AUTHOR'S NOTES: Aveline makes a brief appearance in this chapter as we get to see bit more about the tributes that she's mentoring this year. Also, we learn a little more about Marcus and Amy, and about that District 3 pair. The career pack also begins to take shape, and despite their 'quarrels', Marcus and Amy are still as close of friends as ever.

CHAPTER 7: Friendly Matters

Marcus and Amy's sojourn in the training room was brief, but they did manage to gain the approval of the strong-looking District 3 pair due to Marcus' silly stunt of lifting Amy over his head. They did not linger long here though, knowing that they would have plenty of time to come back tomorrow.

"I'm honestly half-surprised Misaha and Zakuya didn't suggest you carry me over your head," she quipped, "or did they tell you that?"
"They don't talk to us at all, remember?" Marcus reminded her as they were joined in the elevator by a girl from District 12, as well as Aveline, her mentor. For a moment, before any buttons were pressed, Amy and Ava's eyes met, but instead of anything harsh, Ava had a few respectful words to say to them.

"The two of you looked good out there," the tiny mentor complimented, "your mentor must be proud."

Amy actually cracked a genuine little smile at this. "District 2 admires strength and courage." She replied, "That is why we remember your friend Chel… and that is why many of us respect you."

Monica was the only one who felt awkward by all of that, and she pushed the 2 and 12 buttons on the elevator, causing it to move.

"Well thank you then," Ava nodded softly. She did not want to really say much more on the subject, not wanting to remind them that she felt no glory for doing what she had done—that it was only necessary for her own survival.

"No problem," Amy and Marcus waved as they got off on the District 2 floor, "See you around."

Aveline personally felt that District 2 got a bad rap most of the time since it produced so many bloodthirsty career tributes that would slay other children with impunity. They had quite an impressive record over the years given that for as long as Ava could remember, District 2 was always responsible for multiple tribute deaths, and for never dying in the bloodbath.

"Please tell me you're not rooting for them," Monica sighed as they reached the 12th floor and got off, meeting Rafael there. "you're kind of supposed to be *our* lifeline, remember?"

"I'm still on your side—I'm not rooting for them," Ava insisted, "but I can respect them. I respected Chel and Chaco from my games."
"Well, you do seem pretty fond of District 2," Rafael quipped,

"I respected others too!" Ava defended herself, "Zaffre; Samuel; Ginger; Florence; Alice…"

"What about Iris?" Monica spoke up, "she killed your brother."
Aveline froze on the spot, tensing up, and for a moment there was awkward silence.

"We are not going to talk about this," she crossed her arms. "Do not speak of her again."

Even a year after the fact, Iris triggered unusual emotions in Ava Togisala. On one side, that girl had brutally slaughtered Ava's brother and district partner in the opening minutes, but on the other hand, Ava had seen Iris Durango at her most vulnerable, realizing that she was just another young girl whose mind had been twisted by the Capitol's games.

Needless to say, Rafael and Monica exchanged skeptical glances, but did not say anything else as their mentor disappeared into her room.

"I think it's still weird," Rafael pointed out, "she's our mentor and yet we're older than her."

"It's not like I disrespect her;" Monica shook her head, "but I've heard the victors talk. They don't even understand each other. How can we expect them to understand us, or us understand them?"
"I guess we just have to trust them." Rafael shrugged, "they're kind of our lifeline here, so maybe we should cut back some of the sass."
"There's a fine line between being sassy and being an asshole;" Monica chuckled, "I cross that line far too often."

"At least you admit it," Rafael chuckled. "still… I guess it's a way to get our minds off of the games."
"That's one way of looking at it," Monica approved, "I'll save it for tomorrow though."
"Not a bad idea," the boy nodded his approval. "Anyways, I'm beat. I'll see you tomorrow."

"See ya then," Monica cooed, her outfit beginning to come off before she even reached her room.

Ten stories down, District 2 was still awake and were discussing the night's events.

"You think '3 has any potential this year?" Marcus asked, with tiny little Amy (slightly grudgingly) situated on his lap, still in her conspicuous chariot costume (sans the wings, props, and tiara).

"Without saying 'let's propose an alliance' to them before seeing what they do… I would say they do," Amy nodded. Marcus had convinced her to sit there because he ran his fingers through her hair. Simple as it was, it seemed to be a nice little way to pacify his younger district partner, so Marcus went with it.

"Are you excited for tomorrow?" He smirked at her

"Of course," Amy nodded, "It's nothing personal or anything, but business is business and District 2 needs to win this thing if we're to send our message."
To cut a long story short, Amy fell asleep in Marcus' lap, much to her embarrassment ("the way you caressed my hair was… ah, hell with it. You win this time, you big lunk."), but they woke up the next morning refreshed and ready to go. Laid out for them was a set of black clothing that seemed simple but effective for what it was for—training uniforms. This year they had a blue stripe on each side of the shirt, the sleeves, and the pants. A square with a number 2 on it graced the shirt on both shoulders and the back of the neck, as well as on the hips of the pants.

It made Marcus chuckle about how well the Capitol knew their sizes, and how much tinier Amy's outfit was than his own (due only of course to how vastly different they were in size). Either way, they got dressed and headed down to the training center after a quick breakfast. The career tributes were there early almost every year, and for good reason too.

The protocol for tribute training was very different than it had been in the past. Nowadays, the tributes were essentially free to come and go as they wished, and theoretically, they didn't even have to show up. This included the private sessions as well, but skipping out on those would just earn the tribute a training score of 0, which was something everyone would laugh at.

Of course, there was little motivation not to hit up the training center considering that tributes were still of course confined to their apartments or this building, and so they might as well put the designated week to some good use.

Even with how early they had arrived, they still found that they had been beaten there by both tributes from Districts 1, 3, and 4. The former of these seemed to be waiting for them.
"We were wondering when District 2 would show up," Charm, the girl from District 1, cooed. "it's been hours since we got here! We've tried everything already!"

"Bull," Amy laughed. Charm giggled and admitted that she had been lying and had only arrived about 15 minutes prior. After a bit of meeting and greeting, both Charm and Luster agreed to an alliance. District 4 was quietly by themselves, watching them with cautious eyes.

"Any luck with District 4?" Marcus asked Luster, who seemed to be the unofficial 'spokesperson' for District 1, just as he was such for District 2.

"All we know about them is that their names are Draco and Amanda." Luster shrugged, "As soon as District 3's done doing whatever they're doing though, they did say they wanted to talk to you."

"Me, or both of us?" Marcus tilted his head.

"Both of you," Luster indicated; "something about an alliance, I assume"
"No luck with '4 then, eh?" Amy glanced up at the District 1 boy.

"none yet," Luster nodded, "but I think we could settle with '1, '2, and '3, if you two are up for it?"
"Of course," Marcus grinned, "gotta have the career pack going strong, right?"

Even Amy nodded in agreement, before they turned to watch District 3 run a gauntlet that had apparently been set up by District 1. A test, perhaps; but it had both of the District 2 tributes nodding in approval. Soon, Shaft and Asher approached them, grinning proudly.

"Are you two up for allowing two more tributes into your pack?" Shaft offered his hand, which Amy almost instantly took.

"Aye, we're down," the tiny girl smirked, "hopefully we will not regret that decision."
"Come now," Asher giggled, "joining the career pack is almost an ultimatum. If you recruit us, we either join you, or we decline and you come and kill us in the opening minutes. We wouldn't ask to join if we didn't think we could handle ourselves."

"Sounds reasonable to me," Marcus laughed, noticing other tributes begin to appear, "come on. Let's go try out some of these fancy weapons so that the others will remember who the strongest tributes are."
Amy was not big on the whole arrogance factor, but she didn't mind having her ego stroked. Despite her tiny size, she quickly proved to be as good as Luster, Charm, Asher, and Shaft, and even as talented as her partner Marcus. Her spirits were high—this was going to be a good day.