Chapter 24: A Burnt Cake and a Crooked Smile

(A song for this chapter is Little Moments by Brad Paisley. It gave me the inspiration for this chapter, as music often does for me.)

Peeta's POV

It is really sad when you forget your own birthday. I turned 18 today and hadn't even noticed until I saw the date on a receipt I handed a customer. Wow I'm dense.

It also means there is just over 3 months until our wedding. It's really sneaking up on us. Katniss said she would start invitations today. I don't even think she has a dress yet. That is kind of scary.

I close up the bakery around three and head home. I open the door and hear a beeping noise and there is a burning smell floating through the air. I walk into the kitchen to find a charcoal black cake siting on the stove and a disheveled Katniss standing on a chair with a dish towel, trying to fan the smoke away from the little beeping device. When it finally stops she steps down from the chair and almost jumped out of her skin when she saw me.

"Katniss, what happened?" I ask her. She looks around at the mess and she clearly starts to get upset.

"I was trying to bake a cake and ....I I must have fell asleep on the couch and now your birthdays ruined and I don't know why you want to marry me if I can't take care of a house and and," she starts sobbing and I wrap her in my arms, a slight smile playing on my lips.

"Katniss, I don't care about the cake. I could care less if you were some happy little homemaker like Delly or those other girls. I only care about you," I say kissing her hair.

"But if I can't take care of a house, what use am I? What could I possibly do for you?" she says pulling away. A silent tear runs down her cheek and I gently wipe it away with my thumb.

"Sweetie, I love you because your unique. You don't need to cook to make me happy. You are brave, beautiful, independent, and so strong to have gone through what you've gone through. You bring home the meat that we need to survive. I can't even hunt. We are both the opposite of what the world has formed as our supposed roles. But that's why we work well together," I tell her looking into the silver eyes I have grown to love more and more each day,"I don't need another cook. I think I do that just fine on my own. But I do need my brilliant hunter, who goes into the black market where I will never feel at home, to get the supplies we need to survive. That is why I want to marry you. That is why I love you." She wraps her arms around me tighter.

"Thank you. You've always had a way with words and have always made me feel better. I love you so much. Sorry you had to come home to a burnt cake. I thought I would at least try to give you something material, but I guess your birthday picnic by the lake will have to do without a cake," Katniss finally says.

"Birthday picnic by the lake?" I ask her.

"Yeah. I know it's silly to make you pack up a basket that we will drag down to the lake for like an hour, but I figured we hadn't been there in a while and there is a cabin back there so if we spend to long there, maybe we can spend the night in the stone house," she says almost more like a question.

"You know that sounds like a wonderful idea. Why don't you go pack up anything we might need back there if we spend the night and I'll pack up some food for us," I say kissing her cheek and going to clean up her mess. She gives out a slight chuckle and I hear her make her way upstairs.

When she comes back, she's holding a back pack, her fathers bow and arrows, and her guitar case.

"Why do you have your guitar?" I ask her, finishing packing our food.

"I wanted to make it up to you. You've worked so hard with the bakery and my nightmares and I know how much you like me to sing so I decided to sing for you out there," she says shyly.

"Well we can leave now if you want," I say throwing the backpack on my shoulder and picking the picnic basket off the counter. She slings the bow and arrows over her shoulder with her guitar and takes my hand, leading me towards the woods. We slide under the fence, her quite gracefully and me with great difficulty, and follow the near invisible path towards the lake.

When we get there, I can't believe the transformation it made from when we last visited it in the late fall. The meadow surrounding the lake and stone house as become green with new growth and there are dandelions, bright and fresh, starting to dot the side of the valley. We sit down and Katniss lays her head in my lap and begins to make flower chains as I absentmindedly unweave her braid and begin play with her long wavy hair. The sun begins to set, dying the sky in a rainbow of colors.

"This reminds me of our last day on the roof before the quell," she says.

"Yeah accept the fact that we don't think we will be dead within a matter of days," I say. She looks at me like I I'm an idiot and the wears a smirk as she puts the dandelion crown on my head and sits up takes out her guitar.

"I meant I remember how nice it was, just us. When you said you wished you could stop time and live in the moment forever, it was one of the times I was really sure I loved you. Maybe I didn't know how I loved you yet, but I knew I didn't want to lose you," she says gently strumming the first few notes of a song that sounds vaguely familiar.

"Sometimes late at nightI lie awake and watch him sleepingHe's lost in peaceful dreams So I turn out the lightAnd lay there in the dark

And the thought crosses my mindIf I never wake up In the morningWould he ever doubt The way I feel about him in my heart

If tomorrow never comesWould he know how much I loved himDid I try in every wayTo show him everydayThat he's my only oneAnd if my time on earth were throughAnd he must face this world without meIs the love I gave him in the pastGonna be enough to last If tomorrow never comes

Cause I've lost loved ones in my lifeWho never knew how much I loved themAnd now I live with the regret That my true feelings for themNever were revealedSo I made a promise to myselfTo say each day how much I love himAnd avoid the circumstance Where there's no second chance To tell him how I feel," I instantly remember the song and begin singing the chorus with her.

"If tomorrow never comesWould she know how much I loved herDid I try in every wayTo show her everydayThat she's my only oneAnd if my time on earth were throughAnd she must face this world without meIs the love I gave her in the pastGonna be enough to lastIf tomorrow never comes" and she finishes softly by herself, giving me a sweet crooked smile.

"So tell that someone that you loveJust what your thinking ofIf tomorrow never comes." she sings as she plays the last chord on her guitar.

"That was beautiful Katniss!" I say kissing her cheek.

"Well it was true. I want you to know how much I love you if I ever left you, which I don't plan on doing," she says.

"Well I wouldn't want you to.I love you too much," I say as I wrap an arm around her shoulder. I pick up her guitar.

"Can I try this?" I ask her.

"Sure," she says," give it a shot." I begin to strum the strings and unknowingly begin to play a song that I hadn't heard in years. The last time I had heard it was when I heard Katniss' father singing it to her mother, but it had never had music to it until now.

"She's sun and rain,She's fire and iceA little crazy but it's niceAnd when she gets mad,You best leave her alone'Cause she'll rage just like a riverThen she'll beg you to forgive herOh she's every woman thatI've ever known

She's so New York and then LAAnd every town along the wayAnd she's everyplace that I've ever beenShe's making love on rainy nightsShe's a stroll through christmas lightsAnd she's everything I want to do again

And it needs no explanationCause it all makes perfect senseFor when it comes down to temptationShe's on both sides of the fence

No it needs no explanation Cause it all makes perfect senseWhen it comes down to temptationShe's on both sides of the fence

She anything but typicalShe's so unpredictable Oh but even at hr worst she ain't that badShe's as real as real can beAnd she's every fantasyLord she's every lover that I've ever hadAnd she's every lover that I've never had"

Katniss' eyes well up with tears and she hugs me tight.

"You brought my father back to life. I haven't heard that song since before his death. And its never had music to it before. How did you know how to play it? How did you recreate his song?" she asks me.

"I honestly don't know. I just was trying a couple different chords and they just kind of lined up that way. Your father used to sing that for your mother, Real or Not Real?" I ask her.

"Real. I used to hear him sing it to her almost every night when they went to bed at night," she says.

"He really loved her didn't he?" I ask her and she nods," then I think you owe it to him to try and make amends with her. I mean does she even know we are getting married yet?"

"I'll call her tomorrow Peeta, I promise," she says.

"I know she wasn't always there for you, but you need to let her try," I say as I kiss her temple. We sit in silence and eat our sandwiches. We watch as the sun sets and we go inside the stone house and build a fire. We settle down for the night under the blankets Katniss pack. And as I drift off to sleep, I can't help but think that this has been the best birthday I've ever had.

----------------------Sorry it took so long. I no long felt a push to get this story updated. But then as I explained in the beginning, I heard a song on the radio and it gave me the idea for this chapter. The two songs they sing are If Tomorrow Never Comes and Shes Every Woman both by Garth Brooks. I highly recommend you listen to them and Little Moments, the song I mentioned in the beginning of this story. The songs I mention in my story are songs mean a lot to me and I love them. Just letting you guys get to know me through the music I enjoy. I have loads planed for later in my story. I'll leave you guys alone now.30k readsThat's amazingLove y'allRock on!-Kayla