Disclaimer: I don't own either story .One more chapter and then the fun starts.

Chloe and Nudge were already on the train when Fang and I entered. I trusted Wendell. Possibly with my life but some part of me still made me wary of Fang. I had seen the damage he had done to some of his victims. He never even felt any remorse for it, so, for that reason, I had resolved to stay away from Fang. Chloe showed me to my room in the train and I showered and brushed the knots out of my hair. Inside the dresser in my extravagent room were equally extravagent clothes. I dressed in plain green linen trousers and a black cotton t-shirt before french plaiting my hair so that the plait swooped from my left ear to my right ear and over my right shoulder, hanging about at the end of my ribcage. As an afterthought, I tacked on my mockinjay pin.

I re-joined the others in the dining room where Fang had changed his basic black ensemble for a slightly different basic black ensemble. Laid out on the dining table was a feast. The silk table cloth was covered in plates of roast lamb in a creamy sauce, piles of roasted, mashed and fried potatoes. Carrots, beans, peas, sweetcorn, broccoli and cabbage docked plates surrounding two whole chickens and some form of meat casserole. I hungrily grabbed a plate and piled it high with everything. Being a girl from the seams, half of the food laid out on the table was as foreign to me as flying. We were always well fed when it came to meat but this food was in a whole different league to the rabbits I brought home. I devoured not one, not two but three plates of food while Chloe and Nudge looked on disgustedly. Screw you and your plushy capitol lifestyle.

'Okay! Right let's talk battle strategies! Do you want to be trained separately or together? I was trained with my partner because it was sooo much easier but it's up to you. I mean, do you get on? If not then why?' I stared at Nudge, stunned. That should have been her battle strategy- talking people's head off. She would have won hands down. Not that it made a difference.

'Errm, it's up to Fang. I dont care- either way.'

'Together.' Fang said in that crazy, one-word-sums-it-all way he has.

'Okay then, what skills do you have? Max?' I thought about it for a second. Surely, Fang knew all about my Hunting skills from Iggy, no point trying to deny it.

'Well, I'm fast and good at hand to hand combat. I can handle most weapons but not very well and that's about it...' I trailed off. After I tohught about it, it wasn't that impressive. My last flicker of hope I had dwindled.

'She's wrestled a bear to the ground before. And she has amazing senses- she's best with a bow and arrow or knives. She can't command a spear to save her life.' Fang spoke up from behind me. I was about to protest when I realised that that was the most i'd ever heard him say. And it was a huge compliment.

'I'm a competent fighter and i'm stealthy but i dont have a chance, anyway.' Fang tacked on as an after thought. Suddenly, I had this huge need to defend him.

'He lies. He's an amazing fighter- takes on multiple grown men at a time. And he moves silently- he could sneak up behing you and kill you in seconds. And i've seen him pin a man's shirt to a wall with a knife from thirty metres away before.' I finished, out of breath slightly. During my outburst, Fang and I had jumped up and faced each other, now I was practically shouting and, although he looked impassive, his eyes showed signs of anger. The little flecks of gold in the deep abysses flaring ever so slightly. My hands were clenching into fists at my side when, thankfully, we were inturrupted.

An attendant on the train directed us to the sofa's where the repeats of the reaping were being played. From District one, two careers volunteered, an ugly looking seven foot mess called Gozen and a stuck up sixteen year old girl called Maya, who I just couldn't stand- she looked stuck up and acted superior and Fang couldnt keep his eyes off of her. From district two, an unusually thin girl called Star was picked. The male tribute, a burly boy called Ratchett volunteered. Neither of the district three tributes stuck out. The other two careers from District four, Kate and Holden seemed both very small and passive- unusually weird for District four. The only other contestants who stood out from five to eleven was a red haired girl from district six called Brigid and a twelve year old boy from district seven called Ari, who looked almost full grown with a developed torso and an impressive six foot physique. I told myself to keep an eye on those two in particular.

I dismissed myself early and went to bed. I didn't even bothering showering, as Nudge had told me that the stylist would force me to bath anyway tomorrow. She was right- when we arrived in the Capitol, i had no time to enjoy the scenery before I was whisked off by My stylist and her team. My stylist, Valencia Martinez was fresh out of college and this was her first year. Her team consisted of three obviously Capitol people called Ella, JJ and Sam. Ella and JJ were both stick think with multiple piercings on their faces. Ella was tall, tanned with long, black hair and she had whiskers lining her face, obviously from some sort of surgery. JJ had tattoos of flowers covering half of her face and bright pink curly hair. She was surprisingly short compared to Ella though. Sam was by far the weirdest, he had some sort of contact lense in that made the whole of his eyes from the white to the pupil black. He had a weird bone piercing through his nose and his skin was dyed a harsh white, making his eyes and raven black mohican eyen more stark in contrast. The whole look was utterly terrifying but what scared me the most was that when he opened his mouth, all his teeth had been filed to sharp points and the tips dyed blood red. When Sam saw me staring, he simply replied 'Goth's all the rage this season!'.

Valencia left me in the capable hands of my team. Firstly, they bathed me in bright green syrup before making me endure a freezing cold shower. Then, they left me in this full body machine while they cut and dyed my hair and covered it in tin foil on the top of my head. The machine felt like it was searing my skin but after half an hour in the machine, I got out to find that every hair on my body had been lasered off. They again made me shower before covering me in rose smelling grease. They buffed and polished my face and neck and covered my nails in a shimmering red polish. Then, Valencia was called in while I stood in my birthday suit in the middle of the room. She commented on my hair- directing them on the style before personally applying the makeup. Then, they blindfolded me while my body was shimmed into floating wisps of material.

I barely recognised myself when I was done. After Cinna (a famous district twelve stylist) died years ago, stylists have slowly converted back to the idea of our district being represented by coal mining but it seems Valencia has ressurected the idea of 'Fire' and made i ten times more powerful. My hair had been cut off to just above my shoulders and dyed in varying shades of reds underneath, pinks in the middle and the tips of my hair on top were a bright orange with only the roots left my antural dirty blond. My makeup was striking on my face, my cheekbones, eyes and lips were defined in harsh reds that slowly bended and faded into my natural skin tone. After much deliberation, I had consented to them giving me a tattoo and now, between my shoulder blades were intricately drawn angel wings with the phrase 'Enjoy the ride' underneath. My dress was by far the most beatiful thing. It was completely backless so that my tattoo would be hard pressed to miss and looked like a fountain. The bottom was a black fitted skirt that only just covered my butt before splitting at the sides and travelling to the floor. The boddice started out fitted in black but as it reached my breasts, large sections of slightly transparent gold, red and yellow silk were attached so the hung limply at my sides. The top was strapless and was literally holded in by suction and crisscrossing lace at the back. It was a firery orange and more stretches of fabric hung off the top.

I was escorted to a chariot driven by four fire black horse where Fang stood in a plain black dress shirt and trousers, his stylist, Jeb was apparently going for the dark, sexy look as hi shirt was completely undone to reveal his defined abs which looked like they had been covered in oil. When Fang saw my dress, he raised an eyebrow but otherwise didn't say a word. I, myself found the dress a bit weird. How ever, when we stepped in the chariot, Valencia pressed a button and two fans at the bottom of our chariot turned on. They wqere accompanied by lights on the floor that cast shadows of Fangs face to make him look like a avenging angel. His shirt flared out behind him and all the pieces on my dress flared upwards, making me look like fire was literally licking at me. The chariot holding the distict one tributes started to move.

'This year, we have gone for fiery passion so, when the chariot stops Fang, kiss her.' Valencia instructed.

'What?' I screeched, luckily no one turned around. In fact, no one had noticed our attire yet either. I noted the district eleven chariot start to move.

'Kiss him. Passionately. That's an order. Until then, don't even acknowledge each other. Smile- charm the crowd Okay?' she shouted the last bit but I barely heard her over the roars of the crowd as we made our first public appearance.