The sun was barely over the meadow when she ventured out from their rundown shack of a home. 23-year-old Katniss Everdeen took a moment to relish in the squeaking of the old floorboards, the peeling walls and rusted kitchen sink on her last day as a member of the household. It was the day of the first ever Marriage Reaping, and the day that she would be forced into marrying the Capitol's "best choice" for her.

When the population of the districts started to dwindle, the Capitol decided that freedom to not marry was a freedom that the districts did not deserve to keep. Each eligible man and women in the districts with no spouse and no children would be paired off with a member of the opposite sex and required to make a life with that person. They would be required to have at least two children during the first ten years of their marriage. Prior to the Marriage Reaping, each townsperson had to complete 4 hours' worth of questionnaires so the Capitol could decide who they would be best fit to. Katniss completed her questionnaires begrudgingly a few weeks before the reaping. She knew that trying to postpone the inevitable would only put her family in danger.

As she walked from the only place that she'd ever been able to call home, Katniss fought a sick churning feeling that rose up inside of her. In just a few hours, she would be wed. She would be at the mercy of some strange man, stuck in his bed, forced to make him meals, forced to bare his children. She put a hand up to her mouth and willed away the feeling of dread and bile that threatened to make an appearance.

The walk to the bakery was not excessive. She took the time to enjoy the view of the woods from her path, unknowing if her husband will allow her to visit the bakery or go hunting. He may keep her isolated in the house to tend to his needs. She noted every tree, every twig and rock and speck and bird like it would be the last time she ever saw any of it. The walk didn't seem to take long enough.

Katniss knocked quietly on the back door of the bakery and hoped that, by some grace or luck, her fate would not be as ugly as she expected. Maybe she would be paired with a nice man who never expected her to do anything at all for him. Yeah right, Katniss. Because life always works out that well, doesn't it?

The door opened and Peeta peeked his head out. At the sight of her, he smiled widely and stepped out to join her, shutting the door quietly to avoid alerting his mother that he was escaping his bakery duties. At once, he pulled her into a tight embrace and she felt the shaking and jerking of his muscles on her. Gently, she rubbed his back and held him tighter.

"We'll be fine, Peeta. I'm sure your spouse will be kind and wonderful. She will be your perfect match." She whispered in his ear. To any outsider, the moment probably looked intimate in a way that supplanted their long-standing friendship

"You are my perfect match." He whispered back to her. She shook her head at him and broke the embrace.

"You can't talk like that anymore, Peeta. We'll always be friends… That's all we can ever be now." She told him, rubbing a hand on his exposed arm and turning away. "I came here to say goodbye. I don't know what is going to happen after the reaping, but I don't want to leave things unsaid between us."

She looked away as he gave her a fearful and wounded expression. Her friendship with Peeta had endured more than anything else in her life. They met on the first day of Kindergarten. Peeta approached her at recess and asked her if she wanted to get married to him. She spit on the ground near his shoe and told him that she would only marry someone who could bring her as much candy as she wanted. The next day, Peeta approached her with a sugary cupcake that he had smuggled out of the bakery. The frosting was smeared and the cake was slightly smashed, but Peeta succeeded in winning over Katniss for the time being. She informed him that he would have to start bringing two treats when her baby sister was born and old enough to enjoy them too. Peeta accepted that challenge. They played together at recess every day for the rest of their elementary years.

As the years went on, Katniss and Peeta stayed friends. When Katniss's dad passed away, Peeta held her hand at the funeral and made sure everyone at school was nice to her when she came back. He made her a card and colored a picture of her walking with her dad, hand-in-hand, on the cover. That was the first time Peeta saw her cry. The year of their first reaping, Peeta brought Katniss a bag full of cheese buns and they shared their first kiss. Katniss didn't want to die without a kiss, and Peeta didn't want to die without a kiss from Katniss. Each reaping, they would share a simple kiss. Before their final reaping, Peeta gave Katniss her first orgasm and she cried in front of him for only the second time ever. Though Peeta was brought up in a Merchant home, and Katniss came from a poor, starving family in the Seam, most of the townfolks assumed that the two of them would eventually get married and start a family of their own.

Thanks to the Capitol and the new marriage reaping, that future was no longer a possibility. Not that Katniss wanted to marry Peeta... She never planned on marrying or having children. Though if someone had put a gun to her head and forced her to choose a spouse, it definitely would have been Peeta. But unless she was forced, she was not going to settle down with anybody.

Peeta deserves better than me. He wants kids and a cozy home. I just want to survive.

"If it weren't for the reaping and the new rules, would you marry me?" He asked her, looking hopefully at her with watery blue eyes. "Would we have children someday? Can you see that, Katniss?"

She closed her eyes as the images he'd described seemed to assault her every sense. The smell of bread and cake on his skin as they climbed into bed together; a tiny blonde child running into Peeta's arms and laughing as Peeta spun him around and around; a quaint home in-between the seam and the merchant quarter, with a porch table she would use to skin her kills that Peeta would cook into all kinds of delicacies.

"It can't happen now. We might as well not focus on what could have been… We're both getting married today."

"Maybe we will get paired with each other. Maybe we are a perfect match and the tests will decide so too." Peeta choked as he grabbed her back into his arms and hugged her more tightly than she had ever been hugged. Realizing the foolishness of his hope, he sobbed into her shoulder. "I hope he treats you like a princess, Katniss. I hope he is good to you."

Holding back a flood of her own tears, Katniss told him that she hoped the same for him. Though she was never able to fully love and appreciate Peeta in the same way that he did her, she knew that there was no one better in the district to be stuck with for life. She hoped his wife would realize that she was the luckiest woman to marry Peeta Mellark.

Before she parted from him, he handed her a bag of cookies.

"If he doesn't let you see me, or let you have sweets, save some and think of me, okay? If he hurts you, come find me, Katniss. We can run away together. We can. Just be safe. Promise?" She nodded at his words and he looked desperately at her. "Promise me you will be safe. I need you to promise."

"I promise. I will do my best to stay safe," she swore to him before tucking the bag under her arm and sending him the most reassuring smile that she could muster up. "I have to meet Gale for a few hours. We want to leave our families with enough to eat… Just in case."

Peeta nodded and turned to go back into the bakery. "If I see Prim around, I'll make sure she has enough to eat too."

Katniss reached out to give him fingers a squeeze before she turned away. It was hard enough leaving her home and her sister. Leaving Peeta as well felt like a punch to the gut. The marriage reaping seemed like more of an injustice as each agonizing moment went by.

!

After dropping the bag off for Prim at the house, Katniss snuck under the fence and ventured into the woods. Like her walk to town, she tried to take in as much of her surroundings as she could. She wanted a mental picture of the place that the loved the most. She needed a way to recall her life of freedom while she was stuck in a loveless marriage for the rest of her days.

If surviving each reaping without having her name called was just a prelude to a life sentence of playing house with a stranger, Katniss was no longer sure why she was so afraid of the Hunger Games. Sure, she would be forced to kill other kids and probably be murdered in a vicious way. But at least she would know how things were going to happen. With the marriage reaping, she could end up with a man who rapes her every night. She could end up with a man who beats her and treats her like a slave. She could end up with a man who expects her to bear 10 children and raise them all while he works in the mines. She could be forced to watch her own children compete in the Hunger Games. She could be forced to watch them die of starvation. There was no happy ending to the marriage reaping. It was a lifetime of servitude and torture that almost made her smile at the thought of a slow death in an arena.

When she got to her meeting spot with Gale, she noticed that his usual smile was wiped clean off of his face. This was no time for joking or joy. They both needed to provide as much meat to their families before the marriage reaping as they possibly could. Both of their kitchens were littered with dried and jerked meats for their siblings and mothers to eat in the coming months. Gale and Katniss had a long-standing agreement. If one of them was not around to provide for the families, the other would pick up the slack. If neither of them were around, Peeta would do his best to help. Thought Gale was not Peeta's biggest fan, he couldn't afford to lose an ally now. He had no clue what the marriage reaping would bring to him. He could be assigned a home on the opposite side of District 12, nearly an hour walk to his mother's home in the Seam. There was no way that he would be able to work in the mines and hunt for them if he was placed far away.

"Did you say bye to Peet-peet?" He asked her jokingly, desperate to cut the tension in the area.

"Yeah. He's panicking, of course. Wants me to run away with him if my spouse is a dick."

"You should." Gale tells her as they check the snares they'd set the previous morning. "Get out of here and have the romantic fairytale life that he wants to give you."

"What about Prim?" Katniss laughs, "Will she have a fairytale life with Peeta too? She's only 17, Gale. I can't leave her alone just yet. She doesn't even know how to hunt."

"Prim would be fine, Catnip. I would make sure she doesn't starve. Her and Rory are already talking about getting married in the fall to save them from the marriage reaping. Though I don't think that's the only reason." Gale grinned at the shocked look on her face and started to reset the snares. "Not everybody is opposed to the idea of marriage like you."

"Prim is too young to marry."

Gale scoffed in her direction and shook his head, "Would you rather she goes through the reaping and gets paired with some stranger? They're doing it every 4 years, Katniss. If she doesn't marry before she turns 21, she'll be in the pool of eligible women. Rory is a good kid. I'll watch out for them."

Katniss shuddered at the thought of Prim being forced into a loveless marriage.

"You're right. She should marry Rory. That's how it was always going to be anyway."

"Yep," Gale said slowly, looking over at Katniss as he said, "Me and you, Prim and Rory. That's how it was always going to be. Until Peet-peet came along and stole you from me."

Katniss rolled her eyes at his exaggerated memory. "I'm not with Peeta. I was never with you. Are we talking about a different Katniss Everdeen?"

"You'll never understand the effect you have on men, Katniss." Gale punched her shoulder lightly and sighed. "It's too bad there aren't two of you. One for the baker and one for me."

"There isn't even one of me for either of you." Katniss replied, aiming her bow at the tree and shooting down a fat bird. "Plus, I never wanted to pick either of you. I wasn't going to marry anybody, Gale."

"What about before the last reaping when you let Peeta-"

"Fuck off, Gale."

"I'm not a sore loser, Catnip. If you had to choose a guy to marry, I know it would have been Peeta. You know it would have been Peeta. Hell, the whole districts knows-"

"Can you please shut up?" She screeched at him, "It's not happening. I'll be paired with some asshole for the rest of my life. I'm an asshole and I'm going to be paired with an asshole. I don't want to dwell on this anymore. Whatever marriage I have will be a complete joke."

Gale looked her over sadly and nodded. They finished their hunt in silence and vowed to meet each other before the reaping began. When she got home, Katniss skinned her kills and prepared the meat before taking a hot bath. Each eligible man and woman was required to attend the marriage reaping dressed in their finest clothing. They must be clean, made-up and looking good for their potential spouses.

After each couple is paired together, they will be given two hours to find their residence, gather their belongings from their old homes (if necessary) and make their way back to the square to partake in the mass wedding. After that, each couple was required to go back to their new home and consummate their marriage. Though the Capitol said that consummation was a required part of the wedding night, and every married female would be tested for pregnancy each month, Katniss planned on postponing that part of her "marriage" for as long as humanly possible. The thought of having children was terrifying to her. She hoped that her spouse felt the same way.

Once she was clean and looking presentable enough to attend the Capitol's joke of a reaping ceremony, she allowed her mother and sister to fawn over her and make her "look like a bride," as Prim worded it.

"I can't believe you are actually getting married today." Prim said, sounding more excited about the ordeal than Katniss would have liked. "Hopefully you get paired with a hunk!"

"It's not like it's my choice, Prim. I don't want to get married and I don't want to leave you and mom." Katniss swallowed deeply as her mom tucked one of her small braids into her hairdo and pinned it in place. "What if he doesn't let me leave the house? What if he-"

"You are smart, Katniss."

Katniss stared at her mother dumbly in the broken mirror in front of her. Cappie Everdeen was a woman of few words. Since her husband passed away 12 years ago, she spoke maybe twice a month. For the 3 years after her husband died, she was in such a deep state of grief that she did nothing at all. Katniss kept them all alive during that time. Eventually, Cappie began to come out of her shell and support her children again, but she still chose not to speak. Or maybe it wasn't a choice. Katniss wasn't sure. All she knew was that she resented her mother for abandoning them, and she wasn't sure she would ever get over that resentment.

Sensing her daughter's hesistance, Cappie continued in a stern voice. "You are a smart girl. You are strong. You've held our family together since you were 11 years old. If this man touches you or hurts you or treats you poorly, I know that you aren't going to stand by and let it happen. You will fight back and you will win. Don't speak as if your life is over, Katniss. It's just beginning."

Prim looked at her sister with a wide grin on her face. Their mother spoke more words in that moment than she'd probably said in the previous year of her life. Unable to find words to refute her mother's speech, Katniss nodded softly and tried to believe that she was as strong and smart as she'd been told.

!

Her mother and Prim stood behind the divider in the back of the square, like parents who were waiting for their children to be reaped. Cappie wasn't eligible for the marriage reaping because of her two children. Prim was a year too young. Katniss was relieved that her mom and sister would not be forced to endure the same fate that she was facing.

The groups were split into two: male and females. Katniss peered into the group of males and managed to spot Peeta. He was already staring over at her and he lifted his hand up to her in a wave. She reciprocated the action and began to look over the rest of the male group. Most of the males were in their twenties, but there were still plenty of older men. A gentleman who looked to be the age of 80 was standing toward the back of the group. Katniss wondered if he was a widow with no children. How unfair for him to be forced to marry someone at the end of his life. Most people in District 12 don't make it past age 40. This man was practically an idol and he would have to share his life with a stranger.

The women's group had a fair share of older women in it as well. Several Katniss knew were infertile. What an injustice for them to be forced into marriages with the purpose of reproducing when they were physically incapable of doing so. The flaws in the system were so prevalent that Katniss wondered if it was more about control than it was about the population.

Suddenly, something familiar caught her eye. The gaudy outfit and enormous wig of the District 12 escort, Effie Trinket. Katniss couldn't help but roll her eyes at the fact that the woman who escorts children to their deaths was there to pair people off with a spouse. Marriage and death shouldn't be closely correlated in that way.

Effie approached the microphone stand with a smile and tapped on the object before speaking.

"Welcome everybody! I'm sure you are all so excited for the first ever Marriage Reaping! I know I am! What an exhilarating day for everyone here!"

A man approached Effie and handed her a large envelope. Gingerly, she ripped open the item and pulled out a long list. It reached almost halfway to the floor and Effie giggled happily.

"Our marriage list is here. How wonderful! I hope you are all ready to meet your new spouses! The list is in alphabetical order by surnames. I will call husbands first, followed by the name of their wives. Please join me on the stage and we will continue until all of our new couples are together!" Effie grinned at all of us, but to the credit of district 12, nobody smiled back.

Clearing her throat, Effie held up the list and began.

Katniss POV

"Our first couple starts with the one and only, Haymitch Abernathy, age 40, District 12 mentor and victor of the Second Quarter Quell."

I watch as the older man makes his way up to the stage. I feel sorry for whoever is paired with Haymitch Abernathy. He is surly, constantly drunk and generally dirty. I'm surprised that he wasn't exempt from the reaping since he is a mentor and Hunger Games victor. He stumbles up the steps and looks surprisingly sober for the occasion. His eyes are cast downward and it looks like the idea of meeting his spouse is making him sick.

"The wife of Haymitch Abernathy will be a woman by the name of Katniss Everdeen, age 23, daughter of Cappie Everdeen and the late Weston Everdeen."

The entire crowd turns to look at me as I digest the information. I've been paired with a Hunger Games victor. The only living victor in District 12. A 40-year old drunk.

All I can think in this moment is that the victor's children always get reaped. My worst fears are going to come true now. It's almost unavoidable. I'll have to have children with this dirty, drunk man. I'll have to watch them in the Hunger Games. And this man, this husband of mine, will have to mentor them. I'll raise them and love them and feed them. And watch them die.

This can't be happening.

I'm very excited about this story! I hope I get a few fans and we can enjoy the ride together. Please review and follow so I know that I'm getting a response. Thanks!