Disclaimer: I don't own Sherlock or The Hunger Games, sadly.

11

Sherlock and I didn't get back to where we left everyone as quickly as we thought since Sherlock stopped in his tracks and threw his arm in front of me to prevent me walking any further.

"What?" I asked, but he was listening.

"Punch me in the face."

"Punch you?" it was a strange request.

Sherlock sighed then punched me, making me attack him back.

"Okay, I think that's enough now." Sherlock stated, blocking a punch easily.

"Somebody loves you," a female voice spoke. My head snapped up to the direction, where I saw a shadow of a girl leaning against a tree. "I'd avoid the nose and teeth too."

Sherlock didn't seem alarmed at the voice. "Irene Adler, District 1."

"You noticed me," she announced slyly, stepping into the light.

She had dark hair and pale skin, and her bright red lipstick was radiating considering she had been in the arena for a few days. "Does that make me special?" she grinned.

I raised both eyebrows and watched Sherlock, who was completely expressionless.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"Protection."

"We're in the Hunger Games," I rushed my words. "We're in the Hunger Games meaning we can't protect you much than you can protect yourself."

"So why do you have allies?" she didn't take her eyes off of mine.

There was a long silence before Sherlock broke in. "You've got an ally already."

"What?" Irene and I both asked at the same time.

"Oh please," Sherlock sighed. "She's standing right over there..."

Irene looked amazed. "Kate, come out from hiding."

Another girl stepped out who looked younger than Irene but probably only by a year.

"She's from District 5, before you ask." Irene smiled, looking towards Kate.

"Why do you want protection if you have someone with you?" I asked them.

Irene rolled her eyes.

"There's someone out to get her in here," Sherlock began. "Someone who would easily kill her if they found her and Kate wouldn't last five minutes without her either."

Kate looked insulted but Irene just held her hand, smiling at Sherlock's intelligence.

"Clever boy," she said softly. "So will you help us?"

Sherlock shrugged his shoulders and walked around them.

"Do you want me to beg?" Irene almost yelled.

I watched Sherlock who didn't react to her comment and was just walking away from them casually.

"Please."

Sherlock stopped and looked at me, and I was trying to read his expression with no hope, then he continued to walk. I tried to avoid making eye contact with the two girls as I followed Sherlock.

We were walking back to where we left everybody else and were out of sight from Irene and Kate, when a question sprung to my mind. "How did you know they were there?"

"It wasn't hard, there were footsteps on the ground leading towards the trees, and I knew they were still there because I saw Kate's shadow not too far away. Easy."

"Amazing..." I mumbled to myself. I saw Sherlock smile at my comment from the corner of my eye.

We didn't get very far away before we heard screams.

"Sherlock!" it was Irene's voice.

Sherlock spun in his steps and we were both running back to the girls, faced by a large boy who had his hands wrapped tightly around Kate's neck while Irene was punching him repeatedly in attempts for rescue, but he stood completely still and fixed to the ground. I recognised the large boy. He was the one who killed Randall, and would have killed me if it wasn't for Mike Stamford.

Sherlock threw an arrow straight at the Golem's hand, an arrow I didn't even notice he had with him, and the man dropped Kate onto the floor and began to walk towards us. His extreme height let him get to us quickly compared to anybody else, and he was soon reaching his hands out to grab Sherlock after having pulled the arrow out of his hand and dropping it on the floor. Everything happened quickly. Irene cried loudly when the canon fired, and my main concern was to just help Sherlock after seeing how easily Randall was killed. I threw myself at the Golem and tried to get him away from Sherlock. I wrapped my arms around his throat and pulled back as much as I could, trying to save my ally. I didn't seem to need to do much as the man soon fell and a canon fired. To my surprise, I hadn't killed him but instead Irene had. She had grabbed the arrow and stabbed the boy .

"Sherlock, are you alright?" I asked.

He simply brushed his clothes down and looked at me with an obvious look. "Of course!" It was his voice that ruined it for him though, which was now croaky, but I decided not to point it out since his expression changed to shock and disappointment as soon as he heard his own voice.

Irene was expressionless, although she was clearly trying not to look at Kate's lifeless body lying on the floor. "Let's get away from here," was all she said, and began to walk away.

Sherlock and I followed her in complete silence until we were finally back to where we were meeting everyone.