Disclaimer, I do not own either book series.

Chapter 9

Katniss Pov

"How'd you find this? They've never shown this place on T.V before," Katniss wondered, marveling at the beautiful garden.

"Haymitch showed me it last night." He said. She wondered what that meant. Had Haymitch already chosen Percy as his favorite tribute? Would he not help her in the games?

She walked to the ledge and looked out. She gasped. The tallest building in district twelve was the mayors building, and even that was only a few stories high. This was like nothing she'd ever seen before. She leaned over and looked down. She began to feel dizzy.

"Careful," Percy said with a grin leaning on the rail.

He tossed a rock over the side, but there was a zap and a wall of light became visible for a second. The rock flew back onto the roof.

"Force field," Percy confirmed, "Because they're very concerned with our safety."

Katniss snorted and looked out over the city. The capitol never seemed to go to sleep. There were always cars moving, laughter echoing, and music playing. It was like organized chaos.

"Do you miss them?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said knowing whom he was referring too.

Percy nodded, "That was one of the bravest things I've ever seen," he told her.

"Don't think too highly of me. Not like I would've done it for some stranger." Katniss said clearly trying to hint at why he might have volunteered.

Percy didn't get the hint, "yeah, well the people who volunteer for no reason just want the glory and fame." Percy said with distaste, "Like those kids from the career districts."

"Is that why you did it?" Katniss pressed, "for the glory and fame?"

"What? No, why would you say that?" Percy asked.
"Because you seem a lot like the tributes from districts one two and four," Katniss said.

"No I don't," he argued.

"Well let's see, you volunteered for the games, you're even stronger than Cato from district two, and maybe Thresh too, you knew more ways to kill someone with a trap than the instructor, you beat the obstacle course in record time…" Katniss listed off, "I could go on…"

He held up his hands in a time out gesture, "whoa whoa whoa," he paused, "… I beat the record?" He sounded pleased with himself.

"Your insufferable," Katniss rolled her eyes.

"Look, I didn't volunteer for me… for fame and glory and becoming rich. And honestly I didn't volunteer for Peeta Mellark, all that would've been much simpler," he leaned in closer to Katniss. The capitol must make really good shampoo because he made her feel like she was at the beach right now. Katniss knew that was ridiculous because they were on a rooftop in the middle of a huge city in the mountains thousands of feet above sea level. Her school had taken a field trip when she was young to district four. Katniss didn't know why she was thinking about this all of a sudden. "I volunteered… for you." Percy said looking at her with sea green eyes. She couldn't help but blush under the stare.

"What?" she asked softly. That didn't make sense at all.

"What you did, to save your sister." He explained moving closer, "the look on your sister's face when you volunteered to protect her… I knew that would be a thousand times worse if you died in the arena. I knew your friend would only be able to help your family for so long without you, so to answer your question "girl on fire",… I did it for you." His face was inches from hers.

Katniss didn't know what to think, in fact she couldn't think. Her heart was beating rapidly and her brain was all muddled. She closed her eyes and took a breath to regain her focus…she really could imagine being on the quite beaches of district four right now. Katniss felt his lips brush against hers and she leaned in only to find he wasn't there anymore. She opened her eyes.

He looked at Katniss with a pained expression on his face, "You're gonna win, not me," he said with finality, "I'll make sure of it." With that he left the rooftop leaving Katniss to feel more confused about her ally than she had in the first place.