Changing the Game Chapter 4: Something Fierce, a hunger games fanfic

Changing The Game

Chapter 4 : Something Fierce

(Katniss)

"We will either go down in history as the tributes with the ultimate costumes, or we'll be the first to die before entering the arena." Peeta says with an apprehensive chuckle.

"Well, at least we'll be memorable either way."

"When did you become the optimist?" Peeta gives me that crooked grin that turns my stomach into jello. He fumbles with his costume, searching to find the switch to turn us on. Somehow, Portia and Cinna have linked our costumes, only giving Peeta the accessibility to turn us on. Portia appears at Peeta's side, having watched his frustrations escalate with each passing moment.

"Need some help guys?" Peeta's eyes plead with her, and she shows him which buttons to press when it's time. Portia jumps off the chariot just as the horses begin to follow in line, and from a distance I hear her yell, "Hold hands, all the way to the end!"

Peeta interlaces our fingers together and our eyes lock in bewilderment as we recognize the phrase that we are once again hearing.

I look at Peeta, and I see that his face is lit up in a huge, ear-splitting grin, mimicking my own, and I can't get over how absolutely beautiful he is. I mean, Peeta is already beautiful, but the way his prep team has made him up, he is glowing radiantly, and then I wonder if I look similar. With our hands meshed together in unity, Peeta raises them above our heads and we hear the crowd go wild. I can hear them chanting our names as they serenade us with flowers, roses, confetti, and I think I even see a few handkerchiefs on our platform.

I use my free hand to kiss my fingers, and then throw my hand up, and the citizens go ballistic at this action, seeming as if I am personally sending them my love. As I look around, I get a glimpse of us on a huge screen, and I'm taken aback at how stunning we appear. We are beautiful, no we are astonishingly captivating, and I hope we're catching the eyes of some sponsors. After circling the city square twice, I feel the horses trot begin to slow until we've come to a complete stop. Peeta has my hand in a death grip, and truthfully, he's the only thing keeping me together in this moment.

I distinctively hear the echo of our names coming from the crowd and for some reason, it excites me. Peeta must feel my gaze on him because he glances over to me and our eyes lock once again, and I feel that thing in my stomach again. It is akin to hunger; I don't understand the reasoning of its' presence. For this one moment, the world goes silent until I hear my drunken mentor approach us.

"Great job guys, you two were spectacular." Okay, so maybe he's not completely drunk at the moment, for anyone who can clap and walk in a straight line can't be completely wasted. Effie, who is on Peeta's side helps him down the steep steps while Haymitch offers me his hand to help steady me.

"Whose idea was it to hold hands?" Haymitch inquires.

"Portia's." I tell him.

"Smart thinking. So, good news is the people love you, they're fighting over sponsoring you guys so, we need to talk about how you two are going to—" Haymitch stops as he looks up to scan the crowd. Clearly something, or someone has set him on edge. There are thousands of people around us, so I'm not sure how he saw the ferocious death glare District Two was sending our way. "Not here, let's get up to our suite." He and Effie lead us inside of the building, to an elevator.

"Everyone gets their own floor, and since we are District Twelve, we get the penthouse. How amazing is that?" Effie fills the silence as we slowly ascend to the top.

"It's pretty amazing, Effie." Peeta indulges her and I can't help but roll my eyes.

"Oh, you guys would be so impressed with me as I was chatting with some of the sponsor's earlier. I said, 'If you put enough pressure on coal, it turns into a pearl!' Very clever if I do say so myself!" Effie boasts as we ascend to the top floor, and once again I can't help but roll my eyes in Peeta's direction, and he shoves me playfully.

Once we're upstairs, Haymitch changes his mind. "Why don't you guys go to your rooms, get cleaned up and have a minute to yourselves. Meet us in the main room when you're done, and we'll talk." Peeta and I agree with our eyes, and then nod to Haymitch.

. . . . . . . . . .

0o0o

. . . . . . . . . .

(Madge)

"Hello there, you delicious lookin' thing, you shouldn't be out here all alone this late at night." My heart is racing, and I'm terrified out of my mind. Disgusting ole' Cray looks downright hungry. For me.

"I can handle myself, thank you for your concern." I know all about Cray, and he's much bigger than me and could easily overpower me, the only way for me to get away would be if I had the element of surprise. What can I do? What was I thinking coming out here this late at night? I wasn't thinking, that's for sure. How am I going to get away from him?

"Hey Madge! I told you to wait for me, you never listen, do you?!" It's Gale. Where did he come from? My heart slowly begins to return to its normal rhythm as I send Gale a silent thank you. Cray clearly doesn't feel the same as I do about Gale's impeccable timing as he tries to wipe the greedy snarl from his lips. There is no doubt in my mind that if Gale hadn't shown up when he did, Cray would have had his way with me. Gale looks at Cray with a hint of pleasure as he takes the basket from my hands; his way of being a gentleman, I suppose.

"I'll make sure she gets where she needs to Cray, thanks for looking out for her." Cray looks down at his watch in disgust.

"Make sure you're not out past curfew, I wouldn't want to have to send you to the stocks."

"Of course not!" Gale says as we speed away toward the seam. We walk in silence until we're sure that Cray is completely out of ear shot and then Gale steps in front of me, blocking my path and grabs my arm to halt me in my tracks.

"What the hell Undersee? You're just asking for it, being out here all alone looking like…that." He motions to my dress; I haven't changed my clothes since the reaping.

"Excuse me? What exactly are you inferring?" He shakes his head in disbelief as he averts his eyes from my own. Is he actually insinuating that because I am wearing a dress, I deserve to get attacked?

"Never mind. Where are you going?"

"To see Prim, I'm taking her some snacks." I motion to the basket in his hands and his eyes softens at my words.

"Okay, well I'll walk you there, and then when you're ready to go home—"

"I don't need your charity, Gale, I can take care of myself."

"Right. And Cray just about attacking you was you clearly taking care of yourself."

"Why do you care anyway?" I challenge him.

"I don't!" He yells at me and we walk the rest of the way in silence until I get to the front door of the Everdeens' home. I knock three times and let myself in; like I usually do. I look over my shoulder and glare at Gale as he takes a seat on the bench with his arms cemented across his chest, clearly irritated with me.

I immediately stomp back outside and snatch my basket of food from the ground next to him, and then our eyes meet.

"Thanks Gale." I don't wait for a response as I head back inside, I don't have the energy to deal with all of the emotions that come with Gale Hawthorne.

"MADGE! You made it!" Prim runs to me in excitement while I see Mr. Everdeen go out the front door.

. . . . . . . . . .

0o0o

. . . . . . . . . .

(Haymitch)

"So how am I going to present you guys? Well, first…what are you? Friends, lovers, what?" The kids just left their rooms to join us for dinner. Everyone is here; Effie, Cinna, and Portia, and of course me. It doesn't surprise me that the boy is the first to speak up.

"If we tell the truth, we'll be the career's number one targets. We'll be dead before the bloodbath has even begun. I mean…it's not a simple answer, but yes Haymitch, we friends. We've been best friends since we were about eleven." The girl pushes the food around on her plate, deliberately avoiding my gaze.

"And what exactly is the truth?" The girls face goes beet red at my bluntness.

"It's complicated." The boy states.

"Ok, whatever. Let me know when you figure it out. We'll stick with friends for now, but you will hint at 'something more' in training. Tomorrow, training is at eight o'clock. I want you down there at eight – o – five, no earlier and no later. You stay together the entire time and subtly hint you two are something more. Spark their interest, but don't give anything away. Don't show off your strengths. I already know what you're good at, so you don't need to tell me. Go to the stations that you're not skilled at. Learn about plants, roots, healing in the wild. Tie some knots, throw some knives, but I want you to mainly focus on the survival skills. When you go to your private sessions in a few days, that's when you put on a show and show them what you're good at. But you've gotta make it good. You're District Twelve, which means you're very last, so the gamemakers are going to be bored out of their minds by the time you're up. Any questions?" I watch as the girl shovels the lamb stew into her mouth as if it's her last meal on earth.

"How do you know what we're good at?" the girl demands.

"It's a small district sweetheart, people talk."

"Got it." The boy says with a mouth full of food.

"Yep." she says and then she reaches over to grabs my cup and takes a swig and makes a face like she sucked on a lemon.

"What in the world is that? I wanted to try your 'spirits', but that…oh my gahh…blech, what is that? It's…it's…sweet."

"It's called sweet tea sweetheart. Now give me my cup back and go get your own." Shit, I wasn't expecting that. I'm not crazy about sweet tea, but it passes off easily as alcohol.

"Oh, and stay away from any kind of alcohol. I need you sharp! Now, finish your food, and go to bed so the grown-ups can talk" I order them. I know they will go to the same room, but hell, I don't care. It's obvious that they're more than just 'friends,' if they want to keep it a secret, I won't stop them.

Effie, Cinna, Portia and I sit in comfortable silence while we finish our meal and wait for the kids to get settled. We can't say much; our suit is surely bugged. Portia is the first to finish and gets up and takes her food over to the kitchenette. We don't have a full kitchen, just a sink, a mini fridge, and a microwave. She turns the water on high as she fills the one side of the sink with soapy water.

Once the rest of us are done eating, we follow suit and bring our dirty dishes over to where Portia is. I think they get the hint of talking near the running water.

"I think we have a strong pair of tributes this year, the only problem we have is I think they are in love with each other." Portia says sadly.

"Why is that a problem? This could work in our favor." I tell her.

"Haymitch, there is only one winner, what do you think it would do to them to come home without the other?"

"I'm working on that; I've got an idea, I'm just trying to figure out how to play it out, how to work it in their favor, so to speak." I can't speak freely, but Mayor Undersee sent me a coded message earlier today about our pair. I'm still working on decoding it, but the one part I was able to make out said 'Two Victors'.

"Let's head over to The Library tomorrow while the kids are in training." The Library is our secret meeting place in The Capitol. We all nod in agreement. Even with the water on full blast, we can never be too careful.

"Effie, you feeling okay? You seem to have lost a little pep in your step. If you aren't feeling well, you should definitely get checked out, we need you in tip top shape!" Effie understands Cinna's message; to make sure that she is her happy, excited, chipper, pretentious snob, capitol escort self.

"Oh yes, yes. I appreciate your concern Cinna. The beds on the train are just retched, I'm sure after a good night's sleep tonight I will be back to normal!" Effie says in a really high-pitched voice.

. . . . . . . . . .

0o0o

. . . . . . . . . .

(Peeta)

"Katniss, can I come in?" Haymitch 'sent us to bed' after dinner, and I went to my room to shower before meeting Katniss back in her room. I don't hear a response, so I try again. "Katniss? Are you okay?" I twist the handle to find it unlocked and I let myself in. Katniss is lying on her bed with her face stuffed into her pillow, sobbing uncontrollably. I run to her and slide in next to her and pull her into my arms. She wraps her arms around me, and I just hold her, rubbing circles on her back while she cries.

I've never seen her cry like this before, and it hurts me to watch her in so much pain. I don't dare tell her that it's going to be okay, because it's probably not, and we don't make a habit of lying to each other. I don't know how much time passes before the uncontrollable sobs subside, but eventually, it does. She wipes her face, which is now red and puffy, and her eyes…my god, her eyes are so beautiful. I lift her chin and kiss her softly on her lips.

"I'm sorry, Peeta. I don't know what…I mean I do…but..its—"

"Hey, have nothing to apologize for okay? You wanna talk about it? Sometimes talking helps you." I sit back on the bed and she snuggles up to me, resting her head on my chest.

"Peeta, what are we going to do? I mean when we get into the arena? I-I…Peeta, I can't come home without you, I know what you're planning, and I can't. I just can't, please don't make me, Peeta." She starts crying again and I stroke her arms as I think about my next words.

"Hey, listen, sshhh. We're going to go in there, grab what we can and then we're gonna find each other. We'll stay together as long as we can, we'll be with each other all the way to…the….end….Is that…Did they…KATNISS!" Our eyes lock as recognition consumes us; finally understanding the familiar phrase.

"I think we both know that something bigger is at work here. All we have to do is stay alive. Stay alive and stay together okay?" Haymitch's words which seemed like such a jerk off when I first heard them, I thought it was such an obnoxious thing to say, but I think it finally makes sense. Katniss and I lay together in each other's arms until we wake up in the morning.

. . . . . . . . . .

Like clockwork, Katniss and I are up before the sun. The need to wake before the sun in order to have the advantage over the animals in the forest has always outweighed the desire to sleep in for Katniss. My excuse of having all of the pastries ready in the morning seems so pathetic in comparison. We walk hand in hand into the living room, greeted by our stylists.

"Good morning Peeta, Katniss." I look at Portia quizzically as she hands me a mug filled with steaming liquid.

"It's coffee, trust me you'll need it today. Don't worry, I added some ingredients to make it more enjoyable." Trusting her, I put my lips to the cup and slurp the liquid, hoping the action will lessen my chances of burning my taste buds. My eyes light up and I give her a grin.

"Hey, this is actually pretty good!" I tell her honestly as I look over to Katniss who must be drinking the same thing.

"Yeah, it almost tastes like that hot chocolate stuff we had before."

"Just added a bit of milk, sugar, vanilla and cocoa powder." Cinna boasts.

"But I wouldn't drink more than a cup or two, as it has caffeine in it." Portia warns us.

"What is caffeine?" I ask her.

"It's a stimulant that helps you stay awake. Ingesting just a cup or two will give you energy and make you feel good, however if you drink too much, you'll feel like your heart's going to explode out of your chest, trust me, stick with just the one cup."

"We have some news for you guys! After your amazing debut at the opening ceremonies yesterday, you two are all the hype in The Capitol. They're calling you guys the boy and girl on fire, this is a good thing, no it's a great thing because no one will ever forget either of you." Cinna states proudly.

"Okay, so now what? What does that mean? What do we do next?" I ask, eager to know what my next steps are to saving Katniss' life.

"Well, you guys are the capitol's new favorite, which is a big change from previous years, with just the slightest touch of rebellion. I can't remember a time when the citizens in The Capitol were rooting for District Twelve's tributes. It's different, and to them, different is exciting. You presented a united front at the opening ceremonies, which is nearly unheard of. Generally when you see tributes riding on their chariots with their district partner at their sides, even if they plan to ally up in the arena, there is a hint of disgust present on their faces, but no…the two of you stood proudly next to each other with your joined hands proclaiming unity. They're not sure what to think of this, but we're going to go with it, we'll use it to our advantage."

"Rebellion?" Katniss' voice quakes with fear as she repeats the word, so I grab her hand to steady her.

"What does this mean, how will we use it to our advantage?" I ask.

"Well, first things first, here are your training uniforms. When you go down to training, you are to stay together the entire time. As we discussed last night, the plan is for you to hint at something more, without giving them anything concrete which shouldn't be hard to do considering."

"Considering what?" Katniss demands to know as Cinna shoves her uniform in her arms.

"Go change Katniss. Effie will meet you at the elevator and ride down with you guys.

We change into our uniforms and just as promised, Effie is waiting for us at the elevator. Our training uniforms are identical, down to our socks.

"Good morning Tributes!" Effie greets us way too happily; I wonder if she drank too much coffee? Something is different with her, she was calling us by our actual names yesterday, and now we are simply, 'Tributes,' but I don't let it bother me as we get onto the elevator to head to training.

We walk into the Training Center together and realize that we are the only district with matching outfits. We are going to stick out like a sore thumb, which was probably Cinna and Portia's intentions all along.

. . . . . . . . . .

0o0o

. . . . . . . . . .

(Dylan Everdeen)

"Calm down, Dylan. I sent Haymitch a message after he left, and he should have received it just as he arrived to The Capitol."

"CALM DOWN? CALM DOWN? ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? I just sent my daughter off to the slaughter, I agreed to this….I can't believe I agreed to this! Peeta wasn't a part of the plan, if I knew that he'd be reaped I would have never agreed to this. This changes things, and you know it. You know how close they are, how they feel about each other. I know my daughter Ric, and I'm telling you that she will not come home without that boy. I know how she feels about him even if she doesn't."

"Dylan, your trip to Thirteen was the first step in securing our position with the rebels. Katniss volunteering for Primrose was step two, and Peeta's name being called was simply a stroke of luck, we couldn't have asked for a more suitable district partner for Katniss."

"A stroke of luck? Are you out of your ever-loving mind? Did you not hear what I said?"

"Will you just hear me out? First of all, if things don't go as planned, Peeta will do everything to make sure she comes home, and you know it—"

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?"

"Will you shut up and let me finish? She's who they need, she's invaluable to them. Second of all, the second they called his name, I knew what needed to happen. I've already planted the seed in Haymitch's mind, let's just hope he understands the message. The ultimate defiance of the capitol would be allowing two tributes to come home. I'm not able to get in touch with Seneca any longer, he's under too much scrutiny with the games just around the corner, but Dylan, please trust me. Our girls are best friends and I love Katniss as if she were my own daughter. I'll do everything in my power to protect her."

"Protecting her means protecting him as well. She'll be no use to anyone if he dies. She may be oblivious to her feelings for Peeta, but I'm telling you Ric, Katniss loves that boy something fierce." I slam the door behind me, too angry to continue this conversation. I rush out the door, anxious to escape into the only place that calms me, the only place where I can feel my eldest daughter in her absence, the woods. I curse the leg that slows me down due to the injury I sustained in the mining explosion years ago. Yet, it is the reason I am so protective over Katniss, the injury sent me into a coma for weeks, leaving me unable to provide for my family for over a year, it's what ripped Katniss' childhood from her.

As I hobble down the path that will lead me to the fence, I get lost in my thoughts as I replay the events that led up to this moment.

( 3 weeks ago )

I open my front door to find none other than District Twelve's one and only mentor, Haymitch Abernathy staring me in the face.

"Great day for a walk, Everdeen." I take this as Haymitch telling me he needs to talk, so I slide into my jacket and grab the cane I use to walk with and follow him into the woods.

"I need you to do something, Everdeen, I need you to go somewhere for me." Haymitch begins once we are deep enough into the woods where surveillance no longer exists.

"Do it yourself." I retort.

"Can't, they'll notice if I'm not here. You're the only one who can do it." We come to a clearing in the woods and Haymitch walks up to an oak tree and starts fumbling with some of its' limbs.

"Why me?" I watch him playing around with the tree, curious as to what he's trying to accomplish. His movements are quick and deliberate, I can tell he's done this before.

"Tell your wife to make something up, she's a healer so no one will doubt her. Come up with a reason that you'd need to be stuck in your house for at least two weeks. You need an excuse for when people notice your absence." I'm on the verge of telling him to find someone else and turn around to head back home when the tree seems to separate into two halves, opening to reveal a hidden set of stairs.

"You coming?" He asks, already halfway down the steps. Frozen in shock, I'm too bewildered to speak, wondering where the hell those steps came from.

Once we reach the bottom of the stairs, we seem to be in a tunnel. Haymitch presses a button on the wall and the tree closes, sealing us underground. Maybe Haymitch doesn't understand the fear of being trapped underground, never having to have worked in the mines, and suddenly I'm drenched in sweat and my heart is racing out of my chest.

"Haymitch, where the hell are we? Get me out of here, I can't be trapped down here."

"Calm down, it's perfectly safe. This is a secret underground tunnel that connects all of the districts together. Rebels built it many years ago." Haymitch touches the wall and instantly the tunnel is illuminated by a dim iridescent glow that gives us just enough light to set my mind at ease.

"Listen Dylan, we can't be down here for long. I brought you out here to show you the tunnel and to explain some things, but you gotta shut up and let me talk. Can you do that?" I nod my head, still apprehensive about being underground.

"About twenty years ago The Capitol did some renovations to Victor's Village in each district. What The Capitol didn't realize was that their construction workers were actually undercover rebels, which is how these tunnels came to exist. Now, this next part will probably blow your mind, but I just need you to listen. The leader of District Thirteen—"

"District Thirteen!"

"Do you want to know what's going on or do you want to keep on bull-shitting?" I nod my head for him to continue.

"The leader of District Thirteen has been waiting for the perfect moment to strike back at The Capitol. She's got plenty of soldiers at the ready, they're stocked up on weapons and supplies, she's just been biding her time all these years. But they can't fight back unless we get the support of the majority of the nation. She's been waiting on a spark, someone to rally the districts, to give the people hope that they're strong enough to fight back. But she's getting impatient, which is where you come in. You're aware that The Capitol has cameras all over the district, right?"

"Right."

"Ok, let me back up. After the dark days when The Capitol claimed to have obliterated Thirteen, but they actually moved underground. In the last seventy-five years, they have made some major advancements in their technology and have been able to access the cameras among the districts. Thirteen has been watching for years, looking for that 'spark.' About a month ago, I received a message from her saying it's your girl; the oldest one. She's the spark. So now you need to make some shit up that would make you stuck in your home for at least two weeks so that no one gets suspicious over your absence. She wants to talk to you, and let you meet some of her people."

"What about Katniss? She's just a girl, what can she do? She's too young to be a part of this, Haymitch."

"Look, I know what you're thinking, but this is it Dylan. This is what we've been wanting, hoping and waiting for. This is our chance to start a revolution, to put an end to Snow's regime, as well as these damn games. This is our chance to fight for our freedom, for our lives, for your girls' lives. Isn't that what we've always wanted? The time is now. Look, just go, I'll give you enough supplies to get there and back. It's only a three days trip on foot, I know it's dangerous, but I'm begging you, please. I'll make sure your family has plenty of food and whatever else they need. Just go and hear her out, you don't have to decide right now, just listen to her." I can see the pleading in Haymitch's eyes, he's not going to leave me alone until I agree.

"Let me think about it, I need to talk to Lil about a cover story. I won't give her all the details, but I gotta give her something."

"Okay, I guess that's all I can ask."

. . . . . . . . . .

"Dylan? Hey Dylan, you okay?" I'm jolted back to the present by the sound of Benjamin Mellark's voice.

"Oh, hey Bing, I didn't see you there."

"It's okay, you looked a million miles away."

"Yeah…Thanks for agreeing to meet me out here. Look, there's something I need to tell you, something you should know—"

. . . . . . . . . .

0o0o

. . . . . . . . . .

(Peeta)

"What do you want to do first?" I ask Katniss.

"Why don't we start right there,—" Katniss points to the knot tying station, "-and then just make our way around?"

"Sounds good to me." I grab her hand and we head over to the knot tying station, and after about ten minutes, this really tall, really strong looking woman bangs on a piece of metal to get our attention.

"Good morning tributes!" She says quite loudly.

She says the next part in a normal kind of loud voice. "My name is Atala. I welcome you to the Training Center. I urge you to use your time wisely today and visit the many stations provided for you. I encourage you to spend some time with the survival skills, and not just focus on the weapons. It is a fact that thirty-one percent of tributes die in the arena because they ingested something poisonous, or because they lacked the skills or knowledge to heal themselves with what the arena has provided. You'd actually be amazed at how a simple mixture of berries and leaves can assist the body's natural healing process. There is to be absolutely no fighting among tributes, save that for the arena. However, if you are in need of a sparring partner, one can be made available to you, simply let me know. Thank you." She turns around, walks over to a desk in the corner of the room, and sits in the chair, scooting herself up to the desk.

"That was already our plan. Let's make sure to pay extra attention to the 'Edible Plants' station, and the 'Healing with Nature' stations." Katniss tells me.

We spend about thirty minutes at the knot tying station while the instructor shows us the many different ways to tie knots. Katniss is a natural, but it frustrates me too much. As I throw the rope down in frustration, I remember Cinna's idea to hint at 'something more.'

"Kat, why are you so good at everything you do? You are just so amazing, you know that?" She scrunches her face at me, she's never been one to freely accept a compliment. I walk next to her, inching my face dangerously close to hers as I pretend to get a closer look at her dexterous fingers. As she realizes what I'm playing at, she lightly brushes her hands against mine flirtatiously as she tries to show me how she tied the knot.

Out of the corner of my eye, the instructor gives us a quizzical glance, and I know we've got the wheels in her head spinning like crazy.

We head to the next station, which is the 'Camouflage Station.' Katniss doesn't see a need for this one, so she moves on to the next one; 'Knife Throwing', which happens to be right next to me. I stay at the 'Camouflage Station' and attempt to disguise my hand until it blends in with the small tree that is next to the instructor. An hour passes, and the instructor is impressed with my skills.

"Wow, I don't think I've ever seen anyone do that before!" The instructor compliments me.

"Well, I'm sort of an artist. I've been drawing and painting ever since I was able to hold a pencil, plus my family owns a bakery and I do the cakes." I see Katniss walking back over to me, clearly bored of throwing knives.

"Peeta, I've missed you, what have you been—" She sucks in a deep breath as she sees my masterpiece. "Oh my God Peeta, did you do that?" She grabs my arm and lifts it up to get a better look. She starts poking her finger on my arms and ends up getting paint all over herself. "Now, look what you did!" She flirts with me, and once again I catch the instructor looking completely bemused. They don't seem to know what to think about two tributes being friendly, much less flirting.

As she stands in front of me, I take my painted arm and loop it around her neck to give her a hug, smearing paint all over her face. She pushes me away and uses her jacket to wipe her face off.

"Peeta!" She yells at me. "This is never going to come off, I'll have to spend an hour scrubbing my face!"

"I'll help you with the scrubbing." I give her my signature crooked grin and waggle my eyebrows at her.

"You are insufferable, go away!" She shoves me away which just causes her to become covered in more paint."

"Come on, let's keep moving." I whisper in her ear.

We spend the rest of the day traveling from station to station, while subtly hinting that we may be 'something more'. We spend very little time at the weapons and the fighting centers, as we try to learn everything we can about survival skills, plants, berries, natural medicine, how to start a fire, setting snares, so on, and so on. We walk past the archery station, and I see Katniss get a gleam in her eye and I grab her hand to pull her closer to me, hoping to distract her.

Just as I'm thinking that we've made it through our entire first day of training without incident, District Two intervenes. As we're passing by the weight station on our way to the elevator, Cato calls out to us.

"Hey Twelve!" I look behind us to see Cato, who seems to be squatting a substantial amount of weights. Rye went through this period of time where he was obsessed with fitness and talked our parents into buying a bench press, so just by eyeballing it, I'd say Cato was squatting about three-hundred pounds.

"Nice outfit last night." He says nonchalantly, and for some reason, I think he is only speaking to Katniss.

"Cinna and Portia outdid themselves." I say, lacking any emotion and Cato continues to do his repetitions. Clearly, he's trying to intimidate us.

"Well, you know what they say," Cato grins maliciously. "You play with fire, and you might get burned."

"Thanks for the advice." I say as Katniss and I turn to walk to the elevators when I get an idea. "Hey, how much weight is that?"

"What? You think you can squat it?" Cato asks doubtfully.

"No, but I think I can bench it." Cato seems to find this hilarious as he doubles over in a fit of laughter. Cato drops the bar and the weights crash to the floor loudly.

"Be my guest." He makes a grand gesture toward the bench press as two attendants haul up the bar and place it in the rack above the press. Thankful for the attendants who will be spotting me, as I don't trust Cato, I walk over to the bench press and lie down.

"Peeta! What are you doing! Haymitch said—" Katniss says in a hushed whisper. I give her a wink as I reach up to grab the bar.

"Trust me." I tell her.

One.

I keep my eyes focused on Katniss, watching her nervously counting.

Two.

Three.

She looks mad.

Four.

Five.

Six.

Slightly less mad.

Seven.

Eight.

God, she is beautiful

Nine.

I love her.

Ten.

I rest the bar back in the cradle above my head and sit up.

"Thanks for that, it was fun." I nod to Cato as I get up and walk over to Katniss who is completely unreadable to me. I can't tell if she's mad, or angry, or…I'm just not sure what that emotion is. I throw my arm around Katniss, pulling her to my side and we walk to the elevator. Just before the doors open, I plant a kiss at her temple and then we step into the elevator. We turn around to face the doors and Katniss presses the '12'. We get a good look at Cato along with the remaining career's just before the doors close. They're all glaring at us, clearly pissed that I showed him up.

"What the hell was that Peeta? Haymitch said not to show our strengths!" Katniss yells at me in the elevator.

"I didn't." I tell her passively.

"Huh? But you just—"

"I didn't show him how much I can lift."

"Are you saying you can lift more than that?" I give her a cocky grin and nod.

"Well, Haymitch is gonna rip you a new one, you know that right?"

"Probably, I'm sure he'll get over it though."

"Why did you do it, Peeta?" How can she not know?

"He had his eyes on you, I had to readjust his target."

"But why?" Seriously, how can she be so oblivious? I push her against the wall furthest from the elevator door, hold her head in my hands, her hair intwined through my fingers, I tug on her hair just a bit, my lips hovering slightly above hers.

"Because I love you, Katniss." I jump out of the elevators as the doors open up to our suite and jog to my room, desperately needing a shower.

. . . . . . . . . .

0o0o

. . . . . . . . . .

(Prim)

"Dad, I can't see!" Dad squats down to let me sit on his shoulders so I can get a better view. Gale and his family have joined us in the square as we get ready to watch the opening ceremonies. I've been so anxious about Katniss and Peeta that I barely got any sleep last night. My parents try to shelter me from the games, but I'm aware that we are the worst district there is, and our tributes usually end up with the crappy stylists who just send our them out in coal mining outfits.

"Look Rosie Posie, it's starting!" I hear Gale tell Posie, who also sits atop of Gale's shoulders. The opening ceremonies is the only part of the games that he willingly allows Posie to watch. Sitting up so high allows me to see much more than if I were just standing, and I see Mr. Mellark and Peeta's older brother, Rye walk over to us. He shakes dad's hand, and then they nestle their selves within our little group.

"Ooooh, look Gale, it's starting!" Posie claps her hands and bounces excitedly. Mom and dad talk animatedly to Mr. Mellark, but I don't pay attention to their conversation; I don't want to miss seeing my sister.

"Hey! What's that?" I shake my dad to get his attention, pointing to the screen in front of us. Katniss and Peeta haven't made their appearance yet, but I know they're close. Before we can see them on the screen, there is a flicker of something, maybe fire? The entire district goes silent as they see it too. And then as if it were planned, everyone in the square gasps at the same time as we see the cause of the flicker. Except it's not a flicker, it's my sister and Peeta. They are on fire, like actually on fire. But the fire is part of their costume, and they are amazing. They are beautiful and radiant and exquisite and so breathtakingly mesmerizing.

They are beautiful as two separate people, but they're not two separate people. Their hands are joined, raised above their heads, screaming out their unity. It's like they are one. Even though the other tributes are standing next to their district partners, you can tell they don't want to be near the other person.

Katniss and Peeta are different, but it's more than that. I wonder if Katniss finally told Peeta that she loves him too, I wonder if that's the thing that's different?

"Cinna did it!" It's barely above a whisper, but I know it's what I hear dad say.

"What's a cinna, dad?" I ask him.

"Huh? What? Oh, nothing Primmie. They are beautiful, aren't they?" I have a feeling that if I could see my dad's face right now, I would know that he wasn't being honest with me. I have got to figure out what this cinna is, or who they are and what they did.

And then once again my dad speaks without meaning to. "It's happening…Everything is going as planned."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

A/N: What did you think? Please R/R, your opinions mean the world to me and help me advance as a writer! Private sessions/Training scores are up next, along with more about how Mr. Everdeen came to agree to offer Katniss up for the rebellion's sake.