Prologue

District 12 is probably it's most peaceful at night. The stars shine bright without the smog coming from the mines. The staple of our economy has slowed down considerably since the Second Rebellion, as there are not many miners left alive to populate it. So many of them died in the war.

I know of many others too. Annie Cresta, a fellow Victor of the Hunger Games, died in childbirth bringing her only son into the world. Gale Hawthorne, my hunting partner and best friend, in a bombing attack. He was my friend, until I learned after his passing that the bomb he helped to create killed... My sister. Primrose.

Less than 500 people have returned to 12 after the war. Very few people survived the bombings after the Third Quarter Quell, and the war combat itself claimed many others. Thankfully, my mother was not among the dead, though she did flee her homeland out of grief for her youngest daughter's passing. I heard in a letter from Finnick that she has re-dedicated her purpose to rebuilding the hospital in District 4. She has even married again and is reportedly very happy. Haymitch looks after me now, as does Peeta Mellark.

My fellow Victors. Besides my mentor and... lover, only five other Victors managed to survive the war. Enobaria Golding, the last living Career of District 2. Beetee Latier, the genius from District 3. Finnick Odair of District 4, handsome and widowed and a father at the tender age of 25. Johanna Mason, a sarcastic Victor from District 7. And then District 12 has three of their four Victors alive and well.

Peeta has gotten better since he returned from medical treatment in the Capitol. Though he still has flashbacks from his hijacking that attempted to make him hate me, he has managed to fall in love with me all over again. We kiss a lot, even make out a little bit, but I never let him touch me anywhere untoward. Sex is something that I remain ambivalent towards, and I fear if we did make love... something would go wrong. Like he might have a flashback and try to kill me. He could do it oh so easily in that moment, especially if he were... on top.

Nevertheless, I cannot deny it anymore. He has gotten amazingly better. The flashbacks last less longer now, and are more few and far between. And those of District 12 who have come home have an interesting understanding of our relationship. Even though Peeta's declaration of our nuptials was not true (and still isn't), the rest of the district's residents still treat us as though we are married. Sometimes, I have traded in the Hob and people will refer to me as "Mrs. Mellark." Really. As for me, I find it amusing, even if the pressure to marry him and have done with it only grows with this mistaken identity. But I hardly think a wedding, much less a toasting, is necessary. As far as I am concerned, I married him when we kissed on that beach the final night of the Quell. There was no piece of toast to be had then, but that kiss still made me feel like I had become someone's wife. Peeta's wife. Or at least, something deep had shifted between us. Peeta is my home now. I have found home. So why bother having any formal solidification of that?

Regardless, when I come home that night, Peeta smiles at me and kisses me and softly asks me to marry him. And his eyes are so blue and the life I have is... happy, in its own little way, that I give an answer different to the one I have given the last four years or so.

I say Yes.

I kneel before the fireplace in my mother's wedding gown. She thankfully left it behind to me, as though she suspected I might need it someday. I would never wear any of the wedding dresses the Capitol assigned to me, and one of them I had already given away, to Finnick and Annie for their wedding in District 13.

Inviting our fellow Victors is too risky. Besides, its' the middle of the night and on such short notice. If we waited and tried to notify them, word would get out. And the Capitol press would have a field day. If I am to get married, I don't want cameras or any fuss. I want it to be simple, plain, traditional. As I am. Which is why I wear my mother's wedding dress. I have only ever seen her in it once, on old film reels of hers and Daddy's toasting on the battered projector we owned. A toasting between a Seam miner and a Merchant woman was very controversial at the time, even scandalous, so only a few people showed up as guests. Cotton Hawthorne, Gale's father, and his wife Hazelle, were among them and they gave the projector to my parents and filmed their wedding as a gift.

Peeta comes down in a suit. I don't know if it once belonged to his father. The poor Baker and his two older sons, and even his witch of the wife were killed in the firebombings. Still, my husband-to-be looks incredibly handsome.

Our only guest is Haymitch Abernathy. He has agreed to do literally everything else for the wedding: bring the booze, walk me down the aisle and give me away and be Peeta's Best Man. Once Haymitch has given me away, Peeta and I kneel beside the fireplace. Haymitch produces the documents he smuggled out of the Justice Building, which Peeta and I sign. Our mentor will smuggle them back in first thing in the morning... and hope the Chief Clerk doesn't notice.

Then, Peeta and I toast a piece of bread over the fire. Sharing the piece, we then lean in and share a tender kiss, licking the errant crumbs off of each other's lips. I moan in delight, and it is only when we break apart, that I realize: I'm a married woman. I am Mrs. Peeta Mellark.

Haymitch dutifully applause, shakes Peeta's hand, kisses my cheek, leaves the alcohol even though we won't drink it and goes home. We never really planned to have a reception and risk waking the whole district. Peeta and I go upstairs and to bed, sharing the same one as we have for many years. Only this time, it feels different.

"Good night," I murmur, still in my wedding dress. Peeta spoons me from behind and kisses my cheek.

"I love you, Katniss Mellark," he whispers in my ear. "Now can we talk about children?"

I should freeze. Since I was a young girl, I had vowed that I would never marry, though now I have broken that vow of chastity. I also swore I would never have babies of my own, for fear of sending them inadvertently to the Games. But the Games are over now, and Peeta and I have a beautiful godson of our own, Finnick Odair Jr. So I say...

"I'll think about it."