Life Will Go On - sequel to Our Love Will Remain

Chapter 13

We are laying on the bed, tangled in each other. I see sunlight seeping through the curtains, I think it is about noon. We're not asleep, we're just laying here. Peeta strokes my hair. I open my eyes.

"I think we should get up. Ivy's school ends in an hour and a half and I would like to take a bath." I say. He looks at me.

"Okay. You know, that oil really smudged everything." he says and gets up to fill the tub. I follow him to the bathroom and put on a bathrobe  while we are waiting for the tub to fill. Peeta does the same. We stand there hugging each other until it is filled, and then we take off our bathrobes and step into it. I sit in front of Peeta, and he is leaning against the end of the tub. He starts rinsing my back. He already filled the bath with a soap that smells like flowers.

"Katniss." Peeta says.

"Hmm?" I say with a sleepy voice. This feels so good.

"I love you." he says and kisses the back of my neck once. I shiver, and when he notices this, he pours more hot water on my back.

"Are you cold?" he asks and I shake my head.

"Could you do that again?" I ask him and he kisses my neck.

"What?" he says between kisses.

"That's perfect."  I moan and he continues. His hands slowly go in front of me and he puts them over  my stomach. Then, they start moving upwards, until they reach my breasts. I try to hold it, but it's too hard.

"Ohhh..." I moan and he chuckles. I can't bear to only sit there and do nothing, so I put my hands onto Peeta's legs and start stroking them. Ok, I know that's not much to go with, and mostly of one of his legs is fake, but I have to do something. To my surprise, he groans and starts kissing me more intensely. I can't take it anymore, so I turn around and kiss him a few times on the lips. I think this is going out of our hands, so I decide to end it before it gets too deep. I break away. We are both breathless.

"Here, let me wash you." I say and start scooping up soap and rubbing it on his chest. It feels a little oily. He stares at me with a hunger and lust in his eyes, but I pretend not to notice. I've learned that you just have to ignore him and try to be as normal as possible. I continue to wash his chest.

"Why are you doing this?" he groans and looks like he is staring into my soul.

"Um, I don't know. You're full of oil." I say and smile.

"But you're too." he says and looks at the part of my body that is showing. He starts washing me too. Suddenly, we hear footsteps in the stairs. The door to our bedroom opens and we see Haymitch. He looks around in the room and I bet he notices the small piles of clothes on the floor. Then, his gaze turns to the bathroom and I just get to slip deeper into the water before he sees us. His eyes widen and then he chuckles. He is only seeing Peeta's head and chest and my head and shoulders. He chuckles.

"I knew this was what you were doing. A pregnant woman and her husband all alone in a big house, not answering the phone." he says. Then Ivy walks into the room. Whoa! Ivy can't see us like this, she'll start wondering. But it's too late now. She has seen us.

"Mommy, why are you in the bath with Daddy?" she says and frowns. I don't come up with anything good to say.

"Ummm... well... we were dirty, so... we had to take a bath." I say and Haymitch chuckles.

"I bet you were." he says.

"Shut up, Haymitch." I tell him. "It's not funny. Could you close the door, so that we can put our bathrobes on, please?" I ask him and he shrugs his shoulders.

"Sure." he says and closes the door. I sigh and get up fast, Peeta is right behind me.

"I'm sorry. I'll fix this." he says and kisses me. I smile and we put on our bathrobes. Then, we walk out of the bathroom to talk to Ivy. Haymitch is leaning against the door and we sit down on the bed. Peeta takes Ivy onto his lap.

"Ivy, you know when you play with your friends and have fun with them?" he says. Ivy nods. I trust Peeta, he is not going to tell her too much. Just enough to make her stop wondering. "Well," he continues, "Adults have their own kind of fun, and there's nothing weird with that. But your parents' fun isn't anything you should go and talk about with your friends, it's a little secret. Okay?" he says. Ivy looks convinced.

"Okay, Daddy." she says and hugs him. He kisses her head.

"By the way, why are you guys here already? We were supposed to pick her up at one o'clock." I say. Haymitch smiles.

"Well, they called from the school and said that the kids were released earlier today, and that they had tried to call you, but you didn't answer. So I picked her up." he says and smiles. I feel guilty about not hearing the phone and picking Ivy up. But it was just this one time and it seems to have gone well.

"Ok. Thanks for doing that." I say and smile.

"Anytime, sweetheart." he says. He still calls me sweetheart. I'm used to it, it feels as normal as when Ivy calls me 'Mommy'.

"Well, we should probably get dressed now. Ivy, go and watch TV, but only watch the channel for kids, okay?" he says. Ivy nods. Haymitch leaves with her and we get dressed in the same clothes as before. We walk downstairs and decide to make lunch. Peeta makes meatballs and mashed potatoes. We eat and then Haymitch leaves, returning to his booze.

"Ivy, we want to do something fun tonight, what would you like to do?" we ask her when we are cleaning up the table. She thinks about it for a while, and then she decides.

"I wanna watch a movie!" she says and starts jumping up and down. "And I want ice cream!" she adds and I look at Peeta. He looks at me with a puppy dog face and I nod. She can have ice cream tonight, she deserves it. I grab a few cheese buns, I've really been craving them lately. I guess that's this pregnancy's thing. We lay down in the couch and watch a children's movie together. I'm not watching it so attentively, I'm mostly concentrating on Peeta. When she doesn't notice, I sneak in a kiss, and then I return to stroking her hair again. When the movie is over, I swear I have braided her hair at least fifty times and then unbraided it again, so it is really combed through and looks silky. It isn't so late yet, so we decide to take a walk. We instinctively walk to the Meadow, but it isn't so beautiful as it usually is. It is now wilted and pale. We sit down anyway, and Ivy starts running back and forth. When I am starting to kiss Peeta, he suddenly stops kissing me back. He normally never does this, so I look at him. His eyes are cloudy. Oh, no. Ivy runs up to us and reaches her hand towards his face. I try to stop her but it is too late. He has grabbed her arm and he is now clutching it tightly. Ivy starts to whine. I try to bend his fingers away, but he pushes me away. Then, he pushes Ivy down on the ground and she starts to cry. I get to her as fast as I can and try to soothe her. Then, everything goes black.