A/N: Next chapter starts the games. I hope you liked last chapter.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

We're Runnin Out of Time

We're back on our floor for the last time. This is our last night. All I want is to make the most of it, but something is eating away at Katniss. She seems so much more distant than she did earlier, or maybe I'm just now noticing that there's something off with her. Right after we get out of the shower, and get dressed she asks me to come with her to the roof. She seems still so depressed, maybe from all the words exchanged in the interviews, but I'm not sure.

I get to her on the roof, where I find her in tears. "Catnip. What's wrong, was it something I said?"

She shakes her head, but doesn't turn to look at me. I move forward and I ask her again what's wrong.

"In less than 12 hours, they're gonna force us into an area where you're supposed to be my competitor, not my lover."

I see what she's getting at, "Well. The game makers are gonna have to deal with the fact that we'll never accept one another as competitors."

She turns around in my arms and rests into my chest. I pull her in tighter to me, and I refuse to let go of her. Because to me, the greatest fear is that I won't get to see her again once we're in the arena. We may get separated and never meet back up. I know I should be crying, but at this point, my emotions have already been drained from multiple consecutive emotional days. It's almost as if the emotion is becoming a part of us, it's becoming harder and harder to respond to the same emotional stimulus we've been feeling all this time.

Katniss tells me, "I wanted to come up here, because this is the only place I feel some kind of liberation. I wanted us to have it to ourselves one last time, before we're imprisoned in that arena."

"No explanation necessary Catnip. I get it." I understand far more than she thinks. We have so few moments left together, we better make the most of them. I move backwards and pull at her hands, I have a better place to spend some of our few remaining moments together.

I bring her downstairs, back down to her room. I close the door behind us, we're the last ones to call it a night, nothing will interrupt us.

I kiss her slowly, caressing her back slowly. Her arms return the favor, traveling under my thin shirt, first tracing the lines of my spine, before she reaches back down and grabs the bottom of my shirt and lifts it up. She pulls back from me and I lift my arms to allow her to remove my shirt.

I return my lips to hers, hungrily and calmly tasting her. She scratches down my back, slowly and gracefully. I left her up off the ground, and she wraps her legs around my waist.

I carry her to the bed, where I lay her down on her back, and I move my mouth to her neck, gently grazing her with my teeth. She presses against me, scratching my shoulders and arms.

Suddenly, I feel a sharp movement, and I find myself on my back, looking up at the lightly illuminated Katniss. She lowers her head to my chest, returning my earlier favor. She nips and sucks my nipples, all the while scratching down my body, making uncontrollable moans escape my mouth. She must be eager to mark me as hers.

She sits up, and removes her shirt, tossing it somewhere in the dark room. She gets off me, and takes my pants off. She doesn't take my boxers off, and she straddles me again, lowering her lips to mine once more.

I quickly take control back, flipping us over so that I'm on top again. As much control I may seem to have, Katniss ensures that I truly don't, reaching into my boxers to grip me. She slowly begins moving her hand, making me nearly scream in my moans. Before I completely lose control of my body, I take her bra off. I begin losing myself to Catnip's strokes. I take her hand and pull it away, pinning it to the bed. She's not taking any more control from me.

I give myself a minute to collect myself, before I turn the tables completely against her. I nearly rip off her pants, before reaching into her underwear, returning her favor to me. Unlike me, she doesn't try to stop me. I keep my fingers inside, moving them until I feel her lose herself completely.

Her labored breathing spurs me on, makes me want to pound her until we're both in a permanent oblivion. I don't hesitate for a moment, I crawl over her, right between her thighs, propping myself on my elbows. I position myself to her entrance before I push inside in full force, both of us gasping at the sensation.

I move slowly, but deeply. Her hands reach around me, returning to my back, once again scratching deep marks into it. Her lips go to my neck, sucking hard and deeply. This makes me move faster, especially when I feel her body cradle my cock tighter and tighter. My breathing becomes sporadic and uneven, and my muscles are rapidly tensing.

The electricity between us is far more powerful than it's ever been, no more awkwardness, no more hesitation, no more fear. I feel no apprehension as I did before, and Catnip doesn't seem to anymore.

My pace doesn't slow down, I keep accelerating, her body squeezing me more and more tightly.

I bury my face into her neck, just as she goes over the edge, screaming my name in ecstasy. She drags me with her into oblivion, forcing screams to escape me. I muffle them into her neck. I collapse on top of her, not caring if my weight is crushing her, refusing to pull out until I'm fully soft.

I roll onto my side, and Catnip moves until her back is flush against my front, pulling the quilts over us. A caution for the morning I suppose. I spoon her, hugging her tightly to me, not wanting to let her go. I gently stroke her arm and body until my eyes become to heavy to keep open.

I wake up to the feeling of someone shaking my head. I open my eyes, the image is blurry, but the wide yellow shape above me gives away who it is, Portia. Her wide gold hair is a giveaway. When I come to, I see her covering her eyes. Thanks for having some decency, Portia.

"Come on. Get up, you have three hours before the start."

I get Katniss awake and let her know. She seems as reluctant as I am to leave this bed, and face the reality of the next three hours, that it's so close, the possibility of a violent death.

In the shower, Katniss seems more down than I've ever seen her. I imagine the only other time she's ever been that down was after the mining explosion. I lift her face to look at me, and I dive my lips onto hers, trying to make us both feel better in that we still have one another. It sparks a small simmering ember between us, and we quickly increase that ember to a full flame.

The flame did little to stem what we were feeling. In fact, once were dressed, I see Katniss looking at herself in the mirror, tears emerging from her eyes. I do the only thing I know I can do, and let her lean against me, letting my body be a rock for her. I sit down her bed, leaning against the frame, and let her lie across my legs. We sit there for what feels like forever, repeatedly checking the clock as our time winds down, before Haymitch comes in, telling us that it's time for us to leave. He brings us to an elevator.

As we're riding, Haymitch explains to us, "The tributes are placed in randomly selected places for the start. You'll be on pedestals, don't step off before the gong rings, or you'll be blown sky high."

I remember a games where a girl dropped her token, I think it was a small wooden ball, and set some explosives off. They had to peel her bits of the ground.

Right as the doors open, he warns us as we walk to the hovercraft in front of us. "There are gonna be a lot of supplies right in the mouth of the structure in front of you, the Cornucopia, don't go for any of it. It's gonna be a bloodbath. Find something and get out of there, get to higher ground and find water, it'll be your new best friend."

With his speeches finished, he hands us off to the peacekeepers in the hovercraft. Not all the tributes are in here, maybe there are more hovercrafts. When we're seated, they take off, and this woman comes around with this huge needle gun, asking everyone for their arms, and injecting something glowing white into it. When she gets to Katniss, she asks her, "What's that?"

The woman takes her left arm and gives the injection, "Your tracker."

She comes to me, and the puts the needle in my right arm. It hurts, but not too much, the needle goes all the way in, but apparently only the skin. I feel the tracker as it stabilizes its position, but once it stops moving I don't feel it. We stay in the hovercraft flying for what feels like maybe 30 minutes. Maybe less. When we stop, the restraints on us lift, and we all leave. We enter the building in front of us, and I find that the doors all have images in them. I find mine on a door to the the far right, next to the wall. I don't bother trying to find Katniss's, I'm willing to bet that the door order doesn't correlate to where we'll be when we're in the arena. Before we split, Katniss pulls me to her, and pulls me for a brief close mouthed kiss.

Behind my door is a ladder, at the bottom I see a hall that turns left. As I keep going, I realize that this thing is a labyrinth of sorts, I was right. The hall is clean and pristine, and will only be used once, this one by me. This will end at the launching room, or the stockyard as we call it back home. Named for the place where animals go for the slaughter.

I find a door at the end, leading into a large room, with a small desk where Portia is sitting. She immediately stands up and gives me a hug. "How you holding up?"

"Not very good, Portia"

"Sorry. But I have something for you." She pulls out an outfit, "From the gamemakers, every tribute gets one. Use the shower, if you want some privacy."

A voice suddenly says "5 minutes to launch."

I quickly take the outfit, thank her for it, and change into it in the shower. I wonder why these things have those, do the stylists stay in here for the games? When I come out, she examines my outfit on me. "The suits heavy, the pants are pretty thick. They're full of thermal retainers. You're probably somewhere where it can get really cold. Maybe a tundra or a temperate forest."

"Good, me and Katniss are used to forests."

She simply smiles at me. "By the way Portia, I never thanked you for the ring you got me. Thank you."

"Sweetheart, no need to thank. That's what I'm here for." She places her hand on my shoulder, "I can't bet, but if I could, I would bet on you."

I'd hope so, but right now, people should be more focused on Katniss. I know that me and her are the only ones that know, but it still isn't easy going into this where one tribute represents two people.

"60 seconds to launch."

The announcement catches me out of my thoughts, and Portia immediately snaps my attention to her. "You go out there, and you show them what you're made of. You are from 12, show them what someone from 12 can do."

I nod to her, before I walk to the tube.

"30 seconds to launch."

Standing there in the tube, I'm so scared, for Katniss, for myself, for what we're going to see up there. The terror is so strong.

"10 seconds to launch."

Ten seconds feel like three hours. It feels like forever before the tube begins to spin shut. It immediately begins rising up, and Portia moves to see me as much as possible before the platform moves to high and she's obscured from view. It rises into a field, right in front of me is the Cornucopia, a black structure with a noticeable but vague horn shape to it, like it's mythical namesake, behind it is a lake. We're in a forest area. Excellent, this is where me and Katniss feel most at home. I look around and see the other tributes rising in their tubes. I look for Katniss, but I can't see her. I take advantage of the moment to examine everything around me. I see backpacks all over the field. The ones close to us are bright in color, and get harder to spot as they get closer to the Cornucopia. The structure itself is full of stuff, and in plain view, I see a bow and arrow. If Katniss can't get that, I'll get it for her. Or at least hold onto it for her. She's smart enough to make traps, she doesn't need it absolutely. Glimmers no good with it, it'll be fine even if she gets it. I remember Haymitch's advice, but I have to get something. I'm fast, much faster than most of these other people who live comparably sheltered, save for Rue and Thresh. I look around more, and I find Katniss, on the other side of the arc. She clearly knows what I want to do, and she shakes her head at me, but I've made up my mind.

"Let the 74th Hunger Games begin." Suddenly, a large cube-shaped hologram appears on the cornucopia, and starts counting down from 60. I immediately start positioning myself on the small pedestal, crouching down with my hands on the pedestal and my feet as far back as can safely go.

40

I put my fingers over the edge of the pedestal, and reposition my feet slightly. I wanna get the biggest speed boost I can. I don't look around, I only focus on the Cornucopia, and the hologram.

20

This is it. It comes down to this. The next several minutes determines the course of the games, and the fates of 23 people. I take a deep breath and prep myself for the gong.

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Song credit: No, no, no Part 2 by Destiny's Child ft. Wyclef Jean