Learn To Love • After Mockingjay

➸ Chapter 1 ➸

[A/N; the picture ^ is of what Katniss' dress looks like so yeah.]

Katniss

It's been exactly one year since my sister's death, that ultimately broke me. I've tried to mend myself, but once you're broken the person you was before is lost. Snow resulted in me braking. I killed Coin instead of Snow. Ever since me and Peeta were tricked in the first games, I dreamt of seeing the light leave his eyes. But if I didn't kill Snow, there would've been a Capitol Games.

It's the things we love that destroy us. I heard him hiss in my mind, his voice filled with poison and toxic to anyone who's ever crossed his path.

I clench the end of my dress in my hands to prevent me from punching something, anything.

"What's wrong, sweetheart?" Haymitch asks. Me and him are sat in mine and Peeta's house, waiting for Peeta to get back from his last session of therapy on how to control his flashbacks. He goes once every week for 2 days to a special place in District 3.

I don't reply to Haymitch, I don't want to annoy him right now.

"Sweetheart, you know you can tell me anything that's bothering you." Haymitch says. I slowly turn my gaze to him and clench my jaw.

"I just thought of Snow, that's all." I say trying to hide the anger and despair in my voice. I hear the train drive past on the rails next to our house which must mean Peeta is at least in District 12 now.

Plutarch recommended he go to therapy after the rebellion. After Peeta tried to kill me with a kitchen knife in our kitchen.

He was trying to control his flashbacks, but he couldn't when he didn't know what to do.

"You're a mutt." Peeta whispered whilst sat at the dinner table. I only got up to get a drink for us both, but somehow, something must've triggered him to have a flashback.

I was surprised, I thought that after Snow was dead, he'd magically get over his hijacking, but I didn't realise it worked like that.

"Peeta-" I said, slowly turning around. His eyes were jet black, not the normal ocean blue they usually were. He sat with his hands clenched around his cutlery, his knuckles turning white.

He jumped up, and pinned me against the kitchen counter. He grabbed the nearest weapon; a long, sharp, kitchen knife. He slid it along my arm, causing a massive gash to release blood that flowed down my arm and painted a dark crimson onto the pale white floor.

I screamed Haymitch's name over and over again whilst Peeta stood there smiling. He picked me up and threw me across the room, stopping when my body crashed into a wall.

Moments later, Haymitch rushed inside with a handkerchief covered in what I believed to be Chloroform and knocked out Peeta. He held it over his nose and mouth and Peeta's body went limp.

Haymitch took me to the hospital, and there they stitched me up.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Haymitch asks, bringing me out of my memory.

"Well, I'm scared, Haymitch. What if Peeta can't control his flashbacks after all? What if, I've lost the boy with the bread forever? I can't handle that, I can't." I reply. Tears start to stream down my face, and make paint splattered tear drops imprint on my dress.

"Sweetheart, Peeta's going to get through this. You'll get the real Peeta back, but you have to remember that Peeta's always going to have flashbacks now and then, and you have to be there for him. You have to stay strong, for Peeta." Haymitch says. I give him a smile and close my eyes and breath out.

I open them again and bite my lip. "Okay. It's just, this past year, has been emotionally warring. Peeta's had to fight the flashbacks in front of me and it's so painful to watch."

Haymitch is about to reply when I hear the front door open and footsteps shuffling about in the hall. The door abruptly closes again and Peeta runs in.

He picks me up and swirls me in his arms. He stops and puts me down, but holds me close in his embrace.

"Katniss," he whispers, "it's all going to get better now. I promise."

I look into his ocean blue eyes, that gleam back at me and I'm instantly reminded of all those times on the train. Even though we awaited our death, every moment with Peeta felt special. Even when I didn't know I loved him, he somehow made everything... Better.

"Promise?" I ask him.

"I promise." He replies, and smiles. I lean in and kiss him, a short, but long awaited kiss. I've missed his lips. We haven't kissed in a while. But I remember the first time I kissed him, for real. And when I mean for real, I don't mean on television.

We were laying in bed, and as I awoke from a nightmare, Peeta was there to comfort me.

It was around two months after the rebellion and Peeta was still trying to get himself back.

As I laid there in his arms, I heard his whisper. "You love me, real or not real?"

I turn around and look into his eyes, ridden with confusion and hope.

"Real." I reply. He leaned in and cupped my face with his hands. His lips lightly brushed mine, before they locked.

It felt right.

"Ehem." Haymitch says, when I remember that he was also still in the room.

"Haymitch!" Peeta exclaims. Peeta shakes Haymitch's hand and pats him on the back.

"It's good to see you back, boy. Even though I saw you the other day, it feels like the real you is back." Haymitch replies. I agree, I haven't seen Peeta this happy in a while.

"I feel like the real me is back too. Everything is finally falling into place."

>>>
Hello!

So, this is the first REAL chapter of this book. I really hope it was a good one.

I'm going to try and make this a good read, and I know a lot of you will get very happy in a few chapters to come 😏

I'm bending the rules a bit with what's happening in a few chapters, but try not to be mad because it's a good thing.

Anyway, more up soon!