AU: In District 12, the Seam children are assigned a future spouse at the age of 3. The only way for this assignment to be broken is if a merchant child claims the Seam for their own spouse before the marrying age of 18. Katniss is assigned to Gale, but what of the merchant Peeta?

Disclaimer: I don't own any characters or other recognizable features in this story. The only originality is the idea.

Chapter 1: The Assignments

As was customary in District 12, all of the parents of the three year old Seam children in the district gathered at the square on the first day of January. The time had come for the assignments to be made: if your child had made it to the age of three, then the highest mortality rates had been passed. Only half of the Seam children made it to this milestone.

Two lines had formed: one with the parents of the girls, and one with the parents of the boys. Each line moved slowly as they filled out the papers- the ones that would essentially give their children to one another without any say in the matter.

Nobody could quite remember when this tradition had started, so of course the rumors ran rampant. Some said that this was a way of matching more hardy bloodlines in order to lower the mortality rate. Others said that it was a way of keeping the people of the Seam within their class. If they were assigned a partner before they were even able to make a choice, then they wouldn't go looking for a partner from the merchant class.

Of course, there was always that one allowance: if someone of the merchant class took a liking to a person of the Seam class before either had reached their 18th birthdays, then they could claim them for a spouse effective immediately. The pair would then take on the status of the male in the pairing.

This allowance had only been used once before in history, by the couple of the last name of Everdeen. Lilly Diamont of the merchant class had taken a liking to Stephen Everdeen of the Seam class. This had caused an uproar in the merchant class: one of their blood had lowered themselves to that of what they saw as the lowly Seam class. Needless to say, Lilly never spoke to her family or friends after that moment.

The Everdeens stood in one of the lines now. Their daughter, whom they had named Katniss, had turned three the previous September and was now to be assigned her future spouse. Neither was happy about the event, but they were powerless to stop it.

The lines grew smaller and the crowd in front of the justice building grew longer as the parents finished registering their children. Now the waiting game began as the Peacekeepers decided which lines would be best to combine. After waiting for a solid 3 hours, the head peacekeeper, Cray, emerged from the building a stack of papers in tow: the assignments.

One by one, the pairs were listed and the parents went up to grab the piece of paper which told of their child's future. Listed alongside the name of the future spouse was the number of children that they were expected to have, and why they had been paired together.

Most of the papers would not be seen by the children until they were old enough to understand. Others would not be shown to their children until they were nearly at the marrying age. This choice was left to the parents to decide.

The Everdeens were called up alongside the Hawthorne family. Katniss Everdeen was officially assigned to Gale Hawthorne. The reason for this assignment was listed as longevity, and the number of kids was listed as 4.

The Everdeens and Hawthornes disagreed with one another on when their children should be told of their assignment. After much debate, they agreed to disagree. Gale would be told when he reached the age of 8 with instructions not to tell anybody of his assignment. Katniss, however, would be told when she asked to know.

With the fates of their three year old children decided, the parents all returned home. Some had lighter hearts while some left with just another burden.

AN: So, I'm a bit out of practice but hoping to get back into the swing of things. Please review and let me know what you think of it so far and any suggestions that you may have on where I should go with this though I have a basic idea. Thanks for reading!