#peetas father

porchwood:

Disclaimer: I’ve never taken part in any official THG reread/discussion and I essentially read the book in isolation, so anything I say in these posts may well have been discussed and dismissed years ago.

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The first people who come to see Katniss post-reaping are, of course, her mother and Prim, immediately followed by Mr. Mellark. Whether you believe the baker was involved with Katniss’s mother in their youth or simply that he admired her from afar, I feel like something happened when they passed outside the room, even if only a significant one-sided gaze. Was Mrs. Everdeen surprised that Peeta’s father came to bid her daughter farewell? How did Mr. Mellark respond to seeing the woman he (had/perhaps still?) loved having to send her eldest daughter off to the Games? Did he want to comfort her in their mutual grief - did he try? Did he reach out to her afterward, and not merely on the pretext of looking out for Prim?

On a sidenote, I can’t believe he was unaffected by the sight of Katniss looking so much like her beautiful mother at sixteen. (I don’t mean attracted to her but rather moved, maybe even shaken.) I headcanon that Katniss inherited her father’s coloring but her mother’s features, resulting in a striking Seam version of young Mrs. Everdeen, and here she is with her hair braided up by her mother’s deft hands (in what, I presume, was a style Mrs. Everdeen had worn herself as a young woman) and wearing one of her mother’s dresses. The sight of her would’ve brought back memories, whatever you think transpired between Mr. Mellark and Mrs. Everdeen in their youth, and (assuming the baker knew of his son’s unrequited love) surely deepened his grief for Peeta. No wonder “he [had] no words at all.”

He rises and coughs to clear his throat. “I’ll keep an eye on the little girl. Make sure she’s eating.”

[Later, in the Games]Prim has my mother and Gale and a baker who has promised she won’t go hungry.

I find it fascinating that Katniss, who bristles at any kind of debt - particularly when it’s owed to a Mellark - actually takes comfort in the baker’s promise, to the extent that she recalls it in the arena. This is almost certainly because said promise involves taking care of Prim, but nonetheless, it’s interesting that she responds so positively to it.

And on a related note: was this kind of thing - looking after the family members of tributes - typical? I can’t recall if it’s mentioned in canon or just in @ghtlovesthg‘sCinders: 

It was common for the families of tributes to receive gifts of condolence during the games. Merchants would present carefully prepared dishes to the unfortunate families in town. Seam families offered whatever supplies or food they could spare to the neighbors whose child had been unlucky enough to take out one too many tesserae. Usually, the gifts were given in the evening in a vain attempt to help bolster the family through the prime time viewing of the night. Those were the hours in which a tribute was most likely to die.

Even in the Seam, where charity was synonymous with weakness, these gifts were accepted graciously, as a funerary gesture of mutual grief.

Or was Mr. Mellark’s offer, which sounds more comprehensive and long-term, an exception to this tradition? If Katniss had died in the Games, would the baker have continued to look out for Prim until she married/became self-sufficient?

Finally, Mr. Mellark makes way for Madge, with her pin and instructions and her kiss, and then who arrives but Gale! While I’m fully aware that these two have much more urgent matters on their minds at the moment than each other, at the very least, some kind of glance must have been exchanged, however meaningful/meaningless. Did they interact afterwards, as in @titaniasfics‘ bittersweet Strawberry Sunday, drawn together in their mutual anger and grief? Did Madge, so fierce and determined to send her aunt’s pin back into the arena, finally break down when she left the room, only to find herself face-to-face with Gale Hawthorne? 

And why on earth aren’t there more fics about these intriguing encounters in the hallway? Or have I simply missed them somehow?

@mtk4fun​ - thanks so much for this comment! I have ridiculously extensive headcanons for Mr. Mellark and Mrs. Everdeen, but even if they never had any sort of relationship, I’m willing to bet that 16-year-old Katniss in her mother’s dress, with her hair done by her mother (perhaps in a style her mother had worn at that age) at least caused a flicker in his heart/mind. And if Katniss does resemble her (canonically beautiful) mother in features, it would present an even more striking image (in a bittersweet fashion, of course, since her dark coloring comes from Mr. Everdeen, the man chosen over him).

And let’s not forget: he’s waiting outside the room when Mrs. Everdeen and Prim come out! What looks or words might have been exchanged? Did Mrs. Everdeen and/or Prim then feel the need to go and see Peeta (for any number of reasons)? I’ve never thought about that before!