Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games.

A/n: There will be 4 chapters/segments. Updates will be prompt - no more than two days between, hopefully. Please, enjoy.

3) Talk Man

The last six months have been hell. First of all, we had to watch the rest of those Games. We had to watch two people win: two people who lied their way to get there. Maybe I'm bitter since Liev lost but I sure as hell didn't want to watch two strangers live when my little brother could have survived. The only good part was that Cato – the bastard who killed Liev – lost. If he'd won, that would have been the worst thing. He'd have come on this tour and we'd have pretended we loved him when all he'd done was kill Liev.

After that we had the goddamn funeral. I'm not good with funerals. I don't know how to act. And seeing him, lying in that simple coffin was torture. I wanted to shake him and tell him to get up already. But dead people don't move. Liev just lay there. My parents were sobbing and I was useless. Couldn't think of a damned thing to say. Couldn't even make a speech about Liev's life. And I could see that at the back of everyone's mind was the idea that I should have been the one laying in that coffin. My brother sure as hell would have been able to say something about me.

Trying to get our lives back to normal – what a load of bull. We can't just act like nothing's happened when one person is missing and they're playing Liev's death every other damn day. Mom's been on the edge of a breakdown several times and Dad just crushes whatever he's holding when he sees it. And I can't act like a better son if all we see is what should have happened to me. Hell, even the house isn't normal. We kept his room the same. Like we're expecting him to walk in one day and continue his inventing. I even look over my shoulder for a prank that will never happen.

But you know the biggest joke? The biggest joke is today. The damn Victory Tour with Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark coming to stand in front of us and with us watching them. Being alive. I hate them. I hate them and the Capitol.

I guess hatred of the Capitol is a pretty mutual thing around here but recently, it's been getting bigger. I heard whispers that Everdeen and Mellark's stunt was an act of rebellion. That we need to rebel. I'm for that. Even if Cato killed my brother, even if I killed him, the one thing which definitely murdered him was the Capitol. I don't know what the hell District 12's berry thing was – except there was no way it was because she was in love with him – but if there's a way for me to avenge my brother's death, I'm sure as hell taking it.

So we're sitting in this square and the pair come up and start their speeches. Things in the square are tense. I already spoke to my friends and we all agreed if there's any way to cause trouble, we got to do it. We got to show the Capitol pigs that we're not happy. That they killed off too many of us. Even if I got to side with Everdeen and Mellark.

Their speeches are standard stuff. Boring. All the time, I'm thinking: when are we going to do it? I can hear the crowd buzzing angrily. I saw the speeches in District 11 – there was something more to them, that's for sure. Someone did or said something. We need that here.

Mellark says nothing about Liev. That's wrong. The victors are meant to mention their allies. Maybe Liev had to make the mines and maybe Mellark was just tricking all the tributes but they were still on the same team at one point. It's thanks to Everdeen that the mines even went off and got Liev killed. The least Mellark could do is say something about him.

I glare at him and at her and at all the Peacekeepers. If I got up now and started making trouble, what could happen? I'd be shot – so what? I got nothing to lose. I should get up. Expose Peeta Mellark and Katniss Everdeen. Point out what crap the Capitol has done to us. I should start the next rebellion. At least make it known we're unhappy. What the hell are we doing but muttering angrily? That's not going to solve anything.

I would be doing right by Liev. Showing I remember him. Make it clear that his death is to be avenged.

The speeches end and the pair leave the stage.

What was that about? I had my chance – I had a chance! I could have started something. I could have lived up to what I'm meant to do. And what did I do? Nothing. Goddamn nothing. I let them all get away.

My dad and mom have started to walk away. I follow numbly. As I leave the square, I hear a shout from one of my friends.

"Emre, you alright?"

I turn and glare at him. "Sure, I'm just great. You saw all that, didn't you?"

"Calm down, mate."

I breathe in deeply and unclench my fist.

"What the hell happened to our idea? We did nothing."

"We couldn't have done anything, Emre." He gives me a strange look. "It was just talk, you know that. What could we have done?"

"I'm going home," I reply and break into a run.

It was just talk.

Just talk? Is that for idle ears or is that the truth? What the hell, I know what it was. We did nothing: it was just talk. Maybe I wanted action then but I sure as hell didn't follow through. My life meant more to me than my brother's and every other kid who's died in the Games. I'm low. I'm all bark and no bite.

Just like everyone else in this goddamn district.