I tossed and turned that night, drifting off two or three times, but never able to stay under. It must have been the stress of being in the arena, despite knowing just how much better off I was than everyone else. After being pulled from yet another hazy dream that I couldn't remember even directly after waking, I sat up straight with a frustrated groan. I ran a hand through my messy blonde hair as I looked over the occupants of the tent. Glimmer and Marvel were sharing one sleeping bag (ugh), and Clove was snoring like a lumberjack. Clearly they were not as troubled as me. I noticed District Three boy was back inside asleep in the opposite corner, and frowned. Who was guarding? With one peek to my other side, I knew it was Peeta. His sleeping bag was empty and thrown rather messily against the wall of the tent.

With a quiet sigh, I pulled myself out of my own sleeping bag and crawled outside with my jacket on my arm. It was still dark; maybe one or two in the morning. Peeta's shape was a shadow against the dark, and he was sitting fifteen feet away from the tent with the spear Colby had used stuck into the ground beside him. I shuffled, unsure of whether to go over or not, but he heard the movement and turned around to see me standing there. I tried to switch my expression to one of boredom, but I think he saw the awkwardness I was exuding.

"Couldn't sleep?" he asked. I shrugged. "Here, come sit down then," Peeta offered, patting the ground at his side.

"Why not?" I said, mostly to myself, and I approached and flopped down.

"I couldn't sleep either, so I told Colby to go get some rest," He explained, picking pieces of grass and shredding them absentmindedly. "He's a nice kid."

"Great, just what we need. Nice people are so useful here," I snorted, leaning back on my elbows. "They just get in the way."

"I'm nice," Peeta mumbled in what seemed to be a dejected voice.

"You said you'd kill." I turned my face to his, and he grimaced. "You aren't changing your mind, are you?" My hand hovered lightly over the small knife hidden in my waistband as I said the words. Peeta, however, shook his head.

"No, I'll kill," he said. "I'm just not a bad person outside this arena. I wish I could just have a normal life without the Games interrupting it."

I shrugged. I was the complete opposite. I was exactly the same person in the arena and out of it. On top of that, I'd been trained since birth for these games. A normal life was not what I had been raised expecting or hoping for. Everyone I knew back home wanted the glory I was so close to.

Things were quiet for a while. Peeta seemed like a talkative guy, but I wasn't used to talking to people like him and he clearly wasn't used to talking to people like me. Speaking with partners or parents or trainers was easy, because the topic was always the games, but someone like Peeta wanted desperately to get out of here. What was there to even talk about besides strategy and weapons? What did people usually talk about? I tried to recall a television show drama that had once aired specially for our District, but nothing registered. I had been uninterested in the show anyway, since I preferred to go out and build my strength.

"You don't like me, do you?" Peeta asked suddenly. He turned to look at me, tilting his head to the side like a curious puppy.

I blinked. How should I answer that? "I don't know you," I finally mumbled. "And I don't want to be your friend. Allies is close enough."

"It's not the same," Peeta sighed. "Haven't you ever had a real friend? Not a partner, a friend?"

I thought about that. In truth, I hadn't, but I fought to think of someone who might be considered somewhere near that. Clove? No, anyone could see that I had no interest in her. She was a good fighter, and that was what was important to me. In the end, I could think of nobody, and ended up shrugging at Peeta instead of answering.

"That's too bad," he said in a voice like he was consoling me. "It's great to have someone that will stand by you no matter what."

"You have someone like that?" I asked. The subject was not particularily interesting to me, but it was far better than sitting here awkwardly together. I'd prefer to be inside fast asleep, but since I wasn't, there weren't many other places to go. Entering the woods was obviously a dumb idea when everyone in this arena wanted me dead, and I didn't exactly see an amusement park set up in the tall grass on the other side of the Cornucopia. Talking to Peeta would have to cut it for now.

"I had a best friend." Peeta smiled, remembering. "His name was Kip, and the first time I met him, I hated his guts."

"Wait, hold up," I stopped him. "You hated his guts? Thought he was your best friend?"

"Let me finish," he scolded, and I fell silent with a scowl at being ordered around. "I was probably twelve or thirteen, and he was the tiniest thing I ever saw in my life. He was the same age as me, but he could have been mistaken for an eight year old. Anyway, he came yapping up to me one day, and he had this huge grin on his face. Acted a bit like a puppy might. That's why I hated him." Peeta explained.

"I'm lost,' I admitted. "Thought happy was a good thing." Well, normal happy. Being happy about killing things like me was usually listed under psychotic. The thought didn't concern me. I knew I was little crazy. I blamed it on my parents.

"The fact that he could be so happy and so excited… It drove me up the wall. Our District isn't like yours," he looked at me with accusing eyes, and I narrowed mine in response. "We don't have enough food, and people are constantly starving in our streets. There's not really time for fun. We're all too busy working to keep ourselves alive."

"Poor baby," I muttered. He ignored me.

"Kip was starving, too. His Mom was sick, and his Dad worked in the coal mines. There wasn't much money. One day, when I finally snapped and demanded to know if he was insane, he just kept smiling at me. He told me that there was no point being sad about what he didn't have; he was happy for what he did have." He stopped speaking, a small smile curving his lips now too.

"How very inspiring," I said, standing up again. "As much as I love talking to you about best friends and all, I think I'm going to go back to-" I stopped, looking at the night sky. Slowly, maniacally, a gleeful grin of my own spread across my face.

Peeta saw my expression and turned in the same direction. "Oh, wow," he commented.

"Yep. Looks like we're going hunting."

I woke up the rest of the Careers hastily, needing to kick Clove several times in the side to even make her flinch a little bit. That would be bad news if we were ever ambushed while sleeping.

"Whaddya want…" she groaned and covered her face with the sleeping bag. "I'm tired, go 'way."

"C'mon, there's some smoke in the sky. It's about a two hour walk away, and we're going hunting for whoever set it."

"Dun wanna," She sighed. I flipped the knife out of my waistband, and although she didn't seem to be looking in my direction, she sat up immediately.

"Ready?" I asked, playing casually with the knife. "Because I can still do some persuading."

"No, no," she said, getting out of her sleeping bag. She did not look pleased about it. "I'm up. Regretfully."

"Wimp," Glimmer murmured from where she was pulling on the clothes she had discarded.

"Look who's talking, beauty queen," Clove snarled in return. Before things could get out of hand and they wound up killing each other, I stepped in between them. Last thing we needed was a catfight.

"Get ready," I ordered. Both glared in my direction, but neither questioned me. There was something to be said about being the leader of a group like this. Of course, it wasn't exactly a group based on 'love', so they were bound to turn on me at some point. That was what usually happened in the Games.

"Here," said a voice from beside me. I glanced over and saw Peeta standing there with my sword in his hand. "Guess you'll need this." He wasn't smiling, but that didn't surprise me. Peeta found no joy in this hunt. He stood out compared to Marvel, who had a huge grin on his face and couldn't stop pacing the tent. In some ways, he was more insane than I was.

"Oh, yeah," I said, still not comfortable with saying thank you. "Guess this would come in handy."

"I'll just use the smaller sword and maybe carry a knife somewhere," he said, picking up the smaller weapon off the floor and weighing it in his hands. "My physical strength is more impressive than my strength with weapons any day."

I grinned. "My sword is bigger than yours, huh?"

Peeta didn't get it. "Yeah, so?"

I sighed. "Forget it."

After we had all geared up and left Colby in charge of camp, (He had managed to set up three bombs around our food already, so we weren't too worried) we set out into the woods to find the smoke that was floating up into the air. Everyone was rowdy, especially Marvel, and nobody seemed intent on being quiet. We really didn't need to be. Nobody would attack us like this. On the other hand, it would give them warning to run if they did hear us. Whatever, we'd find them in the end. They couldn't run forever.

"I wonder who was dumb enough to set a fire," giggled Glimmer. It was ironic that she was the one to make that comment when we knew she was likely the dumbest one in the entire arena. She was brutal and strong, it was true, but her brain was about the size of a walnut.

"Maybe it's Katniss Everdeen," Marvel suggested with a smirk in Peeta's direction. This irked me.

"Shut up, Marvel," I told him.

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Protecting Loverboy? Interesting. Didn't know you had such a big heart." He turned his voice simpering at the end and batted his eyelashes.

"Fighting amongst ourselves now is idiotic," I rebuked, smacking him over the head with the side of my sword for emphasis. "I don't want to get in a mess like the 68th Games."

"Oh, I remember that one," Meg piped up. "The Careers died first because they had a bloodbath of their own. It was pretty amazing how they managed to kill each other entirely. Not one survived."

"Yeah, let's avoid that, shall we?" I looked around at all of their faces, and they each mumbled something and submissively hung their heads. Much better.

We walked for about 2 hours, and stopped when Clove held out her arm and put a finger to her lips. We all obeyed and peered around her to see what she saw.

"Look at the smoke," she whispered, pointing up. We did so and saw that the smoke was very close now, maybe 5 yards away. It was fading, as though it had been lit for a while, but that didn't concern us.

"I'll go in and see what's up," said Meg. She sneakily slipped out into the trees and returned a moment later with a huge grin on her face. "Asleep," she announced.

"Excellent," Marvel hissed happily.

"Let's go," I stepped into the lead and started to quicken my pace. She wouldn't escape now even if she did wake up immediately. We were too strong, and there were too many of us. I grinned when we reached her. She was waking now, and she saw the danger before her, but it was too late; she couldn't even run. Clove got behind her and grabbed a handful of her hair, propping her up. The girl began pleading.

"Please, no! Don't kill me!" Tears ran down her face, but none of us paid any mind. I considered taking her out myself, but saw Marvel out of the corner of my eye itching to do it himself. I nodded at him and a shark-like grin spread across his face.

"Bye bye," he whispered in her ear as he drove his long thin knife into her abdomen. She gasped and fell to the side, her eyes wide open in horror. Marvel removed his knife and wiped the blood on his shirt while everyone congratulated each other and clapped him on the back.

"Nice, real good," Meg complimented. He laughed gleefully.

"Yeah, a good job if I do say so myself." The girl was not moving, and a pool of blood was emptying from her wound onto the pine needles.

"Better clear out so they can get the body before it starts stinking," I said, turning to walk away from the body on the ground. A few seconds later, Clove asks,

"Shouldn't we have heard a cannon by now?" Everyone pauses, but Glimmer answers.

"I'd say yes. Nothing to prevent them going in immediately."

"Unless she isn't dead," Clove suggested, staring back in the general direction of the body.

"She's dead. I stuck her myself," Marvel growled in a threatening voice, angered by the questioning of the authenticity of his kill.

"Then where's the cannon?" Clove demanded. Marvel snarled.

"Someone should go back. Make sure the job's done," I said.

"Yeah, we don't want to have to track her down twice," Clove added, raising an eyebrow at Marvel, who looked furious.

"I said she's dead!" He exploded. They spent another minute spitting insults back at one another and arguing, but Peeta interrupted them.

"We're wasting time! I'll go finish her, and let's move on!" His voice was cold and unfriendly. I looked at him in surprise, but made no move to stop him as he returned to the girls body. Marvel looked about ready to launch himself at Peeta, so I stepped to his side and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Leave it," I advised. He considered me for a minute, but in the end, he shook off my hand and returned to Glimmer's side with a grimace that I associated with defeat. Nice, so not even Marvel was willing to take me on. That was worth remembering.

"Done," Peeta said when he returned to our group. There was blood on his hands, and while he rubbed it off on a tree, the cannon finally sounded.

"There, let's go," Glimmer sighed. I nodded, and everyone grouped together again and began walking once more through the woods.

"You okay?" I asked Peeta, despite the fact that I didn't really care either way. But if he was going to fall apart because he killed someone, I really should know, right?

"Yeah, I'm fine," Peeta replied, giving me a small smile. I shrank back from that expression. He looked gratified that I had asked him. Oh no, I wasn't giving off soft vibes, was I?

"My sword is still bigger," I mumbled.

A/N: I promised a chapter 3 today if I got good support, and I kept my promise! I had to spread the writing of this out throughout the day though, since I was really busy. But I still got it done.

Basically this chapter is just establishing the relationship that already exists between Cato and Peeta. Cato is (secretly) kind of protective of Peeta, but totally mortified that he is. Peeta wants him to realize that he doesn't need to just focus his life on killing.

The body part of the last bit (the argument) is in the book, but not with any details, so I kind of did it my own way. I also changed the method they used to find the girl by the fire, (to make time for Peeta and Cato to be alone, as well as letting them set up camp) so don't hate me! Little changes like that will probably be made by me through the story, I just hope they flow and don't seem ridiculous.

I'm super excited about this story, guys! I'm amazed by how many people have put this on their alert list, plus my cherished reviewers. It's an amazing response, thanks so much.

Toss me a review to let me know how things are going! (Too fast, too slow, in character or not, chapter length, etc!)

-TFPW