Chapter Text
Tanner was dying.
The late afternoon sun in District 10 was brutal most days and today was no exception. However while Tanner usually didn’t mind the heat, on this particular day it was all that he seemed to be able to focus on.
Well maybe not quite all that he could focus on.
Tomorrow was Reaping Day. That meant that for today himself and the rest of the children from District 10 who had already started working had the entire day off. A day off from the slaughterhouses before two children between the ages of 12-18 from each district were then forced into an arena to slaughter each other until there was only one survivor. One Victor.
Tanner could not help but see the irony of it all. A day off from slaughtering livestock before he could potentially be chosen to enter a different kind of slaughterhouse. One he hoped that he would never have to face. One that he hoped nobody that he cared about would ever have to face.
Tanner had recently turned 17 and so far the odds had seemed to be in his favor. He only had two more years. He had escaped the last five. He could survive two more.
Tanner wasn’t necessarily scared of the Hunger Games (ok maybe he was lying a little…) but what he was most afraid of was the thought of leaving his family behind.
There was little in life that Tanner loved more than his family. Family was everything in 10. Even though District 10 provided one of the main food sources for the Capitol it was not a well loved District.
People in 10 didn’t get to live a life of luxury like they supposedly did in 1 and they were definitely not allowed other privileges like the spoiled citizens of 2. No, District 10 seemed like it was almost despised by the Capitol for whatever reason.
Or at least that is what Tanner had heard. He had actually never been allowed to leave 10 in his 17 years of existence, so what did he really know?
Most of the families residing in 10 were poor. There were a few exceptions like how the mayor and his family seemed to be a little better off than most, but the majority like Tanner’s family were poor.
This forced Tanner to have to leave school at 11 so that he could help to provide for them. His family wasn’t the biggest that District 10 had ever seen, but there were six people total and Tanner felt responsible for all of them.
Tanner’s Pa had died during the war and grief had overtaken his Ma until she met Benedict. Tanner didn’t hate Benedict but he also wouldn’t say that he was his biggest fan. There was nothing particularly wrong with Benedict. He wasn’t abusive, he worked hard to help provide for the family, and he loved Tanner’s Ma there was no doubt about that. He just wasn’t Tanner’s Pa. Tanner missed his Pa.
Tanner had almost lost his Ma too. Tanner had only been 7 years old when his Pa died towards the end of the war. He would never forget how his mother had fallen to the floor violently sobbing upon being notified of his Pa’s death. There was nothing that 7 year old Tanner felt like he could do except hold his Ma’s hand and promise her that he would do everything that he could to never make her ever have to grieve like that again.
Then there were his sisters. Three of them. All younger than him.
Brandy, his twin, was only 13 minutes younger than him. A fact that he loved to rub in her face whenever he got the chance. He won the race to be the oldest child fair and square thank you very much! Brandy was just going to have to deal with losing to him for the rest of their lives.
Brandy was followed by Penelope who had just turned 12 and Milly who was 5.
Milly was technically their half-sister but that never mattered to Tanner. He loved her just as much as he loved Brandy and Pen.
Tanner was suddenly pulled out of his thoughts by the quiet sound of hushed laughter quickly approaching from the stall next to the one he was currently working in. Speak of the devil.
Pretending not to hear his baby sister trying to sneak up on him, Tanner returned his focus back to his work.
He had promised Benedict that he would help to muck out the barns today because even though he didn’t have to go work at the slaughterhouse, someone still needed to take care of all the animals that lived on their farm. Usually he would forcibly drag Brandy out of bed to help him, but it was the day before the Reaping and Tanner had decided to be a good big brother and had chosen to let her sleep. He thought that maybe when she finally did wake up she would come out to help him, but the work was almost done now and there was still no sign of his twin.
While Brandy’s absence did mean double the work for him Tanner didn’t care. He would do anything for his sisters.
Anything to keep them safe. To protect them.
“Boo”.
It seemed like Milly had finally decided that she was ready to launch her full attack by throwing herself out of her hiding place in the next stall and jumping on her brother’s back hugging him as she did so.
“I scared you”. She yelled directly in his ear.
“That you did Mills. That you did.” Tanner replied trying to stifle his laughter while doing so.
Apparently he didn’t do that great of a job because Milly called him out for it not even two seconds later.
“What’s so funny?” Milly asked him. “Didn’t I scare you?”. Tanner knew that a frown was about to form on her face due to the tone of her voice and Tanner couldn’t handle hearing her sound so sad.
He quickly reached his right arm around his back so he could twist her around his body so he was now holding her in his arms instead.
Tanner was pretty strong from working on their farm since he was really little and then from working in the slaughterhouses so his 5 year old sister felt like she barely weighed anything while he was holding her. She was so small. A lot of the younger children in 10 were. As much food as District 10 produced most of it went to the Capitol. Tanner hated the Capitol and everyone in it.
There never seemed to be enough food in 10. A lot of people were starving. Including the children.
Tanner and Brandy had been 12 when Milly was born and she had immediately attached herself to Tanner. Most days he was the only one that could get her to stop crying, which had annoyed Brandy to no end because she had wanted to be the new baby’s favorite sibling. It was ok though because Brandy always had Pen.
Despite the five year age difference Brandy and Pen were as thick as thieves. Tanner and Pen also got along really well, but whenever Pen needed help she always ran to Brandy instead of him. So Brandy really had no reason to be jealous. It was his turn to be someone’s favorite sibling.
Besides Brandy’s of course. Being twins they had always been close. They came into this messed up world together and they always hoped that they would go out together too. Not for a really long time though. Neither twin wanted to think about having to continue living life without their other half. The thought of that possibility actually used to be something that kept Tanner awake at night when they were younger.
Almost as if she could sense his anxiety, Brandy would always crawl into bed with him, tell him to shut his brain off, and yell at him to stop annoying her with his thoughts so she could finally get some sleep. Tanner never took her yelling at him seriously though. He knew that she only did it because she cared.
Brandy had always been tough. Probably even tougher than him. She had quite the temper as well. They both did. However, Tanner was a lot better at keeping his temper in check than his twin was.
While the twins were still in school Brandy was known to get into a few fights with some of the other children. Tanner had always been the calmer one. Whenever Brandy would get fired up about something it was usually his job to calm her down. Sometimes it would be impossible though. Brandy’s temper would get the best of her and then everyone,Tanner included, needed to watch out. Not that he ever believed that she would ever actually hurt him.
One day before the twins were forced to leave school one of their classmates had been making fun of Tanner for reasons he couldn’t even remember right now, but before Tanner could even react Brandy appeared out of nowhere and threw a punch that broke the other kid’s nose.
Nobody really messed with Tanner again after that.
Tanner was suddenly dragged out of his thoughts again by Milly placing one of her tiny hands on each of his cheeks and giving them both a little squeeze.
“Ouch”. Tanner said pretending that it hurt and then moving to seem like he was about to drop her. She immediately started laughing again because she knew that he would never actually drop her on purpose.
“Tan … Tanner stop it.” Milly struggled to speak due to the fact that she was still laughing.
“Stop what?” Tanner responded playing dumb.
“Don’t drop me. Please. I am sorry for scaring you but Ma sent me out to get you because it’s almost time for dinner.” Milly said.
Tanner spun her around and put her back down on her feet. He then nodded his head at her and said “Ok. Go back to the house and tell Ma I just need to finish up one last stall and then I will head home.”
“Ok Tan”. and with that she was off and running back to the house as fast as her little legs could carry her.
Tanner chuckled to himself and went back to finishing his work for the day.
Once he was done he did one more quick check on all of the animals and started to walk back home. Tanner was exhausted from the day and he still felt a little bit like he was about the die due to the heat. He also couldn’t help but shake this feeling that something felt different. With each step he took that brought him closer to the house he couldn’t stop feeling like things in his life were drastically about to change.
After walking for a few more minutes he finally made it back to the house and opened the front door.