The Announcement:

"On the seventy-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol, four tributes will be reaped from each District, one male and one female from the regular pool of children, and one male and one female from the existing pool of victors. To demonstrate that the fate of each District ties back to the Capitol, tributes will be randomly chosen to be paired with another tribute from a different district. In continuation of last year's popular decision, the Quarter Quell will have two victors, but paired tributes will be required to survive together to win. Should the pairing fail, should one tribute fall before his partner, both tributes will perish."

On the train back to the Capitol, we watched a recap of the Reapings. The brother and sister pair of victors from One; the brutes from Two; the woman who mumbled to herself as she took the stage in Three; the withered old woman who volunteered in Four; a drunk who could rival Haymitch in Five; the duo whose eyes never seemed to focus on anything in particular in Six; a victor I recognized from an earlier Game in Seven; the three kids who clung to the skirt of the woman reaped in Eight. We missed much of the recap of Nine and Ten, thanks to Haymitch, who burst into the room, and promptly threw up all over the back of the sofa. By the time the attendants had dragged him back to his room, and brought us new furniture to sit on, we had just caught the reaping of a 12 year old girl from Eleven, oddly reminiscent of Prim. I left the room at that point, unable to stomach watching myself, Peeta (volunteering in place of Haymitch), a girl who's name I had already forgotten who was in Prim's year, and Rory Hawthorne be reaped.

Rory, I knew, was a special treat from Snow to me. He somehow knew of my attachment to Gale, my confused feelings for him. Who would I choose to save, Peeta or Rory, and, by extension, Gale?

I had hoped that I would get paired with someone I wouldn't care for. Someone I would have no compunction about getting killed when I had to sacrifice myself.

I would get my wish. During the opening ceremonies, we would share a chariot with our arena partner. I was matched with Cato, the non-victor tribute from District 2.


Author's Note: Takes place at the same time as Catching Fire. I resued names and characters from Hunger Games and Catching Fire, so in this AU, Katniss and Peeta fought against an entirely different crew in their first round of the Hunger Games. This was just an idea I had floating around in my head. No clue how it goes from here, or if it'll be continued but just wanted to put it out there.