
Posted originally on the Archive_of_Our_Own at https://archiveofourown.org/
works/11944992.
  Rating:
      Explicit
  Archive Warning:
      Major_Character_Death, Underage
  Category:
      F/M
  Fandom:
      Hunger_Games_Trilogy_-_Suzanne_Collins
  Relationship:
      Mrs._Everdeen/Mr._Mellark
  Character:
      Katniss_Everdeen, Peeta_Mellark, Mr._Mellark, Mrs._Everdeen
  Stats:
      Published: 2017-08-29 Chapters: 4/4 Words: 2246
****** My Mom and Your Dad ******
by WildcatPacer
Summary
     What if Katniss's mom AND Peeta's dad had competed together in a
     Quarter Quell arena? One with a twist that forced them to confront
     their past? Enjoy!
***** Chapter 1 *****
Chapter 1: 75th Reaping
I tug at my blue dress as I wait on the podium with my six fellow Victors. I
really don't know why I have to wear it, since as a Victor, I should no longer
be in danger of being Reaped.
For this is a Quarter Quell year for the death match known as the Hunger Games.
Ever quarter of a century, there is some twist to the fight to the death
amongst the 12 districts of Panem that adds some spice. This time, childhood
sweethearts will be Reaped as the tributes.
District 12 has not done too bad a job for itself over the years. Even if we
are seen as one of the loser districts. In 75 years, we have had seven wins.
One of them was the previous Quell. Another was last year. My win, alongside
with my district partner, Peeta Mellark. I've never been alive to see a tribute
of ours win, other than myself. District 12 outranks five others for number of
victories, and ties two more. But it would be nice to actually witness a
District 12 tribute come back alive…. other than myself. After the Dark Days
speech, Mayor Undersee reads our names:
"The Victor of the 2nd Hunger Games: Anya Hart!" An 89-year-old woman shakily
stands with the help of her colleagues. One of the very first Victors. It's a
miracle that she's still alive. Most Victors don't live past their sixties, and
those that do are treated with great respect.
[Anya Hart]
"The Victor of the 13th Hunger Games: Duke Vedaldi!" Duke is in his late 70s,
but still ruggedly handsome.[Duke Vedaldi]
"The Victor of the 14th Hunger Games: Raab Ravenott!" Raab is only a year
behind Duke, I think, which requires bringing up an interesting commonality
between all five of our Victors: they all won at 16 years old. And Raab is
probably the only one who has married, and broken what is known as the Victors'
Code, forbidding attachments. He wed an old shoemaker's widow, after she lost
both her children to the Games.[Raab Ravenott]
"The Victor of the 16th Hunger Games: Cassiope Fletch!" It is rumored that
Cassiope - who has been alive as long as the Games have been in existence -
married a kindly Peacekeeper many years back, but entirely in secret. Only a
Toasting of bread - District 12's marriage tradition, and no official registry
with the Justice Building. But these rumors have never been confirmed. The
Teens - so, really, 60 years ago - were the heyday for District 12 wins. We
almost got a Hat Trick, three in a row, but were denied by a loss in the 15th
Games.[Cassiope Fletch]
"The Victor of the 50th Hunger Games, or Second Quarter Quell: Haymitch
Abernathy!" Haymitch is only 41 and a drunkard. Good for a laugh, as he sways
whilst trying to stand.[Haymitch Abernathy]
"The Co-Victors of the 74th Hunger Games: Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark!"
Huge cheers.
Our district escort, Effie Trinket, now bounds to the microphone to begin the
Reaping.
"Lillian Everdeen!"
I nearly topple into Peeta in shock. I thought she was safe! The only
sweetheart she ever had was her husband, and he's been dead for six years.
So….. who else could she have been involved with? I feel like this Reaping has
now become a huge invasion of my mother's own privacy.
"Steffan Mellark!" Oh. My. God.
My mother was involved with Peeta's dad?! I give Peeta a look, but I can't tell
if he is surprised as I am to also see one of his own parents take the stage.
The tributes shake hands and are escorted into the Justice Building.
===============================================================================
When you get to have as many Victors as District 12 does, not everyone has to
go. So I am shocked when all six of my companions join me on the train.
We will be a motley crew for mentoring. Anya is far too old, has no business
coming along. She is practically senile, and will likely be dead in a few
years. But Duke looks after her well enough. Haymitch will drink till the
liquor runs out, so he's largely useless, but Cassiope will keep him in check.
And Raab? Raab is just there. To diffuse the tension; he's always good for a
laugh.
Steffan and Peeta are talking in low whispers. I just give my mother a look of
pure confusion. And hurt. Why would she feel the need to keep this from me?
That there was anyone else other than my father? Her relationship with the
Baker - the father of the man I am now essentially betrothed to - had to have
occurred while she was still a Merchant - a schoolgirl's fling that didn't
last.
Once we begin mentoring, we start to go in a Kumbaya circle, giving little bits
of advice and often finishing each other's sentences. With seven people, it's
going to be crowded.
"And the other districts, especially 5 and 7, will be looking to us," Duke
warns. "We are the only non-Career district that ties them now."
"Because 5+7=12!" Haymitch crows drunkenly. We all stare at him.
===============================================================================
And it gets even more crowded once we reach the Capitol.
The paparazzi are all over us, everyone dying to know how, with the unusual
nature of the Quell twist, the names Mellark and Everdeen are in contention
once again.
The Chariot Parade passes quickly, as it usually does, and we are soon in the
penthouse suite. Training begins the next day, over three suns and moons.
With the twist, all of the tributes are past Reaping age, and there is quite
the variety across generations for former sweethearts. Steffan and my mother,
Lillian, do well over the three days, sticking to themselves out of familiarity
and self-preservation. My mother pulls a 7, respectable score for someone who
does not have a killer's bone in her body. Peeta's dad actually beats her, at
an 8.
Cassiope and I train my mother for the interviews. Anya joins us, but falls
asleep and stays asleep in a chair. I honestly wonder why we brought the old
woman. Surely, Steffan against four rambunctious guys, one of them his own son,
will be lively.
That fourth night is the interview session with Caesar Flickerman. The moment
my mother takes the stage, Caesar asks her, "We're dying to know! These
Everdeens must be really susceptible to those Mellark men! What kind of
relationship did you have with Steffan?"
Mother bites her lip and refuses to look at me. "We were childhood friends
growing up, and our families were really close. But... after I met Katniss's
father... we drew apart."
"Can you kill him when the time comes? Steffan?"
Mother answers honestly. "No, Caesar. I'm a Healer, not a killer."
Then it's Steffan's turn. He largely gives the same response as Mother
regarding their long-ago relationship, even down to refusing to kill her if it
came to it. It really is a sick twist on the part of the Capitol. But if
sweethearts can't bring themselves to murder each other, it could blow up in
the Capitol's face.
Peeta holds me in his arms tightly that night.
***** Quell, Day 1 *****
Chapter 2: Quell, Day 1
It is with great reluctance that I say goodbye to our tributes before the
hovercraft the next morning. I find it within myself, despite our strains, to
hug Mother goodbye and tearfully tell her I love her. When the plane goes,
Haymitch leads the way down to the Mentors' Bar.
The Victors Peeta and I meet are nice, and they give deference to Anya, which I
appreciate.
The arena is in a jungle, with the Cornucopia set on an island in a miniature
sea. Rocky spokes create watery wedges for every pair of tributes.
Mother and the Baker escape the Bloodbath - two of only ten tributes to do so.
And the kills are pretty clean, with only Districts 2, 3, 7, 11 and 12
surviving intact.
In the jungle, Peeta's and my parents actually run into - and manage to kill -
the sweethearts from District 7. Suddenly, we are at the Final Eight after the
first day. I wonder if the field is weak.
After fighting off some monkey mutts, Lillian manages to Heal an injured
Steffan. They rest on the beach until the sun goes down.
***** Quell, Day 2 *****
Chapter 3: Quell, Day 2
Throughout the second day on the beach, Mother and Steffan just talk. The
Careers don't bother with them, instead hunting down the couples from Districts
3 and 11 and killing them in the jungle. All the while, Peeta's and my parents
talk about why they didn't work.
"Why did you leave?" Steffan asks.
"You know why," Mother whispers, refusing to look him in the eye. "Estes wooed
me away with just his singing. I fell in love, Steffan. It happens. I only wish
I could have had both of you." She doesn't say anymore, but I know she pitys
Steffan for his ultimate fate: marrying, settling I guess, for a witch of a
woman who reportedly beats her three sons. How he managed to have three of them
by her, I have no idea.
Another set of cannons sounds. District 11, I think. Steffan suddenly kisses my
mother in the fading light.
And I have to turn away as she kisses him back.
When I dare myself to look a few moments later, I am shocked and repulsed to
see that my mother is ripping at the clothes of another man. She straddles
Peeta's father in the sand and begins to make frantic love to him. The Baker
flips them and begins to pound into her, kissing her all over her face as
Mother closes her eyes and smiles in abject pleasure.[Mrs. Everdeen Having Sex]
She moans incessantly, crying out as she orgasms. The Baker follows into her
with a grunt. Old people sex is weird.
It is the first time I have seen my mother with any man other than my father. I
feel sick, and I wonder if Peeta does too. I even wonder how the Witch must
feel, watching her husband betray his marriage vows (as his wife is still very
much alive) on national television.
I guess Peeta and my Star-Crossed Lovers' Act runs in the family.
We are now down to the Final Four. District 2 versus District 12 for the crown.
As night falls on the second day and the faces of four more dead tributes
appear in the sky, Peeta and I begin to entertain the very real possibility
that one of our parents will win the Games. A Quell! It would be historic, the
first time in history a parent and child would have won the Games. This
possibility actually means that Peeta and I are arguing about which of our
parents should come home.
I shouldn't be as shocked as I am when Peeta actually wants my mother to win.
"So, you and Prim aren't orphans!" is the rationale he gives.
But I know what happens if Mother wins. Steffan dies and Paula, the Witch and
Peeta's mother, will be free to beat on her Victor son and his two older
brothers to her heart's content. But Peeta just smiles when I voice these
concerns.
"I'm a Victor. Even she can't hurt me."
I wish I could say I believe him.
***** The Victor *****
Chapter 4: The Victor
On the third day, District 2 (a couple who happen to be married, so I guess
their sweetheart phase actually turned into a union) return to the beach. They
have to face off against Mother and Steffan.
I wonder if having spouses in the arena, instead of just sweethearts, would
have been a better or worse Quell twist. But that would mean that Daddy's death
would have saved Mother from the Games. And perhaps it would be Peeta's parents
together in the arena. I am actually sure the Witch would not have had any
qualms about killing her own husband.
Steffan manages to take out the District 2 male, when the final battle comes.
But the female from 2 - the brute's wife - actually injures him. Only with the
last of his strength and an assist from Mother with a knife do they overpower
her.
A Mellark and an Everdeen back in the Top Two. And District 12 will have a
Victor again, their eight overall.
And it won't be Steffan.
Mother holds his hand as he dies, listening as he confesses his love for her. I
turn my face away from the screen again, but now out of respect rather than
revulsion. I even watch as the Baker and Mother share a chaste and tender kiss
goodbye. The Witch must be feeling awful right now.
Then, Claudius Templesmith announces my mother's Victory: "Ladies and
gentlemen, may I present the winner of the 75th Annual Hunger Games or Third
Quarter Quell: Lillian Everdeen of District 12!"
===============================================================================
Mother is pulled from the arena and her final interview is forgettable. She
returns home to District 12 with the rest of us, and she and my sister have an
emotional reunion.
We do not encounter the Witch in the weeks and months after our Quell Victory,
and I have a feeling that Peeta ensures this by design, keeping the two women
and former rivals apart. But, Peeta and I marry during Mother's Victory Tour,
to add drama, and also to force the Witch there and have her and Mother have a
civil interaction with one another.
And so the Games continue...
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