Katniss hadn't been able to sleep as the sun rose, she looked back into her arms glancing down at Rue sleeping snuggled up next to her on her back. She had been worrying that something would happen to Rue if she went to sleep thus she hadn't been able to sleep constantly on the lookout for tributes and checking on Rue's wounds.

Another part of her kept replaying what had happened yesterday, the kiss or should she say kisses that she had shared with Rue. She didn't have that much experience and she could tell Rue was an amateur too but they had both gone with the flow. She had tried backing away more than once thinking she was taking advantage of Rue, but the girl had pulled her back each time, tightening her grip around the girl on fire evermore.

But today's mission was rather clear, she had to find Peter and maybe if it was possible find Rue's brother.

"Rue, Rue get up let's go," she said in a low whisper, the girl in question lazily opened her eyes panicking momentarily but katniss made sure to hold her firm to make sure she wouldn't hurt herself. "Easy Rue, Easy" Katniss whispered holding her firmly burying her face into the girl's hair whilst rubbing her back. After a few moments Rue started to breathe a little easier "sorry katniss" she said doing her best to hold onto the girl on fire but even Katniss could tell her grip was weaker "she's losing strength, I need to get her out of here soon."

"We need to find peter" Rue nodded weakly in agreement, katniss could already tell she looked paler than before. Her big eyes almost seemed hollow and her skin was a little white, she slowly placed her hand on the other girl's cheek and Rue didn't waste a moment leaning into the touch and closing her eyes before she let out a satisfied smile. "I have to get her out of here," she thought as she slowly stood up and surveyed the area around them. Once she had, she slowly went down and slowly helped Rue get to her feet, she didn't want the possibility of someone finding them on her mind because she knew she wouldn't abandon Rue.

They started their trek slowly, Katniss knew that they needed a lot more water, especially for Rue, as losing all of that blood was wearing on her. So they walked for a bit and katniss was using her experience from all the years spent hunting to try to find a water source, even though she knew that could mean running into other tributes.

"Okay she's already heading towards the river, probably looking for some water for her girl ... hmmm where's the other tribute from her district?"

"He seems to be camouflaged by the river sir"

They pulled up the footage as the game master slowly nodded "okay make sure they make it there to him because there's nothing better than a love triangle for some added drama."

"You know what let's make it more interesting," the game's master said with a smile on his face.

"ANNOUNCEMENT TRIBUTES, DUE TO A VOTE BY THE PUBLIC IN ORDER TO HAVE THE ORDERS EVERMORE IN YOUR FAVOUR ... IF TRIBUTES FROM THE SAME DISTRICT ARE THE LAST 2 REMAINING ... THEY WILL BE CROWNED THE VICTORS"

That stopped katniss in her tracks as she looked down to her feet, and she had heard the gasp that Rue had taken when the announcement had come.

"HAPPY HUNGER GAMES! AND MAY THE ODDS BE EVER IN YOUR FAVOR"

Katniss didn't know what to say, what could she say to Rue? how was she going to save Rue? she unconsciously tightened her grip around the girl's waist. It hurt for Rue due to her injury but she could see that this was hurting Katniss, even if she dragged Rue to the end she wouldn't make it. She returned her own small squeeze to Katniss that seemed to shake the girl out of her stupor as they made eye contact.

The smile she saw on Rue's face left her confused and then angry, as she brought her hand under Rue's chin to make her look up at her. "Don't ever look at me like that" Katniss said through shakey words as if saying them would bring her the strength she would need to make it out of this situation but even she knew it was false bravado. "I'm going to get you out of here no matter what it takes, you hear me?" she said but she could see Rue wasn't making eye contact looking at everything but her. If she thought she wouldn't hate anything more than that smile Rue gave her as if resigned to her fate then the words that came next broke those expectations. As the girl finally made eye contact with a smile "and I will do the same"

She didn't know why but hearing that with that unsettling smile set off alarms in her brain as she took a shaky breath "let's go Katniss."

Katniss did her best walking with Rue initially till she saw the girl struggling to breathe and just decided to have her in a bridal carry. Rue had protested weakly on not walking to slow her down or encumber her if shit was to hit the fan but katniss had ignored her.

She had been walking for a while always making sure to try to keep as low a profile in the forest till she slowly stepped out of the forest in a crouch with Rue in her arms, her face pressed into katniss's neck providing tantalizing breathes that only seemed to spur Katniss on. Katniss made sure to look around a couple of times before slowly stepping out to the river bank making sure to always be ready to run.

After a particularly unbalanced step she felt something wrap around her legs, she was about to scream but Rue was quick to cover her mouth, she calmed down but she could see that even that action seemed to take a lot out of Rue. She slowly looked down at her foot to see what she was caught on but was more surprised as a face seemed to morph out of the river bank.

"Hi Katniss," Peter said from his position on the river bed, she almost dropped Rue with her excitement but the tears she could feel spilling from her eyes said what she didn't have the strength to say at the moment.

"Peter"

She slowly knelt down making sure to not shake Rue too much even if her arms were burning wanting some relief. "You're okay?" he gave back a shakey smile before raising his other hand and she could see some blood on it as she followed the wound, "as okay as I can be?"

Katniss cast a look around before looking back at him "let's get you out of here."

They looked around carefully for a while searching for anywhere they could rest, she knew they couldn't go back to the place she and Rue had stayed. It was too far and the chance of someone spotting them while she had two injured people was too great. She had also noticed another thing, ever since they had found Peter, Rue hadn't said a word. Katniss could still feel her weak breath on her neck, the feeling would have had her nerves haywire if it wasn't for how weak they felt, how cold.

After searching for a while they managed to find a cave and she went to lay down Rue on some of her clothes making sure to put her down gently. The girl in question only opened her eyes staring up at Katniss without uttering a word but to the girl, on fire, she seemed to be saying a lot. She helped Peter get in the rest of the way into the cave and set him down, the two of them looked bad, Katniss would have paced around but she didn't have the energy. She first checked on Rue's wounds making sure that they hadn't opened even if she had only looked away from the girl for a moment. She did her best to ignore the pained grunts coming from the girl till she was sure that she was fine.

Katniss made use of the medical supplies she had got before but used just enough that Rue was okay. After making sure that she was okay, Katniss went to check on peter, luckily she still had some gel from before and quickly got to work. Peter just watched her as she treated his wounds, "it sucks that we had to meet like this" Peter said jokingly causing both of them to let out a small laugh. "Yeah, you are always getting yourself into trouble, that hasn't changed," she said as she finished dressing the wound. Peter held her hand and she stopped as she looked up at him, he looked back at Rue who looked as if she was sleeping before turning back to Katniss. "Did you hear the announcement?" he asked with a low whisper. Katniss calmly nodded her head in agreement trying to see where he was going with this because she knew where she didn't want him to be going.

Peter was also using this as an opportunity to try to get the audience on their side because he knew even in the cave they were watching. "We can make it out of here Katniss, the both of us," she immediately broke her hand from him and he was shocked by it. Just as much as the audience was as they were watching, "what are you trying to say, Peter?" "I'm saying we can both make it out of here." That was the one thing that she didn't want to hear, "and Rue?" she asked with a hint of anger in her voice. "We can't help her ... and it looks like" "DON'T!" Katniss said with a small shout that surprised all in the room, especially Rue.

"We ... are ... not ... doing ... that," Katniss said with anger laced in her voice, she had seen what Peter had already done in these games but this was even worse. "Katniss, that's not what I meant" he rushed to say but she wasn't really buying it. "Katniss, we have known each other since we were kids and you've only known her a few weeks, we can ..." he didn't finish as he saw the look on her face.

"Zoom in on their faces, I really want to sell the heartbreak" the gamemaster ordered as they kept trying to get better shots. "It looks like the audience is divided on the polls Sir," one of the technicians said to the gamemaster as he looked at the poles that were seemingly tired.

The cave was small but Katniss stormed off to the other side back to Rue, Katniss laid next to her as she stared up at the roof of the cave. Katniss was still fuming when she felt a hand move next to her, she almost jumped at the action till she remembered where and who she was with. She felt the hand slip into her own, Katniss felt Rue squeeze her hand lightly and she gave her own press back. She could tell that Rue's grip was weaker than before, she turned her head to look at the girl who finally opened her eyes. Rue looked up at the cave roof a small smile on her face before turning to face Katniss.

Katniss felt her heart break as she saw just how Paler Rue had gotten but the girl smiled at her nonetheless. "We are going to stay here since the both of you can't move, can't risk you getting caught ... you need to rest," Katniss said loud enough that Peter would have heard her too. Her plan was to wait out the rest of the game and only venture out when they needed to. When she had been out with Rue, they had heard a lot of canon fire which meant a lot of tributes had died, so gambled a guess that they were at towards the end.

Rue brought up Katniss's hand and the girl on fire only watched as the girl placed a kiss on it before looking at her again with that same smile. Katniss knew that she wasn't going to sleep today.