"Plutarch," Taiya took a deep breath. He just stared at her with a smile. "You might want to pull the pens away buddy," she smiled sweetly at him.

It took a moment to compute before his eyes widened and he immediately reached out and grabbed the five pens that were on the table.

"I just thought it'd be a good idea," he tried to defend. "Finnick when he was… struggling, would talk about how badly he wanted to get married. I assumed you had the same dream."

"Tread carefully," Taiya warned, her eyes darkening. But she had to hold her tongue, if she reacted too poorly, she may not get access to Peeta. "I do want to get married more than anything. But I want to get married for us. Not for one of your protos."

"Propos," Plutarch coughed.

"Whatever. Finnick has spent the last 8 years being horrifically exploited by the Capitol. The only thing he had to bring him comfort was me. And now you want to exploit us again for some silly little campaign? You're out of your mind if you think I'd ever agree to that. And don't think about going behind my back to ask him. You manipulated him into doing his last propo, you won't be doing it again. When we get married, we will be doing it for us. Not for you. We'll be getting married on the beach, with our friends, the District 4 way. Not underground in some prison."

"You're not a prisoner here," Plutarch shook his head.

"I can't go above ground," Taiya pointed out. "No one can except Katniss and Gale. Except I think that might be more of a mockingjay exception. But that seems like a prison to me. I would know, I was just in one, remember? You left me to get taken there... ringing any bells?"

"You're not well enough to be going above ground Taiya," Plutarch sighed. "It's dangerous."

"No wedding. Not an option. Don't ask again."

"Well, I need you to give me something. You've given me your conditions, but I need something in return."

"I'll give you some secrets," Taiya shrugged.

"We need more," Plutarch pushed. "I need something with you and Finnick. You spoke on air and told the whole of Panem that your whole relationship was all a lie and everything you said in the Games was a lie."

"I was trying to avoid being tortured!" Taiya snarled.

"I know, I know. He countered that with his propo. But we need you to come out declaring the truth. That way people will know what to believe. At the moment there are two stories circulating around there. We need you to set the record straight."

Taiya frowned as she mulled over her options. She had an idea of something they could use. She didn't want to suggest it, but it wouldn't really be taking anything away from them. They'd already had their engagement party at home with their friends from home. So in a way, it wasn't taking away anything from them, right?

"How about I compromise with an engagement party?" Taiya glanced up with a sigh.

"Yes. That's it. Right there," he nodded excitedly. "I always knew you and I would make a good team," he happily wrote the idea down in his notebook.

"I think I preferred you better when you just awkwardly nodded at me from across the room," Taia mumbled, referencing when he was a Gamemaker and she'd sit in on their meetings.

"Well we've evolved from there haven't we Taiya?" he smiled at her. "Look where we are now. Progress. This is the beginning of a new era for Panem."

Taiya did have to frown at this. He didn't seem deceptive when he said that. Almost as if he really thought with Coin at the helm of the ship they could achieve true democracy. But there seemed to be something in his eyes that was holding back.

That's when thundering footsteps echoed down the hall. It sounded like a stampede. If there were glasses of water on the table they surely would have been knocked off.

"What is that?" Plutarch's eyes widened.

"Based on the footsteps. I'm gonna bet Tyler," Taiya rolled her eyes.

"What's wrong with him I wonder."

"Plutarch," Taiya huffed. "Come on," she looked down at his shoulder.

Plutarch raised his hand up to cup his injured limb. "Ah," he nodded.

Before either one could say anything else, the door to the meeting room was slammed open, Tyler was not holding any of his strength back.

Taiya knew there was no danger present with it being just Tyler, but her victor instinct still made her jump. Plutarch however, nearly leapt out of his skin though.

"Jeez, do you knock?" Taiya scowled.

"Yeah, jeez!" Buck gasped from behind Tyler, out of breath as he had exerted more energy sprinting after Tyler than he had since they were training for the quarter quell.

"I gave you one job dude!" Taiya peered around Tyler to snap at him.

"Believe it or not, he guessed what you were up to," Buck pointed at Tyler.

"I don't believe it," Taiya shook her head.

"Well shit," he grumbled.

"Are you ok?" Tyler asked Taiya.

"Right as rain," she nodded.

"Plutarch?" he glanced over at the man, quickly scanning the room for signs of a fight.

"My heart," Plutarch took deep breaths as he tried to calm his racing heart.

"Was it scarier than that time you fell in the punch bowl?" Taiya turned her smirk to him, reminding him of the time Katniss shot an arrow at the Gamemakers and he'd taken a tumble into the bowl of punch.

"This is a close second."

"Haha!" Buck laughed. "I remember you telling us that."

"You told people?" Plutarch frowned.

"Everyone," Taiya nodded.

"So this is a civil meeting?" Tyler asked sceptically. "No arguments?"

"Yes, party pooper," Taiya answered. "It was going swimmingly until you came in here like a wrecking ball. Very rude by the way. Who taught you manners?"

"What have you agreed to?" he asked nervously. The last time Plutarch had been left with one of his kids without supervision by either him or Buck, he'd been forced to relive his trauma on camera.

"Not to worry Ty," Taiya leaned back into her chair. "I drive a hard bargain. Don't I Heavensbee?"

"She does," he nodded. "We've agreed to a video with her information on the Capitol and an engagement party."

"Engagement party?" Buck frowned as he walked into the room. "But you've already…" he cut himself off as he saw the look on Taiya's face. They were going to keep that between themselves.

"What do you get in return?" Tyler asked.

"I get to hang out with one of the coolest kids in the building!" Taiya's eyes lit up.

"You can hang out with me whenever you want to kid, you don't have to negotiate for it," Buck laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Get off," she shoved him off. "Obviously not you, I said they were cool. I'm talking about my cutie pie Peeta."

"I feel like I'm falling further down the list every day," Buck grumbled.

"Oh please the only time you were on top of the list was just after her Games," Tyler scoffed.

"You had a good run bud," Taiya patted his arm. "That was a solid six months you were near the top."

"Near!? Near doesn't mean top."

"So, Plutarch. When can I see Peeta?" Taiya ignored Buck.

"As soon as you film the first propo. You fulfil the first part of our deal and I'll get you straight in to see Peeta. The engagement party will take a while to plan if we're to make it a big spectacle."

"Alright, I'll do it today," Taiya nodded excitedly, clapping her hands together. "Let's go."

"I have a friend Cressida who will work with you. She's excellent, trust me. She'll ask the questions and keep the information flowing. You can trust her. Effie Trinket is in charge of makeup, she'll have you looking camera-ready," Plutarch closed his notebook and stood up.

"Effie Trinket?" Taiya's eyes widened. "The escort?"

"The one and the same."

"Right," Taiya stuttered, standing up to follow him.

"Oh my goodness!" a shrill voice shouted out. "Taiya Ambersnow! Oh, what a delight," a woman ran forward and grabbed her, kissing each of her cheeks.

"Effie?" Taiya asked in confusion.

"I know," she sighed. "This uniform does nothing for my undertones," she waved her hands around her face. "It's very strict here."

"I like the scarf though," Taiya complimented. Since she had no access to wigs, she'd wrapped a scarf intricately around her head. "Looks great."

"It's a drab colour," she complained. "They live like barbarians down here," she whispered. "You'd understand dear, you always dressed immaculately."

"That's because I had Tigris styling me," Taiya smiled. She missed her stylist/confidant.

"Such a pity she retired," Effie sighed as she pulled out a brush brush and swept some onto her cheeks. "Whoever took over for you in the quarter quell, believe me, did not impress." Taiya gritted her teeth. This was getting close to a topic she did not want to discuss. She wasn't quite sure what Effie wanted her to say, maybe she was just content talking. "Oh! It was Moxie's sister who styled you wasn't it?" she gasped.

Taiya's breath immediately hitched.

"I wonder where Moxie is," she mused, dipping back into the pan of blush. "She and I were close you know. Oh, we used to go shopping all the time! Escort of Taiya Ambersnow, the fiancée of one of the most influential men in the Capitol, real or not, we got access to some spectacular pieces by using your name alone. I hope she's well."
Effie had not noticed the change in Taiya's demeanour. But Tyler had. It was as if he materialised by her side, his hand resting on her back.

"Are you ok?" he whispered.

Taiya gasped as she allowed air to rush back into her lungs.

"No," her breath shuddered and she turned to look at Tyler, her eyes filled with tears.

"Oh dear," Effie pulled back, just realising the emotional turn she'd taken.

"What happened?" Tyler asked, he hadn't seen anything bad happen.

"I need to talk to Peeta. Now," she demanded.

"You can after you film Tay. That was the deal."

"No!" she yelled, leaping off her stool and racing over to Plutarch. She needed to see Peeta. He was the only one who'd understand.

"Taiya, is everything ok?" he asked.

"I'll keep my end of the deal. I swear. Please, please, just let me see Peeta. I need to see Peeta right now."

"Finnick will be here momentarily," he tried to reassure her.

"No. I need to talk to Peeta. I'll film it tomorrow. I just…. I need to speak to Peeta first. Please."

Plutarch looked her over, quickly glancing back at Tyler who was discussing with Effie, trying to work out what had happened.

"Alright," he nodded. He knew she'd follow through. Something had clearly happened and he couldn't afford for her to be more traumatised.

"I need to get something from my room first. This grass to make hats."

"Your compartment is on the way. We can make a stop."

"PEETA!" Taiya screamed as soon as she skipped into his room. "Bestie! My bread boy! Pita bread!" she threw her arms in the air in excitement, letting the tied-up bags of grass fly into the corner. "I missed you so much!" she raced over to the bed. He wasn't tied down this time.

"They wouldn't let you come back?" he asked, returning the hug.

"No, I tried so hard. Managed to negotiate a deal with our jackass Gamemaker though and I'm allowed to visit you whenever I want now!" she smiled brightly, pulling back to survey him.

He certainly looked much better than the last time she'd seen him. He was still underweight, but his bruises were largely healed.

"Who else has been lucky enough to visit you?"

"Not many people," he sighed. "Mainly doctors. My old friend Delly comes in a few times a week, Haymitch as well."

"Well when I come in tomorrow I'm allowed to bring Johanna," Taiya revealed.

"Really?" he got excited. It'd been so long he'd had people come just to talk to him, and not focus on his recovery. He just wanted a normal conversation, with someone with no ulterior motives. Someone not working for Katniss. "I heard you got locked back up in here."

"Yeah," Taiya snorted. "I wasn't sleeping, started hallucinating, stabbed Plutarch. Nothing major."

"You stabbed Plutarch?" Peeta raised his eyebrows. "Why?"

"Have you met Plutarch? Ah," she clapped her hands together, crossing her legs on the bed as she sat opposite her. "I love you so much!"

"How'd you get them to let you come visit me?"

"I have to film some campaign videos for the rebels. And have an engagement party on camera," she sighed.

"Are you okay with that?"

"Well it won't be our real engagement party," she tapped the side of her nose. "They wanted us to have a wedding, but I don't want our moment exploited like that."

"Will I be invited?" he smiled.

"Peeta my dear, you're top of the list."

"Remember the promise you made me in the Capitol? I get to make the cake for your wedding."

"I'd never back out of a Mellark creation! You know that. When the wedding rocks around you better be there baker boy."

"Have you filmed your videos yet for Plutarch?"

"No," she sighed. "That's actually what I wanted to talk to you about. But first," she rolled off the bed and skipped to the corner, picked up the bags and quickly returned to her spot. "Check it," she tipped it upside down, pouring the contents on the bed.

"You're kidding!" Peeta gasped. "For pirate hats?"

"Pirate hats!" Taiya squealed with excitement.

"How did you get this?"

"Well matey, I'm a very lovely person and I asked kindly."

"Ok, but how'd you really get them?" he repeated.

"I asked Gale," she shrugged. "For some reason, he seems to want to make Finnick jealous, so he's being like super nice to me. But I can exploit that if it means we get access to pirate hat materials," she smiled.

"Why does he want to make Finnick jealous? As far as I can remember he spent the last year following her around," he said with malice which Taiya figured was just best to ignore.

"I don't know what those idiots got up to whilst us cool kids were on vacation," Taiya rolled her eyes. "It's arts and crafts time bestie!"

"You might need to remind me how to do it," he sheepishly smiled as he picked up some grass.

"No need to worry my child, I am here to assist with any and all of your requests. Actually, I take that back, I got into some trouble with that promise once," she giggled."It's hat time!" she began weaving threads of the grass together.

"Is anyone listening in?" he asked her, glancing across at the two-way mirror.

"They better not be. I promised Haymitch my bagel tomorrow morning if he kept them out of that room. Haymitch loves the bagels here for some reason. We should be fine."

"So what was it you wanted to talk about?" he asked, eyebrows furrowed in deep concentration as he weaved pieces of grass together.

"Effie was prepping me before they put me on camera," Taiya sighed. "Makeup and whatnot. She asked about Moxie."

Peeta immediately looked up. "Oh Taiya," he sighed.

"I haven't told them yet. What we saw happen."

"I haven't told anyone either," Peeta sighed. "It's hard to put into words isn't it?"

"They wouldn't understand. That's the problem. They could try but I can't deal with any more sympathy. I threw a hissy fit and demanded to speak with you before I filmed anything," she quickly smiled.

"You should tell Finnick."

"Finnick has enough on his plate," Taiya sighed as she finished her first hat. "How's yours going?" she checked over his work.

"Not as fast as you but getting there. Finnick would want you to tell him Taiya."

"How do you even bring that up?" she started making a second hat. "Hey babe, so glad to be back with you, by the way, I forgot to tell you, Peeta and I had to watch four people get tortured to death because we didn't have any answers about the rebels and the rebels released a propo," Taiya sighed. "They took us after the Games to torture the people we care about here. If I tell him it'll make him feel even worse."

"I still hear their screams in my sleep," Peeta sniffled. "The avoxes."

"You never told me how you knew them."

"Darius and Lavinia were their names. Darius was a fairly decent Peacekeeper, people liked him. You saw the broadcast of Gale getting whipped in the town centre?"

"Yeah," Taiya breathed. It was horrific, and it'd been broadcast over the whole country. It'd happened just after the end of the District 12 victor's horrific victory tour. Peacekeeper presence had been increased in the outer districts, which meant an increase in broadcasted punishments.

"Darius intervened," Peeta explained. "When Gale had enough, he tried to get the Head Peacekeeper to stop, but he wouldn't. He knocked Darius down. The next time I saw him he was an avox on our floor in the tribute centre. He was put there to scare Katniss and me. And now he's dead."

"Lavinia?" Taiya asked.

"I think Katniss knew her. It's Katniss' fault she's dead. She was our avox in the 74th Games and again in the 75th. Katniss recognised her, I don't know how. Just even being associated with Katniss can get you killed," Peeta scowled. He was more present when he was speaking than the last time she'd seen him, but the hijacking was still evident. "Who were the people you knew?"

"They shouldn't have even been there," Taiya sighed. "Moxie and Antonia. Moxie was my escort. Antonia was Moxie's sister, she was my stylist for the last Games. They wouldn't let me have my normal stylist, I don't know why. Moxie had some idea of how bad the Capitol was, but I don't think she ever understood the extent. I don't know how. She had Finn and I with her every year and she never picked up on how poorly we were treated," Taiya aggressively pulled a rope knot. "They really just thought they could waltz into the tribute centre for visiting hours."

Both Moxie and her sister had shown up on a day that President Snow was furious. Katniss had just filmed a propo that was being very well received in the Districts. When they'd tried to visit Taiya, Snow decided to use them as a form of torture. He threw them in with Lavinia and Darius and tortured them for answers that they didn't have.

The two avoxes couldn't even use words, they could only make sounds. Howls of pain. Moxie and Antonia were Capitol through and through, they had no idea about rebel plans and they had no alliance with the rebels, merely a fondness for Taiya, their tribute.

Lavinia and Antonia were lucky, the voltage was up too high on the electric shock machine and they passed instantly.

Darius and Moxie on the other hand… it was drawn out. Darius' death more torturous than Moxie's.

But Peeta and Taiya had to witness it. To helplessly watch and listen.

Taiya had been too scared to send a message in her second interview. Too scared to say seaweed brain or anything. If Snow understood any message she sent, someone else might end up being killed. She couldn't bear that on her conscience.

"I just know if I tell them they'll make me talk about it," Peeta finished his first hat and put it on his head. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Neither," Taiya sighed as she picked up hers and plonked it on her head.

A knock echoed on the door.

"Your 15 minutes are up kids," Haymitch warned them.

"Damn," Taiya groaned. "They wouldn't let me have longer than 15 minutes until I film the stupid propo."

"Well, you'll do that tomorrow and then come back. Don't worry," he tipped the hat at her. "I'm sure they won't ask you about Moxie," he reassured. "If they haven't asked yet I doubt they even know what happened to her."

"That's true," Taiya agreed as she packed up the straw back into the bag. "Hey tomorrow I'll bring Johanna and I'll show you how to make these cool swords out of the straw and we can have a sword fight the three of us. I've got her hat here," Taiya held up the spare hat she'd made.

"That's about the best idea I've heard all week," he smiled at her.

"Alright pookie," she hugged him. "I'll be back tomorrow with our resident rageaholic."

"Don't forget to bring Johanna as well," he joked.

Taiya just rolled her eyes as she knocked on the cell door, walking out when it was opened for her.

"How'd you go?" Haymitch was waiting nervously.

"It was good. He's still angry towards Katniss, but he's rational. He had fun I think. We just discussed stuff that went down when we were guests of the Capitol."

"Thank you," Haymitch squeezed her shoulder. He'd been so distressed the past weeks trying to figure out how to help Peeta. The boy needed some fun, which was hard to come by in District 13. He needed someone who understood. He'd been pushing to let Taiya in earlier but it got shut down every time. Apparently unstable + unstable = disaster. The smug side of him couldn't wait to rub it into Plutarch.

"Oh! Jo! Jo! Jo!" Taiya raced away from Haymitch and over to her best friend's bed. "Guess what I made you," she waved the hat in the air.

"Not a chance in hell."