Author's Note: I am sorry this took so long! Wish I could quit life to write fanfiction full time but unfortunately it can't be done :(
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I sit down as best as I can, assessing the damage. I have eight stings, and all of them are covered by that green mushy thing that seems to be easing the pain. My head throbs in a headache and I have more cuts and bruises than I recall having. But I'm alive, and my bow is neatly lying beside me, not a single arrow is missing from my quiver.
I manage to stand up, and follow the sound of the water and the kids laughing. By the shore of a small river, Danny is eating some berries chuckling, and beside him there's a girl with dark skin and disheveled hair. Rue. The name pops into my head and I'm left with the image of the twelve year old disentangling herself from her younger brothers when she was reaped.
"Hey guys" I say finally, and they both look up to me.
Danny beams at me, and stands up to hug me. I notice some green stuff covering a few stings, but other than that he seems to be okay. I hug him back tightly and press a kiss to his hair. "Hey, boss." He giggles and I look up.
Rue's gone.
"Where's your friend?" I ask Danny, confused. And he turns around to find the berries they were sharing spread on the grass.
"I think she is a bit scared of you."
The shock on my face might have been hilarious, because Danny barks a laugh. "I mean, you are supposed to protect me, right? And she is another tribute. Besides you can be a little scary when you want to. I told her we could be allies, but she said she wanted to know if you were okay with it too. She's nice Katniss, can we stick together?"
I do my best to mask my feelings, because there is nothing I want more to say yes and take Rue under my wing. She is only a girl, and she reminds me so much of Prim. But it is one thing to make an alliance with the careers, knowing it would bring me sponsors, and protection. I didn't feel guilty about betraying them, I have always known I'll eventually have to kill them if I want Danny to win. I have always known that Rue must die too. But I can't bring myself to break that alliance.
There is nothing I can do when Danny looks at me like that though.
I sigh. "Come on out Rue, berries are not a proper breakfast and I'm starving."
I will for sure regret this, but the look in Danny's face has no price.
Two hours later we are sitting by the river again, Danny and I ate half a squirrel both, but Rue is working on her second. It's quite impressive for a girl her size, but then I realize she has probably not eaten any meat since she got to the Arena and my stomach twists.
"So, uhm, I reckon this was your doing," I say pointing at the green remedy on my skin and she nods, proudly. "Those leaves grow everywhere, that's why I started looking for tracker jacker nests, I thought it was kind of foolish to sleep on a tree with one but it worked on your favor, I guess." She shrugged.
"And how did you know they helped?"
"At District eleven, in the orchards, there are lots of nests. So we all carry some of this on our pocket while working, just in case."
I swallow my disgust and just take another drink of water. Because Twelve might have been a living hell, but at least Prim went to school and then back home, she didn't have to carry remedies for killer bees while she worked.
In the woods, there is a small cottage my father found once. It's mostly falling apart and covered in moss, but there's a lake nearby. My dad and I used to pack up a picnic basket and take off to spend entire Sundays in it. He taught me to swim, and he showed me the katniss growing by the edges.
As long as you can find yourself, you'll never starve.
This river has no katniss, but it's clean and it's flowing and it allows me to actually clean myself for the first time in a week. Danny is already neat, which suggests to me that they probably cleaned themselves while I slept. "How long did I sleep anyway?" I ask them as I continue to scrub my clothes, trying to disappear all traces of mud, blood or plants.
"Two days" they say at the same before Danny shrugs, trying to seem though. "The boy from eight is dead, there's ten of us left."
I look back down to my clothes and continue to wash them. Moments later they are completely clean and I set them on a branch for them to dry. I continue the procedure with my hair, which is muddy and messy enough for a flock of birds to live in there.
"When did he die?" I ask after a while.
"Yesterday morning, we suppose the Careers must have got him."
That makes two days with no eventualities, and even though it's always interesting to see the tributes forming alliances I doubt out alliance with Rue will be enough for the Gamemakers to leave us alone. I braid my wet hair and try to come up with a solution that will keep us all from being burnt to death in one of their efforts to spice things up.
"Alright then," I say, trying to look decided even if I have no plan at all. "As soon as my clothes are dry we'll walk river up and find a place for the three of us to spend the night. We'll need to be well rested up for what I have in mind for tomorrow."
Hopefully the Capitol will take it as an attempt from my part to seem mysterious, but I know both Peeta and Gale back home can know that I'm completely terrified, and out of ideas.
We roll up our pants and walk river up, avoiding leaving any footprints and making sure to find a place to sleep near to the water. Eventually we find another cave, and I am able to conceal the entrance with some vines and leaves. The sleeping bag is not big enough for the three of us, so I let them have it and wrap myself in our three jackets, curling up against Danny's side. I'm not exactly freezing, but it's not comfortable either.
"Katniss?"
"Yeah?"
"Can you tell us a story?"
I lick my lips and try to come up with something that will please the kids and the public, but most of my good stories include being in the woods, which is something punishable by law, and I might be out of reach but I wouldn't want to cause anyone back home any problems.
"How about that one time I almost burnt your kitchen down?"
He giggles, and I take it as a yes.
Mr. Mellark reminded me for the millionth time where everything was and I chuckled, waving him away. "Go now or you won't be able to catch him before he gets here." Prim giggles behind me and we wave goodbye to Peeta's father. It was Peeta's birthday and Mr. Mellark and Danny were supposed to keep him occupied in town while I baked a cake with Prim.
Prim was excited about glazing it, and she had been rambling for hours about the nice patterns she'd place on top of the cake. We knew the cake would never measure up to the ones Peeta made for our birthdays, but the intention was what counted, right? And the instructions Mr. Mellark had laid out for us where rather simple.
Except they were not.
By the time the three boys arrived home, a thick black smoke was pouring out of the windows, and Prim and I coughed as we tried to salvage the cake we had forgotten in the oven, too fixated on getting the perfect icing.
Peeta had burst through the door, almost having a heart attack when he saw us covered in flour and yelling at each other over the burnt cake. But a smile broke at his face and he kissed me in front of everyone for the first time. We took the icing outside and ate it straight out of the bowl with spoons.
"Best birthday icing ever." He had complimented.
Danny is smiling happily at the memory, and I take advantage of his position to wipe away the tears before he can see them. What I hate the most is that the Capitol can see them, and that somewhere in District 12 Peeta is listen to me speak about our memories on national TV, that somewhere he is alone, watching me cry.
That only makes me cry more.
When I wake up my eyes are red and puffy, but no one mentions it. Instead we check the snares Danny left the night before and we have a nice juicy groosling ― that's how Rue calls it ―for breakfast.
"So, what's the plan?"
Fortunately, I spent the night too scared about anyone finding our hideout to sleep, and during my restless tossing and turning I came up with an idea.
"Okay, so this is all about evening the odds, alright? We are surviving because we are smart, because we know how to hunt, because we know what plants not to eat. You follow me?" Both the kids nod and I try not to think of Danny and Prim nodding at Peeta when he explains a new game.
"So, why are the Careers surviving? You've seen them, Danny. They are not particularly skilled at hunting alone, and you had to stop Clove once from eating some bad berries. But why are they alive?"
Rue's eyes sparkle as she gets where I'm going. "Because they have all that food from the Cornucopia, and the weapons."
I nod, smiling at her proudly. "Those kids don't know how to be hungry, they've always had enough food on their plates. But this are the HungerGames, aren't they? And it's about time they know what that is."