So I dropped the ball on this one! Ideally you should expect two chapters today to make up for it. Hold me to that, I need the motivation.

On another note, I've been striving to work as many canon characters into this story as I can, despite it being firmly set in District Twelve. It's quite fun, like a puzzle!

Six Geese-a-laying

'So you like them, Prim?' Katniss asked smilingly as her sister admired her new rings at the table. She and their mother had had a bit of a tussle over who received which ring. Prim insisted that her mother have the two diamond rings, which incidentally happened to be her personal favourites. Conversely, Mrs Everdeen had insisted that her daughter take three of the rings, a suggestion that both of her girls contested. In the end, through Katniss's intervention, Prim accepted the diamond rings and her mother kept the ruby and the emerald.

'So much more romantic,' she sighed happily. 'You've still got your ring on.'

Katniss looked down at the elegant gold band glinting on her finger. 'Well, it's practical enough. It doesn't get in the way like a bracelet or a necklace. There isn't really a reason not to wear it.'

'I bet Peeta will be pleased.'

'For the last time, Prim. These gifts aren't from Peeta.'

'I know that by now, Kat, but he's the one that convinced you to wear it. That makes him the victor in this scenario.'

'Victor? Scenario? Ever since you started watching all those Capitol shows, you've been saying such weird things.'

'You seriously can't watch one without picking up some dramatic flair. I bet even you couldn't escape the effects.'

'What do you mean even me?'

'Well, you don't honestly have a dramatic bone in your body, or a flair bone, for that matter. Please, don't get upset about it, Katniss. I mean it in the most caring way. You're cool, stoic…earthy.'

'It doesn't matter to me whether I have dramatic flair or not,' Katniss bit out.

'Of course, of course, so will you watch one with me?'

'What? I thought we'd moved past that part of the conversation.'

Katniss never won these little scuffles with Prim. When it came to her baby sister, she was a complete pushover. So it was with a heavy heart that she found herself watching an insipid, kaleidoscopic Capitol transmission on their requisite television set, trying to remember which crazy-looking celebrity was which and, only slightly more rarely, decipher which were male and which female.

'That one,' Katniss indicated an obscenely good-looking man with copper hair and deep-green eyes, 'is Finnie O…something. Finnie O'Malley?'

'Finnie O'Malley? Katniss, where have you been these past few months?'

'Not watching TV.'

'That's Finnick Odair. He's popular, even though he's not from the Capitol.'

Katniss remembered now. News of this district-born heartthrob had reached even her ears, swimming by her in school corridors. 'He's from District Four, isn't he? Won some sort of competition.'

'Yeah, Adventurer. It's this extreme survival show full of cool challenges and dangerous landscapes and massive bugs. Ever since he won, he's been all over the Capitol. All my friends talk about him.'

'Ok first, your friends' idolisation of older boys is starting to concern me. And second, he's too pretty.' Between his golden skin, bronze hair and emerald eyes, he looked like a lavish, jewel-encrusted figurine. Lavish, jewel-encrusted figurines should not be walking, talking and flirting with the camera. 'It's unnerving.'

'Peeta's too pretty, but you don't seem to have a problem with him.'

'He unnerves me too actually, so you can keep your smart comments to yourself.'

'Aha, so you don't deny that he's too pretty.'

'I will leave, right now.'

'No, please Katniss. Please stay.'

Katniss hadn't really been planning to leave anyway. The couch had got to a point where it cushioned her so effectively that she didn't really want to move.

'I think I recognise that one too,' Katniss said brightly. She gestured to a boy two seats away from Odair whose dark hair - streaked through with silver - draped over his incomprehensibly young face. Katniss would never understand Capitol fashion. 'I have no idea where from though.'

'That's Domitius Roe,' Prim said. 'His father's a senator. He's on TV a lot too. Maybe you've seen him through that.'

Katniss felt overwhelmed, and she had only learnt two people's names. 'Probably.'

'And that's Floriana Rosum, isn't she lovely? Then Seneca Crane with the silly beard is sitting at the end. No-one really likes him. And, oh yes, that's Caesar Flickerman. The host with the lilac hair.'

'And what are they doing? Why are those four sitting on a panel?'

'It's a talent competition.'

Katniss was too petrified to scream. The first act to walk on, a heavily made-up, surgically feline woman who went solely by the name of Tigris and spent her showcasing minute crawling about on stage like a cat, was an indicator of the hellish hour to follow.

'That was lovely, darling,' Floriana Rosum smiled sweetly. She was technically an adult Prim, Katniss decided. 'Very innovative.'

'Spectacular,' Finnick Odair said with a sultry wink that prompted the audience to scream.

'Awful,' was Seneca Crane's two cents.

'Thank you,' Katniss murmured.

When the door knocked, Katniss sat up like a rabbit scoping its surroundings for danger. Except it wasn't danger Katniss sensed, but an escape.

'Keep watching, I'll get it.'

'All right,' Prim added, bobbing her head absently as the next person began to sing, no, caterwaul for the adoration of the Capitol.

'Peeta!' Katniss said urgently as soon as she had opened the door and seen who it was.

'Hi, Katniss. How's everything–?

'Stay as long as you like. As long as you like.'

'Well, thanks for the offer, but today's gift doesn't require me staying at all.'

Katniss felt her hopes slowly dying. If they had voices, perhaps they would sound like the contestant currently yowling about love and loss on the television. 'Why not?'

'Because it's not here,' Peeta said, spreading his empty hands.

'Did you tell your employer to give up on me?'

Peeta snorted. 'Hardly. Your gift's somewhere else, that's all. If you have an hour or so to spend, you could go and view it. That isn't a problem, is it?'

Somewhere else. An hour or so. That sounded highly promising.

'Not at all! Let me just get my coat.'

Peeta followed her inside, which Katniss supposed was only fair. He'd been doing a lot of standing on cold doorsteps ever since he started delivering to her. He ducked into the living room, presumably to greet Prim, but soon rushed out again, a hilarious grimace on his face.

'Capitol talent show,' Katniss explained with a laugh. 'Prim's a total nutjob for liking it.'

'Starting to see why leaving the house is no problem at all.'

Walking through District Twelve with Peeta was markedly different to the time before, where the birdcages in his arms helped the memory transcend reality. This time it was just him, and just her, and their voices tentatively melding in the cold air.

'I'd like to see you go on a show like that and sing.'

Why was he so fixated on her singing? 'I don't know. Wouldn't I need some dramatic flair or something to pull it off?'

'Dramatic flair? I think I saw enough dramatic flair in my two seconds of viewing to last a lifetime. Though if you really wanted to go for impact, you could always bring your bow, shoot a couple of arrows at their heads if they weren't paying enough attention.'

'I'd never do that,' Katniss protested.

Peeta gave her a sideways glance as if it could see straight into her soul. 'I don't know.'

'I wouldn't. I'm not that hostile.'

'No, you're not.'

'Well, good. Where are we going anyway?'

'Trust me, if I told you, you'd be no more clued in to what your gift is. It's kind of weird for everybody.'

'Sounds so fun,' Katniss grumbled.

'Any more of that and you're back off to your house to watch Capitol Star.'

'No need to be cruel.'

Abernathy and Sons was a rarity of the merchant high street. Of course, its neat, white-brick building helped it to blend in with its affluent neighbours, a grocer's and a florist's, but inside was another story. The flourishing law firm was owned, run and staffed entirely by people from the Seam.

'So today's gift is six lawyers?'

'No,' Peeta replied, holding the door open for her.

'Six lawsuits?'

'Definitely not.'

The modest reception area contained a desk, a couple of chairs, some potted plants and not much else. Nonetheless, the dark-haired, grey-eyed receptionist looked extremely happy to be there.

'Hi,' Peeta smiled at her, 'we're here to see Abernathy Senior.'

'I will check his availability, sir,' the woman replied with too mushy a grin, if anyone was asking Katniss, which they weren't. The receptionist put on a headset the likes of which Katniss had only seen on Capitol broadcasts, pressed a button, called for Mr Abernathy and waited. 'You may go through into his office. Take that corridor, first door on the right,' she told Peeta, resting her chin on her hand as she gazed up at him.

'Thank you,' Peeta said, beaming pleasantly.

'Yes, thanks,' Katniss said curtly, seizing Peeta's arm and marching him to Mr Abernathy's office.

'You're in a rush today,' Peeta remarked. 'You're getting into this present thing, aren't you?'

'Sure.' Katniss rapped on Mr Abernathy's door, not really seeing it. Nice wood, she clocked absently,

mahogany.

'Come in,' Abernathy Senior called from beyond.

'Hi, Mr Abernathy,' Peeta said once they had entered. 'It's Peeta. We talked earlier this morning about the whole arrangement.'

'Back with the girl already? You're an efficient one.'

Katniss recognised Mr Abernathy by sight. Over the past couple of decades, he had become a respected figure in the town, and he certainly dressed like it. He tended to favour crisp suits in many varieties of pearlescent grey, and his black hair was painstakingly slicked back. There was a distinctly aquiline quality to his silvery gaze as his eyes passed between the two youths, lingering for a fleeting second longer on the place where Katniss still gripped Peeta's arm.

'So, Peeta here explained the whole situation, and your lover boy's left your gift with me today,' Mr Abernathy said with a cavalier gruffness that somewhat undermined his sharp image.

'Why?' Katniss asked.

'I keep geese,' Mr Abernathy said.

Katniss blinked. 'What?'

'I said I keep geese.'

'But you're a lawyer.'

'Lawyers can keep geese if they want to keep geese.'

Katniss was trying to rein in her chortles at this moment as she imagined this composed man trying to herd geese about town in one of his chic suits.

'Shut up,' Mr Abernathy said.

Katniss didn't. 'I've seen the goose boy ward the geese down the street pretty much every day. It's never you.'

'I hire someone to. Contrary to popular belief, I actually have pressing work to do here.'

'Like solving livestock disputes and prosecuting over bar brawls.'

'In a small town, small problems become so much more important,' Mr Abernathy retorted.

'He takes the cases of anyone who needs him, Merchant or Seam, no matter how much or how little they can pay,' Peeta told her in a mild tone that masked the admonishment.

Mr Abernathy didn't look particularly pleased with Peeta for supporting him. Katniss was staring pointedly at her toes.

'Shall we see the geese?' Peeta asked brightly.

'Now? I thought you meant later. I have things to do now,' Abernathy Senior protested.

'Oh, of course, sorry. We can come back later, can't we, Katniss?'

'We can?'

'Ssh, we both know how much pressing work Mr Abernathy has to do here. Lots of small, important problems to fix. We will remove ourselves from your sight until further notice.'

Peeta grabbed Katniss around the shoulder and swivelled them around. Behind them, Mr Abernathy sighed.

'All right, you can see the damn geese.'

On their way out, Mr Abernathy knocked on the door of the eldest Abernathy Junior. 'I'm leaving for a bit. You're in charge until I come back.'

Abernathy Junior sounded petrified. 'But Father–!'

'If my business collapses while I'm away, you'll be accepting culpability of course,' he said to Peeta.

'He can look after things. How old is he, twenty?'

'Twenty-two.'

'Same age as my oldest brother,' Peeta commented cheerfully. 'My dad leaves him in charge of the bakery all the time.'

Katniss looked up at him curiously. He had integrated himself so seamlessly into her family circle, but she knew next to nothing about his. The realisation left her cold, unsteady, like she was going into a race highly disadvantaged.

Mr Abernathy's family home was a world away from his firm. It was brown, crooked, lopsided and alive with noise. The geese had their own spacious nesting shed in the back flooded generously by artificial lighting. Each goose had her own nesting box, lined with soft bedding, and Katniss smiled to herself. As crotchety as Mr Abernathy seemed to be, he was taking good care of these birds.

'So, these six are yours,' the lawyer said, gesturing.

'Mine?!'

'Yes, courtesy of your true love,' Abernathy drawled.

'What do I do with six geese?!'

'Feed them, ideally. Make sure they don't die. They're already hatching eggs, so there's that, but the main period of productivity for them is in the spring.'

To look at her, Katniss appeared mildly horrified. Sensing the dip in mood, Peeta tried to generate enough enthusiasm for the whole room.

'So, how do geese eggs taste, Mr Abernathy?'

'Disgusting.'

'Oh.' Peeta tried again. 'Surely not to everyone.'

'You're better off with chicken eggs to be perfectly honest.'

That was something that Katniss really didn't want to hear.

'Then why do you keep geese, Mr Abernathy?' Peeta asked, his good humour audibly failing.

'Something to do.' Mr Abernathy shrugged.

'So,' Peeta cleared his throat, 'what are we going to do about the geese?'

'Excellent question,' Mr Abernathy said, looking to Katniss.

'Please don't look at me.'

'Then–' Whatever astute and lawyerly comment Haymitch was about to make was interrupted when a boy-sized hurricane whirled into the hatchery.

'Daddy!' the oncoming storm bellowed, flinging himself into Mr Abernathy's arms.

'Ssh,' the Abernathy patriarch hissed, even as he held his youngest son tight, 'I'm only "daddy" with friends and family.'

The little boy – he was eight or nine at the most – slipped from his father's arms without so much of an acknowledgement, barrelling over to where the geese were. Peeta looked on with a warm chuckle; Katniss stepped warily away from the scene.

'Have you come to look at the geese?' the boy asked Peeta, his cherubic face alight with excitement. 'These ones just came in today.'

'They're so cool,' Peeta said earnestly.

The boy rushed to agree. 'I gave them names and everything. Daddy lets me choose all the names. This one's Dusty, and this one's Honker. This one's Ash, this one's Finnick.'

'Finnick?' Peeta asked.

'He's so cool, he's tougher than all the other gooses.'

'Geese,' Mr Abernathy interjected.

'But that's not important right now. This one's Heather. Mummy named that one. And this one's Lightning.'

'Is it because he's super fast?' Peeta asked, making the appropriate whizzing and whooshing noises that would have the boy giggle.

'Yeah!'

Katniss and Mr Abernathy found themselves on the other side of the shed, in a position to talk.

'So, "daddy". Who knew you were a soft touch?'

'Shut up.'

'I would have thought the town's greatest lawyer would be able to think of better responses than that.'

'I'm the town's only lawyer, sweetheart,' he replied sardonically, 'and I could if I was being paid for the effort.'

'That's not what Peeta said.'

'You seem to be putting a lot of stock in what that boy says. You sure he's not this professed lover boy of yours?'

'Pretty sure.'

Mr Abernathy marked her with his shrewd graze and grunted. 'And are you pretty sure that if the real lover boy turned up at the end of the show, you'd prefer him?'

'To what, exactly?'

'To what?' Abernathy groused incredulously. 'That poor guy's got his work cut out with you.'

'Now who are you talking about?'

'Whoever you want me to be talking about. I think you know.'

Their eyes tacitly fell to the two boys on the either side of the room, chattering merrily away as they fed the new avian lodgers as well as the old. 'What's his name?'

'Jett,' Mr Abernathy replied, pride curling his tone.

'I think Jett would like to keep those geese, provided you have room and resources.'

'Plenty,' Mr Abernathy said. 'It wouldn't be a complete hassle to take them off your hands. They're a fine breed, lay lots of eggs.'

'Lots of disgusting eggs.'

'For most of my buyers, disgusting eggs are better than no eggs. Anyway, they're not so bad, just a bit tasteless.'

Katniss's only reply was a disbelieving snort.

'Are you definitely sure you don't want them? This admirer of yours intended them for you.'

'Sure he did, but that admirer of mine also elected to ignore the size of my house, the extent of my means and the convenience to my family in blind pursuit of some absurd gift-giving convention that expired centuries ago. Sorry if I'm not exactly keen about most of his presents, or him for that matter.'

Mr Abernathy laughed. 'Well said, but all of that was his second mistake in courting you, not his first.'

'What was the first?'

Abernathy Senior watched her watching Peeta. It was all subconscious. Katniss's eyes following the movements of Peeta's hands as he thrilled little Jett with a story and widening whenever he flashed one of those golden smiles.

'Choosing a boy like that to be his intermediary.'

AN: Sober, family man Haymitch is so peculiar. Thank you for your patience, for reading, for any interest shown etc. Trude and ahschung, thank you so much! Anonymous: I find myself looking forward to your reviews. I'm glad you like how I'm using Suzanne Collins' fantastic characters. Yep, Peeta is winning me over as I write him! Good shout on Haymitch by the way.