The train ride is long, boring and utterly torturous. Rue can't stand thinking about what's going to happen to her, to her family in her absence, and even to Thresh, but she's not too worried about him. He'll be okay; he's quite capable of taking care of himself.

Thresh doesn't talk to her much. They pass each other in the hallways, and she might attempt a conversation, but he just gives one word answers, shrugs, and silence for her efforts. She wants so much to just stop trying but won't let herself alienate the only person who could be of use in the arena. So, despite the hopelessness of the situation, when she sees Thresh one morning sitting on the bed in his room with the door open- a rare sight in itself- she says, "Good morning."

He stops staring into space for a moment to nod in her direction. "Hi." Then he continues ignoring her as usual, but this time she won't let him get away with it.

"Thresh," she sits cross-legged on the ugly blue carpet at his feet. "Are you scared? About the Games, I mean." She asks. This may be one of the few times that they can talk without at least a dozen cameras trained on them.

He raises an eyebrow in slight shock though otherwise gives no reaction. "No." It's even half true. He's not afraid of the other tributes per se, just what happens before the actual Games; the people mostly. He's not exactly thrilled about the thought of dying a horrible death, but that pales in comparison to his fear of large crowds staring at him. Besides, its none of Rue's business how he feels about this. Why is she so interested? It's not like it would benefit her to know all this; she wouldn't kill him would she? No way, they're teammates, not enemies in this Game. Rue is a lot of things and stupid isn't one of them; the whole District will hate her if she harms him, just as they'll hate Thresh if he doesn't make at least some attempt to keep her alive.

"I wish I could say I wasn't scared of the Games, but I am afraid to die." She pauses then says, "You know, I didn't see you much back home. You always kept to yourself. Why didn't you ever talk to people?"

He shrugs, looking down. If he were planning to tell the truth he'd say that it was mostly because he was too shy to speak, too afraid of what others would think of him. However in this case being honest meant that he was also showing way too much weakness to someone he barely knows, so he opts to go a different route. "I don't much like other people."

Rue bites her thumbnail thoughtfully. "I don't believe you Thresh. You're not the terrible person that everyone thinks you are- that you want them to believe you are." She waits to see if he'll try to deny it, but he doesn't, just pretends to ignore her. "I know this may sound silly, but I could be your friend if you wanted."

He honestly never thought she'd say that; they're in the middle of a life-or-death situation and she wants to be friends? True, it's not nearly such a dangerous proposition as it would have been if this weren't a partner Game, but still. Part of him wants to take her up on the offer, but the other part tells him it's best if he keeps a safe distance from the child at least till he figures some things out. "No. I don't think so." He says.

Hurt is plain in her eyes, and he feels seriously guilty, but he doesn't let it show. She stands, saying, "I'll see you later then." She spares one last glance at him before leaving and closing the door behind her.

Once she's gone, Thresh is left alone with his thoughts.

How is this possible? How can such a little kid be such a huge cause of grief? He can't kill her, can't harm her; even if the they weren't on the same team, he knows he wouldn't be able to anyway. She's so genuine, so kind to him when it would be so much less painful if she had stabbed him in the chest. She'll never survive the Games. He knows it and she probably does too. She can't do nothing worth anything for the Games, which grates on his nerves like nails on a chalkboard. She'll be worthless as a partner and seriously jeopardize his chances of winning. But here's the problem: no one ever showed him kindness before now; she was the first to even attempt it. Now he's going to have to live with her, most certainly watch her die and end up six feet under himself!

Not if he can help it. He'll have to disassociate from her as much as possible. It wouldn't be too hard; she's so young and useless it would be easy to turn his irritation into hatred. But she just has to be so…so…nice to him! He wishes he could force himself hate her or at least remain indifferent but it's hard and it irks him. It makes him want to hurt something, someone, but not her. So do you hate Ru- her… (he won't let himself think the girl's name) …or don't you? No, he concludes. He doesn't despise her no matter how much he'd love to, but he can act like he does. I cannot, will not kill her, but I can make every second she's with me such a living hell before the Games, she'll have no choice but to compete separately of her own free will later. Then I don't have to worry about what the District people think when she's killed and I'm not around to save her. It couldn't be more perfect.

oOo

For the next three days, Rue finds odd things happening to her with almost no explanation. One morning before breakfast, Rue somehow falls into the supply closet and ends up locked in for eight hours until Hugo hears her late in the afternoon.

"Having fun in there sweetie?" He asks, mildly amused. She stalks out of the closet, blood boiling. "Okay, what happened?" Hugo honestly couldn't care less, except that he's technically responsible for her and can't afford to have her go missing for so long.

"I tripped, the door closed on me." she answers.

Hugo smirks, "Sweetie, the door is too heavy to close on its own, and a wire was elaborately tied around the handle and attached to the door frame. Someone from outside did this." Thresh. There was no other option. He'd been a jerk to her before, now he was trying to make her an enemy for some reason. Great, just great.

The next day, Thresh comes in her room. Rue continues her doodles on the back of Hugo's itinerary with a charcoal pencil. In the back of her mind she wonders what Hugo will say once he's seen the mess she's made of his papers, but she couldn't find anything else to draw on. Thresh knocks on the door frame. She stops in the middle of a stroke on her sister Gin's hair. She puts down her pencil and turns her paper over. "Yes?" she asks curtly.

He's fidgeting with his hands behind his back, shoes scuffing the carpet carefully, but his black eyes have a hardened edge to them. "I uh, just wanted to give you this. It's a gift.."

Rue hides her disbelief at such an out of character move. He steps forward and holds a small cardboard package out to her. The words 'for rue' are scribbled in marker on the lid. "Uh, thanks." She takes it. Before she can add anything else, he's gone.

Okay, this is weird. Thresh so isn't the type to be doing this. But he wouldn't give her anything dangerous. Despite herself, Rue is simply dying to find out what he'd given her. It's just like that woman from Greek mythology she heard about in school, Pandora. Pandora opened a box and all the evils of the world were set free to wreak havoc. Oh well, if we're basing this on some old Greek stories, better follow through on them right?

She lifts the lid and screams. Without thinking, she closes it and chucks the box across the hall so that it hits a wall. The contents spill out. Rue slams the door shut so she won't have to look at it anymore. Her chest heaving, she leans back on the locked door, brings her knees to her chest and sobs quietly. As hard as she tries, she can't picture anything else but Thresh's cruel joke: a note that read heard you liked birds tied around the neck of a dead, bloody mockingjay.

Thresh winces when he hears her scream, then the box flies across the hall and it makes his stomach churn just to look at the dead bird. The poor thing. Thresh had found it rotting outside the District 3 train station. He couldn't bear to kill one himself, which just added to his irritation. He silently pads down the hall and puts an ear to her door. She's crying, soft as if is, and despite how she is clearly attempting to hide it. It hurt Thresh that he's the cause of her misery, but he isn't about to admit this. She'll get over it. It was just some dumb bird he thought.

Thresh turns and heads back the way he came and has almost made it back to his room when he hears a voice, "Okay, I give up. What's going on?" Hugo of course. The man just had to choose the exact wrong moment to show up.

"Nothing. What do you mean?" Thresh asks, in what he hopes is an innocent tone. Hugo doesn't buy it, not that Thresh honestly thought he would.

Hugo crosses his arms in that no-nonsense way of his, "Oh, stop playing dumb, kid. You know exactly what I'm talking about." Thresh just continues his wide eyed confused look that he knows isn't getting him anywhere but that he would keep up for Hugo's sake. "I know it was you who pulled that little supply closet stunt yesterday; it wasn't exactly inconspicuous. And now whatever the girl's crying about now is surely of your doing. Now I could care less about District 11 but since when is she your enemy? Maybe you missed the memo about the whole partner's competition thing you're in this year. But once you're in that arena, she's the only person you can trust, and you're just messing with her! Why? Are you stupid or something? Did I get a retard this year?"

Thresh is stunned into silence. Hugo knows it too. Who does this guy think he is, telling Thresh what he should and shouldn't do? Last time he checked, Hugo was just there to be sure his charges didn't make total idiots of themselves on camera before the Games. This is so none of his business! He then told Hugo as much.

"So you have a suicide wish? I can make your life hell in there if you want, but I'd rather not. Just tell me what the heck you're up to."

It's a threat, clear as day, but for once nothing can be done about it. Thresh can't fight him, and he can't tell anyone about it. So instead he does one of the best things he ever has- he lets it go. "Fine. Rue," he notes how unfamiliar the word sounds on his tongue. It's been days since he's thought her name, "is a little kid. Worse, she's a doomed, useless kid. I'm screwed back in my District if I don't make an attempt to keep her alive- seriously, how bad would it look if a 12 year old girl was slaughtered, and her teammate whose three years older and twice her size did nothing?"

Hugo seems to catch on from here. "So you don't want that responsibility, and you're gonna make her hate you so she'll leave and you won't have to be the bad guy."

"Yeah. Basically."

The man's responding 'hmmm' is almost sympathetic. He bites his nail, studying Thresh. "Well, I agree, you're in a bad position. But that," he pointed back to Rue's door, "Is not the way to handle it. Here's a question: are you sure she's useless because you knew her so well back in the District, or because you just assumed she would be?"

Thresh considers it. Sure, he and Rue were far from being best friends, but he had seen her on a regular basis, and talked to her occasionally as well. But no, he supposes he doesn't know her enough to make this judgment. However, she's just so young and small, he can't see how she would be anything but a burden. Hugo nods, the answer made known without a word on Thresh's part. "Exactly. Why don't you give her a chance? You'll see in a few days whether you were right or not. Because when there's one person you have to rely on, you better be careful not to underestimate them."

oOo

Next time: Thresh's phobia gets the better of him. This will not end well...

oOo

End of chapter 2. It's such a shame though that no one will give a review or anything (hint hint). Oh, to heck with hints! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW! I'll...uh...give you a cupcake :P There's nothing better than a good oldfashioned invisible cupcake!

Yep, so see I'll ya later peoples.

Love,

earth warroir