thecapitol | Hell hath no fury like an 11 year old

Entry tags:

Hell hath no fury like an 11 year old

Who| Clementine and Dave, Clementine and OTA
What| Clementine finds out she's not a victor
Where| the District 6 suite
When| A few days after the Ship mini-arena
Warnings/Notes|

[Open in D6]

[The anger is palpable in Clementine's small frame. All the relief of winning the mini-arena has turned to ashes in her mouth with the revelation that neither she nor any of the other winners are Victors. They won't get to be mentors, they won't get out of the next arena. They're going to have to do it all over again after all.

Sure, she's going to get some kind of special care package in the next arena, whatever that means (and she's curious, she is, just she's so furious right now) as well as immunity but...

They didn't warn them before, they let them all believe they were safe from having to die over and over again for days, they let them believe they had a chance of escape when they were fighting for survival on board that ship.

It's amazing the new depths the Capitol can sink to.

Clementine drops the gift basket on the coffee table in the middle of the District 6 suite. She barely wants any of what's inside, better to let her district mates enjoy what's in it if they can. Especially the champagne, because really? It just shows how little concern these people have for them that they put that in her basket.]

[Closed to Dave]

[It shouldn't have been so hard for the two of them to run into each other, they were to and fro in each others Districts often enough after all. But Clementine and Dave seemed to have managed to keep passing each other by like two ships in the night (and that analogy is not a fun one right now) so far.

The memory of what happened to him is probably the worst one she carries of that day. She can't help thinking that if only she'd been stronger, if only she could have pulled herself up, if she could've just...

There had been six winners, six, and as awful as it is she wishes more of them had been her friends. Even though they didn't get to be Victors this time round it would have at least spared them the horror of dying again.

So when she opens the door out of the suite and Dave's right there she's momentarily frozen in place.]

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On some level, Dave had been avoiding Clementine. He wants to pretend he isn't, but he locks up at the thought of seeing her again. By most standards he should feel like a hero for what he did, but he just feels bad. He basically dropped a tonne of bricks on Clem and Clara and there's really no way to apologise for it. He's been tuning out of the coverage whenever it's around, avoiding magazines and avoiding it in conversation. As far as he knows Clem and Clara are Victors and, even if he feels bad for traumitising them a little, he can enjoy small successes without some amount of guilt.

Still, he doesn't outright avoid District Six, his Bro is here after all. For once though, he isn't here with the intention of dragging him to the training center for a fight, he's here to face his shit like a man and restructure some of those bridges he fell onto like an ass.

He just, didn't expect it to happen so suddenly. That door opened really fucking fast, damn. It doesn't help that Clem looks about as mortified as he does, both of them are just there and staring for a long moment before he fills the silence.

"Hey." Mmm, yeah, that's warm and friendly. Try harder, ass-bandit. "S'up, Cleminem?"

Clementine's eyes focus on his face, a range of emotions flickering through them. There's words somewhere, locked inside her throat, words she can't manage to vocalise in this moment.

It's Dave, he's here and he's alive. Of course he was, they all came back didn't they but there's still that expectation that to see someone die meant that they won't except if they came back wrong. Her eyes feel hot all of a sudden with what she hadn't let herself do back on the ship after Dave fell away into the darkness and this time she's not going to manage to hold back.

The moment after the nickname leaves Dave's lips Clementine's moved forward and thrown her arms tight around his middle. She manages to bite back a sob but there's definite tears sliding down her cheeks and into the fabric of his shirt.

For a moment, Dave is worried she's going to be angry. He can deal with angry, at least. His life was full of people who get snippy and emotional and he can handle it by deflecting it. What's new to him is all of these people hugging him and now tears. He isn't properly equipped to deal with a situation like this.

As such, he's kind of standing there limp like a sad mop for a long moment until it becomes clear what she's doing. "Don't tell anyone I did this." He grumbles, ducking down a little lower so he can wrap his arm around Clem's head and press her ever so comfortingly into his armpit. It's probably the most awkward hug in the world, but it's the best he can offer.

"You alright?" He asks after a small silence, finding it hard to believe she'd be in such disarray just over him.

She laughs a little, she can't help it. If Clementine could speak she'd promise to do exactly as Dave asks.

As it is it takes that small silence for her to gather herself together enough to use her words again. Clementine takes a deep breath and pulls back enough that she can look up and see his face clearly. "I..." she starts and then stops.

Dave might be more familiar with how a second later her small fist hits him in the shoulder though not too hard. "Don't do that again!"

She can have all the time she needs as far as Dave is concerned. He has nowhere to be, he can afford to be here and reassuring of the fact that he's well and truly alive. At this point he feels like he should be rubbing her back or something, but he just hangs back with his eyes trained on her through his shades.

Aaand there we go, there's a reaction he's familiar with. The hit really didn't hurt much but he's grabbing his shoulder and hunching like he just got shot. "Ah, shit. Right in my sweet spot." He hisses quietly to add to his little show. "You're breaking my heart, you know?" His tone is accusatory, but he sucks up his pride and the act and gives her something a little more genuine. "I'm sorry. But it worked, right?"

"Yeah well, you deserve it a little." she says hoarsely, working on collecting herself. "I can hit harder, just so you know."

Clem rubs her sleeve over her eyes but her breath hitches when he says it, fully confirming what he did for her. "It... did. Clara saved me." she'd only learned the woman's name after Dave was gone and she couldn't... she'd wanted to be angry with Clara for not saving Dave first but she couldn't be, Clara had tried to do what she thought was right and save the weaker of the two of them first. It wasn't her fault what had happened.

"You didn't have to do it though, Dave."

There's a very distinct guilt he's getting from her reactions, reminiscent of how he felt when he was constantly initiating plans where he had to die to manipulate time. He went to great lengths to avoid it and yet here he is, making people cry. This place is bringing out the most annoying sides of him, he swears to god.

"Yeah, well. Hindsight is twenty-twenty." He shrugs his shoulders, falling back into being a little more passive about it. "If I'd have known they were letting everyone through I'd have hung around a little longer." Get it? "But if the people up top wanted me to bite it, it wouldn't have ended there." Now he's got to deal with all of the schmoopy coverage and the adoring looks. Gross. Punch him any day.

"Honesty hour, if anyone deserves to be out of Arenas, it's you and Clara. Just put in a good word for me or something when you're rubbing elbows with the top dogs and fat cats." Yeah, he has no idea what happened.

She snorts a little at the terrible joke, her calm slowly returning right up until the point he mentions that she and Clara had escaped the arenas. At that Clementine will noticeable tense up, her eyes flickering across the room towards where the gift basket sits innocently on the coffee table.

Not the most awe-inspiring messenger of doom.

"Dave..." Clementine's not sure how she's supposed to tell him this, how she can except that she knows she has to. If she doesn't right now he'll find out soon enough from someone else. "... I'm not out of the arenas. They're not letting us be victors."

Now that Clem is easing back into calm, Dave can feel a little relieved. Facing people after you've made a traumatic decision for them is hard, but he feels like he might have lived down some of the worst parts.

Well. Until she says that, of course. He's not a particularly dramatic guy, he doesn't have a temper and it can be hard to get a rise out of him if you aren't focusing on particular irritations of his. This, however, is an exception.

"You're shitting me." His voice is almost hoarse as he glances over at the basket. Is that fucking champagne? She's like six, what the fuck. "Scuse me." He says curtly, turning to glance around before he fires a punch into the closest wall as if that will sate the little flurry of anger he has going. Incidentally, punching a wall hurts, so it makes him more mad than anything. He shakes his hand out with a wince, fixing an irritated look at the wall as if it's personally responsible for all of this before he turns back to Clementine and tries to appear calm.

"You wanna tell me what the card says?"

"Dave!" Clementine gasps when he goes and punches the wall like that. "You'll hurt yourself!"

She's taken a few steps after him when he goes to do it, her hands raised up in what resembles a calming gesture. Funny, before he came in she was the one furious enough to want to hit something, now Clem's just focused on trying to sooth Dave's nerves. "It... it says I'll get a custom care packet in the next arena. And immunity until the next round."

"That'd be hindsight talking. Again." He says, not without some bitterness. He gives his hand a rub and moves in to poke her on the forehead as she tries to calm him.

"Ease up. I'm a dumbass, not a horse." He gives her the most forced smirk he can manage before he shakes his head and steps toward the package. "They sure love finding ways to fuck with us, huh?" In his chest there's a sudden, tightening of dread that they pulled the stunt because of his sacrifice. He dismisses it as best he can, trying to focus on something inane.

"Fuck yes, mini-muffins. Shit man, you just hauled ass out of a traumatic experience but we have tiny fucking muffins to ease the pain. Justice has been served so frigging duly today." His speech is rife with sarcasm, but he pops one in his mouth anyway without so much as a please. He's good like that. He's starting to rifle through what she has, holding things up and showing her like this isn't her basket. His hands land on what looks like a fancy as hell gift certificate for a two person dining experience and he lifts it up with a coy smile, waggling his brows furiously at her.

"You gonna take your boooooyfrieeeend? You gonna ask Steve Rogerrrrrs?"

"Hey!" she blinks unexpectedly at the poke, reaching up to rub the spot after he's done. Not that it hurt at all, just took her by surprise. Clementine rolls her eyes and snorts humourlessly, "Yeah, they sure do.It better be something good I get in the next one."

Depending on what it is she's already decided she'll try to help Dave, she owes him and he deserves it.

If she had a choice it would be a gun, Clem knows it's happened before but the chances of them being that generous? She's really not sure.

"Well you can have them all, if you want." she replies about the mini-muffins, not that Dave waited for her permission. Clementine's a little amused as he looks through the contents of the baskets, right up until he pulls out the gift certificate and says that.

"What! He's not my boyfriend." and please, there's no blush on her cheeks when she answers him. Dave's face is so ridiculous though she soon biting back laughter, she didn't think moving your eyebrows like that was humanly possible. "Don't be dumb!"

Edited 2014-08-02 14:15 (UTC)

Dave is blissfully unaware of her little choice to help him, but he's not belittling enough to turn it down if it means it gets them both a step closer. He knows damn well that it can be frustrating for people to throw themselves down to be helpful. It's just that, if they made it to the last leg, he wouldn't be all that concerned about self-preservation. Damn those instincts.

"I do want." He says with the air of an all too pleased sigh as he picks up two and wedges them in his mouth at the same time, trying not to choke all because of her reaction. Smiling around muffins is ugly and hard so he works on swallowing them down before he continues.

"Well if he's not your boyfriend you won't be offended when I ask him out." He gives her a sage nod before he waves the certificate a little closer to her. "I seen you making goo-goo eyes at him. Well, uh, you and literally everyone else with a pulse." He pulls at the collar of his shirt with a finger. "Whose your boyfriend then? Bet he's ripped, right?"

"Ew." she says to his struggle with muffin mouth, her grin becoming too much to resist allowing to show. Dave somehow always manages to make her laugh.

Clementine sticks her tongue out at him, "No, you should go ahead." and pushes the certificate back to Dave, the blush still lingering. Even if she did... well Steve was a grown up and she was eleven, and all that kind of thing was stupid anyway. "I don't have one, I'm too young for that stuff."

"That's not a nice thing to say. Rude." But he's all but swallowed those muffins now and he's eying the rest of the basket with his birdy eyes behind his shades. Currently, the conversation is more important than those shiny things, so he snaps back to it.

"Nah, nah. A guy like Steve is real special, I gotta pay my own way with it. If I use a certificate he'll think I'm cheap." And he won't put out is the joke that goes unsaid. "Yeah, well. Not with that attitude, right?" He scoffs, looking over the certificate again with a considering tongue click. "This place looks above and beyond a Chuck E. Cheese, kiddo. I don't know if you want to hand this out like it's willy nilly. I'm Texan trash, I'll embarrass myself if I take my dance partners there." And again, it's being waved at her face. "Go on Lady Clemington."

"You're the one who overstuffed your mouth." she shakes her head in pretend-exasperation.

Clementine snorts with laughter. "Wouldn't want that." she gives the certificate a more considerate look this time, noticing the fancy looping of the script engraved on it and all the... the whatever you call it, the design on the paper. It looks pretty and expensive like Dave says. "I don't know if I'd want to go alone, you might have to come keep me company, Lord Davemont."

"Are you asking me on a date?" Whoops, he's waggling his eyebrows again. It is humanly possible for them to do this, apparently. At least he's clearly joking.

"I mean, it is almost dinner time. We could get all geared up in our finery and snoot all over these fancy people. Rub elbows and whatever rich people do." He shrugs, maybe just a little shy about the proposition. "If you want, anyway."

"Well I'm no Steve but we could have fun." she grins and snickers at the majestic dance of Dave's eyebrows. "I like the way you think."

It would be fun and letting Dave enjoy the spoils of victory the Capitol gave her would ease Clementine's guilt a little. Plus, if they could scandalise some fancy restaurant all the better. "I want to."

"Don't beat yourself up too much, kid." He gives her shoulder a playful shove, just barely smiling. This is the part where he would say she's as good if not better than Steve if he were actually sentimental.

"Right, well. Time for me to swoon." He presses the back of his hand to his forehead and braces against whatever is behind him. And then he stands up like nothing happened. "You gon' get changed, because I have like half a million suits that deserve the opportunity to go somewhere nice."

"It's okay, I have time for improvement, I'm still young." Clementine reaches out and shoves him back, though not as effectively as Dave did to her. Maybe with all this Capitol food she'll get a growth spurt sometime soon.

Though thinking about the way the dog bite scar had turned pink and fresh again when she woke up from dying... Clem doesn't let that thought continue. They have plans now after all.

"I think I can find something to wear, no yellow though."

"Got it. No yellow, no purple. I'll meet you back here when I pick something, aight?"

So he disappears for a while, returning eventually in a suit that looks like it has been fashioned entirely out of decorative rugs. He still has the shades, just for that touch of class. As soon as he steps back into Six, he's going to call out for Clem.

"Oh Lady Clemingtoooon." Such date, very romance. Right?

Edited 2014-08-07 12:04 (UTC)

Clementine roots through her overwhelming wardrobe and finally comes up with a cute but not overly frilly dress in the nice shade of pink that she prefers. Zombie apocalypse or not, some things stuck with you. She brushes and re-ties her hair and then tops off the rest of her elegant appearance by, of course, putting on her hat once more.

"Coming Lord Davemont!" she says, sniggering and then when she comes out of her room actually can't laugh because Dave's suit is just so stunningly perfect that her voice fails her for a moment.

Finally she manages to speak, with a slight wheeze, "I like your suit."

There's a weird little feeling in Dave's head when she shows up. He can't help but think she's cute, really goddamn cute. He'd never had a little sibling of his own, just a big Broling, so feeling fiercely platonic in a familial way about someone is strange for him when they aren't Rose. Still, it makes him all the more eager to make this night absolutely hilarious, by god is he going to erase all those shitty memories.

He dusts off the lapel of his jacket and adjusts it as if he's so snobby he needs to look perfect.

"Mmyes, I thought you might like it." He forces that upper class voice and bends his arm out, offering to loop arms snootily. "Shall we be on our way then, mmyesss?"

"I really, really do. It suits you." Anyone else probably wouldn't be able to make that work, there's actually an argument that Dave doesn't but Clementine decides that it's just so him to wear something like that that it counts. She slips her thin arm around his like she's seen people do in the movies.

"Mmmyes, I think so. Can't be late!" Not that they actually made a reservation, that can count on the first way they're going to make the restaurant suffer.

"Heh, suit." He can't help pointing out that pun when she takes his arm, giving it a gentlemanly pat before he starts to stride toward the elevator and takes it down to the bottom floor.

He pulls the certificate out of his jacket when they start to walk out of the building, giving it an appraising look before glancing at Clem and breaking character.

"We gonna take a cab or walk there? Because my heart says exercise but my legs say sit your ass down."

Hell hath no fury like an 11 year old

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