A/Ns: This was written to raise money for the MoreS2SL challenge over on Tumblr. I would like to thank MoreS2SL for hosting this challenge and to people who donated to this wonderful cause. I would also like to thank the people at everlarkianarchivechat on Tumblr for their ongoing support with giving me feedback on this story. Lastly, I would like to extend a huge thank you to katnissdoesnotfollowback on Tumblr for beta reading this story for me.

Chapter One:

Beeep… Beeep...Beeep…

Katniss can faintly hear her cellphone's alarm blaring loudly. At first she tries to ignore it, feeling very hungover, but the beeping continues.

She blindly reaches her arm towards the noise and turns it off. Relieved that the annoying thing has stopped buzzing, she tries to go back to sleep, but she stops still for a moment as she realizes her room looks different.

While she is staying at The Palazzo Hotel, a five star hotel, for her best friend Madge's bachelorette party, her room is not this spacious or luxurious. That's the first thing she notices.

The second thing she notices is that she's stark naked. Not that Katniss is entirely nun-like in her sexual habits, but she's never been the type to sleep completely naked all night. She never felt comfortable doing so.

The third thing she notices is a gold band on her finger, her wedding finger to be more precise.

Completely terrified at the sight on her left hand, Katniss ventures to look beside her for some explanation. There, lying next to her is a man, his back facing towards her, equally as naked as her and peacefully sleeping right next to her.

It comes out before she realizes, a loud scream. Suddenly, the man beside her wakes up.

"Peeta!" she exclaims - half surprised, half shocked as she realises the man she's lying completely naked in bed with none is other than Peeta Mellark.

"Katniss!" he responds equally surprised as she is.

"What happened last night?" Katniss asks him, watching as Peeta, a boy who grew up in her small town in Kentucky, rakes one of his hands through his curly blonde locks. Noticing the shiny glow of a similarly gold band on one of his fingers.

"Oh my god!" Katniss exclaims once again, "Did we get married last night?" She questions her bed companion, her hand pointing at the matching ring on his finger.

A few moments pass, but it feels like minutes as Katniss waits for Peeta's answer. But honestly, deep down she knows that she doesn't need it. It's obvious what has happened. Though, she's a quite a bit hazy on the events of the previous night, it's clear what has happened.

She got married.

To Peeta Mellark - someone she hasn't seen since elementary school.

Shit!

Then, she proceeds to throw up.

Thirty minutes later, Katniss and Peeta are sitting on the leather couch. Both have steaming mugs of coffee in their hands. Both are a little nervous and don't know what to say. After Katniss vomited, Peeta made sure to pull her hair back when she continued throwing up in the ensuite, before he offered her some water and mouthwash to get rid of the horrible taste of vomit in her mouth. Throughout, telling her comforting words that put her at ease.

Now, it was the complete opposite. Awkward. Silent. Both of them avoiding each other's gaze, concentrating instead on the mugs in their hands.

It's Peeta who finally breaks the silence. This doesn't surprise Katniss as he always had a way with words, and he wasn't afraid of speaking, especially in front of a huge crowd. Very unlike her.

"Do you remember anything about last night?" he asks her.

12 hours earlier…

God, how much longer? Katniss complains to herself while sitting on one of the bar stools, a glass of red in one of her hands, watching as her recently engaged best friend, Madge dances with a couple of guys on the dancefloor. Katniss was happy that Madge was getting married to her other best friend, Gale, and she was enjoying their bachelorette weekend away, but nightclubs weren't her scene.

"God, Brainless," Katniss's other friend saunters up next to her, breathless from dancing, "there's so much man cake action potential here and yet here you are sitting all by yourself."

"Johanna," Katniss starts to tell off her man-obsessed friend, when she spots someone vaguely familiar standing a few feet behind Johanna. No, it can't be, she thinks as she recognizes the familiar blonde curly hair, bright blue eyes, and stocky frame that reminds her of Peeta Mellark, a boy she knew growing up. Knew? More like someone I noticed from a distance, Katniss corrects herself, because while Peeta and her attended the same elementary school for six years, and his family ran the local bakery, they didn't really know each other. They weren't friends. They weren't in the same circles at school.

Peeta was popular and could make friends easily, while Katniss only hung out with Madge, the Mayor's daughter, and Gale, the son of her father's best friend. She was prickly and not easy to engage with, and most people found that off-putting. So really, she was amazed that she managed to make friends with Madge and Gale, and to this day they remain as close as ever.

Peeta was the exact opposite - he was confident, charismatic, and everyone loved him. The girls had crushes on him, while the boys loved how great he was at wrestling. And even though he was popular among the students, he wasn't dim-witted either - unlike most of the other popular guys. He always earned top grades in their class, and studied hard, but it didn't affect his status either. Usually, students got teased for caring about homework, got called "geeks" and any other names they could think of. But not Peeta Mellark.

"Earth to Katniss!" Johanna says to her, snapping her fingers in front of her face to get her attention.

"Huh," Katniss mutters as she realises that she spent too much time staring at him, "Sorry I got distracted."

Johanna smirks as she follows the direction Katniss was looking, and spots the good looking guy she was staring at.

"Not at all, I don't blame you. He is mighty fine looking," Johanna replies as they watch the guy drinking with his group of mates. They then see the bride-to-be Madge squeal in excitement as she spots him. Peeta smiles at Madge while she gives him a hug, and then Katniss sees her best friend pointing in her direction.

Seconds later, Madge drags Peeta towards them.

"Look who I found, Katniss! Don't you remember Peeta Mellark?" Madge asks Katniss. She tries to answer but she's unable to. It's like she's forgotten the entire English language, because now Peeta is much closer to her and the flashing disco ball light is casting a bright glow to his face. She can see his golden lashes and his eyes aren't just blue, they have specs of green in them. Her favorite color. And don't get her started on his jaw. His amazingly strong and sturdy jaw that she wants to plant kisses on.

Oh crap!

Katniss then feels a nudge to her elbow and quickly stammers out a little "Hello" to him. Peeta sends her a small smile before Johanna gets fed up with Katniss's stammering and introduces herself. She then asks how they all know each other.

Peeta explains how they all went to Panem Elementary School together for a few years before his family moved, all the while trying to maintain Katniss's gaze as he speaks. This doesn't go unnoticed by Madge and Johanna who decide that they want to go to the ladies' room to freshen up, leaving Peeta and Katniss alone.

Moments pass and Peeta is the first to speak, and Katniss is almost glad. He asks her what she's been up to since school, and at first she gives him short answers, but then she finds herself opening up more. She's surprised when he asks her questions about her mother and Prim because she never really talked to him much. But she always felt that her and Peeta had a connection. For she would never forget the day that he gave her hope that her life could get better.

When Katniss was ten and her sister was four, their beloved father died after suffering a terrible accident at the mines he worked at. His death caused their grief-stricken mother to become so depressed that she wouldn't leave the house - not even to work. Things got so tough that Katniss didn't know how they would get by with practically no money left from their father's savings. Most of his savings had gone to paying off their house mortgage, while the rest was spent on funeral costs and house supplies. It didn't take long to go through that money and they were down to their last few hundreds of dollars.

Katniss didn't know what to do - she was still a child. It was her mother's job to take care of her children, but it didn't matter what Katniss did or said, she couldn't reach her. Nothing would rouse her from her grief. It was as if her mother's body was still there, but the rest of her wasn't there. Like she was a ghost. A quiet, unmoving ghost.

When Prim's fifth birthday arrived, Katniss was determined to somehow celebrate her sister's birthday. But she didn't have enough money for one of Mellark's Bakery speciality cakes, yet on that warm July day, Katniss found herself walking into the bakery. Prim always enjoyed looking through the bakery's window at all the cakes and pastries. Sometimes their father would take them in when he had some left over cash and buy them some cookies or cupcakes. Prim's favorite was red velvet cake with chocolate icing, while Katniss loved the cheese buns.

Lost in eyeing all the baked goods, she didn't realize that the youngest Mellark was standing before her at the counter. She heard her name and suddenly looked up to see Peeta Mellark staring at her with interest. He gave her a little wave before asking her how he could help her.

"Oh umm… I was just looking…" she started to respond, before he interrupted her.

"It's your sister's birthday today isn't?"

Katniss was so stunned that Peeta Mellark remembered something as little as her sister's birthday when they'd had little interaction, that all she could do was nod her head.

"Red Velvet is her favorite?" Peeta asked as he went to take three of the beautifully decorated Red Velvet cupcakes from the case. He then placed them into a cake box, setting them on the counter in front of her.

"I can't possibly take them. I don't have any money," Katniss told him shaking her head disapprovingly. Not at him, mind you. No rather at herself. At the situation and the fact that her family had been put through this in the first place.

But he wouldn't listen to her and insisted that she take them. Just as she reached to grab the box, Peeta's mom entered.

"What do you think you're doing?" she sneered at her son, venom in her voice as she looked at Katniss in disgust. Instincts kicking in, Katniss quickly grabbed the box as Peeta tried to explain, but his mother was having none of it and told him off for handing out free to Seam Trash. Katniss started to run towards the door when she heard a wack, and turning around she saw that Mrs Mellark had struck her son with a rolling pin. While it wasn't exactly secret that Mrs Mellark was harsh in disciplining her children, Katniss was still shocked to see how cruel she was. Rooted in place, Katniss didn't know what to do. She knew that she had to get out of there, but she couldn't move. She didn't want to leave Peeta. But the pleading look that Peeta sent her, silently asking her to go, finally convinced her to leave.

Later on, when she presented the cakes to her sister and mother, it was the first time in months that Katniss had seen her mother light up. Her sister was delighted by the cakes, and the dandelions that were painstakingly painted on them reminded Katniss of the times she and her father went hunting and foraging in the forest not far from their home. The small act of kindness got her to take up hunting again, and even more surprising, it got their mother slowly out of her grief and back to her nursing job.

Lost in the memory, Katniss can't hear the music playing, the sound of people talking and drinking or Peeta talking. It's not until Peeta touches her hand that she realize Peeta's been calling her name. She apologises and Peeta grins at her, before asking her if she would like another drink. And she accepts.

TO BE CONTINUED...

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