10. A Different Katniss

I am not going to wear my hair up as long as I live, not if it exposes this, I thought as I stared into the bathroom mirror the following morning. I pulled all my hair away from the huge love mark that was made first by Gale and then enlarged by Peeta. It almost looked like I had been stung, that's how puffed up it looked. I rubbed it carefully, and it got even redder. I sighed. This whole plan was backfiring not in the reason I had originally thought it would.

If my parents were still alive, gosh, they'd be furious with me. I could picture them scolding me and grounding me for such a thing. Even if I explained it to them both, they would consider the idea as a wrong one and flip out on me. They would rant on about how it wasn't in my nature to do this, it wasn't an issue that directly involved me, and that I wouldn't be setting a very good example for Raven and Colton. My parents raised me right, but I had gone a little off the rails ever since they were murdered during the bombing of 12.

I didn't feel like the girl I used to be.

I could hear their nagging voices in my head. You were raised better than this, my mother would screech. You'd be setting a horrible example for your younger siblings, my dad would rumble. There was quite a list that could go on for so long that I could make a short book.

"What did I get myself into?" I whimpered at my reflection. I saw my bed head looked wild, like birds had slept in it. I still hadn't gotten a shower yet, which was what I planned on doing next. As long as Peeta was occupied with making breakfast, I could get a shower in peace. The last thing I wanted was for him to barge in while I showered. Yet, I didn't take him to do that kind of thing, and if he did, it'd be on accident. No worries.

I hopped in the shower, letting the hot water scorch my body. I took my precious time in the shower since it was a peaceful time for me. Today marked day four of me being Katniss Everdeen. I was just barely hanging on to my sanity, because so much happened. If anything else bad happened, I'd eventually lose it.

Gale still had no plan and now I was pissed at him, Katniss's fate was still unknown, and now Peeta was ticked at Gale because I sort of lied about how I got the love mark which Peeta made his own. This just goes to show that a lot could happen in five days-I counted the day when Katniss was captured.

Once I spent a good fifteen minutes in the shower, I let the steam escape and fly in the bathroom as I rubbed myself down and ruffled my hair. I looked in the mirror to see a blurred reflection, muddled by the steam. I crept to the mirror, wiping away the fog.

I jumped back in horror, trying my hardest not to scream.

Staring back at me were two girls: Katniss Everdeen and myself. Only, the me I was glaring at in the mirror possessed her born hair color, not the dark brown it was dyed. The girls glared at me maliciously. I whimpered.

"He'll figure it out, you know," Katniss crooned. "He'll see right through your attempt."

"Or maybe the dye will wear off, exposing you," the mirror-me snarled sweetly.

"Oh, and I don't think Peeta will be too happy when he realizes I'm missing," Katniss murmured. "He'll think you've done something to me so you could wiggle your way into my life and take it for your own. He won't appreciate that. If he's strong enough to throw a one-hundred pound sack of flour over his head, he can just as easily strangle you and possibly break your neck in the process."

I hyperventilated. This wasn't real; these people in the mirror weren't actually in the bathroom with me.

"Get out of here!" I tried to hiss. My voice quivered, I wasn't believable.

The girls in the mirror laughed at me.

"Your time is coming," the mirror-me said. "It'll all fall apart. Just you wait."

I blinked once, and within that blink, both Katniss and the mirror-me disappeared. My heart threatened to break out of my chest and run away. Keep your cool; you still have to play your part as Katniss. Don't act like this bothered you when around Peeta, it'll easily give you away.

Today could go either way. Either I would be successful, or I would fail.

I occupied my brain with other things to keep the stress from getting to me. I figured a braid wasn't necessary for me today. After all, I doubted Peeta would think something was off about me if I didn't pull my hair up into a braid for one day. I let my hair straighten out.

I dared to look in the mirror again, fearing that the girls would be back to heckle me more. Instead, all I saw was myself. At least they decided to leave me alone. Hopefully it stayed that way.

I dressed in something comfortable and ambled to the kitchen. Peeta was already done with breakfast. I grinned as I skipped to him for him to take me into his arms. Somehow, being in his arms felt right-that wasn't good for me.

Peeta sniffed my hair. I pulled away and looked at him oddly.

"What? You smell good," he said sheepishly.

I giggled girlishly. "What are we doing today?" I asked.

"I hadn't thought that far ahead. I guess the day is up to you."

"Let me figure it out after breakfast." I kissed the edge of his jaw. In return, he kissed my forehead. This was the only up side to being Katniss.

The food was good like always. Once again, we didn't have ourselves a water fight like that one time. Peeta had done his dishes before me, so he just held me and watched me as I finished up.

"Did you have any thoughts?" he asked me as I rubbed a plate dry.

"I think I want to draw again today." It had been a while since I had touched the sketch pad. I was too caught up in other matters that completely took me away from trying to draw.

"You haven't done that for a few days. Same goes for hunting."

"Yeah, well, I'd rather not go hunting for a while."

"Right, because you go with Gale all the time."

"Don't bring up his name, please," I whimpered. "The last thing I need is to get enraged and then break something, or you."

"I don't think you'll hurt me, so don't worry about that." He rubbed my stomach. "I think I've got something for us to do today."

"It's not having me pose for a painting, is it?" I asked.

"No." I set the plate down on the counter. "I was thinking...maybe dancing."

My eyes went wide, and I looked at Peeta. First was the posing for a painting, talking about marriage and the possibility of having children, dealing with the hijacking spurts, then it was being claimed by Peeta, singing to him one night, and now he wanted to dance.

Gosh, how many things was he doing with me that he would never do with Katniss? I could think about half if not a little more than half of the things I listed he never did with her, it was with me.

"I don't think that's a good idea," I said uneasily.

"Why not?"

"I've never danced a day in my life."

"You aren't scared, are you?" he teased me. "The Girl on Fire is scared of dancing? There are a lot more things to be afraid of than something so simple."

"You never asked this of me before."

"True, only because I knew for a fact you would say no to the idea immediately. Now I know you'll at least consider it. You will, won't you? If I have to bargain with you on this, I will."

"Bargain?" One of my eyebrows rose. Peeta nodded. "What would you be offering?"

"I'll let you take a stab at painting-like actual painting, not drawing-if you dance with me."

Peeta definitely knew how to bargain. He knew I was growing tired of being stuck to drawing. I wanted to experiment with the paints; maybe I could paint something I never expected myself to. There were so many possibilities. Even if it was just random lines of paint, it would be something.

"It does sound tempting," I mused. I wasn't going to give in just yet.

"You'll give in," he sang. "You know you want to." Peeta started nipping on the unmarked flesh of my neck. He was trying to seduce me into accepting the bargain. Peeta was nice and all, but he could be sneaky and seductive when he wanted to be. I didn't think this was in his character, but I didn't know him completely, just like he didn't know a thing about me.

"Okay," I sighed. "You got me."

"I knew it," he crooned, kissing my temple.

"You let me paint first, that way I know you're keeping your end of the bargain," I demanded.

"How do I know you won't back out on your end?" he retorted.

"You don't trust me?" I asked in a baby voice. "All I'm saying is that if you give me what I want, I guarantee you'll get what you want."

"I think I can take your word for it." We exchanged Eskimo kisses.

Yeah, I highly doubted Katniss and Peeta would actually do that. Katniss didn't seem like the type of person to show affection that way. It made me wonder just how much contact on an affectionate level that they both had.

As Peeta had promised, he let me experiment with the paints. We mainly stayed in the basement since everything was there. I sat on a stool, just experimenting, not really thinking about painting anything in particular. Peeta let me be, so I didn't feel like I was being watched.

I simply made a bunch of lines just for the simple pleasure of painting. I wanted to get used to the feeling of this first before I started getting extreme like Peeta did.

I looked past the canvas I messed around on to see Peeta behind one of his own. Why do I get the feeling he's painting me while I'm painting just for the hell of it? That's most likely what he was doing.

For two hours we stayed in the basement. After a while, my arm became sore, so I called it quits. I looked at what "masterpiece" I did on the paper. Just a bunch of lines and a few blotches on the canvas was my work. I pretty much goofed off. I was sure Peeta had days like that, where he had no idea what to paint so he made random lines and spots on the canvas.

"I'm guessing you weren't taking an off day for painting," I teased him as he came to me.

"Nope, I tried to paint you painting."

"Yeah, I kind of figured. If you wanted a better view, you could have sat behind me instead of across from me," I told him.

"Yeah, I know, but I wanted a challenge. I think it wasn't too difficult though, it looks nice."

I felt a little mischievous. I mean, there were paint brushes and paint here. Why not just get Peeta colorful clothing by splashing a bit of blue on him, or even green or purple? I had all the colors of the rainbow and beyond that at my fingertips. There was only one thing holding me back though: how would Peeta take to it if I wasted his paint just to be playful?

Well, if he didn't care that the floor got soaked when we had the water fight, this shouldn't be too big of a deal for him either, I considered. This was on a different level than the water fight though, it was much messier.

"Well, you held up your end of the bargain," I chirped as I stood up. I managed to sneak a paint brush coated in pink behind my back. I wanted to act innocent until the time was right.

"Of course I did. You didn't think I'd back out, did you?" he teased.

"Since you held up your end, I'll hold up mine. How about we dance after dinner?"

"How about after lunch, even?"

"Lunch isn't going to be for a while longer."

"What makes you say that?" he asked uneasily.

I struck, lashing out the paint brush. But Peeta caught my wrist and doused me on the head with green paint. I gave a screech of surprise and backed off. How did he know? Peeta was holding his ribs while he laughed.

I shook my hair. "You knew," I realized. "You knew what I was doing, didn't you?"

"I think you've become a little bit more predictable these past few days," he said. "You should have seen your face."

"Wait until you see yours."

"Wha-?"

I grabbed the nearest bucket and splashed him with about half of the paint inside. Peeta looked like a pumpkin, the whole front of him layered in orange paint. Now it was my turn to laugh. He spat out the paint I got in his mouth accidentally.

"I had that coming," he admitted. He flapped his arms to throw the paint off him. I saw his eyes narrow, a playful glint in them. "But I think you just started a war."

"Uh-oh."

For twenty minutes, we engaged in a paint war. By the time we both called a truce, Peeta's face was orange, pink, and blue, his whole front orange, yellow, purple, black, and brown. As for me, my head was green, my arms streaked with red and purple, and my front white, brown, yellow, and blue. We both looked almost like a rainbow.

"You aren't mad that we just used a lot of paint?" I asked him as I tried to shove off the still-wet paint off my arms. I didn't want to track paint upstairs and onto the floor and furniture. Peeta thought on the same level I did, because he was mimicking me.

"Nah, I have a lot more than just this," he explained. "This is such a different side to you." How many times are you going to repeat that? I think the point has been well known for a few days now.

"Times have changed, and people can change." I shrugged.

"I think we need to change our clothes."

"That's a definite." I made a face as the paint leaked off me. It made me feel sticky.

I just realized that I felt more myself when around Peeta, only because he thought that I (Katniss) was trying to change following horrible events that I (she) underwent. That was the only thing that allowed me to be more of myself around him.

"Well, this might take a while to clean off us both," Peeta chuckled. "I think the dancing can wait until after dinner."

"I think I can agree with you there." I kept hitting the side of my head, hoping paint would come out, because I swore Peeta got a good glob or two inside both ears. "Ugh, I think you got paint in my ear!"

"Don't worry; I think you got me back." He mirrored my movement. I wouldn't be surprised if I had in the first wave of paint I launched on him. I bet at least one ear of his was caked with orange.

"It looks like we've got more than just ourselves to clean up too," I noted, looking on the ground. The floor looked as if something threw up a rainbow all over it. Even colors outside the rainbow littered the floor.

"Well, we have to clean ourselves first before we even clean down here," Peeta reminded me.

"That's true. Now how are we going to make it to the bathroom while trying not to leak any paint on anything?"

"I would suggest stripping down to nothing, but I don't think that idea will work if it's on our skin."

"I think I've got a simpler solution. We run," I said. "But only one is getting in the shower at a time."

Peeta pouted. I had the feeling he thought we'd shower together. Pft, yeah, that wasn't happening. He could do that with Katniss, not me.

"Who's going in first?"

"Who feels like they need it more?"

"Ladies first."

"What a gentleman."

I left a paint trail as I shook myself of any paint that I could manage to get off. I heard paint slosh to the floor as Peeta wiped it off him and wrung out what he could on his clothes. My feet squeaked from the paint on my feet. As I climbed up the steps, I saw colorful footprints following me. I saw the farther up I went, they started to fade.

I knew I would have to make the quickest beeline to the shower if I wanted to reduce the amount of cleanup that awaited Peeta and I after we cleaned ourselves.

**I think this chapter was a bundle of adorableness. Just saying :3**