Despite my best efforts at looking mediocre, I get a ten. Blight looks at me knowingly. He thinks I used an ax. What I really did was go in there, toss an ax straight at the wall, and storm out without being dismissed. My ten is not for skill. It's a target. They've painted a huge target on my back with that score. Luckily, Katniss gets an eleven. An eleven! She must have shot her bow. But even so, even if she's as good with her bow as I am with an ax, she must have done something else to piss them off.

I can't help but feel a little proud of her. Fuck these people and their Games. That's what I want to tell Caesar Flickerman when I meet him, but Blight has cautioned me not to. He's advised me to play down my ten, to brush it off as much as I can. When we practice together what I'm to say, he gets very frustrated with me.

Humility is not exactly my strong suit.

"Everything you're saying sounds arrogant," Blight says tiredly, rubbing his forehead. We've been pretending to be at my interview for four hours. My time with my escort was easy; I can walk in heels and present myself with grace. I wasn't raised in a barn. But actually saying things with grace, well, I fail on a lot of points.

I glare at him. "Because I am arrogant. I'm an arrogant son of a bitch."

"Well good for you, Jo, but I don't think that's going to get you sponsors."

I scoff. "As if you were going to get me sponsors anyway." He looks hurt and I put my hands on my hips triumphantly.

He lowers his voice as he rises from his chair. "I will do my best for you, and for Nectar. I don't know what you think of me. Probably very little, but I didn't win my Games by accident, Johanna." The way he speaks, so softly and with deliberation, makes me feel a pang of guilt for having been so obnoxious the last few hours. He has been trying to help, in a roundabout way. And I do think he'll try and get me sponsors. But with how attractive the Careers are this year, and how captivating Katniss is, it will be tough to find anything for anyone else.

It suddenly dawns on me that I might ...need allies. The thought disgusts me to my very core. I hated everyone in that training room. The girl from Five was all right. The cripple from Ten was useless. The little girl from Eleven I just felt plain bad for. I guess I could try to befriend the ones from Four, but I imagine One and Two got to them first. Stupid Glimmer and her beautiful blonde hair, and Cato with his giant muscles. And Two...Marvel, the kid who threw a spear so accurately it almost went through the walls of the training center. And Clove, that arrogant little bitch.. I actually liked her a lot. But it was no use, they were not going to want to align with some loner from Seven. If I won, I'd be the only living female Victor in Seven. The last one died five years ago, and she won in one of the first couple of Games.

My best bet was probably Katniss and Peeta. However, doing so would mean I need to apologize for my behavior in the archery range.

...Again, humility is not my strong suit.


Before we go on stage, Peeta is being spoken to by their Mentor, Haymitch, while Katniss dodges glares from the Careers. I roll my eyes at their abashed jealousy and stride over to her. She looks wary of me and I try to smile. "Don't worry about them. They're just jealous you scored higher than they did. Especially that little thing from Two."

We both look in Clove's direction and if that girl's eyes could throw daggers like her hands, both of us would be dead in a heartbeat. Katniss' lips ghost a smile as she looks at me. "Thanks."

I bite the inside of my cheek, fumbling with my hands in front of me awkwardly. "Look, I'm not good at apologies, Twelve, but I'm sorry I snapped at you in the archery range. I just..." I take a look around at the other Tributes, talking amongst each other. "I don't trust anyone."

"I wasn't trying to sniff out a weakness," Katniss explains evenly. "I was trying to help."

"I know that," I snap back. I squeeze my eyes shut, trying to will myself more patience like a parachute in the arena. I open my eyes and look into hers, briefly getting a little lost in her endless grey orbs. "Axes. I'm good with axes. Like, really good. Like I could split a hair from fifteen feet away good." Katniss smiles and nods, taking in this information. "Are you nervous? About your interview?"

She nods again. "Yeah. Cinna told me to just be myself, but...I'm not good at making friends. Haymitch says I don't have any charm." She chuckles, but from the hint of pain in her eyes, I can tell she's genuinely hurt by that comment.

I glance at her. "Are you kidding? This town is already in love with you. Your defender-of-the-helpless act, which is not an act and makes you insufferable," I rib, nudging her with my elbow. "That's who you are. You're a fighter. You've got spunk. They'll see it. Just get them talking about your little sister. What's her name?"

"Prim."

"Right, Prim," I repeat, nodding my head. "Talk about Prim. You'll be fine, Twelve." I pat her on the shoulder and take my leave as I watch Peeta approaching. I don't know why I'm encouraging her. More love for Katniss means less sponsors for me, but hell. I didn't volunteer for my sister, not that I have one. If anyone deserves to win these Games other than me, it should probably be her.


I don't get a chance to ask to be allies. After Peeta's stunt with his confession, my time with Twelve is up. Any hope I had of possibly teaming with Katniss fly out the window and into the distance like stardust.

I tuck my token - a little baby pinecone on a necklace that is very pungent - into my shirt. In a haze I eat breakfast, go through the tunnels to the launching area, and the next thing I know I'm on the platform, waiting for the cannon to go off. I scan the arena. I can see a few Tributes, but my view of Katniss is obscured by the Cornucopia. This giant metal horn is glistening with supplies and weapons, beckoning me to come near it. I can see the axes from here. I want them. Blight's words of wisdom, of course, echo in my brain. Get to water. Get out of there. Pick up a few things and run as fast as you can. I'm a fast runner. Probably not as fast as Clove or Rue, or even the elusive girl from Five, but I'm fast enough.

Not fast enough to get there and get out alive, though, I realize. The cannon goes off, Claudius Templesmith calls that the Games have begun, and I'm off. I grab a few things scattered by my platform - a sleeping roll, something that looks like matches, and a small blood red backpack. I can see Glimmer running toward me, a bow over her shoulder and a spear in her arm. That bow and arrow don't belong to you, I think. I become determined to get them from her. But not now.

I turn as quickly as I can and take off toward the woods, hearing Cato call out to her to ignore me.

I'm on my own.

...

Finding water is relatively easy. There are a few springs that run, dumping into nothing except back into the ground. But the water is fresh and there are a few fish to be caught (if I knew how) so I decide to settle in a small cave near one of the man-made spring origins. I've got some provisions; the backpack had a few nuts and one roll, and my sleeping bag will help keep me warm, even though it's way too small for me and only comes up to my waist. What I thought was matches is indeed matches, but they're different than anything I've seen at home. There are ten. I take one out and examine it. On a whim, I dip it in water and strike it against the rock. It lights immediately. Well that's helpful.

I put it in the water, remove it, and it continues to stay alight. That's extremely helpful. I stub it out on a rock and return the matches into my backpack. Night has begun to fall, so since I can't hear anyone and it seems safe, I cover my sleeping roll in mud and tuck myself into the cave.

That night I watch the sky for the fallen Tributes. Nectar is gone. My twinge of guilt is only soothed by the thought that maybe that means I might get more sponsors. It's selfish, but selfishness is all I have in the absence of allies. Still, there's too many left, even though a lot of people died in the initial bloodbath. She's still alive somewhere, and I can't help but feel relieved. She finds her way into my dreams again that night.


The next morning I'm awoken by the sounds of snapping branches and footsteps pounding. Quickly I roll my sleeping bag, tuck it into my backpack and throw everything over my shoulders. I'm without a weapon, I realize grimly. Making a torch from one of these matches would be foolish, the smoke would only indicate my location. But standing here with nothing but a backpack is also a bad idea.

So I take to the trees. Climbing trees comes as easily to me as walking, since I've been doing both for about the same amount of time. In no time I'm precariously up in a dense willow, and I can see the Career pack hunting. Oddly enough, Peeta is with them. Weird. Is he diverting them from Katniss? Or leading them to her? There's no way for me to be sure.

From my vantage point high above the arena, I can see Katniss and the little girl from Eleven treed about twenty yards from me. The pack has found them, and luckily they are too high and Glimmer doesn't have the bow on her anymore. The bow. I want that bow. Well, I want it for Katniss. I can see Marvel has the ax. Which he either procured from the Cornucopia or ...I see the blood on it and realize he must've gotten it from Nectar. Poor kid.

It makes me kind of enraged though, and now I'm determined to arm myself from the Careers. And figure out where that bow went.

...

After a quiet meal of nuts and a few berries I found lying around, I wait until they've sent Peeta to get water to make my move. Slowly I scale down the tree, and tail the boy until he is by the water. He kneels down, unscrewing the cap of a canteen and letting the creek slowly trickle into it.

I can see the glisten of a small knife tucked into Peeta's belt. With the practiced quiet my mother taught me as an apprentice hunter, I slowly creep behind him. In one swift movement I disarm him and put the knife to his throat. I wrap my arm under his chin and lean into his ear. "Make a noise and I'll slit your throat."

"Why not just do it anyway?" he seethes, trying to pull me away from him. He's stronger than he looks, but my knife is so close to his throat he's too afraid to jerk me away.

"You have information I want."

"Doubtful, but go ahead."

"Where's Glimmer's bow?"

"What?" Exasperated I tighten my grip under his chin.

"The bow, idiot. Where is it? I know she had it, and she doesn't have it now. I want it."

"Why?"

I roll my eyes. "You don't need to know why. Do you know where it is or not?"

Before he can answer we hear the screams. Suddenly Cato, Clove and Mavel go rushing through the woods, trailed by a few hundred tracker-jackers. Peeta and I look at each other and I let him out of my grip. "You want to get it for Katniss, don't you?"

I don't have to answer him, because my guilty face says it all. He smiles. "If we go quickly, we can get to the Cornucopia before they get back from ...wherever they're going to get away from the tracker-jackers. She left it there. She sucks with it."

...

And that's how Peeta Mellark and I became allies. We got to the Cornucopia, and he was right. The Careers are not there, but some weapons are. I find an ax and put it in my belt, while Peeta stocks a backpack with some food. I put the bow around my back and sling the quiver over my shoulder. As we go back into the woods I look at him. "So you and the Careers, that was to protect Katniss from them, right?"

He nods. "Sort of. If I team with them, they can't kill me yet. If they can't kill me, I can still try and help her." He looks at the bow over my shoulder, then at me. "And what about you? When Katniss and I briefly discussed getting allies, you were the only person she mentioned. Other than Rue."

I raise my eyebrow. "It was a toss up between me and the little girl? Wow, I guess I suck more than I thought."

Peeta laughs and shakes his head. "No, she likes Rue. Pities her, I guess. Reminds her a little of Prim, I think." I nod. "But we ultimately decided against allies. We didn't even decide to trust each other. But she did mention you. Is that why you're getting her the bow? Did you have an agreement?" I'm silent and Peeta sighs. "You don't have to tell me anything if you don't want."

"No, we didn't. We didn't have an agreement or anything. I just..."

"I know." And he does. He understands this bizarre effect Katniss can have. She somehow has gotten under my skin, just like she's gotten under his. This is our tentative agreement. Allies for Katniss. We spend the rest of that night near my cave. Peeta is handy with the knife and manages to kill and cook a fish for us. It makes me feel slightly bad about being so jealous of him. He's got a sweetness, a self-deprecating niceness that I learn comes from living with older brothers who pick on him constantly. And from loneliness. Loneliness is weird. It has made Peeta nice to a fault - as if he's begging someone to love him. It made me an asshole - begging for someone to love me anyway. Strange how life turns out. Maybe in an alternate universe Peeta and I would have been friends. We would have both secretly pined for the same girl - his chances much better than mine - and both would've lost apparently to some guy named Gale that Peeta speaks of with a resigned evenness. A barely veiled jealousy. But he's so goddamn nice about this guy who has the hots for his girl that I want to smack him. If I were Peeta, I wouldn't be as nice to Katniss' "friend." But if I were Peeta, I never would have aligned with me.

We take turns sleeping in between our long talks. I learn a lot about him, and he about me. I talk about my mother and her untimely death. About my father and how sometimes it'll be days or weeks before I see him again, so I basically raised myself. We talk until morning, and with a pain in my heart, I realize how futile our friendship is. Neither one of us are making it out of here alive.

Peeta senses this. He has a sixth sense for people and their feelings, I've noticed. "I know this is temporary, but I'm glad I got to know you, Johanna."

I smile at him, repeatedly smacking my ax into the dirt. "Why the hell not, you know? Just because we got sent in here against our will to murder each other and get killed, who says we can't be friends? Fuck them. What better way to say fuck you to the Capitol than this?" I ask, my voice slightly raised. Peeta looks around warily, at the buzzing of the insect cameras that I've chosen to ignore. "Who cares? They're going to kill me anyway."

Peeta chuckles softly, gathering our meager belongings and throwing his backpack over his shoulder. "You're either really brave or really crazy."

I smirk. "Probably a little bit of both." I look around at the woods, now illuminated by the high sun. "We should try to find Katniss. Give her this stupid bow."

...

We don't find her, but the Careers find us. Cato and Marvel come bursting through the woods, trailed by Clove. Peeta and I take off as fast as we can, with me being much faster than he is. Maybe not faster, but more agile. I leap over bushes and fallen trees, looking back periodically to see Peeta being overtaken by Cato. "No!" I shout, twisting and launching my ax toward him. I miss. It lodges in a tree and I can hear Clove's cackle. It sends fire running through my veins.

The sound of a knife being plunged into flesh burns into my mind. Peeta's strangled cry. My own shrill scream. Clove's laugh. I pull the bow from around me, and aim it at them. "Try it!" Clove taunts, flashing her knifes from within her jacket.

I cant my head and aim the arrow higher. It draws the Careers' attention upward, where another tracker-jacker nest is in the branch above their heads. "Take one step toward me and I'll do to you what Katniss did to Glimmer." I can't be sure Katniss killed Glimmer with the bees Peeta and I saw, but the guess is right with how Cato snarls at me. They also don't know how shitty I am with the bow. I look confident, so that helps.

"We'll come back for you, bitch." Cato motions for them to leave, and I stand there with the bow drawn as taut as it can go, my chest heaving hard with adrenaline and fear. When they are safely out of range, I drop the bow on the ground and rush over to Peeta.

There's so much blood. It seeps through his shirt and on to the ground, soaking the dirt. The wound is clearly fatal, but with no cannon, he's struggling to hang on. I press my hand over the wound to stop the bleeding. "Come on, Peeta. Don't die on me." I use my free hand to push hair from his sweaty forehead. Tears prick the corners of my eyes as I watch him convulse. Nobody this good should have to die like this.

"Protect.." he coughs, turning his head to the side to spit coagulated blood on to the leaves. I wince, still trying to hold his intestines in with my hands. "Protect her," he forces out, blood trickling from his mouth and coating his white teeth. His eyes roll back in his head, then his eyelids flutter closed.

"No, no, come on," I plead to no one, but as the cannon goes off above my head, I let out the tears I've been holding since I was reaped. Tears for my mother, my father, for Peeta, for myself. My tears drop on to his shirt, and I use my forearm to wipe them away, since both my hands are covered in his blood. I hear the buzz of the hovercraft and I try to regain my bearings. I take his backpack and his bracelet, which must be his token. I slide it over my wrist, getting a thin coat of blood on it. I step away from his body, allowing the claw to come and scoop him up. I press my three fingers to my lips, putting blood on my face, then salute his rising corpse in Twelve's traditional salute.

After it disappears into the clouds, I pull my ax from the tree and tuck it into my belt. Now I have to find Katniss.


When I do, she and Rue are around a small fire they've made. Katniss stands up as she hears me approach, a knife in her palm. I hold up my hands, bloodied and dirty. "Simmer down, Twelve. I come bearing gifts."

I shrug the bow off my shoulder and throw it to her. She catches it and looks at my quzizically. Her gaze lowers to my bloody hands and outfit, narrowing as she inspects me. I toss her the quiver. She arms herself with both and looks at me. "How do I know you aren't here to kill me?"

I sigh. "Because I would've fu-" I look at Rue. "I would have done it already." Katniss relaxes a little, sitting back down next to their small fire. I sit down with them, warming my hands over the fire.

Rue examines my hand, taking it in her own. "What happened?"

My eyes are still burning hot from my tears and I look at her, then to Katniss. "Peeta."

Katniss scrambles to her feet so fast I barely blink. She draws her bow and points it at me. Rue's eyes widen in surprise and she backs away from both of us. I can see the tears in Katniss' eyes threatening to fall. "You killed him?" she hisses at me, her fingers gripping the bow.

"No!' I object, shaking my head. "I didn't kill him. Cato ...we were trying to find you after I got the bow and we got ambushed. I tried...I fucking tried, okay?" I'm hoarse now, choking out my words. More tears fall from my eyes. "I watched him die. I watched it." I look up at Katniss. "If you want to kill me, just do it, okay?"

Slowly she sits back down, placing the bow at her side. I sniffle mucus back into my nose, wiping it with my arm again. Katniss stares into the fire, unable to speak to me. "Was it quick?" she asks finally.

If I don't tell her the truth, she'll only watch it after she wins and is back on stage with Caesar. They'll throw salt in the wound and make her watch everyone die, especially Peeta. "Yes," I lie. Who cares? I won't be around to get yelled at for lying. "Stabbed. It was quick."

She nods, then pours some dirt onto the fire, snuffing out the flames. She looks at my provisions, her eyes glossy with unshed tears. "Do you have anything good?"

I nod. I take out my backpack, dumping my provisions on the ground. In the moonlight we can see what we have - two knives, some night vision glasses, a small package of nuts, my ax, Katniss' bow and arrows, and three rolls. Enough for at least another half a day. But now that Katniss has her bow, she can hunt while I protect her. "My sleeping roll will fit you," I say to Rue, handing it to her. "It only comes up to my waist. It's really warm, though."

She smiles at me. "Thanks." Her voice, so tiny and innocent, makes me smile back at her. What cruel fucking system put this adorable little girl in this death trap? My anger at the Capitol boils back to the surface. The injustice of Peeta's death and Rue's imminent demise as well.

"What about you?" Katniss asks, gathering up our things and putting them into two bags.

"What about me?"

She sighs. "For sleeping."

"Oh." I hadn't actually thought of that. I shrug. "I'll camp out down here, if you guys want to take up to the trees. We can switch watch. I'll sleep in your roll while you watch."

Katniss nods. "Well, at least watch from up in the trees. Don't stay down here. I don't know where the rest of them are, but there's still a lot of them. Cato, Marvel, Clove..."

"Thresh," Rue adds.

"Right, Thresh...Foxface.."

I snort. "Foxface?" Rue giggles.

Katniss blushes. "That's what I nicknamed the girl from Five." I nod for her to continue. "So that leaves five of them, plus the three of us. Anyway, let's just get up there. Cato has the glasses, too. So who knows if they'll come hunting in the middle of the night?" She's right, so the three of us settle up in the shade and protection of one of the larger willow trees.

...

It's fucking freezing. Unreasonably cold, considering how hot it's been during the day. I shiver, pulling my jacket tighter over my body. I try to put my tongue between my teeth to keep them from chattering, but I only succeed in making my tongue bleed and filling my mouth with blood. "Johanna, just sleep with me."

"What?" I whisper, my eyes wide in surprise.

Katniss rolls her eyes and unzips the side of her bag. "Get in the bag with me. You can keep watch and still be warm. No use in you freezing to death."

I shake my head. No fucking way am I getting into a sleeping bag with Katniss Everdeen. Not with how unnerved I was at just her light touch in the archery range.

"Don't be stubborn. You're of no use to me frozen and dead. Get in here quickly before I get cold too." I sigh and make my way over to her, sliding my body next to hers. Not just next to, but against. The warmth is immediate, and not unwelcome. My body is warm not only from the sleeping roll, but also the contact of Katniss' body against mine. It's on fire. The girl on fire indeed.

I try hard to control my breathing, taking in long and deep breaths. It isn't long before Katniss is lulled back into sleep, during which her arm snakes around my waist. She hugs me tightly, murmuring something unintelligible into my neck. The feeling of her hot breath gliding over my skin is driving me crazy. I'll have no trouble staying awake tonight. I might pay for it in the morning, but for now this is probably the closest to happy I'll get for the rest of my life. Since the rest of my life is probably a day or two away from being over.

She has no idea, the effect she can have.


A/N: Wow thanks for the positive response to this fic! I'm sorry this is so filler-y. I promise more Joniss to come. I'm also sorry about killing Peeta, but...sacrifices must be made for the greater good. Aka Joniss. I'm actually close to finished with the next chapter (because class was cancelled, yay!) so I'll be posting that shortly.

To my Spanish-speaking reader: Gracias! Gracias por tomarse el tiempo para traducir esta historia y léala. Espero que os guste y gracias por los comentarios positivos. :)