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In the days after Peeta, Johanna and Annie are rescued, Katniss comes to know the girl that Finnick loved so much, and the way she loves to knit.
"Mags taught us both how to tie knots," Annie says, and for a minute, she drifts. Katniss does not know what to do when Annie's mind leaves in the middle of a conversation, so she glances over at Finnick. When he doesn't move or make a comment, Katniss does the same. Eventually, Annie continues her conversation. "Knots are good. But they belong to them. The knitting, it can belong to us."
Katniss protests, of course. She tells Annie how her own mother had tried to teach her how to sew. How not even Cinna had been able to make her truly care about fashion enough to learn anything.
But Annie laughs. "Knitting isn't sewing. And I'm far less busy than dear Cinna was."
With that, she thrusts a pair of knitting needles into Katniss' hands. She doesn't mention the fact that Katniss also has far less to do, and that bit of kindness - the kind that Katniss is not sure she will ever be able to feel again - makes Katniss listen to the brief, occasionally erratic lessons on knitting.
Annie is a good teacher. But as has always been the case, Katniss is a terrible student.
"Is it a .. hat?" Finnick asks. "Or maybe a .. sock?"
"You'll get better," Annie promises. "Later, when we win."
Later, Katniss wonders, when Snow is dead and Peeta still hates her guts, will she take up knitting?
It seems ridiculous.
~*~
When Annie's letter comes, it includes a photo of her son and a pair of knitting needles.
"Do you knit?" Peeta asks, confusion on his face. "I don't ... you don't care about fashion. Real or not real?" His voice is soft, looking from the needles to Katniss and back again.
She takes his hand in hers and squeezes. "Real," she says. "But maybe we should see if we can get our hands on some yarn anyway."
"Yarn?" Haymitch asks later. "For the cat?"
"For the baby," Peeta answers for her. "Annie's baby needs presents, doesn't he?"
"And you're going to knit them?" Haymitch asks - because he knows, unlike Peeta, exactly what Katniss had practiced while Peeta had been off hating her guts in District 13. And he knows exactly how bad she had been at it.
In truth, Katniss hadn't planned to knit anything for the baby. Surely, Annie could do a better job.
Still, she says, "Orange and green yarn would be best."
"Orange like the sunset," Peeta agrees.
Haymitch rolls his eyes, but two weeks later, two boxes of yarn show up on their doorstep.
~*~
She still hunts, of course. And Peeta bakes.
But at the end of the day, they sit in the doorway, with the last light of the day coming in, and Katniss practices what Annie had taught her.
Often, Katniss finds herself yelling at the needles.
"I thought I knew how to count," she tells Peeta. "Why can these fingers use a bow, but not these stupid needles?"
"It's a different skill," Peeta tells her. "You'll get it."
At that moment, Buttercup comes in and makes her life more difficult by stealing the ball of yarn she is trying to use.
"I'll get the cat and the yarn," Peeta tells her. "Remember, you'd be upset if you killed Buttercup."
"Not real," Katniss grumbles.
~*~
"It looks like a blanket, right?" Katniss asks, months later.
"It does," Peeta assures her.
Katniss looks at it critically. It's very simple, mostly green with an orange border, because her original plan to make alternating squares hadn't worked.
"Annie will like it," Peeta assures her again.
Katniss has no doubt. Just as she has know doubt that Finnick would have gently teased her about the way that blanket doesn't ever quite form a real rectangle. She thinks of Finnick, and the way her heart had broken on the day she'd watched him die. One of many breaks, of course, but that doesn't make the pain less.
Well, what else can she do but send his baby a present? Even if it is hideous.
~*~
Annie sends a thank you note, of course, and a picture of the baby - who is no longer a baby - chewing on the corner of the blanket. You're getting much better! she says.
Katniss doesn't think so, but the knitting becomes something she wants to conquer. Why is she so bad at it? Why does it feel like she can't count every time she tries to make her stitches work?
Haymitch brings her more yarn.
"You don't think it's a waste?" she asks. Haymitch will always tell her the truth, and not worry about being kind.
"I think it's a hobby. Normal people have them. It's probably better than geese," he answers.
Later, Peeta suggests that it actually makes her relaxed, which seems ridiculous.
"I spend all my time being mad at this stupid yarn," she says. "I'm not relaxed!"
"Maybe," he says. "But when you're made at the yarn, you're not reliving all the terrible things we've been through, are you?"
That's fair, and maybe that's why she can't seem to give up.
By the time Gale's letter shows up to to let her know that he's starting a family she'd never planned to give him, she knows she has to send that baby a present, too.
~*~
"Do you want different colored yarn?" Peeta asks from the kitchen. He's making the apple and goat cheese tart that his father loved, the one that is as good as any food the Capitol ever served.
"Why?" Katniss asks. "What's wrong with our green and orange?"
"Well... it's ours," Peeta says diplomatically. "Maybe not what Gale would want."
She wonders, suddenly, if Gale even knows what her favorite color even is.
"Gale has a son now," she says. "I don't think he cares too much about us anymore."
"Sure he does," Peeta answers. "Just like you still care about him. Otherwise, he wouldn't have sent you the note."
Katniss wants to argue. She wants to remind him of the way that Gale broke her heart. She wants to scream and cry and say vicious things about Gale.
But she knows he is right.
Gale's son gets two presents: one orange hat and one green one.
~~*~~
Months pass, and they turn to years. Their district fills with families and children. Katniss keeps up her hobby, and sometimes people come into the bakery and sort through a growing collection of knitted blankets, hats, and eventually, socks.
In return, people bring piles of yarn to donate - as a thank you, or because they grow tired of green and orange.
A lot of babies in 12 end up wearing her projects, and Katniss watches the way Peeta's face goes all soft when he looks upon those babies. Dear Peeta, who wants a family so much, but never pressures her to give him the thing that terrifies her so much.
But in time, it becomes clear that the revolution has made a permanent change, and Katniss begins to think that perhaps her children will be safe. It takes years, and even when the decision is made, she still wakes up, screaming over the fear of losing Peeta, their child, or both to games that no longer exist.
"It's okay," Peeta tells her. "You're safe. I'm safe. The baby's safe."
It becomes a frequent mantra, and when she is finally able to believe it, she reaches for her needles. Midnight and early morning knitting sessions mean that the baby will never need a blanket, hat, socks or sweaters for years.
But when she arrives, the gifts come anyway. People from all over District 12 bring food, clothes, and hand-me-down baby toys. Haymitch brings a spinning device that can be hung above the baby's crib that has tiny geese and cats flying in a circle. Effie sends some sort of fancy Capitol soap, which she swears will allow the baby's skin to get even softer than baby skin. Gale and his family send orange and green hair bows. Johanna sends a set of blocks that look suspiciously handmade, and also smell like pinecones.
And Annie, of course, sends a gift. She sends a blanket, with a note.
Congratulations! We'll come to visit as soon as school lets out for the year.
Babies help mend our broken hearts better than anything. Sending presents to friends' babies also helps.
Until we see you again, I wish you happy healing.
-Annie
Annie's skill is, of course, much more advanced than Katniss' abilities. The blanket's rows resemble rope strands, with knots at the end. Katniss doesn't mention who the blanket reminds her of, but she does wrap the girl in the blanket immediately.
The girl looks warm and content, and in that moment, Katniss is too.