~Hey yawl this is my first Fanfiction so please cut me some slack! This first chapter I took one of the fan fictions I have read's epilogue and edited it to fit the fanfic I am making so yeah… I hope you like it. I am really new to the fanfic world so it may take me a while to update but please favorite me and alert me and stuff… REVIEW! Plzzzz and also check out my youtube channel: .com/user/XxSUBSCRIBEorDIExX :)
I am not sure why I even have to say this because it is obvious I am not Suzanne Collins but I do not own anything including The Hunger Games~
Chapter 1- Our New Life:
It is a Sunday, and it also happens to be the day of the Reaping. Now let me be clear, it's not the same kind of Reaping as before. No kids will have to go into the arena now, or ever again. But we couldn't let the horrors of the past lay forgotten, so every year on Reaping Day all the victors left come to District 12 while, if they have kids, they drop them off at day care.
Speaking of the Capitol, we are still not on perfect terms with them but everyone is civil, we hope. Lots of people from various districts came to live with us here –in what used to be called District 13 but is now called Expedius- after the war. But people from the Capitol didn't want to leave their way of life, plus a few Peacekeepers went back to get them in order.
It was scary starting a new way of life, especially when we, as in Gale, Johanna, Peeta, and I, were really the ones in charge. The first few years were hard ones but eventually things started falling into place.
Since it's a Sunday I should be out hunting with Gale, but because of the ceremony I have to stay home and get ready. So I finally decide that I will go down to the kitchen and see what Peeta's up to. I put on my attire for the day (a simple red dress because of the Reaping ceremony, plus my mockingjay pin, of course) and plait my hair into its usual braid. Then I head downstairs.
Peeta made me breakfast as per usual so I grab a plate and sit down at the table beside him. We got married ten years ago. Gale and Johanna tied the knot first, only a mere two years after the Rebellion, which was a surprise because we never really saw them to be in together.
"Are the kids up yet?" Peeta asks me as I dig into my pastry.
I swallow and answer, "Surprisingly, no. Madylin, Haymitch, and Rue can sleep in until we need to take them to day care,"
Rue is our eldest daughter. She turned twelve this past year. Madylin is only eight years old and Haymitch is seven. Annie has never been able to handle the Victor ceremonies so she never comes to them. She is a lot better than before though and helps the day-care every ceremony. Her own son Finn, hence named after his father Finnick, is sixteen. He is the spitting image of Finnick and has also inherited some of his father's womanizing nature.
I am just finishing up my breakfast and putting my plate in the sink when Peeta walks over carrying his dishes too. After that he leans against the counter and I press into him, wrapping my arms around his waist as his hands trace lazy circles on my forearms. I feel him rest his chin on top of my head and we just stand like that for a while and I know we're both thinking the same thing.
My suspicions are confirmed when he kisses my forehead, looks down at me, and says, "I can't believe it's been seventeen years since the last Hunger Games."
"Me either," I mumble. It's still surreal to think that the world is safe again, as safe as we think it can be. "Before then I wasn't even sure if I liked you," I tell him coyly.
"But I was always hopelessly in love with you," he says with a mock sigh.
"Well," I continue. "I think I'm sure I am hopelessly in love with you too now,"
Peeta looks down at me, "Oh really?" he asks with one eyebrow arched.
I stand up on my tiptoes to kiss him. This is one of those rare times when all three of our kids are asleep at the same time so we might as well take advantage of it. "Really," is all I have time to say before I am pressed up against the counter responding to Peeta's long, languid kisses. One of his hands trails from cupping my cheek to the nape of my neck and the other pulls me closer to him on the small of my back. My hands tangle into his hair, pulling him down to me as my lips make complicated patterns with his. He lifts me up and sets me on the counter to start kissing my neck right under my jaw line. I close my eyes and feel the pressure of his lips on my neck. Then I hear a voice.
"Uh…hi guys,"
I open my eyes and she smiles at me. It's Johanna, with Gale by her side.
I quickly hop down from my perch on the counter and Peeta smoothes my hair. We look sheepishly at the other two.
"Sorry that we interrupted your little thing going on," Johanna tells us with a smirk.
I scowl at her but she just rolls her eyes. Gale is the one who thinks it is fine to barge into my house without telling me he's coming in advance.
"You know Gale, there's this new thing called knocking. I know it might not have reached your neck of the woods yet, but you should give it a try sometime," I tell him. The neck of the woods bit really isn't relevant because Gale and Johanna live just next door to us.
"Well, Catnip, I'm just glad the kids are still outside because I want them to see…" he starts to retaliate but then trails off under the wrath of my scowl.
After his statement the Hawthorne kids come. Gale and Johanna always walk with us to the ceremony, even though Gale isn't a victor he can replace one of the victors that got killed in the rebellion. They have a son, Gage, who's twelve. Their eight year old daughter Maysilee is too young so she stays with our kids and Annie too.
The crazy thing about our daughter Madylin and their daughter Maysilee are the same age and were born only a day apart (one on May 16th and the other on May 17th).
"Where's Madylin?" Maysilee pipes up eagerly, her blonde curls almost quivering with excitement. The two have been best friends since birth.
"She's still up in her room," Peeta tells her warmly. "Why don't you go get her?"
"Okay!" Maysilee says. "I'll get Rue and Haymitch too!"
With her gone the four of us make small talk and ask Gage how he's doing in school. School actually teaches useful things these days and doesn't just smother the kids in knowledge about coal mining and how glorious the Capitol is like I remember. Gage's resemblance to Gale is uncanny, but he has Johanna's eyes.
Maysilee comes back down with our kids. Madylin has Peeta's blonde hair, fair skin and blue eyes but he still insists her features are like mine. Haymitch has the full Seam look. Rue has tan skin, like me, but blue eyes and wavy blonde hair.
Annie comes over with Finn shortly and it's time for us to drop them off at day care and get to the ceremony. Peeta and I kiss our children goodbye and are out the door with Gale and Johanna.
"Can you guys believe it's been seventeen years?" Gale asks us and we shake our heads.
"We were just talking about that," I tell him. "It feels like only yesterday we were…"
"Fighting for our lives in a bloodthirsty arena?" Peeta asks.
"Saving these two from the Capitol, while fighting for our lives?" adds Gale.
"Just fighting for our lives in general?" asks Johanna.
I think about it for a second. "Pretty much," I say and we all start laughing.
Because we were so involved with the rebellion, the four of us always have to stand on stage with some other people. Effie Trinket says her welcoming speech and then turns it over to Haymitch, who speaks in his slow and low voice about the rebellion and the Hunger Games and the Capitol to the audience.
I must admit, I zone out a little. I'm looking at the stars and remembering all the people who were lost in the war. I will never fully get over some of the sacrifices we had to make, but I have found a way to live with the sadness that sometimes comes over me. I find that if I try really hard I can still image Finnick's sly expression and the pressure of Cinna's hand on mine, Prim's sweet smile as she played in the meadow, and Rue's warmth next to mine in the sleeping bag.
The absence of sound greets my ears and I know that Haymitch's speech is over and it's time for the moment of silence we have every year for the people who sacrificed their lives to make the world better for us. I grasp Peeta's hand and look out into the audience. Many of them are staring at Peeta and I, as they usually do at this time of the ceremony, because we were huge players in the rebellion. I was the mockingjay and he was the reason I kept trying. I need to set a good example for the watchers, and make sure my friends are not forgotten. I remember all the past times when Peeta and I held hands like this and looked out into a crowd. There were times when we smiled radiantly as they cheered our names, and other times when we stood hard as stones and expressionless. I need to pick one now.
I gaze into the crowd and see all the victors, whether they were with us from the beginning or joined us later than that. We won our battle, we defeated the Capitol, and we earned the right to live freely without paying the tribute of our children each year. I feel a smile coming on and I let it shine and I know that beside me Peeta is doing the same thing. After my years in the Hunger Games and having to sway people in the direction of good and justice I have learned one thing. Radiant always wins the crowd in the end.
After everything at the ceremony many people just join into pairs of four and talk about things but mainly how their lives have changed since the rebellion, their kids, and such.
Just as we get into the day care to pick up our kids I nearly fainted at the sight! Every adult that was helping out was asleep except Annie; she was sobbing and screaming quietly.
Annie looked up just noticing we got there and yelled, "The kids! There were too many, I was not strong enough! Their all gone!"
The babies, kids, and teenagers were all gone! Who took them, where are they, are they dead, are they being tortured, why did someone take them!
~ Soooo how'd yah like it? Well tell me in the review pleaseee! And also here is a question: Do you think Channing Tatum should play Finnick in Catching Fire the MOVIE! If not, who?~