Sunflower Seeds

Epilouge

    The sky is blue and the birds are chirping as I walk slowly through the fields of District Nine. The sun feels nice on my shoulders, I'd forgotten what that feels like. It's been three months since Niall and I have come out of the Games as the first double victors. Niall was in intensive care at the Capitol up until about five weeks ago, and then they sent him home and put him on bed rest for four weeks. The arrow apparently pierced a lung and damaged his spinal chord, but I was reassured that he would be just fine.

    I was a wreck after we got home. Nights were plauged with nightmares of Niall getting shot without me being able to do anything to save him, I'd watch him die in my arms night after night and I'd wake up screaming and crying for him. The nightmares have faded a bit in the past couple weeks, and sleeping has been easier, but the bags under my eyes have only just started to fade. It's so hard to believe we were only in the arena for two days, it felt like two lifetimes.

    The Victors Village is nice, but it's so unlike home. There are nights when I feel so out of place and unwelcome where I'll go back to my house before the Games and sleep there. I'm actually in my house most of the day, locked in my room. There are many nights that I wish this had never happened, but if it didn't would Niall and I still be just friends?

    Clara has been happier than anything since I've gotten back and has taken to following me where ever I go, which was cute at first, since I do love my little sister, but quickly got annoying after she wouldn't leave me alone, even when I ask polietly. This is one of the first times I've been alone, but I won't be alone for long.

    The Swamp comes up on me quickly and I take my time walking through the abaondoned fields. The overgrown weeds brush my hips as I wade through them, listening to the insects buzz. I reach the barn and run my hand over the twisted, rotting wood. The red paint is almost completly chipped away and all you can see is the weather-damaged wood underneath.

    I duck under the collapsing beams to see Niall sitting there on the same pile of hay that we sat on three months ago before the reaping, staring off into space, with a bag of sunflower seeds in his hand. He looks so much better then he did when I last saw him three months ago. I sit next to him, watching his face as he notices I'm here.

    "Hey." He says with a smile.

    "Hey." I can't help but to smile, too.

    "Long time, no see." He says, wrapping his arm over my shoulder and pulling me into him.

    "No kidding. I've missed you." I tell him.

    "I've missed you, too." He says, looking down at me. I kiss him, slowly, remembering the feel of his lips on mine. We break apart and I let my head rest on his shoulder.

    "Remember the last time we were here?" I murmur.

    "The day our lives changed." Niall says, dumping more seeds into his mouth.

    A silence overcomes us for a moment as we remember. The day wasn't much different than today. The sky was blue and the clouds were puffy, and the songbirds were singing, much like today.

    "Thank you." Niall says, breaking the quiet. I glance up at him.

    "For what?" I ask, confused.

    "For not letting me die in there."

    I look back down, memories clouding my thoughts.

    "I could never let you die. Like I said, I can't live this life without you." I say.

    "If you hadn't made me promise not to, I would have died. I was ready to let go." He says matter-of-factly.

    "I know."

    Another silence falls over us.

    "Ty... there's something I need to ask you." Niall says, breaking the silence again.

    "Yeah?"

    Niall puts down his bag and carefully frees himself from me before getting up so he's on one knee.

    "Oh, my God." I murmur.

    "Ty, I am fully, one hundred percent in love with you. I don't know why it took something as awful as the Hunger Games to make me see that, but out of all the terrible things that happened in that arena, I saw that I don't want to live another moment without you by my side. I want to be yours until the day that I die." He says, looking me in the eye. He fishes around in his pocket for a second before he pulls out a black box.

    "Tytania Lousse... will you marry me?"

    My hand flys up to my mouth when I see the ring and tears spring up into my eyes.

    "Yes, yes of course I'll marry you." I laugh. Nothing can compare to the smile that lights up Nialls face when he slips the ring, which fits perfectly, on my finger.

    "I love you, I will always love you." He whispers as I throw my arms around him. I told him in the arena that I couldn't live this life without him as he was dying in my arms, and now he's telling me that he can't live another moment without me by his side. The Hunger Games may be awful, wrong, and sickening, but in a way, I owe the sixty-second annual Hunger Games everything, and I think I'm okay with that.