Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games. They belong to Suzanne Collins.

Note: Time for something new! I've been wanting to do this for a while now and, this being the new year and a time of new beginnings, I feel the time is pretty right for this little pet project to get off of the ground. We've seen this 'genre', for lack of a better term, of HG fic here an there and recently almost everywhere? A tale of all the Victors prior to Katniss and Peeta. Well, I'm throwing my hat into the arena and giving it my own personal touch. If you've read my Nameless Chronicles series you'll likely end up recognizing several of these characters. I'm more than up for the challenge (both of having 73 Victors and also not going overboard with word count per chapter, haha!) so what is there to say besides... let the story begin!

Peeta sighed, feeling the warm sun on his face as he slowly walked down a street of the Capitol. One of the few that hadn't had any damage done to it by the rebellion. It had gotten lucky, clearly.

"Nice day," Peeta said, glancing aside at his girlfriend who walked with him.

"I guess," Katniss replied, her eyes darting left and right. "Feels so strange that we're here... here. I'm amazed the citizens haven't made a charge at us yet."

"I guess we're just that popular," Peeta replied, wry. He took a deep breath in and out. "Plus, you know, there's probably numerous officials watching us right now and snipers ready to fire at anybody who looks at us funny."

"I guess," Katniss said, glancing at a passing Capitol family distrustfully. "I just keep expecting an attack any second. You saw the fighting. You saw people die... the games aren't over yet, Peeta. Not really."

"Yeah, they're not. It's hard," Peeta agreed, gazing up at the clear sky. "...The rebels won, real or not real?"

"Real," Katniss said, a hand gently laid upon Peeta's shoulder. "Wish we could've just stayed home in Twelve, honestly."

"Yeah, me too. But the letter did have that little clause saying we had to be here," Peeta reminded his girlfriend, humourlessly. "Victor's party, for however much the word 'party' really applies."

"I guess it's a party to die for," Katniss said, a grim smile on her face. The smile soon vanished, replace with a soft frown. "Been a while since we saw the other Victors."

"We all needed time to... well, I was gonna say relax but we hardly even did that, really," Peeta shook his head, gently reaching down to hold Katniss' hand. "Together?"

"Together," Katniss agreed.

The letter had come the previous day, requesting the attendance of Katniss and Peeta at a 'party'. Specifically, a party of remembrance. A party to remember the Victors who had died in the grisly time between the first Games and the end of the Second Rebellion, and furthermore a party for the Victors who still drew breath to remember their own struggles and find their way forwards.

Peeta sighed again, remembering his own hesitation to attend the party and Katniss being all but ready to hide out in the woods beyond Twelve for a month until the heat died down. But then the letter went into extra detail, a detail Peeta couldn't help but see as a perfect reason to attend this little 'party'.

"With the battles over and the nation starting to resemble something close to stable... there have been twelve confirmed surviving Victors beyond the initially assumed seven survivors. They will be in attendance to share their own stories and fill in some gaps of knowledge that remain empty."

It hadn't been an easy sell, especially with the party set for the next day, but Peeta had wanted to meet with the Victors, the fellow sufferers, whom he hadn't gotten the chance to cross paths with previously. Watching them on stage during a Victory Tour, assuming they'd been Victors within his own lifetime, didn't really mean much of anything. Least of all when compared to a proper sit down and lengthy talk.

Katniss had argued, perhaps even viciously, and Peeta couldn't blame her for it. But, around three in the morning – a grand total of fifteen hours after the letter had arrived in the first place – she'd relented and agreed to attend, provided of course Peeta stay beside her and that she'd not have to engage in more discussion than she wanted. Peeta took this to mean none at all and assured he'd do his best to make the day pass by peacefully.

"So, who do you think survived?" Peeta continued three streets of talking later. "We know Johanna, Haymitch, Annie, Enobaria and Beetee will be there. Anybody else? I mean... there are those who died before this all started and those we know who died since..."

Peeta trailed off, his thoughts and Katniss' own cast towards those who had died for them and the rebellion. Finnick, Wiress, Mags, the female morphling – Porsche, he firmly reminded himself – and all the other brave, powerful men and women.

"...Maybe Spud made it out?" Peeta said after a few moments. "I mean, well... we both know even by the standards of a Victor he overcame a lot to get out of that tundra."

"Maybe," Katniss said, distant. "I guess we'll see when we get there."

"Yeah. Yeah, we will," Peeta agreed, taking the cue to gently end the topic.

Silence was the only thing between the couple, aside the gentle touch of their hands, as they continued to walk through the Capitol streets to their destination. The Golden Goose, the letter had called it. A nice, quiet cafe.

"How quiet can it really be if they all know we're there?" Katniss had said the night before. "They can just see us through the windows."

Peeta was inclined to agree, but whether he agreed or not the fact remained that The Golden Goose was where they were needed. So, that's where he would be going, each step bringing him closer to his destination.

"Peeta, stop," Katniss said suddenly, putting an arm in front of Peeta.

"What is it?" Peeta asked. "Something wrong?"

"Peeta... look," Katniss said, softly. "...Just... look."

Peeta did exactly that, letting out a low hum as he gazed at the notably long street in front of himself and his lover. The sidewalk in front of them was particularly detailed, covered by various young faces along with statistics on place below them. Their name, their District, their age at the time of Victory...

Peeta looked up, glancing at the grand sign that was impossible for all but the blind to have missed.

The Walk of Victors.

"You know, suddenly it makes sense why they picked the cafe at the end of this street," Peeta remarked, letting out a low breath. "A party of remembrance... a walk of remembrance."

"Yeah," was all Katniss said.

The pair stood silently, unmoving, for a few minutes. It was Peeta who eventually broke the silence.

"We'll take it slow... side by side and hand in hand?" Suggested Peeta, gently squeezing his lady's hand. "We could go another way...?"

"No. Let's go this way," Katniss replied, a glimmer of fire in her eyes. "We won, so did they... well, as much as a Victor can win anyway. I think we owe it to the dead to spare a moment of silence for each of them and know their names."

"I agree," Peeta said, smiling. "I guess there's only one place to start then. The beginning."

And so, Katniss and Peeta took the first few steps down the street and gazed down at the first face imprinted upon the sidewalk. Both were silent as they gazed down at the nervous, shy face of the first Victor in the history of the Hunger Games.

"I'd never have expected District Nine to have been the first District to have a Victor," Peeta said, looking down at the face below. "I know they show these games in school, but... I'm still amazed Mizar Aldjoy managed to do it."

"I guess it's just like us... who'd have expected District Twelve to have been home to the spark the second rebellion needed?" Katniss replied, looking at the ground just like her boyfriend did.

"Touche," Peeta agreed.

The Star Crossed Lovers resumed their silence, thinking back to the shy farm boy who went on to the crowned as the first ever Victor of the First Annual Hunger Games.

It begins! Just the prologue to the main event, of course, but I think this was a decent start? Plus, in my own personal interpretation, the Capitol having a 'walk of Victors' kind of just seems like a logical thing to do? In a sense, it's a more grim version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Stay tuned for more!