The 2019/2020 Australian bushfire season was among the most devastating events to hit the land down under, burning through 46 million acres of land resulting in 34 direct human deaths, the destruction of more than 3,500 homes and the deaths of an estimated 3 billion animals.
A group on Tumblr called fandom for Australia set up an auction, to offer up the skills of fic writers and fandom artists to raise money for bushfire relief. The winner of my auction, the extraordinarily generous shannon17, not only made an absolutely eye-popping donation to an Australian bushfire relief charity, she then gifted the work to her dear friend juststella who is, as you might guess, Australian. Stella then provided me with the video prompt that became the basis of this story, as well as introducing me to the vibrancy of Australian culture and some of the intricacies of the language. I feel like her beautiful country is the third protagonist in this story.
These two ladies are the best that fandom has to offer, generous with their time and praise, always kind and uplifting. This story is, I hope, also a celebration of them, their friendship and the gifts they give our fandom every day.
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Intro
Dr. Katniss Everdeen stood in front of the tidy little cottage that would be her home for the next six months. Beige siding, white trim, two cute dormers popping up like eyes and a porch just big enough for two chairs, it looked like almost all of the houses in her hometown of Seam, Ontario. Except, of course, for the two towering palm trees flanking the front walk. That, and the fact that it was 24 degrees Celsius in freaking November emphasized that she was definitely not in Canada anymore.
She pulled her suitcase from the back of her rental car—no, she corrected herself, her hire car with its steering wheel inconveniently located on the wrong side. It had taken nearly the entirety of the two and a half hour drive from the airport in Sydney for driving on the left side of the road to stop feeling weird. Mostly stop, anyway.
And now she was here, in Panem, New South Wales.
Home sweet home, she guessed.
Inside, the cottage was exactly as Annie had promised, clean and furnished, albeit sparingly. Tiny scrap of a kitchen, outdated but functional, living room, bedroom, bath and a half, and a sunroom at the back that would make a decent yoga studio. For what the rent was setting her back, Katniss had maybe expected a little bigger, but it was ample for one person.
One person. Her heart clenched as it always did when Katniss remembered that she didn't need that second bedroom anymore.
She shoved aside the pain, squeezed it down into that dark pit in her stomach, then dragged her suitcase up the stairs to unpack.