Disclaimer: I don’t own the Hunger Games or Percy Jackson series…

Percy’s POV

It’s been a couple of months since the explosion. The cold, bitter mornings have finally made way to the warm ones. Summer is just around the corner now,  almost everyone is up and about. Of course, summer don’t always bring happy news to us.

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Whoosh! Smack!

“ A rabbit? Again?” came Katniss’ voice from my left. “ Can’t you hit something bigger, Jackson?” I growled menacingly at her.

“ It’s the best I can do…” I snapped at her. She merely snickered.

“ You’ve been hunting since January. How can you not take down a buck?”  she asked, picking up the rabbit by the ear. “ I taught you already, haven’t I?”

“ I know, I know,” I groaned, pulling my knife from the rabbit’s eye. “ But taking down a buck is harder than targeting a rabbit. A buck is bigger and faster and meaner-“

“ And that defines a Career perfectly.” A thud to my right and next thing I knew, Gale was examining my kill. “ How are you going to survive the Games, Jackson?”

“ Assuming I get picked,” I muttered, snatching the rabbit from Katniss.

“ Right. Assuming you get picked, how are you going to survive it? I mean, if you’re only targeting the weaker tributes, the Careers are definitely going to kill you.”

“ I’ll think about that when I have the perfect weapon and is standing in the arena, facing twenty-three other tributes,” I said icily. “ For now, I’m going to live my life as it is….I’m not going to push my luck seeing as I already pushed it when I was supposed to die in the explosion.”

They both fell silent. I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself.

“ There’s a buck,” Katniss whispered. I didn’t bother aiming for the eye now and just threw the knife. The buck roared in pain and I threw my other knife at its neck. It toppled over, twitched a little and went still. “ That was….impressive.”

Gale strode over to the dead buck and pulled my knives. “ You made some pretty deep cut,” he said as he examined the deathblow I gave the buck. “ Right at the vital veins.” He looked up at me. “ Maybe I underestimated you.”

“ Maybe you’re right,” I said flatly. He grinned.

“ Let’s get this one to the Hob…Greasy Sae is going to flip,” he suggested. “ C’mon, let’s carry this thing.”

It took us nearly an hour just to get the carcass to the fence. And another half an hour to the Hob. And another half an hour haggling a price with Greasy Sae.

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     “ Here you go,” Gale said, handing me some meat, money, wax and yarn after we emerged from the Hob, Katniss still inside, chatting a bit with Darius. Actually, being teased by Darius.. “ You earned it. Nice kill.” I stared at him. “ C’mon…I was just messing with you about the Games.”

     “ No…you helped me think about the possibilities of me getting into the Games. The odds are not exactly in my favor, too, you know,” I said, pocketing my possessions.

     “ How many entries?” I shrugged.

     “ Probably about as much as you’ve got,” I said, casually. He gaped at me. “ What?”

     “ How many tesseraes did you took?”

     “ Let’s see. My mother died when I was twelve. I took tesserae for almost everyone in the orphanage after I was eligible. And there was around fifteen orphans in there, minus me and Addy. One was necessary for me. One tesserae for me and one for Addy. That’s three. Plus another fifteen so that makes around eighteen for my first year. Cumulative : hundred and eight, more or less. . ”

      “ What? Why?” Gale asked, alarmed.

      “ We are constantly being threatened to die of starvation. What could I do? Besides, the other kids did it, too. So the amount of tesserae grains managed to keep us going for a while,” I explained. “ We didn’t exactly get to use the money we got from working at the mines so, yeah….we did it to survive, somewhat.”

     “ I….I didn’t expect your life to be that way,” he said, sounding a little bit sympathetic. “ You must be glad they hung her. Nasty one, Woodlum.”

“ Her hanging didn’t make me feel any better,” I said darkly. “ Made me more guilty.” He shook his head.

“ It wasn’t your fault the explosion happened when the others were down there, okay? She should’ve used her brain when sending you guys into the mines.” I didn’t answer him and right on cue, Katniss emerged from the Hob, looking mad.

“ Let’s go home before I go in and kick  Darius in the ass,” she said, her gray eyes furious. I grinned at that, though rather forcefully.

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That night, I was pretty subdued during dinner. Everything that Gale had said in the forest kept dogging me over and over again. I realized what he had said was true. I have to prepare from now. Just in case I got picked to go to the Games.

 The sudden sound of someone coughing brought me back to reality. I looked around and saw that it was Addy. Wait, what?!

“ You’re sick.” It was more of an accusation but I really hate it if she got sick and didn’t tell me.

“ Oh, I’m just having some coughing fit,” she waved me aside. “ I’ll be okay after Mrs. Everdeen patches me up.” She let loose another round of coughing fit again. “ I’m okay, I’m okay…”

“ Adrastea, I think you should go to bed now,” Mrs. Everdeen said as she entered the small and cramp kitchen. “ We can handle the cleaning.” She didn’t protest at all. This can’t be good. As soon as she was out of shot, Mrs. Everdeen whispered to me, “ I’m really sorry, Percy but I can’t seem to determine what’s wrong with her.”

“ How long has she been sick?”

“ About a week…,” Prim said. “ She’s coughing all the time. Once during History at school they had to take her to the sick room because she was having difficulty in breathing.” She started to wipe the dishes dry.

“ Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked, feeling very angry and very terrible.

“ She told me not to. She said you’ve already had enough to think about so worrying you about her being sick is not so good. Her words, not mine,” Prim said defensively. I was silent.

“ Do you think it’s worsening?” I asked Mrs. Everdeen. She purse her lips in a sympathetic way

“ I think so, dear. But let’s just listen to what she asked okay? Not to worry about it too much,” she said , patting me on the shoulder before going out of the kitchen. There was a little bit of an awkward silence in the kitchen. Just the sound of a dish being wiped dry and the chink sound of it as it was put on the rack.

“ Are you mad at Addy for not telling you she’s sick?” Prim asked suddenly. I looked at her and her blue eyes  were just so big that it was really hard not to lie.

“ Yeah…a little bit, I guess,” I shrugged. “ But it’s just because I’m worried about her.”

“ I know. Katniss would flip, too if I was sick and didn’t tell her,” Prim said, finishing the last dish. “ Well, I gotta go now. It’s my bedtime.” She stood on her tiptoes and planted a kiss on my cheek. “ G’night,” she said before disappearing.

“ Goodnight,” I said, though of course she won’t hear it.

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I was seriously getting worried now. It’s been three, full days Addy has been spending in bed now for fever. And her temperature isn’t going anywhere but up now. Her playful grin has disappeared now and her cheeks, even though they were hollow before, are even more hollow making her cheekbones to be more prominent.

“ Why aren’t you hunting with Katniss?” she croaked one day when she saw me coming into the room they shared along with Prim, a bowl of cool water and a towel in my hands.

“ I wanted to take care of you.” She coughed again. “ Here,” I handed her a tin of mint tea, “ Katniss said this could help ease the paper-rough throat.” She took it gratefully and drank from it slowly.

“ I feel bad stealing your hunting time,” she began but I shushed her. I dipped the towel into the cool water and placed it on her burning forehead.

“ Don’t feel bad about it. I’d feel more bad if I didn’t take care of you in your state,” I said quietly, brushing away a few strand hair. 

“ Why, though?” she asked, taking my hand and played with it. “ You shouldn’t feel bad about it. I mean, Prim and Mrs. Everdeen could watch over me.” I stared at her hand, intertwined with mine. Her hand felt hot, a little too hot.

“ Because you’re all I’ve got. If you die, I might even lose the will to die,” I whispered to her, resting my head against her side. “ Got that? You die, I die.”

She was silent for awhile, playing with my hand. We didn’t speak for awhile, enjoying each other’s company, wishing it was done under better circumstances. When she uttered the words I didn’t expect her to say:

“ Katniss likes you.”

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It was like the skies itself was mourning.

We were standing at the graveyard, watching as my sister’s coffin being lowered into the ground. People around us were patting me, giving their condolence, assuring me that it was probably the best for her than suffering in this world.

After nearly two weeks suffering from her mysterious disease, she finally succumbed to it. And I wasn’t by her side at that time. I feel hollow now. Absolutely, terribly hollow. Perhaps part of me has died already. I remembered the last conversation we had that morning the day she died. The day I stupidly agreed to go hunting with Gale and Katniss…

“ If I die, you can’t, okay?” she suddenly said when I came up, armed with my hunting gear. I immediately knelt next to her, placing my hand on her forehead, testing her temperature. Definitely haven’t dropped, even a degree.

“ What are you talking about, kiddo?” I asked her, taking the towel Mrs. Everdeen had given to me and dipped it in the cool towel. “ You are going to get better. And after you do, like it or not, you and Prim are going to follow us hunting, okay? We are going to have a great time hunting together: you, me, Katniss, Prim and Gale. One happy family.” I placed the soaked towel onto her forehead, suddenly noticing a tear sliding from her eye.

“ Promise me that you will go on,” she pleaded. I stared at her, perplexed. “ If I die, you will continue your life normally. You won’t die with me. You are going to live a long, happy life.” Her eyes, her gray eyes, were pleading to me. I couldn’t say no.

“ I promise.” She closed her eyes and breathed in relief.

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