thecapitol | the kids aren't alright ( closed )

WHO| beth and joel
WHAT| joel does what overprotective dads do best: getting the shotgun
WHEN| some time after jason's migraine log
WHERE| beth's room, D7 suite
WARNINGS| tbd

Beth's pretty sure that Charlie is perfect. Sure, there are all the usual problems of having a brand new puppy, but he's still perfect. He sleeps curled up next to her in bed, and the tiny warmth of him and his little fluttering breaths goes a long way towards making Beth feel safe for the time being. She loves it when he licks her nose or snuffles around her face like he's giving her kisses, it's like an old childhood dream reborn.

That's what she's doing when Joel knocks. Teaching him tricks - or trying, at least. The efforts to make him roll over don't get very far when he's jumping up into her arms every two seconds. But as soon as he knocks on the door, Charlie goes kind of crazy, running in circles and barking his little head off.

"Shh, it's alright," she tells him, moving over to open the door. Figuring it's probably Daryl checking on her again. Her eyes widen perceptibly in surprise when she realizes that it's Joel. Mostly because she figured he thought she was an annoyance, a persistent figure who wouldn't leave him alone.

"Oh. Hi. Do you wanna come in?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Rumors are just part of being in the Capitol. Someone's always talking about someone else, whether out in the open, harmlessly, or more quiet, in the shadows, suggesting things worse than who's sleeping with whom or who was out in public drunk off their ass.

Mostly, Joel ignores them. They're stupid, and gossip tends only to lead to trouble. People can say whatever they want about him, anyway, he doesn't give a shit.

But sometimes he overhears things that disturb him - usually concerning the younger people he's taken it upon himself to look out for. The most disturbing rumor he's heard in a long time involves Beth, of all people, and none other than resident, grade A asshole, Jason Compson. That's what has him at her door today, a frown on his face, even at the sight of the puppy bounding around happily in her room.

"Might be a good idea," he mutters, glancing briefly over his shoulder. "I need to talk to you."

Lecture time, young lady.

Uh-oh. He looks serious - which, at first glance might not mean much because Joel's always serious, but this is on a whole new level. She holds the door open for him so he can step into her room, which is technically like every other tribute's room except Beth's tried her damn hardest to make it her own. Just like she did with her little prison cell back home. The small piano is the most prominent feature, tucked against a wall. Charlie's soft bed and toys are against another. There are pictures of things she thought were pretty on the walls and cowboy boots in her closet. Like it would be possible to forget where she is, just for a moment, and be back in her old bedroom.

"Is there something wrong?" she pulls out the piano bench for him to sit on, or he can choose the edge of her bed if he likes, it doesn't really matter.

The piano bench it is. Joel perches on it, glancing down as the puppy sniffs at his shoes. He gives it a friendly scritch behind the ears - he likes dogs. Dogs love you unconditionally, they never talk back and they're loyal to the death.

"Look," he says, and he levels his gaze at her. "You can do what you want with your time, and spend it with whoever you want, but you're a nice kid and I don't want to see you gettin' in over your head."

People who are nice to her dog are automatically good in her book, and Charlie seems to like him given the way he's attempting to crawl up Joel's leg and into his lap for snuggles.

"Wait, what are you talkin' about?" the vast majority of her time is spent with her surrogate family, and she tries not to pay too much attention to the rumors where she can help it.

Dogs do tend to like Joel. He never mistreats things that are littler than him. Unlike some people he knows.

"That asshole, Jason Compson," he says bluntly. "You been hangin' around him?"

He's not going to assume - rumors are notoriously unreliable, after all, and if she denies it he'll accept her word.

"Y'know, I'm pretty sure 'hangin' around' is dad-speak for dating. Are there rumors? Because they ain't true, anyway," she's seen how the Capitol makes a big deal out of nothing. It's just...giving her a lot of old nostalgia, because she's had this conversation before with her old father. A couple of times. You've been spending a lot of time with Jimmy, he'd say, and she'd smile tentatively back at him.

"I didn't say anything about dating," Joel says gruffly. If she was, that'd be a whole 'nother kettle of fish, since he knows very well Jason and Swann are a thing - he wouldn't know that except that Swann is his escort and Jason has been spending a lot of time hanging around the district 8 suite - enough for Joel to get the measure of him, anyway.

Which is why he's here.

"I just don't want you gettin' into trouble, and Jason is big, big trouble," he continues. "The kinda guy who'll beat the shit out of you for lookin' at him the wrong way, and then you'd get blamed for it afterwards cause that's how this place works."

She knows he's abrasive and arrogant and incredibly rude, but apparently he's been giving off a whole other impression towards other tributes. Which is concerning, because Beth doesn't consider herself naive, she just wants to be able to believe the best in people even when she's told that's foolish.

Maybe that's a habit best left behind. Maybe it'd be smarter. The idea's hard to stomach.

"I don't talk to him that much. He makes me go to these sponsorship things and he sends me stuff in the arena, but that's it," usually with rude notes like stop fucking sharing, like that would stop her. "Are you...you're trying to look out for me, aren't you?"

"Well, that's good," he says, shaking his head. "Just - I know he's one of your escorts but... keep your distance. Someone was sayin' somethin' the other day about you goin' to his house?"

Of course he's looking out for her. Psh.

"He was having a bad migraine and I drove him home. Are they really talkin' about that? I stopped listening a while back," ever since someone started rumors about her and Rick being a thing, which is almost horrendous enough to make her want to vomit.

The puppy really, really wants to get up on Joel's lap apparently, so after a couple minutes of watching him struggle, Beth walks over and picks him up, placing him down on the piano bench so he can clamor all over Joel. "Looks like he really likes you."

"People talk about everything around here," Joel points out, lifting the puppy into his lap dutifully. Very soon, a very happy puppy is getting a tummy rub.

"What's his name?"

That's true. People are probably already making up rumors about this particular visit at the moment, and she's really only just learned to train herself not to care. "I'm pretty sure he's way too old for me, anyway. My daddy, he'd probably be really disappointed in me,"

She's trying to get herself to talk about him a little more, these days. Trying to get to a point where mentioning him doesn't make her want to shut down. She pushes aside the sad little smile that appears on her face and steps forward so she can rub the puppy's belly too.

"His name's Charlie. And he's spoiled rotten."

"The problem ain't that he's older'n you," Joel points out. "It's that he's an asshole who likes hurtin' people."

He finds a spot that makes Charlie's leg twitch in pleasure, and smiles a little. "Good boy."

the kids aren't alright ( closed )

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