Moves & Countermoves (Part 17)
Summary: No one ever wins the games, even fourteen years later, Y/N is still playing.
Prologue | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16
“People of Panem, we fight, we-” Katniss freezes, staring at her own reflection. Makeup done, hair styled to perfection, holding up a stick for the camera. This isn’t real. This isn’t war.
“Does she know the line?” Plutarch asks, into the microphone, for all to hear.
“I know it.” Katniss shakes her head to clear it.
“She’s just warming up.” Effie explains. Even she has joined the effort, leaving behind her drab quarters for Katniss.
“Alright, let’s go again. Whenever you’re ready.” Plutarch instructs.
Y/N sways, soothing her tired infant to a sleepy submission on the opposite side of the glass. Daisy May is not fond of sleep, especially with the world bustling around her.
Katniss gets back down on one knee. This is take three.
“Maybe if you show her.” Cashmere whispers to Y/N.
“Might not be a bad idea.” Plutarch watches the mockingjay, with a hand to his head.
“Yeah?” Y/N is willing to try.
“Here,” Cashmere puts her arms out, “gimme the baby.”
Y/N looks down at her daughter, kissing her tiny nose and handing her off.
She fusses for a moment, in Cashmere’s hold.
“Shh,” the blonde coos, allowing the baby to take a fistful of hair. “It’s ok, my Daisy.”
The little girl sighs, closing her grumpy eyes, never letting go of Cashmere’s waves.
“Ok, Katniss, Y/N’s coming in to do a demonstration. Just follow her lead and we’ll go from there.”
“Yeah, ok.” Katniss’ eyes scan the reflective surface, searching for her.
A second later, her mentor pops through the connecting side door. She is not made up, or wearing some crazy outfit, her stylist squeezed her into; she is just Y/N. Somehow that is enough.
“I’m a method actor, obviously.” Loved her fake husband so much that their staged marriage became a real one.
Not that Haymitch is any better. Content to kiss the ground where she walks, if he couldn’t be with her.
The joke lands only with Plutarch and Cashmere. Katniss thinks she understands, but doesn’t find it all that funny.
“First thing’s first, I’m gonna move around a little, get the blood flowing, get that shortness of breath.”
Katniss moves with her, trotting in place like a show horse.
“Good, now we’ll go down on one knee.” Y/N demonstrates and Katniss follows. “Slowly and with some effort, I’m gonna rise to my feet.”
“Because you’ve just been in battle.”
“Exactly,” Y/N smiles, before her features harden.
She is a thousand miles away, just stormed the outskirts of the Capitol. The ease with which she shifts from one to the other terrifies Katniss.
“People of Panem, we fight, we dare, we end our hunger for justice!”
Even with the wind and the stupid stick in Y/N’s hand, raised in the air, Katniss almost believes it. This is the type of person that fuels a rebellion.
She was the people’s victor. She won her own way, same as Haymitch. So Snow manacled them together and scarred them with his brand.
The more Katniss learns about Y/N the more her heart aches, for the indifference she held toward her for so long. To know her is to love her and it’s a shame that not many people ever did.
“Yes! That was perfect.” Plutarch exclaims, “Katniss, now you try it. Just like that.”
“O-ok,” Katniss stammers.
Y/N moves aside, switching places so that Katniss is on the pedestal.
Katniss repeats the words verbatim, copying Y/N’s performance as best she can. She only agreed to be the face of the revolution after seeing what happened to district twelve. After seeing the reaction to Peeta’s interview with Caesar, she knows this is the only way to protect him.
There’s a slow clap from the corner, growing closer until he steps into view. The top of his blonde hair covered by a dark knit hat. “And that is how a revolution dies.”
Katniss glares at Haymitch, his hand resting at Y/N’s waist, as if no time has passed between them.
“Is this how you greet an old friend?” Haymitch cocks his head to the side.
“Maybe I don’t recognize you sober.” Katniss bites out.
“I guess it looks as bad as it feels.”
Y/N turns to him, whispering something Katniss can’t make out.
He offers her a smile and a chaste kiss.
Katniss sees herself and Peeta. The way they might have been, ten years down the line. Peeta would love her like that…and she’d love him the only way she could.
It would bubble up and swell in her chest, until she burst. Just like Haymitch, pouring from an empty cup.
————————————————————————
Katniss sinks down in her chair, as the propo plays for the team. Wishing she could melt into it, disappear. No one’s going to buy this.
Y/N rubs at her back, “it’s not as bad as you think.”
“You’re right,” Haymitch cuts in, “it’s worse.” He’s always been a tough love kind of guy. Even with an infant strapped to his chest, he isn’t brimming with compassion.
Y/N rolls her eyes, “not helping.”
“Indulge me for a moment.” Haymitch holds both hands up in surrender. “Lets everybody think of one incident where Katniss Everdeen genuinely moved you.” He moves to the digital display, in front of the meeting table. “One moment where she made you feel something real.”
“Ooo,” Effie waves a hand. “When she volunteered for her sister at the reaping.”
“Excellent example.” Haymitch uses his forearm to clear data from the screen. He’s observed enough of Y/N and her tablet over the years, this technology is no different. “Hope that wasn’t important.” He steals a glance over his shoulder, before scribbling in, ‘volunteer 4 sis,’ with the stylus.
“And when she volunteered for Y/N.”
“When she sang that song for little Rue.”
Haymitch adds it to the list. “You know Effie, I like you better without all that makeup.”
“Well, I like you better sober.” The woman says in return, causing Haymitch to glare at her.
“When she chose Rue for an ally as well.” Beetee chimes in.
“Now, what do all of these things have in common?”
“Nobody told her what to do.” Gale understands better than anyone.
“Unscripted,” Beetee agrees, “yes. So maybe we should just leave her alone.”
“And wash her face.” Boggs narrows his eyes, “she’s still a girl, you made her look thirty-five.”
Katniss smiles at this.
“The opportunities for spontaneity are obviously lacking, here below ground.” Plutarch points out. “So what you’re suggesting is that we toss her into combat?”
“I can’t sanction putting an untrained civilian into combat for effect. This isn’t the Capitol,” Coin argues.
“Oh, that’s exactly what I’m suggesting. Put her in the field.” Haymitch knows this is the only way.
“No, we won’t be able to protect her.” The president looks to Y/N now. Surely she is not onboard with this.
“It has to come from her, that’s what people respond to. You want a symbol for the revolution, she cannot be coached into it. Trust me, I know.” Haymitch presses on.
“He’s right,” Y/N sighs. “It’s not ideal but…it’s our only option.”
“Maybe there’s someplace less dangerous.”
“District eight, they sustained heavy bombings last week. No military targets left.”
“We can’t guarantee her safety.”
“You’ll never be able to guarantee my safety,” Katniss adds. “I wanna go.”
“And if you’re killed?” Alma’s words hang heavy between them.
“Make sure you get it on camera.”
————————————————————————
“You realize this is dangerous, let alone highly irresponsible.” Haymitch remarks, watching his wife load her gun. The bullets are color coded; black for regular, yellow are incendiary, and red for explosive. Though they’ve been asked not to fire the red ones down here.
“Yeah.” Y/N cocks the gun, squeezing the trigger and letting the bullet fly. She’s gotten better with practice, now hitting her target at dead center. “You don’t approve?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Then what are you saying, Haymitch?”
“As your former mentor, I’m not inclined to advise you waltzing into a war zone.” You search for water. High ground, stay away from the cornucopia.
Y/N nods, “and as my husband?”
“I’m even less inclined.” Though his feelings for her have shifted over the years, the need to protect her is fierce and unwavering.
“I can’t lose Katniss.” Not like we lost Peeta.
“Yeah,” Haymitch huffs, “I get that.”
She sets down her weapon, on the steel table in the training room. “I’m a good shot.”
“You are.”
“I’ve been working on my stamina, I’m almost back to where I was before Daisy.”
Haymitch won’t deny it. “You’ve got good aim, you’re fast, resourceful and a little bit scrappy. You can survive in harsh conditions.” You’re my victor. “But there’s a hole in your uterus the size of a dinner plate.”
“Was,” Y/N corrects him. “The doctors cleared me for this.”
“I watched you almost bleed to death; twice. So you’ll have to forgive me for being reluctant to let you risk your life. I understand that this is important to you-”
She turns, cupping his cheek, pressing a kiss to the tip of his nose. “I wouldn’t want you to go either. I love you too much.”
Haymitch affords her a soft grin, “that always gets in the way, doesn’t it?”
Y/N lifts a shoulder, “somehow I just keep getting sucked in deeper.”
“You keep getting sucked in?” He chuckles. “I was perfectly content on my own for over a decade, before you put your hooks in me.”
At this she laughs, harder than she should. “Don’t make it sound so romantic now.”
Still his arms are around her. Y/N’s at the nape of his neck, toying with the hair that has started growing in with gray peppered throughout and makes him feel every bit his age.
Their lips meet, by her accord or his own; he can’t say for certain. Y/N bids him closer. Deeper, harder, more. I’m yours. Nothing more, nothing less…just hers.
“Stay off him!” Cashmere scolds from the entryway, effectively breaking them apart. “It’s like you’re trying to singlehandedly repopulate this hellhole.”
“Our contribution to this great nation,” Haymitch salutes her.
————————————————————————
“We’ve gotta be quick about this. Get in and get out.” Boggs orders, as they file out of the hovercraft. Nobody wants the mockingjay on the ground for long.
Introductions are brief. Commander Paylor, of district eight, shows them to the makeshift hospital.
Bodies of fallen civilians line the entrance, covered only by tarps. “There’s a mass grave, about two miles west. But I can’t spare the manpower to move them.”
This place is a breeding ground for infection. All the wounded in one place, nothing sterile in sight.
“Don’t film me in there. I can’t help them,” Katniss says to Cressida, as they move farther into the masses.
“Just let them see you,” the woman insists. She left the Capitol for this, she knows what she’s doing.
“Come on,” Y/N gives her shoulder a squeeze.
Katniss opens her mouth to speak but Y/N disappears into the crowd, helping nurse the wounded.
There is someone in the corner; no one tends her, she is alone and clearly suffering. A bucket of water, with a single sponge inside, sits beside her, bandages to the left.
“I’m surprised they let you out just to show face. Thought you were more important than that.” The woman from district eight says.
“I’m not here to show face. I’m here to support Katniss and what I believe in.” Y/N takes a seat, beginning to clean her wounds.
“You sure this is the side you fall on?” She chokes out. “There’s no fancy parties or big houses here.”
Y/N lifts a shoulder. “I never liked the parties and the house wasn’t very homey. The only good thing about it was my family inside.”
“People used to look up to you.”
“That was a long time ago,” Y/N murmurs.
“They will again.” The woman is sure of it, “and when they do, make sure you’re ready. Make sure you stay on the right side of things.”
“I was just trying to survive, couldn’t see beyond that.”
“He’ll kill you for this.” President Snow. “For standing with us.”
Y/N nods, with a tired smile. “Yeah.”
“Then why are you here?”
“This is what I believe in…a new Panem. Where we are equals and have a say in our own lives. It’s worth the risk. It’s gonna take all of us, every person in every district, we all have to fight for it.”
The woman presses her lips together, allowing Y/N to dress her wounds. She says nothing else, looking up at the victor, from time to time. I see you.
It feels good to be seen, by a stranger who owes her nothing. Someone to see her without the tainted film of rose colored glasses.
————————————————————————
“How have things been since your release?” Dr. Aurelius inquires.
“Alright, I guess.” Haymitch is not here of his own free will. “Never gonna be good, given the prohibition you have going on around here. But I’d rather be with my family than locked up a mile away.”
“Tell me about your family.”
“My son’s name is Everest, he’s ten. My daughter, Arista is six and Daisy is four weeks old. Then obviously Y/N and her family. Katniss.” Peeta.
“Were they planned? The children.”
“Yes and no.” Haymitch scrubs a hand over his face.
“Can you explain what that means?”
“I don’t want…” Haymitch pauses, “our children are not burdens, Y/N and I have always said that. Those kids are everything and I don’t want that getting twisted. Ever.”
“Of course.”
“Snow gave us deadlines and we met them. With Everest and Arista, we had a year. In that year Y/N needed to be pregnant.”
“But not Daisy?”
“They screwed around with Y/N’s birth control. We’re fertile people, it doesn’t take much.” Haymitch admits.
“And your marriage, would you call it a happy one?”
“Yes, by my account. But I’m sure she’s told you all about me.” This is a joke, for the most part.
“I can’t say much, as it would be a breach of confidentiality. Still you should know, she speaks highly of you. She loves you very much.”
Haymitch drops his gaze.
“Where did you go just now?”
“Nowhere.” Haymitch brushes it off, “I was just thinking.”
“Thinking about Y/N?”
“Isn’t it fucked up how someone like that could love someone me?”
“In what way?” Dr. Aurelius asks.
“I mean you’ve met her.” Haymitch huffs, “had a few sessions.”
“Sure.”
“She’s special.”
The doctor lets him speak.
“She’s a good person. She’s smart and she’s funny and she deserves the world.” Haymitch shifts in the chair, “she got me instead. Not exactly a fair trade.”
“I don’t think she feels that way.” The doctor informs him.
“Hmm,” Haymitch mulls it over.
“From the sound of it, you have always been very protective. Now you tend the children, so she can aide the rebellion. That must be hard for you.”
Haymitch scoffs, “I want to chase her down and bring her back.”
“Then why haven’t you.”
“If you love something, you set it free or some bullshit like that.”
“You love her deeply.”
“Coin offered to ‘dissolve’ our marriage. Did Y/N tell you that?” Haymitch changes the subject.
Aurelius sighs, “she didn’t mention it.”
“Tell me, oh great one, what does that mean?”
“Her mind is made up about you, Haymitch. Whether it’s right or wrong, no matter who deserves what, the heart wants what it wants. You are what she wants.”
“I want her too,” Haymitch snaps.
“You’ve mentioned that you struggle with the fact that Y/N didn’t get to choose you as a partner. Yet each time she does, you cannot accept that she is choosing you. As though you feel unworthy, unlovable.”
“Is that your official diagnosis?” Haymitch wonders, making no effort to confirm or deny.
The doctor flips quickly between entries in his notebook. “There is no distinction in any area of your relationship, a true lack of boundaries. All of your triumphs and failures, all of your sadness and your joy, is either sourced from her or the lives you’ve created together.” Dr. Aurelius tosses both hands up. “The greatest tragedies ever written are love stories, after all.”
Part 18
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could i request some post quidditch match win content w james pls?
of course, love🖤
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James Potter loved winning.
He loved the thrill as the final horn blared through the arena. He loved the weight of his teammates jumping on top of him as they celebrated. He loved the way the students, teachers and parents chanted his name.
His ego basked in the victory, soaked it all in and let it just overwhelm him completely.
But most of all, James loved seeing you after he won.
By the time he made it to the common room, the adrenaline had finally simmered down and his limbs felt heavy as he dragged himself through the door. But it didn’t matter that he knew his body would be sore the next morning or that he was probably minutes away from passing out, because he had yet to see you and that’s all he wanted.
The common room was full of students still on a high after the win, slapping his back and cheering him on as he walked towards the staircase that led up to the dorms. He knew exactly where you would be and his body was buzzing to find you.
He shoved the door of his dorm room open with his shoulder and a heavy sight and almost instantly a smile grew on his face as he took in the sight of you lying on his bed, glad in one of his jerseys with a book in your hand.
You lifted your head up and grinned. “There’s my champion.”
“Fuck, call me that again,” he muttered as he dumped his bag on the floor as gracefully as he could before all but falling onto the bed, head laying on your stomach with his body stretched over yours like a starfish.
“Replacing the captain kink already?” you teased.
“Hm, no,” his words were muffled slightly by his position. “We are keeping the captain thing, baby.”
You snorted, your fingers brushing through his curls that were still slightly wet from his shower after the match. “Noted,” you said with a small sigh. “I’m sorry I couldn’t come tonight. Sounded like a good game.”
“You’re sick, love, I wasn’t gonna let my girl stand in the cold for hours,” he grumbled and lifted his head, eyes softening as he took in the sight of you. “How are you feeling?”
“Better now that I know my boy won,” you answered with a grin, watching as James’ cheeks went pink with the praise. “Aww, my pretty boy.”
“Shut up,” he murmured as he tried to slap your hands away, only to really sink into your touch as you cupped his cheek. “Next game you’re gonna be there. And when I win, I’m gonna swoop you from the stands and kiss you in front of everyone.”
Your eyes narrowed slightly. “You wouldn’t dare to, Potter.”
His grin was boyish. “You should know better than anyone else that I would never back down from a dare.”
You rolled your eyes. “You are unbelievable.”
“And you love me still,” James grinned widely before settling his head back on your stomach. “Now shh, I want my victor’s cuddles.”
“Only cuddles? Well, there goes my surprise,” you said with a theatrical sigh, holding back your giggles when James’ head snapped up.
“What surprise?”
“No, no, you’re tired, baby,” you cooed softly as you bit back your grin. “I’ll just save it for next time.”
“Love, don’t do this to me,” James groaned, fingers fiddling with the hem of his jersey you were wearing and when he noticed your breath hitch, he raised his brows a little. Keeping his eyes on your expression, he dipped his hands underneath the jersey and slowly slid his hands up your thighs, only to freeze when he felt his fingers meet lacey material. “Fuck.”
“Wanted to give you something for your win,,” you murmured with a shy smile, watching the way his eyes darkened. “A reward...”
“You have ten seconds to get this jersey off before I rip it off.”
“Yes, captain.”
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