Welcome fellow Fictioneers!

I'm oh so happy you've taken an interest to my story here. I had some of my followers vote for which story they wanted written and they chose this one. I had gotten the idea from a few hitchhiking fics I've read in the past.

Now, I love Peeta so frickin' much, so don't think I hate him and Peeniss.

This story is like a mix of romance, friendship, humor, adventure, and a bit of drama. I wish we could put multiple genres…. I'll also have a few other ships; GalexMadge, FinnickxAnnie, so on. They're all about 19-21 too.

And warnings for this chapter- I don't know too much about Phoenix, Arizona. It was the first place I could think of. So if you do live there and I get something wrong, I'm sorry. Please correct me in a review. Also, there's slight language. And Cato. He's a warning all by himself. He and Katniss going to be a bit OOC too.
Proceed.

Disclaimer: Me no own Hunger Games. Me own plot though.

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Fan-fucking-tastic, Katniss couldn't help but think as she watched as her bus took off down the road.

She had gotten off the bus when she saw that she had left her phone on the bench. After checking herself to make sure she didn't leave anything else, she turned around to face the bus. Apparently though, the bus did wait for no one.

This day couldn't get any better.

She was heading home to Pennsylvania for break after being stuck in Phoenix for a few months. She had promised Prim she would be back soon, but it seems like there was a change in plans.

Deciding the bus wasn't going to appear suddenly, Katniss sat herself down on the wooden bench, her head propped on her hand. She took in the Arizona weather, happy it was at least wasn't raining.

The brunette watched as cars passed by for about 10 minutes, not really sure of what to do now. Once the car watching grew boring, she decided to go through what she had with her and hadn't left on the bus.

In her messenger bag, she had about 70$, her phone, gum, a few hair ties, a book, earphones, and of course, lint.

Yippy.

Standing, Katniss walked in the direction of a small coffee shop she'd passed on her way here. She was happy that the cafe was close. As she entered, the soft chime of the bell above the door rang out in the nearly empty shop. The grey eyes spotted an elderly couple sitting by one of the many windows, conversing happily. She couldn't help but smile at how happy they seemed. There was also man dressed in a business suit (she's guessing) sitting at the counter, typing away furiously at a laptop.

Other than those three, Katniss didn't see anyone else, excluding the blonde girl who looked very board with the lack of customers. She noticed that she had been standing in the middle of the shop, just staring. Katniss blushed lightly and walked up to the counter. She wasn't really aware of what she was ordering, seeing that an extremely attractive boy had just walked in. He had short and spiky blond hair that looked like he had stood in the middle of a tornado, but she had to admit it looked good on him. The only other thing she could tell was that he had lightly tanned skin. He had his back turned to her as her chatted with the couple by the window. She was guessing that he knew as he let out a laugh.

The girl behind the counter coughed, gaining Katniss's attention. She didn't seem to happy about her staring at the boy for so long. She wondered briefly if the two were dating, but seeing the wistful stare the girl was giving him told her otherwise.

The grey eyed girl quickly took her drink and paid as the boy made his way over. She cast one more look at him, hoping to catch a glimpse of his face. Katniss wasn't expecting him to catch her gaze and smile at her. She found herself blushing and staring back dumbly. She quickly turned around and sat at a table near the window and pulled out her book. Too lost in her book, Katniss didn't see the blond boy standing behind her.

The brunette's head shot up as he nudged her with his foot. He gave her a soft smile before sitting down in front of her. Katniss was a bit confused as he began to unwrap a muffin and then proceeded to munch on it. Shaking her head slightly, she started reading again.

And so they sat like that for a while, neither one saying a word. The man with the laptop had left a few minutes ago, but the old couple still sat, sending glances their way every so often.

Just as Katniss turned the page, the boy spoke up.

"Hi" His voice was slightly gruff and husky, but it held a note of gentleness to it. She looked at him a second before responding and going back to her book, "Hi"

An awkward silence passed before he started talking again, "What are you reading?"

Katniss wasn't sure why he was talking to her. He seemed friendly enough, his chat with the couple proving that. She glanced up at him again and studied his face. He had soft features, but no doubt were defined, depending on how you looked at him. His chin was resting in his palm as he looked at her. Up close, she could see that his hair was dirty blond, the strands standing up naturally. His face was free of any marks, except for the one freckle on the side of his chin. Katniss finally focused on his eyes. They were a deep blue, almost navy with the faintest hints of green in them. She didn't even realize she had been staring for about a minute, she also didn't see him studying her face just as closely.

"You know, it's not really polite to be checking out someone you don't even know the name of," He teased, holding out his hand for her, "My name's Cato."

Katniss could only stare at his hand and then back at his face warily. Cato chuckled. "You're supposed to shake it. See?", He said as he gripped her hand that had been resting on the table, thoroughly shaking it before dropping it. She finally found her voice and spoke, "Um, hi...Cato?". The blond grinned at her, "Now this is when you tell me your name.", He spoke as he lazily stirred his coffee.

"Oh, my name's Katniss." The brunette found herself relaxing slightly at the friendly tone Cato was using.

"Now that wasn't so hard was it Katniss?" he took a sip of his coffee before continuing talking, "What brings you to Jo's? I don't think I've ever seen you here before..." He trailed off, eyebrows scrunched in concentration, "Yep, never seen you here before."

"I just wanted a cup of," She paused, taking a tentative sip of her drink, "cold, black coffee apparently." She replied, grimacing at the bitter taste. Cato let out a laugh, gaining the elderly couple's attention. The old women smiled warmly at her before turning back towards the man who was probably her husband.

"Oh, that's Anna and Charlie Maller. They're a sweet couple." The blond said, noticing her stare. She was doing that a lot today, staring.

"You know them?" Katniss asked.

Cato leaned back in his chair, "Oh ya, I help out around the house since Charlie's got a bad hip. They don't have any kids so I try to help in some way." He said fondly as he played with one of the napkins. "I told you something, so now you've gotta tell me something." He dropped the napkin and gave her all his attention.

"Oh, umm... my name's Katniss?" Now she wanted to slap herself. "Yes, we've established the fact that your name is Katniss. And mine is Cato, incase you felt like pointing that out too." He said, an amused glint in his eyes. Katniss blushed slightly before saying first thing that came to mind, "My favorite color is green."

"Ah, there we go. What kind of green?" His head was now resting in his hand. "Greenly green?" She tried. Cato gave her a mock glare, "I see you're not experienced in the field of questions and answers. I meant like do you like lime green, grass green, neon green..."

Katniss pondered a second, "Forest green."

"I see you are a woodsy person." He mused as he drained the rest of his drink. The grey-eyed girl raised an eyebrow, "And how exactly do you know this?"

"You smell faintly of pine."

"So you've been smelling me then?"

It was fun to see Cato all flustered and blushing, rather than herself. "No no! It's just um...", He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, spiking it up even more, "I really have no explanation for this." He said dejectedly. Katniss started snickering at the pouty face he had on.

This guy was really starting to grow on her and it's surprising and scary at the same time. Katniss couldn't help but ponder over the fact that Cato was talking so easily with her, even though they had just met. Hell, she felt like he was an old friend she had never met before.

Wait, no. That sounds weird.

These things continued to run about in her mind as she sat in the small coffee shop, conversing with a guy she just 10 minutes ago. Though she's probably done weirder things before. But this had to be like a 3 or 4 on the weirdness scale...If there was even a scale of weirdness. God, she needed to shut up.

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And scene.

So…. How what that? Really though, how was it? I'm not really sure about the ending...

Please review! I absolutely love it when you guys review. It makes me feel all giddy and happy inside.

I welcome criticism. Just don't make rude or hurtful comments about my story. I don't take kindly to that.

I'll try and update soon!

-Lilferd (I don't know, ask Isaac about that one)