Hello again! Do you guys like me updating this quickly or would you rather a little more suspense? Or is it just getting on your nerves :) Review or PM to tell me, I really want you all to have the best story experience!

We sit around the cornucopia. A few of us are asleep here and there, but we don't bother assigning someone for watch, because at least one of us stays awake at any point. Our pack is down to nine. We're still a force to be reckoned with, but I can't pretend losing Nick isn't a blow. Fiona sits with her back facing us, sobbing quietly. Cliff sits next to her with his arm around her.

I consider sleeping, but I feel too uneasy after our little security breach. I wonder who it was. Who's left? 18 are dead, so 18 are alive. Only half of us remain in this arena. I know the boy from 11 is alive, but it wasn't him who killed Nick. Half of the tributes still alive are us careers. At least fifteen more people have to die.

Vincent, fully healed by now, walks over to sit with me. "What are you thinking about?" he asks.

"How at least 15 people have to die. How easy it is to get to our hideout. How easy it is for you or Ares or me to die."

"Well, right here isn't exactly the safest place in the world, but for the arena, this is about as good as it gets. And don't worry about dying. I'd sooner die then leave this arena without you."

"But I wouldn't live if you died. I would be stuck between life and death. Wanting to go home, but it never really being home because you wouldn't be there."

"Then I guess we'll just have to make it out together. But I never really knew you at home. You were never anywhere that I would be. I saw you at the Reaping every year. Every year I promised myself that after, when I was safe and you were safe, I'd get the guts to talk to you. But you were always gone when I tried to find you. I never really knew you, but I had this feeling. A feeling that my purpose was to meet you. To find out more about you. I felt like there was some force pulling us together."

"Love?"

"No. Now it's love, but then it wasn't. It was like we had a connection before we met. As soon as I saw you I said, 'There's something about her. I need to find out what it is.' I said that to Ares. We were best friends in the district. I guess it's just some sort of awful fate that brought us all together after the universal pull I felt. The connection there was."

"Do you really love me? Is this real love or just some feeling that you have to protect me?"

"It's real love. Crystal, I love you. And if we get out of this together, no matter how insane we are, that will still be true."

"I want to love you, Vincent. But what do I really have to go by? I haven't met any boys other than you and Ares. I'm so naive and I've been thrown into the arena with a boy who says he loves me. I believe that you really do, but what if I don't? What if this is just some bond that no one else understands? The Hunger Games, I mean."

"Maybe that's true. But now, I'm the only one who will share that bond. Whatever could have happened didn't and this is what we're stuck with now."

"That's true. But I can't say those words until I truly love you. Until every fiber of my being yells at me to claim you as mine. And please, don't hate me when I say this, but I don't think I love you yet. Not enough. Not enough to proclaim it while we stand, taking turns trying to catch the attention of death. We're lucky to be in the final half, but let's try to take it step by step. As if we weren't in the Games."

"I understand. I only hope we live long enough, because my heart is begging me to fight you until you are convinced you love me."

"I'll try. I'll try to love you. But please, just promise you'll forgive me if I fail."

"I'll try, too. Because 'The course of true love never did run smooth.'*"

Vincent goes over to the sleeping bags and falls asleep. My heart longs for him, but I don't dare excite him when I don't know enough about love.

Did you all like it? I know it's kind of sappy, but there's just got to be some sort of something in here. The * was a quote by William Shakespeare, also the title of the fan fiction. -Theuglyduckling492