Onyx stood nervously in a flowing black dress that reached her ankles, the bodice of the dress clinging to her frame, the dress had a slit that travelled up her leg to her thigh but she wore black leggings beneath the dress. Dustin was stood next to her in a tight black jumpsuit, she knew that it looked less intricate than hers but it suited the boy anyway.

According to Cinna and his partner Portia, the suits, once turned on, will have small bursts of fire come out of them but it will mainly look like the embers that burn as a fire dies. Cinna had claimed that he was going to do fire on its own but for some reason changed his mind a few weeks ago. Onyx was worried that she would burn before the games would even begin but Cinna kept reassuring her that they would be fine, that is was synthetic flames.

They were waiting for the all clear to climb onto the carriages, the other tributes were around her, all immersed in their own conversations, she could tell some of them and the mentors were gathering intel and impressions, she was soon pulled out of her own musings as she felt someone put their arm around her shoulder. Looking up Onyx saw her dad smiling down at her lightly, she held onto his side taking in the lingering smell of the alcohol that had not yet faded from him to try and calm her nerves before they had to be put on parade.

"You look beautiful" he told her quietly in her ear.

Onyx smiled lightly up at him, Cinna hadn't wanted her to wear too much make up, and so she just had red eyeliner around her eyes and blush on her cheeks to give her some colour, they had tried to put some lipstick on her but the shades they had just wouldn't mix with her pale skin which frustrated her stylists but made her laugh.

She looked around her again and soon noticed that a few of the mentors watched her and her dad with either disgust or confusion on their faces causing her to frown lightly in confusion, the little tribute from eleven was watching her so she gave a small wave and received one in return making her smile lightly. Then when she looked up the noticed that the brute from two had his eyes on her, his eyes held something akin to curiosity but also disgust as he eyed Haymitch next to her.

Soon Cinna was ordering the two of them onto their carriage after sending Haymitch a small scathing look which made Onyx falter for a moment in surprise, Haymitch helped her up onto the carriage carefully and then watched in awe as a small flicker of synthetic flame came out of the bottom of the dress trailing upwards around her.

"Knock them dead darling" he told his daughter with a small proud look as the carriage started to move behind the others.

-/-\-/-\-

Onyx sat up on the edge of the roof looking over at the Capitol, many of the citizens were partying and celebrating the start of the games which disgusted Onyx, Rue was only twelve and was most likely going to meet her end in the games, the youngest winner being Finnick Odair at fourteen. Celebrating twenty four children going to their deaths for their entertainment was despicable and disgusting and she hated it. The opening ceremony for the games went by quickly for her, the only thing that she could remember was the looks that the boy from two kept sending her, he was curious, disgusted, and there was something else too.

"Should you be up here on your own?" A male voice asked from behind her pulling her from her thoughts.

Onyx jumped slightly and whipped her head around quickly to the source of the noise. When she saw the brute from two leaning on the wall of the building with a smirk she quickly jumped up and backed away a little which was probably a bad idea but he startled her.

"Should you?" Onyx shot back annoyed as she eyes him wearily assessing him for things she could use for any advantage over him during the games but he held himself strong and menacingly, she couldn't notice anything that she could use against him.

The boys smirk widened at the look that she was giving him, he figured that she was scared rather than assessing, no sewer rat from twelve was smart enough to assess their enemy in his opinion. "I'm surprised your mentor let you stop warming his bed for him"

Onyx shuddered and grimaced in disgust as the words ran through her mind, now the looks made sense, the looks that everyone sent her and Haymitch, the scathing look that Cinna sent her father when he held her to calm her down before the opening ceremony

"Eww, Haymitch and me, me and him?" Onyx blanched making a face, she shuddered again, gagging at the thought of her 'warming' Haymitch's bed. Did people really think that the district mentor would take a fourteen year old child in his bed when he had already lost his whole family to the capitol and spent his time drinking instead of doing anything else?

The boy looked at her confused at the response that he was given, he thought that he knew the relationship between the two when he noticed the look of disgust on Enobaria's face as she saw the mentor from twelve put his arm around the girl from his district.

He already hated the girl in front of him, the girl whose courage and costume made the people of Panem already look at her as a burning ember in the darkness of the hunger games/rebellion that everyone knew was coming. He had overheard Enobaria and Brutus speaking about it one night when music woke him, music so loud that no one in the capitol could hear them speak.

"So what is the relationship between you?" the boy asked curiously, he didn't like not knowing anything, especially something he could use against his enemy within the games.

Onyx smirked at him at the question that escaped his mouth, she could see the struggle of the curiosity that was eating away at him which worked in her favour really, it would keep him interested and probably distracted too so that he would either have less sponsors or there was a chance he would wait before killing her, giving her time to either escape or kill him instead.

"Wouldn't you like to know" she stated to him with a small amount of smugness entering her voice as she walked over to the elevator; just as the doors closed she looked over at the boy and winked at him in a fleeting moment of daring, smirking a little at the annoyance and confusion on his face. She probably shouldn't have done that but she didn't care.

Onyx smiled to herself as she skipped into the penthouse room, Haymitch was sat on the couch watching something on the TV, looked like people making bets, so she skipped over to him and jumped onto the sofa couch next to him, before curling up into his side naturally.

"What's gotten you so chipper?" Haymitch grumbled slightly annoyed, he was getting a little crabby without his alcohol but Onyx didn't mind because it meant that he was staying sober and not sneaking alcohol.

"Mentors and tributes think we're a thing" she informed him with a small giggle of amusement, even though she had originally gagged at the idea, she found it amusing now.

As she said that Cinna and Portia walked into the room with Effie.

"What! Eww, me and you? You and me?" he exclaimed disgusted as he shuddered causing Onyx to start giggling again, she had never acted like this before, she was usually collected, silent and mature, she needed to be because of the situation she was forced into.

The three Capitol people looked at them, confused at the display in front of them, Portia, however, looked a little relieved at hearing Haymitch's outburst. Haymitch glared playfully at Onyx as he heard her giggling and ignores the stylists and Effie, he scowls and pulls his daughter into a headlock trying to calm her down and get his own back against her too.

"So what is going on between you?" Effie inquired quietly, relief flooding through her as she heard the protest from the man who she had seen a different side too since the reaping.

Onyx smiled as Haymitch released her, but he pulled her into his side so that she couldn't move away from him, mot that she would anyway. He motioned for the three of them to sit down and was startled slightly when Dustin sat between Effie and Portia, coming from behind them, how long had he been there?

"I've known Onyx for years, but not personally until four years ago" he informed them lightly, he wished he had a drink in his hand for this story but he promised nit to drink to keep his daughter alive. "I've seen her around the district for years but only really learnt her name when she was nine and she was handed a medal for the death of her father in a mine. It turns out that a year later her mother died from pneumonia, and she was left on her own, usually when that occurs the child input into a community home but she kept herself out of them because they were more of a hell than being on the street was"

"I lived on the streets most nights or in the forest" Onyx continued after Haymitch motions for her to continue, she bites her lip lightly when she sees Haymitch's sharp look at the mention of the forest, he didn't like her risking her life against the wild animals of the forest "But there were some families in the Seam who were willing to let me stay with them a night or two, I had already learnt to look after myself so I traded bits and pieces for food, when I was ten. I was still unable to get tesserae so I was close to starvation many nights, that was until someone I knew had asked Haymitch if he could give me a job"

Haymitch shrugged with a small snort "Apparently I needed a cleaner, so Onyx would come in once a week and I'd pay her for cleaning, she was a pain in my ass most of the time because she moved my stash every week just to annoy me, but after a few weeks I slowly started to care for her and in the end have come to think of her as a daughter, but didn't tell her until she volunteered, we've both been hiding what we see each other as for four years"

Portia and Effie were both in tears by the end of the explanation, even Cinna looked like he was about to start crying. Dustin looked like some things finally made sense in his mind and walked off with a thoughtful look on his face. Soon Effie pulled Onyx into a hug surprising her and Haymitch who smirked a little at the discomfort coming from Onyx.

"I guess that went well" Haymitch muttered to himself as he snorted lightly while Effie fussed with Onyx who just allowed it considering she wouldn't have been able to get away from it without upsetting the woman.

-/-\-/-\-

The next morning training started for Dustin and Onyx, Haymitch had warned the two of them to keep their skills a secret, so Onyx was going to try and stay away from the bow and arrow section of training as much as she despised the order to keep her talents a secret, although she could always try it and just down play her ability.

"At the end of the next few weeks, twenty three of you will be dead" The training woman told the tributes as she looked around the room at the scared or over confident faces of the tributes this year.

"Well that was blunt" Onyx whispered to Dustin who had to fight to keep his smile down, he wanted to pay attention to the woman in front of him so rolled his eyes at Onyx instead, Onyx hid her own smile as she half listened to the trainer and scanned the tributes around her, the trainer annoyed her with her emotionless tone so she didn't care what she said at this moment.

The boy from two was looking at her again, curiosity was shining in his eyes, most likely still trying to figure out the link between her and Haymitch which caused Onyx to hide a smirk so that she didn't antagonise him anymore. The little girl from two was paying as close attention as she could to the trainer in front of them but her twelve year old attention span seemed to be stretching towards the end as her eyes flitted to the obstacles and numerous stations around them, he eyes moving to the climbing area more often than any other station. Dustin was paying close attention too, so if she needed to know anything she could ask him later, she knew it wasn't fair on him but she also knew that he would tell her what she needed to know.

The woman soon let them all go to training after giving ANOTHER warning to them not to fight other tributes until the games, the Careers all gathered around the offensive stations while others hesitantly went to different stations as to not antagonise the Careers.

Onyx made her way to the camouflage station and soon found that she had no ability at all when it came to hiding herself in the wild, she never used to need it when hunting so she never learnt how. She soon gave up and made her way to the station where she could practice her snares, she had learnt how to make them from Gale when they first started hunting together so she had knowledge of some but less knowledge of others. However, the trainer could see that she knew her snares and was soon spending time showing her how to improve them in some areas and sometimes asking her to show him how to make some of them. After an hour of being there she could see other tributes were wanting to learn snares so she smiled at the trainer and left him to train the others promising to return if he was alone when she was bored.

Onyx sighed and watched Dustin try out the assault course only for him to stumble a few times but she could see that he was fast, so maybe there was some hope for him, she hoped there was some hope for him but also hoped nit so that he would have a quick death at the Cornucopia. Looking through the poisonous berry chart, Onyx soon felt eyes on her and had a feeling she knew who it was, so when she turned she wasn't surprised to see the boy from two once again staring at her. She rolled her eyes at him and made a gesture at him which would have caused Haymitch to wash her mouth out if he were ever to hear of what she had done to a future enemy.

He growled and went to move forward but the boy from one stopped him by saying something with a glance over at her, the boy eyed her up and down before whispering in Two's ear again causing the both of them to smirk in her direction.

Shrugging off the smirks the boys had sent to her, she smirked to herself and moved over to the spear section where she had seen the boy from one excel in, she had a feeling she wouldn't be able to do anything hut it was worth trying. She picked up the spears feeling the weight of them, she knew that she definitely wouldn't be able to throw one because she didn't have the strength but she tried anyway, taking a step backs she hefted the spear forward and hit the target but just barely which got some laughs out of the careers. She scowls to herself, this was her first time she tried, she could most likely get better, and at least she was near the target.

"You need to aim better and put more weight behind it" The trainer told her slightly interested in the district twelve girl as he went to hand her another spear.

"I don't think spear throwing will be good for me, I don't have the strength to throw them" she apologized quietly as she walked off sending a glare at the Careers who looked surprised.

The trainer nodded as she left and mutters something which she couldn't heart as she walks off.

The knife throwing station is her next stop, she promised Haymitch that she would stay away from her specialities but she could always refine her throwing skills; the girl from two was still there after nearly three hours perfecting her already perfect throw, but Onyx stood next to her anyway.

"So twelve, you sleeping with your mentor for sponsors or fun?" The girl asked uninterested as Onyx threw a knife at the target only missing it by a few centimetres, although that's what she aimed for so it was working.

Onyx raised her eyebrow at the girl and then looked behind her to the boy from two who kept glancing in their direction very unsubtle with his glances.

Onyx snorted as she threw another knife hitting the outer ring of the target, "If your district partner wants to know the link between me and Mitch he needs to ask himself, I won't answer to anyone but him if he wants to know"

The girl looked at her surprised as Onyx lets out her frustration at everything and hits the bullseye with her last knife, the girl turns to Onyx and holds her hand out to her slightly impressed at the logic. "This isn't an alliance, but for future reference I'm Clove, the dork over there is Cato"

Onyx looked at her surprised but gingerly accepted her hand shaking it lightly, she was glad she said that it wasn't an alliance and now she had names for the two of them "Onyx, tell him if he doesn't want to get wound up by me then stop staring at me"

With that Onyx walked away with a shake of her head, annoyed at the Careers who thought that they were all better than the others; Clove watched the younger girl walked off with a look of surprise on her face, she had hoped that the idiot would be too trusting and would tell her what was going on with the girl and her mentor, that way they could use it against her in the arena but she was actually smarter than other tributes. She looked over at the knife in the bullseye and then started walking back over to Cato with a frown of confusion on her face.

'Must have been pure luck' she thought to herself with a shake of her head 'a twelve rat can't hit a bullseye after three tries'

Cato looked at Clove expectantly, he looked like he was about to start bouncing on his heels just in case Clove was able to finally break the spell of curiosity that was over him so he could shake the thoughts of the twelve rat out of his mind finally.

"She didn't tell me, stupid rat isn't as trusting as we thought she'd be" Clove told the older boy who growled to himself and went off to the swords to vent some anger 'he doesn't like not knowing, does he?'

Looking over at the girl again she could see her trying to hit a target with a bow, but she kept missing, there was a look of concentration on her face each time, Clove could see that she wasn't very good at aiming because the bow was off target many times.

Shaking her head she walked over to the food cart, 'She'll probably be the first to go, they always are'