Help Me Make it Through the Night (Everlark Fanfic)

Chapter 24: A Burnt Cake and a Crooked Smile

(A song for this chapter is Little Moments by Brad Paisley. It gave me the inspiration for this chapter, as music often does for me.)

Peeta's POV

It is really sad when you forget your own birthday. I turned 18 today and hadn't even noticed until I saw the date on a receipt I handed a customer. Wow I'm dense.

It also means there is just over 3 months until our wedding. It's really sneaking up on us. Katniss said she would start invitations today. I don't even think she has a dress yet. That is kind of scary.

I close up the bakery around three and head home. I open the door and hear a beeping noise and there is a burning smell floating through the air. I walk into the kitchen to find a charcoal black cake siting on the stove and a disheveled Katniss standing on a chair with a dish towel, trying to fan the smoke away from the little beeping device. When it finally stops she steps down from the chair and almost jumped out of her skin when she saw me.

"Katniss, what happened?" I ask her. She looks around at the mess and she clearly starts to get upset.

"I was trying to bake a cake and ....I I must have fell asleep on the couch and now your birthdays ruined and I don't know why you want to marry me if I can't take care of a house and and," she starts sobbing and I wrap her in my arms, a slight smile playing on my lips.

"Katniss, I don't care about the cake. I could care less if you were some happy little homemaker like Delly or those other girls. I only care about you," I say kissing her hair.

"But if I can't take care of a house, what use am I? What could I possibly do for you?" she says pulling away. A silent tear runs down her cheek and I gently wipe it away with my thumb.

"Sweetie, I love you because your unique. You don't need to cook to make me happy. You are brave, beautiful, independent, and so strong to have gone through what you've gone through. You bring home the meat that we need to survive. I can't even hunt. We are both the opposite of what the world has formed as our supposed roles. But that's why we work well together," I tell her looking into the silver eyes I have grown to love more and more each day,"I don't need another cook. I think I do that just fine on my own. But I do need my brilliant hunter, who goes into the black market where I will never feel at home, to get the supplies we need to survive. That is why I want to marry you. That is why I love you." She wraps her arms around me tighter.

"Thank you. You've always had a way with words and have always made me feel better. I love you so much. Sorry you had to come home to a burnt cake. I thought I would at least try to give you something material, but I guess your birthday picnic by the lake will have to do without a cake," Katniss finally says.

"Birthday picnic by the lake?" I ask her.

"Yeah. I know it's silly to make you pack up a basket that we will drag down to the lake for like an hour, but I figured we hadn't been there in a while and there is a cabin back there so if we spend to long there, maybe we can spend the night in the stone house," she says almost more like a question.

"You know that sounds like a wonderful idea. Why don't you go pack up anything we might need back there if we spend the night and I'll pack up some food for us," I say kissing her cheek and going to clean up her mess. She gives out a slight chuckle and I hear her make her way upstairs.

When she comes back, she's holding a back pack, her fathers bow and arrows, and her guitar case.

"Why do you have your guitar?" I ask her, finishing packing our food.

"I wanted to make it up to you. You've worked so hard with the bakery and my nightmares and I know how much you like me to sing so I decided to sing for you out there," she says shyly.