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Peeta has gotten his hands on some painting supplies. It was a beautiful day and Peeta hadn't spent many of those outside because he'd been busy baking and exploring the hotel. However, today he was wearing a tee shirt and a pair of ratty jeans; the shirt as well as his arms and hands were smudged with paint. The scene slowly emerging on the canvas was one of a meadow with mountains, the sun just setting beyond them. His brow was furrowed as he focused on getting just the right shade and light in the sunset.

Peeta was adjusting here. He was beginning to live a life. He enjoyed his job baking for the hotel. He was beginning to branch out and open some of the doors, no longer terrified that every one would bring an army of peacekeepers from the Capitol down on them. He was still wary about the Capitol finding them, and he probably always will be, but it no longer paralyzed him in his daily life here.

After several moments, he took a step back, lips pressed together as he contemplated the scene. He was missing something, but he wasn't quite sure what yet. After several moments of studying the canvas, he put his brushes aside and toe-heeled his shoes off to wiggle his toes in the grass. Maybe taking a break would help.

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"I thought the paint was supposed to be on the canvas, not on you," Katniss says, peeking her head around to look at what he has painted. Peeta has always been talented at things she could never begin to understand - art is chief among them.

"It looks really nice, though, as much as my opinion counts for."

He startles slightly at her words. A grin racing over his lips once he realizes it's Katniss. "Sometimes it gets on both," he answers with a sheepish look.

"Well, since it's the meadow in Twelve, it definitely counts for something." He's actually planning on giving it to her to hang in her room if it comes out well.

"So it's like a little bit of home," Katniss says, wistful. While she likes living in the hotel for the most part since it's safe and comfortable, she misses the people from 12 more than she can possibly say. She misses Prim and Gale and even the folks at The Hob. Her mother, too, though less than Prim.

"I wish there was a way to get there from here."

"I've been looking for a door back to 12," he assures her and he has. "I haven't wanted to take the chance of going back through the arena door." It's far too dangerous there and he's afraid he'll get stuck there.

It's different for him here then it is for her. There's no one from home he misses more than he would miss Katniss, no one he'd rather be with more than her.

"Yeah, the last thing I want is to go back through the arena. I already lied to Effie about winning the games because I don't think she's a spy but I don't want any extra questions," Katniss says. She clears her throat, a little uncomfortable.

"I didn't tell her that you were here. I wanted to keep you safe."

"Effie is here?" He hasn't seen her yet, but he's glad that Katniss has told him what she told Effie. He'll keep the lie straight for her.

"When is she from?"

He's not terribly afraid of Effie, nor does he think she's a spy either, but he can appreciate Katniss' desire to keep him safe. He feels the same desire for her.

"From before the Quarter Quell," Katniss explains. "So I had to act like I got out of the arena really fast because I'm just that ruthless or whatever. It isn't unheard of, I guess, though it isn't my style either."

Peeta nods a little. "Does she know about the conditions for the Quell?" Because Effie changed after she'd found out he and Katniss were going back into the arena. Besides, he needed to know how to react to Effie and how much to tell her.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure she does. She looked pretty upset," Katniss says, thinking back to her brief meeting with Effie. "And you know, it's kind of hard to rattle Effie. She's from the Capitol, the Games have never been anything but fun for her."

But now she's standing to lose her Victors, to lose people she's gotten a chance to know and like. Even someone from the Capitol could still be human, even if they're misguided, and Effie's a good example of that.

"Peeta, I don't know what to do. What if we can't hide forever? What if the hotel stops being safe for us?"

That's good for them that Effie is from the point where she realizes what's going on and how it's wrong, even if she doesn't really know how to apply it to every day. "Good. I'm glad she's rattled." He should probably feel bad about that, but he doesn't.

When Katniss expresses her concern, Peeta reaches over to take her hand, squeezing it lightly. "If we think it's going to be unsafe, we'll find a door, maybe that one with the woods, and we'll escape. We'll run away. I'm not going to let them take either of us back, okay?"

"Just you and me?" she asks, trying to decide how she feels about that. Katniss has come to the point where she realizes she definitely feels something for the boy with the bread but what it is, that's harder to pin down.

"Yeah. We need a plan, just in case."

"That's up to you," Peeta answers, giving Katniss the option so that she'll feel a little more comfortable. "If you want to bring Annie and Finnick, Johanna and Haymitch, even Effie with us, that's okay too. I just want to make sure you're safe. " Which is all he's ever wanted.

He nods, because she's right. They do. "We'll make one up."

"Is it sad that my plan is mostly just running away?" Katniss feels like she's spent a lot of her life since the first games just running - first from the other tributes and then, later from the Capitol. Being here feels like just being a fugitive waiting for her safe haven to be ratted out.

"I'm not that brave, Peeta."

"Sometimes that's the only plan you've got available," Peeta responds. He shakes his head at her words though. "It is brave, running away. It implies that you're leaving everything familiar behind in favor of the unknown. It implies that you're strong enough, courageous enough to start over. Running away takes a lot of bravery."

He reaches up tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "We'll look at some more doors and find one that we think we can stay in. Someplace we can find a house and you can hunt. Maybe something remote."

"A house might be nice," Katniss says quietly. It seems so nice and normal and so far removed from her actual life that it's a pretty fantasy.

"Hopefully the Capitol doesn't actually know we're here and we're still off the grid."

A house and a life with Katniss is fantasy to Peeta. It's a fantasy he's had for nearly as long as he can remember so he nods at her words.

"We can go back through that door with the forest if you like and look around sometime, get a better picture of the place."

He nods quickly at her hope. "So far, that seems to be the case. I think if they wanted us back, they'd send a lot more than Effie to get us."

"We could try to build something if we had to," Katniss says. It's kind of a grand idea and one that will take some time but if they steal a few hours away here and there, maybe nobody would be the wiser.

"It would just need to be something simple, nothing too elaborate. Just enough for a few people."

Peeta nods a little. He's never actually built anything, but he's helped repair the pig pens behind the bakery. His brow furrows as he contemplates it. "Yeah. Depending on the climate, we wouldn't need much."

Now he's contemplating the various climates they might be able to find, ones that would be conducive to living outdoors.

"No, I could hunt and fish. We could set traps," Katniss says, outlining her plans.

"Some place with a lot of wide open spaces and plenty of room so we're alone. I could live forever with that kind of solitude. The thing I hated most about the Seam was being so crammed in together but the thing I loved most was being able to slip out beyond the fence and not have to answer to anyone."

"I'd figure out how to cook everything." He's a brilliant baker, but only a subpage cook.

In all honesty, that kind of solitude is a little daunting to Peeta. He's always been popular, surrounded by people. It's where all his strengths lay. However, after the Quarter Quell, after realizing that the Capitol is never going to leave them alone, he could learn to love that sort of solitude. Besides, he can learn to love almost anything as long as Katniss is with him.

"I can't even imagine. I've never been anywhere I wasn't surrounded by people."

"Well, it's an adjustment, to be sure. You'll find I'm going to be a lot more pleasant, though. There's very few people who can put up with me for very long. You're about it as far as the people living in the hotel with us."

Something about Peeta's easy nature merges well with her own standoffishness and it makes for an easy friendship. Katniss isn't sure that she could offer to live with anyone long term that wasn't Peeta or her sister because she's just that difficult.

Peeta chuckles quietly, ducking his head. "I've never found it difficult." And that's true, even when Katniss was being contrary, Peeta didn't mind being near her. In fact, he generally wanted to be closer to her, at least as long as she wasn't freezing him out. He had gotten bitter back home , knowing that everything in the arena had been a game for her. He'd gotten over it though the moment he'd known they were going back in the arena.

It's odd, because it took such a dramatic event to get them to this place. Peeta likes to think that if he'd actually managed to to speak to her back in 12, they would have eventually fallen into this easy friendship (and maybe something more). However, they'll never know because the Games did intervene and for that, he's grateful.

"You are totally lying," Katniss points out. There's no way that anyone could find her something less than difficult but she recognizes that Peeta has feelings that possibly cloud his judgment on it.

"Maybe we won't have to run away. I really do like it here even if it's not home. There's plenty of ways to slip out and go hunting."

Peeta laughs at that and shakes his head. "I'm not. Yes, you're not the easiest person for most people to be around, but I don't like easy."

He nods in agreement. "I like it. Sometimes I feel guilty about that, but I like it."

"I feel guilty too. I guess it's stupid to feel guilty about being safe but I just want everyone else to be here too. People keep showing up," Katniss points out. "Maybe Prim will come soon."

She doesn't mention Peeta's family because he hardly ever talks about them anymore but she hopes they show up too.

"There's always a chance," Peeta nods a little. It's not that he doesn't want his family here and safe, but Peeta isn't as close to his family as Katniss is. His mother is abusive and his father loves him, but he doesn't stand up to his mother for any of his sons. For whatever reason, rather than bond together because of their mother, he and his brothers have become distanced from each other, each surviving on their own rather than together.

"Do you think Prim would like it here?"

"A place she can have her goat and look after people? Prim would love it," Katniss confirms. "Prim isn't really all that hard to please. Neither am I, except when it comes down to the people I want to spend time with. I have pretty simple needs. I could never imagine being from the Capitol and needing so much just to get through my every day life. It's just overwhelming when you think about it."

Peeta shakes his head. "I guess I need a little more than that, a place to bake and something to paint with but..." He bites his lip against adding and you. She's been on the beach with him in the arena. She knows that he needs her and bringing it up again will only make her uncomfortable. After a moment, he shrugs. "No, I don't understand needing so much every day either."

"We could be happy, anyway," Katniss says. Somehow, all of her future plans include Peeta now even though before she was content to be alone. It just seems like she is never going to be rid of the boy with the bread - nor does she want to be.

Peeta nods because he has no doubt that he could be happy with Katniss even they are in the middle of nowhere. He's never had any doubt that he could be happy with Katniss. This is the first time that he's known that she's included him in her future plans and he likes that. A lot.

"We'll find our way here, whether it means we settle down in the hotel, or if we have to run."

Effie was not what you would call an outside person. She avoided it when she was able, which actually wasn't all that often - her career had her traipsing about everywhere - but when she could, she did. The elements were often unkind to her and her clothing. Wind, especially, was the most dangerous culprit.

However, she was growing sick of the hotel - she needed something to distract her, keep her occupied, she was a busy person - and it was a nice day in some parts of the outdoors, so she went to see. And it was good she did, too, because she was always happy to see Peeta.

"What are you painting, darling?" she asked, happily, by way of greeting.

He startles a little. Katniss has told him that Effie is here and he knows what Katniss told her, so he's not surprised to see Effie, just startled by her appearance. He smiles at her kindly, ducking his head.

"It's supposed to be a meadow back in District 12." He glances around as if it's a secret. "I'm going to give it to Katniss if it turns out well." His smile gets a bit brighter. "It's good to see you, Effie. Katniss told me you were here."

Katniss didn't tell her everything, but then again, what with having run into so many people here, Effie couldn't really keep track of who she was supposed to be seeing and who she wasn't. She just knew she was glad to see Peeta, especially doing something he liked so much.

"You have such a gift, Peeta," she said, glowing a little. It was a strange maternal fondness and egotism that meant that when her Victors did well, Effie couldn't help but feel good, as if they were her own accomplishments. "I'm sure she'll love it."

She paused to brush imaginary grass off his shoulders, in a manner that was clearly her fidgeting, because, though she was pleased to see Peeta, he was also clearly a mess and she was trying to restrain herself. "Well, I'm glad you're here, as well," she said. "And not - not back home."

Edited 2014-05-09 06:57 (UTC)

It's one of the nicest things about this place, he generally gets to spend his days doing the things that he wants like baking and painting.

He ducks her head a little at her compliment. "Thank you." In a way, he understands how and why Effie would be proud of their accomplishments. For better or worse, they are hers in some sense, just as she is theirs. It's a somewhat awkward relationship and probably will be for a little while, but it's still a relationship.

Her brushing the imaginary grass of his shoulders actually helps him relax a little. It's such an Effie thing to do. He smiles broadly at her words and nods. "Me too. I'm glad you're here as well."

Because apparently things back home go south very quickly and while Peeta doesn't know what becomes of Effie, he can't imagine that it's very good.

Effie finished brushing his shoulders, paused to straighten his collar, not that it needed it. He wasn't wearing shoes and she was inwardly balking at it, but that was just one of the many strange things Peeta and Katniss did. Walk on the ground. Horrifying. Effie herself was in a pair of shoes that she nonetheless managed to balance on even with the spiky heels sinking into the grass. She felt that if she couldn't walk in any civilized terrain in heels, she didn't deserve to wear them.

"Oh, yes, but I'm having a dreadful time trying to occupy myself," she exclaimed. "I'm not used to such idleness, Peeta." How disturbing, to consider the fact that without the Games - well, she wasn't sure what else she could be doing, or could have done. The Games had always been her dream, and now they had soured, and she had nothing.

It was odd seeing Effie out of her natural environment. Peeta supposed that eventually he'd get used to seeing her here, in a place that really wasn't Capitol even if it was fairly plush and posh here. As for walking on the ground, there was something nice about having your bare feet in the grass. Effie really should try it sometime.

Peeta nodded a little. Despite the fact that he didn't want to ponder how Effie had filled her time in the Capitol, he understood how difficult it could be to be idle. He'd had a difficult time coping with it once he'd become a victor and hadn't been expected to work anymore.

"We need to find a hobby for you. Have you gotten job here in the hotel yet?"

"A job, here?" Effie asked. Not that she thought she was too good for the hotel - nothing like that. Simply that it was so different from the Capitol, it had the wrong flow, so to speak, that she hadn't really considered the fact that she could join in and be a part of its workings. "I hadn't thought about it. I'm not sure I'd be able to find anything here I would be good at. Or... even exists in this place, really."

Peeta nodded. "It might not be exactly in your skill set, but you're bright enough to pick up something new. Maybe they need someone at the front desk or in one of the restaurants." He thinks Effie would be an excellent hostess of some sort.

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