Previously In Fanning The Flames: Cato, upon seeing a threat to Glimmer, refuses to fight Gale and Katniss. The four make clear gestures of rebellion and join together against arena hazards. The four of them and their families are evacuated by rebel hovercraft to the still existent District Thirteen. The two couples share a wedding date with fellow two-victor couple Finnick and Annie. Rebel forces save most of District Twelve's population.

Chapter

"We found love in a hopeless place," I explained. Katniss and I had already been well known around District Twelve, so after these recent events, we were even more popular, and people especially wanted to hear our stories. "In fact, love helped make it a less hopeless place."

Some other people had stories for us. Bread boy, for one. Peeta was with Bridget amongst the small crowd surrounding us. "I loved Katniss too, but the odds were more in Gale's favor on that," he announced. "He understands what she did because he did the same. This is a poem not about them as lovers, but rather about what we thought of their sacrifice back home."

Bridget pulled out a fiddle from behind her back. "My grandfather and I set it to music. Beautiful words my flour friend wrote," she said as they smiled at each other. "Gale, thank you for confessing your love for Katniss first so I get to have raisin roll here instead," she continued while beaming at her boyfriend again. I understood why they wouldn't discuss the suicide attempt publicly.

"In that part of life, the odds were in her favor, not only one but two boys who love her dearly," I responded. And one girl.

"Anyway, here's the song," Bridget answered. She drew the bow across the strings, and she could sing as beautifully as she played. "You took your siblings' place – the arena you now face." "Against starvation and Snow you rebelled, not cut low." Back in the meadow fields, they hoped for us, hope brought by the mockingjay's wings.

.

I saw a Town woman amongst the crowd and she approached Ingrid. I suspected that it was one of her long-lost relatives, and that was quickly confirmed. My mother-in-law was having none of it – good for her. "Sarah Kolster," she sneered. The maiden name had grown awkward on her tongue in the nearly two decades since she'd used it. "You come to me days after my daughter's wedding after having ignored me since my own wedding."

"If that's the kind of child that man gave you and raised … I must have been wrong about him," she said awkwardly.

"That girl is not a forgiving sort, I would know, but maybe I am." She called Sarah a mother, Sarah called her a daughter. As they embraced for the first time since she'd been disowned, Ingrid added "You should see the other daughter - that one's turning out just like her mother."

"Including a taste for Seam boys, apparently," Sarah responded. I suppose Prim's grandmother, not being blind, certainly would have seen Miss Everdeen and Rory inseparable.

"Well, that," Ingrid acknowledged. "And she does look just like how I used too. But more importantly, she's growing up to be quite the healer."

.

"I gotta talk to you above Everdeen girls," Rory said to me the next day.

"A lot of people, especially me, wondered when something was going to happen between me and Katniss," I told him.

"I didn't think about that until this started, but we definitely saw you two get married," he answered.

"That was the idea, for everyone in District 12 to see it," I told him. "I don't think anybody expected you two to start dating, though," I continued.

"It's because of something nobody expected. We all would have been so happy to get just one of you back, and then everybody went crazy about that announcement. Me and Prim had already been waiting together – that night, I held her hand and told her she was cute," he said triumphantly.

"I bet she liked that," I answered. It was damn sweet, but us guys don't gush over that like Prim probably would. And that kind of thing wasn't Katniss' style, which had presented me with a challenge for years.

"Heck, she kissed me. She touched my lips, though I think she was just trying to brush my cheek." No wonder he was so happy about that.

"She's a smart girl, she knew what she was doing," I guessed positively.

"She already knew she loved me?," Rory guessed. "Mommy said I definitely loved that girl, so guess what? The next time I saw Little Duck, I told her!"

I had to cheer him on for that. "Way to go, Little Man! Heck, you're so my brother that you're in love with the sister of the girl I'm in love with."

"Well, Prim said I reminded her of why Katniss likes you. We were with each other all day on Vick's birthday. I kissed her outside her house, and I'm pretty sure her mommy was smiling at us. After school, she went with me to the bakery to buy him some cookies. Me and Prim fed some cookie pieces to each other. We thought cleaning off the crumbs was another excuse to kiss."

I laughed as I told him "I don't think two people in love need excuses".

"Like being in your big brother and big sister's wedding together?," he wondered.

"I totally saw that. At least you didn't put your tongue in her mouth or your hands on her rear end, unlike some couples we know," I joked.

"I definitely saw Cato and Glimmer do that." I pointed out that we all saw that, and he continued with "What, you're not supposed to do that?"

"Oh, it's really fun when you're old enough, but I think you shouldn't be like that if there are so many other people around," I explained.

.

Speaking of Cato, I saw him in the tunnels outside our apartments. "My mom's getting along quite well with your and Katniss' moms," Cato said to me.

"Makes sense," I responded. "They may have started out different, but ended up in much the same place – the fathers of their children died too young and those children nearly met that same fate."

"That of course," Cato agreed. "Also, my mom and Mrs. Everdeen got to talking about how beautiful they were back in the day."

"Yeah, I've seen the pictures – Ingrid the shapely blonde, Teresa in shape plain and simple."

As much as Cato liked rifles, he wanted to try bows too. He was a natural at that as well. As Cato got better at archery, we figured his arm strength could be used to draw back some incredibly powerful bows.

A/N

The full lyrics to that song are posted as 'The Meadow Fields (AU Version)'.