Peeta gives half a shrug and takes another sip of his tea. "Yeah...well, maybe you need us just as much as we need you and that's why you found us to begin with," he suggests, lifting an eyebrow and looking back at her through tired eyes.
Cindy was harder around people than he was used to seeing a woman act. She acted toward others the way his mother acted toward him and vise-versa. It always kind of fascinated him how she could be so sharp-tongued to the rest of Lawrence while being so kind and generous with he, Katniss, and Prim. He didn't ponder on it too much too often, though; there's no point looking a gift horse in the mouth. She keeps a roof over their heads, bought he and Katniss a car to share and taught them to drive so they could get to work...and most importantly, she keeps food in their stomachs. They help however they can with the expenses, but she doesn't ever seem to mind, either way and that means a lot more to them, Peeta suspects, than she has any idea.