thecapitol | Fake it till you make it [closed]

Who| Clementine and Aang
What| Clem and Aang make plans for joining the fake relationship crowd
Where| A blindspot in the city
When| Post-Crowning
Warnings/Notes| sickening cuteness

To say that this idea hadn't been forming in Clem's head for a while now would be a lie. She knows others have done it and more importantly she knows it works in the eyes of the Capitol and sponsors. If they can do it, why can't she and Aang? Especially with all the fuss the media already makes about the two of them together.

It's easy enough to get Aang to come with her to the blindspot, which she'd actually be excited enough to show him without any other ulterior motive. Somewhere to talk where the Capitol can't spy on them? Jackpot!

He's probably wondering why she takes him into the grubby little alleyway, at odds with the shining buildings outside and Clem's all pumped up to spill the beans, spinning and grinning at him as soon as she's sure they're safe. "This," she announces with a certain grand air, "is a blindspot."

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At this point, Aang is quite happy just going along with what Clementine wants to do. She always seems to be up to something fun or interesting, so he hasn't regretted doing it before.

He's confused, but not put off by their relatively deteriorated surroundings. He perks when she finally tells him what the significance is--and he pauses. "Blindspot?" He cautiously glances around, perking his ears for the sound of people coming after them. But now, they're alone. "You mean... no one can see us?"

He deliberately words it vaguely. He doesn't want the cameras to see him hoping for their departure if she's just talking about how no one can hear them in person. Does she mean there's no one there, or that there's no surveillance there?

Clementine nods enthusiastically as soon as Aang says it, "That's right, there's no cameras or anything here. My friend told me we can come here and say whatever we want and the Capitol won't even know about it!"

Maybe she's a little too excited to enjoy that. "Stuff like... they're a bunch of evil jerks and... and their games suck." there, that's telling them. "There's lots of them apparently."

"And... and it should all just stop and anyone who thinks it's fun to make people kill each other for cameras is horrible!" He can speak freely. This is amazing!

He laughs. It's beautiful, like a weight he has long gotten used to is being lifted from his chest. "And I hope that the rebellion they're so scared of sweeps in and stops them from hurting anyone ever again!" He laughs again, because he doesn't have to look over his shoulder for any Peacekeepers or feel the sinking in his stomach he always did when he said something bad in front of cameras, and he leaps forward to give Clementine a tight hug. "This is great!"

"Right!" Clementine nods enthusiastically in agreement, "The rebellion's going to make thempay for it and they'll deserve it!" every bad thing that's coming to them they deserve.

She's laughing too, right with Aang, just keeping her voice down enough that it won't carry out of the alley. There may not be microphones but there could still be people nearby who could overhear. Clementine squeaks when he hugs her, before throwing her arms back around Aang to return it. "It's amazing! I'm so sick of having to be careful all the time!"

"Yeah, I hate it! I hate having to watch what we say all the time and make it look like we think this is okay and that these horrible things they do to us are fun..."

He rests his chin on her shoulder and her hair brushes against his cheek. Then he pulls away just enough to see her face, expression beginning to get serious. "Did you show me this place so I could know about it, or do you need to say something that they can't hear?"

The question breaks Clementine out of her giddy joy, reminding her of the plan at hand. "Um, kind of both?" she admits to Aang. It was only fair she shared this knowledge with her friends but at the same time she wanted to an opportunity to hopefully improve both their fortunes. "I had an idea."

Okay so maybe this is going to be a little hard to say but she can do it. It's only going to be for pretend. "Do you remember the stuff they said about us in Celebrus?"

"You mean that we..." He finds himself beginning to blush. They haven't really spoken about this before. "Like each other, you mean?"

He has no idea why she'd bring this up, but if she wants to talk about it in a blind spot, it's important, so he can push aside any childish embarrassment he feels for the sake of the matter at hand.

"Um, yeah, that. That they think we're going out or whatever." Yep, she says that totally breezy and casual. Totally. "It got me thinking, maybe we could use that."

Clementine taps her foot on the ground, fingers laced together. "Some of the older Tribute's pretend they're together so that the Capitol people like them more and they'll send them more gifts in the arena."

"Use it? So, you want to..."

Okay, now he's actually blushing. Damn his pale cheeks making it easy to see.

"You want to pretend to date, so they will be nicer to us in the arena?" It's a good idea, he knows it's a good idea, but he still can't help but blush at the thought.

"Yeah." she says, she's blushing a little too. "It makes sense. I mean... they think we are already anyway, so we wouldn't even really have to do anything that different!" Clementine's babbling a little now. "Just hold hands where people can see us, stuff like that, nothing big. It'd help us both."

"Yeah, yeah, nothing big." His ears are burning. "It's a good idea. We should do that. It'd make them like us without us doing something really violent or something."

That's a plus. More sponsors, easier survival, and they wouldn't have to hurt anyone for it. They could just... hold hands.

"I, uh, haven't even done relationships for real before, so I'm not sure how good I'll be at faking it." Just hold hands? Maybe do cute things? He's not sure how this is supposed to work.

"Me neither. I never even thought about it before." It's a little disappointing, she was hoping Aang would know more than she did. "I think we can do it though, these people will believe anything."

It's probably not true but her general impression of Capitolites has led her to think that way. All they cared about was stuff like relationships and who was doing what with who. The fact that they so readily believed stuff was true without anyone even trying made that obvious.

"Well, I've thought about it before. Once. There was a girl. She didn't really feel the same way, though." Oh no, why did he just say that? No matter, it's okay, it's fine. Not like Clementine knows Katara.

"Yeah, you're right. They'll believe us. They don't really think too hard about the things they hear." He has a low opinion of the Capitol's general intelligence, even though he knows that the people in the government are smart enough that he should be careful.

"Oh, that... I'm sorry she didn't feel the same way." Clementine says after a moment, giving Aang the only reply she could think of. She wonders what the girl was like that she didn't return his feelings.

She bobs her head in agreement, "We might have to fool our friends too, just a little until we can tell them like this."

"It's okay. I'm over it now." It has, after all, been eight months since he last saw her. He'd hope he's over it by now.

"You mean lie to them?" He has to think about it. "That should be okay. I don't think they'd care, really. A bunch of the adults do it."

Fake it till you make it [closed]

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