Fanfic / When The Moon Fell In Love With The Sun

Later that evening the white bear came.
"Do you come with me?" asked the white bear. "I do," said the girl.
~ East of the Sun, West of the Moon, retold by Kathleen and Michael Hague

From Chapter 4, 'Family and Farewell'

When The Moon Fell In Love With The Sun is a The Hunger Games fanfic by Mejhiren. It's a For Want Of A Nail story where Prim wasn't chosen in the Reaping and Katniss consequently never left home, while Peeta went on to fight in and win the 74th Hunger Games himself, averting the events of the entire trilogy. However this doesn't automatically make everything better, as the freezing winter that blows in afterwards brings Katniss' poor family to the verge of painful starvation. Until the night that the newest Victor of District 12 comes to their door with an offer—if Katniss will come with him to live in his Victor's residence in the woods and keep him company, he'll see that her mother and sister will have everything they could possibly want. Needless to say, Katniss agrees without question—not only to save her beloved sister from a terrible death, but also because she finally sees a chance to repay the boy who, five years ago, saved her life...

Based on the Norwegian fairy tale East of the Sun and West of the Moon, the story is planned to be in three parts, with the first part (10 chapters long) currently complete.

Tropes included in When The Moon Fell In Love With The Sun include:

• Alas, Poor Villain: When Peeta realises that Cato, his last opponent, is going to bleed to death and he is going to be the winner of the Hunger Games... he cries for Cato.
• All-Loving Hero: Peeta is an infinite well of compassion. At the end of the Games he even stayed with Cato (who'd just been trying to kill him) while he bled out, even trying to save his life, and comforted him as he died.
• Arc Words: "Perfect"
  • "So beautiful..."
  • Multiple people at various times tell Katniss some variation on "You really have no idea, do you?"
• Armor-Piercing Question: When Katniss is attempting to convince Gale that Peeta has no interest in her body, then asks to borrow his knife to cut some pine bark to take back for her family:
  Gale: Make up your mind, Catnip, do you trust him or don't you?"
  Katniss: What's that supposed to mean?
  Gale: It means that you trust him to take you into the woods, keep you at his house for the rest of your life and never lay a hand on you, but you don't trust him to feed your family. <offers her his knife> Honestly, of the two, that's the bit I'd put more faith in.
  Katniss: <does not take the knife>
• Bears Are Bad News: Played straight at the end of the 74th Hunger Games when a huge white bear muttation interrupted the Final Battle between Peeta and Cato and ripped open Cato's throat. Peeta's victory became truly the stuff of legends when he killed the bear.
  • Subverted afterwards, though. The bear's fur was made into a luxurious fur coat for Peeta to keep as a souvenir (as well as a beautiful coat he had personally made as a special gift for Katniss) and it becomes his Iconic Outfit. Peeta is often associated with the bear in the story, which makes sense if you've read East of the Sun and West of the Moon.
• Beta Couple: Possibly Pollux and Lavinia, going by the New Years party.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: Rue pulls Glimmer's arrow out of her throat, hastening her own death before Clove can take her time finishing her off. (Marvel did the exact same thing in canon, albeit unintentionally.)
• Brick Joke: In chapter 7 Katniss recalls the discussion that ran around the district when Peeta unaccountably failed to approach the girl he'd admitted to loving before the Games, with several people thinking that he was simply taking time to get his house in perfect order before proposing. Greasy Sae described it as "feathering his nest", going on to joke that "It'll be ladies underthings next, mark my words." In chapter 9, Peeta gets Lavinia to buy Katniss several sets of new underwear while she's in town, far more stylish and attractive that what she'd always worn before.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Although Peeta will do everything and anything for Katniss, the one thing he won't do is actually put his feelings into words.
  • Peeta all but explains it to her: knowing that Katniss is a major Debt Detester, he wants to win Katniss' love without letting her know his feelings for her, aware that if she knew she'd feel obligated to return them to repay him. While the plan is good in theory, his execution is awful (he's WAY too obvious, any normal girl would realise his feelings in a heartbeat) but he gets away with it because Katniss is so oblivious that it's laughable.
    • He eventually (and indirectly) reveals another, more sensible reason for why he does not say it: should Snow ever learn about his feelings for Katniss, then she is likely to be in danger if Snow uses her to control him.
  • And now, Katniss is unable (or unwilling) to tell Peeta that she loves him, mostly out of respect for whoever Peeta loves.
• Cute Mute: Lavinia, who Katniss describes as the most beautiful woman she's ever seen.
• Dramatically Missing the Point: The number and size of mental gymnastics Katniss does to miss the point of every arrow that points to her as the girl Peeta loves is staggering.
• Debt Detester: Not that Katniss dislikes Peeta, but she has a major complex about being unable to repay him for everything he does for her, and especially her sister and mother.
  Peeta: I don't expect you to pay me back, Katniss. Ever.
  Katniss: But that's how it works! You give me something; I give you something at least as good in return!
• Declaration of Protection: Peeta promised Katniss he'd try to look after Larkspur in the arena although obviously that didn't work out, sadly. He also repeatedly swears to Katniss that he'd never, ever hurt her, or allow her to come to harm.
  • In a smaller case, after Peeta lost his leg to a wolverine mutt in the Games, Pollux and Katniss both swear they'd kill any wolverine that came near Peeta again.
• Due to the Dead: When Larkspur (Peeta's district parner) dies in the games, Peeta makes a point to clean her face and give her her first toast ceremony. Katniss thinks the only reason the Capitol aired is that they were confused by what he was doing.
• Erotic Dream: Katniss has a number of romantic dreams about Peeta, but in chapter 10 they finally verge onto the outright erotic.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Subverted when Katniss has a flash of insight that Peeta's District token, the scrap of red cloth he wears around his wrist which everyone believes was given to him by the girl he loves, was from a Seam girl. The subversion is because she STILL fails to realise that it is the one she gave him (also because she assumed it was a substitute red ribbon from a poor family's kissing bough).
• Everyone Can See It: People (Gale, Peeta's father, Pollux) repeatedly lampshade the fact that Katniss really doesn't have a clue about how Peeta feels. Even her own dreams try to tell her that she clearly cannot see it.
• Food Porn: To ridiculous extremes, even moreso than canon.
• Friend to All Living Things: Peeta, who feeds wild birds in his backyard and has even taken to trying to tame a wild chipmunk. Also Prim, as she is in canon.
• Generation Xerox: While Katniss and Peeta are already considered to have elements of this in canon, the fic also portrays Katniss as this to her huntress grandmother, Granny Ashpet.
• Green-Eyed Monster: a bit subdued. Katniss is always thinking enviously of the girl Peeta is in love with, even if she doesn't realize what she is actually feeling.
  • As of Chapter 12, she has finally realized and accepted that this is because she loves Peeta.
• Hypocritical Humor: In chapter 11, Katniss wonders how Peeta "can be so painfully oblivious" to how attractive he is when he's dressed up in his New Year's party finery and modestly shrugs off a compliment from her. This coming from a girl who argues with Peeta when he tells her she's beautiful and who is herself Oblivious to Love.
• I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: Katniss is this literally, being unable to conceive that it's even physically possible that Peeta has feelings for her even when it's so obvious that he might as well have tattooed it on his forehead.
• I Kiss Your Foot: Peeta cheekily kisses Katniss' feet while he's massaging some warmth back into them after she goes ice-skating.
• Inertial Impalement: At the end of the Games, Peeta can barely move because of the injury to his leg, so when the giant bear charges at him, he just plants a spear on the ground and lets the bear impale itself.
• I Owe You My Life: Katniss is far more insistent about this (thanks to the bread incident) than in canon, but after Peeta keeps his side of the bargain she feels she owes him a lot more than that.
  • Pollux (and presumably Lavinia) has this attitude towards Peeta for saving the two of them from a life of horrific slavery in the Capitol.
• The Lady's Favour: Katniss goes to see Peeta off before he leaves for the Capitol and gives him a home-made red handkerchief to wipe his eyes (and an impulsive kiss on the cheek). Peeta wears it around his wrist as his District Token during the Games and later Katniss notes that he apparently never, ever takes it off except to bathe. Incredibly, she completely fails to recognise it.
• Last Request: It wasn't exactly a request, but a dying Larkspur tells Peeta that she wished she could have kissed a boy and had a toasting. Peeta kisses her, telling her it's his first kiss, then after she dies he toasts two crackers and leaves them with her body "for your new home".
  • Both Larkspur and, surprisingly, Foxface do make an actual Last Request of Peeta as well—that he survive the Games to go home to the girl he loves.
• Let Them Die Happy: Katniss calls Peeta telling a dying Larkspur that he'd given her his first kiss "the kindest lie I'd ever heard". Subverted in that he was certainly telling the truth, since he confesses to her that he'd been saving it for Katniss.
• Neck Snap: How Peeta killed Marvel during the Hunger Games.
• Oblivious to Love: Katniss, to an utterly absurd degree. Most notably, in chapter 11, Katniss realizes that Peeta's District Token is a piece of cloth that would have been given to him by a Seam girl (the handkerchief she gave him before he left for the Games). Her first thought is to be angry, because she believes Peeta is just using her as a test run how to best woo that girl. And once she gets over that first thought, even though she's made the cognitive leap to the "impossible" idea that Peeta loves a Seam girl, she still doesn't make the connection that it's her!
• Pietà Plagiarism: Peeta (ironically) with Larkspur.
• Primal Scene: Katniss sort-of-accidentally walks in on Pollux and Lavinia having oral sex. Peeta confesses to her that he walked in on them by accident a couple of times.
• Rule of Symbolism: Peeta compares his "sweetheart" with a singing bird, to feed and give a home to, hoping that she will accept to stay with him forever. Of course, Katniss completely misses the point.
• Running Gag: A minor one before Katniss goes to Peeta's mansion; pretty much everyone she talks to about the deal (Gale, Madge, her mother) is convinced Peeta wants to sleep with her and Katniss gets rather infuriated by the suggestion.
• The Stations of the Canon: Peeta still gets Reaped even though Prim (and consequently Katniss) doesn't. Cato is still his final opponent and is mortally wounded by a muttation (a huge white bear rather than a pack of doglike creatures). He still loses his leg in the arena (albeit less of it and in a different manner) and is fitted with a prosthetic after winning. Peeta and his district partner Larkspur team up with Rue, but she still dies; while her death is different from the book or movie, Larkspur then dies in a manner very close to how Rue died in canon and Peeta avenges her by killing Marvel and comforts her while she dies, similar to how Katniss did for Rue.
• Stalker with a Crush: Peeta may be the nicest example of this trope this side of Hinata, but his habit of sneaking into Katniss' bedroom and sleeping beside her after he thinks she's asleep then leaving in the morning before she wakes without leaving any trace of his presence is more than a bit unnerving, even if it is a rather pointed reference to the alternate source material.
• Supreme Chef: Peeta, oddly enough. He's a pretty talented baker in canon, but in the fic everything he makes is spectacular.
  • Justified, though, in that he's mentioned several times he spent a good part of his time after the Games learning how to cook.
• Survival Mantra: Not for me. Not for me. Not for me.
• Through Her Stomach: A very large amount of the story is spent describing how much Katniss adores the food Peeta makes for her. Justified, given that she's spent most of her life eating just enough to survive.
  • In a variation, he also brings feed for Lady (Prim's pregnant goat). As Katniss notes, this more than anything else wins Prim over forever.
• Title Drop: In chapter 10:
  "Is this what happens," I whisper, "when the moon falls in love with the sun?"
• Unknowingly in Love: Bad as it was in canon, Katniss's obliviousness here is even more so. 11 chapters in, she's still at the stage of thinking that someday they might be friends, even when she's started having Erotic Dreams about him.