1. Don't upset the reporters.

District Twelve. Interviews

"Why did your sister volunteer for you?"

Lucy took a deep breath and tried to be brave like Peter had told her.

Edmund cut in before she could answer. "What kind of a question is that? Lucy's her little sister. Of course she volunteered."

"Edmund!" Lucy scolded. Peter said it was very important that they not upset the people from the Capital. "Susan is very brave. She and Peter have been looking out for us ever since our parents died." Her lip trembled. "Caspian helped when he could."

The reporter looked uncomfortable. She gestured for the cameraman to swing his equipment around to capture Peter. He was still covered in coal dust from working, but the cameras kept swinging back towards him anyway. Lucy wondered if it was for the same reason some of the girls giggled when they saw him passing on the street. "Well, if she wins, you'll be able to hire people to take over the childcare for you. What will you do with the new free time?"

Peter got the look on his face that he normally got when trying to resist the urge to start a brawl in the street. "We're a family," he said shortly. "We don't mind looking after each other."

Edmund did what he normally did when Peter got that look. He intervened. "He says that now, but you should have seen him the time I dumped snow on his head right when he was about to kiss Alice Longtree. I've never seen his face so red in my life. Susan kept trying to scold me, but she kept breaking down and laughing halfway into her speech."

The cameras, sensing a good story, went to Edmund. Peter collected himself and tried to smile reassuringly at Lucy.

She gave him a worried smile right back and let her eyes drift back to the constantly playing television.

(Then again, they're easily distracted.)

Susan walked through the trees. Purple mist kept trying to creep in on the edges of her vision, but she stubbornly walked through it.

She had scrubbed clothes through a raging fever to get money for their mother's medicine. She could fight through this.

2. Relationships are a weakness. Hide them from the Capital.

Capital. Interviews for District Seven.

"So Will's actually your cousin?"

Robin nodded and put on his most charming smile. "That's right. He's always had a bit of a temper, I'm afraid, but it's serving him well in the Games."

Robin hadn't even seen that temper in the Games, but it suited the narrative they were trying to spin. The reporters ate it up.

"Give us an example."

Robin leaned back. "Well, back home, there was this one time when he was still just a slip of a thing that I made the mistake of insulting his hat. Naturally, he took offense and decided the only thing to be done was to fight me. I was a newly crowned victor at the time, fresh from the Games. He was four." He paused for effect. "I still have a scar on my knee from that fight."

(Once they're in the Games, admitting it can't hurt.)

Will didn't want to fight anymore. He didn't even want to fight the Capital. He just wanted to go home to the forest and curl up with a cup of Robin's soup and never come out.

But he wasn't home. He was in the arena, and even with the blanket he was getting too cold.

He didn't want to move. He wanted to stay where he was and freeze like Jack had under all that ice.

But he wanted to make Robin proud. And if he was going to do that, he was going to have to move.

In the distance, the mutts howled.

3. Remember that this is about the tribute, not about you.

Capital. Interviews for District Five.

Tony leaned back in his chair until the back hit the wall. The phone was on speaker in front of him. "So you've talked to her sister and both her parents."

"That's right. Who else should we talk to? We're not having much luck tracking down her friends."

Tony winced. Friends had been hard to come by for Kate after the power incident with McGee. "Well, she was always close to McGee, but that's not going to work." They needed a more sympathetic angle. Something to drum up more interest. "I'm afraid most of the kids at school were jealous of her," he said confidingly.

Gibbs raised his eyebrows from across the room. Tony gave him his best "innocent" smile.

"Jealous?"

"What with her being such close friends with a victor and all," Tony continued earnestly. "Despite the age gap, Kate and I have always been good friends." Well, Tony liked her. Kate probably considered him a minor irritant.

The reporter took the bait. "We'll just have to interview you then!" she gushed.

Tony let a wide, satisfied grin escape. "I'm sure we can work something out. Gibbs can monitor the feeds for me, and I can tell you about how she beat the champion of the boys' wrestling team. Twice."

Reporters could never wait to get back to the Capital, and they never turned down the chance to talk with him. Audiences loved the patented DiNozzo charm, and they were on a strictly rationed supply of it since Gibbs normally kept the reporters off with a glare that Tony bet gave even Snow nightmares.

Give an interview, stir up even more enthusiasm for Kate, get her more sponsors.

Bring her home.

(It's about anything that will bring them home.)

Kate needed a plan. Wandering around the arena without one felt like a good way to get killed.

She could try to head for the edge of the arena. Let the other tributes wear themselves out on each other. The strategy had worked well for Tony, and whatever else she might think of him, she had to respect a victor who had gotten through his Games as intact as he had.

Down the mountain for the edge of the arena it was.

4. Don't spill district secrets.

District Four. The school.

"So, Sabrina. Everyone says you and Puck are close. Is there a little romance brewing there?"

Sabrina felt her face turn a blotchy red. "I would rather kiss a mutt."

Daphne learned around her sister. "Puck kissed her once," she confided. "They're going to get married and have a hundred babies."

"And I punched him," Sabrina corrected hastily. "He kissed me as a prank, and I punched him in the nose."

Daphne continued happily. "And then she saved his life when - "

Sabrina slapped a hand over her sister's mouth. Daphne licked her. Sabrina gritted her teeth and kept her hand there anyway. "No one wants to hear that story."

The reporter leaned forward eagerly. "Oh, no, I'm sure our audiences would love to hear that story."

Sabrina glared at her sister. "You weren't supposed to bring up any stories that involved the 'm' word," she hissed under breath.

Daphne's eyes went wide. "Oops."

Unfortunately, one of the reporters had ears like a bat. "M word?"

"Moth," Sabrina blurted. "We're not supposed to talk bad about Moth."

"Oh, we don't mind," the reporter assured her. "No one else has been willing to talk about her at all. Go right ahead."

Sabrina really, really wished she was allowed to use forgetful dust.

(Some of those secrets are pretty hard to hide.)

Puck was starting to get - Not concerned, exactly. Extremely aware of, perhaps. Extremely aware of the Unseelie magic.

He could beat it, of course. He was a Seelie prince. He could beat anything!

But the circumstances were less than ideal. And it had occurred to him that even if he won, his ability to pay back his debts would be limited. The Capital would watch him more closely than ever.

. . . This probably should have occurred to him before, but he had always been a bit rash, at least according to his mother.

So he needed a way out, and he wasn't having any success opening a way through the water.

Which was why Puck was currently busy constructing a very poorly secured campfire.

Right in the middle of a clump of dead, dry trees.

5. If a rumor stirs up interest, let it be.

Capital. Interviews for District Two.

Seph's foster mother was dead. His closest friend, Jason, was also dead. The reporters had been forced to get creative, although admittedly, not all that creative.

"What do you have to say about the rumors that Seph is secretly your and Hastings' son?"

Linda laughed. "I know the tabloids loved us getting together all those years ago, but this is just desperate. I think it's time to accept that it's over."

"What about the photo matching software that has shown distinct similarities between Seph and - "

Linda interrupted with another laugh. "Obviously you don't know how things are in the districts. I'm sure Hastings and Seph are related, somehow. We're all related out there. Some genes, like the ones for Hastings' eyes, are just too good not to get used again."

"Where is Hastings?"

"Interviewing for Alicia, actually. The poor girl only has a grandmother left, and she wasn't very helpful for the interviews."

(Some things are too dangerous to confirm.)

6. Anyone is fair game.

District Two. Interviews.

The reporters stared at the house as another explosion rocked an upstairs window.

"Perhaps we should leave her alone," one of the reporters squeaked.

The others quickly agreed.

(Some risks aren't worth the story they tell.)

Leesha had gone into the Games with two goals: win, and don't kill Seph.

Partially that was a self-preservation thing. He was her best ally in here, and Hastings would kill her if anything happened to his son.

Hah. Like that had ever been a secret.

Partially, well, she just liked him. He had been nice to her after Jason had died. He'd been nice even before then, actually.

Winning was the most important thing, obviously. But she wouldn't hurt Seph if she could help it.

7. Nice brings no sponsors.

District One. Interviews.

Mr. Woodhouse had been confined to his bed. Since unlike Leesha's grandmother, his health problems didn't involve large amounts of magic being thrown around, the reporter came in anyway.

"Emma's such a good girl," he insisted frailly. "She takes such good care of me. I do wish she would hurry up and come home. Sleeping outdoors like she is can't be at all good for her health." He shook his head. His eyes were distant. "She's a good girl," he repeated.

Emma ducked into the trees on the pretense of relieving herself. Instead, she gathered handfuls of the red berries she found in the bushes. She recognized these.

Mr. Knightley, she knew, wouldn't approve of what she was about to do. Her father certainly wouldn't.

But she had seen what she was up against. This was the only way.

She offered to make stew that night.

And she slipped the berries into the food.

(This matters less when the sponsors can see the truth for themselves.)

A/N: For anyone not familiar with Leesha's grandmother, she is a very old, very powerful wizard. Dementia and immense magical power are rarely a good mix.