Everlark- The Years After the Epilogue *Editing*

Concern

It had been 5 days since Peeta’s flashback, but each night he shoots up awake in the middle of the night with sweat dripping down his face and a rapid heartbeat. However every time, I’m there to comfort him and eventually my lips meet his. It was Willows play on Monday…two days from now and we still hadn’t figured a way of how we could both sit through it without freaking out.

The sun was streaming through our blinds which eventually awakened Peeta. The first thing he does whenever he wakes up is kiss me, it’s like to check I’m still here, that I’m real and that we’re together. ‘’Morning beautiful’’, he says as he caresses my face with his hand.

‘’Hey’’, I whisper softly. ‘’Are you ready for today?’’ I ask him. Today, seeing as it was Saturday, we decided to take the children up to district 4 and visit the beach, we wanted to get away for the weekend and it seemed the perfect place to tell Willow a little more about us both and the rebellion. However, this also meant that all the memories which we’d buried in the past were dug back up after so long, neither of us were ready for that. But we had to tell her.

‘’Yeah I’m fine, it’ll be good to speak about it’’’, he stares at me for a few seconds and grabs my hand, giving it a small squeeze knowing that I’m worried. ‘’Come on let’s get up’’. I grab my robe and go into the nursery to see an already awoken Rye.

‘’Hi boy, are you alright?’’ I say as I grab him and give him a cuddle. He mummers a few ‘mama’s’ and starts playing with the ringlets in my hair. I take him into the kitchen where Willow is stood helping Peeta with breakfast. ‘’Good morning sweetheart, did you sleep well?’’ She looked at me like she wanted to tell me something, but didn’t. ‘’Hey what’s up come here’’, I place Rye in his highchair and head to the living room to talk to her. ‘’Come on darling, what’s the matter?’’

‘’I, um, had a nightmare, but when I came in to see you I could hear you helping daddy so I didn’t want to come in anymore and then I couldn’t get back to sleep... What’s up with him mum, he never normally yells like you do?’’ I look at my daughter and see the look of concern on her face. It breaks my heart to know she hears our nightmares and doesn’t understand why, it’ll be worse when Rye hears them too.

‘’Aw sweetie, you should have come in, you know we wouldn’t have wanted you scared through the night, come here’’, I bring her into my arms and give her a hug, rocking her slightly.

‘’What’s up with him mum?’’, she asks again. I’d hoped she wouldn’t have realised I’d bypassed the question, but she had.

‘’He just had a little nightmare like you darling, it scared him a lot because you know how much he cares about us all’’, she again looks unsure, but eventually she accepts that’s all I’m going to tell her and runs back off to help Peeta. After breakfast while everyone’s getting ready I start to pack a picnic basket full of goods which Peeta had made last night, it all looked wonderful, as I’m packing I notice how he’s made some cheese-topped bread for me, knowing it was my favourite. Just as I’m finishing up I feel his arms snake around my waist from behind, his head rests in the crook of my neck and I smile to myself. I love him. I turn around and rest my arms behind his head.

‘’Kas, you look beautiful’’, he says as he leans in to give me a kiss. Each time he kisses me I feel the thing I felt in the cave and on the beach, my body explodes leaving me with a hunger for more, I reluctantly pull away and just stare into his eyes. ‘’Always’’, he whispers as he pulls me into a tight embrace.

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I'm sorry that nothing much happened in this chapter, it's kind of a 'bridge' one into whats coming up next. I hope you don't mind- I'll be posting chapter 7 in a couple of hours anyway so you won't have to wait long.