Disclaimer: The Hunger Games Trilogy is property of Suzanne Collins. This is a parody fanwork by fans for fans. No money was made off of the creation of this fanwork.

The Ten Unwritten Rules of Being a Hunger Games Victor

By Fanfic Allergy


Rule Three

We didn't sit back down with Haymitch until a few weeks later. Naturally, it was Peeta who instigated it. He stopped my house in the Victor's Village with a basket of bread and a friendly expression on his face. "I thought we'd go see Haymitch," he said when I'd opened the door.

I considered closing the door as soon as I'd heard the words. I had things to do. Well, actually, I didn't and that was part of the problem. My mother and Prim had already moved all of the things they'd wanted from our old house in the Seam to this one, which wasn't very much. And since we now had all of the money we could ever want, I didn't have to hunt. I was feeling a little out of sorts, not really sure what to do with myself. I knew, though, that I didn't really want to go see Haymitch with Peeta. I still wasn't comfortable around the blonde haired boy.

Peeta seemed to sense that I was on the verge of giving him some kind of excuse. "Come on, Katniss. He still hasn't finished telling us how to be mentors." He tilted his head expectantly as if I was supposed to catch on to what he was implying but not saying. Then I remembered, the rules from the train. Haymitch had only gotten through two before wandering off to find more alcohol. He hadn't even told us how many rules there were.

I looked at Peeta and nodded. "Yeah, he should probably do that before the Victory Tour in a few months."

"I brought cheese buns and a few other kinds of bread."

My eyes narrowed. There was something in his tone. "What kinds of bread?" I asked.

He looked down and then off into the distance. "Just experimenting," he said evasively.

I grabbed the basket and opened the cloth covering the bread inside. I sucked in a breath. Inside were small loaves of bread from the other districts. I looked from the bread up to Peeta. "You made these?"

He nodded and held out one hand for me to return the basket. "I wanted to see if I could. I know that they won't be exactly the same. But I wanted to try, you know?"

I handed him the bread with a shrug. I didn't know, but I decided it was better to not say anything. "Did you bring any liquor?" I asked changing the subject back to visiting Haymitch.

"No."

"I didn't think so. Let me grab a bottle from my Mom's stores and I'll join you."

He nodded and I went into the kitchen to grab a bottle of the white liquor that Ripper down at the Hob brewed. My mother kept it because it was good at disinfecting wounds, not because she liked to drink the stuff. I opened the bottle and sniffed it. Nasty!

Peeta was waiting for me outside. "Ready?" he asked and I nodded.

We walked in silence to Haymitch's much abused house. The man needed a housekeeper or maybe a good fire to clean up the mess. Peeta knocked on the door politely. No response. He looked at me and I rolled my eyes. I lifted one leg and swung it experimentally then kicked the door a few times.

Peeta raised his eyebrows at me.

"He's probably in a drunken stupor," I explained.

It turned out that I was right when a few moments later Haymitch yanked the door open and eyed the two of us blearily. "What you want?" he slurred out.

"You haven't finished teaching us how to be mentors," Peeta answered.

Haymitch snorted. "Is that it?"

I held up the white liquor. "We also brought bribes."

A smile ghosted across Haymitch's lips. "That's more like it," he said. "Let's go for a walk. I could use some fresh air."

Peeta and I shared a confused glance. Why hadn't he invited us inside? Maybe it had to do with the other rules he needed to tell us.

The three of us walked down to the Meadow and took a seat in the soft grass. Absently, I picked a few dandelion leaves and nibbled on them.

"So where did I leave off?" Haymitch asked, settling himself on the ground.

"We're supposed to congratulate the other mentors if their tribute wins," Peeta responded, pulling out a cheese bun and handing it to me.

"Right. So we've got eight more rules to cover." He held his hand out towards me and I gave him the alcohol. "Rule Three: Don't knock someone else's coping mechanism. We all have them. Be it morphling, alcohol or sex. We all have our vices to keep us from screaming." Very deliberately, he opened the bottle and took a long drink.

"That's why you drink," Peeta repeated the same words that he'd uttered on the train a few weeks ago.

"One of the reasons," Haymitch agreed.

"But Katniss and I don't have coping mechanisms."

Haymitch raised an eyebrow. "So sure about that, kid?" At Peeta's nod, he picked up a small loaf of what looked to be the seed bread from Eleven. "Then what's this?"

"I'm just trying out something new," Peeta protested. "I'm not doing it because I am trying to forget what happened in the arena. I just want something to do."

"You want something to do so you don't think about the Arena. Mockingjay here is trying to do the same thing, except she hasn't found her escape yet."

I frowned at that. "I don't need an escape," I said curtly. And it was true, I wasn't trying to escape from anything. I just was trying to find my place in this world. I didn't need to hunt to keep my family alive anymore. Gale didn't need me since he'd gone to work in the mines. And Prim was actually starting to put on weight from just a few weeks of steady meals. I just needed to find something to do, to keep me from going insane out of boredom. But then, why did I keep waking up with horrible nightmares of trackerjackers boring into Glimmer's flesh? Why did I try to wear myself out to exhaustion every day just so I could collapse into a dreamless sleep?

Taking another drink from his bottle, Haymitch just looked at me. Damn that man! He knew me too well. It was annoying!

Peeta spoke up again. "Is this why the Capitol wants each of us to take up some kind of trade?"

"It could be. Who knows why the Capitol wants anything?" Haymitch said cryptically.

I thought about what Haymitch had told me before the recap about the Capitol being angry at me for the berries. What he hadn't said was what would happen if I hadn't played along at the recap of being in love with Peeta. He didn't have to. I knew. I knew that what the Capitol wanted, it got. And that, more than the games, was the reason the victors needed a coping mechanism. The victors could never, ever, escape the Capitol and its desires.


AN:

There's a pretty big gap, six months, between the end of Hunger Games and Catching Fire and during that time a lot of stuff happens including Katniss getting alcohol for Haymitch, Peeta and her building a friendship and actually speaking, and of course, the move to the Victor Village. I'm going to use that to my advantage.

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