Hey People! I've been really into the Hunger Games fandom recently (Well more than usual) and I just couldn't stop myself from writing this idea out. I changed the year so instead of the 74th, its the 75th, making it a Quarter Quell, which made my idea seem more realistic-like (?) since the best games were always during the Quells.
Also, I don't really know a lot about Gale and Peeta's siblings so I decided to just make up their siblings so sorry of there is any confusion. Though only Peeta's siblings will be talked about...I guess that's the way you say it...
I haven't decided if I should put any smut in here but I'll say it when (and if I decide to) change the rating.
Anyways, I hope you guys like it!
Pairings: CatoxPeeta, KatnissxClove, MarvelxOC, and possibly others.
Disclaimer: I don't own the Hunger Games sadly, only the fic's plot.
Chapter 1
The back door screeched as the rusty hinges grinded against each other, disrupting the morning's silence. A figure silently ran towards the usual meeting spot where two other figures, one clearly a head shorter than the other, stood waiting. Without speaking a word to one another, the three quickly dashed passed the shadowy slums of the Seam towards the border fence. They were silent as they listened for a small buzzing noise. A noise that would indicate if they would get to the other side or not.
Only nothingness resounded around the small almost vacant place.
Grinning, the tallest of the three slipped between the gradually loosening wires to make sure that they were actually safe to go threw. The other two followed quickly after and ran towards the woods ahead of them. Each one of them were looking forward to today's hunt, despite the events that will occur in only a few hours. The shortest, but not by much, figure stooped down and slipped a hand into a rotting log, pulling out a quiver stuffed with arrows and a very used but well cared for bow. The tallest figure took out a sword and a medium sized axe, along with a belt full of well used, but still piercing sharp, knives from a well hidden hole in a nearby tree. He handed them to the figure sitting patiently for the other two before going on today's quest for food.
"You were late today Peeta. Why?" Gale looked at the smaller male with concern as Katniss pulled an arrow out of the eye of the third squirrel that they found today. They were sitting in their usual spot in the woods with their rewards from a successful morning laying at their feet; two rabbits, three squirrels, and a doe. This was a very good hunt for them, probably one of the best in years, which was probably the reason to why Gale was pretty calm and laid back, especially today. Peeta tiredly looked at his friend, at least that's what he considered Gale. After all, they only became friends somewhat recently.
When Peeta first decided to begin hunting four years ago, Gale immediately disliked him. It could have been as bad as hatred to the poor baker's son. Gale's cockiness and pride made becoming friends with the taller, and definitely more muscular, teen even harder. But despite that, Peeta brushed off the insults and comments that were thrown at him from the older teen. After a year of dealing with Gale's insults, Peeta somehow developed a crush on him. He knew that Gale would never return the same feelings, not that Peeta dared to ever tell the older teen the desires that were swimming in his head. His simple crush faded after a while and both boys ended up thinking of each other as brothers. Thirteen year old Peeta, clearly distressed even after getting over his crush, ran to the only person in District 12 that could help him with his conflicting emotions.
Peeta knew Katniss since before they could talk; she was like the sister he would never have. So when he ran to her house in the Seam around one in the morning, she obviously knew that something was wrong. When Katniss asked him what was wrong, Peeta nearly died from embarrassment and the small depression that he developed not to long ago.
He told her things that he was too afraid to tell her years ago. Like how his mother said that he was useless, constantly beating him in front of his family, excluding Rye. That his reason for hunting was to protect Rye himself, since the small boy seemed to be the only person that truly loved him in his family. He even mustered enough courage to talk about his past crush on Gale and how he didn't understand why he felt that way in the first place. Thirteen year old Peeta then, right after saying that, realized that he preferred boys over girls and practically squeezed the daylights out of his close, and only true friend when Katniss gave him a reassuring hug.
Silence emerged and sounds of sobs of stress and tiredness echoed in Katniss's living room. The girl patted his head and told him about how she fell for him as well and how she realized that they could never be together. Katniss even told him her secret, she liked girls instead of guys. After that encounter (which he made sure that Katniss would never tell soul about his sexuality and vise versa), Peeta began to go back into his happy self, the only difference would be that he had two precious secrets that he couldn't tell at least not in District 12.
Homosexuality was a common thing in the Capital and most Districts; mainly the first four. To most people, it was seen as a way to not overpopulate the country and create some economic failure in the richer areas of Panem. Others thought that is was a disgrace to not fall in love and be able to bear children of your own. The Capital, though, fixed that problem right up around fifty years ago and put a dominant gene in everyone's DNA so that it was possible for males to bear children. Even with that revelation, being gay, especially if you were a male, was something that was frowned upon in the lower districts.
"Rye woke up again, just as I was about to leave." Katniss stopped cleaning her arrows and gave a sorrowful look towards him, clearly knowing the pain that will blossom later today. Rye and Katniss' younger sister, Prim, were twelve years old, making this their first year having their names in the reaping bowls. Katniss clearly refused that her sister was to take any tesserae which led to Prim with her name in once and Katniss with around thirty slips. Unlike her though, Peeta's mother outright refused that anyone but Peeta himself could get the tesserae. He had his name in around forty times with Gale beating him by about seven slips.
Gale just nodded and looked up at the sky, noticing that the sun was pretty far above them, "We should be heading back. We don't want to be caught by peacekeepers or worse, Peeta's mom." The other two laughed as Peeta carried the deer around his shoulders, Katniss grabbed the squirrels ankles, and Gale held a fat rabbit in each hand.
Luckily, they were able to sell their game to their respective customers, giving Peeta about ten minutes to clean up and change clothes and to be in the family bakery to decorate the new line of cakes that were recently set out by his older brother Steven. His mother gave him a disapproving look as he just barely made it to the table on time. Steven snickered, only for the same look (that could quite frankly kill a small child) to be shot at him. The next few minutes was held in silence as Peeta began to paint flowers on the bright white frosting and Steven kneading the dough that would be used to make bread for the large dinner tonight. Peeta could feel the usual glare that his good for nothing mother gave him. The one that was full of disgust and anger, a glare that was meant just for him. A small yawn penetrated his thoughts as Rye entered the room, immediately shimmying to the chair next to Peeta.
"Morning Peeta-bread..." Peeta smiled warmly and patted the youngest Mellark on the head, messing up the boy's already messy bed head.
"Good morning Rye, did you sleep well?" The younger boy nodded. Steven chuckled and passed a warm bun to Rye, who instantly became wide awake at the sweet smell and devoured the treat. Peeta's smile slightly wavered at the adorable sight, as he went back to the task that he had to do before the Reaping.
It angered Peeta, really, that each district had to sacrifice two children, each with one twenty-fourths of a chance of surviving the terrors of the arena. And with those chances there was only one victor, alive and actually well known, in District 12: Haymitch Abernathy. He won the 50th Hunger Games and he immediately began to heavily drink as soon as he got out of the arena. Most of the district despises his actions, but never asked why he turned to drinking. What most people think that it's because the games change you, if you like it or not.
Peeta finished the cakes with ease, finishing quickly to indirectly please his mother. When the Devil herself yelled at him to wash up and get ready. Peeta mumbled a few curses as he walked to his room and undressed, not fully ready to soak in cold water but having a bath is a luxury in District 12. Fifteen minutes later, since Rye had an issue with washing his hair, Peeta buttoned the last button on his only nice white shirt that showed off his lean muscles quite well. It was complemented with black dress pants that clung a little too much to his legs and slightly shiny black shoes.
Rye was sitting on Peeta's bed, unusually quiet and still, as Peeta finished combing back his hair. He looked at the boy who was staring at the floor through the mirror. "Are you ok?" Rye jerked his head up and nodded; fear was definitely swirling in his eyes. Peeta sighed and walked the short distance to his bed and kneeled down to begin fixing up Rye's wet, but still messy bed head. Both were silent with occasional whimper from the younger boy when Peeta tried to undo a knot of hair. The faint ticking of the family clock downstairs clicked away the seconds until they had to go to the town square.
"Peeta-bread, I-I'm scared."
Peeta looked into Rye's watery blue eyes that were brimming with tears and lightly grabbed the younger boy's face with both hands; squeezing his face together gently. "It's ok, nothing's going to happen to you," Peeta pulled his brother into a hug, "Your's and Prim's names are only in there once. You're not going to get picked, it's almost nearly impossible for you."
"B-but, last night, I dreamed that I was picked and so was P-prim..." Peeta pulled back to fix Rye's shirt only to see that the buttons were put in incorrectly. Peeta laughed quietly.
"Look at yourself, you missed a hole," Peeta undid the shirt and reinserted each little metal button in its right place. Rye smile shyly and wiped away some tears that were crawling down his face before tucking a piece of hair, which fell out of place when both brothers hugged, behind Peeta's ear.
"You also missed some hair Peeta-bread, I thought you were very organized." The boys laughed again as Peeta stood up, holding his hand out for Rye to grab a hold on. Peeta opened the bedroom door as Steven was just about to knock. The oldest brother looked at his siblings with partially hidden sorrow.
"It's time to go." Rye froze and Steven glanced at Peeta desperately before going back to help their father close down the bakery. Peeta squeezed the younger's hand as they walked down to the front of their house.
"It's going to be ok. When we get there, the peacekeepers are going to prick your finger; it will only hurt for a second. We have to meet up with Katniss and Prim though, so come on."
Katniss, Gale, and Prim were standing just outside the bakery when Peeta finally got Rye out of the house. The older Everdeen was tightly hugging her sister and Gale was glaring at the ground, as if the pastel dirt and dull rocks were the cause for all of this. Rye immediately scurried over and hugged Prim, who was silently crying. The five then made it over to the square, where Gale went and got his finger pricked first, luckily only having one more year until his name was out of the Reaping bowl. Peeta then went next. The small needle was harshly stabbed into his fore finger and his bleeding finger was roughly slammed onto the paper, where the peacekeeper scanned his blood. Rye went next, his face still holding fear and Peeta looked for his friend only to see that Katniss was trying to calm down Prim. Peeta moved to with the other sixteen and seventeen year olds, occasionally looking at Rye who was conveniently standing where he could clearly see him.
Once everyone was scanned and put into the right age groups, District 12's escort to the Capitol, Effie Trinket, happily walked up to the stage. Her outfit, just as exotic like any other thing she has ever worn, was a light pink dress with swirls of pale yellow and orange. There were small butterflies fluttering in her light pink wig and on her puffed out dress and six inch gold colored heels; her body had designs of flowers on golden glitter and it seemed that her nails also had three dimensional butterflies glued on top of the pink nail polish. Overall, the outfit looked better than last year's when she decided to wear all black and have spiders all over her body.
Effie lightly tapped the microphone, causing a loud screech to bounce out of the speakers surrounding the area. "Happy seventy-fifth Hunger Games as well as a joyful third Quarter Quell! And may the odds be ever in your favor!" At that note the screen to her right began to show the same video of the Dark Days and how the games started as a reminder that the Capital ruled us all. After those five minutes ended, Effie turned to face the crowd of District 12 citizens. "It's time to see who are our tributes this year~ Hmm, lady's first." The butterfly clad woman went to the glass bubble shaped bowl on her left. She moved her hand around dramatically before lightly picking up a small folded card.
"Katniss Everdeen."
A loud sob, before someone screaming 'No!' repeatedly was all that was heard as Peeta's best friend walked up to the stage; a look of anger and sadness contorted her face into a scowl. Peeta turned his head to find Gale only to see that he carried Prim away to her mother, preventing the twelve year old girl from running up to her sister. Effie smiled, although to Peeta, it looked quite fake, and she continued on, "Now, for the boys." This time she didn't take any time to choose a name. Almost as if she was afraid to make another mistake on live television.
"Rye Mellark."
Peeta's eyes widened, No...I'm just hearing things, Rye...He couldn't have been picked...Out of hundreds of names... Peeta saw his brother step out towards the stage and his rational mind went blank. He moved out from where he was and ran towards Rye, only to have peacekeepers pulling him back. "Rye! Rye!" Peeta struggled to get to the youngest Mellark. "I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute!" The peacekeepers let go of him and Rye ran up to hug his brother. Peeta stood still and narrowed his eyes and pried Rye off of him and whispered, "Rye, go to Steven now." As if their brother read the Peeta's mind, Steven walked out and carried the screaming boy towards Prim and Gale. Both twelve year olds hugged each other, crying their eyes out. Peeta then walked to the stage putting up a confidant look (as he seen the Career tributes do in the Reaping recaps). He could feel the looks of awe and confusion from what he just did, but Peeta didn't care. Effie immediately grabbed his hand and pulled him up onto the stage as soon as he was near the stairs.
"W-well, it seems that we have our first volunteer. What is your name sweetie?" Peeta took a silent gasp of air before pulling on a smirk.
"Peeta Mellark." Effie squealed. It was obvious to anyone that she was overly excited that someone actually volunteered.
"I'll bet anything that that was your brother. Am I correct?" Peeta nodded, still keeping up the strong, confident act. Effie looked out into the crowd, finally noticing that none of them were clapping. Instead, Gale put his first three fingers on his left hand to his lips before raising them in the air, others soon followed the gesture. Peeta looked at Katniss and nodded slightly knowing that, just like him, they couldn't show any weakness, even though on the inside they were breaking. "This year's seventy-fifth Hunger Games tributes, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark. Shake hands now, darlings."
What have I done?