#sorry everything to me is everlark coded

[notsocooljess]

if katniss were to write a song about peeta while he was captured by the capitol, it would be this. it’s so beautiful and sad i get chills when i listen to it

[papofglencoe]

Hi! I’ve just recently got back into the Everlark fanfic world and I am in love with your writing! Last night I finish Against the Wall (again for the 100th time) and I’m desperate for their date! I try to imagine what they are like around each other now and all the awkward, nervous giddy goodness that it will be! Sorry if this is cheeky but would you be willing to share a small taster of what happens next? Thanks so much for sharing your writing, I’m a big fan!

Hi there! I’m so sorry if I’ve taken a while replying! I’m not sure when you sent this ask along, but I’ve been on a tumblr sabbatical until a couple days ago. Thank you so much for sending some love for ATW my way! <333 I have most of the last chapter and epilogue written... gosh, it’s like 43 pages of stuff. In all honesty, when I look at it, I think most of it is total crap because it is cheesy and awkward and riddled with all my usual excesses. As Mark says in Love Actually about his creepy-ass wedding video, “It still needs... a bit of editing.” I’ve also been sitting on it because what I’d really like to do is convert and rework the entire story into an original novella, but life hasn’t given me much time to be able to do that. I dunno. I’ve got some analysis paralysis going on. Anyway, I hate feeling like I have disappointed anyone, and I do want to be able to share with the people who have been supportive and so kind, so here you go... a taste. It might never see the light of day in whatever finished product I do post, but hopefully you enjoy it! Thanks for asking! <3

“So, ah, where are we off to?” she asked, trying to sound casual as she tugged anxiously at the hem of her dress. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed him glance at her hand, a crooked half-smile tugging at his lips. Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What’s so funny?” 

He zipped his bag back up and slipped the strap over his shoulder, shaking his head as his smiled broadened. “Oh, nothing.” 

Sure. More like, ‘Oh, bullshit.’ 

Her eyes became slits so narrow it was a wonder she could see anything at all. She imagined throwing daggers at him—one, then two, aimed right for his heart. Direct hits. He wouldn’t see them coming. “Spit it out, you.” 

He chuckled softly and bit the inside of his cheek, clearly deliberating how to answer. “It’s just... something cute you do when you’re uncomfortable. You do that with your work uniform too, and now this dress—did you want to change into something else? Would it be better for you? Because I definitely don’t mind waiting...” She watched his mouth as he spoke, the way he licked his lower lip as his words trailed off. In the dim lights of the hall his lips were a deep shade of pink, and that lower lip of his was wet—so deliciously wet. So kissably, deliciously, irritatingly wet. “Or is it... because of me?”

The elevator cables groaned as they hoisted the elevator up the shaft, the doors grumbling as they opened to let them on. Neither the cables nor the doors groaned as loudly as Katniss would have liked to. How mortifying that he had noticed that about her. 

She stepped onto the elevator to buy herself some time to answer—exactly two precious seconds to pull her shit together.   

“No… I’m fine,” she began, considering how much to admit. Johanna had already aired some of her dirty laundry without scaring him away, so what was the harm in airing a tiny bit more? 

She leaned against the wall of the elevator, using the handrail to support some of her weight. Peeta stepped in behind her and took a spot against the opposite wall, facing her. 

Katniss sighed. “I mean, you’re right. I’m not comfortable. It's just… I haven’t been on a date in a while.” She pressed the button for the lobby and lied, “It’s not you though, specifically. Per se.” 

But it was him. It was everything about him—his smell, his voice, those eyes of his and the way they were looking at her right now. It was the way her entire body broke out into a fucking Stephen Sondheim number at his slightest touch. If she didn’t care what Peeta thought—if he’d been any of the other guys she’d been set up with over the past several years who had never bothered to call her again after a round of awkward drinks or a stilted conversation over dinner—it wouldn’t matter. But here she was with him, worked up into knots simply being in his company, and all she wanted was for him to think she was a bow. 

She winced, feeling intensely vulnerable, and looked down at her feet, scrambling for several moments to find the words that would make him believe he wasn’t the problem without making herself seem too pathetic in the process. “I could be wearing sweatpants right now and still be like this,” she admitted. “There’s something about first dates, I guess.” She bit her lip and stared at a spot on the floor, at the remnants of a half-dollar sized wad of gum had been scraped off by the building’s superintendent sometime in the last few days. “I’m terrible at them.” 

All of that was true enough. 

“Me too,” he said. 

She looked up at Peeta in surprise, frowning in incomprehension like he’d rattled off a string of binary code to her, a bunch of 0s and 1s that ought to spell out something basic and essential but achieved nothing at all.  

He shrugged, looking a bit abashed. “Well, it’s true.”

She made a soft scoffing sound, incredulity oozing out of every one of her pores. “I find that a little hard to believe.”

The elevator lurched as it approached the ground floor, the doors opening to let them off, but neither of them seemed to notice. 

“To be fair,” Peeta chuckled, “until tonight you found my existence a little hard to believe.”

[whiskeykneat]

Author Name: whiskeyneat on ao3 & ffn, @boneandfur for choices

Fandoms You Write For: at the moment, I'm in a writing slump, but usually gadge, norribeth, gendrya, and cursed rare pairs like Book Ginny x death eaters & Hermione x Random Sexy Character. I also like Ruffret, Meret, and write fic for Choices. I'm ok with Galeniss too (though I prefer Gadge). Another cursed ship!

Where You Post: AO3, FFN, tumblr for choices only

Most Popular One-shot: i don't have one shots for fandoms besides choices

Most Popular Multi-Chap: Toss up between The West Wind & One More Saturday Night/Fortunate Son (Gadge, Everlark)

Favorite Story You Wrote: for POTC, Happy in Another Life. For THG, Fortunate Son. For HP, the one where Ron is a serial killer (sorry, Ron).

Story You Were Nervous to Post: I'm always nervous

How Do You Pick Your Titles: they're usually from songs

Do You Outline: yes! I use a very loose outline. Things I want to happen in each chapter. And I always know the end first.

How Many of Your Stories are Complete: I'm too lazy to check that. But a lot. Mostly Choices.

In-Progress:

A rewrite of The West Wind. Some Norribeth prompts. A modern au Gendrya prompt. Part two of One More Saturday Night.

Coming Soon:

I haven't written in awhile. Sorry guys :(

Do You Accept Prompts: in theory...

Upcoming Story You’re the Most Excited For: I’m excited to work on my LITG fics! Follow me over @fuck-girl-code if you're into Love Island the Game!

Tag Five Fanfic Authors to Answer The Questions: @queen-of-effing-everything @hawtsee @apirateslifeforme123 @hollandoodle @starrnobella

[saoirseunaronan]

Books I’ve Read in 2020

I’m gonna do this for pure self-amusement, so here we go!

📚 It Ends With Us - Colleen Hoover  ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ - finished 02.02.2020 - wasn’t the most amazing book I’ve ever read, but it kind of came through a little bit. I could easily see this as a fanfiction on ao3 (lol).

📚 The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - finished 02.25.2020 - it was a reread, ‘cause I read it in 2012 right before the movie came out and honestly I already talked about it a lot on my tag. Perfection. Shaped my life.

📚 Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - finished 02.27.2020 - reread. I have no words for Catching Fire, this book is a masterpiece.

📚 Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - finished 02.29.2020 - reread. The end, the tears, the heartbreak, everlark. It’s just pure talent. Suzanne, I love you, woman

📚 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Stieg Larsson   ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - finished 04.22.2020 - first read. The first book of probably the best book series I’ve ever read. So amazing, so dark and so terrible at the same time. It was just a wild ride to read this book and I couldn’t really put it down for a second, it was just insane and so so great.

📚 The Girl who Played with Fire - Stieg Larsson  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - finished 04.26.2020. First read. Second book was so deep like so many secrets, so many gags, just AMAZING! I have no words for second book, it was just holy shit.

📚 The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest - Stieg Larsson  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - finished 05.02.2020. First read. Last book of the series. A great ending. Nothing was rushed. Everything was kind of understood. Even the loose ends sort of kind of weren’t so yeah just perfect. It was the perfect ending honestly and we love to see it.

📚 The Maze Runner - James Dashner  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - finished 05.07.2020. First read. Awesome first book of a gigantic series, i just found out there’s one more book to read omg i’m so excited lol. It’s just awesome and well done and well thought and just like BOOM, amazing characters. Newt, Thomas and Minho are so fun and their interactions are GOLDEN. I’m so excited about the next books, aaaah so good!!!

📚 The Scorch Trials - James Dashner  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - finished 05.09.2020. First read. Okay so second book was a ride! I’m writing this like almost two months after I finished this book, cause i’m fucking lazy to write reviews, but also fuck that. so i loved this book, these series are just amazing!!! i loved the new challenges the characters had to face, some pretty dark stuff, the betrayal in the book is so complicated, i wanted to throw the book on the wall, which is a good thing for a book to bring so many emotions to a person hahaha it’s just golden, golden and golden!

📚 The Death Cure - James Dashner  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - finished 05.10.2020. First read. It’s the last book of the main trilogy of books and it’s really amazing! i mean it has great development and the golden trio is just fantastic honestly. Minho, Newt and Thomas are my babies, I love them so fucking much. Reading Newt wasn’t immune was so hard, seeing his illness getting worse was unbearable and reading his death scene was like having no voice for 3 hours. i mean i really really really love this kid and he deserved the fucking world and all the newtmas we got was crazy crazy i’m just... omg it’s so fucking sad. also teresa i felt so much for her like i know the complications, but i also feel so bad for her she suffered too much. i’m glad my babies got to live in peace and the rest of the world died good for them.

📚 The Kill Order - James Dashner  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - finished 05.17.2020. First read. This a prequel book and it’s an amazing prequel book I GOTTA TELL YA! The chracters were amazing and it’s just not easy to do that, for me to fall in love with characters out of a series of books like that, but i enjoyed them, they were so amazing, so many layers and such a complicated story. when i read at the end of the death cure that the virus was inserted in society i was like WHAT THE FUCK???? and seeing these characters here having the same reaction was so good, cause it’s SO FUCKED UP! i really liked this book, it’s really good! 

📚 The Fever Code - James Dashner  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ - finished 05.21.2020. First read. Oh god.... reading this book and seeing my children as children being friends was IMPOSSIBLE to bare. I mean i’m just.... they deserved everything like EVERYTHING!!! i felt so bad for disliking teresa so much with this book and the others like i know she’s been through so so much and i’m sorry. i understand her reasons to do what she did and everything and i’m just ah this book is really good.

📚 The Maze Runner Files - James Dashner  ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆ - finished 05.22.2020. First read. This book was interesting in some ways. There were some nice touches, but it’s only for the fans honestly lol it’s nothing too amazing, it’s nice to have all these little pieces like how it is to have your memories back, some trials, Teresa and Thomas’ first conversation that didn’t go so well, some of the e-mails, things like that.

[everlarkbirthdaygifts]

Happy Birthday alliswell21!

Firstly, we want to apologize to @alliswell21 for the delay of her gift. We hope you had a lovely birthday on the 21st of October! To ad further cheer to your day, the wonderful @wildlyglittering has written a special Everlark fic just for you! We hope you enjoy it :)

Title: Into the Woods

Gift for: alliswell21

 Rating: M

 Trigger warnings: swearing, sexual situations

 Author’s note: I’m so sorry for the delay. I am an incredibly slow writer. Please slap my wrists for this one.

“Is that a Pumpkin Spice Latte,” murmured the voice, honeyed and low, in my ear, “or are you drinking the blood of your enemies?”

               “Ugh,” I made a sound of disgust and shrugged away from him, making sure my shoulder collided with his jaw as I moved. Great, I thought. Golden-douche is here. One hour without him was all I wanted today, just one solid hour. 

               He moved around the table to sit opposite me, completely uninvited, not that he cared, and began removing his coat. When I knew he couldn’t see I took a glance down his body and noticed that water had splashed his trousers and the coat that was now hanging on the back of his chair held a thick, woollen scent. He’d obviously been caught in the rain. I felt a sliver of mean spirited joy but hid my smile behind my mug as a I took a sip.

               “Not looking so dry, Peeta,” I said. “Did your face collide directly with a rain cloud?”

               As he sat he shook out his hair, water droplets bouncing onto the table, he grinned at me, unbothered by my comment. His arrogance probably meant he thought he still looked good. I took another quick glance, this time at his face and noted that, unfairly, he didn’t look too bad. His golden-douche hair had been turned a darker shade by the rain and his usual loose waves had begun to curl more around his ears.

               A drip on one of those newly darkened strands dripped onto the side of his face and travelled down to his jaw before he reached up to wipe it away. My brain told my eyes to stop looking.

               “Yes,” was all he said, “I suppose it’s a little wet out there.”

               My eyebrows went up. It was one of the rainiest afternoons that our District had on record and he had ventured outside in it. Peeta gave a nonchalant shrug and looked over at me and I noted how his eyes glanced down, very briefly, to my mouth as I took another sip.

               “So, Katniss, what are we doing?” This time his eyes met mine, his obnoxiously blue ones shining and I fought the urge to roll my own. On second thoughts, there were no prizes for restraint.

               “We, are doing nothing. I, am having a coffee and reading my emails. You, are interrupting me.”

               “Is that the one from Haymitch?” Before I had the chance to reply, Peeta had reached over and grabbed the paper placed in front of me. When he first found out that I liked to print out my emails and colour code the relevant text he had mocked me for days. Now though it seemed like they were useful.

               I protested at the intrusion, “Hey! I was reading that!”

               “Sorry,” he replied but didn’t seem anything of the sort. He was reading his way through the print-out and about a third of the way down he began to chew on his lip, worrying the flesh with his white teeth. That was... interesting. Peeta never showed anything other than relaxed cockiness. He must have gotten to that paragraph. The one that I’d highlighted in red which meant ‘panic.’

“Yeah,” he said. “It was shit the first time I read it and it’s still shit now.” He sighed and sat back, running a hand through his hair. Some more errant drops of water slid down his neck, trailing down the pale skin.

I snatched back the paper, the words swimming out at me, black on white. The key ones burned into my eyeballs, ‘two dumbasses,’ ‘professionalism,’ ‘working relationship,’ and worst of all, ‘off the project.’

Though I had anxiety digging a hole in stomach I wasn’t expecting Peeta to be worried so his concern came as a surprise. We’d both been sat in the downtown office when the email came through. I’d known that Haymitch was irritated and it was all down to the fairy woods set. Or more to the point, the disagreement we’d had on the set.

I knew there would be a rebuke but the email stated, in no uncertain terms, that if Peeta and I couldn’t find a way to work together then we’d both be off the project.

When I read it all I wanted to do was run, so I printed off the email, grabbed my bag and announced that I was heading to Sae’s Café. One look at Peeta’s face behind his desk gave nothing away. His calm stuck in my throat and I stormed off, the clouds matching my mood, but I made sure to grab his umbrella beside his desk before I left.

I took in Peeta’s face again and now saw the furrowing of his forehead and the way his lips drew down. I found myself saying, “I didn’t think you’d care about being off the project.”

His face smoothed itself back into a careful neutrality. “I happen,” he stated, “to love this project.” I snorted and his eyebrows shot up. “Why is that so funny exactly?”

“Well you say you love it yet you were planning on butchering it with your designs.” A muscle twitched in his jaw. “Why couldn’t you just let me lead on the woods? Everyone knows that’s my area! You were deliberately sabotaging my idea and...”

“Sabotaging!” he interrupted. “Like hell I was!” He leant forward, his jaw clenching and unclenching. “You are the best outdoor set designer, I’ll give you that, and you have an excellent eye for realism but dammit Katniss you are so goddamn stubborn! You won’t admit when you’re out of your depth and you were with this set. Frankly, you fail at anything imaginative!”

I tried to ignore the sting that came with his words. “It’s a wood.”

“It. Is. A. Fucking. Fairy. Wood.”

Here we were again. Glaring at each other and re-hashing the argument that got us into this situation in the first place. My fingers itched and I curled them into my palms. I fought the urge to stand up, grab my bag and storm off. Again.

The disdain had been simmering along at a level that we had managed to ignore but the recent argument had boiled everything over. I knew there was no return to before, if we didn’t try and resolve this we both had something to lose. It seemed that Peeta reached the same conclusion at the same time, and I watched as he rubbed a hand over his face.      

It was as though he had wiped away his frustration and I saw his face lose its hardness. “Listen,” he looked tired. “I suggest that we try and put these issues aside and find a way to work together. Hell, we’ll get Haymitch to mediate if needed.”

I pulled a face at that but thought of the email again, ‘off the project,’ floating around in the pool of my memory. I swallowed any bitter response down and nodded. That seemed to buoy Peeta and he continued talking, “We’ll apologise to Haymitch, profusely, bash out the project and then we can hate-fuck it out to celebrate. Agreed?”

“Excuse me?” My voice came out like a hiss even though a weird little thrill travelled through me. “What the actual fuck?”

The goddam shine was back in his eyes. Whatever apprehension he’d experiences had evaporated like water and he was clearly getting one last goad in. Well fine, I would bite.

“No,” I ground out. “We’ll work on this project, which by the way is based on my original design, and then you can go hate-fuck yourself and cry about it afterwards. Agreed?”

He flashed me a grin. “Well, that just doesn’t sound as fun.”

 ****

 By the time I arrived the set was a hustle of activity. I waved a hello at Rue, possibly the sweetest set runner I had ever met, and then made my way over to where I could see Haymitch and Peeta standing. It didn’t particularly look like a conversation I wanted to join with Haymitch gesticulating at something above their heads whilst Peeta frowned, hands resting on his hips.

               It looked like Peeta had been running his hands through his hair, strands of blonde waves were sticking up all over the place. But then, that’s probably exactly what he had been doing. In the three weeks since Haymitch sent his email, and after the individual chew out’s we’d received, we’d made a point to cooperate and if that meant working closer together then so be it.

               The constant contact meant I was beginning to pick up on a few of Peeta’s ‘tells.’ He was one of the calmest people I had ever met but there was an undercurrent of frustration that occasionally ran through him. This frustration, which I’d once thought was solely because of me, was based on greater things, including his never-ending sense of perfectionism. In a way I was disappointed, I didn’t know why but the idea of it being me that was getting under his skin was slightly enticing.

               Haymitch saw me approach. “About time, sweetheart,” he grumbled. “Where the hell have you been?”

               I shot him a look that hopefully conveyed exactly what I thought about that nickname. “I was dealing with Glimmer.” The ridiculously named, blonde and beautiful art director who I had to have yet another meeting with.

               “There was a meeting with cotton-for-brains and you were the one that went?” Haymitch looked incredulous. “Why the hell didn’t the boy go?”

               Out of the corner of my eye I saw Peeta frown harder, clearly just as enthused about his nickname as I was mine. Despite us getting on better I couldn’t help but squeeze a small dig in. “Because, the boy didn’t want to go.”

               Peeta stepped forward towards me. “Hey, I’d appreciate the demeaning nicknames be kept to an absolute zero, sweetheart.” He held no humour in his voice and when he met my eyes head on there was no jest there either.

               Fine. I would play. I opened my mouth to retort but Haymitch jumped in first, throwing his hands up to the ceiling. “Jesus Christ, are we fucking back to this?” He looked between us. “Do not start this again because I swear to god if you do, I will smack your heads together faster than you can say ‘over fucking budget.’”

               “You,” he pointed at Peeta, “sort out the damn trees, do it cheap, and do it now. And you,” he turned to me, jabbing a nail bitten finger my way, “do not piss Glimmer off, she’s already gunning for us for some goddamned reason and having you turn up to make good is not exactly what I would call a plan.” With a final piercing look at us both he said, “Don’t fuck this up.” I watched his back as he went.

                “Well, that was rude.”

               I turned to face Peeta. The little muscle was going in his jaw and his eyes flashed with irritation but, as quickly as it appeared, it was gone and then he was sighing and running a hand over his face. I felt a pang of sympathy for him. This project was bigger than we both originally thought and he was taking the lead on a difficult set. His blue eyes were puffy and his broad shoulders seemed to sag. The urge that I would have once had to comment on his stressed appearance was no longer there. Instead, I found myself asking, “Are you ok?”

               Peeta looked at me, eyebrows raised and I felt a blush rise to my cheeks. Why did he look so surprised? Was it unusual to ask how someone was feeling? Was it that unusual for it to be me that sked how someone was feeling. For a moment I thought he would make an acrid remark and prepared myself, feeling somehow sad that he would. But he just glanced at me, thoughtful eyes swept over my face, lingered on my pink cheeks without comment before falling to look at my lips. He quickly glanced away.

               “Yeah, I’ll be fine. Haymitch is just being... Haymitch.” He let out a little laugh. “I’ve dealt with worse.”

               “He’s a pill when he’s like this. I think I preferred it when he was drinking.”

               I saw Peeta’s eyebrows stretch up to his hairline even more. “You did not just say that.”

               “Didn’t I?” I said, feigning innocence.

               A slow, wicked grin crept onto his face. “Katniss Everdeen, such unexpected sass.” He winked at me, “I think I like it.”

               The blush that was on my cheeks burned again and the flush bloomed down my neck. You are, I thought to myself, a grown woman. Get a grip. It wouldn’t do blushing like a virgin schoolgirl and it wouldn’t do to start flirting with Peeta.

               “Yeah well,” I replied with an eye roll, “try not to.” I waved my hand towards the set, ignoring the fact that he was still looking at me and smiling. “Don’t you have to go fix some trees?”

               “I thought you were the forest expert?”

               “It’s a fairy wood, aren’t you the expert at things that aren’t real? Don’t be such a golden-douche.” It slipped out before I meant it to but my tone held no bite. I looked over at him from the corner of my eye only to see his shoulders shaking in laughter.

               “Golden-douche?”

               “Yeah,” I shrugged. “On account of your hair and your general douchebaggery.”

               “Oh... I see.” His wicked grin grew lazy and spread wider on his stupid, handsome face. “You refer to my hair as ‘golden’ huh? What do you refer to my eyes? Azure? Cerulean? How about... Sapphire?”

“And there is that general douchebaggery I was referring to.”

“Ah, Katniss,” he replied. “That hate-fuck is beginning to look more like begrudge-fuck.”

I flipped him the bird. “Go begrudge-fuck yourself,” and then I walked off, the sound of his laughter ringing like a bell in my ears.

****

 If there was anything I hated, it was being wrong.

               Months ago, I’d been sat in Haymitch’s office, pouring over the designs for the set we all hated. The fairy woods. It needed to be grandiose, it needed to be ethereal and it needed to be done on budget.

               “Katniss,” Haymitch had said to me. “There is no one here that can compare with you when it comes to nature designs, but...” and he seemed hesitant for the first time I had known him.

               “But, what?”

               “They’re dull.”

               “Dull? What the hell does that mean?!”

               He’d told me that I had a great eye for realism but fantasy elements and outside the box thinking weren’t my strengths and so they were bringing in someone from one of the other teams to work with me. That was where it had all started, Katniss Everdeen and her wounded pride.

               Receiving criticism was not my strength. Nor was giving praise. It had bothered me that we needed Peeta’s more imaginative eye but what bothered me more was that he deserved praise I had to yet to give. Not that he would have cared about what I thought, I’m sure.

               The set was nearly completed and I still hadn’t said anything. Every time we were on set I was awed at what we’d managed to achieve. The trees somehow stretched into an endless colour changing sky, the lichen on the trees glowed a deep, molten silver and gold seemed to pour out from beneath the tree bark.

               I wondered if my face took on the enthusiasm and delight of a child when I looked at it all, because that’s what I felt inside. Still, when I thought Peeta was looking I attempted chilled neutrality. It seemed that I had to do that a lot lately, attempt chilled neutrality, as I swore he was looking at me an awful lot more. Problem is, I only knew this because I was doing an awful lot of looking back.

               We’d found a strange balance along the way and as long as nothing threw off the equilibrium we would be fine. Absolutely fine. Which is why I surprised myself by doing just that.

                               The laughter I could hear across the set wasn’t Peeta’s usual booming one but was light, giggly and sounded flirty. There, deep within the woods, past a few of the silvery trees, stood Peeta and Glimmer side by side. A thought came to my mind to turn around and leave them alone, it is never a good idea to go into the woods, it only leads to disaster. But I shook the thought out, these weren’t real woods and it was only Peeta.

               I affected a look of disinterest as I approached them. “Hey,” I said.

               They both stopped talking and watched as I stepped over fake roots. Glimmer’s face slipped from pleased to pissed while the smile lines around Peeta’s eyes deepened.

               I held out the takeout cup to him, “I got you a coffee.” I made sure he could see where Sae had written ‘golden-douche’ on it. He took it with a grin and a wink and for a moment by stomach pitched downwards. “Sorry Glimmer,” I said to her, not at all sorry. “I didn’t know you were here.”

               Glimmer’s pretty pink mouth turned upwards into a saccharine, and completely fake, smile. “Not at all,” she waved a hand at me. “I was just coming to see how my favourite set designer was doing with my favourite set.”

She turned, smiling at Peeta and gave his bare arm a squeeze. I caught how her fingers trailed lightly on his skin and clutched my own coffee a bit tighter. “Katniss, I was just telling Peeta how amazing his design is and what a talent he is. Don’t you think?”

I gave a grumble behind my hot beverage barrier that sounded like an agreement.

“Well, I just added some bits to Katniss’ original design,” I heard Peeta say. “I added the fantastical elements, but if it wasn’t for her base we wouldn’t have had much of a set to work on.” His comment surprised me and I looked over to see him watching me. I offered up a small, appreciative smile and he surprised me further by offering a small - but warm - one back.

“But it’s the fantastical elements that really make it come alive,” Glimmer continued. “If we wanted normal woods we wouldn’t have needed to bring you in.” She waved a hand around the set again. “This is so much more effort than normal, boring woods, don’t you think?”

I seethed behind my coffee, steam either coming from the hot liquid or my ears. My usual conversations with her were like this, barbed comments aiming for the jugular but hidden underneath a sugary sweet tone. This was the first time that she had tried to embarrass me in front of someone, and it was Peeta no less. For some reason that made it worse.

“Glim,” I heard Peeta say, his voice low but not honeyed. “I think you should be more respectful of Katniss’ work.” I looked up and saw the smile melt off her face.

“It takes an incredible amount of effort and an observant eye to replicate reality and get it spot on. I mean, have you seen the tree bark?” Peeta gestured out to the tree next to where he was standing. “Do you know the amount of time it takes to get the texture correct? Or the colours? It’s not just brown you’re looking at, it’s the right shade of brown, and the green and silver and red.”

Glimmer’s mouth drew itself into a straight line. “Sorry Peeta, I didn’t realise that you felt that strongly about.... trees,” she looked over at me. “I have to go. I was only passing to say congratulations on a job well done. To you both.”

We watched her retreat and I let out a sigh. “You didn’t need to say all that you know. I’m a big girl. I can cope with her petty little knock-backs.”

Peeta shrugged and didn’t look at me. “Well, it was bothering me. You did just as good a job so she didn’t need to be like that.”

We stood there on the set, in the middle of the woods, in silence. Guilt started to gnaw away at me. If he could be complimentary about my work why couldn’t I just swallow my pride and say ‘well done Peeta, it looks beautiful.’ This was the moment if there ever was one. But I couldn’t. My mouth stayed shut until I decided to go ahead and ruin the balance we had earned.

“I know she didn’t but you didn’t need to defend me. I know my work is good and I don’t need you to tell her it is, it should speak for itself.”

Peeta’s mouth pursed and he spoke slowly, as though I was a child. “It does... speak for itself but I just wanted to point out the obvious to her. I think she is a little... biased and it doesn’t hurt to have someone on side.”

“I don’t need you on side.”

His eyes slid over to me and narrowed, the shining blue darkening. “What exactly,” his voice dangerously low, “is your problem here?”

I didn’t know. I didn’t know if it was because I had busted my ass on this project before Peeta turned up and he was now being hailed as some wonder boy, I didn’t know if it was because no one apart from Peeta had praised my actual contribution to the design and I was pathetically jealous and insecure. I didn’t know if it was because Peeta had called Glimmer ‘Glim’ and that she had trailed her fingers all over his skin. I didn’t know if it was because he seemed comfortable in letting her.

“She rode me hard for weeks,” was all I said. “All she did was bust me for the overspend, the design quality, how long it was taking to get the damn thing done and here she is singing your praises like I had nothing to do with anything.” I shook my head and went for the throat. “She rode me hard but honestly from the way she was panting at you I could wonder if you had been doing the same to her.”

It was a nasty comment, not meant to mean anything apart from cause hurt. I expected Peeta to protest in angry indignation and fight back. Except... he didn’t. I looked up sharply at his silence and felt a tremble of something in my stomach.

His eyes remained dark and angry and were boring into my face but his cheeks had gone a faint pink, the tips of his ears too. I watched his throat as he swallowed, the Adam’s apple bobbing.

“Oh,” I said. It came out soft. “Right.”

“Katniss...”

“No, I’m sorry I said anything.” I looked at the ground, at the fake grass, covered in fake leaves. “It’s not my business who you have relationships with.”

“We’re not in a relationship.”

“Or who you’re fucking.” I cringed as I said it.

“We’re not fucking.” He sighed, “Katniss...”

The ethereal beauty of the set now just seemed fake. All those pretty silvers and golds were just grey and yellow. The coffee tasted like mud and whatever I had with Peeta was...nothing. That was where I had gone wrong. For some reason I’d thought the growing joviality between us, the looks, the smiles, had meant more than it did. That was my fault, not his.

“I’ve got to go,” I told him. “I’m sure Haymitch wanted to have a progress update.”

Without waiting for a response from him, I walked off.

The project was almost completed, ‘we can hate-fuck it out to celebrate,’ Peeta had once said about when it was all over. At the time I’d been both angry and thrilled. Not that I wanted to hate-fuck it out at all, but if I was being honest with myself there was obviously something there that appealed to me.

I chucked my half-full coffee into the trash as I exited the studio and rolled my eyes at myself, feeling stupid. If there was anything, I said to myself, it would have been a pity-fuck. A sad, Katniss can’t get the job right, pity-fuck. I went straight home.

 ***

  It was late and I was cursing myself. Haymitch had called telling me there were problems with the meadow set and that ‘I get my ass down there first thing tomorrow morning and sort it out.’ My charming boss with his charming way with words.

               I’d rolled my eyes, confirmed I would, hung up on him and tried to enjoy the rest of my evening doing nothing at home. It was half an hour later that a sinking feeling hit my stomach. Shit, I thought. My binder wasn’t here. Racking my brains, I realised I’d left it at the last place I’d been, in the studio at the woods set.

I groaned. The meadow set was in a completely different studio halfway across the district. Trying to get from one place to the other in the morning would be impossible with the traffic. Haymitch would kill me if I wasn’t there on time but without that binder he would kill me anyway because I couldn’t fix anything without knowing what I was supposed to be fixing.

               I had one option and that was to collect the binder now. I shoved on some leggings and pulled an old sweater over my camisole thanking my stars I had the code to the building. If I was quick I could make it back in time to watch my programme before it started which was the sole highlight of my evening.

               When I arrived the night security guard recognised me and waved me in. “Busy night tonight,” he told me. “Only two of you but still, that’s busy for this time of night.”

               I frowned wondering who else was at the studio at this time of night and got my answer as soon as I pulled into a parking space. Two spaces down sat Peeta’s car. Great. I debated not going in but knew that was ridiculous. What was the point of driving all the way here to turn back empty handed? If I was lucky I could get in and out without him seeing me and if he did, well I was an adult. I was sure I could be civil.

               I wandered in, feeling nervous. I didn’t want to bump into him but then, some part of me did. We’d had that awful conversation on set three weeks ago and since then we’d gone back to playing the avoidance game. Well, I had. Peeta seemed to keep trying to talk to me but I always had a good excuse to get away.

               The studio wasn’t lit up fully but enough so that someone could make their way around the set and I wondered why Peeta was here. On the table to the side I could see my binder, all I needed to do was pick it up and leave. No one, aside from the security guard, would know I had been here. And then, for some inexplicable reason, I cleared my throat. Loudly.

               “Hello?” I heard Peeta’s voice from the set and his loud footsteps as they walked towards me. “Who’s... Katniss?”

               I turned to face him, noting his confused expression. “What are you doing here?”

               “I forgot my binder.” I picked it up and waggled it. “I need it for tomorrow, problem with the meadow set, so....”

               “Right,” he nodded. We stood opposite each other in silence.

               “What are you doing here? It’s a bit late.”

               Peeta sighed. “I honestly hate this set. I got a call from Haymitch telling me that some water damage had happened to some of the trees. God knows how, and now I’m just trying to get it sorted.”

               “This late?”

               He shrugged. “I had nothing better to do.”

               It was on the tip of my tongue to say, ‘what, not ‘Glim?’ but that was cold and unfair and completely borne from a place of my own jealously.

               “Do you want help?” My brain cursed at me.

               He seemed surprised but not unhappy and he let out a breath. “If you don’t mind?”

               “Sure.”

               We walked to the damage and I saw that some bark had begun to peel. I laughed and touched it, “It’s not at all funny but it looks just like real bark, except it’s sodden.”

               Peeta sighed again. “My wood got wet.”

               I gasped and looked over to him, “Peeta!”

               “Sorry, sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. Completely inappropriate,” but there was a small twinkle in his eyes that told me he wasn’t that sorry.

               “We could get some heaters to dry it out,” I said, turning back to the tree and choosing to ignore him, “but if we don’t know where the leak is coming from then it wouldn’t...”

               “Katniss.” He said my name with determination but I could detect a slight tremor. “I’m sorry.”

               I paused. I didn’t understand why he was apologising to me, I wasn’t too sure what he had done wrong, not really. I turned back to him. His eyes implored me to hear him out, his palms outstretched in a calming manner. “Why are you sorry?” I asked.

               “Because I think somewhere along the way I’ve screwed something up.”

               I looked down at the ground. “No, you haven’t. I just...,” I paused, not too sure how to continue. “It’s none of my business about you and Glimmer, really it isn’t.”

               “I’m not seeing her,” he said. “And I’m not sleeping with her. I have slept with her, months ago. A couple of times. There’s nothing I can do about that, it’s happened. I just don’t want you thinking that’s why I ended up on this job, that I slept my way into it. I was already on the job when Glimmer and I hooked up.”

               His statement did funny things to my stomach but it just added onto the guilt that I was already feeling. It wasn’t his fault I was a pathetic mess.

               “Peeta, shut up.”

               “Excuse me?” He laughed a little disbelievingly. “I’m apologising and you’re telling me to shut up?”

               “Yes, exactly!”

               “This is going well...”

               I shook my head. “I mean... you don’t need to apologise. I should be apologising to you.” I took a deep breath. “I don’t think you slept your way into this job, I mean, look at your design,” I gestured around us, “it’s quite obvious that you’re here because of your talent. I was jealous.”

               “Of my talent?”

               “No.” I took another deep breath. “Of Glimmer, actually.”

               It took a moment and then his face changed, confusion blended into understanding and then a soft, warm smile appeared on his face. “Oh, I see.”

               “This whole conversation is embarrassing me. I know I said I was going to help but I think I might just take my binder and go home.”

               “You know,” his voice was low and honeyed and wonderful as he stepped towards me, “I had a lot of inspiration to draw on when designing this place. An artist takes inspiration from everything.”

               I snorted, “Right, like what?”

               “Well, the gold from the trees is inspired by my hair,” he shook his head as he came closer, the blonde waves bouncing. “Obviously.”

               “Obviously, I see we’re back to being golden-douche.”

               “But hearing you talk about the woods you knew as a child really helped draw out my creative side.” He stood in front of me now and he reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. It lingered for a while as his eyes bore into mine before a fingertip trailed down my neck and onto my collar bone.

“And the silver in the trees? Well, that’s pretty special too.” His fingertip ran a pathway across my skin, tracing the bone and I shivered.

“That tickles,” I said. “But go on.”

He smiled and leant in, his broad shoulders stretched out in front of me, his blue eyes dark and delicious. The pupils were fat and black, squeezing out the colour. Peeta’s mouth was inches away from mine and all I needed to do was stand on my tiptoes and then our lips would meet.

“That particular shade was inspired by the eyes of someone who spent most of their days glaring at me.”

“I didn’t glare!”

“Who says I’m talking about you?” But he was grinning and his hands were now cupping my face, tilting it upwards to meet his. My hands dropped the binder I had been holding and I brought them up to grasp at his shirt. His chest was warm and hard beneath my palms and I clenched the material in my fingers. It was slow, how we were moving, and I just wanted to grab him and wrench him downwards.

“Peeta,” I whispered.

“Uhuh?”

“This isn’t going to be a pity kiss, is it?”

His nose was tracing a path on my temple. A slow kiss was pressed against my cheekbone. “Nope.”

“Are you sure?”

His nose skimmed across the bridge of mine to my other cheek where another kiss was planted. “Yes.”

I could hear his breathing deepen, as though being so close to me was exciting him. His body burned beneath my hands and I just wanted to slide my palms under his shirt and let them explore his skin. The thumbs that rested on either side of my face gently rubbed back and forth and it was almost ridiculous. Two adults standing in the middle of a fake fairy wood, almost kissing, but not quite. My stomach had changed its mission and swooped low in anticipation. The guilt and the jealously had long dissipated and all I wanted to do was press his hard body against mine and indulge in... something.

“Peeta?”

“Uhuh?” There was a smile on his face and I could feel it pressed against my ear.

“Didn’t you promise me a hate-fuck?”

He pulled back and I saw the shock on his face. My hands trailed down his shirt to his hips and I looped my fingers in his belt, pulling his body close to mine. My pelvis pressed against his and I slipped my hands to his backside to pull him even closer. I was being more forward than I ever had in my life. I didn’t know where this side of me had come from but I wasn’t too worried about stopping.

“I’m not going to hate-fuck you, Katniss.”

My heart dropped. It was probably for the best, we had no established relationship, we didn’t know what we were and besides, we weren’t anywhere remotely suitable. Just as I was about to pull away, Peeta’s hands left my face and skimmed down my neck, past my shoulders and down to my lower back. “That’s not to say I won’t fuck you,” he murmured.

My eyes widened as his hands slid down to my ass and pushed me in tighter to his groin. I gasped as I felt his hardness press against my pelvis and then he was bridging the gap and leaning forward to catch my lips with his own.

His were soft but insistent and they slanted over mine, pulling and sucking my lower lip between his, nibbling gently with his teeth. I groaned and shifted, tugging his hips further towards me and undulating mine against his. We pressed together and released and pressed together again, more urgent this time. His breathing grew harsher.

I pulled my mouth away, but not far. “We shouldn’t do this here.”

“Yeah, you’re right. We probably shouldn’t.” But then he was capturing my mouth again, his tongue sliding against mine, our hips flexing and pushing. I could feel his erection straining against the fly of his jeans which pressed against the thin material of my leggings. He was so hot, so hard and my heart thundered in my chest. Our hips sped up, crashing against each other and I relinquished the hold I had to do what I wanted, slide my hands under his shirt to press against his flesh.

Peeta’s hands reminded on my ass and I let him drive me into him over and over as I felt the heat of his skin on my palms. I smoothed them over his stomach and towards his back and he made a low, male sound that made my stomach swoop. His tongue left my mouth and he bent his head lower, trailing across my throat as I tipped it back, trying to breath more air into my lungs.

He smelt of Peeta and it was intoxicating. Forget air, all I wanted to do was breath him into my lungs. I whined and sunk my nails into his bare sides, hearing him grunt against the dip in my throat. “Peeta,” I said again. “We’re on set.”

He pulled back, eyes so dark they were almost black and his lips were deliciously swollen. “Do you want to stop?” he asked, but his tone made it sound as though it was the most painful question ever. Which it was.

“No, but we can’t take our time.” I glanced around quickly, worried that the security guard would come check on us at any moment.

Peeta licked his lips, my saliva clinging to them and he nodded. “Ok, so hard and fast it is.”

I made a noise, something close to a whimper and he lifted me from the ground, my legs wrapping around his waist. Our lips met again, whilst our hips met with hard and fast presses. There was no time for tenderness, not now. Peeta walked us backwards and lowered me towards the base of a fake tree.

I looked up and laughed, “At least it’s romantic in a way.”

Peeta grinned down at me. “You get to have sex in the woods.

“Oh, I’ve had sex in the woods. The real woods.”

Peeta moaned, “Don’t give me this information Everdeen. I can’t handle it right now.”

I stripped off my sweater, leaving me down to my thin camisole. “That’s no good, there’s lots I’m going to need you to handle.”

He grinned and surged forward, his hands on my waist sliding upwards as he did. The air met my bare stomach but he didn’t stop there and continued to slide the silky material up towards my bare breasts. His head bent low and captured a hardened nipple in his mouth, his tongue sliding over it whilst he rolled the other between his fingers.

I sunk my fingers into his hair, marvelling at the softness of the strands all the while marvelling at how his mouth was shooting bolts of electricity down to my core. I ground up against him and he pushed back into me, but it wasn’t enough.

Tugging at his shirt loosened it enough for his skin to be exposed and the bare flesh of our stomachs pressed together, a thin sheen of sweat accumulating.

“Peeta,” I gasped out, digging my fingers into his back once again. If my nail hurt him, he didn’t let on.

               He released a wet nipple with a pop, “What do you need?” he panted. “Tell me.”

               “You said hard and fast.” I flopped back to the ground as he sat up and I grasped at his body like mine was starving.

               A growl emerged from his throat and then he was grabbing at his belt, his fingers making quick work of the buckles and dragging his jeans and underwear down just enough to release his erection. With haste I yanked at my own clothing, pulling down my leggings and own underwear in one swift motion, managing to pull it free of one leg completely while it dangled off the other.

               My chest heaved and I watched his face as he looked towards where my spread legs met. What a sight I must have been. Camisole pushed up to bear my breasts and my centre spread out for him to see. As he looked at me I looked at him. Thick, muscular thighs and a toned stomach. Dark blonde hair trailed down from his belly button to his groin and there, something else thick and hard jutted out.

“Fuck, Katniss!” I heard him say, but the words were faint to my dizzy mind. His fingers trailed down to my core and dipped between my folds. I groaned and arched my back at his touch. A thick finger slid into my body, the slick wetness welcoming him. It was soon joined by another and I could feel my body stretch to accommodate. Peeta moved them, pumping slowly in and out and I tried to grab his cock but it was too far out of reach. A thumb was pressed against my clit and I could feel little stars shoot behind my eyes.

Whilst one hand moved between my legs another went back to my breast and continued to pluck the nipple. I could feel the pressure beginning to build in my stomach, my neck and back arched as far as they could go, my legs stretching wider and wider. I deaf to everything aside from the noises I was making and the harshness of my breaths. In the distance of my hearing I could make out Peeta’s noises of encouragement, his appreciation of how wet, how warm I was.

The pressure reached eruption and I yelled out Peeta’s name, my legs and arms squirming underneath him, my body clenching around his fingers as more wetness flooded out of me. As the quakes dimmed and my body twitched I felt Peeta remove his fingers and bend over me.

“Katniss,” he murmured and I could feel him press his hardness against my bare centre. I nodded greedily and in one movement he pushed himself inside me. A guttural noise came from us both as we joined and I clenched his shoulders and he begun to move.

We agreed on hard and fast and so that’s what Peeta gave. His hips pounded into mine and I tried to meet him thrust for thrust but could barely match his pace. I could feel him, his girth stretching me further then his fingers and he moved quickly and easily within me. The smell of our sweat and mixed arousal flooded my nose and I could feel my sweat mingle with his wherever our bare skin could touch.

Peeta’s hands gripped my knees and he suddenly sat up, his thighs, still glad in rough denim, splaying mine further as he continued to piston into my body. His face and neck had gone a deep red from exertion. “Katniss,” he grunted. “I’m close.”

I arched my back again and grabbed at my own breasts and Peeta’s eyes couldn’t seem to settle on one place, switching between my face, breasts and the place where our bodies were joining. With one last thrust, I heard him swear and then he was coming and holding himself over me, trying not to collapse.

“Shit.” He withdrew and flopped to the ground next to me and we just lay there, half undressed and completely dishevelled. I turned to look at him as our breathing evened out, our chests still rising and falling quickly.

My hand reached out and touched his hair which was now darkening from sweat. I let out a little giggle at seeing the strands curl more towards his ears.

               He looked at me and raised an eyebrow. “Something funny?”

               “Not really, just when you joked about hate-fucking me all those weeks ago your hair looked a little like this then too.”

“As I recall someone stole my umbrella.”

               “As I recall someone ventured out in the rain without one.”

               “You were upset. I couldn’t let you sit in Sae’s alone.”

               We lay there facing each other, underneath a fake tree in a fake wood, surrounded by silver and gold. Large, black studio lights were positioned above the tree tops.

               “I still need to grab my binder and head down to the meadow tomorrow. Ugh.” I sat up, reluctant to leave but knowing we couldn’t stay like this.

               “Hmm.” Peeta sat up too and we both begun re-dressing. “The meadow you say? We should probably add that to the list.”

               “There’s a list?” I asked him.

               He shrugged, “Well there is now. Ok, so hate-fuck isn’t going to make it...”

               “Isn’t it?”

               Peeta gave me a look, one that said ‘you know it isn’t.’ “...but it doesn’t mean that we can’t add others on.”

               “Oh,” I said, “what else is on the list?”

               Peeta stood and helped me up. At least sex in fake woods meant that twigs didn’t end up in our hair. “Well we can cross off fake woods but we need to add in real woods.”

Ah, I thought, best prepare for the twigs. “What else?” I asked him, feeling a tingle at where all this was going.

He smiled at me. There was a lovely pink flush on his face, his hair was in complete disarray and his belt hadn’t been successfully looped back correctly.

“When Katniss Everdeen realises how mad about her I am - sex,” he replied and he bent down to kiss me.

[andthisisthewonder]

I wish you would write a fic where one half of Everlark has to grovel...

I wrote this pretty quickly and edited it myself, so please forgive any typos. Also, does this count as groveling? Not sure. I hope you like it anon! I appreciate the prompt :)

Katniss leaned back against the kitchen counter, twisting the cap of her water bottle, but failing to take a sip. The pounding in her head made it impossible to think, but she had to say something. She had to fix this.

“What happened last night?” Peeta asked.

Katniss glanced up in surprise. “She didn’t tell you?”

“She sent a text. She said you ruined her bachelorette party, that she’d been right about you this entire time, and she needed some time to think about our future.”

Katniss rubbed her forehead, no longer able to look at her best friend. She hadn’t wanted to go to the stupid party. She would have rather endured a weekend getaway with that asshole Madge had insisted on setting her up with last year than spend ten minutes with the bride-to-be and her eight bridesmaids.

Let alone six hours bar hopping in a skintight black dress.

Katniss couldn’t stand Madge, and the feeling was mutual. They had been at odds since the moment they met two years ago, but Peeta kept forcing them together, determined that the two most important women in his life would get along.

“I had to beg her to let you come,” Peeta said. “You said it would be fine. You said you would try.”

This was an argument they had had many times over the past couple of years. Normally, this was the part where Katniss scowled and accused Peeta of always blaming her for his uptight girlfriend, even though Katniss knew he had similar conversations with Madge. He tried so hard to balance the two of them, and for his sake, they both put in an effort. Their truces just never lasted.

Katniss had tried so hard last night. She barely knew Madge’s friends, and her social skills left a lot to be desired. It was obvious that none of them liked her or wanted her there, but she had followed their dress code and forced stilted smiles for their pictures and went along with every stupid game they came up with. For Peeta.

But in the end she knew it wouldn’t matter. Soon he and Madge would be married, and there’d be no more room for her. That’s just how life worked. How marriage worked. Katniss and Peeta would remain friends, but the closeness that had carried them through the last decade would fade.

So she played her part a little too well, accepted every shot thrust into her hand, and by the time Madge had pulled her aside at two AM, the truth was ready to spill out of her.

“I’m sorry,” Katniss said. “I’ll fix this. I promise.”

“I don’t know if it can be fixed,” Peeta said. “She won’t return any of my calls or texts.”

“I’m sorry,” Katniss repeated. “But I’ll talk to her today. She’ll be back home tonight.”

Katniss walked over to the island in the center of the kitchen, Peeta on the opposite side. She wanted to place her hand on his, touch his arm, maybe even offer a hug. But she couldn’t. That was one of the first things Madge had complained about. Katniss always hugged Peeta when she saw him, rested her head on his shoulder when she was tired, leaned into his arm when it was slung over the back of her chair.

It probably would have been fine if it hadn’t been so obvious that Katniss hated physical affection when it came to anyone else.

“Everything was fine before she left for the party. She was so excited. She even said she was looking forward to having you there.” He sighed and ran a hand through his already disheveled hair. “Tell me what happened. Please. I just need to understand.”

The thing about Madge was that she was actually a good person. She was sweet and thoughtful, and she genuinely loved Peeta. She made him happy. Madge couldn’t stand Katniss, could barely offer her a real smile, not because she was paranoid or irrational, but because she was one-hundred-percent right about her.

And that was the biggest problem. Katniss had sworn she’d never tell anyone the truth, that she would stand aside and let Peeta take this next step without her as long as he was happy. But when Madge had pulled her into a quiet corner of the bar the night before, and asked if they could please start over for the sake of Peeta, Katniss couldn’t find it in herself to lie. She was too tired, too sad, too afraid. She was a coward.

“I told her the truth,” Katniss said quietly. “I told her I’m in love with you.”

[everlarkbirthdaygifts]

Happy Birthday smartalexy!

We are sorry to be posting this late, but we wish @smartalexy a happy birthday on the 7th of September. To help celebrate, the lovely @booksrockmyface has written a special Everlark fic just for you! We hope you enjoy it :)

Title: The Whole World Could Change in a Minute

Gift for: smartalexy        

Rating: M (alcohol use, mild language, and talk of a sexual nature)

Trigger warning: There’s some vodka drinking involved.

Author’s note: I hope this friends to lovers fic finds you well on your birthday! Happy happy day! Title comes from the Sugarland song Want To.

_____

Peeta let out a frustrated groan as he followed Katniss into the next store. She didn’t like shopping much either, but Prim had made some very specific requests about the dress code for her wedding party. Being the supportive best friend he was, Peeta had agreed to accompany Katniss on her search for possible dresses. This was the fifth store.

“Is this periwinkle?” Katniss asked as she picked up a dress from the nearest rack.

“That’s more of an indigo.” Peeta picked up a dress that was a shade lighter. “This is periwinkle.”

She took the dress from him and checked the price tag. “It’s also fifty bucks over my budget.” She tried to hang it back up.

He stopped her. “Try it on and send a picture to Prim. If it’s the right one, I’ll chip in the last fifty.”

She chewed her lip a moment and then nodded. She picked up the indigo one anyway and another in the right shade and the right price point. It was a little long, but Prim could fix that.

Katniss stepped out of the dressing room wearing the too-long dress.

Peeta looked her over and then gave a thumbs down. “Makes your boobs look weird.”

She looked in the mirror and made a face. “You’re right.” She went into the dressing room.

He let out a relieved breath. She had looked pretty good in the dress, but it wasn’t right. It was hard for Peeta to be objective sometimes, though. He’d started to develop feelings for his friend and it was really difficult to keep them to himself. Katniss proved several times that having him as her best friend was her favorite thing.

Not to mention her on again/off again with Gale had been going on since middle school. There was no competing. Even Madge couldn’t keep Gale’s attention long.

Katniss stepped out in the other periwinkle dress. It had a sweetheart neckline—a term Peeta had learned when all this business started—and cap sleeves. The natural waistline flared out and the skirt ended just below the knee. Katniss had great legs. She had great boobs. She had great everything.

“You gotta get that one!” Peeta took out his phone and snapped a picture to send to Prim. “You look hot.”

“I can’t look hotter than the bride.” She commented, taking his phone to look at the picture. “I guess I look okay.”

A message came in from Prim. Tell Katniss to buy that dress! It’s perfect!

“Go get changed.” Peeta sent Prim a reply, one that he would have to delete before Katniss snagged his phone again. She’s so pretty, I can’t stand it!

Prim: You should talk to her or something. You know, like I’ve been telling you to do for a million years.

Peeta sighed and watched Katniss step out of the dressing room, the chosen dress in hand. He sent Prim, I do know. I’m just a giant chicken. He deleted the last few texts and then followed Katniss to the register. “I’ll pay for the dress.” He offered.

“I can get it.” She grumbled. “I’ll just move some things around.” She took her debit card out and handed it over. “I have the money, I was just planning on using it for some repairs around my house.”

Peeta watched as she finished the transaction and then picked up the dress. “Well, I do know a thing or two about home repair. I could help.”

Katniss led him out the door. “I’d like that.” Her phone went off and she paused to read. She scowled. “Gale’s blowing me off for Madge. Again.” She started walking again, a much quicker pace this time.

“Are they together for real this time?” He fell into step beside her.

“I guess.” She groaned. “It would have been nice to know that. I set up the house for sexy time. I set up myself for sexy time.”

Peeta cleared his throat. “Well, if you want company, I could hang out. No sexy time required.”

With a heavy sigh, Katniss said, “I guess spending time with you is just as good. I mean, I know all Gale’s moves by now and it’s starting to get boring.”

He gave himself a mental high five. “Okay, I’ll get the beer if you get the movie and we can go halfsies on pizza?”

“Sounds good.” She opened the passenger door to his car. “I’ll order pizza while you drive.”

A half hour later, they were back at Katniss’s place with two large pepperoni pizzas, a bottle of vodka, a couple two liters of soda, and a sappy romantic comedy from the 90s. They finished one pizza and almost half the vodka between them by the time the movie was over. They were in the giggly stages of drunk and it was Peeta’s favorite version of Katniss. She didn’t let go often, though she did it more around him.

Katniss poured another drink, a little more vodka this time around, and took a large gulp. “Want to play two truths and a lie?” She asked, her words slurring just a little.

Peeta giggled. “You and I know each other’s truths already.”

She leaned in and said conspiratorially, “Maybe I’ll surprise you.”

There was a tightening in his pants. He let out a calming breath. “Then you go first.”

Sitting back, she counted off with her fingers, “I’m thinking about going back to school, I actually kind of like Prim’s damn cat, and I am so stressed about my sister’s wedding.”

“Too easy!” Peeta exclaimed. “You hate Buttercup with a passion.”

Katniss let out a little snicker. “That fucking cat.” She took another sip of her drink, made a face, and poured a bit more soda on top. “Your turn.”

He sighed. “I don’t know, Katniss. You know everything.”

“Try me.” She encouraged.

He thought a moment and then said, “I sometimes wish I’d gone to school for business instead of art, I am looking forward to being an uncle, and… um…” He took a long drink from his glass. “I’m hopelessly in love with my best friend.”

Katniss stared at him a moment. “The third one’s the lie.” She said hopefully. “I mean, I never heard you wish for anything other than your art degree, but you have talked about being frustrated that you didn’t know the business-y parts of the bakery…” She swallowed. “But it’s the lie, isn’t it?”

Peeta sighed and finished off his drink. “Maybe I’m too drunk.” He sat the glass down. “I should just go crash in the guest room.” He stood, but she grabbed his hand.

“Gale was always just a placeholder.” She cursed under her breath. “That’s how I meant to say that.”

“Don’t worry about it.” He pulled his hand from hers.

She stood and grabbed his face. “I’ve had a massive crush on you since grade school, Peeta.”

His heart skipped a beat. “What?”

“I didn’t want to hurt our friendship, so I kept it to myself.”

“But Gale…”

She shrugged. “Available. And he thought he was in love with me, so I just went along with it. That was before Madge came along. And you were always with someone else when Gale and I were on one of our breaks. The timing was never right.”

“Katniss…”

She smiled and pressed a soft kiss to his lips. “Want to go make out in my bed?”

“If you’re sure.” Peeta said with a shaky voice.

Katniss grinned and dragged him out of the room, turning off the lights as she went. She stepped away and shoved her jeans off her hips before climbing into bed.

His heart was now beating out of his chest as he mirrored her movements. He knew how strong her arms were. They’d shared many embraces over the years, most recently after his father’s death. But her lips were something he had only imagined. They were soft and warm. Her mouth tasted like pizza and soda.

She giggled just before she pushed him onto his back and straddled his hips. Her mouth returned to his, but her hands roamed.

Taking it as encouragement, Peeta slipped his hands up Katniss’s back and down again. He caressed her thighs and trailed his hands up just under the hem of her shirt. He was sure his world was about to explode, that he was dreaming, this was something that would end any moment.

But it didn’t end. In fact, she sat back and pulled off her shirt a moment later and slid her hands up under his. “Do you remember that night we played strip poker with Finnick and Annie and everyone?”

He laughed and nodded. “Finnick planned it all so he’d get naked quicker.”

“You put on more clothes.” She leaned over him, bracing her hands on either side of his head. “But we’d all gotten a pretty good look from those wrestling singlets.”

“I don’t like to be naked in front of people.” Peeta spread a hand up over her flat stomach and slipped it around her back, pulling her closer. “I mean, I make exceptions, but not for large crowds.”

Katniss grinned. “Am I an exception?”

“You most definitely are.” He pulled her down and kissed her deeply, rolling her underneath him.

In between kisses, Peeta confessed that he’d tried and failed several times to tell Katniss his true feelings. She admitted the same.

Somewhere in the early hours of the morning, they finally decided that kisses were only making them tired. They fell into a tangle of limbs and were asleep in just a few breaths. Peeta had never slept better in his life.