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6th Floor Common Room [Tuesday afternoon/evening]

Katniss was not exactly the sort to fuss over her appearance. Ever. But even she knew that a blizzard added to spending time with a boy (not that there was anything to that! Just spending time! With a boy! Who perhaps she liked, maybe, a little.) meant that fashion was a tricky business. She toyed with the idea of wearing something Cinna had sent, but in the end, she picked a longer shirt and comfortable pants -- a very Katniss outfit. The only thing that she did, that Cinna might have approved of, was that she left her hair down and out of its braid. She didn't dress it more than that, but even this much was far more neurotic than she'd ever been picking out clothes.

And since they'd planned to go out somewhere, with food, and that was clearly not an option, Katniss had raided the common room pantry. And such, her contribution to this meal was...Oreos. And some peanut butter. Hopefully that would be good enough. There was a fireplace, anyway, and she'd curled up near it to keep warm. She could have been happy enough going out, but she didn't think the island was of the hardy stock that she and Wesley boasted (or pretended at), and there wasn't likely to be many places open, anyway.

So she settled in to wait for Wesley, mentally rehearsing things that she definitely didn't want to talk about: the Tour, Peeta, the future, Panem in general....

[Katniss is here for Wesley omgggggggg, but common rooms are open!]

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Obviously Wesley was a total manly man, because he had indeed braved the cold for the sake of their date-thing. Being British, he was used to snow. And brushing it out of his hair, which was what he was doing at the exact moment that he walked into the common room. In his other hand, he was carrying roughly a week's supply of take-out from Boston Market. But no, they didn't have any squirrel there. Sorry, Katniss.

"Hello," he said brightly, giving one last shake of his head to banish the remainder of the snow there.

Oh. Her hair was down. That was new. And pretty.

"Are you frozen?" she asked, peeking out at him and smiling softly. "You're very brave to go out in that, you know."

Wes smiled. "Thank you," he said, ~~totally not~~ blushing. "Not frozen, fortunately. And I have food!"

He set the enormous paper bag down on the table, more than a little proud of himself.

"That is much better than what I was able to turn up," Katniss admitted, brandishing the cookies she found. "Thank you for being a better hunter than me, this time. Or scavenger, rather."

Wes grinned at that. "I'm sure the cookies will be quite enjoyable as well," he said. Though secretly he was way more proud of his own scavenging, shh.

He opened the bag and extracted its contents one at a time, consisting of about a zillion helpings of chicken and at least one of every side dish available. Because Katniss liked food, so...

Katniss did like food, though thankfully Effie had drilled something like manners into her head, so she didn't fling herself at said food with abandon. Thought crossed her mind, though. "This kind of weather isn't normal at all for here, is it? Yesterday everyone was running around in barely anything," by Katniss's ~~totally prudish~~ standards, anyway, "and today even I wouldn't go out in that snow. And it's not as though it's all that sunny in Twelve."

"I wouldn't know," Wesley said, giving it some thought as he handed Katniss a plastic fork and knife. "I believe Maryland is supposed to have all four seasons, but, er, they're usually limited to certain parts of the year. The rapid fluctuation seems to suggest that it could simply be the island."

Yes, he was a meteorologist, thank you for asking.

"Seems cruel to give us summer and take it away the next day," Katniss sighed, taking the fork and smiling a little. "The island is either very mean, or has a sense of humor that I don't quite understand."

"Most likely the former," Wesley replied.

Seriously, island, messing with the seasons like that? Not cool.

"So, apart from the recent, er, weather difficulties, how have you been?"

"Fine," she said, shrugging. "I mean, I've been keeping to myself since I've been back, mostly." It seemed easier. "How are you? Did you have good holidays?" Even if she hadn't celebrated...at all, she knew there had been holidays.

Weeell... his holidays had been spent in a dilapidated apartment in Los Angeles, so, you know. There was that.

"Decent, I suppose," he replied. "So, ah. You mentioned that there were, er, things that you were going to tell me? About Panem?"

Oh, lovely lead-in, Wes. And way to bring up Katniss' number-one favorite topic.

Katniss paused with her fork halfway to her mouth. Which, really, was terribly unfair. "Oh. Yes. We don't have to talk about Panem, unless you really want to." Though, honestly, she needed to update him on the Peeta situation, because she was fairly sure that he'd find that a good thing. She did, anyway.

Well, Wes was always curious about... things. Particularly things about places. One of those things about being a naturally curious guy, he supposed.

"If you don't mind?" he tried hopefully.

Smooth.

She gave him a little smile, and sighed. "Um. Well. I got to see the other districts. Where all the other tributes were from. And that was -- tiring, mostly, but it gave me some perspective, I guess. A lot of them are much bigger than Twelve, and much worse off," she added, thinking of Eleven. "And...well, my job was to make sure that they didn't rebel, after what I did in the Games, and why I'm still alive." She paused. "I didn't really succeed at that."

Wes was listening and nodding along, more than a little bit fascinated by all this, until the last part, when his mouth fell open in uncertain surprise. He tried to piece it together in his head, then drew a shaky conclusion. "That would be the, ah, the Peeta angle, then?"

"Right," she said, nodding and looking down for a moment. "Which means, um, that...I'm pretty much free to do what I want, I think. Until they kill me, or however I'll be punished, anyway."

Wonderful date conversation, really.

Oh, definitely. And Wes' perfect track record of never once bringing up an appropriate conversation topic marched on!

But what could you really say to that?

"Unless it all dies down in your absence, I suppose," he suggested weakly. Not a likely prospect from what he'd heard, but, well, he tried.

Then:

"Wait. Er, 'do what you want'?"

And that got a little smile. "I mean whatever I want. I don't have any bond to Peeta anymore, if it didn't work. It's all going to hell anyway. So...I can see who I want. Talk to whoever I want, and not worry about there being a boy back home, fake or otherwise," she said, glancing at him before looking away again, a little shy. "And it's such a relief, to be able to just behave like I want to, and not have to adhere to an idea of what the president expects. It's out of my hands now."

Yes, dating without it being national news was quite the luxury. Not that Wesley would know, having zero experience dating before, newsworthy or otherwise.

"I suppose that would be quite a relief," Wesley said, and his tone could be described as bordering on breathless. Did she mean --?

God, the boy was completely clueless.

"It is," Katniss said, and okay, maybe she might have scooted a little closer. All of her experience had been staged, after all. Most of it. "So. Um. How have things been with you? You learned a lot while you were gone?"

Two steps forward, one step back.

Oh. Okay.

"Well, I learned that, ah, there isn't much to be learned in field experience just yet," he said sheepishly. "I learned certain things about, er, living independently, but unfortunately not very much about rogue demon hunting."

Except not to aim for the face. That one he learned pretty quick.

She frowned a little, and offered, "Well, living independently is good. I mean, that's a skill everyone needs. Did you get to actually hunt out there?"

"Not, er, successfully," Wesley admitted.

Well, at least he was honest.

"So, ah, interesting bunch of new students this term," he observed. Best non-sequitor ever.

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6th Floor Common Room [Tuesday afternoon/evening]

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