It's time for a new year. 5 years have gone since our first chapter. Katniss has really grown since then, huh? From a naïve 16 year old girl to a 21 year old mother. We're starting to work towards the end now, which I'm really excited to share with you, so the updates might just get closer together. I'm going to be starting on an epilogue soon, too. I usually am not so much for epilogues, but I think this story would work nicely with one.

Hope you enjoy! And woho to Jennifer Lawrence for sweeping the floor this award season. Love her ;)

The 79th Hunger Games

Prim watched the faces of the girls standing around her. Some were nervous, close to crying, whereas others wore a stoic face that almost looked bored. She belonged to those who wore masks, not daring to show any emotion because the slightest drop of face would make her break down. She looked behind her and into the crowd that watched the reaping. From where she stood, almost at the back of the kids being reaped, she could see her whole family, her mother with a terrified expression on her face, Gale holding Talon, preoccupied with keeping him from squirming out of his arms as he threw a fit, not wanting to stay still anymore. And then Katniss, she was torn between watching Prim, and watching her son. As their eyes met her sister mouthed 'I loved you duck', and she smiled at her, miming 'quack' back.

She kept looking through the crowd to see if she could see the boy, no man, she loved, but his blonde hair couldn't be seen amongst the sea of people with black hair. He would remain hidden at the back of the crowd, and after the reaping, if she's not picked, he would weave his way through the crowd to find her, and kiss her. That morning he had come by her house in the Seam despite what other's might've thought of it, despite it being a detour, to give her a flower and a kiss.

Jonah Mac, his father worked in the justice building, and his mother was her husband's assistant. What he wanted with a Seam girl no one had a clue, and since Jonah was his parent's only child after his older twin brothers died when they were seven, his parents could do nothing about it. They needed him to take over after his father at the justice building, and that was what made it possible for Jonah to fall for who he wanted, rather than who he should. Still, it confused people as what a Seam girl could give him that a merchant could not. None of them had met Prim, but Jonah was convinced that as soon as everyone would meet Prim they would understand. She was wonderful, great, and the next year he would marry her, and together they would have beautiful blonde children.

As Effie tapped the mike everyone turned their attention towards the stage where the bubbly strange woman was smiling widely at the unaffected crowd. No one was listening to her, they could only hear their own heartbeats picking up as the reaping grew closer and closer.

When Effie put her hand in the bowl for girls she looked over to the boys and saw Vick there, he was staring intently at the stage. She stopped breathing when Effie opened the slip to read the name, to make sure that she heard her correctly.

It was not her, it was not her, Prim thought, relieved. Until she was a young girl at the very front of the crowd move up towards the stage. Her heart broke then, a girl, a child was picked and was going to die. There was nothing to it. The boy was the same age, and the two of them stood up on stage with tears in their eyes. Both of their worst nightmares had come true, and neither of them were old enough to fight against them. Only twice in the hunger games history had anyone under fourteen won the hunger games, one of the youngest victors alive was a man who won at age 14.

Years like these, when two so young were picked, the district started mourning before the games had even started. There was no reason to hope, it wasn't plausible that one of those two children would come back alive.

Katniss watched the boy up on stage with tears welling up in her eyes. In eleven years her own little boy could stand there having to face his death with no way of getting out of it. The only thing one could hope then was a quick and painless death. One that ended his life immediately. She turned to look at her boy in Gale's arms, he was flailing and beetroot red in his face, angry at being held against his will and unable to run around like he wanted to.

"Here, I'll take him," Katniss said, taking the boy who was smashing around from Gale's arms. "I'll meet you at home, don't take more than an hour please." She gave him a quick kiss on his lips.

She quickly weaved through the crowd, her son still flailing in her arm, his will just as strong as his parent's. Katniss would've smiled at the thought, if her patience wasn't wearing thin. It had been a year since he was born, and now he was walking around on unsteady legs, unwilling to stop at any point, unless he was asleep, and even then it was a battle to get him to lay down and sleep. Wearing him in the shawl, like she used to when he was smaller wasn't doable at any other time except to walk to and from Vittor's house. She had no idea how she would've made it with Talon if she kept her job as a washer woman. Maybe Talon would've learnt how to stay put, or every part of the day would have been a fight.

As they got out of the crowd she put him down on the ground, where he sat crying for half a minute before feeling that he'd expressed his discontent with being detained enough, and stood up on shaky legs, wandering along the grass grasping at flowers and tasting them. Katniss knew that there was nothing poisonous there, so the most he would get in him was dirt, and there was no way she would test her son's anger over something as harmless as a few flowers. He quickly spat them out anyway.

This summer she would only work a few times a week, but for the same amount of money. Vittor claimed that he had given her less money over the year to cover this summer, but she knew that this was not the case. He felt guilty for what he did the previous year, leaving her new family without an income, and stretching their money tight, But she had learnt to accept money from him, because she did work for him, and she was able to justify and swallow her pride and guilt. She knew she would be able to repay him, work harder, earn the money. It was the only thing that made her accept it.

The reason why she would work much less was because Vittor wouldn't be there. She would just make sure that the house remained looking good, and stop dust from collecting on every surface of the house. What he would do in the capitol, she had no idea, but as she watched her son sit down on the ground to reach for more flowers, she thought about him up on the stage today. To others he looked like his normal cheerful self, a stark contrast beside the drunken Haymitch who looked as though he was about to return his lunch. To Katniss she could see something different, she could see the stiffness as he waved to the crowd, calculating and much too obvious. Maybe that's how he had always been, she thought, just that she hadn't known before because she didn't know him good enough. Yet it worried her, that the cheery young boy who had left the for the Capitol for the second time didn't come back. A victor's life seemed glamorous to everyone else, but the silence of a victor's house, the nightmares that he spoke about, the forced smiles and the air that had grown thicker the closer he came to returning to the Capitol, all those things told a different story.

He would never tell her what it was, never even hint at why his eyes clouded over at the mention of the Capitol. It worried her, because Vittor had become someone she respected, someone that she might come to love as a brother. She knew that whatever there was in the Capitol it was something that hurt him, and she knew that she couldn't protect him from that. And what she couldn't protect Vittor from, she couldn't protect her son from. It was completely in the hands of the Capitol. If they wanted to take her son away from her, they would.

After a while she took a hold of her son's hands and slowly led him towards their house. He wouldn't manage the whole way, but walking a part of it would tire him out for his afternoon nap. She had barely walked for a few minutes before she was stopped by Susy, the same girl who had given her advice on how to prevent a pregnancy almost three years before that.

"Hi Katniss!" She smiled widely, and before Katniss had a time to react she was drawn into a hug. "Wow, how big your little boy has gotten!" she gushed, crouching down to get down to his level, but Talon quickly sought comfort in his mother's legs, raising his arms up to be held by his mother.

"Yes, he turned one yesterday…" Katniss said, feeling both sad and relieved that he wasn't an infant anymore.

"Wow, time goes fast, my oldest boy just turned five, the youngest is turning one next month, and my two girls are turning two and three in November, it's hard to understand, it goes so fast!" Katniss nodded, trying to remember hearing about Susy having two more kids. She wondered if her husband was pulling out, or if he did it only when he wanted to. She suspected the latter. "Soon is probably time for another kid, I'll be sole handedly populating this district!" she laughed, but it was shaky and nervous.

"He isn't?" Katniss nodded her head slowly, both knowing what she meant.

"My husband?" She laughed at the suggestion. "No."

"I'm sorry," Katniss said, uncomfortable. What did you say to a woman who's husband didn't listen to her, that kept getting her pregnant despite her not wanting to?

"It is what it is," she shrugged. "It's good to see you Katniss, but I have to get home." They said goodbye and Katniss quietly watched Susy disappear in the crowd. While Susy may have had to succumb to her husband's whims, she was far from weak, and Katniss knew that. No weak woman would be able to fight through that. It was unimaginable, to her, how it would be like with a man that didn't respect your wishes, ignored them. Katniss was sure she would crack under that, be unable to go through a day without breaking down completely. As it was, Katniss was barely able to cope with a pregnancy that happened despite precautions, despite her husband respecting her, seeing her as an equal, a person. To be repeatedly impregnated against her will made her nauseous, and fearful. How could she make sure her son didn't grow up to be a man like that? She would teach him the best she could, but what would everyone else teach him? She only had so much ability to teach. What good would it do if she said one thing and ten other people said the complete opposite?

She kissed her son's forehead, breathing in his scent.

"You better grow up to be a good man, or I will never forgive myself," she whispered to him.

Talon remained in her arms happily until they got home, which was surprising, but he seemed very interested in all the people milling on the street. There were far more people out than there usually was, and he happily pointed and waved to people that walked by, which made their walk home much quicker, and Talon's nap approaching much faster.

Once Talon was down, sleeping in the corner of the room in a cot that Gale had built after Talon started crawling and wouldn't be stopped by the pillows that had prevented him from rolling down on the floor before. While he slept she prepared an early evening meal, with the reaping the whole days eating schedule had been mixed up. After only twenty minutes Gale walked in the door.

"They picked Prim to wave goodbye to the tributes by the train," he said with an eye roll. "She'll have to look excited and happy for them, she absolutely hated it, but she's too kind to say no."

"Too kind to say no?" Katniss frowned. "They didn't demand it then?" she said, with an amused smile on her face, knowing she was right.

"She's too kind to complain, then." He kissed her cheek, drawing her in for a hug, pressing her back against his chest. She leaned back, relaxing against him as his hands caressed her stomach, slowly gliding down towards the heat that started to build up inside of her. "I love you, Katniss Hawthorn." He kissed her neck slowly and gently, his tongue darting out to lick the salty skin, his hand reaching their destination and massaging her through the dress she had to wear a day like today.

She sighed, relaxing even further into his arms, her arm holding herself up as it hooked around his neck. Slowly he hiked her dress up, revealing her naked thighs.

"You are absolutely breathtaking," he said as he pulled her underwear down slightly as his hand went down her front, and his fingers finding the nub between her folds. "I love the sounds you make." She whimpered in reply. Slowly, almost painfully so, he circled the nub, eliciting low moans from her. He looked down at her in fascination, her eyes closed, eyebrows furrowed and lips puckered, begging for a kiss. There was no woman as beautiful as she was, no one as captivating, no one as close to perfect.

He slowly turned her around, placing a gentle kiss on her lips before grabbing her thighs and pulling her up against him, aligning her hips with his, drawing her in for a thorough knee melting kiss that had her nerves on alert in anticipation. He sat her down on the kitchen counter, taking her underwear off hurriedly, unbuttoning his own pants and settling himself within her.

"Without you, I'm nothing... Okay?" He kissed her, and she breathlessly opened her mouth to him, responding with open-mouthed kisses as she tried to catch her own breath.

"So never leave me then," she said. Suddenly struck by all the emotions of the day, seeing children being sent off do die. She hugged him to her as close as she could, so that she could hear his breathing. "Promise?"

"Promise," he said.

That summer she watched her son grow quickly. His cautious steps turned into him running across the grass in Vittor's backyard, the sounds he would make started to turn into actual words. He would run across the grass towards her when he had strayed too far shouting 'mamamama' to make sure that she would wait there for him. He would insist on her singing constantly, and would laugh as she hit the higher notes.

That summer Talon grew into a daddy's boy. Every morning when Gale left for work Talon would cry and run towards the door, unable to be calmed until he was distracted by the kitchen utensils that he would have scattered on the floor. It was his favorite toys, and Katniss had selected a few for him to use, ones she rarely used herself and where nothing was at risk at detaching from them. Toddler safe utensils.

He was an independent spirit, she learned, much like his mother and father, and constantly ready to explore and understand things. He would walk around the garden on the backside of Vittor's house and inspect all of the plants, sometimes pulling the petals off of the flowers, or pulling them out of the dirt, well intentioned, then he would be watching in amazement as a cat would walk by on the road. He refused to be coddled, and detested the word 'no'. Despite the regular frustrations she was breath-taken by her son's development, how he was growing.

It amazed her how almost two years ago he was only an idea, an idea that scared her more than anything did at that time, the fear hadn't disappeared, it had grown. But when she looked at her son she couldn't allow herself to be consumed by that fear. If she allowed the fear to take over she would miss her son, miss time she would never be able to replace.

That summer was also the summer where she would spend a lot of days with her mother, who was slowly starting to gain Katniss' trust back. It was a painstakingly slow process where Katniss had many doubts. It was hard to forgive the woman who almost caused her two daughter's deaths. The death of Katniss' father had hit them all hard, but what it did to her mother was something Katniss couldn't wrap her mind around. While Katniss wouldn't find it in her to see her mother as a mother figure again, having lost that in her childhood and finding it hard to return to it, her mother was a great grandmother to Talon, and Talon loved her.

Rekindling with her mother meant learning a lot more about her father, things she was too young to remember, or small things that she was too young to notice. Each time her mother spoke about her father, she would get a faraway look in her eyes as tears glistened in them. The story of how they met, and how she had fallen for him. As long as she had him she didn't care about living comfortably, or her parents' approval. All she needed was the love of her life. When he left her with two daughters and no income, she was lost. Katniss knew that without Gale she would find it hard to cope, she would hurt so incredibly, but at the same time; she had a son that needed her, and whatever grief she would feel wouldn't take away from her ability to take care of her son. She was sure of it. She had always been much more like Hazelle than her mother, the Seam blood was running through her, and she had been brought up being taught that a moment of weakness could be your own death. You weren't allowed to fall apart in the Seam, no one was there to pick you up and put you back together again.

Like most summers it passed quietly without much happening. The funeral for the two kids in the hunger games happened without much noise, and people tried to forget about it the best they could. If it wasn't June or December, the hunger games would be pushed far from people's minds.

In September Vittor arrived back, being met by a fifteen month old boy who loved giving people kisses. Vittor was showered in them, something that quickly brought a smile back to his face, one that had been absent for a long while.

"You've gotten huge, Talon!" he gushed, picking the boy up under his arm.

"Dat!" Talon exclaimed suddenly, looking at Vittor with wide and expectant eyes.

"I'm sorry buddy, I don't know what you're saying," Vittor apologized.

"He wants your hat," Katniss explained. Vittor put Talon down on the floor, and took the hat off of his head and put it on Talon's. But Talon quickly took the purple hat off of him and inspected the gold feathers that were attached to it, tasting it and then deciding that Vittor could have it back.

"Weddom," Talon said with a polite nod, and then disappeared into the living room.

"That means 'you're welcome'," Katniss explained, hurrying after her son to get his coat off of him.

"He's started speaking," Vittor said with amazement in his voice.

"Yeah, most things are 'dat', but he says you're welcome, thank you, hello and goodbye, so he's a polite kid," Katniss joked.

"He certainly didn't get that from you," Vittor said with a smile. Katniss responded with an eye roll.

"Your kitchen needs a scrub down, if you need anything I will be in there."

So I take a little inspiration to Talon's personality from my (soon) 18 month old nephew. Much like Talon he doesn't say many actual words, he just says babba about mostly everything, except "thank you", "good bye", and mamma (mom) and pappa (dad). He's incredible, I could spend a whole page just talking about him, haha.

Anyway, Susy… 4 children in 4 years! Woah. That husband of hers truly is a major ass, don't you think?

Next chapter should be up on wednesday or thursday. I have a really messed up working schedule this week so I'll be editing whenever I get the chance to.