Always and Forever

“Katniss! Would you hurry up! We’re going to miss our plane.”

“Yes dear!” I call down from our bathroom. “I’ll be finished in just a few seconds.” I hear my husband huff in annoyance and I chuckle to myself. I became Mrs. Mellark last week and I couldn’t be happier with him. For our honeymoon we are taking a cruise across the Caribbean along with our friends Madge and Gale who were married right after the rebellion and takeover of the capitol exactly three years ago. They are coming along for their 3-year anniversary.

I’ve never been on a boat let alone seen one before, I’m so excited and a little bit nervous about being on the water, but from what Peeta has told me it’s so big you forget that you’re even on the water! Madge is more nervous than I am but she was always like that. She is a little over one year older than me making her 21 and Gale 22, pretty young I know.

“Katniss!” Peeta calls again, beginning to lose patience. “Coming!” I grab the last of our toiletries and rush out the bathroom door. Sprinting down the stairs I crash into Peeta at the bottom. He gives me a quick kiss and I smile into it.

“Ready?” He asks excitedly.

“You bet!” The cruise will last two weeks so we have a large suitcase each plus backpacks and carry-ons. We hurry out to our garage and Peeta opens the trunk of our car and throws all of our luggage into it.

“Are we picking up Madge and Gale?” I ask him once we’re settled in the two front seats of our silver BMW. He nods and starts the car and backs out, pressing the automatic garage door closer at the same time.

Madge and Gale Hawthorne live a few houses down from us and are waiting at the end of their short driveway with even more baggage than Peeta and me, and I really thought that we had a lot!

“Hey Guys!” Madge squeals like a little girl as Gale opens the door for her then puts their luggage in the back with ours. It’s a good thing we have a large compartment back there, I’m surprised that the wheels aren’t sagging yet!

Soon the two of them are snuggled in the back and we begin our 30 minute drive to our Districts small airport. We’re flying to District 4 because its faster than the train, then the boat heads out tomorrow morning from there and we begin our cruise!

I don’t really know what the Caribbean is, only that it’s kind of like a big body of water, I guess we’ll find out. We’ll be stopping at different ports along the way and get to visit countries that no one even knew existed during President Snow's rule.

During the past three years our current President, Alma Coin has really proved herself and everybody loves her as our president. She’s done so much good and things have changed dramatically.

Our plane leaves at noon and we have to be there an hour early; right now it is 10:30am, perfect, although I thought that we actually were going to be late the way Peeta was yelling.

Finnick and Annie are coming to see us off before our plane takes off and Johanna, who is currently living in District 4, will say good-bye from there.

We said bye to our own families last night so that they could sleep in this morning without having to get up early. Everyone has been pretty tired after all the preparations for our wedding and everything, then the wedding itself was amazing even if it was tiring. Gale and Madge’s stylists from their games came for their wedding and insisted on coming to mine and Peeta’s as well. Cinna, who was Madge’s main stylist made my wedding dress and I have to say that never in my life have I ever seen anything so beautiful.

It wasn’t quite white, more of a light cream color that was long and barely brushed the floor. It was strapless with tiny sequins around the top, it was tight around the middle then at my waist in went out like a princess dress. The material was so light and comfortable and beautiful at the same time. I had to learn how to walk with heals, it took quite a few tries before I got it, but I think I’m a pro now!

“And here we are!” Peeta announces as we pull up into the airport parking lot. All four doors open then close as we all go to the back to retrieve our things. Gale strides over to a uniformed man at the entrance and brings back a big cart looking thing that will fit all of the big suitcases and carry-ons so that we only have to carry our personal items.

I take Peeta’s free hand and Madge does the same to Gale. The four of us walk confidently into the building, listening to the sound of airplanes overhead. We check our suitcases and they get put onto a moving belt thing that’ll bring them into the bottom section of the airplane. With our tickets in hand we go over to a group of seats and wait for our flight number to be called. We have about 45 minutes.

We’ve barely sat down before Finnick and Annie come running in and give us each a hug. “You are so going to love it!” Annie shrieks happily. “I hope so.” I reply, a little nervously.

Finnick and Annie are a few years older than us and have been married for approximately 5 years now I think.

“Madge, Katniss, come over here for a minute.” Annie calls the two of us over.

“Hey what’s up?” I ask. In answer she pulls out two stunning necklaces, each with a different shell on it. “I wanted to give you each a little something to take with you. I brought them from District 4 when we used to live there.”

Madge hugs her then I do too. “Thank you so much Annie, it’s gorgeous.”

“Your welcome.” She smiles and we walk back over to the guys.

“Look what Annie gave to me Peeta.” I hold up the necklace to show him.

“It’s beautiful Katniss.” I hand it to him and turn around holding up my hair so that he can put it on me. I’ve started to wear my hair down instead of in a braid all the time, Peeta likes it that way better, and it’s nice for a change. Once the clasp is done up I let my hair back down to show Annie.

“It looks great on you Kat.” She says grinning.

“Sorry guys but we’ve got to head out.” Finnick says. “Hope you all have a wonderful trip, enjoy yourselves as much as possible.” He smirks his signature Finnick smirk and shakes Peeta and Gales’ hands, then gives Madge and I a quick hug. They then walk out the door; and just in that same minute our flight number is called over the speakers.

We hurry to grab up our backpacks and purses, and, taking Peeta’s hand we rush to our gate. Surprisingly we get there first, and after handing the attendant our tickets we are let in and walk to our seats. It is a very small plane, I guess there aren’t very many people flying to District 4 today.

Peeta and I stop at the seats 1+2B, Madge and Gale are a little further back from us. The flight will be about 3 hours, way faster than a train as you can see. We settle down into our seats and prepare for takeoff.

A few minutes later we start to move and pretty soon we’re going so fast I can hardly believe it, after a few seconds we begin to lift up into the air. I clutch Peeta’s hand tightly as we rise, getting higher and higher into the sky.

Three hours later…

The landing was even scarier than the takeoff but Peeta held me and thankfully I didn’t toss my breakfast. After getting off the plane we hurry through customs and get our luggage put onto another one of those carts and wheel it out. We hail a taxi and get the driver to take us to the hotel that we’ll be staying at for tonight.

It turns out to be a pretty nice hotel with a window that looks over the beach. We deposit our belongings in our rooms then Peeta and I decide to go for a little walk along the beach after a quick bite to eat at the hotel’s restaurant.

Neither of us have eaten fish before but that is pretty much all they eat here so we had to at least try it. I have to admit that it was quite delicious, Peeta didn’t like it so much. When our bellies are full we walk hand-in-hand out onto the beach. Taking off our shoes we run through the sand letting our toes sink into the softness of it.

“That’s my favorite color.” Peeta whispers as we sit together on the dock marveling at the amazing sunset a while later.

“I know.” I whisper back. “I’ve never forgotten the first time you told me.

“And that’s your favorite color.” He points to a dark green colored palm tree. I nod and lean on his shoulder, his arms automatically go around me.

We sit there and watch the sun reflect off of the water until it is pitch black outside.

“We should probably head back.” He says when I feel myself drifting off. I nod and start to stand up, he takes both of my hands and helps me up all of the way. We skip happily back through the sand, shoes in hand, then we slip them back on once we arrive at the front door of our hotel.

We go to bed early that night, wanting to be rested for the next day and the excitement it’ll hold.

Next Day…

“Good Morning sleeping beauty.” I slowly open my eyes to find Peeta right above me with his hands on either side of my head holding him up.

“Morning.” I say groggily, “Is it time to get up already?”

“Yep! Boat leaves in two hours.” I sit up and rub my eyes. “Is there a breakfast restaurant downstairs where we can eat at before we go?” I ask. Peeta nods.

“Good, now will you please get off of me so I can take a quick shower before we go?” I ask, trying to squirm out from under him. He smiles wickedly and I’m starting to think that he’s not going to let me go but he does and hops off the bed. We each take a quick shower then get changed. I put on a pair of jean shorts and a sea green tank top along with my new necklace from Annie. We meet Madge and Gale outside in the hallway and walk down to breakfast together.

“How did you sleep?” I ask Madge on our way down. “The bed was so comfy!” She gushes.

“Oh good, ours was pretty nice too.” Our breakfast consists of bacon and eggs with a glass of orange juice. We all eat quickly so that we can get all of our luggage down to the ship in time. We finish with an hour to spare and hurry up to our rooms to repack whatever we got out last night. Once we’re ready we have to make two trips to get all of our stuff just to the front door of the hotel.

Because the hotel is right on the beach we don’t have to walk far. The bellman evens helps carry some of our things. When the cruise ship comes into sight I think that it’s maybe an island at first. I had imagined that it would be huge but it’s bigger than huge!

“This is going to be awesome!” I say to Peeta.” He chuckles. Somehow we get our luggage to the ship and it is hoisted up to be put into our cabins.

Suddenly a loud commotion is heard from behind us and we all turn around to see what it is. A large jeep is flying through the sand not even noticing that there are people running everywhere trying desperately to get away. A big box is attached to the back and its contents are rattling like crazy. I know who it is and apparently so does everyone else because we all say the name at the same time, “Johanna.”

She parks abruptly beside us and hops out. “Oh I thought I wouldn’t make it!” She pants.

“Nice to see you too Jo.” I say. “Hey brainless.” We all chuckle at her nickname for me.

“Well I just wanted to wish you love birds a nice cruise, okay bye!” And with that she jumps back into her jeep and as quickly as she got here she’s gone again, bouncing down the beach with sand flying all around. We all laugh but get interrupted by a loud horn being blown.

“That’s our cue.” Peeta says, and we hurry to walk up the gang plank. And just like that, our adventure begins.