Science vs. Romance (hunger games, nc-17, 1/3)
Written for the "Other Worlds" AU challenge on Tumblr's Prompts in Panem.
Science vs. Romance, 1/3
katniss/peeta. nc-17, au: thg meets true blood. Katniss Everdeen is twenty-two years old, slinging burgers and beer at Hawthorne's Bar and Grill the day the vampires come out of the coffin.
Katniss Everdeen is twenty-two years old, slinging burgers and beer at Hawthorne's Bar and Grill the day the vampires come out of the coffin. It's a Tuesday, the dinner rush just ending, and the whole restaurant goes silent as a graveyard as the woman on the flatscreen over the bar - mid-50s, stiff gray hair, pale skin - opens her mouth. Two perfect, shiny, pointy white fangs pop out beneath her upper lip. The words ALMA COIN, VAMPIRE pop up from the bottom of the screen.
Delly Cartwright, the other waitress on shift, falls to the floor in a dead faint.
"I'ss a trick," Earl Fairchild proclaims loudly, sloshing his beer onto the table, looking around the bar wildly. Cut off, Katniss makes a mental note. "April Fool's'r somethin', right?"
"It's October, Earl," someone says from the back of the room, and a few people snicker. For the most part, though, the patrons are frightened. Several are crying. Their thoughts rise up in Katniss' head, a jumbled chorus of panic and fear and confusion so overwhelming that she has to brace herself against the counter of the bar.
Beneath the cacophony of voices crowding her mind, Katniss herself feels strangely indifferent. Like somewhere in the back of her mind, she always knew this was coming.
Right now, though, the only thing she's sure of is an oncoming migraine. "Somebody better wake Delly up," Katniss sighs, untying her apron. "I'm going on break."
Life in Bon Temps stays pretty much the same, at least at first. Some say it's because no vampire in his right mind would hang around a backwater like this when he could go anywhere, do anything, for all of eternity. Others say it's because fangers know they ain't welcome 'round these parts.
Katniss agrees with the former and rolls her eyes at the latter, but she wastes no time buying Prim a little spray can of liquid silver, and wooden bullets for her shotgun just in case.
As fate would have it, the very first vampire Katniss meets is someone she already knows. Though maybe someone she knew is the better way to phrase it.
Peeta Mellark was one of the only kids in their year to go to college, and the only one to do it out of state. Vanderbilt University. Nashville. Off to become a doctor or a lawyer or something else better than a baker's son on the bayou.
So why he's walking into Hawthorne's on a Thursday night at the end of her shift, she can't imagine. Katniss hasn't even seen him since the summer after they'd graduated high school, and that was what, seven years ago? But here he is, hands in his pockets, ambling over to a corner booth alone.
Katniss feels nervous, but can't pinpoint why. It's just Peeta Mellark. They weren't friends. They'd barely spoken to one another for eighteen years. She grabs one of the plastic menus and strides over to his table.
She's ready to just throw the menu down on the tabletop and leave, but his eyes stop her. They're bright blue, brighter than she remembers, and it feels like they can see all the way into her soul. She freezes, her left hand pressing the menu against the table.
"Hey, Katniss."
She swallows. "Hi Peeta."
"Been a long time, huh?" He's still got the same crooked smile, the same perfectly straight nose, the same dimple in his left cheek. But something feels off. His eyes are bluer, his hair is blonder, his skin is paler. He's...more. She can't explain it.
"Yeah, real long time."
"How've you been?"
"Fine."
"Still chatty as ever, I see." He grins, and she frowns back, narrowing her eyes. He laughs. Same laugh, she thinks, though she's not sure why she'd even know that. "I'm sorry. I'm just teasing. It's just been so long since I've been back home and, you know, I can't believe how nothing's changed."
Katniss just nods, slipping her hand into the pocket on the front of her apron to dig around for a pen, her notepad, anything to anchor her back to the ground. Her fingers close around a pin - a little bird pin Prim gave her for her birthday last year. She rubs it, and the motion is soothing until she pricks her finger on the sharp point sticking out through the latch.
"Ow," she mutters. "So, um, I'll get you a glass of water?"
Peeta shifts uncomfortably, his eyes bouncing back and forth from her face to the front of her apron. "Actually, I'll have a...a TruBlood."
Katniss blinks. She must not have heard him right. "Sorry, I didn't catch that."
He purses his lips, then shifts a little closer to her, leaning forward. "A TruBlood," he says, his voice low.
"Oh." Katniss stands still as it hits her. "Oh."
Peeta chuckles a little, looking down at his hands on the tabletop. "Yeah."
She's got a million questions racing through her mind, but Katniss Everdeen isn't one to ask questions. "Okay. Let me see what we've got." She hesitates. "Is there a, um, particular...type that you prefer?"
Gale had bought a couple different kinds when they'd first become available in six packs, and they'd joked about the "flavors." "Maybe O negative is like a wheat beer, and A positive is a stout, or something," he'd suggested, and Katniss had giggled.
"So which one would we serve? Is there a Bud or a High Life?"
"AB negative. The champagne of bloods." She'd nearly fallen over laughing.
Now it's a little less funny, with a real-life vampire in front of her, one who'd probably just as soon rip open a vein and drink her own blood as he would throw back the synthetic stuff.
"Um, B positive, if you have it," Peeta says shyly. "Thanks."
Katniss heads through the swinging gates into the back, where the kitchen and the walk-in and Gale's office are. "Gale?" she calls out shakily.
"I'm here," he calls out, and she walks quickly into the office, shutting the door behind her. He looks up at her expectantly from where he sits at the desk. "What's up?"
"We, um..." Katniss struggles to keep her voice level. "We got any TruBlood left?"
"Well yeah, we haven't sold a single...wait." Gale stands up. "Is there a vampire in here?"
She nods her head emphatically.
"I'll be damned." Gale shakes his head. "Well, I guess I should go say hello, being it's the first vampire we've had and all."
"Wait." Katniss stops him with a hand against his chest. "Gale, it's...Peeta Mellark."
His eyes widen in shock. "Peeta Mellark? He's a vampire?"
"Yup."
"How'd that happen?"
"I didn't ask."
"Wow." Gale folds his arms over his chest, looking thoughtful. "The golden boy goes off to college...comes back a vampire. That's crazy."
"Yeah. I know. But right now he's waiting on a TruBlood, so...we still got any?"
"Yeah, we do." Gale opens the door behind her and gestures for her to exit first. "It's back in the walk-in somewhere...I'll go find it. You just go out there and...I don't know. If you were Delly I'd say be nice, but we know that's not gonna happen."
Katniss sticks her tongue out. "He wants a B positive," she calls after him. Gale shudders a little.
"Coming right up."
It turns out they don't have a B positive after all, but Peeta accepts his "champagne of bloods" graciously.
"My shift's over, but you can pay at the bar when you're done," Katniss tells him.
"Would you like to join me?" He gestures to the empty seat across from him.
Katniss weighs her options. Normally she doesn't stick around after work is over, eager to get home, hang out with Prim, take a bath, and go to bed. But she's never met a vampire before, and she's curious as hell how Peeta Mellark of all people ended up turned into one.
"Okay," she says finally. "Let me go grab a coke."
They keep the conversation light. Peeta asks about life in Bon Temps, how their old schoolteachers are doing, which couples got married and popped out babies, what happened to the guy at the gas station who used to sell beer to any kid who flashed him an index card with their name on it. Then he tells her about Nashville, how overwhelmed he'd been moving there from a place like this.
Katniss studies him as he speaks, tries to categorize the differences between this Peeta and the one she knew in high school. She isn't sure which changes resulted from the passage of time, and which resulted from being turned. She can't even tell how old he is, because she doesn't know how long he's been a vampire. He definitely wasn't turned right away - he's a little taller, a lot broader than he was as a teenager.
But his eyes aren't really bluer and his hair isn't really blonder, she realizes; they just look that way because his skin is so much paler in comparison. She feels stupid for not noticing it right away. And then she realizes: she can't hear Peeta's thoughts.
At all.
It's not like she lives with a steady stream of chatter from every person in a 20-foot radius running through her head, but it does take some effort to block it all out. There's always a little part of her that's humming along, making a conscious effort to keep her mind to herself. Working in a crowded bar gets exhausting, but she can't support herself and Prim on the game she hunts on weekends. It's too bad, because the forest is her favorite place, quiet and serene. There are never any people out there, and she can't hear animal thoughts.
Nor vampire thoughts, apparently.
She notices he's looking at her expectantly, like he just asked her a question, and she blinks. "Sorry, I zoned out for a second. What was that?"
Peeta shakes his head, looking down at the tabletop where he picks at a scratch in the wood. "It's okay, nevermind." They're quiet for a moment, Katniss' straw slurping loudly as she takes a last sip of soda. "I guess you're probably wondering how I ended up like this."
Yes! her mind screams. "No," she says out loud. "Not at all." She might not be the friendliest girl in Louisiana, but you don't grow up in the South without learning somemanners.
He smiles. "It's okay. I'd be curious too." He picks at the label on his bottle studiously. "It wasn't intentional. I was at this concert...Effie - she's my maker - she wanted a drink...she chose me." Peeta's hands still. "She went a little too far, so it was turn me or leave me to die. And she did the right thing."
Katniss pushes her glass a few inches away and rubs her fingertips in the condensation it leaves on the table. "I'm sorry."
Peeta snorts. "Don't be. I'm going to live forever, what have you got to be sorry for?"
Katniss shrugs. Maybe he's right. Thirty years from now she'll still be working in this bar, too old to even get good tips anymore, and Peeta will be as young and strong and handsome as ever. "When did it happen?"
"About three years ago. It was just a few weeks before the Great Revelation." He smiles sadly. "If we'd been revealed just a couple weeks earlier, Effie wouldn't have had to drink off someone in secret. And I'd probably be human right now." He tilts his head. "But then I wouldn't be sitting here with you right now, so I guess there's always a trade off."
Katniss isn't quite sure what he means, but it makes her face flush, so she changes the subject. "What are you doing back here, anyway? You're literally the first vampire in town since the Revelation. Shouldn't you be in New York or Paris or something?"
"Well, being a vampire doesn't mean I'm rich," he points out. "My parents are retiring, and they were going to sell the bakery, but I told them I wanted to take over instead. So they transferred ownership and...here I am."
Katniss remembers Peeta's parents, especially his mother, who was so cold and dismissive when Katniss would bring Prim to the bakery with their pittance of a weekly allowance to buy cookies or a cupcake. "They're cool with you being a vampire?"
Peeta looks down at his hands, and she knows that he'd be blushing right now if there was any blood flowing through his body. "Ah, no, not exactly. But the papers were all signed by the time they found out."
She looks at him in disbelief. "They didn't know?"
"We're not close," he says shortly. "But it's perfect, really. Most bakers get to work before the sun rises, anyway, so I can just spend the last couple hours of night baking the day's goods, and then hire someone to sell them after sunrise."
Katniss nods. A vampire baker. Weird.
"What's it like?" she blurts out before she can stop herself. "Sorry," she adds quickly. "You don't have to answer that."
"No, it's okay." Peeta shrugs. "I mean, in some ways it's cool…I'm stronger, faster." Both things she'd heard about vampires. "I'm way better in bed." He grins, and she looks away, embarrassed. She'd heard that about vampires, too.
"It's not all great, though," he admits, his tone growing wistful. "I can't smell the breads and cakes I bake anymore…I mean, I can smell them, but it means nothing to me. They don't smell good anymore."
Katniss doesn't ask what does smell good - she's pretty sure she already knows.
They fall into silence, until deep yawn overcomes her and she sighs. "Well, I should head on home. It's late."
"Oh." Peeta nods. "Yeah, me too, I should get going," he says, though she gets the distinct sense that he doesn't have anywhere to go, not really. It must be kind of lonely to be a vampire in a town full of humans, she realizes. "It was nice catching up with you, Katniss."
"It was," she agrees, surprised to find she actually means it. "Goodnight."
It's a little after midnight when Katniss gets home, and Prim is still up, sitting at the kitchen table with a textbook propped open on her lap. After a few years of scrimping and saving they'd finally gathered enough cash to enroll her in an online university, with the plan of eventually transferring to LSU to finish out her degree. "You're home late," Prim remarks with a note of curiosity, flipping to a new page.
"Well, it's not every night a vampire comes into Hawthorne's."
Prim's jaw drops open, her schoolwork forgotten. "No way. A vampire? Are you serious?" Katniss is a little dismayed at how enthralled her sister seems by the prospect - it's not the safest attitude to have towards vampires, in her opinion. "Guy or girl? What did they look like?"
Katniss pours herself a glass of water from the fridge and settles at the table across from Prim. "Do you remember Peeta Mellark?"
Prim looks even more shocked, if possible. "You're kidding." Katniss shakes her head. "Oh my god. Peeta is a vampire?"
"Yup."
"That's so weird. Did you get to see his fangs?" Prim flashes her a wicked grin.
"No," Katniss says firmly. "I did not see his fangs."
"I bet he'd show them to you, if you wanted. He always liked you."
Katniss nearly spits out her drink. "That's not - what - I don't even know what you're talking about. It's late, Prim. Go to bed." Gulping down the rest of the water, she drops the empty glass in the sink and storms off to her bedroom.
Prim's laughter follows her up the stairs. "I'm twenty-one years old, I don't have a bedtime!"
"Just do it!" Katniss yells back. Prim was so much easier to deal with when she was twelve.
All the next day, Katniss wonders if Peeta will be back at Hawthorne's that evening. Not for any personal reason; just because it's a Friday, and the bar won't be near empty like it was the night before. Peeta might not be the most welcome patron to some of the regulars.
Although she's working the late shift, he doesn't show up. Not Saturday night, either. But Sunday night, as she's leaving for the evening and locking the front door to the bar behind her, she turns around to find Peeta standing in silence just a few feet behind her. She almost has a heart attack.
Katniss shrieks before she can process who it is, falling back against the door. Peeta takes a few steps back himself. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he says quickly, holding up his hands.
"You didn't make any noise," she gasps, catching her breath.
"Yeah, when we move fast we can kind of...float," he explains, taking a tentative step forward. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." He looks up over her head, where the neon OPEN sign has just flickered off. "I guess you guys are closed?"
"You'd guess right," she says, crossing her arms over her chest.
Peeta sighs. "Is anything else open right now?"
"At eleven o'clock? The Walmart out in Minden, maybe." His face falls, and she softens. "It's a Sunday in the Deep South, Peeta," she reminds him gently.
"I know, I know," he says. "I didn't really think about the lack of...nightlife when I decided to move back here."
Katniss shifts, hitching her purse up over her shoulder. "This must be breakfast time for you right now."
"Brunch." She cracks a smile.
"Well, good luck finding something." Katniss moves past him, heading for her car, but his voice stops her.
"You could keep me company."
A shiver rolls down her spine. Peeta's voice is low and carries the slightest hint of…suggestion. Katniss licks her lips, her mouth suddenly dry. She keeps forgetting that Peeta isn't Peeta Mellark - wrestling champ, straight-A student, the sweet boy who held open the door for her in the hallways at school - anymore. He's a vampire. He's dangerous.
She doesn't know what makes her do it, but she takes a step back towards him. "I don't know," she says slowly. "Prim's at home alone."
"How old's she now?"
"Twenty-one."
Peeta smiles. "Aw, c'mon. She doesn't need you to tuck her into bed."
He's just standing there, hands casually tucked into his pockets, but she feels drawn to him somehow. "Okay. Where do you want to go?"
Peeta shrugs. "Your choice. I've got all night."
They park at the edge of the woods that border the east side of town, sitting side by side on the hood of her car, the leaves of an old live oak tree dangling just out of reach over their heads. Peeta talks about his plans for the bakery and Katniss talks about her plans for Prim, and when she yawns and says it's probably time to head home, he leans over and kisses her.
Her instinct is to pull away, break contact before his thoughts can flood her mind like they're her own. But his voice never enters her head - vampire, she remembers somewhere deep in the back of her mind - and after a few moments she relaxes, opening her mouth to deepen the kiss.
She can feel the quiet rumble in the back of Peeta's throat as he shifts closer, tangling his fingers in her braid, his other hand slipping around her waist. His lips are cool, but they're also soft and full and sure against her own, and they slowly grow warmer from the friction of her own hot mouth moving against his.
He's one of the better kissers she's ever encountered, to be honest. Maybe even the best.
Peeta breaks away from the kiss first, tracing her jawline gently with his thumb. Katniss licks her lips, breathing heavily. He smiles.
And then his fangs pop out.
Katniss shrieks and scrambles back against the windshield. Her hands grasp wildly for anything she can swing at him in defense, but they find nothing, just cold, solid steel and glass. She could try to slip past him, jump into the car and go, but he's too fast. She'd never make it. I'm going to die out here, she thinks. Peeta Mellark is going to kill me in these woods.
Peeta slaps his hand over his mouth, jumping to the ground. "I'm sorry!" he exclaims. "I'm not - I'm not going to hurt you, I swear." He pulls his hand away and opens his mouth. His teeth are back to normal - human. "See?"
"You want my blood," she says accusingly, her voice high and frightened.
"No! Not…exactly," Peeta says quietly, slowly moving towards the car again. He stops in front of her. "I mean…is there a part of me that does? Of course." He flinches at her horrified look. "But I would never take it by force," he adds quickly. "Look. My fangs are just a part of me, and I'm still young, and sometimes they do things out of my control when I'm in certain…situations. It's kind of like, um…" He laughs awkwardly. "It's kind of like going through puberty again."
It takes Katniss a second to understand what he means, but once she does, her eyes widen. She can't stop her gaze from dropping to the front of his pants - nothing too obvious, but she can see the faintest outline of a bulge there. A sudden jolt of desire twists pleasingly between her legs, and she silently thanks the heavens that her own teeth can't pop out in a fang boner.
Peeta runs a hand through his hair and gives her a sad smile. "Maybe you should turn in. Sun'll be up in a couple hours anyway."
"Yeah," she agrees, sliding off the hood of the car onto shaky legs. "Um. Can I give you a ride home?"
"Nah." He waves her off. "I'll walk."
They exchange goodbyes and Katniss climbs into the driver's seat. It takes her a few tries to get the engine going, and the car jerks forward under the pressure of her foot on the gas pedal. She steers the car through the grass slowly, and glances in the rearview mirror just as she's about to turn onto the road.
Peeta's still standing beneath the oak tree, watching her drive away, his figure hazy like a ghost in the dim red glow of the taillights.
Part 2
Science vs. Romance, 1/3
katniss/peeta. nc-17, au: thg meets true blood. Katniss Everdeen is twenty-two years old, slinging burgers and beer at Hawthorne's Bar and Grill the day the vampires come out of the coffin.
Katniss Everdeen is twenty-two years old, slinging burgers and beer at Hawthorne's Bar and Grill the day the vampires come out of the coffin. It's a Tuesday, the dinner rush just ending, and the whole restaurant goes silent as a graveyard as the woman on the flatscreen over the bar - mid-50s, stiff gray hair, pale skin - opens her mouth. Two perfect, shiny, pointy white fangs pop out beneath her upper lip. The words ALMA COIN, VAMPIRE pop up from the bottom of the screen.
Delly Cartwright, the other waitress on shift, falls to the floor in a dead faint.
"I'ss a trick," Earl Fairchild proclaims loudly, sloshing his beer onto the table, looking around the bar wildly. Cut off, Katniss makes a mental note. "April Fool's'r somethin', right?"
"It's October, Earl," someone says from the back of the room, and a few people snicker. For the most part, though, the patrons are frightened. Several are crying. Their thoughts rise up in Katniss' head, a jumbled chorus of panic and fear and confusion so overwhelming that she has to brace herself against the counter of the bar.
Beneath the cacophony of voices crowding her mind, Katniss herself feels strangely indifferent. Like somewhere in the back of her mind, she always knew this was coming.
Right now, though, the only thing she's sure of is an oncoming migraine. "Somebody better wake Delly up," Katniss sighs, untying her apron. "I'm going on break."
Life in Bon Temps stays pretty much the same, at least at first. Some say it's because no vampire in his right mind would hang around a backwater like this when he could go anywhere, do anything, for all of eternity. Others say it's because fangers know they ain't welcome 'round these parts.
Katniss agrees with the former and rolls her eyes at the latter, but she wastes no time buying Prim a little spray can of liquid silver, and wooden bullets for her shotgun just in case.
As fate would have it, the very first vampire Katniss meets is someone she already knows. Though maybe someone she knew is the better way to phrase it.
Peeta Mellark was one of the only kids in their year to go to college, and the only one to do it out of state. Vanderbilt University. Nashville. Off to become a doctor or a lawyer or something else better than a baker's son on the bayou.
So why he's walking into Hawthorne's on a Thursday night at the end of her shift, she can't imagine. Katniss hasn't even seen him since the summer after they'd graduated high school, and that was what, seven years ago? But here he is, hands in his pockets, ambling over to a corner booth alone.
Katniss feels nervous, but can't pinpoint why. It's just Peeta Mellark. They weren't friends. They'd barely spoken to one another for eighteen years. She grabs one of the plastic menus and strides over to his table.
She's ready to just throw the menu down on the tabletop and leave, but his eyes stop her. They're bright blue, brighter than she remembers, and it feels like they can see all the way into her soul. She freezes, her left hand pressing the menu against the table.
"Hey, Katniss."
She swallows. "Hi Peeta."
"Been a long time, huh?" He's still got the same crooked smile, the same perfectly straight nose, the same dimple in his left cheek. But something feels off. His eyes are bluer, his hair is blonder, his skin is paler. He's...more. She can't explain it.
"Yeah, real long time."
"How've you been?"
"Fine."
"Still chatty as ever, I see." He grins, and she frowns back, narrowing her eyes. He laughs. Same laugh, she thinks, though she's not sure why she'd even know that. "I'm sorry. I'm just teasing. It's just been so long since I've been back home and, you know, I can't believe how nothing's changed."
Katniss just nods, slipping her hand into the pocket on the front of her apron to dig around for a pen, her notepad, anything to anchor her back to the ground. Her fingers close around a pin - a little bird pin Prim gave her for her birthday last year. She rubs it, and the motion is soothing until she pricks her finger on the sharp point sticking out through the latch.
"Ow," she mutters. "So, um, I'll get you a glass of water?"
Peeta shifts uncomfortably, his eyes bouncing back and forth from her face to the front of her apron. "Actually, I'll have a...a TruBlood."
Katniss blinks. She must not have heard him right. "Sorry, I didn't catch that."
He purses his lips, then shifts a little closer to her, leaning forward. "A TruBlood," he says, his voice low.
"Oh." Katniss stands still as it hits her. "Oh."
Peeta chuckles a little, looking down at his hands on the tabletop. "Yeah."
She's got a million questions racing through her mind, but Katniss Everdeen isn't one to ask questions. "Okay. Let me see what we've got." She hesitates. "Is there a, um, particular...type that you prefer?"
Gale had bought a couple different kinds when they'd first become available in six packs, and they'd joked about the "flavors." "Maybe O negative is like a wheat beer, and A positive is a stout, or something," he'd suggested, and Katniss had giggled.
"So which one would we serve? Is there a Bud or a High Life?"
"AB negative. The champagne of bloods." She'd nearly fallen over laughing.
Now it's a little less funny, with a real-life vampire in front of her, one who'd probably just as soon rip open a vein and drink her own blood as he would throw back the synthetic stuff.
"Um, B positive, if you have it," Peeta says shyly. "Thanks."
Katniss heads through the swinging gates into the back, where the kitchen and the walk-in and Gale's office are. "Gale?" she calls out shakily.
"I'm here," he calls out, and she walks quickly into the office, shutting the door behind her. He looks up at her expectantly from where he sits at the desk. "What's up?"
"We, um..." Katniss struggles to keep her voice level. "We got any TruBlood left?"
"Well yeah, we haven't sold a single...wait." Gale stands up. "Is there a vampire in here?"
She nods her head emphatically.
"I'll be damned." Gale shakes his head. "Well, I guess I should go say hello, being it's the first vampire we've had and all."
"Wait." Katniss stops him with a hand against his chest. "Gale, it's...Peeta Mellark."
His eyes widen in shock. "Peeta Mellark? He's a vampire?"
"Yup."
"How'd that happen?"
"I didn't ask."
"Wow." Gale folds his arms over his chest, looking thoughtful. "The golden boy goes off to college...comes back a vampire. That's crazy."
"Yeah. I know. But right now he's waiting on a TruBlood, so...we still got any?"
"Yeah, we do." Gale opens the door behind her and gestures for her to exit first. "It's back in the walk-in somewhere...I'll go find it. You just go out there and...I don't know. If you were Delly I'd say be nice, but we know that's not gonna happen."
Katniss sticks her tongue out. "He wants a B positive," she calls after him. Gale shudders a little.
"Coming right up."
It turns out they don't have a B positive after all, but Peeta accepts his "champagne of bloods" graciously.
"My shift's over, but you can pay at the bar when you're done," Katniss tells him.
"Would you like to join me?" He gestures to the empty seat across from him.
Katniss weighs her options. Normally she doesn't stick around after work is over, eager to get home, hang out with Prim, take a bath, and go to bed. But she's never met a vampire before, and she's curious as hell how Peeta Mellark of all people ended up turned into one.
"Okay," she says finally. "Let me go grab a coke."
They keep the conversation light. Peeta asks about life in Bon Temps, how their old schoolteachers are doing, which couples got married and popped out babies, what happened to the guy at the gas station who used to sell beer to any kid who flashed him an index card with their name on it. Then he tells her about Nashville, how overwhelmed he'd been moving there from a place like this.
Katniss studies him as he speaks, tries to categorize the differences between this Peeta and the one she knew in high school. She isn't sure which changes resulted from the passage of time, and which resulted from being turned. She can't even tell how old he is, because she doesn't know how long he's been a vampire. He definitely wasn't turned right away - he's a little taller, a lot broader than he was as a teenager.
But his eyes aren't really bluer and his hair isn't really blonder, she realizes; they just look that way because his skin is so much paler in comparison. She feels stupid for not noticing it right away. And then she realizes: she can't hear Peeta's thoughts.
At all.
It's not like she lives with a steady stream of chatter from every person in a 20-foot radius running through her head, but it does take some effort to block it all out. There's always a little part of her that's humming along, making a conscious effort to keep her mind to herself. Working in a crowded bar gets exhausting, but she can't support herself and Prim on the game she hunts on weekends. It's too bad, because the forest is her favorite place, quiet and serene. There are never any people out there, and she can't hear animal thoughts.
Nor vampire thoughts, apparently.
She notices he's looking at her expectantly, like he just asked her a question, and she blinks. "Sorry, I zoned out for a second. What was that?"
Peeta shakes his head, looking down at the tabletop where he picks at a scratch in the wood. "It's okay, nevermind." They're quiet for a moment, Katniss' straw slurping loudly as she takes a last sip of soda. "I guess you're probably wondering how I ended up like this."
Yes! her mind screams. "No," she says out loud. "Not at all." She might not be the friendliest girl in Louisiana, but you don't grow up in the South without learning somemanners.
He smiles. "It's okay. I'd be curious too." He picks at the label on his bottle studiously. "It wasn't intentional. I was at this concert...Effie - she's my maker - she wanted a drink...she chose me." Peeta's hands still. "She went a little too far, so it was turn me or leave me to die. And she did the right thing."
Katniss pushes her glass a few inches away and rubs her fingertips in the condensation it leaves on the table. "I'm sorry."
Peeta snorts. "Don't be. I'm going to live forever, what have you got to be sorry for?"
Katniss shrugs. Maybe he's right. Thirty years from now she'll still be working in this bar, too old to even get good tips anymore, and Peeta will be as young and strong and handsome as ever. "When did it happen?"
"About three years ago. It was just a few weeks before the Great Revelation." He smiles sadly. "If we'd been revealed just a couple weeks earlier, Effie wouldn't have had to drink off someone in secret. And I'd probably be human right now." He tilts his head. "But then I wouldn't be sitting here with you right now, so I guess there's always a trade off."
Katniss isn't quite sure what he means, but it makes her face flush, so she changes the subject. "What are you doing back here, anyway? You're literally the first vampire in town since the Revelation. Shouldn't you be in New York or Paris or something?"
"Well, being a vampire doesn't mean I'm rich," he points out. "My parents are retiring, and they were going to sell the bakery, but I told them I wanted to take over instead. So they transferred ownership and...here I am."
Katniss remembers Peeta's parents, especially his mother, who was so cold and dismissive when Katniss would bring Prim to the bakery with their pittance of a weekly allowance to buy cookies or a cupcake. "They're cool with you being a vampire?"
Peeta looks down at his hands, and she knows that he'd be blushing right now if there was any blood flowing through his body. "Ah, no, not exactly. But the papers were all signed by the time they found out."
She looks at him in disbelief. "They didn't know?"
"We're not close," he says shortly. "But it's perfect, really. Most bakers get to work before the sun rises, anyway, so I can just spend the last couple hours of night baking the day's goods, and then hire someone to sell them after sunrise."
Katniss nods. A vampire baker. Weird.
"What's it like?" she blurts out before she can stop herself. "Sorry," she adds quickly. "You don't have to answer that."
"No, it's okay." Peeta shrugs. "I mean, in some ways it's cool…I'm stronger, faster." Both things she'd heard about vampires. "I'm way better in bed." He grins, and she looks away, embarrassed. She'd heard that about vampires, too.
"It's not all great, though," he admits, his tone growing wistful. "I can't smell the breads and cakes I bake anymore…I mean, I can smell them, but it means nothing to me. They don't smell good anymore."
Katniss doesn't ask what does smell good - she's pretty sure she already knows.
They fall into silence, until deep yawn overcomes her and she sighs. "Well, I should head on home. It's late."
"Oh." Peeta nods. "Yeah, me too, I should get going," he says, though she gets the distinct sense that he doesn't have anywhere to go, not really. It must be kind of lonely to be a vampire in a town full of humans, she realizes. "It was nice catching up with you, Katniss."
"It was," she agrees, surprised to find she actually means it. "Goodnight."
It's a little after midnight when Katniss gets home, and Prim is still up, sitting at the kitchen table with a textbook propped open on her lap. After a few years of scrimping and saving they'd finally gathered enough cash to enroll her in an online university, with the plan of eventually transferring to LSU to finish out her degree. "You're home late," Prim remarks with a note of curiosity, flipping to a new page.
"Well, it's not every night a vampire comes into Hawthorne's."
Prim's jaw drops open, her schoolwork forgotten. "No way. A vampire? Are you serious?" Katniss is a little dismayed at how enthralled her sister seems by the prospect - it's not the safest attitude to have towards vampires, in her opinion. "Guy or girl? What did they look like?"
Katniss pours herself a glass of water from the fridge and settles at the table across from Prim. "Do you remember Peeta Mellark?"
Prim looks even more shocked, if possible. "You're kidding." Katniss shakes her head. "Oh my god. Peeta is a vampire?"
"Yup."
"That's so weird. Did you get to see his fangs?" Prim flashes her a wicked grin.
"No," Katniss says firmly. "I did not see his fangs."
"I bet he'd show them to you, if you wanted. He always liked you."
Katniss nearly spits out her drink. "That's not - what - I don't even know what you're talking about. It's late, Prim. Go to bed." Gulping down the rest of the water, she drops the empty glass in the sink and storms off to her bedroom.
Prim's laughter follows her up the stairs. "I'm twenty-one years old, I don't have a bedtime!"
"Just do it!" Katniss yells back. Prim was so much easier to deal with when she was twelve.
All the next day, Katniss wonders if Peeta will be back at Hawthorne's that evening. Not for any personal reason; just because it's a Friday, and the bar won't be near empty like it was the night before. Peeta might not be the most welcome patron to some of the regulars.
Although she's working the late shift, he doesn't show up. Not Saturday night, either. But Sunday night, as she's leaving for the evening and locking the front door to the bar behind her, she turns around to find Peeta standing in silence just a few feet behind her. She almost has a heart attack.
Katniss shrieks before she can process who it is, falling back against the door. Peeta takes a few steps back himself. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he says quickly, holding up his hands.
"You didn't make any noise," she gasps, catching her breath.
"Yeah, when we move fast we can kind of...float," he explains, taking a tentative step forward. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." He looks up over her head, where the neon OPEN sign has just flickered off. "I guess you guys are closed?"
"You'd guess right," she says, crossing her arms over her chest.
Peeta sighs. "Is anything else open right now?"
"At eleven o'clock? The Walmart out in Minden, maybe." His face falls, and she softens. "It's a Sunday in the Deep South, Peeta," she reminds him gently.
"I know, I know," he says. "I didn't really think about the lack of...nightlife when I decided to move back here."
Katniss shifts, hitching her purse up over her shoulder. "This must be breakfast time for you right now."
"Brunch." She cracks a smile.
"Well, good luck finding something." Katniss moves past him, heading for her car, but his voice stops her.
"You could keep me company."
A shiver rolls down her spine. Peeta's voice is low and carries the slightest hint of…suggestion. Katniss licks her lips, her mouth suddenly dry. She keeps forgetting that Peeta isn't Peeta Mellark - wrestling champ, straight-A student, the sweet boy who held open the door for her in the hallways at school - anymore. He's a vampire. He's dangerous.
She doesn't know what makes her do it, but she takes a step back towards him. "I don't know," she says slowly. "Prim's at home alone."
"How old's she now?"
"Twenty-one."
Peeta smiles. "Aw, c'mon. She doesn't need you to tuck her into bed."
He's just standing there, hands casually tucked into his pockets, but she feels drawn to him somehow. "Okay. Where do you want to go?"
Peeta shrugs. "Your choice. I've got all night."
They park at the edge of the woods that border the east side of town, sitting side by side on the hood of her car, the leaves of an old live oak tree dangling just out of reach over their heads. Peeta talks about his plans for the bakery and Katniss talks about her plans for Prim, and when she yawns and says it's probably time to head home, he leans over and kisses her.
Her instinct is to pull away, break contact before his thoughts can flood her mind like they're her own. But his voice never enters her head - vampire, she remembers somewhere deep in the back of her mind - and after a few moments she relaxes, opening her mouth to deepen the kiss.
She can feel the quiet rumble in the back of Peeta's throat as he shifts closer, tangling his fingers in her braid, his other hand slipping around her waist. His lips are cool, but they're also soft and full and sure against her own, and they slowly grow warmer from the friction of her own hot mouth moving against his.
He's one of the better kissers she's ever encountered, to be honest. Maybe even the best.
Peeta breaks away from the kiss first, tracing her jawline gently with his thumb. Katniss licks her lips, breathing heavily. He smiles.
And then his fangs pop out.
Katniss shrieks and scrambles back against the windshield. Her hands grasp wildly for anything she can swing at him in defense, but they find nothing, just cold, solid steel and glass. She could try to slip past him, jump into the car and go, but he's too fast. She'd never make it. I'm going to die out here, she thinks. Peeta Mellark is going to kill me in these woods.
Peeta slaps his hand over his mouth, jumping to the ground. "I'm sorry!" he exclaims. "I'm not - I'm not going to hurt you, I swear." He pulls his hand away and opens his mouth. His teeth are back to normal - human. "See?"
"You want my blood," she says accusingly, her voice high and frightened.
"No! Not…exactly," Peeta says quietly, slowly moving towards the car again. He stops in front of her. "I mean…is there a part of me that does? Of course." He flinches at her horrified look. "But I would never take it by force," he adds quickly. "Look. My fangs are just a part of me, and I'm still young, and sometimes they do things out of my control when I'm in certain…situations. It's kind of like, um…" He laughs awkwardly. "It's kind of like going through puberty again."
It takes Katniss a second to understand what he means, but once she does, her eyes widen. She can't stop her gaze from dropping to the front of his pants - nothing too obvious, but she can see the faintest outline of a bulge there. A sudden jolt of desire twists pleasingly between her legs, and she silently thanks the heavens that her own teeth can't pop out in a fang boner.
Peeta runs a hand through his hair and gives her a sad smile. "Maybe you should turn in. Sun'll be up in a couple hours anyway."
"Yeah," she agrees, sliding off the hood of the car onto shaky legs. "Um. Can I give you a ride home?"
"Nah." He waves her off. "I'll walk."
They exchange goodbyes and Katniss climbs into the driver's seat. It takes her a few tries to get the engine going, and the car jerks forward under the pressure of her foot on the gas pedal. She steers the car through the grass slowly, and glances in the rearview mirror just as she's about to turn onto the road.
Peeta's still standing beneath the oak tree, watching her drive away, his figure hazy like a ghost in the dim red glow of the taillights.
Part 2