"Whoa whoa whoa, I didn't agree to sharing a tent!"

Nova crawled into the tent Cato had quickly set up while she'd collected up her things to protect them from the onslaught of rain outside. He shuffled away from her as much as he was able to, which actually wasn't very far in a tent designed for one.

She zipped the tent door closed to protect them from the storm. "And I didn't agree to sleeping outside in a thunderstorm."

"Then it's your fault for not carrying one!" he argued.

She looked him up and down. "Says the man who didn't bother to pick up painkillers! You have a stab wound!"

"Oh yeah? And whose fault is that?!"

Her jaw fell open. "Yours!" she exclaimed. "For trying to decapitate me! Sorry for not letting you kill me!"

He turned his nose up at her. "Apology accepted."

Nova sneered at him and kicked her dripping wet boots off with more force than was probably necessary. She placed her backpack down in front of her and opened it up. Only the few items at the top of the bag had actually sustained any water damage, but that really just included some slightly soggy food and a damp spare pair of socks.

"Did you want those painkillers or not?" she asked gruffly.

He didn't hesitate to push her aside and rummage for them himself. She no longer had the energy to complain or argue with him, even despite her exasperation that he was helping himself to her hard-earned supplies. Once he was quite finished — helping himself to two painkiller tablets and some leftover cooked squirrel — she pushed her backpack aside and rolled out her sleeping bag. The tent didn't reflect heat as much as she'd hoped, which prompted her to wrap herself in her thick blanket additionally.

She curled up as close to herself as possible. Her front was pressed up against the wall of the tent, but as far as she was concerned, the further she was from Cato, the better.

It was about half an hour later that he finally turned off his flashlight and settled down behind her. She folded her arms over herself. He was a lot closer than she would've liked, although they were both turned fully away from each other.

He nudged her back. "Budge up."

"You budge up," she murmured groggily.

"It's my tent," he protested.

Nova groaned, which turned into a yawn. "Cato, I'm as close to this wall as I can physically get without rolling the whole tent over. Stop being such a baby."

"I'm not being a baby." He shifted beside her. "You take up too much room."

She finally sat up, although there was no way of seeing anything in that tent. Light was completely blocked out by the blue plastic walls, and her eyes hadn't adjusted to that level of darkness yet.

"You're double my size!" she hissed into the void.

"Exactly." He elbowed her sharply in the side. "No one your size needs that much space."

She blindly pushed back at him. "You have tons of space already, just move up–"

A zap of lightning crashed somewhere close by. She startled at the sound of a tree breaking off at its root and collapsing just a few metres away from them.

"Why are they bringing lightning down this close to us?" she whispered.

He didn't move. "Does it matter? Just budge up and go to sleep."

She sighed through her nose and settled back down. "Worst camping trip ever," she muttered.

Nova closed her eyes again, uncomfortably pressed up against the tent wall even more than before. She supposed it was better to comply with his whiny complaints than to push her luck. She was fortunate that her plan had even worked in the first place.

She couldn't help but think about Clove. Clove was gone. And not in the devastating way Chase was, or the upsetting way Marvel was. No, she was just gone. There was no better way of describing it. Mean old Clove, Clove who hated her guts and yet laughed at every joke she cracked, Clove who would kill small animals and brag about her tiny victories, Clove who threatened Caesar Flickerman in her live interview for all of Panem to see, was gone.

She owed her 50 for that.

Nova woke up the next morning to an empty tent. Cato couldn't have gone far. Most of his belongings, including his backpack, had been left behind. All he'd really taken away with him was his spear and his sword.

She sat up, bundling herself up inside her blanket, and turned on her flashlight. The sky was so dark and gloomy that she had no way of discerning the time of day. But she knew she'd reached a milestone now.

Day 14. Two weeks in the arena.

She used her torch to examine the interior of the tent. It was clearly designed to be waterproof, but it did nothing to keep heat in. The corner bolts along the ceiling each had a small black dot that she was almost certain was a camera. It was the only way to get footage while tributes were inside their tents. That was usually where the fun happened anyway. Any time a pair of tributes had done anything remotely interesting in a tent, it had been successfully caught on camera for Panem to be provided small peeks of.

She exhaled into her palms. The temperature had experienced another drop. It wouldn't be long before tributes started dropping from hypothermia.

The peaceful silence and rain was abruptly interrupted by the sharp jerking of the tent zip. She felt around for the knife she slept beside and gripped it firmly by the handle, her other hand pointing her flashlight at the door.

Cato crawled through but immediately laughed at the sight of her. He continued to laugh as he shuffled inside and sealed the door closed behind him.

She didn't lower her knife. "The longer you spend laughing, the more I want this knife to end up in your throat."

Her threat was completely disregarded. Beads of rainwater running down his jacket, he held up a small plastic bag full of round orange berries, no larger than a blueberry. "Are these edible?"

"Only one way to find out," she replied. She took the bag from him and poured a few into her mouth. He stared at her unblinkingly. "I'm fucking with you," she assured him. "Yes, they're edible. They're quite sour though. They taste much better in cakes."

In response, Cato simply shrugged and snatched the bag back to finish them himself. Evidently he was completely unbothered by the sharp tang the acidic juice undoubtedly left inside his mouth.

"So, let me get this straight." While he continued to eat, she rummaged through her backpack for her open pack of dried pear slices. "You went out there in that weather just to pick some wild berries?"

"Maybe that's what you do in your spare time," he remarked, "but I was actually hunting down a rabbit."

"No luck?" she assumed.

"No luck." He tucked the rest of the berries away in his backpack and slid the hood of his jacket back over his head. "Come on."

Her expression was nothing but bemused. "Where are we going?"

"We're hunting," he said, already halfway out of the tent.

She zipped up her jacket and covered her hair with her hood. "Hunting what? Rabbits?"

"Thresh."

The arena was a lot bigger than Nova usually gave it credit for. Just making their way through the forest from the river was taking them hours of consistent walking without breaks or pit stops. By now it was noon, but the strength of the rainfall still hadn't weakened. The only positive takeaway was they hadn't been struck by lightning yet.

She had the feeling Cato didn't have any idea of where to look for Thresh. That was understandable, of course — Thresh had remained almost invisible for most of the games. It was probably his key to success so far, although she knew that Thresh was such a colossal man that he didn't really have any need to hide anyway.

"Did you think to ask me where he is?" she eventually suggested. While her ankle wasn't in quite as much pain as it had been during the last few days, it didn't mean she wanted to put it through any more undue stress.

His head whipped around. "You know where he is?"

"I've known this whole time . . ."

She trailed off and backed up into a tree. The blade of Cato's sword just lightly grazed her neck. Her lips parted. Suddenly just the simple task of breathing had become substantially more challenging.

"And you didn't think to say anything?" he murmured, a highly dangerous look in his eyes.

Her hands gripped the trunk of the tree, her nails scratching at the soft wet bark. Her axe was somewhere near her feet where she'd dropped it in a haste to retreat.

"I think he's in a wheat field," she informed him. Her voice was barely above a whisper. "It's a short run from the Cornucopia. I don't know if he's still there. He might have left if he knows you're looking for him."

The pressure on her neck lifted slowly. Cato lowered his sword from her and took a step away. Her knees felt weak, like even supporting her own weight had become too taxing.

He pointed ahead using the weapon. "Lead the way."

Nova slowly bent down to retrieve her axe from the muddy ground and edged backwards. She didn't trust her safety yet. She never knew whether she was actually safe in his presence or if he was just holding her in a false sense of security to catch her off guard. Only once she was further away from him than his sword could reach did she turn around and face the direction she was walking in. Knowing that he was now out of sight behind her sent an uncomfortable shiver down her spine.

Hours in each other's company, and they rarely spoke. In reality, she'd probably spoken more to Glimmer than she ever had to Cato, and that was saying a lot. She could recite facts and stories about everyone who had been in the Career pack — she was an attentive listener — but Cato was still a mystery to her.

But it was difficult to ignore the nagging thoughts that lingered at the back of her head, discouraging her from pursuing this whole alliance idea in the first place. She struggled to even look at him for too long before she was reminded of Chase. She'd watched first hand as the boy's neck was twisted and snapped in one swift movement.

A rational, true piece of her knew and remembered that it was unreasonable to hold Cato completely accountable for Chase. Her district mate's death was inevitable. In her heart, she'd known right from the start that he wouldn't make it to the end of the games. He was set up to fail from the onset.

And she'd killed the boy from district 5. Blood was on her hands too. She was in no position to pass awful judgements towards someone who had done exactly the same thing she had, just to a boy she knew rather than one she didn't.

But this was still a different situation to her run-in two weeks prior. Chase had been defenceless. He'd just wanted to flee and hide. If she'd just run in and grabbed him, or if she'd stepped between him and Cato, maybe he'd still be alive.

She had to forcefully remind herself that she wasn't to blame either.

"Why are you staring?" Cato asked, in a tone that was mildly smug.

She shook her head. "I'm not staring."

"You were," he said matter-of-factly.

Their route led them to a little pool of water. They climbed over some of the rock formations that had jutted around it, careful not to lose their footing on the damp stone. The rain was noisier here as it splashed into the pond and formed countless bubbling ripples in the surface of the water.

"I was thinking," she responded.

"About?" he prompted.

"Chase."

She was happy that Cato opted to stay silent. She didn't want him to speak. Anything he could possibly say would only make things worse. Any excuse, any apology, any remark would tip her over the edge.

The bushes rustled behind her, but not the way they did in the blustery wind. This was far more vigorous, but only for a few seconds before immediately settling down.

She turned around, approaching slowly. This area of the forest was easily the most overgrown, with shrubs and plants reaching her waist in some places, so it was difficult to see anything or anyone past the thick foliage, but that didn't dissuade her from believing they definitely weren't alone.

Cato started forward, wielding his sword, when she pushed him back with the handle of her axe and knelt down to open her backpack. She placed her final remaining sealed bag of dried fruit on the ground, as well as a cooked bird she probably should've eaten earlier.

"What are you doing?" he questioned.

She closed her backpack and attached it onto her shoulders again. "Feeding our shadow."

She'd only just picked up her axe when Cato started at Finch. She watched Finch sprint away from her hiding spot, scrambling up a slippery grass-covered slope using her hands and vanishing into the trees. Cato slid his spear out from behind his back and lifted it over his head.

Nova grabbed hold of the weapon, preventing him from successfully throwing it until Finch had completely vanished from sight. "She's off limits!"

Cato spun around, the head of the spear now inches from her face. "You can't keep her alive forever!"

She eyed the spear but otherwise didn't move. "You can't kill everyone on sight."

"That's the point of the games!"

"Exactly!" she snapped. "Don't you see the problem with that?!" She ducked beneath his spear and continued in the direction of the wheat field. "Let's find Thresh if you're so desperate for blood. Leave the food for Finch."

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰

Author's note: This chapter is short, but only because the next part I've written is nearly 4000 words long and I couldn't really fit it in here. But I can't lie, this is the most patient I've ever been writing slow-burn. Kinda slayed in that respect.