A/N: 09/02/2017 I'm back! And with the last chapter! Yay!

Thank you to urworshipfulness, badkitty98, hungergamesluver3, Dodge1989, and elfielovesbooks for your reviews! Now you can read this one and be done with it, haha XD

Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games.

Chapter thirty-one: Ending and Epilogue~

She wakes to the smell of salt and ocean breeze, and knows she's in district four.

The morning sun shines through the pastel curtains of her bedroom, and she feels at peace - at peace for once in her entire life - before the memories come flooding back. It's been like this for some time now; living day to day, taking things slow because that's what her friends and family want and that's what she needs. Still, she supposes it beats moseying around and trying to find a use for herself, which was what she had done the first week or so she'd been here; there was no use for hunting as Finnick always went out every morning to catch fish, the supply houses were always stocked with whatever they needed and her mother and Prim had taken over household duties, so one can imagine her frustrations. Luckily, she had since found ways to occupy her time, but she'd be lying if she said it hadn't been rough.

She rolls over, not surprised to see the other side of the bed empty. Finnick was always up before her.

Such an early riser, she thinks.

She sits up and stretches her arms, cracks her neck. Things between she and Finnick had been...strange, but also better. She wasn't used to sharing a bed with someone other than her sister, not since Peeta (and even that was only to keep the nightmares away). She'd never known the feeling of waking up to someone you loved in a romantic sense, and said feeling could barely be described with how good it felt.

They still had yet to be intimate in...that way, but after everything she'd been through she just couldn't bring herself to do anything more than kissing. And Finnick understood that, and was willing to wait. And she couldn't even begin to describe how grateful she was for it.

She remembers the events following Coin's death, all those months ago when she had asked Plutarch to send her and her family to Four, remembers Finnick's joy but also puzzlement.

Why Four? He had asked. Wouldn't you rather be back in Twelve? Back home?

It wasn't that she knew Finnick could never live in Twelve, with its ashen remnants and gray skies and lifestyle he'd probably never had. It was that she needed to live in Four. She needed the ocean and the seagulls and the sailors and the life, the presence of something completely opposite of what she'd had in her home district. She'd lost nearly everything up to that point, and with the option to start over - truly start over - wherever she wanted, she couldn't think of a better place than Four.

And now that the violence had died down and she was supposed to just live with herself and all the things she's done, all the people she's killed, it's almost too much. Almost, because Prim and Finnick and her mother are there to help her, to mend the wounds left by the past two years bit by bit.

If it weren't for them, she doesn't know what she would do with herself. She had put so much energy into this fight, this war, that she had forgotten the things that had made her happy and carefree before. Things like hunting with Gale, and laughing with Prim. And now that she is finally here, in the place she feels she was always meant to be, even if just for a moment, she feels as though she can finally have it all back.

And the feeling is phenomenal.

She flips the covers past her legs and stands, soaking in the morning rays. Finnick is probably back from his fishing by now, and she can't wait to greet him like she's done every morning for the past two months.

She trots into the kitchen of their new home, bare feet padding against the wood floors as she catches sight of her mother cooking while Prim washes dishes. Finnick must have invited them in.

Her mother and sister lived in the house adjacent to she and Finnick's, and came over just about every day to chat and help with chores. Katniss loved the company (most of the time), but sometimes, the presence of her family was just too much. This was not one of those times.

"Hey, you're up!" Prim says, smiling at her.

"Yeah," she replies, rubbing her right eye tiredly. "I slept in more than usual."

"Up late with that book again?" Her mother asks, smiling gently.

"Yeah." Katniss admits, somewhat embarrassed.

For the past few weeks, she had been working on a book, a personal project of sorts, filling it with pictures of all the people she had come to know, all the people she had lost, and writing down all of her favorite things about them. If no pictures could be found, Peeta had been kind enough to send her a painting of the person she was thinking of (he had moved with Annie to district Ten, and from what she'd heard, they were happy). She found it to be therapeutic, and with each new entry, she found it just a little bit easier to sleep at night. It was a work in progress, and she was nowhere near done, but it was helping.

"Is Finnick back from fishing yet?" She asks, moving to sit down at the table.

"No, not yet." Prim says. "He should be back any second, though."

"Who should be back any second?"

All three heads turn to the doorway, where Finnick stands with his trident and a net full of fish. There's a triumphant grin on his face - he'd caught even more than usual - and he happily steps inside to give Prim his haul so she can start preparing them.

"Goodness, Finnick, don't you think you could've sold some of them off?" Her mother asks with raised brows.

"I did," he replies giddily. "This is less than half the load."

"We can always freeze them to save for later," Prim says, untying the net and pulling out a couple of fish.

Their mother taps her fingers against her jaw, tilting her head in uncertainty. "Yes, I suppose we could. I just don't want the house smelling like dead fish all the time."

Prim sputters a laugh but continues working, and Finnick sets his trident against the doorframe and moves to sit beside Katniss.

"Morning," he says, pulling her to him and kissing her hair.

She smiles into his shirt, savoring the feeling. "Morning."

"Make any progress with that book last night?" He asks.

"A little." she says, shrugging.

"I'm sorry I fell asleep on you," he apologizes, bowing his head a little in shame.

She puts her hand over his, running her thumb over his skin in a comforting gesture. "It's okay. I couldn't have expected you to stay up until three in the morning."

His eyes bulge comically. "You were up until three in the morning?! Last I remembered, it was only one!"

She chuckles softly, humored as always by his antics. "Well, I may have been up just a little longer than you."

She pinches her thumb and finger together and squints, smiling when Finnick gives her a little playful nudge. She hears Prim and her mother laugh softly in the background, and she secretly wishes each new day would always be like this one.

Calm.

Serene.

Happy.

Commander Paylor becomes the new President, Plutarch the secretary of communications.

It's announced over their holo at dinner one night.

Katniss can't be more thrilled - she'd been worried about who would become the next president of Panem, but she knows the nation couldn't be in safer hands than Paylor's.

She gets back to work on her book come nightfall, reads through letters from Johanna, Peeta, and Annie. There's a surprise letter from Plutarch, who tells her Haymitch has requested to transfer from Twelve to Four where she and Finnick are. Apparently the old drunk misses her and Gale isn't much company. He figured he'd warn her lest she wake up with a passed out mentor on her doorstep.

She chuckles silently to herself at the thought.

She goes out hunting one morning, decides it'll be good for her.

She's a bit rusty, makes a little too much noise and has delayed reaction times, but finds herself enjoying the experience nonetheless. She nearly misses a prize bird due to her clumsiness, and she knows that if Gale were here with her he would've never allowed such a grievous mistake.

She found that she missed Gale more than she'd initially thought she would once moving to District Four, but she's still not ready to see him yet. Not after he'd almost killed Prim. He had moved back to Twelve after Coin had died and the war had officially ended, and from what she'd heard, he was helping rebuild their home district, giving refuge to old 12 citizens and Capitol runaways.

When you come back, you won't even know it had been burned to the ground, he'd vowed as she boarded the train with Finnick and her family.

It's clear to her what he's doing - trying to atone for his wrongdoings, attempting to bring things back to the way they were before the 74th Hunger Games, before the Reaping. He knows it's futile, he has to, but she can't help but admire him for trying. And it's this very thing that gives her hope. Hope that, maybe someday, things can indeed go back to the way they were between them, and it'll be good again.

She makes the trek home with the bird in hand (she had gone a lot farther out than she'd remembered), and the looks on Finnick and her mother and sister's faces when she slams it down onto the kitchen table is priceless. Finnick looks prideful, Prim is surprised, and her mother is shocked and maybe a little disgusted that she'd lay a dead animal on the same place where they ate their food. Still, it doesn't change the fact that it's progress, that she's moving on from the painful memories bit by bit, and she's healing. Slowly becoming able to do the things she'd used to before it all. And that in itself is cause for celebration.

She thinks maybe she's getting better.

Haymitch does indeed move to district Four, a couple houses down and right across the street.

She has lunch with him to catch up and talk about the future, never the past unless they're both drunk, which so far has only happened once. He takes to raising seagulls and Katniss finds herself coming over more and more often to help with the task until it's almost every day.

It becomes their thing.

"Do you ever think about where we'll be in a few years?" Finnick asks while they're in bed one night.

He's watching her place a picture of Wiress onto one of the pages of her book, careful not to make it crooked. Her eyebrow twitches a bit at his question, curious as to where this sudden thought train is coming from.

"Every now and then. Why?" She asks, glancing over at him.

His eyes drift a bit before returning to meet hers. "I don't know. Where do you see us in a few years?"

He's trying to keep things casual, but Katniss knows better; he's been thinking about this for a while.

"Together." She says simply, shrugging a bit. "Why?"

He sounds a little exasperated with her answer. "You don't think of anything beyond that?"

"Not really," she replies, getting a little uncomfortable. "Why would I?"

He's quiet for a few moments, a low hum the only thing coming from his lips. "...Nothing. Just wondered."

She knows there's something more to this conversation than sheer curiosity or idle thought, but before she can think to question him about it, he leans up and pulls her face in for a quick kiss. "Love you. Good night."

He sighs and rolls over, away from the light she has on, and she knows he's disappointed but unwilling to admit it. If she called him out on it now, though, it would only escalate into a full-blown fight, and she's too tired for that. So she merely goes on about her business, finishing up Wiress' section in her book.

She eventually puts away her things and goes to sleep, but not without the feeling that she had just seriously screwed up something important.

She finds a ring in her backpack when she's out hunting one morning.

It's a tiny thing, thin and smooth around the edges, golden, but it's a ring nonetheless. At first she doesn't know what to think of it - what was it for? Who put it there? - but then her conversation with Finnick from the other night comes rushing to the front of her mind, and she knows; he's asking for her hand in marriage.

Her mouth falls open - literally falls open - and she momentarily loses the ring in the countless blades of grass as her surprise and shock causes her to drop the thing. She scrambles to search for it and clumsily picks it back up and looks at it, inspecting it as though it were a rare jewel or even an alien life form.

What should she do?

What should she say?

She stuffs the ring in her pocket and continues on with her hunt.

She has a lot of thinking to do.

Finnick is antsy and incredibly nervous when she finally comes home that night, and he looks as though he might bolt at the slightest sign of trouble.

She calmly puts down her hunting gear and sets her game down on the table just as she usually does after a long day in the woods, and she doesn't even get the chance to open her mouth before he starts pouring out words of worry like a sieve.

"Look. I- I know what you must be thinking. And trust me when I say that I would never want to put you in an awkward position or make you feel like you have to do anything you don't want to just to make me happy-"

"Finnick."

Her voice is calm as can be, but maybe that's why he keeps talking like a chatterbox.

"And I don't want you to worry about hurting me, either, because your happiness is all I care about and if your answer is no, I can take it-"

"Finnick."

"So, whatever you choose, if it's me or if there's someone else-"

He's pacing frantically, and she grabs his face with both hands, forcing him to look at her. "Finnick!"

He stares at her, the fear clear in his eyes, and she can only smile as tears come to her own. "...Yes."

He's silent for the longest time, as though his brain has been disconnected and it's taking longer than usual to process her words, and her smile only grows wider because of it.

"Yes." She says again, a single tear spilling over.

He stares at the tear, mesmerized before blinking his way back up to her eyes. "Yes?"

She nods her head, crying freely now. "Yes!"

"Oh, YES!" He bellows, picking her up and swinging her around the room in joy.

He sets her down and kisses her full on the mouth, and Katniss knows that this may very well be the best decision she's ever made in her life, if not the most important one.

She can't believe that she ever tried to deny loving this man.

It's taken over two years, but she finishes her book.

When their first child is born, everyone is shocked, though Katniss probably more so than anyone else.

Her mother brings her daughter into the delivery room after cleaning her up, and Katniss can't help the tears streaming uncontrollably down her face.

She had been a wreck during her pregnancy; so many things could go wrong. What if she had a miscarriage? What if she didn't eat well enough and her child was misshapen or underdeveloped? What if she went through all of those nine months just to have a stillborn? But now, lying on that hospital bed with fire aching between her legs (God, the pain had been unimaginable) staring at the thing she and Finnick had helped create - that beautiful, innocent thing - she couldn't be happier.

Her mother slowly walked her newborn daughter over to her, and Katniss had never been more afraid in her life as she hesitantly, awkwardly took hold of her.

"Oh...hi..." she whispers, staring down at the shriveled little face in her arms.

She looks like a prune, she laughingly thinks.

She hears commotion on the other side of the door, and soon enough Finnick and Haymitch are bursting through.

"Where is she?! I need to see my wife!"

A couple of nurses try to restrain him, saying the baby and mother need rest, but it does little good as he shakes them off and rushes straight over to where Katniss and their daughter are.

He sighs in relief, running his fingers gently across her hairline. "Oh, you're alright..."

"Well I'll be damned," Haymitch remarks, smirking from the sidelines. "You did it."

She smiles tiredly, and shifts her eyes pointedly toward the baby. Finnick looks, mouth falling open in pure awe at the perfect little human they'd made together.

"My God..." he whispers, tears filling his eyes.

He grins, white teeth flashing, and Katniss knows she made the right choice in choosing this man to be her lifelong partner. She's not sure about herself, but she just knows that Finnick will be a great parent.

"What's her name?" Prim asks.

Tears are still streaming down her face, but she is still able to come up with a reply.

"Maggie," she says, holding her beautiful baby in her arms. "Her name is Maggie..."

The tears finally spill past Finnick's eyes, and Haymitch claps and everyone smiles. Katniss herself can't help but feel a sense of pride, of accomplishment. She was finally able to create something, rather than destroy. Instead of death, she now has life right there in her hands.

And she thinks finally, finally she's done something right.

Parenting had been one of her greatest fears once she'd gotten pregnant.

But now, after having successfully reared and protected her little Mags, kept her alive, for four years, she thinks she's becoming somewhat of a pro.

At least that's what she tells herself after they end up having two more.

She gets a letter one morning as she's dressing Mags, the two youngest playing at their feet, after Finnick brings it in on his way back from the docks.

It's from Gale, and he's writing to tell her that construction in district Twelve is finally done. She's so surprised, she drops the letter, Gale's formal invitation to come see it for herself along with it.

Her daughter asks what's wrong, and as if on cue, the newborn starts crying.

Finnick walks in just as their youngest starts to slobber and playfully tear at the pieces.

The air is cool and breezy, the sky a warm grey as they step into Twelve for the first time since its destruction.

"Mommy, is this where you used to live?" Her second daughter, Rue, asks, looking around as she holds onto her mother's hand. She's cradling their son in her other arm.

"Yes, sweetie," she replies, trying to keep her voice steady. "It is."

Finnick's hand snakes up her back to rest on her shoulder, clamping down gently for comfort. She looks over and he smiles, and she smiles uncertainly back.

Gale steps out from the newly built courthouse to greet them, a girl and a woman she's never seen before along with him.

She takes a steady breath to calm herself.

She takes the first step and squeezes her daughter's hand.

End~

A/N: Well, this thing is finally done. It's been an amazing ride, and I'm so happy to have so many people reading and reviewing and checking this out. It really means the world to me and I hope to write more quality stories like this one in the future, not necessarily just Finniss.

Again, thank you to all of the readers who've checked this out and stuck with this thing, especially those who've been here from the beginning. You're all awesome human beings who are far kinder than I deserve and much more amazing than I could ever ask for :)

Special thanks to elfielovesbooks for all of her amazing advice and putting up with me and my constant need for writer's validation, haha XD Seriously she is responsible for at least half of this thing, without her this fic would not be half as in-character as it is now. I made a really good friend through this story and it will forever stay with me as one of the best experiences of my life :')

The quote: "she can't believe that she ever tried to deny loving this man." is credited to her, it was 100% her idea, she just let me use it XD

I may actually update this last chapter at some point, as there are multiple lost 'scenes' that I wanted to add in but just couldn't find the time or place to put them in there. We'll see, though. If I do, I'll definitely make an author's note of it and mark the changes I made. But for now, I hope this ending is good enough for all y'all ;)