Thanks for all of the reviews, follows and favorites. It means a lot to me. I'm publishing this a little earlier then I had intended, I'm planning on doing an update once every 5 days or so, but I wanted the actual story to begin and be out there. I do have to say that it is a bit hard to write a fanfic of THG based in the same universe as the books (and movies) because in my eyes they follow a very logical story-line, so I have a hard time coming up with other realistic story-lines that would be able to take place. So, this is what I came up with this one. Where Prim wasn't drawn in the hunger games: what happens then?

Something else I want to say is that this is the first longer fanfiction story I have finished in a very long while. Almost four years or so. And I've just "recovered" from a big writer's block that happened due to... stress, life changing events and all those fun things. Anyway... I'm not overly fond with the way this is written, but I do like the story very much, and I hope you will too. It will be somewhere between 10-15 chapters long. I haven't really devided the story up in chapters yet. Some will be very short, some will be quite long.

Hope you enjoy, and welcome to the:

76th annual Hunger Games

Katniss was running late for the reaping, which was a death sentence in itself. The fence had suddenly turned itself back on while she was out hunting that morning, and it had taken a while before she had found a tree to climb so that she could jump over. When she had landed on the ground she twisted her ankle, but despite that she hurried back to her house to change in a dress, and then ran towards the square. The pain would pass soon, she figured, it wasn't a sprain. It was her last reaping, and though she didn't want to get her hopes up, she was relieved that it was only this one time left. She would have to worry for a few more years though, for Prim.

She reached the table to sign in just in the nick of time, hurrying over to the fenced off area where the oldest kids stood. She thought about six years ago when she stood up front all alone, watching Effie Trinket in her strange costume up on stage, was trying to stop her legs from shaking. She didn't remember who was drawn that year, it was easier to forget it. Dwelling on it would ruin you.

Effie Trinket puts her hand in the bowl for girls not long after Katniss found her place in the crowd. Katniss begs quietly that it's neither her name, nor Prim's. It isn't, it's Bonnie Kluun, a Seam girl just one year younger than her. That's when the relief hits her; she will never be in the games, neither Gale or her would be in the games. In the middle of her relief she almost misses the boy's name that's called.

Rory Hawthorn.

Her stomach lurched, threatening to let this morning's breakfast come up again, as she watches Rory walk up towards the stage. It's scary how much he looks like Gale when he was sixteen, she thought, scary how much he looks like a man yet those eyes told her he was still the same boy he was two years ago. Rory's eyes sweep over the crowd, drawing in a deep shaky breath. Katniss looks back at the crown behind them, finding Gale, Hazelle, and Posy crying as the people around them seemed forlorn about what to do. It happened every year, yet every year people were still as unprepared with how to deal with the relatives.

When Katniss reached Gale afterwards, just before he was about to go in to say his goodbye to Rory, she begs him to tell Rory to win, he has to win. Gale only nods.

That night, as the recap of the day is showing in the background at the Hawthorn's, Katniss sits by the table staring at the bread she had traded two squirrels for with the baker. The baker was Peeta's father, and she could still see the read around his eyes from crying. Before he had closed the door he told her that he wished her all the best today, since today was the reaping. She wondered now if this family would ever recover from losing Rory, because there was always a risk he would never come home again. There was a risk that the last time they would see Rory, in person, was up on that stage looking down on them with fear in his eyes.

She got up from the table, crossing the room and going outside to where she knew Gale was sitting. He had his back towards the door, sitting on the steps up to the porch, but didn't look to be crying. Both of them were still dressed in what they had worn at the reaping - she wore her mother's old blue dress, and he wore his nicest brown pants and a white shirt that was starting to look more yellow than white. She sat down next to him, looking down at the socks that were peeking out of her boots, she could feel a toe sticking out of a hole, and knew she would need to fix it tonight when she got home.

"I'm sorry Gale," she whispered, trying not to let the tears fall. Gale only nodded, without any kind expression on his face. "I wish I knew what I could do," she said.

"Come with me," he said then, suddenly standing up holding his hand out towards her. To not make him even more upset she took it without questioning, and followed him towards the forest, and despite it being dark they slid under the fence and out into the dark forest. They knew the forest so well that they didn't worry about getting lost, even though they couldn't see much. She never let go of his hand, and he didn't stop walking until the reached a clearing.

"When the games are over, even if he doesn't come home… will you marry me then?" He was facing her, staring down at her face, tracing a small line down from her forehead to her chin. When Rory's name had been called he hadn't expected to feel this way, feel so fiercely protective about the people around him, the people he loved. Right now he wanted nothing more than to Katniss to be protected by a marriage, so no one could touch her. He knew how men talked about unmarried women, and he knew what they did to them. During his longs shifts in the mines it was always a favorite subject amongst a few of the people he worked with, and there was nothing he could do about it. They were in higher ranks, and complaining would mean he'd lose his job.

"Gale…" Over the passed two years they had talked about this, and she had told him that she would always be his companion, but marriage wasn't in her plans. Of course it scared her to think of Gale with another girl, but it scared her even more to give her devotion to someone else. It was yet another thing the Capitol had the ability to tear apart.

"Please," he begged her, and even though she couldn't see his face so well in the moonlight, she could hear the tears in his voice. "Please." He pressed his lips to hers in a tender kiss, and it was as if electricity passed between them. Though they had kissed before, a quick kiss only a few weeks after the 74th hunger games, it was nothing like this one.

Katniss quickly drew a long breath, filling her lungs with air to make herself think more clearly, but when he pressed his lips against her again, she couldn't stop it, stop herself. She kissed back, throwing her arms around his neck, with his arms around her waist, hugging her into his chest. His lips were soft against hers, moving softly with a slow burning passion and desire, yearning to hold her closer and never lose sight of her.

Gale had felt desire many times in his life, and often Katniss was the source of his desire as he watched her use her bow with such confidence all he wanted to do was kiss her. He'd also felt a less than appropriate desire towards her, but it was something he couldn't help. Katniss was beautiful, inside and out, he wanted her and just kept on hoping she would want him back.

Katniss had never felt desire before, so when it assaulted her in the kiss she couldn't curb it. It took over all of her senses and she didn't want to let go of it. It felt right, with his arms around her and him kissing her like they would see no tomorrow. She felt loved, wanted, and it made her want to get closer, get to him

Without warning, and without breaking their kiss, he picked her up as if she was as light as a feather, carrying her over to a rock where he sat her down. They touched each other like they hadn't touched another person before, and Katniss' skin felt like it was burning, and Gale moaned as if he was finally relieved of a long aching pain.

He brushed against her breasts, and when she sighed in approval, pushing her breast into his hands he grasped them softly, causing her to moan this time. It felt wonderful, but at the same time like something was missing, there was more she needed from him, she needed him closer, to satisfy that urge within her that was driving her on and telling her to tug on his shirt, to get it off of him.

"Katniss," Gale sighed against her lips when she started to unbutton his shirt, but instead of allowing her to continue he grasped her hands, resting his forehead on hers. "Katniss, as great as this is… we can't." She groaned in disapproval, and he caught the groan with his lips, silencing it. "I know."

"Damn," she said under her breath. Her loins were aching with desire, but her head was finally beginning to think rationally. What they were about to do could have put them in a very bad situation, and even though school didn't teach much about it, they knew that children were conceived from sex.

"I know," he said again, adjusting his pants slightly. When Katniss realized what he was doing she quickly looked away with a blush on her face. Only moments ago she was about to undress him, and now she blushed at him adjusting his pants. Desire was a powerful thing, she remembered to have heard sometime ago from someone in the district. She had never understood just how much it could carry someone away.

"Will you marry me?" He asked again, his breathing still uneven, standing much closer than before.

"Okay." She didn't have the will in her to refuse him. Marrying him would help a bit, she figured. The capitol granted a newly marry couple a house to live in, and some grains, which would mean that their siblings would have one less tesserae to sign up for this year, and it would give the two of them a few more rights in the district that unmarried men and women couldn't take part of.

The downside was that people expected children to come from a marriage, and otherwise they would question the legitimacy of the marriage. They could cross that bridge when they came to it, and right now there were only positive things about marrying Gale, the number one being making him and both of their families happy.

The next week they begrudgingly watch the games, watching Rory's entrance in the chariots, waiting for the training scores with unease and biting at their nails. Posy takes up a permanent place in Hazelle's lap, and besides the momentary joy for Katniss and Gale's upcoming marriage, it's quiet in the Hawthorne house. Rory earns an 8, which is impressive for the district twelve's usual five. It gives them a little hope, which plummets as they watch the interviews.

Most of the tributes are older than Rory, which at any other year would have given Katniss comfort to know that no young children would take part of the games. This year when Rory was in she had hoped that it would only be the careers that he would fear. But both nine through eleven have eighteen year olds that look positively lethal. None of them volunteered, but it was just horrible luck that it happened this year. Rory was big for his age, too, but he was still two years younger.

The day the games started Katniss went over to Gale's early in the morning, before anyone had gone up, and crawled into his bed, hugging him. He woke up with her next to him, stroking his cheek gently. She was sure she loved him, she really did, and it hurt so much to love a person going through so much pain. She hoped that she would never understand the pain he was going through, that she would never have to see Prim go through what he had to go through. She had four years left in the bowl, and she would do her best to make sure her name was never pulled.

She had never seen him cry, but that morning as he looked into her eyes and realized what day it was, his whole face contorted into a soundless scream as the tears fell from his eyes. She hugged him closely and held her hands over his ears, shielding his face as the TV sparked to life in the corner of the room She heard the count down, wishing she was holding her own ears as the gong rings, and the sound coming from the TV was everything she didn't want to hear. She could hear the desperate cries, the cries for pain, the cries of fury, metal against metal, and then it all seemed to blur together with her tears and the crying from Gale.

It takes an hour before it quiets down. But we all know that the TV will stay on until the games are over.

She still holds Gale to her as she glanced over her shoulder to peek at the screen to see who died, to make sure it wasn't Rory. She sees Hazelle curled up with Posy and Vick on her bed, just as she was with Gale, none of them looking at the screen. She took it as her duty to keep them informed, she would look for their sake, so they wouldn't have to. She watched the faces that fill up the screen and she's surprised when she see a district one girl and a district four girl come up on the screen, and the commentators make note of this odd occurrence, saying that there might be a change this year. Katniss hopes to herself that this is the case, waiting with a baited breath for the count of dead tributes to end and that Rory won't be in it, and that Bonnie would make it too.

She lets out a long breath when the count stops at the two district ten tributes. Eleven total dead, in just an hour eleven children were murdered on screen. As the screen starts to pan out over the arena, which appears to be a mountain, Katniss lets out another breath, releasing her hold on Gale's ears. Rory was a great climber, so hopefully it would work to his advantage. It meant that he had a chance. With his 8 in training, and this arena, there was a chance, a small one, but still a chance.

Gale and her lie in bed for another hour, until both of their stomachs starts to rumble from hunger, and she suspected that Hazelle and the kids were just as hungry. Letting all of them stay in bed for a while longer she got out of bed and headed towards the stove. She lit it up carefully, and then opened the cupboards to get the oats out, and some raisins. She poured it all into a saucepan with water and let it slowly cook together for a steady breakfast. The raisins were a luxury, even oatmeal for breakfast was a luxury by the standards of the Seam, but it was a day where this family deserved to have a little luxury.

"Thank you Katniss," Hazelle said to her when she pulled the pan off of the burning flame. Katniss only shrugged in reply, because despite the hunger games happening every year, no one knew how to react to it. People knew how to react to death, regardless of the age of the diseased person, but no one knew how you could offer words of comfort to a person that might see their loved one be slaughtered on the TV at any day. When a person died in the district there were ceremonies that were held, traditions, and from them people knew what to expect. The capitol took all that away from them with the games.

They all eat breakfast quietly, the commentators were speaking, as they would do for most of the day since it was the first day. When they mention Rory's name everyone's eyes immediately flutter to the screen, despite not wanting to look, but he isn't in danger. He's sitting behind rocks on a ledge in the mountain. No one is too close to him, and it looks like he will have a good shelter for the night. Hopefully that meant something good, she thought.

The rest of the day passed quietly, and the gamemakers were happy with the death toll that day, so they let the tributes rest. Instead they spent doing a play-by-play of how the blood bath had gone. There were plenty of gory deaths that they could talk about to keep them sated for a while. Because of this Gale allowed himself to go out into the woods with Katniss, and found the clearing quickly, but neither thought about hunting, neither of them wanted to hunt right now, they just sat on some rocks, staring out at the forest that stretched out in front of them.

"I wish we could run away," he said with a scowl on his face. "I thought about it all morning, taking mom and my siblings and just run away"

"They'd catch you," she said, just like she always said when he was thinking about running away. They had seen the boy and the girl being pulled up by a hovercraft years ago, most likely because they had ran away. That could happen to them, and Katniss didn't want to think about Gale with a spear through his body.

"I know," was all that he said in response, and decided to change the subject to something that made him at least a bit happy. "We can get married in two weeks, they're building new houses by the edge of the seam closer to the train station, so we would probably end up living there."

"We would be too far from our families then, and too far from the woods," she immediately protested.

"It's better than nothing, Katniss," he said. It was better than nothing. "I don't want to move away either, but us getting married would mean that I would get paid more, it means that I could do less dangerous work, and the most important… that no one will be able to get between us."

Neither of them wanted to talk about the unmarried young women in the district, and the maltreatment they were subjected to by the men. Her mother had always sheltered her from it, but the past year she had witnessed it when one of her classmates had been attacked verbally on the streets for being unmarried. Though Katniss knew she hadn't seen the worse of it, not when she saw the glimmer in their eyes as the young girl started to cry from the abuse.

All of her life she had believed that the only horror that existed was what the aCpitol inflicted on the town, but seeing people in town act the way that they did, and get away with it, made Katniss realize that it wasn't just the Capitol that made this district what it was, the people in it played a part in it, too.

"We can't let our families down," he added, when he saw that she was beginning to accept it all. It was true, she thought, they couldn't let their families down when this was the only thing that had made them smile. Their marriage was something hopeful in all that was grim. At this moment Rory could be dead, or dying, and because of that Katniss couldn't deny their two families anything.

"Okay, in two weeks." She nodded.