A/N: Thank you all so much for your support and your well wishes, I'm working on it I promise. Just some things can't be helped. I just wish the world wasn't so cruel on some people you know? But anyways, I'm working on it, here's a new chapter to celebrate how awesome you all are :) So please read, review, fangirl and enjoy.

Alec POV

We were woken harshly by an angry Haymitch, who grabbed Magnus by the shoulders and hurled him out of bed, grabbing him by the collar of his sweatshirt and glaring at him with an exasperated look, leaving me to scramble away so my back was to the wall, my hands out in front of me ready to punch him if need be.

"What the hell was that for?" Magnus demanded, looking over at me first to silently ask if I was ok, to which I nodded.

"Oh? You're angry? You have to fight for your lives today, and instead of spending last night getting the sleep you desperately need, you were too busy spending it getting a piece of that!" Haymitch shouted, gesturing to me, though I could see a hint of amusement behind the anger.

I felt my face blush with red hot heat at his suggestion.

"I didn't sleep with him!" I objected, embarrassed.

"Well technically-" Said a voice in the doorway.

"Oh shut up Cinna!" Haymitch said, rolling his eyes.

After a bit more shouting, some apologies and some laughs we were finally left alone to say our last goodbyes before the start of the games. Soon, we would be in a massive killing spree, where we could die at any moment, and I wasn't ready for that at all, but I knew Magnus was terrified. I had to be strong for him, keep him safe.

He pulled me in to a hug, and I could feel the tremors of him body. I didn't know how to calm him down, so I just held him for the longest time.

Eventually we pulled away, and I searched my room for a bit as he waited, before finally coming across the object and coming back to stand in front of him, and held it out for him to take.

It was my mother's sketch book, something that meant more to me than I could say. It was the object that I treasured the most, even letting Magnus hold it took a lot of self restraint.

"Alec, why are you giving me this?" He asked.

"It's a promise. I need you to hold on to it in the games for me, so that if we're ever separated you know I'll come for you, besides this way... There'll always be a little piece of me with you, wherever you go." I smiled at him, and he kissed me again. It was this moment I wanted to keep, I would be content if I could simply have it on repeat for my whole life if we were this happy.

"I can't take it Alec... It's your mother's..." He objected, hugging it close to his body with such care that I felt honoured by it. That he had such care over something that obviously meant a lot to me.

"I want you to have it Magnus. Please... If I die, I want this to get back to them." I said, imploring him to take it.

Eventually he just nodded, and we sat together, exchanging kisses and sweet nothing's until we were told to leave.

Cinna seemed almost sorry for me as I got dressed, the absence of my bow against my back setting me on edge. Now that I was with Cinna and not Magnus, I let myself freak out a little, just enough to get it out of my system but not enough for Cinna to actually worry about me.

He rushed around me, tightening a strap here and there, trying to make me as comfortable as possible. I was dressed in waterproof everything, thick boots, and jacket, everything in black, thank god. Not only as it was my preferred colour but also because it would-hopefully- make it easier to camouflage myself.

When Cinna finally stepped back, seemingly pleased with handy work, there was only 1 minute until the game started. I bit my lip, swallowing my fear. I had to be there for Magnus- he needed me.

"Alec." Cinna said, snapping me out of my thoughts. "I know you care about Magnus, but please, you can't trust anyone in that arena... I don't want to see you get hurt."

I knew he was only trying to help me, but I instantly became stubborn and defensive... I wish I hadn't.

"Magnus would never hurt me, Cinna."

I said nothing else after that, stepping into the glass tube that would lift me into the games without a word. Cinna shot me a small smile from the other side of the glass, and slowly, it began to lift me up into the games.

It took me a few minutes to adjust to the bright, bright light of the arena. And once I did, I did not like what I saw. There was virtually no cover where we were standing. The arena was like nothing I had ever seen except through history books, a stretch of land covered the entire arena, covered in so much sand that I knew running would be very difficult.

The absolute worst conditions we could have hoped for, but there was no time to dwell on that now. We had only 90 seconds before the games began and I had to figure out in which direction I was going to run.

The only cover I could see was a forest of trees that seemed to go the whole way round the backs of all the tributes, leaving a wide circle of sand, but I knew by the thickness of trees that the forest wasn't large. There had to be some sort of cover I could reach. It was then out of the corner of my eye that I spotted Magnus (finally) trying to catch my eye. He was nodding his head towards the backpack in front of me, and I nodded understand he wanted me to grab it when the games began. He then nodded his head to the side, where I couldn't see much-him being the complete opposite side of the cornucopia to me- but a small amount of trees, but I had to trust him. I knew if I went that way at least I would be with Magnus, and hopefully we wouldn't get stuck in the blood bath for supplies, I nodded, and then readied myself to run as the count down wound down.

I wasn't stupid enough to go for the bow they had obviously left for me, I would just have to survive without it. We had bigger problem than weaponry. Starvation and dehydration were much bigger problems.

It did occur to me that it was possible Magnus was receiving orders from president Snow. We had both been given an earpiece (unknown to anyone but us and Snow) so that we could receive orders if anything went to hell.

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And I ran. The horn sounded and all noise faded into the background as I ran forward for the backpack and then across the sand dunes, slipping a little bit but my heart pounding with so much adrenaline and fear that I made it to Magnus' side quicker than I ever thought possible, especially since he hadn't waited for me, and had been running at his own pace. Once I was running beside him I saw his goal almost immediately, a large rock placed near a group of trees, not enough that their shade was covering the tiny entrance, but enough that it wouldn't look conspicuous. We jumped in, and the cave itself was unbelievably hot, and actually underground, meaning the tributes wouldn't spot us.

When we were both inside, Magnus covered the entrance with more rocks, so that other tributes wouldn't be tempted to call this place a home.

We were safe, we hoped.

"Courtesy of President Snow." Magnus said, and bowed, seemingly a lot more calm than he had been a few minutes ago.

"Let's see what's in these back packs then." I whispered, trying to keep my voice down as the sound reverberated through the cave like hole.

We unpacked. In mine, there was: A roll of plastic material, an empty water bottle, a small knife, rope, a large piece of rolled up canvas, and a sleeping bag.

Magnus' contained: A water purifier, a large coil of wire, another empty water bottle, a torch, blanket, and first aid kit.

We set the tools back in our bags, so that if we had to move quickly we wouldn't waste time.

Now that we were safe there wasn't much to do, and we just sat still together for a while, in silence.

"I'm glad you're safe." Magnus said quietly, and I nodded.

"I feel the same way about you." I said. I could see he was clutching his chest, as if there was something there, a scar of some sort that needed to be hidden.

"Are you hurt?" I asked, concerned, and gestured to his chest. He smiled and shook his head.

"No, I just really don't want to lost this." He said, taking it out so I could see it was my mother's sketchbook.

Words didn't need to be said after that.

I could tell that Magnus wasn't completely relaxed. He kept checking the entrance way every few minutes, but it didn't bother me. Mostly I was too hot to care, but I had expected that, we were living in the dessert after all. That night passed perfectly fine, and calmly. I took first watch as I knew it would be too hot to sleep but once night was truly underway the temperature dropped (as it always does in desserts) to a level I could actually stand, and I finally fell asleep.

However the heat was back too soon, in fact, it was back the minute I woke up.

It annoyed me that Magnus seemed to be coping with the heat with general ease. I stayed silent, huddled in the most shady area of our little living space, and tried not to move. I didn't want to strip down out of clothes or anything like that because Magnus would worry, and he didn't need that. However, I was starting to feel really sick, any movement caused the room to spin, but I hoped I would cope with the heat in time.

As we settled down to sleep that night I forced a smile on my face as Magnus lay beside me in the sleeping bag, but eventually I allowed myself to crawl out of it and lie on top of it. Despite all this it did nothing to ease my suffering. Eventually the temperature dropped again, but I still felt awfully weak and dizzy. By the time I even felt remotely tired, I could feel it beginning to get hot again, and groaned in anguish.

I blamed my father for my low tolerance of heat. Mum told me once that before I was conceived he had to work with this specific chemical which lowered his body tolerance to heat, and a lot of other nasty side effects, which he graciously handed down to me. We never thought it would be a problem, district 12 didn't really get that hot, but now I was starting to feel the consequences.

Sometime during the night I closed my eyes for a minute to stop the room from spinning. Pretty sure I lost consciousness. It's hard to remember.

I awoke the next morning to a sleeping Magnus behind me. I felt insanely warm, and sick. Like before I didn't even want to move, and didn't plan to.

But that was before I felt like I was going to be sick. I struggled and staggered away from the sleeping Magnus, and finally threw up, it taking most of my energy before I had to slump against the wall in exhaustion, my eyes half lidded.

I don't know how much time had passed, it only felt like a few seconds to me, but when I opened my half lidded eyes once more Magnus was crouched before me, a very concerned look on his face.

"Mag-" I tried, but my throat was dry and I was so tired. We really didn't need this.

"Hush darling, don't talk. You've been over heating since we got here. I'm so stupid-why didn't you tell me you felt ill?" He demanded, and I just shook my head, too tired to care, or even reply to him.

"Alec? Love? You're not really here right now are you?" I shook my head, feeling my eyes closing.

"We need to get you out of here, at least for a bit..." Magnus said, running his hands all over my face, loving touches. A ghost of a smile worked its way onto my face.

"Come on Love." He said, and then, completely without warning, he hoisted me up, one hand under my knees and the other holding my back close to his chest. He got me to hold the backpacks, and then we struggled out of our hole, and he laid me under the shade of a tree.

I sighed in relief.

"Better?"

I nodded, not opening my eyes, feeling the dizziness stop lightly, and giving me a bit of a reprieve. We needed water soon though, and fast.

"We can't stay here for very long Alec so-"

He stopped mid sentence, and as my senses slowly come back to me I realised.

We weren't alone.

A/N: Hope you all have a great day/night :) Reviews make my little heart sing.