I didn't see Peeta again until later that evening. After his quick exit, I had stood momentarily confused, but then moved on to some more practice, this time with Clove. She didn't have the physical strength that Peeta was blessed with, but she was quick and I needed to be able to fight all sorts of enemies. At first she had an advantage on me, ducking underneath each of my hard-hitting attacks, but after I learned her movements, it got easier to predict her. I was beating her every time.

Well, until Peeta showed up again, that is.

"Sorry," he apologized as soon as he was within hearing distance. "Needed some time."

"Uh, right," I said from where I was lying on the ground, pinned by Clove, who looked unbearably amused.

"So, um… are we going to eat?" Peeta asked.

I shrugged from my place on the ground and shoved Clove off me clumsily. "Yeah, I guess so. I could use a meal."

"Me too," Clove added, but she was now retreating away from the two of us slowly. "I'll go get us some food." She ran off and I saw her hand come up to her mouth like she was snickering at something.

"What's she laughing at?" I demanded of Peeta, who shrugged.

"I dunno. Maybe I look funny," he answered, glancing down at himself. I followed his gaze. Still shirtless. Typical. But aside from that, he really didn't look like anything Clove should be laughing her head off at.

"You look… fine," I said uncomfortably. Could she hurry up with the food? "What were you doing for the past hour and a half anyway?"

"Just wandering around I guess," he replied, dropping himself to the ground and stretching out comfortably on the grass. "C'mon, sit down."

"I'll stand, thanks," I mumbled. Peeta rolled his eyes and grabbed my ankle, causing me to fall onto my butt painfully. I could practically hear everyone watching the Games laughing. "You wanna die?" I snarled at Peeta. He just grinned back in a friendly way. Jesus, this guy.

"You wouldn't," he said confidently.

"I… you don't… know…" I struggled for words. He had hit me in a place that I was trying desperately to keep hidden away deep inside my head. Sadly, and I wanted to deny it with every fiber of my being, I didn't think I wanted to kill Peeta. He was like a puppy or something. What kind of sick freak kills a puppy? I might be a bit messed up, I'll be the first to admit it, but there's some things that just aren't acceptable.

"If it's any consolation," said Peeta, "I don't want to kill you either."

I snorted. "You don't want to kill anyone," I replied. "Besides, why do you need to console me? If you aren't killed by someone else, I'll do it when the time comes."

Peeta shrugged but didn't push the topic any further, since Glimmer and Marvel were approaching, both looking wary and tossing quick glances at me every few seconds. Clearly still intimidated by my earlier actions. It was a welcome reprieve to the atmosphere I felt around Peeta. Like he wanted me to be his… friend… or something.

"Clove is getting food from the pile. Time to eat?" Glimmer asked after appraising my mood.

"Yeah," I responded, too distracted by my own thoughts to be mean. "Let's eat."

After our small meal of smoked meat and dried fruit (during which Glimmer had not stopped scowling once), we all settled down in a circle around a small fire that Colby had masterfully set up. The kid was good with fire, that was for sure. We had laughed about that for a moment, making a few jokes about him and Katniss, "the girl on fire".

"Maybe you two should get together," Marvel grinned. "As long as Loverboy doesn't mind, of course." He nodded his head towards Peeta who was sitting next to me, sprawled out on the ground but not really partaking in the conversation. He looked up when he heard his nickname.

"Not interested," he said. "Want her, Colby?"

"N-No," Colby stuttered, blushing and staring at his toes. I grinned. He was just too much fun to play with like this. I turned to look at Peeta while I still had the smile on my face, and realized it was a terrible mistake too late. He saw my expression, and after a second of hesitation, he gave me a smile back. Oh no, he thought I was smiling at him.

Before I could try to set my manliness back where it belonged, maybe by punching Peeta in the jaw, Clove yawned and stretched her arms out to the sides, almost hitting Megan in the face.

"Bedtime?" she suggested sleepily. Everyone nodded and stood, Marvel volunteering to go on watch first since he wasn't tired yet. I followed the others into the tent, being uncharacteristically silent.

"Nice abs," Clove commented with a grin, nodding at my abdomen when I took off my upper layers of clothing and tossed them carelessly somewhere behind me. An alarmed yell made me think they might have landed somewhere on Glimmer's person.

"Thanks, but they're reserved," I scowled at her and slid into my sleeping bag, turning so my back was facing her. This meant I was facing Peeta, who was getting changed, but he was the lesser of two evils if Clove was trying to seduce me by talking about my abs. I stared lazily towards the side of the tent, ignoring the boy.

Until he started taking off his pants.

"What the hell, man, what are you doing?" I demanded. He turned around in surprise, holding his pants balled up in his hands, clad in nothing but a pair of black boxers.

"Changing? I wasn't aware you were watching." He raised an eyebrow.

To my horror, at that exact moment, I felt my dick start to get hard.

No. No, no. No, please, no. Why now? Any other time would have been better than this. (Except for maybe when Peeta had been on top of me.) I knew he wouldn't be able to see through the sleeping bag or anything, but that wasn't so much what was bothering me.

I was turned on. And it was from watching a guy strip down to his underwear. It wasn't even a girly guy that I could make excuses about; Peeta had muscles and short hair and rugged features. My face was quickly flushing with embarrassment, and sadly, the baker boy noticed the change.

"You okay?" he asked, and, oh god why, he bent down next to me to stare at my face closer. Any doubt that it had been Peeta who had caused this was kicked forcefully from my brain when I felt myself get even harder from his close proximity. So damn close. I could see little every little movement he made affect his muscles in some way, and his eyes were trained directly on me, looking more concerned than he had any right to be.

"Please get the fuck away from me," I tried to demand in a snarly, masculine tone. I was further mortified when my voice went up two octaves halfway through.

"Sure you're okay?" he asked, laying a hand on my forehead. "You're all red." No shit, Sherlock Holmes, thanks for the analysis.

"I'm fine," I grumbled. Please get the hand off of me. He was only touching my forehead, possibly the least sexual body part that existed, but electricity seemed to be rolling through my body, staying true to real lightning form and seeking to go lower. He was making my already compromised situation ten times worse. I curled my legs towards myself pathetically and turned away from his hand to face the other way.

"Well if you want to be like that," Peeta said in a cranky voice. I heard footsteps and a small sigh as he got into his own sleeping bag.

So now my only problem was what was nudging my stomach from inside my pants. I had wondered briefly before entering the arena in the beginning whether something like this would ever be problematic, but shoved it from my mind after deciding that I'd be too distracted by carnage and death to pay much attention to my lower half. Who could have predicted I'd suddenly become turned on by half naked baker's that happened to share a tent with me?

I couldn't leave, that was for sure. The question wasn't who would notice, it was who wouldn't. Another option was to just leave it alone and wait for it to eventually go away. That was painful to even think about; I was dying for relief.

One more option. Take care of business. In my sleeping bag.

I looked around the tent quickly, checking to see where everyone was and what they were doing. Glimmer had gone outside to sit with Marvel, Meg had the sleeping bag zipped up over her head for some reason, Clove was already fast asleep (she could do it on command, I swear), and Colby was facing the other wall.

Well, it was now or never.

Trying to remain inconspicuous, I turned back towards Peeta, who was thankfully facing the door, maybe ticked off that I had been uninterested in his concern. I also pulled the sleeping bag higher up my body and thanked the game makers that the thing was huge, easily big enough for two people, so that my, uh, movements, would go unnoticed. With one more quick glance over my shoulder, I stuck my hand into my boxers.

It felt like a bit of a betrayal to myself. I wasn't gay, yet I had been turned on by a man and was now taking care of the problem right beside the one who had caused it. It didn't mean anything, of course, I knew that. Sexual attraction did not go hand in hand with affection and it certainly didn't in this case. Besides, didn't everyone have sexuality questions sometimes? And nearly always decided they were straight anyway? Yeah, this was just a little hormonal blip in my system. No big deal.

I closed my eyes and struggled to maintain a normal looking face, but after a minute or so, I was biting my lip to stop from making any sound. I also had to be careful not to brush against the sleeping bag with each stroke, in case someone decided to turn and see why I was moving around. With the tense atmosphere of being caught surrounding me, it didn't take long to finish.

"Shit," I hissed out in a strange garbled sort of groan. I was getting my breathing in check when Peeta turned over suddenly to look at me.

"You say something?" he asked.

"No," I answered quickly, trying to wipe the mess off my hand onto the inside of my boxers. I could deal with stickiness for one night and toss them into the lake tomorrow for a cleaning.

He looked at me suspiciously. "But I heard something."

"Maybe it was Clove talking in her sleep," I suggested, nodding over my shoulder where she had her mouth wide open, attracting flies. "Wouldn't be the first time."

"I don't think so," Peeta said with a sigh, tugging the covers up to his neck. He fell silent for a moment, and I hoped I was free from having to talk to him, but no such luck. "Would you… would you really kill me?" he asked.

I cursed inside my head. "It's the Hunger Games. We're in the arena. Think any of us have a choice?"

"There's always a choice," Peeta mumbled.

"Thanks Dr. Wisdom, but no, there isn't. We have an alliance," I said the word forcefully, falling from my high and very quickly returning to normal. "I would advise you don't get attached to anyone, because this isn't permanent." I pushed the sleeping back down to my chest and gestured around with my left hand, the one that didn't feel uncomfortably sticky.

"I don't know about attached, but I don't want to kill you." Peeta seemed as uncomfortable as me, but I prayed it was for different reasons. I did not need that mental image in my weird hormonal state. "I think the rest, I probably could… But you're weird."

"Wow, thanks. Most people would say special, not weird." I rolled my eyes. "But anyway, lose the hero worship or whatever it is you feel for me. It's stupid."

"I didn't say it was smart," snapped Peeta in a whisper. "And it's not hero worship. I don't understand it. I shouldn't like anything about you. Our personalities are opposites." He paused. "Well, were opposites. Sometimes you seem a bit different. Softer, maybe. It makes it worse, because I wonder if it would be possible for us to be friends."

"No, it wouldn't. We're in the arena, Peeta, Just stop."

"It's interesting when you call me by my name," he replied thoughtfully. "Like we should be calling each other by last names like Harry and Draco do." He grinned. "So I'd be Mellark, and you'd be… wait, what would you be?"

"Cato," I frowned at him. "Just Cato."

"Okay, Just Cato." Peeta grinned like he was telling a hilarious joke.

"Go away, Peeta bread." I flipped over, hoping to end the conversation. There was silence for a moment.

"Cato…" he whispered suddenly, in a much softer voice than I expected.

"What?" I replied, looking over at him. He hesitated, serious now.

"Do you really want to kill me?" he asked in a quiet voice. I couldn't distinguish which emotion he was experiencing. Hopeful? Worried?

It took me a moment to respond. "No," I finally whispered, closing my eyes tightly to shut everybody out. "I don't."

A/N: Word lied to me about word count, so you guys get a longer chapter than I had originally planned to write.

I'm sorry it took so long to get this chapter out. I've been more busy than you can possibly imagine, and I've also met someone I'm really into, and I want to focus on that a bit. Or a lot.

So, yep, Cato is still confused. More so now than ever. Soon things will get more heated, I promise. Right now they're both just realizing how things are between them. Peeta thinks he wants Cato's friendship, and Cato is assuming that what he wants is something like that too, but he's more in denial than anything else.

I adore all my reviewers, oh my goodness. I've been called lovely and sweet and all these awesome things, and everyone has such nice things to say. I've even had people PM-ing me, demanding to know when I'd update, or what I plan to do with this! It's exciting. Please keep it up, I wouldn't still be writing without your support!

Hopefully the next chapter will make it out sooner than later.

PS: I'm working on another Cato/Peeta fic, but it's just a one-shot. Might be around 5000-10000 words. It's also rated M, and I'm liking it. Should be up soon, I hope. Just need to finish the steamy part and it's done.

-TFPW