Hello!

I recently began to get back into writing, and this is basically the culmination of my imagination while I was sick one week and unable to do much else other than lay around and sleep. Anyways, I hope that you enjoy reading this, and I would immensely appreciate feedback on it; especially the writing style. I'm currently experimenting with writing, and would love to know which kinds of writing "works".

Disclaimer: I own nothing, this was written for pleasure only.

Headcanons

Katniss and Peeta both work actively in helping rebuild Panem immediately after the games, but in their own different ways.

A new "district twelve" is drawn out, along the boundaries of the old district, and recovery is in progress

Closing In

The state rests on her shoulders. She is not a peacekeeper, but a peacemaker. A healer, like Prim wanted to be. A guide, like she always wanted to be.

Katniss, elected unanimously by the rebellion leaders to be their guiding light, oversees all of the new states' reconstruction. With their new organization situated in the borders between district ten, eleven and twelve, the new council works ceaselessly alongside their new president to reconstruct, and she is determined to make things right: make it so that no one will ever again lose sleep over hunger and despair, so that reaping is done only on crops, so that death will only come when people are ready.

From before the first bird sings in response to seeing the sun to well after the stars have begun scintillating across the sky, she is meeting and collecting and rebuilding. She surrounds herself with others who are as adept and as driven to rebuild, and they work ceaselessly. No brick, no beam, no tile is placed without them; they are everything from the diggers to the administrators. Katniss revels in the labor and thrives in the reconstruction as the old regime is eradicated from all visibility except for history books.

Inevitably, there is debate among the administration members as to what to do with the losers, the capitols. Equally inevitably, some want nothing more than to tear each capitol from their designer homes with only the clothes on their backs and force them to march throughout Panem. The capitols who resisted would be killed on the spot. Those who tried to escape would be hunted and, if caught, be brought back to witness the execution of his or her family. When the herd arrives at each districts, a designated few would be brought to the arena - almost bringing back the memories of reaping to the witnesses - and have their blood re-christen the platform, as retribution for the horrendous abuse and repression that the people from "the pinnacle of civilization" had forced onto their districts.

The few, Katniss included, disagree; arguing vehemently that no new blood should spill. It is what Coin wanted, what Snow had anticipated, not what they want. The people of the capitol had suffered loss as well, and it is time to lead by example by adopting a policy of mercy instead of vengeance.

Her father had always expressed his disgust at the capitol by quoting one of the wisest men he had learned about: "the angry can be made happy again, but the dead can never come back." This quote germinates within her mind the resolve to not let the new government take lives, and to preserve the legacy of those who were unrightfully torn from their existence.

The tenacity of her minority prevail, and the ideas of death marches and execution spectacles are mollified, if not dropped.

But, she does not allow the capitol citizen to continue on, ignorant of life in the districts under the former regime. Katniss believes strongly in 'shock' treatment rather than punishment for the capitol citizens: thus, her council sees to it that every citizen from the capitol is taken out of their finery, packed tightly onto the most basic of train cars, and taken on a year-long tour of the districts. In each district, survivors of the regime had the capitol citizens to toil as the slave-like workers of each district had in order to provide the capitol with their decadent lifestyle.

It surprises everyone that even the wealthiest districts had worked citizens under slave-like conditions; district one's diamond mines incorporated child labor from the lowest rungs of the social ladder in its microcosm, district two used psychological torture in order to kill the human and create the peacekeeper—something that not even its own citizens had known before the rebellion had broken down its walls and exposed its unctuous underside, district three forced low-level factory workers to hunch over their work under insufficient lighting until they were nearly blind and hunchbacked to assemble the electronics, and on and on for each district. The situations in the richer districts are relatively better than those in the poorest districts, but it is no less appalling to see such exploitation by humans of other humans.

Accidents among the previously pampered capitol citizens are common, and reports of abuse by the district citizens constantly pour into Katniss's message box. The death count among the capitol citizens begins to rise: heat exhaustion in district eleven, miners' lung in district twelve (they could have put the capitol education into pharmaceuticals and medicine produced by the new district twelve, but the stringent minority who had formerly advocated the death marches wanted authenticity on life under the totalitarian regime), crushed to death in district two, accidental electrocution in district three, drowning in district four…

It wasn't her intention for all of that to happen, but her ideas did seem very quixotic in the first place; she did not feel any need for retribution against the capitol citizens, but that does not under any circumstance mean that nobody else did. The former pro-punishment faction of the council had their eyes light up with glee upon hearing about how their people had stood up after centuries of humiliation, and all of Katniss's attempts to alleviate the capitol citizens' suffering is completely denied, even by President Paylor.

"This happens," she had said, "and right now, it is better to let them run their course; don't try to stop a charging train with words."

There are, by contrast, moments of tenderness among the retribution; friendships formed between district and capitol citizens, realizations about the basic humanity that they all share, even a few romances had been reported. This gives her hope, and Katniss saves each report by copying the report in a small journal she keeps in the upper left drawer of her desk.

Along the way, many of the capitol citizens break down; sometimes from the work, sometimes from the guilt, sometimes from adamantly denying that they contributed to such abuses.

When the train rolls back into the station, the emaciated survivors stumble off of the platform, broken and ready for reformation. Katniss addresses them gently; taking each one's bony and calloused hand and asking them what they learned and if they are ready to embrace the new regime. They nod, some eagerly and others reluctantly.

She allows each capitol citizen to keep all memorabilia concerning friends and families and one material treasure, and the rest of their wealth is distributed among the districts to fund their reconstruction and research projects.

Peeta, by contrast, chooses to return to his trade, whose family-owned bakery has become a chain of specialty bread and pastry shops across Panem and is known for its quality products as well as for its generosity to its communities. Reconstruction cannot continue if people do not eat, and he makes sure that every man, woman, and child who enter his shops are firm from his bread. He works from before dawn to after dusk as well, mixing and baking just as his family had taught him.

His family watches happily as their youngest son thrives while adhering to a family tradition that had been passed down for generations. They are especially happy that he has gotten his 'happy ending' that the others did not. Sometimes they help him, but Peeta usually shoo's them away because he feels that it is his time to give back to the people who gave him so much by freeing up their time and providing them with all the bread they could want.

Politics - lying through one's teeth, as he once proclaimed it to be - had never been a great interest to him, and he felt that the new government already had enough adept leaders to successfully reshape Panem, so Peeta abstained from entering a career in politics. Sometimes, he gives his opinions on possible new laws and the actions of the new adminstration, but only when others ask for his opinion. He is happier this way anyways; cocooning himself next to the warm oven fire, within the scent of baking that permeates the air into his shop, like a faithful guard cleaving to a post.

Also, he immensely enjoys seeing before his own eyes the immediate results of his efforts. He no longer needs to suppress the impulses of giving generously to those who gaze at his displays of breads and pastries as their eyes and mouths water uncontrollably; his mother is no longer behind the door, armed with a pan to chase them away. A few days after he gives them the food, he finds the same people entering his shop with their families and buying his products and trying to overpay him either in currency or in goods and services. They finally have enough energy to work, and district twelve now has no shortage of a labor demand in order to modernize its infrastructure and develop its new economy before the new president arrives as part of her tour.

Working in such a manner allows him to develop deep and personal relationships with his new friends. Over the years, he begins to play a dual role in their lives: one is the friend who will laugh with them, cry with them, and joke with them, and the other is the benevolent guardian who watches over them, helping them up when they fall. To Peeta, it feels so natural to play the latter role, especially as he watches others' faces light up at "Peeta the provider" arriving with steaming baskets in hand.

The technological and scientific progress of the capitol and the resources of all of the districts formed a perfect symbiotic bond and had made crops more abundant and healthier than ever. Hunger does not need to exist anymore, and nothing gives him more joy than seeing the people whom he meets and loves grow fat and then strong with the bread he provides. He especially takes delight in softly pinching children's cheeks and lifting them up to feel the result of his contributions.

Due to Katniss's work, she is not often at home. They have an understanding, and it is not a problem with them. They bond through talking with one another about the good that they saw in the world, from Peeta's smiling children to Katniss's successes in policymaking. Sharing their stories strengthens their bond, and they are happy.

This night, Katniss is finishing a rough draft of her new proposal that is to help give district six comprehensive rehabilitation facilities with medicine developed in district twelve. Peeta finishes his shower and flops onto the bed, jostling some of Katniss's papers. She pretends to be mad, and he says that he is sorry with exaggerated gestures. She finishes the proposal and snuggles up next to him. He turns off the light, and they lay in the darkness as they do often during their nights together.

"How was your day?" Even when she is on the verge of falling asleep, Katniss asks him this in order to know more about his life. As usual, he responds with enthusiasm about the amount he has baked, the customers he saw, and the deliveries he had made. Peeta shifts slightly so that they are looking into each other's eyes.

"I delivered to a school full of children today." Katniss smiles up at him.

"They're…they're so happy." His eyes shine at the memory. He brushes his hand over her bare shoulder and leaves it there.

"For you, of course they would be." Katniss says uneasily. The air always changed with his touch…

"I think…our children would be happier." Katniss felt the strings tug at her heart; he has brought it up again.

They had been together since after the games had ended, and married shortly afterwards; they had discovered that despite the progress of the rebellion and its aftershocks over the people's heads, many still expected the two to get married. They were married in a quiet but public ceremony; they were in love, after all. No big deal, Katniss had thought.

"Peeta…" She thought that she had made it clear to him years ago: she cleaves to her aversion to having children, and now more than ever, because she needs to construct a better world for the living children first. It doesn't seem right to her at this time.

For the night, Katniss manages to convince Peeta that his desire was just that—an ephemeral sentiment. It would soon pass, when they found happiness in other ways.