Fragile

Chapter Two: Helping Her

Peeta pulled away from her quickly. "Dude, what the crap?!" Gale exclaimed as he shoved Peeta against the wall. Peeta simply let him like it was no big deal. Katniss watched helplessly. She was no match against Gale. Obviously. He could easily injure her in the process of trying to injure Peeta, so she wasn't about to put herself in that type of danger.

"Gale, look, the kiss was only because she was hurting," Peeta lied. No one could tell though since it was a lie and all. Katniss had a hurt facial expression and he gave her a look that was asking for approval. She then knew he was lying.

"Yeah, I told him about what happened," she said quietly. "He thought I needed a hug and...and I took things farther than I was supposed to," she lied.

That's even better, Peeta thought. Gale let go of Peeta and turned to Katniss. "He's freakin' twenty-one, Katniss. You know better than that," he huffed, pulling her into an embrace. "If you're going to kiss boys, they need to be your age, only a year older if you have to date someone older." Peeta watched as Katniss held onto Gale with her face buried in his chest. What else was she to do? Openly defy her older brother? He pulled away from her. "You go get cleaned up because Madge and I are going to take you out to dinner, alright?" She nodded and scurried off to get cleaned up.

Gale scowled and gave Peeta a death glare once she left the room. "If I ever see you with your hands on my sister or your eyes on anything but her own eyes, so help me God, I will come into your room in the middle of the night, and murder you." For some odd reason, he sounded really convincing and for the first time, Peeta was actually afraid of Gale.

Gale was about to go to his room when he turned around. "Oh, and if you're still wondering about why she has so much luggage, well, I asked her to come live with us until she can get out there on her own."

He's setting me up to get murdered, Peeta thought. If he and Katniss were going to have some type of relationship, it was going to have to be A), behind Gale's back, and B), behind everyone else's back. This wasn't right. She was only seventeen. Not legal yet. Yes, she may have been the legal age to have sex, which was sixteen, but she wasn't the legal age to marry or be with him. She had to be at least eighteen, and sadly, she wasn't.

When Katniss and Gale returned, to the living room, Gale gave him another death glare while Katniss gave him a small glance, blushing slightly. Again, it was as if he were at a traffic light that's green and red at the same time. He didn't want to test running the red light again, yet he didn't want to give up the chance of going for the green light. They said their goodbyes and left.

After they were gone, Peeta noticed Katniss' flower crown on the couch cushion. Did she take it off when we kissed? Did it fall off as she sat here watching her older brother nearly kill me? Peeta shrugged and took it to his room since he wasn't allowed to go to what was now her room.

He retired early that night, so he didn't know when Gale and Katniss returned. He had woken up and known that Gale had brought back Madge also because he heard her in Gale's room. "They're like wild animals," Peeta groaned as he got up to beat on Gale's door. On his way, he grabbed Katniss' flower crown so he could return it to her while he was at it.

He had beat on Gale's door. "Can you shut up?! No one wants to hear about how much you love to watch him get off, Madge! And no one needs to know that your girlfriend is like a pool or whatever, Gale!" That earned him an F-you from the both of them. He then went to Katniss' room and carefully snuck inside.

He sat the flower crown on the dresser and turned for the door to hear her whimper, "No." He turned around.

"Katniss?" He asked her softly. She only whimpered and sniffed in reply and Peeta stepped closer to her bed. In the moonlight, he could see where the tears were running down her cheeks. He brushed aside her bangs away from her face and wiped away her tears. "Katniss, it's okay," he said, shaking her. She woke up in a frenzy, frantically looking around and panting. He was now sitting at the edge of the bed at this point and he had his hand resting on her uncovered thigh.

"P-Peeta?" She asked him quietly.

"I'm here," he replied softly, pulling her into his arms. She clutched the back of his shirt as she cried into his chest once again. He rubbed her back soothingly. "It's alright, I'm here."

After several moments, she calmed down and told Peeta about her nightmare, which consisted of her reliving when she was molested by her mother's boyfriend. She told Peeta about how that's basically only what her sleep consisted of. Nightmares of the past. Peeta let go of her. "Katniss, now that you're here with me, I won't let that happen to you. Gale won't either. Heck, I'm sneaking in here just to be with you he's so protective of you." She only nodded and wiped her eyes. She laid back down and Peeta softly kissed her temple as he got up. He went to step away from her bed, but she had grabbed his wrist.

"Peeta, please, stay with me?" He saw the traffic light again and decided to just screw it all and give her what she wanted. He couldn't say no to this fragile girl before him. He nodded and slipped into the bed with her. She instantly laid her head on his shoulder and nuzzled his neck softly as he wrapped his arms around her.

As she drifted off, she heard Peeta whisper with his lips pressed to her hair, "Always."