Standing on the circular podium in the arena surrounded by 23 other tributes, I had to admit that I was scared. Yes, Cato the great, scared. I knew that I was going to get through this initial bloodbath; Careers very rarely died at the Cornucopia. My thoughts were for after. It was impossible to not think about what kind of injuries I was going to get here. I could lose a limb. I knew I could die, too, but I tried to focus on the fact that I was one of the strongest tributes in the Games. People would think twice before dealing with me, so I had an advantage.
On the outside, thankfully, the sponsors would not see my anxiety. I was pretty good at hiding that sort of stuff, since back home my parents were beyond strict about controlling weak emotions, knowing that one day I might make it here. I wasn't sure how much I'd need the sponsors, but I was definitely not going to push them away.
Across the circle from me and slightly to the right, Peeta was looking as nervous as most of the others. He peeked at me at the same moment I peeked at him, and he held the stare. I remembered what he was waiting for, and gave a tiny nod before he looked away. He gave me a nod in return and his eyes turned back to the Cornucopia.
I had made good on my deal. I had waited for the scores, and surprisingly, he had done pretty well. Not as good as the Katniss girl (I was going to keep my eye on her), but not badly either. I had proceeded to tell Clove, and she sneakily passed the message along to our other Careers. I looked at all of them now. Glimmer and Marvel (District One), myself and Clove from District Two, Meg and Emery from District Four, and of course, Peeta. The latter had turned to Katniss now and seemed to be shaking his head at her. I wondered briefly what that meant, but then remembered I should be focusing now. Only twenty seconds. Fifteen. Ten. Five.
When the countdown reached zero, I ran like I had never run before. The adrenaline fueled me and pushed me past the other tributes, some still fumbling off their podiums. I managed to reach the Cornucopia before anyone else did, and once that sword was sitting snug in my grip, I knew nobody could touch me. This was what I had been raised for.
"Mistake!" I yelled gleefully at a male tribute who had dived in front of me to try to grab a weapon from the rack. My sword came down through his back, and when I tugged it sharply back out of the body, it was covered in bright red blood. I saw another tribute nearby, this one blonde and female, and I approached her from behind at a run. She turned around in a panic when she realized what was happening, and weakly held up a knife for defense, but I knocked it aside easily and my sword found its mark on her throat. She fell to the ground gurgling. There was a great commotion around me; Several careers were taking down tributes that weren't fast enough to grab what they needed to go, and I killed another that seemed to be streaking towards the preoccupied Glimmer with a long knife in his hand.
There wasn't much else for me to do after that point. Many other tributes were dead or dying, but all of them had someone to fight with. It was very easy to see how the Careers luxurious lives had given us an advantage. We were much larger and stronger.
Peeta ran past me at that moment, pushing a female tribute out of the way. I sidestepped in surprise and looked over my shoulder. I had been approached during my brief moment of distraction, and a girl had come up behind me with a small mace. Peeta pushed her to the ground, but she wasn't dead. Rather than let him have the glory of finishing her, I did it myself, bringing my sword down through her chest. She coughed once, and then she died.
"I s-saw her about to attack," Peeta said, pointing at her carcass and bending over with his hands on his knees. "Figured since we're allied now, it wouldn't have been good to let you die." He grinned a slightly lopsided smile.
"Yeah. Good." I wasn't sure what he expected me to say. Not thank you, certainly. That just wasn't me. I was already angry at myself for letting him put me in his debt anyway.
"Looks like we're about done here," said Glimmer as she walked up to us with her hips swaying side to side. Her shirt was bloodstained. "Only one left, and I think Clove is taking care of him."
"Excellent." I grinned, a wide sinister sort of expression. I glanced around myself, appraising the situation. Many dead bodies littered the ground, and after a quick count, I found eleven. Clove was with the twelfth.
"Cato!" called Clove suddenly. "Come here, we have an interesting situation."
Curiously, I moved to where she was kneeling in front of the male tribute from District Three. He was shuddering, eyes flashing from the knife at his throat to each face in turn rapidly. He was terrified.
"What's going on?" I asked. "Why haven't you killed him? Got a crush? He isn't that attractive," I snorted and kicked the leg of the scrawny boy. He whimpered.
"He says he can help us," she explained, but pushing the knife harder against his throat all the same. Several beads of blood escaped and drew red lines down to his collarbone.
I laughed. "Help us? How? Look at him, he's a weakling."
"I'm from District Three," he whispered as though afraid to speak out of turn. "We manufacture electronics and explosives. I know how to work with them."
I paused and observed him closer. Sure enough, his hands had enough burns on them to be proof of his experience with such hazardous equipment. He could be helpful… if we had explosives.
"Kill him," I said lazily, waving a hand. "Kind of useless to have an electrician without electronics, huh? Waste of food-"
"Wait!" he called desperately, louder now. "The bombs around the platforms! I could rewire them to make them work!"
A hush fell over our group. This was unheard of. I had never seen a tribute even think about that strategy before. Not only was it something this boy was likely capable of; it was brilliant. I turned back towards him, interest rekindled.
"What's your name?" I asked, folding my arms.
"Colby. Please," he pleaded. I deliberated for a moment.
"All right," I said, "Let's get you up and about, shall we?"
Clove released him, and the boy fell shakily to the ground. I ignored him and instead counted the people around me. Wait, one was missing.
"Emery?" I ask. Meg sadly points to the ground about 15 feet away. Lying there with his skull bashed in is none other than Emery. I sigh. One Career down. Luckily, the rest of us were perfectly okay, with the exception of a slight cut on Peeta's left cheek. Plus now we have explosive boy, who just might come in handy.
"Let's get collecting," I order, and point to the supplies lying on the ground that had not been taken. There was a great deal of them, and it took an hour just to gather everything and place it in a large pile beside the clear blue lake.
"Nice haul," Marvel commented, picking up a silver spear and throwing it into a nearby tree. Glimmer clapped and jumped up and down with a smile, most likely to show off her well endowed chest. It really didn't do anything for me; she looked a bit idiotic.
"We should separate food and things into piles," offered Peeta, pulling a loaf of bread from the pile and weighing it in his hand. Oh right, he was a baker. "We'll be better prepared if we're organized."
Everyone agreed, and spent yet another hour sorting out all the items. Our stack of food was large, and definitely promised to hold us through to the end. Especially since we would be dying off. Nobody mentioned it, but everyone knows that there won't be 7 tributes eating this food later on.
"Lunch," I ordered, and everyone obediently sat on the grass in a circle. I pulled out a bag of apples and some bread and passed a little to everyone. Then I dug out 7 bottles of clear cold water held in break proof containers and passed those out as well. I joined them on the grass with a sigh, averting my eyes from the blood that stained the grass by the Cornucopia.
"Not too bad for the bloodbath," Clove comments as she takes a bite out of her apple. "Eleven down. And even though we lost one, we did gain another." She pointed at Colby, who mumbled something quietly and ducked his head.
"Speaking of our guest," I started, "you better start your little project soon. We need protection for this food or we're, well, fucked." Everyone but Peeta laughed at my vulgarity. The Capitol citizens would cringe in front of their TV screens, but inside their heads they'd be secretly thinking about how I was so tough to be speaking like that.
"No problem," Colby said quietly. "I'll start now." He got up and trotted over to the platforms, out of hearing distance, and he seemed relieved to be able to escape our group. Being with the Careers had obviously not been his original plan. Now it was his only option.
"So Loverboy," Marvel said conversationally, turning to Peeta. "How are things with your babe going?"
Peeta snorted. "Awesome. I have a romantic dinner planned for tonight and everything."
"Aww, too bad," Glimmer snickered. I noticed her inch a few centimeters closer to Marvel, and shuddered internally. She was terrifying in her own seductive and mysterious way.
"So what are we doing after this brilliant meal?" Meg asked, wrinkling her nose at the piece of bread in her hands. She had never eaten so poorly in her life. "Setting up camp?"
"Seems like the best course of action," I replied with a shrug. "I'd like to be good and ready when night falls. Who knows what the other tributes are planning?"
"Probably nothing until they know exactly who is dead," Peeta noted, gesturing at the blood by the Cornucopia that had no yet been soaked in. "They'd be smart to wait until tomorrow."
"Not everyone is smart," Clove added. I nodded in agreement.
"Let's just get ready," I said, and ten minutes later, after stretching and yawning and complaining, we all stood to set up camp.
"Camp" consisted of two tents placed side by side and with the middle panel removed. The purpose of that was to create one large sleeping area, making us less vulnerable and separated in case of an attack, as well as having two exits at all times. We also laid out 7 sleeping bags, the good quality kind that cushioned your spine and reflected back heat. As well, we stored our weapons within reach of ourselves where we'd be sleeping, and each of us had some food tucked in a bag beside our heads.
I was rather uncomfortable with the sleeping arrangements though. Clove was on my left, which was all and well, but on my right was Peeta, and next to him was the door of the tent. It made us feel somehow closed off, like we were alone in this corner. I didn't like the feeling.
"Who gets first watch?" Glimmer asked, pulling her shirt and jacket over her head to expose a hardworking pale blue bra. I grimaced and turned away from the sight, though she was clearly enjoying the peeks that Marvel was giving her out of the corner of his eye. Even Colby in the corner with his electronics couldn't help stealing a few glimpses. I wanted to roll my eyes at them. There were more important things to do than stare at Glimmer being a slut.
"New kid," I volunteer Colby, and his eyes flash to me resentfully, but without any fight in them. He doesn't have any choice in the matter.
"Here, have a spear," said Clove, tossing him the weapon. Colby caught it uncertainly, but kept it anyway and left the tent to sit guard outside.
"It's been a long day," Marvel yawned, still staring at Glimmer's exposed upper body while she flounced around, constantly bending over to pick up this or that. "I'd say we get some rest."
"After the anthem," I say. They all agree, and we wait silently. It doesn't take long before the anthem blares, and we all peek our heads outside to look at the sky. Nothing surprising is listed there, so we all crawl into our respective sleeping bags. Before Peeta does so, he strips off his jacket and outer shirt like Glimmer, leaving just the simple undershirt. He's more well built than I thought, and his muscles flex . underneath the thin material. In a second, though, he's in the sleeping bag and covered up.
"So," I whisper, sure that only Clove would be able to hear, but not knowing why I wanted my conversation secret anyway. "Your girlfriend is alive."
Peeta chuckled, but it wasn't a happy sound. More sarcastic. "Great," he said, "I was starting to worry."
"Were you?" I asked seriously.
"No, of course not," he replies, flipping over and facing the door. But I can't see his face, and I know the rest of Panem can. And that's what really matters.
A/N: Holy crap guys! The support I received for the first ridiculously short and terribly written chapter was amazing! I got more reviews and alerts for that one chapter in one day than I usually get for three chapters. To say you've inspired me is an understatement. You can expect long chapters frequently if this sort of thing keeps up.
What are my plans for this story? Well, it'll probably be long-ish. I've seen one-shots for this pairing, but not a lot of chapter stories. (Plus I didn't read any that appealed to me very much anyway... That's the reason I started this.) I'm super excited over this couple. There's just so many possibilities for sexual tension and love and all those gooey yummy things.
Thanks again for all the reviews and +alerts! If I get support on this chapter too, I'll post another one tomorrow. I really LOVE reviews of any kind!
-TFPW
PS: My Twitter is listed on my profile page under "Contact Me". I'll be posting updates, sneak peeks and just general information on there regarding my fanfictions! Just a little tidbit!