Slightly early update because I'm away from my computer tomorrow :) I'd like to say that, having reread the first Hunger Games book today, I've realised that I have taken quite a few liberties and changed some small things, so I'd just like to ask that you all just accept them for this fic, as they are all relevant to the plot. Thank you, and I would love some more reviews :) xxx

"They're up there," Pietro called as his sister walked over to him, pointing up to where James was crouched in the tree. The twins were closely followed by Steve Rogers, who had clearly teamed up with them for this part of the Games.

"Two for the price of one," Wanda replied with a sly smile, looking up where her brother was pointing. "Why don't you come down?" she called up to James. "What's the point in stretching it out? You have to come down at some time. Or we can always come up to you," she added with a grin.

"I'm good up here for now," James replied. In another scenario, it could have been friends teasing each other, rather than the tense situation that it was.

"James, this is pointless," Steve said. It sounded like there was a little bit of reluctance in his voice, he clearly wasn't taking any pleasure it this. "Don't drag it out for yourself. It's three against two, and whoever is with you doesn't look like she'll be much help."

As he looked down at the three Tributes, James racked his brain for a solution. He couldn't come down, he couldn't move fast enough with carrying Alex, and they would catch him. And there was no point in moving through the trees, because they would just follow him on the ground.

And then an idea came to James. The three people down below didn't know why he was with Alex. And he hated his own words as he started to speak, but he definitely sounded convincing. "Hey, you want her dead? So do I. This little bitch has been hanging around me since the start of the training sessions, and I've had enough. She's my kill, okay?"

While James knew that Alex being unconscious was a bad thing, he was hoping to God that Alex couldn't hear him or that, if she could, that she knew that he didn't mean anything that he said.

Down below, Steve, Wanda, and Pietro looked up and listened to James, and then began talking amongst themselves, too quietly for James to hear them. If they believed him, if they let him 'kill' Alex, then he might be able to convince them to leave him alone to do it.

"Then kill her now," Pietro said after a few moments' discussion. "If you want to kill her yourself, fine, and we are not going to stop you. You are doing is a favour, we might even let you go in return."

Damn. There had to be something, had to be a way to make them go away. One that didn't involve actually killing Alex, anyway. James couldn't even pretend to kill her, there would be no canon boom, and the Tributes would know that she wasn't really dead. As he tried to come up with something, James unconsciously shifted the position that he was sitting in, accidentally knocking the arrow in Alex's shoulder again, causing her to cry out.

And that gave him a potential solution. "Hey, I'm already doing it," James called down to the people below. "I shot her when I shook you guys. I would have waited for her to bleed out down there, but you idiots came back and forced me to drag her up here."

There was a pause as the Tributes considered what James had said. "You were waiting for her to bleed out?" Steve said, a tone to his voice that could have been confusion, but could have been concern. James wasn't really surprised, Steve hadn't struck him as a guy who would enjoy killing other Tributes. "Why?"

"I told you. She's been harassing me all week. This is my payback," James said, forcing himself to feign enthusiasm as he spoke. "She's not going to die slowly, I want her to really feel it."

There was a short silence. While the very nature of the Games were barbaric, there were always Tributes who pushed the horrors a little further. James tried not to take offence at the fact that they were all clearly buying it, it was the outcome that he wanted, after all.

"Damn Careers," Wanda muttered. If he was planning to draw the girl's death out, then it could take hours for her to actually die. The Gamemakers would doubtlessly get bored if four Tributes were waiting around for one to die, and none of the Tributes wanted to hang around and see what the Gamemakers might concoct to make things more interesting.

"Alright, fine. We will go, and leave you to your kill," the female Maximoff twin continued. "But, if we see you again, we won't be so kind." They didn't even wait for James to respond, the group of Tributes simply turned and jogged away into the mess of trees.

James waited for two agonising minutes before moving Alex into a more comfortable position. He gently shook her, and tapped very lightly on her cheeks. "Alex? Alex! Hey, sweetheart, you've got to wake up. I'm sorry that we stayed there for so long. Come on, please wake up..."

As he tapped her face again, a soft groan came from Alex, and her eyelids flickered open. Her eyes were filled with pain and fear as she looked at James. "It hurts, a- and I'm tired..." she mumbled, trying to curl up, and then whimpering in pain as she moved her shoulder.

"I know it does, and I'm really sorry. And I'll make it stop as soon as I can, I swear, but we have to start moving again," James replied, trying to cause Alex as little pain as possible as he moved her onto his shoulder once more. "Just a little longer, Alex, I promise." He winced at her little sobs of agony, but made himself get up and climb carefully down the tree.

It was hardly easy, but the tree had fairly spaced out branches, and so James was able to get down the tree reasonably quickly. Once they were on the ground, James put his arm over Alex's legs again to keep her stable on his shoulder, and then began to jog, as smoothly as he could, in the direction of the camp that he had made.

At the beginning of the Games, after he had grabbed some supplies from the outer rings of the Cornucopia, James had run in the opposite direction to Alex. This year's Arena seemed to be split in two, the forest covering one half of it, and rocky hills and small mountains on the other. While it was difficult to see from the clearing with the Cornucopia, due to all of the high trees that circled it, the mountains stretched fairly high, considering how much space was actually available in the Arena.

And, at the base of one of those mountains, there was a cluster of rocks and shrubbery that James had made a temporary camp in. He knew that it wasn't big enough for the two of them, and nor did it offer much more protection than simply hiding them, but it would do while he patched up Alex's shoulder. She could rest on the camp while he kept guard outside and, when she was more mobile, they could move somewhere else. If she wanted to stay with him, anyway.

James was getting more and more worried about Alex. While he was trying to be a smooth as possible, he knew that he was bumping and jolting her a little bit. But her little whimpers of pain had stopped. Which suggested that she had lost so much blood that she no longer had enough energy left to make any noise. Either that, or she had passed out from the pain. He held onto the hope that it was the latter as they broke out of the tree line.

Luckily, it didn't seem that any other Tributes had come into this area since Rogers and the two Maximoffs had chased him out of it, as it was completely silent as James crossed over to the large space of rocks and bushes that he had been hiding it, looking through it until he found the patch of rocks that formed a makeshift cave. He gently put Alex down on the bed of grass and weeds that he had made, making sure that she was lying on her uninjured side. He took a deep breath, and looked at her wound.

While her jacket was covered in blood, it wasn't quite as soaked as James had feared. So she properly had passed out from the pain, then. That was a bonus at least, there would have been nothing that he could have done if she had lost too much blood. He had to wake her up before he could do anything else, because anything he did would hurt, and she needed to be prepared for that.

James looked around for the large tin bottle that he stored water in - there was a pond about half a mile's walk away. When he had left the camp, he had hidden everything in patches of plants or dug little holes so that anyone who came in while he was gone couldn't steal anything. And, as he tried to remember where he had hidden the bottle, he noticed something. Despite being unconscious, Alex was still holding tightly to her own water bottle. James couldn't help but chuckle slightly, gently taking the bottle from her. He would refill it later, and the sooner he woke her, the better.

"Alex?" James asked, dipping his fingers into the water and then gently sprinkling it over her face to rouse her. "I'm sorry, but I need you to wake up."

A soft groan tumbled from Alex's lips as she opened her eyes slightly, clearly very confused as to what was happening. "J- James?"

"Yeah, it's me. Hi," James smiled, smoothing a few strands of her hair off of her face. "I'm really sorry about this, Alex, but I have to get the arrow out of your shoulder. And it's really going to hurt."

There was a pause while Alex processed the information, and then nodded. "Okay," she said weakly. She didn't want it to hurt, she'd had enough pain that day. But she trusted James, and she knew that he wouldn't hurt her unless he had to.

James helped Alex sit up, and moved to kneel behind her. He put his metal arm across her chest, and encouraged her to lean on it, before gripping the arrow with his flesh hand. She winced just at that, and James closed his eyes. "I'm really sorry, Alex," he said again, taking another deep breath. "Three, two, one."

He pulled as hard as he could, wanting it to be over quickly. And, while he did get the arrow out, it almost didn't seem worth the awful scream that came from the girl he was holding.

He threw the arrow on the ground, out of both his and Alex's sight, and then placed his hand over the wound in her shoulder to suppress the bleeding that had started again, feeling tears well in his eyes as he heard Alex start to sob again. He kept apologising, although he doubted that it was actually comforting her in any way.

In the backpack that he had picked up from the Cornucopia, there had been a small first aid kit, which James had hidden in the patch of weeds behind him. He leant back and grabbed it, opening it with his spare hand. He drew Alex's knife out of her belt and carefully cut a little bit of her jacket and shirt, just enough to expose her torn skin. There had been no head on the arrow, just a sharpened point, so the wound wasn't all that big. Once he had gotten to the wound, James took a needle and thread out of the first aid kit, and kept Alex leant on his metal arm.

"This is going to hurt again, Alex. It's the last thing I have to do, I promise." James tried to distance himself from what he was doing, from Alex's whimpers of pain as he sewed up the arrow wound in her shoulder. It didn't take too long and, when he was done, he dropped the needle back in the first aid kit, he could clean up later.

And, when he felt Alex lean back into him, almost curling him against him, James moved his other arm around her as well, cuddling her. "It's okay, you're going to be okay," he said softly, holding her and comforting her until she fell asleep.