Hey guys! I'm back! Sorry for the delay which was longer than usual but here take this chapter. On a more positive note just one more chapter till the games yayyyy.

A HUGE MAMMOTH thanks to my beta C.J. Ellison without whom this chapter would have been a colossal mess. She wrote you guys a message! :

(Hi! Sorry to interrupt- this is C.J. Ellison, the one who usually hangs out behind the scenes... I just wanted to apologise, since E.G got this chapter to me to go over wonderfully fast, as per usual, but I wasn't up to my usual standards, and it took me a while longer to finish up my edits. So, any delay is completely my fault, and I'm sorry about that. Um... so, yeah, I'm going to slink back to the shadows now...)

Just so you guys know she even wrote a little scene in this chapter; the part where Katniss and Peeta spot Rue spying on them. Credit for the scene goes to her! You guys can find her in my favorite authors list if you wanna say something or just write your message in a review!

A belated Eid Mubarak to all my Muslim brothers and sisters! :* and happy reading!


Chapter 7

Katniss


You swore and said we are not

We are not shining stars

This I know

I never said we are


"What the hell was that?!" Katniss seethed, shoving Peeta away from her roughly as they stepped off the elevator and into the penthouse. She cursed herself for the furious tremble in her voice, her fingers shaking, an angry flush burning up through her skin. Adrenaline thumping angrily through her veins with every heartbeat, she ground her teeth down on the tip of tongue before she said something that she would later regret.

Peeta barely staggered from the force of her push, expecting her fury, instead grabbing her wrists and jerking her towards his body so that she was forced to meet his gaze. His eyes were steely, burning with a savage fire, but as his stormy irises connected with hers they softened immediately.

"Katniss," Peeta said in a low voice, barely containing his rage, "He threw a freaking spear at your head." His nails dug little crescents into her skin but she refused to acknowledge the mild sting, glaring right back into his eyes. He let out a large breath, as if attempting to release his anger into the air. "Did you expect me to just stand there and watch?"

"Yes!" She cried, wrenching her hands away from his tight grasp. Her chest was heaving, each breath laced with desperation and anger. "Damn it, Peeta, if you started shooting arrows at everyone who-"

"Alright, what the hell is going on this time?' Haymitch demanded as he sauntered into the room, a half-empty bottle of liquor in his hand. His words were slightly slurred, but Katniss knew that considering his alcohol tolerance, Haymitch was far from intoxicated.

Both she and Peeta halted in their tracks and straightened their postures out of the defensive and aggressive stances they had unconsciously taken. Peeta hesitantly met her gaze, silently inquiring how to proceed but Katniss broke the look quickly, determined to show her irritation. She folded her arms across her chest and, with a flat voice, turned to Haymitch and informed him of the events that had transpired during the training, sparing no detail. As she talked, the expression on Haymitch's face slowly morphed from indifference to fury.

"What the hell, kid?" He hollered at Peeta before she was even finished. He slammed his bottle hard on an ornamental table, the clear liquid sloshing heavily inside the glass. "I think I told you not to show your strengths."

"I didn't," Peeta replied flatly. He looked at Haymitch with a dangerous glint in his eyes, as if Haymitch was the one to blame for the incident in training.

"Huh?"

"He can shoot accurately from thrice as far," Katniss replied unwillingly, her lips pressed into a thin line. She ignored the half-impressed, half-annoyed look on Haymitch's face. "But that's not the point!"

"What is the point then?" Peeta rounded on her, his voice an octave higher than before. There was a hint of irritation in his voice which in return made her all the more irate. What right did he have to be angry with her? When he was the one who had overreacted? When she was desperately trying to make sure he got out of this alive and went home to a mother and little sister who loved him, needed him? Why did he insist on having this insane inability to keep a level head when it was most important? She felt like ripping her hair out of her skull. She was hell bent on getting him out of the arena alive and he had made the possibility unattainable by the shot of a single arrow.

"You are purposely putting yourself in danger!" She shouted, the words spilling out before she could stop herself, the actual motives behind her anger finally coming to light. "You have to stop this!"

"Look," Peeta said, forcing himself to calm down. His hands were clenching and unclenching by his sides, an exercise to control his frustration. "I don't know why but I think the Careers have targeted you out. I was only trying to shift the attention."

Of course that was what he was trying to do, Katniss realized belatedly. He was shifting the attention so that the Careers would leave her alone and would target him instead. She could feel Peeta's rage at Marvel's actions- she had seen it in his eyes- yet, she realized, his own reaction had been more tactical than simply pure retaliation. Years of hunting in the woods had transformed Peeta into a strategist, he would never target his prey without contemplation. Would he be able to carry it home, would his arrow damage the meat, was it better to shoot it through the eye or cut its throat. Humans weren't so different, really.

"Peeta, please, stop putting yourself in the crosshairs!" She implored, her anger deflating. She hated the slight pleading tone in her voice. "Stop trying to save me!"

Just as she uttered the words Katniss felt glad that it was out in the open between them, the silent war they had been waging against each other. It was perhaps why Katniss had been so furious. She was determined to keep him alive and he was throwing himself into the arena before the Games even begun. Not only would the Careers be after them, but also the Gamemakers. It was like he was purposely trying to derail her efforts, to the extent where all her future struggles would be useless. They hadn't voiced it but they both knew what the other was trying to accomplish. They knew that both their motives were precisely the same but exactly the opposite.

Peeta was examining her with a fiery sort of expression, stubborn and immovable as ever, but with a throbbing tenderness underneath it that sent Katniss' heart rending in her chest. "I'll stop trying to save your life when you stop trying to save mine."


The next two days of training passed relatively peacefully. Katniss and Peeta had decided to pretend that, for the limited amount of time that they had left, their argument had never taken place. Neither of them brought it up the next day because they knew that it was an argument that would always end in stalemate. The tension in the air dissolved within moments of their silent consensus. She had felt her stomach lighten when Peeta silently took hold of her hand during their elevator ride to the training room- because of their argument, she had been anxious and disturbed all night, although she knew that they had an odd ability to wiggle their way around any hurdles that arose in their relationship. Katniss didn't think she could survive the Capitol without him, let alone the Games.

During the remaining time for the training, they opted to stay away from all members of the Career pack, who had already developed a moderate sized group consisting of the tributes from District One, Two and Four. Cato- who seemed to have taken the self-appointed role of the alpha male- had also asked the hulking male from District Eleven to join them. The tribute, whose name Katniss now wished she knew, had earned her permanent respect when he had sourly declined them. By the subtly impressed look on Peeta's face, he had gained Peeta's approval too.

Katniss also found out that if Peeta had wanted to shift the attention, his plan had definitely worked. All through the day, she could feel heated gazes boring into their necks, and not just from the Careers. She could see some of the Gamemakers, who sat on a balcony overlooking the training, eyeing him from behind the glass with calculating gazes. Not only that, but it seemed as if the Career pack had agreed to keep habitual checks on both of them. More often than not, she would catch one of them in mid-glare when she turned around suddenly, or she would spot Cato or Marvel eyeballing Peeta as they impaled their targets with lethal weapons. The sight always made her shiver and curse Peeta's rashness again, wondering for the thousandth time what she was going to do now that targets had been painted on both of their backs.

Because of the attention, or perhaps in spite of it, Katniss and Peeta also kept up their charade in front all the other tributes. They barely parted from each other's sides, visiting all stations together. Part of it also due to Peeta's increased sense of paranoia; he was convinced that Katniss would be attacked again if she was let alone for more than a few seconds, and had taken to orbiting around her protectively. Katniss knew that the Careers wouldn't dare to target her a second time- too risky; Katniss knew that the Gamemakers disapproved of fighting before they got into the arena, wanting to save it all for the cameras, and upsetting the people who could send a landslide or a flood in your direction at any moment was never a good idea- but even then, she didn't necessarily mind that development in their relationship. During lunch all the other tributes scattered around, the exception of the Careers who joined their tables to eat together. She and Peeta sat together in a corner, more for privacy rather than for the sake of display.

"Ugh, my arm is killing me," Peeta complained. He wasn't the complaining type but the sprain he had acquired from the rock-climbing station was particularly bad.

"Do you know how many types of bread they have here?" She inquired in reply, completely diverting the topic of conversation. She reached over and rubbed his arm sympathetically, still not tearing her eyes from the wide display of bread-baskets. When he failed to respond, she started pointing to him.

"That small, fluffed one over there is from Two- the greenish-looking one right there is from Four, I hear they put seaweed in it, apparently it's full of minerals and nutrients- and that rough, grainy one's from Eleven-"

"And the blonde, annoying one's from Twelve."

"Funny," Katniss said dryly, slapping his sore arm lightly and tearing into another small loaf. "That's what I get from trying to teach you something." Her eyes skimmed the floor as she picked at the crust of the bread. Just as her gaze passed over another mostly empty table, there was a sudden flash of movement that startled her. Zeroing in on the table's sole occupant- a wisp of a girl who now had her back to Katniss- she contemplated the tiny tribute, feeling a stab of sympathy for her. She could only be twelve, thirteen at the most- no older than Prim.

It was that day when Katniss finally noticed it.

During afternoon training, she found herself acutely aware of being watched by someone, but not with the same hard intensity of a Career or a Gamemaker. On their second station, she dared to peek over her shoulder- and sure enough, saw a lithe figure darted behind one of the steel pillars. Katniss couldn't help but let the corners of her mouth twitch up.

"What?"

Katniss looked up at Peeta, who was looking bemused, and realized that she most have been acting odd all afternoon. She tilted her head towards the pillar. "I think we have a shadow."

Peeta immediately stiffened. "A Career?"

Katniss shook her head and looked over her shoulder again. Peeta followed her line of sight just as the tribute- the girl from Eleven, Katniss suddenly recalled, Rue- glanced out from behind her hiding place, vanishing the moment she realized that she had been spotted. Out of the corner of her eye, Katniss saw Peeta's expression soften considerably. She knew why, of course. She may be of a different coloring- the dark skin characteristic of those from her district, dark sparkling eyes and a mass of curling black hair- but Katniss had been struck from the very moment they had watched the other tributes announced that she was the spitting image of Peeta's little sister- of Prim, a being so sweet she was impossible not to love.

"I think her name is Rue," she commented aloud, offering a small smile at the girl as she peeked out again tentatively. It might have been her imagination, but Katniss thought she saw her smile back before disappearing again.

"She stole Two's knife a few days ago," Peeta suddenly commented, a glint of recognition in his eye. Katniss remembered that day- it was one where the attention had finally been diverted off herself and Peeta for a few moments- Cato had gotten into a petty scuffle with another tribute over his missing knife, and it had to be broken up by the trainers. Standing on the side-lines, it was only Peeta's nudge and the sight of the boy from Eleven looking up into the rafters with an amused, almost brotherly smile on his face that made her notice it- the mischievous little girl twirling the knife between her fingers from high above. Yes, she remembered now.

They said no more about their 'shadow', aware of her and tolerating her presence silently. They figured that she was harmless enough- and neither of them wanted to contemplate the very real possibility that she would probably die the moment that the bloodbath in the Cornucopia began.

The last day of training arrived quickly- the day in which private sessions with the Gamemakers were to be held. Before they headed down the elevator, Haymitch gave them some last words of advice but Katniss's nerves managed to disable much of her hearing abilities. The tributes were filed into a long room and were called upon one by one. The female tribute from District One was called first which meant that Katniss would be the second-last to go, before Peeta.

The room emptied gradually. By the time the District Eleven male was called, Katniss was a mess, little more than a jumble of nerves and anxiety. She tapped her feet consistently, twirled the end of her braid around her fingers and constantly shifted positions in her seat. Peeta, finally having enough of her fidgeting, grabbed both her hands and intertwined their fingers.

"Stop worrying." He told her sternly. "You'll be fine."

"Yeah, says the Almighty Hunter of the Woods." Katniss replied dryly, feeling a pout form on her lips in spite of herself.

"Is that jealously I hear, Katniss?" Peeta teased in response. A sly grin appeared on his mouth and when she scowled irritably in his direction, he leaned forward and pressed a kiss on her forehead. "You'll be fine," he repeated soothingly.

When her name was finally called, Katniss walked into the room on unsteady legs, her heart pounding a tattoo against her sternum. A scattered assembly of Gamemakers who were gathered on a raised platform, mingling and laughing within their ranks. One of Gamemakers- possibly the head, Seneca Crane- spotted her and inclined his head, a silent acknowledgment for her to continue. Katniss waited a few second for the others to turn to her direction but a reaction was not forthcoming. She realized with a jolt of panic that she was probably doomed. The Gamemakers had been there too long. They were drinking and chatting amongst themselves. Some of them were eating from the various plates that the Avoxes were carrying around and most already tipsy. Only a few turned to gaze at her, and halfheartedly at that.

Katniss decided that there was absolutely nothing that she could do about the situation- except try to impress. If nothing else, she could at least try and liven them up a bit, so that at the very least, Peeta had a fighting chance of getting a decent score. She headed to the ranges and grabbed a knife that was similar to the one she used to practice back home. The blade was longer than the one she was the one accustomed to and the butt was heavier in her hands, but it was the closest match she could find. She roughly calculated the distance between herself and the target- probably twelve yards- and was certain that it was a distance she could cover. She stayed clear from the fifteen-yard range, not trusting her abilities enough to get it that far. Wiping her sweaty palms against her pants, she took a deep breath and repeated Peeta's words inside her head. You'll be fine.

Katniss angled her arm backwards, firmly positioning her fingers around the blade. She focused her eyes on the target until everything but the bulls-eye blurred into the background. Counting to three inside her head, Katniss threw her arm forwards with a controlled flick of her wrist, releasing the blade and praying, praying, that-

The dagger hurtled through the air and she watched, completely stunned, when the knife missed the target by a good three feet and landed on the floor with a loud clang.

She cursed herself mentally, realizing the problem right away- she hadn't been able to practice with these knives because she couldn't show her hand to the other tributes, and as a result, the extra weight had managed to throw off her aim. Whatever little attention she had managed to capture from the Gamemakers had flown out the window. Determined not to give up, she tried again, taking another knife and angling her arm to accommodate the extra weight- and this time hit the edge of the target. Heartened, soon she was throwing knives one after the other, squaring her knives into the bulls-eye one by one, each punctuated by a satisfying thunk. She turned around triumphantly, deciding she would try camouflage or hand-to-hand combat next, only to be enraged at the scene that met her eyes. Two or three of the Gamemakers were nodding at her approvingly- but the rest of them had their eyes trained on the roasted pig that had just been carried into the room.

Katniss didn't know it was possible to feel the anger she felt bubbling inside of her at that moment. Her life was literally at stake. Peeta's life was at stake and here she was, being upstaged by a dead pig. She could feel her heart pounding in her ears and her face burning up. She whirled around to properly face the Gamemakers, her knife in her hand-

- and suddenly stopped.

No. She couldn't do it. Her anger was getting the best of her. If she did something stupid in the heat of the moment- she could put her family in danger, she could end up with a terrible score and be marked out as an easy target, she could end up being hunted by mutts or one of the many 'natural disasters' the Gamemakers liked to employ and get herself killed before she even had a chance to ensure Peeta's victory. It might get her the Gamemakers' attention, but it wouldn't be worth it. Katniss clutched the handle of the knife tightly between her fingers until her knuckles went white, trying to cool her temper.

And then it hit her.

It would get her the Gamemakers' attention, wouldn't it? No- in fact, it would guarantee her the Gamemakers' attention. Suddenly her mind was in overdrive. If they could get their gazes on her, they would leave Peeta alone.

A flash of hope and fear sparked up inside of her. Turning her gaze upon the little crowd of Gamemakers, a wave of fury coursed through her veins once again, this time stronger than before. Children were going to die soon, and they couldn't keep their eyes away from a roasted pig long enough to even give them a fighting chance. Her hesitation was squeezed into a tiny part of her mind as the fury overcame the fear.

There were astonished gasps, the shattering of several wine glasses and surprised shrieks as a flash of silver cut the air, the long knife piercing the oven-crisped skin of the apple in the pig's mouth before impaling itself in the wall behind it, quivering slightly with the force it had been thrown.

Katniss was met with wide-eyed and open mouthed stares. She glared openly back with cool insolence. A woman's wig had fallen out of her head in the haste and another man had face-planted straight into the punch bowl. Behind them, the sweet mush of the roasted apple slid down the wall, chunks of the golden flesh squelching along the pristine polish.

To complete the demonstration, Katniss gave them a small bow and said, with utter serenity, "Thank you for your consideration."

Not waiting for a dismissal, she turned around and walked through the exit.


Katniss rushed into her room and closed the door shut behind her, relived for the fact that she hadn't encountered Haymitch or Effie on the way. Her breathing was hard and her fingers shook uncontrollably, her mind spinning from the sudden realization of the consequences of what she had done. Now that the anger that had fueled her fit of defiance had ceased, the fear was back again, hitting her square in the chest with full force. Her mind provided her with terrifying scenarios of punishments that she could be forced to endure. Would they get rid of her before the Games even begun, claiming some 'mystery illness' was the cause? Would they make sure that her death in the Games was positively cruel and torturous? Would they harm her parents?

She shook her head and prayed silently that her actions would at least accomplish their original goal; to shift the attention towards herself so that Peeta could be saved. She knew that he had the ability to defend himself but he wouldn't survive if the Careers or the Gamemakers had a personal vendetta against him. And, she had reminded herself, there was a good chance they were actually paying attention when Peeta gave his demonstration, thanks to her display. She forced herself to calm the rapid pounding of her heart, breathing deeply in and out. For Peeta, she repeated inside her head. For Peeta.

Katniss decided to take a shower to calm her nerves before Peeta got back. After she had bathed and changed she emerged from her room and into the lounge, expecting to find Haymitch waiting to hear her report. She had decided, whilst under the soothing pressure of vanilla-scented water, to not tell him anything until the scores were announced, or- if she looked on the darker side of things- until the Peacekeepers arrived to take her away.

Just as she was wondering how their mentor would react to how recklessly stupid she had been, she heard the elevator chime from behind her and turned just in time to see Peeta stepping out, looking nowhere near as distressed as she was. Katniss took that as an encouraging sign, and felt her heart lighten knowing that Peeta's demonstration most likely went well after her disaster- that was, until he spotted her and one of his eyebrows rose in her direction.

"Alright, so what did you do?" He asked her, his voice laced with suspicion and his gaze skeptical.

"Nothing." She responded quickly. Too quickly. She cursed herself under her breath and chose to look at a spot over Peeta's shoulder instead of his eyes. There were only three people in the world that she had trouble lying to; her mother, her father and Peeta.

"Then why did the Gamemakers look like they had just been hit by a truck?" He asked incredulously, edging closer. The look on his face was silently daring her to meet his gaze. Obviously, he had picked up the expressions on the Gamemakers' faces. She suspected that shattered glasses and fallen wigs hadn't gone unnoticed either. All of that, combined with the fact that Katniss wasn't looking straight into Peeta's eyes, would be evidence enough for his suspicions.

Still not looking directly at him, she laced her fingers through his and started tugging him along. "Let's... catch the scores first. And then I'll tell you what happened."

Peeta shrugged as he started following her, their interlinked hands swinging momentarily in the air. She could feel his suspicious gaze boring a hole through the back of her head, trying to decipher her behavior. She could easily imagine the look on his face. One of his brows would be subconsciously higher than the other, his eyes would be narrowed and a barely noticeable cleft would appear on his chin. If she wasn't the one who was at the receiving end of said expression, she would've said that it was incredibly cute.

Haymitch and Effie were already seated in front of the mammoth television screen. Effie seemed to be admonishing Haymitch about one obscure and unfathomable branch of etiquette or another, to which Haymitch would occasionally grumble out a sarcastic or sadistic remark that would make Effie gape and start the cycle all over again. When Katniss and Peeta entered the room, both Effie and Haymitch broke off the conversation abruptly and looked up.

"How did it go?" Haymitch asked, with a mild look of interest on his face. It was progress, from the bored, callous indifference.

"Well enough," Peeta replied, shooting a sidelong glance at Katniss. "We'll talk after we see the scores."

Katniss released a breath she hadn't realized she was holding and nodded fervently at Peeta's words. She squeezed Peeta's hand in hers as a silent thanks. Haymitch gave both of them an incredulous and wary look before he shrugged. Katniss suspected that their non-verbal conversations bothered Haymitch more than he let on, and sooner or later he would demand them to cut the crap.

Peeta plopped onto the plush couch and brought Katniss down alongside him. Cinna and Portia joined the room moments later, their eyes inconspicuously flickering between hers and Peeta's joint hands, just as Caesar Flickerman's beaming face sprouted up on television. Caesar made the usual announcements regarding the Hunger Games, welcomed everyone to the show and enthused on how these were possibly going to be the best Games ever. He then proceeded to announce that the scores of the private session with the Gamemakers would now be televised, starting from District One.

Katniss was seized with a sudden bout of panic.

"Has anyone ever gotten a zero?" She asked, trying to keep her voice as nonchalant as possible.

Haymitch narrowed his eyes in her direction. "There's a first time for everything."

Her eyes widened at Haymitch's words before she quickly looked away, back at the screen. Peeta ran the pad of his thumb slowly over the skin of her hand, an oddly soothing gesture that managed to abate her panic, if only slightly. Just as the face of the District One female flashed up, a large 'ten' appeared on the screen.

"Surprise, surprise," Peeta said in a low voice, his jaw taut and set firmly, grey eyes calculating.

Katniss didn't respond. She couldn't keep her eyes away from the screen, even though she desperately wanted to when she watched the nines and tens flashing up besides the faces of the Career Tributes. Caesar kept up a steady feed of commentary, describing the predictions and the results regarding the scores achieved by each individual tribute. Cato, the District Four male, and District One female scored tens, while Marvel and the girls from Four and Two scored a nine each. The rest of the scores ranged from poor to mediocre at best.

Katniss's heart started beating erratically inside her ribcage as District Eleven flashed up. She wasn't surprised when the male tribute- Thresh, so that was his name- scored a nine, which was apparently shocking news for Caesar. Even little Rue had scored a rather remarkable seven, which was in Katniss's opinion the most startling score of the evening.

Seconds later Katniss's own face popped up onto the screen, accompanying a number.

Her heart stopped.

Eleven.

She gawked noiselessly at the television screen.

"But... wha... how...?" She sputtered incomprehensibly, staring at the number in complete astonishment.

Effie let out a shrill squeak and everyone else gaped wordlessly at the large flashing number. Cheers and shouts of congratulation suddenly erupted in the room, as Cinna, Portia and Effie crowed in their excitement. She was pleased when she saw the absolutely stunned, but faintly impressed look on Haymitch's face. For the first time since the Reaping, he had been rendered completely speechless, and the fact was almost as satisfying as the eleven shining a radiant silver onscreen and Caesar's enthusiastic ramblings. Peeta looked astounded, incredulous and pleased at the same moment as he stared at her in wonder.

The room instantly quietened when, seconds later, Peeta's face appeared on the screen. Katniss, confident in his abilities, took the moment to silently admire how well the image did him justice, capturing the straight slope of his nose, that angle of his mouth and the intensity of his strikingly grey eyes.

A large ten appeared besides his face.

The air was once again filled with cheers of delight and excitement as everyone offered Peeta congratulations and thumped him on the back. Peeta wore a look that was a mixture of surprise and great satisfaction. Katniss was elated when she realized her plan had worked, if only partially. She had scored an eleven- one-up from Peeta's score. Although the both of them would soon be the center of attention for both the Careers and the Gamemakers, the spotlight would now be split between them and not solely focused on Peeta. Considering she had thought she would be the very first to receive a zero, she took that as a victory.

Haymitch was the only one that had remained quiet through the whole development. His Seam eyes were moving back and forth between her and Peeta, his brain noiselessly analyzing the scores. His eyes stopped directly at her and narrowed slightly.

"What did you do?" He repeated Peeta's question from earlier in the evening.

Katniss restrained a flinch. She knew Haymitch would catch on sooner or later. She fidgeted in her seat, trying desperately to avoid Haymitch's penetrating gaze and the curious ones she was now receiving from the rest of their party. She decided to get straight to the point since the stalling was only prolonging her discomfort.

"I threw a knife at the Gamemakers."

"You what?" Effie shrieked, her voice horror-struck.

"I threw a knife at them. Well, I mean, not exactly at them, but in their general direction," she said. At the memory, her fury from earlier returned, breaking into her voice. "I was throwing my knives and they were just ignoring me! And… I-I just lost my head and- I skewered the stupid apple out of their stupid roasted pig's mouth!" She continued defiantly, conveniently skipping her ulterior motives.

"And what did they say?" Peeta asked carefully. His voice was bare of even the slightest hint of emotion. Katniss had an inkling that he knew exactly what her real intentions were.

"Nothing- I don't know. I walked out." Katniss stated with exasperation.

"Without being dismissed?" Effie gasped, looking mortified.

"Well, I couldn't just stay and show them my fabulous knot-tying skills." Katniss responded flatly. "But why would they even give me such a high score?" She addressed Haymitch, genuinely confused.

He shrugged. "Guess they liked your temper." Haymitch replied easily. His eyes held a riveted look that Katniss had never seen on his face before, and in that moment she suddenly she caught a flash of the Haymitch Abernathy who had won the Hunger Games- and the calculating, skilled Mentor he could be. Once you got him away from the booze long enough, anyway. "They need a good show. And you both are giving them some heat."

Katniss and Peeta looked at each other again. Peeta's face held an intense look and his eyes seemed to be penetrating into her mind. A flash of displeasure crossed his irises, one that was silently condemning her for her actions. But then it turned into an odd kind of acceptance, something that was reciprocated in Katniss's own expression. He knew that if he wasn't backing down, then neither was she. And he accepted it.

Katniss suddenly felt lighter, like a huge boulder that had been crushing down on her had been lifted off her chest. Peeta's eyes sparked up, the disapproval disappearing and instead was replaced by pride. She realized with a deep sense of satisfaction that he was a little proud of her actions too. He was proud that she had made a stand against the Gamemakers, no matter how much trouble that would eventually result in. His face held admiration for her actions and involuntarily a corner of his mouth twitched into an amused smirk.

"What were their face like," he asked, "the Gamemakers?"

Katniss couldn't help the laugh that burst forth, bubbling out of her in a mix of relief and pure mirth. "Terrified. Ridiculous. Hilarious." She grinned widely. "One of them tripped backwards into the bowl of punch."

Peeta laughed loudly and she gladly joined him. Haymitch choked on his drink and another round of laughter started which included everybody but Effie, who was smothering a smile with considerable difficulty. As the laughter died down, Portia spoke up.

"What did you show them, Peeta?" she asked, leaning forward in her seat, eagerly.

Peeta shrugged. "They already looked pretty staggered. Everyone was really focusing on me; that's how I knew something was up. So, I just showed them some archery. The ranges were too short, though."

"What did you do about that?" Cinna intervened. Everyone turned their attention to Peeta, curiously. Katniss realized that for everyone else in the room, Peeta's ten was also surprising news. She had been surprised to see the ten, but it hadn't been unbelievable news, considering his skills- she knew he could probably snag himself an eight or higher, if he figured a creative way to show off. But she was the only person in the room who had already been acquainted with his talent beforehand. Nobody else could actually know or even begin to believe the extent of his skill until they actually saw him shoot.

"I asked a trainer if they had any moving targets I could shoot instead, and fortunately they came up with some clay birds. I shot them down."

"And that explains it all." Katniss joked, with a teasing smile in his direction.

Peeta shrugged modestly. "I got it because everybody was already paying attention to me. I wouldn't have gotten more than a seven if you hadn't pulled the stunt that you did." He sent her a mock glare, gently prodding her arm. Struggling with her own smile, Katniss slapped him away playfully, feeling giddy with happiness and relief.

Everybody congratulated them one last time before they started to leave for bed. Katniss stood up, heading for her room and Peeta followed her wordlessly. She stood outside the door of her bedroom and looked at Peeta who was leaning against his own door, neither of them ready to part. She examined his face silently and moved closer until she was standing directly in front of him. He looked a little exhausted, his shoulders were slightly slumped and there was the barest hint of dark circles beneath his eyes.

She ran her thumb across the violet shadows beneath his eyes, as though she could wipe them away. His eyelids closed involuntarily as he sighed, before he leaned forwards and buried his face in the crook of her neck. She toyed with his hair as they both stood quietly, taking comfort from each other's presence.

"You having nightmares?" She asked in a low voice, running her fingers through his ebony locks.

He gave a barely noticeable shake of his head. "I'm just worried about Prim and my mother." He paused momentarily. "And you."

"They're going to be fine," she said, comfortingly, completely ignoring the part about herself. "They've got Gale, remember? And my mom and dad love Prim. They'll take care of her too."

"I know." He mumbled into her neck, tickling her skin. He looked up, briefly and continued. "I have been worrying about them for so long. I just don't know how to stop. It's become a habit."

She nodded understandingly. She still remembered the little eleven year old boy she had befriended. At that time, he would barely talk, let alone about his problems at home. She recalled her desire to make him smile and the deep feeling of triumph she felt when he laughed at one of her jokes for the very first time, and the way his grim eyes had lit up. Remembering the boy from her memory and the Peeta who currently had his head buried into her neck, she couldn't help but feel the difference. And she couldn't help but feel irrepressibly glad of it. The eleven year old Peeta would never have told her of his worries and would never have let her comfort him. The only thing that remained unchanged between the two was his fierce desire to protect the ones he loved.

Peeta inhaled deeply and wrapped an arm around her waist. She felt a rush of warmth flow through her system as she looked at the boy in her arms.

"Just try to forget, okay?" She whispered against the shell of his ear. "Only for a little while, just try to forget."

He nodded wordlessly into her neck. There was silence for a few moments before Peeta lifted her head and spoke up. She could see his eyes brimming with emotion.

"I swear if you ever pull a stunt like that again, I'll…" He started warningly. For a moment he tried to find the right words, before he abandoned his attempts and trailed off.

"I just wanted them to know, you know?" She said. She played lightly with the collar of his shirt, the tips of her fingers grazing his neck lightly. "I just wanted to show them, just for a moment, that they don't own me… that I'm more than just a piece in their Games."

"I think you just did that," Peeta replied after a moment of contemplation, "when you threw that knife at the Gamemakers."

"It still won't stop them," she said angrily, being unusually pessimistic. Normally he would be the one spewing out anger directed at the Capitol and she would be the one reassuring him. But the worlds had turned so drastically in such a short moment of time that this small change didn't seem so surprising. "It won't ever change anything."

"It may take a crowd to protest but it only takes one person to make a stand, Katniss." Peeta said in a light voice. He leaned his forehead against hers. "And though it may bring no change, you still made a stand."

"That doesn't make a difference though. We both can't get out of this alive." She whispered, a little shakily. She looked directly into his stormy eyes and the look he gave her -one of quiet desperation and a grim, silent promise- made her voice thicken involuntarily. "What are the odds that even one of us gets out alive?"

He kissed her lightly once, before he murmured, "You never know, Katniss. The odds might just be in our favor."


So guys, tell me what you think maybe? I want to know whether you liked the chapter, what you think should happen next, what you liked and what you hated. Do you think I got the characters right? Do you want to suggest something that needs to happen? Tell me everything!

The song is Carry On by Fun.

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-EG