Hello…so I'm really bad at doing the whole introduction speech so I'm just gonna give you the logistics.

Fifth fanfic, did three others for Maximum Ride and one for Fallen. If you're a fan of either of those feel free to check them out. I like reviews, they fuel my writing. I'm starting school in a couple days so I'll probably be updating once or twice a week because I get a lot of homework in my classes.

About me: love God, love life, love my boy.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything…Oh yeah, this story take place five years after the revolution. Peeta and Katniss are already married.

~PennStateGRL4eva~

The damp mud was soaking through my jeans and onto my shins and the rest of my lower legs. But I didn't move. "Come on," I urged, "stay still and this will be easy. Fast. You won't feel a thing." I whispered. Pulling the knife from behind me back and twisting my wrist so that the fox would not see it I inched slowly forward, taking slow, quiet breaths and avoiding loose twigs that would snap under my legs. But then the rabbit took off because a certain someone decided to yell my name. Really loudly. I lost sight of it before I could pull an arrow back in my bow.

I stood up from my hiding place in the brush and saw him standing about thirty feet away. He had obviously been looking for me. "Are you crazy?" I asked, walking out of the thorn bushes, being careful to not get my jacket stuck on one of the branches.

"Um, you're the one that was just sitting in a thorn bush and you're asking if I'm the crazy one." Peeta said as I walked toward him, putting my arrow back in the sheath. "How's hunting?" he asked conversationally, looking at me with the look he knows softens me up.

But I ignore his gaze and keep walking right past him.

"Okay, I screwed up. But you have to admit, the fact you didn't hear me coming is a good thing." He pressed, walking close behind me and I did have to admit that he was walking quieter.

After crawling under the fence I said, "But I could have had it."

"You were trying to kill something without shooting it, you mean?" he asked, walking on my left side like always.

I nodded. "I was trying that thing that Gale suggested to me, the whole coaxing an animal toward you and then killing it." I told him.

Peeta stopped in his tracks. "Gale? When did you talk to him?"

"I thought I told you." I said. "He called the other day; I guess you were at work. He just wanted to check in." I assured him.

He started walking again but his brows were knitted together signifying that he was deep in thought. We didn't talk the rest of the way back. Instead of walking through town, where the new city square was sure to be mobbed with people on their way home from work, we skirted the fence and took a short cut into the Victor's Village. Finally as we walked up the steps to our front porch Peeta speaks. "Were you scared I would freak out?"

I shook my head and held our front door open for him. "No. Evening Greasy Sae." I called out to her. She was vacuuming the kitchen. She looked up and smiled and waved to us, then gestured to the notepad that we kept by the door in case we needed to make note of something for someone that lived in the house. I read it and sighed. "We need to go see Haymitch." I say to Peeta.

"I know, that's why I came and got you. Now put your weapons away and meet me over there." He told me, walking out the door and letting it slam.

Greasy Sae turned the vacuum off and wheeled it off to the cleaning supply closet while I stowed my bow and arrows behind the coats in our hall closet. Then she came in and checked something that was cooking on the stove. I removed my muddy boots as she said, "What's wrong with him? Is he having another fit?"

"No, those are long gone. He's just mad that I never told him about Gale calling." I said, removing my socks too.

Greasy Sae turned around to look at me. "I thought you called him."

I walked over to the mirror hanging on the wall and shook my hair out of its braid. "That's what I told him. He'd be furious if he found out that I've been calling Gale once a week for the past few months." I told her.

She walked up to me and placed her hands on my shoulders. Her touch got to be so comforting and familiar it was as if she was my second mother, which in a way she was. "He'll find out eventually."

"And I'll take care of it then. Trust me, we used to keep secrets from each other all the time." I pulled on my everyday wear boots and looked at Greasy Sae with what I knew was an unbecoming glare.

"You used to, not anymore." She said, gripping my hands in hers.

"He's probably been keeping secrets from me." I shrug. "You probably know what some of them are." I eye her curiously.

"No, I don't and if I did I would not tell you. I am responsible for keeping your marriage together, not ending it. Now don't you have someplace to be?" she said, whipping my butt with her towel.

"I'm going." I mumbled, slipping another knife under my jacket and into my belt that Beetee had created for me. The front looked like a regular belt that you would wear with jeans or khakis but the back was a weapon belt. It could hold three knives, two handguns, and four short arrows. Peeta had one too that he wore under his chef's coat everyday. I asked him about it on his first day of work after our honeymoon while I watched him get dressed. I had grown to love and admire the pattern his burn scars made on his forearms and neck as he had done the same with the ones I had on my back. I sometimes had moments where I simply could not look away. So when I asked him why he was wearing his belt to work he shrugged and said, "There is no such thing as being too careful." As time crept on though, he slowly stopped wearing it. At first I thought he forgot so I took it to the bakery but he politely declined it. Now he hardly ever wears it anymore. Quite frankly, I think he only wears it now to make me feel better about his safety. We still have moments where we are hit by this paranoia about how safe we are.

The early winter air bit at my face as I walked to Haymitch's house, which was only a couple doors down from my and Peeta's house. Unfortunately, that means I need to walk by my old house that always stirs painful memories. But then there is always the bittersweet memory of when Peeta proposed to me in my bedroom. It was kind of an accident on his part and embarrassing on mine, really.

I had just woken up from a nightmare that was apparently unnoticed by Peeta. His arms were tight around my waist, so tight that I was getting uncomfortable, letting me know that he was having a nightmare also. I wriggled one of my arms free and shook him awake. He started, his eyes flashing open and for a brief second he has that old look of insanity but it is gone nearly instantly, replaced by love and concern. "You okay?" he asked sleepily. "You have a nightmare?"

I nod and snuggle up against his body. "You had one too, didn't you? About me?"

"How could you tell?" he asked, smiling sadly.

"You were squeezing me a bit too tight." I told him, laughing but the sound came out a bit too clipped to relieve the tension.

"Sorry." I could see some embarrassment in his eyes and hurried to reassure him.

"It's okay, really. Haymitch told me that even when you are better we'll still see some of the hijacked you on occasion." I told him. "It's not like I'm totally sane either."

This time he smiled I could tell he was comforted by my words. "We are quite the pair of invalids." He sighed. "At least we will always be there for each other though."

"Sounds wonderful." I whisper, mostly to myself. "Always." I muse.

"That's my word." He whined sarcastically. "I guess I'll just have to settle on forever then." He laughed.

I roll my eyes and say, "So what, you're not getting down on one knee?"

His brows knit together. "What are you talking about?"

"Wait," I pulled away from him and sat up. "You weren't proposing?" He shook his head. "Oh, shit. I'm sorry, it's just the way you said…"

He nodded. "Right, I was being careless." We both sat there for a while, not moving, listening to each other breathing. Finally he said, "But…I guess we can get married."

"Really?" I asked, the sound coming out slightly high-pitched.

"Yeah, since you are more awake then I am, can you go reach in the inside pocket of my jacket and pull out the thing that's inside?" he asked.

"Sure." I said, sliding off the bed and moving to where his jacket was hanging on the doorknob to my bathroom. I do as he says and pull out a black velvet box. I look at him with surprise in my eyes and he motions for me to go back to him.

"I was planning on doing this tomorrow morning. I was going to make you your favorite breakfast food; an omelet with peppers and mushrooms and cheddar cheese with toast and some chopped potatoes, but I guess since the moment is calling for it…" I sit on the bed as he slips out and onto the floor, getting down on one knee and opening the box to reveal a simple silver ring with one blue diamond in the middle, the same shade of blue as his eyes. "Katniss Everdeen, I love you more than my own life – which I have proven multiple times – and promise that if you marry me I will never try to kill you. Even though I am sure there will be moments where you frustrate the Hell out of me I will be sure that the only thing I break is a glass vase that is hopefully sitting nearby." He smiled, and I could just see him practicing his entire speech and even his smile at the end. They were perfectly executed.

"Yes." I said, rolling my eyes and looping my arms around his neck. As we ate breakfast that morning he finally told me that he wanted to propose to me in the house so that I would always have a happy memory to go along with the painful ones. We didn't need to talk about which house we would move into when we got married. Even though he slept in my house with me every night we automatically agreed that we would live in his house. Since then my house has remained vacant.

As I approach Haymitch's house I see Peeta waiting by the steps. "Better slow down some, I haven't been waiting long enough." He said sarcastically.

"Shut up." I grumble, bumping his shoulder as I walk by him. He stops me on the steps by tugging on my elbow.

"I'm sorry. I should know better than to be jealous of you talking to your lifelong best friend just one time when I am your husband and know that you are not going anywhere. You guys have only talked once, right?" he asked, his lips curving into a sideways smile.

I punch him on the arm lightly and laugh, letting my actions speak for themselves so I don't need to lie to him. Like I've been doing for quite some time. All thoughts of my misdeeds vanish though, because when I open the door I see him. Standing next to Haymitch, looking somewhat awkward but keeping his arm wrapped securely around the girl he's standing next to. I instinctively reach back for Peeta's hand but it is already sliding up and down my back in a calming motion.

But then a smile breaks onto my face and I move toward him. "Gale!" I exclaim, jumping into his arms and letting him clutch me tightly. He seems to have gotten taller because my feet dangle a couple inches off the ground. Finally I pull away from him and move to give the girl a hug. "Johanna, what are you guys doing here?"

"Well, I was going to tell you when you called me the other day but then I decided to just surprise you." Gale said, smiling and wrapping his arms around Johanna's waist again.

"Oh, oh. I see." I said quickly, forcing a smile and hoping Peeta didn't really register Gale's words. But of course a guy that feels he is competing for his girl's love will listen to every word his enemy says.

"You called him?" Peeta asks calmly.

I turn around and look at him. "Peeta…" I didn't know what else to say after that.

"Don't even try to explain. I'm going to assume that you didn't call him just the once either?" I don't answer but look away in shame instead.

"Cool. Really amazing Katniss. Obviously I was wrong about what I just said to you outside." He said, then walking out.

We all stood in a stunned silence before Haymitch said, "Katniss, what is going on?"

I turned to Gale. "You should have told me you were coming." I whispered before following Peeta out the door and chasing him down on the sidewalk.

I know, that was an awkward place to end the chapter but I knew that this is just getting ridiculously long so I'll pick up right there in the second chapter. Please review! You don't need to be a member of Fanfiction to review you know.

~PennStateGRL4eva~