thecapitol | Be our guest

Who| Samuel and Clara
What| Sam tries to cheer Clara up a litte with a nice dinner
Where| d8 kitchen
When| april 14th
Warnings/Notes| Hella fluffy

Sam couldn't help everyone. For a guy like him, that had been a hard, hard lesson to learn but eventually he did on some level accept that he couldn't actually fix most things that were wrong in this shitfest of a society.

Didn't mean he couldn't still do what he could. So that's what he did. Random acts of kindness became his way of fighting what could not be fought, and he knew that it probably wasn't much but if he could earn just one smile from someone it was still worth it.

He'd recognised something in Clara when he met her at the coronation. That same defeated sadness that had been within himself when he'd hit rock bottom, and he didn't want anyone to end up where he had because that was such a dark and lonely place, and while he had come out of it stronger and wiser than he had been before, it would have been so much easier to just lay down and die. It would have felt like mercy.

So he decided to invite Clara to dinner, cook her something nice like he did for his family back in the district and just give her a pleasant evening.

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Clara had almost declined his invitation. It wouldn't have been a slight against him or anything like that, it would have been because she wasn't ready to deal with that level of social interaction yet. It was already hard enough to drag herself out to her meetings and various social outings to engage sponsors for District 10, and she was expected to attend those.

Clara doesn't know his reasons for inviting her, and can't even figure out why she accepts. When she shows up on District 8's floor, she looks a little bit more put together than she's been when she's around D10. Her makeup is minimal and is pretty much there to hide the tired, teetering-on-the-edge look that's taken over her face since Alex's death, and she's wearing a dark grey sweater and jeans (that she tries to ignore is very close to the same type of clothing she wore in the days after the bombing) that weren't just laying on her floor. She has a bottle of wine that she actually ventured out of the tower to get. All she has to do, once she steps out onto D8's floor, is follow her nose towards the kitchen. "Whatever you're making smells wonderful," she says as she places the bottle of wine on the counter.

Sam is dressed simply in a pair of worn jeans and a white shirt, the sleeves currently rolled up to make it easier to cook, revealing some of the tattoos that cover most of his body apart from his face.

He greets her with a friendly kiss on the cheek and a warm smile, glad that she decided to come.

"You look beautiful."

He's not just saying that to make her feel better, he really means it.

"I'm making chili, actually. Felt suitably comfort-food like."

Clara's well aware that she has a long way to go before she starts feeling anything resembling normal again (and that, really, she may never get to that point, even if she somehow finds a way back home and finds Alex there), but sharing a meal with someone who has definite potential of becoming a close friend makes her feel a little bit more like the woman she was before being brought to Panem.

She scoffs a little bit at the compliment. Whether he means it or not, she still feels worn down and tired, like her best days are solidly behind her, though it's still nice to hear. Though, somehow, finding out what the food is puts her more at ease than his kind words. "I haven't had chili in months," she says with a smile, trying not to think about the fact that the last time she had it was a few weeks before she was brought here because David asked her to make it. "Is it a family recipe?"

"It's an adaptation of one. We didn't really have much by way of ingredients when I was a kid. Well, before I became a Victor."

And then everything changed, but she knows a bit about that herself, doesn't she?

"It has been simmering for about half a century so it should be about ready to eat. I've got some bread in the oven too, it'll be done in a minute or so."

"Oh?" It's one of those things that rarely comes up in the Capitol, how little the people who live in the Districts actually have. She's tempted to poke a little bit and get more, and for once she does. "What kind of ingredients did you have, if you don't mind my asking?" She figures that gives him enough of an out if he wants to take it.

"Well-simmered chili and home-made bread? You definitely know how to spoil a girl," she teases with a warm smile. In any other situation she'd probably be joking, but the truth is that she hasn't had food like this in ages and it all sounds too good to verbalize.

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