Since a few updates were late I'm updating this early. There have been quite a few questions asked that I don't want to answer yet, I'll answer them at the end of this story. I feel that knowing might ruin everything. However I will assure you that Vittor is a good guy, at least in my eyes. You'll have to be the judge of that yourself.
I also got a scare for a few days when I couldn't log onto the site. Luckily I got my account linked to my gmail a few weeks ago so I could go through that route. But I have another account that I use a live adress to that I can't access anymore. Something strange is going on.
Only a week before the 79th Victor's Tour began there was a knock on the door of their house in the Seam. Katniss opened the door, expecting to find her neighbor or one of her family members. Instead she found a muscular man dressed in the pristine white peacekeeper's uniform, staring down at her behind the glass that shielded his face.
"We are doing an inspection ma'm, we're looking for weapons, do not interfere with the search in anyway, or we will detain everyone in this household " he said. Katniss halted immediately, knowing that she was in possession of weapons, but relaxed when she quickly reminded herself that she kept her bow in the woods for a reason. They hadn't even been to the fence since before Talon was born, the walk too long and always disappointing. There was no reason to venture that way, anymore.
"Okay," she said, reluctantly stepping aside to let him in. "Please be quiet, my son is asleep," she begged him. It didn't seem to bother him though, he walked with heavy feet around the small house, checking cupboards, cracks in the floor, the looser floor boards.
While he looked she glanced out of the window and saw peacekeepers milling the street, and in the house across from hers she could see a peacekeeper, as well. Inspection of every household to look for weapons. Were they worried of an uprising in the district, people rebelling against them, or was it just to instill fear and prove to them how much power they had?
She glanced up the stairs, Gale was still asleep due to the early morning. The sky was still dark, sunrise was about half an hour away, and the only reason that she had heard the knock was because she had a hard a hard time falling asleep after Talon woke up, as he usually did, in the middle of the night. She wished she could go up and wake Gale up, but she was sure that was not allowed.
Without asking the peacekeeper went up the stairs, and soon after she could hear Gale swear in confusion and her son let out a cry in protest. Soon Gale was calming him down. She listened quietly to the sounds from upstairs. There were quiet murmurs, sounds she suspected came from Gale, and Talon was nattering about something.
After a few minutes the peacekeeper returned downstairs, glaring at her. Maybe they had hoped to find weapons in here, they knew that Gale and her used to hunt, but it had been years. Surely they didn't believe that they kept their weapons in the house, anyway?
"The house is clear, but be warned, if we have any suspicions that illegal activity is going on in this house, we will detain you without questioning," the peacekeeper said. Katniss nodded numbly, not doubting his words at all. The peacekeeper looked towards the stairs. "It's also come to my attention that you've been married for three and a half years, but only given birth to one child, I highly suggest another child soon, or you will be brought in for questioning and examinations."
The peacekeeper left her there, stunned.
It was the first threat, in all the years that they had been married, this was the first time she had received a warning about children. Before it was hearsay, gossip, something that could be ignored. But a peacekeeper muttering it to her in her household, with the underlying threat of consequences, that wasn't something that could be ignored.
Numbly she climbed the steps up towards Gale and her son, who were still in bed. Talon was climbing all over Gale to get onto the mattress, where he started jumping on it while laughing wholeheartedly.
"What did they say?" Gale asked when he saw her pale face. She smiled tightly and patted her son's back, trying to draw out the answer that didn't want to form on her tongue. But he needed to know.
"We need to have another baby, Gale, one child in four years of marriage isn't enough." Her voice was thick.
"Okay," Gale said, slowly sitting up to face her. He reached out and touched her cheek. "Katniss, we can do it, another baby like Talon, look at him, that would be amazing." The two of them watched their son as he kept himself busy, sliding off of the bed to run towards the corner where a few homemade toys were laying.
"It doesn't matter anyway," she said, feeling the tears press against the back of her eyes. "I don't think our pregnancy prevention is working that well." Tears started rolling down her cheeks, betraying her otherwise calm expression.
"You're pregnant?" he asked, she only answered with a nod. "Since when?"
"My period is almost a week late, I'm already feeling nauseous…" They looked at their son playing in the corner. "By the end of the summer he'll be a big brother."
Knowing that she was pregnant this time, she understood the signs of pregnancy that kept coming. This time the nausea was the most prominent symptom that sometimes had her throwing up multiple times a day. With her pregnancy with Talon she had never thrown up, just had strong bouts of nausea. It was hard to keep her pregnancy hidden when she was for big parts of the day shoving her head down Vittor's toilet.
When Vittor congratulated her she felt confusion. Didn't he, of all people, understand why you wouldn't want to have a child in a country like theirs? Especially since the day he found out was the day the Victory Tour began in their district. However, he still had a smile on his face, and hugged her like it was the best thing that had happened that year. Maybe it was because he was a Merchant, he did not understand the hardships of growing up in the Seam, but he too was a part of the reaping, he even went into the hunger games. The Capitol had stolen his carefree smile, the glimmer in his eyes, yet when she told him that she was pregnant he was happy, ecstatic.
Maybe all that he could see was a toddler, not a child that would be reaped?
The morning of the arrival of the winner from district four she helped Vittor get ready. He would be attending the dinner afterwards, one she would help serve due to her maid position. There were shortages of maids in the district, due to it being so small, and the ones who can afford a maid were far fewer. That meant that there were only two houses that had servants, and the rest had maids. It would give all the maid's a nice bonus in their pockets, too.
"Are you nervous?" Vittor asked as both of them got ready to leave for the festivities. Despite feeling like a mess, she shook her head. "Liar."
"Come on, let's go," she said. Talon was with Gale that day, which she was thankful for. "We're going to be late."
The square was crowded when they got there, and if Vittor hadn't been a previous victor he would have remained on the side streets watching everything on the big screen with her. He left her standing at the back of the crowd, which she was thankful for since big crowds didn't ease her nausea, and then weaved through the throngs of people.
At the back of the crowd was where children played, those too small to understand or be able to stand still. They ran up and down the streets, playing with random objects that they could find and some were fighting over their toys while mother's watched carefully. She wondered on what street Gale was on with Talon, and if Talon was playing happily by himself, like he usually was, or if he'd be sharing with someone. Most probably he was inspecting the cold wet snows that was lying in drifts up against the buildings. She missed her son, she thought.
The victor did his speech, and soon after the crowd started to disperse. While most were making their way from the justice building, she started walking towards it. She got to the back entrance rather quickly and was let in by the janitor who was assigned to let the right people in.
The food that was served was in quantities she had never seen before. While she recognized most of the dishes she thought the way they were served seemed far too extravagant, and unnecessary to do with food that would soon be eaten, anyway.
She was told who to serve, the victor's mentor and one of his stylists, and their placing. It was important to give the right dish to the right person, and that everyone knew where they were going to avoid confusion that would reflect badly on the district. Of course, Katniss didn't understand how, but there was no reason to ask questions.
At the end of the dinner everyone from district four, along with the notables from district twelve, were mingling. That meant that Katniss, and the other serves' jobs were to walk around with trays of drinks in their hand. Only half of them were needed to do this, while the other half kept clearing off the room and keeping it clean. Katniss was one of the girls with a tray.
When she walked by the male mentor, Finnick, from four he stopped her, wearing a sly smirk on his face.
"Excuse me, I have a few questions," he said, and she eyed him carefully.
"Okay," she said, deciding that he wasn't intending any harm.
"How come a district this small always have so many servers around?" He sounded amused.
"Most of us are maids," she said.
"Ah, that explains it, you're a maid too?" she nodded. "Fascinating." The tone of his voice betrayed that he did not think it was fascinating at all. "You must be Vittor's maid then," he said.
"How did you know?" Her eyebrows furrowed.
"There are certain things a person of my position must know." He took a glass from her tray and took a sip of the liquid, while giving her a wink. "If you could describe him in three words, and be honest because I won't tell on you, what would they be?"
"Why are you asking?" He sighed.
"It's important for me to know who I am surrounding myself with," he said.
"He's kind, generous and… I guess sad," she answered honestly. Finnick nodded, a tight smile on his lips.
"Thank you…"
"Katniss."
"Thank you, Katniss, your help has been greatly appreciated." With that the handsome victor from four walked away from her, a small spring in his steps. She was slightly confused, but suspected that maybe people were different in other districts, maybe they had different social codes?
Being pregnant while taking care of a toddler was much different than being pregnant without one. When she was pregnant with Talon she could take a break at the end of the day, sleep the whole night, and go to the bathroom as often as she pleased. Talon made that difficult. She knew that it was much better than spending the rest of her life in prison, though.
Her stomach grew, jutting out and revealing itself to the world sooner than it had done with Talon, something her mother explained could happen when you're having your second child. It was not something she enjoyed, it was exactly the opposite. She remembered the stares, looks and the people who would come up to talk to her randomly from when she was pregnant with Talon, and she wasn't looking forward to that happening again. She hoped that she would be spared the gruesome stories this time when she was walking with a toddler next to her. She'd experienced child birth already, so she didn't need the horrible stories that people wanted to tell her. Not that she needed them before, either.
It didn't stop them, however, it only made them want to share birth stories, and stories of the grueling nights of the newborn period. No matter how disinterested Katniss made herself look, seem, or how little she contributed to the conversations, people still kept them going until she swore to Gale that she wasn't going to go into town again until she had this baby. He would have to run the errands.
Prim turned eighteen in March, and Katniss couldn't believe that her baby sister was getting so big. Had it been six years since her first reaping? Her heart constricted as she thought of what Prim had ahead of her. While being an adult was nothing like being a tribute in the hunger games, it was far from easy and she dreaded seeing her sister go through with it. But, Prim wanted what the Capitol wanted them to have; a husband, children; a quiet life. So maybe adulthood would be easier for her, easier to accept.
In only a few weeks, right after the reaping, she would marry her boyfriend, Jonah, and move into a Merchant house, just where she belonged, leaving their mother behind in an empty house.
Katniss wanted to both thank and strangle Jonah. Thank him for getting Prim out of the Seam, and strangle him for taking her sister away from her, and ending her childhood. In her eyes Prim would always be twelve years old with two braids in her hair and her shirt sticking out from her skirt. Her duck. But soon there would only be one Everdeen left, the daughters of the household taking their husband's name and giving their children them, as well.
She sat in her childhood home next to her sister, one arm wrapped around her shoulder after they finished dinner, listening to her mother's stories of how Prim was like as a baby, and how Katniss reacted to becoming an older sister after four years of being an only child. She didn't like sharing her mother and father with anyone, and had asked her parents if they were really sure that they needed another child. And yes, they were completely sure to Katniss' dismay.
She wondered how Talon would react to being an older brother, he was so young so he hadn't gotten used to being an only child yet.
"Maybe next year I'll have a baby," Prim said smiling as she waved Katniss off, but Katniss couldn't share her happiness. Her baby sister was much too young to be a mother, in Katniss' eyes, Katniss was twenty when Talon was born and that was young enough. Her sister becoming a mother at eighteen or nineteen was scary. While she was more nurturing, always drawn to children and caretaking, she was still so young in Katniss' mind. It was scary to let go of the image of Prim as a child and get used to the idea of her as an adult. She wasn't ready for it, but she had to be.
Her wedding was in thirteen weeks.
The closer the summer came, the more often Vittor would travel to the Capitol. He seemed to be torn between trepidation and excitement over each trip, as if he was unsure if he was happy or scared about going. The smiles that had started to grow less over the years started to return more and more after each trip, despite the looming three month stay in the Capitol that would leave him almost feeling dead inside. Katniss liked it, Talon loved it. He found a playmate in Vittor that almost made him equal to his parents. Almost. Because when he fell and hurt himself he always ran to his mom or dad for comfort. That made it a little more okay for Katniss, she could handle him getting his independency and finding playmates elsewhere as long as her son returned to her, and sought comfort in her. As long as he didn't turn her away.
Katniss' favorite part about being pregnant was the sex. When she was pregnant with Talon she hadn't felt an increase or decrease in her need for it, but with this baby she craved her husband all the time. She loved how he pressed up against her, holding her close, and she loved the intimacy of him not having to pull out, just keep himself inside of her as he orgasmed. It made everything so much better, so much more incredible. They didn't have to worry, or fear anything
Pregnancy was much easier to handle when she knew what to expect, more or less. She knew that it was going to get heavy, that the kicks were going to hurt, that it would hurt. To be prepared made it manageable. And Katniss liked things manageable.
"What do you say, mister, is it a boy or a girl this time?" she asked Gale. He was spooning her and pressing his hand over a spot that the baby favored to kick.
"Girl," he said.
"What about you Talon, boy or girl?"
"Boy," Talon said, matter-of-factly.
"Hm, I guess it'll be a surprise then," Katniss mused.
"You're not going to guess?" Gale poked her in her side, where she was ticklish. She jerked away from him giggling.
"No, I'll be wrong anyway," she said, sulking.
"So say what you don't think then."
"Boy, then."
"I knew you'd think it was a girl too!"
"Shut up, Gale."
"Suddup!" Talon mimicked. Katniss put a hand in front of her mouth to stop herself from laughing.
"You taught our son to swear." Gale let out a hearty laugh. "I always thought that would be my fault."
"Oh, you have plenty of time to teach him more bad words, so I'm not worried," she teased him. Talon grew impatient of their bickering and decided to crawl up on his mother and rest his head against her stomach, poking the baby inside, laughing when he got a small poke back.
Some of you guessed it. She got pregnant again! It was sort of obvious maybe, but I've been smiling every time someone mentioned it in a review. So. Next chapter: 80th Hunger Games. What will the 80th year bring us? Hmm.
I've written the epilogue now, so there's definitely going to be one. A teaser: it's in 1st person. Might answer a few questions you've had during this story? *secretive laugh*
Next update will be on Sunday. Morning shifts = easier to update.