Disclaimer: All is property of Suzanne Collins.

Fire From the Sky

I woke up in the morning to an annoying high-pitched ringing, which I realized was our small alarm clock. I saw that it said 7:30 AM. I wasn't sure how long we were up into the night, but Catnip was unaffected by the alarm. It was two and a half hours to go before training starts, so I chose to let Catnip get some more sleep.

That was about an hour ago. By then I'm fully conscious. She finally begins to rouse, and quickly sees that I'm already awake. "Sleep good, Catnip?"

She gives me an attempt at a smile, but I don't think her body is fully awake. "Never better."

"We gotta get up soon. We have to stay on Haymitch's good side."

She attempts to argue, "No we don't, we just gotta get on his good side again."

"Seriously, I let you sleep in for an hour."

"Can we just stay here for a little bit longer."

Okay, I'll wait a little bit. A short conversation should do the trick. "Fine. What exactly did Effie do with you last night?"

She immediately perks up a bit, "Something impossible."

"Haymitch told me you'd be learning to walk in her style of shoes."

"Those things are a fucking nightmare to walk in, it feels like my feet are taking like more than three times my bodyweight. That and I feel like a newborn deer trying to walk."

I just break out laughing. "Oh my god! I gotta see that."

She tickles me a little, obviously holding back a laugh of her own, "That's not funny!"

She wants to tickle me, fine. I return the favor, forcing her onto her back, and tickle her with far more force. "Oh hell yeah it is!"

When I stop and let her catch her breath, I stand up from the bed, and pick her up, my right arm under her waist, my other under her knees. "Maybe we should get ready now?"

"As long as that's not all we're doing."

I smile and carry her to the shower, my lips never leaving hers. We get out of the shower at around 9 AM even, we find a couple of black uniforms with 12 embroidered on either shoulder on the now-neatly-made bed. I'm not sure whether to be comforted or not at this, though by now I should be getting used to the lack of privacy. There are two notes, one on each, both say the same thing: Standard uniform for tributes in training. One is from Portia the other Cinna, making it obvious whose uniform was whose. We arrive at the table, where Cinna, Haymitch, Effie, and Portia are waiting for us, clearly having already eaten.

We simply make some small talk with them for awhile. It's mostly about Portia and Cinna becoming stylists. I'm impressed with how stylists are schooled in their art. No surprise, Portia and Cinna were both for all intents and purposes, prodigies. Not just because they are good stylists, but because they are willing to step outside the box, willing to do something different with a traditional concept. Portia constantly says that Cinna is the better of the two, but he constantly refutes that. I agree with him in that sense. She's just as responsible for the good ideas as he is. We kept going until Effie notices the time, 9:40.

Haymitch immediately takes us to the elevator, and tells us the same things he told us about yesterday. Though he adds, "The head trainer, Atala, will give you some advice. You should listen, though you basically already know what you need to. The last thing, try to make friends with the right people."

As always, Haymitch was right. I wish he warned us that the advice would largely be bullshit. As if most of us are gonna die from natural causes. Depends on what you define as natural. I will admit, the one piece of Atala's advice worth anything is that exposure can kill just as easily as a knife.

With that, me and Katniss split up to find the careers, and observe whatever tributes we can. As I move from I quickly found the District 2 male, I heard that his name is Cato, working with a sword. A sword isn't useful for ranged attacks. If either Katniss or I get a bow, or I get a hold of knives, we can get him.

I find the District 1 male, I got that his name is Marvel, working with spears. Okay, so he's far deadlier from a distance. We either need to sneak up on him or make sure we have ranged weapons of our own. Only Katniss could get the drop on him effectively.

The best thing going for us is that me and Katniss are used to surviving, we know what it's like to go hungry, we know what it's like to fend for ourselves. We can forage what we need from our environment. Districts 1 and 2 are well fed their whole lives, everything is handed to them. They're not experienced hunters like me and Katniss. I decide that District 4 likely won't present a great threat this year, they both lack the clear inherent ferocity of the other four careers.

With my brief reconnaissance finished, I go to look for Katniss, and I find her at the fire-starting station. I get there and we manage to make a fire for ourselves in a matter of minutes. We then move on to the station where we identify edible and inedible plants. The District 5 girl seems to be as good as Katniss is at this. Unfortunately, my skills fall short here. This is Katniss's area of expertise.

That's an understatement, the girl from 5 seems prodigious in her ability to recognize anything edible.

"Is it just me, or does the girl from 5 give off a weird vibe," Katniss asks me.

"She does, I don't know what to make of it."

We decide to train in the hand to hand as Haymitch suggested. Katniss went first, the tactics she learned are centralized on using her speed and her opponent's body weight against him/her, though they also teach her regular offensive moves useful for someone smaller than or as big as her. With me, they go down a predictable path. They teach me to remain on defense, waiting for the opponent to open themselves up to me, at which I give a barrage of offensive attacks.

While I'm in my training, I'm distracted by the sound of yelling. It's Cato yelling at one of the other boys about stealing his knife, something the boy denies. I don't recognize the kid, and I can't see his embroidered District number. I glance over to see Katniss looking up at something. It's the girl from 11 hiding in the ropes course, holding a knife no less. Little mischievous thing, I think to myself.

We spent the rest of our time before lunch at hand to hand, and we were both beyond exhausted by then. We filled our plates all with meats, since that's been our diet for practically three years now.

We're sitting next to each other alone, we didn't and don't have any idea where to start with making friends.

Though we don't know where to start, I suggest to Katniss, "Maybe we can start with the tributes from 11."

"Maybe. The girl I'm fine with, but I'm not certain about the boy being fully there. He seems to be trying to distance himself from everyone."

"Yeah, you're right about him. But it's still worth a try."

I change the subject, "What should we go to first after lunch is over?"

"Definitely not the hand to hand, at least not for the rest of the day."

"Yeah, I got more of a work out in one day than I have in my life."

She and I have a good laugh at that. We also discuss what we observed with the careers. Katniss started, mentioning how the girl from 1, whose name she didn't get, thinks she can use a bow.

"She's the worst shot I've ever seen."

We surmise that as long as she has a bow, she won't present much of a threat. We then discuss the District 2 girl, she heard her name is Clove, who is just like me, a knife-thrower. We agree that she'll be the deadlier of the two women.

We both seem comfortable in our shared belief that District 4 won't present much of a threat.

Before we can talk any further, I feel a surge of alarm flood me, the same feeling I get when I know there is a predator nearby when Katniss and I would go hunting. I glance over to Katniss, who's also sensing the same thing. We both turn around to find the careers eyeing me, not us, specifically me. District 4 is with them, but definitely doesn't have the same confidence or bloodlust as the other careers. The only one not looking at me is Marvel, he's eyeing Katniss as if she's a meal.

"Hi, I'm Cato," he says in a semi-loud voice.

They're talking to me, so I'll be the one doing the talking. "Hi. I'm leaving," I say with equal intensity, gathering up my and Catnip's plates.

"Funny guy."

I stop moving, "That wasn't a joke."

"It'd be worth your while to listen to us."

Katniss grabs my arm, silently indicating for me to humor them for now. I place the plates back on the table, before turning to face the fully. "You got one minute. Say your piece."

"We want you to join us. You can fight, and you're very much capable of surviving. When all the garbage is taken out," he eyes Katniss, "all bets are off. But you'll be a lot safer than you will be if you stay with people like her."

"Time's up." I stand up to my full height, and Katniss stands with me. "Let me ask you something." I start approaching him. "Is it gonna be safer for me, or safer for you?"

Cato's smile drops.

"That's what I thought. You know that I can kill you, which is why you want me to join you. But I'm not about to join a ragtag group of psychopaths who can't do shit for themselves. Understand?"

His face flies into full rage, but before he can or decides to do something, I turn and move towards Marvel, who's still glaring and Katniss. His eyes dart toward me in as I place my hands on either side of him on the table behind him. I use my height to my advantage, and lean inward against him, making him quiver in fear.

"If I catch you looking at my girlfriend like that again, you better hope they have a spare set of eyes for you. And if I catch you anywhere near her, you better hope they have a spare set of hands. Whimper if you understand."

He quivers and makes a noise.

I back up to our table, and snidely remark, "Good."

Marvel is trying to hide his fear behind a guise of anger, though it isn't working. I'm kind of reveling in that, because a guy from 12 is frightening a guy from 1.

Out of nowhere, Katniss yells out, "I better not see your slutty face anywhere near my boyfriend." She's menacingly holding the girl from 1 by her shirt against the wall behind her. "Cause if do, no surgeons ever gonna fix what I do to that face of yours! But then again that face needs a lot of fixing up anyways."

Her face drops in anger and embarrassment.

I notice that Cato is expressing intense anger, so I decide to probe at him one last time. "What's the matter Cato. Don't have the balls to take on a couple kids from 12?"

With that, he loses any semblance of sanity and screams, "Fine. Do and say whatever the fuck you want! It's gonna be your funerals anyway!"

I decide to rub a little more salt in his wounds. "I wouldn't be so sure about that."

All of the careers leave in rage, Cato in particular is the most enraged.

Katniss quickly answers my lingering question before I even have a chance to ask, "She was eyeing you the same way Marvel was eyeing me."

Once we sit back down, I notice a lot of the other tributes are eyeing us in a combination of shock, admiration, and even disbelief. The boy from 11 however looks at us in amusement, I guess they might have offered him a place among them too. If they did, there definitely wasn't a big show like there was just now. I wonder if the gamemakers could at some point see this. It doesn't surprise me that the careers would want him and myself to join them. We're both taller than all 6 of them, even Cato.

The rest of lunch went by uneventfully. After it ended, we went to all the survival skill stations we didn't initially get too. We now decided to try our hand at camouflage.

While me and Katniss are trying to figure out how to try and make ourselves invisible against a background, I notice that we picked up a shadow, the girl from 11. We both acknowledge her presence near us, but she doesn't retreat. We take advantage of that and ask her to come to us.

"Hi, I'm Rue." Her voice is low, she seems shy, though given what happened earlier, I don't blame her.

"Hello Rue, I'm Gale. This is Katniss."

She smiles at us, "Nice to meet you two."

Katniss inquires, "Have you been shadowing everyone here?"

She nods. "And listening in."

I immediately wonder if what she's heard is the primary reason she's here. She seems to read my face well, "The boys from 1 and 2 were talking about...who gets Katniss."

I suddenly see red, and Rue clearly sees this and steps back a bit. Katniss goes and comforts her, because I'm seeing red because of the careers, not at Rue.

Once I'm calm again, I ask Rue, "Anything else you heard? Or saw?"

She nods, seemingly no longer intimidated, "A lot of people are scared of you two, and there are few that are bent on wanting you as allies."

I immediately interject, "You're already one of our allies."

Katniss adds, "I wanted you as an ally the moment I saw...your reaping."

I smile at her and then at Katniss. "I think we'll stick with you and your partner."

She shrugs a bit, "Thresh isn't one for allies, he has a preference to do things alone." Okay so his name is Thresh, easy enough. "I don't blame him."

Before we could go any further, Atala whistles for us, and signaling the end of training for the night.

I let Rue know, "Well, see you tomorrow."

When we got back on our floor, Effie seemed a bit angry, but kept her words to herself, while Haymitch was much more gleeful. Evidently, word got out of our little scuffle with the Careers.

Even though the already knew about what happened, he kept asking us about the details, wanting to know first-hand what exactly happened. He seemed to love how me showed up the careers, and especially when we physically threatened both tributes from 1.

Effie wasn't so receptive to the insulting, though she didn't say anything. I guess she may not like what happened, but fully knows that it's no fault of our own. I'm grateful that put aside her own.

When asked us if we had successfully made any allies, we told him that Rue told us about how the other tributes were referring to us after the confrontation. He seemed rather amazed at what turned out, and just as equally astonished when we only chose Rue herself as an ally.

Before either of them could comment on our decision, I explained, "Rue is swift and sneaky, for more than anyone else here. So much so, she was shadowing everyone without them noticing, and even pulled the same thing with us, though she seemed to want us to notice her. Oh yeah, she was sneaky enough to steal Cato's knife and then hide in the ropes course, letting someone else take the blame for it."

Haymitch and Effie both gave a chuckle at that, to our surprise. "Okay, so she has skills of her own, is there anyone else?"

Katniss answered, "We wanted Thresh, Rue's District partner, as well, but Rue told us he's more solitary in nature. I don't trust any of the others."

I second what she said.

Effie seemed rather happy that we chose Rue as our sole ally, though Haymitch is rather skeptical at our single choice.

He didn't press on it, though I know for sure he doesn't agree with it. Regardless, he simply tells us to clean up and get to sleep. But first, Effie takes Katniss for some more practice with walking in high heeled shoes.

Right now, we're still in her shower, finally getting a chance to have one another in a precious moment of privacy. It's a relief, to have the sweat and strain of the day wash away in the water and the heat of our passion, before the exhaustion of the day overcomes us in her bed.

Song of credit: Make it Rain by Ed Sheeran