This AU fic was inspired by the brilliant work of aimmyarrowshighin "Five Loaves of Bread: Dark Toast". .net/s/7294215/1/Five_Loaves_of_Bread_Dark_Toast

This isn't a collaboration or co-written piece, just my spin on a possible continuation of that story that I loved dearly. Takes place three months after the aim's story ends.

(While you're at it, read "Dark Toast" and everything else aimmyarrowshigh has written. They're awesome. For real.)

Victory

She sat on her couch, knees pulled to her chest, eyes on her kneecaps. Maybe he'd run out of clean clothes and have to come back again. She could take the crutch and force him to stay. Cruel,butpractical,she thought.

But it was getting late. And he wasn't coming. She'd have to go to him. He had to know she didn't know about the fourth child. And he had to know she couldn't give up.

She laced her boots tighter than comfortable and pulled on her coat. She shut the door and looked at his name on the door, gathering her courage.

Turning, she marched across the circle center, grateful the dark hid her from prying eyes. She practiced what she'd say, how she'd apologize, how she'd make him come home with her. How she'd duck and run if Johanna opened the door with a knife. She counted her steps, willing each foot forward. She was so engrossed in her thoughts she didn't see the person heading right towards her until she bumped right into her.

"Oh, excuse me," Katniss mumbled, moving to step around.

"Private Everdeen. Out so late?"

Katniss froze and turned to the voice. "Coin."

Her trainer smiled at her. "Glad to see your wounds are healing-"

"I should kill you!" Katniss growled, lurching at her and making Coin jump back. "You told Peeta and Johanna that Gale and I were sleeping together! They think we were having an Affair!"

"I told them the truth," Coin smirked, standing her ground. "I don't see I'm in the wrong."

"We were sleeping!"

"Not in the guard tower."

It felt like a punch in the stomach. Of course she had seen. She and Haymitch were awake and fully dressed when she saw them that night. Coin had probably been watching them to make sure they didn't fall asleep. She had seen her kiss Gale.

"That was nothing. And none of your business."

"Oh drop it, you stupid girl," Coin snapped, shaking off her strained smile. "What's wrong with you? Do you know how many sacrifices have been made for this victory? I haven't seen my own children in a over a year and my mother endangers her life to care for them!"

Katniss swallowed hard. She could barely see through her rage.

Alma Coin continued barraging her. "Your father has risked his life for years trying to take down the system that did this to us. And you're not even going to give his vision a chance."

"It's his vision! It's your wish! It's my life!" Katniss screamed. Her voice hit the facades of the houses around her. Lights clicked on in a few of the houses, but she didn't care.

"This is my life you're screwing with! Gale's family you're ruining! My husband risked his life to help you, is that not enough? If you're so damned set on freedom, let us have what we want!"

Coin glowered at her. "Haymitch was right after all. You are an ungrateful bitch."

As it turned out, Haymitch was a better trainer. Coin didn't see the punch coming until it caught her in the right cheekbone. She stumbled backward and placed a hand on her stunned face. Katniss panted, surprised at herself but secretly very pleased. Until Coin came back at her.

She hit Katniss in the ribs and again near her left eye before Haymitch reached them, shouting at Coin to back off and pulling her away from Katniss' scratching hands.

"Coin, that's enough!" he yelled, yanking her back.

"You're the enemy!" Coin spat at Katniss. "You and Hawthorne might as well have fought for the Capital!"

"Alma, stop it," Haymitch hissed. "People are listening." He released her but left a firm hand on her upper arm. Katniss kept her eyes locked on her.

"Fine," Coin said, calming herself and smoothing her jacket. "She's not worth it anyway."

Haymitch eyed Katniss, then pulled Coin away with him as they left.

Katniss finally looked around. A number of civilians were looking out of their windows; some were standing in their doorways.

Peeta was standing outside watching her.

She locked eyes with him. This had not been part of her prepared speech. She thought she ought to say something. She opened her mouth, but no words came.

He furrowed his brow in thought, and limped back inside Johanna's (Gale's) cabin. Through the window she saw Johanna moving to him, her mouth moving impatiently and her eyes insistent. She lost view of them as they stepped away from the grimy window.

"Katniss!" Winze and Donnel were hurrying over to her. "Are you all right?" her father asked.

"What was that all about?" asked Winze.

Katniss didn't answer. Gale was inside the window of his father's tenement. She met his eyes and gave a small shrug. He smiled a proud little smile at her and turned away. She nodded back ever so slightly. She looked back to her father.

"Just something I had to do," she sighed, and walked back to her cabin alone.

She saw Dr. Aurelius and Haymitch helping Peeta up the stairs to the first of two rows of chairs set up on the left side of the stage set up in their meager village center. The government takeover was due to be televised in just 15 minutes. Reporters and videographers swarmed about, setting up lights and microphones. Soldiers checked each other's uniforms and straightened their lapels. She moved over to where her father stood, watching Peeta ascend.

"You're putting him on display," she said, not sure if it was a question or statement.

Donnel turned around, beaming. "He's a hero."

"You want me to leave him in front of everyone."

Donnel opened his mouth, then closed it again. She looked at him, unwavering, demanding the truth.

"I…I did want that. For a long time."

"He doesn't deserve that."

"I know. He saved my life in the Capital."

"What?"

Donnel turned back. "When we got into the President's service kitchen, there was a bodyguard we didn't anticipate in there. Probably just there for a midnight snack, really. He must have heard us and was crouched behind a counter. Peeta saw him before I did. Got in the way and took a butcher knife to the leg."

She looked over to her Spouse as Haymitch gripped his shoulder and said something to him she couldn't hear. She felt her father watching her.

"Katniss," Donnel began. "My Contract was not like yours. Your mother is a wonderful person, and I was incredibly fortunate to have two amazing daughters with her. But she never loved me. She couldn't. She knew love with someone else." He sighed. "And no Contract can change that."

"I love him, Dad."

"I can see that," he smiled. "Katniss, I want you to be happy. On your own terms. Not the Capital's, not Peeta's and most of all, not mine."

"Then why did you let Coin lie to him?"

"I didn't tell her to lie."

"Then you didn't tell her not to."

She had wounded him. "I. I –" he stuttered. "I thought…I thought I was helping. You were so frightened when you got here, so dependent. I thought you need a push. To make a choice."

She looked at her father closely. She struggled to remember the last time they were together.

It would have been five years ago. She would be eleven; Prim seven. Still small enough to dance on his toes as their mother sang. Two small girls against a system designed to hurt them. She considered herself in his place. Then Peeta. "I know you did. But I'm not afraid anymore. And I need you trust me that I know what makes me happy."

He smiled at her. "You have your mother's grace. I'm glad you're not all me, Katniss."

A trumpet blast made them both jump. "It's time to start," he announced, and climbed the stairs.

She moved to sit next to Peeta, but an attendant pointed Katniss to a spot next to where Gale was settling on the opposite right side of the stage. She gave Donnel a look of disappointment, but he gave her a helpless shrug in return. The seats next to Peeta filled with soldiers from the first wave, Winze, and Chaff. Deflating, she sat next to Gale and the scouts who defended the base. Peeta glanced over and she met his gaze before he quickly looked away and down. She was about to call to him when Gale brushed her arm.

"There are the twins, Petiole and Auger," he whispered, pointing to Johanna in front of the stage next to Finnick and Annie. She was holding a sleeping child in each arm, circles under her eyes from anxiety. Ash fidgeted next to her and Annie shushed him quietly. Johanna looked sharply towards where Gale and Katniss were sitting, then away and pressed her lips together.

"Lucky those kids got her looks," Haymitch's voice intruded from behind as he joined them on stage. "That older kid's gonna get stuck looking like you."

Gale glared at him. Katniss glanced back at the empty chair behind her. She hoped bitterly Coin's absence was a direct order.

Donnel cleared his throat and Katniss saw he'd walked to the center of the stage in front of the cameras. Little red lights were popping up on their displays and she realized they must be recording. She suddenly felt very self-conscious and wondered if she had smoothed her hair or checked her teeth recently. Her fingers brushed the pale purple bruise by her eye that makeup didn't quiet obscure. She fondly wondered what Cinna would have said at the devolvement of her looks.

"Today is a new day in Panem," Donnel began in a clear, cool voice. "The old ways of Dictatorship and Decadence in the Capital crushing the Poverty of the Districts is over. Today we are equal. Today we are free."

A cheer went up from the crowd gathering at the foot of the stage. Donnel tried to calm it, but it went on and on. Katniss forced a smile for the cameras. Her mind was racing. She looked across at Peeta. He was looking back at her.

"Today is a day when I can stand up here with heroes – " Donnel gestured to the group of soldiers and Peeta on his left " – and family." His arm swept to Katniss' group.

"This is what we fought for. Our right to know ourselves. I am proud to say I fought and won for the freedom of my daughters." The audience cheered again.

Donnel turned to Katniss and held out his hand, gesturing for her to join him in the center of the stage. Alarm jolted through her. She stood shakily and took uneven steps toward her father. He caught her hand and took a few steps towards the back of the stage with her.

"I'm so sorry, Katniss," he whispered, ducking his mouth to her ear while an attendant brought forth a pack of papers and handed them to Donnel. "We planned it this way. I should have told you. If you want me to take care of it, just nod." Katniss looked at the papers unblinking, wondering they looked so familiar. Donnel was eyeing her carefully, as though judging her reaction. She couldn't offer one. He raised the papers in the air.

"We recovered these from the main Justice Building. These are the Contracts for this year, for all of Panem. We've destroyed their databanks, but these are the symbol of a system that cost far too many people…far too many children…their freedom."

Katniss found terror. Her Contract to Peeta was somewhere in the thick stack in her father's hand.

Two attendants brought a large shallow metal barrel up on the stage. Donnel dumped the papers into the bin. He pulled a small ornate lighter from his pocket.

He turned to Katniss, the lighter cupped in his hand. She met his eyes. He was trying to see what she wanted him to do. She didn't know the answer.

"I stand here with my daughter, Katniss Everdeen, to demonstrate the end of this terrible era," Donnel stalled, searching for what to do if she didn't respond.

She looked down at the contracts and saw the names of the Spouse on the form on top. AdelaideCartwrightandThreshHaselwood.She reached down and picked up the paper, remembering Delly's sweet smile. The crowd had fallen silent, watching her. She wondered where Delly was right now. If she was watching her. If she was happy. If she was holding a little child just like Ash in her lap while Tresh sat beside her.

She looked at the next Contract. MargaretUnderseeandCatoJunius.

She dropped Delly's back on the pile and picked up the next, her fist shaking. She brushed her thumb over Madge's name tenderly. She took the lighter from Donnel's hand. A call for her to burn the Contracts went up from the back of the audience, and others joined in sporadically. She looked out over the sea of faces. She looked over and saw Johanna's red eyes. Gale's downcast eyes. She turned to look at Peeta; his face distorted in pain. She offered him a sorrowful smile.

She looked down at the next page on the pyre. She swallowed hard and picked it up.

She took a step to the edge of the stage and spoke.

They couldn't hear her the first time she said it. So she repeated it again. They started to quiet down, seeing her lips move but not hearing her. The cheering died away as they strained to hear her words.

"It's Mellark. Katniss…Everdeen…Mellark."

She could hear the breeze crackling dry branches. The remaining snow crystals scraped along the barren ground. The attendees were looking back and forth at one another, confused. She held up the paper clenched in her fist.

"This is the Contract for my friend Madge. Margaret Undersee. The Girl on Fire." She heard the tears in her voice, wishing she was calm as this was broadcast all over Panem. "She gave her life for what she believed. And she gave me the courage to fight. I wish she was here so I could this for her. But now I do this in honor of her."

She lit the page and held it aloft. It caught and burned. She let it fall on the stage in front of her, blackening and curling into oblivion.

She raised her other hand. "And this is mine."

The crowd fell silent and she heard Donnel's sharp intake of air behind her. She touched Peeta's name on the page and smiled. "I don't need it anymore. The only thing binding me to my husband is that I love him. That's all we need now."

A murmur went up with hesitant applause as she lit the page and turned. She dropped it into the batch of papers. They went up in a blaze.

She turned back. "We do have a choice now," she smiled. "Whoever you are, wherever you are. You don't need these papers to tell you anything."

She heard a chair scrape to her right and she looked over her shoulder. Gale was standing up, his eyes on his wife. He took the few short steps to the edge of the stage and hopped down to embrace a tearful Johanna. The cameras had turned to them. He whispered something in her ear. She nodded and smiled weakly. He picked up Ash and took Petiole from her and they left the gathering.

She looked down at the reporters swarming the foot of the stage. Moving quickly, she swiped a black ink pen from the closest journalist and walked back to Peeta. She held out her wrist to him to reveal where she was marked as his.

D:0 C:C MELLARK STYLIST

She blacked it out as best she could with the pen. She turned slowly to Peeta, frightened and hopeful. She handed him the pen. He took it gingerly.

"You said you would have chosen me before. Would you do it again?" she asked timidly.

"You don't have to do this," he whispered, his nose and ears turning pink as everyone stared.

"I can't be me without you," she begged.

She held her arm out to him and he searched her face.

"I really won't ever give up," she said seriously.

He finally smiled. "Well, if you're going to threaten me…" she half-laughed, half-sobbed with relief as he moved the pen to her wrist and wrote his name in his fat, loopy signature.

She gave him a toothy grin, tears of joy sneaking from her eyes. She grabbed the pen from his hand and pulled his coat sleeve up to reveal his tattoo.

D:0 C:C MELLARK BAKER

She scrubbed over the tattoo with the pen as best she could with her impatience. And in her childish, sloppy handwriting, she wrote her name across his wrist. When she was finished, she threw the pen in the general direction of its owner and wrapped her arms around him.

There was a wave of rather confused applause from the surrounding audience, unsure of what everything they had just seen meant.

Katniss opened her eyes and looked up at her father on the stage and mouthed "Thank you". She took Peeta's hand and led him away from the ceremony as Donnel started on the New Articles of Legislation.

She pushed open the door to the house labeled "Mellark" a short while later and Peeta followed slowly. She closed the door behind them.

He stood by the table, taking in the room. She suddenly felt excitedly anxious again, like a newlywed. Their life in the Capital seemed so far away.

"Did you want some water? Or tea?" she asked, fidgeting.

"Was it for me or for the cameras?" Peeta spun quickly, frantic for an answer.

"What?"

"Did you do this for me? Or did someone put you up to it? Katniss, I have to know. I'm so confused. Your dad told me so many things, and Coin said…I didn't want to hear any of it, I just…"

"I love you."

He breathed in and out deeply.

"I don't ever want you to go away ever again."

He closed his eyes. His body seemed to let go of the tension he carried.

"I want you to go upstairs to bed with me."

He opened his eyes back up. "Katniss-"

"I really, really want to."

She felt like it was their first night again. A second chance. But this time, she was ready.

He was nervous and self-conscious, trying to keep his wounded side away from her. She pulled him close, not letting him hide anything from her. Scars patterned his arms, but his torso was still smooth with fine blond hairs. He flinched when she let her fingers explore the difference between his metal and plastic leg and his skin. She bent down and kissed the joint between the two, loving all of him.

She laid him back on the bed and pulled his underwear off to leave him stripped before her. She yanked off her dress and underclothes and lay on top of him, kissing him deeply and feeling their bare skin touch.

She peppered his face with kisses and let her tongue trace along his chest as she slid down his body. He lifted his head in anticipation to watch her kiss his stomach, peek up and grin at him, then slip down to take him in her mouth.

He swore as he exhaled and arched up against her. She licked up and down, sliding her mouth over him and listening to him moan. Her fingers slipped through the soft curls near her mouth, and they tickled her cheeks. His breathing grew rapid and he started to squirm. She couldn't wait anymore either.

She released him and climbed up over him. The skin of his nose and ears were flushing red and had started to spread over his chest. She felt her own skin burning like she was on fire. Straddling his hips, she reached down and guided herself to him.

The pressure was more delicious than she remembered. She tried to move leisurely, but she wanted to take him all. She lowered herself down slowly, letting him fill her. She moaned and watched his eyes fill with lust. She couldn't wait and started rocking her hips back and forth. She leaned forward and put her hands on his chest for leverage and he seized her hips, moving her harder and faster.

She let cries of pleasure escape her lips and she ground down harder, wanting more and more. Sweat broke out on her forehead and she saw Peeta panting below her.

He sat up and flipped her over, firmly holding her hips to his and landing on top of her on the bed, driving himself deeper inside her. He started moving faster now, and dropped his thumb to massage where they were joined. She felt the dam inside her breaking, but she wasn't afraid of the thing coming to overtake her. She shouted his name and dropped her legs open, letting him entirely inside her as she rode out the surge, shuddering and shaking. She felt the deep, rough thrusts and heard him groan her name before he lowered himself on top of her to rest. He was heavy on her, and she was grateful he was there to keep her from floating away.