Chapter Text
Peeta walked silently on the stage, gazing quietly at the cameras. Katniss' interview had been first, and she had done wonderfully, naturally. She appealed to people's feelings with her love of Prim.
Peeta tucked his hair behind his ear and smiled winningly, his anxiety thrumming beneath his skin. He remembered what Haymitch had said. Their angle. His crush, that the country would be convinced of.
Not his lover, not his boyfriend. Not Gale.
Silently, he prayed that this wouldn't backfire too bad. After all, Katniss was the one who would survive. She would be their first victor in 24 years. She would survive. She had to.
"Come home. Please."
Peeta shook the familiar words from his head. He wasn't a survivor. He would get Katniss to Victory.
"It’s nice to see you, Peeta. You seem like a fine young gentleman. What’s your hometown like?" Caesar asked as he sat down.
Peeta smiled, voice slightly strained. "I work in my family bakery. I’m obviously from district twelve." he paused as a small laugh rippled through the crowd at that. "There’s nothing much except for that."
He falls into the pattern easily after that.
This is a game as much as the actual games are. He has to play the cameras, play their sympathies.
Ceaser did not fall for him, but instead leaned in, smirking playfully."Well, handsome lad like you, I simply have to ask. There must be a girl back home. Right?"
Cheers echoed from the audience.
Peeta shook his head. Not a girl, never a girl. Instead Gale, the most beautiful man he'd ever seen in his life, the man who'd begged him to come home. But that wasn't the angle he planned. It wasn't the angle he would go for.
Queerness wasn't palatable. His boyfriend wouldn't play to their sympathies.
"You’ve got to be kidding." Caesar clearly took his silence as him not having anyone, and he looked shocked. Fair enough, Peeta knew well enough he was… conventionally attractive.
Peeta remembered the plan. Katniss was his crush. Katniss was the girl he'd always loved. "Well, there is one girl. I’ve had a crush on her ever since I can remember. I’m pretty sure she didn’t know I existed until the reaping." he laughed awkwardly. He was sure the awkwardness would be taken as an awkward crush, and not the fact that he knew Gale was watching from back home, watching him confess to having a crush on his best friend.
Right now, he kind of did hope he would die in these games so he wouldn't have to deal with the fury he would no doubt face.
The audience sounded sympathetic, and Peeta looked down, a small blush on his face.
Ceaser hummed sympathetically "Does she have a man already?"
Peeta glanced out. "I don’t know, but a lot of boys like her." True. He'd even had a crush on her when he was younger, before his boyfriend came around.
Ceaser smirked, "Here’s what you do. You win, you go home. She can’t turn you down then, eh?"
That was both slightly gross, but it was also so wrong. No doubt his love life would only get worse, since his boyfriend was gonna be so mad.
"I don’t think that’s gonna work. Winning won’t help in my case."
"Why not?" Ceaser leaned in, and the
"Because... she came here with me."
Gasps rippled throughout the studio, and Peeta smiled in shame. A blush worked it's way up his face, and the face of his boyfriend flashed in his mind.
"I don't care how, just come home. Please."
No.
There was no time for guilt.
Katniss was the survivor. She was the one who could hunt, who could win. She was the one who could play the arena. All he could do was set the stage before he died.
The camera shifts to Katniss' shocked look, and Peeta can feel his face is hot.
"Oh, that is some bad luck." said Caesar sympathetically, the crowd murmuring in agreement. Peeta kept his head down, blushing hotly. "It's not good." Ugh, this was so embarrassing.
He imagined his boyfriend, sitting on the couch and watching the interviews. Peeta wasn't sure what his face would look like. Furious, about his professing his love to Katniss. Maybe worried.
Would Gale explain why he was so mad and upset about it? Would his parents find out? Or would they assume it was about Katniss, because everyone loved Katniss.
Katniss the hunter. Katniss the sister.
“Well, I don’t think any of us can blame you. It’d be hard not to fall for that young lady,” commented Caesar. “She didn’t know?”
Peeta shook his head. “Not until now.”
“Wouldn’t you love to pull her back out here and get a response?” Caesar asked the audience. The crowd screamed. “Sadly, rules are rules, and Katniss Everdeen’s time has been spent. Well, best of luck to you, Peeta Mellark, and I think I speak for all of Panem when I say our hearts go with yours.”
"Thank you." Peeta muttered, then he made his way off stage.
The ride up to the 12th floor was silent, and Katniss kept shooting him daggers with her eyes. When they were alone, she shoved him back. Peeta stumbled to the floor unceremoniously.
"What was that for?" asked Peeta, mouth dropping open. He knew Katniss could be oblivious, but surely she knew it was to protect her, to make her seem like the best bet.
"You asshole." she snarled. "How could you do that to him?"
"Wh–what?" Peeta looked at her in confusion.
The door opened and other people entered. It was Effie, Haymitch, Cinna, and Portia.
"What happened?" Effie asked, mouth dropping open and rushing over to lift Peeta up. "Did you fall?"
"After Katniss shoved me, yeah."
"You shoved him?" Haymitch turned to Katniss and frowned.
Katniss huffed and stared him dead in the eyes. "It was your idea wasn't it? Turning us into the laughingstocks of the district, of the country!"
"It was my idea!" Peeta cut in. He wasn't going to have Haymitch taking the wrath on her own. "He just… helped."
"Oh, I'm sure he did." Katniss snapped.
“You are a fool,” Haymitch snapped back. “Do you think he hurt you? That boy just gave you something you could never achieve on your own.”
“He made me look like a weak, homewrecking slut!” Katniss said, glaring at Peeta, disgust palpable on her face.
“He made you look desirable! And let’s face it, you can use all the help you can get in that department. You were about as romantic as dirt until he said he wanted you. Now they all do. You’re all they’re talking about. The star-crossed lovers from District Twelve!” said Haymitch.
“But we’re not star-crossed lovers!” Katniss snapped. "Now I look like a homewrecking slut, and he looks like a cheater. He made Gale into a laughingstock, he made me into a whore, and he made himself into a slut."
"We don't need District 12, we need the Capital. One district isn't that much in the grand–"
"Wait wait wait. You knew?" Peeta turned to look at Katniss, then Haymitch.
Katniss laughed. "I don't think there's a soul in 12 who doesn't know, you aren't exactly subtle."
Well… fair enough.
Peeta turned away from her. "I just… you're more important to 12. You're the one who needs to survive. Just play the part of a girl in love until you win. Then go back and tell him I'm sorry." Then he left the room in silence.
Katniss' eyes followed him, lips pursed.
"This is for your own good Katniss." Haymitch's voice followed Peeta into his room.
He swung the door shut quietly and then climbed onto the bed.