Do you ever wonder if the person sitting next to you at the bar is 'the one'?
Maybe that person down the aisle, reaching for tomato soup with their back turned to you.
Or that person you bumped into on the sidewalk.
Possibly even the person you said hello to on the subway, just to be polite.
They could even be inches away and staring at the back of your head as you wait in line.
But how would you ever know? Are your paths meant to cross? And if they are, how do you know that they will?
Sometimes fate is just around the corner. Sometimes she's just down the street.
Sometimes you miss her by just a few moments.
But when you find it, and boy will you know when you do, the world stops.
You can't breathe. Your vision starts to tunnel and all you see is the light at the end of it.
Go toward it.
Race toward it, and when you reach it, don't let go, because once you find your destiny, once it's staring you right in the face, that is when your life really begins.
Xxx
Katniss sat under the willow tree, tears brimming in her eyes.
Why was she doing this? She never cried. Of all the times to cry, she picked the girliest.
Gale had proposed.
She asked him to give her a moment, the dejected look on his face not lost on her before she turned tail and ran out the front door, letting her feet carry her wherever they wanted.
And here she was, under the willow tree her father used to bring her to.
It was their special place. It has been a fort, a chapel, a bunker for the underground resistance - whatever book currently held her heart, the canopy of the tree became.
Leaning her head back against the trunk, she looked up to the sky, a tear finally falling. "Ow," she said, rubbing the back of her head. Leave it to her to hurt herself in a moment like this.
She chuckled. "Sorry, Dad. Guess I'm not a super spy after all."
A gentle breeze blew, tossing the branches of the tree, tumbling over each other, the stars showing through the gaps, reminding her of her father's laugh.
"Dad, if you're listening, I need some advice," Katniss cracked, looking down at her hands in her lap. "I know I'm probably interrupting poker with Uncle Sid, but I…. I need…." She looked back up at the sky. "I miss you, daddy." Her voice was a broken whisper.
Gasping, she tried to calm herself enough to speak. It didn't help that the lowest branches wrapped around her in the breeze, feeling like a hug.
"Right. Advice. I, um, Gale asked me to marry him. And, as you know since…. Since you, I have sworn off of that. Sure, we were on and off, and this was out of the blue, so I could just blame that and-"
A gust of wind blew, silencing her word vomit. "Right. Sorry," she said softly. "I just don't…. I don't know. Do I need to let go? Do I need to look for someone to fill the hole? Is that even possible?"
Another gust of wind blew, less violent, and warm.
Katniss smiled. "Right. I hear ya. Thanks, daddy. I love you."
She rose, brushing off the seat of her pants as she calmly waked back to Gale's house.
The expectant look on his face nearly broke her heart. "Gale, I…. I have to say no."
"Oh." He looked like a wounded puppy. "I understand." He snapped the ring box shut and rose slowly, looking everywhere but her.
She grabbed her keys as he stepped out on the back porch.
Closing the door behind her, she slumped against it with a thud. "Ow." She chuckled again. "I get it, dad. Thanks."
There was that breeze, tossing the willow tree again.
She didn't need someone to fill the hole - she needed someone who made her whole.
Xxx
Peeta slumped against the trunk of the willow tree, closing his eyes to the gentle breeze, smiling.
This place had always been his fortress, his hide away, a home away from home, and that was just what he needed today.
His family was all in town visiting, and nothing out of the normal happened - his mother was overbearing as always, his brothers giving him hell like any good sibling, his nieces and nephews running around screaming as they played tag….
His smile faded and he opened his eyes slowly. His father's chair empty once again for the third year in a row.
"Hi, dad," Peeta said brokenly. "How's gin with Aunt Melinda going? I, uh, sorry to interrupt, but, something happened today."
He stared straight ahead, a log cabin style home on the edge of the meadow across from him lit up, the silhouette of a couple inside in the window.
"Mom let a girl sit in your chair today. Some girl she is trying to pawn off on me, telling me I need to further the Mellark legacy, do my duty."
He chuckled darkly.
"After watching you and mom, I promised I would never get married, unless I found the right one, and she just wasn't it, dad."
He looked at his hands in his lap as he twiddled his thumbs. "I'm beginning to think 'the one' may not even exist. Maybe I'm looking too closely, and I need to sit back and look at the big picture, stop looking and let it come to me."
His voice grew quiet. "Maybe I've already met her."
Rising, he looked up through the canopy, patting the trunk with his hand. "I miss you, dad."
As he walked back to the house, away from the meadow, he smiled.
He didn't need to worry about someone sitting in his father's chair, filling a hole at the table.
He needed to worry about making himself whole.