#i threw caesar in there with fish since we talked about him maybe fielding some angsty questions to HER too. hope that's good by you!!

[andessence]

@imprvdente // starter call. 

The tour has been a bittersweet affair, to put it lightly. The rush, the celebration, and Katniss, on his arm, tucked against his side, threading her fingers with his, loving him… But the love isn’t real. He knows that now, and wishes he didn’t. The celebration is just as false in many of the Districts they visit; the quiet, drawn faces of the crowds, so full of hate for the two of them, remind him inescapably that their living meant so many other deaths. As if the nightmares, or the numb, unfeeling prosthetic where his leg used to be, would ever let him forget it. Putting on a smile for them seems such a violence… 

Returning to the Capitol for another interview as the Victory Tour winds down is similarly fraught. It is a relief to be back among faces that congratulate his living, not condemn it, but he can only be a spectacle here. These are not his equals. He may be first class among the Districts now, but he will always be worth less than any Capitol citizen. He stands in the no man’s land between the two now, he and Katniss both, and alone. But maybe not irrevocably. 

This interview is for the cameras, of course, and it’s Caesar that sits across from him, but with another — the victor that’s worked her way to the host’s seat: Fish. Perhaps another victor is the only one capable offering him an insight into his new position. Does she feel at home in the Capitol, truly? Or is the estrangement just easier to bear here than in her own Districts, where she is reviled? Could Peeta achieve the same? Does he want to? 

“Glad to be here with you,” he starts, welcoming the swell of applause as he takes his own seat and waves to the studio audience, “all of you. I feel a little outnumbered between the two of you. You know, the ride to the studio’s the longest I’ve been without Katniss in months. We’ll see how long I last.” His smile is conspiratorial, the banter, an invitation to his hosts — an agreement to put on a good show.