Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I woke up to sunlight streaming through my window. I sit up in my shared bed. Prim, my sister, was across the room in my moms bed. Of course she is, today is reaping day. She is bound to be terrified. It is only her first one, and I wouldn't let her take any tessera, so she only has her name in once. I get out of bed. I'm going to the woods so I can hunt. It is illegal to cross the boundaries, but I and my whole family would be dead without it. It is just me, mom and prim ever since my dad died in the mines when I was eleven. 5 years later I still wake up screaming for him to run. I'm already at the fence by now. I run to the ledge where my best friend Gale Hawthorne is waiting for me. He has blackberries and a cooked rabbit for us to eat by the time I get there. “Hey Gale!” I say. “Hey Catnip” Gale says. My real name is Katniss, but when we first met he thought I said Catnip so that turned into my nickname. “I almost forgot! Happy Hunger Games!” He says. “And may the odds be ever in your favor!!” It's so funny, almost everything sounds funny in the Capitol accent. “Oh yeah, here you go”. Gale hands me bread. Not the ugly bread that comes out of the grain we get. It's actually bakery bread. “Omg!!! This is real, right?” I ask. “It better be, it cost me a squirrel!” Gale says. After we eat, we go to hunt. It takes an hour to cover everything. Then we go to District 12’s black market, the Hob. We trade most of our stuff. Then we go to my friend, the mayor’s daughter, Madge Undersee’s house. We trade some strawberries for some money. Gale walks me to the city circle, and says, “See you at 2. Wear something nice” and walks off. I go to the bakery. I see Peeta Mellark, my boyfriend for 5 years, inside. I go see him. “Hey Katniss” he says. “Hey Peeta, I got some squirrel for you.” “Thanks!!!!” “Okay I gotta go get ready,” I tell him, “see ya in the circle”. I walk to my house. We live in the poorer part of 12, dubbed the Seam. When I get inside, mom tells me to go wash up. When I'm done, she shows me a dress from her apothecary days. She used to be a merchant, before she married dad. After I get dressed, she braids my hair. Then we walk to the circle. Prim starts to freak out when she sees the peacekeepers pricking fingers. “Prim!! It's okay. It's okay!! They're just pricking your finger. To take a little blood. It'll just hurt a bit. Like a pinch.” We get in line. After they do that, we go stand in our spots. Fresh from the Capitol, 12’s escort, Effie Trinket, goes up to the stage. She starts a video that tells of how the hunger games started. “Then came the dark days. The districts rebelled against the place that fed them and loved them” drones the video. When that finishes, Effie says her trademark line. “Happy Hunger Games!! And may the odds be ever in your favor. Time to select the tributes!! Ladies first!!” She walks over to the female reaping bowl. I'm so nervous, hoping that it's not prim. And naturally, it's not. It's me. I gasp. Prim is wrapped around screaming, “KATNISS!! YOU CAN’T GO!!” This is making me upset, so I tell her to let go of me. I walk up to the stage. “Now time for the boys” says Effie. I don't have time to react when she pulls the slip of paper out and reads the name. “Peeta Mellark!” Oh my God!!! This can't be happening!! My boyfriend and me have to fight to the death. We go to the justice building to say by to our loved ones. Mom, Prim, Gale, and Madge come in. Madge gives me a pin. I realize it's a Mockingjay. She tells me it's my token, and that it will keep me safe. We board the train. Our mentor, Haymitch Abernathy, who lives in the Capitol ever since he won the second quarter quell, is here with Effie. I see their wedding rings and realize that they're married. Peeta and I go to meet our stylists. Mine is Cinna. His is Portia. They're getting us ready for the opening. The tributes will gather in chariots for each district and parade around the Capitol. We get dressed in our outfits, fitted black outfits. Mine is a black bikini and Peeta’s is a pair of fitted black pants. We get on the chariots and Cinna lights out suits up. It's fake fire, since our industry is coal, we are the coal that's on fire. We get on and Peeta graves my hand. When we go out to start the parade, Peeta and I raise our hand to show that we’re a team and nothing can keep us apart. The parade has finally finished. We go to our quarters for the night. Peeta kisses me, and I kiss him back. I get into my room and flashback. It was 5 years ago, a couple months after my dad died. My mom had completely fallen apart since his death, and we were slowly starving. I try to sell some of prim’s old baby clothes. No one would buy them, so try to find something in the merchants garbage cans. Nothing. I find nothing. I fall over next to a tree. All of a sudden, a very handsome boy comes out of the bakery. He sees me and goes back in. About 10 minutes later, he comes out again and his mom hits him. He throws something at me when his mom goes back inside. I realize he threw a loaf of bread at me. It's a little burnt, but I don't care. The boy comes over to me. I realize it's Peeta Mellark, my longtime crush. He starts to talk to me, and then kisses me and tells me he has loved me ever since we were five. I tell him that I love him too. We've been dating ever since. I fall asleep.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We have had training the past few days. Today is our evaluation. I wait until my turn. Peeta tells me to shoot straight. I do. And when the gamemakers don't pay attention to me, I shoot the apple out of their pigs mouth. I was so nervous about my score. Then I see it flash. I have the highest score!!! An 11/12!! I mean, the highest you can get is a 12, and no one in 74 years of hunger games has gotten one. But out of this year's tributes, I have the highest. Peeta got a 9. Cinna and Portia order a cake to celebrate.-------- Tonight are the interviews. I'm wearing a red sparkly dress that will flame at the bottom when I twirl. It's time for my interview. Caesar Flickerman, the hunger games interviewer and I joke around until my time is up. He wishes me the best of luck. Now it's Peeta's turn. Caesar asks him if he has a special girl. He tells him that he does. Oh no I think. He's gonna tell all of Panem that we're in love and then my mom will kill me if I get home because I'm “to young” for a boyfriend. Caesar asks the name and he tells them the girls name. My name. My mom is gonna freak. Well, no time to worry now, Peeta is coming this way.

Chapter Text

I wake up to the breathing next to me. I realize that it's Peeta immediately. We've slept together before. I turn over. “Hey” he says. “Hey. You better be going. We have to go into the arena soon.” I say. He gives me a long lingering kiss before he wishes me luck and walks out. Cinna comes and knocks on my door. I get dressed in a slip and then we go to the roof. There's a hovercraft waiting to take us to the arena, where underneath I'll be giving 2 hours to prepare. It's been about 15 minutes when the blinds shut on the windows, an obvious clue that we're about 30 minutes away from the arena. When we get there, I shower, and Cinna braids back my hair. Cinna prepares a needle. “This is a shot to delay any menstruation you may have in the arena. You will still ovulate regularly, so just be careful.” He tells me. Then I get into my tribute outfit. Pants, t shirt, and a jacket. Plus boots. “I'm gonna say wooded area” Cinna tells me. Good, I think, maybe I'll get some food, shelter, and if they don't have any bows, I could make one. The announcer, Claudius Templesmith says we have a minute until we have to be in the transportation tubes. Cinna puts my Mockingjay pin on my shirt. “Time to board. I'm betting on you girl on fire. Good luck” Cinna tells me and kisses me on the cheeks and forehead. I get in the tube. It goes up slowly, and within half a minute I'm on the plate. We have to wait for a minute until the gong runs out and we will be released. My minute is up, and I hear the gong. I run towards the backpack in the mouth. Then I grab a bow and arrows, and a knife before I run towards the woods. The district 2 girl, Clove, throws a knife at me. I hike up my pack so the blade lodges into it. Peeta is running towards me. We immediately make an alliance. We try to find water. We finally find a stream. About 50 yards downstream there are these big caves. We go into one of them. Peeta falls over next to me. I look at him and realize he has a huge cut on his leg and a small cut on his back. I go outside of the cave, and find the leaves my mother uses to cure infection. It also eases pain and deflates tracker jacker stings. I go back to my little cave. I press the leaves against his wounds and look through my pack. There's a sleeping bag, 12 jerky strips, 32 crackers, 2 water skins that I will fill up in a minute, dried fruit, and a small first aid kit. I give Peeta some medicine, and he pulls me down for a kiss. We start to make out, until the canon rings out. I hear 12, and understand that half of the tributes are dead. In the first day. I'm shocked. This is history. It falls dark and we look out to see what tributes are dead. The ones that are alive are Marvel and Glimmer, Cato and Clove, District 4 kids, District 5 kids, Thresh and Rue, and Me and Peeta. I hear footsteps, so I go to the mouth of the cave. Little Rue is hunting. I call out to her. “Rue!!! It's Katniss! Do you want to be aloes with me and Peeta?” “I guess” Rue tells me. We shake on it. She comes into the cave and shows us the supplies she has. She has a sleeping bag, 2 knives, and 32 jerky strips. No water. We give her some of our water and then we split up the food. We decide to sleep in watches. She takes first watch. Peeta pulls me down into the sleeping bag. I immediately nod off. I wake up when Rue shakes me so I can watch. After 5 hours, I wake Peeta to watch. When he wakes Rue and I, we decide to hunt. We also spy on the careers, or the tributes from 1,2,and 4. Their food is in a pyramid about 100 yards from their camp. Rue tells us she knows it's guarded, but she doesn't know by what. We go hunt. I score a rabbit, and a thing Rue calls groosling. She got a squirrel by one of the snares she had set, and Peeta gathered roots and berries. We go back to the cave. We're just at the mouth when we head to cannons to off. The tributes from 4 are both dead, according to the pictures in the sky. Peeta will take first watch tonight. He wakes me a couple hours later. I keep watch until sunlight, and then Rue watches for a while. I go to spy on the Careers while Peeta and Rue work on supper. Foxface, the nickname I gave the girl from 5, runs into the plains. She does this weird dance, grabs some food and a knife, and does her weird dance back out. I see the mounds of overturned dirt, and the dirty shovel, and the two wired connect. “It's mined” I whisper to myself. Just then, the girl from 1, Glimmer comes over to where I am. I shoot and arrow at her heart before she can say anything. I grab my arrow and run, just in time to, because the other careers are over by her body. I get inside the cave and Peeta kisses me, and Rue hugs me. “We thought they had gotten you!!!!!” Rue and Peeta yell at the same time. “No, I'm fine. I'm okay. It was Glimmer. She tried to kill me, and I had to shoot her. I think to myself, that was my first kill. The first person that I have taken away from someone. I fall asleep in guilt that night. When we're all awake, I tell my allies about the trap. We come up with a plan. Rue will set fires to distract the careers. I will set off the mines. Peeta will be on the other side of the arena, starting another fire to get the careers away from Rue. We all go our separate ways. I see the first fire light up seconds after I get to the camp. The careers all grab their weapons and go after the tribute who lit the fire. I see the bag of apples and formulate a plan. I will shoot and arrow to open the bag, and then shoot another one to cut the rope holding the bag. I do this and move out of range. Not 5 minutes later, Cato appears and starts throwing a tantrum. He screams and cusses and throws things. I get away from there as soon as I can. I make it back to our little cave, where Peeta is. “Where's Rue?” I ask him. “I thought she was with you!!” He tells me. It's only noon, so we decide to go hunt our Allie down. All of a sudden, I hear a girl scream. “KATNISS!!PEETA!!!HELP ME!!!” There is one person in this place that can make a sound like that. Rue. We find her tangled in a rope. We cut her out just in time to see the spear fly into her chest. She falls backwards. We catch her and lay her down. I look over and the dead body of Marvel. I shot and killed him without realizing it. I feel even more guilt. I look over at Rue, dying in Peeta’s arms. I pick some wildflowers that are a few feet away and decorate her body in them. She has died

Chapter Text

There are 8 tributes left. Peeta and I go back to the cave. We hear 2 canons and see Rue, Marvel, and both tributes from 5 in the sky. 5 left. Peeta and I decide we don't need watches anymore. I fall asleep, and soon wake screaming. Peeta wakes immediately. “What's wrong?” He asks. “It was a nightmare. I'm ok now.” I tell him. I lean over and kiss him. I feel his tongue making its way into my mouth, touching my tongue. I put my hands under his shirt, and we do what we've always done, except faster, quicker. We go farther than we ever have. He thrusts into me and I moan with pleasure. We continue this all night. When we finally fall asleep again, dawn is breaking. I fall asleep to the knowledge that Peeta and I had made love during the hunger games. I hear a cannon and bolt up. The picture of Thresh appears in the sky. 4 of us are left. We go out to hunt. Suddenly Peeta cries out in alarm. I look over my shoulder, arrow ready to fly, and see that he has caught his leg in a snare. There is a gaping hole, and blood pouring down. I pull the first aid kit out of my bag and pull gauze and bandages out. I stick the gauze in the stream nearby, and put it in the hole. Then I wrap the bandages around his leg. I give him some pain medicine and we head back to the cave, his arms wrapped around my shoulder to keep balanced. We make it back, and Peeta passes out. I fall out next to him, my head on his chest, where I can hear his heart beating. I wake up to trumpets blaring. “Attention tributes!! Tomorrow there will be a feast, at the cornucopia. This is no regular feast. You all need something, desperately. We are going to give it to you. Thank you, and may the odds be ever in your favor.” Claudius Templesmith signs out. “I'm going Peeta. I don't care what you say, I'm going you can't stop me.” “Okay Katniss. You go. But I swear, the second I see your name in that sky, I'll kill myself.” Peeta tells me. “Oh Peeta, I won't die, I promise.” “Good. Let's eat” he says. The second he pulls the squirrel out, I turn green and start to puke, all over everything. “Katniss, are you alright?” “Yeah, I'm fine. Just that smell is so strong” “It's not that bad.” Peeta looks at me with concern. “I'm fine.” I actually feel really nauseous, but I say nothing. I'm also famished. We eat, and then Peeta looks at me. “Katniss, are you ok with what happened that night?” “Of course I am. It was amazing. Peeta, I'm the one who started it. I loved it. And I love you!” I tell him. “I love you too Katniss. More than anything.” Peeta tells me. We lean in for a kiss. Oh, how only Peeta can kiss. It's full of passion and desire and love for me. And I know he meant it when he told me that he loves me. We talk the day away, kissing and snuggling. I fall asleep early, that way I can get up. When I wake, it's midnight. I miss Peeta goodbye and sneak out. When I get to the cornucopia, I hide inside it. Dawn rises, and a table with 3 packs rises up. D2, D11, and D12 are marked on the packages. I grab the package with the 12 on it and run. A knife blade slashes my thigh, and I turn and shoot at Clove. She runs and tackles me, sitting on me with her feet on my arms. She pulls a little tiny knife out. “Oooooh lover girl, blow the boyfriend a kiss. It's your last.” She starts to cut my lip, when I see Peeta pull her up and hit her. She's gone. Just like that. He grabs both me up, and we run. I see the ring on her finger, and remember her and Cato loving on each other during training and lunch. Huh, they're both 18, so I guess they were engaged. We take off. When we get to the cave, I collapse, not being able to hold weight on my cut leg. Peeta rips the pack, and there's a cream inside. He applies it to my leg, and then I do his leg. We sigh in relief at the same time. I ask Peeta how he walked on his leg. He tells me he loves me, and would never had let me go by myself. I kiss him, and we both nod off. I jolt awake, hearing a cannon. I see Cato in the sky. Peeta and I are the only ones left. One of us will die. I go into the woods, find nightlock, a poison berry that will do just fine. I go back to the cave, and get Peeta awake. I tell him my plan, and we go to the cornucopia. We get there, and I say “On the count of 3?” Peeta nods. “One,” “Two” “Thr-” “WAIT!! WAIT!!I GIVE YOU, THE WINNERS OF THE 74th ANNUAL HUNGER GAMES, THE TRIBUTES FROM DISTRICT 12! KATNISS EVERDEEN AND PEETA MELLARK!!!!” We kiss, so happy to be done. A hovercraft appears, taking us home.

Chapter Text

Once we're on the hovercraft, they hook us up to machines, telling us they have to make us flawless for our interviews with Caesar 2 days from now. They knock us out. When I wake up, I raise my hand. Of course, no scars. I look over to Peeta. He is strong, his muscles are so defined. He looks so sexy. He looks over at me. We reach for each other's hands. Not talking, just holding on to each other. Cinna and Portia come in, separating us, to get us ready for our interview later tonight. A couple hours later, I come out wearing a yellow dress, looking like a candle. I look in the mirror. It's strapless, and the bottom touches my toes. I'm wearing brown sandals, my hair is in ringlets, and my makeup is flawless. I get ready to walk on stage. When my name is called, I walk out, and see Peeta. I run into his arms. We kiss, tongues clashing together. Caesar pushes us towards the chair, and we sit. We go through many questions. When we are done, we watch a recap of the games. I see how Cato has died. Mutts. Wolf mutts. I close my eyes, and turn towards Peeta. It has finally ended. Not how it normally does, but with a picture of Peeta and I holding hands earlier today. We go to the train station, finally heading home. We sleep pretty much the entire train ride. When we wake, I feel very nauseous,and run to go puke. Peeta looks concerned, but I ignore him. We pull up to the platform. My mom is there with Prim. Mom hugs me, pulls me close, and tells me something that surprises me. She said “I'm glad you finally know what love feels like.” So she's not mad, she's happy. Prim hugs me, and kisses both cheeks. She looks exactly the same. Then I see Gale. I run to hug him, and he hugs me back but he's very tense. He whispers in my ear “better go see your boyfriend now.” So that's it. He's mad about Peeta. He'll just have to deal with it. I go to Peeta. We hug and kiss for weeks until the cameras leave, and then we finally be a little more discreet. The weeks progress. I still feel nauseous in the mornings, and I have gained a couple pounds. One morning, my mom comes in to talk to me. “Katniss, I'm a little worried. I know what you did in the cave. I want you to take this is the bathroom, and tell me the results immediately.” She hands me a pregnancy test. I nod and go into the bathroom. Five minutes later, I reappear, tears cutting trails down my face. My mother hugs me and tries to calm me. My world is spinning out of control. I am pregnant, and with Peeta's baby.

Chapter Text

Two months. That's how far along I am. I'm going to tell Peeta today. “Peeta, can we talk?” “Sure K what's up?” “Well, remember in the cave?” “Yeah, why?” “Well, um, or actions might have made a baby.” There, it's out. I see shock, the something else I can define on Peeta's face. “Katniss! This is amazing!! We're gonna be parents!!!! I mean, if you wanna keep it.” “Oh Peeta, of course I'll keep it.” We are both overjoyed by this, but I know we both kinda fear this too. As the months progress on, Peeta and I grow closer, and I get bigger. I'm not huge, but I'm easily 15 pounds overweight. I worry about the victory tour coming up. It's in 2 months. I'll be 6 months along, so it'll be obvious. Another month passes, and soon I'm looking to the victory tour coming up in a week. I fall asleep every night with Peeta next to me, worrying about the future our child will grow up in.

Chapter Text

I wake up to the sounds of car doors shutting and knocking on the door. I go to the bathroom and slip into a robe. Then I wake Peeta so he can go to his house to get ready. Today is the Victory Tour. For the next 22 days, we will be in the districts. Then we will spend a week in the Capitol. After that we come home to the harvest festival. I hear knocking on my door, and Peeta answers it on his way out. Cinna comes in. He isn't surprised. I called him right after I told Peeta so he could make alterations. The prep team frets, but they soon get over themselves. Since the greeting that starts off the victory tour is recorded from the head up, there's nothing to worry about. That video will be aired live to Caesar Flickerman, the hunger games announcer. The prep team chats on about people while they get me ready, and then they get to an interesting topic. “I mean, I could get shrimp, or fabric, or music chips” Octavia says. “Why?” I ask. “Oh Katniss, there's a lot of stuff we haven't been able to get ever since the hunger games.” I can't figure out why, so I try and shut my mind off. When my face, nails, and hair are done, Cinna comes in a gets me dressed. Flowing, warm materials built my outfit today. I walk to the door, where Effie kisses my cheeks, and then pushes me hot the door. I see the cameras, and smile. I look over to Peeta’s house and see him. We meet in the middle, and he slips, and I fall on top of him. We kiss deeply, and break apart when we hear Caesar's voice. “There they are, victors of the 74th hunger games!! So tell us, how are things in district 12?” Peeta and I look at each other, not wanting to reveal our little secret. Peeta speaks. “Things in 12 are good.” “That's it? Things are good? Give me details!!” Caesar says. “Thanks to the generosity of the Capitol, we've never been closer.” I say. “Ok, we'll see them through the next month! Goodbye!” Caesar says and signs off. Effie collects us, and we go to the train. I see Gale and Madge walk to the platform to see us off. They're holding hands. So they're together. Good for them. Both of them know of my “condition”. I hug them both, and Madge kisses my cheek. Then Peeta and I are off. We go to my room, and flip on the tv to watch the rerun of the victory tour commencement. I nod off, and wake to knocking on the door sometime later. Peeta is out next to me, and wakes up when the person, who turns out to be Portia, comes in. “Peeta, we have to get you ready for District 11.” She says. Peeta kisses me lightly, and goes with her. Cinna and my prep team come in, and sighing 2 hours, I'm ready. We go to the justice building for the district-wide ceremony. I make a speech, and Peeta talks to finish it. We get plaques and flowers. Then I talk about Rue, and thank her family for their daughter. An old man raises 3 fingers, kisses them, and raises them in the air. The district thank you ritual. He whistles my Mockingjay tune. Peacekeepers swarm around him, and shoot him on sight. I'm horrified. I my jacket gets ripped off while I run for the man, revealing my pregnancy. The audience gasps. I've done it! I've ruined everything! President Snow will probably make me give birth on live television or something. Peeta and I are pushed inside the doors of the building. After our banquet, we go to the train. Peeta follows me into my room, and we watch the District 11 rerun. Right after my jacket gets ripped off, Caesar points out that I'm with child. I fall asleep that night scared to death for my child. We follow this pattern every day. Train, prep, rally, prep, banquet, train. Until we get to the Capitol. Our prep teams have gotten us ready, so we get onto the platform. Effie escorts us to our old quarters in the training center. Tonight we will have an interview with Caeser. Our prep teams get me ready for the interview, and I watch the victory tour reruns. I see crowds, pushing back against peacekeepers. Then I remember what Octavia said about the things she couldn't get. The two things click in my mind. This is what an uprising looks like.