"Hey, Kat," said a familiar voice that still startled her. She gasped and her eyes flew open at the sound. And there was no one other than Clove leaning against a tree in front of Katniss, smirking like she always did. Katniss blinked, and stood there completely dumbfounded. How does she just appear? "Miss me?"

Katniss sighed impatiently, but it didn't escape her notice how relaxed she felt around Clove, how everything dropped temporarily. "You have been gone for three days,"Katniss scolded. Despite her happiness and relief in seeing her, her couldn't deny how abandoned she'd felt. "Where were you?"

"Damn, relax," Clove said. She stood away from the tree and put a hand on her hip. She did it in a cocky, confident way that Katniss admired. "You're starting to sound like Cato. I've been around."

"I haven't seen you for three days," Katniss repeated.

"Just because you didn't see me doesn't mean I haven't been around. You were at the lake about two hours ago."

And how do you know that?

"I was there, I saw you," Clove answered Katniss' inner question. "You were trying to talk to Peeta, and then Cato's impatient ass led him away. You gotta be more careful, by the way. If Cato had seen you, you'd be up shit creek without a paddle." Clove's voice was scolding, almost accusing. "Sure, we're allies, Kat, but I can't protect you from everything when you cut it close, even for Lover Boy."

"Well… you disappeared! And 'Lover Boy' has a name; he is my district partner in case you've forgotten."

"Disappearing is better than risking my neck."

Disappearing is risking your neck! Katniss thought as she sighed angrily. An argument would get them nowhere. Then, simultaneously, the both of them asked, "Why do you care?"

Clove blinked. Katniss stared for a moment. Each second felt like a long, cold minute. Then Katniss said, "I… I was worried that…" Finding the right words was hard. "…you had left me… ally-less, I mean," she added awkwardly.

"Oh," replied Clove. She looked down at her now-picked-spotless finger nails and picked at them again. "Well, I was always around."

Another moment of uncomfortable silence passed between them, with Clove picking at her nails, as usual, Katniss noticed, and Katniss standing there. Katniss never knew what to do during a silent moment; she was so used to having something to do or having something threatening her that she usually felt fidgety.

Clove looked up, as though she wanted to say something, and then, changing her mind, looked down again at her nails. How well Clove keeps her nails, Katniss said to herself. Clove kept everything about herself well: Her long, black hair was back in flyaway-free ponytail, her freckled face was clean, and she always had a strut when she walked, Katniss noticed. She notice her jacket was open, and how menacingly, stellar clean her knives were. It was spooky, really, how clean this girl was. But there was something else that was deeper than all of that that Katniss admired…

Katniss found a tree stump not far from where she stood and sat. She chose her next words cautiously. "Why… were you… so nervous? Earlier? And where did you go?" she asked delicately.

Clove stopped fidgeting for a moment, and then continued to pick at her nails. Without looking at her she answered, "You were getting too close, and I can't have a dead ally."

"Oh." Katniss looked down.

Clove dared to glance up; she saw a sad Katniss, trying to no avail to cover her emotions. Without thinking about anything but the guilt she felt, Clove joined her quickly and sat on the ground beside her. "Look, what I meant was… if anything happened to you, I'd feel bad for dragging you into this."

But, why? Aren't I just…just…another tribute in your way? Clove still saw the sadness and the confusion in Katniss.

"Listen," Clove began to explain. She put an arm around Katniss to comfort her. She lowered her voice. "There are two kinds of tribute in this arena: The tributes that fight for glory and power, and the tributes that fight for their lives. You know this. Careers only fight as the first kind, the glory-seeking kind. I don't want you to get killed by some tribute who—" Clove shuddered, trying desperately to compose herself. "—a tribute that… is only in it for the money and all. And I don't want them to capture you and turn you into one of them. No, don't be like me in these games with nothing but this, Kat. Find some way to get out of here and live some sort of happily ever after. With… Peeta, even, if he makes you happy—" It didn't escape Katniss' notice how Clove seemed to spit his name. "—and you can get him out of here, too, because I know you don't care about the money. You're just trying to get back to your family and sister, and I think that's, you know, poetic and all, but shit. You can only do that if you're careful is all I mean."

Katniss smiled, knowing that in her own way Clove was trying to be nice. Clove had never revealed this much about what she was feeling since they'd first met properly in the tree. It was true that Clove was a mystery to Katniss, but that mystery is what made Clove so attractive and alluring to Katniss, and she found herself staring at her. But now, she had to ask. "So… that's why you didn't murder me at the bloodbath?"

Clove looked at Katniss, and it didn't escape her notice how close their faces were. "In truth… in truth I tried to, but… I couldn't do it."

"Why?" Katniss asked automatically.

Clove stared back at her. She couldn't… she didn't…know. Sometimes you just don't know, and you can't say what you're... feeling inside. In all of Clove's sea of secrets, she couldn't think of what to say, how to explain all of it.

She didn't even know if she should… but she did anyway. She pulled Katniss too her and kissed her softly. It was wonderful; it was the kind of bliss you get when you know you're doing the right thing. And Katniss kissed her back. She couldn't contradict the fact that she had fantasied this, several times while Clove was away, but it didn't matter. None of it mattered. Not Peeta, not Cato, not Haymitch—who's probably drinking his head off—not Effie, not the Games, not Snow, not even Prim, right now, mattered. All that mattered was her and Clove…