We returned to the lake after we finished the girl (from District 8, we thought) and although we kept an eye out for more tributes on the way, we didn't see any. Guess there would only be one name in the sky that night.

Back at the camp, Colby was dead on his feet, obviously hoping we'd get back soon so he could sleep. We nodded at him as we emerged from the woods, and he gratefully dove back into our tent.

"Nobody went after the food," Peeta mentioned, looking at the pile. "They must be suspicious about why it's out in the open."

"Good thing too. We need that stuff," Glimmer added on.

She was right. Without that pile, we were goners. One thing we hadn't really been trained to do was to be hungry, or to get our own food. The point of the Careers was to kill. At my side, I saw Peeta yawn and stretch his arms out to the sides. Oh right, he hadn't slept last night either. He was just as exhausted as me, and that was saying something.

"Look, we're going to get some sleep," I told the group, gesturing at Peeta who looked dead on his feet. "The rest of you can decide who's going to guard, and who's going to get some rest."

"How cute," Glimmer said with a sadistic grin. "Already sleeping together?"

It took me a minute to understand what she was trying to get at, but when I finally got it, I was mortified. Peeta was spluttering beside me, and I turned to look at him. Oh great, he was blushing like a pre-teen girl.

"I don't sleep in the way that you sleep, Glimmer," I retorted. "I usually do it with my clothes on." This accusation didn't bother her; she just shrugged and sent a sultry look towards Marvel, who raised an eyebrow. I wondered briefly if they had… no, never mind, I definitely didn't want to know.

"I'll just… um… yeah," said Peeta awkwardly, ducking his head and entering the tent. Was it even acceptable for me to follow him, now? It would look like I was interested in him or something. Oh God, ew. Please keep those thoughts out of my head. Glaring at Glimmer, I ducked after him, hoping he wouldn't get the wrong idea. Not that he should, anyway, since I was quite obviously not interested. Oh no, I was rambling. Rambling was bad.

"Sorry about her," I muttered when I saw him in the sleeping bag with the top pulled up to his nose. His eyes flickered to me, looking suspicious. "She loves to say stuff like that."

He appraised me for half a second longer, and then pushed the blankets down slightly to expose his mouth. "She says some weird stuff."

"I know," I sighed and pulled off my jacket, tossing it into the corner of the tent and slipping into my own sleeping bag. "The second two people are alone, she makes assumptions. She mentioned something about me and Marvel a while ago too," I frowned as I recalled what she had said. "I think she likes gay guys or something."

"What?" Peeta sounded shocked. "But that stuff is… weird." He paused. "Wait, you're not… are you?"

"Fuck no!" I yelled back at him in horror. He flinched back.

"Well you just seem… I dunno," Peeta didn't finish what he was going to say, and instead turned to face the tent wall embarrassedly.

"I seem what, exactly?" He must have heard the threat in my voice, because when he answered, his voice was anxious.

"Just uninterested. In girls."

I scowled. "I'm not interested in anybody, I thought you got that. Romance isn't even on my list right now, let alone a priority."

I could tell Peeta had shrugged, because I saw the material of the sleeping bag move up and down slightly. "Guess so," he answered. I couldn't tell whether he was still suspicious or not.

Lovely. This was one messed up situation. In the arena of all places, allusions had been made that I was gay. The sponsors were going to panic. Some would be overjoyed of course, the ones like Glimmer that loved man on man action, but a lot were going to turn their backs on me out of disgust. Even though I wasn't gay, that's all they were going to see from now on, and that was trouble for me.

"I'm screwed," I groaned, rubbing my eyes with the palms of my hands. Peeta turned his head to look at me over his shoulder.

"Why?" he asked.

"Because now everyone is going to be watching me for signs that I'm into guys," I complained. "If I liked anyone, it would be girls." Not that I did. On the whole, it was rare for someone to be "good enough" for me. I had, when I was 15 at home, been forced by my parents to meet a group of girls to see if any of them interested me. Every single one of them had been content to hang off my arm and smile sappily at everyone we passed. It was sickening, and I just plain couldn't understand how anybody could possibly deal with that on a daily basis. In the end, my parents gave up and let me keep my solidarity.

"Make out with Clove or something," Peeta yawned and made himself comfortable. "Anyway, I'm going to sleep. No climbing into my sleeping bag." He looked at me with a teasing grin, and I just scowled back.

"Go to sleep before I change my mind about you and slice your throat," I threatened, turning to face the opposite side.

I slept much better during the day than I had the night before. I only slept for maybe 4 hours, but it refreshed me, and when I awoke, I felt back to my old self. The Cato that cared for nobody, and who always had a witty comment stored in the front of his mind. I was sure nobody would be pleased to have this more sadistic and evil Cato back. I looked back on the day before and wanted to just erase it from existence. I had acted like a fool.

Peeta wasn't awake yet. His mouth was wide open as he snored, and the sleeping bag had slipped down to his waist. I was momentarily disturbed by the fact that he was shirtless (though I understood why; the heat reflecting bags were nearly unbearable during the day) but quickly caught myself and changed from awkward to strong.

"Get up, Loverboy," I kicked his side like I had Clove's, but harder, and he jerked awake, looking around like a madman.

"What is it?" he asked.

"It's time to get up," I told him as I left the tent. "If you don't get out here in 2 minutes, you'll regret it. Actually," I paused at the door flap. "you wouldn't have time to regret it before you were dead." The shock on his face was refreshing as I exited. I really had to work to get my respect back now. My previous idiocy likely messed up whatever sponsors and support I had, as well as allowing the other tributes to think I wasn't a leader here.

But, I thought suddenly, this could prove to my advantage. If they never knew what to expect from me, they would always have to be wary of me. Everyone was scared of people they couldn't predict.

"What's been done?" I asked Meg harshly when I saw her sitting on a rock a few feet away. She looked up from some sort of braiding she was doing with grass, and frowned when she saw the change in my mood.

"Have a good sleep?" she asked. I stepped in front of her and pulled my ever-handy knife out to caress her face with it. A small cut opened over her cheek bone.

"I'm not playing around," I breathed. "Cut the shit and answer my questions."

She gulped. "Colby set up another 5 bombs," she replied quickly, understanding now that I was not to be tempered with this morning. "Glimmer and Marvel filled water containers," she gestured towards the bottles stacked near the tent, "and I just finished sharpening our weapons."

I nodded. This wasn't bad progress. "Any hints of other tributes?"

"No, but we know they won't be coming to this area. We're too much of a threat. If we want to kill any today, we're going to have to hunt them down."

I removed the knife from her face, and she touched the small cut gingerly. "I don't know about that. I think today we'll stay here and reinforce protection around the food. If we get lucky, maybe one will be stupid enough to try to get to the lake," I said to her, and looked at the body of water. I narrowed my eyes when I saw Glimmer and Marvel sitting beside it on the grass, not doing anything productive.

"Find something to do," I told Meg, and she nodded hastily, her brown ponytail flipping around her head wildly. She was scared of me. As she very well should be.

As I suspected, Glimmer and Marvel were not doing anything at all. Glimmer was braiding a piece of her hair, and Marvel was just admiring her. I cleared my throat when I stopped behind them. Glimmer immediately picked up a mocking smile, not recognizing the change in my mood. Marvel was smarter, and he looked at me apprehensively.

"Have a good sleep?" she asked, still with that dumb expression on her face. I lunged forwards and pulled a handful of hair into my grip. She shrieked in pain.

"I suggest we keep our mouth closed today before nice, sweet Cato decides to make that smile a bit wider with his knife," I hissed in her ear. She nodded frantically, and I dropped her.

"We were just-" Marvel began to say, seeming to realize why I was over here at all.

"Flirting?" I provided helpfully. "This is the Hunger Games, and I don't know about you, but I don't think that implies that we try to get into each others pants." I could see Glimmer itching to comment, but she kept silent.

"Sorry," Marvel murmured, head down. "We figured we should keep an eye out at the lake in case anyone showed up."

"And obviously the best way to have the best perspective on that is to stare at this bimbo," I said, nodding my head at her, where she was rubbing the place I had grabbed her. "Split up, Glimmer on the right side, you on the left. Yell out if you see anything, we don't need the element of surprise."

They obeyed quickly, each getting their weapons out of where they had stored them stuck in the ground, and walked to their places. I grinned to myself and started walking back to the tent. Peeta stumbled out when I was halfway there, looking sleepy and disoriented, but definitely taking my threat seriously. What concerned me the most, however, was that he was still shirtless.

"Why are you half naked?" I asked dully when I was in front of him.

"It's hot," he replied, crossing his arms across his chest as though he was self conscious. He really had no reason to be; his body was well built.

"I'm not shirtless," I replied, rolling my eyes, and really just wishing he'd put a fucking shirt on. This was distracting.

"Maybe you should be," said Peeta, shrugging. I blinked. Did Peeta really just suggest that I strip? "It's way more comfortable," he added on, maybe realizing exactly how weird his first sentence had sounded.

I looked around. Meg had disappeared to talk to Colby about something, Clove was nowhere to be seen, and the District One kids were at the lake staring into the woods.

"Fine," I mumbled. It was hot, after all. I reached over my shoulder and grabbed a handful of material, pulling it over my head in one easy motion. When it was off, I threw it to the side and it fell in a pile at the base of the tent.

Peeta was looking me up and down, like someone might look at a horse before they bought it. "Huh," he said simply.

"Huh?" I asked. That was it? That was all he had to say about my glorious Godly body? A real life Adonis was standing in front of him, and he says huh?

"I'm kinda jealous," he replied with a grin on his face. "I don't look anything like that." He gestured towards my abdomen.

"Oh." Well, that was a bit better. "Okay."

Peeta kept grinning, and despite being back to what I thought was the "old" Cato, I couldn't bear to wipe it off his face. What the hell was it with this kid? It must be that I was the one who officially let him in the Careers and I didn't want him to look bad, because in turn, I would also look bad for accepting him in the first place. Wait, what did that have to do with him smiling?

"So what are we doing?" Peeta asked.

I hesitated. I hadn't really considered that. "Um," I said brilliantly. Why did my mind always cloud up around this idiot? Did he have telepathic powers or something? "Let's spar. You could use some work."

"Two hot guys sparring, the girls watching are going to split their pants in excitement," Peeta teased, but he grabbed a wooden sword from where it lay on the ground beside the tent.

"Two hot guys?" I asked as I also retrieved one and we moved to an open area.

"I mean, it's just an observable fact." He was pink as he said it. "Not like I actually know or anything. But Glimmer thinks you are, so…" he trailed off awkwardly.

"Of course I'm hot," I said with a roll of my eyes. "But how do you know that about yourself? For all you know, everyone thinks you're a wimp." I held my sword in front of myself and after a quick count-down, we launched ourselves at each other. The wood collided, and I grinned at the sound. I loved sparring. I had done it daily at home, and I was good at it. Peeta wasn't terrible considering he didn't use weapons normally, but he definitely wasn't a match for me.

"I just see how people look at me," panted Peeta after a moment in response to my previous question. "Even girls back home were interested, but here it's gotten worse because they cleaned me up and broadcasted me to all of Panem." He grimaced when a particularly brutal attack of mine sent him staggering back a couple of feet.

"Too bad you're in here, or you might be able to get some," I laughed as I attacked again. He blocked me this time, and quickly ducked to the side.

"Yeah," he replied with a laugh. He shot his sword out towards my ribs, and I deftly avoided it and sent another jab his way. To my great misfortune, however, I failed to see the rock on the ground until I lost my footing and was falling over it. And of course, out of all the places to land, gravity chose Peeta's body for me to fall onto.

"Ow, shit," I groaned. I looked down and fell silent when I saw Peeta underneath me. We were both covered in a slight sheen of sweet from the sparring, and we were pressed together tightly from the impact. His face was bright red, and he blushed further when, trying to adjust myself to a more appropriate position, I accidentally brought a knee between his legs. It was just a nudge, definitely not anything that would hurt him, but he leapt out of his skin.

"G-Gotta go," he stuttered, disentangling himself from my body and sprinting away to the lake. I watched him leave from my place on the ground, still stunned silent.

Did every encounter I had with him have to be so awkward?

A/N: Hey guys! Here's chapter 4, hope you enjoy it! It's pretty long (ha) which is awesome. I couldn't find a good place to stop until they sparred, so you guys get a big chapter.

I'm updating pretty steadily too, so I hope you guys appreciate that! I normally get really lazy with fanfictions, but I'm inspired with this one.

Got some great reviews on the last chapter, and hope to get some more for this one!

To the people wanting fluff: I'm addicted to fluff too, so you'll probably be seeing some good stuff soon.

To the person who said movie-Cato was cute: HELLLLL YEAH. I saw him and immediately wanted to love him forever.

Thanks guys!

PS: It's really intimidating to know there's guys reading this story!

-TFPW