#book peeta mellark to be clear

[shoopsthereitis]

i’m actually insane about peeta mellark

[foxdoodles]

oops.. more hunger games

[thegreenthepeacetheorange]

feeling emotional

about this

[katnissandpeetamellark]

Nothing Suzanne Collins writes in her books is on accident

[agir1ukn0w]

hey suzanne, you probably aren’t reading this, but if you are I just wanted to ask if you could write a book about every victor of the hunger games, with descriptions of their lives, how they won, and what happened to them after that, because I am actually frothing at the mouth wanting to know more about mags flanagan and finnick odair and johanna mason and beetee latier and wiress and the morphlings and enobaria and chaff and even cashmere and gloss. I want to know everything about these people and how they survived such brutal circumstances, please pleasepleasepleasepleasepleaseprettyplease can you write something like this for us suzanne???

[capriddle]

My top 10 couples

I usually always post about my favorites, but today I also want to talk about 9 other couples that are always in my heart:

10. Sansa and Sandor (Game of Thrones)

From what I remember of the books (in which their age difference is much less accentuated, it should be 10/15 years) I really liked the two of them, with Sansa who was scared but then understood that he was a good person deep down and with Sandor who fell in love with the innocence and hope of this little girl.

9. Jo March and Friedrich Bhaer (Little Women)

Here too I don't remember much from the book but in the film I definitely loved them together, Jo so stubborn and bold and Friedrich calm but very honest and clear. Also here we have the age difference!

8. Elizabeth Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy (Pride and Prejudice)

This is the quintessential enemies to lovers and since this is my favorite trope I couldn't help but fall in love with them, I also have a soft spot for Mr Darcy because we are very similar in character and I empathize with them a lot.

7. Alina Starkov and Aleksander Morozova/The Darkling (Shadow and Bone)

What can I say, big age difference, enemies for lovers, impossible love... could I let them get away? Of course not! I wanted them together, period.

6. Penelope Featherington/Lady Whistledown and Colin Bridgerton (Romancing Mr Bridgerton/Bridgerton season 3)

I don't usually like friends-in-love, but these two made me change my mind (maybe because I love her too much). They're so high in the ranking because I wasn't crazy about the second part of their season, I liked Penelope's answers to Colin in the book more. Anyway, credit to them for making me change my mind about the friends-in-love trope.

5. Katniss Evergreen and Peeta Mellark (Hunger Games)

I don't know if I would call them friends or lovers, I just know that I didn't root for Gale for a second. Katniss and Peeta are perfect together, two survivors with profoundly different characters but united by a common moral. She is colder and more direct, he is kinder and more generous, but both are strong, brave and altruistic. A wonderful couple!

4. Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler (Gone with the Wind)

Age difference, difficult characters, both stubborn, direct, mean and cunning. A perfect couple even though she realizes it too late, their push and pull is so funny and the ending so out of the ordinary for the time and a novel partly of love that will satisfy those who love plot twists.

3. Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald (Harry Potter saga/Fantastic Beasts saga)

Enemies for lovers, two complex and multifaceted characters, a tragically divided couple who find themselves rivals after a sparkling start. An overwhelming and painful love that moves you when you think about how Grindelwald protected Dumbledore's tomb from Voldemort. They deserved more (and so do we fans of the films).

3. Seong Gi-hun and Hwang In-ho (Squid Game)

Yes, there is nothing confirmed, but I refuse to think that two people who look at each other like that are not in love with each other! Here too we have an enemy for lovers of the tastiest, with the addition that our hero does not even know that the other is the sworn enemy. What can I say, I loved every second of them!

1. Bellatrix Black and Tom Marvolo Riddle/Lord Voldemort (Harry Potter saga)

The unexpected couple in first place. Age difference, opposite social classes, complementary characters and shared passions. The desire to create the world they want and the courage to do any wickedness for each other. This is true love and I don't want to hear anything against it!

Looking at the rankings I would say there is still hope for me but not a lot considering the top 3🤣🤣🤣🤣!

[villain-byteniwoha]

Currently reading The Hunger Games and this is probably the first time in literal YEARS i have been excited over a book. Notable differences I've noticed right off the bat between book and movie:

Clear emphasis on Katniss' complicated relationship with her mother

The existence of district thirteen in Panem's history books

Katniss "there is no romance between me and Gale" Everdeen

Surprisingly enough, humor. Katniss has a snappy wit that sometimes catches me off guard

They went to school???? There are snippets where Katniss remembers Peeta from school and. Just. The concept that they all went to school never crossed my mind

KATNISS' FATHER!!!!! We get to know the full impact of how he raised her and how she coped after his death. The bow, the hunting, the foundational knowledge of survival—the depression and her stepping up as a provider when their mother couldn't. These are very important points to me

And while I can definitely see why the movie just stuck with the bread, I find it so fucking touching that there is more to Katniss finding hope from Peeta. I think it was in Chapter 2 or 3 where, after taking the bread home, and the Everdeen family eat—the day after, in school, Katniss sees Peeta but neither of them acknowledge what happened. As Katniss turns away from Peeta, she spots a dandelion (the first of Spring) and IMMEDIATELY remembers the Meadow and her father's lectures.

Mind you, the bread offer happens after Katniss' father died. They are starving, Katniss is close to giving up, and then: hope. She attributes that first spark of life, of that fight, to Peeta Mellark. Whom she is supposed to kill.

God, I love this book already

[katnissmellarkkk]

Collection of introductions of the love interest in a YA series. You can always tell based on how they’re introduced what kind of love interest they’re meant to be.

-

[ katniss/peeta - hunger games ]

“Peeta Mellark.”

Peeta Mellark!

Oh, no, I think. Not him. Because I recognize this name, although I have never spoken directly to its owner. Peeta Mellark.

No, the odds are not in my favor today.

I watch him as he makes his way toward the stage. Medium height, stocky build, ashy blond hair that falls in waves over his forehead. The shock of the moment is registering on his face, you can see his struggle to remain emotionless, but his blue eyes show the alarm I’ve seen so often in prey. Yet he climbs steadily onto the stage and takes his place.

[…]

Why him? I think. Then I try to convince myself it doesn’t matter. Peeta Mellark and I are not friends. Not even neighbors. We don’t speak. Our only real interaction happened years ago. He’s probably forgotten it. But I haven’t and I know I never will…

-

[ bella/edward - twilight ]

As I examined them, the youngest, one of the Cullens, looked up and met my gaze, this time with evident curiosity in his expression. As I looked swiftly away, it seemed to me that his glance held some kind of unmet expectation.

"Which one is the boy with the reddish brown hair?" I asked. I peeked at him from the corner of my eye, and he was still staring at me, but not gawking like the other students had today — he had a slightly frustrated expression. I looked down again.

"That's Edward. He's gorgeous, of course, but don't waste your time. He doesn't date. Apparently none of the girls here are good-looking enough for him." She sniffed, a clear case of sour grapes. I wondered when he'd turned her down.

I bit my lip to hide my smile. Then I glanced at him again. His face was turned away, but I thought his cheek appeared lifted, as if he were smiling, too.

-

[ harry/ginny - harry potter ]

“You know that black-haired boy who was near us in the station? Know who he is?”

“Who?”

“Harry Potter!”

Harry heard the little girl’s voice. “Oh, Mum, can I go on the train and see him, Mum, oh please. . . .”

“You’ve already seen him, Ginny, and the poor boy isn’t something you goggle at in a zoo.”

-

[ hermione/ron - harry potter ]

“Has anyone seen a toad? Neville’s lost one,” she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth.

“We’ve already told him we haven’t seen it,” said Ron, but the girl wasn’t listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.

“Oh, are you doing magic? Let’s see it, then.” She sat down. Ron looked taken aback.

“Er — all right.”

[…]

He waved his wand, but nothing happened. Scabbers stayed gray and fast asleep.

“Are you sure that’s a real spell?” said the girl. “Well, it’s not very good, is it? I’ve tried a few simple spells just for practice and it’s all worked for me. Nobody in my family’s magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, of course, I mean, it’s the very best school of witchcraft there is, I’ve heard — I’ve learned all our course books by heart, of course, I just hope it will be enough — I’m Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?”

[…]

“I’m Ron Weasley,” Ron muttered.

-

[ tris/four - divergent ]

I have to stand on solid ground again. I see a few hands stretching out to me at the edge of the net, so I grab the first one I can reach and pull myself across. I roll off, and I would have fallen face-first onto a wood floor if he had not caught me.

“He” is the young man attached to the hand I grabbed. He has a spare upper lip and a full lower lip. His eyes are so deep-set that his eyelashes touch the skin under his eyebrows, and they are dark blue, a dreaming, sleeping, waiting color.

-

[ percy/annabeth - percy jackson ]

“Annabeth?” Mr. Brunner called to the blonde girl.

She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced us. “This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don’t you go check on Percy’s bunk? We’ll be putting him in cabin eleven for now.”

Annabeth said, “Sure, Chiron.”

She was probably my age, maybe a couple of centimeters taller and a whole lot more athletic-looking. With her deep tan skin and her curly blonde hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image. They were startling grey, like storm clouds; pretty but intimidating too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight.

She glanced at the Minotaur horn in my hand, then back at me. I imagined she was going to say, You killed a Minotaur! or Wow, you’re so awesome! or something like that.

Instead she said, “You drool when you sleep.”

-

[ thomas/teresa - the maze runner ]

But he had caught a glimpse of her before being blocked off. She was thin, but not too small. Maybe five and a half feet tall, from what he could tell. She looked like she could be fifteen or sixteen years old, and her hair was tar black. But the thing that had really stood out to him was her skin: pale, white as pearls.

[…]

He approached Newt and Alby, who both knelt beside the girl. Thomas, not wanting to meet their stares, concentrated on the girl; despite her paleness, she was really pretty. More than pretty. Beautiful. Silky hair, flawless skin, perfect lips, long legs. It made him sick to think that way about a dead girl, but he couldn’t look away. Won’t be that way for long, he thought with a queasy twist in his stomach. She’ll start rotting soon. He was surprised at having such a morbid thought.

“You know this girl, shank?” Alby asked, sounding ticked off.

Thomas was shocked by the question. “Know her? Of course I don’t know her. I don’t know anyone. Except for you guys.”

“That’s not …,” Alby began, then stopped with a frustrated sigh. “I meant does she look familiar at all? Any kind of feelin’ you’ve seen her before?”

“No. Nothing.” Thomas shifted, looked down at his feet, then back at the girl.

[…]

Thomas’s mind was spinning. He was sure he’d never seen her before—but then the slightest hint of doubt crept into his mind. “I swear she doesn’t look familiar at all,” he said anyway. He’d had enough accusations.

-

[ clary/jace - the mortal instruments ]

It was Alec who spoke first. “What’s this?” he demanded, looking from Clary to his companions, as if they might know what she was doing there.

“It’s a girl,” Jace said, recovering his composure. “Surely you’ve seen girls before, Alec. Your sister Isabelle is one.” He took a step closer to Clary, squinting as if he couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing. “A mundie girl,” he said, half to himself. “And she can see us.” “

“Of course I can see you,” Clary said. “I’m not blind, you know.”

“Oh, but you are,” said Jace, bending to pick up his knife. “You just don’t know it.” He straightened up. “You’d better get out of here, if you know what’s good for you.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Clary said. “If I do, you’ll kill him.” She pointed at the boy with the blue hair.

“That’s true,” admitted Jace, twirling the knife between his fingers. “What do you care if I kill him or not?”

“Be-because—,” Clary spluttered. “You can’t just go around killing people.”

“You’re right,” said Jace. “You can’t go around killing people.” He pointed at the boy with blue hair, whose eyes were slitted. Clary wondered if he’d fainted. “That’s not a person, little girl. It may look like a person and talk like a person and maybe even bleed like a person. But it’s a monster.”

-

[ticklishraspberries]

As someone who can turn their ticklishness on-and-off, I totally relate to/understand that recent headcanon post you made! This community is so enthusiastic about characters who are extremely ticklish, the kind that giggle and squirm at the smallest touch, and it sucks when you really aren't like that. If I don't feel 100% comfortable, my body just turns off being ticklish, and it sucks! Sorry to vent, but all of this to say, do you have any characters you headcanon to be like this? Thanks! :)

anon, i completely agree with you!! this happens to me all the time and it's so frustrating, i have gone like months without being ticklish and as someone whose relationship is so full of tickling, it was genuinely a hard time for me. i'm sorry this happens to you as well, but know you aren't alone!! here are some characters that i think probably have the ability to "turn-off" being ticklish, whether they would see it as a blessing or not (also, if i've ever headcanoned these characters as super ticklish, shhh that never happened, there are two wolves inside me)

tw: mentions of canon-typical trauma for the specific characters, not detailed or graphic though!!

aaron hotchner, derek morgan, and emily prentiss (criminal minds) - i think that just...being trained to endure the physical and mental toll of their job, specifically these 3 members of the b.a.u. have the ability to just...shut things out, physically. i think each of their unique traumas and backstories can support the idea and i could be more detailed about this in the future if anyone cares, lol.

ash lynx (banana fish) - it's very clear in canon that ash is very familiar with the concept of just...completely dissociating from your body as a coping mechanism, and i think tickling is something that blends with other unwanted touch. i think that if he is around someone he feels safe and comfortable with (cough eiji cough) he would be capable of letting his guard down, but it's mostly just instinct.

astarion (baldur's gate 3) - this man has learned to use his body as a weapon, and having physical weaknesses just doesn't mesh well with that. no one really ever...tried, not in hundreds of years, but when people touch him, it feels numb, detached, rehearsed. just like how he canonically doesn't know how to accept hugs, i think he would be so surprised if someone tried to tickle him, he'd just go rigid.

finnick odair, katniss everdeen, johanna mason, peeta mellark (the hunger games) - i think you could make this argument for any survivor of the games, because...they are all so traumatized, i can't imagine that they experience physical sensation the same was as other people, after all of the pain and discomfort they've been put through, the injuries they've sustained. realistically, i think all of them would either be completely not ticklish, or their instinct when tickled would be to freak out.

inej ghafa and kaz brekker (six of crows) - this one hurts to admit and i will never stop writing about them both being ticklish, but...let's be real here. both of them are so traumatized when it comes to the specific concept of physical touch, kaz literally has a phobia of skin-to-skin contanct, if you tried to tickle him, i think he would probably throw up and then murder you. inej shuts down at unwanted touch, she "disappears" as i believe she calls it in the books (aka dissociates) and i think that it would take a lot of trust and healing for either of them to even realize they were ticklish let alone allow it to happen.

levi ackerman (attack on titan) - this man has literally suffered so many injuries, i have to imagine his nervous system is just completely shot. i will still write about him being super ticklish, because it's my party and i'll do what i want to, but like...let's be real. i can't imagine him even reacting to a minor injury, like he's bleeding profusely and everyone is like "omg captain are you ok!?!?!" and he didn't even notice he was hurt and just starts stitching it up. like, he doesn't feel things. it would take a loooot to get him to relax enough to react to tickling, i think, lol. probably liquor.

[i-d-e-g-a-f]

i know people have talked about how it’s disappointing that we didn’t see age accurate casting for the hunger games series because it makes us more desensitized to the fact that katniss and peeta were children in the games, but i feel like no one touches on how that plays into how fans, adult fans, thirst over peeta. i read the books as a preteen and of course i loved peeta, and i still do at 18, but i can’t pretend i feel unfazed by the way adults thirst over him and forget that he was a child, and, although i love josh hutcherson and think he did a phenomenal job as an actor, i can’t help but feel it is in part due to that casting choice. throughout the series we are reminded frequently that the characters are children, but it becomes easy to overlook when the person you see and picture doesn’t look like a child. people often bring up that katniss was just a traumatized and exploited child, but i feel people often forget that about peeta as well, especially in the way the sexualize and romanticize him. and i know by the end of the series (pre epilogue) he is probably an adult (timeline is unclear bc katniss is an unreliable narrator) but still for the majority of the series we know him as a teenager. an incredibly endearing and lovable teenager, yes, but still a teenager. so i’m not trying to call anyone who has ever thirsted after him evil or a pedophile that is absurd but idk i cant help but find it remarkable how a main detail of the series, that they are children, is so easily overlooked because of the combination of a casting choice and the likability of his character. it’s reminiscent of the way capitol citizens watch the hunger games and are desensitized to children being forced to murder each other because it’s painted as a spectacle and entertainment rather than what it really is. it becomes easy to forget that peeta is a traumatized child when he a) wasn’t cast as one and b) the majority of fans don’t focus on the fact that he IS one because it’s easier, more comfortable, and more enjoyable to be distracted by his personality+appearance and romanticize/sexualize him. people always talk about how much they love, adore, or want him which distracts from the fact that he is a child, and because it does that, people forget he is a child and only focus on how much they love him rather than seeing and understanding his character and his significance in the narrative. it’s like an echo chamber kinda or a cycle.

visual for those previous two sentences because i feel like i can’t explain it well verbally.

i wanna make it clear though that i am in no way trying to tell anyone to stop being in love with peeta mellark or that they are evil for doing so/talking abt it or some other nonsense. this is just some food for thought.

also please smo interact i really j wanna talk abt this w smo but i don’t wanna annoy my friends who aren’t into media/societal analysis

[heliads]

Holy crap can I ask to see the list of all the requests you got?! It has to be a lot if you’re booked all the way to July

oh you already know! here goes:

4/25: so, before you go chapter two (the darkling x child of hecate!reader series)

4/27: harry hook x reader (based on 'the way i loved you'' by taylor swift, was literally giggling to myself over how fun this one's going to be)

4/29: so, before you go chapter three (the darkling x child of hecate!reader series)

5/1: thomas x reader (set in the safe haven, newt and teresa are alive, culmination of months of mutual pining)

5/3: so, before you go chapter four (the darkling x child of hecate!reader series)

5/5: luke patterson reader (reader is luke's english tutor)

5/7: so, before you go chapter five (the darkling x child of hecate!reader series)

5/9: charles leclerc x reader (reader is in charge of social media and charles flirts at all hours of the day)

5/11: so, before you go chapter six (the darkling x child of hecate!reader)

5/13: peeta mellark x reader (reader is a friend of katniss, takes place after round 1 of the games)

5/15: so, before you go chapter seven (the darkling x child of hecate!reader)

5/17: loki x reader (reader is an empath, loki is newly forced to join the avengers)

5/19: so, before you go chapter eight (the darkling x child of hecate!reader)

5/21: leonard 'bones' mccoy x reader (star trek x grishaverse au, the thoughts and ideas i have for this >>>>)

5/23: matthias helvar x reader (enemies to friends to lovers)

5/25: charles leclerc x reader (reader is head of pr for ferrari, when ferrari strategy does ferrari strategy she helps charles w the media)

5/27: andrew peter parker x reader (simple headcanons)

5/29: clove x reader (reader is clove's bff and helping her train for the games but gets scared the closer they get to the day of the reaping)

5/31: tom peter parker x reader (male reader is fighting in wakanda during infinity war, they're worried about each other through the blip)

6/1: billy rocks x reader (the magnificent seven but a grishaverse au, i am so so excited to write this, june cannot come quickly enough)

6/3: tewkesbury x reader (both of them are lovesick idiots)

6/5: han solo x reader (escapades w han + singing to get out of a crisis)

6/7: race x reader (reader is brooklyn's second in command)

6/9: peter pevensie x reader (reader is a knight with a gay crisis, i am shrieking, raven i love you for sending this in)

6/11: jack wilder x reader (reader is a paramedic and jack keeps mildly injuring himself so she can fix him up)

6/13: newt x reader (gally's trademarked beverage as a plot device)

6/15: peter pevensie x reader (headcanons for having to live in london after spending so long in narnia)

6/17: finch x reader (the newsies are hanging out, he has a crush)

6/19: daniel atlas x reader (reader volunteers to be a part of a trick, he gets shy)

6/21: newt x reader (tmr modern au, they sit next to each other in class)

6/23: race higgins x reader (race + reader are on a date but get jumped and they must recover emotionally from that)

6/25: kai parker x reader (kai redemption era)

6/27: lucy pevensie x reader (lucy has a girlfriend and gets up the courage to introduce them to the siblings, this is when they're all kings and queens)

6/29: zoya nazyalensky x reader (reader is zoya's #1 fan bc zoya saved them from attack one time, reader is hurt by somebody and zoya nearly becomes a supervillain bc of it)

7/1: andrew peter parker x reader (male reader is peter's best friend but when peter gets bitten by the spider, he stops hanging out with reader as much, angst ensues)

plus bonus non requests that i get to tack onto the end of my queue bc i am the author and i need to clear through some of my unwritten ideas:

7/3: eric coulter x reader (reader was from amity but now tattoos, idk commentary on art surviving in a place like dauntless you get my drift)

7/5: jesper fahey x reader (this quote specifically that has been in my inbox for months: but how long? how long until i blend into the background and i'm no longer unusual? what will you do when i'm no longer a bet that calls your interest or a gamble worth the odds?)

7/7: eowyn x reader (eowyn thinks she dislikes reader bc reader is a girl and can fight but eowyn can't, in reality that's not jealousy but a repressed crush on a girl, we've all had them before)

7/9: peter pan x reader (reader can visit neverland when she's dreaming, she goes there often enough that she wants to live there forever, she asks peter to take her but he hesitates, she decides to never dream of him again, eventually he shows up in person bc he misses her)

[periwinckles]

Please tell me you have a middle name - chapter 10

“That’s Madge spot.”

Peeta sits down next to me for our History of Panem’s class and I try to hide behind a book to make myself invisible. Without success, may I add. I can hear the whispers. It was all everyone talked about during the match. Peeta Mellark has a K! Some girls even claimed to be the matching soulmate but all my hopes of going unnoticed are crushed the moment he sits down next to me.

“I switched seats with Madge. She was owing me a favor. I’m covering for Rye tonight. He was supposed to do the prep work at the bakery, but she wants him to have dinner with her parents.”

“She’s taking him to meet her parents? For their second date?” I ask before I can second guess myself. Talking to him will only add fuel to the rumors that are surely spreading by now. 

“Brilliant, right? If that doesn't scare him off for good, I don't know what will.”

Miss Smoak starts her lecture and we fall into silence. After this I’m having a serious conversation with Madge. It’s long overdue that we talk about boys right? What is she doing switching seats with him without taking into account my opinion on the matter?

“Seriously, you’re gonna wear that all day?”

He still has his wrestling uniform on, but had the decency to throw a t-shirt on top of it. Would it kill him to throw in a pair of pants as well?

“Well, I won, and the coach always says we should wear our medals loud and proud.”

“You’re not wearing your medal.” I point out, taking a quick look at his chest. Besides, everyone expected him to win, there’s not much to brag about when you’re the clear favorite, right?

“Oh, trust me, I’m wearing it.”

Read the rest on AO3

[thegreenthepeacetheorange]

Everlark (The Hunger Games, Ch. 2)

I've decided to track the development of Katniss and Peeta's love story as I reread the Hunger Games trilogy. There's already so much great discussion on tumblr so I'm gonna throw my two cents in on one of the greatest love stories ever written. It's probably going to be nonsensical and not laid out properly as I'm tracking Katniss's own thoughts (that are definitely not straightforward!) - but I just want to capture my thoughts.

It's amazing how their story doesn't even begin in Chapter 2, but years before, when they were just 11.

So on the day of the reaping, after she herself has volunteered for Prim, Katniss says she doesn't even have time to wish for Gale's safety before she hears Peeta Mellark being called and she finds herself stressed. She thinks "oh no, not him" straight away. And of course we find out why: he's the boy with the bread. The boy who saved her at her worst time.

We all know the story so I'm not going to recount it here and I know many people have talked about just how kind and revolutionary Peeta's act of burning the bread and throwing it to Katniss was. What I'm focused on is the clear building of Everlark as the key romance and central relationship that drives the whole trilogy.

Before Katniss even sees Peeta, when she's stopped outside the bakery, she's mesmerised by the heat and the "luscious scent" coming from the bakery. Big focus on the heat because throughout the trilogy we're about to see how heat/warmth is about to play a part in who Peeta is and what it means to Katniss. The bread is burning as she clutches it to her and runs home, it's still warm when she reaches home. Katniss can't explain his actions, she's confused by why he would've done this. She's preoccupied with this lovely boy from then on, he bore visible signs of his mother's beatings as the result of his kindness.

Katniss didn't know Peeta's name then but by the time the reaping comes around, we know she knows his full name and that he has two brothers older than him. She knows who he hangs out with. Later on in the book, we'll find out that she's been keeping more tabs on him and knows more about him but I believe his act of kindness completely captured Katniss's attention. She developed a curious affection for this boy who suffered a beating just to help her. Through her narration we see that there's multiple times where she's looking out for him and where she catches him looking at her and it honestly makes me want to weep. "More than once, I have turned in the school hallway and caught his eyes trained on me, only to quickly flit away" (THG, 39). Key thing to note here is that Katniss has also been looking "more than once." She seeks him out, find out information about him like his name and who his brothers are. Neither of them has the courage to speak to the other but there seems to be a tether between them forged by the bread.

Of course, as a result of looking away from Peeta (after she's been caught staring at him). her eyes fall on the dandelion. The dandelion that gives her hope, that reminds her of her skills in hunting and foraging for food that her father taught her (we'll see Katniss connect Peeta to her dad many times throughout the trilogy too). "To this day, I can never shake the connection between this boy, Peeta Mellark, and the bread that gave me hope, and the dandelion that reminded me I was not doomed" (THG, 39). I think Collins set up who the central love story of Katniss was going to be right from this second chapter, and it's very powerful because it's put into the framework of the other key themes in the book: survival, kindness, humanity. From his single act, Peeta becomes to mean so much more to Katniss and to us as readers of the books and critics of the Hunger Games.

Back to the reaping and when Katniss and Peeta shake hands up on stage, Katniss remarks that Peeta's hands are "as solid and warm as those loaves of bread" (THG, 39). Again, notice the solidity and warmth she connects to Peeta.

It's weird to me that people consider that Katniss didn't love Peeta, only stayed with him due to shared trauma, didn't really care for him etc. because it's clear from chapter two that Collins is masterfully setting up an epic love story. From chapter two she's laid the groundwork for their relationship and these same themes and tokens in this chapter are going to be found again and again through the trilogy.

A side note: Katniss's mother after the death of her husband goes into a state of darkness and sadness that Katniss can't understand, as she outlines in chapter 1. However, we'll see how she similarly falls into that dark sadness in Mockingjay when Peeta is captured and tortured by the Capitol.

A petty note: for all the people who deny the importance of Everlark as the main love story still (for some reason) or hang on to the whole 'Gale was there first and therefore is more important' line of thinking, Can I just say: Katniss and Peeta's connection predates Katniss and Gale's. The only reason Katniss even ends up knowing Gale is because of Peeta. Peeta and the dandelion reminded Katniss she can hunt and that's how she ends up in the woods meeting Gale. Gale wouldn't even be in Katniss's life if it wasn't for Peeta. So y'know, just another lovely thing Peeta gave Katniss.

[zenkor123]

Peeta entry on Katniss

October 5 75 ADD

"Katniss isn’t a mutt but was a survivor in district 12, some of her survival included prostitution, I was her latest client, she had to do this to survive. She is a living human being but always she chases me just like mutt Katniss. I no longer say the word mutt with venom like I used to, mutts have existed since Humans domesticated the first animals and I am one after all. Only Katniss can get me to feel things and I don’t like what I feel, feelings that contrast to the facts. I don’t like to feel anything in general but this is intense. Katniss owned me even when hijacked. I now realize this. She lives inside me whether hated, or loved. I must escape. She does not care about me, I ripped her from Gale, her true love, raped her and almost choked her to death!

All the reference to Lover Gale makes Katniss mad, seeing Peeta mention it makes it clear that it is false she knew this before. Katniss imagines what Peeta would have said to her if she had mustered the courage to talk to him in 13. She knows for sure that the first thing Peeta would say to her is "how is your lover gale doing?" But she realizes why Peeta is so Intent on believing it. He can present any feelings he had or has for her as illegitimate. His memories according to him never belonged to him. Katniss had found out the deeper origins of Peeta stating that he didn't want to be a peice in their games earlier. But if I and Gale were lovers if his interest in me had split us apart then perhaps his memories were of things that should not have occurred, if he wants to go near me, the representative of his past he will tell himself that any such things urged by haymitch and the doctors comes at Gale's expense. If Gale is my lover, then I am a stranger to him I am "stranger Katniss." He denies any connection to me, when he inserts "lover gale." And Peeta wants to break free from me Finally instead of challenging the memories of me as a mutt he is trying to rationalize them, Gale being my lover provides me with a motivation in his mind for hating him. When he wakes up and pulls the" lover gale and prostitute stranger Katniss" on me I swear I am going to slap him in his face. But then Katniss thinks about how Peeta before he was even hijacked gave her a locket with Prim and Gale. To get Peeta back she would finally state that she had no romantic feelings for Gale she had known this for a while but saw it now. If Peeta had been doing the same with Johanna she would be pretty angry herself. Though Peeta interpreted the past with the venom of snow and his self serving beliefs about Gale and me were exaggerated she resolved to finally clear up her friendship with Gale for Peeta's sake.

She has hated me for ever! If Katniss tried to kill me in the past she was one hundred percent justified. She will be laughing when I die insane. I hate her so much!

-In the daily meetings with District 13 intelligence after providing further intelligence on the capital, Plutarch asks me about Katniss, I respond by asking who Katniss is.”

As Katniss reads this she notices a new trend, according to Peeta, not only is the past irretrievable, belonging to someone else, but he in someways deserved what he got at the hands of Snow, the Hijacking presents an opportunity for redemption for his wrongs against me. Peeta thinks he is justified in giving up on himself because of this. The hijacking spread fear but in his ‘rebuilding’ the walls the capital built are simply rebranded as disgust, and shame. The past is illusive and hostile to him but he shall use the past to build a future. Snow takes Peeta not only away from me but also takes Peeta away from himself and wins, I vow I won’t let snow take you from me

From the Journal of Peeta Mellark. After reading this journal entry Katniss rests on a sleeping and unconscious Peeta and hugs him tightly.

She leans the book on his chest and finds that there is more in this entry. "I have found another use for this journal, Peeta Mellark when he was consumed by the capital did not truly fall until they gave him a drug that I believe scrambled my memory. Fires burned around all my memories and Peeta lasted but 10 days after. I no longer take my memory for granted, this journal will record important memories that I make and my sketchpad will do this as well. I have a separate notebook for recording everything I can. This note book in addition to discussions of my identity will include the most important events in a given day."

Katniss felt for Peeta but she also was glad he recorded everything she enjoyed getting a look inside Peeta's mind. She missed him and always wondered what was inside of his mind, even seeing the ruins of his mind fed this curiosity.

There is even more and Katniss turns the page.

[loungemermaid]

Posting the newest chapter of The Loneliest Time because of the whole ao3 thing

Chapter Five: Fade Into You

Word count 3k, rated teen for dumb Katniss pining

Katniss pov

We are living together. There is (slightly) more touching. There is no sex. Nothing even really close to it, not since our deep kissing in the woods the other day. He keeps me quite literally at arms length. I may be wrapped in his arms or sprawled across his chest when we settle down for bed but by the time morning, lilac bright, streams in, he’s halfway across this absolute ocean of bed. Laying on his stomach, or back to me.

Maybe I’ve misunderstood, misinterpreted him. Maybe he’s less um, physical, that way. Maybe we will never have sex. Which is fine. It’s just unexpected. Kisses he takes and gives freely. His arms are never too far away, if I need to be tangled up in them. He sweeps me up and sets me on his lap often, but if my hands start to roam or linger, he catches them and holds them to his chest. His own (big, strong, delicate) hands are never not firmly on my arms or my waist, as far away from my breasts or my hips as he can get. Maybe he’s just as uneasy with all these things as I am. I appreciate the space but I. I notice other couples. I notice other mens’ hands, caresses, shrieked giggles from other women. I remember things my parents did. I want that. And I might be very sad if it isn’t ever like that.

I take to writing all my desires in a notebook. When he asks I tell him it’s journaling. Private. Things about the Games, things that haunt me in dreams. Which is not altogether untrue. His chest, the tiny flashes of hip, his thighs do haunt my dreams. They too send a thrill down my spine. Just for entirely different reasons. Mmm. The broad expanse of his back.

There are other things I imagine. Things I have to create out of wholecloth, because I’ve never seen them. Peeta’s coloring is all in one theme; dawn. He is all white puffy clouds, golden beams of light, dusty pink, lilac. I wonder if the theme continues. If he’s rosy anywhere else other than his lips. If his heavy golden curls, bright as breaking light, blanket him anywhere else. The hair so thin on his arms and legs, and he’s never not wearing a shirt. I wonder how much is on his chest, if any. I don’t remember any in the Arena, but that’s been months. And Peeta’s grown since then.

He is impossibly more broad. The line of his jaw is sharper, his arms wider, his shoulders more square. I say impossible for two reasons. One: we have not been doing any exercise. Our walk the other day, our failed attempt at a picnic, has been the closest we’ve gotten. Unless he’s leaving the house and hauling bags of flour without telling me. Since he still needs his cane sometimes to balance, I doubt it. Not that he wouldn’t have the strength to, just not the footing.

The other reason is he’s still only sixteen. I don’t know when his birthday is (when I asked he only replied in summer, so I suppose I missed it this year) but it’s a young sixteen. I’m wracking my brain to remember if Rye or Soren were this big at his age, but I wasn’t particularly interested in the other Mellarks, so I don’t have either one of them memorized the way I have Peeta. Gale is still taller, but much thinner built. Up and down, as they say. Straight up and down. Peeta is shorter but he already looks like a man. Like the pen and watercolor illustrations of lumberjacks or blacksmiths you’d find in those types of books, the ones passed around the housewives of the Seam, with dogeared pages and underlined passages and plain covers. Prim always wanted to read them, she didn’t understand why she never could. Hazelle read them plenty, why didn’t we? My mother made some excuse when the question came up, which helped because it always left me stammering. I didn’t read them either, but I’d seen them left open a few times, felt my face burn clear to the next day at the lurid words inside. As I chew on my pen, waiting for Peeta to get out of the shower, I realize I might as well be writing my own plaincover novel. Not that anyone but me will ever see these words.

We’re preparing for Soren’s birthday party, and we’re avoiding family. Avoiding isn’t really right. Just…not inviting conflict. Soren is only a little less than a year older than Peeta, so this party won’t be very big, I’m told. Nothing like a nineteenth birthday party.

No matter which side of the tracks you’re on, that’s the one birthday everyone celebrates. Your birthday of aging out, of freedom, of cheating death. They can have a sort of dark theme to them. Lots of images of skulls and bones. Peeta tells me in Town there’s flowers that symbolize death and life, usually weaved together into a crown. Not unlike a Victor’s crown. When I was younger, I must have planned my Nineteenth half a dozen times. After my father died, I didn’t have the taste for it. And now I’ll never have one. Not really. Oh I’m sure I might have a get together, maybe even a cake or something, but it won’t be a Nineteenth. Neither will Peeta. We’ll have to plan something extra special for the others, then, for Soren’s and Prim’s.

Gale’s is, of course, sooner. But I don’t know where to go with that, how to navigate it. Today is Saturday. If things were normal, I’d be seeing him tomorrow. But I don’t know if he wants to see me after last week. I don’t know if I want to see him. I file it all in my brain to chew over later. Worrying about it right now won’t do, so I’ll just worry about it later. I tuck my diary under my pillow, set about redoing my hair. This braid didn’t quite turn out right.

Peeta opens the door, hair curling up, robe slightly damp at the collar, steam swirling all around him. He’s sighing deeply, nearly panting, and the sound is absolutely delicious, sending shivers down my spine. Sympathetic vibrations; sometimes when you sing at a glass, you can break it with just your voice. Peeta’s sighs can break me. His skin is flushed sunset pink, and he heaves another sigh(my heart vibrating along with it) as he collapses on the bed, fluttering his eyes closed and just breathing. “I’ll never get tired of havin’ unlimited hot water.” He pants out as he scrubs at his face again.

I am absolutely transfixed, frozen as if caught in hovercraft beam, just staring shamelessly. He’s completely covered, but just by that thin flannel. Flannel that’s sticking to his thighs and chest because of the water. The water that was so hot Peeta’s skin is still steaming from the contact, minutes later. He rolls his eyes over at me. “Um, Katniss.”

“Yeah?” My voice catches in my throat.

“I need to get dressed.”

“Uh huh.” I’m chewing my pen again.

“Katniss.”

“What?”

“Please leave the room so I can get dressed.”

“Oh!” I scramble for my journal and pen, which both fall out of my hands approximately five times. “Sorry!” I call as I run down the stairs. What had come over me?

The walk down to the party is, well. Excruciating. My skin feels like static, everywhere, and I can’t look at Peeta. I can’t look at him because he’s wearing a navy blue shirt, unbuttoned at the collar, sleeves cuffed up. He’s using the cane today, sleek polished dark wood with a gold handle. The Capitol wouldn’t want anything less than pure elegance, even when it came to basic necessities like a mobility aid. His hair is perfectly touseled, having wriggled free of the gel from our walk. He tries once or twice to smooth it back but gives up shortly. “I need to cut it. It’s getting long.” He says with a chuckle, and it’s only then that I realize that I’ve not only been staring down the road, I’ve been doing it in pure silence.

“I like it. Long. But I also like it shorter. It’s your hair and you should do what you like with it. But I like it longer.”

That rambling, stuttering mess earns me another one of the increasingly common looks of absolute confusion he’s been giving me as of late. “Okay.”

I wince all the way to my toes and I have to shake it out of my fingertips, shake out that feeling. “Sorry. I. Sorry.” Another shudder hits me and I have to shake it out again, shake my head to clear it. I have to stare at my shoes to calm down, have to shove my hands in my pockets. It’s a pretty dress, what I’m wearing. Orange and brown plaid, down to my knees with a full enough skirt to dance in. For once I’m also wearing enough underskirts with it, so it flows from my hips. The top is sleeveless, and quite revealing, so I’ve paired it with a thin cream turtleneck, along with stockings, of course. I think Cinna would be pretty proud, though he’d hate that I’m still wearing my boots with them. I can’t help it, I can’t walk in those pretty shoes he sent, not all the way to town and then go dancing after. These are about to give up the ghost. I’ll have to talk to Delly about some new ones. Again, I could have some top of the line, machine stitched boots from the Capitol, but these are my hunting boots. To hunt in boots from the Capitol would be like hunting in a sequin dress. Besides, it’s good to spend my money in town.

We walk near silently the rest of the way, and I can’t help but wonder what I did wrong.

The party is in some little patio, from some restaurant that went under before I was born. There ain’t many in town; there’s no need. No one has any money. Mostly they’re for the very few Capitol tourists that scurry around come Reaping Day. Not exactly enough to sustain a business. Every once in a while, someone might go to one to celebrate something, but even then, that’s Townie kids. So, when this one went under, apparently no one rushed to take its place, and it has, according to Peeta, become the official unofficial place for teenagers to get drunk and dance. Shortly after we arrived, a glass was placed into my hand, a glass I’m still nursing. I’ve been holding up this little corner of the brick wall for a while, watching as everyone flits about, the conversations overlapping and rushing like a waterfall, Rhett Galbraith’s fiddle barely able to keep up. My eyes keep flitting around, because surely this isn’t legal. In fact, I can think of about three reasons why it ain’t, but then again, if I can manage to pay off Cray with a few turkeys, I’m certain a few kids could scrounge up something to make the peacekeepers look the other way for a birthday party. I should relax, but I’ve never quite known how to do that, especially in a crowd, especially when I’m the only non blonde. Well, except for Rhett and the band, but they were probably hired to be here. I take another sip of my drink and wrinkle my nose. It is, by only the most generous of definitions, a fruit and honey wine, made by Pepper Brookshire from the fruit that doesn’t sell at the grocery. It tastes awful, but she’ll get there, probably. It’s only her third batch, and she is only seventeen after all. She might make a decent outlaw yet, once she learns to balance her spices. I’m just about to go up, talk to her, offer to forage for her when Peeta catches me again. “There you are. Been looking all over for you.”

I stuff my free hand in my pocket again, rock back and forth on my heels, resolutely staring at a spare bit of straw on the ground. “I’ve been here.” I say, and it sounds meaner than I meant. I try and soften. “Did you get to catch up with some of your friends?”

“Mm.” He takes a sip from the jam jar serving as his wine glass, tries to hide his distaste of it, and I can just about pick out his real thoughts then. That the distaste isn’t just Pepper’s melomel. It’s that none of these people have been by a single day since we got home. Not to chat, not to ask if Peeta wanted to hang out. I’ve occasionally been over to Madge’s, but not a soul has come over to visit Peeta. “A little. Been wanting to talk with Delly but she looks…busy tonight, so.” He flicks his eyes over to Delly and Soren, who are caught up in the most awkward kissing I’ve ever seen, and that’s counting the replays of my own kissing.

I bite back a laugh. “That’s. An interesting development.”

Peeta smiles. “Mmm-hmm. They uh, signed their contract earlier today, apparently. A two year engagement. They’ll be married the July Fifth after their Nineteenths. Guess they’re getting used to each other.”

“I always thought that-” and I stop myself from following that line of thinking, because the look Peeta tells me both confirms it anyway and tells me it’s best not spoken about. I take another sip. Right. I can’t help it though, so I try and ask discreetly. “So, they both are?” I whisper, and Peeta only nods, and only once. “Better that way, right?”

“Oh, yeah. Definitely.” He whispers. “It. No. It’s much better this way.”

Technically, legally, no one is supposed to mind who marries who. We all have the freedom to marry who we choose, or not at all. But that doesn’t mean everyone is going to like your choices here. Whether that’s intermarriage between Town and Seam or same sex marriage. Delly might be alright, not a ton of Town families mind their daughters being lesbians. Saves on dowries, I suppose, and it’s built in childcare. A lot of townspeople send their children to stay with their lesbian aunts or neighbors before school(that’s actually how Peeta and Delly met. Peeta’s aunt Rooba married Sutton, a family friend of the Cartwrights, and they babysat them both for years). With boys it’s different. Maybe because they’re expected to carry on the family business, maybe because it’s seen as unmanly, whatever the reasons, it always causes a stir. Another reason I’m becoming more grateful I grew up in the Seam. You might get some old people saying it ain’t right, or that it’s a waste, but honestly it usually works well for gay couples in the Seam. It’s not uncommon for a gay couple and a lesbian couple to share households, pitch in everything together, save up money for their nieces and nephews, and not have to work nearly as hard as other young couples just starting out do. It’s something I’ve considered once or twice before, but I couldn’t do it. I don’t have the heart for it.

But the reason Peeta told me to hush wasn’t because of society at large, it was because of his mother. If she found out that her favorite son was gay…well. It wouldn’t end well. I wonder if she’d actually kill him. That’s happened before, once rumors started to spread about someone, next thing you know a “wild dog” had gotten out, or they’d died of “fever” or some other equally thinly veiled excuse that no one believes. For the Mellarks it’d be almost too easy. They have pigs. All it’d take is one good push while Soren was out feeding and that would be that. A tragic accident that no peacekeeper would ever think twice over. I shudder into my drink, look into Peeta’s eyes. Yeah. A lavender marriage would be best. I set my drink down, not really wanting to pretend to drink it, and maybe it’s because of the music, or the way the kerosene lamps make Peeta’s hair shine like gold, or maybe it’s the slight chill in the air, or the tree frogs and mockingjays singing in the distance, or maybe it’s just because I can’t stop thinking of how he looked out of the shower, but I stick my hand out. “I know it ain’t proper, me being the one to ask, but do you wanna dance?”

He blushes like sunrise, like the first gentle rays that peak out and burn the sky bright pink. “I think I can let that go, just this once. Yes, I’d love to dance.”

And we do. It’s not perfect. It’s probably not even very good. I only know fast dances and Peeta is still a little unsure of himself, a little unsteady. But it feels good. It feels like the parts that have been missing, it feels intimate and close, like more of our hearts are stitching together. I’m humming under my breath before I know it, this song I haven’t heard in years. It’s more Town than Seam; they prefer older songs usually. Classical music, songs before the Dark Days, before the Fall. It’s slow, repetitive, and I think it’s supposed to be a woman that sings it, but Rhett’s brother is doing a good enough job at it. I know people are looking, and I don’t care. I want so desperately to be closer to Peeta, for him to quit this pulling away, to stop all these chaste kisses and put his hands on me. To touch me. To stop holding back. I nuzzle my nose in his chest, breathing in the familiar scent and feel the warmth enrobe me in fondness. “Fade into you” I sing, my voice crackling like fireplace embers, because I want this moment to just be for us, but it’s not, because there’s people around. Always someone around, always people watching. But I can’t help it. If I don’t say(or sing, in this case) it I’ll go mad. “Strange you never knew.” And I’m begging. I’m begging he gets what I mean by that. I’m pleading with the universe that he feels what I’m trying to say, the things I don’t have words for. That I could just press all this emotion from my chest into his and he’d just know.

But he doesn’t. He drops my hands and runs off, and I don’t follow him. He leaves and I don’t follow him because I can’t stop the tears running down my face. He leaves and I run the other direction because I love him and for some reason, we can’t ever talk about that.

[katnissdoesnotfollowback]

Let's talk about Mr Everdeen, Mrs Everdeen, and Mr Mellark.

“He said, ‘See that little girl? I wanted to marry her mother, but she ran off with a coal miner,’” Peeta says.

“What? You’re making that up!” I exclaim.

“No, true story,” Peeta says. “And I said, ‘A coal miner? Why did she want a coal miner if she could’ve had you?’ And he said, ‘Because when he sings... even the birds stop to listen.’”

From this, do you think Mr Mellark had serious relationship with Mrs Everdeen?

Do you think her family disown her, after Mrs Everdeen marry with Mr Everdeen?

Thank you :) @curiousnonny

Personally, I've always thought that Mr. Mellark's feelings were far deeper and involved than Mrs. Everdeen's feelings were. He says that he "wanted to marry" her, not that he was going to marry her. If their relationship was serious, I've always imagined it was maybe a pending arranged marriage than an actual engagement. I've always toyed with the idea that if there was a relationship between them, it was a kind of mirror to the "everyone assumes we'll get married one day" relationship of Katniss and Gale, but without the close bond derived from survival and depending on each other. This would make it far easier for Mrs. Everdeen to sever whatever relationship she had with Mr. Mellark in favor of her relationship with Mr. Everdeen.

I do think that the books at least make it very clear that her family did disown her after she married Mr. Everdeen. Katniss tells us that her mother's family ran the apothecary, but Katniss herself has no ties or memories of that side of the family. She constantly feels like she's only welcome at the back doors of the businesses. Katniss tells us that her mother must have loved her father a lot to "give up" her life in town. Giving up her life in town implies that all ties to her merchant upbringing were severed when Mrs. Everdeen married Mr. Everdeen, other than a handful of worldly possessions and a desire to teach her daughters some form of town etiquette.

Thanks for asking @curiousnonny

<3 kdnfb