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District 4 throws them a nice little party since they get to spend a bit more time there, besides the District 4 victors are good friends with Haymitch. Mags Flanagan is the oldest living tribute and Finnick Odair was the youngest to ever win the games. 4 gets perks from that.
Despite that, the District 4 victors do not seek Katniss or Peeta out. Effie explains that the victory tour began with Mags’ victory in the 11th games so maybe it brings up memories the older woman would rather not remember. Katniss wouldn't blame her if so.
The dinner is nice. Katniss knew she liked fish from the handful of times she and her father fished in the lake when she was younger. She doesn’t make the trip there often now, though it has been more frequently since Gale can only hunt on Sundays now. When she is there though, she doesn’t usually fish. Her supplies for it are a bit rundown and she spends the time gathering other roots that are edible or good for her mother's healing.
They have the money now but Katniss will never rid herself of her roots, the roots that helped her survive off the land.
District 4 is the fishing district though and they show it with the variety of fish they serve. The mayor is an older woman with red hair that is only beginning to turn a little silver at the temples. She hosts the dinner and party and more of the wealthier members of the district attend.
Katniss likes the dress Cinna has put her in for this night, though she does feel a bit exposed. It’s a blue-green satin that slinks over her skin and her jewelry is all pearls. For once she’s not in heels but instead some silver sandals. It means when she dances with Peeta, she has to look up a bit more than she has been these past few nights.
Peeta isn’t the best dancer. Katniss expects that before the Games before he lost his leg, he probably was alright. There’s so much about him that seems elegant, graceful, and it may just be because he’s an artist. But she would have assumed it’d translate to his footwork and therefore dancing. The prosthetic leg however makes him a bit clumsy.
“Sorry,” Peeta mutters as he fumbles a little in the steps. He doesn’t step on her toes though so Katniss doesn’t have much to complain about. His hand is warm on her waist and the heat of his skin seems to seep through the material of the dress and she nearly shivers.
“It’s okay,” She reassures him and Peeta nods but he still looks a bit embarrassed. Her hair tickles her shoulders as she tilts her chin to try and catch his eyes. Her prep team left her hair down tonight and added curls but they braided a crown across her head. It’s not as intricate as her mother’s braids and probably doesn’t impress the nimble, talented fingers of the District 4 people who can create art through their weaving. Katniss doesn’t dislike the hairstyle though.
They fall into quiet again, their steps moving sort of robotically in a square to keep the moves simple for Peeta. Then, he pulls her closer and his lips are near her ear. Goosebumps bloom at the feeling of his breath against her.
“I don’t know if I’ve said you look beautiful tonight,” Peeta comments. It’s not something he has to say and usually, it would make her feel a little odd but this tour has brought them more together. They are the team they once were in the arena again and she does feel beautiful tonight.
A camera flashes from across the room and it’s clear they are the center of the image it has snapped. Katniss realizes that Peeta’s closeness was for the paparazzi and it stings a bit. However, she can’t hold it against him. That is their entire dynamic.
The camera moves away, going to find Haymitch or the mayor.
“Thank you,” Katniss replies, a bit late but Peeta smiles, shyly. It’s her Peeta then. The boy with the bread. He looks around again and nearly misses another step in their movements and sighs, frustratedly.
“You wanna sneak off?” He asks her and there’s a sort of mischievous light in his blue eyes. It reminds her of the moment in the cave during the Games when he licked his plate clean to spite Effie and it’s that reminder, a moment where she felt so comfortable with him, that helps her agree.
“Yes,” She says without hesitation. It seems to surprise Peeta but he smiles wider at her and steps back, his hand leaving her waist. Her side feels cold without his presence but he tangles their fingers together and leads her off the little floor space the mayor had dedicated to dancing.
They step through a door that leads to the hallway with the bathroom but Peeta spots a set of doors with windows. They lead out to a small garden.
Not much grows in District 4 due to the climate but what does are trees. There is an orange tree in the garden and Peeta leads them to that. The waves of the ocean provide a soft, calming background noise and the night is comfortably cool. The moon casts enough light for them to see and Katniss is thankful for the sandals with the rockier terrain of the garden path.
Peeta leans his back against the orange tree, uncaring of anything getting on his clothes. Portia hadn’t put him in a suit jacket tonight, instead just a button-up shirt and sand-colored pants. The light colors make his blond curls shine and Katniss has a sudden urge to run her hands through the curls, to see if they would catch around her fingers.
Through the night the top three buttons of Peeta’s shirt have come undone, exposing his throat and collarbones. Now that they are in the garden, Peeta rolls up the sleeve of his shirt some too, turning up the cuffs and exposing his forearms and the light dusting of fine blond hair along his arms.
Katniss stares for a moment at the way the tendons in his forearms flex before she moves her eyes away. She is not quick enough for Peeta to not catch her and she can’t discern the look in his eyes but it makes her flush. He doesn’t say anything though, just reached for her the way he has every time he has woken her up from nightmares the past night or two.
Except there are no nightmares now and no cameras either but Katniss goes into his arms nonetheless. She cannot refuse herself this small comfort, cannot make herself give up the way that being held by Peeta makes her feel. She doesn’t know how to explain it, she doesn’t understand it, but she knows that a small part of her will miss it when they return to 12.
He rests his chin on her head and breathes out, a sigh that seems like he is carrying too much but now he finally gets to relax. She understands, she is the same. The feeling of his breath tickles a little against her scalp but she doesn’t say anything. This a moment of peace in the chaos and she won’t break it.
“I like your hair like this,” Peeta admits.
“Really? I would have thought you were partial to braids,” she teases. She doesn’t do this with him often, sometimes it’s hard for her to understand the tone in conversations but Peeta is one of the only people she feels that she can joke around with, him and Prim. He laughs.
“Well, there are braids in this hairdo,” He reminds her and he shifts so that he can touch Katniss’s hair. He traces the braid near her temple as if to point out its existence to her. “I like your braid. I always like your hair but I like it down too. It’s different, makes you look a bit younger, a bit more relaxed.”
“Hmm,” She hums in agreement. That is likely why Cinna chose it, his attempt to paint her as young, girlish, and desperately in love. “I like you without the suit jacket.”
Peeta laughs. “Me too. They make it hard to move around a bit. I know they tailor them to fit perfectly but I can’t help but find they can be a little tight in the elbows and shoulders.”
“It’s because you’ve gained muscle back,” Katniss says matter-of-factly. It’s true, the muscle weight Peeta lost in the Games has returned, if not grown in the past six months. She’s seen him sometimes through the window of her house, carrying flour bags to his house across the street. Every time she stares and then flushes when she catches herself. Peeta is strong and always has been but having proper nutrition and the exercise he’s been pushing on himself to help with the leg has shown.
“Yeah,” He admits. “I guess it is.”
He brushes some strands of her hair off her shoulder and then his hand rests there. His hands are rather soft and his touch is gentle. He’s so close and his eyes are a darker sort of blue in this light.
Katniss doesn't really know what makes her do it, maybe it’s because every kiss they have had lately hasn’t felt natural other than the one in District 11 before everything was explained to Peeta. Maybe it’s because she has some sixth sense that someone is about to find them but she leans up and kisses him.
His hand slides down from her shoulder to her waist and she leans her palms against his chest. She feels the muscles under her palms and he kisses her back. It’s a sweet kiss, a bit fuller than the ones they’ve been exchanging lately. Those have been more pecks, and reminders to the camera that they are together, but this one isn’t really for anyone else.
It doesn’t have the same heat as the one in the cave when they’d both been the healthiest they could be, all things considered, but the way his hand presses against the small of her back and the way her mouth begins to open against his, Katniss doesn’t think the heat is that far away.
There is no thought of Gale or of Snow in this kiss. Peeta is soft, gentle, and slow whereas Gale is rough, quick, and intense. And Katniss knows in the back of her mind that Snow has eyes everywhere, she’s sure especially in the mayor's own garden, but she doesn’t think of it at this moment.
“Oh! I’m sorry,” A female voice interrupts them. Katniss jerks back from Peeta and turns to find one of the mayor's staff standing in the doorway. She has tan skin and black curly hair which frizzes in the heat. She’s probably the same age as Katniss’s mother and she looks embarrassed at catching the pair but not enough to risk getting in trouble for not doing her job. “I’m sorry dears but you really cannot be out here alone.”
“Don’t apologize,” Peeta waves her off. “Sorry, we ran off. Just wanted some privacy, you know how it is to be young.”
He pushes away from the tree and slips his arm around Katniss’s waist and grins at the woman. “We’re coming in now. We apologize for any inconvenience.”
The woman smiles kindly at him. “No worries, darling. Just come in before more people notice you two missing. You are the guests of honor after all.”
The realization of the kiss hits her later and Peeta’s excuse too. She almost wonders if this is like the ways they had been sneaking off, almost to getting caught, in the other districts. But this had felt different.
It is all too confusing for her to work out though. She doesn’t want to fight through these thoughts along with everything else in her mind so she ignores it and allows herself to follow behind the woman with Peeta.