The blurry image of a boy with messy hair the shade of night shook her shoulders. Was he real? Who was he?

" What are you doing here? GET OUT OF HERE! GO! HURRY!" His muffled voice broke as he yelled.

The last thing that Rapunzel noticed before she passed out was how blue the boy's eyes were. Like the ocean.

***********************************************************************************************

The forest around her slowly came into vision as Rapunzel blinked.

She was lying on the forest floor, her backpack under her head like a pillow. Which- she did not remember doing.

She looked down at her arms, which had little plastered leaves on each of her stings.

" What? Who..."

She heard a twig snap and looked at the tree in front of her. She saw a body that quickly disappeared behind the tree.

Rapunzel recounted her memories. She slowly stood and walked gently over to the tree.

" It's ok." She smiled. " You can come out."

The boy's head slowly peeked around the tree. His shaggy dark hair and blue eyes seemed to bore into Rapunzel's soul.

" I...I remember you." Rapunzel gasped. " You were the boy from District 11, I remember seeing you practice in the trap section at training."

The boy came into full view, shyly. " Um...yes. Yeah."

" What's your name?"

" Varian."

Rapunzel sat on a log and opened her backpack.

" Well, Varian. I'm Rapunzel, are you the one I have to thank for saving my life?"

" I-I uh, I suppose." Varian said. Rapunzel noticed that he had a few leaves on his arms and neck as well. From stings.

" Were...you the one that chopped down that bee hive?" She asked.

Varian nodded. " It was a trap I rigged. I warned you that night because, well...you weren't my target."

Rapunzel tried to put the pieces together. " You were targeting the Careers?"

" Yes. I only got one of them though. Andrew and the other two are still out here somewhere." The boy seemed disappointed as he spoke. Maybe even a little scared.

" They were after you, weren't they? Andrew and Caine, what did you do that made them so angry?" Rapunzel questioned the boy.

He didn't seem dangerous, but the boy was setting traps. He was sneaky. That was for certain. She hadn't even noticed that he had rigged the bee trap only a few feet above her when she was in the tree.

" Well, you see- The careers captured me about a day after the Games started. They were going to kill me, but I said I could build them traps for other tributes. I..I didn't want to. But they made me do it. They made me rig bombs all around their camp where they're keeping their supplies. So no one can steal it. I escaped because they didn't realize I had set another trap, a ditch covered in sticks and leaves. They got caught in it and I ran. And well, I guess they didn't like being outsmarted, because they've been hunting me ever since." Varian seemed a bit proud of his trap work. Even though he said he hadn't wanted to do it. But Rapunzel understood. The boy seemed a bit like the workshop type.

But there was another emotion in his eyes. Fear. " They didn't hurt you, did they?" Rapunzel asked.

Varian's excitement toned down. He pulled up his pant leg to reveal a healing wound. A spear wound. " One of them didn't like me, and gave me this. That night I got medicine from a sponsor. I couldn't have escaped without that."

Rapunzel put a gentle hand on his shoulder. " I'm sorry." Varian gave a small smile. " It's not your fault we're here."

" It's not yours, either."

" You're right, its theirs."

Rapunzel knew who he meant. The Capitol.

" You hungry?" She asked him.

Soon, Varian was spooning mouthfulls of fruit salad like it was the first meal he'd had in days. Perhaps it was. Rapunzel could tell the boy wanted more, but he closed the lid and pushed the remains of the treat away.

" Its okay, you can have it."

" No, No its okay. We should save it."

" Really, it'll get spoiled within a day. Best to eat it now." Varian reopened the lid and ate another bite, honey drizzled down his chin and powdered sugar stuck to his face. Rapunzel couldn't help but smile. Despite the boy's smarts, he was innocent. He couldn't be older than 14. He was just a boy.

Rapunzel herself was reaped 2 days before her 18th birthday. She was so close to being above the average age for the reaping. She got to spend her 18th birthday being trained to die in a million different ways.

Varian offered Rapunzel the last bite, which she thanked him and bit into the last bit of juicy strawberry. She closed her eyes and imagined she was at home, and eating her mother's wonderful hazelnut soup. She smiled, she opened her eyes and saw Varian holding back a chuckle. They both laughed, knowing they were reminiscing of their own homes and loved ones.

Night soon fell and the two made a small campfire, Varian had built a filtration system with cloth from his bandana he had snatched from the Careers at their camp. The fire's smoke was no longer a signal to other tributes of their own whereabouts.

" You know Varian, you're really smart." Rapunzel said as she stoked the fire, cooking 2 squirrels Varian had trapped nearby.

The boy sat on the log next to her, he wore a sheepish smile. " Thanks, I've always liked making things. Helpful things. My district, the agriculture district, farms all kinds of fruit and vegetables. Though we're never really allowed to eat any. Sometimes we can sneak some, if the peacekeepers aren't looking. But there's a severe punishment if you get caught. My dad and I are in charge of the pumpkins in our village. I tried to build a machine that could harvest them out of spare parts. It took me almost 2 years to collect all the pieces of metal and stuff like that...but someone must have told our mayor." The boy's eyes were distant and sad.

"Because he had the peacekeepers destroy it. They set it on fire one night and it burned down half of my fathers crops...I got punished. Ever since then, i don't really make things anymore. I work in the fruit tree fields now with everyone else." He tried to smile, but it was such a sad smile that it made the girl's heart hurt.

" I'm so sorry. But...why should you get punished? You weren't even hurting anyone." Rapunzel said.

" Doesn't matter. What i was doing was against the rules."

The boy seemed so sad and anguished, Rapunzel quickly looked for a new topic as she took the cooked squirrels off the fire and handed him one. The two ate in silence for a few minutes before Rapunzel spoke again.

" So...how long was i out for?"

" About 2 days." Varian bit into a leg.

" Did anyone?..." She couldn't say the rest.

" The girl from 9 and the boy from 8." Varian said nonchalantly.

Only 13 people left. Rapunzel thought.

" The girl from your district. She's gone too, right? Did you know her?" Rapunzel remembered the last time she had seen the images in the sky. The girl from District 11.

" No, but she was nice. She worked in the factory where the harvest is shipped to the Capitol. Her name was Faith. The Careers held her captive so i would comply with their demands. They killed her after i escaped." Varian's voice was steady until the end, where his voice hitched with sadness and hurt.

" Say...You said you built minefields around their camp?" Rapunzel thought out loud. Varian nodded, crunching the greasy squirrel.

" If...If you built it- then maybe...maybe we can destroy it! Get rid of their supplies!" She perked up.

Varian swallowed. " You really think so?" He asked hopefully.

" Yes! If we can deonate all of the mines, it'll destroy all of their stuff!" Rapunzel knew the dangers of the explosives, the mining district had worked with them all the time.

" But how? We'll be blown to smitherines if we take one step over there. And thats if the Careers don't find us first."

Rapunzel was silent a moment, considering their options. She turned to the boy. " I have a plan." Her eyes were determined. Maybe they would live through this after all.