thecapitol | New kind of victory.

The happiness to be home radiated from Katniss, as well.

She was friendly, more open than anyone had seen her. Moving between familiar faces, she was almost chatty. Almost.

Moving up to Peeta's side, she handed him a heavy mug, full of warm apple cider.

"Hey."

It had been good to see his friends from before. They had gotten to him as soon as that train door opened (okay, not really then, but when he was free), and they grilled him about the Capitol and the games, and the new tributes. A lot of the younger ones wanted to know what it was like there, while some of the older wanted a different kind of information.

Peeta was glad to give it all, promising they'd talk after school, or work. Being in the bakery had been the most relaxing thing he'd done in awhile, and it felt good, to see what he'd done, out on the tables for everyone to enjoy.

He turns a little, taking the mug gratefully with a smile.

"Hey."

"It's nice, to be home." She says, settling next to him, and looking out over the crowd of, for once, almost uniformly friendly faces. Even if she didn't know the person, she had seen them her whole life.

Saying that it was nice was of course pointless. But it felt good to say it. To feel comfortable for the first time, in a long time. Like the feeling of one of Cinna's corsets being unlaced, but one that reached out through her entire body.

"Really nice." Peeta agreed. Sure, it was pointless to say it, and to agree with it, but it was nice. They said that you didn't know you had a good thing until it was gone, but that was a stupid thing to say. Maybe life in District 12 was tough, but it was better then the Capitol.

"I'm sorry I haven't seen you that much since we got here." Peeta held up his free hand. "Not that I didn't want to! I just got a little sidetracked with everyone." Lots of people to talk to. Family things.

"How's your mom and everyone?" He can't say cousins. It just wasn't right, not here.

"Don't worry about it. I haven't had much time, either."

Being home, Katniss felt like she hadn't had time to breath, but for once, in a good way. Moving around familiar face, visiting with people. Katniss would never have listed herself as a popular person, but the amount of people and things she had been visiting...maybe she should reconsider that.

"They're doing well." He didn't have to mention cousins to know exactly what he meant. Her time with Gale had been strange, but pleasant. There seemed to be an understanding between them, that they just needed to enjoy this time, not discuss things. "My mother is able to run an actual apothecary out of the house again."

It was trying to get it all in. Trying to get in months of not seeing anyone or anything familiar, and putting all your hopes in on a few days. If he was that kind of person, Peeta would think about ways he could get sent back to the district for a time. What was the popular method these days? Some kind of rehab, but at home? Being stashed somewhere until you wised up?

He couldn't do it. That wasn't him. He could lie about secret things, but he couldn't change who he was. And he never wanted to.

"Really? That's great!" There was a desire there, to ask about Gale. It felt like, when he was in the Capitol, in a place that they both could commiserate about, that he knew where he stood when he thought of them. But here, in what was their real lives, he had no idea where he stood. If he stood at all.

"That has to be a relief, right? Your mom is incredible, better then any kind of Capitol doctor. Now she gets to help people with more, and help more people, and--" He cut himself off with a laugh. "Let her know if she ever wants to design a sign that we can put on the outside, that I'm the guy to come to." He grinned. "If she'd like."

"I think she's love that." Katniss said with a wide grin. She wasn't actually sure whether her mother would, or not, but the idea of a little sign, and actual business to keep her mother safe, Prim too if she ever went back, it felt good. Make them a solid, staple of the community, whether she was her or not.

"What about you? How is your family? And everyone else?" Although she had been startled with her own unexpected popularity, she knew Peeta had a much bigger social circle. It didn't really surprise her she hadn't seen much of him. It left a strange sort of loneliness. Coming home before, all she had wanted was to get to their separate lives.

Now it didn't split smoothly like that.

It made them a part of the community; not that they ever weren't. But there was a sense of being a contributing part, instead of just a last resort. She could help people now with enough supplies. Stupid happy for some, but not for anyone here.

"Everyone is doing really well. Dad's glad to have another pair of hands at the ovens." His mom, too, and Peeta grinned without mentioning her. "Delly and her brother were happy to see me. My brothers, too, but they're different." Peeta waved a hand.

"It's been a lot of fun. I feel like I can breathe right again."

"Exactly."

She smiled, clinking her drink against his, before settling against him. It was strange, being here. They couldn't drop the lovers act, obviously. But it was also easier here, to interact the way...well, the way they would if this had happened naturally.

It left that knot of yearning in her that had been growing since the arena. Maybe since before. She would probably have to deal with that soon.

"I should probably get to know your brother's better, all things considered." She wasn't close to Mr. Mellark, but she felt she knew him well enough. And she knew Mrs. Mellark as much as she wanted to. But besides knowing their faces, she knew almost nothing about his brothers.

He took a drink, looking down at the cup for a moment, before back out at the fire. Exactly. It was strange, but good. It made it painfully obvious that this was home. Not that he would ever forget, but what happened after they were there another year? Five years? Twenty?

How long would they have to pretend? Forever. Maybe if they... not the time to think about it. Not here. It was too complicated here.

"I guess so." Peeta laughed at that; he knew more about her family then she his. "They're not really that talkative, just to warn you on that. I don't come from a family of talkers. Hard workers, sure, but not talkers."

She found herself laughing along with him, and was pleasantly surprised at how easy it came. Being here made it easier, but she knew that part of it was him.

"So then where did you get it from?" She teased, raising an eyebrow over the rim of her bottle as she took another drink.

Between the two of them, Peeta was clearly the talker. It wasn't just that he did, it was that he was good at it. He knew what to say, how to say it. If she was honest, it made her jealous. Every time she opened her mouth, she stuck her foot in it.

He grinned, trying for that more suave, being cool thing that some people pulled off so effortlessly. Cool was not one of the traits used to describe him usually. Not like someone who was his opposite.

"Me? From my dad, of course." His dad wasn't much of a talker, of course. But in letting Peeta do most of the talking, it gave him a chance to be a sounding board.

Needless to say, if Peeta was close to anyone in his family, it was his father.

"Your dad's a huge chatter box, for sure." She said, not picking up on what he meant. The idea of working in unison with parents...it was still something foreign to Katniss, even with things improving between her and her mother.

She looked up at him, studying his face caught in the light from the bon fires, before tilting her head to the door.

"You want to go walk?"

A huge chatterbox, and Peeta had to grin at that. It was in subtle gestures, when it came to his father. His mother didn't do subtle. Maybe Peeta got a little bit of both from them.

Glancing back at her after being distracted by the fires, he looked surprise for a moment. It settled into pleased very quickly.

"Sure. I'm sure they won't miss us for awhile." He gestured for her to go first. He would always follow her.

She took his hand, tugging him out to the cool night air. It was a relief to get away from so many people. even if these were a more desirable lot than any given Capitol party, Katniss could only handle so much.

Moving away from crowd, she headed toward the meadow, not dropping Peeta's hand as the went. At the moment, she hadn't even realized it.

"I don't want to go back. I can't say running hasn't been on my mind, even still." She huffed, shaking her head. "Which is probably why they have been very vigilant about keeping the fences powered, I'd imagine."

Sure, Katniss. Sure, they could start running. Peeta would follow her anywhere, anywhere they went, it didn't matter where. But he knew that they couldn't do it. That they'd never be able to do it. And not just because of the logistical problems.

He didn't know what it was, it was just a feeling. A feeling that it would never happen. His grip tightened on her hand, just a bit.

"I wonder what they're doing in the other districts." Peeta mused out loud, looking at the darkened streets, the further they got away from the bonfires. "I don't really want to go back, either. Maybe they'll have the fence go back to normal once we leave."

"Maybe. Gale says it's been on more regularly, though."

It came so naturally to mention Gale, it wasn't till it was out of her mouth that she started doubting it. But what else was she suppose to say? Peeta wouldn't appreciate her being strange and vague.

Still, she moved on quickly.

"Trying to make them look less miserable then they are in a variety of creative ways, I'd bet." She snorted, looking down at the rough, uneven ground under their feet. The meadow, in summer, could pass for beautiful. In winter, it was just sad. Still, nice to get some fresh air. Some quiet, fresh air.

"He would know." Gale would know, and jealousy plagues him again, for a moment. When they were in the Capitol, it felt... it felt real. So real that he felt it was real. But when they were back in the districts, they were just Peeta or Katniss. Not Peeta and Katniss.

"We already know how good they are at making something fake look real. The trees that they have in the Victor's Village, you've seen that a lot of them are fake, right? But you wouldn't know, unless you were looking." Peeta sighed. "I guess... one night is better then no nights."

Tension crept into her as she picked up the jealousy in his voice, but luckily, as he always did, he soothed it over well.

Sometimes she felt like half of their conversations were her stepping into it, and him pulling her out. Red flamed up in her cheeks as she though about that, embarrassment flicker momentarily to anger, but she pushed it down.

"They're not the only thing that's fake there. In the whole village, really. I'm sure they get it exactly how they want."

He couldn't help it sometimes. Peeta was only human, and when it showed through, really showed through... being human wasn't a bad thing. But in the Capitol, being human was bad. It said something, that he could relax enough with Katniss, no matter where they were, that he could be a real human around her.

Still made him sound pissy, though. "At least the houses aren't fake." He paused. "Though, we haven't been in all of the other houses. There's still that one all the way down that has no one in it. It could be one of those fake storefront things."

"That's a creepy thought."

But not unrealistic. She could see the Capitol building in fake houses for potential victors. A reward, a carrot hung in front of the noses of those in the District.

For all she knew, they had been fake until recently.

"The Capitol. Where nothing is guaranteed to be real until you touch it." She snorted as another thought crossed her mind, one she didn't think Peeta would have picked up on. "And who even knows then."

Peeta laughed. "Now there's a good game to play in the Capitol. Real or not real. I think the not real is the most picked for... anything, really."

Everything in the Capitol could be real, not real, or sort of real. If by sort of you mean looks real, feels real, but is not real. Wasn't that simple phrase enough to encompass a lot of things?

He shook his head. "Let's not pitch our new game anywhere."

"That sounds like a terrible game."

Nothing felt real there. Not to her. The things she'd put in the real category; Peeta, Cinna, the others she had connected with...those things we're apart from the Capitol in her mind.

"Even if we go hungry here...I'd rather be here. Rather be myself."

New kind of victory.

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I couldn't resist I'm sorry

beautiful.