Prologue
"Come on, Peeta." Katniss yells as she runs through the tall grass.
"Slow down, Katniss," he pleads. Katniss laugh a little at his desperate tone. She stops running when she gets to the big willow tree that is situated in the middle of the meadow. He catches up with her and instantly falls to the floor claiming she has 'tired him out.'
They lay on the floor next to each other underneath the shade of the willow tree. His breathing comes back to how it should be and he looks up to the sky, so Katniss does too.
"Look at that cloud! It looks like a dragon," Katniss giggles.
"No, it looks like a lizard!" he protests. She rolls her eyes at him and continues to stare up at the sky, watching the clouds float effortlessly around.
"It's the same thing. Lizards and dragons are the same!" Katniss exclaims.
"Katniss, I can't believe you just said that. We are no longer friends."
She sighs and turns on her side to face him, "you can't say that because we've only been friends for a few years."
"You're right, I'm silly. We'll always be friends." She nods sin response and roll's back over so she's lying on back. "Mummy and Daddy wouldn't like us being out here, they say we should stay in the town park."
"But that's boring. Come on, let's go on an adventure."
"Katniss, are you sure?" she sits up and looks towards him; she raises her eyebrow and stands so he knows she's being serious. She holds her hand out for him, he takes it and she helps him stand.
"I'll race you to the edge of the meadow, the last one there's a rotten egg!" he screams as he takes off running, his little legs running as fast as they can, carrying his body behind him. Katniss squeals before setting off running too. She sprints past him and reaches the edge of the meadow before him.
"You're a rotten egg!" she yells, poking her tongue out at him as he slowly climbs over the wooden fence that the builders put up last week to keep the sheep out of the meadow.
"No fair, you're faster than me; you should've given me a head start."
"I did, you run off before I even let go of your hand."
"Whatever, let's on that adventure you said we'd go on."
"Okay."
Katniss climbs up over the wooden fence after him, making sure my clothing doesn't get caught on the ragged wooden surface. They leave the meadow and make their way up a hill. The hill has thousands upon thousands of animals, ranging from cows to sheep. They tread up the hill, Katniss first and Peeta following. She talks to the animals, moving them out of the way with her words. They don't say much on their hike up the hill; they just talk to the animals around us and listen to them talking to them in their animal language.
"Wouldn't it be cool to speak sheep?" Katniss asks.
"Yes, we should learn sheep!" he says excitedly.
"Okay, we can do that later, first I want to show you something on our adventure."
"Okay, hurry up though, I'm hungry," he complains.
"You're always hungry." she laughs a little.
Before they know it, they're at the top of the hill and they're walking along a flat piece of land that leads to a lake. The lake is big, it has weeds surrounding the edges at one side but on the other it's beautiful. It has a little bridge that leads to an island in the middle of it and it has a little lake cabin, a wooden built hut that Katniss' father built before he died. He used to bring Katniss here all the time when she was around five and he'd tell her all the stories any child would be dying to know about their parents. How they met, when they first kissed, meeting each other's parents. It was their special little place and it will forever be there in memory of her father.
"Isn't it pretty?" Katniss ask.
"Yes," he replies.
Katniss walks him across the bank and they enter the wooden cabin through the door that's left constantly open. She closes it behind her and takes a seat on the floor. He sits next to her and they talk about their adventure. Leaving the town park and going into the meadow and then taking a hike up to her and her father's special place.
"This can be our special place. We will always come here and talk because we're always going to be best friends, forever and ever. Even when you have children of your own we'll still be best friends okay?" Katniss says proudly.
"I promise," he says, holding out his little finger. She holds our hers and connects their fingers together. "Pinky promise."
"Pinky promise," she repeats before stamping the promise with her thumb. "Every time we come here we need to hug and then leave okay?"
"Why?" he asks.
"Because that's what me and my daddy did. So if it's now our special place then we need to do it."
"Okay."
"And, you need to make a wish every time you leave, if you don't you'll have bad luck."
They make a deal that they will go there every month at least once, just the two of them. And that is what they do, ever since little seven year old Katniss and little seven year old Peeta went for their adventure they've been inseparable. They visited their special place every month when they were seven, every month when they were eight, every month when they were nine, every month when they were ten and every month when they were eleven.
When they were twelve they didn't go every month, they went every week. They never got tired of each other's company up in their special place; they loved being together every second of the day that they could be together.
They're fourteen now and they still hike up the hill together, Katniss first and Peeta following behind her, just as he always does when they make this long walk to their special place. They make it to the top and Katniss races across the soft ground and makes her way into the cabin, her dress flowing in the wind as she runs.
Peeta leans down and picks a daisy from the grass below him and continues to walk towards the cabin. He opens the door and walks in, closing the door behind him just as he does every time he enters the room. He walks over to where Katniss is sat on the floor and he sits beside her. He presents the daisy in front of her and she blushes. She isn't used to being presented with flowers or any sort of present from the people around her. She's a closed off girl with only a few friends, she keeps herself to herself and her business her own. She doesn't bother with the 'popular girls' because she'd much rather be with her childhood best friend, Peeta Mellark.
He places the daisy in her hair just behind her ear and she thanks him. "You look beautiful," he whispers. And she does, she looks beautiful. Her natural, near to no, makeup is perfect for her. The flower which is now sitting on her ear pulls her look together. She is beautiful. Her blush grows redder as his words radiate through her body. "Thank you," she replies quietly.
They do what they always do, talking about everything, about school and about the people in it. They talk about the newest gossip that's travelling around the school halls about how Clove and Marvel hooked up at that party everyone was at last weekend. Everyone but Katniss.
"What's this I heard about you and Delly Cartwright?" she asks, obviously teasing him.
"What do you mean?" he asks, obviously embarrassed that Katniss has found out about his little secret.
"Well apparently, last weekend at the same party Clove and Marvel hooked up at, you apparently had your tongue down popular girl, Delly Cartwright's throat for most of the night. Rumour has it that you wouldn't leave each other alone. Some people even say they're surprised you didn't get it on right there and then."
Peeta blushes rose. He freezes for a moment, how did she find out about that? "Well, eh. I may have had a little drink and she totally came on to me. I was hanging out with Finnick, Annie and Johanna and then over she comes and just latches onto me like a leech." Katniss bursts into a contagious laughter that only causes Peeta to fall over and laugh too.
"So, Peeta Mellark finally had his first kiss with Delly Cartwright. That's slept with more boys than I've looked at?" Katniss mocks.
"Eh, well, I wouldn't exactly call what we were doing kissing," he confesses.
"What do you mean?" she asks, concerned almost.
"It was more like being slobbered on and having the hell sucked out of my neck and lips, it was awful. She's so desperate."
"So that's what these marks are here on your neck and down here on your collar bone?" Katniss raises her eyebrow at him and he flushes red. Katniss pulls down his shirt a little and looks at the faded purple bruises. "She gave you hickeys. Delly Cartwright gave you, Peeta Mellark, hickeys!" she laughs.
"Hey, it's not funny. It's not like I asked her personally to come over and suck on my neck." They both fall into a laughter that they can't stop. The sound of each other's laughter comforts the other.
"There's a reason I wanted to come up here today, I couldn't wait any longer to tell you. I don't want you to be more upset than you need to be about it." Peeta says softly.
Katniss moves closer to Peeta's body, leaning her head into his shoulder and they both relax. "What is it?" she asks.
"We're moving." He says.
Those two words shut Katniss' whole world down. Her best friend is moving, moving away from her. She's never going to see the boy who she was brought up alongside of, she's never going to experience being at his wedding, she's never going to be able to tease him about the girls he kisses and most of all she's never going to come to their special place with him again.
"W-what? You can't move!" she protests.
"I know, I've told my mother this but she doesn't listen to me. She says it's for the best and that the bakery we're being transferred to in another District is way better than the bakery here and there's more business down there. That means more money."
Katniss feels her heart being ripped out of her chest and she cries. Something she's never done in front of Peeta, ever. Not when she'd fall out of a tree and cut her leg open, not when she'd scrape her knees on the floor or when she hurt herself. Peeta's never seen Katniss cry, and knowing that he's the reason she's crying makes him tear up.
"Hey, don't cry. It's going to be okay, we still have skype remember? And we can write to each other, and considering we'll be getting more money in from the bakery I'll be able to catch the train to see you all the time. I'll still be here."
"Peeta, you're moving away." She sobs into his chest. He holds her for what feels like an eternity. He doesn't want to let her go but he's going to have to let her go one day, he's moving. Moving away from his best friend, moving away from all the memories they've created together, moving away from the life they have together.
"What am I going to do? You're my only friend Peeta, I can't go to school alone and without you? You know that when you're sick I act sick so I don't go in either. It's easy for you, if I was moving away you'd be fine. You're easy to talk to and you can make friends. You had the prettiest girl in school throwing herself at you for God's sake! Peeta what am I going to do? You can't go, you can't leave me." She sobs into his chest. "You can't leave us," she whispers to herself.
After hours of trying to calm her down, Peeta finally manages to. He promises her that he'll visit her often and that they won't lose contact, and that they'll be best friends for ever and ever, just as they promised when they were little. It's getting dark out and they need to walk at least a mile to get back to the District. Peeta leaves tomorrow night so they're going to spend the rest of tomorrow with each other.
They both stand up from the floor in the cabin and look into each other's eyes. Peeta smiles and Katniss shows sign of a smile on her lips. They pull each other in for a hug, just as they do every time they're about to leave the cabin. Katniss pulls away from the hug and pulls his lips down to hers and she kisses him.
She uses her first kiss on her best friend. Not because he's leaving tomorrow but because she's fallen in love with him since they were children. After a while Peeta pulls back from the kiss and looks into her eyes and kisses her on the forehead and makes his wish, to see Katniss again.