Prologue:
Katniss and Peeta Mellark are currently living a rough life, but in all reality, it's not all that bad and it will get better eventually. It always does. In this story, Katniss learns that marriage isn't all it's cracked up to be and love can overcome it all, as long as they have each other. She learns to help Peeta in ways she didn't know she could and even helps herself. Follow the story and see how they figure out the beginning of their 'forever and always ' and how the Mellark's pick up a few other 'Missing Pieces' along the way.
Katniss POV-
I lay hunched over in the grass, staring up into the sky.
I've been here at least an hour, cycling through and crying for each and every person to cry for and I still don't feel any better.
Peeta's still hurt and he will be for a while and I'm out here feeling sorry for myself.
Being selfish as usual.
The clouds come and bring rain.
It soaks my t-shirt and soon, I'm chilled to the bone.
The sun went away when I came out and all that's left to show for the day is the faint light behind the clouds.
But it is not warm.
It's gloomy.
Then, it begins to thunder and lightning and hail.
Suddenly, I hear the back door sling open and Peeta is standing there, worried.
"Katniss! Get your ass inside! Are you crazy?" He yells at me.
I pull my head up out of the saturated, flattened grass and give him a look, partly because it's muggy and the lightening hurts my eyes.
The hail isn't helping anything the chill, even though it's small.
"Come on! You're going to get struck by lightening and it's hailing! Hurry up." He says but I don't move.
He shakes his head at me, rolling his eyes before he runs out the back.
Immediately getting soaked by the large water droplets, "Come on!" Peeta says but I refuse to move, even though he's pulling on my arm.
I look up at him, his eyes still sad but worried and frustrated too.
"Why do you even care?" I mutter, yanking my arm out of his grip.
He looks at me like I've gone insane.
I glare at him.
The hail stops but the rain still falls steadily and the sound of thunder booms our ears.
He holds my gaze, then plops down next to me in the soaked grass.
Maybe he has gone insane too?
"I care about you because you are my wife."
I scoff, "Doesn't matter." I say, crossing my arms.
"Yeah it does." Peeta says pretty loudly, the rain is making it hard to hear.
"Just because we are married doesn't mean anything, Peeta." I say, sounding absolutely crazy and I know I've lost some piece of my mind because I am not even making sense.
It's like I have no control, the words I speak.
I'm furious and I shouldn't be.
"Yeah, it does." Peeta repeats.
"Why?"
He sighs, then stifles a fake laugh, "You don't get it, do you?" He yells over the thunder.
I pick at the tall, wet blades of grass, not caring to look at him or even begin to worry about getting wet or worse, struck by the lightening that lights the sky and makes the thunder shake the earth.
"Get what? What is there to get? You're slipping away from me and there's nothing I can do about it." I tell him, finally understanding why I'm truly so upset with him.
"That's not what I meant." Peeta says, shaking his head.
"Then what do you mean? Because obviously, I don't understand you anymore."
He scoffs, "Why do I care, Katniss? Maybe it's because you are my best friend. You're sitting out here in the middle of a thunder storm, acting absolutely insane and you ask me why I care? Why would I not care?" Peeta asks loudly.
But that however, was a stupid question to ask, I will give him that.
I think for a minute and can only decipher one logical answer.
"Because you love me." I finally muster up.
"Exactly but maybe it's not just because I love you." He says, squinting as rain drips down his long eyelashes and his blond hair that's now dark from the rain and slide off the tip of his nose.
I blink away a few droplets of rain.
My hair is soaked and my clothes are too, not anymore than Peeta's are now though.
"Then what else?" I ask, knowing Peeta is going to say something that will make all my anger go away and make everything seem like it'll be fine again, but it won't because I know damn well, once we get back inside or even wake up in the morning, everything will be back to the way it has been.
He takes a deep breath as thunder rumbles the ground.
My first instinct is to flee, because thunder always comes after lightening and lightening is surely near, but I don't budge.
"It's probably because you're my whole life, Katniss. You are everything to me." Peeta rambles on, then stops.
I look up at him, wondering why he stopped, but it seems he stopped to look in the sky.
I look up too, almost blinded by the lightening bolts.
I know we better get out of here before something else tragic happens, like getting electrocuted by our wedding rings or something.
Wouldn't that be something?
"We are each other's missing pieces and we need each other." Peeta says softly, the words just flowing out of his mouth like he's said them a billion times, but I know that he is just speaking from his heart.
He's always been good at that and being convincing without lying.
I just hold my breath, not knowing how to respond.
He always plays the 'missing piece' card and it always gets me, but it should, he is my 'missing piece.' And maybe I should think about that a little more.
How Peeta is that exactly.
"Now will you please get your ass inside?" Peeta asks after a second, helping me to my feet and together, we rush inside.
When we get inside. Peeta and I go upstairs without speaking.
I strip from my soaking wet clothes and leave them on the bathroom floor while Peeta changes in our bedroom.
I put on dry undergarments and dry my hair with a towel.
When I come out, Peeta is in his underwear, his hair still dark blond from the moisture.
When he sees me, he immediately walks up behind me and puts his black robe around my body.
Wrapping me up and holding me there, so that I am forced to stay in his arms.
"Are you okay?" He asks softly, his wet hair on my cheek.
I breathe heavily and feel like my voice has vanished, probably from all the yelling we did outside.
"Yes." I say softly and he gently releases me.
I tighten the robe around my body, loving the scent it holds.
A scent I rarely smell anymore.
I bite my bottom lip, trying to hold back tears and we just stand there ungainly.
The thunder and lightening still going on along with the hail and rain, lighting up our entire bedroom more than the lightbulbs could ever do.
"So, what now?" Peeta asks, again ignoring the storm around us.
I let out my breath.
"I guess that's up to you." I say truthfully.
He sighs heavily and sits on the edge of the bed and says, "I want to get better for us."
I turn around and face him.
I can see the real Peeta fighting his way back to me.
Lately, his eyes, they've been that grayish, cloudy color.
The color they get when he loses it all, the color they get when he thinks about his family and the things they've done.
"Then please just try."
He closes his eyes, "I will."
I walk over and kneel before him, wrapping my arms around his waist. He sets his steady hands on my back as I lay my head in his lap.
It reminds me of the night we had our first kiss.
He kneeled before my like this and I held him there and we cried and cried.
It's a memory neither of us will forget, even though the place it happened in is now long gone.
But it feels so good just for him to let me touch him.
He never wants me to hug him or kiss him or even really lay by him at night and he no longer holds me or even tells me he loves me unless I say it first.
I never thought I would be the one having to try so hard in our relationship and I don't know how Peeta could stand it all those years, being the one to usually make the first move in everything.
Plus cooking, doing dishes, laundry, taking care of me, himself and anyone else he could.
Working at the bakery too.
He's always supported me, served me and I don't even want to ask him what we will do about money now.
The damages are far exceeding any insurance policy and anything he's saved and even his father's account has nearly been drained for costs.
I know it's not even crossed his mind and shamefully, it's crossed mine.
He has no where to work now and no one to write his paychecks and no one to even own the business that gave us our living.
He doesn't even have a bakery anymore.
But even if he gets a job somewhere else, he wouldn't be doing what he loved.
I would without a doubt get a job this time to support us and it's getting to the point where he never sketches or has any interest picking up a pencil.
He won't want to work.
And this is not my Peeta.
My Peeta was a painter and a baker and he was passionate about love and life and living life to the fullest and this Peeta isn't.
It's as if he has no desire to move on and I don't blame him and I know he's trying and I know even more so how hard it is to be better.
He nearly lost everyone but me and what am I to him?
Sure, three of his grandparents are alive and some cousins and their parents but it's not the same.
They aren't the same as your father or your brothers or hell, even your mother.
Bristol isn't the same as Prim. Carter and Finn wouldn't be the same as our own kids, if we ever have any after this. Gale wouldn't be the same as Peeta and Brandon wouldn't be the same as Finnick for Annie.
And Peeta's parents wouldn't be the same as mine and neither would his grandparents.
His grandparents aren't his own parents and I guess what I am trying to say is that yes, they are apart of why he is here but not completely and I think that's what is so devastating to him.
Plus, losing one at a time isn't as bad as them all in a day. Like his other grandparents, he lost them both in a matter of a few weeks.
It still had to be easier than this.
But then again losing anyone isn't ever easy, I know that much.
Maybe I won't ever understand what Peeta is really feeling, because we all take this a different way but I do know that I can't blame him for his behavior because I acted a hundred times worse.
There's always someone out there going through something a hundred times worse than you and I think I've found him.