Finding the Missing Piece: Book 3

Chapter Twenty-Six

Katniss POV-

"Ready to go?" Peeta asks me after a while.

"Yeah." I say walking towards him, we link arms and he leads me down the narrow hallway, and to the elevators full of Capitol freaks. We make it down and back to our car, only being approached by two weirdos this time.

"Gosh, this place is cool and all but I'll sure be glad to get back home where there aren't as many creeps." He teases.

I laugh, nodding my head in agreement.

"Okay, so we are going to go on a little outdoor adventure. A little outside of the Capitol." Peeta informs me.

"Okay." I say simply, sitting back in the seat, but secretly jumping up and down inside.

I love being outside.

A little while later, we make it to our destination or what I am assuming our destination is.

It's a wide open area, paths and trees and I see a huge lake in the distance.

"What will we be doing?" I ask curiously.

Peeta shrugs, "Whatever we want." He says, bored.

"Come on." I say getting an idea.

I grab his hand and pull him to the tree-line with me and start hiking myself up the tree.

About half way up, I look down to see a very helpless looking Peeta still on the ground.

"Aren't you coming?" I ask.

Peeta starts to speak then stops, mouth open.

"Peeta, close your mouth. You're gonna get bugs in there. Are you coming or not?" I chuckle.

"Uh..."

"Uh-what?" I ask impatiently.

Peeta leans on one leg, "I don't know how to really climb trees. I've never done it."

I smirk, "That's okay, let me get in the fork and then give me your hand." I instruct him.

He nods as I maneuver myself into a fork in the tree, I hold my hand out to Peeta and he takes it.

Warmth rushes through me but I push it away to focus on getting Peeta up this tree.

He finally gets up enough, he makes it to the fork and sits down in front of me, out of breath.

I close my eyes, smirking at my love.

"Wasn't too bad, right?"

He laughs breathily, "I don't know how you do it."

"It's because I'm smaller than you, you have more muscle to hall up this tree." I joke.

He laughs, "You're crazy. You like it way up here?"

Pushing back his poke, I speak, "Yes. I'd like to go higher but I don't wanna leave you down here. I like it because I can see everything." I explain.

Peeta nods his head, somewhat interested in my reasons, "It makes sense. It's really pretty up here but I'm a little afraid of heights."

"Oh." I say, zoning out a bit, just watching Peeta observe the place.

He doesn't notice for awhile until I guess he asked me something and I didn't reply.

"Katniss?"

I blink my eyes a few times.

"Sorry." I say looking up.

"It's fine. Are you okay?"

I nod, "Yeah, I'm fine." I laugh, relief floods Peeta's face and he smiles.