A/N: I really need to get better at this whole "update fast" thing. Seriously. But blame my bro's obsessive need for every damn computer in the house for his freaking Senior Project.

Don't own Hunger Games, if I did, Finnick would still be alive. Damn, that man is a sexy beast.

Glimmer's P.O.V.

I'm waiting for Clove to come back with Cato when Marvel sidles up next to me. "Impressive, Glimmer. Have you sealed the deal yet?" He mutters.

I shoot him a look. "No." I respond tightly. "Might as well have, though. She's gone to get Cato." His name is fun to say, it kind of rolls off my tongue. It sounds nice, I decide, and when spoken aloud, it's more capturing than in my thoughts.

Marvel doesn't seem to notice. "Don't screw this up." His face is dead serious. "We need them. They're the ideal allies."

I roll my eyes at him. "No shit."

Just then, Clove strides back over to us, Cato in tow. "Cato." Clove inclines her head to him. "This is Glimmer." She nods to me. "And this is…her district partner…"

"Marvel." Cato finishes for her as he nods in acknowledgement. "We've met." His isn't too low, or too high- it's the perfect happy medium. It's goes just right with his physique, and is smooth, not one hitch in it's tone. But then again, he's only said about three words.

Finally, he turns to look at me. His blue eyes are piercing, and his gaze just locks me into place. I'm frozen, rooted to the spot, under his gaze. Finally, he lets out a small grin. "Hey." He says, holding out his hand to shake mine. I stare at it for a second, afraid of how I might react if I touch him. Finally, I reach out and grab his hand. It feels like I've gotten too close to District 12's chariot and caught myself on fire. His hands are a bit rough, but warm. I look at our shaking hands and notice the outstanding size difference of them immediately. My small hand is lost in his grip. After what seems like an eternity, he lets go. I let out a small breath I didn't even know I was holding.

"Hello." I make my voice strong as I look into his eyes. They're much too blue, and I force myself to tear my eyes away.

"Did you see what she did?" Clove asks him, pointing to the target with darts impaling it.

Cato nods out his approval. "Nice job, Glimmer." I want him to say my name again. When he says it, it sounds good. It sounds…pretty.

"Thanks." I say carefully, making sure I don't stutter. Not good.

Cato quickly turns to Clove, who merely arches an expertly-plucked eyebrow, courtesy of her prep team. With a quick, curt nod, Cato turns back to us and holds out a hand. Clove does the same.

"Alliance?" He grins.

~*~FIRE~*~IS~*~CATCHING~*~

When we reach our District floor, Topaz, Wen, and Fabio are all waiting.

"How was the first day?" Topaz asks eagerly. Clearly, she's expected us to form an alliance.

I exchange a quick look with Marvel. "Fine." I say quickly. "But if you'll excuse me, I'm going to my room to freshen up before dinner." I smile kindly and brush past them. As soon as I climb the stairs, I bolt for my room at the end of the hallway. Earlier, in the elevator, Marvel and I had a quick conversation about what to tell our mentors and escort. We had quickly hashed out a plan to tell them at dinner- tomorrow. I wanted to hold off disclosing our alliance for now, until we can give our crew a better explanation for the alliance than, "They offered us."

I quickly discarded my training suit and dropped it in a small white basket near the door. I bounded to the shower and selected my usual minty foam, stepping under the warm water. I let out a sigh as I felt the tension ease off of my taunt shoulders and back. With a sigh, I closed my eyes and leaned my head against the shower wall. So overwhelmed.

Unfortunately, my forehead hits a purple button that stopped the water. Before I can say, "What the hell?", three little holes, each the size of a walnut, open up overhead. Little tiny metal nozzles drop down, and at once start to spray something that smells like flowers all over me. More little metal nozzles pop out of the wall, spraying me from all sides.

"Son of a-!" I splutter, coughing and hacking as the spray gets into my mouth. I stumble backwards, face scrunched up as I am mercilessly sprayed by floral mist. My hand shoots out and hits the lovely red button, and the mist stops at once, the little nozzles disappearing back into the walls and ceiling.

"Blech!" I cough. I leap out of the shower and spit in the sink, then rinse my mouth. I scrape my fingernails down my tongue, trying to rid myself of the taste. I spit once more, than gave my hair a tentative sniff. Ew. I smell as if I'd just pranced around in a meadow.

Unexpectedly, the thought of meadow-prancing reminds me of my little sister. Tears spring up, but I rapidly blink, refusing to let them fall. When I declare myself out of the danger zone, I grab a towel, wrap it around myself, and peek out of the bathroom door, looking at the blinking, red digital clock. Damn. No time to take another shower to wash off the overpowering stink, not without being late to dinner. I contemplate my options, then decide smelling like a meadow is better than death at the hands of Fabio. I hastily brush my hair and tied it back, then race out to put on a pretty blue blouse and a soft white skirt, courtesy of Cynthi.

With one last glance at myself in the mirror, I lace up my gel-shoes and trudge downstairs. I don't touch the bottom stair when everyone turns to look at me. Marvel's nose is scrunched up like he'd smelled something awful, as was Wen and Topaz's noses. Fabio clearly looks uncomfortable, but is trying hard not to show it. Only Cynthi's face remains impassive as Marvel's stylist suspiciously sniffs at her green drink.

"You smell." Marvel state bluntly as I slowly make my way over to the table. I shoot him a death glare.

"Shut up, or I swear I'll ram that glass so far up yo-" Fabio interrupts me with a stern, "Glimmer."

I sit next to Topaz and immediately load my plate with some breaded bird of some kind, and a few rolls slathered with a creamy paste.

Topaz clears her throat. "Um, dear, why do you smell so…" She falters, not able to come up with the right word. "Uhhh…"

I ignore her, only stuffing the rolls into my mouth. Fabio clears his throat. "So, Glimmer, Marvel tells me you did excellent with a crossbow today." He smiles, taking a sip of his drink. I only shrug in response.

"I guess."

Marvel rolls his eyes and snorts. "Yeah, she 'guesses'. I'm telling you, twenty darts, one target, bullseye, less than two minutes." He rips the meat off the bird's leg savagely.

I swallow. "One. Twenty-one darts." I can't help but correct him.

Cynthi gives a sharp, proud nod, while Fabio cheerfully claps his hands. Topaz gives a mega-watt smile, as does Wen.

"Excellent!" Marvel's stylist shrills. "And what did Marvel do today?" She asks, putting a perfectly manicured claw of his shoulder. Marvel tenses, but doesn't pull away.

I tear more meat off my portion of the bird and chew slowly as I realize that I don't know what Marvel did today. He could have tried to shoot President Snow and I wouldn't have known.

Or cared. My brains whispers.

I swallow and take a long drink out of my glass. "I wasn't actually paying attention." I say slowly. I do feel a little bad.

"Glimmer." Topaz says sternly. "You need to understand that in the Arena, you must pay attention."

I open my mouth to defend myself, to let her know that I was busy focusing on my own training, and that maybe Marvel should have done the same, when she continues on.

"I'm sure you were focused on hitting the center target. On landing each blow. And that's good. But you will need to multitask. What if, in the arena, you are so focused on taking out an opponent, that you don't realize another opponent is behind you? You won't realize it until his knife is in your back; until it's too late."

I clamp my mouth shut. She's right. Multitask. Okay. I'll keep it in mind. But despite the lesson in it all, the only thing that really sticks in my head is about me taking out an opponent. Taking out. As in killing.

Suddenly, I'm angry. Take out? I'm expected to kill! But I am a child. An image from earlier speeds through my mind. That small girl, from District 11. The one who hides behind her partner's legs. She is so young. And she is expected to kill!

My anger fuels me as I respond. "Well, it's a good thing that I don't plan on taking more than a few seconds to send a dart into the heart of the first opponent. By the time I do, I'll have turned around in time to shoot the next one."

Silence ensues. Soon, Marvel shatters it by droning on about how he hefted weight balls and heavy objects around like they were nothing. I chew in silence, only wishing to escape.

~*~FIRE*~*IS*~*CATCHING~*~

The next day, we are back in our tracksuits, back in the training room. As soon as everyone is present, people break off into groups and start getting to work, trying to improve strengths and gain allies.

Marvel, Clove, Cato, and I break off into our own group. We go to the climbing station, which in itself is impressive. There's two huge rock walls- but they aren't the plastic type with brightly colored handholds. They're real, solid rock, though they do have one of the plastic ones wedged in the corner of the station. Off to the side of the walls is what essentially looks like a huge mess of rope piled together. It's twisted, and knotted at various places, and hard to maneuver and climb.

Marvel kicks the real rock wall with one foot, then crosses his arms. "Right." He states. Suddenly, he grabs onto the rock and begins to climb.

Cato grins wickedly. "I could be up and back by the time you reach halfway." He taunts, grabbing onto the other real rock wall. Clove rolls her eyes and starts to climb the plastic wall.

With a grunt, Marvel kicks out from the wall and aims a kick at Cato's head, but Cato has already ducked. He, too, starts climbing. I bite my lip on focus on the rope pile. Now is not the time to watch. I need to do something productive. I'm not great at climbing, but I think I can handle this.

Quickly pushing all other thoughts out of my mind, I grasp the handholds made of rope. I pull myself up, but my uneven weight makes the rope twist and fold over on itself. I curse loudly, and grab onto a rope handhold above my head with both hands, and pull my feet free from the rope. Now, I'm dangling by both hands on this damn rope. I kick my legs up and latch them onto handholds as well. Now I'm upside down, clinging to the rope with my hands and feet. I start to crawl forwards. Eventually, I reach my hands limit and drop my feet down from the rope, so I can jump down.

Er, foot.

My left foot is tangled in the mess of rope, and it won't budge. I can't left go with my hands, because then I'd be hanging upside-down by one foot. Not good. I twist and pull, by the rope doesn't budge. A snicker sounds to my left.

Oh, God. One of my allies is watching. So now it won't be long before they all are.

Cato will see me make a fool of myself. It's the first thought that pops into my head, and I immediately get angry at myself. How can I think that? What I should be thinking is that by showing this weakness, I am making a mockery of myself and my teammate, Marvel. This will make me look stupid, and nobody wants to ally with someone stupid. This, my foot stuck in a rope, could ultimately cause my death in the arena.

Suddenly, a shadow falls over me. I twist my head around to see Cato standing there, smirking. My mouth goes dry and I swallow.

"Don't worry." He says in a low voice that sends tremors down my spine. "They haven't seen you yet. Well, Marvel has. But he won't say anything. It'll make you guys look stupid." He smirks his damn smirk again.

See? A part of my brain says. He knows this could cost you allies. He's got his head in the game. So get yours in!

Slowly, he reaches under the hem of his shirt and pulls the handle of a smalll knife out, then the blade itself. I swallow a gasp and try to erase terror from my face. Surely he wouldn't kill me now? We weren't in the arena yet! It's against the rules to hurt another Tribute, let alone kill one! But nobody is watching.

As soon as these thoughts embed themselves into my brain, he uproots them by swiftly cutting the ropes around my foot. I quickly let go the ropes and land safe and sound on the ground as he tucks the knife back up his shirt. My hands scream in relief. I look down at them to see that they are red and raw from holding the rope so long.

"Thank you." I say smoothly, face as impassive as possible as I attempt to pick up any and all shreds dignity I can find.

He grins. "You're welcome." Suddenly, his face is as impassive as mine. "But don't get used to it." He murmurs as his gaze flinchingly fixates on my face. "I don't want to be stupid by association, ally." Then he smiles again, and leaves me alone so to go rescue Marvel and Clove, who have been fist fighting intently at the top of their respective rock walls.

My body turns hot to cold and then back again as I process his words. He couldn't let me make a fool of himself, or he'd make a fool of himself by choosing to ally with me. That's why he helped me. For some reason, that makes me the slightest bit sad, but I quickly squash that thought as I join the others as we move on to the memory-testing station.

I don't know what kind of spell Cato seems to have me in, but I want out, now. It's much, much too dangerous.

But even I can tell that won't happen anytime soon.