I woke up the day of training, ready to repeat what I did last year. Stick with Peeta. Hide what talents I could. Haymitch surprised me though. Before Peeta even entered the room, he coached me.

"You need to get allies this time around. Everyone here knows each other already, and you are the newest kids on the block. They won't like you, unless you get to know them. So, make friends," he said, patting me on the back. I nodded at him.

"Make friends. I think I can do that alright," I said.

"Just think happy thoughts and put on an act when you talk to people," Haymitch said, tipping the contents of a drink into his mouth. Peeta walked in. I was surprised that Haymitch didn't say anything to him. Effie escorted us to the training room. We were directly on time, but as soon as we entered the room, we saw there were not a lot of other tributes there. A couple of sickly looking tributes were painting their arms. Some tributes that I recognized from the videos, district 11's victors, walked towards Peeta and I. I struggled to remember their names.

The woman looked like she could be from the Seam. Dark hair and olive skin. She reached out a hand, and I shook it. "I'm Seeder. And this is Chaff."

Chaff reached out his arm; I gasped when I noticed there was only half of it. I grabbed the stub and shook it. He came in really close, and I thought it was just to introduce himself. Instead, he planted a slimy kiss on my cheek, chuckling as he walked away with Seeder. I knew it was rude, but I quickly wiped at my cheek. Peeta laughed.

"It's because of you. You're pureness," he said.

"Watch it," I hissed. Peeta's face dropped and awkwardly shoved his hands in his pockets. I didn't know why I was so offended that Peeta called me pure, but I did know that I was angry that everyone treated it like it was a weakness. Just because I didn't want a man I didn't know sticking his lips to my cheek didn't mean that I was weak. Because I wasn't.

"So, I say we split up. We can talk to more people that way," he said. He began to walk away, but I grabbed his arm and tugged him close.

"Did Haymitch talk to you too?" I asked, confused. Haymitch had told me separately to make allies.

"Of course. Why wouldn't he? He's my mentor," Peeta shrugged, gently pulling his arm out of my grip. He pointed to the wrestling station, where Johanna and her fellow district tribute were practicing. "I'll start over there." Then he pointed the opposite direction at the survival skills. "You could try them."

I followed his finger to see he was pointing at an old woman, Mags I believe her name was, at the fishing hook station. I turned back to tell Peeta I could handle more than an old lady, but he had already walked up to Johanna and was chatting with her.

I tried not to feel my heart drop too much as I slowly walked towards Mags. Her eyes looked up when I was a couple feet away, and she gestured for me to come towards her. I hurried next to her. She pointed at me and made a gurgling noise. I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Um… Ivy?" I guessed.

She laughed and gurgled some more, putting some materials in my hands. I smiled and began to make a fishing hook. Her old, wrinkled hands would occasionally help me. Finally, I had a suitable fishing hook. She clapped her hands together before grabbing my hand and pulling me to the next station with her.

The station was tying knots. I was pretty decent at this, so I tried to do more complicated knots than I had ever done before. Again, Mags' wrinkled fingers helped me with the knots as she did with the fishhooks. I liked her, but suddenly I realized I would never take her as one of my allies in the arena. She was nice, but she was old and would slow me down. Knowing this, I kept my head down and tried not to look at the former victor next to me.

Hands reached over to help me with the knot again. I was about to turn and thank Mags, but I realized they weren't her fingers. Turning around, my eyes met Finnick's. He shot me a dazzling smile before sitting down next to me.

"Have you been helping the poor girl, Mags?" Finnick asked, keeping his eyes on mine. I blushed and began to work on my knot again. He plucked the rope from my fingers. His nimble fingers finished it easily, handing it back to me within seconds.

"Thanks," I mumbled. He smiled.

"So, can you actually throw knives? Or was district 1 an accident?" he asked. His words hurt me, as they made me think of my first kill. Marvel.

I thought for a moment, wondering if I should hide my skills? Then I realized, that it was too late because all these victors had most likely watched my Games.

"I don't think it was an accident," I uttered. Finnick's hand grabbed my arm, and he dragged me towards the weapons. I noticed Peeta was still with Johanna. Just the two of them now. Her district partner was gone. I felt that pang in my heart, but my mind told me that obviously Peeta was just following Haymitch's orders of getting allies. That was all.

Finnick placed a knife in my hand. "Hit the target," he said. I glanced at him.

"Why?" I asked.

"Just curious," he said, getting super close to my face. I could smell what he had for breakfast: toast with strawberry jam. He was so close, I noticed that he had freckles scattered on his nose and cheeks. I could count each one now if I wanted to.

"Well, let's tame that curiosity," I smirked confidently. His mouth curled into a happy sneer as he stepped away. Taking a deep breath, I balanced the knife in between my fingers. I let it fly, and it slapped into the center ring of the target. Not accurate enough.

"Impressive. Try this," he handed me a spear. I grabbed it, got into a stance, and let it fly. It smacked the target closer to the middle than the knife.

"Not as good as it could be," I admitted. Finnick laughed and then grew serious.

"Would you want some help?" he whispered. My eyes narrowed instantly; I was cautious of him. Too pretty.

"I'm not sure…"

"Oh, come on. It couldn't hurt anything!" he exclaimed, grabbing my hand. His fingers squeezed mine, and his eyes were determined.

"Sure, then. If it won't hurt anything," I finally said, giving in. I knew I should be scared of this pretty man, but he looked like he wanted to help me so bad. "But why do you want to help me?"

His hand cupped my chin and pulled my face closer to his. His breath hit my nose. I wished for Peeta to see this. I had a selfish hope that he would see and get jealous. "You remind me of someone," he answered softly. Sincerely. In a scared tone. My eyes widened involuntarily. Even Finnick Odair got scared.

If he could get scared, I realized there was no hope for me in the world to enter the Games fearless.

I woke up for the second day of training in a blur. The days were going by too quickly; the Games were just a couple days away. I walked to the dining room for breakfast, only to find Peeta and Haymitch in a rushed, low conversation. I hovered in the doorway. Peeta's eyes looked up, and he quickly quieted Haymitch from speaking.

"Good morning," I said, trying not to sound suspicious. Peeta glanced at me, back at Haymitch, and then he stood up.

"Morning," he said. Then he left the room. I plucked a roll from a basket and sat across from Haymitch. After fiddling with it in my hands for a couple moments, I looked up at Haymitch.

"So, what's going on?" I asked.

"Training, sweetheart," he answered. His voice was tense, reserved. I tried not to let the hurt show on my face, but I failed. "Honestly, sweetheart, it's nothing to worry about!"

"Is that what you thought last time? Because last time you guys kept a rebellion from me," I snapped before biting my lip to quiet myself.

"Don't worry about it. Focus on training," Haymitch replied. He leaned in closer, "Finnick requested to be allies."

My head shot up. "He did?"

"Yes. He said you would be valuable. Peeta's allowed to join the alliance too," Haymitch said, reclining back happily. My chest lightened. With Finnick on my side, I could easily protect Peeta. Then I remembered that Peeta was… kind of gone. He used to fight with me about who was going home, but what if now, there would be no fighting. What if he would just let me sacrifice myself for him? I wouldn't even need Finnick's help to protect Peeta if he wasn't going to try and die for me.

"But, why me? He asked me to show him some of my throwing yesterday, and it seemed as though he wasn't interested. Like I didn't have the skills…"

"Who knows why? I say don't question it," Haymitch spouted out quickly. I ate the roll and left for training. Once downstairs, I saw Peeta with a different group of tributes today. I frowned and went off to work by myself.

I tried to let the hurt not affect me anymore. But my heart tightened, but I couldn't hide how I was feeling. Peeta loved me? No, he didn't. He had gotten tired of waiting for me die before he could move on. So he just moved on now. I felt tears prick my eyes, so I faced away from all the tributes until I could control myself. What happened to the Peeta that would be friends with me? Now it just seemed like he was avoiding me at all costs. If in some way he still loved me and possibly thought this would help me, he was wrong. All he was doing was breaking me down even more, and I had never wanted this to happen again.

"Tridents, then?" Finnick asked, stepping in front of me. Mags was at his side smiling. After seeing my red eyes, they both looked a little concerned, but neither of their smiles faltered. Mags reached for my arm and grasped it. I offered them both small grin and nodded. Finnick dragged me towards the weapons again.

We spent the whole training day trying to teach each other new skills, but mostly, Finnick was teaching me. Curiousness about who I reminded him of bubbled in my chest, but I wouldn't ask him about it. He looked sad sometimes when he was coaching me.

I wanted to tell him to stop helping me, that it was hopeless and pointless, but I realized that he was already trained enough. He didn't need to go off and learn how to make a fire, because he already knew how. But I needed to train. One glance around the training room, and it was obvious I was one of the weakest tributes there. So, I continued letting him help me. He, at least, seemed to care about me.

After training, I caught up with Peeta. I didn't know why I was so eager to walk to our rooms together, considering how he hurt me. But I did want to. We walked onto the elevator, and he pressed the button for the 12th floor.

"So?" I asked. "Meet any friends?" He offered me a small smile that I found distant. What was happening to him? Not only was he pushing me away, but he looked exhausted and distracted, like he had been forgetting about himself as well. He looked sick. I wanted to grab his hand; I wanted to kiss him.

"A couple. Haymitch told me that Finnick wants to be allies," he mentioned. Something in his tone seemed too conversational, forced. I felt like I shouldn't have said anything to him in the first place.

"Um… yeah. We've been getting pretty friendly," I said in an attempt to get Peeta to say something about it. Instead, he just laughed.

"Yeah, I think I've got Johanna on our team too," he stated proudly. This was good. I was making him talk to me normally again.

"Great," I said. I hadn't meant for it to sound sarcastic, but it did. He looked at me confused.

"What? Don't you like her?" Peeta asked.

"No, I like her just fine."

Peeta let out a laugh, "It doesn't sound like it."

"Maybe I'm just cautious. I don't spend every minute of the day with her, so I don't know her as well as you," I said, failing to hide the malice from my voice.

"Every minute of the day?" Peeta sounded offended and hurt. He should just sound guilty. "You think that I spend all my time with Johanna. What are you just jealous or something?"

I stared at him. "You did not just say that."

"What?" he asked.

"I'm not jealous. I'm angry. You think you can just tell me all these times that you have feelings for me, but as soon as a girl strips down for you, you forget completely about me and expect me to not be hurt?" My voice started rising.

"Forget about you? You don't understand," Peeta said. His body turned to face me, arms out to embrace me, but my desire for his touch had fleeted as my anger arose. I stuck my hand out between us as a barrier. If he touched me, I would explode. I didn't understand? I understood perfectly. He was through with me, but he didn't have the guts to tell me. Or maybe Haymitch wasn't allowing him to tell me.

"Then make me understand," I replied. He exhaled deeply.

"It's not that easy," he stammered out.

"Well. Then, I'm sorry," I muttered, trying not to cry. The elevator doors opened, and I exited quickly. Rushing into my room, tears streaked down my face. Then I realized something. It wasn't allowed to be over between us; our love was the only thing keeping me alive right now. But it seemed like Peeta had finally just given up on ever convincing Snow of our love and decided to give up on me too.

I started to walk to the final day of training by myself, but Haymitch got in the elevator next to me and rode down with me. I didn't want to talk to him, but he wanted to talk to me.

"Don't do anything stupid," he said.

"Like what, accidentally start a rebellion?" I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes. "Already done that."

"No, don't give up just yet. Try your hardest."

"Don't give up like Peeta?" I murmured.

Haymitch shook his head, "He hasn't given up yet."

I looked down, feeling like a scolded child. Once the elevator arrived at the right floor, Haymitch said goodbye and left me waiting for my private session. As soon as I entered the waiting room, I saw all the victors almost huddled together in little groups. Finnick and Johanna were speaking in hushed tones while Mags stared up at the both of them. The Careers were all speaking together roughly.

Then, I saw Peeta sitting alone. His head was in his hands. The chair next to him was empty. He hasn't given up yet. Haymitch might've meant hadn't given up on his life, but maybe he meant he hadn't given up on me. And since there was a sliver of hope left for us, I was going to take it. I began to talk towards Peeta. Whether he wanted me or not, I wanted him. So I sat next to him, took one of his hands, and sat in silence.

After a couple minutes, I felt Peeta squeeze my hand. It hurt a little, but I just squeezed back. Suddenly, his head was leaning against my head, his lips by my ear.

"Trust me, Ivy," he whispered. I let my eyes glance at everyone in the room, noticing how many had left already. We had been sitting in silence for so long. Peeta and I were close to going in for our session. No one was paying attention to us.

"How can I?"

A long time passed before either of us spoke again.

"Just do," he begged. His lips found my cheek and kissed it. Chaff was called into the private session.

"What are you doing for the Gamemakers?"

A breathy laugh escaped Peeta's lips. "Something stupid."

I smiled. "Me too." His fingers fiddled with my hair. Minutes passed. Seeder was called in. I asked Peeta, "Are you scared?"

"Not today."

"I am," I admitted. Peeta looked at me, really looked at me, for the first time in days. His hand cupped my cheek, and he kissed my forehead.

He smiled at me, "Then, I am too." I allowed my whole body to slouch at his words. I exhaled as I looked at him.

"I still love you a lot. You know that?" I asked.

"I do."

A voice called, "Peeta Mellark."

He stood up, and I grasped his arm. "Please, don't forget," I said.

His head shook. "I could never forget." Then he walked into the training room for his private session. And, strangely, I felt relieved.

*A/N Okay, so here's what is happening. Normally I have the whole story written out before I start to post. But with this one, I am not finished as of now. So, I'll start updating once I have a chapter as I would like it to be. Unfortunately, that means they will come less often. So to those of you who actually like this story, updates won't be on a schedule of any kind. Thanks to anyone who has read this far. Review if you have any comments.*