A Time For Love

chapter 22

Everyone showed up at noon. Peeta's been acting really weird. He's nervous and he's pacing around a lot and he went and shut himself in the room. Finn knows what's wrong, and Daddy does too, and so does his Daddy.

"Peet." Finn says. "Calm down."

He looks at me, and the. He rushes into our room and I'm pretty sure he gets sick.

"What's I do?" I ask. I start to get up.

"Nothing." Daddy says, and him, Mr. Mellark and Finn follow him.

I sit there, feeling helpless before I get up and go outside. Annie and Mama follow me, and Johanna and then Mrs. Mellark. "What'd I do?" I demand.

"Nothing honey." Mrs. Mellark says.

"But he looked at me and then puked!" I say.

"He's just excited for tomorrow. He always does it." Mrs. Mellark says. "He did it last year to me. He's been doing it since he was able to open his own gifts." I sigh.

We go back inside and he's out of the bathroom.

He doesn't even look at me.

I want to demand answer but I bite my tongue.

What if he breaks up with me?

Annie sits next to me and she's reading every though going through my head. "Katniss." She says. "Stop."

"I'm not doing anything." I say.

"Your thinking things." She says. "Stop."

I ignore her.

It starts getting dark. We have a big dinner. He stops completely acting like I don't exist.

Then after dessert, Peeta comes out of our room and drops a gift on my lap.

"It's not Christmas." I say.

"Open it." He says.

"It's not Christmas." I repeat.

"Open it before I lose my mind. You want to know why I've hardly been acknowledging you? That's it. Open it."

I sigh and pull the wrapping off.

It's jewelry.

"No. You said no jewelry. I listened to you." He's squatting in front of me with his hands on my knees. I push the black velvet jewelry box into his hands.

"Open it." He says, handing it back.

"No." I hand it back to him, and we g back and forth like that for a minute before his patience runs out.

"Dammit Katniss Joy open the goddamn box!" He says. I sigh and open it, and then I look down, and my heart shoots up into my throat.

This isn't a necklace or earrings. No, no, this is a ring. My eyes well with tears.

This is not happening. Annie peeks over my shoulder, and I hear her start crying. She buries her head in Finn's chest and watches. Daddy puts his arm around Mama, and Mr. Mellark puts his arm around Mrs. Mellark, and Maple hugs Prim, and the only sound in the whole entire house is the crackling of the fire.

Slowly, I drag my eyes to his, and he's shifted so he's on one knee. He takes the box from my hands.

"Marry me." He whispers.

He doesn't say a big speech, and he doesn't have to. He's not persistent, he's hoping.

I realize then that he's been acting like this all day because he's worried I'm going to say no.

Yesterday, he said what he said about me being the mother of his unborn children because he needed reassurance.

I can't see myself with anyone else.

Everyone in this house knows how I feel about marriage. I don't believe in it.

But...I believe in it when it comes to Peeta Mellark, and I love him so much. Why shouldn't marry him?

I realize then that I haven't answered him and I see panic starting to form in his eyes.

"Yes." I whisper.

He let's out a long breath of relief and he slides the ring on my finger. Everyone starts cheering and he grabs both of my hands and pulls me off of the couch, off of the ground, into his tight arms. We kiss for a while, and he sets me down. "I love you so much." He whispers.

"I love you too. I'm sorry I made you panic. I kind of lost my train of though."

Annie basically knocks me down. "You changed your mind about marriage! Your getting married!" She says. "Oh my god, I can't believe this!" She's so excited. I laugh.

Everyone hugs everyone, and it's all happy.

After an hour of being excited, I lie and say in going to check on the horses, but I'm going out there because Peeta will follow me and we can make love.

I'm right. He does follow me. I shut the barn doors and lock them and climb onto the hay loft.

"Horses aren't up there." He says with a gentle smile.

"I'm not here for horses." I smile. He follows me up and I hug him. "I love you." I whisper. He hugs me back.

"I love you too." He mumbles. I kiss him. He deepens it, and even though it's below zero outside, we have sex in the barn.

.....9.....

I laid in his arms for a long time in bed before sneaking back out to the barn. I ripped open his gifts and wrapped them again and changed the label from my persistent asshole to my persistent fiancé.

I went out to the deck then. It's three in the morning. I stare out at a deer I. The tree line. The glass door slides and then shuts quietly, and Daddy comes out and stands next to me.

"I can't believe my kitten is getting married." He says, putting his arm around me. I lean into him. "The one daughter I had that I truly though was never going to get married. When I saw how you were when you left him though, I knew. He's a good guy." He says.

"I love him, Daddy."

"I know sweetie." He says, kissing my head. "I give you my blessing."

I smile.

"He asked for my approval." He said. "He called me yesterday."

"He's a good guy." I mumble.

"I know he is. You should get some rest. Early day tomorrow." He says.

I nod and kiss his cheek, and then walk in the house.

I slip into me and Peeta's bedroom and I crawl back into the warm bed. He wakes up and pulls me into his arms, and he shivers and mutters about me being cold. It's cold in here. This is always the coldest room in the house because he sleeps with the windows open. I don't mind it.

But he doesn't pull away. He warms me up.

......8......

I wake up at five and take a shower and put on a red dress that goes a few inches above my knee and my boots. I go outside and take care of all of the animals. It takes me a while and by the time I go in the house, everyone is awake.

Peeta pulls me into his arms.

We start to open gifts, and it's so happy an loving.

Gosh, Annie was so right.

Just a couple months ago, I thought I'd never get married. I thought there was never going to be a time for love for me.

Clearly, I was wrong, and I'm not upset about it.

Alright this is the end. I'll make a sequel, but I had a dream last night and it was really interesting, and I'm making it into a story.