Once Katniss reaches the top she looks around herself and sees her fellow tributes scattered in a half circle around the cornucopia, where a huge load of weapons and provisions is lying out front taunting the contestants. Looking to her right she sees Hak 4 spots away from her, giving her an encouraging nod.
She then looks to her left and sees Peeta at the far end of the left side. The two exchange a look at the cornucopia, or more exactly at the bow lying out front and Peeta shakes his head negative, warning her of trying to get the weapon.
A countdown starts and once it reaches 0 the contestants all sprint off in various directions, some running away from the cornucopia, like Peeta and some running for the weapons like the group consisting of the first and second districts' tributes.
Katniss runs parallel to the cornucopia, not having made up her mind yet but stops in place when she sees the four tributes of the first districts kill their fellow tributes violently, regardless of their age.
In all this carnage she sees Hak simply walking through the fighting, heading straight to the back of the cornucopia, probably going for a glaive.
Ktaniss catches herself and sees a tribute grabbing one of the stray backpacks lying at the outer edge of what now has become a battlefield and copies the action, running for another one before taking off into the woods.
When she reaches the backpack she takes off running only to trip after a few steps. She turns around hearing someone behind her and sees a tribute almost upon her, armed with an axe but he quickly goes down when Clove threw a knife into his back.
Katniss sees her throw another knife, this time at her and she uses her backpack as a shield before getting up and running away, only looking back once to see the district 2's girl getting knocked over courtesy of Hak, who now armed with a glaive and a dagger is heading for Katniss.
Katniss doesn't feel like she should trust him and continues to run away as fast as her legs can carry her with Hak going after her but taking his time, figuring he'd scare her if he was right behind her anyways.
Katniss continues to run through the woods for maybe 10 minutes before she stops and looks into her backpack, taking inventory of her equipment when suddenly cannons start firing 6 times, signaling that six tributes have been killed.
After this Katniss goes looking for water, finding a source after a while and fills up her bottle before she sets a trap and hunts for food.
By late afternoon she managed to catch a rabbit and cooks it on a fire she purposefully kept very small so she won't be spotted. After eating the animal, she climbs a big tree and lies down, leaning against the trunk while she ties her legs around the branch she is resting on.
In the meantime, Hak continues to track her, eating a few mushrooms on the way as well as drinking some water from the small pond Katniss found.
A few minutes after Katniss rests on the tree the Game Makers dim down the surrounding so it simulates nighttime and send a holographic announcement on the sky, showing who has died.
When Katniss is about to go to sleep she smells smoke and looks to her left, seeing a light source in the woods and rolls her eyes at the stupidity of the tribute.
Mere minutes after she spots the fire a loud female scream is heard from that direction and she presses herself closer to the tree, assuming that whoever killed the girl is heading her way.
Mere moments later she sees that she was correct in her assumption when 5 people walk through the woods, passing right underneath her.
"Hey, loverboy are you sure she went this way?" Cato asks Peeta who was lagging behind the tributes from district 1 and 2.
"Yeah I'm sure. That was her snare we found back there." Peeta replies.
"Are you sure we shouldn't just kill him now?" Glimmer asks Cato.
"No, we'll kill him when he brought us to her." Cato tells the blonde girl.
The group then continues on their path, looking for Katniss, who watched the scene from the tree, feeling betrayed by her fellow tribute from district 12.
After a couple of hours Katniss wakes up and gets down from her tree. She heads into a direction she assumes she'd be safe since no one else went this way.
The Game Hosts have a different idea however. When Katniss is near the outer edge of the arena, almost 2 kilometers away from the nearest tribute they intend to turn her around.
When it's night time again Katniss climbs another tree, tying herself to a branch again and goes to sleep, only to wake 3 hours later, hearing a loud noise coming from behind her. She looks around the tree and sees a forest fire heading her way.
Katniss quickly unties herself and jumps down the tree she then starts to run away from the fire, dodging a couple of fireballs headed right at her, shot by the Game Hosts.
Hak, who tracked her through the night, is close to her location and when he hears an explosion take off, added to the fact that heavy smoke is rising in that direction he takes off towards the location of the explosion in a wild dash.
Katniss continues to outrun the fire and the fireballs until the Game Hosts drop a flaming tree right in her path, stopping her from continuing that direction.
She runs another direction towards a group of boulders. When she reaches them however another fireball explodes right beside her with the expanding flames burning her on her right leg.
Katniss looks at the wound in pain, grunting and panting before she looks ahead of herself, hearing someone yell something and sees Hak running towards her, still a long distance away while a fireball is coming right at her. She manages to jump to the side just in time and rolls down a slope. After getting back on her feet she takes of a wild dash into the direction of the middle of the arena to get away from the fire. Soon after she reaches a river and goes in it, relaxing in it, hoping it'll help with her wound.
Hak, who watched her run towards the center follows her, still quite a distance between them.
Katniss after lying down in the river for maybe half a minute hears voices heading her way and takes off in a run, as fast as she can with her damaged leg upon seeing the tributes of the first two districts.
The group of 5 chase after her, closing their distance gradually snice she is limping through the woods. Hearing the voices grow closer she finds a large tree and climbs it, hoping to get high enough where they won't reach her.
When she is halfway up the tree the group catches up to her and Cato starts to climb after her with much difficulty.
After getting a few feet up he grabs a branch not strong enough to support his weight and falls down.
After he fell down Glimmer shoots an arrow at her, missing her barely while Katniss is pressing herself to the tree, to make herself a small a target as possible.
Cato grabs the bow and tries his luck, missing her as well.
"Maybe you should throw the sword." Katniss taunts them while she's sitting on a branch.
Hak arrives at this scene, still unnoticed by both the group and Katniss.
"Let's just wait her out. She's got to come down at some point, it's that or starve to death." Peeta suggests.
"OK, Peeta is right." Cato agrees, putting his arm around the teen before he twists his neck, killing the tribute from district 12.
"Now, somebody make a fire." Cato tells the group sitting down against a tree with Glimmer while both Clove and Marvel leave to get wood for the fire, dragging Peeta's corpse away behind them.
Katniss who watched them kill Peeta gasps out in shock while tears start to slide down her face.
Hak sees that Katniss is safe for the time being and stays hidden, watching Katniss who is trying to take care of her wound with the water she has, which doesn't help at all while she is cringing in pain.
"Stay safe until I come get you." Hak says quietly before he disappears from the clearing, heading straight back where he came from towards the fire, which is still burning away.
Hak looks around himself once he reaches the tree which blocked Katniss's path and sees a camera, hidden in a tree.
"I know this thing transmits audio, so here is a message for my sponsors. I trust you with my life, this is proof of my conviction." Hak tells the camera before he takes off his jacket and goes over to the fire.
"What is he doing?" An announcer for the games asks while he is displayed on everyone's screens.
Hak looks towards the camera and holds his forearm over the fire, barely flinching while the fire burns him.
After a few seconds he takes his arm out of the fire and holds it up high, signaling he's proud of the fact that he is a tribute and his trust in his sponsors.
"Well if that kid isn't receiving anything, I don't know anyone more deserving of a gift." The announcer says after watching the scene speechlessly.
Hak doesn't have to wait long until he hears a beeping coming from within the forest and he makes his way to the small packet, opening it and takes out a container with some cream on it.
After this Hak does a mockingjay call, something he knows Rue will recognize.
While waiting, hoping the small girl will show up Hak smears a third of the cream onto his wound, enough for it to get treated enough so he can operate freely but maybe not get away scar-less.
"Thank you." Hak says into a camera, storing away the remainder of the medicine.
An hour later Hak, who was resting against a tree hears rustling closeby and sees Rue carefully making her way towards him.
"Good to see you. I was hoping you'd get the message." Hak tells her.
"So you won't kill me?" She asks fearfully, eyeing his glaive.
"No, your safe at least for a while." Hak tells her truthfully.
"Why'd you signal me?" She questions, sitting down across from him.
"I need some help, Katniss is trapped and wounded, and she needs this medicine but I'm not able to get it to her, you will be." Hak tells the girl.
"How?" Rue asks confused.
"She is hiding on a tree with some tributes waiting for her to get down. There are some high trees around her, but I wouldn't be able to climb them. You're light enough and small enough for them to hold you." Hak says.
"OK, I'll do it." Rue agrees since she likes Katniss and doesn't want to anger Hak anyways.
"Come on." Hak tells her and leads them quietly to a ridge overlooking the tree and the other tributes who have fallen asleep, same as Katniss.
"She is asleep." Rue whispers.
"You take this and get up that tree. I'm going to wake her." Hak says, helping Rue to start climbing a closeby tree from which a branch extends close to the branch Katniss is resting on.
Hak picks up a small pebble, throwing it up a few times, testing out his own wound and finding that it's almost as good as new. He carefully aims at Katniss and throws it in a high arch, so it wouldn't have enough speed to wake the others up if it hits the tree.
After a few missed shots he manages to hit her on her arm with the pebble, making her wake while looking around her with panic.
Hak stands up and waves both arms at her, showing himself to her. He then tells her to be quiet by putting his finger over his lips while pointing at the group underneath her.
Katniss nods her head at this.
Hak then points to Rue, who is almost on the branch she needs to go for her to pass Katniss the medicine.
When Rue is close to the girl she shows her the metal container and singals for Katniss to catch it. Katniss nods her head and catches the container after Rue gently threw it to her before making her way back to the ground.
Katniss looks at Hak, who motions for her to take the cream and apply it to her leg.
She nods her head and unties her legs, propping the burned leg up on the branch before she starts to smear the medicine on it with a quiet hiss.
After letting the medicine work for a moment she looks over to Hak, who is till watching her with worry in his eyes and mouthes "thank you."
Hak only gives her a smile before disappearing from sight, waiting for morning while Rue and Katniss sleep.
4 hours later the sun starts to go up and Hak shakes his young companion awake.
"I have an idea how to get Katniss down that tree." Hak whispers.
"What?" The girl asks.
"See those bees, she has to cut of the branch they're on." Hak tells the girl.
"OK, I'll tell her." Rue says and takes off up a tree while Hak gently throws pebbles at Katniss again.
After waking up Katniss looks at him and Rue, who then points upwards towards the branch with a bee nest and motions for her to saw it off, making it fall at the other tributes.
Katniss looks at her wound and sees that it's almost completely healed before she starts to climb the tree until she's within arm's reach of the branch.
She takes out her knife and uses the serrated backside to saw through the branch, getting stung a few times while she stifles cries of pain.
Moments later the beehive falls down and the four tributes on the ground take off running in every direction while Katniss climbs down the tree. After reaching the ground she sees Glimmer stung to death on the floor and takes her bow and arrow before she tries to walk away, only to fall down unconscious from the poison, the last thing she sees is a worried Hak picking her up and throwing her over his shoulder with the bow and arrow in his free hand.
Katniss then has nightmares about her father's death and Hak's disappearance 4 years back as well as her mother being almost lifeless after her father's passing.
Her nightmares last for three days during which Hak took both Katniss and Rue to a spot near the outer edge where they'd be safe for now with their backs to an enormous felled tree, giving them enough protection against the weather and blocking them from any attacker in that direction.
When Katniss wakes up she sees leaves sticking on her arms and her equipment resting beside her.
Next to her sits a sleeping Hak, his Glaive stuck in the ground and leaning against his shoulder while he rests.
Katniss looks up and sees Rue looking at her from behind a tree. She then gets up with some difficulty and goes over to the little girl, careful not to wake Hak.
"Rue? It's OK, I'm not going to hurt you." Katniss says, making the girl come out of her cover.
The two then prepare a bird Hak caught last day in silence.
When the food is ready Katniss wakes Hak, poking his leg a few times until he raises his head.
"Here." She tells him, offering him part of the bird with Rue already munching away at her piece.
"Thanks." Hak says, accepting the food while laying aside his weapon and joining the two girls for the meal.
"I think that is my line." Katniss tells him.
"How long was I asleep?" Katniss asks the two.
"three days. We changed your leaves twice." Hak replies.
"Thank you." She thanks the both of them.
"So what happened while I was out?" Katniss questions.
"The girl from 1 and the boy from 10." Rue tells her.
"Oh god Peeta." Katniss says recalling her fellow tributes death.
"Yeah, he died too but you know that." Hak says.
"This is all just so screwed up. How did you get the medicine by the way?" Katniss asks them.
"There are ways." Hak only says, pulling his left arm's sleeve further down.
Katniss sees this and rolls the sleeve up, revealing a burn on his arm.
"Don't worry about it. I know what I'm doing." Hak only says putting the sleeve back in place.
"Sooo, should I give you two some privacy?" Rue asks them mirthfully.
"No." Hak tells her while Katniss says "Yes.", making Rue take a walk.
"What do you mean yes?" Hak asks confused.
"There is something I need to ask you, and don't beat around the bush again!" Katniss tells him.
"Are you the boy I knew up until 4 years ago?" Katniss asks him, paying close attention to catch any sign of deceit.
"How'd you figure it out? I thought you didn't remember me." Hak asks surprised, taking another bite of the bird.
"You called me Catnip, you're the only one who never listened to me not to call me that." She tells him.
"Hmpf." Hak grunts as reply.
"So, where were you all this time, why didn't you come back after winning the Games?" Katniss asks.
"That's a long story." Hak sighs.
"We got time don't we?" Katniss replies, motioning around them.
"OK, well for one the first two years I had to tour around, visiting the districts and playing the grateful hero of the nation. And when I came back home my foster father had already passed away, leaving me his hut in the forest we used to hunt in." Hak starts his explanation.
"And then?" Katniss inquires.
"Seriously, you haven't figured it out at all. And here I thought you were bright Catnip." Hak teases her.
"Shut up." She tells him, playfully hitting his leg.
"Well after my father died the people of the 11th district hated me, blaming me for his death and I had to disappear so to speak. I moved into the hut he left me and disguised myself with a mask. After that as you should know I tried checking in with you, but you didn't want me around, but I kept tabs on you, you just didn't know about it." He tells her.
"Wait so you're the weird animal mask dude?" She asks genuinely surprised.
"Yeah." He replies.
"You two done?" Rue asks them, appearing in their line of sight.
"Yeah." Katniss tells her, squeezing Hak's hand once.
"So what happens now? Where are Cato and the others?" Katniss asks her two new comrades.
"They've got all their supplies piled up in a pyramid down at the lake." Rue tells her.
"That sounds tempting." Katniss replies.
"I don't like that look of yours, not one bit." Hak tells Katniss while shaking his head with a small smirk.
That night Katniss and Rue cuddle together on a makeshift hammock while Hak sleeps on one of the branches they are tied in between.
Katniss looks up at the sky but only sees a dark sky simulated by the Game Hosts with a blue grid visible in it.
"That's one sight I really didn't miss." Hak tells her, looking up as well.
"You mean from the 70th Games?" Katniss asks.
"Yeah." Hak replies.
"How did you win anyways? I was never allowed to watch it, because at the time I was too young according to my mother. That was back when she still cared." Katniss asks him.
"I payed a price for the win, but I survived. And afterwards I kept training to become stronger and better for when the time comes and you'd need me." Hak tells her, still looking up.
"What price?" Katniss asks confused.
"Another time, for now go to sleep. You deserve some rest Catnip." He tells her, squeezing her good leg for support.
The next day Katniss came up with the plan to lure Cato and his crew away from their camp by making a big smoke signal which Rue will light, while both Katniss and Hak will destroy their supplies.
"We need a signal in case one of us gets held up." Rue says.
"OK the usual?" Hak asks.
"Watch this." Rue tells Katniss and sings something, which the mocking jays repeat after her.
"Mocking jays. That's smart." Katniss says.
"Back home we use them to signal all the time." Rue tells her.
"Ok so if we hear that it means we'll be back real soon." Rue says.
"We're going to be OK." Katniss tells her trying to reassure the girl and hugs her for good luck.
"Let's go." Katniss tells Hak, who picks up his Glaive and follows her to the camp.
Half an hour later both Katniss and Hak arrive at the edge of the woods overlooking Cato's campsite and see the ground near the platforms digged up.
"They made a minefield around the pyramid." Hak informs her.
"Are you sure?" Katniss asks.
"Yeah." Hak tells her glaring at the pyramid.
"Guys come on, look!" Marvel tells his companions pointing at the line of smoke rising from the woods.
Cato, Marvel and Clove then take off in that direction while another tribute is left behind to guard the supplies.
After the three left Katniss is about to step out of their cover to start their plan but Hak stops her, nodding at the opposite treeline where the district 5 girl runs out and dodges the mines, stealing something from the supplies and takes off in a sprint towards the nearest treeline. The guarding tribute heard the noise and goes towards the treeline to check it out.
"Now." Hak tells Katniss, who aims her bow at a bag with oranges hanging on top of the pyramid.
She fires and arrow at the bag, ripping it at the top part.
"Relax, you got this." Hak tells her, putting his hand on her back reassuringly.
Katniss has a small smile and takes two steps forward, taking in a deep breath before releasing the arrow, this time cutting the bag at it's bottom, making the fruit fall out of it and onto one of the mines, which set of a chain explosion which knocks Katniss of her feet while her ears are ringing.
Hak quickly hefts her over his shoulder and takes her back into the woods.
"I'm OK now." Katniss tells him after a minute or two.
"OK." Hak says, letting the girl down.
"We should be far enough away now." Hak tells her when suddenly a boom is heard and the tribute guarding the pyramid is shown on the sky, meaning he was killed.
"Did I?" Katniss asks unsure if she killed him.
"No, I bet that was Cato." He tells her.
Katniss then whistles a tune for the mocking jays to repeat and they make their way to their meeting spot with Rue.
The two of them arrive at the location close to where she lit the fires and see her missing. They then hear her scream for help, yelling "Katniss!" over and over.
Katniss and Hak make their way towards where she is screaming from and arrive at a clearing where they see Rue trapped under a net, tied down against some trees.
"Katniss wants to rush out but Hak tries to stop her she rips herself out of his hold however and sprints over to Rue, with Hak following after her, eyeing the surroundings with care.
When Katniss reaches Rue, she cuts the rope and lifts the net off the girl, who immediately stands up and hugs her.
Rue then looks up fearfully at the opposite tree line where Marvel appears and throws a javelin at the two, Hak jumps at Katniss, knocking her out of the way in time but gets cut across his back by the weapon which continues on its path and hits Rue in the chest.
Katnis quickly recovering aims her bow and fires and arrow, hitting Marvel straight through his heart.
Hak rolls off Katniss's legs where he landed and the two look towards Rue, who stand there stupefied, the javelin sticking out of her chest.
She takes it out and falls over with Katniss catching her.
"It's OK." Katniss tells her, lying her down on the ground.
"Did you blow up their food?" Rue asks them.
"We did." Katniss tells her shaken up, tears rolling down her eyes and her voice becoming hoarse.
"Katniss, I got her, why don't you check if there is anyone else coming?" Hak asks Katniss, who knows that no one else is coming and that Hak knows this himself.
Katniss gets up sniveling and squeezes Rue's hand one more time before she leaves the two alone, slumping down against a tree only a few feet away.
"Hey Rue, you like birds right? Look up there are some you can't see in our district." Hak tells her, making the girl look to the sky while he takes out his knife and stabs her through her heart, saving her from a slow death.
"Sorry I couldn't do more for you." He tells her, zipping up her jacket while he cleans the blade of the girls' blood.
"Katniss, why don't you get some flowers for her?" Hak asks Katniss, knowing she is sitting around a tree crying to herself.
Hak gets up and reaches to his back, testing his wound.
"OK, I got this." Hak says and uses his glaive to dig Rue a shallow grave.
When Katniss comes back she has a bouquet of white flowers for the girl and wordlessly puts them in the little girls hands after Hak carefully placed her in the grave he dug.
Katniss still kneeling down at the girls grave kisses her forehead once before she gets up and hugs Hak for all she's worth, crying out into his chest. After maybe three minutes of crying Hak gently tells her "We need to continue." Getting Katniss to try and pull herself together, wiping her face with her sleeve and sees blood on her hands, coming from Hak's back. The two solemnly walk towards the river before Katniss stops, looking up at the sky and shows the cameras her three-finger salute, kissing her hand and displaying ring to index finger.
This gesture causes a riot to rise up in the 11th district, who are mourning Rue's death.
After her salute she joins Hak, who stopped to wait for her, and they head to the river.
"You are hurt. How bad is it?" Katniss asks him.
"I'll manage. Let's just get somewhere safe before we deal with this." Hak tells her.
While they are on their way to shelter Haymitch managed to convince the Game Host to give the people something to root for, young love. The Game Host agrees and gives the announcement that the regulations with only a single victor have been suspended and that from now on two victors may be crowned if one of them won a Hunger Game before.
"Hak, this means we both can get out of here." Katniss says exstatically, hugging the teen she has grown to trust.
"Yeah, lets just hope they don't change their mind." He whispers to her.
"Come on, it's getting dark." Hak tells her breaking the hug and leading them forwards while holding her hand.
A while later the two reach the river and find a cave there where they decide to take shelter.
"Here is good." He tells her, laying his Glaive down on the floor.
"So what do we do about your wound?" Katniss questions worried about him.
"Get some water please." Hak tells her, holding out her flask while he takes out his knife.
He follows her outside and cuts off part of the bark of a tree before taking it over to the river and washing the bark.
"Come on." Hak says once he's finished, holding his hand out for her which she accepts and he leads them back to the cave where he takes out some leaves from her backpack, having stored them in there while she was recuperating.
"What are you doing?" She asks him.
"This is a medicine. It won't work as well as the stuff I gave your for the burn but it'll keep me alive long enough till we're out of here, there are only Clove, Foxface and Cato left after all." Hak informs her, putting the leaves on the bark and soaking them with water before he starts to grind them into a paste with a rock.
"Can you help me with this?" Hak then asks her, taking off his Jacket and handing her the paste.
"Sure." She replies.
"Thank you." Hak tells her, lying down with a stick in his hand.
"Now, you need to push it in deep OK?" He tells her, squeezing her hand once before putting the stick in his mouth to keep himself from screaming.
"Katniss lies the bark next to him and picks up some paste with one hand. She spreads it over the cut going across his shoulders while putting her other hand on his lower back both for support and to keep him from pulling away. Once the wound is covered with the paste she leans down next to his ear and tells him "This next part will hurt." She then presses the paste into the wound, making Hak wince from the pain and tense up. This continues for little over a minute until she's done.
"Thank you." Hak says, taking the stick out of his mouth and taking a sip of water.
"You really don't have to thank me. You only got hurt whenever you protected me." She tells him, brushing over the burn on his forearm while she leans against the rock wall he's lying in front of.
"I'm just glad you're OK." Hak tells her.
"So the price you mentioned earlier. This it?" She asks him gently stroking over his back, where a good portion of his skin is burned.
"Yes. In the deciding fight I fell into a trap and had a mine explode next to me, catching me on the back." Hak explains.
"I'm sorry you went through all that and I wasn't there to help you, I even send you away when you tried to console me." Katniss apologizes, looking at him with guilt.
"Catnip, listen to me. There is nothing you could've done. And the sending me away was my fault, I was too scared to tell you who I am fearing you'd see me as damaged or dangerous." Hak tells her, holding her hand tightly while she lies down on her side, facing him.
Katniss closes the distance between them and gives him a quick kiss.
"You need to rest now." She tells him.
"Remember the one time when I hurt my hand while hunting in the woods?" She asks him.
"Yeah, it's not like you to delve in memories though." Hak tells her amused.
"shut up, remember what you said back then?" She asks him.
"Yeah, I asked you to trust me and I told you I'd take care of you." Hak replies with a small smile.
"Yes, well now it's my turn." She says kissing his cheek before lying down next to him hugging his arm close to her.
|the next day|
Katniss and Hak wake up to an announcement.
"Attention tributes, commencing at sunrise there will be a feast at the cornucopia, this will be no ordinary occasion, each of you need something desperately and we want to be generous Hosts." The voice tells them.
"Katniss, don't even think about it. If you go I might as well snap your neck myself and not have Cato do it." Hak tells her.
"But you need medicine, the story you spun about surviving long enough until the others die isn't good enough for me." Katniss tells him worried about him.
"OK. Then help me make more medicine. Go get some water while I collect the leaves." He tells her.
The two of them leave their cave, heading in opposite directions. Hak doesn't have to wait long until he finds what he's looking for and makes his way back to the cave.
"Catnip, I found them." He says into the cave only to see her nowhere in sight.
"Maybe she's still at the river?" He murmurs to himself, fetching his glaive just in case but doesn't see her at the river or on the way there.
"Son of a bitch, why does she have to be so headstrong." Hak curses and takes off towards the cornucopia in a mad dash while Katniss has a good lead on him, nearing the edge of the forest already.
Minutes later Katniss has been observing the podium with the 4 bags displayed on it for the last two minutes and finally decides to break her cover when once again the redhead from district 5 beats her to the punch and takes her bag before disappearing into the woods again.
Katniss takes this as a good sign and runs towards the podium as well, picking up both the bag for the 11th and 12th district before continuing on her path towards the opposite edge of the forest, but once she rounds the corner of the cornucopia Clove is already waiting for her and throws her knife at her head, Katniss manages to lean backwards in time to dodge it, getting a cut from her eyebrow to her hairline.
After the knifethrow Clove runs at Katniss, who manages to fire off two arrows which the well trained girl manages to dodge before she tackles Katniss to the ground, struggling with her until she manages to subdue the struggling Katniss and holds a knife to her neck.
"Where is your new loverboy?" Clove asks.
"Oh I see you were going to help him right? Marvel must've managed to get in some damage." Clove asks her.
"You know it's toob ad you couldn't help your little friend, Rue. Well we killed her and now's your turn." Clove tells her, taking out another knife and running it over the girls face with its backside.
When Clove rears her arm back to stab her Hak has arrived at the clearing moments before and sees her rear her hand back, knowing this can't mean anything good Hak flips his Glaive into another grip and throws it at Clove, hitting her right in the raised shoulder, making her fly off Katniss due to the amount of force behind the throw.
Hak runs over to his downed friend and helps her up before he approaches Clove, who is screaming for help from Cato.
"Just accept your fate. You were doomed the moment you targeted Katniss with me in the same arena." Hak tells her, ripping the glaive from the girls shoulder and placing it on the back of her neck, going down with a squelch, causing Katniss to cringe at the display of violence.
Hak swings his Glaive at the side once to flick off most of the blood before he stabs it in the ground next to him while walking over to Katniss.
"Katniss, I told you specifically not to come here." Hak shouts at her angrily.
"But you need this." Katniss challenges him, holding up the two bags.
"I don't need this, I need you." Hak says, reaching her and making her drop the two bags before he pushes her against a metal wall of the cornucopia and kisses her hungrily. They stay in this lip-lock for maybe a minute before he releases her and takes a step back, saying "You're going to make me worry to death one of these days you know."
"Sorry." She apologizes, her mind still racing because of the unexpected kiss.
"Just be careful alright? I didn't volunteer just to see you die." Hak tells her, caressing her face before picking up the two bags, putting them over his shoulder.
"Let's go." Hak tells her, grabbing her hand and picking up his glaive with the other.
"Yes." Katniss agrees, running beside him as they head back to their cave.
"Here, lie down." Katniss tells him, taking off her jacket and lying it down under him while he removes his jacket and shirt again.
"One thing first." He says stopping her dead in tracks and takes the medicine she just picked out of his districts' bag.
What are you…" Katniss asks but he silences her with a finger on her lips while he gathers a little medicine on another finger from his other hand and uses it to apply the medicine to the cut across her forehead.
"It'd be a shame to have something so unsightful remain on such a beautiful face." He tells her as he finishes treating her wound.
"I know this is about 2 years late but I have to tell you this before the finale. I love you and I am willing to die for you." Hak tells her honestly while looking deep into her gray eyes.
"I…" She whispers speechless.
"Don't worry, you don't have to say anything. I just wanted you to know if things don't pan out as we hope." Hak tells her and gives her a kiss on her cheek before lying down on her jacket.
"I'm ready." He tells her, holding out the medicine for her.
She wordlessly removes the herb paste he had her apply to his wound, rinsing the gash out with water and drying it carefully before she applies the new medicine to his wound.
"all done." She tells him maybe 15 minutes later and helps him into his shirt.
"Thank you." He says and puts his jacket down next to him, motioning for her to join him while he leans on his side.
"What's in the other bag anyways?" Hak asks her, nodding at the bag for district 12.
"let's see…" She says opening it and taking out a big blanket.
"Nice, come here." Hak tells her, lying down on his back careful not to stress it too much and holds his arm out for her. Katniss lies down next to her, head head resting in his shoulder while she drapes the blanket over them.
"Let's get some more rest." Hak tells her, playing with her braid with the hand she's lying on.
"Hak… I did like you when we were young. I just can't promise you I will still feel the same towards you, we've both changed so much." She tells him.
"Katniss don't worry about it, it's OK. I know you have that Gale guy you are very close to and you haven't exactly seen me for four years…" Hak says.
"Gale? Oh god no. He's like a big brother to me." Katniss tells him.
"Oh, and here I thought I was just too late." He says laughing because he's relieved.
"That's not it…" She says a bit embarrassed.
"Let's just wait and see. It's not like they said only couples are allowed to leave together." Hak jokes until Katniss leans up, puts one leg on the other side of his waist and leans close to him until they meet in a gentle kiss.
"Does it hurt like this?" Katniss asks him, lying down on his stomach with her head over his chest.
"No it's perfect." He tells her with a wide grin on his face.
Hours later the two of them wake up and Katniss immediately makes him take his shirt off to see that his back is almost completely healed, other than his old burn wound.
"Thank god." She says relieved and falls into his arms, hugging him as though her life depended on it.
"I'm here. It's all OK." Hak tells her calmingly while she sheds a few tears of relief.
"What do we do now?" She asks him.
"My guess is it's best if we head to the cornucopia. There are only two more remaining and I don't think Foxface is exactly the type for confrontation." Hak tells her, putting on his clothes before holding her jacket to help her into the cloth.
"You ready?" He asks her once she strapped her quiever around her shoulder and picked up her bow.
"Yes!" She tells him confidently and the two carefully make their way to the cornucopia, keeping an eye out since it's dark around them and they don't want to fall into some trap or get taken by surprise curtesy of the Game Hosts.
When they have cleared about 2/3 of the distance to the cornucopia they hear some weird howling coming from their side as well as a loud female shriek. Moments later a cannon if shot and the picture of foxface is shown in the sky.
"Down to Cato and us." Hak tells Katniss.
"It is the finale." She says.
The two continue on their way, now even more careful of their surroundings but after a few meters they get attacked by what appears to be a lion and dog crossbreed.
Hak gets tackled by it and holds it off when Katniss shoots an arrow through its neck but the dog-like creature shakes it off and starts to chase them.
"Run!" Hak yells at her, getting up and picking up the girl who was still aiming at the dog by throwing her over his shoulder, turning her around in his arms so she`s facing the right way.
"What are you doing?" She protests.
"You can't kill these things. I fought one once and it ended with it's head and body chasing me separately." Hak tells her, letting her down so they both run on their own and pick up more speed.
"What do we do?" She asks panicking.
"run to the cornucopia. Climb on it." Hak tells her. When the two reach the forest edge 5 more creatures appear and are closing in on them.
Hak throws his glaive into the buildings' side and slides down in front of the building, resting on one knee. Katniss uses his back as step and jumps onto his weapon, leaping from it onto the roof of the building. Hak pulls himself up on his weapon and jumps onto the roof as well moments before the weapon slides out of the wall and lands in the horde of creatures snarling at them.
"That was close." He says before getting punched in the face by Cato, making him go down on the floor while Cato throws Katniss halfway across the roof. Hak stops him by pulling on his leg, making the wounded teen fall down and Hak tries to throw him over the roof's edge but Cato kicks himself free and rushes at Katniss, throwing her over after she's just gotten up again.
Hak is hot on his heels and Cato expects this, using Hak's momentum against him, making him fly against a metal wall.
Cato drags Katniss over to the edge and chokes her while the creatures try to get to her before Hak packs Cato by his neck and slams him into the floor. Once down he leans down to the blonde man and punches him in his face multiple times until he's unconscious. After knocking him out Hak goes over to Katniss, checking on her and seeing she's not seriously hurt. He picks up an arrow from her quiver and shoves it through Cato's heart, killing him.
After this he kicks the body off the roof for the dogs to have.
"Sorry you had to see this." Hak apologizes to her, facing away from her ashamed at so casually killing another human.
"Is this why you didn't reveal yourself to me? You were ashamed for killing to survive?" She asks him, walking up behind him while the dogs quiet down, carrying away Cato's dead body.
"Yes." Hak answers after a minute of silence.
"Hak, look at me." She says gently, touching his back.
"Hak, look at me!" She repeats more sternly after he didn't move.
"Hak there is nothing to be ashamed of. We're only doing what we have to survive." She tells him, making him look at her, holding his face in her hands.
"But I was 12 and I killed 15 people." Hak tells her, close to choking up.
"And you saved me by doing it." She says hugging the taller teen close to herself with him returning the embrace, for the second time during the Games showing fear.
While they are hugging the sun rises. Once they let go of one another they climb down the structure with Hak simply jumping down before turning to Katniss, catching her when she slides down the building right behind him.
"We did it Catnip, we did it." Hak says happily, hugging the girl while she jumps on him relieved, making him carry her while they're hugging.
"Attention, please." A voice says, making Hak drop Katniss to her feet as they break their hug.
"There's been a slight rule change. The previous revision, allowing for there to be two victors is revoked, only one will be crowned." The announcer tells them.
Hak goes over to his glaive, picking it up and makes his way to Katniss, who stares at her bow with panic.
"Katniss, I think it's time we said goodbye." Hak says, holding out his glaive to her, handle first as he kneels down in front of her while she's still facing away.
"Hak, no!" She tells him curtly.
"If you won't live then so won't I." She tells him, taking the glaive and throwing both the glaive and her bow on the floor on each side.
"They need to have a victor." Hak tells her.
"No, they don't. Why should they? We just found each other again. I refuse to part from you." She tells him, holding out a hand with poisonous berries.
"You know that is Nylock right? It kills in minutes." Hak tells her.
"Trust me." She says, looking at him with conviction.
"I do." Hak says, standing up to look her in the eyes while she hands him half of the berries.
"Together?" Hak asks.
"Together." She tells him.
"OK." Hak agrees, giving her one last kiss.
"One." Hak then says, their foreheads leaning against each other.
"Two." She continues and they raise their hands.
"Three." Hak finishes, the berries almost at his lips same as Katniss.
"Stop!" The announcer then yells.
"Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the winners of the 74th annual Hunger Games." The Announcer says, making Hak and Katniss drop the berries relieved before hugging each other in a big embrace after which Hak picks her up by her legs and carries her while she gives him a kiss.
A ship then decends down to the two.
"They are not happy with you." Haymitch tells Katniss while they are standing on a balcony in the capitol.
"Why, because I didn't die?" She asks.
"Because you showed them up. This is serious, not just for you. They won't take this lightly." He warns her.
"I got nothing to lose." Hak says joining them on the balcony and gives her a kiss on her neck.
"I only have my family." She agrees, leaning into his embrace.
Days later the two are set to appear on Cesar's talk show together.
The two make their way on to the stage with Katniss wearing an elegant white dress while Hak has opted for a blue kimono.
"Cesar." Hak greets the blue haired man with a strong handshake while Katniss is linked with his other arm.
"Hak, good to see you again. And here we have the lovely Katniss." Cesar says, giving the girl a quick hug.
"Now first I have to say, I'm sorry but it looks like I owe you a dinner." Cesar tells Hak.
"So it seems." Hak replies, taking Katniss's hand and gives it a kiss.
"I have to ask you Katniss, how did you feel when he came to your help when you were trapped on that tree?" Cesar asks her.
"I felt like I didn't deserve so much luck to have someone protect me this courageously." She replies.
"And you Hak, how did you feel when She went to get your medicine?" Cesar asks him.
"I think you already know that, don`t you? Well I was pretty angry but only because I was afraid, I could lose her." Hak tells him, looking at Katniss.
"How did you feel when you learned how he knew you?" Cesar asks Katniss.
"Honestly, I still am shocked. I mean I thought he died at the 70th Hunger Games." Katniss replies, squeezing Hak's hand.
"And finally, you Hak, how did you feel when she accepted you for who you are after finishing the Game?" Cesar asks him.
"I feel like I am undeserving of her and just thank the heavens that she accepts me like I am." He says caressing Katniss's shoulder.
After the interview the two of them head to the crowning ceremony where president snow gives them their crowns, showing the world that they are the winners.
After all of the celebrations in their honor are done the two head back to their district with Effie and Haymitch.
"So, what do we do now that we won?" Hak asks Katniss while they watch the capitol disappear from sight through their train window.
"I don't know, maybe we'll try to forget." Katniss replies.
"Everything? Or just the bad parts?" Hak asks her, looking into her eyes with hope while he tentatively takes one of her hands in his.
"Honestly, I don't know." She sighs.
"Katniss, I am a man of my word. I won't pressure you into anything and I definitely won't force you to get you to like me. Take your time to decide, I won't be going anywhere." He tells her, kissing her cheek one more and moves to leave until he sees her wearing the mocking jay pin on her necklace.
"You still have it." He says contend and leaves with a smile while she looks down at her necklace.
A day later the two step out of the train in district 12, since Hak lives in between districts anyways and wave at the crowd cheering them on.
In the crowd Katniss spots her sister sitting on Gale's shoulder cheering for her with their mother standing next to her. Katniss who was only forcing herself to smile up to that point develops a real smile, relief setting in now that she's back home.
AN: please review and follow :)