So this is my Niff HG fic that I've been wanting to write for a little while. It took betaing a HGNiff for a friend (called Don't Let me Be The One To Hurt You - check it out!) for me to actually get up off my ass and write it :) So here it is, and I hope you all enjoy! It's a lot of angst with a touch of romance and tragedy.

(If anything HG-related in this fic turns out to be wrong, just let me know. It should all be at least mostly correct)

Chapter One
Traitors

It was really a beautiful day.

The sun was high in the pale blue expanse above them, a few clouds scattered across it. The two boys knew they should have been working but with the sun so hot, they'd decided it would be okay to take a quick break. Besides, they knew Cameron would cover for them if need be and it wasn't like the cows were actually doing anything. They were just milling around, occasionally tearing up some of the dry grass to chew on. So the two boys just lay side by side on the grass, in a small patch they'd managed to commandeer from the cattle, and looked up at the sky and talked.

"You think we could actually do it?" Jeff asked, keeping his voice low. This was dangerous talk, and to be so blatantly discussing it out in the open was especially risky. But no one was around and if they kept it quiet, the sounds of the animals around them would hide their conversation fairly well.

With his arms stretched out over his head, Nick twisted to a more comfortable position and replied, "Yeah. One day. I mean, it'll be difficult to find others who'll fight with us, but there has to be others. We can't be the only ones in the whole district that want all this to stop."

"And if we can start something…" Jeff trailed off with a sigh, looking over to see his friend beside him. The brunette had his hands under his head, staring up at the sky with a small smile just visible on his face. He glanced over and grinned at Jeff, pushing himself up onto his hands. "Anything could happen."

"Jeff and Nick, the heroes of Panem," the blonde chuckled. Nick poked him in the side. "I think you mean Nick and Jeff."

"Oh please, you wouldn't have any idea what you were doing if I wasn't around." Jeff pulled himself up and laughed at his friend's raised eyebrow and semi-annoyed look.

"I take offence to that." Nick rolled his eyes and smiled, only joking. Any insults they ever threw at each other were only jokes. As far as Jeff could remember, they'd never had a fight that was over anything more important than one refusing to take food from the other when times were hard. They'd been friends for years and Jeff was sure that would never change. Especially not when they were planning to rebel against the Capitol one day and save Panem from the tyranny of the ruling class.

It had started innocently. They were ten years old, new friends who already trusted each other with everything, sat by each other in class and didn't have other friends because they took time away that could be spent with each other. They'd been in class when the news had come – there'd been an accident in the field, Jeff had to come, his mother was waiting for him. Nick had come with him and held his hand as his friend received the news from his sobbing mother that Dane Sterling had been killed by a terrified bull, gored through the stomach and dead before anyone could reach him.

Sitting on Jeff's front step, Nick glanced over at his friend and wondered what he was supposed to say. He didn't know how to help the blonde boy next to him, who was just staring at the ground in front of him and trying not to cry. He was too big to cry now.

"I hate them."

Nick blinked. "What?"

"I hate them," Jeff repeated, looking up at his friend with anger flaring in his eyes "Dad shouldn't have been working, his leg wasn't better yet. But he had to because otherwise we wouldn't have any food. And now he's dead. It's the Capitol's fault."

"Jeff, don't say stuff like that, you'll get in trouble." Nick tried to quieten the grieving boy, pressing a hand over his mouth, but Jeff pulled it away and said, "I don't care. I hate them. They took my dad away from me. It's their fault."

"It was an accident."

"But if we had food, if he didn't have to work, if he wasn't so worried about Joss taking out tesserae, then he'd still be here."

As time had passed, the two had gotten older, Jeff's mother fell ill, he had had to take out tesserae along with his elder brother just to keep the family going. The bitterness and the anger at the Capitol and the President and the conditions in District 10 grew and festered and now here they were at sixteen, working in the fields and talking about how they were going to fix everything one day.

As Jeff laughed, he felt something nudging his back and he twisted his head to see one of the cows head-butting him. With a smirk he got to his feet, running a hand over the animal's back absently.

"I think that's our cue to get back to work," he said, helping Nick up and dodging a cow that decided now was a good time to wander into their patch and start eating.

"Yeah, come on. Cameron can't cover for us forever."

The pair walked through the field, grass crunching underfoot – it was a hot season, everything was starting to die – and jumped a fence, heading towards where their friend and other workers were separating cattle in the sorting yards– some destined for slaughter, the meat shipped off to the Capitol (where else?) while others were allowed to live. Jeff couldn't help but think, as he did every day, that this was almost like a reaping. Although the animals weren't being chosen at random - just the ones who would provide the best meat for those citizens in the Capitol – they were still having their fates decided for them. There was no chance of escaping that fate either. Some would die. Others would live. The animals didn't know who was going to come out alive by the end of the day, and they didn't know, when they were separated, what waited for them on the far side of the cattle fields – the concrete rooms with blood on the walls, all manner of knives and other weapons with people just waiting to kill them.

Since thirteen Jeff had been working with cattle – his entire family did – and every single day he would muse about the similarities between the cattle and the districts. It almost made him sick to think that in a sense, he was like those people in the Capitol. Watching the animals heading off to die with no escape and no say in what was happening to them. And he was just glad that he worked outside and not in those concrete rooms, killing and cutting. With his thoughts about those similarities, he wasn't sure he'd be able to handle the implications.

"It would really help if you two didn't keep running off all the time," Cameron huffed before directing Nick to help a group of men trying to calm one of the doomed beasts that was panicking and raging in one of the pens.

"It's hardly all the time, Cam," Jeff replied as he followed his friend, shooting a glance over his shoulder at Nick and feeling that familiar sense of dread settle in the pit of his stomach. With his father dying the way he had, he couldn't help but think of the possibility that it could happen to his best friend as well.

And there was no way he could cope if he lost another person so close to him.

When Nick didn't turn up for work the next day, Jeff knew something was wrong. For one, you practically had to be dying to get out of work. And no matter what, Nick always found some way to tell his friend if he wasn't going to be showing up. When he'd been bedridden for days with a fever, he'd asked Joss to come and tell Jeff what was going on. So as Jeff looked around the sorting yards and found no Nick in sight and without an explanation, he'd known something had to be wrong.

He considered sneaking off at some point, asking Cameron to cover him while he ran to his friend's house to check on him. But just as he was making his way towards the taller boy, a loud commotion suddenly rose up from the direction of the town. Even over the deafening sounds of frightened, lowing cattle, everyone in the yard heard the sounds of shouts and yells. Spending only enough time to make sure the animals were secure and wouldn't be able to run, the workers left their posts and ran towards the buildings, each hoping that whatever the cause was, it had nothing to do with them or their families.

The noise was coming from the town square and, younger and a faster runner than most of the others working in the sorting yards, Jeff reached it first. He skidded to a stop as he came across a small crowd – and that was when he heard a familiar voice, shouting and hurling abuse. He shoved his way through the crowd, some trying to hold him back but unsuccessful. When he finally burst through, horror rooted him to the spot.

Nick was being dragged unceremoniously towards the Justice Building, handcuffed but fighting all the way. Digging his heels in, pulling hard on the cuffs, swearing and attempting to throw himself against the Peacekeepers holding him to force them to release him – but it wasn't working. The two Peacekeepers hauled him to the steps in front of the Justice Building and threw him to the ground, one keeping him there with a foot on his back. Jeff moved to run for him, feet suddenly unstuck from the ground, but someone grabbed his arm and when he turned back he saw Joss there, shaking his head with a sad look.

"You can't do anything."

"He's my friend!" Jeff tried to yank his arm out of his brother's grip, but the twenty-year-old was too strong for him and so he was left to stand there and watch as the Head Peacekeeper, a cruel and violent man named Kaspian Morau, walked quietly to stand in front of the arrested boy and stare down at him.

"What did you find at his house?" the man asked, glancing up for a brief moment to one of the Peacekeepers who'd brought Nick in.

"Knives, cleavers and other blades, clearly stolen from the slaughterhouses, as well as a bow and a number of arrows."

Jeff's heart dropped suddenly and he felt sick. For some reason the Peacekeepers had been at Nick's house and they'd found the weapons the pair had been storing. Nick had collected a fair amount of blades and more than half of them had been kept under the floorboards of his house. The rest were at Jeff's and he thought of those now as Nick struggled on the ground, spitting out curses and insults. They'd found the weapons and now Nick was in more trouble than either of them could really comprehend.

"Stocking up on weapons, eh?" Kaspian raised an eyebrow. When Nick didn't reply, the man gestured for the Peacekeeper to remove his foot and once that was done, he slammed his own booted foot hard into Nick's ribs. Jeff winced in almost shared pain as Nick coughed, rolling onto his side but with hands cuffed behind his back, unable to stand.

"Who were you keeping them for?" the Head Peacekeeper asked, kicking the brunette again. He repeated the question, and every time Nick didn't respond Kaspian landed heavy blows to his chest, stomach and head until there was blood on the dusty ground and Joss was fighting to hold his brother back from going out there to kill the man.

"Who else is with you, boy?" Kaspian gestured for the two Peacekeepers to lift him and they did, supporting his limp, beaten body between them. "Who's fighting with you? With that many weapons, you can't be the only one. Who else is there? Answer me and I'll kill you quickly. Refuse and I'll take as long as I can to make sure you suffer for your pitiful attempts at rebellion."

Me! Jeff wanted to scream I'm with him, stop hurting him, it was all my idea. He's my friend. Just stop. But Joss had clapped a hand over his mouth and wasn't letting him speak. The blonde could only stare in sick horror as Nick tilted his head, indicating for Kaspian to come closer. He wasn't really afraid that Nick would tell – he knew his friend wouldn't. So what was he planning?

Kaspian leaned a little closer and Nick smirked. He spat a slimy mix of saliva and blood at the Head Peacekeeper's face, grinning as the man jumped back in surprise. His expression changed to one of anger as he wiped the mess off his face and pulled back his fist, smashing it hard into Nick's face. Jeff had to close his eyes; he physically couldn't watch as his best friend was beaten to a bloody pulp in front of him. To his credit, Nick barely made a sound. No one moved to help him, save him – Jeff would have, but Joss still had the tight grip on his arm and over his mouth. He couldn't shout out to them to stop, to arrest him instead, it was his idea in the first place. He couldn't run to Nick and protect him. He couldn't do anything. Useless.

When the sound of a fist hitting flesh stopped and there was a dull thump, Jeff forced himself to open his eyes. Nick looked twice as bad as before, on his side on the ground, spitting out blood, curled in on himself in pain. The blonde felt pain of his own, anger spiking through his body to drown it out and he fought even harder to escape his brother's grasp.

"This is what happens to those who try to fight us!" Kaspian shouted, casting his piercing grey gaze out over the crowd that had slowly been gathering and expanding in size. "This is what happens to traitors!"

He turned to the two Peacekeepers, standing there unmoving and staring straight ahead. "Take him inside. We'll have to find out who else he's working with. And perhaps the Capitol would like to hear of this traitor we've found."

Jeff didn't know it was possible to feel worse and more desperate than he'd already been feeling up to this point. But the mere mention of the Capitol made his blood run cold. If they took Nick there, he'd be tortured. They'd kill him slowly. Better a bullet to the head from Kaspian than a long, slow death at the hands of the Capitol. Nick seemed to hear this and he lifted his head. The fear was so clear on his face, even beneath the blood and the bruises already starting to form. He knew. Jeff wanted more than anything to run to him and save him from that fate. But with Joss's fingers digging painfully into his arm, and his hand still over his mouth, there was absolutely nothing he could do. He was helpless to protect his best friend as the brunette was dragged to his feet and towards the Justice Building, leaving a trail of smeared blood on the white marble steps.

He locked eyes with Nick just before he disappeared inside. There was terror there, a bone-chilling fear that told Jeff that his friend knew exactly what they were going to do to him. He blinked once, in place of a final nod that he couldn't do for the pain, before the doors slammed shut and the crowd was left in a silence broken only by a cold breeze whistling through the square.

Only now did Joss take his hand away from his brother's mouth. The blonde spun to face him, the elder releasing his arm as Jeff stepped up close and opened his mouth to shout. But then he paused, his head finally catching up with everything that was going on. And he realised he wasn't mad. He wasn't angry. He was just scared.

"He's going to die," he whispered.

Joss hesitated for only a second before nodding carefully. The younger stared a moment longer and when that actually sunk in, his knees decided now was a good time to give out on him. He collapsed into his brother, holding him to keep from slipping into the dirt. Joss wrapped his arms around him, both ignoring the pitying or suspicious glares shot in their direction as people left, headed back to their jobs, to spread the gossip. Jeff had been a friend of Nick's – did that mean he was in on the plot too? The boys knew they would all be wondering. But at the moment, Jeff didn't care because he was on the verge of breaking down. He couldn't lose Nick. He'd lost his father, his mother lay terminally ill at home – he couldn't cope with losing anyone else.

"I'm sorry," Joss mumbled quietly, apologising for a whole range of things that Jeff understood.

"Joss, I need to tell you something."

The elder frowned. "What?"

"They might come for me too. Nick was working with me." Jeff said it in such a low whisper that his brother almost didn't hear him. He probably wished he hadn't. He jerked back and stared down at his little brother, younger by four years, and stuttered, "W-Why would you… do something so risky? So stupid?"

"It was my idea to begin with," Jeff said "After Dad died. I was so angry, Joss, and planning how I was going to take down the Capitol made me feel so much better. And then it just became serious, and Nick got involved – he couldn't not get involved, he's my best friend – it's my fault, if I hadn't even thought about any of this he wouldn't be in this mess."

"Jeff, none of this is your fault. Nick could have informed on you, or just turned a blind eye to what you were doing. And getting caught was just an accident. It's not your fault." A pause. "And I don't think he'll tell them about you."

Jeff looked up and towards the Justice Building, seeing the blood trail shining against the marble, and said softly, "We don't know what they'll do to him."

"He's been your shadow for years, and both of you are so loyal to each other. I don't think there's much that would make him give up your secret."

Joss pulled his brother to his feet properly and put an arm around his shoulder to steady him. "Go home. I'll get Cameron to cover for you. And Jeff?" he added as his brother slipped away from him and blankly started to walk away. The blonde turned back and fixed his gaze on Joss, unblinking.

"Yeah?" he asked in a breaking, strained voice.

"Whatever you've got hidden away – get rid of it. Now."

The moment Joss turned away, Jeff bolted. His feet pounded the hard surface of the streets as he made his way towards his house, where his mother would be asleep in bed, where his blades and bow and arrows were stashed away under the floor. It took him a little while to make it there – his house was on the outskirts of the town – but when he made it he skidded through the front door, panting hard and heart racing for more reasons than one. A quiet call came as almost a reply to his clattering and heavy breathing.

"Who's that?"

"It's just me, Ma, don't worry," he called back, running for his room.

"You should be working…"

"It's okay Ma, I promise. Everything's okay." Jeff didn't believe the words himself as he dropped to his knees on the floor and pulled up a loose board. Beneath it, in a small cache he'd dug out years ago, lay his fairly decent collection of knives and other assorted blades. His bow rested on top, unstrung, the arrows nestled beside it. Hurriedly he pulled everything out, stuffing the weapons into a sack. He paused for a brief moment to stare at the canvas bag, remembering just what he'd been planning on doing with the blades and arrows inside it. Incite a rebellion. What was he thinking? He was just some stupid boy who was bitter about the death of his father. And now his best friend was going to die because he'd been too blinded by his anger to think clearly.

And the worst part was that he'd thought he could actually do it.

What a stupid idea that was.

Please tell me what you think!