KATNISS

The faint noise of shuffling and the girls kicking my bladder wakes me up. I'm met by streaming light from the window. I sit up as much as my stomach will allow me and stretch my sore muscles. Being on bed rest for a week is giving me back and body aches. More than I had from being pregnant. But, at least it is almost over. Mother said they should be here soon. Peeta and I moved into our home a few days ago. Thanks to the generosity of the District, we were able to get it done. The Bakery is just missing some items shipping from the Capitol. Then our life is complete. Well, almost. When our baby girls come, our life will be totally complete.

"Katniss, are you awake?" I hear softly from the other side of the bedroom door.

"Yes, come in," I say.

Peeta enters with a small tray of food. His face is smudged with paint along with his clothes. I sit up when I see the food, laughing lightly at the mess of paint covering him.

"How are you?" He asked, sitting down gently on the edge of my bed.

"Pretty good right now." I respond. "Also, just so you know you have paint all over you." I laugh.

Peeta grinned goofily, "Yeah I was just painting a couple more places." He said smiling. "Our girls are going to have a beautiful house to live in. Even though it's nothing that fancy, we can make it beautiful." He said.

I smiled thinking about our daughters. I wondered what they would look like. Would they have Peeta's golden blonde hair, or my dark brown hair that fell in waves down my shoulders. Maybe they would have Peeta's ocean blue eyes that seemed to sparkle in the light, or my stormy gray eyes that got dark and fierce whenever I was mad. Whatever they looked like, I knew that they would be stunning to me.

Peeta gave me the tray of food and I picked it up. I was really hungry and even the bland looking eggs seemed like they would taste pretty good.

I hungrily stuffed food into my mouth, and Peeta laughed as I nearly choked, realizing that I had taken way too big of a bite.

"Careful with that food Kat!" Peeta said with a smile.

"Don't worry I know how to handle myself." I said back, returning his smile.

"Are you scared?" He asked suddenly, interrupting the quiet that had peacefully settled over us.

"Of having kids?" I questioned and he nodded. "Yeah. I'm terrified actually. In case you haven't noticed, I am still a teenager, and now am having kids and married to the best person ever, but am still scared out of my mind." I said.

"Kat, how do you even deal with all of this? I would probably be freaking out every second, but you're just sitting here and...eating eggs." He said, and I chuckled.

"I think it's kinda funny that you don't think I'm freaking out. Because I am. A lot. But you know," I said, jokingly tossing my hair over my shoulder, "I'm just so glamorous and amazing that I conceal it all." I said, making him smile.

I talked to Peeta for a while before he had to go back to the house and help with the painting again.

I sighed, settling into my mountain of pillows that my mother had told me to stuff behind my head, trying to rest for a little. I felt a sharp pain below my stomach, and almost cried out in pain. I sat there on my bed for maybe another minute, although it felt like much longer, until the pain went away.

I heard my mother's light footsteps walking down the creaking floorboards in the hallway as she came into my room. My father and her were coming over to our house a lot to make sure I was okay until I had the girls.

"Hi honey." She said, giving me a soft smile. "How are you? Has anything happened?" She asked, fulfilling the role of my concerned mother.

I attempted what I hoped looked like a reassuring smile as I nodded. "Yeah everything's good so far." I said.

"Okay, that's great.'' She said. "And did you eat your eggs?" She asked, and I almost laughed, reminded of the way she used to make sure I always ate everything on my plate when I was little.

"Yes mother, I ate all of my eggs." I said with a smile, this time a real one since the pain had gone away.

She nodded, walking out the doorway but stopping before she left. "Oh, and make sure Lupus doesn't get his paws on the bed." She said. Of course she had to remember to keep the bed clean. I thought, laughing to myself as she closed the door letting Lupus in after her.

He sat down by my bed, sniffing at the floor and blowing dust around under the bed. He watched me, his large crystal blue eyes staring into mine, a lopsided smile on his fluffy face, his pink tongue flopping out of the side of his mouth. I laughed gently at his funny expression and he leaped up and licked my face.

"Lupus!" I exclaimed. Dammit, now mother would be mad at me for getting his muddy paws on the blanket. She came in, and I shrank down into my blankets ready for her to get mad, but instead, she let out a laugh.

I gave her a puzzled look, confused as to why she was laughing.

"Sorry hon, it's just that this is reminding me of when you were little and would do something strange and get into trouble. It's okay though. We can always just wash the blankets I suppose."She said lightly with a smile, shaking her head before exiting again.

I pet Lupus for a while, but was again interrupted by a pain in my stomach. I didn't really know what was happening, but they only seemed to last for a minute at the most, and I didn't want to worry anyone by telling them, although they did seem to be getting worse as they progressed. I shook my head. It was probably nothing.

My father came into the room, and smiled a sad smile when he saw Lupus.

"What is it?" I asked, noticing the way he looked at Lupus.

"It's just...I remember how I acted when you brought this dog home. You were so young and I...I just-" He said, unable to finish his sentence as tears threatened to pour out.

"Dad." I said forcibly, making him look up. "I know that you were...not in a good place when we were younger. But that's over now. We can start over you know. And you're going to be a grandfather soon so you better be ready!" I said, trying to change the subject from this painful topic.

"I know." He said and he couldn't help a bright smile from capturing his face. "I can't wait to meet them. Do you have any names picked out?" He asked.

"No. Peeta and I haven't really talked about it yet, but I guess we have to unless we plan on calling them Baby 1 and Baby 2 forever." I said with a grin that was soon replaced by another wave of pain.

My father noticed and looked concerned. "Katniss, baby are you okay?" He asked as I nodded, but it was obvious that I wasn't. "I'm going to get your mother. She'll know what's going on okay?"He said.

"Okay." I replied as I waited for my mother to come in.

"Katniss what's going on? You're not having the babies are you?" She asked frantically.

"No mom. I don't know what's happening. It's just kind of a sharp pain, but then it goes away in like a minute." I said, trying to explain it the best that I could.

"Oh you're having contractions then sweetie. They're going to get worse until you have the babies, but you're going to have them soon so you'll be fine. Plus, you're our strong girl so you can take on anything." My mother said with a gentle and reassuring smile.

"Why didn't you tell us though?" She asked.

"I don't know." I muttered. "I didn't want you to think something was wrong with me, or I was just weak or something."

"Honey, we know that nothing is wrong with you and you could never be weak. You are the strongest person I know. Even if something was wrong, we would just help you through it." My father said gently, smoothing down my tangled hair. It had become quite a mess from me being in this bed so much.

I smiled up at my parents. "I know. Love you guys. I'm going to go to sleep now I think." I said. I was tired even though I had done pretty much nothing today. I guess having people burst into your room all day, combined with being pregnant and having contractions isn't exactly relaxing. I sank into my pile of pillows once again, and felt my eyelids get heavy with the prospect of sleep.

I saw memories flashing through my closed eyes, of Peeta, and Prim and Lupus, and my family, Annie and Finnick, just everyone squished together in a big ball of everyone that I love. I smiled, thinking about the amazing people that our girls would soon be surrounded by when they were born.

I felt someone sit down on the bed next to me, and felt Peeta lightly kiss me on the forehead before I drifted off to sleep, Peeta being the final thing that engulfed my exhausted mind as I fell into a peaceful sleep.

~

I woke up the next day and heard overlapping voices happily chatting in the kitchen. I sat up, getting out of bed carefully and walked into the kitchen.

I was greeted by Effie, Haymitch and Peeta sitting around the table and talking cheerfully.

"Katniss!" Effie exclaimed when she saw me in the doorway. "Darling sit down!"

"Hey kid, how are you?" Haymitch asked.

"Pretty good." I replied. "How have you and Effie been?" I questioned.

"We've been good. Nothing too extraordinary is happening around our place." He said, taking a sip of the coffee that Peeta had given him.

"But darling, how have the babies been? Do you know when they are supposed to come?" Effie asked me.

"My mother said they should be coming any day now." I said with a smile. "It's pretty crazy to think about."

"Yes it is. But I can tell that you are going to be an amazing mother." She said sweetly.

I smiled and sat down next to Peeta at the table, listening to their conversation but also in my own world in my head at the same time. I was imagining the girls, and what our life would be like once they were here.

I ate some breakfast and started listening more closely to their conversation.

"The house looks marvelous!" I heard Effie saying, examining the newly painted walls and furniture that we had managed to find and look pretty good. "Did you paint it yourself?

"Yeah I did. Thanks!" Peeta said, smiling at the compliment. I know how much work he had helped put into this house, and by the look of it, he was proud of it.

"This boy's got some talent when it comes to painting." Haymitch said nodding towards Peeta.

"Yeah you really do." I said, nudging him with my shoulder. "Remember when you taught me how to decorate those cakes?" I said, smiling at what had occurred before we knew what would be in store for us in the future. "God, I was awful wasn't I?"

"No you weren't!" Peeta exclaimed. "I mean, you weren't the best but you could've done worse. I actually quite liked it."

"Aw thanks. You're just saying that because I'm amazing and you're in love with me, but I'll take the compliment." I said with a laugh.

Haymitch and Effie left a while later, saying that they had to get back to Mia. I was feeling tired, so I went back to our room and laid down on the bed. I heard peetas footsteps following shortly after mine and he laid down next to me.

"You tired?" he asked and I nodded.

"Hey, what if I paint on you?" he suggested.

"Okay." I said. "What do you think you're going to paint?"I questioned.

"It's a secret." he said with a grin. "But don't worry, you'll find out soon enough because you're literally the canvas."

He exited the room to grab a set of paint colors, setting them on a table. "I found some that are natural so they won't hurt the babies. I'm not sure if paint even can hurt them, but i"m taking no chances with my little Bugs." He said.

I layed on the bed, making sure that we weren't going to get paint on the blankets. We figured it would be easier if I was on a flat surface. He selected a few colors and started brushing them across my stomach, the colors swirling and blending as the paintbrush tickled against my skin.

I saw blues and greens, along with darker navy blues and blacks being carefully picked out by his artistic eye. He had a look of concentration that only happened when he was painting on his face, and it made me smile. He started at his almost complete work, analyzing it. "Something's missing.."he murmured, more to himself than to me.

He realized what it was, and picked a deep reddish pink color out of his selection of many colors. After a few quick strokes, he stepped back and admired his work.

I stood up, careful not to ruin the paint by touching it, and went to the mirror. Peeta had painted a beautiful silhouette of a tree, with branches that seemed to grow infinitely out into the sky as if they were trying to touch the stars. The background was a mix of blues and greens, teals that faded into deeper blues that faded into black.

What really caught my eye, was the blazing pink heart in the center of the tree. It was the most perfect painting he could have possibly done.

I turned to him. "I would hug you right now but I don't want to ruin it." I said.

He laughed. "Do you like it?" He asked.

"I love it! It's amazing Peeta, thank you." I said.

"No thank you for being here with me. I couldn't have even painted it without you. See how the branches are spilling out everywhere and growing?" He asked and I nodded. "That's supposed to be how my love for you will never stop growing." He said with a smile.

"Me too." I said.

"And the heart is obviously our love. And now we are going to get to give it all to the girls." He said. "I'll be right back,"

He leaves to his art room and returns with a blank canvas. He sits back next to me and lines up the blank canvas with my painted stomach.

"What are you doing?" I ask and giggle when the rough fabric is placed and pushed onto my stomach.

"Saving it. So we can never forget," He says.

He leaves it and presses it down for a few minutes. He gently pulls it up and the painting is on the canvas almost perfectly. There is even a little indent of one of the girls kicking.

"It's beautiful," I whisper.

"Now we'll hang it and await their arrival," He says and gently places a kiss on my forehead.