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Here’s another part to that Which Brings Me to You fic. This one goes out to @mollywog because I know how much you love Katniss and Finnick. Part 1

While the older generation clear out of the venue the moment news of the cancellation, spreads. Out back, most of the younger crowd are still nursing drinks and playing yard games like it’s a regular old Saturday at the local winery. Thankfully, they’ve also set out a small buffet with some of the food they’ll no longer be serving for the reception.

Sadly, the cake is not among the offerings.

Katniss spots Finnick chatting with a few people at the bar, and freezes. “I’m going to grab some waters,” she says to Peeta. “You go get food. I want two of everything,” she says with a gesture towards the far side of the grounds.

“Yes ma’am,” Peeta says, completely oblivious to the threat on his life.

She steps up to Finnick and gets the bartender’s attention. “Have you spoken to Annie?” She asks him.

“Yep,” he says.

“Is she with Johanna now?”

Another nod.

“What happened?” Katniss asks.

“Apparently Gale put a down payment on a house down the block from his mother. He wants them to move home and start cranking out kids yesterday.” Finnick pauses to take a swig from his beer. “Jo figured they’d live in the city for another year or two before they settled down like that.”

“Yikes,” Katniss says, accepting two ice waters from the bartender.

Finnick takes note of the extra glass. “You know, your drunk uncle was telling the craziest story before about catching you in flagrante in a coat closet.”

She purples. “Snitch,” she mutters under her breath.

Finnick howls. “The lady doth not protest at all!” He wiggles his eyebrows. “Who was it?”

“You should be thanking me,” she says haltingly. “It was with your romantic rival.”

It takes Finnick a moment to place it, because, as suspected, a rival to Finnick in any department is laughable. “No shit. Annie’s ex boyfriend?” He laughs. “You know he was going to try to fuck her this weekend, right?”

“That’s why he was licking his wounds in a coat closet.”

“I bet he was licking something?” Finnick says. “Since when did you turn into such a minx?”

“Since the 2019 Dry Wagner hit my blood stream without any Swedish meatballs to be the voice of reason,” she says, sipping on her water.

“Always thinking with your stomach.”

“Plus, he’s kind of charming.”

“Uh uh, we don’t like that guy?” Finnick says, waving his finger. “You remind your booze addled brain that it’s bros before hoes.”

“Oh, now it’s like that?” She says cocking an eyebrow. “What about all those nights when your bro settled the bar tab so you could hoe around for the night?”

He glares at her. “Are you sobering up already?” He nods toward her glass. “Was it that bad?”

“Wouldn’t it be worse if it were the other way around?”

“Touché, Everdeen.”

He reaches into his jacket pocket, then slaps something on the bar top in front of her. When he lifts his hand, she sees that it’s a condom. Her cheeks blaze as she checks over her shoulder to make sure nobody nearby has seen, then she tucks it discreetly into her clutch.

“Why do you have a condom?” She asks. Him and Annie are exclusive and fairly serious, and have plenty of room in their hotel room to store prophylactics.

“Because people at weddings make bad decisions,” he says. Tipping his head to reach her eye level he adds, “Look in a mirror.”

“Don’t worry about me,” she says. Across the lawn she catches sight of Peeta carrying two overflowing plates to an empty cafe table. “Peeta Mellark is harmless.”

She taps her glass against Finnick’s bottle and bids him farewell.

“What was that about?” Peeta asks as she approaches his table.

He’s scooping some humus off his plate and there’s a little dot of it on the corner of his mouth. She wipes it off with her thumb, and he lifts his eyebrows curiously in response. They were sucking face in a closet 15 minutes ago, why shouldn’t she be allowed to touch his mouth? She dabs her thumb against a cocktail napkin.

“I was convincing Finnick to spare your life,” she says.

He looks past her to where Finnick is still at the bar, then gulps his water. “Fuck, that’s Finnick?”

“You’re welcome,” she says, digging into her plate.

They eat quietly.

“I wasn’t trying to get back together,” Peeta says abruptly. “With Annie,” he elaborates.

Katniss’s mouth is too full of lobster Mac and cheese to answer.

“We’ve been broken up for years,” he goes on. “It’s not like I’m still hung up on her.”

“You just wanted to get laid,” Katniss mumbles around a mouth full of food.

“Thanks,” he says wryly. “It’s nice to see how little you think of me.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, you invited her to your room to help pick out your tie,” she says.

He shrugs. He’ll give her that one.

“It’s hard for me to come home,” he says. “I don’t have a hundred aunts and uncles to fawn all over me.”

“Consider yourself lucky.”

“What I mean is, it’s lonely here.”

Katniss frowns. Peeta had plenty of friends growing up, but she supposes most of them have moved away. He has. She doesn’t blame him. His parents owned the local bakery, and his mother was… not her favorite person.

“Fine,” she says, cleaning the last crumbs from her plate. “Consider your good name restored.”

“What’s your excuse?” He says, leaning his elbows against the table.

“Excuse for what?” She says.

“Ravaging me in a coat closet,” he says.

Now it’s her turn to play coy. She’s run out of food to distract herself, so she picks at his plate instead. “You said you had a crush on me.”

“Was that all it took?” He says with a laugh.

“I didn’t realize you ever noticed me.”

He laughs again, but there’s something shy about it now. His cheeks are all ruddy from blushing. “I’d say there were a solid few years around puberty where you were the only thing I noticed.” He scrubs a hand over his face. “God, that was embarrassing. Is it too late to blame that on the alcohol.”

She bites her lip. “I went to one of your wrestling matches once,” she confesses. It was some sort of state match their school was hosting and she got roped into volunteering. She’d finished her shift at the refreshment stand, and her ride, Madge Undersee had to stick around through the final match because her father, the Mayor was handing out the medals.

Anyway, Peeta was up against his brother, and while they were waiting for their match to start, he was doing all kinds of stretches. Katniss never really considered herself to be hormonal. A lot of her peers were obsessed with sex, while to her it was just a thing that people did sometimes. But she thought about those stretches, and the way he kept adjusting himself in his singlet more than she’d ever care to admit.

“I, uh, noticed you too,” she says. “A lot.”

He drops his head against the table in mock anguish. A moment later, he peers back up at her. “Seriously?”

She shrugs.

“What do you think would have happened if we talked?” He says.

She doesn’t really know. She’d definitely be too insecure to be as forward with him as she is right now. In fact, he’d probably lose interest pretty quickly.

“Who knows,” she says. “I could have been prom queen.”

“Here I was thinking I could have been happy,” he says. He grimaces. “Too much?”

She hides her blush behind her glass. “A little,” she says.

His eyes scan the manor grounds. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever been up here before,” he says.

She’s grateful for the change in subject. “Really? I used to go camping up here when I was a kid,” she says. “There are some trails that wind up the side of the mountain. You can probably get to one of them from here.”

“The place looks pretty well fenced in.”

“In my neck of the woods, we treat fences as suggestions, not barriers.”

The limo company has managed to get a driver and a bus lined up, but it won’t be here for another hour, so they have some time to kill.

They walk along the perimeter of the grounds, in search of an access to the trails. At the same time, Katniss tugs gently on the chainlink fence to find a weak spot. When it finally gives, they climb through. It’s obvious they aren’t the first people to stumble across this shortcut, and they follow the packed down path that cuts through the brush.

Katniss points out a few plants and the bird calls she recognizes. At one point she even plucks a leaf from a tree and holds it against his hand to show him how to identify it.

“What’s with the crash course in survival skills,” he teases, still twirling the leaf between his fingertips. “We are coming back, right?”

“You are,” she says. “You’re too loud. But I like the idea otherwise.”

Katniss loves the woods. It’s the closest she’ll ever be to her father again.

They encounter the clearing for a trail fairly quickly. In fact, she can still see the manor from here. Regardless, Katniss takes note of the numbers on the plaque.

“You’d live in the wilderness all on your own?” Peeta says.

“Sure, why not?”

“Sounds lonely.”

She looks at Peeta thoughtfully. He’s mentioned it before. Not wanting to be alone.

“How long were you and Annie together?” She asks.

He wasn’t expecting the question, and it takes him a moment to conjure an answer. “Two years?” He says it like a question, as if Katniss has the correct answer written down somewhere.

“Two years?” Katniss repeats. She’s never kept anything going longer than six months, she doesn’t think. She typically bails as soon as the L-bomb is dropped.

“It was a long time ago. Back when we were in school.”

Katniss is less concerned about that part. “Was that your longest relationship?”

His nose wrinkles. “That’s hard to say. I think most of them have been around two years.”

“Most… how many two year relationships have you been in?”

He starts counting on his fingers while he rattles off names. “Five,” he says.

“You’ve had five long term girlfriends?” She says, incredulous. “And you never married any of them?”

“It never felt right,” he says with a shrug. “Like you should know. Right?”

“I’m the wrong person to ask.”

Katniss isn’t wearing heels, but her flats aren’t too comfortable either so she peels them off, and lets them dangle from her fingers.

“Okay, your turn. What was your longest relationship?” Peeta asks.

She has to think about it.

“I dated this cop once. Darius.” He told her he loved her the first day they met, so she knew he didn’t mean it. Until he did. “That lasted eight or nine months.”

“I’m trying to imagine you with a cop. Just in the last thirty minutes I’ve watched you barrel through three ‘Do Not Enter’ signs.”

“He got me out of a lot of fines,” she admits.

It’s getting cold as the evening sets in, and Peeta shrugs out of his jacket to hand off to her. She’s practically swimming in it, but there’s something thrilling about being wrapped in his warmth. The lapel even smells like him.

But then the reality sinks in. Taking his jacket could be the start of a two year commitment.

“How about your shortest relationship?” Katniss asks.

“I don’t know, like six hours,” he says. “Unless we aren’t counting those.”

Phew.

She grins. “Ooo, I can still set a new record.”

He bumps his shoulder against hers. “Yeah, you can go ahead and try.”

The trees begin to thin as they reach the lookout point. From here you can see for miles, and she points out the flickering light in the distance where their hometown sits.

“It’s nice,” he says, but he seems distracted. “I could probably learn a thing or two from you,” Peeta muses as they look out at the vista.

“What about?” She figures he’s going to ask her something related to camping or hiking.

“Not getting too attached,” he says instead.

“So you don’t like being alone. There’s nothing wrong with that,” she says. “Besides, it takes two people to make a relationship last that long. They must have been getting something out of it.”

“Well yeah, I give good head,” he says.

She thinks he’s joking, and chokes on a snort of laughter. Her laughter dies when he doesn’t join in. “Oh, you were being serious!” But then she’s laughing again. “No wonder Finnick hates you!”

He smirks, pleased by the news. “Okay, what about you?”

“Do I give good head?” She asks haltingly.

“You don’t have to tell me that. You can just show me later,” he says with a dismissive wave of the hand. “Would you rather be alone?”

“Sometimes.”

“Not tonight, though,” he reasons.

She shakes her head.

“Even with a serial monogamist?”

“Well I didn’t know about that part,” she says. “But I’m not worried. I’m a skilled rock climber. You say the wrong thing and,” she claps her hands together and whistles, “I’m out of here.”

He steps towards her with a grin. “In that case, can I have my jacket back?” His hands dip inside the jacket to grab her hips.

They circle one another until he has her backed against a tree. Then they’re kissing again. It’s even better now that they’ve sobered up a bit. The move of his lips are intoxicating in their own right. He’s a really good kisser.

And his hands. Those are good too. He palms her breast through her dress, while the other sweeps down her skirt, pushing the fabric aside. He wedges one thigh between hers. The friction right there.

Their bodies begin to move. They’re alone here, with no meddling family members to interrupt them. She reaches for his belt and begins to unbuckle it.

His hands cover hers to still the movement.

“I don’t think we should have sex,” he says.

“Why not?” She replies, and steals another kiss. He returns it eagerly. “I have a condom,” she adds.

He groans against her mouth, the pressure of his thigh between her legs pushing her more firmly against the tree trunk. His hands find hers, fingers lacing together, he braces them over her head.

“I’ve been having a really good time tonight,” he says.

“Me too.”

He turns his face away before she can get another kiss in. “And I’d like for it to continue.”

“You afraid I won’t stick around to cuddle after?”

“Five minutes ago you were threatening to repel down the side of a mountain to get away,” he reasons. “So, yeah, I wouldn’t put it past you.” He gives her a kiss. “I like talking to you.”

Her hips wiggle against his. She can feel the entire length of his cock straining against his pants. She gasps when he thrusts back. So good. “I feel like we’re saying a lot right now,” she says.

He catches a strand of hair behind her ear, and his fingers linger on the side of her face. It feels nice, so she leans into it. He’s looking at her with hooded eyes that are easy to get lost in.

Then he has to go and say it. “What if I want to see you again?”

Uh oh. She begins to extract herself from his embrace immediately. He takes the hint, and steps back to give her space.

“This is a bad idea,” she says.

He pinches the bridge of his nose with a grimace. “I’m sorry,” he says. Clearly, he’s blown it. “I don’t think I can do this. I can’t just fuck you.”

“You don’t want to sleep with me unless I go out with you first?”

“That’s not what…” he’s getting slightly exasperated. “Don’t try to make it sound weird. That’s how it usually works! Intimacy isn’t just physical.”

“Peeta…” she says.

“How about this?” He says. “We wait until midnight. For the next 5 hours, we keep our hands to ourselves, and just get to know one another. Then, if we make it to midnight I’ll give you anything you ask for.”

“Anything?”

He kisses her again. Slow and deliberate. It’s the type of kiss that makes her knees go weak.

“And if I’m not interested?” She says, but his mouth quirks because her dissent is so transparent.

“Then I wish you a good night, and we go our separate ways,” he says. His eyebrows lift. “What do you think?”

Katniss frowns. “I think the shuttle will be here soon,” she says.

He nods, and lets her take the lead. The walk back is quiet.

When they make it back to the manor, the sun is hanging low against the tree line, and the venue has grown surprisingly quiet.

The ballroom has emptied out, and the bartender is breaking down his setup and counting out tips. The parking lot has also emptied out, only a scarce few cars remaining.

“We missed the shuttle, didn’t we?” Peeta observes.

“It would appear so,” Katniss says.

He pulls out his phone and unlocks it. “I’ll call you an Uber,” he says, tapping on the screen.

“No wait,” Katniss says, covering his hand with hers. “What about the cake?”

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