Baby of Panem

The Victory Tour

We are packed and ready to leave for the Victory Tour. The tour will start in District Eleven and end back here in Twelve. The tour leaves in about an hour, however I know they will film footage of Peeta and I outside our houses before we leave for the tour. Luckily, Cinna is here and able to make me look presentable to all Panem. Afterall, I have a job to do on this tour... I must convince everyone of my love for Peeta. Cinna and the rest of my prep team are finishing up with my hair and makeup when Effie walks into the room. She smiles at me and informs us that it's showtime. I walk to the door of my house, knowing that when I open it, I will be shoved back into the love story with Peeta and have cameras in my face, watching my every move. I know Gale will be watching and I know it will hurt him. But I must be in love with Peeta. I take a deep breath to calm myself, I have too much at stake during this tour.

I nod to Effie and she opens the door. There is immediately a camera in my face and I hear Ceaser announcing my name. I wave to the camera and I walk down the steps to my house. The door to the house across from mine opens and Peeta steps outside, also waving as he makes his was down the steps. I walk to meet in the middle, a little bit too fast. We meet and as he goes to wrap his arms around me, we slip on the ice. I gently laugh it off, and without hesitation, I press my lips against Peeta's, laying on top of him where we fell. I am in love, we are a couple in love and this is what a couple in love would do. I hear Ceaser clear his throat and I stand, apologizing. He wastes no time before asking about our relationship and how everything is going.

"Good. Uh things are good here in twelve," Peeta stumbles through his answer. He is going to get my family killed before we even leave for the tour.

"Thanks to the generosity of the Capitol, Peeta and I have never been closer," I wrap an arm around his back, "We are so lucky to have been given such a luxury."

"Yeah, we're only about five feet apart now," Peeta laughs as he says it. Haymitch was right, we need to warm up. Ceaser is finally satisfied and ends his broadcast. The cameras go down and everyone starts gathering our belongings to head to the train station.

"Nice acting," Peeta looks at me, "For a second, I almost thought that kiss was real."

He walks away from me without another glance in my direction. I am going to have to figure out a way to get the boy from the games back, the one that announced his love for me in front of all Panem and started this entire act. Peeta is right though, that kiss did almost feel real to me. I know I hurt Peeta when we came home, I wasn't trying to. However, he didn't try to talk to me after the games either. I spent more time with Gale because of this and of course I knew how Gale felt about me, I also knew that I would never act on these feelings. Even so, I don't want to hurt him anymore than I have to. Peeta is who I've been forced to be with, and that's just how it is now. He knows how I feel, even if it is only a fraction of what he feels in comparison. It would be a lie to say that even after everything we went through that I feel nothing toward him. I just hope he will give me the chance to make it up to him during the tour.

A few hours later we are on the train and heading to District Eleven. I sit in the car at the back of the train, watching the scenery go back outside as we speed down the track. I hear the door to the car open, not looking to see who entered. Peeta sits down beside me. A few minutes pass and neither of us have spoken yet. I look at him and he looks back at me. This is the most time we've spent in each other's presence since we returned home from the games. I expect him to leave when he changes position so sit toward me more.

"You don't have to apologize to me Katniss. It's not fair of me. I can't hold you to the things you said in the games. I know you were just doing what you had to in order to keep us both alive and get home to Prim. But I can't keep doing this. I can't act for the cameras and us ignore each other in real life Katniss."