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Katniss Everdeen was one of those people who both hated and loved the Christmas season. She loved the gingerbread cookies, the carolling, the Christmas lights and especially the days off of work. Unfortunately for her though, her cheerful holiday mood always suffered under the cold weather, the endless reruns of cliché Christmas soulmate movies about finding true love, the well-meant (but still annoying) comments her father made during Christmas dinner about how he couldn’t wait for Katniss to meet her soulmate, the Brussels sprouts her mom made her eat, and then last but certainly not least, the mandatory Christmas office party.
Katniss loved her job at the bio engineering firm, and even got along great with her bosses Beetee and Wiress Latier and the rest of her colleagues (most of them, at least). But, in her modest opinion there was nothing enjoyable about coming into work on a weekend night, dressed in an outfit that cost about the same as a month’s rent, and making forced small talk with colleagues she never saw outside the office. The silver lining was that at least Beetee and Wiress were generous enough to treat their employees to free booze.
“I know you don’t like these things, but you look very pretty,” Annie Cresta, her co-worker and one of her best friends, complimented her. “And we can get tipsy on free champagne.”
Katniss removed some fluff off her green, satin dress. “You read my mind,” and with that the two women made their way to the free bar the company had set up. They were quickly joined by Madge Undersee, a new hire who congratulated Annie on her engagement. Annie had gotten engaged to her long-time boyfriend Finnick Odair a few weeks before.
“How did he propose?” Madge asked eagerly.
Annie chuckled, and a blush coloured her cheeks. “Finnick is such a pranker. He hid the ring box in some laundry I was doing, and when I asked him what the box was, he had already dropped down to one knee and told me to open it.”
Madge squealed good-naturedly. “Awww, that is so cute. Are you two soulmates?”
Annie nodded in response and when Madge asked how their first kiss was, the strawberry blonde told the story of how she almost drowned in a public pool during university and that Finnick, one of the lifeguards on duty, had to give her CPR. The moment their lips met, images of their joined future flashed behind their eyelids. Finnick had been so overwhelmed, a colleague had to continue giving Annie CPR. “Good thing Peeta was there, otherwise I probably would’ve died,” she snorted.
“That’s quite the story,” Madge said, impressed, before turning to Katniss. “What about you? Are you spending Christmas with your soulmate? Or a boyfriend maybe?”
Katniss felt Annie tense up beside her, because her friend knew what a difficult subject it was for her. Four months ago Katniss had gotten out of a long relationship with a guy that she had considered her best friend. They knew they weren’t soulmates when nothing happened during their first kiss, but they decided to continue dating anyways. It had ended disastrously. Gale had cheated on her during the last months of their relationship, finally admitting to the cheating when he had kissed a girl in a nightclub that turned out to be his soulmate.
Katniss was heartbroken. Soulmate or not, she’d been in love with him. She felt betrayed, like a complete fool and utterly embarrassed. She vowed not to date again, only making an exception for her soulmate if she would ever meet him. And if she would like him enough. But then again, Katniss enjoyed being single for now and she knew she wasn’t ready for a love that was decided by faith. Not after the way Gale had broken her.
“I’m not,” she answered, and luckily she was saved from explaining why when Glimmer Avalon entered the office.
Glimmer was one of the scientists on a project Katniss oversaw. They worked well together, but didn’t really get along. Katniss noticed that for the occasion Glimmer had dyed her natural blonde hair an even blonder shade, making her look like a corpse. A corpse who was wearing a very tiny, glittery dress that didn’t leave much to the imagination. Her colleague was holding onto her date like a koala bear would cling onto a tree.
Her date was a handsome man with blond curls and a jaw cut out of marble, and he looked very awkward. Being Glimmer Avalon’s date, at an office party where he didn’t know anyone, Katniss couldn’t blame him.
Annie gasped in surprise. “That’s Peeta Mellark!”
“Who?”
“The guy with Glimmer. He’s an old friend of Finnick’s. The guy that had to give me CPR,” Annie answered, before walking over to the guy and dragging Katniss along with her.
Walking towards him, Katniss had a few seconds to give him a once over. He had a strong nose, full lips that seemed permanently set in a kind smile and a strong build. Very handsome indeed.
“Peeta!”
“Annie?” The guy, Peeta Mellark, said surprised, but positively delighted. “What are you doing here?”
“I work here,” she answered, and they gave each other a hug.
“At the exact same firm as Glimmer? What a coincidence,” he smiled.
“You know each other?” Glimmer could barely cover her disappointment over not being able to introduce her arm candy to her colleagues.
“Yes, Peeta is a friend of Finnick’s from university,” Annie explained.
“Oh,” Glimmer exclaimed, unimpressed.
“Peeta, this is Madge Undersee, a chemist working in my department,” Annie introduced the two people and they shook each other’s hand. “And this is Glimmer’s department head and my best friend, Katniss Everdeen.”
“Nice to meet you,” he said, when his warm head shook her own. A small spark shot through Katniss where their palms connected. When they let each other go, Peeta’s eyes bored into hers for a second too long. Did he feel it too?
“Okay Peeta, I want you to meet some of my friends now,” Glimmer said, clearly annoyed she wasn’t getting the attention she hoped she would.
“Finnick will be so happy to hear you’re in town. We’ll catch up later,” Annie said, while Glimmer left and pulled a confirming Peeta with her.
*
“So, which ones of the snacks would you recommend, Katniss?” Peeta Mellark asked her at the snack table an hour or so later.
She gave him a polite smile, averting her eyes to the food so she wouldn’t get lost in his eyes again. “I personally really like the stuffed mushrooms and the cheese cakes.”
“I love stuffed mushrooms,” he smiled and added a few on his plate. “Are you a vegetarian?”
“No, I just really love cheese,” Katniss confessed, she could feel her cheeks heat up.
“Me too. If I could live on it, it would probably be the only thing I’d eat,” he joked, making her chuckle.
“I thought about naming my dog Edam, but my sister talked me out of it,” she confessed, eating around a mushroom. God, they were delicious.
Peeta laughed. “Why? That’s a great name. What kind of dog do you have?”
“She’s a mutt. With a chocolate brown fur. She followed me home one day after I took a run in a nearby park. I knew she was a stray because she had flees and was so underfed. When I called our local animal control they said that they were probably going to have to put her down,” Katniss told him. “I didn’t want that to happen, she was so sweet.”
“That’s horrible…” Peeta had a sad look in his blue eyes. “I’m glad she found a loving home with you. What is her name?”
“Yue,” she answered, preparing herself for the usual reactions she got from people: confusion or surprise over the unusual name, or even fake compliments. But Peeta surprised her.
“From ‘The Legend of Aang’, the TV show?” when she nodded, his eyes lit up. “That was one of my favourite series growing up. Still is.”
She found herself feeling a sort of wonder for Peeta, she’d never clicked with anyone as quickly as she had now with him. Not even Annie. “Mine too.”
They started discussing the show, it’s characters, the spin off and the terrible movie. They seemed to share a lot similar opinions on the show, which was nice. Katniss didn’t see herself as a social person, but talking with Peeta was easy. Fun. She felt comfortable in his presence, safe even, which was odd since they had just met that evening. And yet, he made her laugh. Even her lame jokes seemed to get a laugh out of him, a genuine one.
Suddenly, Glimmer appeared and the cosy bubble she and Peeta had been in together seemed to burst, much to Katniss her dismay. Glimmer showed off her too white teeth in a blinding smile, and attached herself to Peeta’s arm like a tic. “Well, well, you two seemed to hit it off. What are you two talking about? Please, let me join your animated conversation.”
Luckily Annie joined the three of them an awkward few seconds later, saving Katniss from answering and having to converse with Glimmer. “Katniss are you ready to go? I’m about to order us an Uber,” her friend said.
Katniss quickly stuffed the remaining snacks in her mouth while Peeta and Annie said their goodbyes. Peeta asked for her number, which took Katniss by surprise, and after overcoming her inner turmoil, she agreed. He seemed like a nice friend to have.
The next weekend Prim arrived early on the Saturday for their yearly tradition of having a movie marathon and eating lots of Christmas themed junk food. Yue went nuts when she saw her owner’s sister walk into their home and when the dog felt like she had been cuddled enough she laid down next to the couch, knowing the two humans would soon make their way over there.
“Isn’t Rue joining us?” Katniss asked her sister.
“No, she thinks, and I quote, documentaries are old people movies and she isn’t a nerd like we are,” the blonde chuckled good-naturedly.
“The audacity!” Katniss feigned offense. “Are you sure she is your soulmate?”
“A hundred percent, because she baked us her family’s secret recipe gingerbread cookies—“
“I love those!”
“I know. And Rue promised she would join us for dinner, when she’s finished marking essays.”
“That would be nice. I was feeling a rice dish today, if that’s alright with you two lovebirds?”
Prim chuckled. “Sure, sounds good. Come on, I’ve been looking forward to these snacks all week!”
They settled on at the couch with hot chocolate (the white praline flavour), the gingerbread cookies Rue had made for them, some candy canes and at lunch time they had some soup and garlic bread. A couple of times during ‘Planet Earth’ Katniss received a text from Peeta. They had started texting after the office party. The texts consisted mostly out of funny memes and cute pictures of Yue, but it was fun.
Peeta 1:33pm: Finnick and Annie just invited me over for a game night next week
I said I would love to go
Now Finnick is spamming me with gifs of me getting destroyed
And of baby animals running away scared
Katniss snorted, while typing her reply.
Katniss 1:34pm: Sounds like Finnick
But he’s all bark and no bite
Ive beaten him countless of times
Peeta 1:34pm: So youre the 1 I should be looking out for then?
Katniss 1:35pm: Definitely
Im the undefeated champignon at Monopoly
“Stop texting and start paying attention to the baby seals!” Prim complained, while throwing popcorn at her. “There’s nothing worse than watching a film with someone who isn’t paying attention.”
“You were literally just facetiming your girlfriend three minutes ago. While the movie was still playing!”
“That’s different,” Prim tried. “Rue is my girlfriend and soulmate. Plus you won’t even tell me who you’re texting,” she pouted.
Katniss let out an annoyed sigh. “Fine. His name is Peeta. He’s a friend of Finnick and Annie’s that I coincidentally met at the office party. I just heard you will meet him next week at the monthly game night.”
Prim seemed to think it over. “Sounds plausible. Is he cute?”
Her sister’s crass question made Katniss think about Peeta’s Peetasness and that made her blush furiously.
Prim squealed in excitement. “Oh my God! You think he’s cute! You like him!”
“Drop it, Little Duck!” Cheeks still ablaze. “And act cool when you meet him or I’ll tell mom and dad you broke their fancy, old candle holder as a kid and it wasn’t Buttercup like you told them.”
Prim glared at her. At least that’s what her sister tried, there was still amusement present in her light blue eyes and in the upward corner of her lips. “I’ll be as cool as a cucumber,” she promised.
The week followed with nothing remarkable happening. She and Yue had dinner with her parents, which aside from the query about her love life from her dad, had been nice. She had run into Madge at the grocery store, and found that the woman was quite sarcastic when she wasn’t talking about romance, which was right up Katniss’ alley. Katniss and her team booked progress in their project to improve sun panels and it was during workhours that she overheard Glimmer saying that she ended her courtship with Peeta.
“He didn’t seem that interested, which is a loss for him,” Glimmer had said. “But, I’m not too fussed about it. We weren’t soulmates anyways.”
Katniss wasn’t too surprised, they really didn’t seem like a match made by fate. But, aside from her lack of surprise, she didn’t try to think too much about it. It was none of her business.
And then, before she knew it, it was Saturday and she was getting ready to see her friends again. Dressed in dark green leggings and a black jumper that read ‘The Future Is Female’, and bringing some mulled wine with her, she and Yue headed to the Cresta-Odair household. Katniss was looking forward to spending some time with her friends.
And Peeta. Her heart stuttered.
When Katniss arrived, Peeta, Prim and Rue were already there. Drinking tea, hot cocoa and some wine, respectively. Finnick took her coat and Annie gave her a hug before gratefully taking the mulled wine out of her friend’s hands. Yue darted over to Prim and Rue, and Peeta got up to greet her with a blinding smile.
“Hey, Katniss. It’s so good to see you again.”
The sincerity in his eyes made her inside feel warm and gooey, and to keep her from acknowledging what that could mean, she decided to make a bad joke. “Yes, we have so much catching up to do in the week where didn’t see each other and only texted each other memes,” she quipped, making Peeta chuckle. “I like your sweater,” she added, complementing the red Christmas sweater he was wearing, displaying Rudolf and some of his buddies.
The unexpected compliment made him a bit self-conscious and he rubbed his neck. “Thank you. I actually knitted it myself.”
“For real?” She asked, impressed.
“Yeah, I love making stuff. I, uh, actually brought you something,” he said, suddenly a bit nervous. “Just a second.”
He left Katniss for a moment, standing there awkwardly pondering over what he could’ve brought her, why he would’ve brought her anything, hoping he would hurry up so that they could sit down by the fire place.
Peeta returned shortly with a plate carrying some buns and two large mugs. “Annie just finished making the mulled wine and she figured we would both like some.”
“She’s my best friend for a reason,” she said, gratefully accepting the mug. “What are those?” she asked, eagerly eyeing the delicious looking baked goods Peeta was holding.
“Cheese buns. I made them myself from scratch, it’s an old family recipe. I thought you might like them since you are such a cheese fiend.”
“They look amazing. Let’s move over to the fireplace?”
“Sounds good,” Peeta smiled.
If Katniss ever had doubt that the only things she and Peeta could comfortably converse about were cheese, dogs and ‘The Legend of Aang’, she was quickly proven wrong. There seemed to be nothing Peeta couldn’t chat about, and he radiated a comfortableness that rubbed off on her. Peeta clung to every word she said, asked questions to spur her on, told his own anecdotes and thoughts to weigh in and make her laugh. Katniss hadn’t realised that almost two hours had flown by while they were just talking about mundane stuff, drinking the mulled wine and eating the heavenly cheese buns. They were broaching the more serious subject of Peeta’s sudden move to town to open an art gallery, when Finnick called them over to play Monopoly. Katniss hadn’t even noticed that Johanna, Thresh and Thom had arrived as well.
Peeta was squeezed in between Katniss and Prim, and the two blondes seemed to really hit it off. Katniss gave Yue her dinner and was afterwards roped into smack taking the boys with Johanna. Finnick was the first to go bankrupt, much to Peeta’s joy, so the bigmouthed redhead was the one to pay for the pizzas they ordered (the loser always paid). When their dinner arrived they moved to the kitchen to eat and drink.
After dinner Katniss needed to take Yue out for a walk and Peeta offered to join them. Yue had quickly grown very fond of Peeta, so Katniss didn’t mind the company. It had started snowing softly and the warm yellow lights of the streetlamps gave their surroundings a romantic glow. Katniss guided them to a nearby park, where Yue could roam freely and where they could get a hot cocoa.
All had been great until Peeta spotted some mistletoe hanging from the stand where they bought their hot beverages.
“Do you want to— Uh, obviously we don’t have to. It could be fun, kissing. I mean it’s tradition—“ Peeta, normally so well-spoken, seemed to trip over his words. The hand that wasn’t holding his drink started rubbing his neck and his cheek turned from a soft pink to red. “Please say something, Katniss.”
Gale had been the last person Katniss had kissed, and she hated that fact. His lips had lied to her, betrayed her, had broken her heart. She wanted to replace the last kiss he had ever given her with a new one, and under the mistletoe with a guy like Peeta, who was so kind and respectful, seemed perfect.
Instead of answering Peeta with words, she reached up to him to plant her lips on his. That’s when it happened. Memories that she had never made flashed in front of her eyelids.
Of them laughing over a candlelit dinner, seemingly celebrating something.
Of him lying on top of her, naked, next to a fireplace. She could feel him move inside her.
Of her dressed in her mother’s wedding gown, walking down the aisle to join him at the altar.
A young girl with a head full of dark curls and shining blue eyes, dancing in a living room.
Of him kissing her goodbye in front of his art gallery.
Of them taking a picture in front of the Eiffel tower.
Of him cheering her on, while she was singing with a small boy on her lap.
Of them, grey and wrinkled, admiring a sunset.
When they broke apart, their breathes were desperate and mingled together in the cold air. “Did you see that, too?” Peeta asked her. When she stayed silent, too overwhelmed and in shock to answer just yet, he repeated his question, a more desperate tone in his voice.
Katniss nodded, still awestruck.
“This means that we’re—“ Peeta seemed too caught up in the moment to finish his sentence.
Katniss looked down to her feet, too overwhelmed to see his face any longer. Peeta had dropped his hot cocoa, and both of their shoes were now covered in the brown liquid. The colour reminded her of her dog and it made her realise Yue was running around in the park on her own, so she turned around to go look for her dog.
“Katniss, wait!” Peeta pleaded, going after her. “Why aren’t you saying anything? Please, stop. Isn’t this a good thing?”
Katniss turned around abruptly. “I don’t know!” She exclaimed. “I barely know you and—“
“We will get to know each other, I promise.”
“I don’t think I’m ready for all of this,” she admitted, tears welling up in her eyes.
“I want to take it slow, too,” he assured her.
“I’m scared.. “ she confessed in a small voice. “Gale broke my heart and he wasn’t even my soulmate. I never want to feel like that again. Especially not the way you can break me as my soulmate..”
“Katniss..” he whispered, moving closer to her and taking her hands in his own. “I can’t promise you that we will never feel pain together or feel pain individually, but I can promise you I will always do my best to keep you happy. To make you laugh. To be honest with you. To make you tons of cheese buns,” his quip made her laugh, and some of her fear disappeared. “But, those images we just saw. I choose to do that with you, the good and the bad. You have no obligation to me, even if you are my soulmate, but I really hope we can make those fate images reality.”
Katniss nodded slowly. “Okay,” she whispered. “Can we take it slow though? And not tell anyone just yet?”
“Of course.”
She wiped one stubborn tear of her cheek. “I’m sorry for being so difficult. For being so messed up emotionally.”
Peeta laughed. “That’s all right. I like you just the way you are.”
“I like you the way you are, too,” she shared, truthfully.
Peeta ducked his head on a smile. “Thanks. Want to get Yue?”
“Yes.”
A week later Katniss had grown more accustomed to the facts that she found her soulmate. That Peeta Mellark was her soulmate. That he seemed to like her just as much as she liked him. He made her laugh when he brought Yue a scarf he had knitted himself. He baked her the best sugar cookies. He loved hiking to the lake just as much as she and Yue did. He kept begging her to sing songs because he loved to hear her voice so much. Peeta made her feel safe, warm and wanted in his arms. He in turn felt safe and cared for when he put his head in her lap and her fingers started playing with his curls.
Two weeks after their kiss they decided to announce to their friends and family that they were soulmates. Katniss wanted to send everyone a mass email, but Peeta wanted to share the news face to face. The reactions differed from overjoyed (Katniss’ parents), surprised (Thom and Thresh), not surprised at all (Prim and Annie), to not caring (Peeta’s clients).
She disliked the attention she received very much, but when she turned her head she found her soulmate next to her, sharing her burdens. Katniss couldn’t believe how lucky she was.