#mama katniss rocking her babies to bed

[buggiebite]

Down in the Valley

TW: slight nudity

Down in the valley, the valley so low

Late in the evening, hear the train blow

The train, love, hear the train blow

Late in the evening, hear the train blow

Go build me a mansion, build it so high

So I can see my true love go by

See him go by, love, see him go by

So I can see my true love go by

Go write me a letter, send it by mail

Bake it and stamp it to the Capitol jail

The Capital jail, love, the Capitol jail

Bake it and stamp it to the Capitol jail

Roses are red, violets are blue

Birds in the heavens know I love you

Know I love you, oh know I love you

Birds in the heavens know I love you

[paintedpeeta]

*climbs over your garden fence* have we headcanons for Father’s Day for our local Papa Peeta?

yes. yes we absolutely have 🧑🏼‍🦱👩🏽👧🏽🧒🏼.

okay so first of all you know those toasties just absolutely become his whole life, and he does everything for them so they always want to give him a special father’s day as a thank you.

his first father’s day was one of the happiest days of his life. their baby girl was only a couple of months old, so of course it was katniss who done all of the planning and gift-giving, but just being handed a card addressed to papa while his little daughter sleeps beside him set him off and he was a bubbling mess for the rest of the day. he keeps the card always, framed and in the office space of their house that he uses as an art studio. their daughter has absolutely no concept of the occasion, but she enjoys the day spent out at the lake with her mama and papa, cooing and kicking her lil legs in the shade.

and maybe katniss could have told him he was going to be a papa again on another father’s day. i think their son would be a winter baby so it sort of checks out that she tells him around this time of year, planning a special way to tell him but most likely just blurting it out while they have a picnic in the meadow. it goes right over their daughters head but peeta almost passes out, pulling his wee wife over for a giant bear hug and placing a thousand kisses on her face. “will we ever have a father’s day where you don’t cry?”

katniss always gives him a little heads up in the morning, waking him up with kisses and love before the toasts can get to him and wake him by diving onto the bed. she doesn’t want poor papa having a heart attack because chunky toddler toastboy has launched himself full speed onto their mattress while her husband is still asleep 💀

after they’ve all had their morning snuggle in the big bed, katniss takes the bubbies to make the breakfast. peeta offers to make the breakfast so they can have a lie in, but they insist on bringing it to him in bed so he sits and waits on them. katniss does most of the preparation when the toastbabies are younger, but as the years go on she gives them more and more leeway until she’s practically just supervising.

their daughter is so thoughtful and so her gifts are always perfect and from the heart. drawings done as carefully as her little hands can manage, fully concentrating to make it special for her papa. asking mama if she can buy little things from town, like brushes and paints and sketchpads. ribbons tied around bags of her papa’s favourite candies, or sweaters that mama made messily wrapped up with colorful paper and tape.

their son is a little bit more… scatterbrained(? i don’t think that’s the right word. i just picture their son being this lil wild ball of energy, but really sweet deep down) in his younger years, so his gifts are usually like a bunch of wildflowers torn up from haymitch’s yard and some rocks he found out in the woods 💀 but it’s okay because he’s so adorable and kind and peeta is so grateful to have this type of loving family that he treats all of their presents as if they were made of gold.

katniss of course has her own gifts for him, as a thank you for being such a good dad to their kids. it’s always kind of an emotional day for her too, because she lost her pa when she was so young but everyday she gets to see her own children grow up with an amazing and loving father. this is why they almost always spend the day in the woods or the meadow or at the lake, because she’s closest to her dad there and it’s the one way she can feel like her children also know their grandpa, who’d have loved them so much.

before their children come along it’s a hard day for peeta, because his relationship with his dad didn’t seem too great and he had a lot of healing to do because of his parents. it’s not until he has kids of his own that he starts to feel a reconnection with his own father, even if he still can’t wrap his head around why he allowed his wife to treat their children the way she did, he wants his babies to know about their grandfather who was kind and fair for the most part.

everlark also start to gift haymitch on father’s day, and when the toasties come along he gets a second card addressed to “grampy haymitch.”. the old drunk would grumble and go beet red everytime, but secretly he loves all of those kids so much and he keeps every single card given to him.

[everlarkbirthdaygifts]

Happy birthday, insidejokepartyof1!!

On this 18th day of March, we want to wish @insidejokepartyof1 a very happy birthday! To help with your celebration, @booksrockmyface has written a little fic just for you!

Title: Springtime Joy

Gift for: insidejokepartyof1

Rated: K

Author’s note: I wish you the happiest of birthdays and I hope this little bit of toastbaby fluff fills you with all the joy your special day deserves! Many thanks to thesaltywinteradult for always prereading my fics.

________________

Peeta hurried into the house. “Katniss, get Rowan and come see what we found.”

Katniss scooped baby Rowan off the floor where he was playing and followed after Peeta. There was a trail of weeds laid out beside the raised vegetable beds. Katniss put Rowan down on his little feet and held onto his hands. He was just days from his first solo steps. They followed the path of weeds until they got to the rest of their family gathered at the end of the garden.

Peeta looked up and waved his hand excitedly.

Willow giggled and pointed, “Mama, we found some baby rabbits.”

“They’re so cute and tiny!” Reed squealed.

“Any sign of the mother?” Katniss asked as she and Rowan came closer.

Peeta chuckled. “Not yet. But we’ve been here watching them for a while.” He stood and dusted off his knees. “Come see. Then we’ll leave them alone. Promise.”

Katniss lifted Rowan up and swung him into Peeta’s waiting arms. “I was just curious. I saw a rabbit hopping around here the other morning when I went out to hunt. A big gray one.”

“Mom, can we keep one?” Reed asked.

Katniss leaned over and looked at the babies the children had been admiring. They were just a few days old. “These will still need their mama for a bit longer. But I don’t think we need a rabbit. We can just take care of these ones out here until they hop away.” Katniss looked around and then covered up their nest. She picked up a large rock and sat it just beside it. “We can come back and check on them later. Hopefully the mother won’t decide to move them.”

Peeta pointed with his foot. “You two, get those weeds and lay them out on the pans. I’ll get the compost ready for spreading in the garden.”

“Are we going to get to plant today?” Willow asked.

“We should be able to.” Peeta looked over the little patch they had just cleared. “Won’t take too long to spread the compost if we all work together.”

“Would you eat some lunch first? Rowan and I were just about to make some sandwiches.” Katniss tickled Rowan’s cheek.

“I’m sure Rowan would have smashed the bread to pieces.” Peeta pressed his nose into his baby boy’s hair. “But I would have eaten every bite.”

Katniss laughed. “Okay, I was about to make sandwiches. You and the kids wash up and I’ll get Rowan back into the house for the sandwich making.”

Peeta kissed Rowan’s chubby cheek and handed him back to Katniss. “We’ll be in in a couple minutes.”

Katniss put Rowan down to walk again with her assistance. He chattered the entire walk back. Katniss glanced over her shoulder to see Peeta watching them with a proud smile.

[katnissdoesnotfollowback]

MoreS2SL Preview(s)!

It’s that time of year again! For those of you who aren’t aware, @mores2sl is the continuation of what was once called Smut 2 Save Lives. It is a charity collection of fanworks published annually to raise funds and awareness for DIPG, a rare and usually deadly form of childhood cancer. The collection’s charity of choice is Hope for Caroline, but you don’t have to donate to them.  All it takes is a $10 (that’s an equivalent to ten USA dollars) donation to either Hope for Caroline, or to a non profit cancer research group of your choice, and you receive access to the entire MS2SL collection.

I have contributed stories to the collection for the past two years and intend to do so again this year. Cancer in general sucks, and sometimes it feels like if you live long enough, you’re going to know someone who fights with it. For me, I had a teacher, a band director, in junior high who was pretty much the only reason I got out of bed in the mornings and went to school. He was energetic and caring, empathetic and encouraging. He was also slowly dying of cancer. The worst of it occurred once I’d already moved on to high school, but I never forgot him and when one of his last requests was to have the town’s high school marching band escort him to the cemetery, I was one of the first to volunteer. How could I not?

It’s gotten a little closer to home this past year, as my Mom was diagnosed with rectal cancer earlier this year. It’s been a painful struggle and she just finished her final chemo treatment this past week. We won’t know for another month if the rounds of chemo and radiation worked or if she’ll be facing a highly invasive surgery. My Mom has been the rock in our family for decades and watching her fight this thing was both humbling and horrifying. I’ve never seen her so scared. She said something to me one day when I accompanied her to chemo and we were in a large room with five other people all undergoing some kind of chemo therapy. She said, “It’s easier to accept when they’re older, but when they’re so young...” she nodded towards the young woman in the chair just next to hers. She couldn’t have been older than 25, and that’s frightening enough. To battle cancer when you’re still a child? Unimaginable. These are the reasons I contribute.

For this year, we have something exciting! Here’s a brief preview of the Everlark story I’ll be writing, featuring race car driving Katniss and Peeta as a mechanic. It will be rated at least M, probably E though because it’s me.

9000 R.P.M.

SUMMARY: Stuck in a dead end town and a dead end job, Katniss takes a gamble with the one thing she got out of her divorce -- a beat up sports car turned racer. She was always the better driver anyways. With a little help from a mechanic with blue eyes and golden hands, she turns that gamble into a chance for a better life for her and her daughter. But racing is still a boys' club and the road is never easy for a single mom.

In the morning she wakes up and her mother is already feeding Raven. She gives Katniss a once over and shakes her head. Katniss scowls at the judgement, kisses her daughter, and fixes her own damn breakfast.

“It was your first race back since Raven was born,” her mother says and Katniss stiffens, then relaxes as her mother’s words sink in. A soft kiss to her forehead and Katniss breaks into tears. “Oh baby girl, don’t cry.”

Her mother holds her as she cries it all out and as they rock and hold onto each other while Raven smashes her cereal to dust. Katniss slowly calms. Each tear leaves more room for resolve.

“I’m gonna take care of her, Mama. Raven’s gonna have a good life. We’re gonna get out of this shit hole where everyone knows Gale cheated on me but I’m the one they call a slut. We’re gonna live in a nice house and Prim’s going to college and you’re never scrubbing another toilet or shelling out drugs again.”

“Alright, baby girl. That’s your goal, then we’ll make it happen. Just keep at it.”

AND! Because the amazing ladies over at @mores2sl have decided to try something different, should you donate $20 instead of $10, you will get access to the 2017 and 2016 collections as well. Why is this important you ask? Well because some writers (*cough cough ME*) never publicly posted their contributions to last year’s collection. So if you’ve been curious or wanting to read mine, here’s another chance to do so. It’s the first installment in what’s planned to be a trilogy, if I can ever stop getting distracted with other stories. ;-)

SUMMARY: With all the empty space between planets and stars, one would think that two galaxies colliding is a fairly peaceful process. What if it’s not? What if life complicates the process as once distant planets become neighbors? Populations of species vanish. Others colonize new worlds. And some pick up arms against fellow living organisms as resources shift and change, become scarce. And humans...we take war with us everywhere we go…

Meridia: A planet caught between strictly adhered to ancient rituals and customs, and the questions and progress that inevitably follow scientific advancements, the people of Meridia have been fighting a war to protect their sovereignty and that of their neighboring systems for over sixty years. Peeta Mellark, one of three Crown Princes vying for the throne and the future General of Meridia returns home after sustaining a severe injury in combat, but he’s not allowed to stay for long as his father sends him back across the galaxy on an errand that promises to be far more difficult than he initially thought and will test his loyalty to family, king, and home.

Arcadia: A colony of humans on a vibrant planet, intent on protecting their freedoms and their valuable resources from falling into the hands of Coriolanus Snow, self-proclaimed emperor of two still merging galaxies. In a desperate attempt to push back and end the fight once and for all, the Lady Katniss Everdeen reluctantly agrees to what she believes is a marriage of convenience in exchange for troops and allegiance from the military might of Meridia. But just because she agreed to the marriage doesn’t mean she’ll go quietly. After all, it’s more than just her life affected by this arrangement.

WARNINGS: RATED E, for explicit sexual content, sci-fi themes and elements, violence and wartime shittiness, character deaths, child soldiers, genocide, arranged marriages and associated general fuckery, one slight dub-con scene and a few serious age gaps in sexual partners, awkward public sex, interspecies sex, also polyamory and polygamy. Oh and Peeta’s bisexual and there are several scenes of him with someone who is not Katniss. Both explicit and implied mentions of Katniss and Peeta being with someone else sexually before they wind up together. There is no Peeta or Katniss committing outright infidelity here, so if that bothers you, fear not. However, other characters may commit infidelity and there are several open relationships. It's set in another galaxy and not everyone is a homo sapien here, please try to keep an open mind in terms of culture variations.

RELATIONSHIP TAGS: Contains M/M, M/F, M/F/F+ and M/M/F relationships as well as associated sexual content. While this is primarily an Everlark+ story, some of these sex scenes are with characters who are not Katniss and Peeta. As in none of the participants are named Katniss or Peeta.

Inspired by a word prompt: Agelast - A person who never laughs

Warnings and tags apply to the entire series and therefore might not apply to this specific installment. Just want you to know what kind of ride you're in for before you climb aboard. I swear it's not as depressing as all those tags make it sound. Okay, maybe it is. So the real question here is...How much do you trust me?

Movement catches his attention from the corner of his eye and he glances down. He sees the injured, not dead, Capitol soldier aiming the blast rifle, right at Katniss. He moves, but the soldier fires, the blast striking rock and causing a rockslide. He hears her scream something and everything goes black and hazy. Peeta falls on the soldier and grabs his head, smashing his face into the ground with a sickening crunch. Satisfied that the man is now truly dead, he whips his head up, heart in his throat, and scans the rocks.

“Peeta!” she yells from her position right before loosing another arrow. “North!”

He nods and takes a deep breath before motioning for his troops to follow behind him.

She’s fine. She’s fine. He has to repeat the words over and over as they move, and still, he constantly checks on her until Mitchell elbows him to get him to refocus. The snow distracts him from fretting over Katniss as it starts up again and he curses the damn stuff.

[paintedpeeta]

so I just watched about fifteen reels of a Mom gently rocking and bouncing her baby to sleep and I need to express how much I need Everlark soothing their little babies at night

they are definitely the type of parents to hold and cuddle their babies whenever they need them, i just don’t see them being able to let their children cry or be upset for any period of time without doing anything. this might mean sleepless nights for mama and papa, but they’d take that over a stressed out baby any day.

i think they’d have some sort of seat or chair in the nursery, maybe even an old fashioned wooden rocking chair with cushions and blankets for comfort. but anyway the chair is basically there to give mama or papa a place to sit while they nurse the babies to sleep. wispy dark hair and soft woollen bunting, gentle fingertips tracing over the bridge of a tiny nose, old lullabies hummed while she breastfeeds her baby and his eyes sting with sleep and his heart aches with love in his chest.

she loves to sing to her children, curious little eyes looking up at her while she carries her tune, the sound replacing the sore cries of an unsettled child. she can’t help but lift them out of their crib and hold them close to her, not caring that it delays her getting back to her own bed for another little while.

papa doesn’t really sing to his children, but his presence is also a comfort. since he can’t exactly feed them himself but doesn’t allow katniss to stay up alone, he’ll usually be the one to collect them and bring them into the bed with their mama and papa, helping his wife sort her nightgown to be able to feed them comfortably. he coaxes the burps from them, which makes him and his precious wife laugh quietly even in the silly hours of the morning.

letting them sleep up on papa’s chest instead of returning to the crib for the night. they look especially tiny then and katniss is unbelievably compromised at the sight, offering a hand over for their baby to cling to with chunky little fists 🥺 on nights they’re particularly unsettled, peeta will pace the floor for hours if that’s what it takes to get them comfortable. swaddled up carefully and bouncing gentle with each step, their papa’s stead hands eventually lull them into a sleep.

[paintedpeeta]

tired toastbaby boy having a tantrum & mama katniss gently calming him down afterwards headcanons?

(like maybe his nap ended a little early so he starts getting fussy about everything, but katniss helps him take deep breaths after getting a little too worked up & gives him warm milk before rocking or humming him to sleep)🍼🥺

🥺 anon…. this is absolutely adorable

sometimes kids just have bad days where they feel terrible and can’t express it with words because they’re so little, and it leads to them becoming upset and frustrated and unsettled (i think people sometimes forget that they’re tiny humans! they feel everything we feel they just can’t understand or explain it!)

and katniss would just be the sweetest little mama, she’d be so understanding and patient with her little ones because she knows how damaged both her and her husband are partly because of their own childhoods, so they’d both want to be the best parents they could be.

katniss would be super warm and caring, the exact same way that she was with prim. if her baby boy was getting worked up and upset she’d be right there to snuggle and soothe him until he was calmed, stroking through his curls or blowing cool air down his neck or on his face to get him to relax again.

and of course, feeding her baby’s would be such a big thing for her 🥺 being able to provide for and nourish her children would be so important to her for obvious reasons. she’d make sure they were well fed before she put them to bed no matter what mood they were in, and feeding her little one while rocking him over to sleep would just be the most lovely thing