One-Shot: Kissing Kid "Cousin"
"On the 75th anniversary, as a reminder that no name stands in prestige above that of the Capitol…. The male and female tributes are to be Reaped from the next of kin of the existing pool of Victors in each district…"
With the President's words, Katniss flees from her mansion in the District 12 Victors' Village in a panic. Prim is going into the arena. Her volunteering for her sister from a year ago, her sacrifice, has officially been rendered moot. There is only one female in the entire district who meets the requirements of the Reaping, and it is her Little Duck.
Eventually, all cried and screamed out, Katniss wanders back to the Village and finds herself at Haymitch's place. She gets drunk.
The next morning, Peeta calls an emergency meeting on the Village green. Katniss watches as her boyfriend paces, methodical and introspective.
"Existing. That's the key word, isn't it?" (Katniss actually thinks the crucial phrase is 'next of kin', but she keeps silent). "By that, we can assume that no one of any relation to Lucy Gray Baird is going to be Reaped, since she's dead, and, aw hell, so are her next of kin too, most likely." Katniss can't help but smirk at the Seam phraseology creeping into her love interest's vocabulary – Peeta has been living with the Everdeen women and Haymitch for too long, clearly.
Peeta sends Haymitch a long, probing look. "What about you, old man? Any relatives we ought to know about? A secret love child, perhaps?"
Haymitch goes pale at the very thought of a love child. Katniss go pale at the very thought of any woman willingly having the drunk in her bed. The drunk finally shrugs. "Nope. None that I know of. And even if the rest of my family weren't dead, they'd be too old for the Reaping age range anyway, which we can assume is the same."
Peeta nods. "Good…."
But Haymitch isn't done. "My mom. My younger brother. My girl. They were all killed two weeks after I became Victor." Katniss doesn't know what to say to that.
Peeta finally halts. "The good news is, our tributes have been essentially picked for us. Which mean that we can spend the next several months acting like Career mentors and training them. Prim is the only one who meets the requirements for the women." He sighs. "As for me, only one of my brothers is still eligible: Rye."
That's right, Katniss realizes. Rye is only a year older than Peeta. Leven, the eldest brother, has already aged out of the Reaping – he's even older than Gale.
"There's still another option!"
The Victors from District 12 turn at the voice to find Gale's kid brother coming over the crest of the hill. Katniss suppresses a sigh.
"What are you doing here, Rory?"
"To see Prim. And also to tell you that you can train me, if you want."
"Kid, what are you talking about?" Haymitch rolls his eyes.
"I'm Katniss's cousin, aren't I? That makes me next of kin," Rory fixes his stare on Katniss, who is rapidly growing pale again. "I'm the only one on the Hawthorne family who falls in the Reaping age range." He's right on that latter point: Rory is 13. Having aged out last year, Gale is too old, while at the other end of the scale, Vick, at 11, barely misses the cut-off.
Katniss firmly places her hands on Rory's shoulder, physically turns him around and nudges him towards the Village gates. While it is admirable for him to be remembering and leaning into the ruse that they are cousins, she sternly scolds him: "Go home, Rory – now."
Over the next several months, Katniss, Peeta and Haymitch train Rye and Prim, giving them a crash course in arena survival. There is no telling who the competition will be among the other Victors' next of kin, so they have to be prepared.
The day of the Reaping dawns hot and sultry. Effie Trinket lacks her usual verve as the names are drawn without fanfare. With only single slips in the bowl, Prim is called for the girls. But when Effie then draws the name of Rye Mellark, a voice rings out:
"I volunteer as tribute!"
Katniss nearly chokes on her own saliva as Rory Hawthorne bravely mounts the stage. With dawning horror, she realizes: her hunting partner's kid brother just called the Capitol's bluff. He's practically daring them to, by refusing to accept his volunteering, come out and admit that the blood relation between him and Prim, between Katniss and Gale, is a lie. A media fabrication.
Except they can't, without dealing a potentially serious blow to Katniss and Peeta's love story. And Rory knows it.
Effie introduces Rory Hawthorne as the male tribute from District 12. The pair of 13-year-olds are taken into custody.
Once on the train, Katniss marches right up to Rory and, in a fit of pique, slaps him hard across the face.
"Fool of a Hawthorne! Do you realize what you've done?! You've thrown your life away for nothing!" Prim looks equally distraught, though perhaps not enough to slap Rory. More likely, she'd be overcome to do something like kiss him.
The run-up to the Quell is like a roller-coaster ride. The training, the interviews. Despite her small stature and angelic nature, Prim actually does well in training. Despite having no formal training whatsoever, Rory does too. For the interviews, Katniss and her friends decide that they have no choice but to lean into the 'protect-my-cousin' angle, given that Rory has left the Capitol little choice but to stick to that narrative as well. Both Prim and Rory shine with Caesar Flickerman, though Katniss feels the nausea threatening to boil over. No one Prim and Rory's age has ever won the Games. Only one 14-year-old ever has, and that was a solid decade ago.
The tributes are launched in the middle of a miniature sea, with the Cornucopia sitting on a rocky crag. Running along spokes to get to the island, Prim manages to arm up. Rory arms himself with a bow, despite only having limited knowledge, taught to him by his brother and "cousin," on how to use it. They ally with a trio of tributes from Districts 3, 4 and 7 and flee the beach.
There are dangers in the jungle, which their quintet manages to avoid, though not without giving their mentors heart palpitations. The group quickly figures out that the arena is rigged like a clock, with a new danger occurring cyclically every hour. Despite having had a relative survive the arena, the tributes now drop at a fairly consistent rate, so that by the time the second day sunsets, they are at the Final Eight, including Prim, Rory and their allies.
Pascal, a nephew of Beetee, the Victor from 3, comes up with a plan to fry the last two Career tributes by rigging an electrical wire to a tree that has been consistently struck by lightning at around noon and midnight every day.
In the early morning hours of the third day, Pascal is rigging the lightning tree when chaos erupts.
The surviving tributes scatter into the night. Two more cannons sound, and back in the Mentors' Bar, Katniss is overcome with relief how they aren't for her sister and "cousin." Prim eventually makes her way back to the lightning tree. Stringing the bow she doesn't know how to use, she somehow manages to fire an arrow into the force field just as the lightning strikes the tree.
The Games end abruptly, with six tributes still living, and the Mentors' Bar erupts into chaos.
Peacekeepers swarm the place. Haymitch hustles his kids out the back. The streets of the Capitol are roiling with panicked citizens, and by the time they reach a landing platform, Katniss realizes they have lost Peeta in the confusion.
"Peeta! PEETA!"
Haymitch as to drag his one Victor onto the hovercraft, which takes off for the arena. A metal claw drops down and plucks tiny figures from the debris as though they are ants.
Finnick Odair's brother. Beetee Latier's nephew. And Katniss's "cousin" – Rory. When Katniss demands to know where her sister is, Haymitch tells her that Prim is in the Capitol. The city got her, along with Johanna Mason's sister. And Peeta is still back in the city and missing.
Katniss has to be sedated after she flies into a rage and nearly kills her mentor.
The fugitives are taken to District 13. Forced to spend months underground, working for the Rebellion, Katniss becomes depressed at the thought of Prim, and possibly Peeta, being held prisoner and in danger. Rory isn't doing much better, and the two survivors of the arena comfort each other as they pine for their respective partners.
Thirteen President Alma Coin eventually stages a rescue mission to extract captured Victors and tribute-survivors. With help from Beetee and Pascal, the resistance manages to recover Peeta, Prim, Johanna Mason's sister, and Annie Cresta, a Victor from District 4. Katniss is distressed to discover that her lover and her sister have both been turned against her – "hijacked" is the word that uncle and nephew Latier use. The ones she loves most have been programmed to kill her.
The districts fall one by one to the Rebellion. When Thirteen mounts an assault to take the Capitol City, Katniss, Rory, Gale, Finnick and Johanna are all appointed to a special squad that will film propaganda showing battle sequences. In a surprise move, Peeta is permitted to join them. Katniss is also incensed that Coin sent Prim to the front lines as a medic.
Peeta is much calmer and no longer out to kill her (a state of being he credits to Annie Cresta-Odair, Finnick's bride who has kindly been visiting Peeta while he's been locked up in the psych ward), but he is still confused. So the other members of his squad come up with a game to help him sift through his real memories from the false ones the Capitol implanted. They call the game Real or Not Real.
The Star Squad eventually makes its way to the Presidential Palace, though not before losing some allies along the way, including, tragically, Finnick.
The war ends. Katniss, along with Rory, is overcome with grief to learn that Prim was lost in a bombing while rushing to help treat Capitol civilians… and that Gale was partially responsible for designing the tech on behalf of District 13. Katniss executes not only an arrested President Snow, but also President Coin, in revenge.
Eventually, after having been cleared on the charges of murder, she is sent home with Haymitch to District 12. Deciding he needs to sort himself out, Peeta stays behind in the ruins of the city. So does Rory, to look after his family.
Some months later, Katniss receives a letter from her mother, in which she reports that she has taken a medical position on Victors' Island, the corresponding Village in District 4. With much prodding from Haymitch, Katniss decides to take the train out of Lucy Gray Baird station and go visit her only living kin.
A recently gone-through-childbirth Annie greets Katniss warmly at the harbor wharf and brings her up to the Victors' Village, set on the highest point of the Island. Katniss reunites with her mother, and though mother and daughter don't speak much, there is some small progress made towards reconciliation.
Much to Katniss's surprise, her mom is not the only person she reconnects with.
Coming downstairs one morning from where she has been staying in a spare guest room in the widowed Annie Cresta-Odair's mansion, Katniss pulls up short with shock upon walking in on the auburn-haired Victor and her old district partner enthusiastically kissing in the kitchen.
"Peeta?..."
To his credit, Peeta has the decency to look abashed. After recovering much of his former self with the help of a Capitol psychiatrist, Dr. Aurelius, he had come out to District 4 to take advantage of the fresh, sea air and clear his mind. He and Annie had reunited, having shared adjoining cells while being tortured in prison by the Capitol, and have grown closer.
Though stung, Katniss tries to find it in her heart to show grace towards her former district partner and friend. In a way, she could have seen this coming: she and Peeta are not the same people they were before the end of the Quell. They're not the same people they were before the arena.
Down at the docks, Katniss and Peeta have a long talk and Katniss tells Peeta she is happy for him. The former lovers share a chaste kiss farewell before Katniss boards the Panemian Coast Guard cutter to return to the mainland.
She still has one more stop to make.
Johanna Mason raises her right hand and repeats after the Justice of the Peace swearing her in. To every question, she solemnly says "I Will." Then, a tall and hale gentleman stands beside her and she takes his hand. Now, only a single question is asked, to which Johanna replies, "I Do." Pulling Gale into her arms, she seals her last vow with a rather indecent kiss and just like that, she has gone from being Johanna Mason, Victor of the Hunger Games, to Johanna Hawthorne, Governor of the State of Mason.
Watching the inauguration and marriage of the reconstructed District 7's new Governor, Katniss can only bemusedly smile and applaud. She doesn't overstay her welcome, only pausing long enough to cordially, even curtly, congratulate Gale while warmly embracing her former arena ally. Then Katniss catches the train home for District 12.
Walking into the Victors' Village, Katniss is surprised to find an unfamiliar man kneeling in the mulch in front of her mansion. It's not Haymitch – that much she can tell from the back. Still, as she approaches him, recognition dawns and she sucks in a breath.
"Rory…."
Gale's kid brother and her dead sister's probable love interest turns and rises. "Hey."
"…. You came home…." The hint of an awed, disbelieving smile is starting to break across Katniss's face.
"Yeah…." Rory lamely gestures behind him. "I, uh... picked these out by the forest. …. It's primrose."
Hearing the word makes Katniss sag into Rory's arms as she starts to cry. She is struck by how tall he has gotten since she saw him last, months ago at war's end. Clearly, he is in the middle of a spurt, despite being only 14.
"I'm so sorry, Katniss…."
Katniss ducks her head into the crook of Rory's shoulder, blinking back her tears while also trying to hide a smile. She doesn't know how he got here, but she sure is happy to see him.
That night, the pair stand in Katniss's kitchen while Rory reads a letter that was conveyed to him by way of Annie Cresta. "You'll be happy to hear that Katniss's mother is deploying new medical units in District 4. Gale has been promoted to a captaincy in District 7 - and, if rumors are to be believed, the title of First Gentleman of the State at the side of Governor Johanna Mason…." (Katniss suppresses a wry smile, as she has just come from confirmation of those very nuptials)."…. and Peeta and I are enjoying every moment with my son. He reminds me every day of his father. We have suffered so much to get here, but we owe it to our children to make the best of these lives. I hope you, Rory, are finding some peace… Annie."
Then Rory shows Katniss a picture of Annie with her little boy; Peeta is also in the shot. Katniss smiles softly, at peace with where she and her former lover have ended up.
She glances up just in time to have Rory step close to her and awkwardly attempt to kiss her. She twists away.
"What…. what are you doing?"
Rory looks befuddled. "Well, Annie said we owe it to future generations to make the best of these lives…."
Katniss takes a step back, glancing Rory up and down, bemused. "So, you think by 'making the best,' she meant trying to seduce me?"
Rory ducks his head, embarrassed but also bashful. "Well…. would you want to?"
"Be seduced?" Katniss lifts an eyebrow. At Rory's shy nod, Katniss sighs. "Darling boy, I'm flattered, but…."
"But what? Why is it so bad?"
"Because you're too young to know what you want, and I'm old enough to know better!" What she doesn't say is all the other reasons this could never work: a four-year age difference, which is not nothing, at least not to her. The fact that Rory is probably still grieving her sister and thus perhaps is projecting whatever unresolved feelings he had (or has) for Prim onto her, Katniss.
"OK. So you don't want to fall in love with someone again now. But perhaps, maybe…. someday?" Rory winces hopefully. "When I'm older?"
Katniss can't help it: amused, she bursts into laughter. "When you're ready," she corrects him.
"When will I be ready?" Rory asks her, sounding like an overly eager little boy, as she sashays away.
Katniss turns back at the foot of the stair thoughtfully. "I'll let you know."
Rory takes to living with her. They even take to sharing a bed together, to keep the nightmares at bay, seeing as their respective arena counterparts are either dead or using someone else to keep their bed warm and keep the trauma at arm's length. Every night, Rory takes to playing a version of the game they had created for Prim and Peeta. He'll ask Katniss: "You love me…. Real or Not Real?"
Katniss remembers a tale her father used to read to her as a child, about a beast who would ask a beautiful maiden every night if she would marry him. The maiden only accepted when the beast was near death, thus breaking a curse…. But Katniss also understands that the maiden only accepted the beast's hand when she was ready.
Four years pass. Katniss hunts. Rory continues to grow, and he learns how to stalk game at Katniss's knee. Haymitch drinks until the liquor runs out and then always waits for the next train shipment to come due.
Finally, one night, after Katniss has come to Rory's bed by candlelight and climbs in beside him, and he asks her, "You love me: …. Real or Not Real?", she replies:
"…. Real."
Perhaps, falling asleep, he didn't hear her, or didn't catch the difference, as he spoons her like he has taken to doing every night after she has answered Not Real. So now, Rory is surprised when Katniss bravely takes his hand at her waist and moves it up to boldly cup the swell of her breast through her nightdress. Turning in his arms, eyes growing heavy and lidded and solemn, Katniss reaches up and kisses the now 18-year-old kid brother of her hunting partner.
Because he is ready. They both are.
The kiss deepens until Katniss boldly rolls Rory over onto his back and swings one creamy thigh over his hips as she moves to straddle him. Softly, she helps him undress her of her nightgown so that she drops the garment with a soft rustle upon the floor. Feeling his arms encircle her and grip her shoulder blades, she squirms atop him and kisses him again.
Katniss and Rory make love.
And as Rory beds her, Katniss is sure her cries, the cries of her being fucked, can be heard from here to the Seam.
"Huhhh…. Uhhhhh… UGHHHH! HRRRRRRR! ERMMMM! OHHHHHHHH!"
The following spring, bells can be heard pealing from the tower in the rebuilt Justice Building – a sign that someone has just gotten hitched.
Having stood before the now State Justice of the Peace and been declared man and wife in the eyes of the law, Rory and Katniss Hawthorne leave the Justice Building. Rory lifts his bride onto the back of a rented cart and pulls it to their home in the Victors' Village, where his mother is hosting a lively reception.
Upstairs, Katniss is sequestered by Johanna and her other bridesmaids (the Mockingjay and the Governor of Mason are rather bemused that they are now sisters-in-law by marriage) and changes into her blue Reaping dress. Descending the stair, she sees Rory standing nervously beside the hearth, holding out a piece of bread.
The bread still, even now, makes Katniss think of Peeta, but not in the same way it once did. Reverently, Rory and Katniss Toast a bit of bread and share it. Then, with the firelight dancing in her grey eyes, Katniss solemnly tilts her head, her lips slightly parted, and permits her new husband to kiss her. As the wedding kiss deepens, the bride tosses her bouquet of primroses and pine needles aside; Delly Cartwright catches the primroses; the pine needles scatter forgotten upon the floor.
Delly Cartwright's father strikes up a reel on his fiddle and Katniss and Rory dance at their wedding. The celebration ends with Rory carrying his new wife across the threshold while their guests serenade them with the District 12 wedding song:
"May you house be a palace and your hearth never grow cold…"
Following a honeymoon at her Daddy's hunting cabin by the lake, Katniss is amused to return home and read a forwarded Capitol newspaper with the apparently un-ironic headline: Mockingjay Weds Cousin in Intimate Marriage Ceremony.
They play in the Meadow: the little girl and the little boy, both with dark hair and Seam gray eyes, same as both their parents.
Nursing her and Rory's infant son at her breast from where she sits on a picnic blanket while sporting a form-fitting sundress, Katniss bounces her baby boy when he begins to fuss and comforts him from a nightmare.
She tells her baby how she and Daddy have nightmares too. How they survive it: by keeping lists of all the good things they've seen someone do. Every little thing they can remember. They make a game out of it – a tedious one, perhaps, but there are much worse Games to play.