The soft patter of the rain in the cave immediately roused me to my senses as I woke up later in the afternoon of the feast. I suppose I've been asleep for a few hours, and when I rolled over, there was (Y/N) lying right next to me...her forehead cut open and blood pouring out, making puddles all over the muddy ground of the cave.

By now, my own ankle has felt a lot better. I don't feel much pain anymore sitting down, so I slowly got to my feet and started walking around again, which didn't hurt as bad as before. My burn was also improving--just a bit more medicine was all I needed for further improvement, which I put on gratefully. But I don't know if I can say the same for (Y/N). If that wound isn't cleared up and if the blood flow doesn't stop, she could lose consciousness entirely and...I don't want to be left alone to fend off myself in the arena.

As I rummage further into my bag, I realized I was clean out of gauze, though I still had a bit of bandaging cloth left. Quickly, I went through (Y/N)'s bag, and saw a loaf of bread with seeds on it, a (F/G) circlet--possibly from a sponsor--a long roll of white cloth, some gauze, several safety pins, a water bottle, and two pairs of those glasses she wore two nights ago. I grabbed a couple wads of gauze and wiped away all the excess blood on her face, being extremely careful now with her wound. Then I used some water from her bottle, wet the gauze a bit, and laid it on her head, hoping that it didn't make her wince with pain. Unrolling the huge roll of white cloth now, I wrapped that around her wound and used a safety pin to pin the bandage down, tightening the bandage now so that it doesn't slip.

Pulling away, I gazed at my handiwork, then at her sweet innocent face bearing no expression. A single tear leaked out of her eye, though, and I carefully brushed it away with my thumb, my hand cupping her cheek gently. Her skin making contact with mine sent a warm rush down my arm, a smile now tugging on my lips. Seeing her like this right now, I have to say I felt some new respect for her on a higher level--to go through so much with the Careers, and then Rue, and now me...she's a fighter, someone who doesn't give up on anyone she cared about.

And I don't want her dying on me.

Just as that thought crossed my mind, the anthem suddenly boomed outside, and I ran to the mouth of the cave to check the statistics, praying that a cannon hadn't boomed for (Y/N) while I was asleep. Surely enough, the face that flashed in the sky wasn't (Y/N). It was Clove from District 2. Then the Panem seal reappeared, and the presentation was over.

Clove. The girl who admired (Y/N)'s knife throwing, the girl who once proved herself to be a threat with her own knives in her own way, gone. Something snapped in me, but I didn't dare start screaming. Okay, well, maybe I don't have much sympathy for her since she is a Career and desperate for a win, but why? Why do people like her devote themselves so much into this--this thing that the Capitol so carefully constructed as punishment for us for the last 74 years? No one in the right mind would want to see another one of their children go away, dead under someone else's hands.

This sudden realization made me think of (Y/N). I glanced back at her now and walked back to her, kneeling beside her and gazing at her sleeping form, and then I heard a weak moan escape her lips. It didn't take me a long time to realize that (Y/N) was waking up. Slowly, I caressed her cheek with my hand, stroking my thumb against her skin as I gazed at her.

"(Y/N), you okay?" I whispered.

"(Y/N), you okay?" you heard a voice call out softly to you.

The sound of Peeta's voice made you stir now, and slowly, you opened your eyes to see him crouched over you, his face bearing no expression. Well, almost no expression. You did see a little bit of worry in his eyes as you glanced up at him.

"Peeta," you murmured. "How long was I out?"

He shook his head. "I don't know. I woke up a few moments ago to see you in a very scary pool of blood beside me. But don't worry--I bandaged it up for you just now."

You nodded as you hesitantly raised a hand to your eyebrow, frowning as your fingertips brushed against the rough white cloth that served a bandage for you. A soft pattering noise caught your attention as you glanced up to see rain falling gently around the cave you were in, and you frowned.

"How could it--how could--" you faltered.

"I don't know," Peeta repeated, shaking his head again. "Why? Was it clear out when you were at the feast?"

You nodded, the replay of what happened at the feast returning to you in full force. The gash Clove opened, which was now bandaged. The blade at your throat. The knife tip that traced the outline of your lips...

"Have you opened the pack yet? I mean, did you see what our families sent us?" you asked him now.

Peeta shook his head yet again. "I was going to wait for you to wake up. By the way, I saw Clove in the sky," he whispered.

"Yeah." You shrugged nonchalantly, trying to push the memories of Clove's final moments with you away as you pulled the pack you got from the feast close to you. "Shall we?"

Peeta nodded as he zipped open the pack, and his eyes widened at the things that were packed for you. There was a bag of freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies from Peeta's family, and then your mother followed up with a golden pocket watch for you. Confusion swept on your face for a moment before you remembered that your father used to wear this all the time before he died. You opened the pocket watch now, glancing at the hands that remained frozen at 5:24 on the clock. Hmm.

"A pocket watch?" Peeta asked, glancing at the golden pocket watch you were holding.

"It was my dad's," you murmured, closing the lid of the clock and pocketing it. "Maybe they were right. The Gamemakers, I mean. Our days are numbered...and soon they will come to an end before we can blink. I hope this doesn't foreshadow, you know..." You let your voice trail off as you curled yourself up into a ball. "Though it does remind me of what Clove almost did to me."

"(Y/N), you're still alive, and so am I," Peeta reminded you. "We'll find a way out of this together. And we'll figure out what's going on after it all. Trust me." He then reached out and took your hand again--a custom that you still weren't completely used to since that fight on the hovercraft. "We could go home. We're the only team left."

You nodded, biting your lip in doubt. Five of you were left, but who knows what would happen during the next few days? Yet you decided to believe Peeta, for that one shining moment. "We could go home," you echoed, feeling another grin curve your lips up as you hugged Peeta tight, the excitement and prospect of going home growing bigger with every passing second in his arms.

"Have you eaten anything?" you asked him finally after you let him go.

"No. Though we do have a bit of that bird left over and your bread," Peeta stated.

"Bread? Oh," you remembered, pulling out the loaf from District 11. "Sorry." Taking the loaf in your hands, you split it in half and handed one half to Peeta. "They sent this to me when Rue died," you whispered.

"Oh." Peeta's eyes were wide with sorrow as he approached you and wrapped an arm around you. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," you muttered, feeling tears leak out of your eyes. "It's okay."

Peeta nodded as he let go of you, and the two of you dug into the bread and groosling, feeling comfortable in each other's company just as if you two were still back in District 12, hanging out with each other in town. Little did you know that there was another person watching wistfully at the both of you, a tear rolling down his own cheek as he stayed outside the cave.

Cato.

Sitting by a tree while the rain gently pours isn't exactly what I thought to be doing at this very moment. The final image of Clove in the sky kept flashing behind my eyelids, and no matter how many times I blinked, trying to rid the image from my brain, it kept flashing brighter than ever.

So what does it matter anymore if Clove says I am a coward, unable to fight anymore? Sure, the Capitol sees me as a fighter. But as I kept repeating to myself, the real fighter is (Y/N). She and Peeta deserve that taste of victory more than me. And guess where all that anger lead Clove to.

That's right. Her own demise.

It's amazing, really, how people who devote themselves to the Games just for the sake of it end up dying quicker than the people who stay just to try and prove something to the Capitol. For all I know, (Y/N), Peeta, and I are the only ones who are probably thinking of the Games in a whole new light. And that light, I hope the Capitol realized, is not a good one. In honesty, that's the only thing that is keeping me alive--the fact that I want to show the Capitol something beyond what they can see.

Eventually, I decided to get up and walk around now, just to get rid of the stiffness in my legs. As I crossed by the mouth of a cave, I saw two people in there, dining on bread and groosling and cookies. It took me a moment to realize that the two tributes in there were (Y/N) and Peeta, and from what I could see, they were pretty happy together.

Pain shot through my heart as I turned away from the scene. What was I even thinking earlier, chasing after (Y/N) in hopes that she'll turn to me and see me? Maybe I take back my wish of seeing her before I died. She probably got freaked out too, the way I ran to her. Besides, she's happy with Peeta, and I support her happiness, but I sacrificed my own as the terminal cost. Tears started to stream down my face, mingling with the rain water, and then I walked away from the cave where (Y/N) and Peeta were, trying to find another place to stay for the night, a heavy weight settling into my chest as I climbed up a tree and laid on a tree branch, using my sleeping bag as my only blanket.

Sleep came to me the moment I closed my eyes.