paradisa | Welcome to the 10th Annual Hunger Games

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Welcome to the 10th Annual Hunger Games

[The body beside Peeta is warm, familiar, right. So it takes a few minutes for him to realize that he should not have his arm wrapped around her.
He gasps. When did Katniss come into his room? In the middle of the night? Or had it been the castle? Peeta quietly slips his arm away from her and climbs out of bed, looking for his journal.

He flips it open and looks through the entries. Babies? But-

And then he spots her. A beautiful little girl with olive skin and dark hair, just lying in the armchair in the corner of his room. He hurries over to her, scooping her up in his arms. She has the same strong jaw line as him. And her eyes. Her eyes are a deep blue, just like his. He presses his lips to her forehead.

He walks back over to his table and sits with her in his lap, flipping the journal open again. His voice is a whisper.]

Please don’t speak very loudly or just write. Katniss is asleep. It’s Peeta. I have a baby. She’s beautiful.

[And then, after a long time, their baby is hungry. Peeta tries to calm her, but he knows it’s coming. And finally, the little girl lets out a shriek. He sighs.]

Never mind.

[ooc: Open over the journals!]

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Better luck next time, Peeta.

[Bucky is trying hard not to snicker at that. Very hard.]

So. You have a kid now too.

[And this is the sound of Finnick laughing.]

What's Katniss think?

[Nights in Paradisa have never been easy for Katniss. If she ever manages to sleep, it's never for more than a few hours. The nightmares, more graphic and horrific than ever, more than see to that.

But for once, tonight, she's been sleeping peacefully. Dreamlessly. In some state of semi-awareness, she knows that the space beside her is comfortable and warm, maybe slightly familiar. At some point, she's shifted closer to it, but for the most part, she's been completely dead to the world.

Just like everything else, though, such good things aren't meant to last.

That shriek provides a much ruder awakening than any nightmare ever could. It pierces straight through her eardrums and sends a jolt all the way through her body, causing her to sit bold upright in a panic, breathing hard, desperately scanning her surroundings for the source of it.]

[Peeta jumps at that. He grabs the little girl up in her arms and immediately goes to Katniss, an instant reaction.

But his daughter needs comforting, too, so when he reaches the bed, he rocks her back and forth in his cradled arms, talking to her softly.]

Katniss, you okay?

Bucky, she's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

[Wait, 'too'? Excitedly:] You have a kid?

Yes, I do. Her name is Rosalie. [He is such a proud father. Then, he pauses.] And no, I didn't name her. Her poet other father did. [And that's said fondly too.]

[One thing becomes clear almost immediately. This isn't her room. It doesn't make any sense, and not just because her mind is still muddled with sleep. How could she have ended up somewhere completely different than where she fell asleep? Did they...?

It's not a thought that does anything to ease her mind.

Then there's the voice. It takes a second to process, even with the visual evidence to go along with it.]

Peeta? [Yeah, this really makes no sense.

... And then her eyes slowly drift down to the thing in his arms.]

[And now he's prepared for the freak out. The girl calms down enough that he sits her on his lap, her little blue eyes looking up at Katniss.]

Katniss, this seems to happen once a year here. The castle pairs up people in the castle and gives them a child.

That's a beautiful name, Bucky. [Heh.]

Who's her other father?

[When she catches the child's glance, she's somehow compelled to look back into it. And when she does, a revelation hits her like a ton of bricks. One that causes her to become completely paralyzed, all other thoughts currently running in her mind to stop dead in their tracks.

They're Peeta's eyes.

No.

Her breath shortens. Horror, true, raw horror, horror like she's never felt in her life, rises up and threatens to swallow her whole.]

Katniss...

[He wraps a protective arm around the little girl, and she turns and hides her face in his shirt. That look. That look of horror. But he knows that deep, dark fear. It's passed through his mind time and time again. How can they ever have a child in such a cruel world as theirs or this one? Can he really let an innocent child go through what he has?

His arm tightens around her, this little miracle placed in this dark world. His throat constricts as he reaches for Katniss' hand with his other.]

I know.

[It wasn't so long ago that the boy reaching for her hand told every television screen in Panem that they were bringing a baby into the world, his best constructed story to date. To hold them accountable for every child needlessly sent to the slaughter, year after year for 74 years. To highlight just how cruel, how sick the Capitol and its iron fist truly are.

This place isn't much different.]

They can't...-- [But she knows better. They'll never escape the Games.

She makes no move to pull away from his hand. She wouldn't have the muscle control to do so, even if she wanted to.

However she's felt, whatever cold distance between them has developed over the past few weeks, it doesn't matter at the present moment. This is her worst nightmare coming to life, right before her eyes.]

[He grips her hand, running his thumb back and forth across the back of it. He wants to hold her, kiss her, but his daughter is disturbed, he can feel it. Now there are two to protect. He kisses the little girl's head, murmuring some calming words at her. But his eyes are on Katniss.

He knows there's really nothing he can say to lessen this blow. But maybe he can support her, just by holding her hand and letting her know he's there and he knows and she's not alone.]

You know I can see this, don't you? [is she helping him out? who knows]

[He laughs.] I tried. Hey, Steve? You know what I'm supposed to feed a one year-old? I wished up a ton of books but I haven't gotten very far yet.

[He stares at the journal in horror. How had he forgotten? He'd gotten lazy, too carefree. But he takes a breath.]

Don't bother hunting us down. We're nowhere you would find us.

[And now he's quietly packing up his girl's things, hoping Clove can't hear him.]

Please. If I wanted to do that, I wouldn't have told you I can see this.

I was just saving you the grief of all your friends yelling at you.

[Lucky for you he lived in a orphanage most of his life. They never lacked babies.]

You're going to have to feed her milk from a bottle or a cup if she can handle it. You give her a little normal food too. Just make sure it's in really tiny pieces.

His name's Geoffrey Chaucer. [Pause.] I'm dating him.

...I haven't exactly told Steve yet.

[Well, Haymitch is going to speak. And loudly. If he has to suffer, you are all going to suffer with him]

Oh you mean Katniss who went home over a month ago? THAT Katniss?

[You are the worst secret keeper on the planet, get out Peeta :/]

Y-You had a baby?!

[She misunderstood. He had a baby all by himself? It's a miracle!]

[What had that arrow into the force field accomplished? They're right back where they started. In the arena, she'd kept Haymitch's words in mind. She'd remembered the enemy. But she hadn't vanquished the enemy.

She can practically feel President Snow's snake-like eyes on her, boring straight through her and sending chills down her spine. Somewhere, maybe even here and they just don't know it, he's laughing.

Peeta is just as much a pawn in this as she is, always has been. He's the only one who truly understands. And maybe, right now, there's a small comfort in knowing that she's not alone. (She could never face her nightmares without him.)

She's silent for a while, letting this jumble of thoughts filter through her brain, letting him keep her hand in his.]

What are we going to do?

[...Really? He'll throw up a filter now. Also, his baby is crying now thanks to Haymitch. :/]

You really think that's going to work when Katniss has been walking around the castle?

[Ahaha... he doesn't catch her misunderstanding.]

Yeah! She's the most beautiful baby I've ever seen.

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Welcome to the 10th Annual Hunger Games

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Action!

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Peeta

forever!

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Peeta

Dictated forever

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Haymitch

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