thecapitol | At long last someone comes... not quite home.

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At long last someone comes... not quite home.

Who| Peeta Mellark and OPEN
What| Peeta's been held in questioning for a few months, and now he gets to be around people again.
Where| Around the training center/tribute tower
When| After his release
Warnings/Notes| Nothing from Peeta, but who knows who he'll run into!

Sunlight. It was such a beautiful thing, something you didn't think you would miss until it was gone. Peeta may be a baker's son, but he did enjoy being outdoors. Not as much as Katniss, of course, but no one wanted to sit in a room with the only entertainment being a deck of cards. Countless card houses, countless card castles had been made, and he thought about starting up a tally when someone came in and said he was free to go.

Whatever it was, he passed, and he didn't question it. Not right then. It was something to be questioned privately, and not in full view of everyone else. Things had changed around here. And Peeta, too. He'd changed. He was supposed to be a mentor now. It made him cringe a little to think that he had left all of these new District Twelve tributes with Haymitch and Katniss... Katniss. He missed her. Did she miss him as much as he had her? A silly little hope. Maybe the whole "star crossed lovers" thing had died down? It would be nice to not have to pretend so much.

That's what he was thinking when he walked into the training center. He could already tell people were recognizing him; they'd started to recognize him on the street as well. He'd given them all a wave and a smile, and continued on his way. He was expecting cameras and news crews and whatever else they did here, and hoping that they never showed up. He wanted time to walk around, perhaps see the new people here.

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She wrinkled her nose, her and Sandy had been doing research in the library and so she had read about the 74th Hunger Games and so she knew that Peeta, she assumed it was the same one, had won because he and Katniss had been in love and so they had both won instead of just one of them.

Which seemed really stupid. "Do you be liking it here then?"

It was really stupid. And dangerous. Which is why he said, as brightly as possible:

"I love it here! The food's pretty prime, isn't it? You can't get anything like that back home."

"It do be being amazing." The food anyways, she had noticed that that was the best thing anyone could say about this city. "I did be having ice cream yesterday, we do no be having that where I do be coming from."

It had to be the best thing about the Capitol, at least to anyone from the districts. And maybe it was the safest thing to say to everyone, here, along with commenting about how nice the clothes were. But even then, the clothes were sometimes too crazy to say even that.

"You didn't have ice cream back home? That's one of the best things here, all the ice cream you want," Peeta grinned. "My favorite is the hot chocolate. I'd never had it before until I came here."

"No we did no be having it." She grinned, she liked that idea. Of all the ice cream she could eat.

"What do hot chocolate be being?"

All the ice cream. Peeta pretended to be in a state of shock, gasping loudly and holding a hand over his heart.

"You've never had hot chocolate before?" He said in horror, waving for her to follow him as he went over to one of the Capitol attendants. Thank goodness, it wasn't someone he knew.

"Could we have two hot chocolates, please?" He smiled, watching as the attendant gave a bow and hurried to go get it. Peeta turned back to the nameless girl. "It's a really delicious drink. You'll like it, I promise."

She blinked, still not used to this. That people would just bring her food whenever she asked for it, it was a very strange thing indeed.

"Thank you." She gave a tiny bow as the attendant came back with two mugs. She looked at her own suspiciously.

It was tough to get used to at first. Peeta still preferred using the little mouthpiece thing that could send food right to your room, rather then the attendants. But sometimes you had to. When he got his own mug, he blew on it a little.

"It's going to be really hot, so be careful with it. But I promise, you'll love it."

That was even stranger, that was magic food. She didn't trust magically appearing food. She copied him in blowing on the mug and waited for it to cool down before sticking her tongue in. First there was just the overwhelming of hot and pain before the taste actually registered.

Then her eyes widened, and she grinned taking a swallow and half choking because it was still too hot.

Inpatient children and hot chocolate are a dangerous combination.

It wasn't the strangest thing here, but it was definitely on the top five of the list, give or take. Peete blew on his cup, taking a small sip. It was still pretty hot, so while he waited, the girl seemed to realize what it was.

"Hey, take it slow! It's not going anywhere, and it'll taste better if your mouth isn't burned out," Peeta smiled, but there was a sudden sadness in his eyes. Not everyone back home knew when their next meal would be; he'd eaten his first Capitol meal in five minutes, because he had never had anything like it. So much food here.

She glared at the mug like it was it's fault for hurting her and put it down while she waited. It was hard though.

She had never been starved before, at least not for more than a couple of days, but food had always been given as a reward and the idea of being given food just because she wanted it was completely alien to her.

"I do be liking that."

"It really is good, isn't it," Peeta smiled, and he went to take a seat at one of the tables, pulling out two chairs in case she wanted to take the other.

"I know how weird it is, with everything. You can have whatever food you want, anytime. Just tell someone. Or press a button. We don't have that back home, and you... you don't either, right?"

She moved over carefully so not to spill the drink. "No we do no be having that." She wrinkled her nose, "Well we do be sort of having that, in inns and things. I did be working in one so people did be asking for food or drink and I did be taking it but they did be having to be paying for it."

And they didn't have magic food buttons.

"That makes sense," Peeta nodded, setting his mug carefully down on the table. "We have that back home. My parents run a bakery back in District Twelve, and people have to pay for bread and the like. But here... I think the citizens have to pay for it, in some way. But since we're more like guests, we don't have to."

A bakery, she wrinkled her nose. She had a entirely irrational dislike for bakers, as their shops were always the most guarded and they chased hungry looking children away on principle, even if said hungry little children were on errands for their guardians.

"I do be thinking they do be having a lot of money then."

"The Capitol citizens?" Peeta asked curiously, before answering his own question. "I assume so! I mean, look at this place. The Capitol treats it's citizens well." And really, it's citizens were taken care of. It would have been different if he said Panem treated their citizens well, but the Capitol citizens and those in the districts were very, very different.

"It do be, they do all be living like nobles." She said wrinkling her nose and reaching for her hot chocolate again.

"I haven't heard anyone say that before, but that's right. They do all live like royalty, here," Peeta smiled, picking up his own mug and taking another sip. "If you win the games, you get to live like royalty, too. Back home, we got new houses, and clothes, and plenty of food. It's good to be a Victor."

Pruna nodded at that but wrinkled her nose, "But they will no be letting me go home... if I do be winning."

"No, they won't," Peeta agreed. "But you get to live like royalty here. And you'll never have to play in the games again."

Pruna picked up her mug and stared into it, for a moment looking every bit as young as she was. "But I do no be wanting to live like royalty, I do just be wanting to be seeing my sister again."

Peeta nodded, looking down into his cup. "I know. I'm sorry. Maybe she'll show up here, or maybe... maybe at some point, everyone will get to go home, and they'll go back to how the games used to be. But for now, I'll do whatever I can to help you."

"If she did then we would be beating everybody." She said taking another sip of her drink, "She would be having a good idea to be getting home."

Peeta laughed. "Would she? She sounds like a spitfire. You know what, I don't even know her, but I would bet on her to win."

"You would be winning everyone's money then because she would be winning first time." Pruna would help her of course, but her sister had much better plans then Pruna even if Pruna was better at killing.

At long last someone comes... not quite home.

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