Tough Love | EVERLARK

Where the girl with the camera puts her life into focus.

SIX MONTHS LATER

The sun wakes Peeta before his alarm does.

Its golden rays shine through the thin curtains, making the sun extremely hard to miss as it fills the room with light. It is just before five in the morning, and the early summer sun is already desperate to make itself known as it pokes through the curtains and shines directly into Peeta's eyes.

Peeta groans slightly as he feels Patty's hot breath on his cheek and the scratch of his paws on Peeta's side, whining in his ear to indicate that he needs to go pee. The early baker's hours hadn't been easy for Peeta to slip back into, but it was getting easier and easier every day to wake at such a ridiculous hour.

"Alright Patty one minute," Peeta sighed as he resigned to waking up, knowing that there was no chance of peace when Patty needed to pee.

Sitting up in the small creaky sofa bed, Peeta stretched as his feet fished for his slippers. It was a Sunday, a day meant for rest, but not in Peeta's world.

It had been six months since he had packed up his entire life in his truck, driving through the Districts to try and escape whatever was suffocating him in Capitol City.

Six months with no contact with his family, six months since he had walked away from the Mellark Empire willingly.

It had been close enough to the best time of his life, spending time visiting all the Districts in his pursuit of District Twelve seemed to revive him, he met countless people, some kind and others not. But he had been happy, almost suspiciously happy.

Sleeping in his truck with Patty for the first two months of his journey, until he reached Twelve, had been hard, so he'd been relieved when Finnick and Annie had visited him after he had reached District Four, getting the train from Capitol City and letting Peeta stay with them and their families.

The happy couple had broken the news that they were engaged, telling Peeta one night when they were all drinking on the beach, and Peeta had almost exploded with happiness as he'd accepted Finnick's invitation to be his best man, not hesitating for a second.

They had also broken the news that Katniss was now, to everyone's surprise, dating Darius. And that Jo had broken another older woman's heart. But mainly they told him about Katniss and Darius. Apparently, they had just started going out when Finnick and Annie had left for District Four, so they didn't know much, other than Katniss didn't really want to talk about it.

The news had winded Peeta, but he'd refused to let that show. So he'd lied and told Finnick and Annie how happy he was for Katniss.

He obviously didn't do a good job of convincing them, but they'd agreed with Peeta all the same, trying to appease him in whatever way they could. Peeta knew they didn't believe him, he knew how fake the smiles plastered on their faces were. All he could think about was how both of them would make terrible actors.

After Finnick and Annie had returned to Capitol City, Peeta had made his way to his final stop, District Twelve. The anticipation of being back in his hometown drove him insane.

It looked exactly as fifteen-year-old him remembered. With the same familiar smell in the air, the same people lurking around the streets, the same old Greasy Sae's with the same old menu and the same ancient waitresses stomping around.

His and Patty's first stop in Twelve had been the diner, and Peeta had sat and devoured a massive cheeseburger, sneaking Patty some of the beef as he'd chatted with Sae, who somehow still remembered him all those years later.

Peeta spent the first night in Twelve sleeping in his truck, even though he knew that he had other options. But he just couldn't bring himself to go back there just yet.