The idea of Peeta and Katniss slowly becoming more socially disconnected with the people they had to pretend to be before and during the war.
A new generation of kids are born, and maybe they’re taught something of what happened before their time, but maybe they’re too young to have learned about it in school. Or maybe, they just didn’t care too much to remember, maybe they’ve just never seen pictures of The Mockingjay. Or maybe Katniss has outgrown the image of that scared 17-year-old girl.
Whichever way it is, the kids don’t know, and don’t really care. When people come in from across the country, asking where they could meet “The Mockingjay”, the adults ignore them.
When they ask a kid, they just blink. “Who?”
“Katniss Everdeen.” They might try.
These kids have never heard of a Katniss Everdeen. And besides, their parents told them never to talk to weird strangers!! They run away, and go to tell Mrs. Mellark about the weird person they met.
i can't read anything that isn't purely HEAVY everlark. even though they are endgame, but she kiss gale at some point? pass! peeta from the past having a girlfriend? i won't read! threesome? never in a million years!!!!!!! i get physically sick, i'm NOT exaggerating
I think if peeta even got a sniffle Katniss would go fucking feral, drop everything and take care of him (and get sick herself)
ABSOLUTELY SHE WOULD.
She'd call her mom like, "he's dying, what do I do?"
Peeta's in the background like, "Hi Mrs. Everdeen, I just have seasonal allergies, I took some Zyrtec, everything is fine!
"YOU'RE DYING, SHUT UP AND GO TO BED BEFORE I KILL YOU."
BUT NOW
Now, Anon? Now i get to talk about what I think happens when KATNISS gets sick. And spoiler alert, it's GREAT.
The first time Katniss gets sick after the war, she doesn't tell anyone. She just locks herself in her house, puts a note on the door saying that she's fine and to come back tomorrow hoping that Sae sees it and doesn't bother with cooking anything for her. She grabs some remedies, a box of plain crackers, a blanket, some water, and trudges her way upstairs back to bed.
A few hours later she hears a loud crash in the kitchen. She waddles and sniffles her way downstairs to the sight of a cursing Peeta, sprawled on the kitchen floor, while his prosthetic is dangling from the open window above the sink.
"What are you doing?" she says in a congested voice, "I left a note on the door." She moves over to the window to unlatch his prosthesis from where it got snagged on the windowsill.
"This," he says, brandishing the crumpled paper in the air, "is NOT enough of an explanation. People were worried. Haymitch was worried..." He glances away at that.
"Haymitch? Bullshit." she snorts as she bends down to reattach his leg. She stays down when she's done realizing that she's feeling a little unsteady on her feet.
"Fine. FINE! I was worried. What's going on? Did I do something wrong?"
"No! Of course not. It-it's fine. I'm fine. I'm just sick. Thanks for stopping by. I'll see you tomorr-." She's struggling to get back up when she feels the air whoosh around her and realizes that Peeta has picked her up to carry her over to the couch.
"Sick? What's wrong? Have you taken anything? Let me make you some tea, or do you want soup? I can make soup." he's rambling as he presses the back of his hand to her clammy forehead.
"I really am okay. I got this. I'll be fine, Peeta." she says, pushing his hand away from her face and regretting it immediately at the loss of contact.
"Katniss. Please let me do this, okay? This is what you and I do, right? That's what you said. Now, tell me where you keep your bouillon. I'm making some chicken stock and a good soup for you."
That's when it hits Katniss. She hasn't really been taken care of like this in years. Maybe since she was 11.
For years now, her mother would do her best to take care of her during the occassional cold, of course. But for the most part Katniss struggled to accept any softness or warmth from her mother. Feeling caught between that desire to be held and comforted and the anger she still felt towards her - they instead both settled for the distant, clinical detachment her mother had with her other patients.
But, really, the last nearly 7 years of her life have been dedicated to the care of her family and her loved ones. She learned to stop asking for things and began instead to meet all of her own needs, without relying on others.
After the games she'd begun the process of extending that branch and allowing herself to lean on her mother a little more. But now? Now her mother isn't here. And here she was right back to what she knew. Taking care of herself.
Looking up at Peeta, blue eyes shining in earnest. Ready to do and be anything that is needed of him. Anything that SHE needs of him. She wipes her nose on her sleeve and smiles.
"Pantry. Top shelf. On the right. Thank you, Peeta."
Let's play an Everlark prompt game! I'll make it up right now.
One person gives a concept/idea and the other person tries to make it into a story. We keep going in a chain until we've created a quilt of a story! I'll go first, here's a concept:
Peeta is more dominant in the bedroom. Katniss lives for it. The first time they make love, she realizes Peeta intimately quenches a thirst she hasn’t felt since the Quarter Quell. It’s dangerous, she quickly learns. It’s dangerous how much she wants him. Dangerous. All the time. Everywhere. He just knows what she likes without her ever having to say it. He told her she’s more expressive than she thinks…. and loud.
Somthing about the way Snow always despised chaos above all else and was killed not in a clean, controlled execution but in the very definition of chaos: a wild, violent rush of an unnamed crowd. Poetic justice.