He wants more than anything to be able to exhaustedly drop his guard and settle into the state of ease she’s trying to coax him into. But he feels like he’s listening to a politician’s campaign speech and it’s all he can do just to smile and nod like a good citizen of the Capitol is expected to. They all have their roles to play.

“I'll keep that in mind.” He says, before stepping out. “You have a good day now.”

Fresh food in abundance, hot showers, and beds (!) that were warm and clean and devoid of springs jabbing his ribs or ass depending on how he lay down on them -- these were luxuries he and Nick and Clem had long since gone without. Luxuries so dangerously easy to wallow in, to become all too comfortable around. But this isn’t where they belong.

Better the hell they knew well, he thinks, than the sad parody of a normal life they were offered here between brutal death matches.