Dear Readers,

Sorry this chapter is short but it is worth the read if I do say so myself. The ending half of the chapter was inspired by (thought up by) inluv4eva. She came up with the idea, I just thought up the words! But I hope you all enjoy it! R&R!

-esl1852

They had been back at the camp all morning, getting rest (except Tara and Lover Boy, who had been staying watch). Tara and Lover Boy were resting now, and the rest of them were awake. There was some serious tension between Cato and Clove from the moment they had all woken up. Marvel knew it immediately. If Glimmer knew, she wasn't letting on that she did.

Glimmer was actually the problem, but she didn't seem to realize that either. Clove had been trying to get Cato to start formulating a plan on how to take down all the other tributes, but as soon as Glimmer had woken up she attached herself to Cato; and Cato didn't seem to mind one bit. But Clove sure did. She looked a bit more homicidal than usual as she stalked off, away from them, towards the lake.

Glimmer and Cato's flirting was annoying, Marvel had to admit it. Mostly to him because Glimmer was his best friend and he knew that Cato didn't honestly give a flying fuck about her. Cato loved Clove; of course, Cato didn't realize it himself yet, but Marvel could tell. Not that Glimmer seemed to mind; as long as he had known her, she had made a habit of picking men who were in love with other people and who didn't actually care about her. It made Marvel sick, but she did it to herself, and what could he really do? He knew nothing he could ever say would change her.

He couldn't believe how insufferable he found the two of them to be at the moment. So he sighed and stood up, walking away from them. He also couldn't believe that it was only midday, and Clove was already pissed off at Cato again. Marvel didn't know if there was ever an entire day that went by where Cato didn't do something to piss her off. Marvel walked over to where Clove was throwing knives at a tree.

He stood watching her for a few moments. He didn't think she knew he was there, but she turned her head to the side after she had thrown her last knife, saying, "You're staring."

Marvel was startled for a second, but regrouped. "I wasn't staring, I was... admiring your skill." He said with a grin.

"It's still creepy." Clove said, but Marvel caught the smirk on her face.

"And you're throwing knives at trees... so what does that make you?" Marvel joked.

"I'm practicing. So that makes me dedicated."

"Or crazy."

She threw the last knife in her hand at the tree, and then said, "Doesn't change the fact that you were creeping." Then, she went to the tree, dislodging her knives. She walked back towards him, standing face to face. "Don't you have anything better to do?" She said, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Sadly I don't." Clove narrowed her eyes at him. "Okay, look, it was either watch my best friend make a fool of herself by flirting shamelessly on national television, or come and spend time with you and your charming personality." He explained to her. "I chose the latter."

Clove turned away from him, throwing knives some more. "She's your best friend?" Clove said in-between throws. "I didn't know that."

"Well, yea. Since we were five years old." He said with a shrug. "We were neighbors back home."

"How adorable." Clove said in a sarcastic voice.

"You know, just because she managed to get on your bad side doesn't mean she's an awful person."

She saw how irritated Marvel was with her intolerance of Glimmer, and felt bad. She actually did like Marvel. "Sorry. Reflex." She said, and then threw another knife at the tree. "Look, I get that you are tight with blondie and all, but don't expect my attitude about her to change." Marvel realized that Clove in a completely foul mood and there was no way that would change anytime sooner than her opinion of Glimmer.

"Whatever, Clove." He said, sounding suddenly tired. It wasn't rude, it was more like he had given up. He turned away from her, walking back to the others. Clove stopped throwing her knives for a few moments, watching as Marvel made a point to sit as far away from Cato and Glimmer as possible. Tara had just woken up, so he made polite conversation with her; something Clove was not very good at. Clove went back to throwing knives wordlessly.

Hours had gone by and Clove was starting to get pissed. They had not managed a single kill all day. Each of them took turns going in groups out to the forest to try and hunt tributes down, but they had not had any luck so far. By the time it went dark, Clove was starting to get really really pissed. When the anthem played and there were no faces in the sky, Clove was more than pissed. "Okay, this is bullshit. We've managed to do nothing productive. Today is the most boring day to go by in my entire life." Clove said, crossing her arms over her chest. They were all sitting by a fire, eating. Glimmer was practically on Cato's lap, and that wasn't doing anything to calm Clove's temper.

"You're exaggerating, Clove." Cato said to her, rolling his eyes.

"The sad part is, I'm really not." Clove said with no sarcasm in her voice.

"What's wrong with taking a break?" Tara asked.

"Well, you see, we're in an epic battle to the death called the Hunger Games; taking a break isn't generally budgeted into the schedule." Clove snapped at her.

"Would you relax, Clove?" Cat said. "We'll have plenty of time to kill people. We aren't going anywhere."

"Well we clearly aren't going anywhere anytime soon at this rate." Clove said, standing up.

"Oh come on Clove, if you just wait we'll go hunting in a few hours."

"I'm not waiting a few hours for you to digest your freaking food. I'm gonna get a head start. You can catch up with me later." She said, grabbing her night vision glasses, ignoring Cato and Marvel's protests.

Cato had stood up and walked away from the fire, calling after Clove as she stalked off, but to no avail. She didn't come back. Dammit. She's so freaking impatient and stubborn. He knew she was also a little pissed at him since he had practically ignored her all day because Glimmer was being an attention-whore. Cato suddenly realized he was not alone. "What?" Cato finally snapped at Marvel, who had walked over to him.

"You know what." Marvel gave him a pointed look. "Clove is pissed."

"As if that's anything new. Clove is always pissed."

"Don't you feel bad?"

"About what?" Cato said, still feigning dumb.

"Do you really have to ask?" Marvel said in exasperation.

"Do you really have to comment?" Cato snapped back. "Because it's really not any of your business." Then he stalked back to the fire.

Meanwhile, Clove was running through the forest at top speed. She was hoping to run in to someone, anyone. She was is desperate need to cut something, to kill something. Just when she was about to give up, go back and try to bear Cato's I told you so, she saw some smoke billowing up ahead. Aha. The cold of the night. Gets these idiots every time. She sped toward the smoke and soon saw a light, like fire, up ahead.

Only when she had gotten too close did Clove manage to realize her mistake; the fire wasn't set by a tribute (at least not that she could tell). The fire wasn't in a small contained space. It was everywhere around her before she even really knew what was happening. The trees were up in flames around her and she had made a grave error. She was in trouble. "Shit." Clove muttered to herself. This was the work of the Gamemakers, who had probably been under scrutiny for the lack of action that had taken place in the arena the past day. I freaking knew nothing good could come from a boring day, Clove turned to head back the way she had come but the flames were spreading everywhere and to everything; and they were spreading fast. Clove could barely manage to stay ahead of it.

She stopped in a clearing to try and get her bearings. That was her second mistake. The fire had engulf all the trees around her in seconds. Clove tried to head back the way she had come, but then realized that was stupid because the fire had been behind her. She then tried to go back the way she had hoped was camp; but flames flared up from the underbrush, stopping her. She was in a ring of fire and there was no way out, unless she wanted to burn half her skin off. The smoke was getting to her head; even if she did manage to somehow escape the flames she wouldn't know which was was up and which way was down.

The smoke was stinging her eyes and invading her lungs. She held her sleeve over her mouth, coughing hard. Her lungs were on fire. She could no stand and fell to her knees gasping for air; the smoke was suffocating her and she knew she was in trouble. Clove's thoughts were getting cloudy. So this is how it ends, huh? I never imagined my death like this. Hell I never imagined being outlived by Glimmer either. She thought to herself, losing her balance and falling backwards, staring up into the gray abyss of smoke.

Suddenly Clove heard voices and believed she was actually starting to hallucinate. But she realized it was no hallucination; she recognized that it was Cato and Marvel screaming her name, screaming for her to respond, trying to figure out where she was. She tried to croak out words but barely any sound came out. "I'm here!" She tried to yell, but her throat was so hoarse it was a pitiful sound. She tried again, and again.

"I see her!" Someone yelled, a girl voice. Then whoever it was cried out in pain. Clove felt herself getting fuzzy, but she clung to consciousness as hard as she could. "Go, get her back to Tara! I'll save Clove."

"Wait, you can't; you'll get burned-"

"To hell with that!" Someone roared, and then someone burst through the flames, looking like an vengeful angel bursting through the gates of hell. Cato.

He wasted no time, pulling her off the ground into his arms. She felt how limp she was and she could hear the panic in his voice as he whispered, "Don't be dead. Don't be dead. Please don't be dead." She heard someone whispering in her ear.

Once outside of the flames and far enough away that the air was fresh and not full of smoke, Cato still held her in his arms, but the world shift, and Clove thought he had shrunk; then she realized how ridiculous that was and realized he probably had sat down. He was still whispering to her, "Don't be dead. You can't be dead." Then he pressed his fingers into the side of her neck gently. He felt the light thrumming there. He let out a breath of relief. She still had a pulse which meant she was still alive. He was so happy she was alive that, without even thinking about it (or that all of Panem was watching), he pressed his lips against hers. It was simple enough of a gesture, but then he realized that the Capitol idiots would probably take it out of proportion. Well not really, but he didn't want them knowing about it.

He almost jumped when she stirred in his hands because he had not been expecting it. "Water." She croaked. He grabbed water from his pack immediately. He sat her up a little and helped her to drink a little.

After a few moments, she opened her eyes. It was barely, but it was to look at him. "I would say that you're weak for coming after me..." Clove said. "but then again I'm the one who can't drink on her own." Even on the brink of death, Clove stayed true to form.

"Dammit Clove." Cato said under his breath. He wanted to slap the crap out of her for making him think she was dead. "I though you were..." He didn't finish the sentence.

"I'm not." She said soberly. "Although I don't see why you would care." Unbelievable. He saves her from death and she's still miffed he was flirting with Glimmer.

"I can't win with you, can I?"

"I honestly don't know why you even try." She smirked weakly.

"Isn't it obvious?" He said, and she looked like she had no answer for him. "I care about you Clove."

"You have a great way of showing it." She said sarcastically.

"Because saving you when I could've left you for dead doesn't show it?" He said in frustration. "I didn't even give a shit that Glimmer burned herself; I just needed to get to you." She didn't respond, so he continued. "Honestly, I don't care how long it takes for you to get it; I care about you. And if I have to choose between anyone else and you, I will always choose you."

"I really did think I was going to die you know. It was weird, I though I would be ready for death, but I wasn't ready to die. Not yet. But I felt it coming, you know." She finally said, going off on her own tangent. Cato did not mention that he wasn't ready for her to die yet either. He didn't want her to call him weak again, but then again he wasn't really sure what she would say because she was still extremely fuzzy from the smoke. "Before you ran through that wall of fire like an idiot."

"I'm still the idiot who saved your life." He shot back and then sighed. He brushed her hair out of her face, she closed her eyes and leaned into his touch. "How bout this, Clove? As long as I'm around, I won't let you die." He told her. "You will not die if you are in my hands. I promise. Deal?"

He wasn't sure if she was still conscious, so he stood, and started carrying her back to their camp. Thats when she croaked out, "Deal." He allowed himself a small smile, but then he heard her say, "Oh, wipe that smirk off your face."

"Of course. Anything you want, oh royal pain in my ass."