2 years ago

I've spent Saturday afternoon on Haymitch kitchen table poring over a stack of articles Haymitch brought back from the capital this week. I'm making notes and highlight passages that might help in finding a loophole in the mandatory marriage law prohibiting people label as "abnormal" from being reaped into a marriage.

Peeta sits across from me reading through one of the law books. All of a sudden he slams the book shut and it goes sailing across the table hitting the wall and landing on the floor with a load thump making me jump.

"I'm sorry" he said.

"It's ok, it had it coming" I tell him.

"This is pointless; we are never going to find anything we can use. We've been looking for over a year now Katniss" he sounds so dejected. Its true we have but my dad and Haymitch have been looking into this marriage law a lot longer then we have. Ever since we were little and I told my dad I was going to marry Peeta. And seeing as I'm a daddy's girl he's been trying to make that happen for me.

"We can't stop, we have to keep looking" I say as I walk over and pick up the book.

"Katniss, maybe…maybe it's not going to happen for us. This might be just some pipe dream." He said. He lowers he's head and resting his chin on his chest.

"Peeta" I call to him but he won't look up. I go stand next to him and place the book on the table. "Peeta" I try again grabbing his chin and caress it as I make him look up at me. He's blue eyes meet mine and I can see he is fighting back tears.

"We are not the only ones who want this. We have capital people like Plutarch backing us up." A few years ago Haymitch finally caught a break and with his wife Effie's help he made contact with a new up and coming politician who is a bit of an idealist named Plutarch.

"I know but maybe it's not meant to be for me, Katniss" he says. "You still have time to find someone you can marry that can make you happy." I just roll my eyes. We have had this conversation so many times. We even stopped talking for a couple of weeks the first time he brought this up.

"We still have two more years to go. We'll find something. I just know it; I swear I can feel it in my bones." I tell him. "Besides we have plan B and C if plan A doesn't happen on time".

He chuckles, "Katniss we came up with those plans when we were kids"

"The smartest 7 year olds in all of Panem" I say. "I think we need a break, don't you"

"Yeah, I think so too" he raised an eyebrow and gave me a knowing smile.

I straddle his lap and capture his lips with mine. I can feel him getting hard and as I run my fingers through his hair, I rock my hips against him. He moans and deepens the kiss.

The front door slams and we jump apart. Haymitch is home, damn that cockblocker. I huff and head back to my chair. I look at Peeta as I'm sitting down and he just rolls he's eyes, sighs and opens the book back up. I remember it like it was just yesterday when we came up with our plan to get reaped together. But if we couldn't we came up with a couple of back up plans.

11 year ago

My name is Katniss Everdeen. I'm 7 ½ years old and I can do this. I tell myself. At a young age in our district we all have to start learning our family's trade. Peeta is learning to bake and decorate cakes, Gale is learning about snares, though he will most likely end up in the mines. I'm learning how to use a bow and arrows but since that's illegal I can't report it as my trade. So my parents sat me down when I turned seven and told me I have to learn my mother's trade as a healer. Ugh, killing things is much easier than this.

I'm setting up a pot of water to boil, pull out burn medicine, morphling and cloth for bandaging. "I can do this. Katniss, you can do this" I mumble as I try to psychic myself up and get into healer mode. I'm not my mother who can switch it on if off so effortlessly.

"Hurry Kat" my mom calls.

"What's his name?" I ask

"Andrew Tate" answers a lady that is standing on the other side of the kitchen/exam table. I'm guessing that's Mr. Tate's wife. I nod and go get the pot of water. After my mom injects Mr. Tate with morphling we each take a side and go about cleaning and applying burn medicine. I can tell is not really going to help. He's burned real bad and the mining doctor had already sent him home to die. But his wife didn't want to give up and they brought him here. We are going to try all we can but the mining doctor was right. One of his legs is burn all the way to the bone.

I started off by his feet and work my way up, humming has I work to keep me focused. As I get closer to his head I start to talk to him.

"Hi Mr Tate, my names Katniss I have a sister named Primrose she's 3 and I have 2 best friends, Peeta and Gale." After my parents had told me I was to apprentice as a healer I grab my mom's book and started reading. Books are my thing. One can learn so much from books. So I read this passage were unconscious patients might be able to hear you. So I end up chatting away as I work.

"I've been working as a healer in training for six months now. Don't worry my mom here too. She makes sure I'm doing a good job. I'm good at grinding up herbs, brewing salves and making creams for healing. And once a week I go to my grandparent's apothecary in town and I get a chance to pick their brains to learn all I can from them." I say. I'm not sure if he can actually hear me but it sure helps me out.

"You know Mr Tate; I think I'll be a better nurse than a healer. So I'm hoping that Prim becomes a natural at this stuff, so I can just help her like I do for my mom." It's a long process and I talk away about non important things.

"Do you like music Mr. Tate? I can sing you a song that my daddy sings to my mom all the time. I hope you don't mind but it's a love song. It's from before the dark days."

At last my love has come along
My lonely days are over and life is like a song, oh yeah
At last the skies above are blue
My heart was wrapped up clover the night I looked at you
I found a dream that I could speak to
A dream that I can call my own
I found a thrill to press my cheek to
A thrill I've never known, oh yeah
You smiled, you smiled oh and then the spell was cast
And here we are in Heaven
For you are mine at last

"That was beautiful Katniss" my mother said. "Come over here; let me show you one of the signs of a concussion." She shines a light into Mr Tate's eyes and there's a lack of pupil constriction and they are of unequal size. After we are done bandaging the last of the burns she sends me off to the Hawthorne's for some dinner. My dad and Prim had gone there while we worked on Mr Tate. I just want to go to bed I'm so tired.

"Hey, little bird" my dad said. "Just a quick bite then off to bed with you"

I smile tiredly at him. As I eat my eyes start to droop.

I wake up in bed next morning; dad must have carried me home last night. It's a Sunday and dad must have gone out hunting without me. I go and take a quick shower, dress and go check on Mr Tate but as I enter the kitchen I don't see him there.

"Where's Mr Tate" I ask my mom.

"Oh Katniss, he didn't make it through the night" she said.

My eyes start to tear up. I knew this was going to happen but knowing doesn't make it any easier. He's the first patient I helped with that actually died. I'm not cut out for this. She come over and hugs me letting me cry into her shoulder.

There a knock on the door but I'm not ready to let my mom go so I cling to her. She picks me up to go answer it and I bury my face in her neck.

"Hi Mrs. Everdeen" it's Peeta. "Hi Katniss"

"Look Katniss, its Peeta why don't you go out and play?" I shake my head. I don't feel like going out to play.

"She's not having a good day Peeta maybe you can play some other day" my mom tells him.

"We don't have to play. We can just go for a walk to the meadow and sit awhile, I brought cheese buns" Peeta said. That I can do. I nod my head a mom put me down.

"Be home for lunch" she says.

Peeta takes my hand and drags me to the meadow. He gab's on about a new recipe he learned. But he notices I'm not really paying attention. "You want to talk about it?" He asks. I shake my head. I don't want to. What's there to say, I lost a patient; I blink my eyes quickly not wanting to start crying again.

"How is the new leg working out?" I ask.

"I can move around a lot better since it a perfect fit." He smiles as me. It's the second one my dad's made him. Making prosthetics for a kid is a little harder to do since my dad has to add new sections as he grows. Peeta had the other one for two years so it was time for a new one. I notice he wasn't limping anymore.

We sit awhile in silence and I close my eyes feeling the warmth of the sun on my face. "Mr Tate died last night" I say. "I'm no good at healing, Peeta." I feel his arms wrap around me. That feels nice too.

"I know you hate it Katniss but it's good to know more than more one trade. I wish I could. The only hope I have is that either Bannock or Rye keep me on when one of them takes over the bakery." He said.

Crap, now I feel bad. Here I am wallowing in self pity because of my trade. While Peeta's only hope is that one of his brothers will be generous enough to let him keep working at the bakery. Since Peeta is labeled "abnormal" he won't be reaped nor assigned a house. He'll have to live with his parent or with one of his brothers or in a rundown shack in the "abnormal" sector located in the Seam. There is only one way to fix all that. I'm going to marry him.

"Don't worry Peeta you'll move in with me." I tell him.

"Right, like your husband is going to let me move in with you?" he rolls his eyes.

"Well yeah, cause you'll be my husband, duh." I tell him. "Or don't you want to be my husband." I didn't think of that.

"Sure I do." He says. "But the law won't let me be reaped let alone choice who I want to be reaped with."

"We will just have to get them to change the law silly. We'll ask Haymitch. He knows a lot of capitol people." I say.

Haymitch is my father and Mr Hawthornes best friend. They call themselves the three amigos. The capital announced the end of the hunger games during the quarter quell saying it would be the last of the games. Two years afterwards the new reaping law came into effect but since he was a Victor he was reaped with a capital woman named Effie. They fight a lot but seem to like each other anyway.

Ironically he didn't have to kill anyone in the games. The plague was still going strong at the time, a few tributes had dead before entering the arena; the capital didn't bother replacing them. Then almost half of the remaining tributes dead in the arena because of it, the rest were killed by the careers or the mutts, leaving him the last one standing. Unfortunately his mom and girlfriend dead of the plague a couple of months later, his brother got sick too but made it through.

"If that doesn't work, I'll just have to get labeled as "abnormal" too. Then we can both move in together. I'll get dad to help us build a house in the "abnormal" sector." I tell him. When the law first took place everything was run according to the capitals rules but all rules can be broken with just the right amount of money. We can pay the peacekeepers to list me as infertile this will label me as "abnormal" and that's all it takes.

"That's actually not a bad idea" he says."Or we can always run away into the woods. Fix up the cabin by the lake."

"That will work too." I tell him. "But then I really need to learn healing incase one of us gets sick. Woodwork too so I can fix your leg if it needs it and the cabin. You will be in charge of the baking and cooking."

"No, I want to learn the woodwork. You think your father will teach me." He asks.

"Of course, you are going to be his son in law you have to learn his trade." I say. This day had started off really sad. But now I'm excited and ready to go back to training.

Peeta smile down at me and I give him a quick peck on the lips. He makes a face

"What was that for? Now you gave me your cooties" he scowls as me and rubs his lips with the back of his hand.

I just smirk at him "You better get used to it. That's what husbands and wives do. My parents do it all the time"

"Not my parents" he said. He sighs "Fine but not all the time. I don't want to get sick."

I go in for another kiss and he pushes my face away making me giggle. Oh this new kissing game is going to be fun.