Hey guys! Over sixty reviews, and over eleven thousand reads. *Explodes*
"Kill me, Please" The boy said fighting against tears.
"What's your name?" Katniss took a step closer.
"Please I've disrespected the Kingdoms."
"How?"
"...I ran away."
"How old are you?"
"Ten" He swallowed his emotions.
"You're not supposed to enlist until your fifteen."
"They changed enlistment age last year. Ten is the minimum." He was dirty and looked pained to still be living.
"Did you come here during the invasion?"
"Yes"
"Where are you from?"
"The Kingdoms United in Might"
"What village I mean?"
"..."
"Alright, you don't have to tell me." She said taking a step closer to him. "What's your name?" She asked again.
"... Bram" He hesitated.
"Bram, can you please come with me?"
"Just kill me please. I'd do it myself but the only thing more disrespectful than being a runaway is suicide."
"My children are here, Bram, please come with me."
"You're a mother?" He narrowed his eyes as if he did not believe her.
"Yes. Please come with me Bram."
"But, I've disrespected the Kingdoms."
"You're not in the kingdoms Bram."
"But they said Oceania was occupying one of our towns. That we had to get it back."
"No Bram. This is district twelve."
"We attacked the districts!?"
"Yes."
"But..."
"Please come with me." She pleaded with him hoping to get him to a safer place than he was used to.
"What are you going to do to me?"
"Nothing. I'm going to take you to the hospital to make sure you're alright."
"No... Those places are hell. They took my little brother because he was sick and he never came back." He began to cower away in fear.
"That was back in the Kingdoms Bram. I can help you. It's different here"
"You send children my age to die!"
"Not anymore. Please Bram, trust me." Reluctantly he nodded. "Peony, Leif come on let's go home." Katniss called behind her. She walked with Bram to the blanket she had set up for her children.
She packed up quickly. "Mommy what are we doing?"
"We're going home princess." She picked up Leif and began to walk through the woods. The four of them made it swiftly out of the woods and over to the hospital.
"Excuse me," Katniss went to the front desk. Bram stood next to her. "Can we by any chance have someone quickly look over him?"
"I'll page someone." The nurse nodded half heartedly.
"Thank you" Katniss said taking a seat with Leif still shivering in her arms. "You cold buddy?" He nodded. She bounced him a little hoping to warm him. "Bram?"
He looked at her his green eyes filled with dread. "You're safe here. You know that right?"
He shook his head to answer no.
"As long as I'm here you're safe. Okay?" He did not answer her.
"Katniss!" Prim ran into the waiting room, "I told you that it was a bad idea! Come on I'll get you started on an IV" Prim lifted Katniss from the chair and attempted to leave the room.
"No Prim I'm fine, I'm not here for me." Katniss wrangled out of her sisters grip.
"Why are you here then? Is something wrong with Leif? Or Peony?"
"No." Katniss placed Leif on the floor. "Prim this is Bram." Katniss took hold of the boy's arm. "Bram this is my sister Prim she'll take good care of you."
"Bram, where did you come from?" Prim asked wearily.
"..."
"I'll ask questions later than" She breathed out. "Come with me. Katniss do me a favor and go home."
"Yes ma'am" Katniss rolled her eyes. She watched Prim lead Bram out of the waiting room. "Come on." She lifted Leif into her arms. "Lets make Auntie Prim happy." Katniss took Peony's hand.
"You're shaking sweetie." Katniss kissed Leif's head.
"Mommy! Mommy! Look it's those people with the cameras" Peony squeezed her mother's hand.
Katniss didn't look. "Come on princess lets cross the street." She whisked her daughter across the street and down a crowded road.
After a while of avoiding the press the three made it home. "Princess why don't you go ahead and take a bath?"
"Okay mommy" Peony sped up the stairs.
"Come on Leif lets change-" She was interrupted by the phone ringing. "Hello?"
"Catnip. It's me Gale."
"Hey Gale, what's up?"
"Haven't you heard? It's all over the news!"
"What is?"
"The kingdoms attacked headquarters."
"What?"
"It's under siege as we speak. They're doing twenty-four hour coverage on it."
"Gale I only have availability through out the districts." Katniss shifted Leif in her arms.
"Well Fuck Catnip."
"Gale!"
"What?"
"Leif is right next to the phone"
"Oh..."
"Leif you want to say hi to uncle Gale?" The little boy didn't say anything but snuggled further into his mothers chest. "What's wrong baby?" He blinked slowly.
"Gale I think I have a sick child to take care of I'll call you later."
"Alright Bye Catnip."
"Bye." She hung up the phone and stroked Leif's back. "Leif are you tired?" He nodded. "Lets go up stairs Leif."
She took him upstairs and looked at the clock. "It's six." She sighed. She changed him into his pajamas and sat in the rocking chair.
She cradled him looking into his tired eyes. She almost cried he looked so defeated in this state.
He didn't know his father was fighting for his life. And yet here he was tired, and sick.
"My sweet baby boy." She whispered, "My little boy."
She hummed a soft tune to her little boy before he fell asleep. She laid him down in his bed and turned off all the lights before leaving.
"Mommy!"
"Shh, princess you're brother's trying to sleep."
"Okay mommy" Peony whispered. "Mommy the TV turned on by its self."
"Leave it be princess." Katniss got down on her knees. "What do you want to do?"
"I wanna... Eat"
"Lets go down stairs then." Katniss picked Peony up. "You're getting so big princess." She said climbing down the stairs.
She placed her daughter on the ground when she reached the kitchen.
"Mommy, can we have samiches?"
"Yes princess." Katniss smiled. There was a knock on the door but Katniss ignored it. The phone rang and again Katniss ignored it until she had made Peony's dinner.
"Hello?" She answered the phone.
"Kat? It's Prim I don't know when I'll be home, but I'm sending Bram over right now."
"What? Why?"
"No time to explain. I've got to go."
"Primrose!" But she hung up before she could utter another word. There was more banging at the door. Katniss opened it and instead of seeing Bram she saw a flood of reporters standing at her door. Spouting questions and words that made no sense. She closed the door and locked it.
She heard Leif crying up stairs, so she forced her legs into motion.
"Shh, mommy's here Leif." Katniss reached his room. She hadn't been gone for an hour and yet he looked worse. Flushed cheeks and warm skin to the touch. "Come on sweet boy." She picked him up and paced the room. She tried to soothe him back to sleep but she could only hush his cries.
She heard the banging on the door intensify. She kept Leif in her arms tightly.
She walked down the stairs and took Peony's hand.
"Mommy, why won't they leave us alone?" Peony asked.
"Because honey, mommy and daddy are very important people right now." She walked the little girl up the stairs. "Lets brush our teeth okay?"
"But mommy, it's only seven o'clock."
"I know princess but once I get Leif settled into bed then I can read you a story."
"Okay." The little girl nodded. Katniss left her daughter to go to Leif's room.
"Are you cold sweetie?" The little boy nodded. "Okay." She placed him in the crib and grabbed his winter blanket laying it over him. She tucked him back into bed and left his faded blue elephant next to him.
"Goodnight Leif" She kissed his head and left the dark room.
"Mommy." Peony smiled when her mother reached her room.
"Hi princess." Katniss sat down on the girls bed. She bounded onto her mothers legs. "What story do you want me to tell you?"
"Any story!"
"... Come with me sweetheart," Katniss said standing up. She led the little girl to Peeta's art room.
"Mommy, what is this?" She asked looking intently at each of the paintings.
"This is where daddy paints." She took a seat and Peony climbed on her mother's lap. "I have a new story to tell you that these paintings reminded me of.
"Once upon a time. There was a little girl-"
"Mommy is this the same one daddy tells about the girl who could make the birds stop singing?"
"No princess." Katniss chuckled, "Let me get it started. So once upon a time there was a little girl who lived in a very poor village.
"But she, her little sister, and their parents were very happy. Until one day when they found out their father had died. The family was heart-broken. None so heartbroken as the mother. She had lost the love of her life that day.
"The little girl began to fear her sister and mother might starve. So she went out in search of food. She had no luck in this and became very upset, afraid her family may not survive the winter.
"But just as she was about to give up a boy with blue eyes and beautiful blond hair showed up and threw her burnt bread. Not many people would understand the importance of this bread but she more than understood.
"Her family survived the winter and the little girl learned to hunt for her family. All because of that little boy."
"Do they fall in love? Do they live happily ever after?"
"When you're older I'll tell you the rest of the story."
"Aw mommy."
"Here Princess, let me show you one painting that reminded me of that story." She went over and picked up the one painting of bread sitting in the rain. "Princess, that little boy and girl were your father and I at one point in our lives. And though there is more to our story we are living happily ever after."
Peony touched the painting with her finger tips. "It's pretty mommy."
"Yes it is."
"Mommy are you going to re-open the bakery? Because All of the workers went off to war. Now we just get bread off the trains but it's not the same."
"I think I may Princess." Katniss smiled.
"Mommy, I love you."
"I love you to princess."
"I wish daddy was here."
"Me to Princess."
"I miss uncle Gale and Uncle Finnick."
"I know."
"I wanna visit them."
"I do too but that's dangerous right now."
"Mommy,"
"Yes?"
"Why did you help that person today? Wasn't he from the bad place?"
"Just because someone comes from a bad place doesn't mean they're a bad person, Peony. Don't ever forget that. Some of the nicest people I've met, I only got to meet because of a bad place."
"Really? Like who?"
"You're Aunt Annie, Uncle Fin, Aunt Johanna, all of those nice men you met a two Christmases ago, and even daddy."
"But I thought daddy threw you the bread when you were little."
"I wouldn't have needed it if it weren't for a bad place. Nor would I have gotten to marry your father without a bad place." Katniss looked up at the clock. "It's eight thirty, time for bed."
"Five more minutes?"
"You've already stayed up thirty minutes past bed time. Auntie Prim might get mad at me if I keep you any longer."
"Okay."
Katniss led her daughter up to her bed room. "Mommy, can you tuck me in like you used to?" Peony asked when she had snuggled under the blankets. She nodded, tucking in her daughter she kissed the little girls head.
"Goodnight."
She closed the little girls door behind her. She made her way to her sons room.
She stopped when she found the door open, Bram stood in the room rocking Leif to sleep.
"Leaves from the vine, Falling so slow. Like fragile, tiny shells drifting in the foam.
"Little soldier boy, come marching home. And brave soldier boy, comes marching home"
She could hear no quiver in his voice but she could visibly see him shake. She wondered if he was crying. A ten-year old boy enlisted to fight in a war. What kind of society is that?
He laid Leif in his crib. Before whispering, "He reminds me of my little brother."
"Come on" She whispered and he hesitated to join her. "Why did Prim send you here?"
"I-... I wouldn't talk. They scared me."
"I understand."She said closing the door behind her, "Would you tell me about your little brother?"
"... He was three when they decided he was sick."
"Decided?"
"Well decided he was too sick to be cared for by my mother. It wasn't fair, to get my little brother back in a box." His voice did not quiver. But she could see him crying. "I always sang that song for him."
"Would you like to tell me how you got in here?"
"They taught us quite a lot at the academy." He didn't say anything after that.
"Bram, I have a few secrets of my own. I'll show you mine if you tell me yours." He looked at her strangely. "I have some thing to show you" She took him into her living room where the television had turned its self off.
She was semi testing herself with this.
She gave him a quick Hunger Games history lesson before popping her games into the player.
She watched the games only half the time. She watched his face the rest of the time. His emotionless, stone-cold, face. When it finished playing after the victory tour he looked at her.
"So you saved the both of you?"
"Yes, Peeta is now my husband." He nodded, "There's more."
"I'm Jewish." He said immediately "I'm from the most disrespectful place in the Kingdoms. I joined the army because my father died bringing immense honor to our family. If I didn't join the moment I could have joined shame would have over cast any kind of honor we had.
"The Academy was just a fancy name for a surgery ward. They put chips in our arms and programmed our brains. Living in the wild cleared my mind a little bit, but I was still fuzzy in my own thoughts I didn't come back to myself until I saw your son...
"They trained us to starve for days, to go weeks without water. They made us mules carrying things for months on end.
"But it was all a simulation. Only hours had passed. When you were cleared for surgery they made our bones unbreakable and our eyes became theirs. Literally, they controled you as if you were just in some kind of video game"
"How did you get away?"
He scoffed, "There was a glitch that gave me some free will, but my sight was like a television when it can;t get reception. Fuzzy, and in black and white. I could hear my transmitters looking for some signal. But they eventually crapped out.
"When they thought I was dead they took me out of the system. So my eyes were my own again. I could see a fuzzy world." He was crying again. "I lived in a world of darkness the ten months I was with them."
"Bram, they think you're dead?" He nodded, "Then you are free."
He laughed, "What does that even mean... To be free?"
"It means you get to decide who you are."
He sat in silence before speaking again, "What can I call you?"
"Katniss" She smiled.
"Katniss, they taught us the districts were evil. They showed us some of your told us you were barbarians."
"We were once a horrible place. I wish I could say different but it's true. May I finish showing you?" He nodded and she put the victory tour video into the player.
His face was blank again. When the video ended he looked at her. "What happened?"
"There was a rebel force the other victors were working with and they saved everyone but three people. That girl Johanna, the girl I had been fighting, and me." She began to tell him of the rebellion, how they had altered her memory and made her a figure-head for the Capitol.
"So now, we are free." He nodded, "Bram just know that the Kingdoms will get better. The simple fact is that, freedom is not free. It comes at a brutally high cost."
He nodded "Katniss?"
"Yes?"
"Can I stay here?"
"For as long as you need." She stood up. "In the morning we can get you some clothes."
"But I don't have any money."
"I'll pay for it."
"But-"
"Bram, you're only ten years old. How old do you start working?"
"Normally around eight years old where I come from."
She nodded, "Can you bake?" She laughed.
"With a recipe." He said.
"Good, I'll be needing some help." She smiled at him, "I have a room you can use." She led him up the stairs to the last unused room. "It isn't much" She said looking at the bland white room.
"Who will I share with?"
"No one."
"Really?"
"You know I shared a two room house with my family of four for about sixteen years. So I understand." She put her hand on his shoulder, "But yes this is your room for now."
The smile in his eyes said more than enough.
"Good night" She said leaving the room and heading to her own bedroom.
She changed and slipped under the covers. She began to cry the moment she laid her head on her pillow.
She cried because the war was still raging on, because Annie had lost a baby, because her son was sick, because she didn't know where her sister was, because her husband may be fighting right now, because of seeing the horrors of the games again, and because of Bram. Because little boys had to fight a man's war at ten years old.
The next day Leif was better, the first awake after Katniss and very ready for a new day.
Katniss found Prim asleep on the couch. After making breakfast for everyone (Which really just meant getting cereal into bowels.) She picked up her little sister and carried her to bed.
"Mommy!" Peony bounded up to her, "What are we gonna do today?"
"I was thinking we could go visit the bakery." Katniss smiled. The little girl hopped around the kitchen. "Bram," The boy looked up from his food. "You'll be coming too."
"Yes ma'am" He nodded.
"Katniss." She said to him and he nodded again. She watched Peony run up to her bedroom.
"Mama!" Leif giggled. "Are we taking Auntie Prim?"
"No sweetie we're going to let Auntie Prim sleep." Katniss said picking him up. "You want to go get changed buddy?"
"Yeah" He smiled.
"Bram after we go to the bakery we'll be picking some clothes for you."
"You really don't have to" He mumbled ashamed.
"Bram, think of it as my welcome to the district gift." She used these as her departing words. They all headed out together leaving Prim a note on her night stand.
The four of them walked to the bakery which hadn't been touched in all those two years of the war.
Unlocking the door was a bit difficult as the lock warped slightly. Stepping in it was cold, the air hung heavily with dust.
"Peony take your brother and play in the backyard okay?" The little girl drug her little brother out behind her.
"So this is the Bakery Peeta and I own." Katniss said closing the door, "I'm not much of a baker myself, but I think we can start it back up again." She smiled at Bram. "Let's clean up a bit."
He turned around and smiled at her. "It reminds me of our bakery at home. Only it doesn't smell like cinnamon."
"Well I ordered every ingredient in the recipes here. It should arrive with in the week now that the railways are up again." She said this handing him a broom and wiping down the windows and counters herself. "I'll especially need help now because I'm pregnant."
She looked out the window at her children playing. It reminded her of her dream, seeing the children play in the backyard before reaping.
"Katniss?" She shook herself from her trance.
"Yes?"
"I think there's still flour in this store-room." Bram called.
They cleaned out the store-room and dusted the entire bakery until it was a colder shadow of its former self.
Katniss took him and the children shopping for clothes before they headed home at dusk.
"Prim?" Katniss called out.
"Kat! I'm in the television room." Prim called back.
Katniss went to her little sister. "What's up?" She looked up with cold sad eyes.
"It's an update on the war... Mom's dead."
The song I used is called, 'Leaves from the Vine' Yes it's from Avatar the Last Air Bender don't judge me that was my favorite show right after Rugrats... Anyway You have just met a very important character. Alright I posted early because my life hates me and I'll be swamped tomorrow, unfortunately that also means no post this weekend :( But on a better note, Here you go guys, I love you, and as always Stay Lovely!