Soo, here comes the 5th chapter. It's a bit shorter than the other ones, but I suppose it'll due. At least until Monday. Got some really great news today; I've got a job! After being unemployed since early August this is fantastic for me. It's only "hourly" so there's no telling how much I will be able to work. But it's work!

Also HG did great at the PCA, I can't wait to see the award show later when it pops up online. The pictures from Catching Fire has be fangirling like a 20 year old shouldn't do, and the date of the Catching Fire trailer? 94 days from now, or 3 months and 4 days, or April 14th if you prefer that kind of dating. Anyway, that day I will be jumping up and down on my bed. Gahhhh. Yes, fan girl = me.

Hope you're having a good day!

77th annual Hunger Games

From the sidelines of the reaping Katniss found a different kind of torture. They were standing at the front, staring at Effie Trinket as she animatedly talked about this year's hunger games. Since Gale's whipping the district had gotten tighter control, and one more man had taken a whipping last month for stealing. That man had taken far more whippings than Gale, and had been lying on her mother's kitchen table for almost four days before he was able to gingerly walk home. Along with the fact that the fence was on, and more peacekeepers were flooding the district, even when the hunger games wasn't going on, was enough for the people in the Hob to start closing down business. It would be a tough time ahead, and everyone knew it.

Not being at danger from entering the hunger games was strange, it was what her life revolved around for so long, and now she was standing by the sidelines. It would be three more years until she felt relief, knowing that Prim and Vick was out, but it would be twelve more before Posy was out. Posy was the baby of their families, and if she went in, their families would break, and they all knew it.

She couldn't see Prim or Vick where she was standing, but she knew the general area where Prim was, so she fixated her gaze on that spot, desperately hoping that it wasn't her name pulled that day.

Compared to the year before she had Gale's arms around her this time, comforting her. It helped her keep her heartbeat steady, so that it wouldn't beat out of her chest with worry. Last year she watched Rory die in the hunger games, and she wasn't ready to let go of her sister. Every year she worried that she hadn't shown her sister enough appreciation, that she didn't know just how much she loved her, and fearing that it would be too late to redeem that if she hadn't.

Other days she would have been distracted, and annoyed, by Gale's fingers stroking her arm, but not when Effie Trinket walked towards the bowl filled with girls. All three of them, Katniss, Gale and her mother, held their breath as Effie picked up a slip of paper with her long blue fingernails.

"Ember Halk!" A silence fell over the crowd, and somewhere towards the back of the girls fence in people started to move a little. "Ember Halk, please come up on the stage!" Effie said cheerily, and a girl from the last row appeared. Eighteen, Katniss thought, at least she was eighteen and not twelve. After she reached the stage Katniss was able to get a better glimpse of her. She knew her, knew of her. She worked as a maid in one of the houses Katniss picked up laundry from, and she was always all smiles, and grateful for taking that work off of her hands. Like most she was overworked. Katniss had thought she was older, in her twenties, not still a teenager, not younger than her.

Her heart ached, more than it had done previous years. Those years she had been in the middle of it, wrapped up in worry of getting picked herself and having to leave her sister behind, now she was worried for everyone else. Every single person standing there waiting to be picked had her heart wanting to tear itself out of her chest. After Ember made it up on stage everyone were made to clap their hands for her, to show a false support of the hunger games, and cheer on their new tribute as if she had a chance to win. Ember was just bones, never in her life had she eaten enough food to make her full, and had many times found herself at the brink of starvation. While her body was childlike, just as everyone else from the Seam, there was something in her face that made her look much older. It told stories of how tough her life had been, and Katniss thought she saw a relieved smile ghost at her lips, even though she was far away. Everyone's lives in the Seam was hard, but some lives were more unbearable than the other.

While Katniss was preoccupied with Ember, Effie walked over to the bowl for boys, and quickly pulled up a slip. Soon the boy's name rung out, Vittor Myle, a merchant. A merchant hadn't been picked since the 74th hunger games, when Peeta Mellark was picked, and before then it had been seven years since the last merchant was in. Everyone, but Katniss, watched in shock as the very handsome blonde seventeen year old boy strutted up on stage as if he was walking to buy milk, not towards his own death sentence.

"A merchant," Gale murmured, pulling Katniss out of her thoughts of Ember, and to the boy who with a huge smile shook Effie's hand. It was quite obvious that this pair was something out of the ordinary for the district, they were two people that didn't appear to think it was the end of their world to end up in the hunger games. No, these two people were happy to be there.

Once the doors shut behind the two of them the square seemed to be caught off guard, murmuring to each other and watching the shut doors with confusion. The smile on Vittor's lips were all that people were talking about, the laugh he gave just as the doors shut. No one seemed to have noticed Ember's small smile on the stage.

Prim walked towards them, away from the 15 year olds and straight into her arms. She wasn't the small little girl anymore, she was growing up and becoming a young woman that the boys around town would flirt with, a young woman who would smile and flirt back. That was something else that scared her, while at the same time there was a yearning for Prim to be eighteen. Katniss couldn't tuck her under her arm or comfort her as easily any longer, but she was getting closer to the end of reapings.

"I'm glad you're okay," Katniss whispered in Prim's ear, she had grown out of the endearments.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Prim asked with a glimmer in her eyes. They both feared the same thing, but it was easier not to acknowledge it until next year. One year at a time, that's what Gale had said to her the day of the third quarter quell reaping,. That year they made the two people from each district fight each other to death, and then sent the survivors into the arena. It had been hard to watch two people who had been neighbors have to kill each other, only to be sent to certain death after it. That year no one in the arena died without a kill. Apparently the Capitol had loved it.

"Come on, let's find Gale and Vick," she said. Though Prim was fifteen years old, and not a kid anymore, she still held Katniss' hand as they weaved through the crowd, where people still talking about Vittor's smile. Gale was standing with Vick, an arm around his shoulder and bowed down so that they could talk privately to each other.

Most who went through the reaping would be shaking in fear days after the reaping was over, the adrenaline rush never wanting to end. Those first few moments before it started to sink in that you were truly safe for another year were the worst part. Gale would always remember the feeling, shaky and weak, head spinning around. Some years were harder than others, and this year Vick's name had been entered five times, even though he was only fourteen and Gale had told him not to take a tesserae. Vick was stubborn, just like Gale.

"You're fine Vick, you're okay, do you want to come back to me and Katniss' house, she's managed to bake some bread that we can dip in soup," he whispered in his ear.. The bread was the usual tasteless flatbread, but with some soup to dip it into it wasn't too bad.

"Yeah," Vick answered weakly.

"Okay." Gale looked up from Vick and saw Katniss standing there with her sister. He knew she had no idea of the effect she had on people, how her strong willed personality, how it left people in awe of her, how beautiful she was. Sometimes he would catch other men looking at her, not with lust, but just a need to see her beauty a little longer. His pride, much too big his mother had always said, it swelled whenever he saw that, knowing that he's the one who gets to see her everyday. He was the one who got to see her freshly awake, in a grumpy mood, happy mood, somber mood, he got to see her when she was sick, when she slept, when she was naked and dressed, he got to see her writhing in pleasure, and got to meet her gaze as they made love during lazy Sunday mornings. Katniss would cut his balls off if he knew the pride he had over her, but it didn't stop it. That was yet another thing he was proud of, that he managed to find a woman who matched his fierceness. She still hadn't said she loved him, despite that in two weeks they would have been married for a year. Though he knew by the look in her eyes, the way she lit up when she saw him that she loved him.

"Vick is coming with us back to our house, you want to join us Prim?" he asked, and she nodded shyly. Prim was much different from Katniss, strong in an inviting way. She was much more aware and in tuned with her emotions than what Katniss was, who wouldn't know if she was angry or happy unless she thought about it for a while. Even in looks they were different, and sometimes it was hard to tell they were siblings.

They told their mother's that Vick and Prim were coming with them, and invited them along too, but they decided to head back to their own places to prepare dinner and rest themselves after the mental exhaustion that the reaping brought everyone with someone they knew in it.

From the square it wasn't too far to get to their house, it was much closer than the houses they grew up in, and it was a nice change since previous years the mental exhaustion along with the long walk made them all cranky, which tended to ruin the whole night.

While Katniss warmed the soup, the other's sat down by the empty fire place, the stifling heat had already arrived, and hopefully they wouldn't have to light the fire place again until September. Gale and Vick talked about school and mining with animated gestures, as Prim sat with a bored expression beside them. Vick was in a program at school, the same one Rory had been in, which put him on the fast track to get into the mine. It wasn't something Gale approved of, but he couldn't disprove of it either because it was one of the few ways a man could make money in the district. Few women were allowed down in the mines, because of pregnancies. The dust down there would harm the baby, they said, make it small and have many problems. No one ever knew of a time where women worked in the mines, so it must have been something they already knew of. Only women who were completely infertile were able to work down in the mines, and even then it was frowned upon. Katniss had no idea why, but it bugged her. Not that she ever wanted to work down in the mines.

She listened as the two of them talked about safety and how to work best without ruining your back. Too many men above forty in the district had troubles with their backs, and it only got worse with age, many were in excruciating pain the last years of their lives, becoming crippled and eventually bed bound. The young men in the district wanted to prevent this future the best they could, but the Capitol had little interest in providing with the help and knowledge needed for that.

Just as she pulled the pot off of the stove Prim brushed up by her with a smile on her face.

"I don't know what they're talking about," she said shyly, and Katniss could only smile back.

"Don't worry, we'll dictate the topics over lunch ," Katniss answered with a mischievous glimmer in her eyes. Prim's laughter was clear and light, eyes lighting up. The stress of the morning was starting to fade away, and slowly everyday life was coming back. She knew she would have to keep Gale preoccupied in the coming days, this was the first hunger games since his brother died, and she didn't know how he would react to it.

"Food," she called out to the boys on the floor. "And no more mine talk." She narrowed her eyes at Gale, who only chuckled.

In silence they broke up the bread in pieces, dipping it into the pot before eating it.

"You've been married a year soon," Prim said with a thoughtful expression on her face, looking at Katniss. "Most people who got married last summer have a baby now, or are about to have one."

"Not us," Katniss said quickly. They were always careful, still no slipups.

"They say in school that you have to," Prim said in a low voice. "Otherwise they might send you to the Capitol for committing a crime against the state."

"What?" both Katniss and Gale erupted.

"Unless you can prove that you can't have any kids," Vick mumbled.

"Which is hard to do," Prim protested. "You know… I would like to have a niece or nephew."

"We'll figure something out," Katniss said, staring at Gale. Prim looked between the two of them, confused as the two looked deep in thought. Inside Katniss was panicking, thinking about possible ways to prove that they cannot have a child, trying to get some reassurance from her husband that he had some idea. "There's always something we can do."

"Yeah," Gale said, but his throat was constricted. The fact that they seemed to have no choice angered him, he had no choice in having to put a child into this world, a child he might have to see be slaughtered in the same game his younger brother died in. He bowed his head, trying to conceal his anger from the other's, breathing heavily.

"Katniss…" Prim started to say, but stopped when Katniss refused to look at her, and kept staring at Gale.

"Gale, they can't prove… we can just say that we don't know." She scanned his face desperately, still clinging onto the hope that they could have a choice in this.

"We'll figure something out," he said, looking up at Katniss, taking her hand in his. "It's never hopeless." While it didn't reassure either of them, Katniss still let out a deep sigh of relief. They would at least try.

Prim looked at the two of them, wanting to share what she knew but unable to break them. She understood why they didn't want children, but at the same time she didn't. They had been taught from day one that children were something good, that it was what you were supposed to want and have, especially if you were a girl. They ingrained it into you, forced you to believe it, and Prim had swallowed it whole. No one had dared to say anything different, but the two people in front of her. Her sister's pale face betrayed her fear, and Prim thought of the mothers that would come to their house in agonizing pain, some of them bleeding out on the floor, some just giving up and slipping away. She remembered the women coming in cramping, and knowing that there was nothing to do but wait for them to die. Babies that got stuck… she understood, more than most she did understand not wanting children, but she didn't understand how they dared not to have one.

Katniss dipped her spoon in the soup and quickly ate to fill the silence that had spread at the table. Neither Gale nor Katniss looked up for much talking, so Prim and Vick started talking about the upcoming exams the next week. Vick's was mostly on mining, and Prim's was mostly on house chores and hygiene. Since women mostly took jobs close to home or in caretaking that was what they were taught in schools. Some women eventually got jobs as builders, but many of the men would refuse to let them in, and bullied them back into caretaking jobs, which made building a less desirable job for women.

Both of them were pretty confident that they would do well, because they were both interested in it. Katniss hadn't done well in any of the exams at school, and the only reason she knew how to do laundry was because Hazelle did a step-by-step guide for her to follow, which after a few months she had learnt by heart. Most other things she was hopeless with, like cleaning, or fixing torn clothes, how to cook the more complicated dishes, or how to properly change a baby's diaper. It was information that Katniss never found an interest in.

When the soup and bread was eaten Prim and Vick walked back home. Vick was probably going to meet a crying mother, the one year anniversary of Rory's death cutting close, and while Gale felt guilty sending him there, he needed alone time with his wife.

"Katniss." He reached out for her and pulled her into a hug. "We've managed it so far, okay?" he whispered into her ear.

"I've never heard of this before," she said. "Is it something new, and why haven't they told us?" She felt the tears of frustration well up in her eyes, anger at their hopeless situation blossomed up. It was unfair of them to demand them to put a child on this earth when it looked like this, she would feel too guilty if she gave birth to a child just to avoid being sent to the capitol as a criminal.

"It's probably something that they'll never do anything with, like the poaching laws, we're living proof of that those laws are nothing but words," he said. It was true, their district had many laws, and just as many of them weren't actually enacted.

"I'm still scared," she said. He nodded sadly, then giving her a quick reassuring peck on her lips.

"Somehow, we'll solve it, I promise."

I also wanted to mention, since I've noticed that there are quite a few younger people who follow this story, a few things about sex and why I've written it in a certain way.

Firstly, last chapter I didn't mention anything about a hymen and such because; there is no hymen. At least not in the way that we're taught about it. You don't "break" it, it is a fold that can tear a little if you aren't "wet" enough (hence why some girls bleed when losing their virginity). Also, while losing your virginity can be painful, it doesn't have to be. Get wet enough and it shouldn't be so painful. Advice I wish I would've had when I was going for it, but hey, at least some of you know it beforehand now hehe. You might still bleed even with enough lubrification, but you know... it doesn't HAVE to bleed.

And then with the "pull out" method, or coitus interuptus as slightly more prudish people than me say; not safe. If you are hellbent on practising it; the penis-person needs to pee before, so that all the semen that may be left in the uthera will be washed away and won't come out with the precum. With semen in the precum and you will probably get pregnant. However, semen may still come into the precum, and you may not always be able to pull out in time. The fact that Gale is able to in this story despite only having had sex once before is slightly unrealistic, however... it's fiction. But I felt the need to say this. If you use the pull-out correctly it MAY be as safe as a condom but you should NOT practise it when you are just starting out having sex (it's for the more experienced people) because that will be a recipe for disaster.

So, just needed to say this. If you have any questions about it just ask away. Also, the hymen thing... go on youtube and watch Laci Green's video on hymen. She may be quite problematic as a person, but that video provides a good explanation of it.

:)