"Your turn to keep watch."

I slowly open my eyes. The first thing that I notice is the smell of rosy shampoo, and then I realize that Glimmer is cuddled up tight against me, her blonde curls spilling over my chest. I blink several times and stare at her, wondering what in the hell happened and how she got out of her sleeping bag. Then I figure that I'm so damn sexy that she must have subconsciously been crawling closer to me all night.

Someone clears their throat, and I look up, seeing Clove standing over me for the first time. She looks impatient and she's holding a big-ass knife. I suppose it's her watch that I'm supposed to be taking over.

"I can't," I say, nodding towards Glimmer. I'm about to crack a comment about sleeping with a hot girl, but then I remember that I'm supposed to be in love with Katniss. I check my words at the last second and instead say, "I'm currently providing warmth for a close friend-"

"Get up right now, or I will cut off your balls and choke you with them."

There is no doubt in my mind that Clove is perfectly serious.

"Actually, you know what," I say quickly, "I think Glimmer will be fine without me."

I roll back a little bit, shimmying to try to get out from underneath Glimmer, but she winds up pitching forward and smacking her head on the ground. I grimace a little as she jerks awake and holds up a knife, looking dazed and threatened. Then her eyes land on me.

She glowers, and I can see that she's going to blame me for putting her in this quite awkward position, but I hold up my hands quickly and say, "Before you get too pissed off, I'll have you know that you were the one who decided to use me as a makeshift pillow."

Glimmer blinks and I see realization flash in her eyes before they harden and she wakes up enough to get her ever-present emotionless mask back into place.

"It was cold," she says harshly, and then she's roughly climbing back into her own sleeping bag, pulling it tightly around her and turning her back to me. Clove snorts and mumbles something about blind whores under her breath, and I climb to my feet, shoving a knife in my pocket and grabbing a spear to hold up and look threatening with.

I skip around the other sleeping Careers and take up my post on a rock outside the Cornucopia. It's strangely nice outside, with very little wind and a lot of sun, and I lean back and enjoy the warmth on my face. Ninety percent of the time, District One was either windy, cloudy, snowy, or foggy, so it's nice to have weather like this. A beautiful place to kill, and I suppose, if I was referring to anyone except for myself, a beautiful place to die.

For a long time, everything is silent and I'm tempted to slip back to sleep, but then a bush rustles and I'm on my feet in an instant, holding out my spear and hoping for someone to throw it at.

"Don't worry," I call out. "I won't hurt you. Trust me."

The tribute must realize that they're at a distinct disadvantage and have no real choice, because a second later the scrawny little nerd from Three creeps out from his hiding place.

"Please, don't throw it," he says quickly, obviously not believing my claim that I'm not going to hurt him. He must either be really brave or really suicidal if he knows I'm going to kill him, but decides to face me anyway.

Or maybe he's just lazy and doesn't feel like being chased.

"Alright," I say. "If you want, I can just stab you with it instead. It'll accomplish the same thing. Actually, if you stand still, I'll be able to thrust it through one of your eyes and straight into your brain. You wouldn't feel a thing."

The boy cringes.

"No, no, I mean don't kill me. Please, please don't kill me. I came here because I want to help you. I mean, I'm smart, right? I can be really useful."

I look this boy over. He's almost a foot shorter than me, maybe fourteen, with little brown eyes and the arrogant twist to his lips that smart people usually have when they think they're better than you. The kind of kid I would really like to kill. I fidget a little, itching to wipe that little nerd look from his face, but I know I can't. If the cannon were to wake up Cato and it turns out he wanted the boy alive, well, I'd be more screwed than Glimmer at a brothel.

Good god, I can't believe that I'm bending over backwards to make Cato happy. I can't wait to kill that slimy bastard.

"How can you help us?" I ask coolly.

"You know the mines? The ones that go off if tributes leave their plates early?" the boy asks.

"Yeah…"

"Well, I've been studying them. I can reactivate them, I think. To keep your supplies safe."

I look at this kid. Something makes me wonder if the Gamemakers would be very happy about him using weapons that he's not supposed to be, but then I realize that I don't really give a hoot or a holler, so I shrug.

"I'll take you to Cato, and he can decide what to do with you," I say.

Then I lead him over to a sleeping Cato, my spear pressed firmly into his back.

Both of us pull up short when we approach the beast at rest. Cato's still glaring, even in his sleep, and he's got his sword clutched in his enormous hands, almost as if he thinks it's a teddy bear or something. Beside his sleeping bag sit his supplies and his ridiculous stash of spears that he will probably never use. I nudge one with the toe of my boot and guess at the probability that he'll notice one is missing.

I bite my lip, hesitating. Then I pull back. Not worth it, especially now that I've got the three from my sponsors.

The boy from Three looks at me impatiently.

I cough. Cato groans and lets out a low breath.

"Is it my watch?" he grumbles, sitting up a little. He yawns, opens his eyes, and takes in the kid beside me. Cato blinks a couple times, as if trying to figure out what this kid is doing here, and then looks at me like he thinks I'm a moron. "What? Are you seriously offering me a sacrifice? A tribute for a spear or some shit like that? Fuck, Marvel, just kill him."

"He says he can rewire the mines," I tell Cato, jerking my head to the tribute platforms. "I mean, like make them work again. To guard our supplies."

"In exchange for food and protection," the kid adds. He's filthy and cut up, and if we don't help him, I have no doubt that he'll be dead by morning out of a sheer inability to survive. This is a last-ditch effort to make it a little deeper into the Games. He's weak, easy prey. The kind of tribute that actually deserves to die because he's stupid enough to think he actually has a chance in the first place.

"Marvel, leave," Cato says. His blue eyes land on the kid, and I immediately know that there's no way he's dying yet. Cato obviously likes the idea of having working bombs on our side. Big, flashy, and dangerous. Just like him. "I need to talk with this kid."

And that's how, twenty minutes later, I am stuck digging up dead mines while nerd boy watches and instructs me on what to do. I'm tired and cranky and don't like the idea of going more than a day without a shower, but while the other Careers sit around and watch, Peeta and I get even filthier, all while letting a kid half our size boss us around.

The thing is, Peeta doesn't even seem upset about it. He's not smiling or anything, but he doesn't look pissed either, and his eyes are shining like he enjoys the work. I grumble under my breath and look over at the nerd kid.

"I should have just killed you."

Cato snaps at me to keep going, and I look back over at my sponsor-given spears, dreaming about throwing one into his thick neck and watching him fall over dead, unable to breathe without choking. What an entertaining way to watch someone die, having the pleasure of seeing them drown in their own blood. It's a pretty picture. If nothing else, it motivates me to keep working.

I yank a mine out of the ground and toss it at the guy's feet. He does something to it and gently sets it in one of Peeta's holes, and then steps back while waiting for Peeta to carefully cover the thing with dirt. That location is then marked off on a little diagram that the kid's making on a leaf, and the process is repeated. Over and over and over again.

We finish just as the sun sets, and I let out a relieved breath, expecting a break.

Instead, Cato barks, "District Three, you're staying here. Get our shit into the middle of your little minefield, and if any of it is damaged or stolen, I will make sure that your death is the most drawn-out, painful piece of torture that has ever occurred in the history of the Hunger Games. Do you understand this?"

"Actually," the kid says in a shaking voice, "if your supplies are damaged, it would most likely be the result of a mine going off, in which case I would already be-" He sees the look on Cato's face and trails off, "dead…"

Cato mutters something under his breath and picks up his sword. I watch on incredulously as he waves at Peeta and me to hurry up and grab our things. With a low curse, I jog forward and pick up my spears and backpack, then head out after Cato, with Peeta right behind me.

The whole night is pretty much useless. We scour the forest and find nothing. I suppose that's to be expected, especially after how many died in the bloodbath. The Gamemakers wouldn't want things ending too quickly and everyone knows this, so when we head back to the Cornucopia that morning, it's not with too much disappointment.

When the next two days pass the same way, however, we all start getting a little pissed. Clove and Cato are both turning bloodthirsty, wanting a kill, and I can feel everyone in the Capitol waiting for the same thing, dying for us to stumble across someone to take out. Hell, I'm not as kill-obsessed as Cato, but even I start considering stabbing Peeta for the hell of it as time ticks by without anything happening other than nights of useless hunting and days of boring sleeping.

Before we go out hunting that fourth night, I continuously tell Cato that it's a waste of effort, and that, if we wait long enough, the other tributes will come to us. Cato only shakes his head at me and picks up his sword before stomping off into the forest, with the rest of us following after him obediently, as always.

"Your boyfriend is crazy," I tell Glimmer as we walk, falling easily into step next to her and slinging an arm around her shoulder. Glimmer slaps it away and glares at me.

"I don't think you have a right to call anyone crazy," she says, infusing her voice with false optimism. "Besides, we will find someone eventually. We have to find someone eventually."

And with that we fall into silence. I trudge forward, not expecting to find much of anything, and Glimmer sticks close to me, her distaste with her current situation evident on her face, but Clove and Cato keep to the front of the pack, both of them standing straight and moving forward quickly, still managing some hope of finding another kill, or at least stumbling across a mutt, anything at all to pump some life back into these Games.

There's nothing. We hunt until the sun starts rising, and then Cato lets out an angry curse. I can see that he's just about to suggest we head back to the Cornucopia when the herd of animals comes sprinting past us, causing everyone to jump out of the way in order to avoid getting trampled.

"That's not normal," Peeta says as we watch the deer and other animals hurry by.

"What do you mean it's not normal?" Cato hisses, and that's when the wall of fire comes out of nowhere. All of us stare at it for a second in shock, and then Cato barks, "RUN!"

For once, I've got no qualms about listening to him. As fast I can, I sprint away from the fire, tripping and stumbling over rocks and sticks and making my legs go faster until breathing actually hurts. And it's still not fast enough. The smoke is close enough to make taking in any air at all painful, and I can feel the heat of the flames on the back of my neck.

When the first fireball comes whooshing by and grazes my left arm, I cough out a low hiss and push myself faster because I've never felt anything so painful in my life. Holy freaking hell. Why was I complaining about lack of excitement?

Ahead of me, Cato and Clove are pulling away, and Peeta and Glimmer are falling behind. I silently pray that Peeta will get caught up in the fire and satisfy the sadistic Gamemakers, none of whom are going along with the general consensus that I'm too awesome to kill.

Peeta doesn't die, but thankfully I don't either, and pretty soon we stumble into a lake and the fire is gone.

I completely submerge myself in the cool water, ducking my head under and breathing hard as it washes over my burnt arm with a good/bad feeling that's better than the searing pain from before. Never in my life have I been hurt so badly. I flex my arm over and over again, not daring to take it out of the water, and screaming out every cuss word I know because it hurts so damn bad.

And then, before I can even really catch my bearings, Cato is shouting, "Did you hear that?"

I shake the water out of my hair and look around, catching the tail end of a tribute limping into the trees. I recognize the dark braid flying behind said tribute instantly. Katniss.

Then I realize something. She has my bow. If Cato sees that she has my bow, he will kill me with his bare hands. Well, and I really don't want to go hunting anyone right now. I feel like shit, and I want to stay in this lake and quit running and rest.

I open my mouth to speak, to tell Cato that he's obviously crazy, but then Clove speaks over me and loudly says, "Look, over there! Fire Girl!"

That's all anyone needs to take off out of the river and after Katniss Everdeen. I hesitate for a moment, trying to decide what would happen if I didn't bother going after her and just hung out here. Cato killing me would be a good possibility, and so I drag my tired body out of the water and begin running, mentally cursing with every step I take. I fight back the pain in my arm and smooth out my gait, forcing myself to actually move quickly and not just stumble forward. I have to get to Katniss first.

Pretty soon I'm overtaking all of the Careers except for Cato. Both of us catch sight of Katniss just as she's disappearing up a hugely tall tree. She's got her bow looped through her arm and a bright orange backpack on top of it, and I let out a low breath when I realize that Cato doesn't see it.

Katniss ducks up onto a branch way up, and I see very clearly that archery isn't the only thing that she's good at. She's quite the talented little squirrel, just like Rue.

Then, as she fidgets to get a little more comfortable up in her tree, I notice a strange hitch in her movement, something that's not quite right. It takes me a second, but then I realize that she's hurt.

The fire got the Girl on Fire, too.

This notion is strangely troubling to me.

By the time Katniss is situated on her high up branch, the rest of the Careers have joined Cato and me, and all of us are looking up at her like a pack of hungry dogs. I'm actually pretty relieved that the tree she's in has too many close-together branches for her to pull back her bowstring cleanly, because otherwise she'd probably draw the thing and try it.

"How's everything with you?" Katniss calls down to us cheerfully. She's not scared at all. I can see Peeta struggling to keep a straight face, and I don't even bother to hide my smile. I like this girl more and more every time I see her.

"Well enough," says Cato in a voice a lot friendlier than he's ever used towards me. It's fake as hell. "Yourself?"

"It's been a bit warm for my taste. The air's better up here. Why don't you come on up?"

I let out a low chuckle as I let my eyes go all the way up that big tree of hers. None of us are light enough to get up there, except maybe Clove, and I already know there's no way she's going to take up the challenge. I saw her on the climbing equipment in training, and if Katniss is a squirrel, then Clove is a half-drunk gorilla. If they teach climbing in District Two, she was too busy fiddling with her knives to notice.

"I think maybe I will," says Cato. I step back a little and watch him heave himself onto the first branch. He starts off pretty well, I will admit, but after a short while a too-thin branch breaks and he goes crashing to the ground.

Come on, broken neck, broken neck.

Cato gets to his feet immediately, cursing like a fiend, and shoots me a dirty glare like this is somehow my fault. Glimmer goes for it next, and I watch amusedly as she makes it just a little farther than Cato before the branches threaten to break and she hurries back down.

"I could shoot her if you hadn't lost my bow," Glimmer says to me icily. I snort at that.

"You could shoot at her," I say, "but actually shooting her is beyond your current talent level."

"Oh, shut up," Clove says. She takes out a knife and looks up, and I can see her debating whether or not she'll be able to throw it up there and hit Katniss. She obviously sees that it's way too far up because after a moment she shoves the knife back into her belt with an angry squeal.

This leads Cato, Clove, and Glimmer into a short argument concerning our next strategy. I'm worried that anything I say will be constituted as traitorous, and therefore keep my mouth firmly shut.

"Let her stay up there," interrupts Peeta finally. His voice is so careless and gruff that I'm once again impressed at his acting ability. While the idiot trusts much too freely, he is good at making people believe what he wants them to. If I didn't know any better, I would have figured he grew up in District One. "It's not like she's going anywhere. We'll deal with her in the morning."

"But I'm hungry," Glimmer complains. "And the only food we brought is wet."

I realize that this is true. One downside to blindly running into a random lake, I guess.

"We can go one night without eating," Cato says gruffly.

"Yeah," Clove responds, "but so can she. We'll have to outlast her. Besides, that little nerd is back there with all our stuff. Do you really trust him overnight? What if he just blows everything up?"

Cato makes a face, but he can see that simply staying under the tree isn't going to work. After a second, he sends Katniss a death glare and turns to his little group of obedient pions.

"Marvel, Clove. You two stay here. Fish-Face, Lover Boy and Glimmer, come with me. We can haul some supplies back here, and I'll leave you-" He jerks his head towards the chick from Four, "-with District Three. You'll keep him in check, won't you?"

She nods emphatically, and after a short amount of protesting from Clove about being left alone with me, Cato and his little crew set off.

I take a seat under a tree across from Katniss's and stare up at her. She looks back at me for a little while, her silver eyes glowing like an animal's in the dim light, but pretty soon a little parachute comes for her and steals her attention. I watch interestedly as she climbs up to untangle it from a distant branch. I can't see what she gets or what she does with it, but I'm guessing that it's some kind of medicine for whatever injuries she got from the fire.

Then she's done with the gift and begins settling in for bed. There's something strange about watching her methodically prepare for the evening, snuggling down into her black sleeping bag and strapping herself into the tree with a couple strands of rope. I almost find it interesting, the way that she does all this like she's been preparing for it her whole life.

"Is watching a girl sit in a tree really that fascinating?" Clove asks me icily, pulling my attention away from Katniss. I shrug. It is, surprisingly enough. Must be the pain in my arm messing with my cerebral functionality.

"Yeah, it is. I wish she'd look at me, though. Unrequited love sucks."

Clove snorts and takes out a couple of knives, using one to sharpen the other. This goes on for a very long time, and I keep my spears very close. I'm half-worried that she'll come after me and kill me now if I don't.

She doesn't. Kill me, that is. For a good chunk of time we sit in silence, and then Clove announces that she's going to sleep and curls up into a tiny little ball and closes her eyes. I eye one of my spears speculatively. If I kill her now, I could hide and get a good jump on Cato when he comes back. Somehow, I doubt Peeta will hurt me, and Glimmer couldn't do much damage. My only worry is that it'll be past dark when he comes, and then he'll have seen Clove's pretty little picture in the sky and know that I turned traitor.

Without surprise, I've got nothing on Cato, not in these trees where I can't see far enough to throw my spear from more than five or so feet away. Even I realize that I'd be dead if I tried to attack him from such a close distance.

So no killing Clove. Not yet. I'll have to wait just a little longer, when I can get Cato first.

"Is your arm okay?"

I look up and see Katniss Everdeen looking down at me. I figured that she'd gone asleep a while ago, but apparently she's been ogling me instead.

"My arm?" I ask stupidly. I'm kind of shocked that she actually spoke to me, especially with… concern?.. in her voice. I kind of like it. It means that everyone's finally starting to believe my little charade. Even her.

"You're favoring it," Katniss calls down. "Did it get burned?"

"Oh. Well, yeah," I say. Now that she pointed it out, I notice that my arm hurts worse than it did before. I guess I was too lost in thought- there's a first time for everything- to notice before. "I got mauled by a fireball."

Of course, Katniss doesn't give me any of the sympathetic reassurances that the audience is probably hoping for, but a little silver parachute is dropped from the tree, and I find my eyes widening in shock as I jump to my feet and yank the thing out of the air before it falls on Clove's sleeping head.

"Now I owe you nothing," says Katniss. I frown. Apparently she's like Rue with that 'owing' stuff. I still don't like the idea of everyone having to be equal. It'd take me fifty years to even come close to paying off all the favors that people have done for me, not to mention all of the making-up I'd have to do to compensate for things I've done to them.

"Well, er, I wasn't looking for repayment," I say because it makes me look good. Really, repayment is pretty damn nice. Between the spears and the ointment, I can safely say that ditching that bow was totally worth it.

"Good, because this- me being nice to you- is a one time thing," Katniss says, which is pretty much like saying, "Don't be surprised if I shoot your brains out next time we see each other."

"Alright then," I grin. "Just remember that I'll always love you, no matter what you do to me."

Katniss snorts. I smile and twist open the jar's lid, scooping up some of the medicine onto my fingers and rubbing it gently over my burn. All the heat and pain leave it instantly, and I sigh in relief as the blistery skin smooths out. When I crane my neck to look, my arm doesn't even look like half-cooked hamburger anymore.

I shove the medicine in my backpack with a strangely grateful feeling buzzing through my veins. Grateful to Katniss Everdeen.

"What is Peeta doing with you guys?" Katniss asks once I'm done. I shove her medicine into my bag, narrowing my eyes slightly as I take a millisecond to consider her question.

There's about a twenty percent chance that Peeta could get away from us and tell her what he's actually been doing, in which case Katniss would be pissed at me for lying. Also, the Capitol viewers are all watching this, and every single one of them knows the truth about Bread Boy, and they know that I know the truth about him, too. Therefore, if I lie to my one true love, the more moral of my sponsors would most likely fall away.

I let out a low breath, supposing that I am awesome enough to get myself a woman without slander.

I look at Clove, wave a hand in front of her face to make sure she's actually sleeping hard, and then call up, "Risking his ass to get Cato away from you."

Katniss shifts a little. It's still dim morning, and even with my sunglasses, I can't really make out her face that well. I think she smiles, though, and I can see her shoulders relax. She'd trusted Peeta, and now she's happy that he's still on her side. I grumble a little, much preferring the time when Katniss was pissed at him and saw me as the shining good guy.

"Oh," says Katniss finally. "I thought..."

"That Peeta was an evil slime ball?" I suggest helpfully. "Nah, he's just the unlucky soul who's going to watch me steal your heart."

I smile winningly to emphasize my point, but Katniss only shakes her head.

"You're going to die," she says.

I laugh because I know this isn't true.

"Then we'll live together happily for a few days. I don't need forever, Katniss, no matter how much I want it. I just need enough so that if I have to live without you... if I have to die without you, I'll be able to hold your memory in my heart and survive until we can see each other again."

God almighty, am I good.

"I..." Katniss says hesitantly. She blinks several times, and then shortly says, "Thank you for telling me about Peeta, but I have to go... to figure out a way to get out of this tree. Unless you'll just let me leave now?"

"And let Cato kill me for it?" I ask her. I snort. "How about you just shoot him when he comes back, and then I'll help you escape."

Katniss shakes her head at me, but I can see that a smile definitely flashes across her face for maybe a millisecond. Then she narrows her eyes, probably reminding herself that I'm an evil, blood-thirsty Career who deserves nothing better than death, and she scrambles farther up her tree.

I stare after Katniss as she goes, thinking that her slow, hesitant smile was one of the brightest things I have ever seen. It's like there's a diamond buried deep underneath everything else, like if she'd just take off her mask, that 'something more' I see in her would break out and I could finally understand what makes Katniss Everdeen tick. I want to keep watching her, to try to catch another glimpse of whatever she's hiding, but I don't. I've got no idea why I'm so fascinated by her, but I've been taught that I'm not supposed to question things that I don't immediately understand, and so I look away after a moment and busy myself with polishing my spears.

Glimmer, Cato and Peeta return soon after. Glimmer is sidling up to Cato, sinking into his side, and Cato has his arm around her waist. He's got Glimmer on one arm and a sword in his free hand, and at one point I catch him giving that sword a look that's a hell of a lot more tender than anything I've ever seen him throwing in Glimmer's direction.

"Is she still up there?" asks Cato without introduction. As he speaks, his eyes land right on Katniss.

I snort.

"Nope, that's a clone her sponsors sent in to distract us. Real Katniss ran away when Clove and I were napping." He blinks at me. Glimmer looks like she wants to smack herself in the forehead. Clove actually smirks like she thought it was funny, and Peeta manages a little half smile. "Yes, Cato," I say slowly. "She's still up there."

"Fuck, whenever I think you can't get any stupider," says Cato, "you say shit like that." He appears to be absolutely disgusted. "Go to sleep. Clove? You okay for first watch?"

Clove picks up one of her knives and grins, which everyone takes as an affirmation, and I move off to the side to lay down. I'm still exhausted from working on District Three's mine project all day, so I curl up against a tree and fall asleep pretty quick, my tired body relieved to be able to finally relax.

I don't know how much later it is when I hear someone from somewhere close behind me whisper my name.


A/N-

We got past a hundred reviews! Thanks so much everyone. Sorry this took a little longer to get up, but this was my last week of school, so pretty much every second of my free time was spent studying for disgusting semester tests and other evil things like that. Anyhow, those are all done now, so I'm finally free. Anyhow, I hope you all liked the chapter, and I'm totally looking forward to hearing what you all thought about it. Same preview thing as always, and maybe if you all leave awesome reviews, I'll update again by Monday.