Hello there, since I am in the mood of writing a lot of SQ stories, I am giving you the pleasure of yet another SQ story, my other ones are Caving In and Cold Cases and Hunger, I am also working on yet another Sq story but that one will take a while until that will be posted. Dear Henry is on an hiatus, sorry but I cannot find the will to write that right now.

This is in the sort of universe of the hunger games, for the people who haven't read the Hunger Games, future America is divided into a Capitol and thirteen districts, district 13 doesn't exist anymore tho, every year to remember a rebellion, children are drawn to join the hunger games, a girl and a boy from each district except the Capitol. District 1 and 2 are rich and get trained even before the games, thus the name careers. other districts don't have that and those children just get thrown into the games clueless of what to do. the only way to win the games is by killing all of the other competitors. May The Odds Be Ever In Your Favour.

This is an M rated story for upcoming chapters that will contain smut.

Happy reading my lovelies

x R.

If she stepped off of the platform now she would get blown up, into a million pieces, But would that really be so bad after all that will be waiting for her when the countdown hit zero? If she stepped off of it right now, while they were still counting she wouldn't have to kill someone, a career from district one would be dead before the games even started, and she would be free. Free from all the demons that were haunting her in her head and those here in reality.

Her heart beat was already speeding up, she couldn't step off. She couldn't make herself to do it, to be so much of a coward and not even go down fighting. No, she would fight, she would show all those damned people she could fight and could win.

Not that she really wanted to win this, the thought of killing that many people, children actually, to win this made her stomach churn for a second, before she composed herself again and focused on the voice that was counting down the seconds until all hell would break loose.

The countdown came closer and closer towards zero, the monotone voice sounding rather mocking in her ears as it reached three, two, one, Zero...

Her heart beat was erratic as she took off towards the cornucopia and got herself a bow and arrow and a belt with throwing knives on it, the weapons she felt most comfortable with, a backpack and then ran off away from the cornucopia, deciding not to join in into the blood bath that always happened at the beginning of the games. Even though she was from district one she really didn't feel like joining the careers, because well, Killian the boy from her district she loathed for obvious reasons, and then there was the UnCharming couple of Snow and Charming. the idiot who called their children Snow or Charming must have thought it funny or something, but it made her despise them even more than she already did.

while running away from the massacre the raven haired beauty deftly counted all the cannon shots that were heard to mark the deaths of fellow tributes. Not that she cared for any of them, it was just good to know how many were left after that particular bloodbath was done, she needed to know how many enemies she had left after all.

Since she had had training since the day her parents died at the age of five, she was rather well conversed in combat and all of the survival skills. The lessons of the survival skills always had been her favourite, they taught you some useful and well, less brutal things than those infernal combat trainings.

she had alway rather loathed the practices with swords and spears. She did like the knife training and loved the practices with bow and arrow. That was something she was talented in and in a way, she felt like she never did direct damage to someone, and it made it possible for her to not have to be close to her target. She never got why other people liked being just inches away from their victim while seeing how the life lost the victim's eyes, and be in far closer range and thus much closer to the danger of being wounded by said person you wanted to wound. It wasn't her style, and thus would not even think about using it here.

She wasn't going to let these stupid games change the person she was even more than they had already done. She would show the idiots who made these games possible what a good tribute looked like. For this, she would have to be heartless. For this she would have to be ruthless, and maybe even plain evil.

Her instructor had told her several times already, that emotions were useless. That they would only stand in the way of her and her kill. Well, that was before said instructor got killed and replaced by another...

Even in district one, corruption was running through the veins of the leaders. The lying bastards. Always making accusations up so they could kill whomever they thought capable of taking their power, insert why her parents had died. The bastards saw them as a threat and made an excuse to kill them and leave her and her sister to be orphans.

But that wasn't something she should think about now, no, now she should focus on winning these damned games and making sure she could have her revenge on the people she hated most of all.

When she thought she was far enough, away from the blood bath where the other careers from districts one and two had probably already teamed up in an alliance. An alliance that would come and hunt her down, she knew that. She knew that they were going to come for her, she had kind of made sure they would.

Provoking them during training together the last four days, smiling her most flirtatious smile to all the girls from all the different districts and laughing coldly at the three careers when they snarled at her for being a dyke, or a filthy homo.

Yes she like girls, so what? Of course the perfect princess couldn't handle such a thing so atrocious.

Of course that nasty little princess had to make fun of her when she died... Of course the little princess had to make fun of her the days her heart were broken...

Not that it still didn't hurt, it was just... More of a dull ache now. She couldn't dwell on the fact for it would only hurt more, so she decided never to dwell on it ever again. Simple as that really.

She walked through the trees that made this arena seem like an enormous forest and scavenged for water, that was also one of the things her training had taught her, look for water. Water was one of the most important and needed things in the Arena.

More people would probably die from dehydration than from actual tributes.

And so she made her way through the Arena, looking for water to fill the flask that was in the backpack she had gotten from the cornucopia.

When she found water she released a relieved breath and smiled, she wouldn't have problems with that then. She closed in towards the water and crouched down so she could fill the flask with water and put her hands in the water as well and brush them through her unruly raven curly locks that were getting worse in this heat. She already thought about getting something to bind her hair with so that it would be out of her face and not something that could bother her.

With herself being this distracted she didn't even notice another tribute was coming closer to the same lake she was at. She was now focussed on getting something to tie her hair with.

When she found something useful she braided her hair and bound it with a small vine and hoped it would hold.

Just then she looked up and found a stunning blonde girl staring at her with a shocked and terrified expression.

The girl looked like a deer caught in headlights, eyes that were a beautiful sea green, widened in fear as she girl dropped the own flask she had in her hands. The Brunner's observed that the blonde didn't have any weapons and yet she quickly got her bow and arrow out and strung the arrow so that if she held the arrow a little less tight, it would hit the girl right in the chest. The raven beauty's heart was pounding in her ears as she contemplated if she should just end the girls misery right there, she would have done it to any of the other tributes without batting an eye, but something convinced her that she shouldn't shoot.

Maybe it were the big pleading eyes, the trembling body, or just that she didn't have the heart to kill such a beauty.

She knew her emotions we're getting in the way of her normal judgement, and that killing the girl would be most beneficial for both of them, but she... She just couldn't.

She lowered her bow and put the arrow back into the quiver, returning to the task of investigating what else was hidden away in the bag she had managed to procure. Taking her attention away from the blonde, the girl didn't have a weapon anyways, and certainly didn't have the muscles to do her any serious harm.

The blonde girl looked far too stunned and scared to even really do something other than stare at the raven haired beauty across from her. In turn the brunette looked back at the blonde and was intrigued at the amount of beauty the blonde had. a person like that, so frail and beautiful shouldn't be here.

The brunette tried to think from which district the girl was, but couldn't seem to remember who it was. Probably someone with a low score, someone her mind had thought unworthy of remembering.

"Hello?" it sounded distorted. Like maybe her mind just made up the fact that a soft voice greeted her. A beautiful soft voice that fit those golden lock, and sea green eyes.

The brunette looked at the blonde with a furrowed brow. "Did you say something?" She asked and put everything back in her bag, slung the quiver with arrows and the bow over her shoulders. The blonde looked a bit flushed now, and she had no idea why. She just asked a simple question, that should not give someone that reason to blush, should it?

"Ehm... yes, I said hello." The blonde timidly said and looked the brunette once over again. "Oh, my name is Emma, what is yours?" The blonde, apparently named Emma said softly and even tried to pair a smile with the statement. The raven haired girl had no intent to give her own name away that easily. She didn't like it if people knew her name. She somehow always had the feeling that if you gave people you name, you would give them some sort of power over you. some sort of power they did not deserve to have unless they gained your trust.

"Why haven't you run away, I could have killed you, you know that right?" She asked and walked closer to the blonde haired gi- No, Emma. She didn't get why, the closer she got to Emma, the less afraid the blonde looked. Yes, there was still that flush in her cheeks but the nerves seemed to have disappeared. Didn't she know the name the Capitol had given her? Had the blonde named Emma missed her during the training days? Yes the raven haired beauty had missed Emma in those four days, but then again, she was only interested in the ones that formed a threat, and that was certainly not a name she would give to the girl in front of her. The girl that looked like she was incapable of doing any serious harm to her. Which made her walk closer and closer towards the blonde with curiosity. She was rather intrigued why the girl greeted her, even gave her name to her.

"I could ask you the same but then why you didn't shoot me, I saw you pointing the arrow at me. And I saw you during training. You are immensely good with bow and arrow. You could have killed me. Why didn't you?" The blonde asked and The Raven haired girl found herself wondering why she didn't do it again. Why she didn't just release the arrow and let it find it's mark in the chest of the girl that was now only one or two feet away from her. She had no real, solid answer to that. She just wasn't able to release the arrow from where it was ready to go. Something stopped her.

"I don't know why I didn't kill you, I just... Didn't think it necessary to do so, I suppose." The brunette said and took the blonde in again. Beautifully built. It reminded her of Danielle... Even the eyes were alike. Just not the hair colour. But her eyes they sparkled, shone almost.

"Do you want to form an alliance?" Emma asked, which shook the raven haired girl out of her train of thought.

"You want to form an alliance with the one they like to call the Evil Queen, or even The Black Widow?" She asked surprised. "No sane person would want to do that." She argued and narrowed her eyes at the blonde. That wasn't a question she was expecting at all. Nobody liked her, let alone trusted her. Why would this blonde girl ven want an alliance with her?

"I don't care about how they call you. You haven't killed me and you seem like you can be trusted. I don't see why we shouldn't form an alliance." The blonde answered simply and even smiled again.

The raven haired girl narrowed her eyes at the girl in front of her and thought about the consequences of this choice. how it could benefit her and how it would hinder her. Then she realised something. She herself had nowhere to go to if she won this. Had no parents, no friends, nothing to go back to. What if she could protect this innocent looking girl and let her win?

"Very well." The brunette agreed and the alliance was struck between the two girls.

"Wait, for real?" The blonde asked with a goofy smile creeping up on her face. A smile that actually managed to speed up the raven haired girl's heart. It made her long for a normal situation where she could have met the girl, but alas, that wasn't something that was possible.

Not with these damned Hunger Games. No, but she would protect a girl like this. Someone that probably had something to go back to.

"Emma, I want you to go look for some edible berries while I search for a pace we can sleep safely without being spotted." She said and then made her leave, but after walked ten feet she swirled around again, "Meet me at this lake in two hours." She said and then she was gone.

Missing the forlorn look on Emma's face as the blonde looked around not sure what to do exactly, until she spotted some dark purple berries, so dark they almost were black.

The Raven haired girl decided to gather some enormous leaves and built bed like things for them to sleep in. It was sheltered by a lot of trees and bushes, a remote spot, perfect as a sleeping place.

"Hey uhm… I still don't know your name, but I think I found some edible berries." was what broke the brunette out of her concentration. She turned her attention away from the leaves she was arranging and turned to focus on the blonde girls that was in front of her.

"Now that we are allies I suppose giving you my name would be a smart move. it's Regina." She said and then observed the berries. her heart skipped a beat and her blood went cold. "tell me you haven't eaten any of those berries." Regina said urgently and snatched the berries out of the blonde's hand.

"What?! Why?" Emma asked confused and looked at the berries like they might spontaneously combust. To her it were just good looking berries, but apparently there was something wrong.

"These damned things are dreamshade berries. If you eat them you will die, seconds after you eat those, you will fall down to the ground and die.

Emma's eyes widened and regina let out a cold laugh. "What why are you laughing? shouldn't you be throwing them away right now?" She said half panicked, feeling her stomach churn at the idea of almost eating them. If she had, she would be dead right now, killed because of her own stupidity instead of murdered by one of the many tributes in this arena.

"I think we will be able to use these berries very wisely." Regina said and put them away in a little pouch inside of her backpack. this would be her way of dying. it was quick,painless and she could do it to herself, not risking the fact that otherwise Emma had to be the one to kill her, and she was sure of the fact that Emma would not be able to do it, to kill her. The blonde girl just look far too innocent for something like that.

No if she was to go through with the plan of making it to the last two together with Emma, she had to do the deed of eliminating herself, on her own, and these berries were perfect for them.

"Regina? Regina, are you alright?" Emma asked softly as she looked at the raven haired beauty in front of her. It was as if the brunette had zoned out or something, and it kind of scared Emma to see her zone out like that.

"I'm perfectly alright Emma, don't worry about me, now you go to the sleep place and I will get us something to eat that won't kill us." Regina said and then just marched off, in search of something that would fill their stomachs without being lethal.

Regina walked around, staying close to the sleeping place of course, since she didn't want to risk Emma getting into trouble with one of the other tributes. If anything would happen to the blonde, her whole plan would be ruined, because she didn't really like the idea of anyone but Emma winning this game now.

Regina furrowed her brow when she realized she was already very protective over Emma, it wasn't like they had something together, they had just met a few hours ago, and already Regina wanted to protect her and felt… something for her. The only time that had happened before was with Danielle…

She needn't concentrate. Not dwindle on about the past, nothing good would come of it. After a while Regina found some food that was worth eating and collected the nuts and berries, it wasn't much, and they would need to look for some better food soon, but it would do fine for now. She put them in the back pack she was carrying with her, but then quickly looked up when a branch snapped in front of her.

A bloodlusted gaze met her own and the she saw the glinting of the long knife in the hand of the tribute. It looked like the poor girl just stepped out of a bloodbath, and was now on a mission to kill more, which actually was what these games were about, but still.

The look in the girl's eyes was just psycho, like she would enjoy gutting you. That wasn't a new thing for Regina, heaven knows all those girls and boys from district one actually enjoy killing all the people, they are even keeping record of what tribute killed the most after one won these games. It was all just a sick game, that Regina wasn't willing to play.

The girl seemed frozen in her place, before slowly coming towards the raven haired girl. Regina got out one of her knives, but was just a little too late and got stabbed in her leg, she cried out in pain and dodged the next advance of the psychotic girl. Swinging the knife at the girl, she slashes the girl's stomach, which makes for an almost inhuman screech from the girl. Now distracted Regina takes advantage and slashes the girl with her knife again, only then slashing her throat. blood spilling out and covering Regina in red thick goo that makes her stomach churn and makes her feel queasy. Yes she was trained in the art of killing- if you could really call it an art-, but being covering in warm red liquid that is spilling out on a girl that is no growing cold at her feet is something different.

A loud bang of a cannon is what snaps Regina out of it. She killed someone only because she was getting some damned berries. She wasn't sure if she could even stomach the food right now, although Emma would still probably want it anyway. So she decided to get back to the sleeping place, before a hovercraft came to transport the girl's dead body out of the arena.

When Regina went and tried to walk, white hot pain shot through her whole body, which was enough to make her lurch to the side and empty what little there was in her stomach. The girl and her blade had gotten her leg good and well. When she was sure nothing more would be leaving her stomach, she looked down to her leg and found blood covering her trousers. she brought a shaking hand to the bleeding wound to stop the bleeding, and check how bad the cut was exactly, but after a fraction of a second of holding her hand against the wound she retracted it, the pain overwhelming her again and threatening to knock her out, black spots already dancing in her vision. She coughed, her stomach trying to empty itself again, but there was nothing to throw out anymore.

She bit her lip hard and walked to the sleeping place, hoping that Emma was still alright, and without any harm. She wasn't prepared for how she was met though.

A frantic Emma ran towards her, rambling about whatever got her so worried, for Regina it was all a blur and inaudible to follow as Emma helped her to their little 'camp' and pushed Regina to sit down. Regina was still a bit dazed because off the blood loss, and the loss of everything she had in her stomach. The dried up blood of the dead girl, now pulling at her skin, making it itch, as she tried to move a little.

A shake of her shoulder was what snapped her back to reality again and she was shocked by how close the blonde actually was to her now. What also shocked her was that her heart was speeding up with the closer presence of the particular blonde, but that wasn't what she could focus on, neither should she focus on those sea green eyes, or the perfect golden locks, or those supple pink lips, no, no, she should focus on what those pretty lips were saying.

"Regina, what the hell happened out there? I thought you got killed when that damned cannon went off, and now you come here covered in blood and with a large cut in your leg!" Emma said worriedly and regina was surprised at the emotion. why would the blonde be worried about her? they were rivals in the end when it would come to it, right? "Regina! What happened?" Emma asked again when Regina forgot to respond.

"I got stabbed, isn't that rather obvious?" Regina deadpanned and tried to rip her gaze away from where it was transfixed, looking into the eyes of the blonde, but failed miserably, because her gaze was now travelling over the body of the blonde, which made her heart skip a beat.

"I thought you died you idiot! I was sick with worry that you were killed!" Emma said and that made Regina looked at those eyes again with a furrowed brow.

"You were worried sick about me?" Regina asked the blonde confused, and saw a flicker of an emotion she knew all too well in her eyes. No she didn't see it, did she? No, it must have been her imagination…

"Of course I was worried about you! You and I have an alliance now." Emma said, but even Regina got that there was more in that statement that the blonde didn't say. The raven haired girl would let it be for now though, Let Emma have her secrets, just as she had her own.

"Well, not dead." Regina deadpanned, which elicited a smile from the blonde, that made Regina's stomach flutter.

Emma punched Regina's arm softly and chuckled. "I can see that." Emma said and Regina noticed how relieved the blonde looked because of that fact. It felt like someone actually wanted her around, even if she was going to die soon. She had to, how sad Emma might be over it, she had to because Emma needed to win this. Not her.

"Well good to know your eyes are still working." Regina said and then finally moved her eyes off of the blonde as she looked down at her leg, only the sight of it, enough to make her feel unwell again, and be thankful of the fact that she was sitting down.

"We need to get that wound treated somehow, it will get infected and everything if you don't do something about it." Emma said with a worried look and hovered her hand over the wound before resting it on Regina's thigh.

Regina was highly aware of the place where Emma's hand was resting, the skin feeling like it was on fire, even with fabric separating the blonde's hand with her skin. Emma seemed to notice her reaction to the touch, but made absolutely no move to change it, which made Regina blush.

Blush? Regina did not blush. Not for anyone, and yet here she was, her cheeks lightly tinted red as her skin still felt like it was on fire under the places where Emma was resting her hand. It made her temporarily forget about the white hot pain in her leg.

Emma looked into Regina's eyes and it seemed like she hesitated with something. There now was this tension between them, tension that was pulling them closer together, both their gazes going down to each other's lips until they both snapped out of it. they couldn't be doing this. They couldn't start to feel much for each other. They just couldn't. Not when they both knew that one or both of them would be dead at the end of this.

Just then they both heard a beeping coming just from outside their self created camp.

"Could you go see what that is, I would do it but my leg will not allow me to do so at the moment." Regina said and looked at Emma who now had a blush of her own, probably because well, they almost kissed after all.

"Uh, yea, sure, be back in a sec." Emma said and then she was gone to see what the beeping sound was. Regina did have her suspicions on what it could be, but surely she didn't have sponsors? Yes, she had the highest score when the training days were over, but that did not in any way mean that the people would like her enough to sponsor her, surely they didn't? Yes she killed her interview, but that was only because that was also something he had been trained for, and the intern Cinna had dressed her in amazing clothes that made her body look very, very good.

He had playing with the names she had gotten, with the idea of a black widow and an Evil Queen. Given her a sleek black dress that complimented her figure and when he pressed on a button flames would dance over the dress, making her look all the more lethal.

Emma came back with a shocked look on her face, and a gleaming metal all shaped thing in her hands. Sponsors, like he had expected. But what could it have been in the first place? what had the sponsors given her or Emma?

"I think this is for you Regina." Emma said a bit breathless and handed the ball to Regina who carefully opened it. it contained a note and a little can of some sort of cream.

If you want more help,

Learn what an actual kiss is please.

-M

Regina read the note at least three times. The sponsors had wanted them to kiss? Regina then opened the can and got what it must be for, it was for the wound on her leg…

Emma got it as well and then apparently took the task of applying it on Regina's leg upon herself.

"This might hurt a little." Emma said carefully, and then Regina felt nothing but relief as the cold cream healed her leg. regina closed her eyes and released a content sigh at the fact that there wasn't an immense pain in her leg.

by closing her eyes she didn't notice when Emma was done, or that Emma read the little note as well. She didn't even notice Emma coming closer towards her, she only noticed when her lips were captured by two very soft ones, and feeling a hand cup her cheek. Regina moved on instinct and pulled the body of the blonde onto her lap, and tangled one her her hands in golden locks, while the other held the blonde's waist to keep her steady as she kissed those soft lips back. Her heart beating erratically and her stomach doing flips. The kiss was even better than something she could have imagined, the softness of Emma's lips were all she could focus on right about now, but that didn't matter.

what mattered was that Regina finally, after ages, felt alive again. Finally felt like there was something to life for after all, if only just to receive more kisses like these. Just to feel like this again, energy and life thrumming through her veins. flooding her mind and pulsing through her whole body. Making this hells feel like heaven, or well like a like sliver of heaven had made it's way to her. She pulled away from the kiss when her lungs burned and were pleading desperately for some oxygen.

Breathless she looked into the sea green eyes that looked at her widened, but a little darkened with a hint of lust. Not that that could be acted upon, but still, it meant she wasn't to only one that had thoroughly enjoyed this exchange between the two of them.

"That was-"

"Perfect." Regina finished for the shell shocked blonde and actually smiled again, something that still felt weird to do for Regina, being used to just looking serious, or scrunching her face up in anger, not stretching her plump lips into a smile, her cheeks not used to the feeling of being lifted up by the corners of her mouth.

"Yeah, that." Emma said with a dumbfounded look with a now goofy smile adorning that beautiful pale face, with perfect golden locks framing it.

"I think that was what the sponsor wanted wasn't it?" Regina said, but didn't really care very much for those anymore, the only thing on her mind, feeling those lips against hers again.

As if on cue though, the beeping of another parachute was to be heard just outside their camp.