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Written for the Starvation Forum's monthly one shot challenge July 2014
Prompt: Beginnings and Endings
Their beginning was simple- they both first saw each other at the reaping. He was fourteen, a career at that, and she saw a certain cockiness about him. But other than that, she knew nothing about him. After all, what do eleven year olds know about the other districts?
The first time he saw her, was at her reaping, some six years later. He saw her, was fooled by her and assumed that she was no threat to his tributes. How wrong could he be? Very wrong. Oh so very wrong.
Yet, even before she left the arena, he knew that there was something about her that was different. Being who he was, he could have any woman he wanted, and he had the woman of his dreams or so he thought back then. But really, how could he know what he wanted? His girl was thrown at him and he felt required to care for her.
Hmm, perhaps their beginning was not so simple.
For once she had gained victory; he admitted there was an aura about her that reeled him in momentarily. When she met him she was repulsed, knowing him only for his reputation. But once she grew to know him, through tours and mentoring their dumb as hell tributes that first year, they were friends. Well, close enough that she confided in him the truth as to what Snow had done to her and her family.
Soon, the looks she gave him changed to something else. And for him, knowing that she had been so close to getting the same fate as him made him think about what he wanted in life.
He didn't want a crazy girl. He wanted her.
So when she kissed him, he kissed her back.
It was an on-off relationship; always hidden behind closed doors where no one could see. Drunken Haymitch knew and he didn't care, he actively encouraged the pair to go at it. They were each other's best friend and partner all at once.
They were one being for the first two years, seeing each other as often as they could. No one thought anything of a Victor frequenting the Capitol on a monthly basis. She would meet him after his work and they would savour the time together in Haymitch's apartment there. He either never noticed what they did or he didn't care.
They were in love. Undoubtedly in love.
And they would share stories of how they first saw each other at the reaping, how one bad thing had spawned goodness into their lives.
Yes, their beginning was simple enough in a complicated world.
But their ending was not simple.
As chance would have it, she became with his child. But it was never to be for how could she hide the father if it looked like him? Poor child, poor mother, poor father.
She cried all night and he cried for her too. Poor child, poor mother, poor father.
She had to get rid of it, not wanting to feel the wrath of Snow.
Poor mother. Poor father.
No child.
Then the revolution found its symbol in the Victors of that year's games. And they thought it would be great, that they could finally overthrow Snow and be open about their love. There would only be a few obstacles, mainly his girl and actually overthrowing Snow but it seemed achievable in their minds as well as Beetee's and Wiress' and all the others.
But then the Quell was announced, a final plot twist in their fairy-tale, the climax which would have a resolution, surely?
But it didn't.
She was trapped on one side and him on the other. His girl, trapped with her, him pretending he was missing her and not the one he truly loved.
He had so much pretending to do. Katniss truly believed it was his girl he was missing; in the same way she missed Peeta. But he missed her, the way her lips felt against his. The way her eyes glistened as she ranted about the wrongs of Panem. The way she missed him was all too similar.
She missed his snarky comebacks, his complaints. His eyes, so green, his face so young, his smile so wise. Missing each other was just part of it. Life went on, in the way that it didn't. The war really did change everything.
The worst was when she was rescued with Peeta and his girl. Everyone expected him to marry his girl, but how could he marry one he didn't truly love? When his hearts dreams and desires were just next door in the infirmary, screaming her lungs out every night, getting strange looks from the nurses when she called his name?
He managed to convince them that it was because he was like family to her, the last one she could trust, the only thing she had left.
And boy was it true.
He was forced to marry his girl, for propaganda for the rebellion. He kept up the pretence and then when all was silent in district 13, he would sneak into her room for a few hours, just to embrace each other and prepare for the war which faced them.
Squad 451 was a relief. It meant weeks away from the compound together and without his girl craving his attention the entire time. What more could they ask for?
Their plan was flawless, or so they believed.
His 'death' caused so many tears. It caused so much pain to his girl when she found him to be dead, carrying his child that he'd never see. So many tears to Katniss, who'd found a friend in him, tears even to Gale, who had come to respect him as not just the Capitol version he had seen blasted over the TV constantly.
That could have been their simple ending, the simple ending to the simple beginning they'd shared.
But only, it wasn't.
For that was their very plan.
Masterminded by him, played out in part by her in order to convince them it was real.
So once Katniss had killed Coin and Snow was dead, and Panem had lain to rest the evils that once plagued its citizens every year, and the arenas were destroyed, and the monuments built, and Paylor re-elected as President, and Katniss cleared of any guilt due to her mental instability, she went to find him at the place they had first loved each other. Hidden within the very core of the Capitol, a simple apartment inside a simple apartment block, full of simple minded people living their simple lives.
But they were not so simple.
Together, they lived a twisted life, Johanna playing the lonely victor each time she re-encountered the others, battling off Gale's advances, each time wishing she could wear her wedding ring to make him leave her alone. Him staying alone for weeks on end as she paraded around in her fake life in order to ensure the others didn't get suspicious of her lack of appearance at the monthly support meetings for the surviving victors, that forced Annie, Katniss, Peeta, Beetee, Haymitch and Enobaria to act like they were all best buddies and that they didn't want to rip out Enobaria's throat. (Which, she would admit, did occur to her too, and he agreed when she spoke of it after she reached him again)
At long last, after a few years, they had a child. An adorable girl, named Freya, looking just like she had when she were a small child. One day, they would have to tell the world about their love, their life, their child. But for now, they left his old wife Annie to raise his child in peace, let her remember the love she had once had but had lost to one so different to herself. They lived contentedly, knowing they had only a small window of time to enjoy the quiet and the peace of living in secret away from the world, not broadcasting their lives like Katniss and Peeta had when they had their own child, or Beetee had whenever he invented something new. They spoke to no one from their old lives but Haymitch, the old man being grandfather to little Freya. He didn't mind. He even gave up his liquor obsession after they kept chastising him for trying to give their daughter alcohol at just five months old.
Yes, their ending was perfect for two victors, loving each other the way they loved and remembering those they had lost. Mags. Blight. Her family and his.
But Finnick and Johanna wouldn't have it any other way.
Their great ending matched their weak beginning.
After all, they loved their not so simple life.
A/N Please review hope you enjoyed it!
CatnipGirlOnFire