Justice, the 4th hunger games book, the story after mockingjay

Chapter Thirty-five

Chapter thirty-five

PPOV

"Peeta?" Asks Ali barely breaking the silence that has engulfed us as we sit, settled for the evening.

"Hmm?" I answer lazily.

"Tell me a story, something from your life, a particularly happy memory or something. I need something to cheer me up and make me happy again." She mutters but even with her quiet tone I can hear that she is trying to keep her voice even, holding back the tears that would show just how scared she was.

"Hmm, okay, give me a second to think of one." There is only one memory that immediately springs to mind, the happiest I ever felt.

"After the uprising and rebellion Katniss and myself moved back to district twelve, at first she wouldn't talk to me, she was scared, I was scared too mind you, I was struggling to control my flashbacks and was worried that seeing and talking to her would cause me to hurt her which was the last thing I wanted to happen. After everything, two hunger games, my hijacking and the rebellion I knew somehow that I still loved her.

"Her spark, her flame was like a drug to me, I would torture myself by sitting in my garden and trying to catch a glimpse of her, I would ask about her all the time. I finally got the courage and control to go and talk to her, ask her to help me with my recovery and she agreed much to my amazement. We would see each other everyday, either filling in her memory book, me drawing and her describing or she would take me to the woods or the meadow or we would just sit and talk.

"We became close after a year or two and there was one question that had still been playing on my mind, I knew I loved her with all my heart, that I would do anything for her, even die. We had taken to sharing each others bed at night, it helped to have the other one close, somehow knowing the other one was there kept the nightmares away, we were finally able to sleep properly again. One evening I summoned the courage to ask the question. I began by asking her small questions I asked if Cinna was her stylist and she replied 'real' saying that he was more than her stylist he was one of her closest friends, that the capitol killed him in front of her just before our second games. I then asked if I died in the second games, I had seen videos of it but could never make sense of it or her reaction, she replied 'real' again saying that I had walked into an invisible force-field that had stopped my heart, Finnick had saved my life that day.

"I finally whispered into her ear you love me, real or not real? to which she answered the one word I will never forget, real. That was the last day we spent apart for going on ten years. Shortly after I asked her to marry me knowing that we were safe and together finally at last. That day, the day she told me she loved me was one of the happiest days of my life, knowing whole-heartedly that the girl I fell in love with fifteen years beforehand finally loved me back."

"Wow, that really is a true love story. Minus everything that happened up to that point, but I guess without it all you may have never crossed paths?"

"No probably not, Katniss is the only good thing to come out of all this."

"Yeah, she's something alright." She smiles touching my hand. "Thank you Peeta, for sharing that with me. It was truly a beautiful story and you have successfully managed to cheer me up!"

"Glad to be of service." I joke as she gets up and climbs the tree opposite me.

"Good night Peeta."

"Good night." I say as I settle down, pull out one of the bread rolls, i'm sure Haymitch will send more in the morning, and watch the fading light bounce of the river.

The memories of Katniss begin to come think and fast with the story I've just told Ali, of our marriage, the first time we were together, both pregnancies, and everything else in between. Tomorrow we will find each other. I promise myself that.

absentmindedly I begin to whistle our tune just as I hear something over the trickling of the water. Instinctively I duck just as an arrow plants itself in the tree mere millimetres from my head.

I put a hand on daggers and instantly I am on guard ensuring I don't move so my attacker thinks they have got me.

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Sorry it's so short, what do you think? Vote, comment!