Chapter 1: Peeta Mellark

Let's talk about the characters in the Hunger Games, grown up in an oppressive system in a world different than ours but still carrying traits we've come to identify. Let's talk about the characters we have grown to love from a world not our own, and how they would be Sorted if they had grown up in another.

People forget that when Hufflepuff said they'd take the rest that Hufflepuff was not just a place for the lost. It meant we will give you all that we can no matter the cost because no matter who you are or what you've done in the past if you want a home Hufflepuff will provide. You may be lost before you enter their house but you certainly won't be after.

Let's talk about Peeta. Peeta, who lives in a world shrouded in deceit and corruption and subterfuge lies by telling the truth. Everyone thinks that his love for Katniss is some trick, something for the cameras and sponsors but it's not.

How in a world lacking warmth he does not allow it to drain away his kindness, his empathy. He talks about not having any regrets except for a baby (he never says Katniss is pregnant). Maybe it hadn't existed yet but Peeta always had a vision for his future and that included a small tiny baby with his blonde hair and grey eyes that he always gets lost in.

Above all, Peeta is kind. He throws a loaf of bread to a little girl who he has loved for years but could never find the courage to talk to until he had nothing left to lose but his life, which was already forfeit anyway. But that's ok, Katniss understands actions more than words anyway and to her words always lie but actions tell your true feelings.

They think that he can spin stories from out of thin air but he spins them out of his heart.

He is the gentle giant, so strong from throwing sacks of flour in his father's bakery but he doesn't even consider using his strength against others, it's never occurred him (Katniss does, Katniss recognizes anything that can lead to survival). He knows going in that helping Katniss win means eventually he will die, and he does it anyway (he never thought he would get out alive).

Let's talk about the artist. Peeta lives to create, to paint and awe people with the splendor of his paintings. Peeta spins stories and can paint the world anew but all he wants is to make people's lives easier. He is a baker, capable of creating nourishment and his bread sustains the weary and the hungry. If it is necessary to fight for others he will, but when it is only his life on the line he will paint himself over and hide. He doesn't fight needlessly, he recognizes the value of creativity and how it can save your life as well as your soul. The artist, who was told 'show me your worth' and decided this is my worth, this painted mural in Rue's honor, this image of a child he never met but still made such an impact on his life. He chooses to create instead of destroy and made a portrait of a little girl killed before her time.

Peeta saw the suffering in District 11, and he sees a family of 6 children lose their eldest child and wondering which one will be the next casualty in the Games and tries to give them a portion of their winnings. Why would he ever need that much money?

He is not a flame, but he is still a bright spot of light, illuminating and sharing his light with all those around him.

Haymitch the drunkard, Johanna who suffered the same atrocities at the hands of President Snow and the Capitol, Effie, Katniss the girl who loves so bright and loses so much, the Morphling who he never knew, all these people he Peeta draws to himself and he accepts them all unconditionally. He just wants to take care of all these broken people and put them back together again. He wants to paint it all away, Katniss's nightmares, Haymitch's sorrow, and Johanna's screams.

Loyalty, dedication, fairness. These are the pillars of his House.

Let's talk about the second time Peeta was in the Arena. For Katniss, the worse sound the jabberjays could make were her sister's screams of terror, but for Peeta it was the sound of flesh hitting flesh. Before he left for the Arena the first time around his mother didn't even express remorse about his possible death, only optimism that District 12 may finally have a winner. Katniss. Let's talk about a boy who just wanted his mother's love, and no matter how hard he tried could never do anything right in her eyes.

Let's talk about a Peeta half-crazy out of his mind, not knowing who is who but still clinging on to Katniss in the only way he knows how to anymore, with violence. After brutal months of torture with Johanna's screams as his only companion violence is the only way he know to communicate anymore.

Let's talk about a boy who decides that dying as himself is worth more than surviving as a creation of the Gamemakers. Peeta, who wants to keep Katniss alive in any way he can, so for her he would lie and deceive, say they are already married, have Effie make his token a locket for her if only she would decide to live. He won't compromise his principles for himself, but for the life of someone else he will, because that is loyalty. There's a reason that when they were in the Arena, even with his mangled leg, Katniss had to drug him with sleep syrup to get the medicine he so desperately needed. A badger is deceptively strong and it doesn't matter how hurt he was, he would have never let her go alone, if at all. Not for him.

Let's talk about a boy who loves truth and just wants everything to be fair. Someone who is so concerned with what is reality and truth that he makes a game out of it, just to make sure that he continues to speak the truth. A boy who is brilliant with words and is a born politician if there ever was one, but tries to use words to make things better for everyone around him.

Let's talk about a boy who has Post Traumatic Stress but is healing and still loves just as deeply and is still kind and good and gets to hear the girl he loves so much sing for him for the end of his days. Who looks at his wife and still thinks she is the strongest person he ever met, even though Katniss still agrees with what Haymitch once told her: you could live a hundred lifetimes and never deserve that boy.

Let's talk about Peeta.