Just A Little Different.
So… while discussing roleplaying ideas with my friend, somehow, we ended up formulating a plan for a new story.
Complete crack, but I couldn't resist.
Already half planned out, but here's a first chapter. Very short, but this is just intended as an introduction. If anybody likes it, I'll continue, with longer chapters.
Porn with plot. Very smutty. Changed slightly so there's no weird minor sex.
Disclaimer: I don't own The Hunger Games.
One.
Every year, I fear my name being chosen. Every year, I've spent the night celebrating with my family – celebrating the chance for another year of peace together.
Thankfully, I only have two years left.
Katniss had always thought that 'the Hunger Games' really isn't very well named. It implies literal hunger, for food, safety, life. But in reality, it's very, very different.
Each year, the Capitol reaps two tributes, between the ages of 16 and 21, from each district of Panem – one male, one female. The tributes are taken to the Capitol, 'trained' for three days before entering the arena. Despite 'hunger' in the name, tributes have food and drink readily available – not to the high standard of food in the Capitol, but food nonetheless, better than what's available in most districts. There are, from districts one, two and four, what's known as careers; people who have been crudely trained from the age of 13, to know and understand how to win the games. They usually do win, too. They know far more than other tributes, who begin to learn only a few short days before entering the arena, and have a distinct advantage of experience. Careers always end up with the fame and glory of being a victor.
Hunger in this sense, as the creators intended, means a very different kind of hunger to the usual. A sexual hunger. Most tributes feel no desire to do the sordid things to survive, but they have to do it.
And each year, Katniss feared the worst. Her name, pulled out of the draw, being sent into the arena, to do more things than she could even begin to imagine.
Even though she was nearly 20 years old, Katniss was still innocent to many things. She had only ever been kissed once, and it had been her best friend, Gale, so she didn't even know whether it counted or not.
This year, she had a bad feeling about the reaping. Of course, she was anxious every year, but this year, she could feel a twisting in her gut, the nerves threatening to take over. She tried to blame it on the fact that her sister, Prim, was entering the reaping for the first time. Her sweet, innocent little sister.
Katniss did the only thing she knew how to do to calm down – she escaped to the woods. Climbing carefully through the worn patch of fence surrounding the district, she ran, as fast as she could, to the clearing in the forest she often went to with Gale. She just needed to clear her head.
"Catnip?" Gale's voice was strong in the peaceful quiet of the clearing, and Katniss looked up with a slight smile. "Shouldn't you be getting ready for the reaping?" He asked, raising his eyebrow, trying to look as though he disapproved of her being in the woods before the reaping, though he secretly wished they could stay there forever, and forget all about the reaping.
"Yes… but I needed some time out. We have plenty of time until the reaping starts." Katniss insisted, knowing they had at least four hours until the reaping began.
It was then that Katniss noticed how Gale was looking at her. The look in his eyes was similar to how she had once seen a couple looking at one another in the town, before leaving quickly. It was an unfamiliar look, from her best friend, and she wasn't entirely sure what it meant, but somehow, she just knew. Not the words, to describe it, but the feelings. The need.
It became clear to Katniss then, that even if their kiss once upon a time hadn't counted, he was her best friend, and maybe… maybe, if she really needed him, he would be willing.
The fear in her had escalated, the fear of being reaped that afternoon, and she knew that if her instinct was right, there was a chance of her being reaped – especially given how many times her name was in the draw. She couldn't go in to the arena as she was. She couldn't be so inexperienced. She couldn't have her virginity taken from her by another tribute; another precious thing stolen by the Capitol. She couldn't do it.
"Gale… I think…" Katniss attempted, though she trailed off both times she tried to ask. "I need your help."