Katniss post-Mockingjay grips onto anything living with both hands. She cultivates a garden sprawled across several of the Victors' Village yards so that she and her loved ones never have to go hungry again full of herbs, greens, vegetables, and all sorts of flowers for Peeta.

(Not roses. Never roses. The primroses are the only roses allowed. She spots some, once, and uproots them to give to some transplant from another district. Even these plants she cannot kill.)

In the sterile, sparse courtyard of the Village, she plants an orchard of fruit and nut trees. Peeta jokes that it is her second forest. She responds by shooting a rabbit for dinner from their bedroom window.

(Hunting is different. It is a necessary kind of killing in the aftermath of a war that leaves resources sparse during rebuilding. Katniss is a good hunter. She knows that if she is responsible, there will be enough game to continue on through the years. She tries not to think about how the Capitol treated the districts the same way.)

She gets two chickens. Then, a few more. Soon, a tiny army follows her whenever she enters the yard. They love Peeta especially, thanks to the baking scraps he slips them when he thinks Katniss isn't looking. Haymitch guffaws from his porch, watching Katniss with her parade of teeny chicks peeping after her.

(He shuts up a little after she gives him his first few geese.)

Gradually, some goats, a cow or two, and a handful of sheep join the menagerie. Peeta comes home with a fragile little puppy he finds going through the bakery's garbage for scraps that Katniss refuses to love until she's sure he will live, nursing the puppy to health all the same. Turns out, he's excellent at herding and protecting the animals, and that ugly little mutt becomes the most fierce protector of his pack.

(The goats are the hardest of all to agree to adopt. Every time she looks at them, she sees Prim's goat with its blue ribbon. The first bite of goat cheese makes her choke.)

And then, when one day, she looks around her, and she finds a thriving, noisy, life-giving patch of Eden where the Capitol's perfectly manicured, ornamental, plastic hell once stood, and she breathes in the clean mountain air and digs her hands into rich, good earth, she thinks about Peeta. She thinks about how he makes bread like the loaves he threw her, but now the dried fruits and nuts come from trees and plants she grows. She thinks about how they got tipsy on dandelion wine on their most recent anniversary, and neither of them thought about mutts, or Snow, or Prim that day. She thinks about every good thing she's ever seen and how she sees more and more every year, and she thinks about how maybe, maybe now it's safe enough to bring another kind of new life into the world.

(And maybe she names her first baby girl Eden. Maybe with that baby, the world starts anew.)

I love the fact so much that Collins wrote a story about a fake relationship between people who really love each other and aren't enemies or hate each other. In fact, they like and respect each other so much.

My girl subverting all the clichés.

currently thinking about what what kind of brainwashing the Capitol must've done in order to turn the most rebellious districts (1 and 2) like we've seen in tbosas, into the capitol's lapdogs we see in the original trilogy.

I really do think one of the most endearing things Katniss did in the books was try to mimic her parents when trying to seem loving. It’s hilarious to think that during the growing back together period before they start getting romantic Katniss does something similar where she tries mixing in Peeta’s way of being affectionate with her own. But Peeta is also transparently romantic even when he’s trying not to be so Peeta is getting a mix of

- Katniss hunting and finding cool stuff in the forest to give him and make him happy. Which comes naturally to her based on the goat with Prim and pine needles for Johanna.

- “oh when I needed comfort Peeta hugging me with his lips against my neck helped and felt really good” and she commences doing that causing the boy to almost have a stroke

Katniss tries the verbal route once in a while but takes a lot of breaks because she comes home with stuff like “you have handsome eyelashes”. (Sending Peeta on another spiral because not even his romantic dreams could come up with such an endearingly Katniss-like compliment so he knows it’s real).

I’m so fond of Soft for her Loved Ones Katniss and a Peeta who knows his grumpy wife is the soft one. I think that he always knew she was soft since he saw her with Prim, and that was part of him realizing she loved him. “She lets me get away with murder and my smile and baby blues get me anything”.

On a serious note, I do feel like during their growing back together period, Katniss is just so incredibly gentle and careful with Peeta when she can be. Like when they get close enough they're back to spending every day (every hour, every minute) together again Peeta has to barely suggest something before Katniss is up and running to get it for him. He nics himself once with an exacto knife during a project and Katniss is suddenly all "Doctor Everdeen" again and Peeta 'never had genuine care and affection growing up' Mellark, who somewhat remembers how she used to care for him pre-hijacking, is just slowly melting at every fret and touch, just watching her care with the biggest, lovesick puppy eyes he's ever had because it was tortured out of him to remember how nice it feels to be genuinely cared for.

I feel like this is even more exaggerated by the fact that after Mockingjay Katniss and Peeta I think switch some aspects of their personality. Like I would imagine Peeta is more akin to Katniss at the beginning of the series with falling in love now because he's very skeptical even though he can now remember how he used to feel, but that's like a completely different person in his head almost, so it's more a theory than a memory. So everytime Katniss is kind or loving to him at first he's nice about everything while internally semi distrustful of the whole thing, and definitely not fond of the idea of allowing himself to be vulnerable. Meanwhile Katniss has switched to needing validation and affection so bad it hurts, but knowing she can't demand it because that's not fair to Peeta so she just pours as much love as she feels she's allowed into all of her actions without trying to reveal her state of longing for him because she's just glad he's returned to her period. It doesn't have to be romantic.

I also feel like this would apply to when Katniss has nightmares and Peeta eventually begins comforting her via physical touch. I think it would be extremely obvious how touch starved Katniss is post-Mockingjay even though she tries to hide it for Peetas sake, and eventually Peeta just can't handle not doing whatever he can to help ease her mind, even if it's just holding her hand (which helps a lot) until all the subdued feelings just come pouring out that night they finally confess while tangled in their bedsheets.

Once they're well settled into their relationship? Peeta is 1000% abusing his husband privileges. One time he's three days into a painting project, there's acrylics all over the floor and Katniss tries to clean up but Peeta is insistent that it's fine because once they dry he can just scrape them off the floor with a washcloth. No, really honey, I used to do this all the time, as he pushes her quickly out the door of his study because he's way too invested to chit-chat and wants her to be surprised by the work anyways (he likes the praise from her seeing it go from a rough sketch to a full blown painting, especially since it's turned into a where's Waldo situation of her looking for themselves in his paintings.) And then he goes to clean up the paint himself only to realize this is really nice paint that has stained really nice Capitol-grade imported wood and it is not coming out. Katniss is fully aware of what happened the minute Peeta comes home rambling quickly about these "wonderful rugs Effie had" and "I just had to get one for the house" because "It's good luck" and he'll tell her about it some other time, he's gotta get this rug upstairs. Ignore any bumps you hear! (She does not. The bump is Peeta falling down the stairs cuz his prosthetic glitched and between the giant woven rug and his natural clumsiness that fucker went down.) But she doesn't say anything because he has this stupid smile as he presents her with three paintings and a basket of cheese rolls because he just loves her so much, that's all.

Then there's one time a load of laundry goes missing and Peeta is just insistent that the clothes must be in some odd corner unwashed, even though she could've sworn she put that load in the wash. So for two weeks straight she's just constantly thinking about this load, sometimes getting out of bed in the midst of the night when she can't sleep anyways to look for the damn clothes because they're obviously somewhere. Clothes don't move. But then her husband starts asking her to give up, they'll pop up sooner or later, and she's starting to wonder why he's baking so much bread. Like, lots of bread. Bread with cheese, or honey, or nuts. Just constantly kneading dough in their kitchen while chewing on his bottom lip, lost in thought. And at first she's convinced she's actually losing it. Maybe she's starting to have black out episodes. Is that even possible? To do something and just have absolutely no memory of the event at all? What if she starts hurting people during these episodes? What if she's already hurting people while she's in these episodes?? And that's why Peeta is so nervous now???

She's got an appointment with Dr. Aurelius next week, she'll bring it up to him. Peeta is definitely hiding something from her. But then one day after she comes home from her hunting trip, longing for her favorite sweater instead of the one she's wearing today, Peeta is beaming in the kitchen saying he found the load and it's all washed and hung up in the closet. "Oh, it was just behind the washer! Who knows how it got there."

Except Katniss knows she checked behind the washer. Three times, actually. And Peeta doesn't smile like that naturally. So she's not crazy, and Peeta has got something going on. So, when they go to bed that night, Katniss waits for three hours before she finally slips out of bed, knowing he's too konked out at this point to notice her missing and sneaks into his study to see what all could be in there. And after an hour of looking, she doesn't find anything, and now she feels bad for suspecting something and going through her husband's things. She's about to click off the light when she notices a bottle of oil paint missing in a set she'd bought for Peeta a little while ago for his birthday. And things start clicking together. Because first off, he doesn't go through paints that fast. Second off, even if he does, he never throws away the bottles. Like, ever. There is an entire drawer filled with empty bottles and such of paint and other supplies partially because Peeta needs to remember the names or brands, and partially because Peeta hates the idea of potentially wasting something unless he is fully convinced it's done. Which he never is.

It takes one day before he confesses, and when he does it's because Katniss casually mentions how her favorite sweater doesn't seem to have an old snag from when her ring caught on the yarn and nearly ripped a hole in the arm. And that's how she finds out Peeta accidently left a poorly closed bottle of azure blue paint in his pants pocket and not even Effie had been able to save the load, so she helped him reorder everything. Thus why he's been stress baking. And Katniss is way too entertained to be mad because at this point, there's no better reprimand than the one Peeta has given himself.

But idk tho. I don't think about them much :)

Home from Work

Coming home from work to a giggling, babbling baby girl. Just feeling domestic. Send help.

I can’t believe Pitbull just thanked all of us for listening to his song on repeat as a coping mechanism because we were left just that UNHINGED by the carriage scene 😂

TIMELESS, TRANSCENDS INTERNATIONAL BOUNDARIES - that is the power of Polin and that carriage

brb gonna daydream about writing fanfiction for several hours without actually writing a single word

Growing up is actually all about realizing people don’t inherently dislike you and it’s a bit odd to assume they do

Daisy Moon

Sara

In the quiet that follows, I try to imagine not being able to tell illusion from reality. Not knowing if Prim or my mother loved me. If Snow was my enemy. If the person across the heater saved or sacrificed me. With very little effort, my life rapidly morphs into a nightmare. I suddenly want to tell Peeta everything about who he is, and who I am, and how we ended up here. But I don't know how to start. Worthless. I'm worthless. At a few minutes before four, Peeta turns to me again. "Your favorite color… green?" "That's right." Then I think of something to add. "And yours is orange." "Orange?" He seems unconvinced. "Not bright orange. But soft. Like the sunset," I say. "At least, that's what you told me once." "Oh." He closes his eyes briefly, maybe trying to conjure up that sunset, then nods his head. "Thank you." But more words tumble out. "You're a painter. You're a baker. You like to sleep with the windows open. You never take sugar in your tea. And you always double-knot your shoelaces."

Post 11: Raked Leaves

Many, many moons ago, I used to ride my bike past my crush's house on the way to the lake during the summer in my home town. Every day. He was never, ever outside.

And then one day, I was biking the return route at like 4 o'clock in the afternoon like I was on auto-pilot. I passed his house, which was quiet as usual. I picked up speed with my mind already jumping ahead to a nice shower and a snack when -- lo and behold! -- I passed what I still consider to be the second greatest karmic moment of my high school life.

Football players. Shirtless football players. Washing a car in a driveway at someone's house that I hadn't realized had any connection to aforementioned football players.

All those rivulets of water and soap glistening on taut, smooth skin...

I'm telling you, it rivaled the beach volleyball scene in Top Gun.

But here's the conundrum I was faced with: was I to slow down and risk them noticing me? Or should I remain pedaling away at top speed and pray that my cloak of invisibility remained intact?

Suffice it to say, this fic is born from that memory.

What I liked:

I really like the atmosphere here.

Peeta's still my favorite and I think that shows.

No Hunger Games!

Food! (of course)

Bread-Snob!Peeta

Not so much:

Again with the typos. I really need to go back and edit my fics. Really.

I was called out for Needy!Katniss and Smarmy!Peeta. Maybe that's legit. I didn't think so when I wrote it, nor when I re-read. I think they sound like two high school kids. I get the feeling like a modern A/U with no Hunger Games would require these two to have poor communication/assumptions as the basis for not getting together sooner and tried to convey this. Maybe poorly?

There's a teeny bit of head jumping.

Part Two was never written, probably in light of that second bullet.

FF.net

AO3

The power of Pink

Okay but no Haymitch dealing with GBT!Everlark lives rent free in my mind? Just him dealing with these two tip toeing around one another brings him dangerously close to literally losing his mind.

Katniss is unsure about if Peeta still loves her like he did and he is like girl why do you he came back? Peeta is so upset about what he did during the worst of his hijacking and waxes about how can Katnis ever trust him again after what he did? Haymitch reminds him Katniss literally is sharing a bed with him because he helps her night terrors.

They BOTH gush and go on and on after they first kiss. All overjoyed but also nervous and Haymitch thinks he is about to loose all his hair by pulling it out by hand.