Our Anthem

The Ballad of Lucy Gray

A couple of days had passed after the weapons demonstration. Katniss had left me for a few minutes to bring dinner to our room for both of us and we ate in bed, the blanket over our laps and us sitting shoulder to shoulder. We didn't make love that night, but that didn't stop us from making love the following morning.

On this particular day, though, Haymitch had sent word that he wanted to see us. Katniss was working in the lab with her brother when I got word and was told to bring her, so I went to the lab and found Katniss looking at some strange creature underneath a giant magnifying glass. "Uh... Katniss?" I said, looking at her from the other side of the magnifying glass. The glass moved up and looked at me with one giant grey eye, and I couldn't help but laugh, especially when a giant toothy grin replaced it. The magnifying glass moved and Katniss stood behind it in normal proportion.

"What brings you here, mo ghaol ?" she asked me.

"Apparently, Haymitch wants to see us," I told her.

"Oh boy, are we going to get yelled at?" she asked me, and I shrugged.

"Don't know, but better to get it over with now rather than later," I replied, and she let out a sigh.

"Right. Cailean, watch the skin, mark down if it does anything," she said, pulling off the white lab coat she was wearing and draping it over a coat hanger by the door. Together, we left the lab and headed for Haymitch's room, which was where he wanted us to meet him. "I don't know if I'm really in the mood for a lecture."

"Me either, but I think he's still annoyed at us for the meeting a few days ago."

"It's not like we weren't doing anything bad. I spend a lot of time in the hospital. After that medical ship, everyone there knows how much time I spend in there. I can't help being hungry, it's human nature."

"I don't think he's mad about that. You did call him 'mum'. What's a 'mum' anyway?"

"It's just what we call our mothers in Hebridia, if we aren't calling them the Gàidhlig word for it, which is màthair ."

"Like Mom?"

"I guess so, if that's the Panem way of saying it." We arrived at Haymitch's room and stopped just outside of it. "You ready?"

"Gonna have to be sometime," I replied, giving her a quick kiss before knocking on the door. The door opened and Haymitch stood on the side of it.

"Well, look who's showed up on time for once," he said to both of us, inviting us into his room, and we entered without a word.

"You wanted to speak to us, Haymitch?" I asked him, and he motioned for us to sit in two chairs he'd set up for us, and we did.

"If this is about the meeting-" Katniss began, but Haymitch cut her off.

"This is about the apparent lack of interest that you two have in the cause. Or mostly, you, Katniss," he said. We knew he was annoyed at us when he referred to us by name. "I understand that neither of you wanted this. Believe me, I get it. But it's here, and you two both agreed to take an active part in it when you agreed to represent District Twelve as senators, so you need to at least act like you want to be there."

"We do want to be there, Haymitch," I said, and he held up a hand to stop me.

"Peeta, it don't look like it," he replied. He took one big long look at us and then sighed. "Sometimes I forget you two are still kids... All of you. You, Odair, Johanna, the twins... Carolina, too. The Games made all of y'all grow up so fast, they took what was left of your innocence away. I know that, it happened to me." He paused for a moment. "I know we all want this war to end as quickly as possible, but the Capitol ain't gonna give us that. Snow ain't gonna give us that. We have to take it from him, and we have to work together to get that." He looked back up at us. "I want you two to get the happy ending you deserve. I've always looked at you two as my kids, almost. At the time, I didn't have Carolina. When you two won the Games, I realised I could look at you both as my kids. It gave me a new purpose, to keep you two alive. I didn't have a mentor like you two did."