❤️💜19k on a roll💜❤️

Nightmare constantly glanced down at Cross every now and then as he roasted the bird over the fire, making sure he wasn't shifting uncomfortably or whimpering. The smol had been asleep for around two hours now, and Nightmare didn't want to wake him incase the fever was worse. Obviously whatever Ink had stabbed Cross with hadn't been a normal knife. It definitely had some sort of poison on the blade purposely to kill off any opponents that managed to run away during a fight. He just hoped that medicine would be enough to fight it off.

The soft crackling of the fire and birds tweeting were the only sounds he could hear. That along with Cross' weak breathing. He stared down at the dancing flames, taking in the vibrant yellows, oranges, reds and whites that came from it. He'd built the fire at the bottom of the ledge in the cave where the smoke could still float out of the entrance without poisoning them with carbon dioxide. He would have done it up on the land in front of the cave, but the fire would be seen from a mile away. And with Cross in this fragile state, drawing attention to themselves really wasn't the best of ideas.

The sky around them was getting dark, the sun having dipped behind the trees moments ago. He could faintly see the red glow of the sky over the leafy tips, but that soon faded into blackness. Sooner or later the display of the fallen Tributes would be shown. God there'd be quite a few for today. Three? Yeah, around about that many.

He sighed, unzipping his hoodie and letting it hang loosely off of his shoulders. The fire was hot and keeping him warm, but a constant cool breeze was blowing past the mouth of the cave that balanced it out. Even so, he found himself sweating slightly. Hence why he half took his hoodie off.

He took a moment to think of what Dream might be doing. Abi was still alive for sure, and as far as he knew the two of them had teamed up at the beginning to take over the centre of the arena. But then Geno and Reaper took that from them until Cross blew it all up that is. They'd probably be camping down right this very moment, possibly cooking food just like he was. How coincidental would that be?

Frowning, he thought back to the times where him and Dream had trained for these moments, the two of them spending all of their time in the special academy their parents had paid for. The two of them had outshined all the other District One students, showing far more potential then anyone else. It had never been a secret that the mentors preferred him over his brother, but they'd still treated them equally. To an extent. Dream was favoured by a few instructors, Nightmare by the others. A small majority. It had never even occurred to the brothers that despite all this training, only one of them might make it into the games. Other people could beat them to volunteering, or the situation that actually happened for Nightmare could occur. If they'd been the only two really serious students then they might not have needed to worry. But there had been one other person.

Abi. She wasn't in any way as good as the two Joku brothers, but she was incredibly persistent with her own set of skills. She'd been so determined to get into the games this year for the reason that her brother was picked two years ago and killed ruthlessly. Whether it was to redeem her pride or avenge him, she was adamant that she'd get in. And she did. All three of them did. Himself illegally of course.

Nightmare smirked a bit at the memory of himself sneaking all the way down to District Twelve on one of the monsters of planes that the peacekeepers used to fly down. He'd barely had any time to choose a name and fake a moody teenage personality before he'd been shouting 'I volunteer!' And pushing himself to the front of the crowds, seeing Cross already stood up there stiffly.

"Nightmare?"

He jolted and whipped around, almost falling over in surprise. "Cross? You're supposed to be resting!"

The smaller skeleton stared up at him sleepily, the sleeping bag being unzipped and wrapped around his shoulders loosely for warmth. He was still flushed and dripping sweat, but not as much as earlier. "But I'm awake now... A-And I saw you cooking by the fire and thought it looked warm..."

Nightmare groaned under his breath and shifted to the side, gently pushing Cross back down into a sitting position and tucking the sleeping bag around him. "Moving about will make the fever worse."

"Too late." He offered a weak smile as Nightmare threw his hands up in the air in defeat, shaking his head.

"I give up. I officially give up." He muttered, turning the bird on the spit once more.

"Sorry." He whispered, shifting so that his head was resting on the taller's shoulder.

"Yeah, you're really not."

Cross shrugged, staring at the roasted bird and sinking into the sleeping bag as his non-existent stomach rumbled. "Aaa- ahah." He laughed shyly, staring down at the rocky floor instead of meeting Nightmare's gaze. "Sorry."

"Sorry? For being hungry? You're unbelievable I swear." He shook his head in disbelief and lifted the bird off of the fire. "Well lucky for you it's just about done."

"It is?" Cross perked up a bit as he watched Nightmare slide the roasted bird off of the stick and ripped both it's wings off with a sharp tug. Cross would have felt remorse for the poor bird, but his undeniable hunger took over that. When was the last time he'd even ate? That night with Blue before everything went wrong? Yeah, that seemed about right. And that was over a day ago.

He gladly sank his teeth into the juicy flesh of the wing as Nightmare passed it to him, devouring it quickly down to the bone while his partner ate it slowly, staring.

"You're a fucking animal."

"I'm hungry." He shot back, wiping his chin with his sleeve.

"Yeah, same thing." He swallowed a chunk of meat and pressed his hand against Cross' forehead. "The fever isn't gone."

"I'm aware. If it was then I wouldn't be feeling like absolute shit." He muttered, gladly accepting the cooked leg Nightmare passed at him.

"Well sorry for not being an all-powerful Lord that can sense your emotions." Nightmare said, rolling his eye. "Geez."

The two then sat in silence for a moment, the only noise being them chewing on roasted bird - which tasted delicious by the way - and the occasional animal noise from outside.

Nightmare glanced out of the cave entrance, raising a brow as the Hunger Games theme played suddenly and the holographic display appeared in the sky.

The fallen:
Error from District Three
Ink from District Five
Blue from District Eleven

Beside him Cross winced, a hand subconsciously gripping onto Nightmare's forearm as he stared at the picture of Blue that stayed suspended in the sky for five seconds before disappearing.

"What are the odds that all three deaths that happened today were caused by one of us..."

"Bad odds..." He mumbled in response.

"Yeah, but there's only ten of us left now, eight to get rid of."

"I don't like those odds..." He whispered, leaning against Nightmare more.

"I do." He responded, letting his head rest on the smaller's. "I think they're great odds."

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I'm aware that the fallen should have been displayed yesterday but I forgot and just wanted to get that scene in so shhshshhshhhssshhh and just pretend--

Oh well, nice chapter tomorrow that you'll all like uwuwuuwuwu

I mean, I hope you'll like anyway

:'D

Enjoy scallops

-Jess-