Title: The Gift
Prompt: What if Peeta gave the bread to Gale?
Type: Hunger Games AU
Word Count: 1,197
When there's an accident in the mines, the whole District can hear it. Everyone who can still stand runs for the entrance to stand around, just in case they can lend a hand. School let's out early, and all the students come pouring out of the building to run for their mothers' arms. Too many people whisper quiet prayers that their husbands and sons weren't hurt – and everyone watches, waiting for their loved ones to emerge.
It's all very confusing, especially for an eleven-year-old boy who has no family in the mines. This is a rare fortune in District Twelve, and Peeta is acutely aware of how lucky he is that his father learned a skill while he was very young. He's also aware of how lucky he is that his father is teaching him that same skill – once he gets out of school, he will likely never have to set foot in the mines again.
Gale, on the other hand, is thirteen, and well-versed in the ways of the mine. His father is down there every day for hours and hours. Holidays, weekends – everyday. Reaping day is the only exception. (Mine families are meant to record the Games themselves so that the workers can watch when they return from work.) He scans the steps of the school building, searching for his younger brother Rory. They'd always agreed that if there were a mine accident, he would wait for Gale on the steps and not run straight for the mines alone.
Peeta follows the pull of the crowd, as curious as anyone about what happened. He knows many of his classmates have family in the mines, and most of the children will work there in the future. All of the Seam children are practically all ready employed at the mines, and he wouldn't be surprised if they were on a list somewhere to be checked off one by one, as they turned eighteen. Well, all but the ones who'll be selected for the Games before they get that old – tributes from District 12 are almost always from the Seam, because they have to take out tesserae just to keep their families from starving.
Gale finds his brother and takes him by the hand. "What if it's dad?" Rory asks loudly, straining to be heard over the crowd. Gale had tried to keep this thought from his own mine since he'd heard the collapse, but it had kept returning to the front of his mind. He longs to turn back the clock, find a way to fix it all, so that his little brother would never have had to think about that possibility.
He finds his mother and father standing toward the back of the crowd and stops beside them, pulling on his mother's sleeve to get her attention. In the jostling crowd, however, anything could be tugging at her sleeve, and she simply ignores him until he yanks so hard that her jacket rips. "Now look what you've done, you clumsy fool," she shouts down at him, jerking her arm away and examining the tear. His father gives him an apologetic look just before the entrance to the mine bursts open.
Gale lifts Rory to his shoulders, and Rory calls names down to him as he recognizes survivors. With each name that isn't their father's, Gale's stomach does a somersault. He finds himself thinking about their options if he doesn't come out at all – he'll have to take out tesserae, maybe drop out of school, find his father's hidden hunting equipment in the woods and learn how to use it. At least he'd always been good with knots, and his eyesight was beyond perfect. Any creative, desperate boy could keep himself afloat with that. But he'd have to keep Rory and Vick and his mother alive and fed, and they had a new baby brother or sister on the way. A thirteen-year-old should never have to carry that kind of responsibility.
Only two fatalities are reported, although many people were injured. And for the next week, three Seam kids were missing from school. Peeta would find out later that one of the men had a pregnant wife and another son at home, and the other had a young daughter still not enrolled at school. One of the men was the singer, whose voice would stop even the mockingjays. His older daughter had the same gift. The younger daughter took after their mother – healing hands. The other man was known throughout town as the hunter, the one who would brave the woods despite the illegality of it all. They would be missed: in their homes, in the mines, and in the town.
He accepts the money and award silently, wondering what good a medal will do for his dead father. He hasn't quite processed his loss, but his family needs to come first. He's the man of the house now, and he's got to keep them alive. Somehow. He looks over at the girl, probably eleven, accepting the other commendation. Her mother doesn't look good at all, but she has a determined look on her face. He knows their fathers hunted together occasionally, and wonders if their paths will ever cross in the woods.
It's been six months since the accident, and Peeta is helping his mother close up the bakery before sitting down to homework. There are a few loaves of bread still baking, but they're nearly finished. He's swept and mopped and washed down all the counters. Nothing is ever good enough for his mother, but there is a knock on the door before she can scold him for anything. "What do you want?" she asks harshly. "We're closed."
He can't believe he's been reduced to this, but the baby is skin and bones, Rory and Vick are always begging him for a little more food, and his stomach never stops growling. "Do you have any bread that no one wanted? Anything, please."
"Get out of here, beggar," she shouts. Peeta watches her slam the door in the boy's face. He manages to peek through the glass just enough to recognize the Seam kid whose father died in the accident, the hunter's boy. His mother comes in and begins to criticize him over some minuscule detail, but he isn't listening. Eventually, she leaves him alone for a minute, and he reaches into the oven and "accidentally drops" the bread in the fire. His mother returns, shouts at him and hits him very hard across the face before sending him out to feed the burned bread to the pigs.
He can hear a lot of shouting from inside the bakery. The baker's wife has always come across as cruel and heartless, but now Gale will never be able to look at her without hatred. Her young son emerges out the back door, carrying two burned loaves of bread, likely the reason for the harsh red welt forming on his cheek. The boy makes it look like he's going to feed the pigs, but then tosses both loaves in his direction. Gale nods to him in appreciation, tears threatening to blind him, and scoops up the boy's gift.