#I also went on a rant about how prims death makes sense to me as an also cruel author but finnicks was unfair and I’ll never forgive her

[loganlostitall]

Me right now explaining every single un-narrated thought happening in Katniss’ head binging The Hunger Games with @celtic-crossbow because l've read the books and she hasn't and there's a lot of small and important details that go unmentioned in the films

I haven’t shut up for five hours

[everlarkingjoshifer]

A Different Way CHPT2

Hey there my lovelies! I’m back with yet another chapter of what I hope is a riveting story. Again I would like to thank @mega-aulover and @burkygirl for giving me great ideas. Tomy husband for being hella patient and @titaniasfics and @javistg for betaing the crap that I handed only for it to come out coherent and worth posting. I would also like to thank @sunsetsrmydreams for making this sweet ass banner. I would like to dedicate this chapter to @norbertsmom for her birthday. May you have a wonderful day babes I wish you many more! As this was originally a story written for @peetaisbae I hope she likes her ongoing X-mas present. As always, don’t forget to read and review ;)

Now onto chapter 2!

Katniss blinked a few times before recognizing the blond, blue-eyed baker before her. “Peeta?” she asked dumbly when her old schoolmate walked around the counter to give her an awkward hug that she’d mistaken for a handshake, and so now they were standing there with Peeta looking down at her extended hand and his arms midway through wrapping around her.

They both blushed as he pulled his hand out and she changed her position to that of wanting to hug him. Stuttering in mid-move, they scoffed at the ridiculousness of it all and blushed furiously when they decided that maybe a high five was as much as the awkwardness would allow.

Peeta ran his hand behind his neck giving her a lopsided grin followed by a shrug. “How’ve you been? I haven’t seen you in so long.”

“I’m good, thanks. Just here picking up some groceries, you know?” Katniss replied, hoping on all of God’s green earth that she looked as cool as she wanted to, although she highly doubted it.

After a few minutes of awkward silence and Peeta fiddling with his wedding band, he looked up at her chuckling. “So, what have you been up to? It’s been so long since I’ve seen you.”

“Yeah, I haven’t been doing much. You know, working and, you know, life. How about you? I haven’t seen you since I moved out of my house,” Katniss said, hoping he would have a more interesting answer than her own.

“I got married,” he said raising his hand to show her a silver wedding band.

Katniss nodded. “I see. Well, congratulations, any kids yet?”

“One, a son. He’s in school now while I work part-time here,” he answered looking at the floor.

Katniss hated small talk, but what else could she ask or say? It had been so long since she’d seen him and even then they were only next door neighbors. He had several classes with her from time to time, but nothing deep was ever established between them. It made for a very short conversation. After some time she remembered his parents owned a bakery. “What about your parents?”

“Oh, they’re doing fine. They retired not too long ago and my older brothers run the old bakery now. I help sometimes, but now I work here,” Peeta said pointing to the small bakery he’d been in.

Katniss frowned. “Won’t your brothers need more help?”

“Well, the bakery is doing so good nowadays that they have their own employees and, well, I only just got back from the Navy. I was the chef-slash-cook.” Peeta muttered rubbing the back of his neck. Katniss noticed that it was a nervous tick of his.

“The Navy, wow, did your wife travel with you?” Katniss asked.

Peeta nodded without answering looking down at his hand and twirling his ring around again. He lifted his gaze back to her. “I needed to establish my own line of work and gain more experience other than my parents’ bakery.”

“Oh,” Katniss muttered nodding.

Peeta dug his hands into his pockets. “Gotta start somewhere if I plan to open my own cafe.”

“Wouldn’t working in a restaurant make more sense?” Katniss asked mystified.

“Well, despite having been in the Navy, I couldn’t find work so easily. Maybe having relied on my parents’ bakery wasn’t such a good idea,” he answered shrugging.

Katniss was sure she would have spoken to him for longer if a customer hadn’t come in to ask for an order. Peeta looked at the disgruntled suit and nodded quickly before turning back to her, “I’ll be done quickly, can you wait for me? Maybe we can have lunch during my break and catch up.”

Katniss shook her head. “Can’t. I have a deadline to hit and if I don’t my boss will have my head.”

“Well, then I guess I’ll see you around. It was good to see you,” Peeta answered quickly, looking nervously at the waiting customer. She noticed his shoulders drooped a bit.

Katniss grinned and waved awkwardly as she walked with cart in hands towards the cashier line. “Sure, I’ll see you around.”

Once she had put her groceries in the house, she walked about her kitchen and rummaged in the fridge before deciding that she’d have to forego the fresh slices of bread that Peeta had been selling and settle on Rice Krispies and milk. To be honest, she was caught so off guard upon seeing her old neighbor that she’d all but forgotten her precious bread. The fact that she somehow still remembered his name when all her other schoolmate's names’ were but a distant memory as it wasn’t her strongest suit. But she’d remembered him. She hadn’t even spoken much to him back when they were neighbors or in between classes for that matter. Now here she was sitting in front of her computer with a bowl of cereal in hand as she stared at her rough draft riddled with red marks. Who knew writing a piece on a little girl’s long-awaited trip to Disney Land provided by Make-a-wish could be so hard? Yet here she was, with half her work scratched off staring back at her as she crunched on the snappy cereal. It was like eating soggy pop rocks.

Suddenly, her Skype went off and the pic of Johanna’s middle finger flashed on the screen. Katniss clicked on the answer icon and saw her best friend on the verge of a Hulk status rant.

“Katniss, give me a reason not to kill Coin!” Johanna gritted out.

Katniss sighed. “Because it’s against the law of Panem State and if you do we’ll both go to jail because you know I’ll help you bury the body and I really can’t leave Willow with my mother.”

Johanna took several gulps to calm herself. None of it worked until she grunted like a bear and took several deep breaths before looking back at her. “Right, but can I fantasize about her death?”

“Fantasize all you want. No one can put you in jail for your thoughts,” Katniss replied swallowing her cereal.  

Johanna gave her a smirk. “I should be in jail for my thoughts.”

Katniss rolled her eyes. Yes, Johanna was that friend that turned everything into a dirty conversation. “What did she do this time?”

“She asked me to rewrite the whole fucking article,” Johanna groaned massaging her temples. “I mean, what more is there to say on a fucking weather report that hasn’t already been said?”

Katniss pursed her lips thoughtfully, “Well there’s words and you can quote me. Words like, Clouds, lots of clouds, cumulonimbus, vapor, um let’s see… did I say clouds already?”

Johanna did not look amused. “Katniss, shut the fuck up.”

“No, and for your information, I have to fix my own article for the umpteenth time so, you’re not alone,” Katniss reminded her friend.

Johanna, ever the drama queen, gasped and backed away as though offended. “Oh, she only asked you to fix it? Wow, she must really like you.”

At that Katniss flipped her off.

Johanna groaned once more and sighed, “Kat, please tell me something interesting to get my mind off of wanting to quit this stupid paper.”

“You can’t quit, you’ve got bills, and I forbid you to leave me alone with her,” Katniss warned.

“Whyyyy?!!!” Johanna whined.

“Because if you’re suffering, so am I, and I will hunt you down if you leave me with her,” Katniss explained.

Sucking her teeth, Johanna rolled her eyes. “Fiiiine, but know that I only do this because I mildly like you.”

Katniss didn’t take the words to heart because, as much as Johanna only said she liked her, she was the first one to stand up for her and the sort of person who put all her effort besides Prim when it came to Willow. So yeah, she was only mildly liked, but Willow was loved, and that was more than enough for her.

Katniss took in a deep breath. “Guess who I saw today?”

“Who?” Johanna asked looking rather distracted but enthralled.

“Peeta Mellark,” Katniss replied playing with her milk and bits of cereal floating on the surface.

Johanna frowned even deeper. “Who the hell is that?”

Katniss took in another deep breath in order to continue. “He used to go to my high school, and he was my next door neighbor.”

Johanna’s eyes widened as she sat up straighter, her attention now riveted on the new information. “Oh, is he hot?”

“He’s handsome,” Katniss replied slurping a bit of the sodden cereal and milk on her spoon.

Johanna rolled her eyes again. “Bitch, I’m not asking you if he’s handsome, my fucking landlord is handsome, I asked if he was hot, as in fuckable.”

“I don’t really know, I haven’t noticed,” Katniss replied matter of factly.

Johanna smirked. “Uh huh, yeah right. Fucking liar.”

“Well, it doesn’t even matter if he’s hot or not, the point is he’s married,” Katniss replied quickly.

“Then, why the fuck did you mention him if he was married?” Johanna asked looking like the cat that got the cream.

Katniss put her half eaten bowl of cereal on her coffee table before running her hand across her face. “ Oh my god, you asked me to distract you.”

“Yeah, but the main focus is single guys that can get lame ass Gale out of your head,” Johanna reminded her.

“That’s not nice,” Katniss replied, trying to hide her smile but failing miserably. “He’s the father of my child.”

“Still doesn’t make him any less lame and ridiculous. He just randomly decided that you, a good wife and mother, not to mention super gorgeous and way out of his league, was no longer the object of his affection and instead decided to switch you for a straight up whore who will most likely cheat on him. God, I hope she cheats on him. Karma cannot let this pass,” Johanna whispered the last part with gusto.

Katniss swallowed her pain. “Can we please not talk about him today?”

Johanna, noticing she’d gone too far, raised her hands in surrender. “Sorry, so anyway what’s with you mentioning that Peter dude?”

“Pee-tah. Like Pita Bread or PETA that animal rights group,” Katniss enunciated his name, wondering why she had to make sure her friend said it correctly.

“Okay, Peeta. Whatever, what’s he to you?” Johanna asked.

Katniss retrieved the bowl of leftover cereal and drank the milk with bits of soggy Rice Krispies floating about sparsely. “I don’t want to talk about him either. Now, how about we go back to doing our work? You and I both take forever to get shit done and we have to hand this in first thing tomorrow.”

“Oh no, Katniss, you’re not gonna leave me with this curiosity,” Johanna warned.

Katniss took another long gulp of her milk, and set the empty bowl back on the coffee table. “Tough, We got shit to do.”

“Just know that you’re on seriously thin ice and you’re breaking the girl code,” Johanna hinted.

Katniss rolled her eyes. “There is no girl code.”

“Yes, there is. Ask Prim,” Johanna half yelled. The poor woman looked like she was on the verge of teetering from the need to know every detail.

“Well, I’m not saying another word on the subject, and we need to get back to work,” Katniss reminded her.

“I hate you,” Johanna spit out while pouting like a toddler.

Katniss shook her head. “No, you don’t.”

“Kat, please, you can’t leave me like this! Just tell me one litt--,” Johanna yelled as Katniss moved her arrow to end the call.

“BYE!” Katniss interrupted pressing on the red icon. She looked around her living room and puffed out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding in.