"Attention, tributes, attention."

I awake to the voice of Claudius Templesmith booming throughout the cave. I shift uncomfortably, but I think I am the warmest I have been in weeks, due to the muscular body lying next to me.

But before I even look at him, I sigh, because Claudius is going to announce something, and I need to be ready for it.

"Commencing at sunrise, there will be a feast tomorrow at the Cornucopia. This will be no ordinary occasion. Each of you needs something desperately. And we plan to be generous hosts."

As his voice fades away, I look to Cato. His eyes are now open, though I am not aware of when that happened, and they are looking straight at me. Even in the dim light of the cave, they are blindingly blue.

"What do we need?" He murmurs.

"I don't know," I reply, just as confused as he is. "But I'm going. You can stay in the trees, watch my back."

I slip out the sleeping bag, picking up my knives, which lie in the corner of the cave. Cato also gets out, standing up for face me.

He chuckles wryly. "Sage, if we don't even know what we need, why would we willingly risk our lives for it?"

"We don't know what it is, it could be useful," I snap at him, momentarily forgetting the 'in love' act. "And if it is useful, we can't risk the other tributes having it."

"Sage, I'm not just letting you walk in there-"

"We need it, Cato, and I'm not letting it go-"

"But you don't understand, I can't let you go-"

"You can't tell me what to do, and I'm going to that feast, like it or n-"

Then his hands are on my face and he is kissing me, hard. But I am reciprocating because I need to, and because I have to. His lips are somehow still soft, despite days in the Games, and his hands are gentle on my face, despite being rough and calloused.

They stay on my cheeks as he pulls back.

"You're faster than me," he murmurs, looking into my eyes. "So I'll keep watch as you get whatever it is, okay?"

I nod.

"But listen to me," his voice gains an edge of anger. "If one of them so much as lays a finger on you, I'll kill them."

I watch as his eyes flicker with anger, with worry, with fear. And then back to love, staring straight at me.

I nod, bringing one of my hands upwards and placing my fingers in the gaps between his. "Okay."

Because really, I can't say fairer than that.

☦︎☦︎☦︎

The Cornucopia looks no different than normal.

Past it, I can see the ground I blew up, and the remains of the ruined supplies and wasted Career camp. But the actual horn is just as shiny as usual.

Cato and I are hidden at the moment, watching in the safety of the trees. I am holding a knife in my hands, the rest safely strapped around my waist, and he has his sword clutched to his chest.

We don't talk, but not because we are scared people will hear us, but because our eyes are trained on the point just outside the Cornucopia, where four small labelled bags lie atop a stone surface.

The bag furthest to the left has a 1 printed upon it, and it's for Glimmer. The one next to that is labelled 5, for Foxface. 11 is upon the next one in line, the one that Thresh will be coming to take. But the last one is different, because it has two numbers upon it.

2 & 12.

And it is that pack that Cato and I have our eyes on. We have no idea what lies inside it, but we need it.

"I should just go," I eventually hiss to the boy behind me.

"No," Cato's right in my ear. "Thresh could be waiting in the trees as well. Or Glimmer, and she has a bow."

I sigh, rolling my eyes. But I have you, I want to say. But that would mean flattering him, and I have no intentions of doing th-

My body tenses as there's a commotion on the plain, and I back right up into Cato. He tenses and so do I, and I can feel every single muscle within him as I press my back against his chest.

Because right in front of us, Foxface has ran out of the Cornucopia, taking her bag and not even touching the others (despite being in the perfect condition to steal one) before sprinting as fast as she can off the plain, and into the woods.

Fuck, I curse inside my head, annoyed. Whilst Cato and I, and probably Glimmer and Thresh, as well, were hiding in the trees, debating on whether we should run or not, Foxface hid inside the Cornucopia and got her bag easily! She also, rather cleverly, did not steal any of the others, meaning she didn't have chasing her that she didn't want. She's smart, but not skilled in combat.

"I'm going," I tell Cato, turning my head to look at him. His face is set, his jaw locked, and he nods.

"Just call if you need me," he whispers. "And I'll be there in a second."

I nod, holding my knife closer than ever as I ready myself.

I'm fast. I know I am. I'm faster than Katniss, faster than Gale, and faster than Cato.

But I am maybe not faster than potential killers.

The sprint sets my legs alight with fire and they burn hard as I run straight at the Cornucopia, my eyes locked in on the bag with 2 & 12 pasted on it.

When I get to the stone table, I make no haste and grab the bag faster than I thought possible, swiftly changing direction and running back to Cato, who I suddenly can't spot among the trees-

And that's when the arrow hits my shoulder.

"Urgh!" I cry out in pain it impales me, sending me flying towards the ground. I hit it hard but waste no time, harshly pulling the arrow out of my shoulder and swiftly sending a knife back towards the one who aimed it at me.

Glimmer.

She's around twenty metres away, but she's gaining ground fast. My knife hits her in the forehead, but it doesn't cut her deeply, only hinders her for a second before she's upon me, grabbing me and sending me hurling down again.

"Argh-" I grunt, because the pain is instantaneous as she slams me onto the grass. I fight back, sending us rolling to the side but soon she is above me again, refusing to give up. She suddenly draws a dagger from nowhere and gets on top of me, pinning me down.

I grunt as I look at the blade, her face holding a cruel smirk as she uses her elbows to keep me off her, aiming her long, silver blade at my face-

"Urgh!" I get a hand up to her face, slapping her as hard as I can manage with my injured shoulder. But then she yells in absolute anger and slams the blade down into the place my neck was a second prior, before I rolled out the way.

But then she properly pins me, her feet holding each of my arms to the side, her hands delicately holding the knife to my neck. I am violently reminded of Rue so much I want to throw up.

I know I can't get her off me, I'd be a fool to think that. And I also know that Cato isn't coming, because if he was, he'd be here by now.

So this is it, somewhere inside my brain thinks. Please be fast. For Katniss. For Prim.

"Where's Cato?" Glimmer asks me, smirking slightly. "I thought he was gonna protect you, but clearly he's failed at that..."

I struggle some more, my body writhing under her, my whole entity now built from fear.

"You know, he doesn't actually love you," Glimmer then tells me. "He's just using you to win the games. And then after he does, he'll be done with you."

I don't know why this thought makes me so angry, but soon, I am foaming at the mouth, almost spitting at her.

"That's- not- t-true-" I snarl, the knife pressing further into my neck. I know soon, it will start to draw blood.

Glimmer chuckles. "Too bad I'll kill you before he can use you. Just like we killed your little friend."

I know who she means, and it makes me so angry, so fucking annoyed, that I start to gain some power over her.

"What was her name again...? Rue?" Glimmer grins, as I writhe and kick and splutter. "Yeah, well, we killed her. And now, I'm gonna kill y-"

"SAGE!"

Just then, a lot of things happened. All I was aware of was Glimmer suddenly getting wrenched off of me, the knife held to my neck disappearing and my whole body going limp, but an outsider would see a lot more.

An outsider would see Cato sprinting towards Glimmer and I, a look of tortured desperation on his face. They would see him dragging her off me, and pinning her up against the shiny wall of the Cornucopia. They would see the amount of anger and hatred on his face for her, for almost killing... me.

I come to just in time to hear Glimmer scream as Cato slams her body against the Cornucopia, not even yelling, just irate with anger, face red.

It only takes three hits before Glimmer's body falls, her eyes wide and glassy, her mouth lolling open. In the distance, a cannon fires.

Cato doesn't even look at the girl he has just killed, opting instead to run at me. He dives down next to me, taking my face in his hands. "Are you okay? Did she hurt you?"

She did, and now the adrenaline from the fight is wearing off, my shoulder is aching. I can feel some of the blood leaking from it down my arm. I know the wound there will be deep, as Glimmer was quite close to me when she shot the arrow. I try not to think about that.

I just look at him, because again, he has killed to protect me. Again, he has proved he is better at playing in love than I ever will be.

Playing. Because that's all this is.

"I-I'm fine," I stammer, my eyes on his.

"No, you're not," Cato tells me, looking at my shoulder. "She hit you, didn't she? With an arrow?"

I can only nod.

"I'm so sorry, Sage," his thumb rubs along my cheekbone as he murmurs to me, frustration and guilt filling his tone. "I thought Thresh was tracking me and I had to move. I- I came as soon as I saw-"

"It's fine," I tell him. "Really, it is. Uh... do you have the pack?"

"Yeah, it's here," Cato says, handing me the small bag with 2 & 12 upon it. "We can open it when we get back to the cave."

I nod, letting him help me up even though I am certain I could do it myself. It's my shoulder that's hurting, not my legs.

So I don't show any weakness as we run back, despite the fact my body is shaking and my head is reeling. I don't show any weakness or any sign of fragility. I tough it out, biting the inside of my mouth and blinking rapidly when the tears threaten to come.

I don't know whether Cato has figured out my act or not.

But if I was to bet, I would say he had me figured a hundred times over.

☦︎☦︎☦︎

When we get back to the cave I allow a groan to be uttered from my lips, sitting with my back against the wall, begging the tears not to enter my eyes.

"Open it," I tell Cato, as he sets down our supplies. "The pack."

He nods, taking the small thing and opening it up. I frown as what is inside is revealed. An average sized pot of something, rather like how my burn medicine was contained, only bigger.

"What is it?" I ask, because I've not got enough energy left inside me to get up and see what it is.

Cato opens the pot, and the look of relief on his face when he does almost sends me. I realise that I could die right now and be alright, purely because I have seen that look on that boy in this cave.

He kneels down next to me. "It's a healing salve," he says, shaking his head in anticipation and grinning. "It's- Sage, you're going to be okay."

I resister this, of course I do, but there's a part of my brain that keeps thinking about that look.

"Sage, listen, you're going to have to stay still," Cato tells me. "I'm going to hold your hand while I put this on and it's going to sting, but only for a second, okay?"

"Okay," I nod, throwing my head back as my vision starts to blur.

Cato takes a small amount of salve and applies it to my wound. I grit my teeth and bite my tongue to stop myself from crying out, because the stinging is intense. My nails dig into Cato's hand, but he doesn't say anything. He doesn't even flinch.

His fingers on my wound make me want to scream, but I don't. They are light, and gentle, but you can't avoid hurting someone when doing something like that.

"It's okay, it's okay," he keeps whispering to me. "Just a little more, okay?"

I nod, squeezing my eyes shut as he administers more. The stinging feels like a thousand burning hot knives are impaling me, but already, I can feel the salve alleviating some of the pain, and cooling the wound off a bit.

"That's you done," Cato says, removing his hand from my shoulder. "I'll just get some bandages from your pack and finish it off."

"T-thank you," my voice is shaky and pained, but I hope it tells him how happy I am for his presence here. I want to tell him that in words, as well.

But as he comes back with the bandages and I try to maneuver so that my back is facing him, I decide now is not the right time. Later will be, when the audience need some good entertainment and no deaths are taking place, but not now.

No. For now, Cato and I will sit in silence in the cave, as he bandages me up, and I try not to cry. And I am happy to do that, to sit here. Even if the cameras aren't.

Because, after all, who gives a shit what they think?

☦︎☦︎☦︎

When I wake the next morning, Cato is sitting above me, watching me intently.

"Hi," I tell him, a stupid little smile on my face. They'll like that, the Capitol.

"Hey," he smiles back, seemingly catching on to my latest act. "How's your shoulder?"

I haven't actually even noticed it this morning, but I don't know what I expect when I look at the wound, lifting the bandages somewhat.

"Oh my-" the rest of my sentence is swallowed whole with a gasp. It's- it's almost completely gone. All that lies there is a slight scar and some dried blood around it.

Cato, too, kneels next to me, gently unwrapping the bandages and whooping with joy as he sees that my shoulder has little to no damage left on it.

"We could go home," he says eventually, a smile wider than life itself on his face. "We could, Sage. We really could."

I smile back at him, trying not to think of home.

Because I did that before, and almost died as a result of it.

☦︎☦︎☦︎

Our food supply is running low, so I suggest going on a hunt. Cato readily agrees, given that the soup is almost finished and the meat is going off.

We pack up our stuff and leave the cave, hoping that later, we will get to return to it.

We have to walk a fair distance to where the good hunting spot is, so whilst we do, I decide the audience might as well have another conversation. We're in love, after all.

"So, Cato," I start conversationally, as if we are not right in the middle of the Hunger Games. "You, uh... you never told me about your family."

I am right. I told him about mine, but he never told me about his. I finally look at him, at his intoxicating blue eyes and his annoyingly perfectly symmetrical face. "All you said was that it was a loaded question."

"It is, because my dad's an asshole," Cato says, his face casual and his tone anything but. "He's the reason I'm here, actually. Because he forced me to volunteer for the games."

I do a double take. "What? Your- your dad-?"

"Forced me, yeah," Cato nodded, kicking the roots of a tree as we walk past it. "It's been drilled into me since day one that winning the games is the top priority in life. My dad and his twin brother fought over who would represent Two their year, and my uncle won. Course, now he's dead and my dad's obsessed with having his son win so he can 'beat' his brother."

"What the fuck?" I utter, because there's nothing else to say.

"Yeah, I know," Cato clenches his fists. "It got so bad my mother started drinking and... well, let's just say she... didn't live long after that."

My eyes widen.

"And my younger brother, Carson, he..." Cato bites his lip, his face a mask but his eyes shining through it, full off anger and sadness and guilt. "He's only thirteen, and he's already getting all this pressure piled on him to volunteer when he's eighteen, and I- I hate it," he shakes his head. "I hate my dad for making us like this."

We stop walking, and I face him, forcing him to look into my eyes.

"Listen to me," I even take his hands, interlocking our fingers and squeezing tightly. "Listen, Cato."

He looks at me, and I tell him exactly what I think.

"Your dad is a horrible person for doing that to you and your brother," I tell him. "Absolutely horrible."

"Yeah, I know that, but I could've gone against h-"

"But I understand why you didn't," I say, gripping his hands tightly. "Cato, you're young, and he sounds so fucking manipulative that I don't blame you for following him. You were just a kid, Cato. A kid."

He nods, biting his lip and levelling his eyes at the ground. "I'm sorry, Sage, I- this is so stupid, but-"

"It's not stupid," I shake my head, squeezing his hand. "And listen, when we win, you don't have to go back to Two. You can live with me, and my mother and my sisters, and they'll love you, Cato, I promise."

My face is close to his now, and as I deliver my last words, our foreheads touched. "We can be your family," I whisper.

And then we're kissing again, and it's more passionate than I think we ever have. I end it quickly, though, because for all I know, we could be killed next moment.

"We need to hunt," I murmur to him, panting slightly.

"I know," he tells me, his voice the same soft tone as mine. "You go and find some game, I'll stay here and pick berries and stuff."

I nod, slipping a knife out of my belt and gripping it tight.

I walk slowly away from him, my light tread carrying me. My thoughts are all jumbled, but when I see a particularly fat pheasant sat on a branch above me some two minutes later, I act immediately.

I pull my hand back, my shoulder stinging slightly but not hurting any more than that. I wince only a small bit before I ready myself to throw.

Just before the cannon fires.