Heaven is Falling (The Hunger Games x Male Reader)

Winds Of Summer

(y/n) pov

Morning light drizzles on my face as I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking Rory's warmth but finding
only the rough canvas cover of the mattress. He must have had bad dreams and climbed in with our
mother. Of course, he did. This is the day of the reaping.Even though he is still ineligible he was scared for our sake.

I prop myself up on one elbow. There's enough light in the bedroom to see them. My little brother, Rory, curled up on his side,their cheeks pressed together.Between them sleeps my only sister Posy cooed in my mother's body. In sleep, my mother looks younger, still worn but not so beaten-down. My mother was very beautiful once, too.In the photos I have seen of her she looked like one those popular girl that would bully me and Katniss.

I swing my legs off the bed and slide into my hunting boots. Supple leather that has molded to my feet. I
pull on trousers, a shirt,comb my (h/c)
hair and grab my forebag filled with stuff needed to make make snares or traps.

Knowing the others would be asleep I quietly walk to our front door to find my elder brother Gale. "Couldn't sleep?" I ask "couldnt sleep" he replies monotonously."Come on now .Let's see if the trap we set yesterday caught anything ".

We pass a few gates to reach the scruffy field called the Meadow. Separating the Meadow from the
woods, in fact enclosing all of District 12, is a high chain-link fence topped with barbed-wire loops. In
theory, it's supposed to be electrified twenty-four hours a day but since
we're lucky to get two or three hours of electricity in the evenings, it's usually safe to touch. Even so,Gale
always takes a moment to listen carefully for the hum that means the fence is live. Right now, it's silent as a stone. Concealed by a clump of bushes, I flatten out on my belly and slide under a two-foot stretch that's
been loose for years. There are several other weak spots in the fence, but this one is so close to home we almost always enter the woods here.

As soon as we're in the trees, I retrieve a bow and sheath of arrows from a hollow log.Gale heavily relies on his snares which almost always traps game. Whereas I use our father's bow and mainly his old knife which he had thought me to use before he was blown to bits in a mining accident. There was nothing even to bury. I was eleven then. Five years later, I still wake up screaming for him to run.

My pace quickening as I see that the trap we had layed yesterday had caught a squirrel."Well let's take that to the baker he might give us something for it".

We go out to the bakery owned by Mr. Mallerk and exchange the dead squirrel. He surprisingly gives us a loaf of bread instead of the usual flour.With a sympathetic face he says "good luck for the reaping kids".

Ah that's why.He probably felt bad for us because of the reaping eventough
his own son Peeta whose the same age as me will be eligible.

We walk back to the woods as I climb the hills to our place, a rock ledge overlooking a valley. A thicket
of berry bushes protects it from unwanted eyes.In the woods waits the only person I can call my best friend Katniss Everdeen.

"Hey Catnip"I says. Her real name is Katniss, but when she first told us, she had barely whispered it.
So I thought she said Catnip."Look what we shot," Gale holds up a loaf of bread with an arrow stuck in it, and I laugh.

We sit down and eat the bread with the with the cheese Katnoss brought.
We settle back in a nook in the rocks. From this place, we are invisible
but have a clear view of the valley, which is teeming with summer life, greens to gather, roots to dig, fish
iridescent in the sunlight. The day is glorious, with a blue sky and soft breeze. The food's wonderful, with
the cheese seeping into the warm bread and the berries bursting in our mouths. Everything would be
perfect if this really was a holiday, if all the day off meant was roaming the mountains with Gale and katniss, hunting for tonight's supper. But instead we have to be standing in the square at two o'clock waiting for
the names to be called out.