Hello everyone! See, I promised it wouldn't be too long before I updated again! Thank you so much for the reviews, follows and favorites last chapter! I appreciate how understanding you all were during my absense. Anywho, hopefully this makes up for it! I have a longer chapter for you guys, and, in my opinion, this is where I really start branching off from canon. You'll see what I mean... Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own THG

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Katniss and I were eventually left her room for the promise of dinner. No matter what we were feeling, keeping our health had to be our number one concern in these next few days.

No one spoke to us as we entered the dining room. We sat in silence and a couple Avoxes set overflowing plates in front of us. Cinna and Portia were the only ones speaking, with occasional intervention from Effie. The conversation was of nothing that concerned Katniss, Haymitch and me – some gossip about Capitol higher ups from the sounds of it. This was why when Haymitch spoke up it startled both Katniss and I into alertness. "That's it," he said, putting his fork and knife back on the table with more force than necessary. "Effie, I don't care what you think they need. I'm their mentor, and damn it, I need to know what's going on." He turned to us with such intensity that Katniss flinched, though almost imperceptibly. "What the hell happened today?"

Katniss and I shared a look, both wondering if we should share or not. Silently, we came to the same conclusion – we had to tell him. We would have to explain anyway when our scores came up as zeros. So we took turns telling our respective stories, the whole time braced for serious backlash from everyone. When we finished, however, we were met only with sympathetic gazes. Though, Effie was looking a bit pale.

"And now we have no chance of getting sponsors," I said looking directly to Haymitch. "I'm sorry."

"We're sorry," Katniss corrected. "After we forced you to help us, we threw away any help you may have gained us."

Haymitch's expression left no doubt that he was furious, though I had a distinct feeling that his anger wasn't directed at us. "We'll see," was his only response. Without another word he stood and made his way to the sitting room, turning on the television.

Effie stood and followed him, an angry click to her gate. Cinna and Portia remained a moment longer, both looking at us with nothing but sympathy. "While I cannot condone either of your actions, I have to say that I also cannot blame either one of us. If it were up to me, you both would be receiving a twelve tonight," Cinna said. He gave us each a meaningful look, then spun on his heel and sat beside Effie on the couch.

Portia walked behind our chairs, placed a hand on both Katniss and my shoulders and said, "Don't worry; I have a strong feeling that everything will work out in the end. Now come on, it's about to start."

I put my hand over Portia's and gave it a light squeeze. "Thank you," I said, looking up at her. She gave me a motherly smile then joined the others. With a sigh, I stood and offered my hand to Katniss. "Let's get this over with," I said.

She took my hand, squeezed, and said, "It will all be okay."

We watched as the tributes and their scores showed up on the screen, one by one. Katniss and I were each on the edge of our seats. Finally, after what seemed like a lifetime, Katniss' name and image appeared on the screen. I felt her grip my hand so tightly it hurt, only then realizing she hadn't released it since I had offered it to her earlier.

The room took in a collective breath in anticipation and then –

"A ten?" Katniss questioned in a weak voice. "I don't understand."

I gave her a smile. "I guess they liked your guts. Congrats," I said. Everyone but Haymitch echoed my congratulations, and then it was my turn. I held my breath, expecting the worst. Maybe they would pity me and give me a two, I thought. Maybe – The number eleven appeared next to my picture, remained for a moment, then the screen went black.

I looked over to Haymitch with wide eyes. He had the remote in his hand, obviously having turned the television off. He met my gaze with not the confusion I expected, but concern.

Portia reached towards me from the couch next to me. She squeezed my arm with a smile. "Nice job, Peeta!"

I shook my head. "I shot an arrow at them. I could have killed one of them."

Cinna smiled. "I guess it's like you told Katniss – they liked your guts."

I was too stunned to return his smile. I glanced at Katniss to find her already staring at me, her eyes wide with confusion and something else I couldn't place. Uncomfortable with the intensity of her gaze, I shifted my focus to Haymitch, only to find him too already looking at Katniss and me.

"Everyone out," he said, keeping his eyes on us. "I need to talk to the kids alone."

Slowly everyone filed out of the room, giving us goodbyes of varying enthusiasm levels as they walked by. Once everyone was gone, I looked back to Haymitch. He was staring very pointedly at a spot in between me and Katniss. Following his gaze, I saw that he was staring at our still entwined hands. I yanked my hand from Katniss'.

Katniss barely seemed to notice. "Haymitch, what is it? Something's wrong, I can tell. You're worried." Hearing the panic in her voice, I realized what the emotion was I saw in her eyes: fear.

Haymitch ran a hand over his face, looking more exhausted than I had ever seen him. "Maybe they did like your guts, but that isn't why they gave you high scores."

"Why did they then?" I asked, leaning forward, my elbows on my knees.

Haymitch looked very sober in that moment. "They just put a huge target on your back."

Out of the corner of my eye, I could actually see the blood drain from Katniss' face. "The careers – "

"Don't like being beat," Haymitch finished. The highest score any of the careers had gotten was a ten, by Cato, the beast from District 2. "You can bet your asses that they'll be coming after you two with a vengeance. You thought the careers were intimidating before? That's nothing compared to when it gets personal."

We sat in silence for a moment, all soaking in this new found obstacle. Finally, I said, "What do we do?"

Haymitch sighed. "Move on. There's nothing you can do to change this now, so the best thing we can do is carry on with the original plan. Tomorrow we have all day to prep you for your interviews. You'll spend half the day learning superficial stuff from Effie, the other half strategizing with me. These interviews are the last chance you have to impress any possible sponsors. If you really want to make up for what happened today, nail these interviews." Katniss and I must have still looked concerned, because he added, "There's no sense in worrying about it. Now, go to bed and try to get some sleep."

XXXXX

"Try" was the key word in Haymitch's parting line, seeing as sleep was nearly impossible to find. Regardless of the pointlessness of worrying, it was all I could do. All I could think about was that I had let Rye down, broken my promise to come home to him. Regardless of Katniss' mother's promise, I knew that without my hunting and my trading for Rye's medicine, he and my father would die. The guilt was enough to weigh down on my chest until I felt like I was suffocating.

After hours of tossing and turning, I gave up and decided I needed to get out of my room. I remembered seeing a door earlier that had a sign labeling it as leading to the roof. Thinking a breath of fresh air might help, I made my way back to it. What I really wanted was to escape into the woods, but there was no chance of that happening.

I opened the door that led to the roof and was immediately rewarded with a cool breeze on my face. Closing my eyes, I took a moment to let it relax me. If I tried hard enough, I could pretend I was back in the woods, waiting for the sun to rise and Gale to sneak up behind me. But I wasn't in the woods. I opened my eyes and stepped further onto the roof. I stopped, however, when I saw a shadow standing at the railing, staring off into the distance. "Couldn't sleep either, huh?"

Katniss jumped a little before turning around to face me. "No, I couldn't."

I continued walking until I was beside her. "Yeah, it's pretty hard to not worry when you just dug your own grave." I expected at least a small smile at that, but Katniss just kept her gaze focused ahead. With a sigh, I knew I should bring up what had been on my mind for a while. "Katniss," I said. She must have heard something in my voice because she immediately turned to face me. "We have to talk about what we're going to do in the games."

She stiffened. "What do you mean?"

"I mean I cannot imagine running into you in the arena and having to shoot you." Katniss flinched, but I plowed on anyway, words spewing out now that the tap was open. "I'm not sure I can handle having to wait until night to know if you're dead every time I hear a cannon. Katniss, I've told you before, if I'm not coming out of these games alive, it has to be you."

"Peeta, what are you trying to say?" she asked in a small voice.

I took a deep breath and launched right in. "I want to be your ally."

Katniss sighed and turned away from me again. She was quiet for a few minutes, but I let her be, knowing that the best way to get Katniss to speak was to not push her. Finally she said, "I can't do that."

I couldn't have been more surprised if she had told me she was an alien. I had thought we were on the same page on the whole ally thing. "Why not?" I couldn't help the angry tone that leaked into my voice.

Katniss' voice also held a bit of anger when she spoke again. "Think about it, Peeta. What happens when it's just the two of us? I can't kill you, Peeta, I can't."

Immediately I shoved down the odd feeling that rose inside me when she said she couldn't kill me. I had to admit, I was relieved that she hadn't told me it was something personally against me. "We'll separate before it gets down to the two of us then."

Katniss thought about it for a minute before she nodded. "Okay. When it gets down to the final five, we'll go our separate ways. Deal?"

I couldn't help the grin that spread across my lips with relief. "Deal," I said. Realizing I sounded a bit too excited, I added. "I mean, we probably should keep up the whole couple charade anyway."

Something passed across Katniss face, but it was gone before I could even really think about it. "Oh, right. We should be keeping that up. For the sponsors and all."

I reached out and squeezed her shoulder. "We should try to get some sleep." Katniss nodded and we made our way silently back to our rooms. Standing across from each other, leaning against our respective doorways, I said, "Thank you."

Katniss tipped her head to the side. "For what?"

"For not making me do this alone."

Katniss smiled and simply said, "Goodnight, Peeta."

I returned her smile. "Sweet dreams, Katniss."

XXXXX

"No, you have to smile!" Effie said for what seemed like the thousandth time.

Katniss huffed in exasperation. "I am smiling!"

Effie raised a dyed eyebrow at her. "Really? Because it looks to me more like you're in pain." I couldn't hold back the snort that snuck out. Katniss shot daggers at me, and Effie whipped her focus in my direction. "I don't know what you think is so funny. At least she is trying to smile."

Katniss gave me a satisfied smirk. I narrowed my eyes at her before turning back to Effie. "You said to be myself. 'Myself' doesn't involve much smiling."

Effie placed her hands on her hips, clearly moments from losing all her patience with us. "That is simply not true. I've seen you and Katniss smile at each other countless times. Without appearing to be in pain, might I add."

"That's different!" Katniss huffed indignantly.

"How so?" Effie was beginning to turn red under all her makeup.

"We aren't trying to smile and be nice. We're just smiling because we're happy or laughing or something," I interjected in our defense. "Effie, I'm not sure if you've noticed this, but we aren't exactly good actors."

Effie sat in an armchair across from us, seemingly beginning to calm at my explanation. "I suppose you do have a point." She seemed to contemplate the situation for a few moments before brightening. "I've got it! If the issue is that you can't act, then don't act!" She must have realized that her "solution" made absolutely no sense, because she quickly clarified. "It's quite simple, really. When you're each being interviewed, just pretend you're having a conversation with the other."

Katniss and I shared a look. I had to admit, it wasn't an awful idea.

"Hopefully," Effie continued with a dramatic sigh, "it will fix the lack of charm you two currently possess." She looked at each of us. "Well? What do you think?"

We exchanged another brief glance. Part of me hated the fact that Effie was right – that I was getting comfortable with Katniss. After all, in just a few short weeks at least one of us would be dead. But the other part of me couldn't hate the comfort I felt when Katniss was sitting beside me. I tore my gaze from Katniss'. "It's a great idea, Effie," I said. "We'll give it a shot."

"Yes, it's a perfect solution, Effie," Katniss agreed.

Effie was visibly relieved. "Wonderful! Now that that is settled, let's move on to posture!"

The next few hours were filled with the discovery that, not only was there a wrong way to sit, but there was also a wrong way to laugh and walk. Though I had to admit, Katniss had it much worse; at least I didn't have to wear heels.

We took a thirty minute break for lunch, and then it was Haymitch's turn to prepare us.

We sat across from him in the dining room, and he was looking at us expectantly. After several minutes, I couldn't take it anymore. "What?" I asked in annoyance.

Haymitch only leaned back in his chair. "I can tell you two have something you want to say to me, so spit it out."

I was trying to figure out what on earth he was talking about when Katniss spoke up. "You're right; there is something we need to tell you." She paused to take a quick glance at me. "We've decided to be allies."

Haymitch merely raised an eyebrow. "Are you two sure you can handle that? When it gets down to the two of you – "

I cut him off, now caught up with the conversation. "We're going to separate when only five tributes are left."

Haymitch nodded. "Well, that makes this whole 'couple' thing a lot easier to play up. You two do realize that if you want to keep your sponsors, you're going to have to keep the act up in the arena, right?"

I glanced at Katniss out of the corner of my eye. "We understand," she said.

Haymitch nodded again, seemingly fine with our decision. "Well, in that case, I have an idea for tonight that will be sure to have the sponsors lining up at the door."

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Cliffy! Sorry, but if I told you guys what would happen in the interviews, that would kind of make the interviews boring, right? So, in case you haven't figured it out, interviews are next chapter, and I think you'll all like what I have in mind! I'm excited! As always, please let me know what you thought! Are the characters to OOC, not enough? What are your theories for the interviews? Let me know!

Love always,

YesIWriteForFun