Note: I'll be uploading every other day or so. If you like this, you should read the one I did of the first book. There's no real continuity, except you won't know who Backpacky is.

"What are you doing in my house?" Katniss asked the President.

"Um, let's see, I gave you this house," said Snow, starting a list on his fingers, "allow you to live at all, and actually own this entire country, so who's house is it really?"

Katniss took a seat and raised her hands defensively. "Okay, I get it. Why did you do that, by the way?"

"Do what?"

"Let me and Peeta live, in the Games."

The President leaned back in his chair and frowned to himself.

"If I were the leader of a totalitarian government,"she continued, "that used bloody spectacles to entertain the people in the capital and intimidate my enemies, I would rather show that nobody can escape my control than demonstrate that, apparently, you can use the power of true love to beat the system."

Snow chuckled amiably. "You would certainly make a great leader."

"Better than you, that's for sure. You obviously don't know the first thing about running a surveillance state. Honestly, the concept behind the Games isn't even that effective. Instead of constantly forcing everyone to remember that there were better times before you took over, when kids didn't get murdered, you should use your information monopoly to change how the past is perceived. Kill off those old enough to physically remember, then change records and history so that it appears as though you saved the Districts and have been continually improving them. Haven't you read 1984?"

"If you step out of line," said the President, folding his hands delicately, "I will kill every person you have ever known."

"Where is this coming from? What did I do?" Katniss asked, incredulous.

"Certainly you are aware of the position you are in."

"Well, yeah, but," Katniss leaned forward in her chair, "if some revolution is really in the balance over a celebrity, isn't it pretty much just gonna happen anyway?"

President Snow sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Is this a bipolar population or what?"

"I totally hear you. It's ridiculous."

The two continued like this for several minutes; Katniss remarking on the general poor decision making of the oppressive administration, and the President reminding her that she had to convince everyone she was in love with Peeta. The tense conversation was prolonged when her mother brought in a tray of tea and biscuits, and they both felt obliged to continue talking so they could make an appreciative dent in the plate. She went to sleep that night unsettled.

Awaking to Effie in her living room directing cameras and her prep team in her bathroom was something she had been dreading for awhile. After being beautified and dressed in Cinna's latest creations, she was led out the door, where the Victor's Village had been quietly coated in snow.

Spotting each other from across the street, Peeta and Katniss ran towards each other and embraced.

Peeta smiled. "Katniss, I-"

"I love you so much! I'm not emotionally disturbed!" she proclaimed in an uncomfortably loud voice, pulling him to the ground. Laughing, she rolled over onto her back and pointed into the camera with a dramatic wink. "And remember kids, rebellion isn't cool."

Haymitch, who had been observing from behind the cameras, buried his face in his hands.