A helicopter arrived to take them out of the arena. They climbed aboard and watched as the arena slowly came out of their sight. Simon and Bram were taken to different rooms so they could be checked out. They replaced Simon's hearing aid with a newer model.
Once the doctors left the room, Cole entered the room. "Well that was unexpected," Cole said.
"What?" Simon asked. "Me winning or what I did to win?"
"Both," Cole said. "But I'm proud of both of you. The capital isn't happy that you defied their will, so you're going to have to do a lot of convincing. Make them think you two are really in love, and this wasn't to respark the rebellion."
"I wasn't trying to restart the rebellion," Simon said. "We chose to die instead of live without each other."
"Then let everyone know that," Cole said before he also left the room.
That night, Simon and Bram were crowned as the victors by President Spring. She secretly glared at the boys, but they didn't return any emotion. They shared a chair while Cinc interviewed them. "So what brought you two together?" Cinc asked.
"I don't know, it was just destiny," Simon said.
"I guess we just have a connection," Bram said. Simon knew Bram had gotten the memo, so he was upping up the cheesiness by eleven. They held hands and shared longing looks during the interview. They brought up Leah, Abby, and Nick a few times while promising to help their families.
After the interview, Bram stopped Simon backstage. "I'm going to be honest with you," Bram said. "I didn't lie about anything I said on that stage. I can really see a life with you. So I was wondering if you wanted to begin a relationship. There are ways we can make the long-distance thing work, and we have the victory tour to look forward to."
"Of course," Simon whispered. Bram then pulled Simon in for a kiss. It was their first private kiss they had ever shared. At that moment, Simon knew what Bram's real agenda was.
The next morning, they traveled to district seven. They smiled at the crowd as Bram was welcomed home. This was Simon's first time seeing district seven. It seemed to be more well off than district twelve, but not by too much. Once the welcoming ceremony was finished, Bram and Simon kissed goodbye and Simon left for district twelve.
They arrived at district twelve at around six-thirty. Simon walked onto the stage as the crowd clapped. He looked around the crowd and spotted his family. Nora was sitting on their father's shoulders and waving at him. Simon smiled at his family.
As they walked home, they talked about the games. They bombarded him with questions about the arena. Jack even asked what it was like to kill someone, but Alice quickly shot him down. "So you and that boy from district seven," Nora said.
"Yeah, what was that about?" Alice asked. "Was that all an act or are you guys in love?"
"It wasn't an act, and we're going to try a long-distance relationship," Simon explained. His family nods as they arrived at their home. They would move to Victor's Villiage soon, but this place will always have a special place in his heart.
Simon went to his room and flopped onto his bed. He stared at the ceiling and smiled, thinking his war was finally over.