Author's note: this is at present unbetaed. I'm testing the waters for this type of fic. Comments are appreciated.
This is canon divergent - the main detail changed is that Katniss and Peeta won the 72nd Hunger Games, as opposed to the 74th. The events of the books still happen - just far more slowly.
"The victors of the 72nd Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark!"
As we're presented to District 11, my hands shake as I hold the cue cards Effie has written out in precise yet flowing script. I want to throw caution to the wind, speak from the heart, incite the very rebellion that Snow wishes me to quell. But something tells me that that would end so very badly.
Instead I read from the cards. Peeta and I thank District 11 for their courtesy and recite various praises to the Capitol that feel hollow in my mouth.
I only slip away from what I'm expected to say when it comes time to remember the District 11 tributes. Instead of blankly murmuring something in memorial, I allow myself a few words to remember what they did for me.
"I didn't know Thresh, but the time that I spoke to him, he spared me my life, which is a debt that I could never repay to him. I did, however, know Rue. She was my friend. I see her in the birds that fly in the trees of District 12. I see her in the children in the schoolyard. I see her in my sister, Prim. And I wish that she could be here too." I am only cut off by a light squeeze of Peeta's hand – I hadn't even noticed that he was holding mine.
He cuts back to the conclusion as we were told to deliver it: "Panem today. Panem tomorrow. Panem forever."
The applause is scattered and empty. I didn't want it anyway.
The rest of the victory tour happens in a blur of Up, up, up!s from Effie, speeches read from cue cards, and dinners throughout all of Panem. Districts are quiet, varying in emotion from quiet mourning of their own tributes, to outright anger at us. But despite Snow's words to me before the tour, despite whispers of impending rebellion, the Districts show no signs of anything but angry complacency with the norm.
District 7 reminded me of the woods outside 12. But then we meet Johanna Mason – she won the 71st Hunger Games – and all resemblance between the districts is gone. She's smaller than she looked in the coverage of the Games and the Victory Tour last year, and even more sullen than she was in interviews. I'm not surprised.
In District 5, we say a few words about Foxface's intelligence and skills – how they were admirable. And we learn that her name was Finch. The district's population is remarkably small – almost as small as District 12 – and many of them are frighteningly pale.
District 4 is entered by a quite long bridge, over what seem to be endless miles of water, more than I've ever seen before. We're taken on a tour of a beach and we meet a few of their past victors. I've always been told that District 4 is a Career district, but their Victors are younger than the Victors of 1 and 2. It doesn't seem like their organisation of Careers is as in-depth as in the other Career districts.
It feels like we've been on the train for an eternity yet only a moment when we arrive in the Capitol – to fanfare, to parties, to interviews and costumes and make-up that the Victory Tour couldn't hope to match up to.
At the final party, I meet Plutarch Heavensbee – the new Head Gamemaker. It takes me a moment to place him before I startle and stop in the middle of the dance floor. "You fell in the punch bowl!"
He laughs and keeps me moving. "We should have been able to tell then and there that it was going to be a tense Games to the last minute." We return to uncomfortable silence until the song ends, at which point, he checks his pocketwatch. I see an elaborate mockingjay design carved into the lid. "It's quite the fashion statement, you know."
"What is?"
Plutarch grins. "Your mockingjay. It's everywhere this year." He closes the lid of the watch. "And now I must be off." Seeing my confused expression – it's eleven at night, but Capitol parties can continue close to the morning – he winks, and whispers, "Secret Gamemaker business."
Oh.
Peeta finds me quickly and the night continues in its haze of dancing and photos and overly made up faces. At one point, Effie finds us, and we're soon following her metallic gold wig to the waiting train. Back to District 12.
We arrive early in the morning but are not needed until midday. As we won the Hunger Games, the responsibility of running the Harvest Festival falls to the Capitol rather than the district. Capitol citizens being Capitol citizens, they don't start the preparations until nearly ten. But tonight, every person in the District will be going to bed with a full belly. It almost makes the whole tour seem worth it.
We return to our houses in the Victors' Village for a few hours, until our prep teams arrive at twelve to prepare us for the final televised part of the Tour. Peeta's parents, as well as my mother and Prim, are also made up for their own interviews. Normally, only parents are interviewed, but after half the Capitol fell in love with Prim during my own Games, she's more of the star of the show than I am. And unlike me, she can actually handle it.
My mother gets asked about my supposed relationship with Peeta. To her credit, her response is to glare slightly at him, and to say, "I think Katniss is too young for any sort of relationship!" There's still a camera on Peeta and I, but I take that opportunity to let go of his hand and move away from him.
When Prim is asked the same question, she looks at our mother and pointedly says nothing. The rest of the questions directed at her are more about my dresses and living in the Victors' Village, but she performs well – she's a natural on camera.
With the interviews done, the Harvest Festival commences. Peeta and I have to draw the Victory Tour to a close together, but after that, we are done. And I don't need to keep up the act until the next Hunger Games. Even though I know that for Peeta, it was never an act.