Here's the next chapter! Longest one yet! Enjoy! I do not own Catching Fire, any direct quotes will be in italics.
Ch. 51
"Peeta, he's making us do this. I'm sorry. It was an order directly from the President." Portia's in the back of the room, rifling through outfits trying to find mine for the interview.
It had been a long day that had started with one of the people from Katniss's prep team crying when they found us in bed together. Then there was no Portia to save me from my sobbing Prep team, crying over how much I'll be missed and that they'll remember me forever. I was overjoyed when they had finished and had gone to find Portia. Her only excuse was that they pleaded to stay with me the whole time so she let them.
Now she's walking towards me a tuxedo in hand and a grimace across her face, "The President said since you never got to have the wedding, you should at least be able to wear the outfits. I don't want to do this." She holds it up so I can see it better. It's not what I would have wanted to wear at my wedding. It's too fancy, too elegant for something so real and sincere.
If Katniss and I really were to get married, I'm sure we would do it in District Twelve before we had it here. I would wear something simple, but nice, and Katniss might wear a simple dress that I'm sure Cinna would make for her. She would be absolutely breathtaking. Only our closest friends and family would come, only the people that saw the sincerity in our love and believed in it. It would be beautiful.
Once the ceremony was over and we were in our home alone, we would toast the bread, only then would our marriage be fully complete and real. Only then would I finally be secure in the fact that Katniss was mine, all mine.
Thinking this I realize I don't want Snow to have the satisfaction of rubbing this marriage that I'll never have in our faces. Katniss and I did get married, or so I'd tell the country. And I would tell them we had consummated our marriage. If I really wanted to make the Capitol feel bad about what they're doing, I'll make them believe that by killing Katniss they weren't just killing her, but our child as well.
This year would be hard for the Capitol people anyways, but when they realize that the Star-crossed Lovers from District Twelve were having a child, I don't know if they'll stand for these Games. Well at least until the blood started running.
When we make our way down to the stage I feel uncomfortable in the formal tux, it does not fit my personality or what I stood for, but it sure will break the hearts of the audience. That's when I see Katniss and she looks absolutely gorgeous, but it's not the dress that makes her appear that way, actually the dress isn't really that great, it's her, all her. Cinna has worked the make-up across her face so perfectly like he does each and every time and it takes everything in me to keep on functioning.
The room falls silent when Katniss and I walk in to the room filled of chattering tributes. I'm sure they feel sorry for us, this was basically President Snow mocking us and I'm sure they could see that from years of being Victors.
"Cinna actually made you wear that?" Asks Finnick to Katniss.
She glares at him and says, "He didn't have any choice. President Snow made him." It's the resentment in her voice that makes me feel like we could make the Capitol People feel horrible tonight. I know what I'm going to say during my interview, I wonder what Katniss will do?
I hear Johanna whisper to her as we begin to walk on stage, "Well make him pay for it, okay?" All of the Victors stood on the same stand, I'm sure, when it came to the President.
All the tributes, well excluding a few, are marvelous at making the Capitol feel horrible about the Games this year. Each one playing their own card at all the horrible things the Capitol will be doing to their people by playing these Games this year. How their loss of these wonderful Victors must be so hard, and how Finnick Odair will dearly miss his one and only person that holds his heart. Anyone could clearly pick out the cries of multiple woman that thought it was written to them, but if you really knew who Finnick was, he meant all his words to a girl back home watching on an old television set. I wonder if she knows.
Beetee questions the eligibility of this Quell. Johanna calls the people to action, questioning if something could be done about this awful situation. So many words of guilt are spoken that by the time it's Katniss's turn the whole crowd is in tears.
She is sweet just like last year stating her regret for them not being able to see us get married. Then she begins to twirl, only tonight it does not only appear to be on fire, it is on fire. They are not simple flames, but majestic and strong and so real. I know Cinna must be behind this, and Katniss must too because she keeps spinning, on and on as the flames devour her dress. Then the flames are gone and all that's left is her dress and once she's done spinning I see what Cinna has turned her into.
A strong creation that the Capitol did not want, none other than the beautiful Mockingjay that she truly is.
Her interview is over soon after that and it's time for me to go. I'm afraid that if I look into her eyes as we pass I will be frozen by her powerful beauty because of this I don't meet her eyes and I walk to the seat across from Caesar.
Caesar and I begin with our easy banter, but to make sure I have enough time to tell of my "news" I act as if I don't care for it. And so we begin.
"So, Peeta, what was it like when, after all you've been through, you found out about the Quell?" Asks Caesar and I'm thrown back to that night, so emotional, so lost.
"I was in shock. I mean, one minute I'm seeing Katniss looking so beautiful in all these wedding gowns, and then next…" I trail off because everyone else knows what happened.
"You realized there was never going to be a wedding?" This makes me pause, because that's sort of what I realized then, only not. Because what I realized wasn't that there would be no grand wedding in the Capitol or even one in District Twelve, but that there would be no future, that no matter what I did Katniss and I would never have a life together.
Now's my time, I'm sure the Capitol's waiting for this heart filled monologue about how sad I am to never have a wedding. I bet Snow is waiting for the pain to show across my face, but I can't have that. No, I did not care about not having a wedding, but if that's what the Capitol wanted me to feel bad about it, I guess I'll just have to tell them it already happened.
"Caesar, do you think all our friends here can keep a secret?" I say.
"I feel quite certain of it." Caesar answers.
"We're already married." I say and it's so simple to let out those words. I even believe them for a second myself. The whole crowd lets out the breath I'm sure they were holding and I feel President Snow somewhere frowning.
"But…how can that be?" Asks Caesar, clearly confused, surely if this was true the whole world would have known. But little does he know, I already have all my words planned out.
"Oh, it's not an official marriage," What made a marriage official exactly? A paper, is that really all? "We didn't go to the Justice building or anything. But we have this marriage ritual in District Twelve. I don't know what it's like in the other districts. But there's this thing we do." I begin to explain the toasting of the bread ceremony.
To me it wasn't the paper that made the marriage. It was the people in it, if they truly loved each other and were completely committed to each other, I don't see why one needed a paper to make it official. I don't think anyone else in District Twelve cared of the paper either. They only did it because they had to. If one were to ask anyone in District Twelve what made a marriage real they would reply the toasting of the bread. It's the only thing in this world that made the marriage real and tangible.
"Were your families there?" asks Caesar once I've explained the toasting of the bread.
"No, we didn't tell anyone. Not even Haymitch." I just knew if I said other people knew they would go ask how the wedding was and I can't put the burden on my loved ones to lie for us. "And Katniss's mother never would have approved. But you see, we knew if we were married in the Capitol, there wouldn't be the toasting. And neither of us really wanted to wait any longer. So one day, we just did it. And to us, we're more married than any piece of paper of big party could make us." I can hear the Capitol people crying over my words, I've succeeded. But there was one more thing that would push it over the ledge.
"So this was before the Quell?" he asks.
"Of course before the Quell. I'm sure we'd never have done it after we knew," Now I start to get mad at the Capitol just like all the others before me, and everyone is listening with open ears. "But who could've seen it coming? No one. We went through the Games, we were victors, everyone seemed so thrilled to see us together, and then out of nowhere—I mean, how could we anticipate a thing like that?" I ask Caesar, my voice intense and full of passion.
"You couldn't, Peeta." Responds Caesar, "As you say, no one could've. But I have to confess, I'm glad you two had at least a few months of happiness together." Now it was almost time to drop the biggest bomb of all. I look out into the audience, I'm not sure if they'll be able to handle this. They applaud Caesar and his words, but I have a minute left, I have a few words left to say.
"I'm not glad. I wish we had waited until the whole thing was done officially."
Caesar straightens up, clearly confused from my comment, "Surely even a brief time is better than no time?"
"Maybe I'd think that, too Caesar, if it weren't for the baby." Just as the last word falls out of my mouth the whole building goes crazy. Killing children was fine, but obviously killing a pregnant girl was not. I didn't know saying that would be so hard for me, but it is. It hit me hard, it made me realize, in a different sense, they would be killing our child. The child we could have had if it weren't for the Games. I hold the tears until the buzzer rings and I walk back to my seat, but when I get there they start rolling down my cheeks.
The anthem begins and we all stand. Then amongst all the chaos and yelling something beautiful happens. For the first time ever, in the whole history of the Games, all the tributes become united by the simple gesture of holding hands. We were going against everything the Capitol hoped for with the Hunger Games, for once we were standing as one.
And it was amazing.
Hope you liked it! It's double the length of what I usually write, so a special treat for my wonderful readers because I loaf you guys. :D Don't forget to REVIEW on the way out! Thanks! ~boywithbreadlover
