"When you were seven, you held a fake wedding by the swings with a kid you met at the park. You never saw your childhood “spouse” again after that day. Today you received a letter summoning you to a foreign country… where your wedding to the heir to the throne twenty years ago is seen as valid."
Katniss Everdeen receives a letter that changes her life.
Who knew that a letter and a photograph could wreak such havoc?
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Hope you enjoy this next chapter, it really wrote itself.
Summary: Katniss Everdeen receives a letter that changes her life.
Who knew that a letter and a photograph could wreak such havoc?
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In which Katniss meets Effie...
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“Your highnesses—” She curtsied immediately. “—welcome back to Panem.”
Peeta grinned as the woman straightened himself.
“It’s good to be home, Effie,” he replied. Hand going to the small of Katniss’ back, Peeta led her towards the car. “Before we step in, may I present, Her Royal Highness, Queen Katniss.”
Katniss gave the woman a half-hearted wave. “Hey.”
“Of course!” Effie curtsied once more. “We are so pleased to have you in Panem!” The woman looked over Katniss’ hooded sweater and yoga pants before turning to Peeta. “Didn’t you provide any sort of monetary compensation for her wardrobe?”
“I don’t need anything but the clothes I have,” Katniss told them.
Peeta winked playfully at Effie. “My wife is unnecessarily stubborn.”
“While my husband is too vain,” she pointed. “Imagine freaking out over one of twenty or so grey shirts.”
Part Two of "Photograph" an Everlark Royal Romance
Inspired by the prompt:
"When you were seven, you held a fake wedding by the swings with a kid you met at the park. You never saw your childhood “spouse” again after that day. Today you received a letter summoning you to a foreign country… where your wedding to the heir to the throne twenty years ago is seen as valid."
Katniss Everdeen receives a letter that changes her life.
Who knew that a letter and a photograph could wreak such havoc?
*Thank you to @keelaree for this gorgeous cover!*
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“No!” Katniss yelled. “I told Effie that I don’t want to be married to you! I thought she was sending me the annulment paperwork.”
“Oh.” Peeta stared at her, his blue eyes confused. “I thought that she was kidding.”
“Why would she kid about a life-changing event such as marriage?” she asked in annoyance. “I’m perfectly fine where I am. I have a life, a job, a blog that is actually getting somewhere—”
“I’ve read it! It’s actually pretty cool,” the dark-skinned man suddenly interrupted. “I don’t know if you remember, Your Royal Highness, but I was at your wedding.” He approached and bowed. “I’m Thresh, Duke of Ingram.”
“Nice to meet you,” Katniss replied hurriedly before looking to Peeta. “Why are you here?”
“I told Effie that I would bring you back for the Coronation Ball,” Peeta explained. “Also, I wanted to see what I was getting into.”
Katniss growled…she didn’t realize she could even make that sound. “Excuse me?”
“I mean, you were kind of messy looking from what I remember—”
This was inspired by this prompt from @writing-prompt-s:
When you were seven, you held a fake wedding by the swings with a kid you met at the park. You never saw your childhood “spouse” again after that day. Today you received a letter summoning you to a foreign country… where your wedding to the heir to the throne twenty years ago is seen as valid.
This is totally unedited. Thank you to @sparklingdust4612 for bringing this prompt to my attention. Looking forward to everyone else's interpretations along with this one and the story by @jhsgf82!
I actually have more of this but I thought I'd show y'all a little bit of my interpretation of the above prompt.
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We keep this love in a photograph
We made these memories for ourselves
Where our eyes are never closing
Hearts are never broken
And time's forever frozen, still…
-Ed Sheeran
Photograph
Katniss Everdeen loved building castles.
In the massive sandbox, she packed another bunch of sand into her bucket before placing it upside down to set. While waiting, Katniss imagined how she would decorate the inside of her palace, a delighted smile growing on her face as she thought of the possibilities.
First, the walls would all be yellow. Not the ugly yellow that looked like snot—but yellow like Prim’s, her baby sister, golden locks.
Yellow meant hope: that’s what Daddy always said.
Knocking on the sides of the bucket to loosen the sand like Mommy showed her, Katniss slowly lifted it revealing a perfect tower for her castle.
“Yes!” she hollered, jumping up in excitement.
Her eyes went to Mommy who was sitting on the bench across the way. She was talking to a pretty, yellow-haired woman with a big tummy. Prim was asleep in her stroller, her binky hanging from her mouth.
“Mommy!” Katniss rushed over, stopping just a scant from toppling over on the concrete. “Look! I’ve made the perfect tower!”
Her mother smiled proudly.
“That’s wonderful, Katniss.” She turned to the woman next to her. “My Katniss is always building and dreaming on how to make her perfect home. Her teachers tell me that she has such a creative mind for a seven-year-old.”
“How absolutely charming,” the woman responded kindly, a smile on her pink lips.
Katniss tilted her head at the sound of her voice. There was something different about the way the lady talked—the dips of it sounded strange—but still nice.
“Why do you sound like that?” she asked bluntly.
Her Mommy frowned. “Katniss Everdeen! Please apologize!” She looked to the woman once more. “I’m so sorry—”
“That’s perfectly alright,” the lady assured her. The pretty woman turned to Katniss. “I have a little bit of an accent because of where I’m from, that’s why my voice sounds different.”
Katniss nodded. “Okay, but it does sound nice…like a song!” She smiled. “What’s your name?”
The woman glowed like an angel. “My name is Marguerite.”
“Hello Miss Marguerite.” Katniss looked to where her sandcastle waited. “I better go before someone takes my stuff! Bye!”
Throwing a wave at the woman, she plopped back down onto her space in the sandbox ready to add some detailing to her newest tower—
The foot crushing her tower landed straight in the middle of it creating a space between each side.
Katniss fumed and her eyes went up to the blond-haired boy with the snooty face.
She stood, her hand slamming into his chest. “Hey! You destroyed my castle!”
The boy stared at her in shock. “No one ever touches me!”
“Until now—”
Katniss was suddenly blocked by another boy, tall and dark-skinned.
“No one touches his royal highness,” he declared, and the blond boy stuck his tongue at her.
Another boy, this one dark-haired and sharp-eyed, approached.
“Prince Peeta has decided that you will be his bride,” he stated with a scowl.
Katniss made a face, crossing her arms to show them how disgusting that sounded. “Gross.”
The so-called Prince Peeta walked over to her.
“As my bride, you can make as many sandcastles as you want,” he explained. “I’ll build a bigger sandbox than this for you!”
Something inside zinged at the thought. “Really?”
The boy shrugged. “Sure. Why not?”
Katniss eyed him suspiciously. “Why would you want to marry me anyway?”
Peeta shifted in his stance, the confidence in his blue eyes suddenly wavering. “I like your eyes.”
“My eyes?”
A rise of pink colored his cheeks. “They’re soft…and pretty.”
That had been it for her.
On that warm afternoon, by the swings of District 12’s only playground, Katniss Everdeen married the so-called Prince Peeta.
“You may now kiss the bride,” Gale, the dark-haired boy, said. He looked at Peeta, a teasing smile on his face. “Go on—kiss her!”
“Close your eyes,” Peeta told her.
Katniss, wearing her paper towel veil courtesy of the park’s public bathroom, did what he said and closed her eyes.
SPLAT!
She barely registered being shoved down into the muddy puddle.
Katniss looked up at the sneering boy, feeling the rise of anger in her body.
“That’s what you get for pushing me.”
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Twenty years later…
“Katniss.” She looked up from laptop to find Prim at her open doorway. Her sister held out a Fed-Ex envelope. “This just came for you.”
Without even glancing at it, Katniss tossed the envelope on her bed, going back to the open page on her screen.
“Don’t you want to open it?” Prim stepped into the room and plopped onto the bed, picking the post up to examine it. “It looks important.”
“Probably one of those things saying that I’m eligible for another credit card.” Katniss frowned, sitting back, and staring at the blinking cursor. “I’m so stuck on this blog post!”
“Is this the one about kitchen flowers?” her sister asked, and she nodded. “You got some great pictures from Madge’s shop.”
“I know but my writing inspiration is zilch,” Katniss explained. “I need to get this done if I want to post by Mother’s Day.”
“Speaking of Mother’s Day, mom is wondering if you’re bringing anyone to Sunday dinner,” Prim informed her.
“I love our mother but lately every conversation we’ve had is either about my lack of a dating life or my withering eggs,” Katniss said. “Right now, I need to focus on getting more attention on the blog. It’s just gaining momentum!” She rested back and turned to her sister. “This is important to me.”
“I know,” Prim replied. “And you are good at it. I mean, look at what you’ve done to our apartment! To this room!”
Her sister’s bright blue eyes looked around the buttercream room, beautifully decorated with white-washed furniture. The console that her television sat atop was bought at a nearby thrift shop and refurbished by her. Katniss had sanded it down before putting a whitewash over it and adding lacquer to give it a more modern look.
In fact, most of the furniture in her and Prim’s apartment was completely refurbished by her. She had always had an eye for decorating and instead of going to a four-year college, Katniss had opted to go to design school.
Creating something new from what people considered junk gave her a special kind of thrill—almost akin to being in love.
At least that’s what she thought it might feel like.
“Whoa!”
Katniss whipped over to her sister—who was holding an unfolded paper in her hands.
She stood from her seat and went to Prim. “What?”
Wordlessly, Prim handed the piece to her—it was a letter.
The letter was on marbled paper, an elegant insignia atop it, and she could see that the elegant calligraphy was done by hand:
Dear Miss Everdeen,
You are hereby summoned to the kingdom of Panem to present yourself to His Royal Highness, King Peeta.
Photo documentation has validified that you are the Queen Consort to His Royal Highness.
Attached is my business card, please contact me to arrange your travel to Panem.
Respectfully,
The Rt. Hon. Effie Trinket
Private Secretary to His Royal Highness
“This is a joke!” Katniss tossed the letter onto her desk and laughed. “Photo documentation? There is no such thing—”
The laugh fell from her lips as Prim turned the FedEx envelope upside down and a single photo fell onto her bedspread.
“There’s a business card in here, too,” Prim told her carefully.
Walking over, Katniss could see that the photo was facedown.
Trembling, she picked the print up and read the elegant cursive atop it:
‘Peeta and his new bride, Katniss Everdeen!’
Next to the caption was a happy face; it was obvious that this statement was made in jest.
Turning the photograph, a wave of nausea hit seeing the image of her seven-year-old self, a paper towel veil atop her head, joining hands with a blond boy—
Prince Peeta.
Or to be more precise, His Royal Highness King Peeta of Panem.
