Awkward. That was probably the best word I could use to describe the walk back to camp. Peeta seemed pretty cheerful, whistling his way along a path that I could not see. Every few minutes he'd turn around and ask a random question that really wasn't at all relevant ("How tall are you?"), but mostly there was silence. I didn't really mind. I had too much in my head to consider, and that was better done in the quiet.

The biggest thing floating around my head was, obviously, my new friendship. I guess I should have known it was coming, but really, I'm a big hard-headed idiot that doesn't like to get close to people. It was thanks to Peeta that we were friends at all, not me. I had been trying all along to prevent this very thing from happening, and yet for some reason I could hardly keep the smile off of my face. There was a warm feeling all through my body, and I liked it.

Back at camp, the others seemed mildly worried, but not exactly panicked. If both Peeta and I had been killed, their path to winning would have been much easier. The most concerned one seemed to be Clove, and she ran up when she saw us approaching.

"Are you two alright?" she asked, looking us over quickly with her sharp eyes.

"Yeah, didn't run into anything at all," Peeta replied, continuing to walk towards our stack of food. He jumped to avoid the mines and grabbed a couple of apples from the pile, tossing one back towards me. I caught it and nodded my thanks to him. Glimmer and Marvel came over then, both appraising my mood.

"What's the game plan today?" asked Marvel when he decided he wouldn't get punched for speaking. Everyone looked at me for an answer.

"I think we've relaxed enough," I pointed out, having thought about it a bit on the way back. "Truth is, I think we've got too many enemies out there, and I want to take care of that, maybe take a few out of the running."

Peeta looked skeptical. "Wouldn't it be better for them to finish each other off and then wait until they come here to find us?"

"We're the Careers," Marvel said condescendingly. "We don't wait around like pansies." The rest of the group nodded their agreement. Peeta frowned but did not say anything more, though he looked like he wished to.

"Anyone in particular?" Meg asked in her quiet voice.

"Anybody we find," I said with a half-grin, half-smirk. "I think our most important targets are Thresh and Katniss though." I didn't add on the fact that what I felt for Katniss went beyond a simple desire to remove her from the games; I was sort of jealous at her relationship with Peeta. Between them, the friendship could be easy. Then again, apparently they were in love. Well, it's not such a different thing, is it…? Both were forms of affection, both seemed to have physical aspects, and both caused tingly feelings inside. Then again, I probably wasn't the best judge of the subject, seeing as how Peeta was my only friend and I had never been in love.

"When are we leaving then, Captain?" asked Glimmer with what I assumed was an attempt at a seductive smile. She looked a bit like an alligator.

"An hour, maybe two." I looked at the sky, contemplating. "How about noon?"

"That's when the sun is in the middle of the sky, right?" Glimmer whispered in Marvel's ear. I couldn't blame him for rolling his eyes and not answering her.

"Go get ready," I ordered, flicking my head in a direction that was not near me. They all walked away, mostly in pairs, talking enthusiastically. Peeta didn't leave however, and instead turned to face me.

"Katniss is one of our main targets?" he asked, and even my oblivious and non-emotional self could see the pain in his expression. "Was it necessary to say that?"

"Well, it's true," I defended myself. "Look at her scores. She's obviously got something we don't know about." I paused. "Unless… you know something?"

He shuffled his feet in the grass, looking uncomfortable. "Don't take it badly, but I don't think I should share that."

"Why not?" I asked indignantly.

He smiled meekly and touched my forearm lightly. Another sign of comradeship, I assumed. "Friends don't ask for information so they can better kill the friends of their friends."

"Uh," I said brilliantly, running that through my head. "Okay."

"So…?" he prodded, looking up from under the flop of hair in his eyes.

"So what?"

"Can we… not hunt Katniss?" He bit his lip, wondering if he was pushing things too far. "I mean, I know not everyone can live or anything, but can't we wait and see if she, y'know, dies some other way?" Even saying that seemed to cause him some sort of pain.

I sighed and started walking towards the pile of weapons to choose a better sword than my other one, and he trailed after me, grabbing my forearm to make me turn to him again. He stepped farther into my personal bubble than I was used to people doing, and it stunned me momentarily. His hips and abdomen was a mere inch or two from my own.

"Please?" he asked in soft voice, letting his hand slip down my arm to wrap around my wrist gently. I gulped and tried not to look at his face. I knew far too well how much influence this boy had over me. One look into his big blue eyes and I was a goner.

"I already said what I said," I muttered to the sky. "I can't really take it back."

"Sure you can, you're the leader," he protested, pulling on my wrist to try and make me look at him. I stubbornly kept my gaze focused on the clouds rolling by lazily.

"Good leaders don't change their minds," I said.

"Good leaders listen," he said with a slightly impatient undertone to his voice. When I didn't reply, he huffed and grabbed my face, pulling me roughly so I'd look at him. If it had been Clove or Glimmer I probably could have easily resisted, but boy, he managed to put some strength into the movement.

And then, oh shit, I was looking in his eyes again. As predicted, they were big and blue and begging me to listen to him.

"Stop that," I groaned, trying to tilt my head away from him again. He kept my face in place and stared me down.

"No," he answered bluntly.

We stood awkwardly like that for a few seconds. Him with his hand holding my jaw in place, and me with a hand half extended, debating whether it was friendly to punch him in the gut to get him to let go of me. Finally I sighed and let the fight go out of me.

"I'm not saying anything to them, but we won't go looking for her," I mumbled.

Peeta's mouth immediately turned upside down from the previous frown into a big grin. "Cool," he said happily, releasing my chin. I reached up to massage it. The guy had some power, that was for sure. If we ever had some form of physical battle of strength with no weapons, we'd likely be fairly equally matched. My height might give me an advantage though; I was a few inches taller than him.

I continued my journey to the pile of weapons and Peeta followed by my side this time, looking unbearably smug. Clearly he understood his ability to make me do whatever he wanted. That really wasn't good news for me.

"What do you want?" I asked crankily, gesturing towards the sharp items. His expression changed from smug to a grimace, and he nudged a mace with his foot.

"I don't really want anything," he admitted.

"I'm not letting you go out there without something to fight with," I replied, rolling my eyes and picking up a small axe. "How about this?"

"No, too aggressive," he said with a sigh, crossing his arms as though all this frustrated him greatly.

"Oh come on," I dropped the axe and frowned at him. "You can't seriously say you'll go out there and fight with your bare hands?"

He shrugged, glancing at the pile. "Well, I don't really know how to use any of those anyway. Might just be a weakness. I trust my fists more."

"Fine," I threw my arms up in a gesture of defeat. "If you get killed, don't blame me."

"Okay," Peeta said cheerfully, walking away from the pile. Like some sort of companion animal, I followed him. We were friends now, that was what I was supposed to do, right? My knowledge on the subject was quite abysmal, considering I had never had anyone like Peeta before. I was limited to how I saw others acting, and even then, there weren't many great examples of friendship in my district.

"We have over an hour to kill," Peeta pointed out suddenly, stopping in the middle of the open field. I glanced at him suspiciously.

"Yeah, and?"

"Maybe we should get some sparring practice in, y'know?" he suggested. "Without swords this time."

I sighed. "Fine. But let's not wear ourselves out before the real fight."

Our sparring match was short, but not uninteresting. Peeta was surprisingly good at hand-to-hand combat. Every time I seemed to get a hold on him, he'd twist and manage to break it with his strong arms, occasionally using his feet to push me off of him. I couldn't think of anyone in the arena that could take him without a weapon except perhaps Thresh, who was a beast of a human being. They must have some crazy growth horomone in his district's food.

Our fight did become awkward a couple times, but nothing like the time Peeta had run away. He fell on top of me once and our bodies had become uncomfortably close, but he had not jumped away. We had both paused for a moment and contemplated the situation, until I decided to take advantage of the moment and kicked him backwards.

We stopped a little under an hour before noon and spent the remainder of time drinking water, eating, and filling up small travel packs. We assigned Colby as camp-protector once again, knowing he didn't dare disobey us. The Careers were still the most powerful group in the arena, and it was obvious that he was going to stick with whoever kept him alive longest.

"Ready?" asked Marvel excitedly, wiggling in excitement beside a half naked Glimmer.

"One second," I said. "Glimmer, where is your shirt and jacket? You look like a slut."

She pouted at me. "But Catoooo!" she whined. "It's hot out!"

I put my hand to my forehead in exasperation. "Glimmer, I don't want to see your womanly business flopping all over the place."

"That's just cause you're not interested," she replied, sticking out her tongue at me. I scowled at her in return and decided to let her inappropriate lack of attire pass in favour of avoiding jokes about my sexuality.

"Let's go," I commanded, and we set off at a brisk pace.

A/N: Hi everyone! I know it seems to you like these updates are few and far between, but for me this is considered "steady updating". I'm really lazy about writing. I'm working on that, though! Plus my personal life has become a bit busier lately what with school and my relationship and all.

I know not a whole lot happened in this chapter, but the next should be fairly exciting and action-packed. Also, can you guess which of them is experiencing strange and confusing thoughts? The correct answer is both. I hope I've gotten it across at least a bit that Peeta isn't thinking entirely along the lines of friendship. That doesn't mean he understands what he's feeling as romance or anything, but he knows it's weird. I'll be playing on that more later.

Someone in the reviews called me "mate". That makes me feel exclusive or something. And who has brown eyes? Y'all are silly! My only clue is that it wasn't Katniss.

If you review you can have a piece of cake with my love sprinkled on top. A piece of my soul on the side if it's a long review.

Ciao!