Summary: Katniss and Peeta meet on the midnight train going anywhere...
xXx
"Just a small town girl,
Livin' in a lonely world,
She took the midnight train going anywhere,
Just a city boy,
Born and raised in south Detroit,
He took the midnight train going anywhere…"
xXx
Chapter One
Winter. She loves it with all her heart and she hates it with a passion. She's always thought winter time was the most beautiful time of year. Always looking forward to the unique, frozen flakes that fall from the high glowing heavens to the rough surface of the earth,gathering into a beautiful white blanket that would eventually cover the ground.
The snow is not heavy and she can see through the glass of her train compartment ice-cold window. She wonders if the heat will be activated soon so she wouldn't freeze too terribly.
As she exhales, her eyes drift to her frozen breath in the chilly air. Watching as the air slowly clears, she hears footsteps approaching her car. They're loud and heavy, most certainly not like her own light, soundless tread.
The sound of knuckles rapping gently on the wooden frame of her train car cause her silver eyes to glance up, but they quickly fall to her jean clad lap, her cheeks and neck heating quickly in embarrassment.
During that quick glance, she got a chaste sight of unruly, wavy blonde hair and a pair of eyes as blue as the ocean and just as clear. Light freckles danced along his high cheekbones and pale, porcelain skin. But she knew nothing more.
Still sensing his presence, she takes her lip between her snow white teeth and holds it there. Her finger raises up to anxiously play with the fraying end of her ebony colored hair, all the while keeping her head turned away from the man in the doorway.
He then did a third thing to grab her attention. Seconds later, that felt much longer to her, he clears his throat and in no haste at all, the girl with silver eyes turns her head to face him once more. A small, almost shy smile graces his lips and she can't help but find it… adorable.
When her eyes widen, she mentally slaps herself. 'No, you do not.' Her attention drops to the floor where she glares almost venomously at the blue stained carpet that covers the base of the compartment and continues to chastise herself. 'You know what happened last time.'
But then suddenly, it's almost as if she remembers him. Like she has met him in another way. His eyes look so familiar and almost seem to glow. Even though she has never seen such eyes in her life before. He radiates warmth and a strange sense of home. But she doesn't look up, trying to ignore this sudden rush of emotion for a person she hasn't even shared a word with.
"Uh," his warm voice begins timidly. "Is it okay if I sit in here? Everyone else is full."
She is lost for words but nods her head slowly, trying not to let her eyes move from the floor but her eyes wander back up to his clean-cut face. He grins at her and tips his head toward her. "Thanks," he says before carrying his stuff to the empty bench across from her. He sits himself down with a quiet thud.
She notices the only item he's carried with him is a single duffle bag. It isn't large, in fact, it's kind of small and not filled to the brim. It's orange, which she thinks is different. Orange isn't a common color in the duffle bag industry as far as she has lately seen.
She must have been studying the bag for longer than she had hoped would be a quick evaluation, because suddenly he clears his throat again,redirecting her attention to himself.
"Ah, is my bag really that interesting?".
Turning an even darker shade of red than before, Katniss blushes at his attempt to joke. She didn't mean to stare, but when she tries to explain herself, all that comes out is, "Uh, well-well, I-I…um…"
Yes, words were most definitely her strong point right now.
He chuckles and she looks down at her lap once more, her face still aflame.
"No, don't look away, please," he requests of the girl with the braid. But her eyes remain focused and her blazing neck and face don't cease at the slightest. "Hey, I-I wasn't laughing at you…uh, what I mean is I was just, you know, joking with you. Because, you know, you're the first person to find my bag so interesting."
After a few seconds, she dares a peek up at his handsome face. A small, nearly bashful grin plays on his lips. "I-It's…" she mutters so quietly, it's almost silent to the human ear. "It's a unique color.".
A smile paints his features. Dammit. He heard her. She turns her attention back to the window and most importantly, avoid eye contact with this handsome man opposite of her.
Minutes pass and a monotonous voice over the speakers announces their departure.
The train rolls away from the station, but the air in the room doesn't begin to warm. Fifteen minutes later, she takes a chance to look away from the woods encased in darkness on the opposite side of the glass and her eyes flit across the car to find the man shivering in the corner closest to the window.
Only then does she decide to take in his attire. A pair of well-worn jeans with a hole in the right knee and obviously fraying at the bottom of his left leg. A faded band tee under a thick zip-up hoodie that stretches perfectly across his obviously broad chest,conforming to his firm arms. A pair of heavy boots secured on his feet. Looking over him once more, she notices a leather like cord around the base of his neck that dips into the grey t-shirt. 'What could possibly be attached to that cord?' Katniss wonders.
But for some reason, she can't bear to watch him quiver in the cold. She stands up with the large, worn coat in her hand. With his eyes closed, and she notices that his lashes are so long they have begun to tangle slightly.
Gently, her arm extends and her finger lightly taps his shivering shoulder. Upon contact, his eyes immediately open and he looks up to see who had tapped him, though she suspects he knew it was her. At the sight of her, he sits up straighter.
"I…er, you l-looked like you were cold, so, I, uh, thought you might you know…want this." She extends her arm, offering him the coat draped over it.
Caught off guard by the gesture, he holds up his hands up as if in surrender. "No thank you, really. I'll be okay."
More accustomed to his presence, she swallows her nervousness and persists with more confidence, "I want y-you to use it." He opens his mouth to protest but she cuts him off before anything can leave his mouth. "Isn't it rude to refuse a gift from someone? E-Especially someone you still need to make an impression on?" she blurts out.
He blinks a few times, completely caught off guard before replying slowly, "Yes, it is I suppose."
Moments pass before he reaches out to take the coat from her arm. "Thank you," he whispers, though they're the only ones in the compartment.
After she's satisfied with him covering himself with her coat, she goes to sit back down on her side of the car.
Silence settles in once more but it's not long before he breaks. And oddly enough, she doesn't mind.
"So, not to be too straight forward or anything, but I think we've kind of been dancing around this." He grins and she senses he's only half serious. "What's your name?"
"Sorry?"
He smiles at her again. "What's your name?"
"Why…why do you need to know?"
He chuckles. "Well, seeing as you practically forced your jacket on me so I don't freeze my ass off, I'd at least like to know whose jacket it is saving me from potential hypothermia."
She thinks it over in her head before making her final decision. Taking a deep breath, she wills herself not to stutter this time. It's only one word after all. "Katniss," she says with a little bit of a sigh.
"Katniss," he repeats, almost in awe. "That's an exquisite name. Is it like the Katniss plant?"
Her head nods in confirmation, tut hearing her name come from his lips? She loves the sound. "And, uh, you are?
"Peeta."
"Peeta," she repeats, just as he had.
He bobs his head up and down. "And where are you going, Katniss?"
She shrugs her shoulders.
"Oh come on now, we know each other's names! We're practically friends for life now! Surely you can tell one of your lifelong friends," he says, his voice oozing with sarcasm. "Where are you going at a time like this?"
A small smile plays across her lips, but it soon disappears and her face turns serious once again. "I'm going anywhere but where I came from."
"So where was that?" he asks, genuinely curious about her life. It takes her by surprise.
"Ypsilanti."
"You're from Michigan?" She answers with a shy nod. "Wow. Small world," he says quietly.
"And you're from?" she asks.
Resituating the coat covering his lap, Peeta places both feet on the floor and leans forward, resting his elbows on the surface of his jean clad knee "Southern Detroit."
Katniss nods before continuing their exchange of questions. "Where are you going, Peeta?"
"Wherever you're going," he answers faintly.
She squints, narrowing her eyes into her infamous scowl. "We just met."
"Did we?" he challenges and stops for a little as she goes over what he has just told her. "I know we barely know each other. And this is probably going to creep you out and scare you off…" He pauses as if contemplating if he should continue. "But I hope to God it doesn't."
Peeta breaks eye contact for a second to look down at his hands which he wrings nervously together. "I feel like we've met before..." He pauses. "No, not only met, but I feel like we knew each other." His voice is so near, she shakes her head a little only to register that he is now leaning closer. She looks up from her folded hands in her lap and straight into those ever so blue eyes. "But not here…like, as in not in this world."
Now she doesn't know what to think. Here is a guy that she has barely had a five minute conversation with, who has basically told her that he thinks they are…connected. Connected in some way that neither of them can understand and yet, know they are something important to each other.
Her silence must make him even more nerve racked because she watches as his left leg begins to bounce involuntarily. But he waits patiently, as though he expects her to say how crazy and fucked up he is to confess what he did to a girl he has only just laid eyes on. He tenses, as if mentally preparing himself for the walk of shame out of the compartment. But he never once takes his eyes off her small frame, her legging clothed legs tucked under her body and her arms stiffly crossed over her chest.
"You really think we're linked in some way, shape, or form?" she finds herself saying in a low voice.
Slowly, Peeta nods his head. "Yes." He then purses his lips before continuing,"I don't expect you to agree with me, let alone think we are joined in a way I can't even comprehend, let alone explain. But I've never experienced this with anyone in my life."
How can he know for sure? Katniss wonders. Pain has always been a constant, cold, presence in her life and the last thing she wants is to suffer more from its sting.
However, she can't deny that she senses something quite similar to what he's described, even though she has barely glanced at him since he arrived. And she somehow understands what he meant when he said he felt connected to her in a way he can't quite explain.
"How do I know you're not messing with me?"
Peeta lets out a small laugh. "Who would go to that length just to say they were fucking with your head in the end?"
Silently agreeing, Katniss asks one more question. "Are you sure it's me?"
His face turns more serious. "It's most definitely you, Katniss."
It's then Katniss realizes how close they have moved throughout the conversation; just inches away. Her face flushes light pink and she breaks eye contact once more.
"Is it me?"
She nods her head for what feels like the millionth time, and she can practically feel a grin spread across his lips.
"Now, all we have to do is figure out where we're going," Peeta says as he stands up.
Only then does she realize how tall he is. Katniss herself stands at a short, petite height of five feet and two inches. She guesses Peeta is at least five eleven or six foot. Setting the thought aside, she looks up to see him staring down at her, his eyes wandering to the space next to her every few seconds. "Can I sit beside you?" he asks. And yet again, she nods her head.
No one has done that before. She's so used to being pushed or forced, but here was Peeta, asking if he could simply share a seat with her.
He sits himself at a comfortable space away from her. "So, where do you want to go?"
Once more her shoulders rise and fall. "Where do you want to go, Peeta?"
Reclining back on his hands and sitting cross legged on the seat, he faces her as she mirrors his sitting position. "Ah, well, I was thinking…New York maybe?"
Giving his suggestion a good reasoning, she doesn't think it's a horrible idea at all. So she allows a smile to paint her chapped lips. "That sounds great." she answers, which earns her yet another warming smile.
God, he really does have an amazing smile what with his two rows of white teeth and full lips.
But then he is talking once more, distracting her. "So, now to ask the deep stuff."
At the mention of 'the deep stuff' her heart begins to pound. Was he going to figure out the real reason she's on this train? Was he going to ask her about her past? Her family? How she got money?
So as he opens his mouth to ask a question, she mentally braces herself,unaware that she has tensed up by accident as well.
"What's your favorite color?" He asks with such a serious face that she has a hard time maintaining the obvious relief that flows through her. She hopes he doesn't notice. But if he did, he doesn't comment on it or even acknowledge it.
"That's the, uh, deep stuff?" she asks, starting to become amused with his antics.
"It's a start isn't it?" He chuckles. "Besides, we're going to a whole different state with each other. I thought it would be smart to know just a little bit about the person I'm going to be spending a lot of time with over the next while."
"I suppose you're right." Katniss concedes. "Green. Like the forest foliage or the needles of a pine tree." She closes her eyes briefly, picturing that beautiful, scenery green. "What's yours?"
"Orange," Peeta answers immediately. "Like the sunset."
And she grins just as he does as they began to ask simple questions to get to know each other better, not knowing that they had just found the one thing some people spend an entire lifetime looking for.
xXx
Her eyes feel extremely heavy as she attempts to open them to the dim moonlight streaming in through the train window. As she slowly wakes from her sleep, Katniss feels oddly warm and comfortable. Not only does she feel so rested that she doesn't want to move, but those couple of hours of sleep on this train had somehow gifted her with the most satisfying slumber she has had in the longest while.
"Ah, so she wakes," a deep voice muses.
Her eyes lift to see Peeta's lips spread as he looks down at her with something she can't quite place…admiration perhaps? However, she quickly pushes the thought out from her mind. Suddenly, Katniss's body goes frigid with realization when she notices a strong arm holding her in place flush against the side of a warm body. He is firm and clement. And she feels so strangely secure with this man she's found on a train. Well, he found her.
"What, do I not get a 'good morning' of any sort?" he asks, feigning hurt. "You know, considering you just used me as a human pillow for your two hour nap."
She huffs playfully and rolls her eyes at him. "Fine, thank you, Peeta," she retorts in an exaggerated tone of voice.
"Well you're not going to get very much response if that's how you thank people,." he mumbles.
Katniss merely shrugs as neither of them seems to want to make any move to separate from each other. Instead, they just sit there, grinning at each other almost goofily.
She can't believe what she's doing. Here she is on a train with a stranger that she doesn't know the slightest thing about and she is snuggled up to his side with her father's old, oversized coat shielding them both from the cool air of the compartment. If someone had told her she was to get on the midnight train and meet someone that she had felt connected to in a way she couldn't wrap her head around, let alone explain, she would have laughed in their faces.
And because of everything she's had to endure over the past four years of her life, she only wants to believe that what Peeta professes to her is real and genuine. She simply can't take anymore lies or deception.
"Katniss?" his voice questions as he breaks her from thought. She shakes her head a little. "Where'd you go?" he teases. "Suddenly you're just off in your own little world. Am I really that boring and unpleasant?"
She couldn't help but let out a small giggle. "No, Peeta, you're perfectly entertaining."
He winks at her before sitting up a little straighter, turning his head as he looks around the compartment as if he's looking for something. "What time is it?"
Katniss glances around the room like Peeta had.
"There's no clock and I don't have a watch. But it's still late and the moon is still pretty high." Katniss gestures to the moon through the transparent window.
"I never thought of judging time like that," he muses.
Katniss l bites her lip before saying, "The only reason I know is because that's how I've, um, always told time. By estimating where the sun or moon is."
They settle into a comfortable silence, content to simply sit in the cozy company of each other.
Hours later, she wakes once more, only this time to bright sunlight as the warm rays dance on her light, olive colored skin. Peeta's warm body remains where it was when she'd woken up to it hours prior.
The same monotonous voice makes another announcement over the intercom and she cuddles closer to Peeta, ignoring her mind telling her it still may be a bad idea to get too close.
"Attention all passengers, the next few stops will be in Chatham-Kent and London Ontario, and then onto Buffalo, New York. Thank you."
xXx
AN: Hope you like my new story attempt for a soulmates!Everlark. As always I love all the support I get from you guys and I am always open to your suggestions all you have to do it tell me in the reviews or PM me! Thanks Loves and Happy Holidays! ~ If I Were A Slytherin
A special thanks to: Pookieh! Thank you so much for helping me edit this chapter of my story it means so much to me! So you guys should be awesome and check out her stories (but you probably already have!)
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Disclaimer: I own nothing but OCs
Setting: Modern AU
Rating: M