R A I N

E I G H T (4)

"This is all you have, Kat? Or should I say Kit-"

At the look Katniss gave her when she called her 'Kit', she immediately stopped. She knew. There were names that her family gave her that she would never dare let another person utter, not even Katniss. No matter how much they had begun to love one another.

Sorry, Jo. Yeah, this is all I got.

"Well, looks like we're going to have to go shoplifting, huh?"

You bet... after the funeral, though. I want to see- I wanna see Five again.

She knew the feeling all too well, so she just nodded, picked out a uniform, and then changed in the bathroom while Katniss was left alone in her bedroom to get back in the clothes she so desperately wanted to burn.

~~~*~~~

It was raining when they got outside, and the siblings had gathered outside for the ash ceremony or whatever.

Grace, the siblings' mother, who Katniss missed terribly - especially after her mother, Mrs. Everdeen, shut down- suddenly spoke out of confusion, "Did something happen?"

Allison turned to her, just as confused, but for a different reason. "Dad died. Remember?"

The rest of the Hargreeves, plus Johanna, looked at Grace with confusion.

Allison looked at Diego, she knew that he was close to Grace, and he would've talked to her quite a bit since he first showed up that morning. "Is Mom okay?"

Inside, he was a little worried that his mother wasn't alright. But, he put up an apathetic facade, making sure that no one would try and hurt his mother. "Yeah. Yeah, she's fine; she just needs to rest. You know, recharge."

Allison looked away, but was still wary of her mother's well being. Grace had been alone for years, after all. And the weird science things that happened during the two portals earlier may have messed her up, as it did everyone else.

Everyone was then distracted by Pogo, who was more of a father figure than Reginald ever was, walking toward the people in the group. "Whenever you're ready, dear boy."

The boy he was referring to did not look like a boy. He looked like a giant, more like the Hulk, really. He didn't have an umbrella, wanting to be strong. And, of course, Diego also didn't come out with an umbrella because he wanted to show his brother up.

He opened the urn that Klaus had earlier defiled, and dumped the ashes out. They fell straight to the ground, and didn't fly into the wind gracefully like Luther thought they would have. Luther became even more confused, because it didn't look like the ashes took up a lot of room in the urn. Reginald was a grown man, he should've had at least a few more specks of dust in there.

Everyone cringed at the ceremonious ash-dropping. Luther balked after everyone started looking at him, and finally defended himself, "Probably would've been better with some wind."

"Does anyone wish to speak?" Pogo asked, hoping to give his master a good passing. It was a good day, after all. Every single one of the children were back, those who were alive, at least, and they were together. They were going to come together as a family. If not now, then soon.

Everyone looked either to the ground, or away from Pogo, not daring to meet his eye. Including Katniss. She looked toward her shoes. Johanna put her arm around her shoulder again, and Katniss leaned into it, appreciating the warmth that Johanna was offering her under their shared umbrella.

"Very well," Pogo lamented. "In all regards, Sir Reginald Hargreeves made me what I am today. For that alone, I shall forever be in his debt. He was my master and my friend, and I shall miss him very much. He leaves behind a complicated legacy-"