Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games.
Review Reply to SleepAsSmallStars - Thanks for the review. If you have feedback for other stuff, tell me. It's useful to know where i'm going wrong. Admittedly, telling me in the middle of term is a bit tricky as i don't have time to do any writing but i always come back to feedback for future stuff!
Review Reply to GirlOnFire44 - Thanks for the reviews :)
Review Reply to Lane - I guess one thousand tributes would be a tad hard to name in the characters list ;) But i'm glad you liked the idea. Thanks for the review!
A/n: I know everyone has high expectations for Peeta so i don't know if this can match them. Nevertheless, i hope you enjoy.
34) Peeta Mellark - Volunteer
"Come on, Dad," the man says. "Leave her for a few hours and sit with us. We're worried."
"No, son," Peeta replies tiredly. "I promised to be with her, always."
"I think she'd let you have a few hours in the warm, Dad."
He shakes his head. "I can't leave her."
His son sits next to him. "Fine," he says in an easy tone, "then I'll sit with you and we can both freeze."
"Go inside, son."
"Not unless you do."
Despite himself, Peeta smiles. "You have your mother's determination."
The man smiles back. "Funny," he says. "She always said that I had your determination." He pauses and then adds, "And your ability to do stupid things for people I love."
Peeta doesn't reply. They stare at the coffin in silence.
The fact is: it isn't meant to be this way. Peeta Mellark is not supposed to be the last one of them all to die. After all the things he volunteered to do to save Katniss – joining the Careers, volunteering for the Quell, getting information to District 13, going on the final propos shoot – he wasn't supposed to lose her to old age! It doesn't make any sense. Surely, given all that he volunteered for, he should have died first.
But then, she was a volunteer too. Maybe that cancels it out and she was always supposed to die before him because she was from the Seam whereas he was from the town. He doesn't believe that though. He said that he would die to protect Katniss first. She originally planned to live whereas he planned to die. Maybe it's childish but he's always felt that this unspoken agreement (even though Katniss tried to reverse itmany times during the rest of their lives) is the valid one because it came first. She should be alive now. Not him.
And what happened to Gale and Annie and Johanna and all of these others? All of them, lost to illness and age. All these people who tried to survive are dead and he, death's volunteer, still lives.
It doesn't make any sense.
"Come on, Dad," his son says, breaking the silence. "You're turning blue."
He looks at his hand. So he is.
"No, son-"
"Would Mom really want you to freeze to death beside her body?" his son interrupts. Peeta is silent so he continues. "She'd want you to mourn her in a way which doesn't kill you."
There's some truth to that. Because Katniss and Peeta protected each other. That's what they did. That was Real when he was seventeen and it was Real when she died – sixty years after she said it. At the very least, she would be really angry if he gets himself killed by sitting out here. No matter how much he loved angry Katniss, it didn't mean he didn't try to avoid her in that state.
He gets up slowly. A look of relief flickers across his son's face as the young man (such a startling mix of himself and Katniss) holds his arm. He can't resist glancing back at her body. Then he begins to walk.
"I should have died first, you know," he mumbles as his son pulls him indoors.
"Of course not, Dad," his son replies. "She'd have killed you if you left her."