THE SIREN'S SONG 𓇼 F. ODAIR

37 ~ the baker's boy

The day after the proposal, Cyrus brought Carolina to the Capitol to be paraded around for four months straight. When she arrived, she was immediately escorted to Caesar Flickerman's studio to be interviewed alongside Cyrus.

"When did you decide you wanted to propose to Carolina?"

"Cyrus, how did you propose, and please spare no detail."

"And Carolina, how did you react?"

"When is the wedding?"

"I think everyone, including myself, will be fighting for an invitation."

After all of the interviews, Carolina was dragged to dress fittings, cake tastings, venue tours, and engagement parties. The cameras never turned away from her for a second.

Halfway through all of the wedding planning, Carolina went back to District 4 alone. She was required to due to the latest Victory Tour.

Every year, each victor had to eat dinner with the newest victor, or in this year's case victors. It was meant to increase victor relationships. The Capitol citizens never failed to obsess over victors, especially when they were seen together.

Cyrus stayed in the Capitol to publicize the wedding even more. The two newest victors had recently gotten engaged, and the Capitol's eyes had turned to them. Not Cyrus and Carolina. Carolina was happy, she was finally able to breathe for the first time in months, but Cyrus was enraged.

Cyrus lost it even more when he found out that they had set their wedding date to be one month before theirs.

Carolina was happy to be home, not only because it was where she was comfortable, but also because it was far away from Cyrus and his daily temper tantrums about wedding planning. He stressed about everything, whether it be Katniss's wedding dress fitting getting more views or something as simple as the color of napkins.

However, she didn't get too much time in her solitary bliss. Carolina only got to spend half an hour on her own before she had to get ready for the newest Victors' speech. It was going to be boring, just the two scrawny newbies reading off of cards handwritten by the Capitol, but nonetheless, Carolina was required to go.

By the time she was done getting ready, she only had ten minutes to get to the Justice Building. So, Carolina ran to the town square and ended up being the last District 4 victor to arrive.

When she arrived, every single victor looked like they were staring at a ghost. Most of them were perfectly trained on masking their expression, especially when Capitol cameras were focused on them, so their faces were flawlessly neutral. The only thing that gave them away was their eyes. They showed every single emotion that they had.

Annie was not so well trained, though.

"Oh my god, Lina!" Annie screamed. She ran up to Carolina and engulfed her in a hug. "I missed you so much!"

Carolina slowly hugged Annie back. "I've missed you too, Ann."

Annie pulled back and studied Carolina's face for a moment. She then grabbed Carolina's hand and led her to the empty seat next to hers.

"You're sitting next to me."

Carolina met eyes with Finnick, who was beside Annie. He nodded at her before turning back to Mags to speak with her. Even an interaction as small as that could have been too much in front of the Capitol's cameras.

Reef was sitting on the other side of Carolina. He kept his gaze facing forward, but he put his hand on top of Carolina's hand and squeezed.

"It's nice to have you back, kid," he whispered.