You guys, I started this adventure over 2 years ago and it has brought me such joy, delving into these characters' minds. I know it's been a tough journey but as I have learned and am learning, life is made up of moments, good and bad. Death and pain are a part of life- I have given these characters a full life filled with moments. I'm so grateful to each and every one of you for coming on this journey with me. I hope you will continue to read my work and look forward to the next K/P fic coming after the holidays!

I feel a whole rollercoaster of emotions posting this last one. I'm always sad when I end a fic, especially one I am as invested in as I am with this. I felt similar when I ended my Neverland Needs You series- saying goodbye to Peter and Wendy in that universe was like losing a piece of my soul.

This is definitely worse. And I have been through some truly crazy tribulations through these 2 1/2 years...severe depression, survived a suicide attempt, picked up my life and moved out to where I had no friends and no family all because a medical team told me I don't have long to live. I chose to fight rather than give up on life.

And life, as crazy, as it is, goes on.

I'm not telling you all of this to bring you down even more but you, my readers, see a side of me I never show to anyone else. Reading someone's work is quite intimate if you think about it because I'm vulnerable when I write and I show you guys that side.

So it's with the greatest pleasure AND sorrow that I post the FINAL chapter of "Much Worse Games" universe.

All my love and gratitude to you all,

XOXOXOXOXOXO

We find them together, as they have always been. The doctor says Dad passed away last night but Mom hadn't been gone that long. She knew she wouldn't be able to last without him. They have always been one entity, one powerful force. The Mockingjay and her Dandelion. Growing up as the first-born of the star-crossed lovers of District 12, I heard the stories. When I was old enough, and then when Rye and Aria were old enough, they told us the whole story of how they came together amidst the hatred and terror and devastation in their world. To say I am proud to be their daughter is an understatement if I have ever heard one. I wish I had a chance to see my parents fight back then. When I was ten, I was Reaped for my school's version of the Hunger Games and had to watch videos of them in the Capitol. My mother looked so strong and fierce that I aspired to be just like her.

After they die, Finn brings me tapes of them in the Hunger Games; he has some of his parents too, and Aran has some of his mother. It takes me awhile before I'm able to watch them and Rye still gets sick, especially when we watch Dad fight the Careers to give Mom a chance to run. How she found him by the river and cared for him. Anyone else would say Mom was faking it for the cameras but we think they're crazy; the love and protection on Mom's face tells us how much she loved Dad. Even when she didn't know it herself. Aria cries the hardest when Mom sings to that little girl covered in flowers.

Rye and my son Whit become co-owners of Mellark Family Bakery. I still work there from time to time, but I prefer to bake rather than manage. I'll leave that to the boys. Aria, however, becomes the artist of the family. She honors both Dad and Mimi Effie by becoming one of Panem's most famous fashion designers.

My husband Aran isn't much of a baker, but he works the books and figures out how to make a profit (not that Dad ever cared about that) but Dad's will states his desire that the bakery always remain in the family. Mayor Dex Canterbee brings us some papers, lost since before the War, that show that the bakery has been in Dad's family for nearly one hundred and seventy five years. Over a hundred years of Mellarks, and now it's my son's. I hope Rye works up the courage to ask Coral to marry him. They have been together for almost six years (not counting our years together as children) and I want him to have kids, to pass on the legacy. On the other hand I'm a protective big sister and I don't know if anyone will ever be good enough for him. With lustrous blonde curls and a sweet smile, he looks so much like Dad that it drives the Capitol girls crazy. But Coral Odair is just as sweet and if anyone marries my brother, it should be her.

People tell me I look just like my mother, despite my blue eyes and my fair skin, and I smile. I want to take after her. She was a hero. She will always be the Girl on Fire. She told me, giggling, that her name for Dad was the Boy with the Bread. It's nauseatingly adorable, in my opinion. Rye joked that that would make us 'toast babies' and I nearly hit him. Aria looks like she could be Rye's twin; she keeps her blonde curls cut short, in a style that's so long before the Dark Days that I don't even know what to call it.

We bury them together, under the willow tree. Mom wanted to leave her wedding ring to me, but I make sure she is wearing it when we bury her. It's her pearl from Dad that kept her going when he was taken. I wouldn't dream of separating her from it.

We have a box of things that I take out and show Whit and Lily. Lily likes to wear the locket that Dad gave Mom in the Quarter Quell. There is a glass flower, a blue ribbon that belonged to my aunt Prim, a picture from their wedding day, a cookie that's so hard it's more like a brick, with the words 'I do' painted in icing, our ultrasound photos, various paintings and drawings we made for Dad when we were little, their rings that said 'always' together, a box of recipes that belonged to my grandfather, a painting that Dad did of Mom that we determinedly avoid looking at, and that's just to name a few. We of course display their Plant book and their Memory Book; Rye comes over to look it at often. We have lost so many people and even though we knew Dad was sick for so long, and that Mom wouldn't be able to go on without him, we still feel our hearts break a little more each day. Aria seems to be taking it the hardest; I suppose as the youngest, she feels that she didn't get enough time with them.

One day, several months after their deaths, Rye comes over while the kids are at school. Aria sits at the table, sipping tea and she stands to hug our brother. We embrace and I pull back to look at him; his olive skin looks pale and there are deep circles under his eyes.

"You're not taking care of yourself baby brother."

"Willow, how long are you going to call me that," he laughs softly. It tugs my heart; his laugh sounds like Dad's.

"She still calls me that," Aria calls from the table.

"She calls you baby brother too," Rye teases.

"No," Aria growls. "I'm no brother. But I'm no baby either."

"Well you'll always be my baby brother so I guess until we die." I tousle his curls; his smile fades and he hides his face in his hands.

"It's weird."

"I know."

"I always thought they were invincible, you know? Like nothing could ever defeat them. Not even death."

"I think that's the wrong way to look at it," I say carefully, pouring him a cup of tea. "I think, after Dad was sick for so long, they went away to a place where they could be together and not be in pain. Where they were no longer the Star-Crossed Lovers, or whatever else, but just...Katniss and Peeta. A boy and girl who loved each other. Simple as that."

"You have his way with words," he says with a smile.

"I hope so. I'm still trying to get my book published."

"You'll do it," he nods.

"Yeah, Willow Mellark-Reneaux doesn't let anything keep her down," Aria says with a grin.

"How are you doing," my voice softens. He sighs and shrugs.

"Some days are easier than others. Coral should be given an award for putting up with my sulking ass for so long."

"Can't see how she can put up with your ass in the first place," Aria teases him. It's weird to hear my baby sister say 'ass'.

"Coral has been around the family since she was born. She knows everything, so she understands."

"I know. I felt empty when we lost Grandpa and Mimi and Aunt Annie and Uncle George...but this is different. I feel like a piece of me died with them."

"Mom and Dad always said we were their miracles," I nudge his shoulder. "That they never thought that we would happen, and when we did, they couldn't have been more excited. We're the children of Peeta and Katniss Mellark, Rye. That will never, ever change." He nods miserably and I chew on my lip.

"C'mon. Let's go watch some tapes." They follow me into the living room where the TV and the Holo are set up. I scroll through the list and find one of my favorites.

Dad looks barely sixteen, with a nervous smile as he banters with the emcee with the crazy blue hair and blue lips. He stiffens when Flickerman asks him if he has a girl back home.

"Not really," he laughs.

"Handsome lad like you. There must be some special girl. Come on, what's her name?"

"Well, there is this one girl. I've had a crush on her ever since I can remember. But I'm pretty sure she didn't know I was alive until the reaping," Aria giggles as she pulls her knees to her chest.

"She have another fellow?"

"I don't know, but a lot of boys like her."

"So here's what you do. You win, you go home. She can't turn you down, then, eh?"

"I don't think it's going to work out. Winning...won't help in my case."

"Why ever not?"

"Because...because...she came here with me."

"Look at Dad blushing," Rye laughs beside me. I grin. Even though we hate to talk about the Games, and what our parents went through, it's fun to watch Dad as a love-sick teenager, mooning over Mom in front of the whole world.

"Oh that is a piece of bad luck," Flickerman says.

"It's not good." Dad agrees miserably.

"Well I don't think any of us can blame you. It'd be hard not to fall for that young lady. She didn't know?"

"Not until now."

"Poor Dad," I whisper.

"Wouldn't you love to pull her back out here and get a response? Sadly, rules are rules and Katniss Everdeen's time has been spent. Well, best of luck to you,

Peeta Mellark, and I think I speak for all of Panem when I say our hearts go with yours." We watch Dad shake hands with the emcee and be escorted off the stage. I flick it off, not really in the mood for more Games, and find our favorite one of all.

"Will you, Katniss Everdeen, take me to be your friend, your partner, your lover, and your husband?"

"I will do so gladly," we watch as Mom tears off a piece of the bread and moves it over the fire. "And will you, Peeta Mellark, allow me to stand by your side, through the good times and the bad times, and love you until the end of our days? As your loving wife?"

"I would be honored to have you by my side." Dad looks like he is going to cry as he feeds the bread to her. Oh forget that, I know he's crying.

"Peeta, you fed me when my stomach was empty and you gave me hope when all of mine was gone. You brought light back into my life." She holds the bread to his lips and his eyes never leave her.

"Katniss I promise you will never want for nothing. Everything I have is yours and as long as I am alive, I will do everything in my power to make you happy. You will never go hungry again, nor will you ever doubt your worth. I will spend my entire life showing you how incredible you are." They share a kiss and everyone claps around them. We start to cry when we see so many people we loved and lost. Grandpa Haymitch, Mimi, Grandma (who I can barely remember), Aunt Annie. And Mom and Dad. They look so incredibly happy.

The video continues with them cutting their wedding cake and Dad feeding her. They dance around the room, the one we are sitting in right now, and Dad dances with a little girl while Mom dances with a little Finn. Every now and again, Dad whispers something in her ear and her face lights up; he steals kisses when he thinks no one is looking but I'm grateful Grandpa was filming this entire thing.

About a year after their deaths, Whit finds a journal in Dad's office at the bakery. It's heavy and looks really old.

It's their life story. From when Dad planted primroses around Mom's house after he came back to her, to the moment he said goodbye and told her to let him go.

I flip through it and see both Mom and Dad's handwriting. They wrote it together, as they did everything else. Some parts make me blush and I quickly flip the page to something safer. I smile when I read parts about when she was pregnant with me. There are things I don't think either of them would want us to know and to honor their memory, I close the book and don't read anymore.

And life goes on, as it has to. Rye finally asks Coral to marry him. Whit and Lily both marry and have families of their own. Aria doesn't marry but she breaks an awful lot of hearts in the Capitol, and goes on to become quite famous for her lingerie line, shocking the family. She is Mom's daughter, after all; rebelling against the expected.

We have reunions as often as we can, with Aran's twin siblings Anna and Brody coming to visit, bringing their own families. Mom's friends Lara and Logan come to visit, Delly's children stay in contact, Coral's little sister Pearl, Aunt Johanna (also my mother-in-law...that's weird, isn't it?) comes, until she can't anymore and she goes peacefully in her sleep one night. I hold Aran all night that night while he weeps into the pillow.

Life is filled with tears and laughter, of death and rebirth. As I am babysitting my granddaughter one day, we sit in the meadow and I pluck a dandelion from nearby. The stunning yellow of it makes my heart smile and I tickle her cheeks with it, smiling at her laughter.

"You were born into the strongest, bravest, most complicated family I have ever known," I tell her with a smile. She stares up at me with grey eyes. "Your great-grandmother once told me how she survived it all. How on the bad mornings, it felt impossible to take pleasure in things because she was so afraid it could be taken away. That's when she would make a list in her head of every act of goodness she'd seen someone do. Your great grandfather was at the top of that list, you know. So many lists. It became like a game. Repetitive. Even a little tedious after awhile.

But, my sweet girl, as my incredible mother told me, there are much worse games to play."

END