Chapter One: Katniss
I couldn't believe it had been a year.
A year since quarter quells and mocking jays and saying good bye to so many.
That crisp winter morning, I made my way through the half-rebuilt Seam area to a small lawn.
It had been my home, my family's home in victor's village. It was not quite reformed. It didn't matter. I had moved to the Capitol a few months ago.
I hadn't wanted to, at first. After all, the Seam was my home. But President Paylor convinced us we were needed.
Us.
Peeta. Me.
I smile, thinking of him waiting back home, probably with fresh bread baking.
And the bed meticulously made.
I blush, thinking of it. We had been sharing a bed for a year, but the thought still made my cheeks go hot.
I am brought back to the present when I see what I had come for. A small stone stele jutting out, the center piece of the villa garden.
I kneal by it and reading the inscription made me flush with grief all over again.
PRIMROSE EVERDEEN
"Hi, little buck" I rasp. "Happy birthday, Prim."
She would have been fourteen today. If not for Coin, if not for Snow...if not for a lot of things.
"Finny's growing like a weed" I told the marker "He's began walking a little while ago, the little demon. He gets everywhere now. Drives Annie mad."
I try not to think about how Finnick would be there to see his son grow up, if not for the war, if not for the capitol, if not for god damned Snow and every other god damned son of a bitch…
I take a deep breath, letting the injustice wash over me. Breath again.
I was alright.
"Easy, sweetheart" a familiar voice chuckled behind me.
I turned and saw a scruffy man with a bottle that looked suspiciously like scotch.
I smiled slightly. "Haymitch!"
I hadn't seen him in months. When his victor's village home was rebuilt he moved out of me and Peeta's apartment and moved back to 12.
He sat beside me and handed me the bottle. Over the past year, I had drank with Haymitch a few times and had gotten used to the taste, though I didn't drink often.
Today was an exception.
I take the bottle gratefully and take a swig.
"Ah!" I wipe my mouth "Thanks"
Haymitch winks. "I'll make a lush of you yet, sweetheart."
I snort. "Don't bet on it, old man"
We both grin.
"So where's Peeta?"
"Back at the Capitol" I loved Peeta with all my heart (as much as my messed up heart allowed) but this was something I had to do by myself.
"I just...came to say hi to Prim" I didn't add that Prim hated to be lonely.
So did I when it came to it, when it really came down to it.
I thought again of Peeta waiting for me, making my favorite rolls, probably watching the clock, the hopeless sap.
I grinned at the thought.
"Today would been her birthday, wouldn't it, Katniss?" Haymitch said suddenly.
I flinched. "Yes" I muttered.
Haymitch shakes his head and hands me the bottle again.
"She was lucky, you know" he said.
My head snaps up "What the hell's lucky about being blown up?" I growl
"Easy, easy, sweetheart" he said again.
"Don't call me sweetheart" I cried, getting worked up.
"I didn't mean that." he explains. "I mean having you. She'd have died in the 74th if not for you, Katniss. Make no mistake, she'd have been dead the first day. You gave her a longer life. Not much longer, and nobody's more sorry about that than me, but it's true."
I want to argue, but can't.
The train ride home was uneventful. When the sun was setting Peeta's favorite orange, my heart ached, missing him. Or maybe just missing a reminder that not everything went up in smoke during the war like my sister did.
I enter our little apartment and kick off my boots. Technically, it's my apartment, but Peeta moved in a few months after the war.
Paynor had given it to me. I lived there alone for a while, them Peeta asked to live with me while he looked for a place for himself.
And he just...never left.
We found there was no need for him to.
As predicted, he was wearing his apron, covered in flour, as he came down the hall to greet me.
His eye light up.
"Hi, Katniss! Welcome home"
I give him a small smile. "Hi, Peeta."
I kiss him, getting flour on my coat, and not caring.
He was getting mud and dust from twelve on his front and not caring.
Suddenly I feel his tongue and I moan involuntarily.
I pull away, reluctantly.
"Maybe we can continue this after dinner" I suggest.
He rolls his eyes. "Maybe someday I'll get you to think about sex with me more than my cooking" he remarks dryly.
"Like that'll happen." I joke and he laughs.
He is quite throughout dinner and I tell him so, through a mouthful of his homemade bread (even after a year of not starving, I still eat like I am).
He gives me a lopsided grin.
"I've just been...thinking" he says vaguely.
I raise an eyebrow. "Because baking all day leaves you time to think about the meaning of life?"
"Never let it be said I'm the only one with a sense of humor in this relationship"
"Ha"
"No..." Peeta said finally. "I was thinking..."
he took my hand and gazed at me seriously.
"I was thinking...we've been together for a while..."
"We have..."
"And if anyone knows to seize the moment because you don't know what will happen, it's us..."
"True"
"And I know we're still young but..."
Finally, too slowly, I catch on.
My heart almost beats out of my chest.
no...yes…
He drew an old wedding ring from his pocket. I had sen it on his mother.
He slipped it on my finger. I didn't resist
I didn't know if I wanted to resist.
"Katniss Everdeen….will you marry me?"
a/n: Somehow it has taken me this long to get into the Hunger Games. I really like the idea of Panem-and Katniss and Peeta-rebuilding in the fifteen years or so between the end of the war and the epilogue. I know it's already a popular idea and has been done before but I couldn't resist taking a crack at it! Feel free to review if you liked it/want to! Thank you for reading!
