Chapter 1

"Dad, tell me how you met Mom."

"Oh, come on, Rose! Enough of the childish stories! We're not kids anymore!"

Rose Mellark shot a look at her younger brother. "I don't care. I'm sure that Dad is glad to tell me how he and Mom met!"

Peeta Mellark sighed while his teenaged children bickered.

"Tahmo, why don't you go and cut up some fire wood?" Peeta asked.

"No thanks," Tahmo, Rose's brother, said. Peeta raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, fine," Tahmo sighed. He got up from his wooden stool and stomped out the door.

"So, Dad. Will you tell me how you two met?" Rose asked, her eyes shining. Some clearer memories came into Peeta's head as he remembered about the games. No, he told himself. We can't tell her. We can't ever tell her about the games. I promised that to Katniss.

"It's a pretty simple story," Peeta lied. "It was a really long time ago. I was being beaten by my mom and she told me to go throw some burnt bread to our pigs—because we owned a bakery—while I was about to throw the bread to the pigs, I saw you mother huddled up against a tree. She looked so hungry, so I threw her a piece of bread.

"That wasn't really the first time we met. It was more like the first time she noticed me," her dad finished.

"That's a sweet story," Rose said. "How did you get married?"

"We just began to go out and soon enough we fell in love. Just a normal love story."

"That's not normal. That's unique," Rose said. Peeta grinned.

"I guess so," he said. He gave his daughter a hug and jumped up when they heard a door slam open and then closed.

"Katniss?"

Katniss looked over at Peeta who was sitting on the sofa with Rose.

"Where were you?" Peeta wondered.

"Mom!" Rose exclaimed, running into Katniss's arms. "We saw them take you away! I was so scared!"

Katniss hugged Rose tightly, then sat down next to Peeta, giving him a hug and a kiss on his cheek.

"I'm really sorry about that," Katniss said. "I was frightened, too. But President Gale wanted to talk with me."

"About what?" Rose wondered.

"Things in our district," Katniss replied. Peeta knew that she was lying, but Katniss gave him an I'll-tell-you-later look.

"Why would he snatch you away like that?" Rose asked.

"I don't know," Katniss replied. "But it won't happen again."

"Mom?"

Tahmo stood in the doorway with logs in his hands. He dropped the logs and run up to Katniss, throwing his arms around her.

"You're back," he said.

"Yeah, I am," Katniss replied. "I just had a meeting with President Gale, that's all."

"That must have been some meeting," Tahmo snorted. "He must have been talking about kidnapping more people."

Peeta ruffled his 14 year old son's dark brown hair. "You think so?"

"Sure, Dad."

The 4 of them laughed.

"Come on, Tahmo. Let's go hunting," Rose said, twisting her golden hair into a braid, tying it off with twine.

"Alright," Tahmo replied, grabbing an old, slightly rusted hunting knife from the mantel. Rose grabbed her old, wooden bow and arrow set. Slipping the quiver onto her shoulder, the brother and sister ran out the back door, silently charging towards the woods.

#####

A lot had passed since Katniss and Peeta got married. More people came to live back in District 12. But it was still peaceful with only 30 families living there.

Katniss and Peeta fixed up Katniss's childhood house and lived in it. It was big enough for their family.

Katniss and Peeta gave their victor houses to some people to live in temporarily while their houses were being rebuilt.

As time flew by, District 12 began to grow stronger and bigger. More people were moving back by the months. It wasn't the same old peace that Katniss used to have. Sometimes she missed it, but now she knew that her home was growing back. And that was good.

#####

"Look at that hare," Tahmo whispered, pointing to a large hare nibbling at the ground. As quiet as air, Rose knelt to the ground, silently pulling her arrow back with her bow string. Concentrating on the animal, the 16 year old girl targeted it. When she was about to release the arrow, the hare zoomed off at a loud sound. Fury flushed in Rose's face. She jumped back up, shooting angry looks all over the area. Finally her eyes fell on a tall, laughing boy. Rose recognized that boy as Gayo Comic, a boy at her small school.

"Gayo!" Rose exclaimed. She always hated Gayo so much. He was obnoxious, rude, and a bully. Rose wanted to shoot him right there. She pulled back her arrow in her bow and aimed it at Gayo.

"What are you doing?" Tahmo hissed. Rose just winked. Tahmo understood.

"You better get out of here, Gayo," Rose smirked. At first sight of the arrow pointed his way, Gayo darted off in fear.

When he was out of sight, Rose lowered her bow. Her and Tahmo laughed.

"Good one," Tahmo chuckled. Rose grinned.

"Thanks." She stood up. "We better get home. Gayo probably scared every animal back into their dens."

Tahmo giggled. "Come on."

Together, they walked home.

#####

"Rue! Rue, don't leave! Stay with me! Please!"

Rue runs in the opposite direction, taking an arrow to her skin. Katniss runs over to Rue who is covered in blood.

"It's all your fault, Katniss," Rue hisses. "IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!"

"NO!"

Katniss jumped up in her bed. Immediately Peeta put his arms around her.

"Not real," he whispered. Katniss nodded, wiping her cheek. But to her surprise, there were no tears.

"I'm okay," Katniss said, lying back down. She felt Peeta turn to face her. Katniss turned around to face him.

"You haven't had a nightmare in a while," Peeta said. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Katniss replied. Even though it was dark, Katniss saw Peeta raise an eyebrow.

"You haven't told me about you meeting with Gale yet," he said.

Katniss groaned. "I was hoping you wouldn't ask."

"But I did," Peeta smiled. "And that's why you had a nightmare, right?"

Katniss sighed. "Gale is starting up the games again."

Peeta sat up in shock. "What?"

Katniss sat up. "He said he wants to make me suffer because he killed-he killed…Prim."

There are the tears, Katniss thought. Peeta put his arms around her again.

"He's going to have Rose in the games next year," she sniffed.

"Hey, it's okay," Peeta whispered, trying to comfort her.

"No it's not!" Katniss snapped, surprising herself. She could have woken up the kids. Seeing hurt in Peeta's eyes, she laid her head on his shoulder.

"I don't want her to die like Prim did," Katniss sobbed. "And I don't want Gale to become like Snow, because if he does, our lives won't be ours anymore."

"No, they will still be ours," Peeta reassured her. "He will never control us, even if he tries. We've been through so much that Gale couldn't do anything to us."

"Thanks, Peeta," Katniss mumbled.

"For what?"

"Comforting me again," she said.

"Anytime."

The 2 snuggled down into sleep.