Fanfic / Saving the Boy

Saving the Boy (AO3 Version) is a Hunger Games Fan Fic by Embracing-Immensity. It has a translation in Polish here.

The premise is simple: Katniss was reaped for the Seventy-First Hunger Games and won. Now, three years later, it's time for the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games, and she finds herself at a crossroads when Peeta Mellark is reaped for the Games. For all that he's done for her, she wants to bring him home alive, but her feelings for him run deeper than she realizes, which only further complicates things.

The story was completed February 25, 2012. It was intended to be the first in a trilogy covering the entire series; however, the sequels never materialized, leaving it as a standalone.

Tropes:

• Adaptational Context Change: Peeta's knack for expertly manipulating the crowd is played up a lot more positively here, since Katniss is not his district partner and has no reason to alienate him as a result. Instead, as she's his mentor, it comes as a relief to her since it improves his chances of surviving the Games.
• Adaptational Early Appearance: Romulus Thread, the head Peacekeeper during Catching Fire, is already mentioned as serving in District 12 in events that coincide with the first book.
• Adaptation Expansion: The District Ten boy's death is depicted rather than being Killed Offscreen the same day the supplies are destroyed.
• Adaptational Heroism: Downplayed. While Peeta was always a hero, the first book shows he's willing to kill others to protect Katniss. Since Katniss isn't in the arena, he has no desire to kill the other tributes — and ultimately doesn't, making him the first Victor to have no kills to his name.
• Alcoholic Parent: Misu's father is stated to be one as Haymitch is one of his drinking buddies.
• All Love Is Unrequited: Subverted with Katniss and Peeta, but played straight with everyone else. Gale had feelings for Katniss that she never knew about nor returned, while Misu is one of the many girls who had feelings for Gale.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Misu promises Cato that she'd give him a tumble. He gets it... by being pushed off the Cornucopia into the midst of the mutts, though they ignore his corpse because it's poisoned.
• Big Bad: Misu. While Snow is still the Greater-Scope Villain, Misu drives most of the conflict of the story due to her hatred of Katniss and desire to win the Games. She is the biggest threat to Peeta in the arena, and makes it all too clear she intends to kill him, not just for the sake of survival but also to spite their female mentor.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Again, Misu. While she's still the biggest direct threat to Peeta, in the end she's small potatoes compared to Snow and the Capitol and a pawn for them like everyone else. This becomes all too clear at the end of the story, where it's revealed that Snow rigged the Games to ensure Peeta would win, to the point of deliberately having the mutts that would kill Misu programmed to ignore him. Misu never had a chance at winning, and never even realized it.
• Bittersweet Ending: Peeta wins the Games, meaning Katniss and him can finally be together for real. However, twenty-three other children still died to get him there, and he's still very much traumatized from his experiences in the arena. Even more than that, they're still at the mercy of Snow and the Capitol, though only Katniss really understands what that means.
• Blood from the Mouth: Cato coughs up blood, revealing that Misu poisoned him.
• Cruel and Unusual Death:
  • Gale's death in the Seventy-Third saw him get torn apart by mutts, something Katniss still has nightmares about over a year later. According to Misu he had to be shipped home in several boxes.
  • The District 3 girl is incinerated by the fire storm.
  • Cato suffers a slow death by poison, courtesy of Misu.
  • Misu herself is also ripped apart by mutts at the end of the Games.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation:
  • Clove and the District Three boy die during the bloodbath rather than later in the Games.
  • Conversely, the District Three girl survives the initial bloodbath but is incinerated by the fires.
• Everyone Has Standards: Being Victors and mentors, Katniss, Haymitch, Johanna, and Finnick have seen some of the worst humanity has to offer. However, when they realize the mutts chasing down the last three tributes of the current Hunger Games are designed by the Gamemakers to look like the other twenty-one deceased tributes, even they can't help but be sick.
  Finnick: Unbelievable. This is a new low, even for them.
• Executive Meddling: In-Universe. This being the Hunger Games, the Gamemakers are in control of the arena and oftentimes shift the momentum in favor of the tributes they favor. Or in this case, in Peeta's favor. Being the newest favorite of the Capitol and with Snow all but making it an order that he'd win, the Gamemakers do everything they can to rig the Games for him. They surround the Cornucopia with far more supplies than usual to make sure he can grab something, they barely ever attack him with their traps even when they trigger them in his vicinity, they gift him game-breaking items like high-tech armor, and they even program the mutts they create to completely ignore him when attacking the other tributes. This, along with his huge sponsor account (a lot of which was donated by President Snow himself), means that Peeta is guaranteed to win as much as anyone can be guaranteed to win in the Hunger Games. Short of being killed by another tribute or falling afoul of something like nightlock, it is impossible for him to lose — and indeed, he does in fact win.
• Famed In-Story: As Katniss is already a Victor, and the youngest one ever judging by the book's timeline, she's already famous throughout Panem and popular in the Capitol — in all the right and wrong ways. One of the looming conflicts in the story is the auction for her virginity, which Katniss continues to dread until it's canceled due to a misunderstanding.
• Femme Fatale: The persona Misu adopts in the Games, using her looks to seduce Cato and join the Career pack.
• For Want Of A Nail: Katniss winning the Seventy-First Games changes a lot of things.
  • Because Katniss already won the Games, her name isn't in the reaping bowl for the Seventy-Fourth, changing the number of slips inside — which causes Original Character Misu Teeyer to be reaped instead of Prim.
  • Gale is dead by the start of the story, due to Katniss blowing off Snow's birthday party the previous year in favor of his. Snow had Gale reaped for the Seventy-Third Hunger Games in retaliation, and when it looked like Gale had a shot at winning, had the Gamemakers deliberately send mutts after him, causing him to suffer a Cruel and Unusual Death.
  • As she's been a Victor for three years now, Katniss has already befriended Finnick, Johanna and the other Victors on her own. She's also aware of the Victor prostitution ring (something she is about to join herself at the start of the story before Peeta comes along).
  • Without Katniss in the Games with Peeta, the events of the Seventy-Fourth go differently.
    • As Katniss isn't going into the arena with him, she doesn't misinterpret his actions as part of some nefarious scheme to hoodwink her, and recognizes that he's genuinely in love with her. In turn, she has no reason to hold her feelings back, so she's quick to fall in love with him in turn.
    • Peeta never joins the Career pack, having no reason to since there's no Katniss he needs to protect in the Games. Because of this, he never kills the District Eight girl. Cato also never has the chance to injure his leg, so he never loses it.
    • Clove dies in the Cornucopia Bloodbath after Peeta manages to knock her down to protect Rue, which Misu takes advantage of in order to kill Clove and take her place in the Career pack.
    • The District Three boy tries to talk his way into the Career pack. In canon, he succeeded; here, because he chose to talk to Misu instead of one of the others, she seemingly agrees, only to kill him instead.
    • Rue allies with Peeta instead of Katniss, and they destroy the Career supply pile together. As a consequence, she makes it farther than she does in canon, lasting until the Feast, after which she's killed by Misu.
    • Cato dies after being unwittingly poisoned by Misu instead of getting ripped apart by mutts. That fate, instead, is saved for Misu herself.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Snow. For all that Misu and the other tributes are threats to Peeta in the arena, Katniss, Haymitch, and the other Victors are well aware that all of them are still at the mercy of the Capitol. To that end, Katniss does everything she can to please Snow, knowing that doing otherwise could doom Peeta like it did Gale.
• Green Around the Gills: Peeta is visibly sickened after watching the tracker jackers swarming Glimmer and the District 4 girl.
• Her Boyfriend's Jacket: Before he's due to enter the Arena, Peeta gives his jacket to Katniss to wear as a memento of him. The sentimental value ends up helping Katniss accrue sponsorship money for Peeta, as it further enthralls the Capitol audience with their love story.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Glimmer is killed when she climbs up into a tree to catch Rue and one of the branches she grabs knocks down the tracker jacker hive.
• Home Porn Movie: Played for Drama. Snow arranges for Peeta to win the Games so he can auction off videos of Katniss and Peeta's sex life together to the highest bidders, starting with Katniss losing her virginity to Peeta in the Capitol. Katniss is forced to agree, because otherwise they'll be sold off separately as prostitutes like Finnick and the other Victors are. The only caveat she has is that Peeta can never know.
• Hope Spot: After the tracker jacker hive is knocked down and most of the wasps either kill Glimmer and the District 4 girl or chase after Cato and Marvel, so Peeta and Rue prepare to leave. Then a lone straggler comes down and stings Rue.
• Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Every chapter is titled "The Boy who...".
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Katniss still wins a Hunger Games and becomes a Victor. She also still almost suffered death by dehydration during her Games.
  • Peeta is still reaped for (and wins) the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games. As a consequence of that, Rue, Thresh, Cato, etc. all still die.
    • Foxface still dies via accidental nightlock poisoning.
    • Rue helps destroy the Careers' supply pile. This time, it's with Peeta instead of Katniss.
    • Cato snaps the neck of another tribute in retaliation for the destruction of the supplies. Instead of the District Three boy, however, it's Marvel.
    • The last tribute before the Victor is declared gets ripped apart by mutts designed to resemble the other tributes.
  • Katniss and Peeta still sell their love story to the Capitol to increase Peeta's popularity and accrue sponsorship money for the Games. The only difference is that it's not an act on Katniss's part, but real.
• It's All About Me: Misu's hatred of Katniss stems from Gale's feelings for Katniss and Katniss's own inability to save Gale. She completely ignores the fact that Katniss did everything she could to save Gale and was even more devastated by his death than Misu herself was, since Gale was her best friend.
• It's All My Fault: Katniss blames herself for Gale's reaping and subsequent death in the Games, which is why she frequently sends money to Mrs. Hawthorne.
• Kill Steal: When Misu, Cato, and Marvel find the District Ten boy, the three start arguing over who gets the kill. Misu drops out early because she doesn't care who kills him as long as she kills Peeta. So Cato rushes the boy but Marvel spears him just when Cato reaches him.
• Massive Numbered Siblings: Misu is the eldest of an unknown but large family of siblings.
• Not Worth Killing: More like Not Worth Eating as the Tribute mutts ignore Cato's poisoned corpse.
• Original Character: Misu Teeyer, the girl that replaces Prim and Katniss as the female tribute for the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games.
• Psycho Knife Nut: Misu is a ruthless and vindictive Dark Action Girl who uses a knife as her main weapon.
• Really Gets Around: It's heavily implied that Misu slept with multiple people, including the former Peacekeeper Cray, for money in order to survive.
• Revenge by Proxy: Why Misu wants to kill Peeta. She hates the fact that Gale had feelings for Katniss, and that Katniss failed to save Gale the previous year, so she intends to kill the boy Katniss loves in retaliation.
• Romance Arc: The first half of the story is devoted to Katniss getting to know Peeta and falling in love with him, like he already is with her. After Katniss realizes her love for him, the second half is devoted to helping him win the Hunger Games so he can come back to her.
• Save the Villain:
  • Rue tries to warn Glimmer about the tracker jacker hive, but is ignored until the latter breaks the branch the hive is hanging from.
  • When Misu slips off the Cornucopia and is hanging there, Peeta actually contemplates trying to help her even though she wants to kill him. The Thresh mutt snaps her up first.
• Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Much like in canon, Katniss falls for Peeta because of his unfaltering kindness. On top of what he did canonically, after Katniss was reaped for the Seventy-First, he gave bread to Prim everyday Katniss was in the Games, ensuring that her family was fed while she was gone. Katniss realizes in hindsight that's when she really began to fall for him, and it's getting to know him during the events of the story that does the rest.
• Slashed Throat: Clove has her throat cut by Misu.
• Statuesque Stunner: Misu is described as tall for a woman and very good looking.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: Misu poisons a water bottle which she uses on Cato.
• Tap on the Head: Peeta hits Clove in the head with the handle of his knife, stunning her long enough for Misu to cut her throat.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: As much as Katniss and even Haymitch come to dislike (if not outright hate) Misu, they still fulfill their duties as her mentors due to district loyalty and send her sponsorship gifts. In fact, because Katniss is the only female victor of District Twelve, that makes her Misu's official mentor, even though the two of them despise each other.
• Tempting Fate: Johanna starts complaining of boredom after both her Tributes are killed. Cue the firestorm later that day.
• Vomit Discretion Shot: When Katniss realizes that the mutts are made from DNA of the Tributes, Johanna runs straight to the nearest bathroom and is clearly heard vomiting.
• Watch Out for That Tree!: Played for Drama when the District 3 girl is running to avoid the firestorm and runs straight into a tree. And then the fire catches up.
• Wins by Doing Absolutely Nothing: Peeta wins without killing a single tribute, a first in Hunger Games history.

---