Writings

Dandelions

Katniss replayed the moment she blew out the arena over and over in her head. There had been a loud boom, and smoke and fire everywhere. She was on fire. Peeta was nowhere to be seen.

The pregnancy had not only riled up the capital citizens, but it was the truth. Katniss Everdeen was pregnant with Peeta Mellark's baby.

When she came to in the aircraft after her rescue, Gale was with her.

He explained how after she blew out the arena there was a fight in District Twelve. Their district no longer existed. Many people had died.

"Where's Peeta?" Katniss only wanted him. Beetee was in the air craft too, but Peeta, her lover, was nowhere to be found.

"Katniss... Peeta was taken by the capital."

The words hit her in the chest... he was gone. President Snow had taken him from her. He was all she had, apart from her family and her friends.

For months, she stayed at District Thirteen while a plan was worked on to get Peeta and the remaining victors out of Snow's grasp.

As her belly grew, she began to ponder that maybe Peeta was dead. That he was never coming back to her again.

Maybe he was. Surely there was no way he'd still be alive, but the interviews proved otherwise.

The Peeta she once knew was dead. He had been changed, altered, to a different version, a version with tortured skin and haunted eyes.

She heard and saw him in her dreams. She whispered his name to her unborn daughter as she bathed and caressed her ever-growing belly.

Peeta was rescued after all, but the man she once knew was long gone.

He had hurt her. The old him would've never laid a hand on her.

He was restrained and confined to a room. He was told the bakery didn't survive.

He hated the mutilated Katniss Everdeen that Snow tortured him with, not the girl who watched him day after day with her womb safely protecting their daughter.

Peeta had to relearn of Willow's conception and how he was having a baby with the girl he was programmed to hate.

As much as it pained her, no one would let Peeta in the room as Katniss gave birth.

Haymitch didn't trust him to be around Willow, as she was just a baby.

Willow went with Katniss, Gale, Finnick, and Haymitch as they sought to end President Snow once and for all.

Peeta showed up a few days after they had arrived at their campsite to rebel against The Capital.

He was supervised day after day by the people in his team.

Katniss still loved him, just as much as the day they met, when he threw the bread to her and not to the pig.

Willow was proof that he had loved her too. She looked just like Peeta.

There would come a day where he could be trusted, but for now, he was monitored.

Peeta and Willow were Katniss's Dandelions.