The next morning I wake up to find myself curled up next to Cato again and mentally smack myself. It's not a good idea, I think, extricating myself and moving over a bit. When I'd pulled away from the kiss the night before, I'd noticed the camera from a nearby tree zooming in on us.

Reality came crashing down; where we were, who we were, who might be hunting us at that very second. So I'd made an excuse about how tired I was and turned to face away from him to go to sleep. Luckily, I wasn't lying about my fatigue and had promptly fallen asleep.

It hadn't felt good pulling away from him, turning away from him, but being in...whatever undefined state we were in was a bad idea. We were Careers. Careers were supposed to be the ruthless tributes, the ones who stayed focused.

District 2 tributes didn't need to play up a starcrossed lover angle like apparently the District Twelves did. But it's not an angle, my subconscious whispered. Even though it wasn't, it wouldn't help us in the arena. In fact, it would do the opposite.

I was about to stand when his hand brushed my arm. "Where're you going?" Cato asked. "Just...going to get some more water", I invented, grabbing the bottle from my pack. "Clove-", I didn't stay to hear what he was going to say, jumping up and all but running toward through the trees to the river.

I didn't want to talk him because, for right now, we couldn't be..whatever we were. It would only weaken us. We were district partners and that was all. We had to concentrate on winning.

I reached the river and bent down to fill the bottle, taking as long as I could to draw out the moment of solitude, to drown out the thoughts clamoring for attention in my head. But I could only stand there with a full bottle of water for so long and reluctantly I turned and headed back. "Here", I said handing him the now full bottle of water and then turning away to pick up my pack.

"Clove". I'm compelled to turn and look into his blue eyes. "What?" I snap, looking away. I don't want to feel what I'm feeling. Cato stares at me for a second and then shakes his head almost angrily. "Nothing".

And so, for the next few days we fall into a rhythym. We wake up, scour the forest, eat whatever we've managed to catch that day, and go to sleep. We speak to each other only when neccessary and the rest of the time we're silent.

Not a peaceful silence, but an awkward one. I don't know what to say to him anymore. I can tell he's angry with me, even though he says nothing about it. More from the way he speaks, the sharpness of his words. I'm angry at him as well, for having the idiocy to kiss me, now, in the middle of the most dangerous situation of our lives. I just mask my anger better.

Often, I think that if the rule hadn't been put into effect, if it wasn't possible that we could both go home, we would broken our alliance. There's not really any other reason to stay, aside from the fact that I try very hard not to acknowledge.

The fact that I don't want to leave him. I've never tried to analyze why that is, I've just accepted it. Most of the time, I want to kill Cato. But the constant surge of anger becomes exhausting and by the third day, I just want to be alone.

When we leave the tree that we've made our base camp that morning, I suggest looking in seperate areas today. He shrugs, the most of a response I'll get from him at this point, and goes off in the opposite direction, sword in hand. I roll my eyes at his back and turn toward the river, going through the trees alongside it, sword in hand.

I continue this way for a while, enjoying the comfortable quietness, before hearing footfalls a few yards away. A quick fast paced run, as if the person were trying to put distance between themself and someone else. Then I see her.

District Five, with her red hair flying behind her, her right hand covered in what looked like blood, running forward. I grip my knife, preparing to throw, relishing the fact that I'll finally get to take my anger out on someone. She sees me, her eyes registering fear at the sight of the knife in my hand. But I never get to throw it.

Five falls to the ground, her body convulsing as if someone were invisibly causing her great pain. She looks toward me, as if wondering if I were the one causing her agony. I'm not though. And her death is over quickly, her thin body lying still on the ground, her cannon booming out through the arena.

I spy the slightly crushed berries leaking red juice that I'd previously mistaken as blood fall from her hands as the hovercraft appears to lift her body away. Their poison must have killed her, as she'd had no other obvious injuries. Somewhat pathetic really, that someone as smart as she'd clearly been, had been killed by nothing other than a handful of berries. I move away from the hovercraft and go back the way I'd come.

About a hundred yards from the place that Five died, I stop. Voices. Not exceptionally loud, but loud enough for me to hear them. I can't make out any words over the rushing of the nearby river, but they're definitely there. Katniss and Lover Boy. I inch closer, straining to hear distinct words, but nothing.

A hand falls on my shoulder and I whip around, knife pointed out, before I remember that aside from those two, we're the only ones left. Cato eyes the knife I still have directed at his throat and stares at me until I put it away. He's about to speak when I motion for him to be quiet.

He hears them too, talking. Their words are slightly more clear now and I can pick up Katniss explaining to Lover Boy, who I now view as slightly dim witted, how he'd inadvertently killed Five with the berries he'd picked for them to eat. If we're going to kill them, if we're going to win, now is the best possible time.

Cato holds his sword, I pull the crystal handled knife I've come to favor out of my jacket and we move forward silently. I sneak up behind Lover Boy, who's still listening intently to Katniss. The crystal knife is easy to throw and finds it mark in Lover Boy's back with ease.

I have just enought time to savor Katniss's shocked expression as her boyfriend falls at her feet before Cato's sword slices her throat and she falls next to him, blood staining the green grass. Her cannon fires immediately, but Lover Boy holds out longer, watching as Katniss dies in front of him, the pain flaring in his eyes, before he's gone.

And we are the only two people left in the arena. This seeps in slowly, before I realize that its true and I look up to see Cato standing there, a flicker of a smile on his face, a ghost of the old friendliness between us, before its gone, before he remembers why he's not smiling at me anymore.

I know that his coldness toward me is justified, but that doesn't stop me from wishing that it wasn't. I move to go toward him before pausing. There's been no announcement of our victory. Claudius Templesmith hasn't come over the speaker congratulating us on our winning. He notices it too and looks around as if expecting something to happen. But it doesn't. The two bodies are removed by hovercraft, and still we wait. Until finally, the voice echoes out through the arena.