Piece By Piece {Completed}

Chapter 5: The Lake

"Where's this lake again?" Peeta asks as we walk through the forest, Peeta holds a basket of food and I hold a blanket

"It's not that far" I reply, we walk for a couple of minutes till we come to a clearing, the lake shimmers in the summer sun and ripples as the breeze softly blows against the water, I look to Peeta who's eyes are bright and he has a smile on his handsome face

"It's beautiful" he says as I set the blanket down and we both sit down

"My dad... he'd take me here almost every summer to cool down. He taught me to swim in this lake. You're the only person other than him or me that know of this place" I admit, I look at him and he's already looking at me

"Well, I feel happy that your sharing it with me" he replies, the sun shines on his face and I notice things about Peeta that I never knew before, the scar below his bottom lip, sharpness of his jawline and the way his blonde hair relaxes on his forehead

"Come on. Let's have a swim" I say standing and undressing to my underwear, I jump into the lake and swim up to the edge of the grass ledge where Peeta sits on the blanket still, red faced

"Um... uh... are you... uh-um sure?" I grin at him because I've never heard him not speak clearly

"It's hot and really cool in here. Come on, I trust you" I reply and he then undresses down to his underwear and joins me, we both swim around and splash around in the water. Enjoying the happiness and freedom that we now have, I look at Peeta from the water, he's looking up at the clear blue sky with a small smile, I swim over to him and grip his face, pulling his lips to mine for a long but sweet kiss

"What was that for?" He asks, wrapping his arms around me

"I don't know... I just wanted to, I guess" I shrug and he smiles, tucking some loose hair behind my ear before bringing our lips together but we don't stop, I can feel it... the hunger deep in my stomach, the hunger for our bodies to be together but we both know that it's too soon, it's only been a month and we agreed to wait, that doesn't stop the hunger from being known.

Peeta and I sit on the blanket and begin eating what he packed, we talk to each other things that we didn't know about each other or secrets about ourselves that we've never told anyone. Things are good with Peeta, he makes me feel warm and safe, no one has made me feel the way that Peeta does every single day and sometimes without even trying, it could be as simple as his smile when I talk about my day or the way his eyes light up when he talks about his day in the bakery.

Peeta and I walk through our district, I hold onto his arm as we talk and every so often when I look up, I'll see someone looking with a smile. Panem has come a long way since the hunger games, people are happy and never starving, people are able to move to any district, even if they're not from it and anyone can live in the Capitol, no matter how they dress. Everyone is living a happier life now that Paylor is president and ensures that no one is ever starving or being treated like before.

Annie wrote us a letter with a picture of her newborn baby boy, he looks really tiny in Annie's arms but I also noticed the look on Peetas face when he saw the picture of the small baby... I know that if he had children that he'd be an amazing father but I feel bad because he wants them so bad but I can't give him the children that he wants so badly, I try talking myself into it but I just get too scared at the thought of being a mother, I'd be a terrible one.

I'm sitting on the couch sharpening my blunt arrow heads when Peeta walks in holding a thick brown leather book, he sits next to me and I look at him with a raised eyebrow

"I've been working on this for a while now. I just hope you like it" he extends the book towards me, I set down my arrowheads and take it. It puts a smile to my face as I flip through the pages of the people we've ever known and what they mean to us, he draws everyone so real that I think I could reach out and touch the real person, he even got every feature of my father as I remembered