#thg epilogue

[buggiebite]

Down in the Valley

TW: slight nudity

Down in the valley, the valley so low

Late in the evening, hear the train blow

The train, love, hear the train blow

Late in the evening, hear the train blow

Go build me a mansion, build it so high

So I can see my true love go by

See him go by, love, see him go by

So I can see my true love go by

Go write me a letter, send it by mail

Bake it and stamp it to the Capitol jail

The Capital jail, love, the Capitol jail

Bake it and stamp it to the Capitol jail

Roses are red, violets are blue

Birds in the heavens know I love you

Know I love you, oh know I love you

Birds in the heavens know I love you

#picture this: Peeta getting out the shower and hears this from down the hall #he walks closer but doesn’t show himself out of fear his wife will stop singing #at work the next day he’s humming it while he’s kneading dough #mama katniss rocking her babies to bed #singing them lullabies #felt domestic per usual #Mellark family #buggiebite #the hunger games #everlark #katniss everdeen #peeta mellark #fanart #thg #katniss everdeen fanart #district 12 #the hunger games fanart #epilogue #thg epilogue #toastbabies #Willow and rye #Katniss Mellark

[peach-fiz]

I am an Everlark truther

#fanart #digital art #art #fan art #digital artist #my art #the hunger games #everlark #peeta mellark #katniss everdeen #katniss and peeta #thg #suzanne collins #bookblr #book fanart #mockingjay #mockingjay epilogue #thg epilogue

[alwayschasingrainbows]

What are your thoughts about the epilogue? Specifically this sentence :

It took five, ten, fifteen years for me to agree. But Peeta wanted them so badly.

How do you interpret it?

Thank you so much.

@curiousnonny

Thank you for the question, Nonny!

Let me start with saying I absolutely love the epilogue. It is bittersweet - Peeta and Katniss's story does not end with "they lived happily ever after". And it fits so much better this way. They both had gone through too much to ever be wholly healed. It is understandable that they both still have bad moments, that they are haunted by their fears and nightmares. They can't go back to who they used to be before the Games. But they had built their own kind of happiness - more precious, perhaps, because it wasn't given, but had to be earned.

"They play in the Meadow. The dancing girl with the dark hair and blue eyes. The boy with blond curls and gray eyes, struggling to keep up with her on his chubby toddler legs." The scene itself seems almost idyllic. Two young children, carefree and happy, running and dancing in the meadow. But the reader knows what the children have yet to learn; they play on a graveyard.

The Meadow itself is a curious place. It is full of memories - the good and the bad ones. The horrors of the past surround Katniss and Peeta, are mixed into the happiness of the present and the hopes for the future. These memories will never truly leave, but Katniss and Peeta manage to keep on living, in spite of that.

The children physically resemble their parents, but they seem to have a sort of innocence neither Katniss nor Peeta were ever allowed to have. Katniss describes her children in a rather vague way, not even using their names. We don't know how old the children are; the boy is a toddler, so around 1-3, the girl goes to school, so at least 5 or 6.

It might be also read as a message; this part of Katniss's life is going to be kept private. She is finally free to do so.

Another thing that came to my mind; the epilogue sounds a bit as if Katniss was talking to a reporter, during the interview, or to another person; a friend, perhaps? Annie? Johanna? That's why she wants to protect her children's privacy.

Now, about this quote: "It took five, ten, fifteen years for me to agree. But Peeta wanted them so badly."

It is a puzzling sentence. Five, ten, fifteen years - so how many exactly? Katniss obviously is trying to say, it took a long time.

In my opinion "five, ten, fifteen years" is her way of trying to remember certain events. She goes back in time and recollects the times Peeta has asked. A "zero" time point is when she and Peeta became a couple (grew back together). So, "five years" later was the first time Peeta mentioned wanting to have children. Perhaps it was not long after they got married (it would explain why Katniss remembers this year). "Ten years" might be an important event in their life (fifth wedding anniversary, perhaps), and "fifteen" - around the time Katniss decided to try for a baby. Since the epilogue takes place more than twenty years after the end of the Mockingjay, it would go well with their daughter's possible age.

It makes perfect sense that Katniss wouldn't want to have children right after the end of the series. She was quite opposed to the idea for many years. She needed a time to heal, to find her peace, to accept that her new family was going to be safe. She has already lost Prim - her father - her mother, too, to some point. She had to rebuild her life before welcoming children into the world.

So, I think it is perfectly understandable that she waited this long. Katniss deciding to start a family is an important symbol: it means that the world they live in is a safe, more peaceful place. It is a symbol of Katniss and Peeta moving on, in spite of their memories.

The description of Katniss's fears while carrying her children is understandable as well. "When I first felt her stirring inside of me, I was consumed with a terror that felt as old as life itself." Katniss had known the loss before. There were so many deaths she had seen; many death she had unvoluntarily caused. Such trauma couldn't leave her unmarked.

She had decided to have children because Peeta had wanted them badly; but it took her fifteen years to agree. It shows just how supportive these two were of each other. She aknowledged his dreams and hopes, but he gave her as much time as she needed. He didn't push her into something she wasn't ready for, but waited patiently for her to decide. She put his dreams ahead of her fears.

It shows how mature and understanding their relationship truly was.

#thg #nonny #curiousnonny #thg epilogue #katniss everdeen #peeta mellark #queue post

[littlemarianah]

Katniss is canonically an doting mother.

She has no problem carrying them as many times as they ask. Never ignore them when they are crying and never get angry when they're acting like children. She doesn't care about wet beds or glasses of juice spilled on the table.

Peeta finds it a little strange at the beginning. He was raise with punishment for the smallest accidents. His parents were never very affectionate with any of their children.

One day Katniss is tying Willow's shoes and he says something like "It's time to do it yourself, young lady"

"Take your time, Willow" Katniss say.

Which makes Peeta reflect. It reminds him of all the times he walked to school with his shoes untied because no adult wanted to tie them for him. It reminds him of how he used to be punished for his dirt-stained shoelaces when he came home from school.

When Rye wets the bed at almost five years old, Peeta's first instinct is to warn him, but Katniss says it first:

"Maybe we should drink less water before going to sleep"

Which reminds Peeta of how angry his mother would get when he wet the bed. The first time he remember being physically punished was after an incident like this . Remember how after that he tried to hide the wet bed with blankets and pillows and never spoke to anyone again.

And how Rye, in contrast, would wake him up in the middle of the night saying, "Daddy, I did it again." And Peeta let him sleep between him and Katniss instead of him lying in the wet bed like Peeta did when he was a child.

He shares some of these feelings with Katniss and she makes and he realizes how dysfunctional his family was. And how difficult it is not to repeat the same mistakes.

Peeta felt triggered when one of his children cried... He remembered how much worse it was for him if he cried. But Willow was only six years old and it was normal to cry like that, Peeta learned to wipe away her tears and teach her to regulate her emotions.

One day he caught her stealing some coins from the bakery's cash register. He stopped in complete shock looking at her. He felt fear spread through his body. He remember that it was for this reason that his mother beat his older brother. She took a wooden spoon from the kitchen and hit his hands fourteen times. The number of letters that are in the phrase "I shouldn't steal".

She made Peeta and his middle brother watch. Remember Bran's face turning red as he held back tears and spelled "s-t-e-a-l". When his father came home and saw Bran's hands red at dinner time he didn't ask what happened. Remember hearing Bran cry at bedtime that night.

He felt afraid for Willow.

"What are you doing?"

"I just want to buy some gum on the way to school" she said innocently, not seeming to realize the problem.

"You shouldn't take the coins from there. These money are from the bakery. If you want money to buy something you should ask me or your mother"

She returned the coins to the cash register and nodded.

One day Peeta realized that his children saw no other purpose for a wooden spoon other than stirring the food in the pan.

#the hunger games #katniss everdeen #everlark #peeta mellark #thg #fanfic #headcanon #epilogue #rye mellark #willow mellark

[tellmelater]

what i need is the dandelion in the spring

#digital art #artists on tumblr #my art #thg #the hunger games #mockingjay #epilogue #suzanne collins #katniss everdeen #peeta mellark #everdeen mellark baby #katniss mellark #mellark baby #toast babies

[madlymadeleine]

everlark angsty doodles but very unfinished bc art block 😗✌️

#maddiedraws #everlark #post mockingjay #pre epilogue #the hunger games #thg

[lethargicmouse]

Post mj-hayeffie <3

i feel like effie def has white roots bc she probably still died her hair, regardless if people saw it or not. and papa haymitch’s grey hair <3 honestly for Effie it’s probably stress induced. (honestly for both of them lol) Haymitch is buff i know, but like he’s got grandbabies to lift up. And Effie is very.. thin and narrow because thats what i wanted. She’s probs still very wan after her time spent in capitol prison. AND THEY BOTH HAVE FRECKLES FROM BEING OUTSIDE! and his hair is much better because Effie made him use conditioner <3

inspired by @mirixmoya 's fic Bejeweled because it made me cry. <3

#haymitch abernathy #effie trinket #haymitch abernathy x effie trinket #the hunger games #hayeffie #thg haymitch #any thg epilogues that don’t include haymitch and effie living together is wrong #haymitch x effie

[thesweetnessofspring]

Post-epilogue Everlark family. Inspired by a conversation I had with a little one. Rated T for theme.

On the walk home from school, the boy is quiet, letting his sister monopolize Peeta's ear. He doesn't even stop to examine a bug or an interesting rock, or to say hello to the shopkeepers they pass. Peeta listens to their daughter, who chatters about the jump rope tournament coming up, and how she and her classmates compare to each other.

Thankfully, the boy's teacher had phoned Katniss and Peeta to let them know their son would be getting the first lesson about the Games. And that would always include the old star-crossed lovers, the baker and the huntress. The children had to be assured that such atrocities were over, and their story central to that ending.

Katniss waits anxiously in the bakery, helping a customer pick out a box of pastries. Peeta takes the kids through their normal routine of heading to the back and getting a snack, while Katniss finishes with the customer and flips the sign over to "closed" just a little earlier than usual.

Katniss first looks at their son, sitting on a stool at the counter and somberly pushing around an apple slice, and then to Peeta. He gives a quick raise of his eyebrows and a shake of his head, indicating a lack of response from their son. The boy has always been the quieter of their two children. The girl had come back home with a million questions when she learned about the Games, but the boy is taking the opposite approach.

"Hey bud," Peeta says, taking a seat at the counter next to him. "Your teacher told us you learned something hard in school today."

He looks up at his father with discerning gray eyes, older than his six years and gives a short nod.

"I'm learning long division," the girl says. "That's harder than anything he learns."

"You learned about The Hunger Games today," Katniss says. She stands next to Peeta, an arm wrapped around his shoulder and he puts his arm around her waist. "Your teacher told us."

Their daughter closes her mouth, pressed in a line. When she first came with her questions, Katniss and Peeta had been sure to have her promise not to tell her little brother, not until he was old enough to know.

"No one else's parents were in The Hunger Games," the boys says. "Only me."

"You're right," Peeta says. "Here in Twelve and in your class, only you and your sister have parents who had to go in the Hunger Games. There are a few other people whose parents were in the Hunger Games, but most of them are grown up now and live far away."

The boy scrunches down, eyes on his plate. Katniss knows this boy and how he works. She works in a similar way, thoughts becoming dangerous without being spoken out loud to have someone help straighten out.

"Do you have any questions for us?" Katniss asks. "Anything you want to know?"

"Did you kill anyone?" the boy asks, glancing up through pale lashes.

"Yes," Peeta says. "Neither of us wanted to. Never, ever."

"Were they bad guys?" the boy asks, desperation in his voice.

"No, bud," Peeta says. "No, they weren't."

Not most of them, Katniss thinks, her final arrow in Coin's chest flashing in her mind, but they were keeping things simple for their children until they were older.

"They had no choice," the girl says, sitting up straight in her stool. "Momma and Daddy wouldn't kill anyone if they didn't have to."

The boy's lip wobbles, though he ducks his head to try and hide it underneath his mop of blond curls. Katniss slides her arm off of Peeta and holds their son to her, pressing his cheek to her breast. She wishes she could take this fear and ache away from him, knowing how heavy it rests on such a little body. She would take his pain onto her own, if she could.

"I don't wanna kill anybody," the boy wails in his mother's arms.

"Oh, baby, you won't have to kill anybody," Katniss says. "There are no Hunger Games anymore. Daddy and I made sure of it."

"My teacher said there was a war," the boy says, his grip tight on the back of his mother's shirt, his words muffled between fabric and one squished cheek. "Didn't people have to kill then, too? What if there's another war?"

"We don't think there will be another war," Peeta says.

"But what if there is and I have to kill somebody?" the boy asks. "You and Momma had to. That means I might, too."

There was no reason to believe Panem would succumb to the horrors it had when the baker and huntress were young, but there was always that what if, that chance history's cycle picking up again. It haunted both Katniss and Peeta still.

"It's scary to think something like that could happen again," Katniss says, brushing their son's curls out of his eyes. "But remember the game we play together?"

"The good things game!" their daughter bounces in her seat excitedly and her brother lifts his head to turn and look at her, light coming back to his eyes.

"Yes, the good things game," Katniss says. "That's what we can play when we get worried about bad things in the future."

"Let's play the game now," Peeta says. "Only the good things we think about will be about you, bud."

The boy squishes his shoulders inward, his chin ducking to his chest in bashfulness, but the slight lift of the corners of his mouth let them know he's pleased with the idea.

"What about me?" the girl demands.

"We'll do you another day, baby," Katniss says. "For now, let's focus on your brother."

Their daughter is less intrigued by this, hand now propping up her chin against the counter.

"Let's see," Peeta says. "There's no one better at catching tadpoles than you, that's for sure."

"Or such a help when we have to clean up the kitchen," Katniss says.

"And you're so bright and curious," Peeta says. "You ask questions I've never had before."

"And so friendly to all of our customers that come in."

Their daughter jumps in, "You help get us free candy from the store."

"Free candy?" Peeta asks. "Well that's just about the best thing to the two of you, isn't it?"

Peeta gives their son a tweak on the nose and he laughs, glowing at the game revolving around him. They share a few other good things about their son and brother, until if he's still worried about having to kill anyone like his parents, it's far from his mind. The boy tucks into his snack and then he and his sister are off playing.

Peeta can sense the worry coming off Katniss with the way her brow hangs heavy over her eyes, and he draws her to him from behind, kissing where her neck and shoulder meet.

"You all right?" he asks.

"Yeah," Katniss sighs. "I just hope we weren't lying to him."

"I wasn't," Peeta says. "He really is the best at catching tadpoles."

"I mean about what he's worried about."

"We weren't lying. We don't think he'll need to, but..."

"Right. The 'but.'"

"Maybe we need to play the game ourselves," Peeta says, turning Katniss around so they face each other.

Katniss sighs, putting her arms around Peeta's neck. The game gets tedious and long for her, but she's always willing to start off with her first good thing.

"You," she says. "Saving me with that bread."

And Peeta returns his first good thing. "You. Coming to find me in the arena."

They usually banter back and forth all of the good things they'd done for each other, purposefully leaving out the messy complications of their early relationship and only remembering what made them fall in love in the first place. But today, Katniss skips ahead.

"You," she says. "Helping me talk to our little boy about this."

Peeta gives her a kiss, then says, "You. Having the courage to carry and birth and raise our children."

And all they can do is hope they can do enough to protect their children from their fears coming true.

#everlark fanfiction #thg fanfiction #everlark family #everlark #toast babies #katniss everdeen #peeta mellark #everlark family fanfiction #post epilogue

[marsreds]

finally getting around to reading the hunger games and. the fact that katniss loves being a mother-person (referring to prim as her kid, prim in general, rue, asking to tech gale's brother to hunt... i've only just started the second book, but i'm sure there's more to come), how nurturing others, showing them how to do things, protecting them, etc. makes her genuinely happy!! but she says she'll never have kids, will never marry.

because it's the only thing she actually knows about herself, however subconsciously: she wouldn't survive that. she'll survive anything else but she'd never survive that.

#i remember when the last book came out and ppl were hating on the epilogue bc they took those statements at face value #wild #the hunger games #katniss everdeen #thg #hello #i am approaching a new fixation #it will be a chew toy for a while

[admireforever]

“You love me. Real or not real?”

“Real.”

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay

#the hunger games #hunger games #katniss everdeen #peeta mellark #jennifer lawrence #josh hutcherson #katniss and peeta #peeta and katniss #peeta x katniss #katniss x peeta #suzanne collins #mockingjay part two #finale #everlark #THG #mockingjay #mockingjay part 2 #epilogue

[tetheredfeathers]

The hunger games epilogue is so special.

I make a list in my head of every act of goodness I've seen someone do. 

This line always bring me to tears. That in our worst moments we can can look back and find sentiments that will lift that ugly weight off our chests and somehow replace it with bits of tranquility.

Whether it be a hasty kiss stamped across the cheek, a nod of encouragement traversing through the room; hesitant stutters of burning forgiveness, even when it had ruptured a heart; fragments of shared bread split into growling stomachs; whispers of praise at the sight of scribbled letters; cries muffled into loving arms; replacement for lost money pressed into glazed hands; mumbles of hollow 'see you agains,' knowing all the same that fate will write us all apart. Promises of love and protection, knowing I will write us apart.

This is my list, all the the good things I've seen someone do, just a part of it because there is no beginning or end. It is a list of so many people's (strangers and friends all the same) acts of goodness I can never repay, because the first gesture is always the hardest pay back. But all they ever say is a promise of love and remembrance is enough.

That it can be good again.

That no matter how bad our losses, somewhere, sometime it will be good again. And even if hope doesn't flutter it's wings towards you right here and now, you can always look back at the feathers it has left behind. To catch, and stroke each barb till every good memory is etched in your mind, till you are tethered to hope and nothing is left behind. A promise that life can go on.

#everlark #katniss everdeen #the hunger games #peeta mellark #thg #writing #the epilogue is my baby #katniss and peeta #spilled writing #spilled thoughts #spilled words #spilled ink #spilled work #writerscommunity #female writers #feather writes #also if u have any lists #share them in the tags #things you've seen ppl do that restores ur faith in humnity #that things can be good again

[heavensbeehall]

Here's something I didn't know I had a strong opinion about but apparently I do: Peeta and Katniss's kids.

I saw some suggestions that there are more than two, possibly three. I think the Epilogue specifically takes place when there are two. Because "the boy" and "the girl" represent the tributes of District 12. The future. Haymitch always calls Peeta "the boy" (which I assumed was something he alwasy did to keep distance between the kids and himself). When Dean Highbottom assigns mentors he shouts "district 12 boy!" and "District 12 girl!"

That is why they are "the boy" and "the girl." Katniss and Peeta are the mentors now.

There might be three down the road but there are two in the epilogue in my headcanon. The next generation of tributes. Except they don't have to go to the Hunger Games, because their parents rebelled. They most assuredly would have had to go (Katniss says victor's children are often Reaped) if the Rebellion never happened.

#thg reread #epilogue #mockingjay #everlark #stuff #toast babies

[littlemarianah]

I truly believe Katniss helps at the bakery. A bakery is too complicated to work alone, Peeta even hires someone to help, but it's Katniss who is his other half.

She works at the counter and keeps the kitchen organized while Peeta prepares the bread and heats the ovens.

Katniss is extremely resourceful and finds a way to learn.

When the first baby is born, Katniss takes some time off and Peeta tries to spend as little time at the bakery as possible. After the war, victorious tributes no longer receive any type of financial aid. So they can't actually close the bakery.

When the girl is old enough, Katniss brings her to the bakery in the morning and puts her to sleep in the storeroom while they both work. The babies learn to take naps in the middle of flour sacks like Peeta did when he was a baby.

#the hunger games #katniss everdeen #thg #everlark #peeta mellark #fanfic #epilogue #willow mellark #rye mellark #headcanon

[little-lynx]

FAMILY TIME

Hey! The Mellarks wish you a nice weekend! ❤️

#the hunger games #hunger games fanart #thg fanart #peeta mellark #katniss everdeen #everlark #katniss x peeta #katniss and peeta #everlark fanart #the hunger games fanart #everlark post mockingjay #post mockingjay #hunger games epilogue #dancing girl #boy with blond curls #the mellarks #toastbabies #lynx hunger games #lynx toastbabies

[tellmelater]

toast and dandelions

#very much in the they got married immediately camp #dandelions primrose and orange wildflowers flowers #digital art #artists on tumblr #my art #suzanne collins #the hunger games fanart #the hunger games #thg #thg mj #mj #mockingjay #epilogue #katniss everdeen #peeta mellark #everlark #district 12 #everlark wedding #katniss mellark

[endlessnightlock]

I wrote a little Everlark drabble based on this post by @adsosfraser.

“It’s so gross, isn’t it?” Katniss asks. She won’t look at Peeta, instead stares at the way her hand looks against the yellowish white of the sweat-stained pillow. 

Once Sae realized she wasn’t going upstairs to sleep or bathe or anything (Katniss could molt on this sofa just as well as anywhere else) she sent her little granddaughter upstairs to retrieve a pillow and blanket for her. She’d probably be dead now too if it weren’t for Sae. She wonders if Sae knows how much she owes her. But she needs to stop thinking about things owed. 

Peeta sits with her, her head on his lap. His fingers that look like hers (is that why she was staring at her hands, thinking of him?) are working through the tangled mess of her hair. 

He laughs under his breath, and a real smile pulls the corners of her lips up. “It’s not gross,” he insists. “It’s like a puzzle. Pulling each section apart, freeing them from each other. Really I should thank you.”

She sighs. The condition she let herself get into before he came back is embarrassing, but she doesn’t have the where-with-all to remind herself she should be ashamed. Besides, his touch feels so good she can’t keep her eyes open. 

Dogged, focused Peeta spends what must be an eternity working through her hair, apologizing each time he pulls or snips with the kitchen scissors, or strands simply come out. She hardly notices. She’s not sure how long it takes him to work his way through it all because time is a endless thing now and with him she feels at peace, but she catches the contented noise he makes when it’s done.

“Sit up,” Peeta says. “I’ll braid it for you.”

She doesn’t think there is enough hair left to braid and she must be right, because he eventually harumps in frustration. “Well this is a fucking mess,” he says, disgusted with himself. Short hair tickles the side of her ear, her neck.

“Guess you’re better at untangling,” she says, fingering the attempted braid.

Peeta wraps his arms around her shoulders, pulling her against his chest. She squeaks in surprise, and his chest shakes with bemused laughter. “So I suck.”

Eyes closing at the simple comfort of him holding her, Katniss laughs into the crook of his arm. “No, it’s my hair that sucks,” she insists.

It’s so stupid and trivial, thinking about hair and braids, but it feels good to be stupid and trivial for once, laughing with Peeta. 

He rests his chin on the crown of her head.

“I have an idea,” he says. “There’s a memory I want to recreate.”

The two braids come out worlds better, like maybe that was his intention the whole time.

#endlessnightlock writes #everlark drabble #everlark fanfiction #thg pre epilogue #the domestic intimacy #cries in everlark #let Everlark say fuck #for fuck's sake