st x hunger games au where it's the 87th hg and in district 5 the kids who get reaped are Holly Wheeler (age 12) and Jane Hopper (age 17).
Mike Wheeler (17) volunteers as tribute in place of his little sister. (the reaping is not boy-girl, any two kids between 12-18 can be picked)
Mike and Jane are super close friends, and they even dated for a while when they were younger. They play up their "romance" (which is not actually a romance) to get sponsors during their games (most people in the capitol eat it up, everyone else doesn't buy it).
The mentor for district 5 is none other than....... Will Byers (Jane's step brother and Mike's best friend), who shockingly won his games at 12yo in the 83rd edition, beating all odds. The other tribute from 5 that year had been Barb (Nancy's best friend) and their mentor had been Hopper, who now is also Will's adoptive dad (and Jane's dad).
Will and Jane's older brother Jonathan is thought to be dead bc he disappeared after a rebellion some time before the 83° games (he wasnt there to volunteer for his brother:() but! he's not actually dead! younger rebels from the districts are brought to the capitol to be made into servants, forced to comply via threats to their families (not sure if avox or not). He may or may not be assigned by accident (or not by accident...) to district 5 team's suite for the 87th games - cue Byers sibling reunion and more angst.
The Wheeler kids are orphans (not sure how but the parents died when Holly was still little), Nancy has been the "caretaker" ever since she was a kid (maybe Ted died a few years later, so Nancy still was basically raising her siblings as a child herself bc he's useless but at least it would explain why they weren't in someone else's custody for so long. idk might come back to this) however since Barb and Jon died, Nancys been a shell of herself, she's often drunk and very depressed. (She was at the protest with Jonathan when they captured him - she saw him get shot and thought and was told he died; she complied with the peacemakers and was let go unharmed).
(continues under the cut)
Will is heartbroken having to mentor Mike and Jane, the most important people in his life, knowing at least one of them won't come back to him. He can't even entertain the idea both of them could die- he's ready to do whatever he can to help them from the outside via sponsors etc. Hopper and Joyce are also distraught, and so so mad.
Joyce also was a mother figure for the Wheeler kids - she and Karen had been close friends (plus obv Mike and Will have been attached at the hip since they were tiny) and when she died Joyce took it upon herself to check on them, make sure they always had food, clothes, etc and would often be at their house/have them over (since joyce and will moved in with hopper and Jane in Hops victor's house, Will gave his own victor's house to the Wheelers- pretend that's allowed lol. also Nancy refuses to officially live there, she'll crash there/"be there" for her siblings as often as she can bring herself to but she keeps her stuff at their family house).
Jane is actually native of district 13 (which like in canon hg "doesn't exist" anymore) - she somehow traveled as a kid through the wildlands in the north and ended up in district 5 (circumstances? details? how the hell would this be possible? idk lol but ive decided she's from 13) and Hopper found her while he was out hunting. As a Victor (he won his games when he was 18) he has gained many contacts/connections and was able to make it look like Jane was always just an orphan from district 5 whom he adopted when she was 11yo. They've lived together as a family ever since.
Joyce and Hop were friends as teens and had a will-they-wont-they for years, they were really close to admitting their feelings at some point but then he was reaped for his games, and came back traumatised, and feeling unworthy of her love. She eventually "moved on" (but not really), had Jonathan and then Will with Lonnie (who is a piece of shit in this universe too) but eventually leaves him, and her and Hop are close friends/more again. When Jonathan "dies" and Will gets reaped Joyce is understandably barely holding on, but Hopper (who has to leave to mentor Will -and Barb, rip) leaves Jane with her and is like "I know all this is worse than any nightmare and you're feeling unimaginable pain, I promise I'll save your kid whatever it takes but please, take care of Jane while I'm gone" and Joyce is genuinely the mom that steps up, for the Wheelers too (and Mike and Nancy are lk inconsolable bc their best friends are in the death arena. jesus this is actually getting away from me why is ts so depressing fml. anyway this is when Nancy started entirely checking out because she was like the only person who cared about Barb and she knew that Hopper only cared about helping Will and she understood it but it was so fucking unfair. And yes as awful as it is Hopper was 100% focused on Will's survival and everyone knew it, even Will, who feels guilty about Barbs death forever (and he and Nancy - who used to be kinda close as kids - never really recover bc she will always blame him for her death, not like rationally but still,,, yeah)
