Chapter 33: My Wish

Katniss' POV

I've spent two weeks with Peeta at the bakery. The cut on my hip has healed and faded to a thin scar. But Peeta still hasn't let me stay home and hunt. I've been having fun, but I've also started getting cabin fever. The undeniable ache to run through the forest, setting snares and shooting game, any thing to get me back in the woods, my safe haven.

I roll over to find that Peeta is already up. I get dressed and walk down stairs to find Peeta just finishing our breakfast. But I smell something with them.

"Why are you making cheese buns here? We usually just bring some home from the bakery." I ask him.

"Yeah but those are never warm. I wanted to make your birthday breakfast special. Plus you might need something warm before you go out hunting." He says smirking. I look over to the calendar to see he's right. Plain as day, May 8th is revealed on the tear away we keep on the fridge. I had been so caught up in life that I hadn't felt the time go by, very unlike when I was a child when I counted the days since my father died or the days since I had my last meal. But I'm drawn out of my trance when I think of his last sentence.

"You're letting me go hunting?" I ask.

"Yeah, you deserve it. I've kept you away to long. I should trust you. Plus you've been obviously been getting restless being cooped up," he says and I laugh.

"Maybe just a little bit," I say, "Hey, you wanna come with me? I mean it being Saturday and all, you don't really need to be at the bakery, do you?"

"No, but I'm not exactly the quietest person when it comes to walking in the woods," he says.

"I don't care. I want to spend my birthday with you," I say.

"You do?" he asks.

"Unfortunately I've become infatuated with a one legged baker who can't walk soundlessly to save his life and after spend two weeks in the bakery with him can't stand to leave his side. So I'll go get ready and you can pack something for us to take with us," I say smirking.

"Well I was gonna stay home and make you some thing special for dinner or maybe a cake. I want your birthday to be special," Peeta says.

"I don't need a special birthday. Just the woods and you," I say kissing him on the cheek and walking past him to go get my bow.

*************An hour later, Peeta and I are walking through the woods, the fresh spring air scented lightly with wild flowers blowing stray hairs in my face every once in a while. Though Peeta has gotten better at walking through the woods, he's still to hunt with.

"Is there anywhere special you're taking me?" he asks. I shake my head.

"No, just wherever our feet take us," I say. We keep walking around until I see something far off that I can't get a good look at.

"Peeta, hold up I have to look at something," I say, walking over to a tree and begin climbing up so I can see over the brush that naturally covers the forest floor.

"Please be careful," Peeta says.

"Peeta I've been climbing since before school," I say stubbornly reaching for the next branch.

"You've fallen quite a few times as well," he says as I reach a branch wide enough to support my full weight and sit. I look over towards where I saw movement before to see a wild dog. I look down to Peeta who is looking worriedly back up at me.

"It's just a dog. It should leave us alone. Let's just head the opposite way," I say as I begin to descend the tree. I get about half way down when I hear a crack and a branch breaks under me.

I fall out of the tree to fast for Peeta to catch me and a hear a pop come from my foot. Peeta's right by my side as I scream in pain. Peeta tries to help me up but sets me back down when I scream again.

"Katniss I'm sorry. Are you okay?" he asks, worry clouding his gaze.

"I think I hurt my foot again," I say gritting my teeth. Peeta tries to gently remove my boot, but it still hurts like hell as he eases my foot out of it. It's already swollen and purple. Peeta is extremely gentle as he looks over my foot.

"Think you just sprained it like last time. Katniss this is why I didn't want you to climb that tree," he says.

"Since when do I listen to you," I say scowling at him. Peeta just sighs.

"Come on let's get you home," he says as he picks me up and begins to carry me home.

"What do you think you're doing?" I say.

"I know you've walked on a sprained ankle before but that doesn't mean I'm going to let you do it again," he says as he carries me home. I don't fight it and eventually I fall asleep curled up in his arms.

I wake up in our bedroom with my ankle carefully wrapped and propped up on a pillow. I look over to see Peeta sitting beside me with the memory book we had been working on together. He is sketching intently, his face creased in concentration.

"What are you doing?" I ask. He stops drawing and looks over at me.

"Hey, your awake. How's the ankle?" he asks.

"Better I guess," I say a little bummed out that this is how I have to spend the next couple weeks. Always sitting or laying down, needing Peeta to help me with even the smallest tasks. I had gotten my first taste of freedom in weeks and had blown it away by being stubborn.

"I'm not gonna say I told you so but I saw this coming. That tree looked half rotted out," he says. I just roll my eyes. He laughs and leans over to the bedside table and picks something off it. When he shows it to me, it's a cupcake, beautifully decorated like a little green hill and the candle he stuck in it looks like a little dandelion sitting on top, decorated with chocolate leaves that were died green.

"What's this?" I ask.

"I figured you didn't want me to drag a big cake up here, but it's still your birthday and you are still getting a cake," He says.

"You didn't have to do this," I say.

"I wanted to. Now make a wish," he says as he gently hands me the cupcake and lights the little candle on top. I look at it slowly turning it so I can see every angle of it and then decide what I will wish for.

"I wish for the odds to finally be in our favor and just let us have a peaceful life. No more Capital bothering us, no more wars, and just let us be happy," I say and blow out the candle and kiss Peeta's cheek. I look over at the sketchbook still in his lap. "What were you working on?"

"Was writing about your birthday. Mine's in there, yours should be too," he says handing the book to me. I look at the page and see a sketch of me sleeping with my foot propped on a pillow and Buttercup nuzzled up against it trying to lie on the pillow too. Peeta's sitting next to me, sketching in the book. I look up at him with that 'are you kidding me look'.

"Really? You drew yourself drawing?" I say.

"That's how it happened ok. Just read what I wrote," he says. I look at the page next to it and read:

"What can I say about your mother's 18th birthday. She insisted she didn't need it to be eventful, but she made it that way anyway. Being the stubborn person she is, she insisted I go out in the woods with her. A walk in the woods with me was all she wanted for her birthday. I didn't know it would end with her having a sprained ankle. She thought she saw something far off and insisted she climb a tree, a half rotted out tree might I add, to investigate even though I asked her not to. When she saw it was only a wild dog, far enough away to leave us alone, she began her decent of the tree. About half way down, one of the rickety, dried out branches snapped under her weight. I wasn't close enough to catch her, because if I was, she wouldn't have fell on the same foot she had hurt a little more than a year before, during the darkest time before the revolution trying to get back over the electric fence after getting trapped in the forest one night. but that's another story.

At first I had tried to help her up, but when she screamed I quickly set her back down. After we discovered it was sprained, she decided, being the stubborn person she is, she was gonna walk home on it. Eventually I carried her home and she fell asleep in my arms. After I wrapped her foot and put her in bed, Buttercup, the ugliest cat in the world according to Katniss, decided he wanted to lay on the same pillow her foot was propped on. He eventually gave up and just curled up around her ankle, serving as a little furry heating pad.

And that leaves me writing this. As stubborn as she is and as much as she drives me crazy. I wouldn't have her any other way. I love her with all my heart and I know you do too, because she will never know the affect she has on people. The way she brightens up my world just by being here.

-Peeta Mellark, age 18"

"You wrote it to our child?" I ask.

"If we do end up with them, I want them to know how much you mean to me. How much I love you even after all things we've both been through," he says softly as I hand the book back to him and he sets it down. "Do you want something to eat, it getting late." he says and look through the window to see a full moon brightening up a clear sky full of stars.

"No, I just want to sleep," I say yawning and settling down into the covers, disturbing Buttercup, whom I did not know was still sleeping on my foot. He hisses and jumps off the bed and goes to sit on the window seat by the open window that fills the room with a warm, fresh, spring breeze. Peeta just nods and gets out of bed to shut off the light before laying down next to me and gently pulling me closer to him.

"Happy birthday, Katniss. I love you so much sweetheart," Peeta says quietly kissing the top of my head. Though I don't say it, I mentally reply that I love him to as I fall asleep to the sound of his heart beat and the rustle of the curtains framing the open window.

-------------------------------I'm sorry to have kept you all waiting for so long. Tournaments have started for the Varsity Players on my basketball team and I've been going to the games to support them. Last night the Lady Blue Jackets won the district title against former league rival Seneca East Lady Tigers. I couldn't be more proud of those girls who have become my family over the last two years. But them moving on in tournaments also means I will again be delayed in updating. Sorry, just had to give you fair warning.

Also forgot to give the song from my last chapter credit. No, I am not a musical genius and did not write that song. It was "When You Come Back to Me Again" by Garth Brooks. I know I'm obsessed. Sue me. I love him so much. Well I'll leave you guys to suffer until I update again.

77k is absolutely amazingLove y'allRock on!-Kayla