Five Years Later...
The rebellion ended on the tenth of August, 2163, and it was now five years later, the tenth of August, 2168. Katniss and I were both twenty-five years old now and living in our own home in District Four, but it wasn't District Four anymore. About six months after the rebellion ended, the Senate decided that the districts didn't have to be districts anymore and that now, they could be called something else, and we took inspiration from an ancient country known as Greece - District One's idea. Aristotle Archer brought an old Greek dictionary that he'd found in the library of the Mansion and had flipped through it, then passed it along to all of the senators. Each Senator had a day with it, which meant that we spent about two weeks in the Capitol, which Katniss wasn't exactly very happy about, and we wouldn't get the little dictionary for quite some time. When we did, we both felt that we were inadequate to name the entirety of District Twelve, but the Senate was expecting us to do it. Our choice was made with the district's new responsibility in mind. We didn't need coal anymore, so the mines were sealed and District Twelve became the head of medicine production.
We reconvened after District Fourteen had their day with the dictionary. District One would call themselves Chrysos, which, Aristotle Archer said, meant 'gold', as District One produced luxury items like gold and platinum and such. District Two would call themselves Dynami, which meant 'power', as District Two was still where the military was based. District Three would call themselves Epistimi, which meant 'science', as District Three was where technological advancement was centred. District Four would call themselves Atlantica, but they hadn't used the dictionary to name themselves. Instead, they based it on the fact that they were located on the Atlantic Ocean. District Five called themselves Helios, which pertained to the sun, as they were the district that provided electricity. District Six called themselves Odyssey, named after an ancient story about a long journey, as they were the district of travel. District Seven called themselves Xyleia, which meant 'lumber' - something told me that the idea was entirely Jonny Woodstock's idea and Johanna had nothing to do with it because the word meant 'lumber', and she rolled her eyes when Jonny announced it. District Eight called themselves Yfasma, which meant 'textile', and we all struggled with learning how to pronounce it. District Nine called themselves Sitari, which very simply meant 'wheat' as they were the district that produced wheat. District Ten called themselves Kreas, which literally translated to 'meat'. District Eleven called themselves Georgia, which apparently had meant 'agriculture' but also had been the name of a state from the former United States that had once occupied the land that District Eleven now did.
Katniss and I, upon deciding, were stuck between the words 'farmako' which meant 'medicine', 'dodeka' which meant 'twelve' and 'ygeia' which meant 'health', but ultimately settled on Sophos, which meant 'knowledge' and 'wisdom'. District Thirteen called themselves Epanastatis, which meant 'rebel', as they were 'the district that ignited the rebellion' according to Gale. Fourteen simply called themselves 'the Fòlais Laboratory', as it would be converted to a science and research facility named in Calum's honour. Two years after the rebellion, it became a university and was referred to as the Fòlais College of Science and Research.
The Senate was now advised by the President, who basically took on a modified role of Haymitch's position on the War Senate. Not exactly an advisor, but was there to sit in on the meetings and keep the Senate on track.
Every district would come to have a college eventually, including Twelve. Yes, while the districts had been renamed, it was hard for us not to refer to them as the numbers that we had known them as all of our lives. Katniss finished her education as an obstetrician remotely at the university in the Capitol, which remained 'the Capitol'.
Annie would never remarry, as she loved Finnick too much to dare strip herself of his name. She did have a couple of friends over the years, but she never allowed herself the same comfort that Finnick had given her. She claimed that she was 'too busy' raising Killick and Ariel, but everyone knew that she simply did not want to fall in love again, and I could understand that. If Katniss had died, I wouldn't want to fall in love again either, even if it was something that Katniss had wanted me to do.
Johanna and Gale remained together, and as much as she didn't want to do it, they got married for Gale's reputation as some high-ranking military official. They ended up having four children, three boys called Rory, the oldest, Alexander and Michael, who were named after Johanna's father and brother, and one daughter, Nelly, their second born. Nelly would come to be the target of my own son's affections later on.
Carolina didn't want to find love again, but somehow, she and Cailean ended up drifting together, joined by the emotions of love lost - Carolina had lost Calum and Cailean had lost Hadley. It took three years for them to drift together romantically, and when they did, it was easy to see how much they had grown to truly love each other. Cailean knew that she'd never love him the way she'd loved his brother, but the love that Carolina held for Cailean was a unique kind of love. They did try for children, both of them desperate for a child to name after the man they'd both loved and lost, but it was discovered that Carolina had internal damage from the Pox, which she'd never suspected. She claimed not to have had the Pox, but she must have been asymptomatic. She was heartbroken knowing that she couldn't have children.
Haymitch found love, too, but this love had been brewing for at least a decade before when Effie Trinket became the Capitol escort for District Twelve during the Hunger Games. They tested each other and pushed each other to their limits, but it was obvious how much they truly loved each other more and more as time went on and they grew closer. They were maybe the first to get married of all of us after the rebellion, about a year and a half after. Effie had run and was elected as one of two Capitol senators on the Senate and Haymitch always remarked about how he was 'married to a senator'. She tried to make him get rid of his geese and his chickens without success, so she resorted to him removing them from the house, to which he complied. They were always a presence in Carolina's life, as she was in theirs, and though Carolina hadn't known Effie for nearly as long as Haymitch did, she came to love her like her own mother.
Katniss and I both decided not to run for the position of Senator when the elections came up in the year 2164, even though we both knew we would have been elected. It wasn't a job that we'd wanted. Katniss wanted to go back to work as a midwife, bringing life rather than deciding the fate of the country, and I wanted to open up a bakery, which I did. As the sole survivor of the Mellark family, I also owned the land that the bakery in Twelve had once been and eventually, I wanted to rebuild it, but I wasn't sure how I could run it when I was all the way in Four. I suggested to Katniss that I sell it, but she refused to let me. We hadn't had any children yet either, having both decided that we weren't ready yet, but we both knew that someday, we would be. We decided to enjoy our time together while we had it - there would be plenty of time for starting a family later.
The former President Snow died four months after being imprisoned, and there were cheers throughout the country. He wasn't going to last long at all, that everyone knew, and truth to be told, I was glad we didn't execute him, even though I thought he deserved it. Katniss was right; it would have been the easy way out of his crimes. He had two children, a son and a daughter. The son fled the country, but we weren't sure where, since the rest of the known world was underwater, and the daughter changed her name and went into hiding with her young daughter, who was ten years old. Nobody bothered her, and no one ever heard anything from or about her again.
That day, the tenth of August, 2168, there would be celebrations on the beaches of Four in honour of the rebellion that had been won. Not just in Four - all over, but we were in Four. Barbecues, fireworks, parties to last all night... The people of Panem were celebrating victory and celebrating the lives that we were all so privileged to live. Katniss, Cailean, Carolina, Effie, Haymitch, Annie, Killick, Ariel and I all went to the beach to watch the fireworks and picnic on the sand. Effie fussed over little Ariel, now five, with Annie and Killick, now seven, wanted to play frisbee with myself, Cailean and Haymitch. Carolina and Katniss put together sandwiches for us all to eat and we waited for nightfall telling funny stories of those we lost.
"I think one of my favourite memories of Finnick was a time when we were all in the cafeteria at Thirteen together and I had this genius pun pop into my head," Katniss was saying. "I looked at everyone but him and I said, 'Where's Finnick?' and he looked very confused when I made eye contact with him and then I said 'Odair he is'." Everyone around the blanket laughed, and Cailean and Carolina shared some funny ones of Calum.
When dusk finally came, Katniss took me by the hand and led me to the same rocks that she'd brought me to when we were finally brought back together after the war. "Is this where you want to watch the fireworks? Honey, it's almost high tide. We'll get wet!" I said to her.
"Shut up and sit down," she told me, pulling me to sit beside her on the rock, and I did. We sat with my arm around her and kissed the side of her head every so often and then the fireworks began. They were a brilliant show of red, gold, purple, blue and all kinds of colours, and I looked at Katniss, who was watching them with a childlike smile on her face, lit up by the fireworks. I smiled as I watched her, and she must have felt me looking at her because she turned and looked at me. "Happy Freedom Day," she whispered to me, and I smiled at her. "I know a good way for us to celebrate."
"Oh, do you now?" I said to her with a teasing tone in my voice, and she nodded with a smile.
"Well, maybe after I give you my own little surprise," she told me, and she turned to face me. Her face lit up with every firework that went off above our hands and she could easily see my somewhat confused expression. She cupped my cheek in her hand, and then turned to glance back at the group we'd left in the sand. Killick and Ariel were loving the fireworks, running around and shouting about how exciting and awesome they were. We both chuckled at their excitement before we met each other's eyes again. "Aren't those two something?"
"They really love the fireworks, don't they?" I asked her. Killick and Ariel were so young and so innocent, and I was almost jealous of their innocence. The more I watched them, the more I longed for children of my own, but I wouldn't push Katniss until I knew she was ready.
"Imagine having one of your own," she whispered to me, and I turned my attention from Killick and Ariel to her, my eyes wide with surprise at what she was saying to me. Did she just... She couldn't have... I must have misheard her... What? "Peeta," she said, my face in both of her hands and our foreheads pressed together, the fireworks continuing to blast overhead and illuminate our faces. "You're going to be a father."
"Are you... We are... Really? " I stuttered, and she laughed and pressed her lips to my nose.
"Yes, Peeta, I'm pregnant... about three months. I wanted to wait a little bit until I knew for sure and now I do," she replied, and I couldn't stop myself from pushing her down onto the rock and pressing my lips against hers, holding her tightly as I thanked her again and again with my kisses. I couldn't believe it - we were having a baby! Our own little baby, with Katniss's eyes or her hair and maybe my smile... In six months, there was going to be a tiny human in our arms that was half of me and half of the woman I loved more than anything in the world.
It was early February when she went into labour. It was actually the day before my twenty-sixth birthday, which would be on the fourteenth of February. It was the early hours of the thirteenth when all of a sudden, I felt the sheets of the bed get wet and I prepared to strip the bed and throw clean sheets on it (the farther into her pregnancy that she went, the more prone she was to accidents - apparently it was common in pregnancy) when she told me that she hadn't wet the bed and that she was in labour. We were in our own home in Four now, having lived there since early December, 2163. I called for help and we waited and waited for our little one to be born. Haymitch, Effie, Carolina and Cailean were there all calming me down and comforting me while the doctor examined Katniss. Effie told me that it wasn't proper to be in the room while Katniss was giving birth but there was nothing that would stand in my way of me being beside her.
The screams and moans of labour terrified me as she groaned from the pain and she held my hand so tightly that both of our hands had gone pale. "You can do this, Katniss. You're strong, and you're brave, and you've gone through so much to get to where you are today," I told her as she pushed, and when we both heard the screams of a crying newborn infant, we both burst into tears and I hugged my beautiful wife tightly while the doctor clamped and cut the umbilical cord and wrapped our little baby up in a blanket, then handed Katniss the bundle.
"Congratulations, Mrs. Mellark. You've got a daughter," said the doctor.
"A little girl," Katniss whispered through her tears of joy, and she looked up at me. "She looks just like you..." I brought my lips down to our newborn daughter's head and kissed it, wiping away some small specks of blood. "This blood is beautiful... It's nothing like the blood we know."
"Yes, it is... and so is she," I muttered back. "Hello, little girl... My little Lark..." Katniss glanced at the clock that sat on our bedside table and then I felt her lips on the side of my head.
"Happy birthday, to both of you," she told me. I shared a birthday with my firstborn daughter.
Ten years later...
It was now 2173, ten years after the rebellion had ended. We were now thirty years old. Katniss and I had to move our little family back to Twelve when Katniss was asked to help develop medicine in the district's laboratory, and her partner was Cailean. We lived in Twelve from September to May, and in Four from June to August, maintaining both of our houses. I'd rebuilt the bakery, too, that my father had owned, and staffed it with those who had moved back to Twelve.
Little Lark was four years old now, and the twins were a little over a year. Yes, you read that right - twins . We'd told ourselves that we'd stop after two babies, but I suppose fate had other ideas. When, almost three years after Lark was born, Katniss told me she was pregnant again, I was overjoyed. Well, a minute or so after she'd told me. She'd waited until we were in bed, mere seconds from the grasp of sleep, and Katniss whispered my name into the dark. "Peeta..."
"Yes, my love," I muttered back sleepily.
"I'm pregnant," she whispered back, and I didn't budge.
"That's nice..." I said, nearly completely lulled off into sleep.
"Peeta, did you hear what I just said?" she'd asked.
"Yes, dear, you said you're pregnant," I replied back, nearly dozing off, and suddenly, the words hit me and I bolted up to look at her. "You're pregnant?" She laughed as I took her face in my hands excitedly.
"Yes, Peeta, I'm pregnant," she told me, and we celebrated in the best way that we knew how. Lark was thrilled that she'd have a little brother or sister soon. She ended up with one of each, born on a rather snowy December twenty-first in 2172, on the day of the Yule Festival. They were almost nine months old now, little Donald and Daisy.
Daisy had been born first, about ten minutes before her brother, and I cradled her in my arms while Katniss brought her twin brother into the world. I suppose neither of us were really surprised - Katniss had been a twin, and so had Cailean, and her parents had had another set of twins as well. Three sets of twins from her parents, so it was destined that we'd get at least one set ourselves. It wasn't common to do middle names in Panem but we'd done them anyway. Lark was Lark Meadow, Daisy was Daisy Mae, and Donald was Donald Willow. We'd wanted to call him Donald Calum, but not only did it not work as well, but Carolina and Cailean had already adopted a baby boy that they'd called Calum.
It was August of 2173, so we were back in Four. It was the tenth anniversary of the rebellion and it was our turn to be the proud parents of a little one who was fascinated by the fireworks. Lark loved the fireworks, and she giggled as she sat on Grandpa Haymitch's lap, her little blonde curls bouncing as the fireworks were reflected in her eyes. Katniss and I each held one of the twins, Donald in her arms and Daisy in mine. Lark was the spitting image of me, with blonde curls, blue eyes and my smile, but she had all the spirit of Katniss. She was a wild child, that one, and she constantly kept us on our toes. She wasn't interested in art or dolls and she loved to run around with Killick and Ariel, even though they were nine and twelve. Killick was old enough to be reaped into the Hunger Games, if they still existed, and thankfully, he would never have to fear being selected to murder other innocent children like himself.
The day after Freedom Day, Effie and Haymitch offered to watch our children while Katniss and I got to spend the day together. We didn't know what we'd do, so we spent most of it naked in bed talking about the past in between kisses and lovemaking. The nightmares still came to us sometimes. They never really went away, honestly. The older we got, and the more sure of a safe future we had, the less frequent the nightmares became, but they never stopped. We talked about those and how we feared them invading the minds of our children, and we were grateful that they'd never have to know the horrors of the Hunger Games.
"They'll learn about it in school," Katniss muttered to me. "Lark is almost old enough to go to school... They'll tell her..."
"According to Thom, whose children have been in school for a few years, they don't learn about the Games until Grade Four," I told her. "We still have a few years before Lark learns about them."
"They'll tell her about us..."
"Yes, they will, and about Finnick and Annie and Johanna and everyone else who won the Games."
"They'll talk about the rebellion."
"As they should. If they don't learn our history, they'll be doomed to repeat it. We didn't fight for them to never know about it, Katniss. We both knew that one day, our children would find out about it and they'll probably ask us about it, and I see no reason why we should keep anything from them."
"Should they know about all the killing?"
"Maybe not right away, but when they're old enough, yes, I think they should." I knew how worried she was about the children thinking that we were monsters, but our children loved us. They'd never accuse us of that, and they'd know that if we hadn't, they probably would be here today.
Fifteen years later...
It was now 2178. It was October, and Lark came to the bakery from school with her blonde hair in two braids bouncing behind her. "They told us about the rebellion at school today and my friend said that you and Mommy were in it, Daddy," she told me when I asked her how her day was.
"Ah, yes," I told my little girl, now nine years old. I was now thirty-five and certainly looking my age, but age was nonexistent to a child. "What all did they tell you?"
"About how you and Mommy won something called the Hunger Games and that you stopped the President from allowing them to continue," Lark replied.
"Yes, we did. Mommy was very brave during those days, and so was I."
"Did bad things happen?"
"Of course they did, sweetie. Rebellions don't happen because the world is a good place. But you're too young to know about those things. Mommy and I will tell you when you're older."
"They told us that in the Hunger Games, children killed other children." I stiffened up, my back to her as I stopped kneading the bread I was preparing to bake, and I let out a sigh.
"Yes... that happened, too... Lark, honey, Daddy doesn't want to talk about the Games right now," I told her, turning to her and kneeling down in front of her. "The things that happened, well... they make Daddy sad, and Mommy, too. Good things didn't happen to us. When you're older, we'll tell you. I promise, okay?" I said to her, and she nodded with a sigh.
"Okay, Daddy," she said, content with my answer. I knew she wanted to know the rest of the answers, but she also knew that I held true to my promises. Suddenly, I noticed that the bakery was oddly quiet.
"Did you forget something?" I asked my oldest daughter, and she gasped.
"I forgot Daisy and Donald!" she exclaimed, and she leapt off the stool and ran off back to the school, leaving me chuckling as I watched her run off. Katniss was right to be worried about the school teaching the children about the rebellion and the Games. It turned out that they taught the children all about them, listing the names of the Victors, about President Snow, about Lucy Gray Baird, about myself and Katniss and how we led the rebellion, about the War Senate and more. She even had to write a report on the War Senate when she was older. She was the only one in her class who got to interview myself, Katniss, her Uncle Gale and Aunt Johanna, Aunt Annie, Uncle Cailean and Grandpa Haymitch.
Twenty-five years later...
The year was 2188. Katniss and I were forty-five years old and it was the twenty-fifth anniversary of the rebellion. We were in Four, as we were every August, and Lark was now nineteen and Daisy and Donald were fourteen. Daisy had Katniss's facial features but she had striking hair the colour of the sunset, something she must have gotten from Katniss's mother, Eilidh. In addition to Katniss's features and her mother's red hair, Daisy had my blue eyes and my talent for baking and painting, but Katniss's talent for singing. Donald resembled a dark-haired version of myself with all of my facial features and Katniss's dark hair, and the most unique thing about him was the fact that, like his Uncles Cailean and Calum, he had one blue eye, mine, and one grey eye, Katniss's. His blue eye was his right, just like Calum's. Like his Uncle Cailean, he was interested in science and his dream was to grow up to become a scientist in Twelve that made medicine.
We were in our home in Four the morning of the twenty-fifth Freedom Day getting ready to go for our annual picnic on the beach. Lark was chatting away with Carolina and Effie about how she couldn't wait to get back to the woods of Twelve while Daisy baked with me in the kitchen and hummed a little tune she'd found in the library at school, and Donald was listening to Cailean explain something about chemistry to him. In the living room were Carolina and Cailean's two adopted children, Calum and Hadley, now fifteen and twelve. "What song is that?" I asked my red-haired daughter, and she smiled as she iced some cookies.
"Mrs. Lamb says it's called 'Sunshine On My Shoulders'," Daisy told me, flashing Katniss's signature smile at me.
"Oh really?" I asked her, looking at her over my reading glasses that I'd grown to need. "How do the words go?" She cleared her throat and prepared to sing.
Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy,
Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry...
Sunshine on the water looks so lovely,
Sunshine almost always makes me high...
It was then that I noticed Katniss was standing in the doorway leaning up against it, listening to her younger daughter sing. She looked her age, almost half a century old now, just like me, but she still looked beautiful. I loved her salt and peppered hair almost as much as she hated the greys that had popped up over the last few years and I loved to kiss the wrinkles forming around her eyes and on her forehead, same as she did to me. I had a few grey hairs myself, but they were less noticeable in my blonde than her brunette. We were lucky to even have had the privilege to grow grey hairs and wrinkles. I turned back to my daughter.
If I had a day that I could give you...
I'd give you the day just like today.
If I had a song that I could sing for you,
I'd sing a song to make you feel this way...
I could feel the sunshine on my own shoulders from the afternoon sun shining through the window and I turned my attention to Katniss again, who smiled at me and entered the kitchen to wrap her arms around me.
Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy,
Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry...
Sunshine on the water looks so lovely,
Sunshine almost always makes me high...
I noticed that Lark, Carolina and Effie had snuck into the room to sit at the table and were also watching Daisy and listening to her sing with her beautiful voice, the kind of voice that could make the birds stop to listen.
If I had a tale that I could give you...
I'd tell a tale sure to make you smile.
If I had a wish that I could wish for you...
I'd make a wish for sunshine for all the while...
Haymitch, Cailean, Calum, Hadley and Donald now stood in the doorway, equally entranced by Daisy's singing.
Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy...
Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry...
Sunshine on the water looks so lovely,
Sunshine almost always makes me high...
Sunshine almost all the time makes me high...
Daisy turned to look at me with a smile on her face and then suddenly became aware of the audience she'd attracted, not just of her family, but of the mockingjays outside, who carried her tune across the district. She blushed, the same way Katniss did when she got caught singing, and she resumed icing the cookies in front of her.
That song became our anthem, an anthem of hope, of happiness, of the dark days leaving and the sun taking their place. Daisy always sang it to the mockingjays, who would sing it to each other and pass it on until it was broadcast all across the district reminding us all that we could always look forward to the sunshine, even when days seemed bleak.
Haymitch died the next year, in 2189. He was seventy years old, an age he never thought he'd reach. We buried him in the cemetery in Twelve that held the bodies of every tribute from Twelve who was sent to die in the arena, with the exception of Lucy Gray, whose remains lay somewhere in the woods. Effie moved in with us until she died a few years later in 2192, probably from a broken heart. While she was never a tribute, she sacrificed a lot for the children of Twelve, and we buried her beside Haymitch.
Panem never forgot the Games, and it learned from the mistakes of its past. There was never another rebellion, nor was there a need for one. The people of Panem were satisfied, the government remained incorrupt, and the future was full of sunshine as opposed to storm clouds. We never forgot the Games either, and every night before we went to sleep, we would remember those who we lost - Finnick, Rue, Prim, Calum, and everyone else - and we lived for them.
We were so, so young when we set the country on fire with rebellion, but you know what they say. Revolutions are in the hands of the young, and the young will always inherit the revolution.
A/N: I just wanted to thank all of you who read my first (published) Hunger Games fan fiction! I know it must have been a little strange to read a story about a Katniss with a different backstory, but that's what fan fiction is for, isn't it? Thanks for giving this little piece of my imagination a chance and please review and tell me what you think, if you think I could improve it and if you want to see any expansions or spin-offs of anything in this story! I love feedback of all kinds (although negative feedback such as insulting my work will be ignored/deleted) and can't wait to hear what you have to say! Also, be on the lookout for future pieces related to this story! I have lots of ideas, including a short continuation of this storyline from the eyes of Lark Mellark! Stay tuned!