks confused.

 I lean into her ear and whisper, "Cameras." 

She looks away, her cheeks turning almost pink. "Oh."

"I have to head to the bakery in an hour." 

She frowns but I don't understand why. There's no reason she should be upset about my leaving. In fact, I thought she would be happy. 

I kiss her quickly and then get up to go in the shower. I hear a knock at the door. I look outside the window in the bathroom. It's something I've never understood (who would want a window in their bathroom?) but now I'm glad for it because it shows me who is standing at the front door...Gale. I run out of the shower, soap still in my hair, and throw on some clothes. 

Katniss POV

I don't want to get up but Peeta is in the shower, and I'm the only one who's able to answer the door. It must be the Capitol people, although, I thought they were only coming every weekend now that they installed the cameras for live surveillance. I stand up and open the door and to my shock, it's Gale. 

"Gale?"

"Hey Catnip."

"What are you doing here?" He looks up at the camera above our doorway and smiles. Then he kisses me. I push him off of me.

"What the hell Gale!?"

"Tell them. Tell them you love me."

"Gale. Stop it." Thank God for Peeta. He comes running and pulls me behind him, suds still in his hair, his shirt on backwards. Worries start to fill my head. How could Gale be so reckless?

"Get out Gale." He looks at Gale again, taking a whiff and looking down at a stain on his clothes. "Are you drunk?" 

"No," he says smirking. Peeta pushes Gale and Gale stumbles backward a little, caught off guard. Then he comes back with twice the strength, pinning Peeta to the wall. Peeta turns him around easily so he's the one against the wall. 

"She isn't going to live this life of lies. She doesn't love you."

"Shut up," Peeta says but I can notice the tears in his eyes. Gale just starts laughing. I don't know what has gotten into him. He's acting so different, I don't even know him. 

"You know it. You've always loved her, you feel happy every time cameras are around because it's almost like it's real, it's almost like a dream come true, but it's fake. It's all fake. She doesn't love you. She just wants to use you. Why do you think she comes crawling back to you every night and ignoring you, by day." Peeta's jaw is set but his eyes are wide and vulnerable and I can almost feel the tears drip down his face. 

"Because she just wants someone in her bed at night. And who better than you, the boy who'd do anything for her?" Gale says smiling. 

Tears sting behind my eyes because even though this isn't Gale, even though the words are not the words of my best friend, he is right. That's exactly what I do. 

Peeta's POV

My hands are pressing Gale against the wall harder. I look at Katniss and her eyes are watering up, lips pressed tightly together. "Get out, Gale," she says. 

I yearn to comfort her, but I can't until Gale is out of the way, so I shove him out the door. "You heard her. Get out of our house, Gale."

My attention immediately turns to Katniss. My first instinct is to console her but I don't, I can't. Because Gale was right. She's just using me. But aren't I doing the same thing to her. I'm the one intertwining our hands the second we are in public, kissing her every chance I get, even this morning. I guess we're even. 

So, I walk to her and extend my arm to pull her up. She reluctantly stands and starts sobbing when I embrace her. We stay like that for a couple minutes until the crying stops. 

"He's right," she mumbles. 

"No, he's not." I hold her against me, pressing my lips to her hair. 

She just shakes her head. "I'm going to check on Prim"

I nod, watching her grab her things and leave. I go to the only place I can think of going: the painting room. I don't know what I'm going to paint but when I see the finished portrait, I'm not surprised. 

It's Katniss.