Hey guys, I've started to get back on a normal updating schedule! I can't BELIEVE how many reviews I'm getting, you guys are awesome :) Anyway, this is Mr. Mellark's drabble. It's short, but I don't think he's the kind of guy who would go on and on. He seems pretty to-the-point. I don't really know who I'm going to do next, though I'm leaning towards the District 3 boy. Anyway, thank you for all your reviews, and I hope you enjoy this chapter, even though it's short!

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games.

Would my daughter with Linnea have been as beautiful as Katniss is?

My son would say no. He thinks she's perfect the way she is.

I think he's right, too. Not that she's perfect-though I understand being blinded by love-but that if she were my daughter, she would not have been as beautiful. All the merchant families are inbred; we're such a small group, it's bound to happen. Consequently, we've all started to look the same. But since Linnea married a coal miner from the Seam, they aren't related at all. His dark Seam looks combined with her fresh beauty; consequently, her daughters are considered to be two of the prettier girls in all of District 12.

Most people who knew Katniss's father thinks that she resembles him. Her dark skin and black hair are just like his, I'll admit, but the way she carries herself, the way she acts, even her voice are completely her mother's. She has too much dignity to live the way she does, one missed meal away from starvation.

I don't know if Linnea would have been happy with me. I don't know if our daughters would have been beautiful like Katniss. But I know this for certain: If I was Katniss's father, she would never go hungry a day of her life.

Katniss is clever, Katniss is strong, Katniss is brave, but most of all, Katniss, who lives a step away from starvation, is happy, something none of my children, with their relatively comfortable lives, manage to be. That their broken, impoverished household can be happier than my whole, secure family amazes me. I don't know for certain what makes it that way, but I can certainly guess.

I wish she was my daughter. But I know now that it wasn't meant to be.

And while she isn't my daughter by blood, I see the way my son looks at her. In time, she will be my daughter by law. That part is inevitable. Whether they will be happy together is still uncertain.

All I can do is hope that they can love and care for each other the way their parents failed to.