This is my impression of what could have happened at the end of Mockingjay. So these are little stories of Peeta und Katniss growing back together, set somewhere before "Real or not real?" and the epilogue. Just because, every first time has a special meaning, although it can be the second first time. The whole story is out of Katniss POV.
Warnings: Well, Haymitch's alcoholism, evil geese, later: adult situations, first HG-story ever
Rating: M (at least the very last chapter)
Disclaimer: Hunger Games belongs to Suzanne Collins.
_

1. The First Smile

I watch Peeta the whole time, while he is digging the wholes for the primrose bushes. I don't know if he had noticed me. He doesn't show any sign, if he had.

He was already busy with the third hole, when I left the house with Buttercup cleaning his fur, ignoring me for a while. I know he is grieving for Prim, just like I do. Seeing that stupid cat makes me feel all the sadness clutching me again, trying to pull me back into this greyness with its tentacles. Yet, I try to refuse to give up this little part of living, again.

My breath catches in my throat, when Peeta straightens a little bit, brushing the sweat of his forehead. I push myself a little bit closer to the house wall, feeling the coolness against my seemingly hot cheek and for the first time I notice a blush on my cheeks, after all this time.

Peeta grabs the last primrose bush with such a gentleness I missed after the hijacking. I touch carefully my throat, remembering the first time he touched me again and I fight the tears I feel in my eyes.

No, I won't cry, I tell myself over and over again. There is nothing to cry about in this very moment.

He is on his knees now, covering the plant's roots with earth, after he had straightened it. Of course, he doesn't want the bush to grow diagonal from the ground. He was always an artist and he still is. He wants to finish his work with perfection, just like his paintings.

It's wonderful, looking at his work and I have to suppress a sigh. With the look on his face, I can tell, he is pleased himself. He turns and grabs the watering can, hidden from my few behind the wheelbarrow.

When the water hits the green leaves and soft blossoms, the start glittering in the sunlight, like little diamonds and it makes the scene even more beautiful. I think there even was a tiny rainbow, created by sunlight and the rain-like water drops.

I had seen a rainbow once before. It was at the lake with my father on a quiet hot summer's day. The sun was shining all the time and I swam around in the lake, while father had tried to hunt game, which wasn't cooling somewhere in hidden shadows, like most of the people would do. It had begun raining out of sudden and I swam as quickly as I could back to the bank, where he was already waiting for me, grinning, two squirrels in one hand, his bow in the other. When I asked him, why we is still waiting and why we were not returning home, he said, I should just wait and see.

And there it was: A faint rainbow over the trees and over my lake, each color brighter, than I could remember it from home. The first time I had seen those colors again, where in the Capitol.

I feel a soft touch on my shoulder and look up from the ground, noticing my eyes were not on Peeta anymore. But now I am meeting his brilliant blue eyes, with a slight gleam in them – another thing I have missed since his hijacking.

"I am finished." He says, pointing behinds himself to show me his work. "Do you like it?"

I nod slowly, even before I laid my eyes on the primroses again.

"Thank you." I tell him in a faint whisper, using my voice after I had screamed at Buttercup, the first time again. "But it wasn't not your task, doing something like that for me." "But I wanted to."

I nod again. "Well, thank you. Again and again."

Out of sudden, a soft smile creeps on his features and the soft gleam emerges in his eyes again. A strange feeling hits me and my stomach feels warm and tight at the same time. It is the first real smile, I see on his lips. Not some creepy version of it, before he tries to kill me. It was a real one. On the other hand, I cannot believe, that this smile is meant for me, a person that has killed so many human beings in just so little time. A person, which is only a broken person of itself. A person, that is far away from the version of the Katniss Everdeen, he fell in love with.

I close my eyes for just a second and try to swallow that lump that is rising in my throat and chest again. At the same time I feel his fingers pressing closer on my skin, as if it was some kind of protection manner. I open my eyes again and see his smile still present on his lips, but the gleam in his eyes was now a little more serious.

"And I would do it, again and again."

He sounds just like the old Peeta again. My Peeta, I left behind in Snow's clutch and I know, He is slowly coming back to me.

"You smile. Real or not real?"

I blink and lift my own hand to my mouth, to find its corners slightly lifted up. As I notice this, I light up even more. And I whisper: "Real." And I decide, to explain it a little more. "I like you seeing like this, again."

We stood there, just like that, both smiling, his hand on my shoulder, mine on my lips, for some minutes, until he let go of me, turning slightly around.

"Well, then…", he stared, taking the few steps towards the wheelbarrow. "…, I will see, if I can find even more primroses. I want to see your smile. Again and again."