Chapter 10

Cards had become a regular thing with the both of them and occasionally her little sister would join in and the three of them would laugh at how ugly the cat was and it seemed that all the repulsive thing could do was growl and hiss at anyone that was not Primrose.

"Prim, that cat is really vile, you know that right?" Katniss laughed.

"No he's not," Primrose said pulling a face.

Both he and Katniss could not hold back laughing and soon enough Primrose did to.

The girl's mother, head nurse Everdeen had come into the room, only to see how Katniss was doing. After she had finished checking on her daughter, she turned to face him. She looked at him with both a curious and cautious stare but then left quite quickly.

Primrose had decided to play one more round of cards before picking up her cat, Buttercup and then left the room. She offered him to walk down to the training centres and he gladly accepted.

When they had walked down the corridors, the odd district thirteen, or even district twelve citizens would stare at the two of them as they walked very close together and laughed at jokes that were not really that funny.

"So," Katniss said stifling a laugh, "Why did you bleach your hair?"

"I was ordered to," he said "Coin thought that it would make me blend in with everyone but there is only so much peroxide can do right."

"I'm starving, shall we go to the cafeteria?" she asked with a slight smile.

He held the door to the cafeteria open for her, "Can't train on empty stomach now can we?"

They both followed each other closely as they were at the different food stations. They did not offer much of variety in district thirteen, it was mainly boiled down vegetables but since she had been hunting, they did have the occasional rare treat of some fresh meat. To their delight, the kitchens were serving some fresh pig today in the form of bacon and gammon.

Katniss had decided to get the gammon while he had settled on the bacon, savouring every taste. He couldn't remember the last time he had fresh meat, or even his favourite the pig.

"Can I tell you something?" Katniss asked after she had finished eating.

"Sure," he said with a mouthful of bacon.

"I once shot a pig at the game makers during my private training," she said quietly.

"You shot it at them, intending to get them?" he asking, trying to swallow his food but his throat had suddenly become much tighter and he almost chocked on his bacon.

"No," she said with her eyebrows pushed together, "I mean I didn't aim for them but I think that might have been the impression."

"Why did you do it?" he asked pushing his food to one side.

"They ignored me when that score could have been my only chance of winning." She said in a gloomy tone.

"Well I'm sure that they regret it now."

"I don't know about the head game maker."

He stopped looking at the table and finally looked up at her with guarded enthusiasm, she had never mentioned him before, well, not his real identity and here she was, talking about the time that she very first captivated him.

"What about the head game maker? I left before your games ended." He said, looking closely at her.

"He died, well I would say that the odds that President Snow had murdered him or ordered someone to do that would not be in his favour." She said

"I see what you did there," he laughed, "may the odds be ever in his favour."

She got up and moved her tray to the wash pile and then she had put his food back into a bowl, to save for later. Leaving food in district thirteen was not an option and neither of them wanted to cause a scene.

They had walked down to the training centre, and clearly none of them had given any thought to their schedules that was printed on their arms as they were over an hour and a half late for their training. Boggs did not look impressed and Gale just scowled at him from across the room. Gale had shouted Katniss over to help him with a bow and arrow but she had told him to wait, which made Seneca smile a little.

After she had finished talking to him, she had wondered off over to Gale and started showing him some techniques with the bow and arrows. Since he was new to all of this combat training, he had to start with the very baisics which he thought was very tedious. He always hated watching the tributes trying to learn new skills about survival and combat, half of them failed, and the rest either excelled brilliantly or just didn't bother with anything.

After about three long hours of attempting combat and failing miserably, Boggs and settled on the fact that he might be some use with the surviallance team so had suggested that he works with Beetee, the former victor who was a genius when it came to technology, to help him train with the more technology side of the 451 squad.

He looked back at Katniss as he walked away and she gave him a little wave with a small smile. Gale pulled her to one side, trying to get her attention while she watched him walk away.

After an hour with Beetee, there seemed to be hope that he would actually be some help in the star squad rather than just a talking map. Beetee had shown him some of the basics, which included getting live feeds from around block by tapping into the Close Circuit Television or just CCTV as Beetee liked to call it. He was also introduced to the sensors which would help them around their base camps when they actually get into the capitol.

He left the technology centre with a proud smile on his face, as he was more than just a Capitol refugee now, he was part of the team, part of the movement, part of her cause.

He went to open when an arrow shot at his face, just missing him. When he turned to face the shooter he had seen that it was Katniss and she apologized until she dropped everything she was holding.

"Oh my god," she said covering her hand over her mouth, "you were there, at my private training. Your Seneca!"