A/N: Hey peoples! This is my first fan-fiction and I hope you like it. I'll most likely add quotes before a new chapter that sort-of goes with it.

Disclaimer: If I owned the books, do you think I'd be writing fan-fiction?

Chapter One: Prologue

"Love is like a friends caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable." -Bruce Lee

I wake up at dawn on a quiet summer morning. I groggily rub the sleep off my eyes and sir upright. The rickety bed makes a creaky noise in disturbance of my movements. I look down to my little sister, Prim, to make sure I didn't wake her. She was still fast asleep. I make my way out of the beat-down bed and gently step in the floor. It feels as cold as ice on my bare feet. I walk over to where my clothes lay, trying not to make the floorboards squeak.

I pull out a black, short-sleeved shirt and my worn out cargo pants. I quickly dress myself and undo my braid, running my fingers along as I go in a n attempt to untangle some of it. After, I delicately put it back into my signature braid and walk out of the room and into kitchen.

I grab my hunting boots off the floor and put them on. "Much better." I say under the breath into the empty air. I slip my father's old hunting jacket on and sling my game bag over my shoulder. I soundlessly walk out the door and through the Seam.

The Seam is the part of District 12 where miners and their families live. They naturally have olive skin, gray eyes, and dark hair, unless you're like my mother and Prim. They have light blonde hair and blue eyes, like people in the merchant section of the district. I have the natural Seam look. I took it after my dad; who died in a mine explosion.

When I make it to the electrical fence the borders District 12, I pause for a moment to see id I can hear the rare hum. When I don't hear anything, like most of the time, I effortlessly glide under to my oasis-the woods. I jog a little to the hollow log where I stash me and Gale's bows and arrows.

Gale is my best friend and hunting partner. We both break the law on a daily basis to keep our families from starving. He lives in the Seam like me and also has the same appearance. The mine explosion that took my father took his also, leaving him to be the man of the family.

I notice that Gale's are already gone, which means he waiting for me at our meeting rock. I receive my bow and arrows and briskly walk to our rock/meeting place.

"Hey, Catnip," Gale greets me without turning around. He's always had a keen sense of hearing.

"Hey, Gale," I reply nonchalantly. I walk over and sit down next to him. I can hear the thump of my heart get faster. I don't know why but it had been happening a lot recently.

I observe the he's deep in thought. His face is etched in nervousness and something else I can't quite place. "What's wrong?" I ask. He looks over to me and bite his lower lip. This makes my heart beat even faster. What is this strange feeling? My thoughts interrupt. Gale opens his mouth to speak but closes it again like a fish out of water.

"Nothing," he dodges the question and turns his head away. I look at him with concern, curiosity and anger. We never keep things from each other.

He either doesn't see me or her ignores me because he doesn't say anything else. I'm about to ask why he's acting so weird, but I make the final decision to leave it alone for now. Making him angry will scare away all the game.

Gale abruptly stands, picks up his bow and arrows and his game bag. He puts them on and offers me a hand to help me up. I accept by placing my hand in his, even though I'm mad at him. When I'm up, he holds my hand for another lingering second then lets go. As soon as he did it left a tingling sensation up my whole arm and I strangely didn't want him to. I couldn't place why that happens either. I just shrug it off and we set off to go hunt for our families.

"I can tell you anything. Right, Catnip?" Gale asks me cautiously as we approach the fence. We had just finished hunting and we managed to bring down two rabbits, three squirrels, and a fox from our bows and arrows. From snares we caught another rabbit and squirrel. An average haul.

I stop in my tracks. "Of course you can," I turn around to make eye contact with him. "We're best friends." My previous anger wears off and I smile.

"Well-I-um-ab-about that..." He stutters. I've never seen gale this nervous before. He's usually confident 24/7. A bunch of thoughts rush through my head at his nervousness. Does he not want to be friends anymore? Does he not want to hunt together anymore? I know these questions are ridiculous, but I can't help but think of the worse case scenarios.

Anxiety rushes through me and I can't handle it. "Just spit it out!" I half yell-say; remembering we're in woods, hunting illegally. What's so hard about telling me? Even if it is bad? He doesn't say anything at all. He takes a stride towards me, cups my face in his huge hands, and the next thing I know-his lips are on mine.

At first I'm shocked and frozen. When it fully processes through my thick skull what he's doing, my muscles relax and I wrap my arms around his neck and close my eyes. Our lips move together in harmony and I can feel and inferno growing deep in my stomach like burning coals.

Then, it hits me like a ton of bricks. The way my heart would beat faster when I saw him, the way his touch would send tingles through me. It's something that I'd promised myself would never happen since my dad died. Yet, here I am-kissing my best friend.

My thoughts are still all over the place and I'm confused like a kid trying to solve a difficult math problem. This new thing between me and Gale might take some adjustment, but it won't take long.

We break apart after several seconds to catch our breaths. his hands don't leave my face and mine don't leave his neck. I can still feel a burning sensation on my lips, but I like it. We look deeply into each other's eyes, reading the other's emotions-even though we both have genuine smiles on our faces.

After we grasp our breaths back, I slowly pull my hands away. I rest them on his, which are still on my cheeks, and pull them away too. I hold his right hand a give it a squeeze, reassuring him that I enjoyed that. he squeezes mine back. I lightly tug on his arm, motioning that we should probably get going since our families would get worried because it's dark out. He nods his head.

I slide under the fence and once I'm back on my feet, Gale tosses our game bags under, landing on the ground with a soft thud. Gale comes quickly after that. I throw him his bag which he catches with ease. I intertwine his finger with mine again and we happily walk out way towards the Seam.

Gale walks me home which isn't unusual because he always does when it's dark outside. I always tell him that I'm capable, but he always insists. We approach my house and I take the lead onto the porch, pulling him with me. He doesn't object. I give him a hug which he gladly returns. I breath in his scent. He smells like the woods mixed in with coal dust. He smells, well...like Gale would smell.

I break the hug and give him a smile. He smiles back and starts to step down the stairs of the porch without hurrying. I turn the opposite direction and start to slowly open the door, just in case my mother and Prim are sleeping. I'm about to enter when I hear Gale quietly calling my name.

"Yeah?" I raise my eyebrows in question. I turn around and find him facing me.

"Um, so are we uh..." He trails off, cheeks turning a scarlet red. I smile.

"Yes, Gale." I state. I know he was trying to ask me if we are together now. He smiles radiantly and nods enthusiastically.

"Night, Catnip," he waves goodbye.

"Night," I wave back. he turns and his heel and treks back to his house. I go inside, an uncontrollable smile playing on my face.