Her hands are shaking; she can barely hold that goddamn stick anymore. The only thing she can think now is Peeta. She has to tell him. I mean, that's what she's supposed to do, right? They didn't want this. Not now, at least for him. She never gave a thought about it, not even for the future. The plan was simple: graduate, travel and get married (if he asks, of course). Would he ask her to marry him? Does he want to marry her? Does she want to marry him? Is she ready to marry? Is she ready for anything, really?

Oh for fuck's sake! They're barely out of high school, she just got her first real job (one that does not include taking care of the neighbours' kids) and he just got a fantastic scholarship in a good university (she always thought he was brilliant yet he still thinks he only got it because of his wresting skills) and oh my god her father is sick and her mum is taking care of him and both of them has no time to work so she is the only working and studying so her and her family won't starve.

It's not as if they didn't use protection. He always did and she was always on the pill but noooooo she had to get pregnant while she can't even go to a proper university, only a community college on the other side of the fucking town.

Fantastic. Bloody brilliant.

And the fucking test in her hands even has the audacity of writing a 'Congratulations :)' right next to the positive sign. Who had the fucking idea of fabricating something like this? It's not like everyone wants to get pregnant? It's so fucking ridiculous to think like that and... She's still rambling in her mind about how ridiculous and even offensive the 'Congratulations :)' was when she remembered she still has to call Peeta.

It's 4 am and she was about to catch a bus to Panem's Community College and he will only get up at 10 since it is his day off in the bakery but who the fuck cares anyways? Everything is ruined as it is right now and what is a fart when you're already covered in shit, right?

She's dialling Peeta's number while not knowing quite when she let go of the test let alone grab her phone. She's lost in thought again until she hears his voice.

"Hello?" She always thought his morning voice was sexy; husky and deep, never failing to calm her down even when she gets her night terrors. I guess there's always a first time for everything, right?

"Peeta?" She says, her voicing failing to conceal the despair she's feeling.

"Katniss, is everything okay?" She hears but won't say a word. She can't. She can only break down in sobs while she still hears his voice on the line calling for her.

Katniss. Katniss. Katniss. Katniss.

"Babe, what happened? Is everything okay? I'm sure they're okay, sweetheart" His voice calm as ever.

"C'mon Kat! Let me help you!" he says when she won't stop crying.

"I'm pregnant" she finally says.

"Really?" He asks from the line.

"Yeah" she says or maybe it could have been any other word since she's long lost her ability to speak correctly long ago.

"Oh baby, it will pass. That's okay, babe. I gotta go though."

And then he hangs up.

......

"What the actual fuck?" Johanna almost screams. "I'm gonna kill that boy"

"Johanna calm down! Nobody needs to know, for fuck's sake!" She whispers.

"How could he just hang up like that? Like what the fuck?" The pixie haired girl whispers back. "Did you try to call him again?

"Yeah, multiple times but he won't pick up the fucking phone!" Says Katniss trying (emphasis on the trying) to work. There ain't much to do as an assistant in a music store that is this close to fully go bankrupt since no one in this section of town is interested in buying music, let alone expensive (but oh so pretty) musical instruments.

It doesn't matter the amount of discounts you give, the discount is always bigger when you buy nothing and save for food.

She thinks that Mr. Undersee is either too dumb to figure that out or he is part of a very obvious money laundry scheme. As long as her she receives a good enough salary to keep paying the bills (thank goodness her parents were able to buy a house so she won't deal with rent) and feed her family, she doesn't care what Mr. Undersee is up to.

Unfortunately, she only had two classes this morning, which gave her even more time to panic and cry in the bathroom while trying to call Peeta only to find out that it won't even ring.

Hi, it's Peeta Mellark here. Sorry I didn't pick up. Try to calling me later!

At least he didn't block her, right?

She went straight to Undersee's Music when the final class was over. Her shift was 4 hours away (of which she usually used to study) but today she could barely understand what came out of Professor Heavensbee's mouth, her thoughts rambling to Peeta and the stick, let alone grab a book to study Krebs Cycle. She thought that if she had more classes today, then maybe she could forget what happened in the morning. Maybe.

Thankfully, Johanna was there, not only to hear her out, but also to convince Mr. Undersee to give her extra for the 4 hours plus the normal afternoon shift she got. She's supposed to eat along with Johanna but it's been almost a week she couldn't keep nothing in her stomach, and to be honest, stick apart, she wouldn't be able to keep anything in her stomach with all that stress anyways.

"Please, just take a bite" says Johanna after a few minutes.

"I told you, Johanna. I get nauseous drinking water, let alone eat a turkey sandwich"

"You're really brainless, aren't ya? Don't you study biology? You've got to get those carbs in your body or else you'll collapse. Seriously, kid, you're looking like a ghost"

"Sorry to break down to you, Johanna but..."

She's about to give the eating girl a very rude remark when she hears her phone ringing. She grabs the old Motorola and immediately accepts the call when she sees the ID in the cracked screen:

Peet🥖🥖❤️

(In her defence, it was him that saved his number like that)

"Peeta?!" She says almost too loud.

"Babe, what happened? My phone died and it only turned on right now and I have more than 10 missed calls from you. Is everything okay?"

That's it. She can feel her face fuming, blood pumping in her ears; her heart beating fast as adrenaline kicks in and with all the anger and heartbreak she feels, she pours it all down oh so beautifully.

"WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK PEETA? I SWEAR TO GOD I WILL GRAB THAT BLOODY PHONE OF YOURS AND SHOVE IT SO DEEP UP IN YOUR ASS YOU'LL NEVER FIND IT AGAIN! I CALL YOU THIS MORNING AND I TELL YOU THAT I'M FUCKING PREGNANT WHILE YOU ONLY SAY 'OKAY' AND THEN FUCKING HANGS UP ON ME AND WHEN I TRY TO CALL YOU, YOU WON'T ANSWER THE FUCKING PHONE LET ALONE THE MESSAGES I SENT YOU AND NOW YOU CALL ME AND ASK ME IF EVERYTHING'S OKAY? OF FUCKING COURSE IT'S NOT PEETA! YOU KNOW WHAT? FUCK YOU! WE ARE SO FUCKING OVER"

And then she hangs up.

......

It took fifteen minutes of breaking down while snorting all over Johanna's blouse and sobbing so much she couldn't breathe properly when Mr. Undersee gave her a very suspicious looking pill that was able to finally calm her down.

"Put this under your tongue and close your eyes" She did as he said and before she could fully understand what has happened, she fell in a deep sleep.

.......

That state of pitch-black peace she was in was finally disturbed not by one, but rather two screaming voices.

"Is she here? Oh c'mon! I know that she is here!" says one masculine voice.

"No fucking way I'll let you get near her, bread boy" says the other voice.

'Bread boy? Oh shit, he's here' she thinks.

"Look, boy, I just saw one of the most hardworking kids I have ever seen break down crying because of you and I had to give her my wife's expensive pill just so that she could get some rest and you want me to let you talk to her again? Not on my watch, kid." Mr Undersee says.

"Please just tell her I have no idea what happened. I woke up this morning and my phone was dead so I put it to charge in my room and started to make my luggage and when I had finished, I got my phone with more than 10 missed calls from her!" she hears her ex-boyfriend say.

"Oh you really think that we're gonna fall for that? Have you got a better excuse, dipshit?" says the voice she recognises as Johanna's.

"I swear to God I'm telling the truth! Please let me talk to my girlfriend"

"Excuse me? May I remind you that she broke up with you, arsehole"

As much as she's loving hearing Johanna, her co-worker that she would swear hated her a couple weeks ago, defending her like that, that was a conversation between her and Peeta, only. She may punch him in the end, though.

"Guys" she says as she gets up, realising that she is on the sofa in the room at the back of the store and they probably didn't hear a thing she said.

The arguing voices keep getting louder and louder as she stumbles her way to the front of the stores until they officially stop. Crossing her arms over her chest, she stares at the bluest eyes she's ever seen; the same blue eyes that convinced that in spite of the many tragedies life has put and will put them through, it was still worth a shot for them, a shot for love. That same love that put her mother in such a deep depression she wouldn't get up from the chair beside her coma-taken dad, completely abandoning her own children. The same love that convinced his father that his mum just needed time and a bit of understanding after she broke his arm when shoving him to the ground when he'd forgotten to take the garbage out. Now those same blue eyes stare back at her, concern spilling out of them like an overflowing sink.

"What do you want?" Says Katniss.

"I want to talk to you"

"We are talking, if you didn't notice"

He rolls his eyes and sighs.

"You know what I'm talking about, Kat"

"Don't call me that" she growls.

"Is it true? Are you pregnant?" He asks, ignoring her comment.

"Of course, I am. Do you really think I'd say that if I wasn't?"

He says nothing.

"Oh my God" she can hear him whisper.

What happens next confuses her: he just hugs her.

He stills smells like cinnamon rolls, she thinks and before she has the chance to give in into his arms, she pushes him off.

"What's wrong with you?!" Johanna exclaims "You think you can fix that with a fucking hug? Katniss told me you wrestle, let's see that when I beat the crap out of you!"

Before the pixie haired had the chance to hit the blond-haired boy, Mr Undersee grabs her from the behind and blocks her from advancing to the separated couple. The room fills up with tension as Peeta backs up and then laughs.

He just laughs.

Laughing. He is laughing.

What. The. Fuck.

"What is wrong with you? What are you laughing at?" Johanna exclaims again.

Peeta shakes his head and just says:

"Sleeptalking"

And then it clicks in.

Peeta talks in his sleep. Though she thought he and his brothers were only tricking her, she got to see that first-hand when Peeta spent the night in her room without her parents knowing. First she really thought they were talking until he started answering his own questions and remarks and the noticed that the sleeptalking stories were not false at all. It was creepy (he could carry on full conversations effortlessly) but hilarious at the same time. There was a time she even filmed him talking about how amazing his girlfriend were and that he was sure he was gonna marry her while still "talking" with Katniss as if she was a whole other person. That got him being roasted not only by Katniss but also by his brothers. She never told anyone, but seeing him talking about her like that and even mentioning marriage had swelled up her heart and made her hope for a future where he would call her his wife in his sleep.

And then she laughs.

And then they both laugh. They just laugh.

"Will anyone tell us what is so funny?" Mr Undersee's voice fills up the room, confusing written all over his face.

"I talk when I sleep" Peeta says still laughing.

"Oh, c'mon Katniss! Are you really gonna believe that?" Johanna asks.

"It is true" She says while wiping a single tear out of her eye "I have even filmed once"

And the room explodes in laughter again leaving a pixie haired girl and a middle-aged man staring at the couple as if they were insane (and maybe they kinda were).

Peeta then embraces Katniss in his arms again while kissing her long dark hair and whispering loving words to his tiny girlfriend.

"What are we gonna do, Peeta?" Katniss asks once they separate.

"I don't know but I'll be with you all the way down to the bottom. I don't care as long as I'm with you, always"

"Always" She says back.