the hunger games prompts 12.07
How did Peeta convince Katniss to have children?
Peeta never asks about kids. He never mentions it, or makes deliberate stops at playgrounds or baby stores or talks about children or babies or families. No more than usual, to be honest, and if Katniss wasn't Katniss she wouldn't have noticed it.
It happens by accident. One month she's late, and it's not unusual but it's a surprise when the morning sickness comes and there's talk of abortions and Peeta only wants what's best for her, thing growing in her stomach be damned, and that's why Katniss supposes she says 'no'.
For years now death has wrapped it's fingers around her neck, taunted her, and she's watched life been grabbed right in front of her eyes, and she doesn't feel anything special but she thinks 'just for once instead of something dying, why doesn't something live?' Why doesn't life bloom instead of being squashed out.
There isn't the fear of the Games lingering over her head, and any enemies that would have deemed her worthy don't anymore, not when they call her Katniss Mellark - The Girl who went Crazy. She still promises Peeta that the only way she'll allow it to happen is if he keeps it safe, if they can protect it, and the smell of roses suffocates her until Peeta says 'yes'.
She doesn't realize how happy Peeta is, can be, until he smiles when they clear out Prim's old room and buy a new crib because the ones they were raised in were destroyed in the fire.
This is what life feels like, Katniss thinks, dizzy with it as he slips his hand over her swelled stomach. The responsibilities - she's felt that before with Prim, but Peeta has never felt it before, not being the youngest of his family.
It isn't that they're happier than they could be, or were before, but now they have something to live for other than each other and that makes them both a bit stronger.
Peeta and Katniss as Prim's funeral
i hate you so i'm taking liberties
Katniss only shows for ten minutes, to drop flowers on the fresh tombstone. There wasn't enough of a corpse to bury they don't say to her, choosing instead to talk through Haymitch because Mrs. Everdeen throws herself into her work never stopping not once and Peeta calmly says that he'll take over the arrangements.
She disappears into the woods for days, and without Gale to go after her, Peeta leaves her be until she comes stumbling out, clothes dirty and three nails missing.
Her prep team refuse to leave a three mile radius of her, setting up shop in an empty Victor's house, and Peeta lets them and no-one argues. They can't handle the new Capital, and Katniss lets them brush her hair out and heal her scabbed fingers, lets them dress her in a black dress but it only lasts for a few seconds before Katniss is running again, running from the tombstone on the edge of the Meadow.
Katniss comes home when it's pouring rain, and she cries and looks utterly devastated, so Peeta makes her sit by the fire and wraps a towel around her shoulders and lets her shiver until the cold leaves her.
He doesn't expect a thank you, but he gets one anyway, and she sits on the floor, arms curved around her legs, and she leans against Peeta and says 'what do I do now?'
"What do you think she'd want you to do?" he asks, and she looks at the fire for minutes, hours, until the dawn breaks a new day, and she sighs and curls in on herself even more.
"She'd want me to be happy, wouldn't she?"
Peeta shrugs, because that memory is shiny around the edges and it takes him a few minutes to reason out if he wants Katniss to be happy or if he doesn't.
"Prim is the reason you fought," Peeta says. "Real or not real?"
"Real," Katniss confirms. "I'm going to make it through this. Real or not real?"
"Real," Peeta says, and for the first time in the last couple of days, he knows with all his heart that it's true.
hey i still love you also finnick and katniss bro-times
They do this thing, in-between tying knots and nightmares and sleepless nights, where Finnick will say 'the way her hair feels in my fingers' and Katniss will keep quiet, fingers twisting through rope or running through the mud or hiding behind pipes, until she says 'the way he smiles at me.'
They keep sane like that, keep a hold on what's real and not real, and Finnick says once, 'this is how it feels to have half of you missing'.
Katniss thinks it's more than that, maybe because she's not made of just two parts but three. She lives for her mother and sister, so it's like someone took the pick of her insides and stole her heart away so she couldn't care and her lungs so she couldn't breathe and left her stomach so that she could survive and worry.
She and Finnick find corners to push themselves into, and meaningless things to talk about like their favorite colors (Finnick says pink and Katniss says burnt orange) and their favorite foods (Finnick says shrimp and Katniss says squirrel) until they make up the absence that's missing from the both of them.
On lighter days Finnick'll say something like 'I'll marry her' and Katniss will murmur 'I'll take him to the lake' and they hold on.
rewrite any scene from the last half of mockingjay?
ugh omg okay this is rough and probably gonna suck but one thing that always put me off was the attitude towards this basically i kinda hated the part that this scene was in there in the first place so yeah here we go
Something is leaking, a steady drip-drip-drip inside of the walls. It feels like home for just a few seconds (hard floors, thin walls, leaky pipes) until she opens her eyes and she knows that the Seam is never this still and cloying.
It's hard to sleep in her uniform, and she shifts and slips her hand into her pocket, pulling the pearl from it and presses it against her skin, reveling in the cool it brings.
Peeta is right next to her, she tells herself over and over and over. He's right next to her. (And he doesn't love you.) The one constant other than Prim is ripped from her. It's selfish and awful, taking something beautiful like Peeta's love and hoarding it for herself, leaning on it in dark times, and never returning it truly.
She should have been the one the Capital took. At least someone who deserved the pain would have been hurt instead of someone who didn't.
"Katniss," he says, voice quiet and soft, and her eyes flicker towards Peeta, chained to the stairs, looking up at the uncovered ceiling. "You're thinking of doing something stupid, aren't you?"
The pearl nearly is crushed in her grip. "It doesn't matter."
He laughs, quiet but harsh, and she winces and scowls. "You're so selfish," he sighs. "He loves you, you know. Still does probably, somewhere, locked away in the back of my mind. And you don't care."
"I care," Katniss hisses, lifting herself up. "I care."
"If you cared you wouldn't be trying to kill yourself after all the effort he put into keeping you alive," Peeta says, raising an eyebrow at her. "You're so selfish when it comes to me, to him, aren't you."
She turns away, and forces herself to ignore him, to go back to sleep. He sits quietly, shifting only once to get ready to fall back to sleep.
"He's still in there," Peeta says, quietly. "Everyday he gets a bit stronger, and things get clearer. What am I supposed to do when he finally breaks through and you're not around? How long do you think he'll stay alive once he realizes that he has nothing left?"
Katniss exhales, once, unsteadily, and she screws her eyes shut.
"Stay alive, Katniss. For him. For your sister. Stop being selfish."
She bites her lip until it bleeds.
Katniss develops a bread allergy
you're not funny
"It's alright," Peeta says, and has a grim sort of determined look that Katniss knows immediately will probably bring more harm than good. "I'll work in the mines. They've asked."
"Peeta," Katniss sighs. "You're not working in the mines. You're going to keep baking. And then you're going to take a long shower before you touch me."
He looks on the verge of tears, and Katniss sighs.
Hopefully whatever she was allergic to would pass quickly.
Peeta never asks about kids. He never mentions it, or makes deliberate stops at playgrounds or baby stores or talks about children or babies or families. No more than usual, to be honest, and if Katniss wasn't Katniss she wouldn't have noticed it.
It happens by accident. One month she's late, and it's not unusual but it's a surprise when the morning sickness comes and there's talk of abortions and Peeta only wants what's best for her, thing growing in her stomach be damned, and that's why Katniss supposes she says 'no'.
For years now death has wrapped it's fingers around her neck, taunted her, and she's watched life been grabbed right in front of her eyes, and she doesn't feel anything special but she thinks 'just for once instead of something dying, why doesn't something live?' Why doesn't life bloom instead of being squashed out.
There isn't the fear of the Games lingering over her head, and any enemies that would have deemed her worthy don't anymore, not when they call her Katniss Mellark - The Girl who went Crazy. She still promises Peeta that the only way she'll allow it to happen is if he keeps it safe, if they can protect it, and the smell of roses suffocates her until Peeta says 'yes'.
She doesn't realize how happy Peeta is, can be, until he smiles when they clear out Prim's old room and buy a new crib because the ones they were raised in were destroyed in the fire.
This is what life feels like, Katniss thinks, dizzy with it as he slips his hand over her swelled stomach. The responsibilities - she's felt that before with Prim, but Peeta has never felt it before, not being the youngest of his family.
It isn't that they're happier than they could be, or were before, but now they have something to live for other than each other and that makes them both a bit stronger.
Peeta and Katniss as Prim's funeral
i hate you so i'm taking liberties
Katniss only shows for ten minutes, to drop flowers on the fresh tombstone. There wasn't enough of a corpse to bury they don't say to her, choosing instead to talk through Haymitch because Mrs. Everdeen throws herself into her work never stopping not once and Peeta calmly says that he'll take over the arrangements.
She disappears into the woods for days, and without Gale to go after her, Peeta leaves her be until she comes stumbling out, clothes dirty and three nails missing.
Her prep team refuse to leave a three mile radius of her, setting up shop in an empty Victor's house, and Peeta lets them and no-one argues. They can't handle the new Capital, and Katniss lets them brush her hair out and heal her scabbed fingers, lets them dress her in a black dress but it only lasts for a few seconds before Katniss is running again, running from the tombstone on the edge of the Meadow.
Katniss comes home when it's pouring rain, and she cries and looks utterly devastated, so Peeta makes her sit by the fire and wraps a towel around her shoulders and lets her shiver until the cold leaves her.
He doesn't expect a thank you, but he gets one anyway, and she sits on the floor, arms curved around her legs, and she leans against Peeta and says 'what do I do now?'
"What do you think she'd want you to do?" he asks, and she looks at the fire for minutes, hours, until the dawn breaks a new day, and she sighs and curls in on herself even more.
"She'd want me to be happy, wouldn't she?"
Peeta shrugs, because that memory is shiny around the edges and it takes him a few minutes to reason out if he wants Katniss to be happy or if he doesn't.
"Prim is the reason you fought," Peeta says. "Real or not real?"
"Real," Katniss confirms. "I'm going to make it through this. Real or not real?"
"Real," Peeta says, and for the first time in the last couple of days, he knows with all his heart that it's true.
hey i still love you also finnick and katniss bro-times
They do this thing, in-between tying knots and nightmares and sleepless nights, where Finnick will say 'the way her hair feels in my fingers' and Katniss will keep quiet, fingers twisting through rope or running through the mud or hiding behind pipes, until she says 'the way he smiles at me.'
They keep sane like that, keep a hold on what's real and not real, and Finnick says once, 'this is how it feels to have half of you missing'.
Katniss thinks it's more than that, maybe because she's not made of just two parts but three. She lives for her mother and sister, so it's like someone took the pick of her insides and stole her heart away so she couldn't care and her lungs so she couldn't breathe and left her stomach so that she could survive and worry.
She and Finnick find corners to push themselves into, and meaningless things to talk about like their favorite colors (Finnick says pink and Katniss says burnt orange) and their favorite foods (Finnick says shrimp and Katniss says squirrel) until they make up the absence that's missing from the both of them.
On lighter days Finnick'll say something like 'I'll marry her' and Katniss will murmur 'I'll take him to the lake' and they hold on.
rewrite any scene from the last half of mockingjay?
ugh omg okay this is rough and probably gonna suck but one thing that always put me off was the attitude towards this basically i kinda hated the part that this scene was in there in the first place so yeah here we go
Something is leaking, a steady drip-drip-drip inside of the walls. It feels like home for just a few seconds (hard floors, thin walls, leaky pipes) until she opens her eyes and she knows that the Seam is never this still and cloying.
It's hard to sleep in her uniform, and she shifts and slips her hand into her pocket, pulling the pearl from it and presses it against her skin, reveling in the cool it brings.
Peeta is right next to her, she tells herself over and over and over. He's right next to her. (And he doesn't love you.) The one constant other than Prim is ripped from her. It's selfish and awful, taking something beautiful like Peeta's love and hoarding it for herself, leaning on it in dark times, and never returning it truly.
She should have been the one the Capital took. At least someone who deserved the pain would have been hurt instead of someone who didn't.
"Katniss," he says, voice quiet and soft, and her eyes flicker towards Peeta, chained to the stairs, looking up at the uncovered ceiling. "You're thinking of doing something stupid, aren't you?"
The pearl nearly is crushed in her grip. "It doesn't matter."
He laughs, quiet but harsh, and she winces and scowls. "You're so selfish," he sighs. "He loves you, you know. Still does probably, somewhere, locked away in the back of my mind. And you don't care."
"I care," Katniss hisses, lifting herself up. "I care."
"If you cared you wouldn't be trying to kill yourself after all the effort he put into keeping you alive," Peeta says, raising an eyebrow at her. "You're so selfish when it comes to me, to him, aren't you."
She turns away, and forces herself to ignore him, to go back to sleep. He sits quietly, shifting only once to get ready to fall back to sleep.
"He's still in there," Peeta says, quietly. "Everyday he gets a bit stronger, and things get clearer. What am I supposed to do when he finally breaks through and you're not around? How long do you think he'll stay alive once he realizes that he has nothing left?"
Katniss exhales, once, unsteadily, and she screws her eyes shut.
"Stay alive, Katniss. For him. For your sister. Stop being selfish."
She bites her lip until it bleeds.
Katniss develops a bread allergy
you're not funny
"It's alright," Peeta says, and has a grim sort of determined look that Katniss knows immediately will probably bring more harm than good. "I'll work in the mines. They've asked."
"Peeta," Katniss sighs. "You're not working in the mines. You're going to keep baking. And then you're going to take a long shower before you touch me."
He looks on the verge of tears, and Katniss sighs.
Hopefully whatever she was allergic to would pass quickly.