Disclaimer: All the genius for the characters goes to Suzanne Collins, and to Pixar for the plotline (Loosely from "Up!")
Chapter 5
The next day, Peeta woke up at five o'clock in the morning having hardly slept a wink the night before from the sheer excitement of the day ahead.
Normally his alarm would go off, and he would groan as he rolled over to smack the snooze button. After repeating this several times, his mother would come into his room yelling, "Peeta Russell Mellark! Get up! I am tired of hearing that alarm go off every five minutes!" At this point, he usually sat up in bed, stretched his arms above his head, which was most often accompanied by a yawn, then rubbed his face with his hands as if wiping away the sleep, and would slowly get out of bed, shuffling his feet to the bathroom.
Clapping her hands his mother would follow behind him and say, "Chop, chop! Come on! You're so slow! Get moving! Move faster or I'll-" and he would cut her off with the closing of the bathroom door behind him, through which he would always hear her huff in annoyance and mutter something under her breath as her footsteps retreated.
But this morning, he jumped up the first time his alarm went off, quickly turning it off so as not to bother anyone still asleep. After quickly going to the bathroom and brushing his teeth, he threw on the clothes he had laid out the night before, put on his old Indiana Jones hat, and quickly, but quietly, made his way downstairs to the kitchen. Grabbing the bag of leftover cheese buns, sugar cookies, and the bag of "wart rocks" he had stayed up making the night before, he double-checked to make sure everything was there, and then he was out the door and into the dark morning.
It was a short walk to Katniss's house with his quick, excited pace this morning. When he got within sight of the house, he saw Katniss beside it, wearing her father's large, leather jacket, and playing with a flashlight. Flashlight! He knew he forgot something! Oh, well. He ran the last little bit, not wanting to make her wait any longer.
When she heard his heavy footfalls as he began to run, Katniss looked up toward him and held the flashlight under her face as if she were telling a ghost story.
As he got closer, she could make out the grin on his face. "What're you doing?" he asked.
She didn't say anything. She just stared at him, flashlight still under her face.
"Katniss?"
Nothing. Peeta's smile began to fade.
"Kat, come on, you're starting to freak me out."
Katniss stayed unmoving.
"Ka-"
"BOO!"
Peeta jumped, startled by her sudden movement, and Katniss was rolling on the ground laughing.
"Kat, that was not funny!"
"Oh, I think it was!"
"You nearly made me spill the cheese buns!"
She quickly jumped up from the ground, no sign amusement left on her face.
"But you didn't, right?"
Peeta didn't answer.
"Peeta?"
Nothing. Katniss started to get frantic.
"Peeta, I'm sorry, but I need to know if the chee-"
"BOO!"
This time Katniss jumped, dropping the flashlight while Peeta laughed as he said, "You're right! That was funny!"
Katniss stooped down to pick up the flashlight, sending a scowl in his direction. Once she stood back up, she lightly punched him in the arm.
"And to think I'm taking you to my Mission Control. Maybe I should reconsider. I mean, I don't think I can deal with cheese bun spillers."
"Well then, good thing I didn't spill them."
"Touché."
Katniss grabbed a backpack that was leaning against the house, slung it on her back and began to walk, so Peeta fell into step beside her.
Handing her a cheese bun, he said, "Thank you again, Kat. I know how much you like your privacy, and I'm really glad that you're letting me come to your secret hideout."
"Yeah, yeah," she took a bite of cheese bun, "just don't get all mushy and stuff on me and make me regret it," she said nonchalantly, but the grin on her face gave her away.
"Sir, yes sir!"
She raised her eyebrows at him.
"Mam, yes mam!"
Nodding once in approval and smiling as she chewed, she said through a mouth full of cheese bun, "That's right!"
A short time, some small talk, and three cheese buns later, they were at her tree house. The sun was just starting to come up, bathing everything in twilight, as they looked up into the tree tops.
"How do you get up?" Peeta asked. He didn't see a ladder or staircase or anything.
"Well, I have a rope ladder, but usually I just climb up."
"I, uh, I'm not very good a climbing trees," Peeta admitted, digging the toe of his shoe into the dirt and staring at the ground.
"That's okay," Katniss said sweetly, causing him to look up at her with a sheepish smile. "I don't want you to drop any of those cheese buns, anyway! I'll just climb up and let down the ladder for you."
"Cross your heart?"
She crossed it and added, "Of course! I'm not gonna leave the cheese buns- I mean you down here!"
"Thanks." His smile got a little brighter, and the tips of his ears a little redder.
After Peeta finally got into the tree house, he barely got a chance to look around before he was pulled by Katniss over to the window, which was just a square hole in the wall, and she pointed to the rising sun just starting to peak out over the horizon, painting the sky a light orange. "Look. Your favorite color."
Peeta smiled as he looked out over the scene. "Yes, it is." Noticing a tree branch very close to the window, he reached out and plucked a leaf from it, handing it to Katniss.
She scowled in confusion, looking from the leaf resting on her palm and back to him.
"Look," he pointed to the leaf, touching it with his index finger, "Your favorite color."
Katniss didn't know she could smile so big. "Yes, it is."
They both stared at each other for several minutes, unmoving, with goofy grins on their faces.
Peeta was the first to break the silence. Taking off his Indiana Jones hat and running his hand through his mop of curls, he turned and looked around the interior of the tree house. "So. This is your Mission Control?"
Shaking her head to clear the fog as she came out of the daze, but unable to shake off her grin, she stuttered, "Uh, yeah. Yeah, this is it."
Looking around, Peeta wanted to take in every little detail. It was very simple, not much was inside. There was a table and two chairs that looked handmade, probably by Mr. Everdeen, on top of the table was a large glass jar full of stones and a book that looked like a kind of scrapbook. Hanging on the wall was a bow and a quiver full of arrows.
Walking over to the table, Peeta sat down in a chair, and picked up the jar to get a closer look at the stones. Katniss walked over and set her backpack on the chair opposite Peeta, unzipped it, and pulled out three thermoses, setting one on the table and holding the other two. "Orange juice, chocolate milk, or hot chocolate?"
"Surprise me."
"Okay. Hot chocolate it is."
"Aw, man! I wanted orange juice!"
Even though his voice whined, Katniss knew the grin he was trying so hard to smother meant he was just messing with her.
Pulling two disposable coffee cups out of her bag, she filled them both with hot chocolate, noticing Peeta staring longingly at the steam rising from the cups, then put all the thermoses back in the backpack, set it on the floor, and sat down in the chair, pushing a cup over to Peeta.
"Thanks!" he grabbed the cup, and set his hat on top of the table.
Holding her cup right below her lips, inhaling the sweet, rich smell of the drink, she stared at the hat, a million memories flooding her mind.
"What?" Peeta asked her, noticing her stare. "Is there dirt or something on my hat?" He picked it up to look it over, but didn't see anything wrong with it. Looking back to Katniss, he saw her grey eyes sparkling as if all the stars of the universe were stored behind them. "What?"
"Nothing," she said, a small, genuine smile now growing on her face. "Nothing. I just…. I just…. Looking at that hat brought back a lot of memories."
"Good ones, I hope."
"Of course! We only have good ones."
They stared at each other again, the same goofy grins on their face as earlier. After what seemed like an eternity Katniss was the one to break the silence this time.
"We have done some crazy stuff. Some really silly, really stupid, but really fun stuff."
"Yeah…. We sure have." Peeta rubbed the back of his neck with his free hand, and stared down at the table to keep from doing something silly like blushing, when he noticed the book on the table. It had a little window in the cover to put a photo, but instead of a picture it had a piece of paper with the words "My Adventure Book" written across it in crayon, every letter a different color, and it was unmistakably Katniss's handwriting.
Reaching for it, he looked up to her and saw she was watching him. "May I?"
She nodded, and he opened it up to the first page.
On the inside of the cover, in the same handwriting and in crayon, but only one color, green, of course, were the words "This book belongs to Katniss Everdeen". Peeta smiled at the handwriting of a much younger Katniss, and looked to the title page. In much neater handwriting in a pen instead of crayon were the words "For Katniss, from Daddy." He glanced up to see Katniss staring at the page with tears threatening to spill over and a small, sad smile on her face.
"Go ahead. You can read it. I trust you."
Mimicking her sad smile, Peeta nodded and crossed his heart. Turning his attention back to the page, he continued reading silently. "Bullseye, you are my morning and my night, my sun and my moon, the arrow to my bow, and the song in my heart. You are my little girl. I will always love you, and will always be there to go on adventures with you. Life is a great big adventure, and so much can happen that we forget all the steps we took to get where we are now. So I want you to use this book to keep track of all the memories that make you who you are. The people who you love and the things you do together. I went ahead and started it for you. This is one of my favorite memories. Now, go out there and have fun! And make sure you always come back to tell me how you beat the dragon or saved the world. Love you always, Daddy."
Turning to the first page, he saw a photo of Mr. Everdeen sitting on the edge of a hospital bed holding what must have been baby Katniss, looking down at her with the most beautiful and happy smile, a smile Peeta saw every time Mr. Everdeen looked at Katniss. Mrs. Everdeen was on the bed behind him, looking over his shoulder at Katniss with the same smile. Underneath the photo Mr. Everdeen had written, "You see? This is one of my favorite memories. Now, go make your own."
Looking at Katniss again he noticed tear tracks down her cheeks, her grey eyes looking like storm clouds, her face a blank expression as she stared at the photo from across the table. He reached out and took the now cold hot chocolate out of her hand, setting it on the table and replacing it with his hand in hers. She linked their fingers like he had the night before and they both squeezed as hard as they could.
After a few minutes, still staring at the photo, she whispered, "I don't know why that makes me so sad. I mean, it makes me so happy, but at the same time, it just makes me sad. I guess, I mean…. I think it's just that looking at that photo, I realize that everything goes by so fast." She finally looked at him, looking straight into those blue eyes she loved so much. Her voice quivered as she continued to whisper, "I know, I know, we're only ten years old, but still. I feel like I met you yesterday. But at the same time I feel like I have known you forever. You are my best friend, Peeta. I hope you know that."
"I do."
"I was never very good at making friends. I only had Gale, then, we met you that day, and you were wearing that silly hat," she chuckled through her tears.
"Hey! This hat is not silly! It is awesome!" Peeta said playfully, placing the hat on his head, making her laugh again.
"You are right. It is an awesome hat. And that awesome hat brought me you. And with you came Finn and Jo and Annie, and your brothers, and your dad… Thank you."
"You're welcome, but I don't think the hat brought us to you. It may be awesome, but it's not magical or anything."
Laughing, Katniss nodded in agreement, wiping the tears from her cheeks. "You're probably right. Now, go on. Turn the page."
Turning his attention back to the book, he turned the page and took in a sharp breath when he saw the photo.
It was from the day they met, his father had taken it. He remembered telling his father after the cheese bun contest, "Dad, now that we have beat our tummy monsters, we have to take a picture as proof! I will have to put it in my report after my mission." His father had smiled at him as he always did, and agreed. After rummaging through his desk his father had found the camera, and had taken a picture of the three of them in the booth, all grinning, arms slung over each other's shoulders, Katniss in the middle, and the sun set coming in through the large window behind them. His father had said, "Say cheese buns!" while he lined up the shot.
Underneath the photo, in Katniss's younger handwriting and crayon, it said, "I made a new friend today! His name is Peeta Mellark and he is very pretty."
He paused, looking up at Katniss with a mischievous grin. "You thought I was pretty?"
"Shut up."
He laughed and went back to reading, this time out loud. "We defeated tummy monsters and I got to throw a cookie at Gale's head. It was a good day."
Peeta could not contain it anymore. He threw his head back and laughed a deep laugh. Soon, he was laughing so hard, tears were streaming out of the edges of his eyes even though they were clamped shut, no sound was coming out, and his face was red.
He grabbed his stomach and took a deep breath, trying to calm down. But before he could start laughing again, Katniss extended her leg under the table, put her foot on the front of his chair and pushed. With his weight already leaning toward the back of the chair, the chair went toppling backwards, causing his breath meant to calm him down to become a gasp of surprise and a yelp of terror.
"Kaaaaaaaat!" he yelled from the floor.
Katniss stayed in her chair, peering at him over the table. They both suddenly burst into laughter. Finally, they calmed down enough that Katniss got up and went over to him, holding out a hand to help him up.
"Thanks." Grabbing her hand, instead of pulling himself up, he yanked her down to the floor, eliciting a shriek of horror from Katniss as she fell beside him.
She sat up, scowling at him, so he mimicked her expression, adding in a fake pouty voice, "Mr. Grumpy Gills…."
Still scowling, but a small grin breaking through Katniss retorted, "That's Mrs. Grumpy Gills to you!"
Something in his smile made Katniss curious. "What? What now?"
Brushing a piece of hair behind her ear, the smile on his face never fading, he said, "Nothing. I just wish I could freeze this moment, right here, right now, and live in it forever."
Katniss didn't know what to do or say. She found herself blushing as she sang a song she heard on one of Prim's cartoons, "Forever, and ever, is a very long time, Pooh!"
Peeta looked at her in a way as if to say "Um, what?", but then smiled and said, "Oh, d-d-d-dear!" Mimicking Pooh's sidekick, Piglet.
They both got up, chuckling, and Peeta picked up his chair and set it beside Katniss's.
"Why are you sitting over here?" she asked him.
"So we can look at the book together."
She blushed and stared at the table, smiling.
"Plus," he added, "you can't push me over if I'm right beside you."
Looking back at him, she grinned as if she had just accepted a challenge. "Don't count on it, Bread Boy."
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
They spent a few more hours in the tree house, looking through the book, laughing at the memories. Every few pages Katniss's writing got better, showing the passing time, and it progressed from crayon, to pencil, and finally to pen, but all were green.
Peeta turned to the next page and found it was blank. They were only half way through the book, so he flipped through the remaining pages, finding them all blank.
"Still have more adventures to have, 'eh?"
"You know it, Bread Boy."
"Well, I for one am honored that I have already made it to the pages of your book, and look forward to the next time we do something stupid enough to make it's way onto a page."
"Well, how about right now? We could freeze this moment, just like you wanted."
"What do you mean?"
Katniss reached into the backpack and pulled out one of those cameras that spits out the photo right after you take it.
"No way!" Peeta said.
"Totally, dude," Katniss said, mimicking his father from the night before.
Putting his head in his hands Peeta groaned, "Ugh. Don't remind me."
"Fine, dude. I'll quit harshing your mellow."
"Kat."
"Fine."
"Thank you."
"What I was saying was we can document today. I mean, it's not something stupid, but it's something…. Epic. You being here, me sharing my tree house and my book with you…. We have to document this."
Peeta readily agreed, standing beside Katniss. "Let's make silly faces!"
Katniss rolled her eyes. "Boys."
They took four photos. The first was Peeta puffing his cheeks and crossing his eyes while Katniss stuck her tongue out the left side of her mouth and looked up and to the right. The second was them just smiling. The third photo, Katniss said she wanted another one of them smiling to keep for herself, and right before she clicked the camera, she turned and kissed Peeta on his cheek. The photo turned out perfectly, Peeta smiling a big, genuinely happy smile, and Katniss kissing his cheek, her eyebrows raised, and a grin turning up the side of her lips.
Peeta said he wanted one just like that for himself, tapping his cheek where she had just kissed, making her roll her eyes.
"Peeta, you've had enough adventures today. I am not going to do that again."
"Fine, then at least let's take another smiling one so that I can take that one home."
"Fine!" Katniss huffed. "I'll take it on 'three', so don't blink."
They got cheek to cheek for one last photo, and Katniss counted, "One… Two…" and right as he heard the 'th' of 'three', he turned and kissed her on the cheek and she snapped the shot.
It turned out just like the third one, with Katniss looking genuinely happy and Peeta grinning as he planted a smooch on her cheek.
Katniss handed him the photo, scowling, and attached the first two into the book with some double-sided tape she had brought in the backpack.
"This is great!" Peeta said looking at the photo, then at Katniss. She was writing under the photos with a green ink pen. Walking to stand behind her, he read over her shoulder as she wrote under the silly faced one.
"Brought Indiana Jones to my tree house today. He brought wart-stones, but we didn't have to use them. Maybe I will use them to practice my aim later – I'll throw them at Buttercup."
"Katniss!"
"Oh, hush!" Then she moved on to the smiling photo.
"He may pull me down when I try to help him up, granted I made him fall in the first place, but he has redeeming qualities. Like cheese buns." Then she drew a line to an empty space at the top of the page, made it into an arrow, and wrote, "Oh. And also this. 'Look. Your favorite color.'" and she taped the leaf he had given her that morning right above her words, the arrow pointing right to it.
She then took the photo of her kissing his cheek and wrote the date on the back, then took Peeta's out of his hand, and did the same, handing it back to him.
"I have proof. I will need this when I turn in my report after my mission," Peeta said, mimicking what he had told his father before that first photo three years ago.
Katniss finally smiled at him. "Just make sure it says, "Eyes only" on the envelope. Don't wan that proof getting into the wrong hands." she closed the book and began putting away the camera and tape.
"Hey, Kat? Do you think I could borrow that book? I want to show my dad that photo he took. Is that okay? I'll give it back to you when school starts."
She seemed hesitant at first, but said okay. She put it in her backpack and zipped it up.
"Oh!" she shouted, making Peeta jump.
"What? Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, but you said school, and it made me think of our friends and then the camp fire last night, and then before they left we all agr-"
"Oh!" Peeta shouted. "We've got to go!"
A/N: Ta-da! If you have any ideas or suggestions for this story, please PM me, or leave a comment/review! (Comment/review/follow anyway. You know you want to. :P)
Also, you can find me on tumblr: Konzelwoman
In the hopes that you have read this far, thank you. May the odds be ever in your favor, the force always be with you, and may you live long and prosper.
And once again, Disclaimer: All the genius for the characters goes to Suzanne Collins, and to Pixar for the plotline (Loosely from "Up!")