Life Lessons Chapter 2: Light

Author's Note: I'd planned on getting this up yesterday, but I ended up being out with my friend Ji for longer than I expected. I wasn't sure if I was going to have time to get it up today either, but luckily, I've managed to get it up! The theme for this one is light. I hope you enjoy it!

"Why are we out here so early?"

Peeta chuckled at his daughter's questioning as he watched her rub the sleep out of her eyes. "If we're going to paint the sunrise, we have to be up to see it."

Dani turned from the easel she was setting up to look at her mother who was currently lounging on the steps of their back porch. "And why are you up?" She couldn't understand why Katniss would willingly leave the comfort of her bed at such an early hour.

Katniss smiled sleepily at her daughter. "Couldn't sleep," she said without elaborating. Her and Peeta shared a look. Dani still didn't understand why her mom would wake up so early just to watch her and her father paint, but she knew that no amount of questioning would get her an answer.

"Whatever," she sighed as she began setting up her paints.

Dani and Peeta painted in companionable silence for a few hours as Katniss quietly watched on. Dani tried her hardest to make the sunrise look just right, but no matter how hard she tried it just didn't look as good as her father's. Peeta had assured his daughter many times that it just took practice. After all, he'd been painting much longer than she had. Dani supposed she was pretty good for her age and level of experience, but she longed for the day that she would come even close to being as good as her father.

Dani hadn't realized just how difficult it would be to capture the light correctly. Most of her outdoor paintings took place in the afternoon, and she'd only ever painted the sun itself once or twice. She'd underestimated the difficulty of capturing the many colors of the sky and how the sun beams poked slowly over the horizon. She glanced quickly at her father's canvas to see that he had captured it almost perfectly. Dani felt slightly disheartened when she looked back at her own canvas. The colors weren't exactly the right shade even though she'd probably spent more time mixing them than actually painting. Peeta, on the other hand, had seemed to know exactly how much of each paint to mix together and had created colors, in just the right shades, before Dani had even decided on what colors of paint to mix.

Peeta seemed to notice her frustration, and he glanced over at her painting for the first time. "It looks great." And his smile was so genuine that Dani almost believed him. In fact, she didn't think he was lying at all. Her father seemed to like all of her paintings. She could probably throw random blobs of paint on a canvas, and he'd still praise her.

"It does not." Dani began to let out all of her frustration. "Everything looks wrong. This bit right here should be yellower, and the sun beams aren't hitting this tree just right. Plus-"

"Dandelion," Peeta cut her off gently. "It's okay. It's your first time painting a sunrise. No one paints something perfectly the first time. You'd never done something like this before."

"I know," Dani's agreement only came from the knowledge that her father would never see it differently.

"Here," Peeta moved over to her canvas. "Let me show you how to fix the shading of the tree."

Peeta spent the next hour teaching Dani how to show the light hitting the tree just perfectly. By the time Peeta had finished his lesson, Dani's tree was on its way to looking almost as good as her father's. She beamed with pride as her mother came over to check out her work. There was a lot more work to be done on the painting, but Dani felt a lot more confident in how it would turn out. It still wasn't as good as her father's, but with a bit of work, maybe Dani really could be as good a painter as her father some day.

Life Lessons Chapter 1: Love

Author's Note: I've been working on this story since January of this year, so I'm very excited to finally be posting it! As it says in the summary, this was written for the Hunger Games 100 theme challenge. Each “chapter” is a different theme, and that theme will be the chapter title. This first one is love. This isn't really a chaptered story. It's more a set of one-shots, but they are chronological and they each focus on Katniss and Peeta's children. I hope you enjoy it!

“Mom, can I talk to you?”

Katniss looked up at the sound of her ten-year-old daughter's voice. “Sure, Dandelion,” she smiled. “Come here.” She patted a spot on the couch beside her that Dani promptly filled. “What did you want to talk about?” Katniss asked as she watched Dani wring her hands in nervousness.

“Oh, it's nothing important really,” Dani glanced around the room as she spoke. She didn't seem to want to look at Katniss.

“Then why do you seem so nervous?”

Dani sighed, “I was just wondering...” She cut herself off as if she was unsure whether or not to continue. Katniss sat patiently, not trying to pry it out of her. “How will I know when I'm in love?”

Katniss was a little shocked. It definitely wasn't something she'd been expecting her daughter to ask quite so soon. After a moment or two she finally answered, “Well, to be honest I really don't know what to tell you. I wasn't the brightest when it came to realizing when I'd fallen in love.”

“Really?” Dani asked in curiousness. She'd never really heard the story of how her parents had gotten together. She did know about the games and some of the details. For instance, she knew that her father had announced his love for her mother to all of Panem before their games, but that was about it. Katniss and Peeta had never felt it necessary to tell their children about the lying that had taken place, although Haymitch had almost let it slip a few times. Most of Dani's knowledge about the 74^th Annual Hunger Games had come from lessons in school.

Katniss chuckled to herself, “Absolutely not.” After a few moments, it because clear that Katniss wasn't planning to continue.

“Mom! You can't just tell me that and then not explain!”

Katniss looked conflicted. She'd never thought about having this conversation with her daughter and wasn't sure what she should or shouldn't say. Finally, she said, “It's a long story.”

“So?” Dani asked, “I have time.” She pulled her feet up onto the couch and made herself comfortable.

“Okay,” Katniss sighed as she leaned back into the cushions. “But you're getting the short version. I'll tell you more later.”

“Just tell me!” Dani exclaimed in exasperation.

Katniss hesitated slightly before beginning. “Do you remember learning about how the tributes were interviewed before the Games?” Dani nodded slightly, becoming fully engrossed in her mother's words. “Well, the female tribute of the district always went before the male. When your father had his interview right after mine, he revealed that he was in love with me. I was shocked at first, but I assumed it was only a publicity stunt to get more sponsors. It took me a while to realize that it had all been true.”

Dani gasped in shock, “But how could you not have believed him? It's obvious how much Dad loves you. At least, it is now. I can't imagine Dad not being madly in love with you.”

Katniss smiled down at her daughter, “I know, but at the time I was determined that I was never going to get married or have kids. I wasn't expecting something like that. I was just focused on getting out of those games alive. Someone falling in love with me was the last thing I expected. I was blinded, I guess. I just figured Peeta was a very good actor.”

Dani mulled over the new information as her mother paused. She never would have believed any of this. Her parents had always been one unit to her. They were inseparable in her mind. She could barely imagine them not being together.

“Are you surprised?” Katniss asked with a small smile on her face.

“Well, yeah,” Dani admitted.

“It gets worse,” Katniss sighed.

Dani had no idea what that meant, but it just made her even more eager for her mother to continue.

“You know that Gale and I were best friends when we were younger?” Dani nodded. She'd known Gale her whole life. He lived in District 2 but came to District 12 with his wife Johanna and their children regularly. He mainly came to visit his mom and siblings, but he and Johanna also managed to visit her family at least once while in District 12. Her parents had told her that he was her mother's old best friend, but she hadn't really believed it at first. While they were friends, Gale and her mother (and father for that matter) had always been kind of closed off around each other. Katniss had always seemed closer to Johanna than Gale. Their past had always been a mystery to Dani.

As Katniss continued, she seemed to avoid looking Dani in the eyes. “After the Games, I discovered that Gale loved me too.” Dani's eyes widened in shock. She'd never considered that. It just seemed so impossible to think of her mom with anyone but her dad, and Gale and Johanna seemed happy together. She'd always figured they'd had a huge fight or something but nothing romantic. “I became confused,” Katniss continued, “I didn't know what to do. I think deep down I always knew that I loved you father more, but Gale had been my best friend since I was fourteen. Gale was my past, and I wanted that past more than ever after the games.”

“How did you end up with dad then?” Dani questioned.

“There's no clear cut answer to that,” Katniss finally met her eyes. “I don't think there ever are good answers to those types of questions. I'm not even sure what the exact moment was that I finally admitted to myself that I loved Peeta. Maybe it happened slowly over time. Maybe it was in one moment, and I hid it from myself. I don't know.” Katniss was smiling at Dani now. “Do you care if I ask, why the sudden interest in love?”

Dani felt a blush creep across her face. “There's this boy...” she muttered quietly.

Katniss smile widened. “Really?”

Dani just nodded, her eyes on the floor. “He's really nice, but I don't know if it's just a crush or something more.”

“You're only ten, Dandelion. You have plenty of time to figure it out,” Katniss assured her daughter. “Trust me. At some point, you'll just know.” After a moment of thought, she added, “Hopefully, it's easier for you than it was for me. At least you're not trying to figure it out while fighting for your life and the future of your country.” She actually chuckled at the thought, something that surprised Dani slightly.

“You and dad make it seem so easy,” Dani laid her head on her mom's shoulder.

Katniss smirked a little, “After everything I just told you, you're honestly saying that?”

“Yes, I am,” she closed her eyes as she spoke. “Anyone with eyes can see how in love you guys are. I want that.”

Katniss kissed the top of Dani's head. “You have plenty of time. Don't worry about it.”

“I guess you're right,” Dani agreed as she felt her mom wrapping her arms around her.

Someday she'd find someone who would love her as much as her mom and dad loved each other, but for the moment, she was content. Her mom and dad's love (maybe even her brother's annoying as he was) was worth way more than a guy anyway.

A:TNG One-Shot: Five Years

Author's Note:  I'll tell you right away that I'm not happy with this.  I wrote this over a month ago in August.  As I was looking at the paper and thinking about what to write, the bells went off in school.  That's where the beginning came from, and I just kind of went with it from there.   (As a side note, the bells at my school really aren't that loud.)  I like the sentiment of this story but not so much the actual story.

Five Years

“This place is loud,” Toph complained.  Up and down the street many bells and other noise makers were clanging.

“You can't blame them for celebrating,” Sokka told his fiance as he led the way through the crowd.

“There's celebrating,” Toph grouched, “And then there's making noise.  This level of noise is unnecessary.  They've never been this noisy before.”

“This is the fifth anniversary of the war,” Sokka reminded her.  “It's a big year.  Do you realize that all of the little kids running around today probably have no memories of the war?”

Toph ran that thought over in her mind as she felt the vibrations the excited children around them were causing.  This thought had never occurred to her before.  “Lucky them,” she muttered.  It sounded sarcastic, but Toph's words were true.  None of those kids deserved to go through what Toph and her friends had.

Sokka was also smiling at the kids.  He saw a young Earth Kingdom boy running around with two boys about his age who just happened to be Fire Nation.  It was a sight he never would have seen five years ago.  Sokka marveled over how much could change in five short years.

“Come on,” Sokka tugged on Toph's hand, “We need to find the others.”

“Of course,” Toph began to smirk, “I haven't got to pick on Twinkle Toes and Sugar Queen recently.”