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0. Year One
Katniss had never been the biggest fan of pets while she was growing up. She had nothing against animals, really, she was only alive because of them anyways. She just didn’t like seeing them around and knowing that they were eating food that could be saving a starving person’s life.
Other than that, she actually quite liked animals. In fact, when she was younger, she loved this small family of baby ducks that she always saw swimming in the lake. Her father always left them alone because they were babies, and too small to hunt. So Katniss got attached, and she named each one of them. They were, in her mind, pets.
But they weren’t able to survive very long without their mother, and Katniss cried when they stopped appearing at the lake.
There was never a time after that where she saw an animal that couldn’t be hunted, so she stopped getting attached.
But life was better now. There was never any worry surrounding food. With Peeta’s new bakery, and a world that wasn’t run by the Capitol, they were, for once in their lives, completely fine. Katniss no longer needed to hunt to survive.
She still went out into the forest, she would always belong there, but now it was simply to clear her head and watch the animals live out their lives. It was calming to see animals that no longer feared for their lives. She would always, deep down, fear for her own life, but the animals made it a bit easier to feel safe.
And she was safe. Happy, safe, and warm with Peeta, and it was only a matter of time before some more life came into their lives.
—
1. Year 3
The first pet was, devastatingly, a cat.
Buttercup had died a couple months after Katniss first returned to District 12. It was clear what had got him. Grief.
He had stopped eating, and rarely left the house, not even to get away from Katniss. Now, the only reason she regretted not drowning him is because it would’ve saved her the pain of his dying this time around.
He was the only thing connecting her to Prim, so when about a year or so later a small kitten that looked almost identical to him was yowling in her garden, she had to take him in.
She was in the garden planting katniss roots, because Peeta had ironically grown to like them, when she heard it first. A small mewl coming from the inside of a bush. She thought it was just a trick her ears were playing on her, so she ignored it until she heard it again. And again.
She stood up with a huff and began searching for the bushes, mainly to assuage her still present worry of losing her sanity again.
She was surprised, but relieved to find a small bundle of yellow-orange fur shivering in the leaves. A baby tomcat. He looked only a couple of weeks old, with dirt in his fur, and a scratch on his ear. Her heart panged. She picked the cat up, and he didn’t resist. He could fit in one hand easily, and he snuggled into the warmth of her palm.
She abandoned her gardening tools and took the kitten inside.
Peeta wasn’t terribly impressed in the beginning, but Katniss knew he would grow to like him.
“I mean, he’s cute and all, but do we really wanna commit to looking after him?” Peeta said while scratching the kitten under the chin.
Katniss nodded. “He’s alone and he came to us, we have to take him in.”
“He might have an owner that he ran away from, we should ask around.” Peeta suggested, giving him a small kiss on the head.
In the end, no one claimed him.
They officially named the kitten Shortcake after a week of just calling him ‘the cat.’ He never left the kitchen when Peeta was baking shortcakes, and maybe it was some kind of homage to Buttercup as well.
Shortcake actually liked all kinds of treats that Peeta made, but it was shortcake that he loved especially, always jumping on the counters when he smelt them being made.
One time they were eating some, and they ended up with cat fur in their mouths. Peeta banned him from the kitchen after that. Katniss agreed with this rule. But she also didn’t say anything when she saw Peeta letting him in whenever he yowled a bit too sadly.
Shortcake was sweet, and brought back a little bit of warmth to Katniss’s life. Not there had been much to begin with. But he made her understand the appeal that Buttercup had to Prim.
She especially loved Shortcake when she had a nightmare, and he was there to listen while Peeta was asleep.
Though he normally curled up and slept at the end of their bed, he always came up closer when Katniss wanted him to. He was sort of a mind reader. Usually Katniss hated feeling like there was a weight on her chest, she felt breathless and helpless, but when it was Shortcake’s weight, it was comforting.
It started to take a bit of effort to support him the bigger he growed, but she didn’t mind.
It was nice to feel so protected by a creature so innocent. Maybe that’s why she felt protected. He reminded her that there was still good in the world, and it would continue to grow the further they strayed from the time of the Capitol’s rule.
It also helped that his claws were wickedly sharp.
She once tried to trim them down, but he wiggled out of her grasp, and she didn’t have the heart to try again. It made him good at catching mice, anyway. That was the only time Peeta ‘officially’ allowed him in the kitchen.
She knew the cat had properly won over Peeta’s heart when she found a drawing in his sketchbook of Shortcake in an apron among the sketches he had made of his face. That’s how she knew. He only drew the things he loved.
—
2. Year 5
The second animal they welcomed into their home was a dog.
It was actually Peeta that found him, which was ironic given his initial reluctance to pets. Apparently Shortcake had opened up his heart to the idea, and Katniss wasn’t going to argue. She wasn’t the biggest fan of dogs, certainly not after the Capitol mutts from the arena, but she understood as soon as she saw the puppy that Peeta held in his arms.
Yips echoed through the house as the front door opened, and Katniss immediately went to greet Peeta at the door. He had left the house early in the morning, and was getting back later than usual. She was ready to interrogate him when:
“Wait, Katniss!” Peeta said as she started to walk down the hallway. She paused.
“You have to let me explain before you see what I’ve got.” He said.
Katniss crossed her arms as she heard the thing in his arms let out another yip. “Okay. Go for it.”
“So, I was setting up in the bakery a couple of days ago when I heard some barking outside—” Okay, so she knew it was a dog “—and when I went outside to check, I found a stray who I think had been living by the mines before this. She was injured, so I took her to the vet to get her patched up and also look for an owner, but apparently there wasn’t one. I went back today to check on her, and they said that either I could take her home, or they’d put her up for adoption.”
Katniss pursed her lips. “...So you put her up for adoption?”
“I was getting to that. When I went in to take a look at her… well, you’ll see why I couldn’t leave her. Come here.”
Katniss continued down the hallway as Peeta turned around, revealing the dog in his arms. She was a small thing, a puppy. Beige and lanky, and clearly very skinny. Her eyes were wide and amber, almost red, coloured. She thinks this type of dog is called a greyhound. But what Peeta must’ve been talking about wasn’t her breed or her eyes or her fur, it was the stump of a front right leg wrapped in bandages. An amputee.
She wasn’t missing the same leg as Peeta, but…
“What are you going to call her?” Katniss asked, stepping forward to lay a hand on the dog’s head.
Peeta took a breath. “I was thinking of Rose. Like Primrose.”
Katniss looked up and met his eyes already gazing into hers. “That’s a good name. Matches her eyes.”
“Thank you.” Peeta said, smiling that bittersweet smile. “So… we’re keeping her?”
Katniss nodded. “Mhm. Shortcake’s been wanting a friend, anyway.”
It took a couple of days for Rose to warm up to them, and it was clear that she’d faced some kind of abuse in her short past. Katniss felt a kind of kinship with her. And it was clear that Peeta did too. He went out of his way to wake up early and let her out into the garden, helping her practice walking again. He gave her scraps of meat whenever he was cooking, just like he did with Shortcake.
Sometimes Katniss would wake up cold in the night, and find that Shortcake was the only other body in the bed with her. She could hear Peeta’s hushed tones coming in from the living room, where Rose had taken to sleeping.
It had taken a few weeks, and eventually Rose was sleeping in their bedroom. She could hear her snoring from the floor beside Peeta, but she didn’t mind when she saw Peeta’s sleeping smile.
He wouldn’t shut up about it the next day when she finally hopped up and slept in the bed with them, and Katniss let him ramble his head off. It was endearing to see him so happy, and it made her happy too. He even ran outside to tell Haymitch when he saw the lights on in his house.
Katniss’s heart almost broke when Rose raced after Peeta to join him at Haymitch’s house, and she ended up stumbling. But then Peeta noticed and went back for her, walking slower and letting her catch up with him.
If Katniss hadn’t known she loved Peeta, because it took her a damn while to notice, this would’ve been the moment that made her realise. Instead, she just found herself falling in love with him again.
She loved him so much that she didn’t laugh when Rose spat out the first piece of bread that Peeta had given her.
“Dogs aren’t even supposed to eat much bread anyways, Peeta.” Katniss said with a pat on his back.
Peeta groaned, and she didn’t comment on how much it reminded her of Rose’s whining. “I know, but it’s okay to give them sometimes. As a treat! And you’re telling me she just doesn’t like my baking?”
“Sorry. Apparently not.” Katniss stifled a laugh.
Peeta hummed. “This is funny to you, but you don’t know that she’s been digging up and eating the katniss roots in the backyard.”
“Sounds to me like she likes me more than you.” Katniss said, leaning down to give Rose a pat.
Peeta looked so distraught when he looked up at her, so she gave him a kiss on the forehead. “Don’t worry, I’m just kidding.”
“Thank you.” Peeta mumbled as he ruffled Rose’s fur.
There was a day where Peeta’s leg was hurting more than usual, and he took his prosthetic off. When Rose saw she came bounding over, yipping excitedly and licking Peeta all over.
It was clear that Peeta was Rose’s favourite, but Katniss thought he deserved it.
—
3. Year 6
The next pet they acquired wasn’t really a proper pet, but they treated them as one anyways.
They didn’t actually know they had a new pet until they realised Shortcake was disappearing from the house more than usual. It wasn’t too odd, he was an inside and outside cat, but sometimes he had stopped coming in at night, and that worried Katniss.
So one day, she followed him when he left the house, and was relieved but confused when she found out he hadn’t been going any further than their own backyard.
At the very back of their yard was a row of dandelion clusters, and nestled within one of those clusters was a small baby rabbit.
Katniss watched from as far back as possible as Shortcake — who was usually the one eating rodents (were rabbits rodents?) — trotted over to the bunny, and curled his body around it. Almost fatherly. She wasn’t an expert on bunnies, but this one she estimated to be about three or four weeks old.
The bunny must’ve been too weak to be able to move, because Shortcake had to pluck dandelions from their stems with his mouth, and lay them in front of the rabbit to eat. Its little teeth moved fast, but to Katniss, it just looked like it was shaking.
She decided she couldn’t keep referring to the bunny as an ‘it’, but when she stepped forward to inspect the bunny more closely, to get some kind of identifier, it shrunk back into Shortcake’s body. Shortcake himself gave her a hiss when she approached. She sat back on her haunches, and Shortcake circled the bunny even more tightly.
“You’re like a little turtle.” Katniss muttered to herself. “Shrinking away… I get it.”
Katniss blinked. Okay. A bunny called ‘Turtle’. There were worse names than that.
“I’ll just call you they for now, okay little guy? Or gal?” Katniss sat back up and pretended she didn’t hear her bones click. “I’m going to get you some water.”
Peeta was home today, and he stuck his head out from the kitchen when she came back inside. “So, where’s he been going?”
Katniss made her way to the cabinets and pulled out a small bowl. “I’ll show you soon. Why are you here? I thought you said you were going to work on a painting today.”
“Oh, yeah, I am.” He said, holding up a cup of water that had paint stains all over it. “Just refilling my water cup.”
Katniss made her way over to the tap and filled up the bowl. “That’s topical. Come outside, I’ll show you Shortcake’s discovery.”
Peeta placed his cup on the counter and followed Katniss outside.
She was thankful that he had actually made some effort to stop stomping so much when he walked, because that definitely would’ve scared Turtle away. She still had to tell him to be lighter, but at least he actually listened this time.
“Shh. He’s in here.” Katniss said, crouching down in front of the dandelions.
Peeta crouched down as well, and peered into the clusters.
“Where is—? Oh.” His voice softened with awe as he spotted Shortcake and Turtle, both now sleeping.
“I’m calling the bunny ‘Turtle’.” Katniss told him, placing the water bowl as close as she dared.
He huffed out a laugh. “Why?”
She waved her hand at the sight. “He’s hiding.”
“That works. Hey, Turtle?” Peeta cooed, leaning in to get a better look at the sleeping rabbit—
“Wait, do you know the difference between bunnies and rabbits?” Katniss asked abruptly.
Peeta blinked. “Um. I think they’re the same animal. Bunny is just a pet name for small rabbits I think.”
“Oh. Good. I’ve been calling them both.” Katniss said, nodding. “Does that mean this bunny is our pet now?”
Peeta laughed. “I think Turtle is Shortcake’s pet.”
Eventually, Shortcake brought Turtle into the house to meet Katniss and Peeta, but Turtle preferred the outdoors. They did come in whenever it was too cold or raining, though.
It was cute until Katniss found the spare room that Turtle had been using as their own personal bathroom.
—
4. Year 8
Their home (and garden) was now occupied by a cat, a dog, and a bunny. It had stayed like that for about two years before their world was shaken up again. Katniss had thought there weren’t any more pets left to have, and she was sort of right. There were no more types of pets to have, but there were definitely more of them to come.
Apparently Rose was more of an explorer than they had originally thought. She spent the majority of her time indoors, on account of her leg and just being a lazy dog, but she still went outside. And to her, outside also meant outside of the garden.
It took a few weeks for them to notice how sluggish Rose had become. She was never a terribly active dog, but she could get quite eager and energetic to play at times. Now, she didn’t even bark at Shortcake when he stepped on her while she was sleeping.
It worried them, but they hadn’t thought to take her to the vet until she started throwing up after eating barely anything.
That was when they found out she was pregnant.
Some old feisty part of Katniss immediately worried that whatever dog she had been with wasn’t good enough for her, but she felt that maybe that didn’t matter right now. What she should be doing is comfort Peeta. He was sick with worry and she could tell that he was going through all the possible complications in his head.
Katniss walked Rose on the way back to their house, because Peeta’s hands were shaking too much.
“It’ll be fine, Peeta. The vet said she was healthy.” Katniss said, grasping Peeta’s hand with the one not holding the lead. Rose was well trained enough to not need a lead, but Peeta had insisted for safety’s sake.
“I know, but that could change!” He said, squeezing Katniss’s hand tightly. Katniss let him.
“Worrying about it won’t help. We just have to make sure she’s comfortable and eating well. That’s how we can help her right now.” Katniss said, repeating what the vet had told them.
Peeta nodded. “Yeah. Okay.”
He started to loosen the grip he had on her hand. She smiled at him. “She’ll be fine, Peeta.”
And she was fine.
Katniss and Peeta weren’t.
Rose had gone into labour during the night, which meant they couldn’t bring her to the vet. The process was terrifying for Peeta, and Katniss felt like she was growing a few gray hairs herself. They took her outside so the night air would cool her down. After some scary hours, she delivered the pups in a gooey mess on top of an old tarp Peeta used to have in his art studio.
She fell asleep panting as four small pups fed from her. They were, as most newborns were, kind of really ugly. But Katniss could’ve cried from happiness anyway. Peeta was definitely tearing up.
All four of the pups had the same beige coat as their mother, with some of them sprinkled with grey and white as well. That was until Katniss heard a small creature mewling softly. It wasn’t any of the four pups because they had their mouths full.
Peeta determined the source to be trapped underneath Rose’s tail, and he pulled out a slimy white pup, smaller than all the rest.
“Is that an albino?” Katniss asked.
Peeta nodded. “Yeah. I think so.”
He placed the pup down among the others, nudging it forward to encourage it to latch onto Rose.
“What are we gonna do with these guys?” Peeta asked.
Katniss hummed. “I figured we’d put them up for adoption but…”
“But?”
Katniss couldn’t tear her gaze away from the albino. “Maybe, we could keep one?”
Peeta smiled. “You read my mind.”
After a couple weeks of hosting the pups in their home and letting them get their strength up, they brought them to the vet to check their health. They were all clear, and they put them up for adoption soon after.
Because District 12, and all the other districts, were no longer under the Capitol’s rule, their living conditions had gotten much better. People still went hungry sometimes, but never starving. Katniss made an effort to get as much food to people as possible.
With less monetary worries, more people were now able to support pets, and four pups were gone by the end of the day. The albino pup went home with them.
“Don’t suppose you want to call him ‘Snow’?” Peeta joked.
Katniss actually found it in herself to laugh. “Actually, I was thinking of something else.”
“Yeah, whatcha got?”
“Maybe ‘Ghost’?”
Peeta gave a smile. Bittersweet. “Yeah. Yeah that works.”
Ghost ended up being quite a fitting name, as living with him felt like living with a ghost. He must’ve been taking pointers from Shortcake, because he made practically no sound when he walked. He was more agile than most other dogs Katniss had seen, and was always hiding in the weirdest spots.
Sometimes you could be playing with Ghost, turn around for a couple of seconds, and next find him in the kitchen cupboards. It was cute until he got bigger and older, and the culprit for a few smashed plates.
Katniss was angry as anyone would be, but Ghost had a way of worming into your heart and not feeling too bad anymore.
It also might’ve helped that Ghost had picked Katniss as his favourite, much to Peeta’s dismay.
—
5. Year 11
There were no more official pets introduced to their household, but there were still more animals.
Katniss had always, and especially after the arena, loved birds. Especially mockingjays. They reminded her of her father and his music, and they reminded her of Rue.
It was Peeta’s idea, after he’d caught her outside listening to birdsong one too many times.
They spent a summer building birdhouses and feeders to put up around their fence and the trees that bracketed their backyard. Katniss even saved up some money to commission a stonemason who had come from District 2 to make them a small bird fountain.
Shortcake absolutely loved it, and would always hop up and drink from it, unintentionally scaring all the birds away. They had to move it up onto a small pedestal so that it was too tall for him to jump on.
Without the threat of Shortcake, the birds began to flock to their house. There was always at least one bird around at all times, and there had even been up to a dozen one day. It had been a boiling summer day, and all the birds were parched.
Katniss had to stop herself from sprinting outside when she heard the squawks, instead watching intently from inside so that they wouldn’t be scared off. Eventually she couldn’t help herself from going outside, just so she could see them more clearly.
She sat down on one of the chairs Peeta had put out there when they first moved in together, and watched the birds go about their business. That’s when the mockingjays came.
They chirped some old melody that Katniss recognised as a song her father used to sing to her.
You're headed for heaven,
The sweet old hereafter,
And I've got one foot in the door.
But before I can fly up,
I've loose ends to tie up,
Right here in the old therebefore.
She didn’t stop and think before she began to sing along.
I'll be along
When I've finished my song,
When I've shut down the band,
When I've played out my hand,
When I've paid all my debts,
When I have no regrets,
Right here in the old therebefore,
When nothing is left anymore.
The birds had gone quiet.
I'll catch you up
When I've emptied my cup,
When I've worn out my friends,
When I've burned out both ends,
When I've cried all my tears,
When I've conquered my fears,
Right here in the old therebefore,
When nothing is left anymore.
This song had always made Katniss feel sad. She knew it was a song to say goodbye with, and she hated saying goodbye. She regrets not saying it to her father. Right now, though, there was nothing to be sad about. So she kept singing.
I'll bring the news
When I've danced off my shoes,
When my body's closed down,
When my boat's run aground,
When I've tallied the score,
And I'm flat on the floor,
Right here in the old therebefore,
When nothing is left anymore
When I'm pure like a dove,
When I've learned how to love,
Right here in the old therebefore,
When nothing is left anymore.
She finished the song, and the birds started to sing it back to her, stronger and louder than before.
“I told you, Katniss. The birds go silent when you sing.” Peeta said.
Katniss yelped. “God, Peeta, I didn’t know you were there!”
“Sorry.” He smiled as he sat down next to her. “I didn’t want you to stop singing.”
“So you’d rather scare me half to death?” She accused him with no malice.
Peeta nodded. “Yep. That was exactly my thinking.”
Katniss scowled at him as she stood up and sat down in the same chair as him, throwing an arm around his shoulder. He reciprocated with his own arm, and they sat and watched the birds.
They didn’t really leave them alone after that, and Katniss singing to the birds became kind of a semi-regular thing.
Not that she minded.
—
+1, Year 22
Katniss thought that maybe having pets would clue her in on what it was like to have children, but she was sorely mistaken.
Having a seven year old and three year old was way worse, but also so much better.
The girl was so energetic, Katniss didn’t even know how they were related. She would not stop moving from when she woke up from when she went to sleep. Or rather, passed out from exhaustion.
She insisted on going with either Katniss or Peeta and doing everything with them. It was adorable, and Katniss could never say no to her, but it got a little bit annoying when she couldn’t even take naps anymore.
Although, she more than made up for it (not that there was anything needing making up) when she snuggled in with Katniss and Peeta at night. It was a nice change to be the one comforting someone after they had a nightmare, opposed to being the one who had the nightmare. Those nights were some of the best sleeps she had ever gotten.
It was weird, because those were the kinds of times where she was supposed to feel worried for her child, and unable to rest while they weren’t. And she definitely felt like that sometimes. But when she told Katniss about the dreams she had, the only thing she could think was thank god they’re just dreams.
She wasn’t much of a singer, always moving around too much for her voice not to shake, but she loved to dance. She danced to every song Katniss sang for her, and Peeta would always draw her when she did. He would join in too, on the days his leg would allow, and Katniss wished she could draw too.
The boy was less energetic, but he was also only three, which presented plenty more challenges. She had experienced this before with the girl, but knowing what was coming only made her dread it more.
His sleep schedule was all over the place, and so Katniss’s and Peeta’s were all over the place as well. She had a sneaky feeling that a parent’s sleep schedule would always be all over the place. Somedays, Peeta would have to wake up at 3am to start up the bakery, even though he had only fallen asleep at 2am. She tried to help with the kids all she could on the nights where he had work the next day, but she never pushed back when he offered to take care of them.
Another thing was that the boy sometimes felt a bit like a jabberjay, always copying what the people around him were doing. He joined Katniss out in the garden, and cried when he accidentally killed an ant. It scared off the birds sometimes, but Katniss didn’t think about that when she was comforting him. She was just glad that an ant was the only thing he’d ever kill.
Whenever Peeta was baking or painting, the boy wouldn’t leave his side, always insisting that he could help. Not that he could speak many coherent sentences with his missing teeth. Although, it was quite adorable to see paintings smeared with childish innocence, and uneven muffins in the oven. The flour everywhere was a bit of a nuisance, but Peeta always cleaned it up.
Whenever the boy’s sister was running around and dancing, he would do his best to catch up, but his legs were too chubby, and he ended up falling over. He never cried about it, instead filling the air with the kind of joyous, carefree laughter that you could only make when you were a child. Before you started to learn the realities of the world.
But these kids would never know the realities that Katniss did. They would never have to live through something like that, and she could almost cry at the thought.
They didn’t know they played on a graveyard, or slept in a home that used to house more… And that was okay. Life was okay now.
She still struggled, and so did Peeta, but their children reminded them of who they were. Who they are.
And maybe the sight of the girl, the boy, Shortcake, Rose, and Ghost all curled up together in their bed made her shed a couple of tears or so.
She felt better when Peeta held her hand, and she saw that Peeta was crying too.
“Our life is perfect.” He said, meeting her eyes. “Real or not real?”
Katniss leaned in and kissed him on the lips. Pulling back, she said, “Real.”