Know Your Enemy - Chapter 3


Peeta made his way to the breakfast table where Effie was sitting alone.

"Good morning, Peeta!" she all but clucked, beaming at him widely. Peeta was probably the first tribute to show her as much respect as he did, which was especially noticeable in contrast to the way Katniss treated her. "Are you super excited for this big, big day ahead of you? You'd better eat up Peeta, you're going to be burning off so much energy today!"

Peeta smiled involuntarily. No matter how nervous, tired and irritable he felt, Effie always had some sort of warm, fluffy stupidity about her that was just kind of loveable.

"Morning Effie!" He raised his head so she could see his smile. "And yes, I'm ready, Haymitch and I had a chat about strategy last night." He was resolute about the strategy they had devised now that he had thought it over: Haymitch's plan was near if not perfect for what he wanted. "Speaking of which, where is he?"

"Well, you're not the only tribute from District 12, Peeta!" She trilled. "He's having a strategy meeting with Katniss right about now, in fact!"

Well, this was understandable. Peeta laughed inwardly as he thought of what Haymitch must be saying to convince Katniss to act almost like his friend while they were training to help him along in his mission to join the Careers.

It was weird, even now, for him to imagine himself in the Careers. They were hated by all of the Districts but their own: their illegal training angered everyone, but it was the Hunger Games and this was simply how they were played. That was the system, and it had to be accepted, just like he had to accept that joining them was his only chance of survival. He bit his lip.

Effie must have noticed, as she shot him a sympathetic smile and in a sudden bout of affection tottered toward him and half hugged his shoulders. Peeta turned round and returned the hug – Effie was a character that relied upon gestures such as these to gain trust and respect, and Peeta liked her too much to deny her of them. Her clucking manner reminded him of a mother figure.

"Peeta, I'm sure with a start like you had last night you've already impressed everyone incredibly!" She squeezed his shoulders before she released him and smiled. "I'd suggest you get ready soon though," She began to walk away as she called "It wouldn't do to be late after making such a good first impression!" She shuddered at the thought as she exited the room.

Alone, Peeta picked a little more at some fruit. He knew he should eat but the nervous butterflies that flew around in his stomach were back with a vengeance, threatening to overturn it, so instead he focused on the fruit itself and the unnatural Capitol look they had about them; the sickly bright yellow of the banana, the vivid green of the apple. The blood red of the berries.

He threw down his fork with a clatter and shivered in anticipation. He let his head fall into his hands as he rubbed his temple, a clear sign of stress to anyone that knew him. He hated having to act so differently to everyone, but it was so essential that he did if he wanted to get anywhere in the arena.

He thanked Haymitch mentally for their plan, even if it meant he would have to cosy up to Katniss. He couldn't be anything other than grateful because at least it still involved the Careers. No matter what Cato threatened him with, he wouldn't back down and be scared away from them. He couldn't, not when he was still determined to do whatever it took to stay alive.


"Peeta," Katniss said quietly to him as they opened the door to the training centre. "Which station are we going to first?" She looked lost, confused, as if she really needed him to tell her what to do and where she was going. He wondered when it was she began to rely upon him to make all the decisions for them. Maybe he shouldn't have shown so much kindness to her in the Chariot.

"We'll go to the fire station first. I don't know about you, but after that I think I'll give some of the weaponry a go." He was itching to try his hand with some of the more brutal weapons, though he didn't know why. She nodded, accepting this without question and they walked over to the station together in silence until Peeta noticed the way her eyes were burning holes in his skull.

"What?" He asked irritably. She faltered, and he saw the nerves from the other night threaten to make a re-appearance. He decided that he had to be cruel to help her.

"Listen." He gruffed in a low voice and grabbed her wrists. "I don't know where this little frightened girl has come from but she needs to be swallowed up. You need to snap out of it. Katniss, this is the Hunger Games. If you don't stop acting so god damn weak then it's not just your life on the line, it's mine."

The girl looked ashamed, and then nodded her head in assent. She took a deep breath and managed to hold herself slightly straighter. Peeta nodded in approval, offering her a small smile, and they sat down at the station quietly to learn about making fire.


By the time they had built a few fires, Peeta noticed he had become rather adept at it. That being said, he was still not as good as Katniss. She seemed to be in her element, as if she were back in the forests she was so infamous for hunting in. After a while, she noticed him watching her.

"You know," she said casually, "I might come and give the weapons a go, if you don't mind." She lowered her voice a little. "Haymitch told me to steer clear of archery though, he said that I'm not to go showing off my special skills."

At this she laughed somewhat nervously, not quite making eye contact with him as they spoke. Was she scared of him? Peeta considered this for a moment, realising that a part of him hoped she was. Of course he did. He knew that if he could scare this girl, the one who had been so intimidating when they had first met, then he could scare anyone. But why was she scared? Perhaps she had seen how easily he had handled the crowd and Cato the night before and realised that he wasn't as weak as she had originally thought?

He pondered this for a moment before remembering that they were supposed to be playing a lovers dynamic.

"Okay," he agreed, climbing back to his feet and chivalrously offering her a hand up. She smiled at him meekly as he pulled her to her feet. "Don't be surprised if I act...differently." He paused, wondering how much he should tell her. "Haymitch's orders, you know?" he confided, settling on saying the bare minimum. "How about we head over?" He scanned the room, eyes landing on a station that had recently been vacated by Clove, Cato's district partner from 2. "To the knives. Come on."

When they got there, the assistant greeted them both and congratulated them on 'winning' their reaping. Katniss stared at her incredulously, wondering how it could possibly be considered as a good thing in anyone's mind. Beside her, Peeta grinned back at her widely, trying to assert some of the self-confidence he was attempting to mimic from Cato. "Thank you! It's such an honour to be here, doing what I love and fighting for my District. I mean, if I hadn't have been picked, I think I'd have probably volunteered!"

He spoke louder than usual, hoping to unnerve some of the nearby tributes. He then placed an arm around Katniss' waist, angling her body so that she was standing between him and the Careers, just to make sure they wouldn't see how potentially bad he would be at this. Better safe than sorry.


So far, Peeta decided he was mediocre at knives, managing to hit some part of the target almost every time but not having any sort of accuracy about his aim other than that. He was bad to the point of terrible with spears, and Peeta decided that maybe throwing simply wasn't the best tactic for him: he would probably be better armed with a knife to simply aid him in hand to hand combat. Speaking of combat, he hadn't yet had a chance to try out the swords. This was due to the fact that the Careers monopolized that station. However, he thought that the Careers had probably seen his disastrous attempt at handling the spear – which nearly collided with his foot – and so decided it was the time to show them his worth.

"Katniss." She snapped her head round to look at him. "Why don't you go and tie some knots? I'll join you there when I'm done at that station." He nodded his head over to the combat station. She agreed easily and walked away. He was pleased to note that although she wasn't arrogant, she was exuding a quiet confidence, which Peeta had been slowly trying to build all day. Hey, if he didn't win he'd rather she did. That would be better for his family back at home.

A slight, thin tribute from 8 was trying her hardest at the combat station already as Peeta sauntered over. He felt the first stab of niceness as he found himself wanting to go and comfort her where she struggled with the heavy weapons, but instead thought of how the Careers would act. He crossed his arms and lifted his chin up arrogantly as he began to laugh quietly at the girls poor attempt at fighting. When her eyes nervously met his own he spoke to her softly.

"Don't worry sweetheart. If I get to you first, I'll make sure to make it not too painful." He lifted his lips into a sad, mocking smile, before continuing. "Although I'm not sure whether you'll even make it two metres away from your podium." She ducked her head down and Peeta felt hugely guilty as he saw her eyes sparkling with tears. He kept the mocking grin on his face though, even as she ran away. He felt the attention of everyone in the room on him and knew that now was not the time to let his guard down.

"What?" He called after her retreating back. "Was it something I said?"

Peeta laughed shortly and cruelly before turning to the trainer who, after an apprehensive pause, began to talk about techniques. "Don't bother." Peeta smiled. "I consider myself to be good enough to not have to listen to your..." He sized the trainer up, taking in his build and estimating his weak points "...Tips. Feel free to begin whenever you're ready." He smiled challengingly at the trainer before relaxing easily into a classic defensive pose.

The trainer hesitated, and Peeta raised his eyebrows at him mockingly, knowing that no fighting man could resist a challenge. He was right. Within a minute the trainer was nodding sharply in assent and rushing at him, but Peeta easily dodged the punch to the gut the man was aiming for, before deflecting the next one that was aimed at his shoulder. He grabbed the man's right wrist and twisted it around his back before delivering a blow to his gut with the other fist. He then grabbed both of the man's arms and held them together whilst darting around the man's back, keeping his struggles back easily.

Such a strong man looked almost weak and weedy held back tightly in Peeta's even stronger arms. As a finale, he lifted the trainer over his shoulder and swung him onto the (admittedly, soft) mats below, leaving the man thoroughly winded. By this stage the trainer was bright red in the face, from either shame or over exertion. He rose quickly, and simply struck a defensive pose, this time waiting for Peeta to attack again.

Peeta smirked as he knew the rest of the room were still paying attention to him. He ran at the older man and punched him in the neck softly (he wouldn't want to do him any permanent damage now, would he?) and grabbed the trainer's head between his palms. This was the moment when it was over for the other man. In this position, with nothing more than a twist of his wrists, Peeta could snap his neck. The trainer realised this, but instead of simply giving up, his breath quickened in fear.

Peeta felt heady with power. He had a man's life dancing beneath his fingertips and he was only slightly ashamed to accept the thrill he got from it. Perhaps he'd fit in with the Careers better than anyone had ever thought.

"Don't worry." Peeta smirked, releasing him. "You're not going into the arena with me."

With that, Peeta turned round and surveyed the other tributes who were all watching him in either fear or admiration. "Are you scared?" He asked of them, winking, noticing that even Katniss seemed to be looking at him in awestruck horror.

He quickly shifted his eyes to the far corner where the Careers stood, wanting to see if he had left the desired impression on the main audience he had been targeting. He quickly inspected each of their expressions. Clove looked impressed, Marvel simply jealous, and with Glimmer he detected a slight trace of fear, which only made him smile wider and gave him the confidence to look Cato in the eye.

As usual, Cato was watching him coldly, an almost-blank expression on his face, but Peeta saw something in his eyes which told him that he was angry. With one last smirk, Peeta turned again to address the whole room before announcing: "Don't get me wrong, I like the attention." He looked around, "But you might want to consider getting on with your own activities. You don't want to be unprepared in the arena, right?"

He smiled again before walking over to Katniss at the rope-tying station. She looked at him as if she was finally beginning to see some of Peeta's ploy…

Or maybe it was a little more of his true character.


His muscles ached and his throat felt parched and dry, skin covered in a light sheen of sweat as he flopped down onto the hard wooden chair beside Katniss. "Hi," she said and smiled at him toothily, the chicken she was eating hanging out of her mouth in a grotesquely unattractive manner. Peeta wondered where she'd learned to devour food like such an animal.

"Hey," he replied, helping himself to a small loaf of bread and a large glass of water. "I'm tired."

"I'm not surprised," came a voice from behind him, followed by a lanky ginger girl with a long, pinched face slinking into view. "I was watching you back in there and I've got to say, I'm impressed. You're so strong and hard working!"

He blinked, shifting uncomfortably in his seat when she sat down beside him, just a little too close for comfort. Was it normal for Tributes to compliment each other? "Uh… Thanks, I guess?" He mumbled, attempting to smile at her.

"You're welcome. Hey, do you work out?" She placed one of her palms on his bicep, squeezing it slightly. "Wow, you're so fit, you must have worked so hard to get a body like this…"

"No, I—uh, I'm just a baker. I bake cakes."

He could feel himself flushing, torn between knocking her hand aside and pretending to be unfazed by it. At present, the former was winning. Beside him, Katniss was obviously biting back a giggle behind her hand. He shot her a silent plea for help as the other girl began to stroke her fingers up and down the exposed skin on his arm. But, like the bitch she was, she ignored him.

"Are you a virgin?" the girl asked him suddenly, her face hovering just inches from his own. He spluttered, pushing his chair back and scrambling away from her. Screw trying to look cool, he wasn't going to just sit there and be molested. "It's okay if you are," she told him reassuringly, clearly not getting the message as she closed the gap between them once again. "I can help you out, if you'd like me—"

"Shut up, Foxface. He isn't interested," quipped a familiar sounding voice from nearby, carrying an amused looking Cato with the rest of the Careers close in tow. They trailed along behind him a little uncertainly, but followed nonetheless. "Haven't you heard that Loverboy here is already spoken for?"

"What?" She looked affronted by the allegation. "No he isn't. How would you even know that?"

"Yes, he is. He told me he's with that wildcat over there." Cato gestured between Peeta and Katniss, punctuating it with a wink. The girl in question's eyes snapped up, glaring at Peeta accusingly. He panicked, silently pleading with her not to blow their cover. Oblivious to all of this, Cato continued on with his little speech. "While he may like the animalistic type, there's a good chance that doesn't include you. No one likes rodents, Foxface."

Beside him, Glimmer picked up on the obvious pun he used on Katniss' name about three lines too late and burst into a fit of hysterical giggles, as if it were the wittiest thing she'd ever heard. Come to think of it, it probably was. Everyone he'd ever met from District 1 seemed to have been born and raised an airhead. Cato turned to her, glare in place. "Shut up."

Foxface's eyes locked on to Peeta with a hurt expression, a look that did not sit particularly well on her already-pinched features. "Is that true?"

"Of course it's true, Foxface. It's true because I told you it is. Are you calling me a liar?"

"I'm not calling you anything. You're the one who keeps calling me Foxface! That's not even my name, my name is—"

"No one cares, Foxface." Cato cut her off, glaring down at her meanly. "Now, stop pestering the other Tributes and get back to whatever pit of hell you and your satanic hair crawled out from." The girl looked upset, but she had the sense to scamper away. Peeta didn't know whether to be relieved or worried.

Cato was watching him closely, and Peeta couldn't help but wonder why the other boy had intervened. He had no reason to, except perhaps to taunt the other girl, but that seemed unlikely to him. As a rule, Careers did not tend to mix with any Tributes for any other purpose. Would he really go so far out of his way just to do that?

"You two lovebirds are awfully quiet," sneered Clove, the girl from District 2, pulling Peeta's attention back to the present. "Something on your minds?"

"No." Katniss surprised him when she spoke up from beside him. He had expected her to leave him to defend himself alone once again. "We were just waiting for you to leave, actually. We have some things to discuss. If you'll excuse us…" She rose to her feet, grabbing Peeta by the wrist and all but dragging him out of room.

"Ooh, I bet they're going to make out!" Glimmer giggled to Marvel as she watched them go. The other boy nodded enthusiastically, his overly loud laugh filling the room.

"Shut up." Cato snapped from beside them.

Katniss rounded on him as soon as they were out of earshot, slamming a palm against his chest with surprising force. Peeta flinched back. "What the hell was that?" she demanded, eyes ablaze with fury. "Why would you tell him we're together?"

"I didn't!" the boy insisted. "He just assumed we were together after he saw you hanging off my arm on that stupid chariot! I tried to tell him we aren't, but he wouldn't listen to me. It's not my fault! If anyone's to blame, it's you for being such a weakling!"

"Oh really? So why didn't you deny it back there, then?"

He sighed. He hadn't wanted to tell her his game plan so soon. In fact, he hadn't wanted to tell her at all, but he supposed it couldn't be helped now. Thinking fast, he decided to give her the thinnest version of the truth he could manage. "I was just listening to Haymitch. He told me to play up to the fact that Cato thinks I like you. I… I'm not sure why, but he's our mentor. I have to listen to him."

The scowl didn't quite fade from Katniss' lips, but she took a step back from him and nodded to show her understanding. "You should have just told me that in the first place," she grumbled. "If we're meant to be act like we're together, you could at least have the decency to tell me about it."

"I know," he replied. "I'm sorry. I guess you should just be glad I'm not your real lover, right?"

"Yeah." She laughed at that. "You'd definitely be a lousy one."


A/N: Hello everyone! We'd just like to thank you all for reading and subscribing and reviewing. We weren't expecting this story to even have readers, so it really is exciting for us! We are working on updating as often as we can, so we hope you'll stick around. Also, please don't be afraid to leave us a review! We'd love to hear what you guys think.