Bring Him Home – Buttfaced Miscreant – Chapter 4

A/N: I apologize for last week, midterms and sorority initiation required more attention than I had initially thought. On the bright side, I found out my midterm GPA and it's higher than any GPA I got in high school; so I'm happy. My only excuse for the late update is sheer laziness.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chapter 4 Song: 'Crazy', Au Revoir Simone

::::Bring Him Home::::

Chapter 4: Crazy

KPOV

I woke up in a tangle of limbs, with Peeta and I facing each other. It was rare for me to wake up before him; because of the bakery he was usually out of the house by four to bake bread for the morning. Our legs wrapped around each other's, and arms holding the other. Even in sleep, our sub conscious' reached out to each other for support. Extricating myself from the warm, comfortable bed I went to the bathroom and showered, getting ready for the day ahead. Hoping that I had been left with clothes I went to the dresser and was pleased to find a red blouse and a pair of black dress pants. After quickly braiding my hair I went to find shoes. I chose the black flats, purposefully ignoring the heels that Cinna had most likely placed there in hopes that I might choose them.

Softly walking over to the bed where Peeta slept, I sat on my side, with my legs hanging off. I gently caressed his face,

"Peeta. You've got to wake up. You have to eat something before training." I quietly spoke. He slowly opened his eyes.

"You're already dressed"

"I woke up before you, I wanted to let you sleep." He frowned,

"You need to sleep too"

"I know. I did, but our little one here woke me up by playing soccer with my bladder." Peeta smiled and placed his hands on my bump. I played with Peeta's hair as he talked to our baby still inside me.

"Are you decent in there? Peeta has training in thirty minutes and we have a meeting!" Haymitch's loud voice came from outside the door, nocking Peeta and I from our moment.

"You have to get dressed." Peeta nodded at me, gave me a kiss and then helped me off the bed. "I'll see you after training. Make sure that you get some food."

"You need to eat too." I nodded at him.

"I will. I promise." Giving him a final kiss, I left Peeta to get ready as his prep team walked in right as I left.

::::Bring Him Home::::

The meeting Haymitch and I were required to go to was long, and boring. It basically went over how the games work and how to use the tablets. It wasn't anything I didn't already know or hadn't already seen in the video yesterday. They did discuss interviews though, and for the first time Caesar Flickerman would be inviting the mentors to sit on stage during them. I knew it was because of Peeta and I, The Capitol would do anything for their games.

I found myself hoping that Peeta was doing well in training. He never had any use for survival skills and I had tried to teach him to hunt with a bow and arrow, but he was too loud and scared the prey away. He's strong though, from lifting heavy bags of flour in the bakery, which made me think that he still had a chance. He is also really fast, which helps him. He ran track in high school. If he makes the right friends, he could have a chance. I would make sure of it.

As Haymitch and I made it up to the district 12's floor of the training tower, he turned to me.

"What's on your mind Sweetheart?" he asked, kindly.

"You already know."

"I suppose I do, but I want you to know that Peeta already has a lot of sponsors. The Capitol residents feel very invested in your relationship, and we can talk about that being a breach of privacy later, but right now it's helping you. People want to see him come out of the games alive, they want him to come home to you." Haymitch, the man who usually spoke in monosyllable answers poured.

"I know. I'm just hoping that it'll be enough."

::::Bring Him Home::::

PPOV

I walked into the training room wearing the ridiculous training outfit, late. Like Katniss had requested, I made sure to eat one of the protein bars that sat in the dining room before coming down. The detour for calories had made me late though, and as I walked in everyone looked at me. They stopped what they were doing and stared, making me feel even more uncomfortable. Even the gamemakers stopped talking to stare at me.

Feeling their eyes bore through me, I chose to make my way over to an empty station, wanting to avoid them. The station I went to ended up being a survival station, teaching edible plants, medicinal plants, and basic knots. The instructor was nice, not asking any questions about me, which I was glad for. After the stares had worn down I found myself at the weight station, testing out various throwing weights and distance.

I stayed away from the archery station, knowing that I didn't do well with it. Katniss has let me try once and even if I didn't scare prey away, I still didn't do well with the bow. I found myself at the throwing knife station, it took a few tries but I quickly was able to get the hang of it, consistently hitting the target. It was good to know that I had an offensive weapon. Before I realized it, it was time for lunch.

I tried to distance myself from everyone, but after grabbing their food a few people sat next to me. Madge was sitting away from me, with the small girl from 11, she reminded me of Prim.

"So what's it like to be shacking up with your mentor? Isn't that a bit unfair?" The girl from district four snidely asked.

"I'm not 'shacking up' with her. She's my wife." I tried to hold my temper. "And there's only two victors from District 12, so she's my mentor."

"Yeah, well I heard the baby's not even yours." She bit back, "I heard that it's Finnick Odair's." I laughed, Finnick pretended to be a ladies man, but in reality he was in a very serious relationship with another victor, Annie Cresta.

"The baby's mine." I growled and then quickly finished my food and made my way to the elevator.

I knew that I was supposed to train for the second half of the day but I made my way up to District 12's floor anyway. I walked in, and saw Katniss and Haymitch sitting on the couch, talking. They both looked up at me.

"Peeta, why aren't you training?" Katniss asked as she stood up and came over to me. I pulled her to me, reveling in having her body against mine. I placed my hand lovingly on where I baby sat, growing inside of her. She held me to her, "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." I said with a sigh, "It was just difficult down there. Not the actual training part, the interacting with other tributes part." I quickly amended. "I found out I'm good with throwing knives."

"That's good." We moved and sat on the sofa together. Haymitch left.

"I just….I just want to spend time with you before I have to go in the arena" I told her, honestly.

"I know. I do to." She cuddled into my arms and I found myself shocked about how openly needy she was being. But I felt the same way. I needed her. I needed to make it out for her.