A/N- Why hello there! I believe we haven't spoken since last year? Oh, really? It's a new year? Already? Wow, how time flies...

Anyways, happy new year everyone! Sorry that this is a little later, but I explained all that in the last chapter. Well, I shall let you settle back into the story then, shall I?

Bryn Rosella, District 2 POV

"Just stay still for a moment." Tal says to me. "I can't do this if you're shifting around like that."

"I'm fine, really." I jerk my head away from his grasping hands. "It's only a small cut."

"Bryn, it's not just a small cut. You were hit by a tent pole." Tal insists, holding up a reflective piece of glass in front of my face. "Look, it's a deep gash that needs cleaning."

Reluctantly, I stare at my reflection in the shard of glass. I look a mess. My short, mud brown hair is ruffled; chunks of the locks sticking out in all directions. My eyes are bloodshot and have lost their sharp emerald glare. And a short, yet deep wound slices across my forehead; dried blood turning brown that streaks my skin. It's as if I've been dragged through a thorned bush in the dark.

"It's nothing, I'll live." I shrug off my injuries.

"But you might not live very long if it gets infected." Tal remarks knowingly. "Now, if you're planning on getting far in these Games, then shut up and stay still; this needs to be cleaned."

Grunting as I do so, I obediently sit still and quit talking. Tal smiles with both relief and victory and dips a piece of grey material into a flask of water. He pulls it out, dripping wet, rings most of the liquid out and raises it to my face. I start moving my head back, but a harsh sounding no keeps me still.

"This may sting a little." Tal warns me.

"I'm not a child, Tal." I say back rudely. He looks a little hurt, so I quickly apologise. "Sorry Tal, I just hate being patronized."

"I wasn't patronizing you, it was simply a word of warning." He recovers.

I raise a sceptical eyebrow, but allow it to pass.

Tal takes the damp cloth to my forehead and lightly touches it. My damaged skin stings sharply, but all I do is wince as he gently wipes along with caring hands.

All the while, I watch his carefully drawn face. His eyebrows are burrowed in a slight frown, his teeth biting his lower lip and his eyes attentive to my face. It's quite mesmerising to watch the concentration on his face; like when I'm focusing on a target with my knives. He looks much more serious than his usual grinning self with his mischievously lit up eyes that always seem to catch mine.

Tal's hand, still holding the cloth, drops from my face.

"All clean." He says softly, bringing his other hand up to my cheek and running an affectionate finger down my untouched skin.

I'm not the one usually bothered about the opposite sex other than to pick a fight with, but as Tal's fingertip traces the line of my jaw, I find a small shiver slip down my spine and a flutter of butterflies in my stomach. And when he plants a soft kiss on my lips, I feel a surge of lust within me.

"Oh, Tal..." I murmur against his mouth as I kiss back.

"Erm..." Comes his reply and I suddenly pull back, surprised. Just as I'm about to demand what he meant my 'erm', I realise that it wasn't him that spoke, but Ren instead.

Ren stands in the opening of the Cornucopia, holding a small silver box and staring at us without blinking.

Feeling my cheeks flush pink, a sensation I'm not used to, I start shuffling awkwardly away from the closeness of Tal.

"Right...have I come at a bad time?" Ren asks, then starts smirking. "I wasn't...interrupting anything, was I?"

I can't form words to pull together an excuse, but luckily Tal swoops in.

"Ah, it seems you have caught us red-handed, Ren." He says, holding his hands out guiltily. "Well, it was only a matter of time that we could keep it hidden..."

I dart him an annoyed look. He mouths 'what?' innocently back. I narrow my eyes.

"So this has been going on for a while, then?" Ren asks, walking over. "Since when? Did you have your first 'encounter' in the Capitol?"

"No!" We both answer simultaneously.

Ren laughs. "Both in denial, I see. So when did it start then?"

"A while back," Tal answers truthfully. "when you guys went out hunting and that girl swiped some of our stuff."

Ren raises his eyebrows in surprise. "So you were too busy snogging each others' faces off that the girl slipped in and stole our stuff?"

At the words 'snogging each others' faces off' both of us turn a shade darker. A shade darker red, that is.

"Um...actually..." Tal stutters from embarrassment. "...We first...um, kissed...after the girl got away..."

Ren nods. "Ok, so you were just too lazy to catch the thief then?"

"No." I jump in, defensive. "We just arrived in camp as she was making a getaway; we started to give chase, but we were too far away."

"No worries anyway, she died the other day." Tal points out. "We saw her face in the sky and toasted our flasks in content."

Ren, who is now standing beside us, suddenly remembers the box in his hand.

"Oh, yeah. I almost forgot." He says, opening up the silver box. "This just came a few minutes ago."

He passes the box over to me and I take in it surprise. "Is this for me?"

"Well, unless your name isn't Bryn and you've been lying to us all along."

"Sorry to disappoint, but I haven't got a secret identity."

I look inside the opened box. A small slip of ivory paper sits on top and I lift that out and read it first.

"Bryn, make sure Tal applies it generously." I read it aloud.

"Is it for your wound?" Ren asks.

"Why do I have to apply it?" Tal asks also.

Retrieving the gift inside, I hold out a circular pot. Popping off the lid, I smell the pale blue cream inside. It smells of the Capitol's clinical room.

"I can only presume it's for my wound, it doesn't look edible." I answer Ren's question first, then turn to Tal. "Maybe the sponsors like us..."

"...together?" Tal finishes my sentence.

"Aw look, you're finishing each others' sentences." Ren smirks.

Tal and I just laugh.

"C'mon then, apply it generously, doctor." I grin at Tal. He grins back and takes the pot.

"I shall take this as an opportunity to leave you two alone..." Ren backs out. "Come out and help me organise the destroyed camp when you're finished."

And saying no more, he leaves.

"Now, do I need to ask you to stay still?" Tal asks me, his finger dipped in cream.

"You'll have to make me." I say back, hinting.

Tal understands straight away and the grin on his face appears ever larger. He places the pot that balanced on his knee onto the floor and comes in closer to me.

"Your hair wants brushing, by the way." He whispers.

"There's time for that later." I reply, hushed, and this time it's me that makes the first move.

Phosphorus Vox, District 7 POV

"Wakey wakey, rise and shine. It's a new day porcupine!" My slumber is halted by a rather tiredly sung rhyme.

Reluctantly, as I would have loved to drift back to sleep again, I lift my heavy eyelids. The hazy image of Layla appears before my eyes, her grinning face staring down at my frowning one.

"Is it morning already?" I ask drearily. "It only feels like an hour ago that I went to sleep."

Layla bites her lower lip, a sign that she's either lying or worried about something. "Well, actually... it kinda is the early evening. More precisely, you've only been asleep for about two hours."

I jolt up, whacking the back of my skull on the cave wall in the process. "Ouch!"

Layla stifles a giggle. "We both need to stop doing that."

"Yeah, it's not very enjoyable." I say, rubbing my head tenderly. "I think half my brain cells just died."

"Then maybe you won't be thinking clearly enough to have a go at me for waking you up?" Layla asks hopefully.

At the reminder of my disappointingly short and disturbed sleep, my eyes narrow. "Don't worry, I think I can manage to throttle you at the least."

Layla shuffles back, not sure whether to take my threat seriously or not. She waits, her body tense, while I sit up properly and then relaxes when I show no intention of strangling her thin neck.

"So, why did you wake me up?" I go for the talking option of communication. "Were you bored? Or is something wrong?"

"You'd be right in choosing either." She replies. "The problem leads to my eventual boredom."

I frown. "What's the problem? Broken a nail?"

She scowls, but continues to answer. "Have you not noticed how dim it is in here?"

I chew my lip and look around the cave. It is quite dim actually, only small slits of light cutting through the darkness and lighting up her face. I didn't notice it much a I only just woke up; plus, I thought it was later on anyway.

"And? Isn't it usually dark in caves?" I say as if it's an obvious fact.

"Yeah, in the night." Layla says. "But not in the early evening."

"So that's the problem then; you're not satisfied in the Gamemakers' choice of lighting this particular evening?"

She rolls her eyes. "Of course there is more to it."

Layla crawls, due to the low height of the cave, over to the entrance. I have to turn my neck to see past a shelf of rock and stare at the entrance. Except, I gasp when I see that there isn't one. What used to be a huge gap in the jagged rocks has bee destroyed. Instead of the sheet of plants we - I mean I - threw across as a camouflage has been replaced by a monstrous looking material.

"What is it?" I ask, as the darkness proves to hard for me to tell.

"A fallen tree." Layla tells me. "It must have come down in the storm earlier."

I frown. "Wouldn't we have heard it?"

She shrugs. "Obviously not. Gamemakers have a clever way of executing this type of catastrophe in complete silence."

"I guess they just want more action now that we're quite into the Games." I suggest. "How many have died so far?"

Layla thinks for a moment, counting on her fingers. "Erm... eight I think. Unless someone has went in the storm and we missed the canon."

"Yeah, probably around eight or nine then." I summarise. "So they're probably all warmed up for something big. They tend to do something dramatic at this point."

"Ooh, who's the root of all knowledge, Mr Smarty Pants."

I flash her a toothy grin and crawl over to join her. Sitting in front of the should-be-entrance, I lift my hand up to the blockage. My careful fingers run along the material and I instantly recognise the rough texture of tree bark; plus, the smell is a giveaway.

"Well, you were correct when you said it was a tree." I say to Layla. "Lucky for us, the shape of the tree trunk didn't slot perfectly into the cave entrance, so there are small gaps around it."

"Thank goodness." Layla sighs. "At least we'll have oxygen and some light whilst we starve to death."

My heart plummets. "Damn it, how much food do we have left?"

Layla pokes around the supplies and reports back gloomily, "Only enough to last a day; two if we're lucky."

I slump back. "Well, we're not lucky, are we? Getting reaped for this isn't counted as a good luck blessing."

"Actually, I volunteered." Layla corrects me.

"You did?"

She nods her head. "You probably think I'm stupid, don't you? Volunteer at thirteen when I haven't even had lots of training."

"Hmm... yeah, pretty stupid." I agree. "Wait, so who was the Career that didn't volunteer? I remember that one didn't."

"Bryn."

"The one from Two? Short, likes knives and has a glare that could kill a cat?"

Layla laughs, just a little, at my description. "Yup, that's her."

"I thought she seemed the volunteer type. I mean, she's pretty deadly. Seriously, she only missed me by millimetres at the bloodbath and even then, she hit the boy behind me instead."

Layla shrugs and we both fall silent. The sound of our simultaneous breathing disturbing the otherwise empty atmosphere.

We both sit, our backs leaning against the tree trunk which seems firmly stuck, saying nothing. Well, until I speak.

"Why did you volunteer then?" I ask the question that has been on my mind for a while.

Layla sighs. "Nah, it's not really interesting..."

"Tell me." I insist. "It's not like we have no time."

She takes a long, slow breath. "S'pose you're right. But honestly, it's not some bold and courageous tale."

"Just tell me already!"

"Sorry. Right. Yeah." She pauses. "Basically, back in Four life was pretty shit. I lived alone in a shack, had no family or friends, even strangers on the beach hated me. So one day I just thought that I should so something about my life and then decided to volunteer for the big Quell. If I won then maybe people would like me. Pretty sad, eh?"

"What if you lost?" I ask.

She shrugs, one of her favourite actions lately. "Then nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Well no-one would care and I hadn't wasted a life that was going nowhere anyway. Win-win situation really."

For a while, I say nothing. I can't think of what to say or how to say it. Well, what do you say to that? It's pretty much a suicide confession!

"I have a dog at home." I decide to change the subject. "His name is Saxon."

"Aw, nice."

"We were best buddies, Saxon and I. I never really had many human friends, but Saxon was more a friend than any human could ever be." I say, despite the cliché. "I bet he could easily paw his way out of here."

Layla prods the tree behind us. "Shame he's not here to help us out."

"Yeah, he would be great, and he loves forests too."

"Looks like we'll be stuck in here for a while then. Until one of us figures out a genius plan."

I nod. "Probably."

"Well," Layla peels herself off the trunk and gets down on her back. "I'm gonna catch some z's while you come up with a plan."

I shake my head. "It's always up to me, isn't it?"

"You're the eldest."

"Only by a year!"

"Still older."

I stick my tongue out at her. She smirks, then closes her eyes and begins to fall asleep.

"Oh, one thing before you sleep." I say to her.

"What now?" She asks grumpily, without even opening her eyes.

"Keep your eyes shut and stick your fingers in your ears."

She jolts us, eyes flying open. "Why?"

"I need to pee."

A short, disgusted silence.

"PHOSPHORUS! WE'RE IN A DAMN CAVE!"

"Oops?"

Luna Damion, District 11 POV

"The storm has well and truly passed now." Rhea reports, closing the window shutter and sliding over the rusted bolt. "It looks a mess out there though."

Next to me, Heidi yawns. "Should we call it a night then? I'm shattered."

"Looks like Guthrie has beat you to it." I say, pointing to an already sleeping Guthrie. His head has fallen floppily back against the stoned wall, his higher body propped up with a bag. The once deadly wound on his arm has almost shrunk by half.

"Wow, that medicine did a damn good job." Rhea says, noticing the same thing as me. "Thank god he's likeable, or he'd be pretty much dead by now."

"And thanks to my fabulous nursing skills." Heidi adds. Obviously. I was wondering when she'd take some credit...

"Oh yes, of course. Where would we be without you?" Rhea says with a hint of sarcasm.

Heidi pouts her pale pink lips. "You'll be thanking me when I'm dressing your otherwise fatal wound, or stopping you from eating a poisonous berry."

"Fine, when the time comes - if it comes - then I shall appreciate your uses." Rhea settles down in a corner. "Right, I'm gonna get some sleep before I'm forced into another night shift."

Quickly, so that no-one argues with her, Rhea turns on her side and seals herself behind her jacket. It will only be a few minutes before we'll hear the soft sound of her gentle snoring. She doesn't like to admit weakness, but I know she's shattered. Rhea has done the most amount of work with the least amount of sleep out of the whole alliance, even though we have extra hands now that Guthrie and Zephyr are with us. She just hates to be seen doing nothing; a workaholic you could say. So I have no obligation in allowing her a decent sleep.

Heidi, who has still appointed herself as group leader, or organising director as she prefers to call herself, coughs to engage the rest of us who are awake. Which is me, herself and Zephyr.

"So, who's doing the night shift first?" She asks, then adds a dramatic yawn.

"I can do it." Zephyr says. "If you're too tired, Miss Organising Director."

Heidi can't help but show a pleased smile. It shouldn't be so easy to make someone smile in the Hunger Games, even someone like Heidi, but Zephyr seems to have a special gift for creating happiness and spreading it around. Maybe it comes from simply being around him; he sort of radiates happiness. Even though you know you're most probably going to die in this arena at anytime, he still manages to crack a smile, or a bad joke. He's like our mini sunshine. And I'm the only one who has seen him as depressed as a cloudy day.

"It's ok, I don't mind doing the shift." I offer. I feel as though I should do something kind in return and also, I'm not particularly tired either.

"Nah, it's ok." Zephyr says. "You get some rest, I'm not really that tired right now."

"Neither am I." I say.

Another yawn from Heidi, this time much more realistic. "You two sort it out between yourselves. I'm going to sleep."

Zephyr turns back to me. "How about we split it? I'll go first, then wake you up in a few hours?"

I'm hesitant whether to agree, as he could end up not waking me up at all, which would make me feel even worse about myself. But I agree anyway. "Ok then. Make sure you wake me up."

He holds out his pinkie finger. "Promise."

"Good." I shuffle against the wall and slide off my jacket, using it as a pillow to cushion my head against the cold, hard stone.

"Goodnight, Luna." Zephyr says to me, whispering so the others don't wake.

"See you in a few hours." I answer and gently close my eyelids. A few minutes later, I open my eyes ever so slightly so that I can see, but still look asleep. I can just make out Zephyr poking the fire with a twisted stick and the flames leaping out at him. The light from the fire, a steady orange glow, casts upon his face and I stare at it dreamily until it fades and darkness takes over.

When I next open my eyes, I can tell that I've been asleep for a while. The formerly roaring fire has dwindled to just a sparkler, the heat barely reaching my toes. But the room aside is dark, so it's far from morning yet.

Rubbing my damp eyes, I sit up. The coldness of the wall shocks me and I jerk my back off it. Looking beside me, I can see shapes of my fellow allies, all sound asleep. In her slumber, Heidi has managed to lie so that her face is pressed up against Guthrie's good arm. I'm not surprised at all, Heidi seems to...like Guthrie - a lot. In fact, I thought she might have done more than lie with her cheek on his bicep - by more I mean her head on his chest or something. But for once, she hasn't gone too far. For once.

I stretch out my arms, loosening my tight shoulders and wipe the remnants of sleep from my eyes. I then hazily crawl over and sit beside a still Zephyr.

"Hey, are you asleep?" I prod his shoulder lightly, just in case he's asleep.

But he isn't, for as soon as he feels my touch, he turns his head to face me.

"Oh hiya, Luna." He says. "It isn't time for your shift yet, you know. Feel free to grab another hour or so."

"No, I'm good thanks." I say. "I couldn't sleep anymore."

"Neither can I." Zephyr says. "Want to stay up together for a while?"

"Sure. We should make the most of the peace."

Zephyr adjusts his position so that he is parallel beside me. The stick that he used to poke the fire is still in his hand and he turns it in his fingers.

"Are you ok?" I ask, sensing something on his mind.

He shrugs. "It depends on what the definition for 'ok' is."

"Which means that there is something wrong." I say. "And don't deny it, I know I'm right."

Zephyr sighs. "Why am I so easy to read?"

"The fact that you aren't smiling or telling a bad joke is a giveaway." I point out.

"What do you call a deer with no eyes?" He asks, but the jokey spark has died in his voice.

"I dunno. What do you call a deer with no eyes?"

"No idea." He answers, saying it so it sounds like no-eyed deer.

I roll my eyes. "That was bad. But I loved it because you told it."

Zephyr shows me a small smile, the corners of his lips curved upwards. "I'm happy now."

"So quickly?"

"Because you're here."

His last sentence makes my stomach flip right over. I'm afraid of blushing in front of him, so I turn my head.

"Hey, why are you turning away?" Zephyr asks and reaches his hand to my face, pulling it back round to face him.

"I didn't want you to see me blushing." I admit, which makes me blush even more.

Zephyr smiles warmly. "I like it when you blush."

He looks at me, his dark eyes staring into mine and making me feel slightly dizzy. It's like the first time we met again. When I tried to lift that heavy weapon and almost dropped it. Almost, because Zephyr was there to catch it. I wish he would catch me instead.

"What are you thinking?" Zephyr asks gently.

"About when we first met in training." I reply.

Zephyr nods. "I remember. You almost sliced off your toes."

"Oh, don't remind me." I say. "That was embarrassing."

"And then you snorted like a little piglet when you laughed." He says.

"Oh no! Not that again!" I wail. Zephyr begins snorting and pulling his pig face again like he did that day. "Please, I sounded awful!"

"You sounded beautiful."

We both stop. Zephyr stops snorting and I stop giggling and protesting. We both sit still for a moment, until I speak softly. "You think I sounded...beautiful?"

He nods. "You don't just sound beautiful, you are beautiful."

I feel a hot flush inside and my head spins. Is this really happening?

"Well I think you're gorgeous." I reply, finding confidence.

"That makes two of us." Zephyr grins.

"Hey! Don't be so arrogant!" I shove his shoulder.

He laughs. "You know my sense of humour, Luna."

"I know you."

"Sadly, I think that's true. But I don't know you completely." He says. "I want to."

"I want you to too."

Zephyr runs his finger down my cheek and tucks a fallen curl behind my ear. I shiver at his touch, it almost feels electric. But I just stay staring into his perfect eyes to keep me from passing out. I only then close my eyelids over when he tilts his head and leans in to me.

I hold my breath as his lips brush against mine, my body tense. I don't know what to do; I've never kissed a boy before, but I think Zephyr has kissed a girl, because he seems to know what he's doing. Or he's had a lucky guess. Well, either way it's amazing.

I eventually pluck up the courage to try to kiss back and I'm quite surprised at myself as I adapt to it effortlessly, as if I've done it a thousand times. My hand, not really sure what to do, rests on his leg as we kiss. And Zephyr's sits perfectly on my waist.

It goes on for a while. But when we at last part, my lips tingle and I feel a pleasant warmness inside, despite the chills of the night.

"Zephyr..." I say his name quietly. "That was..."

"Perfect." He answers. "I've been waiting for that for a while."

I just smile back. I'm glowing, inside and out. I feel fantastic.

But the Zephyr grabs my hands and the slow atmosphere becomes rushed. "What is it?" I ask, worried.

"Luna," Zephyr, still holding my hands, looks at me deeply. "Run away with me."

"What?" I'm shocked at his suggestion.

"Lets leave the others." He says, sounding excited. "They'll be fine on their own. We can leave and go some place alone. We could be together, do what we wanted. We wouldn't have the embarrassment of being ourselves around other people. It would be perfect."

"...perfect?" I think for a moment. "But Heidi and Rhea...they're my friends..."

"And they still can be." Zephyr says. "We know where their shelter is, we can come back. It's not like we're totally abandoning them. They have Guthrie as well."

"I...erm..."

"It's ok, Luna. This is your own choice. If you want to stay with Heidi and Rhea then I'm not stopping you. I just want you to be the happiest you can be."

I glance over to them. They're still asleep, lost in dreams and far away from the reality I'm facing now. If they were awake, what would they say?

Heidi would tell me to go with him, I'm sure. She would see how much I care for him and would tell me to follow my heart and go. She could cope, she'd be fine. But Rhea? She'd probably be sceptical. She would want me to do the most logical thing.

"Ok, Zephyr." I say. "I've decided."

"And?"

I take another look at Heidi and Rhea and squeeze my eyes shut for a moment, remembering their faces. And then I look at Zephyr, his soft and gentle features and his lips that kissed mine.

I look back.

"I'll come with you."

A/N- Ok, so that is the next installment of the story so far! Did you like it? I liked writing it :D

So, what are your opinions on Bryn/Tal? Still like/hate them together? Think they deserved the sponsor gift? What about poor Phosphorus and Layla being stuck in that cave? Will they escape or die inside? And finally, the biggie, what about Luna and Zephyr! Did you expect them to get together? What do you think about them leaving the alliance? Do you think it's a good idea, or a disaster waiting to happen? How do you think Heidi and Rhea will react when they realise they're gone?

All shall be revealed... as well as Opus' grand plan... It's all 'heating' up now, isn't it? Haha, heating up, get it?

Well, next chapter shall be up soon! And as it's the new year, I'm aiming to get more reviews than ever! Seeing that the story is getting more dramatic, I think there is a lot that can be said. But I can't get reviews without you! And without reviews... well, I shall be sad and lose my inspiration to try and make this one of the best stories you'll read! So please type in that beautiful little box below this message :D

Thanks, FireflyLlama xxx