Aftersun 𖤓 peeta mellark

x. submersion

•°. *࿐

x. submersion

     PEETA MADE HIS WAY TO THE TRAINING CENTRE HALF AN HOUR EARLY. Avonlea had booked them as the first reservation of the day meaning no one was inside when he arrived. While it was embarrassing to admit, he was ashamed of his lack of weaponry skills and hoped to acquire at least one before Avonlea arrived in order to impress her. She was a history making victor, named one of the youngest and most deadly kids to ever make it out of the games, he wanted to show her he wasn't completely useless. 

When Avonlea finally gathered the strength to pull herself out of bed and make her way to the training centre, she found Peeta inspecting the knife rack. While his back was still turned to her she watched as he muttered to himself about the different sizes and guessed what each would be used for. Unfortunately the pain searing across her body made it hard to keep quiet and Peeta noticed her approaching before she could get close enough to properly listen to his rambles.

"Wanna start with knives?" She suggests due to the connivence. Peeta simply nods and scrambles to his feet beside her, abandoning the knives on the floor. She attempts to lean down to grab the rack which Peeta had removed from it's usual spot on the wall when he realised her struggle and placed the rack back in it's original spot. He mumbled a thousand apologises as Avonlea giggled and started explaining the purpose of each knife.

While to Avonlea, the set of knives on the wall were just weapons, Peeta felt a sense of home sickness while looking at the utensils which could be found in the Mellark Bakery. While they weren't the same, many of them were similar in shape and sharpness to the chef knives and paring knives which he had familiarised himself with at home. When Avonlea gave him the chance to select one to practise with, he chose the knife most like a beater knife and moved towards the target practise area.

Surprisingly to himself, Peeta didn't actually have a bad aim. Once Avonlea was able to fix his stance, posture and the way he threw the knife, most times he was only slightly off target. He started feeling really good about himself thanks to Avonlea, she had a way of making him feel confident and brave whenever she was around.

Avonlea then dragged Peeta to the back of the training area where a large black curtain blocked off where he assumed the training teachers took their breaks. She pulls it aside slightly and squeezes though the gap, inviting Peeta to follow. Inside was a large heated swimming pool which had a range of depths and waves depending where you were.

Peeta was never a confident swimmer, he hadn't had the chance to learn. Sure he had swam in the creek with his brothers back in district twelve when they were younger but that was nothing compared to this. 

"Are we even allowed here?" He asks, watching as Avonlea grabbed two towels from a rack by the pool. She sets them up beside the side of the pool with no waves and sits down, letting her feet hang in the shallowest part of the pool.

"I have a deal with Snow. Every time i'm in the capitol I have unlimited access to the training pool unless the tributes have to use it" She explains. She places her hands to her side and twists to slide into the water. Despite being in the shallowest area, the water came up just below her chest. She submerges herself quickly to wet her hair and acclimate to the temperature before she waves Peeta over to join her.