"Have you ever been out to the poorer districts; eleven and twelve?" President Snow asks Seneca as he turns his beady blue eyes from the rose bush he was admiring to the Head Gamemaker. Seneca feels his breath catch in his throat at the question, and suddenly the scenery begins to play tricks on him, and his mind is trying to think of somewhere else – somewhere he has not been for a while, now. Before he can fall in to the memory, he shakes his head once, quickly, and looks back at the President with a disorientated gaze. He cannot stop the memory – it has repeated through his mind constantly whilst she has been back in his life – whether that be on his television screen or in his company – so much that he is now secretly rooting for her.

.x.x.

It was around a year ago that Seneca Crane did, in fact, head out to District 12.

It was the strangest yet most mesmerising place that he had ever seen. Seneca felt as if he was a trespasser as he made his way through the town square alone; that was the first time he realized why his fellow Capitol citizens preferred to travel with a Peacekeeper or two, but he had refused them and even then – whilst he walked and felt the hostile glares from the citizens of District 12 boring into him from all sides – he did not regret his decision of keeping bodyguards away. Seneca did nothing to help the District, of course... Truth be told he did not really understand what drove him to visit the poorest District amongst them in the first place, but he knew that he had to find... something?

The Head Gamemaker was on a mission.

He was there for three days – just long enough for no-one to realize that he had ever left. On the third and final day, he decided to walk the fence of District 12, just because he was curious about the design of it. It was a very obnoxious thing to do, but his Capitol lifestyle had got the better of him and he wanted to see just how better off they were to the people working in the coal mines. The fence was a set of stringy barbed wire that was held up by curved, rusted beams. Despite the High Voltage sign, he knew that there was, in fact, no voltage running through this fence at all. District 12 rarely had any electricity, so he knew very well that the fence would be worthless at keeping anyone in.

These caged animals could easily break free, and they have no idea...

That was when he first saw her. She came bursting through the trees – out of the forest – with three dead rabbits tied to her belt; caught red-handed. She had surprised him, and his presence had surprised her. Seneca Crane was the last person she had expected to find in District 12... Her grey eyes were trapped in the icy-blue of his own, wide eyes, and she froze in terror as the adrenaline took over her bloodstream and panic shot down her spine. He could see that she was shaking, and her chest was heaving as she just stood there, staring at him, waiting for him to call a Peacekeeper or five to take her away and kill her for trespassing and leaving District 12's boundaries.

"Who are you?" He asked calmly. The young girl opened her mouth to speak, but her lower lip began to tremble and no words left her mouth, for a minute or so. Then, it was as if she had flicked some sort of emotional switch; she inhaled deeply and, suddenly, any signs of fear were gone – they were replaced with an arrogant demeanour as she made her way to the fence.

"I'm the girl that has to do this every day just to stay alive," She spat before crawling underneath the barbed fencing. He tensed in concern as the spiked cords nearly came in to contact with her body; once he was sure that she had made it back under without an injury, his tensed muscles relaxed. The young brunette stood on her feet again, and her eyes found his instantly... The look of pure hatred had him balling his fists just to stop himself from flinching. In that moment she really did look like an animal; a wild lioness trapped inside a human body. When she saw that Seneca was not going to speak again, she frowned at him in confusion – the look of hate never left her eyes. "Well, aren't you going to call the Peacekeepers and tell them to imprison me?" She smirked sarcastically as her eyes took on a dark tone, "Get them to cut out my tongue for talking to you like this?"

Seneca was barely paying attention to her words because he was too caught up in her body language and the familiar-yet-unfamiliar look in her big, grey eyes. The girl that looked so young moved with a lethal precision, and that look in her eyes, behind the hatred and revulsion... It was the same look he saw in people of his own age, not hers. In that moment, he realized that the young girl stood before him had grown up long before she should have... In that single moment, his perspective on life changed – he saw everything through her eyes. He saw that the Capitol used them like puppets, manipulated human beings to do their dirty work and did not care for the damage they caused them at all. There he was in his expensive suit with mundane concerns like what time he was going to head home, and there she was... This strong woman trapped inside a child's body, covered in dirt and wearing hand-me-down clothing, worrying about whether or not she was going to live to see another day.

He realized that nothing had really been that mesmerising in District 12 at all... Not until he had met her.

"You better get home before the Peacekeepers come on duty," He murmured emotionlessly. "You wouldn't want them to snip out that sharp tongue of yours, would you?" Seneca smirked in amusement at his choice of words, but his faux-kindness only made her that much angrier.

"Don't try and pretend that you understand," She hissed... But she made no move to head home. She just kept her eyes locked on his, and Seneca realized that she was searching them for something. Although her gaze was slightly intimidating, he refused to let her see that she was getting to him like no one had, before.

"I am not going to call the Peacekeepers on you, Miss...?"

"Everdeen," She mumbled; her voice was dreamlike, and he could tell that the teenager was lost in thoughts. Seneca took a deep breath and then smiled.

"Everdeen," He finished, "No first name?" He hinted after a moment of waiting for her to say or do something else. The dazed look on her face disappeared, and she seemed to go back to being cold and arrogant again.

"I don't let people like you call me by my first name," She sneered. "You all look down on us? Well, I look down on all of you."

"Suit yourself," Seneca smirked before changing the subject. "I am sure you know who I am?"

"Seneca Crane," She mumbled in a monotone voice, "The Head Gamemaker of the Hunger Games; you have been for two years now."

"So you do," He grinned, and she scoffed at him before looking down at the rabbits on her belt.

"I'm leaving," She turned her head to the reservoir wall, and he can tell that she is wondering whether he got there the same way she must have. The mysterious and mesmerising Everdeen started walking off to the wall, and Seneca turned to the forest beyond the barbed fencing as he listened to her footsteps. Once they stopped, he frowned, and before he could turn to see if she was alright, her voice called: "Crane?"

"Yes, Everdeen?" He asked, turning around to face her as he did so. She offered him an almost-smile as she looked back at him, over her shoulder, from the middle of the meadow.

"Thank you for not turning me in."

He had watched her leave with a pitiful gaze and, later on, he realized that she had been the reason he went out there; to find people like her, though he didn't realize what for until much later on...

.x.x.

He cannot tell President Snow that he knew Katniss Everdeen before she entered the games. That tribute is a weakness of his, and he cannot come across as weak.

"No," He murmurs quietly in response to Snow's question, "Not personally..."

He doesn't pay much attention to everything else that the President has to say – that may be why he goes against his wishes of keeping it to one winner and makes it so there may be two, despite his disagreement.

Katniss Everdeen is an underdog, and Seneca Crane loves an underdog.

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A/N: Despite having quite a few stories going already, I just couldn't resist writing this - It has been eating at me for days! Seneca/Katniss is quite an odd pairing, but they are really growing on me! Anyway, enjoy, + R&R? :) I think there'll be 2 more chapters, so keep checking up if you like it!
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