Haymitch was giving Peeta a big goofy smile and Peeta was just standing there with his mouth open. I walked over to Haymitch and slapped his arm; he was finding this far too amusing.

“Oh relax sweetheart, just give it a minute.” He smirked.

“H…How…?” Peeta fumbled with his words.

“Why don’t you come over here and take a seat.” Haymitch walked over to him and put an arm around his shoulders, guiding him to the couch.

“Peeta, just take second to think it all through, remember the story?” I said calmly.

“What story?” Haymitch looked up.

“Just a story.”

“You mean the one about us?”

“No. A different story.” I hissed.

“What about you two?” Peeta looked up, so confused, and his eyes darted from me to Haymitch.

“Do you see what you’ve done?” I sighed.

“Do you?” Haymitch laughed, clearly loving it.

“Can someone please just start at the beginning?! You’re alive?!” The shock on his face was undeniable.

“First, yeah, I’m alive, and second, do you want the beginning, or do you want the bit where she cooked up this crazy pot of madness?”

“There’s a difference?”

“Oh yeah, a pretty substantial di-”

“Haymitch!” I slapped him again, he wasn’t helping.

“Alright, alright, but let me start this story.” He started telling Peeta about my mother.

He went into so much detail and I couldn’t help but feel a warmth spread through me as his face lit up with her memory.

“… She would always come home from school or her job at her mother’s store with such a huge smile on her face, no matter how bad the day was. She would flounce through my door, after dark of course, and kiss me right here…” He pointed to his left cheekbone and smiled, “every single night.”

He talked about her for so long that I thought Peeta might start rushing him but he seemed just as entranced as I was. Maybe he just couldn’t believe that he had his friend back.

“Then one night we were just sitting around like we always did. We were eighteen and still terrified that someone would find out and she would be taken care of, well I was afraid, she was stubborn as hell.” He looked over to me and I gave a tiny laugh. “She had been feeling off for almost three months and we had no idea what was going on. It was only when I felt it that we knew. I felt it move inside her, she told me that she had been feeling it for days and just hoping that it was nothing. She always wanted it but she had resigned herself to the fact that it could never happen because she loved me and wouldn’t leave me.

“She cried for so long, she apologised and apologised but I had never felt so happy, not since the games anyway. Everything just sort of came crashing down in flames after that, it all hit me. My girlfriend was pregnant, and that was going to be a hell of a lot harder to hide than a relationship.

“We talked to her parents and as happy as they were, they knew that we were both in a very dangerous position. All three of us were. When things started to become more… obvious, she stopped going to school. She stayed at home and avoided as many people as she could. Eventually I moved her into my house, secretly at night.” He rolled his eyes and sighed before he continued. “Then I had an idea.

“It was so crazy and moronic and I didn’t actually want to go through with it… but her parents agreed and I practically had to force her into it. They had to go; they couldn’t stay without risking exposure. My daughter was born two months before the games and I had a plan that involved the train.”

“You sent them to the Capitol.” Both of us recoiled a little as Peeta came out with a pretty spot on guess.

“You want to finish this story?” Haymitch said.

“I was just taking a guess, I take it I’m right though.” He said softly.

“Yeah, you are.” Haymitch continued his story.

He kept practically all the details in, not the saying goodbye stuff. I think that’s something private, just for us. He told Peeta my name, my real name, and even without telling him explicitly about me, he just knew.

“How is that even possible?” He looked at us shakily and we turned to each other, not entirely sure ourselves.

“I guess we got lucky.” I shrugged.

“You call this lucky? You call being cooped up underground lucky?” Haymitch raised an eyebrow.

“You’re right, this is no way to live, how about we go outside and throw knives at you.” I said sarcastically.

“Wouldn’t being dead be even worse than cooped up down here?” He smiled, thinking he’d won.

“I’m glad you think so.” I smiled arrogantly and he laughed.

“You know what? I think I can sense a resemblance between you two.” Peeta gave a small chuckle.

“Yeah that and the fact that we both cook up crazy plots that will most definitely get us killed one day.” Haymitch said

“What exactly is your plan?” Peeta looked directly at me this time and Haymitch did the same.

“That is something I would very much like to know too.”

I sighed. “I hate everything that the Capitol stands for. Most of the people are arrogant and cruel and superficial. They’re selfish and worst of all is Snow and the aristocracy.” I thought of Katia, she was most definitely suspicious of me. That’s mostly because she doesn’t like me but even so, she’s dangerous. “I hate the games. They stole me away from my home, my family and my mother… I don’t think she was ever the same again. What you tell me and what I read in her letters say totally different things. They broke her heart. I will never forgive them for that.”

“Agreed.” Haymitch had a stony face and looked like he could use a drink.

“I want revenge.” I said flatly.

“You can't just start a war.” Peeta said.

“I know; that’s why I want to do as much good as possible before it comes to that, you know it will come to that.” They both nodded solemnly. “I want to teach the next tributes how to save themselves and the others.”

They looked at each other like they thought it could be a good idea but I know that they’re thinking about the risk.

“I know how hard it will be, but if we can at least show the districts that there is a way to save their kids then we can take them on.”

“You can't do this alone; you need more than just us.” Peeta sighed.

I looked over at him and smiled with one side of my mouth. “I have people everywhere. I’m not the only one working to overthrow them.”