#this is the man who killed finnick for peeta's sake!

[thebisexualwreckoning]

i love how the moment they make president snow a young hot guy they forget the literal war crimes he's committed and how many people died due to him? like he's not even morally grey like the bookstagram girlies claim? he's literally straight up evil and killing children just to maintain his own power. GIving victors and the rest of the people of panem an illusion of glory and fame while secretly using them as pawns on his personal chessboard. Like I love myself a character with skewed morals but this *gestures around myself vaguely* is not it

[clatoera]

Always Remember We're Burned for Better Chapter 17: What Doesn't Kill Me Makes Me Want You More

Heeeeey guys. I feel like I apologize a lot for delays. Full transparency is that as we enter the final act of this fic we are also entering my application season. Things are going to be irregular until October when my apps are submitted. At the same time I expect thats when I'll be starting the sequel so! Exciting things ahead! Thank you for your patience and understanding and love. I appreciate and love every one of you.

I quite literally went on a mission to revisit every thing Jack Quaid has ever done to get an idea of how I wanted Marvel to sound. I'm posting this 26 minutes before I see oppenheimer the third time.

The title is from Cruel Summer (tswift)

AO3

Masterpost

As always, thank you to my friends. @ohhowwehavefallen who quite literally is the reason for the very last scene. IT was her. Give her credit for it existing. @kentwells for literally letting me bounce EVERY idea off them (I literally the other day said I just want people to be happy and had to be reminded I cause the suffering), and @crookedlyniceperson who keeps me going with the thought of memes.

Thank you as we enter this last segment of chapters, where we end the war and start the rest of their lives.

“Do they ever stop looking at you like you killed their dog?” Johanna is the one who asks, glancing around half heartedly at the dozens of wary stares being sent their way at any given moment. 

In perfect, offhanded unison, Cato and Glimmer give a resigned “No.”

They had grown used to it. The distrustful looks, the pitiful side glancing, but frankly there was not as much fear or respect one would think these once great victors would garner. 

Then again, they were quite a sight to behold these days. 

Johanna, with hair like a peach fuzz and various track marks from IV after IV for that Morphling hit. 

Clove, who had flayed more than one man alive on television, with skin like violets and nightlock berries from her neck down, bruises blossoming on every inch of that pale canvas. 

Cato and Glimmer, who they had long since deemed as crazy and unstable, but now less of a threat with the return of the carrot they had dangled on the stick before them. 

Really, the only one who even resembled his old self was Marvel. And what threat was he, anyway?

Finnick did not grace them with his presence, nor did Annie, as they were playing peacekeepers between Katniss and Peeta across the room after his attempt on her life not all that many weeks ago.  After all, someone had to keep Miss girl on fire’s embers glowing. Without the supervision of Finnick, Gale likely would have taken Peeta out by now just for his own opportunity to get ahead in the name of protecting Katniss. 

“We kinda did kill their dogs. Well. We killed their kids.” Glimmer reminds her, back to her earlier habits of pushing food around on a tray, slipping hard and fast into her old ways. 

She sits directly next to Clove on the opposite side of Cato, across from Johanna. Next to Johanna is Marvel who still cannot look at her for longer than a second, so far as Glimmer knows at least. 

It’s Clove, of course, who catches him looking when Glimmer is not. 

“We didn’t kill their kids, they weren’t in the games.” Clove rolls her eyes, but stabs her blunt spork into the overly-cooked but under-seasoned green beans. She couldn’t even raise her shoulder parallel to the floor, but they were still unwilling to give her (or Cato, for that matter) a knife. At least someone in this godforsaken place was still scared of her and didn’t see her like a bird with a broken wing. “The twelves mostly finished themselves off every year anyway- for fucks sake would it kill someone to get some salt down here?”

“I would commit a literal war crime for a pizza right now.” Marvel admits, and the tone of his voice sounds like maybe he’s only half joking, that maybe he really would dig a knife into the president of District 13 in exchange for extra pepperoni. 

When the eyes around them firmly land on him, and some of the armed guards tense and take a step forward he puts up a single, defeated hand. “I’m joking. I’m not here to take out the rebellion for a stuffed crust.”  When the guards step back and the weary looks turn away, he does cock an eyebrow and gives a slight nod of his head. “Extra cheese on the other hand..”

Glimmer gives a quiet giggle, though she does not look up from the swirls she makes with the potatoes before her. 

Cato actually laughs, though, in a way he had not in the many months of separation of him and Clove. It was like something in him had come back to life, and it clearly had something to do with the dark haired girl he currently had his arms draped around the shoulders of. “If you’re going to get us shot over pizza we may never have again, at least make it something good. At this point I’d lead this fucking war if it would get me back to a burger.” He gently nudges Clove, who is furiously attempting to stab at whatever they were trying to pass off as a balanced meal. “Come on. What do you miss?”

“What don’t I fucking miss? Our bed. Fabric softener. The use of my arms..” Clove starts to complain, but she looks up and catches the teasing shine in his blue eyes and can’t help but play along. “...half of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, the peanut butter half. And an orange. If we make it out of this, I never want to go a day without real fruit ever again.” She nudges at Glimmer’s knee with her own, before doing the same with her free shoulder. “What about you Glim Glam? What’s your death row choice here?”

How is she supposed to say, oh, nothing, I wasn’t allowed to enjoy food, the thought of eating makes me nauseous? How is she supposed to say that she isn’t quite sure there's anything out there in the world that she’s interested in these days. There’s a memory, though, of a night before Clove became victor officially, of late night snacks in a bed that was not her own but belonged to the man across from Cato. Back when there was still potential and love in her world, that little bit of good that she had had taken from her yet again. 

“...those little cake slices, not cupcakes, but the individual slices so you can try the different flavors. They have them at the parties all the time. And maybe fries?” Glimmer smiles to herself at the memory of salt between bed sheets and frosting on the tips of noses. “And there was this pasta, with like…cheese sauce and It was so so good but I can’t remember what it was called but it was just so good I’d kill to have it again–”

“...mac’n’cheese. That’s what it’s called. You like it with the toasty little breadcrumbs on top of it.” Marvel finishes for her, briefly lifting his head and giving ever so slight of a nod. “I remember it from when-”

“Yeah. I do too.” Glimmer agrees, and is the one to break eye contact as she refocuses down at the scraps of borderline dog food they’re being fed. 

A heavy, powerful silence falling over the table full of victors, a haze no one quite wants to break. Cato taps his thumb on Clove’s shoulder, and she settles into his side contently. Marvel clears his throat and looks around the room awkwardly, not quite focusing on any point or face in particular. 

“...well!” Johanna announces, finally breaking through the silence that permeated their shared space. “I don’t know about you, but the first thing I want, is a fucking drink.”

—————

“Where’s Cato? I haven’t seen you two apart…actually at all, since you got back?” Glimmer invites herself to the foot of Clove’s bed, hands full of bed sheets and thread. “Off in that silly little meeting of boys?”

“Finnick showed up and practically begged him to go.” Clove confirms, pulling herself to a more proper sitting position  and tucking her feet back to sit criss-crossed underneath her.  “I don't know if it was actually a meeting or if he was just trying to make him go get his allotted thirty minutes of fresh air.”   As she sits she tugs at the newly replaced IV in her hand, bringing forward the poll that was attached to the long bit of tubing in her hand, reminded of the inconvenience she thought she had escaped. 

Glimmer reaches out a hand to brush over the back of Clove’s, immediately calling attention to the new intrusion. “Clove! I thought you were done with these?”

“Eh. A small setback. Turns out part of my lung just like..collapsed when I was trying to throw this morning. It was filled with blood, it got pretty nasty. I guess I still have some internal bleeding and bruising.” She pulls down the top of her hospital pajamas, showing the literal tubing coming out from below her clavicle, which is filled with fresh ruby blood. “Shoved this in me, the IV is for the pain. I don’t think I need it but–”

“Your lung collapsed. You have a literal piece of plastic sewed into your skin. And you don’t think you need the pain meds?” Glimmer cocks a blonde eyebrow, before mirroring Clove’s cross legged posture. “You’re stronger than anyone else I know, Clove. Stubborn, but strong nonetheless.” 

She offers Clove a bit of thread and one of her stitching needles, along with  the upper half of some shredded fabric.  It had started off handedly– a story of how Clove used to stitch up Cato, how they had been taught in the academy and how she didn’t want to lose that skill too when people were here to baby her. Someone, Primrose Everdeen maybe, had suggested it may be a good therapeutic exercise for her to use the fine muscles and tendons in her hands, to work on stitching and maintain her fine motor skills. 

Really, though, it was more of a therapy for Glimmer, who desperately needed to feel needed, who desperately needed a friend to distract her brain for a few hours a week. 

It worked out for both of them. 

“Any other injuries you wanna admit to, Clove?” Glimmer inquires, absentmindedly beginning to run a new type of fabric stitch on the opposite end of the fabric from Clove. “You know I have no one to tell.”

“Nope. Just the usual. Broken ribs. All my major joints are useless. A lung that gave out. Oh, some internal bleeding…” Clove tries not to reveal her frustration when she cannot thread the needle, cannot keep the intrinsic muscles of her head steady enough to connect the two pieces. The shaking of her right hand betrays her as she drops the needle, grip strength so diminished she can't even keep hold of it for long enough to throw an anchoring stitch in the fabric.  Clove throws down the fabric in defeat, running her hand now over her face instead. 

“But hey. My skin is coming back together. Just ugly fucking scars for the rest of my life–” Clove reveals the skin of her thigh to Glimmer, the puckering of stitches and the greenish-yellow hue of a bruise starting to dissolve under her skin. “Just fucking great, Glimmer. I’m just great.”

Glimmer drops the fabric, and immediately pushes up the sleeves of her District Thirteen issued henley shirt. Her own scars are not as angry red or freshly bruised, but rather a raised, pink granulated tissue in rivulettes from her elbows to right where her wrist meets her hand. “We all have scars now, Clove. No more magic Capitol tricks  to take them away. I clawed my way out of handcuffs, using blood to lubricate my way out.. We all have scars now that we’re going to carry for the rest of our lives. You are alive. You have Cato. By all standards, you’re dong pretty fucking great compared with the other option here.” 

Glimmer picks up the little fallen needle and wordlessly threads it for Clove, saying nothing nor expecting any gratitude from the other woman for the act. “You have Cato. Who will not leave your side, who shoves into a twin-sized hospital bed with you somehow–”

“We slept in a twin sized bed at the academy when we were sixteen until he won. We’re used to it, is all.”

“It’s still sweet. How he is so insistent on being near you all the time, all he thought about that whole time was you Clove, I’m shocked they even got him away from you now.”

“Yeah well.. I made him go with Finnick, too. It’s not good for him to sit here and treat me like a porcelain doll all the time. For either of us.” Clove takes Glimmer’s offering with no words of thanks, as the exchange would prove too embarrassing of a hit to Clove’s fragile confidence.

Her confidence being the only truly fragile thing about her, may she add.

“He sleeps with me and he is always touching me but it’s like he’s scared to touch me, you know?” Clove explains, hoping it is not too much information for what had become her closest friend. “He thinks I'm fragile.”

“He doesn’t think you’re fragile.” She nearly scoffs, giving a half hearted laugh. “He thinks you’re anything but. He just doesn’t want to hurt you.”

It’s Clove’s turn to scoff and laugh at that. “He has never given a fuck about hurting me. He broke my collarbone the day we met. After he won, he used to push me so hard at training that I couldn’t walk the hundred steps to my room at training. One time he picked me up by the throat and slammed me against a wall until I could escape myself. Our entire lives have been hurting each other–”

“Well you’re not the one getting choked against a wall now, are you?” Glimmer deflects, and a wicked smile floods Clove’s face at the realization of the lighthearted change in topic. 

“I wish I were getting choked against a wall in a different way, you know?” Clove teases, laughing as they fall into a comfortable silence as they work on different types of stitching– human skin or low thread-count sheets. 

“You know Marvel is going to come around, right?” Clove offers out of the blue, seemingly coming from nowhere with the topic change. “You said that all Cato thought about was me, well, that was him too. We shared a wall. Lots of conversations were had through six inches of concrete and all….he’ll come around. He just needs time to remember–”

“Clove, he won’t even look at me. He won’t come around, because he remembers it all just fine. Do you know what he said to me that day? That I used him, that he was just another client to me. He said that…that..that I just picked him because he was there! He doesn’t believe that I love him, Clove. He thinks I just..faked it all.” Glimmer catches the skin of her finger in her needle, and quickly brings the blood drop to her lips to staunch the bleeding. “I didn’t fake a thing. Not with him. He is the only person it was ever real with and I just- I just…I miss him.”

“He loves you too, Glimmer. He never stopped.”

“Yeah, well, he shows it just like every other man I’ve ever met, now.”

—————

“There's my favorite cellmate!” Marvel’s voice pops out, a goofy grin on his face as he lets himself right into her room.

“Let me guess, it’s your turn to babysit me?” Clove slams shut the book she had been reading, some silly novel from long before the dark days in a language that was English but also so much more complicated. The only type of enrichment activity she got these days was mental, it seems. 

“Huh? No, no of course not, no...yeah, actually. Yeah. But! I came because I wanted to see you, not because It’s my turn to keep you supervised.”

Clove swings her legs over the side of the bed, placing her feet firmly on the ground before pushing herself to a standing position. She had quickly discovered if anyone was going to let her get away with something it was going to be Marvel– he was not going to keep her in bed with crafts or insist she not move too much at risk of re-angering an existing injury or worse, making a new one. Maybe it was because he had been there when she was at her absolute worst in the Capitol, right alongside her, but he didn’t quite treat her like her skin was made of glass. “Let me guess, another meeting of all the victors but us?”

“The privilege of being the special ones who got pulled out of the arena apparently comes with a security clearance.” Marvel shrugs, nodding his head enthusiastically towards the door. “Peeta bread down the hall is in therapy, Johanna went backwards today in terms of progress with water, and Annie is..well she’s Annie. Oh but us, we’re the big scary careers remember? We’re the little captiol plants, that's why they tried to kill you, makes it more believable you know?” 

Clove hops off the bed and practically scurries towards the door, at the chance to escape her sterile prison at any slight opportunity that arises. As she gets closer to her chaperone she notices the permanent marker writing on his arm. “Look at you, you got slave to district thirteen privilege, what are you blowing off right now?”

“History of Nuclear Defense. It’s pretty cool, but I can’t look at that guy from twelve for more than fifteen minutes-”

“Well you are the one who threatened to stab him for cheesecake, Marvel.”

“I was kidding! Mostly!” Marvel gestures to the left to turn out of the hallway, the long way away from the fellow prison (hospital) cells of their friends and fellow victors. Other than Annie, he has had the hardest time accepting what has happened to them, and even more so why he was left without the physical scars of his friends. “Apparently Cato and Glimmer have both gone after him, I think our turn is long overdue.”

They take their government mandated stroll up and down the hall, back and forth, as they do any day that Marvel gets assigned Clove duty. It’s the most exercise anyone will let Clove have, the most autonomy, even. 

“Have you heard anything about back home? Noone will tell me shit, and I don’t know if they don’t know or if they’re trying to spare my feelings like I'm a child who can’t handle the reality of war.” He half whispers, all too aware (and maybe even a little paranoid, after their time in the capitol) that someone is always listening for something even the littlest bit treasonous to slip their lips so they can be hung in the proverbial town square. 

“Glimmer knows nothing about Gloss and Cashmere. They can’t tell me anything about Enobaria. I thought asking every day would break them but-” Clove gives half a shrug, kicking her feet along the concrete floors. “Noone can tell me anything about her. We don’t know about Brutus, either. All Cato wants to know is about his sister. I don’t think anyone knows. Or if they do, they’re keeping it from all of us.”

He doesn’t respond, just gives a nod at the reality of their situation. If anyone knows anything, it is well hidden from all of them. “You know, I’m not glad you’re still in the hospital, but I’m glad Cato sleeps with you, he’s supposed to be my roommate. We have fucking roommates, what is this, war boarding school? Between this and the classes, I feel like they left some gaps in our education in the districts. Who knew we should know how to do nuclear fission by eighteen.”

“I literally don’t even know what those words mean.” She half-laughs, shaking her head in disapproval. “Other than the games and then, you know, the capitol, I have barely spent a night away from him since we were sixteen. I think you’re safe to push the beds together to make yourself one big one, because he won’t be there anytime soon.” 

Clove supposed that meant that Glimmer was meant to be her roommate when all was said and done. In another life, they probably would have switched in the dark of the night, Clove and Marvel or Glimmer and Cato, rearranging the sleeping arrangements in a way that would scandalize the upper-administration of thirteen and they would not have cared. All they would have cared about is having been together, at whatever cost. Things are different, now, though.

“You need to talk to her.”

“I don’t want to talk to her.”

“Marvel I do not know what they said to you in those last couple of days before we got out, but a week before all you wanted in the entire world was to see her again.” Clove reminds him in a voice that can only be described as lecturing. “All you have to do is talk to her, you’ll know she meant it all.”

“I just can’t get it out of my head, Clove. That all along she was just using me. Over and over and over again, I just hear them telling me that it never would have been me. Why would it be me?” His eyebrows are just slightly knit together, and there's a hesitation in his voice that Clove can recognize as doubt. 

Doubt. The strongest force in the world, like a spell that needs no more than a drop to permeate every inch of your being, to consume you. To burn you to the ground. 

“Because you’re you. And she’s her. And I’m Clove, and he’s Cato. It makes sense just because it does. Some things just…are. And this is one of them.” She has nothing better to say, because there is no stronger answer. 

Somethings are just meant to be because they simply are. 

They pace in a peaceful albeit tense silence, for about five more minutes before the overhead alarm signals to them that a change in activity will happen in exactly five minutes, and her other supervisors will return.

“...you know that Glimmer and Cato got to go to the armory, right?” Clove informs him with a heavy, heavy sigh. “Cato gets target practice and I’m barely allowed out of bed. How’s that fair? I’m going fucking crazy, Marvel.”

“You almost died, you psycho, I think they’re just being cautious. Besides, you were already crazy.”

“I’m not made of porcelain or glass or ceramics. I trained in the best training academy in the country for ten years, I won the fucking Hunger Games.” Clove slams her hand into the door, blocking their entrance back in. “Do you think I'm some little broken winged bird?”

“You don’t have to tell me that, Clove. I was there. I know what you survived. I wouldn’t have. I don’t think anyone else would have.” He gently nudges her hand out of the way so he can make sure she actually goes back to her room. “You know, it probably wouldn’t have been so bad if you had just given them the screams they wanted.”

Clove scoffs. “That's rule number one. Never show weakness. That gets you killed. And besides, I only scream for one person.” She gives him a playful nudge with her shoulder as she pushes past him. 

Who would have thought. At one time she saw him as one of the most annoying victors she had ever met, and now, he was the only person treating her like she had her own two legs to stand on.

Damn. Maybe trauma bonding is real. 

“I don’t need babysitting, you know, Marvel.”

“Trust me, I Know that. Convince everyone else.”

—————

“It’s okay, Clove, you’ll get it back–”

Clove lets out a frustrated scream, throwing the knife to the ground. Finally, finally, she had gotten a knife back in her hand in the training room, a moment she had been working toward for weeks. She had expected it to be muscle memory, truly her second nature, and come back to her as easily as it had back when she was five years old and threw for the first time. 

Apparently muscles lose their memory when they are severed. 

“No, Cato, it isn’t fucking okay!” She grabs another one of the knives– albeit not the best quality, but she cannot blame that. She could kill with a plastic butter knife, before– and as soon as she raises her arm she nearly drops the knife from the sharp pain that runs through her shoulder. “This is all I fucking have, this is all I am, and I can’t do it. I could do this when I was five.”

The couple of throws she had managed to succeed in executing failed in other ways, each three feet away from even hitting her target. A failure, by academy standards. 

“Baby, this is not all you are.”

“How would you feel? If the only thing that has ever made you remarkable was just..gone? This is all I have, yes it is. This is as close as I’ve ever felt to my mother, who chose the games over me, this is the only thing that kept my grandmother choosing to keep me alive, the hope that i’d actually win. I was tiny and frail looking then but I was good. I was the best. This is all I have, Cato. This is all I am, and now I'm not.” Clove tries, again, to bring her arm past parallel with the floor, and the pain is nearly unbearable. She does not cry. She does not show it. But god, god does it hurt deep in her bones. 

“If this is hurting you, you need to stop, Clove.” Stupid Cato. Stupid Cato and his ability to know even the slightest change in her face, to be able to notice even her slightest tells. “You just need time and that's okay.”

“And what the fuck got into YOU Cato? What the fuck is this ‘you need to stop’ shit?” Clove snaps, stepping forward to grab him by the center of his shirt, pulling him forward with a jerk of her arms. “What happened to the person who broke me, and ran me until I threw up, and never once, not a single time, took fucking pity on me? What happened to the person who wanted to make me a better tribute, who wanted to make me a better fucking victor even when we were going to kill each other? I’m not broken, Cato, don’t treat me like I am.”

Cato shakes his head, and drops his hands to his side, before very very gently grabbing her upper arms. “Clove, I don’t want to hurt you, it’s not worth it.”

“Oh since fucking when don’t you want to hurt me? Pick me up by the throat and make me fight my way out, Cato!” Clove practically begs, deep eyes searching his face in desperation, pleading for understanding, 

“That was to make you survive, Clove, not fucking kill you.” He tries, gently tightening his grip on her arms. “This isn’t all you are, Clove, not anymore. Not ever.”

“Cato, stop! Treat me like your fucking partner. Treat me like me, Treat me like you’re Cato and I’m Clove and we have spent our entire lives making each other better. I am begging you, treat me like me.” Clove sees the hesitation in his face, in the way he looks from her eyes to her nose to avoid the desperation in her eyes, and knows she has him. She grabs his right hand and pushes it up to the top of her shoulder.  “Brace my shoulder, and do NOT let it go. If I cry or scream. Do not let it go.”

Something snaps in Cato, or maybe something reawakens, but he gives a firm, hard squeeze at the junction of her arm and her shoulder, feeling the tendons separate and slip underneath his fingers.  Clove’s legs nearly give out, and it takes all she has not to whine in the true agony at the feeling of her joints sliding over each other again. He does not let go, or loosen the grip he has on her swelling shoulder joints. Cato twists her in his arms, facing her out towards the targets. “Go. Throw.” 

His other arm is wrapped around her waist, and holds her up as her legs beg to give out and bring her to the ground. As her throws hit closer and closer to the target, Cato doesn’t comment on how he can tell exactly how hard she is struggling to breathe, or how he can feel her other hand shaking at her side. 

“I have an idea.” Cato begins, finally letting go of her arm and her body and trying to ignore the soft whine that she lets out when he does. “Not that they’re letting us anywhere near a war but,” 

He reaches for the same deep silver gun he had picked up all those weeks ago, when he and Glimmer had been given free range for an hour with Beetee taking pity on them.  “Easier to hit with this.”

Cato slips it from his hands to hers, and notices the way her hand nearly falls at the weight of the weapon. Before the frustrated look can even befall her face, he has her back in front of him, with both of his hands on top of hers. He raises her hands in his, holding them out infront of her. “You’ll like it, at least until your arms are better.” 

“Easy now, baby.” Cato whispers in her ear, “You’ve got it.” He promises, and when she finally pulls the trigger, he catches her back against his chest when the kickback reverberates through her and sends her a few inches backwards. “There you go,” Cato kisses right below her ear, just before she twists in his arms to face him. 

The smile stretched across her face is worth it all in that moment, the wicked, dark energy she is so known for all but painted in her eyes. 

“I knew you’d like that.” Cato teases, only slightly off guard when the metal falls to the ground with a loud cling and he feels her pulling him back. It’s effortless when he naturally lifts her by her waist onto the armory table, in a spot between the guns and knives and various weapons of choice for the assorted victors in thirteen. 

Clove threads her fingers through the hair at the base of his neck and oh she is alive, alive alive again. As she pulls him down on top of her, she pauses only for a moment before catching his lips with hers. 

“Remember, I’m not broken.”

“I know, Clove.” 

[antisociallilbrat]

I saw that person ask you which Losers would survive Coraline and I also saw that you like the hunger games so now I gotta ask which Loser do you think would survive the hunger games?

I'm more excited to answer this ask then I should be, thank you anon. This makes me miss my Hunger Games Stenbrough Au may it rest in peace </3

Answering this question is a little different than the Coraline one because there's many factors that go into actually winning the games. And anon I'm assuming that you meant them competing different years bc if they competed the same year uh....anyways I randomized which Loser came from which district with the wheel to make it fair. Not that the district they come from has a direct effect if they win or lose but does factor into it. Anywho you know the drill:

Ben: He's coming from district four and this works greatly in his favor. He's a naturally athletic guy and looking at tributes like Finnick and considering that district four is a career district...my man is buff. Not that he would volunteer though- he's not a career. That said he's naturally good natured (Peeta anyone?) and would draw in sponsors. But he's also Ben...I don't think he has it him to kill people so ruthlessly even on the stake of his survival. So no, Ben does not survive his games.

Richie: He got district two and I was almost tempted to respin it but nope, we're being fair here. (In my fic he was a victor from D2 🤨 the wheel knows) Out of fanfic though I'm on the fence if he would actually survive. Rich has the showmanship so he would have sponsors eating out of the palm of his hands but he's no brute. I don't think he'd be one even coming from district two. I don't see him being an ally guy. If I really think about I have to say yes he would survive his games if not at least get very far. His strategy would be just to avoid people and he's smart enough to aware of his surroundings and if need be he will kill. But if a brute came after him he could be overpowered so if that was the case he'd die but I'm sticking with yes.

Bev: Oh...she got district six. I had to google it and the first thing that popped up was 'they are at a disadvantage because they have no experience with weapons or tools'. Bev is still smart though and I can see stealth being her biggest advantage but I'm sorry, being from district six she doesn't have a chance so no she doesn't win. Maybe if she was from a career district and could pull a Clove?

Mike: Hell yeah he got district seven. Look, him and Ben are kinda similar right here- both athletic and being from districts with physically demanding occupations (seven is lumber) so Mike is kind of a tank. Mike also has that sweet demeanor that would win over some sponsors- even being from an outlier district. Where he differs from Ben is I think Mike would kill for the sake of getting home. He's also Mike so the guilt would almost kill him but I think he would do it so I'm saying yes he would survive his games.

Bill: Unlike Richie, Bill did not end up the same district he had in my fic, the wheel spun him to district ten. So not a career but a good natured farmer's boy? One who's familiar with the slaughterhouse? Who's also fit because his district also has a physically demanding occupation? Look it's not bc he's my favorite Loser but I do have to say yes he would win his games unless he had to kill someone aged like twelve or thirteen, someone who reminded him of Georgie. He'd be screwed then.

Eddie: He got district one- my bb is a career! ...okay I don't see him being a career but I can see him volunteering to get away from Sonya. It's her worst fear and it would be the ultimate- and most risky- way to get out from under her control. I think sponsors would like his fiery nature and despite not being a career, he's quick and smart. I have to say yes he would win his games or at least get to the end.

Stan: I spun for him but it didn't really matter which district he got- it was three. Look I love Stanley, he's my boy, my blorbo, but he would not win the games. I don't have to elaborate much on why. Sorry Stan, you survived Coraline but not the games. I will say that I feel like he would keep his pride up until the very end. It was all he had left :(

[paintedpeeta]

any headcanons for if katniss was a bit less distant to peeta in 13 (or if peeta progressed to where he had his own room, a schedule, could attend finnicks’ wedding..etc...granted, still monitored by guards)

like a still confused peeta making propos with katniss and she makes a snarky comment at Haymitch or rolls her eyes at Plutarch and everybody’s like 🤭😏when he genuinely laughs or smiles at her

or her shyly asking him to dance at the wedding making up some reason in her mind why it’s a good idea like “this dance is meant for 2 ppl anyway🙄” or “his leg could use the exercise” when she rly just wants her boy’s arms around her. maybe it’d be awkward at first but he’d make a lighthearted comment like “could you imagine effie’s face if she saw our form right now” and that’d break the ice making her laugh and they just hold each other like “🥺🥺😓 “ even when the dance is over bc they miss each other so bad it hurts

(P.s i only use tumblr for ur blog i’m in love hahah)

first of all i just have to say whaaaaat?? someone using tumblr exclusively for my blog is just 💀 i really can’t believe that! thank you so much and i’m so glad u enjoy whatever it is that i do on here!

i also want to say i feel like katniss can’t be blamed for being distant, she’s still a kid who’s been thrown into this awful situation! she distances herself from peeta when he’s in this state to protect herself, and that’s okay! hearing this boy who always loved and protected her and made her feel safe wanting to kill her and being mistrustful of her etc really knocked her. add on top of that the guilt she feels for being separated from him in the quell, even though she wanted so badly to keep him safe... for her own sake she had to keep that sense of removal from him because she couldn’t bare the pain it caused.

and now onto the headcanon-y stuff that you’re here for. i think that if katniss was less distant peeta’s recovery would have gone a lot...smoother? i think katniss being there while he healed would’ve sped up the whole process, instead of delly having to essentially act as the middle man between them. the real-or-not-real ‘game’ paired with her presence, proving that she isn’t a threat to him and that she cares for him would surely have helped in his recovery.

that being said, i don’t think anything katniss could have done (in the canon situation) to get him well enough to have any sort of freedom within district 13 in such a short time span. but say for instance, in an AU where the hijacking wasn’t as bad or didn’t happen at all, i can totally see them sharing a room in 13. she really, really missed out on that comfort in mockingjay and it showed in the things she done (kissing the pearl and imagining it was him.... come on suzanne why’d u do our girl like that 🥺) (also the dream scene in the movie francis lawrence i will get you). just having that grounding force that he brings to her would have gone a long way in that time, and things like the rigid routine of 13 life and propos wouldn’t seem so gruelling if she didn’t also have the constant, gnawing worry about peeta. she might actually have found some joy in things like annie and finnick’s wedding, to be able to dance with peeta and her sister and show snow that whatever he done to peeta clearly didn’t have the desired effect.

and you kneecapped me with the idea of them just clinging onto one another, even after the dancing is over. because they need that. they both need a hug so bad, and they really only want it from each other. prim just watching them from the side like 😏 because she knows her sister and would be able to see how much she needs him. also, snarky everlark at their very best when they team up on haymitch and plutarch as they do propos 💀

also can you imagine them being able to train together in district 13? both of those stubborn jocks clashing heads as they try and push each other, him handing her her ass very arrogantly in the hand to hand combat training, and then her getting him back by showing him up at the firing range 💀 they have this whole chaotic dynamic like before the quell and johanna is in the background like what the fuck is wrong these people. but they always make up as soon as they leave, snuggling into each other close at night because they know they almost lost each other and they don’t ever want that again 🥺

however what i’d most like to see from a sound minded peeta in district 13 (aside from lots and lots of everlark comfort) would be his reaction to coin. to me, peeta being sharp as a tack and aware of his surroundings would see right through her. katniss isn’t a very social creature, she’s instantly weary and defensive and therefore doesn’t really read people properly to try and understand them. peeta on the other hand would pick up coins’ exploitative nature (his disgust at her suggestion to hold another games tells us as such, he’s not drawn into her ideology the way characters like gale or beetee seem to be) and i think that would have a big effect on the way katniss deals with her too.

[aila-reads-stuff]

Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

The Huge Divide

What really boggles me the most with Hunger Games is that it really accentuates the huge divide between the working class and the rich people.

It's absurd that each district works to provide the elite class their needs. The coals, the fisheries, those kinds of stuff and yet what do they get in return? A tribute that is essentially just a sacrifice for the sole entertainment of the rich.

A sick, twisted way of instilling fear to people.

People from the different districts sleeps in rough beds, hunts for additional money and food, and is too busy trying to survive to care about fashion. Yet, here are the rich people with their high-tech rooms, scrumptious meals, and with their lavish and colorful clothing. They even have a pill to help you throw up so that you could fill your bellies with more food during parties.

I feel like the fashion of the rich classes is a huge statement. You wouldn't bother about being fashionable if you're still worrying about what and how you're going to eat your next meal; Yet with the presence of their extravagant clothings, it implies and emphasises that they don't worry about those things and is more bothered if their colored hair matches with their clothes or if their accesory complements their body. It's a privilege and a leisure that the working class (the districts) do not get to have.

Government

Evil.

That's the word the encapsulates its government.

Evil in a way that treats the common masses as slaves to them.

Evil in a way that it will do any form of violencevto oppress people furthermore-- to instill fear more to people in hopes of lessening or even eradiating dissent.

And I hate that this kind of concept is still reminiscent to my country's type of government.

Hates dissent so much that they're very willing to kill an old man for whistling.

Katniss is right, the government is too fragile that it was broken for a couple of berries.

Mockingjay's Ending

I know I’m supposed. to be happy with how Mockingjay ended because Katniss and Peeta essentially had a good. ending. They had kids. They live peacefully now. But I just can’t get this one thing out of my head: The capitol cannot give back the childhod, the lives of the tributes, their loved ones. They can never reverse the scar that they left on Katniss, Peeta, Haymitch, Johanna, and every person in the district.

Yes, Katniss can sleep peacefully now but nightmares of the past will still contiue to haunt her. But atleast, she got Peeta and now their children by her side to cuddle with when the nightmares get too scary.

Other Hunger Games Tribute

Although I do love Katniss, I often wonder while reading the lives of the other tributes. Finnick and Johanna and even the morphlings were the characters that I was fascinated so much.

Johanna Mason

Johanna because she went through so much hardships that it's already so hard for her to form new relationships. Her individuality almost torn apart that the act of Katniss giving her a few bundle of lumber made her cry because that's the only personal belonging that she had.

Her being ferocious was the only thing that the capitol couldn't almost take away from her. Almost. Imagine not being able to shower for the memories of being electrocuted comes with it. She was supposed to be fierce, yet she trembles at the sight of a harmless rain. What's worse is that she has no family to share these with.

Finnick Odair

The great heart breaker of District 4. Only 14 when he won the 65th Hunger Games. Desired by many, especially the capitol. But desire is not always a good thing. Because of this, despite being a victor, he did not live as one. What kind of "victor" does not even have any autonomy with his body? At only age 16 he was sold by Snow to different Capitol citizens to be a prostitute. Known as the heart breaker, yet little do they know that these so called lovers were nothing but mere customers. Not exactly what a 16 year old should have gone through.

But even all of that, atleast he still managed to create meaningful relationships with having Katniss, Johanna, and Mags, her mentor, as his life-long friends. Also, especially Annie. I was so happy for him when he got married with Annie because she was his life. That's why it was so heartbreaking when he died near the end.

[ Although it wasn't in the books, the scene where Annie wrote Peeta and Katniss a letter and a picture with their son, I absolutely loved it. Also because in the books you don't have the answer as to what happens to the other characters ]

Haymitch Abernathy

Winner of the 2nd Quarter Quell by taking advantage of the forcefield, thus making the capitol look like idiots. A guy who spent so much time trying to numb all the pain that the capitol has given him by dinking himself to waste. Having the annual trauma of being close to the yearly tributes only to be looking at their brutal death on large screens.

I know that all these characters are fictional and therefore their pain is not real, but I if I could I would give all of them a huge warm hug. (Mainly maybe for my sake because reading all those storied definitely hurt)

[ALSOO

They were not accentuated much in the books, but the tongueless Avoxes were also really interesting. Pollux 😭]

[everlarkficexchange]

Everlark Fic Exchange. PROMPTS

Springtime Edition 2020.

These are the prompts we’ve received so far.

Crossed out prompts have already been selected and are being turned into fics!

A huge ‘Thank you’ to everyone who’s taken the time to come up with an idea and send it our way. Your prompts are the heart of the Exchange. Without them, our authors wouldn’t get to write all those beautiful fics. So, please, keep them coming!

You haven’t sent anything yet? Don’t worry, there’s still time. We’ll be receiving prompts until March 8.  Don’t be afraid to inspire us!

Prompts:

Prompt 1: Middle Mellark brother never wanted a baby bro. Spends half his life defending or admiring or manipulating Peeta, but the other half hating him for being so perfect (the favorite sweet talker and best baker wrestler). Whether to help or torment him, Rye asks reserved Katniss on a date to get a reaction. Maybe told as a wedding toast? [submitted by @567inpanem]

Prompt 2: Katniss is a high end house painter who works with expensive decorators, hired to paint an up and coming artists home. Turns out it’s Peeta, the boy her mother saved from an abusive home, who then disappeared. [submitted by @niceworksherlock]

Prompt 3: Imaginative only child Prim loves acting out all sorts of adventures with her favorite action figures Katniss and Peeta. (Toy Story-ish talking toys?) [submitted by @567inpanem]

Prompt 4: Gale attempts to shoot Peeta during a hijacking episode on the Star Squad. Leaving Peeta wounded but not fatally. Katniss thinks Gale killed him. [submitted by Anonymous]

Prompt 5: Prompt has been removed.

Prompt 6: Medieval Au: Queen Katniss is in love. Too bad the person, Peeta is a renounced rebellion leader now turned into the personal sexslave of King Cato Snow, the son of Coriolanus Snow. With each passing day its becoming more and more dangerous for this star-crossed lovers to survive. Will she risk her family (sister Prim and mom) for love or will she be able to utilise the secrets of the castle Capitol in her favour to usurp the evil King and his father? [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 7: Katniss Everdeen the daughter of a billionaire tries to antagonise her father. So she decides to date poor, uneducated simple boy Peeta. Her whole family (even Prim) hates him. Too bad his father has already arranged her marriage with his business partner's son Gale, a smart, handsome and successful man. Will she really fall for Peeta or will she bow to her father's will? Does Peeta feel himself worthy of Katniss? [submitted by @white-dandelion-seeds]

Prompt 8: Peeta is a rich ceo and in love with another who disappeared before their marriage. So he withdraw within himself. But then he meets katniss( her background is up to you ) and falls in love for the second time. [submitted by @mysteriouslycraftyreview]

Prompt 9: Katniss is a commoner and peeta is a cruel king. He wants katniss to be his mistress. How will they fall in love is up to you. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 10: katniss and peeta are best friends who were in a friends w benefits arrangement in the past. now the hunger for each other is coming back. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 11: in panem au where everlark isn't reaped and peeta knocks up katniss. [submitted by @sunflowerslyf]

Prompt 12: katniss walks out of the fitting room wearing only a bikini to ask her friend if it suits her but it isnt her friend at the other side of the door but peeta. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 13: Katniss and Peeta work things out after the first Games and become closer and closer, and their love grows deeper. One day though, they are caught by Mrs. Everdeen and a fight ensues...(outcome is up to you, as long as it is Everlark!) [submitted by @albinokittens300]

Prompt 14: THG The Witcher AU with Katniss = Geralt, Peeta = Yenn, Prim = Ciri [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 15: A Below Deck inspired Everlark. Bonus points for including Odesta. [submitted by @historywriter2007]

Prompt 16: Hades!Katniss/Persephone!Peeta Katniss has stolen herself a husband. As Peeta becomes acclimated to being co ruler of the underworld Katniss finds herself bewitched by him beyond any measure she believed possible. But someone is not too happy with Katniss and has vowed vengeance. Vengeance in the form of the husband Katniss has come to revere. [submitted by @lovely-tothe-bone]

Prompt 17: Everlark enemies to lovers, a long standing grudge (could be anything, even simple) but somehow it is discovered that Katniss is a bone marrow match for Peeta. If she doesn't donate he will die. [submitted by @lovely-tothe-bone​]

Prompt 18: A Wrinkle in Time AU - Meg!Katniss, Charles Wallace!Prim, Calvin!Peeta. [submitted by @lovely-tothe-bone​]

Prompt 19: Everlark inspired by Netflix show Love is blind. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 20: Peeta is the CEO and katniss is his secretary. They have an affair and katniss gets pregnant but when she tells peeta he doesn't believe her and accuse her of trying to trap him. What will he do when he realize his mistake and how will he win katniss back. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 21: High school romance based on the movie Wild Child. [submitted by @mysteriouslycraftyreview]

Prompt 22: Set in early 20th century. Katniss and Peeta are from two rival families who have been enemies since forever. They have a chance meeting which led to them falling in love. They are completely unaware of their identity. Will their love survive or will their relationship crumble. [submitted by @mysteriouslycraftyreview]

Prompt 23: Rumor: MrEverdeen crossed fence dividing Town and Seam, kidnapped Mrs Everdeen making her his commonlaw wife. Years later, Mellark sons plan to avenge their father by raiding Seam and kidnapping one of Everdeens daughters for one of them to take as a wife! Does Katniss “volunteer,” does she escape, how do the 3 brothers decide what to do with her since they didn’t plan it all out well? [submitted by @567inpanem]

Prompt 24: After Prim survives her first reaping, Katniss realizes she must have better plan for Prim’s future; fights to reclaim rights to the apothecary; wins it back after drawn out legal battle; installs her mom and Prim as owners. But Katniss not welcome in town for her Seam looks and distasteful takeover of a town business, and she’s not welcome in Seam as she refuses to marry Gale. So now 18 and past reaping, what will she do, where will she go, does anyone need her, can she let herself need anyone? [submitted by @567inpanem]

Prompt 25: Panem’s Mellark bakers are practically royalty, but with power comes responsibility. Peeta struck deal long ago to someday take reigns of Corp and settle down once dad retires if he can sow wild oats until then fucking everything that moves. Time’s up! Must propose! Publicity stunt for Mardi Gras - will bake engagement ring into cupcakes, makes sure his choice of wife will get that one, but mixup! Some girl in D12 gets it by mistake! Can’t admit his error! Katniss feels miracle, $ woes over! [submitted by @567inpanem]

Prompt 26: the night before the Quarter Quell, in the sleepless dark, Katniss and Peeta allow themselves to indulge in the bittersweet dream of a future they’ll never have together (“if it wasn’t us, what would you do?” “I’d want to marry you” “tell me”) [submitted by @rosegardeninwinter]

Prompt 27: Pick a “what if” - what if Katniss was at Peeta’s bedside when he woke after losing his leg? - what if Katniss hadn’t been locked inside her room after wandering at night when she decides to seek out Peeta? - what if Haymitch hadn’t left the train when it stopped and upset Peeta with his comment? [submitted by @567inpanem]

Prompt 28: The truth finally comes out years later: Lily broke off the engagement only after the baker had knocked up her best friend, and for the baby’s sake she had left to run a free clinic in the seam where she does find true love. Her family invites her back to the apothecary now that they know and they forgive her for marrying a mine worker now that he’s deceased anyway. How does young Katniss adjust to life in town; Peeta, Delly, Madge as neighbors; not needing to go over the fence but wanting to? [submitted by @567inpanem]

Prompt 29: Post-MJ, Growing Together. Peeta is finally showing his affection and love for Katniss as they heal and reconnect. Katniss, being Katniss, seems to act like she doesn't appreciate this, and is less than enthused. Peeta, taking this like an adult, stops showing her with the affection and tries to show her his love in other ways. Katniss, however, does not appreciate him stopping those things and set out to try and get him to continue it again because she misses it. [submitted by @albinokittens300]

Prompt 30: When Prim needs a bone marrow reconstitution that can only be accomplished via genetic matched umbilical stem cell transplantation, Mrs E confesses that the baker is Prim’s father. Prim’s best chance of survival depends on Katniss having a Mellark’s child for the donor cells. How does she get one of the Mellarks to agree? And what are negotiations like regarding conception and what to do with the baby once it’s born? What if it’s more than one baby because of the medication Katniss is given? [submitted by @567inpanem]

Prompt 31: “We never see you two so much as kiss in public but last night we all heard you have sex.” Who says it (Johanna, Haymitch, Finnick or ?) and under what circumstances (vacation rental, baby monitor mishap or ?) is up to you. From BBA [submitted by Buttercupbadass]

Prompt 32: Pre-books fic about a young Peeta crushing on Katniss. His friends tease him about his crush constantly, and it irritates him because everyone seems to know except Katniss herself. But he just rolls his eyes good-naturedly whenever his friends say something about it. [submitted by @madetofly]

Prompt 33: Roommates+Friends-with-Benefits: It’s finally March and Katniss is hankering for a Shamrock Shake because “Damned it, Peeta! I can taste the mint!” So he drives her to every McDonald's in a 40 mile radius without luck. She cries, surprising both of them ‘cause she never cries… Peeta takes matters into his hands, buys ingredients for a homemade 🍀 shake plus a pregnancy test just in case. You decide what’s the result and what Everlark does with the knowledge/scare. Extra points for humor. [submitted by @alliswell21]

Prompt 34: Peeta Mellark is the owner of a popular bakery chain and has no time for romance. Katniss Everdeen is struggling, about to be evicted, in deep debt and desperate, she jokingly tells her friend Madge over a cheese bun, she needs a Sugar Daddy to put her trough college and Peeta happens to overhear it. She’s a regular at his main shop, and is cute if a few years his junior. He offers her a deal she can’t refuse. Age gap. Extra cookies for accidental toastbaby and falling in love. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 35: No reaping AU. At 19, Katniss considers marrying Gale for practical reasons; the fact she just heard the baker’s son toasted and was assigned a house at the edge of town has nothing to do with it... maybe. What happens next? (was Peeta really married or was it his brother? Does she marry Gale? Does Everlark ever talk? Will Peeta cheat if he’s actually married? Can Katniss admit she loves the Boy with the Bread? Is this forbidden love?) is up to you. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 36: Frustrated and stressed out Single dad!Peeta needs a fuck desperately. His best friend, Katniss, unwittingly offers to help him out. Things get murky with repressed feelings, but one thing’s certain, Peeta can’t keep his hands to himself anymore and Katniss is all too willing to oblige at the drop of a hat, regardless of place, time and her own emotions, as long as he keeps whispering all his sexy, filthy thoughts into her ear. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 37: Not-Reaped, In-Panem AU where Peeta and Katniss have begun quietly seeing one another. It is very early on and they are really only just getting a bearing on how deep their feelings are when one day Katniss sees Peeta beat by his mother and no amount of will power will stop her from going and confronting the witch. She goes in there on a war path but stops when she sees just how hurt Peeta is this time, with open gash on his leg from when he had fallen to the ground... [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 38: Everlark inspired by Netflix's Spinning Out (But honestly I believe it was the other way around!) [submitted by @justhereforthefanfiction]

Prompt 39: Taylor Swift - Mary’s Song (aka childhood best friends to lovers to husband and wife) [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 40: No choice - friends Katniss and Gale must wed to become legal guardians of siblings. Still not enough to avoid financial ruin. Convinced only way to get desperately needed fast cash is for Katniss to first offer virginity to highest bidder. But how to find him or her, how to negotiate terms, does she confide in anyone, how should she prepare, will it all be quick and forgotten as she hopes, what could go wrong, can she keep this secret, can she use a fake name, can she hire a service? [submitted by @567inpanem]

Prompt 41: Inspired by the dancing kid meme. A video clip of either Katniss/Peeta as a child becomes a huge meme. How do they handle it? Maybe it gets them together? Maybe it’s creation tears them apart? [submitted by Buttercupbadass]

Prompt 42: Every time there’s a really bad storm, a bolt of lightning precedes Katniss getting transported to another life. She’s always Katniss with all her memories, but everything around her is different. Peeta is always there, she just needs to figure out if he’s friend, foe, stranger. And, damn it, the storms this spring with global warming sometimes has her in and out of situations before she can figure anything out. Gale complicate things further. It’s enough to drive her crazy... [submitted by @567inpanem]

Prompt 43: Katniss post-war becomes crazy cat lady, dedicates herself to caring for every stray, calls them all Buttercup, don’t get along with Haymitch’s geese. Now does Dr Aurelius make a house call? [submitted by @567inpanem]

Prompt 44: Believing that taking a new young bride every 5 years will keep him youthful, Snow arranges to marry wife #12 from D12. In the hours between the ceremony and the wedding night, he drops dead. 16-yr-old Katniss returns to 12 but now she’s “Widow Snow.” Can she ever be Katniss, district huntress again? With all that $, wedding gifts, etc that were sent on the train with her? [submitted by @567inpanem]

Prompt 45: Prompt has been removed.

Prompt 46: Pacific Rim inspired AU with drift compatible Everlark (or not if you’re inspired by angst). I really just want to see more of that aspect of Pacific Rim explored than what they did in the movie and what better way to do it than with Everlark! [submitted by @katnissdoesnotfollowback]

Prompt 47: katniss and peeta have a one night stand after meeting at a bar. when katniss visits her gyno turns out peeta is her new doctor. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 48: best friends!everlark who take each other's virginity. [submitted by @sunflowerslyf]

Prompt 49: "I'm your boss, give me your pants. Now." [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 50: everlark discovering on their date that they've missed each other their whole lives (living in the same city, went to the same high school, going to the same halloween and nye parties, were set up before by different friends but stood each other up, shopping at the same store, etc.) [submitted by @sunflowerslyf]

Prompt 51: Katniss E, the Valedictorian of Panem High school, is perfect in all fields of life. And that is the crush of awkward, average in studies, not so popular, never had a girlfriend, often bullied Peeta M. Not only does she have a very popular friend circle but also a handsome, popular boyfriend Gale H. Will she even want to be his friend? Is his crush doomed to fail? Eventual Everlark. [submitted by @white-dandelion-seeds]

Prompt 52: “The Tao of Peeta” - maybe setting is as (small, remote, surrounded by wild creatures) D12 is being used as a penal colony for dangerous (political?) prisoners? Bring in other victors? [submitted by @567inpanem]

Prompt 53: Katniss’s parents finally convinces her to attend the military ball because they are honoring her dad after some time of trying to distance herself from the military world. At the ball, she meets a handsome, charming man that might bring her back into the world she was trying to leave. [submitted by @animekpopxx]

Prompt 54: Heart wrenching angst Everlark based on the song “Me Dedique A Perderte” by Alejandro Fernandez. [submitted by @animekpopxx​]

Prompt 55: The Prophecy states: “A powerful witch that’s born from the two worlds,will reunite them and will bring peace. “ Everyone thought that the prophecy was talking about her. And she did bring change and hope to everyone but who ultimately brought the peace was her unborn child. [submitted by @animekpopxx​]

Prompt 56: Who dun it? Shortly after Katniss goes to one of those paint and kiln your own porcelain places, (owner artist Peeta), people start disappearing. The only connection seems to be that they were people she bitched about while sipping too much wine and painting her piece. She becomes prime suspect. No bodies can be found, how are they vanishing? Can she offer an alibi for each disappearance? That guy Peeta keeps popping up, is he following her? She’s sure she caught him looking at her... [submitted by @567inpanem]

Prompt 57: In a place where the world prospers with a female dominated world, Coriolanus Snow successfully does a coup over the reigning Everdeen family with ruthless bunches of man to create a world where men dominate.But the people’s hope is in the form of a Katniss Everdeen and Snow did not know that she was right under his nose the whole time before it was too late. [submitted by @animekpopxx]

Prompt 58: Historical au where princess katniss and duke peeta are secretly sleeping together, are caught, and now have to marry each other. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 59: Growing up Peeta started loving her. It was a gradual thing that happened throughout his childhood and into his teens. But something changes when he hits puberty. Her scent has heightened, he can spot her from miles away. He gets a bit possessive. But the biggest thing is when his body starts to heat up and even just the thought of you gets him hard for days. He finds out the family secret of his werewolf genes, something his parents thought passed him. How can he go by with his day and be with her without scaring her away by humping her because of his heat. [submitted by @animekpopxx]

Prompt 60: After severe flooding(?) community urged to open homes to disaster victims. Mrs. E offers to take in children only. Peeta and bro assigned there temporarily. Peeta quiet, polite? Bro constant source of embarrassment? Prim doesn’t want them to ever leave? Does Gale have anything to say about this? How does Katniss deal with it? [submitted by @567inpanem]

Prompt 61: Peeta knew better, but he did stupid things when he got drunk. Now he’s caged at the animal shelter in his wolf form. And, omg, Katniss Everdeen let her little sister drag her in to see the dogs?! He knows he shouldn’t, but teen hormones. He just wants to lick her hand. Get a tummy rub. Hump her leg. Sleep on her bed. Omg, they take him home!!!! He needs to let his dad know where he is. Omg. He needs to figure out his bakery shift. “God, don’t let Katniss catch me licking my balls.” [submitted by @567inpanem]

Prompt 62: one night stand!everlark sleeping together the same night a terrible snowstorm hits the city and everything gets shut down with no way to get home. perhaps a two night stand? [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 63: katniss and peeta who are exes wake up together naked, hungover, and married. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 64: She’s a good girl, goes to confession weekly. He’s a bad boy, on the run, slips into the confessional booth just in time. Now he’s stuck hiding in here for a bit hearing the some dull some crazy confessions of the elderly - and of one young girl with the sexiest voice. May go to hell for this, but he’s a guy and can’t help himself with what he says/does next. One of them ends up saying, “Oh, God! Yes!” [submitted by @567inpanem]

Prompt 65: Everlark fluff based on the song Sugar by Maren Morris. [submitted by @lovely-tothe-bone]

Prompt 66: Everlark post apocalypse, katniss and peeta are neighbors and the only two that make it to katniss's father's bunker in time. Over the course of several years the two have grown quite close having no one else, but now provisions are running low. Do they face the unknown outside or stay put, knowing they only have food to last another week? [sent by anonymous]

Prompt 67: Her parents said that it was just a childhood crush and that she will outgrow it. But why does her heart flutters. When she’s finally old enough to get a job, she immediately gets a part time job to be close to him. Will is pursue her love against people’s negative views because he’s so much older than her. Or go for it and make him fall in love with her. Age Gap Older!Peeta. [submitted by @animekpopxx]

Prompt 68: Dark Coffee Shop AU - Capitol Peeta runs a Coffee/Pastry shop in the poshest part of the Capitol. Near by President Snow’s Mansion. Capitol!Katniss is a frequent customer. Things in the Capitol begin to deteriorate as the rebellion drags on. Are they sympathetic to the rebel cause? [submitted by @oakfarmer12]

Prompt 69: College boy Peeta helps incoming students move into the dorms. Katniss is his next assignment. Age Gap? Maybe Katniss is an older student going to college later? Grad student? Maybe Peeta is a senior, Katniss a Freshman? The possibilities are endless! [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 70: Peeta picks up a hitchhiker in the mountains one night, only to find it's his childhood best friend and now escaped convict Katniss Everdeen. In a panic he calls police but after hearing her side of the story comes to believe she didn't actually murder anyone. Everlark on the run. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 71: King Snow forces the daughter of dead rebel leader Katniss to marry is adpoted son Peeta M and kills her father. P coming to know the truth on their wedding night vows to avenge Mr E's death. K hates him and carries on her own rebellion supplying her next clan leader Gale information from the Castle. When Snow is killed and rebels overtake Capitol chaos ensures. Ally of rebel, a neighbouring kingdom's queen Coin tries to use the situation in her favour. Whose side will K take? Eventual Everlark. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 72: Peeta is off a very abusive, poor home. His school friend Katniss has the exact opposite home: well loved and well off family. What happens when opposite worlds clash? [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 73: I am a simple woman: I just want Katniss Everdeen content and loved and washed in moonlight I don’t care how you do it. [submitted by @rosegardeninwinter]

Prompt 74: Katniss Everdeen is horny. It has been three months since she left asshole Gale to enjoy her life. She just needs a good fuck. She goes man-hunting to a local bar with Jo. The even ends up with her being naked on her bed, with the head of a very handsome blonde, stocky stranger between her thighs. But after her first orgasm of the night when he says: I’ve never done this before, will it be the last? [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 75: An in-Panem arranged marriage a/u where Katniss is slightly older than Peeta. [submitted by @endlessnightlock]

Prompt 76: Modern a/u Katniss is getting over the loss of her sister (you decide how) when she meets Peeta. She’s closed off but he finds a way in. Maybe she works for him? Him for her? Maybe she cries herself to sleep on his bread scented shoulder? (Please yes I need that) [submitted by @endlessnightlock]

Prompt 77: Katniss Everdeen has a handsome neighbour. It dosen't help that she just came out of a shitty relationship with her ex Gale Hawthorne. Too bad he is a 19 years old virgin boy and she is a woman of the world at 31. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 78: Post MJ, the new government of Panem has finally decided to lift the exile to Twelve order off of Katniss. Where are Katniss and Peeta in their lives? What is the first thing they do? Do they just have a quiet celebration or do they go somewhere? [submitted by @katnissdoesnotfollowback]

Prompt 79: Peeta has been planning this marriage proposal for months. It goes horribly wrong. Tell me all about it and what happens next?[submitted by @katnissdoesnotfollowback]

Prompt 80: Katniss helps undo the lies Peeta’s mother (and the Capitol) told him about himself (namely that awful “stupid creature” comment) and reminds him that he is worthy and precious to her and really, that’s all that matters [submitted by @rosegardeninwinter]

Prompt 81: Katniss finds her soulmate at her bachelorette party (aka Peeta)(Happy ending please) [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 82: Post MJ, when Peeta touches Katniss’ neck wrong, she has a flashback of him almost strangling her and has to be heavily consoled. This leads to a conversation about his attacking her when he came back from the capitol. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 83: Katniss is whipped instead of Gale in Catching Fire, Peeta’s the one who’s there to take care of her after. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 84: [Historical AU: 1930s Hollywood] Silver screen star Peeta Mellark has captured millions of hearts, and housekeeper Katniss isn't immune. She's stunned when Peeta comes to court her eccentric heiress employer, Madge. Katniss' shock only grows when Peeta offers to pay for her help in winning him Madge's hand in marriage - and access to her fortune, with which he intends to fund his directorial debut. [submitted by @gamesmakers]

Prompt 85: During an episode of Peetas, he locks Katniss outside in the snow for an entire night. Haymitch is passed out drunk and doesn’t let her in, she can’t find anywhere else to go all night so she ends up catching a really bad cold. When Peeta comes to his senses he feels horrible and nurses her back to health. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 86: After MJ Peeta has a hijack relapse for a few minutes where he insults Katniss’ appearance and body (more extreme version of when he said she wasn’t very pretty in Mockingjay) which hits a nerve, especially since her body was damaged in the explosion that killed Prim. After he’s back to himself, he feels terrible, but Katniss brushes it off. It’s only when she refuses to have sex with him now that he realizes how insecure she might be. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 87: On the train a few days before the Quarter Quell, in another effort to break her before the second games, Snow orders Katniss to have sex with someone in the capitol who paid for her company. When she tries to refuse, Snow threatens her family. She agrees but partway through panics and tries to stop it, only to have the buyer turn on her and get physically violent. She comes to Peeta afterwards and he comforts her, holds her, takes care of her and promises he’ll never let someone hurt her again. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 88: Not reaped. Peeta and Katniss fake date. [submitted by @anxiouslyintroverted]

Prompt 89: Amish!world. Katniss and Peeta are courting each other and are just waiting for Katniss to be of age to get married cause Peeta’s 2 years older. But things gets tough when a Snow comes to their county and spots Katniss. He ask her father if she can be his wife. [submitted by @animekpopxx]

Prompt 90: anyone for an Everlark Alcott or Austen-esque period drama? because I sure am so just gonna speak that into existence. [submitted by @rosegardeninwinter]

Prompt 91: ​High school. Peeta is the perfect golden boy. Katniss is a rebellious, infamous girl who always skips class and who everyone fears. She is every boys wet dream and every girls nightmare. How will they both fall in love? [submitted by @mysteriouslycraftyreview]

Prompt 92: High school musical au: katniss and peeta as troy and Gabriella. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 93: Katniss is preparing for first Toastbaby and going through some hardcore nesting urges. Peeta, of course, thinks this is perfect and willing to help her anyway he can even if that means repainting the nursery for a third time. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 94: Toastbaby gets into a bit of a scrape, nothing too serious, and Everlark struggles with finding the balance between being there for toastbaby but not being too overly protective. [submitted by @katnissdoesnotfollowback]

Prompt 95: Everlark meet cute, “Oh wait... you’re NOT my blind date?” We’re they set up with each other or with someone else? How do they figure out the mix up? What happens after? Disgustingly fluffy welcome. [submitted by @katnissdoesnotfollowback]

Prompt 96: Everlark in the verge of breaking up. Why? Are they married or dating? Do they fix it or go their separate ways? [submitted by @katnissdoesnotfollowback]

Prompt 97: Katniss makes three game changing shots, one in each of the books. What if... she missed? Pick one for her to miss and how does it change the story? Cato’s hand in THG, the forcefield in CF, or Coin in MJ. [submitted by @katnissdoesnotfollowback]

Prompt 98: I would love some good rated E Everlark smut. Post mockingjay, Everlark growing back together and when I say smut I don't mean porn. I mean they need each other. Can't live without each other. Pour their hearts out and heal each other with their love from all the trauma they went through and make up time that they wasted holding their feelings back and pining after each other. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 99: Peeta has been spending too much time around his brothers (lol), Katniss makes a remark about wanting a snack, he replys “I have something you can snack on” Peeta is instantly mortified by his stupid comment because he is a gentleman. What happens next? It’s up to you. Could be sexy, could be a different kind of tongue lashing? [submitted by @endlessnightlock]

Prompt 100: Peeta's thoughts/what really happened to him at the end of the war and his thoughts regarding Prim's death. [submitted by @acpoe82]

Prompt 101: The night of the interviews in Catching Fire, Snow delays the games by a few days after Peetas announcement that Katniss is pregnant and demands Katniss gets a forced abortion in the capitol. Peeta and Katniss try to tell the truth, that she’s not pregnant but Snow isn’t listening and she’s forced into the procedure. Peeta is allowed to stay with her during and after, lots of hurt/comfort, etc. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 102: Katniss is uncomfortable with relying on Peeta even post MJ(pre epilogue). She only accepts his affection after nightmares, she doesn’t think she deserves it otherwise. She feels like he’s still too good for her & that she’ll never deserve him, on top of how she lacks trust in anyone bc of her childhood & having to be strong for Prim and her mom. One night after a severely bad nightmare she blacks out and come to, to Peeta bathing her in the tub, being gentle & loving & affectionate & soothing. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 103: best friends!everlark where katniss sets peeta up on a date with her friend, when peeta and date hit it off she realizes that she's actually in love with him but does nothing about it, few years later, peeta and girl are engaged and after a night of drinking, peeta and katniss accidentally hook up. how they get together is up to you (hea pls) [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 104: Katniss is captured instead of Peeta but instead of being injected with tracker jacker serum she’s beaten, starved, lashed and throttled. When her spirit is weak enough the capitol returns her to D13 where Peeta (and Haymitch/Effie) help her recover. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 105: what if one of them was a librarian and the other a (struggling? or drawing away patrons and stealing employees) bookstore owner (maybe who was more interested in things other than books) - Enemies to lovers? [submitted by @567inpanem]

Prompt 106: Everlark based on the movie Groundhog Day, where one (or both?) relive the same day over and over until they get it right. [submitted by @xerxia31]

Prompt 107: Katniss gets jealous of Peeta paying attention to other girls during their “growing back together” period. Super jealous. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 108: A story based on the lyrics to Lady Antebellum's "Need You Now" [submitted by @xerxia31]

Prompt 109: Dialogue prompt: "I deserve better than this!" [submitted by @xerxia31]

Prompt 110: AU. Everlark live across from each other in fancy New York (or the like) penthouses. With all those large windows, they see each other daily and know the other's routine and all he/she does, but they've never met. A chance meeting occurs. What will happen? The circumstances of their living arrangements/any backstory and what happens between them is up to you. [submitted by @acpoe82]

Prompt 111: Hand Porn - looking, breathlessly touching, reading the story told by the calluses, the scars, the strength, while admiring all they’ve done, appreciating all they do, anticipating everything they will do for love - sensitive, expressive, powerful, creative, protective, sensuous hand porn. [submitted by @567inpanem]

Prompt 112: 40-year-old virgin Peeta. Based as loosely as you want on the movie. Everlark, of course. [submitted by @acpoe82]

Prompt 113: Katniss saw Peeta naked in the arena after he got hurt but he hadn’t seen her. During CF while Peeta is training Katniss and Haymitch hard, Katniss falls out of exhaustion and being overworked and hurts her back slightly. Feeling guilty, Peeta gives strips her naked, gives her a bath and rubs healing lotions from her mom all over her. How does he react to the first time seeing her naked?[submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 114: Katniss trips and falls in the quarter quell and breaks her ankle, resulting in Peeta carrying her everywhere. She doesn’t like looking weak in front of the other victors but since she doesn’t plan on living through the games this time it’s good to be taken care of one last time. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 115: During the victory tour, for whatever reason, author can decide, Peeta has to help Katniss undress at the end of the day, only to discover/for her to remember too late, that she didn’t put any underwear on underneath her clothes. His shock/her humiliation ensues. (But he tries to make her feel better ofc) [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 116: Peeta braids Katniss’ hair to soothe her. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 117: AU where Peeta wasn’t hijacked when he returned from the capitol, just shaken up, during Star Squad, Katniss has a bad flashback and Gale witnesses Peeta be the only person who could comfort her. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 118: the nutcracker au! katniss as clara and peeta as the nutcracker. and if there could be a scene with snow, that would be really nice! [submitted by @omercilessmoon]

Prompt 119: “If you were taken by the capitol and hijacked, and then tried to kill Peeta, is this how he would be treating you” a fic where it’s Katniss the capitol hijacked and the second part of mockingjay from their reunion on is reversed. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 120: “I know that everyone on the planet is born with heterochromia, but I’m blind, so literally anyone could lie to me and say that they’re my soulmate. Why should I believe you?” Blind!peeta soulmate AU. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 121: Peeta has returned to D13 along with Katniss. But she is being forced to be the Mockingjay and portray a new angle, that Gale is her actual lover, Peeta was being forced on her by Capitol and Snow. How does Katniss manage the peer pressure? [submitted by @white-dandelion-seeds]

Prompt 122: The soldiers bring back to district 13 Peeta but he is not hijacked. He has been beaten badly, starved and sexually abused. All this led him to become an emotional avox. Will Katniss be able to help him recover from the trauma? [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 123: Katniss never volunteers instead she is picked. While peeta volunteers for his brother(what’s wrong with his brother is up to you) and promises him that he will try to win. Peeta turns into the mockingjay ( or whatever variation he will have). [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 124: In MJ I noticed Peeta became more of himself when Katniss was affectionate to him and it helped him fight the venom. So my prompt is when Peeta comes back from being hijacked Katniss realizes this sooner and it starts off slow at first but then they get to the point of having sex and it pretty much heals him completely. HEA for Everlark please. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 125: EFE Prompt: Everlark + Faith. Be it in people, spiritual, or otherwise. Explore the loss of it, regaining of it, or finding it for the first time. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 126: Anything AU based on the song “Talk” by Hozier. Simple enough I think. [submitted by @theliferuiner]

Prompt 127: The earth is in perilous danger from a great evil and only Katniss can stop it. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 128: Peeta saves Katniss from being raped by someone in the capitol. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 129: Katniss & Peeta had a baby. But then miscommunication caused them to split. Peeta is still heavily involved in his baby's life. Katniss is seeing someone else & quickly rising in socioeconomic status with her talent as singer. Peeta on the other hand is facing more & more troubles with his family life. He isn’t being able to spare time their child. Its also becoming difficult for him to keep up with Katniss. Will their rift grow? Or will Katniss finally acknowledge her true feelings for him? [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 130: What if Haymitch hadn’t said thise words to Katniss when Peeta joined Star-squad in Mockingjay? Would Katniss have come to her senses or would she be still angry at Peeta. A Mockingjay AU. [submitted by @white-dandelion-seeds]

Prompt 131: “Do you love me? Do you really? Because I go through every day of my life, thinking that nobody loves me.” [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 132: Both Mellark brothers, eldest and youngest love Katniss Everdeen. She is engaged to the eldest but her heart belongs to the youngest. Jealous!Peeta. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 133: Birth of their first child. Peeta helping and supporting Katniss. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 134: Visual Prompt. To see it go HERE [submitted by @javistg]

Prompt 135: Non specific prompt. Peeta called Katniss baby as a pet name. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 136: Katniss gets stung pretty bad by tracker jackers post mockingjay. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 137: Friends to lovers road trip au! Katniss wants to take a summer off to explore the country, Peeta volunteers to go with her. Bonus points if one of them is an absolutely oblivious idiot. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 138: Everlark loosely based off 90 day fiance. Could be AgeGap, one could have ulterior motives(until they end up catching real feelings), or it's a genuine connection. Author decides. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 139: There are fics where Peeta's mom tries to set him up with town girls. What if Peeta's mom tries to set him up with Katniss for once. Maybe both moms team up together? [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 140: In Panem AU where Peeta is a Mail Order Husband. As the youngest son of a merchant class Capitol family, he has accepted he will never inherit the family bakery. But when his family contract him to an arranged marriage to further the business he will never own, he escapes by signing up to a programme to relocate and marry a district woman. Why Katniss needs a husband, is up to the author. Everlark endgame :) [submitted by @louezem]

Prompt 141: Katniss is the lone victor of 74th Annual Hunger Games. Peeta is a Capitaloit. Snow forces Katniss to be like other victor. How will they meet? How will they fall in love? What will happen when the revolution starts? [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 142: Gale comes to district 12 again years after mockingjay and runs into a little girl shooting an arrow, only to find out it’s Katniss and Peetas daughter. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 143: The girl of my dreams asked me if I needed a ride home from campus so I obviously let her drive me home then walked back to campus a couple of hours later to get my car. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 144: Peeta's perspective. A more in-depth look at how he joined and tricked the Careers and led them away from Katniss in the Hunger Games. [submitted by @acpoe82]

Prompt 145: Not reaped; Snow overthrown; D12 unscathed; miners unionize; postwar prosperity; Seam transformation; Hob center of commerce. Teens Katniss and Peeta have new options and new pressures. How do they navigate this new reality? How do they handle graduating? How do they find their way to each other without reaping and with seam now middle class and restrictions lifted? [submitted by @567inpanem]

Prompt 146: Powerful Matchmaker arranges marriage between Everdeen girl (to whom she owes a big favor) and the young cinnamon scented baker boy the girl has loved ever since he first slipped her a sugar cookie with her namesake flower beautifully decorated in frosting, the yellow primrose. What will Katniss do when she only learns of it in church as the first of the 3 Sunday banns are read? Has she ever spoken to Peeta? Will she search her feelings for him? Will he object to the match? Does he have any say? [submitted by @567inpanem]

Prompt 147: The movie "Me Before You" Everlark style. [submitted by @acpoe82]

Prompt 148: Gale dosen't design the bomb but someone else does. Prim lives, but Katniss still kills snow. Gale cones back to district 12 along with Katniss. But problems arise when Peeta cones back too. Eventual Everlark. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 149: Peeta is whipped in catching fire instead of gale. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 150: Everlark based on the movie Blast from the Past starring Brendan Frasier and Alicia Silverstone. Peeta’s family lives in a bomb shelter for an extended period of time and he has to leave and venture out by himself with no knowledge of the current world. He hires Katniss to help him out and they fall in love. (Rough summary!) Rated M/E would be spectacular! [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 151: Everlark based on the song ocean avenue. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 152: King Peeta Mellark of Panem is looking for a wife, and he isn't getting any younger. None of the potential suitors does it for him - until he runs across local dragon slayer Katniss Everdeen after his kingdom comes under attack. She's exactly what he wants. The only problem? She absolutely hates him and it's up to him to convince her to marry him. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 153: Katniss opens up to Peeta about her insecurities about herself and about how he’s too good for her. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 154: One where Katniss is humiliated and Peeta makes her feel better. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 155: Post Mockingjay but before epilogue, Katniss has a good dream about her dad still being alive and how much he’d like Peeta and how wonderful everything would be. When she wakes up at first she doesn’t realize it was a dream, but when she does she’s absolutely inconsolable. Peeta comforts her the best he can. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 156: Just any or maybe multiple times Katniss got her period around Peeta. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 157: Unfocused while hunting from a nightmare the night before an animal sneaks up on Katniss and injured her, not deathly but enough that she can’t make it home on her own. Peeta gets worried when she’s not back after dark and goes after to find her freezing cold and bleeding and shivering. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 158: Toastbabies make breakfast in bed for their parents anniversary, only to walk in on them doing the do. [submitted by anonymous]

Prompt 159: Katniss tries to make herself up to look pretty for Peeta but doesn’t know how to do it well and it’s a disaster but he thought she was beautiful just as she was. [submitted by anonymous]

[thehopefuldandelion]

Not Him

Thank you @tindomrl​ for nagging my lazy butt to write this.

here for ao3. here for fanfiction.net

everlark.

I do not own any of these characters:)

***

“No, not him. Not fucking Peeta Mellark. He can’t be here.” I whisper to Annie while smoothing down my blazer and dress pants.

Peeta Mellark. The epitome to my existence. I am content, I have a steady boyfriend and a soon to be great job. He can’t be here to ruin it.

It all started on a balmy, summer day in 2nd grade. He pushed me off those darned yellow swings causing painful scrapes to appear on my knees and rough mulch to tangle in my hair. We grew up together in Panem, a small town in Oregon. I always liked him even though we never talked. And then that fucker pushed me off the swings. I know what you are thinking, “Katniss you were a little girl get over it”. There were other instances. In middle school, he won the award of having the most attendance which I was second to by 1 singular day. Darned flu. Or in Sophomore year when he spilled punch all over my dress at Homecoming on purpose. It gets even better, though. I was Valedictorian for our Senior Class and guess what he did when he found out. He stole my cap and gown. I’m not shitting you. He did and I will never forget it. This is why I hate Peeta Mellark. He’s a stickup, selfish prick and I, Katniss Everdeen, will never forgive him.

“Katniss, I’m sure he just works here,”she said reassuringly.“I doubt he’s here for the interview”.

“I hope so,” I mumbled under my breath.

My attention is focused on the man who had just come out of an office. No way. No fuckin’ way. How was I supposed to know that the very company I wanted a job at, was CEO’d by none other than Peeta Mellark. He looks around the room and locks eyes with me before saying,“Thank you all for coming today. As you are aware I am in need of a new secretary because my past employee is on maternity leave. Good luck!”

And with that Peeta Mellark walks back into his office, and calls the first interviewee in.

It seems that 2 hours pass until I am called in. I wipe my sweaty palms on my pants and take a deep breath. Why am I so nervous? What if he remembers me? Oh god. What if he brings it-

“Ms. Everdeen, I presume?”he asks cutting into my thoughts.

“Yes that is correct,”I respond while shaking his warm, calloused hand.

I briefly look up and lock eyes with him. Oh, those blue eyes and floppy curls. How did I ever hate this man. His past slender teenage figure has evened out, shown through the broad shoulders and muscular arms that make up his physique. He is hot. No not just hot, beautiful. Katniss, snap out of it. You have a boyfriend for God sakes. You loathe him.

“Wait...Katniss?”Peeta inquires with a glowing look on his face.

I pause, thinking of how to go about this. Do I pretend not to know him. This could cost me a job. Ah, what do I do?

“Peeta. It’s so good to see you again. How has life been treating you?”

“It’s been what, 7 years? Wow. Everything is going well for me. At least pertaining to the business. My love life is nonexistent and-well, I should probably stop before I get into it. “Peeta stared deeply into my eyes before glancing at his desk,”Anyway, why do you want to work at Mellark Enterprises?”

“My sister, Prim, is in medical school and I want to help her with student loan. Not only that but I need to pay my rent and pay bills and-”

“Ms. Everdeen, Katniss, calm down. It’s ok.” he says while reaching towards my hand and holding it.“Ignoring all the bills to be paid and debts to pay off, why do you really want to work here, Katniss?”

I look at our joined hands and quickly unclasp them, moving my hand to rest on top of my thigh. I can still feel the warmth from his large one. “Honestly, I didn’t even know this was your company. I just want a job and thought that being a secretary was a great way to start.”

Peeta peered at me with those baby blue eyes causing me to squirm in my seat. “Thank you, Katniss. I will go over your resume and get back to you if you get the position.”

As I embarked on the journey from the chair to the door, I heard Peeta say something the made my heart stop, “I look forward to seeing you soon, Ms. Everdeen.” He gave me a crooked grin causing butterflies to erupt in my stomach. Crap. What is he doing to me.

And with that I left the room.

***

Annie calls me later that afternoon and I recall all that had happened today.

“I can’t believe it was him. Why him? Of all the 7 billion people on this earth he could be my boss.”

“I mean, Katniss, you don’t have to take the job when you get it.”

“If I get it and I need this job, though. No one else is hiring.”I searched for days but not a single business needed another employee. I felt a spark of hope when I saw the neon pink flyer stating a secretary position at Mellark Enterprises was available, that is, until him.

“Well, I don’t know what to tell you Katniss. He can’t be that bad. When you get the job just take it. I don’t think you'll regret it,” Annie instructed me.

With a groan, I told Annie bye and hung up.

I hope I don’t regret this.

Behind me, I hear the sound of the door to the apartment opening. Thank goodness Gale was home.

“Hey Catnip,” Gale greets me with a peck while taking off his tie.

“Hey,” I respond unenthusiastically,”How was your day?”

“Great, actually. You know the new intern I was telling you about?”

“Yeah. Madge?”

“Yup. God, she's great, Katniss. I’m so glad I snatched her up before anyone else could get their claws in her.”

“That’s great, babe,” I say while peering at him skeptically. He has shown more and more interest in her since, well, 2 months ago. I trust Gale. Yeah we have our spats and our fiery personalities don’t exactly fit perfectly but I couldn't live without him. He’s my rock. He has been since we were 10 and met in the woods of all places. Both our dads liked to hunt so we always went along and one day we bumped into each other, literally.

I’ve noticed that Gale and I seem to be distancing ourselves form each other. Not purposefully, but we don’t have that connection we used to have. Ugh, just another thing to add to my overflowing plate. There was time when we would kiss passionately until we were exhausted and would go on dates almost every night but times have changed. Is it possible to fall out of love with someone because if it is, I am with Gale. Now, don’t take that the wrong way. I’m not breaking up with him. It’s relieving to have someone to talk to but I just don’t feel what I used to. Maybe I am going crazy.

“Hey, babe?” Gale called out to me from the living room bringing my thoughts back to reality.

“Yeah,”I responded hoping he wanted more from me than to bring him dinner.

“Can you get me some milk?”

“Fine,” I unwillingly grumbled back. When I brought it to him he had a dismissive attitude towards me and added on to what he previously said.

“I have a convention for work so I won’t be home over the weekend.”

“Ok, that’s great. I’ll just stay with Annie.” I didn’t want to be alone.

“Sounds good, Catnip.”

He would be the death of me.

***

A week or two goes by with no word from Peeta about the job. I might as well admit defeat. Yet again, Peeta frickin Mellark decides to ruin my life.

After grabbing my yoga mat and putting on leggings and a t-shirt, I go meet up with Annie for our twice a week zen class. The classic “Downward Dog” and “Balasana” always calm me down.

Afterwards, we hit a coffee shop where Annie’s fiancé, Finnick, waits.

“Hey, hon,” Annie tells him lovingly. “Aw, you got me my favorite. Thanks.” She then proceeds to give him a languid kiss causing me to turn away.

Sometimes I wish Gale and I were more like Annie and Finnick. Our kisses aren’t “languid” and he always get me coffee which I hate. I know, I know I could just break up with him but I don’t want to lose his company or friendship. Woe is me.

“So, Finnick, what have you been up to?” I asked him.

“Oh, you know, getting drunk, killing mobsters, giving my beautiful fiancé the best of everything,” Finnick replies, giving Annie doe eyes. “I forgot to tell you, I invited a friend to join us so I hope that's ok.”

“Thats fi-,”I stop myself.

Peeta Mellark, the very same Peeta Mellark who could be my boss, was walking towards the table.

In my trashy t-shirt and ratty leggings with sweaty hair sticking to my forehead I knew I looked awful.

*sniff sniff* And smelled awful.

Shit.

I glare at Finnick and scowl. I hope he feels the pain I’m experiencing.

“Katniss, hey!” Peeta made no comment towards my outfit or smell so that’s a good sign.

I cleared my throat before saying,”Hello, Peeta.”

My cheeks were burning up and I could tell they were a dark pink from embarrassment. He set a drink in front of me. If it’s coffee I swear to god I’ll-

“I didn’t know what you liked so I guessed. Is hot chocolate ok?” he commented shyly.

“Um, yeah it's perfect,”I told him. “So, you know Finnick?”

“We go way back. Freshman year of college we were roommates in those crusty, dilapidated dorms. He was the one who took, no dragged me to parties and set me up on dates. I don’t know where I’d be without him.”

“Hopefully dead,” I grumbled underneath my breath.

Peeta gave me a peculiar look before turning away. So what if he heard me. I doubt I got the job and I loathe him anyway.

Annie gives me a sympathetic glance before telling the table that she and Finnick have to leave for their “couples class”.

I hope she and Finnick die a fiery death. I can’t leave, that would be rude, but at the same time I can’t sit here for another hour small talking to Peeta fuckin’ Mellark. Suck it up, buttercup.

“Oh, Katniss, this is the perfect opportunity to tell you that you got the job!” Peeta declared to me while grinning. Why is he grinning? He’s probably conniving plans on how to torture me. Wouldn't be surprised. “That is, if you will accept.”

I had no other option but to say yes.

“Ok, that's awesome. I’ll take it.”

Those 6 words, I would soon learn, would change my life forever.

***

Waking up and realizing you have a steady job and will be able to pay rent should cause a person to leap for joy. I can’t. Not when the job is at Mellark Enterprises. God, today will be awful.

As soon as I arrive to the 8th floor, Peeta is there, welcoming me. He shows me around from the break room to his office, and finally my desk. Which I forgot to mention is about 10 feet from his. Crap.

I’m in deep shit.

“I’m looking forward to working with you, Katniss,” Peeta comments, his eyes soft and grin, again, crooked. His floppy blonde, curly hair is unruly and of course he rolled his button up sleeves up to his elbows causing his pale smooth skin and muscular arms to show. I felt something move south, not caused by my actual boyfriend, and I wanted to moan. Oh, to push him against his desk and him to take me right then and then. To feel his strong arms wrapped around me and his tongue twirling with mine. That’s hot. Wait, what? What is this man doing to me?

“M...Me too,” I stumble over my words still hypnotized by his beauty.

I notice that Peeta was staring off into the distance and has a slight smirk on his face. Hm, I wonder what he’s thinking about. He shakes himself out of it and slams his office door behind him.

I go about my first day at Mellark Enterprises as secretary to the one and only Peeta Mellark. Nothing strange or abnormal happens. I go home, as usual. Gale is passive aggressive, as usual. But my mind is swirling with sinful thoughts of Peeta. Why him? Why does my body react to him this way. My mind loathes him but my heart...I just don't know what to do. He’s the guy that taunted me for years and is now acting like we have been best friends for decades. My emotions can’t seem to stay in check when I’m around him. I’m so conflicted and unsure of what to do.

The next day, after a long night of dreams I should not be having, I quickly make my way to work.

“Mellark Enterprises, this is Katniss Everdeen speaking. How may I help you?”

“Yes, I am his secretary.”

“Yes I will leave him with your number ma’am.”

“Ok, bye.”

Ugh, ew. I do not need Peeta’s booty calls asking me about him. What he does is his business. Right? I wouldn't want to be one. No, no way.

His lips on mine, hands roaming.

Me moaning. Lips caressing every part of my neck.

Blonde curls falling on his face. Calloused hands unwinding my braid, kissing each strand.

Snap. Out. Of. It.

He’s your boss, my god, Katniss.

After the weird phone call this morning, I avoided Peeta as much as a secretary could do (not well) and quickly scurried home. I told Annie that I had a bad day and need some alone time which she understood.

I decided to make a detour before going home and bought a bottle of Pinot Grigio from the local supermarket because boy did I need it. I unlocked the door and opened it into my apartment. Walking to the kitchen, I set the white wine on the counter and ransacked the refrigerator looking for some carbs. The door to the bedroom was closed, that’s odd. I shrugged my shoulders and sat on the couch, eating pasta and drinking some cheap wine. My ideal night. after about an hour of this, I heard a voice...2 voices to be exact coming from the bedroom. I glanced at the front door-wait those aren't my shoes, or jacket. Opening the bedroom door slowly, with a pan because there could be a murderer in my apartment, I saw what I hadn’t expected to see at all.

“GALE! Who the fuck is that.”

“Katniss, I can explain.” he said hurriedly.

“Who is she?” the blond bimbo said.

“Madge, she’s nobody,” he told her trying to calm her down.

“Wait, Madge. As in your intern Madge?” I said, disgusted with Gale. “How dare you Gale. Damn you. Leave and NEVER come back.”

“Katniss, please, baby, I can explain.”

“I said LEAVE. You too, Madge,” I spit out.

He quickly gathered his clothes and scurried out the door, taking Madge with him. I just can’t believe he would do that. Why? I know things haven't been the best lately, but to cheat on me?

I could barely stand so I sank to the floor and bawled, trying to pick up the pieces of my broken life.

[ellanainthetardis]

We have a long night ahead of us today! I hope you enjoy this chapter! Please do let me know!

[FF] or [AO3]

Chapter 20 : Dead Man Walking

On the third night of Training, Haymitch woke up damp with sweat.

He was sitting, panting hard, eyes searching the dark corners of the room for… What? Danger. He gripped the handle of his knife harder, ready to jump at any possible threat. Ready to…

“Haymitch.”

He blinked as light flooded the bedroom.

He didn’t understand at first.

Effie was standing there in the crumpled tee-shirt he had worn all day, staring at him with uncertainty, her hands up in the air in a gesture of peace. His eyes darted around, surprised to find himself in her bedroom when he had been so sure he was… there.

“It’s alright, Haymitch.” she coaxed slowly. “It was just a nightmare.”

There was nothing just about his nightmare.

For her to have gotten out of bed – and thank God she had gotten out of bed before he could stab her – it must have been a bad one.

He looked down at his hand, expecting his fingers and the handle of the knife to be covered in blood…

There was no knife. There was no knife because he never brought it to her room at night exactly in case this sort of things happened. Her hairbrush was trapped in his fist.

He had all the pain in the world letting go.

His breathing wasn’t calming down and he felt dizzy. His ears were ringing, his stomach was churning and he bolted out of bed and to the bathroom before he could be sick right there.

He kneeled in front of the toilets but it wouldn’t come out.

It wouldn’t…

He was aware Effie was hovering nearby, hesitating to approach yet.

He was shivering badly and, coupled with his short breathing, it was making it very difficult to remain conscious. He wanted to throw up, somehow confusedly thinking it would make him feel better. His stomach hurt and he gagged a few times but couldn’t actually manage to puke. He slumped on the open toilets without any care for how pitiful it must have looked. He was hot, too hot, like he was running a fever.

Images kept flashing in front of his eyes.  

Effie’s voice was coming from very far away.

She must have tossed caution to the wind because next thing he knew, there was a damp towel patting at his nape. He flinched when her hand grabbed his shoulder but he didn’t lash out. He was too weak to lash out.

He collapsed back against her. It took her aback and she almost overbalanced. She managed to keep them both steady though, as steady as they could be when they were sitting on the bathroom’s cold tiles in the dead of night.

The damp towel on his face was a relief and he clung to that feeling. He clung to that feeling with all his might and tried to ignore everything else. Block the images. Swallow back the panic.

The cloth left his cheek to run down on his throat, the back of his neck…

The shaking didn’t ease but the dizziness slowly receded, the nausea calmed down enough that he could try to work on his breathing. It wasn’t easy. It came out as loud heavy pants and every intake of breath was a painful whizzing punch to the chest.

“C… Cold.” he stuttered after a few minutes.

He wouldn’t have been able to sit by himself and she must have realized that because instead of fetching something warm, she simply shed her – his – shirt and slipped it over his head, guiding his arms in the sleeves like one would have done with a child.

It wasn’t exactly a rampart against that cold that came from within but her body was warm enough and he burrowed into it. She discarded the towel and wrapped herself around him like an octopus, apparently getting the idea.

If anyone else had seen him like that, he might have been mortified.

Effie… It wasn’t the first time. It was hard to be mortified with her when she had cleaned him up after he had been sick on himself more times than he could count. It was hard to be mortified when he had drunkenly ranted his pathetic life story to her enough times for her to know it by heart. It was hard to be mortified when she had seen him at his lowest point.

Sure, the lowest point wasn’t too far from this moment, because having panic attacks in the middle of the night didn’t rank high on his list of good times but…

Slowly, painfully, he managed to get his breathing back under control until it came out in slightly heavy puffs.

“Do you want to try and go back to bed?” she asked, detached.

She wouldn’t make the mistake of sounding commiserating. She knew him too well. He didn’t want sympathy and she wouldn’t give it. She would give affection and fondness and… that word that still terrified him sick but that he was becoming accustomed with because he was going to die so it couldn’t be the death sentence it used to be, could it?

He shook his head hard at her suggestion though.

There was no way he was lying back down, no way he would close his eyes again. Not without a bottle or two. Not without…

“Alright.” she agreed easily. “We can get up. I will have some tea brought for us in the living-room. We can play chess.”

“You… You suck at chess.” he pointed out through still chattering teeth.

“Poker, then.” she retorted. “You cannot beat me out at poker.”

“You wish.” he joked, for her sake more than his.

She helped him up and he tried not to feel too humiliated by that. She made sure his legs would hold before letting go, not meeting his eyes. She was naked now and he briefly entertained thoughts of funnier activities than a game of poker but he dismissed it quickly enough. He wasn’t in any shape to do that.

He checked the clock while she got dressed in silky blue shorts and a top. It was only three a.m. He knew she was tired from all her days of walking around on high heels and courting sponsors. He used to mock her for that but he had eventually understood it took energy to be so cheerful and bubbly all the time.

“You should go back to sleep.” he suggested half-heartedly.

She tied her silk dressing gown around her waist and picked up the sweatpants that had somehow gravitated to her room from the dresser. “I was not sleeping. I had a nightmare of my own. Truly, you are making me a favor by keeping me company.”

He wasn’t sure if she was lying or not but the perspective of killing time on his own until dawn rose was too daunting for him to insist. He put on the sweatpants and went in search of the stash of board games and cards that were stocked somewhere in a cupboard in the living-room – in case the tributes were in the mood for more games, he figured. They had used them occasionally when other victors had stayed for a late night drink.

He grabbed a few boxes of Effie’s favorites as well as the cards and the chessboard.

The living-room was cold, dark and empty and it made him shiver. He turned the lights to the maximum, as bright as they could go. There were flashes of colors from outside and he wandered to the bay window, wondering if the Capitol ever slept. It was a stupid question. He knew the answer to that, naturally.

He had always hated the Games parties but he would have taken them over being forced to get up for Training now.

He hated being back on the other side. The routine… Waking up at a designated time, sitting through advices during breakfast like he was a rookie and the boy had all the wisdom, heading down on the dot because Effie was obsessive about being on time and it wasn’t worth a fight, waiting for at least a good hour alone with Two’s victors for everyone else to show up, training in itself…

Katniss hung around the mostly empty stations, stuff that the other tributes dismissed to focus on weaponry. Sometimes Haymitch stuck with her because he wasn’t in the mood for socializing. Sometimes he made an effort to mix with the others in an attempt to find out more about their weaknesses.

He had trained in hand to hand combat with Chaff that day. Eleven’s victor was swifter than expected but Haymitch was stronger and he had pinned him down in a couple of minutes, his arm wrapped tight around his friend’s throat in a move that could have been deadly. He could have snapped Chaff’s neck.

The instructor had congratulated him. Chaff had joked it off. The few who had stopped to watch had turned away with a new information to keep in mind: he could fight.

He had hated every second it.

The knowledge that it could so easily become real in a few days.

Johanna and Finnick were avoiding him and he wasn’t sure how he felt about that. He loved those kids but… He supposed putting some distance between the three of them wasn’t the worst idea. Mags had come to him a few times but their conversations had been mostly superficial aside for one or two vague exchanges about what had happened to make the rebellion collapse. People covertly came to him about that as if he had any answer.

He was envious.

He was envious of the boy who got to go to the parties, drink the booze, joke with their escort…

It didn’t help that he had grown so dependent on the comfort Effie could provide. It was pathetic, really. He was a grown man, not a teenager, and yet he behaved exactly like Katniss.  

Effie and Peeta had stayed out late the previous evening. It was probably sad how he and Katniss had lingered in front of movies neither of them had been watching just because they couldn’t go to bed by themselves. At least, Katniss could acknowledge that she was scared of having nightmares without Peeta there. Haymitch had muttered an unconvincing excuse about wanting to know how they had fared with sponsors.

He had never thought he would miss the city but being trapped in the Center really was doing nothing good to him. He missed the freedom most of all. He would have given anything to be allowed out in the streets, to breathe the air that never felt pure to him, to be free to wander all he wanted without Peacekeepers behind his back.

“I ordered teapots.” Effie declared, interrupting his musing. “I thought it would be easier than going back to the kitchen every five minutes.”

They had barely settled down on either side of the coffee table – and he wondered what the kids would have to say if they got up and stumbled on them sitting cross-legged on the expensive rug like overgrown children – when the redheaded Avox girl whose sight had upset Katniss the previous year rolled a cart with two steaming teapots in the room.

“Thanks.” he mumbled automatically.

“Thank you, I will pour.” Effie said distractedly. “You may go back to bed. I will ring if I need anything else.”

The girl gave her an obedient nod and disappeared back in the dark corridors.

He swallowed back a remark on the way she treated Avoxes. She was more polite than most as it was and it always led to an argument anyway – because to her eyes they were criminals – so he let it rest. He didn’t have the energy to get into that tonight.

She was still so prejudiced on certain things…

She poured them two mugs while he dealt the cards.

They played two rounds, betting stupid things like oral or different sex positions… It was mostly for fun since neither of them was keeping tracks. Haymitch couldn’t quite focus, his body felt heavy like often after a panic attack, and Effie was far too good at bluffing. She was seriously kicking his ass but he didn’t mind. His favorite herbal tea went a long way into soothing his fray nerves. It would have been better with some whiskey in it but… He guessed you couldn’t have everything.

The smell of Effie’s strawberry tea was comforting too. Familiar.

She probably would have preferred white wine.

His eyes lingered on the only piece of jewelry she had on. The iris shaped ring was taunting him. It looked like she never took it off. She wore it to bed. She kept it in the shower. She kept it under her delicate lace gloves…

It wasn’t that she liked the ring so much, he figured, the diamond was too small compared to the huge rings she favored and the crafted petals and leaves were too discreet for her flashy tastes. It was the fact that he had given it to her. He had meant this as something she could sometimes take out of her box of memories and… Recollect.

If he had known she wanted some actual jewelry to wear…

The ring was inconspicuous because it was so simple. Nothing was ever so plain and simple in the Capitol. He would have gotten her a shiny pink gemstone or something.  

His own train of thoughts took him aback.

She was wearing that ring like some sort of proof of commitment. She was wearing it on her left hand. She was never taking it off. She was treating it like a wedding band. He had never intended it like that. He had asked nothing. He had never claimed strings were attached to the gift. Granted, she had never mentioned or requested anything but the way she wore the ring was enough. She was treating it like a wedding band.

And his only reaction to that was wishing he had gotten her a proper ring?

He was a dead man walking. He had nothing to offer her. Anything they would do would have no long term meaning.

And it was dangerous.

Except…

He was a dead man walking.

What does the Capitol care about who he slept with? It didn’t matter anymore. They had no reason to hold anyone against him. They were done with him.

“You want to have a toasting?”

The question passed his lips before he could hold it back.

He couldn’t get a real ring and it was probably for the best. That ring was simple. Like him. It wasn’t fake or…

Maybe he could give her something else anyway.

She had been studying her cards and she choked on her mouthful of tea. She coughed hard into the back of her hand, her bright eyes riveted on him.

“My apologies, what did you just say?” she asked.

He was considering suggesting they played it at poker when the scream echoed throughout the penthouse.

Katniss.

He was on his feet in seconds, heart racing in his chest, suddenly hyper-aware of his surroundings, hands patting at his waist for a weapon that wasn’t there. He would have rushed head first deep into the penthouse if Effie hadn’t planted herself in his path, hands wrapped tight around his forearms.

Her lips were moving but it took him a few seconds to actually hear.

“She is fine. It is just a nightmare.” she promised. “Haymitch. She is fine. Peeta is with her.”

He eventually accepted the words as truth. It was a minute or two before he relaxed though.

“She died.” he said flatly.

“I beg your pardon?” she frowned.

He swallowed hard and reached for her elbows. Their hands trailed down their forearms until they found each others. “In my nightmare. She died. They all died.” Only thinking about it was enough to make him nauseous again. He closed his eyes and bowed his head, defeated. His voice broke. “I can’t fail her.”

“You won’t.” she promised immediately. She stepped in his space and cupped his cheek. He leaned in her caress, not quite comforted by that oath. Her voice became tentative. “Haymitch, you will do everything you can to keep her alive, I know this. Peeta knows this. She might not but she is…”

“An ass.” he finished for her in a snort. He wasn’t sure Katniss was totally aware of what the plan was. She treated the whole thing as if they were both aiming to get out of there. He suspected it was too much for her to accept what he was willing to do for her. It was alright. He could live – and die – with that.

“Quite.” Effie approved, her thumb retracing the line of his cheekbone. “But… You know as well as I do that Games are never predictable. You will do everything you can but if she doesn’t survive…”

“No.” he spat, storming away from her and to the bay window. “No. She needs to win this, you understand? She needs to…” His voice faltered. “I can’t fail her. I failed everyone else. I can’t fail her.”

She didn’t ask who he was referring to. She was smart enough to understand.

His mother. Hayden. Mabel.

His family gone in smoke.

It was all a mess in his head. He was a mess.

He flinched when she wrapped her arms around his waist and pressed her face between his shoulder blades but he didn’t push her away.

“Not dying for her is not failing her, darling.” she whispered carefully. “I am simply saying…”

“Well, don’t.” he snapped.

He waited for her to argue but she kept her peace and it made him feel… He had never expected her to accept this whole thing so easily. She was selfish. Always so selfish. Shouldn’t she be begging for him to get out no matter what? To throw Katniss and everyone else to the wolves and…  

How horrible a man was he to want her, to need her, to say those words?

They had made a pledge, long ago. It had gone unvoiced and unacknowledged but it had always been implied that if they ever won, they would do everything they could to protect their victors. He had never thought it would be like this. He had thought it would be the classical stuff: the prostitution, the Capitol’s usual threats, the own stubborn stupidity of every new victor… What they hadn’t bet on was caring so much for those kids.

They might as well have been their own.

They shared them.

He wasn’t just going to save Katniss for his own conscience. It was for her too. For Peeta.

It was a noble sacrifice but, unfortunately, being noble had never been of any comfort to him. Dead was dead. It didn’t matter how it happened or how noble it had been.

Dead was dead and he didn’t want to die.

He really didn’t want to die.

He wanted someone to want him to not die too.

Was that so wrong?

Was that so wrong to want someone in his corner?

Was that so wrong to want someone to choose him?

Was that so wrong to want someone to love him as much as he loved those children?

“What are you even saying that for? You’re rooting for her anyway.” he accused bitterly. It was unfair maybe. Probably. He had asked her to accept it, he hadn’t given her a choice, he had told her…

She pressed a kiss over the fabric of his shirt, moving her hands up from his waist to grab his shoulders from behind, plastering herself even more to his back.

“It kills me, you know.” she said softly. “The thought of the two of you being tossed in there… The fact that I know only one of you will come back… Might come back… The fact that a part of me hopes it won’t be her…”

“Effie.” he snarled. He had been wrong. He didn’t want to hear those words. It felt like betraying their victors. Like…

“I know.” she chuckled. “I am a terrible person. The worst is… I love her. I do. But you… Haymitch, you…”

“Never meant to be.” he reminded her in a sneer.

“You do not believe in fate.” she retorted. “Stop hiding behind it. What does this even mean… Meant to be. We were. We are. I maintain it is enough.”

“It’s easier if…” he sighed.

“Nothing about this is easy.” she cut him off. “I love Katniss. I will do my best to help save her and so will you. But if we do not succeed, if she does not survive, I won’t sit here and give up. I will get you sponsors. I will do everything I can to save you. Katniss comes first but do not ask me to watch you die without a fight. I will fight. With all I have. ”

He briefly closed his eyes before turning around to hug her close.

“I don’t want to die.” he confessed in her hair. “But I’m not sure I’d know how to survive this, sweetheart. If it comes to that… Might be kinder to… let me go.”

“No.” she refused calmly and flatly. She was stating a fact, not having a discussion. “It is preposterous to speculate anyway. We won’t know until we are there. And when we are…”

“We save Katniss.” he finished.

“We try to save Katniss.” she amended.

She brushed her lips against his neck, brushed words against his skin.

He melt in those words even if he left them unacknowledged yet again.

He had forgotten how it felt to feel them. He had forgotten and now…

He leaned in to kiss her, to somehow try to pay her back in kind…

The sound of footsteps broke the spell and they jumped apart just in time not to be surprised by the two sleepy looking teenagers.

“Oh, this won’t do!” Effie clucked her tongue, self-consciously patting her bare blond hair. He wasn’t sure she had ever been caught without her wig by one of the kids. “You both need your beauty sleep and…”

“No.” Katniss refused with the same determination Haymitch had showed earlier, hugging herself.

Peeta’s arm immediately wrapped around her shoulders in a protective embrace. The boy gaze passed on them and to the abandoned cards on the table. “Can we play with you?”

Effie blinked - about to insist they should try to get some proper sleep, Haymitch was sure.

“Depends.” he shrugged, settling back on the rug and patting the empty space next to him so their escort would sit. “You know how to play poker?”

Unsurprisingly, they didn’t.

Teaching them was fun. Katniss was helpless at it and drank half the strawberry tea, to Effie’s dismay. Peeta caught up quickly and turned out to be good. Haymitch laughed more than once when it came to a battle between the boy and their escort.

Nobody could bluff like Effie though and so she won most of the rounds.

They moved on to a board game after a while.

Katniss ended up falling asleep with her head on Peeta’s shoulder a little after five. The boy carried her back to bed.

“You should try to get an hour or two of rest too.” Effie advised. “You cannot be tired during Training.”

“You know we mostly joke around and only throw stuff once in awhile, yeah?” he mocked, rubbing his eyes.

He let her drag him back to bed by hooking her fingers around his gold bangle though. He had known there was a hidden purpose to that thing.  

She crawled on top of his chest and settled there like a warm blanket.

He coiled his fingers around her nape, slowly rubbing his thumb up and down her neck. She made her ring turn thoughtfully around her finger.

Neither of them slept.

Neither of them talked either.

[thegirlfromoverthepond]

The Firebird - Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Pretty Woman

Kudos to the Fantastic Four … the team of betas @xerxia31, @dandelion-sunset, @titaniasfics for doing their magic

And to @akai-echo who creates magic beyond words with her aesthetics :)

I can’t believe there’s only 5 chapters left of this story…. And here is the part you’ve all waited for - Everlark’s first date :)

(Here on AO3 // FFN)

She knew she should have followed her instincts, leaving the National via the back exit, instead of the front one. Then she wouldn’t have run into Madge on the stairs. Madge, who did not grill her about her session in the morning, but rather about why she was heading out on a Thursday before noon had even rung.

The biggest mistake Katniss made was admitting she needed to go shopping. It took Madge less than two minutes to coerce the story out of her friend, and volunteer as   personal shopper for the afternoon.

The next minute was dedicated to calling Delly, arranging to meet her at the shopping mall because Madge thought reinforcements were more than necessary in this dire situation.

Of course, Katniss didn’t have a say in the matter when General Undersee was in conquest mode.

She found herself in Madge’s car, with her purse and coat, in less than five minutes.

“So, tell me, who did you meet? Is he hot? Do I know him? Does he come from a good family? And what’s that crap with Caesar?” Sometimes, Katniss wondered - really wondered - how her friend could make such long sentences without breathing. She must have some kind of superpower.

“Caesar’s not directing anymore, he was fired.”

“Fired? They’ve never fired anyone before!”

“Well apparently they never fired anyone under Crane, but Plutarch’s different. He wouldn’t stand for Caesar’s behavior, talking to us like we we’re cattle, saying Cinna’s costumes were awful, and hitting on Thresh.”

Madge nodded. “I hope for Flickerman’s sake that Rue never finds out he made a move on her man. She’s kind of intimidating when it comes to Thresh.”

“She is, right? I’m glad she likes me.”

“Rue likes everybody.”

“Thanks, Madge… very helpful.”

“Hey, I’m here, and my cousin will help you, so you’ve got like your own fanclub!”

“Number of members: 2. ‘Cause I’m not including myself.”

“Blah, blah. So, who’s the guy?”

“Did I tell you Plutarch and Haymitch are taking over directing?”

“No. Don’t care. Who are you seeing tonight?”

Katniss sighed.

“A man.”

“Ohh… and HE has a name?”

“He actually has.”

“Annnd??? God, Katniss, you’re the worst! Jesus Chalupa!”

“Peeta.”

“Holy cow, Batman! You’re going out with your tango dancer? Wow, lucky you, he’s hot and handsome! How did that happen? How did he ask you out? Do you know what he has planned for tonight?”

“Wow, calm down, Madge, too many questions….”

“Tell me! No, wait until we’re with Dels, I have to text her!”

“You’re driving, so no texting.”

“Killjoy. So how long do we have to dress you up?”

“I don’t know, an hour?”

Madge nearly killed them both by braking so suddenly, the car behind them hammered on their horn a good ten seconds.

“An hour? For shopping? Katniss, darling, we won’t be done with lingerie in an hour!”

“I already have bras, I don’t need froufrous.”

“You have everyday bras, you need date-worthy underthings.”

“I don’t intend on him seeing them, you know?”

“It’s not about him seeing them. It’s about you wearing them. Feeling sexy and beautiful. You’ll get lingerie, even if that’s all you get today.”

“Madge...”

“Oh, you’re going to turn all scowl-Katniss on me? Well I’m calling Dels, since we don’t have much time.”

“Oh god.” Katniss could feel the blush in her cheeks, didn’t want to think about the high squeal that would surely escape Delly, wasn’t sure whether she could handle so many girly things in so little time.

The Bluetooth did its magic, soon an overexcited Madge was talking to an equally overexcited Delly.

“I KNOW? Right! They are perfect for each other!”

“Dels, we only have one hour. We’re on a mission here.”

“You girls realize I’m sitting in the car, right?” Katniss asked.

“So we divide and conquer. Dels, you take care of the clothes, we’ll be out of Vicky’s Secret in twenty minutes.”

“Wow, Madge, you like a challenge.” Delly said.

“You girls realize I’m sitting in the car, right?” Katniss repeated.

“Yeah, we know, Katniss, but we’re in an emergency situation. Where is Peet taking you?”

“Nowhere, I asked him out.”

“You did! So proud of you, Kat! Look at you, all grown up!” Madge added, winking. “So where are you taking him?”

“Uh, for a drink?”

“She’s hopeless, Maggie.” Delly chimed in.

“Nothing’s hopeless.” Madge turned to her friend, before looking for a spot in the large parking lot. “Katniss. Do you know where you’re taking Peeta?”

“I was thinking Sae’s maybe?”

“Sae’s?”

“Yes? Is there a problem with that? It’s not classy enough for Peeta?” The whole situation was starting to get on Katniss’s nerves, really.

“Dels, I’m hanging up, we’re heading straight to Vicky’s , right?”

“See ya!”

Madge ended the call, putting her hand on Katniss’s arm before she could get out of the car.

“Katniss. We’re here to help you. We’ll tone it down, okay? But we are so excited about this!”

“I can tell…. “

“Well, aren’t you?”

Was she?

The tingling in her belly when she thought about Peeta was all the answer she needed.

--

Katniss’s eyes grew bigger, her steps slower, as Madge and Delly dragged her towards what she guessed was the VS shop.

Victoria’s Secret.

Aka - the place she’d never been to. Nor had ever wanted to go to.

If she thought clothes shopping with both ladies was a difficult task, going inside VS with them would be something else, something she dreaded a lot.

“Madge…”

“I know. We won’t go over the top, okay? But please, please Kat. Trust me...”

“I don’t know, Madge, I’m not one of those girls, you know that?”

Madge spun so quickly in front of her that Katniss thought she would collide with her friend in the middle of the mall.

“Katniss, I really, really wish that one day you would see yourself the way we see you. You are a dancer, you have an amazing body, you have grace, elegance, and you are so beautiful.  Anything in this shop would suit you. Trust me, it’s not vulgar or slutty. You’ll be radiant. Even if Peeta doesn’t see it, what you wear under your clothes will make you feel elegant, confident, and womanly.”

“She’s right, Kat,” Delly chimed in. “The clothes you picked are beautiful, really, but you need to have something other than cotton underwear. Even if it’s not for Peeta.”

“Yeah, yeah, if you say so…. ”

“We do, Honey.” Honey? Katniss didn’t think she’d been called Honey once in her life - but it was Delly so she shouldn’t really be surprised. “It’s all for you. YOU. Put yourself first, for once. Shine. Be confident and beautiful. Be you. You don’t have to pick anything glittery or feathery, just something you would like to wear. Indulge yourself, Katniss. Let the woman inside you live and breathe.”

The woman inside? Who was Delly talking about?

Astonishment must have shown on her face, as Madge patted her arm gently.

“Isn’t there a part of you, somewhere, that wants to go into this shop?”

“I…”

Was there? she asked herself, trying to listen to her inner self. Behind the walls she had erected , was a young woman who had always wanted to go inside a lingerie shop, wondering what she could find for herself, if she had the money to spend there.

“Then come with us, we will be quick, okay? And if you find nothing you like, that’s okay.”

With the promise of not having to buy anything she didn’t like, she caved, surrendering to her inner young woman, following her friends inside.

--

She never imagined there could be so many different shapes and colors of bras and panties, enough to fill up an entire store. She honestly didn’t know where to look to find something that she might like.

They took the bags containing Katniss’s clothes for the evening - they had a change of plan deciding it would be better to buy the lingerie after the main outfit was purchased - peeking inside greedily.

“The blouse is really gorgeous, gives that vintage touch that’s so in fashion these days. But Ivory. So, nothing black.”

“Why not?” Katniss asked, surprised. Everything could go with black?

Madge and Delly looked at each other, disappointment evident on their faces.

“No black under white, ivory, cream, not on the first date anyway. Black and red mean ‘Let’s go home and have fun’.”

“It does?” Was that a universally shared fact she wasn’t aware of? Were men aware of that?

“Well, the men have no clue, of course if you’re wondering. It’s the way you wear the lingerie, you know?”

She didn’t.

“Katniss, have you ever worn anything other than plain cotton panties?”

“No, they’re practical?”

“It’s the way you wear it. Black and red used to be the colors of courtesans, and you’re not going that way today. So we’ll stick to ivory or white. Are you okay with that, Katniss?”

“I guess so?”

Did she really have a choice. She realized something hadn’t been mentioned yet, something she would stay firm on.

“No push-ups, though. I don’t have much, I don’t want to give any other impression.”

“Kat, we would never. You’re beautiful the way you are, and you have enough, okay?” Madge said.

“Peeta doesn’t want to date you because of your boobs, but because of who you are,” Delly added. “You don’t know the effect you have on him. Six months ago, he was ready to leave the company to go back working with his family. Then you arrive, Finnick goes away, and here he is, full of ideas for women’s dances, with twice as much enthusiasm as before.”

Could that be because of her? Katniss had trouble believing it.

“There are dozens of reasons why he’s changed, Delly. None of them involve me.”

Delly just shrugged, a small smile on her face, then walked towards the row of bras in front of them.

“Come, they might have something you like here!”

Madge and Delly spent the next fifteen minutes showing Katniss with everything from snow-white to pearl-white, sandy-white, even creamy-white, but nothing found favor in Katniss’s eyes. Nothing. The two girls were bordering on despair, when something caught her attention.

Something on the back wall, a glimpse of color on an otherwise ivory confection. Ignoring her two friends, she walked straight to what she saw, her fingers aching to touch the soft silk, the lace on top of it giving it an elegant touch.

The small orange ribbon woven through the lace, finishing in a cute little bow on the front was the final touch that drew Katniss in.

“This one.” Her tone was decisive. She had found what she wasn’t looking for, what she wasn’t aware she needed, but what belonged on her skin.

She quickly checked the sizes, finding hers, then looked for the matching panties, never looking at her friends who were staring at her with proud smiles on both of their faces.

They couldn’t stop whispering things like “Look, our baby is growing up,” all the way to Katniss’s place.

Madge tried to insist on coming up to help her dress, but  Katniss wasn’t going to change her mind on being alone. And there were things she needed to take care of before. Like feeding Buttercup. Or running away to another state. Important things.

First things first. Feeding the Beast. She wouldn’t admit it to anybody and certainly not to her sister, but the mangy cat had grown on her. She had spent so many nights with only him as her only company, the only remaining proof that she wasn’t alone, that she had a little family too.

She wanted a bit of time for herself too. She wasn’t a shopping addict. Far from it. she never ventured into malls more than was necessary, the crowds and incessant noise giving her headaches. She heard enough music every day at work, she needed to indulge in her quiet from time to time.

Time flew as she laid on her couch, peeking through her shopping bags, glad she didn’t succumb to her friend’s pressure of buying heels, instead choosing to wear her almost new pair of boots.

Black jeans, a vintage ivory blouse, and a light green cardigan, along with the underthings. That’s all she took from the bags, all she had purchased.

She made her way to the bathroom, checking the clock above the door. She would have to hurry a bit if she wanted to be on time, since she had to rely on public transportation to get to the Arena. She wanted to take a long, relaxing shower to try to wash away the stress of the date coming. Because there was no denying it this time. It was a date. One she’d asked for.

One she wanted.

One she was pretty sure Peeta wanted too.

Showtime.

--

Somehow, she made it on time to the Arena, the God of Public Transportation being with her, making the metro connect each time she arrived onto a platform  like magic.

Peeta was waiting near the main doors of the theater, the smile on his face growing wide as he saw her approaching, making his eyes sparkle, as if he was lit from inside.

“Katniss...” His voice was soft as he took her in his arms.

They had been close to one another while dancing, he had hugged her several times too, but nothing before had been like this embrace. Closer, warmer, stronger, more familiar. His hands were higher on her back, almost between her shoulders, making small circles there, as if he was clinging to her, for fear of letting her go.

“Hey, Peeta.” Her voice was lost in the space between his neck and his leather jacket, his familiar smell surrounded her, grounding her to the reality of here and now.

She couldn’t identify the feeling coming over her as she pulled away - regret, maybe? She took him in. His hair were still damp from the shower, his blue eyes sparkling, really shining under an unruly lock of hair out of place, his white shirt under his blue sweater, his jeans, and a goddamn leather jacket. She never thought he would own one. It wasn’t a shiny, black one with zippers everywhere, rather than thewell-worn brown one, one that had seen many seasons.

A lot like her own, she realized.

“So, where are we going?” Peeta asked, clumsily shoving his hands in the pockets of his jeans as if he didn’t dare do anything with them. Like holding her hand, she thought.

Wait, what did he just ask?

“What?”

“Where are we going?”

She had thought about the clothes, about the way she would look, took time to apply light makeup - so different from the evenings at the National when she had to cover her whole face with it - thought about leaving a bit earlier to be on time, but never thought to tell him where they would go. Never thought whether going to Sae’s was a good idea.

“Oh…. Well… I thought we could go to Sae's but I hadn't really thought beyond that."

Peeta chuckled, running his right hand through his curls. “Well,” he started, “I have an idea, if you’re not done with art for the day.”

“More dancing?”

“No, not music, or dance. Just art.”

“I guess that’s better than hanging out around Starbucks?”

“Oh! You said their name!”

“I’m sorry?”

“I’ll tell Dad, and he’ll force you to eat at least ten donuts as a punishment.”

“That’s harsh.”

“Dad’s mean.” He extended his hand to her. “Shall we?”

She didn’t hesitate, taking his hand in hers.

“Where are you taking me?”

“To Wonderland.”

--

“The Botanical Gardens? But it’s closed at night.”

“The main section, yes, but they have an exhibition of sculptures in the Japanese gardens and I’ve wanted to see it, so I thought why not?”

“At night? We won’t see a thing, Peeta!”

“Ah, but ma chère, that’s the main goal. It’s called ‘A Game of Light and Shadows’, you can see it by night or during the day.”

“Very Game of Thrones.”

“Maybe the curator is a fan.  Go figure.”

They had chatted during the short drive from Arena to the Gardens, grabbing a sandwich from Sae’s  and eating it in Peeta’s car before getting out.

Katniss had expected he would want to hold her hand again, but he settled on instead putting his hand on the small of her back, where she was pretty sure the warmth coming from it would leave a permanent mark.

She wanted to beat him to pay for the entrance (after all, she asked for the date), only to realize to her surprise that it was free of charge, being sponsored by patrons all over town.

She grabbed the two leaflets the hostess handed her, giving one to Peeta, before trying to understand hers.

“This way,” he said, taking her elbow, leading her towards the large sliding glass doors to the Japanese Gardens.

“How do you know?”

“I came during the day.”

“But, it’s going to be the same, are you sure you want to go again?”

“It won’t be the same. This time, I’m with you.”

Peeta led her through the doors, guiding her towards a tall Japanese lantern made of stone.  Placed in the middle of a sand garden was the ancient granite construction, unaware of the change of times, of seasons, of men, just waiting night after night to be lit, to fulfill its sole purpose, unmoving. Through the different holes in the stone, Katniss glimpsed, lit by the moon or the stars above. As they progressed nearer to the lantern, the electrical lights faded away until their path was lit only by the small fires inside the sculpture that bathed the grey stone in waves of orange shades.

“Look,” Peeta whispered in Katniss’s ear, as if he didn’t want to disturb the silence around them. Katniss lifted her eyes to the top of the lantern that was painted in red, to see it shining with the sparks of the fire, radiating warmth and light all around. The trees, peaceful spectators of the beauty of the fire, remained safely away, their branches swinging to feed the lights, whispering their music.

She didn’t know how long she stood, bathing in the light, bathing in the fire, watching the flames dance their unscripted routine with the wood, swaying to their own music.

Peeta was at her side, not saying a word, lingering with her as he watched the same spectacle, the same amazement in his eyes.

“Peeta, that’s beautiful…”

“It is… Look at all the shades of colors, I could never make as many hues, it’s incredible.”

“Make? Like colors?”

“Yeah.” He looked like a little boy who had been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. “I kind of like art.”

Katniss went back to watching the lantern, the fire flickering loosely in the breeze, strong despite the wind.

“I figured. You have a thing for art. Are there other things to see here?”

“Plenty. Come with me.”

Again, his hand was extended for her to take - or not. She didn’t want to miss her chance. She grabbed his hand, the warm feeling of it echoing the fire in the old lantern. Unmovable. Strong. Steady.

He showed her a small river, lit by underwater spotlights, making the water lilies glow as they danced in the current. They discovered statues, the white moonlight only highlighting details that wouldn’t be so apparent under the yellow sun, followed a little path leading to a buddhist temple where people were praying.

They followed the seam of the river, looking at the banks where expertly trimmed bushes were placed here and there, highlighting the beauty of the place, until Katniss’s eyes caught a glimpse of a light.

“Peeta, over there, there’s something!”

“Where?” He started searching around, unsuccessfully, until Katniss dragged him towards the light.

“Here, the light… wow…”

Stumbling behind her, Peeta finally came into the little clearing Katniss had spotted. There was a pond, fed by a tiny stream coming out of dark stone, its presence only revealed by the music of the falling water.

Japanese paper lanterns were scattered around, safely hung from trees, or on pedestals, giving the place a fairy-like touch. The water was lit by two others, placed on the water lilies.

“This is like a fairytale….”

Fireflies, attracted by the light, bumbled in the air, making their way through the heavy foliage of a willow tree, its branches so long they touched the surface of the water.

She felt his intake of breath as he took in the scenery  , his hand clutching hers tighter. Turning her head, she saw him looking all around, as if he was trying to capture the beauty of the place in his mind.

“I wish I had my sketchbook…” he whispered, as if not wanting to disturb the peace and silence of the place.

“So you draw?” Katniss asked.

“Yeah, when I have a bit of time.”

“You do have an eye for beauty.”

He nodded. “This is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life.”

She tookin the scenery in front of her, before glancing at him again. But he wasn’t looking at the pond or the willows or the lanterns. He was looking at her.

“Peeta?”

“You don't know, do you? The effect you have?” he whispered, his hand moving to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear. “Dance with me, Katniss. Please?” He tugged at the hand he held.

“There’s no music.”

“Does it matter?”

She realized it didn’t. She took his hand, but before they began, she removed her boots, wanting to feel the grass under her feet. He chuckled before doing exactly the same thing, toeing off his Vann’s, before pulling her closer.

She felt his heartbeat against her chest as they started to move together, bathed in the moonlight and the water lights, following a rhythm only they could feel. Their eyes were locked, lost in one another, telling each other stories they didn’t dare share out loud.

Their lips found each other in the same movement, as they continued dancing.

Katniss didn’t know who started the kiss, or who stopped it. One moment, her lips were covered by his, warm and soft, and the next, they weren’t. She could feel the breeze instead of Peeta, the smell of him all around her, but she missed him, his contact.

Opening her eyes, she found the blue of his looking into hers, as if asking for something, for permission, maybe? She wanted to lean in, to feel him against her lips, but he decided otherwise, making her spin before catching her in his arms.

She couldn’t help but laugh, the feel of the grass on the soles of her feet tickling her, the light of the moon in the sky highlighting his blond hair, the warmth of his hands reviving her body. She laughed and he smiled, watching her turn in his arms, her long locks free, her eyes sparkling with happiness.

Katniss’s mind was only focused on the here and now, on the feelings that threatened to explode out of her body, feelings she thought were long gone, never to be seen again. She was glad to have been wrong.

She wanted more, though. More than a peck on the lips. She wanted to know what really kissing Peeta would feel like.

But right now Peeta seemed to be focused on making her dance, spinning her, dipping her, not caring about their discarded shoes, or how the grass was wetting the hems of their trousers. They danced to a music without tune, without beat, but they knew the song, they could feel it, no indications needed.

Katniss smiled, her head spinning, but she wanted more, needed more. She stilled in Peeta’s arms, not taking his cue to turn again. Around them, fireflies were still dancing. She leaned forward, her lips touching his again, and it felt like going someplace she’d always known, so close to her heart. This time though, she let her lips explore his, lingering on the creases of his lips, discovering them, as if she wanted to commit them to her memories. He didn’t hesitate in reciprocating, searching her lips as if to map them, with a hunger, a greed that surprised her.

Katniss felt a moan starting in the back of her throat, and was unable to stifle it, unable to think about anything other than his lips on hers, until she felt his tongue tracing her mouth. She didn’t hesitate, parting her lips to let him in, to welcome him, taking the chance to chase after him too. His hands let hers go, and climbed to cup her face, his thumbs caressing the soft planes of her cheeks, fingers splayed on her jaw, anchoring her to him as their tongues danced to a score they seemed to have known since the dawn of time.

Her head started to spin,  more than she had while dancing in Peeta’s arms.

She should have known he would be the one making her spin with joy like the little girl she once had been.

She didn’t mind.

At all.

[ellanainthetardis]

prompt : peeta plans to loose his virginity to katniss so he goes and asks haymitch for some pointers and advice on if there is anything special hes suppose to do for a girl

One very uncomfortable conversation coming up! (X]

Haymitch, The Poet

Breakfast had become something Haymitch reallylooked forward to since Effie had brought Peeta back to Twelve – and had showedup along with him. It might have been absolutely stupid in its simplicity buthe loved sharing coffee and toasts with her in the morning, eggs if he feltlike cooking. Breakfast had always been a quiet time for them during the Games,a time they either used to strategize before their tributes showed up or tobanter over a blueberry muffin. In Thirteen, they hadn’t had many occasions tosit down and eat together. Their schedules had been different and, when theyhad matched, there had always been people around them to intrude.

So, all in all, the last three weeks of themhaving breakfast together in the mornings had become something he had reallystarted looking forward to. Living together wasn’t something they otherwiseexcelled at for now. She had too many expectations and he sometimes resentedher overwhelming presence in his house. They would get there though. He really wanted them to get there. She hadtalked about sharing her time between Twelve and the city at first – becausePlutarch had offered her a job in the entertainment industry that she wasconsidering taking – but she had yet to pack and leave.

Which suited Haymitch fine because he enjoyedtheir breakfasts.

And their nights.

And their in-betweens, even the fights thatleft him hoarse.

So that morning, as he sipped his cup of coffeeand smirked over the rim of the mug because she was trying not to smile whilebiting on her toast, fluttered as she was with his attention, he was in a verygood mood. It might have had to do also, perhaps, with the foot she had hookedaround his ankle under the table.

“We are ridiculous.” she chuckled, wiping herfingers on her napkin. “I hope you realize that.”

He did. He really,really did. But that wasn’t enough to stop him from behaving like a kid inlove.

He was entertaining the thought of clearing thetable so he could have her on it instead when the back door opened on Peeta.Effie immediately patted her blond hair self-consciously – wigs might not befashionable anymore but she still spent a good thirty minutes styling her hairevery morning regardless – her foot discreetly retreating away from his ankle.

“Good morning, dear!” she greeted with herusual cheer. “Would you care for some coffee?”

Haymitch stood up to pour one for the boy whenhe nodded, gently pulling Effie’s silk dressing gown close with one hand on theway because it was open wide on a lacy red nightgown that had Peeta’s ear growred. She tightened the belt with a flush and a small wince. She still mindedthe kids barging in without warning, Haymitch had long grown used to it. Still,that meant that she wasn’t always presentable and that wasn’t settling rightwith her.

He didn’t mind so much. If Peeta was botheredby his lack of shirt, he didn’t let on.

“Where’s Katniss?” he asked, scratching hischest while he poured him coffee.

“In the woods.” the boy offered, alreadysitting at the table. “She thinks she saw a deer yesterday. She said she wantedto try and track it down.”

“Would be good.” he approved. A few people hadcome back but rebuilding Twelve was a huge endeavor and resources were scarce.The government was sending rations over but an addition of meat wouldn’t hurt.If Katniss caught a deer there would be plenty for everyone.

They chatted a little about the rebuildingwhile Peeta drank his coffee, wondering if more people would choose to comeback and if Paylor would soon send the working crew she had promised. Effiekept toying with her hair and hurried in finishing her mug, clearlyuncomfortable being in such an improper outfit in front of the boy. She excusedherself quickly and disappeared upstairs to get ready, leaving him and Peetaalone.

He didn’t realize immediately that somethingwas odd. It was only after the fifth awkward glance Peeta gave him that hefrowned, not quite understanding while the tips of the boy’s ears were stillred when Effie’s infamous crimson nightgown had disappeared from the room.“Something you want to tell me, kid?”

“I wanted to talk to you about something.”Peeta hesitated.

“Sounds serious.” he snorted, taking a bite ofthe toast Effie hadn’t finished.

“I was wondering if you could tell me aboutgirls.” the boy spat out in one rushed breath.

Haymitch choked on the piece of toast and Peetaimmediately slapped his back only stopping when he shot him an incredulouslook. “You want me to give you the talk?”

“No!” Peeta protested, red in the face now.

Fair was fair, Haymitch was fairly sure he wasequally flushed. “Then, what?”

“You’ve been with women before…” the boycringed. “More than one, I’m assuming.”

“Geez,kid, you don’t mess around, do you?” he chuckled because it was either laughingabout it or being mortified. “Yeah, I’ve been with more than one. More than two or three dozen probably.”

Peeta made a face at that. “Well, I haven’t. And Katniss and I…”

“Ah, ah, ah.”He stopped him right there, lifting both hands in the air. “You wanna have that sort of talk, we ain’t mentioning Katniss.”

“She will have to sort of be involved at somepoint.” the boy joked and Haymitch shook his head, wishing he could wipe theimages that it conjured out of his mind. “Okay, okay! No mention of Katniss.”

“Good.” he sighed in relief, rubbing his eyes.“So what are you asking, here?”

Peeta wavered, distractedly playing with thebutter knife. “Last night, we…”

“We,as in you and a totally hypothetical girl who isn’t the closest thing I have toa daughter.” he muttered to himself.

“Yeah, thatwe.” the boy snorted but his amusement faded fast into awkwardness again.“Things got a little heated? She had a nightmare and she came to sleep with meand… We kissed and it just kind of got… Out of hands?”

“Please, tell me you’re not trying to tell meyou’ve slept with her without protection and now there might be a Mockingjayfledgling on the way.” he begged. “’Cause that’s the thing you want to go to Effie about. Not gonna lie, she’s gonnascream but she probably has a solution too. Me, it’s just gonna get my bloodpressure higher and then I’m gonna try to strangle you.”

“We didn’t sleep together.” Peeta sighed.

“Oh, good.” he said in relief. Then he shot alook at the kid and amended “Well, maybe not for you.”

Where was booze when you needed some? He hadn’ttouched a drop since Thirteen. Not exactly by choice either. Twelve wasn’texactly well supplied and he couldn’t go through another withdrawal. And,really, with Effie and the kids there, it wasn’t so bad. He wanted to trysobriety for a while. For old times’ sakes. To see if he could actually makesomething of life.

“I just feel we could get there soon, youknow?” the boy said.

“I’d rather notto.” he admitted. But he would make sure the kids were well-stocked in condoms.And he would also make sure Effie had a talk with Katniss about getting her onthe pill. They so weren’t dealingwith a baby right then.

Peeta’s face closed and he slumped a little inhis chair. “Fine. Forget I said anything. I knew it would be weird to ask you anyway.”

“Why did you?” he whined a little, standing upto clear the table. That would please Effie and that would give him somethingto do. Two birds with one shittystone.

“You see a lot of older men in my life rightnow?” the boy scoffed. “I’m sure Doctor Aurelius wouldn’t mind spending ournext session giving me sex pointers.”

Fair was fair.

He hadn’t had much more guidance thefirst time he had been with a girl but he had been listening to Chaff for longenough that he knew more about sex than was needed at that point anyway.

“Okay.” he relented and he was going to regretit, he already knew it. “Shoot. What do you want to know?”

The look of relief on Peeta’s face wasunmistakable. “I want to make it good for her.”

“First times are awkward and it’s worse forwomen.” he countered without thinking.

“Have you ever been with a girl who had neverdone it before?” the kid asked.

That was the kind of things he hadn’t mindtalking about with Chaff, Beetee and Blight so much. With Finnick on occasions.Peeta, though… Peeta was too close to a son and it was really weird. Or maybe it was the lack of liquor that made it soodd.

He kept on putting everything away, thinking hemight just do the dishes because it would keep his back to the room and thatwould be way easier to have thisconversation that way.

“Yeah.” he answered at last. “My first time.”

“Oh, so you were both…” Peeta hesitated.

“Yeah.” he nodded, deciding he was definitely going to do the dishes. Andmake it last. “Wasn’t that bad. It was sweet, even. We didn’t really know whatwe were doing but figuring it out is part of the fun.”

“How old were you?” the boy asked.

Haymitch watched the hot water pool in the sinkand added the soap as an afterthought. The memories weren’t bad but likeeverything in his life, they were so tightly entwined with the Games that…“Nineteen.” There was only silence behind him and Haymitch glanced at the boyover his shoulder, an amused smirk on his lips. “Not the answer you expected,kid?”

Peeta gave him a sheepish shrug. “I thoughtyou’d have started younger. With the Quell and everything… I thought girlswould have been all over you.”

“They were.” he confirmed, turning back to thesink. “Might surprise you to hear but I’m a one woman man. And I was in noplace for that after my Games.”

“Sorry.” the boy offered genuinely enough. “Thewoman… Was she your first time?”

“Thought we were gonna talk about you.” he snapped but then he took a deepbreath and tried to calm down. The kid was just curious. “No, she wasn’t. TheCapitol killed my girlfriend along with my family after my Games. Thought thegirl would have told you.”

It wasn’t getting any easier to say the wordsor to talk about them but every time he managed, he felt a weight lift off hischest.

“I’m sorry, Haymitch.” Peeta said. “I didn’twant to bring back bad memories.”

He focused on washing Effie’s pink mugthoroughly, trying to keep his shaking hands under control. “They’re not. Badmemories. Just…”

“Difficult?” the boy suggested.

He gave a grunt in answer and he volunteeredthe rest because he was sure Peeta would ask anyway. “The girl I was with? Shewas a victor from Eight. Alina. I liked her. Didn’t love her but I liked her.” He didn’t clarify what had happened toher, the mere fact that she had been a victor was self-explanatory. The war hadtaken care of their specie. “It wasn’t awesome but it was okay. It gets betterwith experience. Thing is, sex isn’t… It’s supposed to be fun, yeah?”

He finally rinsed Effie’s mug and placed it onthe drying rack, deciding it was more than clean enough. He moved on to thenext one. He had rinsed it and put it with the other one when Peeta spokeagain.

“I don’t want it to be just… fun. I want it to mean something.” the kid argued. “I love her. I don’t want her tothink that I just want… I do wantit but that’s not all I want.”

He sighed and dropped the dishes pretence toturn around and study the boy. “Sex can be fun and still mean something. You don’t want to make a big deal out of it‘cause you’re both gonna be tense and it’s gonna be awful. The more pressureyou put on yourself, the worse it’s gonna be. Just be respectful of what shewants. Make sure she’s okay when you do something new. If she doesn’t like it,just do something else. And make sure she’s ready before you… You know.”

Peeta cleared his throat, deliberately avertinghis eyes. “How do I know when to…”

“For fuck’ssake.” Haymitch cursed, lifting his own eyes to the ceilings because really. Somewhere Chaff was laughing hisass off at him, he could see it. He hadn’t signed up for this when he haddecided to mentor the boy. “Okay.Asking is never a bad idea.”

“Won’t that ruin the mood?” Peeta winced.

“Less than if you accidentally hurt her.” hedeadpanned. “After a while… Well, you get to a point where you know the otherperson’s body, yeah? You don’t need them to tell you anymore but at first…Yeah, asking is definitely the thing to do.”

“Alright.” the boy said. “And… How do I knowif…”

“The wetter the better.” He rushed the wordsout quickly and thought about everything butKatniss. This wasn’t about Katniss.This wasn’t about Katniss. Or aboutthe fact that he would probably neverhave sex again after that really, reallyawkward brand of conversation. “Ask what works for her. Show her what works foryou.” He tossed the kid a distressed look. “Anything else you need to know?”

Peeta shook his head and bolted out of hischair. “Thank you, Haymitch. I’m sorry it was awkward but I really needed totalk about it with someone and…”

“It’s alright.” He made a face. “That’s whatI’m here for, yeah? Well, not just the sex talks but…”

Mentoring.

“Thanks.” Peeta insisted.

Haymitch wasn’t sorry to see him dash back tohis own house truth be told.

He breathed a sigh of relief and left thekitchen, intending to go for a long shower that hopefully would get his mind offthat conversation. He hadn’t been expecting to find Effie leaning against thehallway’s wall, just out of sight, a mocking grin on her red painted lips. Shewas dressed in a tight blue dress and it was a shame he had just sworn off sexbecause…

“The wetter the better.” she repeated, clearlyhaving difficulties keeping her amusement in check. “You are such a poet with words, Haymitch.”

“How much of that did you hear?” he groaned.

She shook her head, her grin turning into areal smile. “I think you handled that very well.”

“Most awkward conversation of my life.” hemumbled, rubbing his face.

He felt himself being pushed against the walland he didn’t resist, smirking when she pressed her body closer to his, herlips brushing his ear. “Shall I show you what works for me and let you tell mewhat works for you, darling? Would that help?”

She strutted away before he could answer.

It only took him two strides to grab her aroundthe waist and bring her back.