Fate

Chapter 15

Please keep my cousin in your prayers. He's relatively okay as far as being stable goes, but his daughter is NOT okay at all.

Katniss P.O.V.

"Stop! PEETA!" I feel a hand on both of my arms and quickly sit up, gasping for air.

"It's okay, Katniss. I'm okay. It's just a nightmare," Peeta says softly as he rubs his hands over my shoulders. I look up at Peeta to see him frowning a me.

"See?" he says. "It's okay. You're safe. You're at home with me and the baby. The three of us are safe." I blink at him.

"But… But I just… w-watched you d-die."

"No, Katniss," Peeta says as he shakes his head. "It wasn't real."

"I held you're head in my hands and watched you…"

"It was just a nightmare, Katniss," Peeta says as he grips my shoulders a little. "I'm okay. I'm alive."

I slowly reach out and touch his cheeks with my hands.

"You're alive," I say as tears swell up in my eyes. Peeta removes a hand from my shoulder and places it over one of my hands that's resting on his cheek.

"I'm alive," he repeats. I let out a choked sob and lean my head forward onto his shoulder. My hands still lay on his cheeks, and his hands come to rest on my stomach.

"Sorry. It took me a minute to figure out that I'm awake," I tell him.

"Don't be sorry, Katniss," Peeta says. "It happens to me too."

I take deep breath to calm myself down as Peeta rubs his thumbs across the top of my stomach.

"Has the baby been moving much?" Peeta asks me. I know what he's doing. He's trying to get my mind off of my nightmares before I remind myself that it may one day be reality. But he's too late. It's already crossed my mind.

I shake my head. "He or she is getting stronger, though," I say.

"Really?" Peeta asks. Before I can even reply 'yes,' the baby gives his or her strongest kick yet. Peeta gasps and pulls his hands back, and I look up at him.

"Did you feel that?"

"Yeah," Peeta says slowly as he looks at my slightly swollen stomach. "Wow," he breathes. "I just… The baby…. Katniss, I just felt the baby kick my hand through your stomach." I laugh at him a little and nod my had.

"It amazing, isn't it?"

"That's more than amazing," Peeta says softly. He places his hands back on my stomach, but quickly pulls back before the baby can kick again.

"That doesn't hurt you, does it?" he asks me. "Feeling the baby kick you from the inside."

I shake my head. "It doesnt hurt, Peeta," I assure him. "But it still startles me sometimes, though." Peeta slowly brings his hands forward, but stops before he touches my stomach.

"Peeta, it's okay," I tell him. "You've never hurt me before by touching my stomach." He takes a deep breath.

"But that was before the baby started kicking that hard," he says worriedly.

I can't help but to laugh a little. "I'm okay, Peeta. I'm not going to break." I reach over and take his hand, gently placing it on my stomach over the spot where our baby is currently kicking me. Peeta's eyes fill with tears, but he quickly wipes them away. After a few moments, he looks over at me.

"We'd better go back to sleep now," Peeta tells me.

"No!" I say, louder than I meant to. Peeta gives me a shocked look, and I take a deep breath. "No," I repeat quieter. "I can't take anymore nightmares tonight. You can go on back to sleep, but I'm afraid to." Peeta shakes his head at me.

"I'll stay up with you," he tells me. Peeta wraps his arms around me, and I lay my head over on his chest.

"Peeta."

"Yeah?"

I take a deep breath. "You can't go back into that arena," I say. "I'll lose my mind. Especially if something happened to you. And me not being able to go in with you…"

"Katniss," Peeta says, cutting me off. "This is better than both of us having to go in. This way, the baby has a chance of meeting both of us."

"It's not just about the baby," I say truthfully. "Yes, he or she is the biggest part of our lives right now. But what about us, Peeta? What about you and me? If something were to happen to you, I'd lose a part of me.

This baby has to have someone who is in their right mind to be a parent to them, but that can't happen if you leave us. I don't know how to take care of this baby."

"Kaniss, listen to me," Peeta says as he turns me so I'm facing him. "You're just scared. Okay? You're scared about being a good mother. About me having to go back into the Games. About the baby being Reaped after he or she turns twelve. Youre scared about a million other things that neither of us have no control over. Except one."

"And what's that?"

"Our future, Katniss," Peeta replies. "We can change things if we want to, Katniss. But not if we're vulnerable and scared. Snow knows that. It's why he keeps messing with us."

"So what do we do?"

"You're going to think positive about everything," Peeta tells me "I know it's easier said than done, but please try it. You're going to try your best to be happy. You're going to hold your chin up high. So will I. But there's one thing we will not do."

"What?"

Peeta looks me straight in the eyes before speaking again.

"Let Snow get to us."
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For all my readers who watched Beauty and the Beast, who else can't stop singing? Everytime I'd watch the animated version, I'd sing, but it was never this bad. I can't sit down at the dinner table without going "Be. Our. Guest be our guest." And today we were walking and I started singing to the top of my lungs
"And as the long long nights begin Ill think of all that might have been waiting here for everMOOOOOORE" 😂 I need some serious help guys.