The train is a sacred place now, though the bed feels empty without Kurt in it, he still feels safer on the moving carriage than he does in his own bed. He tries not to think about the two children in the compartments next to him. Because that's what they are, they are nothing more than children.

A girl, fourteen years old, has two older brothers who weren't as brave as Katniss Everdeen. The girl with the braid, who took her sister's place. Everyone is talking about it, her name rolls of everyone's tongue as soon as they open their mouths. The girl has brought something on, a discussion about morality. She's given the Tributes a face and a person behind it. She's given them emotion and both Quinn and Cooper had agreed she has a great chance of winning.

They're both on the train, two compartments down from Blaine and he can still hear them talking. They think Katniss will win, think she can be it, whatever it may be. Their father had agreed as well, and now more than ever Blaine wants to know what they're up to. They won't tell him, say time still isn't right, but Cooper has promised him it's soon.

Now, he needs to focus on trying to save this fourteen year old girl or seventeen year old boy who are most likely going to die anyway. Blaine's pretty sure Isabelle has scared of April Rhodes enough to convince her to sponsor this year's tributes and on top of that the kids are both infuriatingly plain to begin with. The girl has done nothing to indicate she's even aware of anything happening around her and the boy seems not to care.

Blaine hopes it's quick. He, Quinn and Cooper have tried to explain to the kids what is being asked of them, have told them to run away from the Cornucopia. Find shelter, make sure the fires you start won't help others locate you. He's tried to tell them and he's smashed his hands on the table trying to get them to listen, but Cooper had shushed him and shook his head.

It's no use, he explained after they'd watched all the other District's reapings and the boy and girl had gone to bed. Quinn had joined them not long after, as had Isabelle, leaving Blaine and Cooper alone in the dining compartment. They'd chatted for a short while before Cooper had explained to Blaine how mentoring works. How you know within half a day whether or not they have a chance of making it.

“A few years before you we had this girl, she was strong willed and determined. We didn't have to tell her or try to get her attention. She sought us, she asked us questions. She wanted to know how to survive. That's how you know you've got a fighter on your hands, when they want to talk to you and want to know how to survive. Most of the kids we've had were like the ones we have this year. Passive, not really understanding what's happening to them until they're thrown into the Arena and even then it's too late. They're in shock, mostly. Give them time.”

So Blaine lies in bed, thinking of a ginger girl in the room next to him, a dark skinned boy one compartment along from that. Their names, Lumox and Jane, he tries not to think about them too much. It's almost the same as it was last year. Keep them nameless as long as possible, try to minimalize the loss and grief. Cooper had warned him, the first year is the hardest, and so he does everything he can to make it as easy as possible.

Of course, the easiest would be if the children would just listen to what Blaine had to say, but he can't tie them to their chairs and make them hear him. He needs to let them be, have them go through prep and styling tomorrow and then at dinner try again. That's all he can do for now. He'll guide Lumox to prep, hopes he will see Kurt for a short while before Sugar will haul him in and dress Lumox.
The next day he's not as lucky. Lumox is late out of bed, his eyes red brimmed and wide with fear. Blaine spends most of his morning comforting the boy and telling him they'll do everything within their power to get him out. It's all he can promise, really, his very best and anything in his power. Or maybe not, because anything in his power would mean trying to use Kurt's sources again and he won't.

Seeing Kurt again after having been apart for half a year is weird, especially when it's in a public setting and all around them are people running, trying to set everything ready for the nation-wide broadcast. Kurt walks towards Blaine with Lumox in tow. The suit Lumox wears looks a whole lot like the suit Blaine had worn last year, the bread crust look over it and it's skin tight. Blaine almost laughs as he sees it, Lumox uncomfortable and stiff, but the fear in Lumox's eyes make it impossible to even do so much as chuckle.

Instead, he chooses to watch Kurt. His hair is higher than it has ever been, more silver too and it seems like he's gotten the tattoo next to his eye touched up as well. The heart shines bright and clear, as if it was marked in his face just for Blaine. He smiles wide and waves a little, Blaine waves in return but when he actually approaches Blaine at the carriage where he's waiting for them, all they can do is shake hands and tell each other a friendly hello.

Things are a little awkward between them from that moment on, they watch Lumox and Jane climb to the carriage. Meanwhile Blaine keeps up the polite chatter with Jane's stylist, Tina, just as much as he does with Kurt. She's nice enough to be around and it distracts from the uncomfortable distance he feels between himself and Kurt. After the carriages are off into the open space where the audience awaits this year's Tributes, Blaine, Tina and Kurt join Cooper and Quinn backstage to watch the broadcast on a screen.

Quinn sits next to Haymitch Abernathy, who on his turn sits next to Finnick Odair. Next to him sits Johanna Mason and Blaine is to take his place next to her. Kurt joins a man named Cinna, who has eyes as golden as Kurt's are silver, to the room where the stylists and escorts can watch. Even here in the Capitol they'll be separated from each other, the people high up not believing anyone from the District is worthy sharing a room with. Not at large scale anyway, only when they're supposed to be a team like they will be in their quarters. Blaine looks after Kurt longingly, wishing he could do as much as brush his hand to know he's happy to see him again. He doesn't.

Instead, he sits tight in between Johanna Mason and Cooper as he watches the opening ceremony. Nothing seems off at first, every Tribute dressed in something that defines their District. Lumox and Jane don't do bad, though even after the rigorous prepping and styling on Kurt's and Tina's behalf they're still nothing more than plain looking between all the others, they manage to not look as scared on the screen as they had before the carriage took off. It's not until there's a close up of the District 12 carriage that every mentor in the backstage area gasps.

The boy and girl hold their hands high above their heads, smile and seem to be on fire. Behind them flames follow and the crowd erupts in cheers. Around them the victors start talking as well and Blaine looks over to Haymitch, who seems to have somewhat of a proud smile on his face. The rest of the mentors talk about the spectacle that seems to be this year's female Twelve. She first volunteers to take her sister's place in the Arena and then appears in the most memorable opening suit that has ever been designed for a simple tribute.

After the ceremony Isabelle comes into the room with Tina and Kurt in tow. They both look pissed, and Kurt shakes his head in Blaine's direction as soon as he goes to ask what's wrong. All six of them pick up their two Tributes and guide them to the elevators, which leads them back up to the familiar ninth floor. The entire elevator ride, which takes longer than Blaine remembers, he stands in the back and as close to Kurt as he can without touching him. He smells him, traces a single finger down his lower back, where his top stops just a little higher than his pants stop. The naked skin isn't something Blaine can resist to touch and Kurt reacts immediately.

“You okay, Kurt?”

“Sure, just a cold shiver.”

Kurt's voice is hollow, empty and if Blaine knew him any better he'd recognize it as angry. Blaine focuses on Kurt and Kurt alone as they exit the elevator into the big space of their living room for the next few days. Blaine doesn't get a chance to talk to Kurt alone, as he immediately retrieves to his room with his stuff, excusing himself to work on Lumox's suit for his interview with Caesar in a few days. Blaine looks around questioningly, but when Tina does the same Cooper shrugs and Isabelle tells them to leave the stylists be.

“It seems they're all a bit upset with Cinna and Portia, the District 12 stylists.”

“They were impressive,” Quinn puts in, but gets a sharp look from Isabelle as she does. Clearly Isabelle agrees with Kurt and Tina on this one. If only Blaine knew exactly what it was they agree on.

“Lumox, Jane, why don't you come with me?” he asks, “I'll show you your bedrooms for the following days.”

Blaine drops each of them off at their room, quickly explaining how everything inside works, and then excuses himself to his own room. He cleans up a little, puts on something comfortable and easy before he heads off to Kurt's room. It might not be the best time to disturb him, but they haven't seen each other for six months and he's missed those arms around him. He'll have them around his waist again tonight, no matter how angry Kurt might be with one of the other stylists.

Nothing could have prepared him to see Kurt sitting on the middle of his bed, that will go unused this week if Blaine's concerned, surrounded by different half cut fabrics and his eyes swollen and red with tears. It's the least composed he's ever seen Kurt, even when he saw him a few days after his own Games he hadn't looked this disheveled. Back then he'd seemed broken, full of heart ache and sorrow but this is just plain panic. He cries loud and Blaine can't do much more than to rush to his side and pull him in his arms. It's not how he'd imagined their first meeting after six months to be.

Kurt sobs into his arms, tells him how unfair it is, that they're obliged by the Capitol to dress the Tributes in something that represents their District and all he and Tina could come up with was bread crust and Cinna just puts his Tributes on fire. Kurt explains he and Cinna usually work together throughout the year, share a working space and Cinna had told Kurt nothing about his plans to use the visual fire technique.

Blaine listens, let's Kurt talk and ignores the bubbling feeling of irritation deep in his stomach. He knows this is what Kurt does and how he was raised, these are Kurt's struggles. A stylist coming up with a better concept than his own, that's disaster to Kurt's concerns. Maybe being out of a job next year, having to make do on his father's money. Blaine wants to leave Kurt sobbing in the room, find his tributes and teach them how to survive. He feels a need deep in his gut to protect the children he's been assigned as a mentor to and he wants to do everything he can to help them. He wants, more than anything, to have one of them as a neighbor and equal next year and instead he's stuck inside Kurt's bedroom with Kurt sobbing over a silly dress.
He doesn't mention it, doesn't dare to call Katniss's dress a silly one to Kurt and so he softly strokes Kurt's arm, holds him close and tells him everything will be alright. It's different, much different and yet not different at all, from his first night on floor Nine last year. Then, too, he'd spend the first evening before dinner curled up in a bed with Kurt. It had been his eyes that were swollen and raw from crying.

When Isabelle announces down the hall they have to be ready to eat in ten minutes he jokes to Kurt, tells him to rinse his eyes with cold water to erase the most obvious signs of his tears and then leaves him with a soft peck on the lips. It's all he can muster now, he needs to get to the tributes who desperately need and deserve his attention, though when he reaches the dinner table sees it's still no use.

Jane looks ahead without acknowledging anyone, doesn't touch the food on her plate and doesn't engage in the conversation. Lumox is polite, if anything, but distant and uninterested. He keeps asking Blaine, Cooper and Quinn about their games, but only questions fans tend to ask. None of the answers to his inquiries will help him in the Arena. All his questions do is send Blaine back into his own Arena, back into the pain he doesn't want to be reminded of anymore. His Games will be the freshest in anyone's mind right now, they'll be broadcast enough as it is without being reminded by hundreds of questions from his tribute.

How awesome did you feel when that girl's head got ripped off and then the boy drowned?

Kurt is just as absent during dinner as Jane is, while Tina seems to have composed herself quite okay. Of course, she doesn't share a work space with Cinna during the year and all that happened for her was someone had a better idea, a wider opportunity to design something special, she wasn't betrayed by her friend the way Kurt was. Kurt doesn't touch his food, and Blaine knows Kurt is a fan of a well cooked meal. He's seen Kurt eat on the victory tour, he's seen Kurt get seconds without using that awful drink that makes a person throw up, he knows Kurt appreciates food. He's not eating, he feels more betrayed than Blaine can possibly imagine, by this Cinna person.

Was it satisfying to see that guy's face turn into blisters?

Quinn keeps looking between Blaine and Kurt. Blaine knows she knows, she always knows. When he was younger she always knew about his silly crushes. She was the first to know when he was in love with the boy from the shop across from the Mayor's house in Nine, she was the one who helped him organize his serenade to win the boy over. He should maybe offer the boy some money now he has it, since he got him fired from his job there. He knows Quinn knows about him and Kurt and doesn't even try to hide it when she is the only one looking, when he reaches under the table to cover Kurt's hand with his own.

Did it hurt when you climbed that tree with all those injuries?

Kurt doesn't immediately react to the hand, but turns his own around after a while to squeeze Blaine lightly. He's distant, to say the least and it stings Blaine in more ways than one. He's disappointed Kurt seems this way, worried he might not feel the same about Blaine anymore. If you have everything you want, the ability to choose to do what you want most. If you have all the money you need and live in a place where food is a plenty, do you get tired of things easily? What if Kurt doesn't want him anymore.

What was the first thing you thought when you realized you were a victor?

“It doesn't matter, okay?” he spats in Lumox's direction, “what matters is you most likely aren't going to win. There's a girl out there who volunteered for her sister and was on fire today. Sponsors will like her more than your plain face. You are going to have to do all of it on your own, unlike me with all my medicine and water bottles and food thrown my way. You just need to survive the bloodbath and then try to befriend her enough so she'll share her stuff with you. My Arena was different from what your Arena will be, and Cooper and Quinn's Arenas were different too. We don't know how you're going to survive, but we know a few things and you'll listen to those. We know you shouldn't try to participate in the bloodbath, we know you need to hide and we know you need to not show anyone but the committee rating you your strengths. Show the other tributes what you're good at and they'll know how to execute you. That's all I can help you with. Train your basic survival skills, run away from the Cornucopia and try not to die.”

The entire table looks at Blaine with mouths open. Isabelle looks affronted at such bad table manners, as does Tina. Cooper looks angry and Quinn seems impressed. Kurt is clutching his hand tightly and finally has snapped out of the distant stare he'd been having so far. Blaine knows his speech hasn't helped Jane or Lumox in the slightest, but at least Kurt seems to be back with him.

They're silent the rest of the night, not sure how to continue now things seem to have changed between them. They still sleep in the same bed, Kurt's bed this time, and it's Blaine who spoons Kurt and holds him. It feels wrong, the fire coursing through his veins doesn't settle without the strong arms around him and he doesn't sleep. He'd looked forward to a decent night of sleep, that had been the only thing he was looking forward to about the 74th Hunger Games. Being able to sleep in Kurt's arms again seemed to make the whole mentoring and losing kids he'd grow to care about bearable. Nothing about this is bearable.

Blaine doesn't have to get up early the next morning, Isabelle lets them all sleep in and takes up her duty as escort while she takes the tributes down to the training center. Blaine assumes she just doesn't want the gamemakers to see his face after his rating debacle from the year before. So he stays in bed, awake, as he hears them rummage through the hall and to breakfast, stays in bed until he hears the ding of the elevator announcing their departure and gets out quietly as not to disturb Kurt. He spends his day in his room, watching mindless television and avoiding responsibility.

He doesn't see Kurt all day, not until dinner that night where he talks to Jane and Lumox about their day. He asks them what they think of the other tributes and hears nothing he could probably use in their defense. Katniss seems nice, though a loner, her District mate is a bit more social and they seem to be attached by the hip most of the time. The careers are intimidating, nothing new on that front, and Lumox is a bit disturbed at the age of the girl from Eleven. Blaine understands, she's even younger than Pennie was.

Dinner is quiet, mostly, just the tributes and victors open their mouths to talk throughout it and after that Jane and Lumox retrieve themselves to their private rooms. Blaine reckons they're tired after a day of training, being forced to work on things neither of them seem to have interest in. It's as if they've long embraced their deaths in a way Tish and Blaine weren't able to last year. These kids aren't fighters and Cooper keeps telling Blaine he has to embrace that.

“We'll try, of course, to get through to them,” he says, “but you have to accept the probability of them dying in the first five minutes. It is, after all, somewhat of a Nine tradition.”

He crawls into his own bed later that night, after having spent an evening on the sofa with his brother and sort-of-sister. Kurt had disappeared, Blaine suspected to his own room, but finds him in his bed instead. He lies waiting with his arms open, whispers he didn't expect Blaine to have time for him earlier as they were talking strategies over their new tributes. He says it's less difficult this year, because he doesn't feel the emotional connection to Lumox he did to Blaine. Blaine doesn't interrupt him to say it's harder for him, because this year he knows he'll live and have two more deaths on his conscious at the end of the circus. He doesn't stop Kurt from telling him about the suit he has ready for Lumox, because hearing Kurt talk about his passion for designing is something that still soothes Blaine, no matter how utterly useless the passion seems to him. When Kurt talks about different fabrics and using the wrong one at first, trashing out an entire costume, he doesn't stop and say what an utter waste that would have been back in the District. He listens to Kurt's voice, listens to his words until he can't concentrate anymore and then lets himself be swept into what he expects to be a calm and peaceful slumber.

He wakes once in the middle of the night, on Kurt's insistence. Kurt has his hands on either shoulder and shakes him fervently.

“You were screaming,” he explains, “you were screaming for Jane to run.”

Blaine doesn't say anything, tries to recall his dream but can't. He supposes he believes Kurt, the uneasy urge in the pit of his stomach indicates he did just wake up from one of his nightmares.

“I don't know why you would care for her that much, though,” Kurt continues, “if anyone I'd say the boy is worth saving.”

Blaine agrees with him quickly, knowing out of the two Jane will most certainly die. He doesn't tell Kurt that's probably why he dreamed about her in the first place, because everything inside him knows she's the one he can't do anything for. He doesn't explain to Kurt how it feels, sending that girl in knowing it's the last he'll ever see of her. The way Kurt makes it sound so easy, just don't care for her because she'll die, it's one of those things that reminds Blaine again of how different they are. If only he had a button that could make him switch from being a human being to being a Capitol resident. Because how can anyone be human if they enjoy seeing kids being slaughters year after year. Blaine crawls back into Kurt's arms, lets himself be wrapped up and lies awake seeing images of Jane's death to come. He lies awake, in Kurt's arms, wishing he'd never gotten out of that Arena a year ago.

Over the next few days Jane proves there's nothing to be done for her. She doesn't speak a single word all four days of training and when she receives a mere four in her rating, Blaine accepts her defeat almost willingly. The boy scores a decent six, but hell breaks loose when Katniss Everdeen strikes once again with an amazing score of eleven. A rating that high has never happened before, not to mere District tributes. She scores the highest of all tributes, and in the entire after discussion all Caesar Flickerman seems to be able to talk about is the girl on fire.

In fact, all anyone seems to be able to talk about is the girl on fire. Quinn and Cooper do it very secretively, talking about how maybe ‘she could be what they need' and Kurt and Tina a little louder. What was Cinna thinking and why would he do such a thing. Instructions were clear, how can his act of rebellion against the gamemakers have paid off so well in her advantage. What has she done to deserve this rating.

It's only when Kurt uses the word rebellion that Cooper springs up and rushes off to his room, quickly followed by Quinn. Isabelle seems to agree it's time for the kids to go to bed and Tina soon follows too. It leaves Kurt and Blaine alone in the sitting area for the first time since they got to the Capitol and it's awkward to say the least. Though Blaine isn't sure what has changed, something has and he's too afraid to ask. They talk, small talk and then some strategy talk.

“What have you designed for him?” Blaine asks, maybe out of interest for Kurt's work but mostly because Lumox is his responsibility now and maybe whatever Kurt has in stock can outshine Katniss Everdeen.

“Just – a plain suit. He's plain, I don't have inspiration like I had last year.”

Kurt sounds sad when he says it, almost as if he's longing for last year and in a way Blaine understands. When everything had a finality to it, when they were so sure they weren't ever going to see each other again. Everything had felt so urgent from the get go, he had to be close to Kurt and needed to get to know this interesting man with everything there was in him.

And even on the victory tour that had been the case, in Kurt's arms he'd felt safe and he needed to soak it up as much as possible. They only had those two weeks, only had the time they had to talk everything out and leave their feelings raw. It had felt urgent, still, less urgent than before the Arena but still urgent. Everything is different when they're not thinking about Blaine losing his life, when they're not on a moving train to busy getting to know each others bodies to think about the future.

Blaine looks at Kurt in the silver garments he's wearing now, wonders why it's always silver and wishes he had the heart to ask. But tonight, today and this week isn't about them. He can't lose his precious time for Lumox or Jane, though Jane is legally Quinn's responsibility as the female victor, if there's any chance they can win he needs to be on top of his game. He can't worry about Kurt now and he feels Kurt pulling away from him as it happens.

They crawl into Kurt's bed that night, Blaine telling Kurt about how they still have no angle for Lumox or Jane in the interview and that not even Isabelle, who had it so easy with Blaine as the brother last year, has any idea of what they should do. Kurt reacts almost indifferently and though he does make some suggestions, it's clear that this year's tributes are plain as day and there's nothing they can work with for the crowds. Now all Blaine can hope for is they survive the blood bath and are smart enough to conceal themselves after.

The next day Cinna proves it was foolish of Blaine to think Kurt could design something that would outshine Katniss. She shines, literally, as she twirls her dress after an awkward but adorable interview and the bottom lights up in flames. Kurt isn't fuming over it as much as he was, though his face is still glaring, but Blaine can't reach him from backstage where he's watching the interviews with his fellow victors and tributes.

Jane had done remarkable in her interview, it wasn't great but Caesar has a knack of getting girls like her out of her shell and for the first time since her name has been reaped Blaine had heard her voice. Soft, a bit croaky from the unused but it sounded scared and fragile to the Capitol. It won over some sympathy and sympathy is a thing Blaine can work with if he needs to. Lumox had been adorable at most, but forgetabble. He'd seemed more a fanboy of Caesar than he had a tribute. Caesar of course had tried to play the angle to Lumox's advantage, but the boy hadn't show anything about himself. All he'd done was make the audience fall even more in love with Caesar.

And now, the girl on fire, she outshines everyone as she walks off the stage. The audience whispers about her, people are already placing bets on her survival and it's not until Caesar starts to sniff on Twelve boy's neck that the audience seems to realize another interview has started. They're all still to mesmerized with Katniss's dress.

Peeta, Caesar calls her District's boy, tells honestly about how he has a crush on a girl. He wants the Capitol to feel sorry for him, sorry for this girl. Wants sponsors so he can win over his girl. Stupid. Blaine or Cooper or Quinn should have thought of it. After all, they are in love and they know what it's like to not be sure you'll ever see your beloved again. That angle is something they're familiar with, so how come Haymitch Abernathy thought of it and not them?
“She's here with me.”

It doesn't sink in immediately, but when it does Blaine knows anyone else in that Arena is doomed. If both Katniss and Peeta survive the bloodbath, sponsors will line up for them. They'll want the couple to survive, to have romance rather than fight. Romance amongst the fight. Oh, the audience will keel over with excitement when the final draw comes. When it's only Katniss and Peeta left, when they need to turn on each other to get out. Blaine knows his tributes are doomed, knows this boy and girl are golden, if only they don't get killed in fight.

The girl and boy on fire. The star-crossed lovers of District Twelve, he hears Quinn call them. Katniss Everdeen, the girl who volunteered to spare her sister's life. She is unforgettable, and looks unstoppable. Cinna, the man with the eyes as golden as Kurt's are silver. Blaine realizes then, silver was only enough until gold joined the ring.

It's an early night for all of them. Kurt has to be up early to be with Lumox before he enters the Arena, Blaine's head practically explodes with guilt and rage, at himself and at the world. At anyone who comes close, for not being able to save his tributes' lives. When he says goodbye to them that night, he says goodbye to them for good. He's only known them for a week and he's only first heard Jane's voice today, but he makes a great deal of giving them a bear hug before he lets them go. He doesn't show them the tears he feels prickling, tells them to run and to find shelter. Even if he knows deep down, even if he knows right on the surface, that they don't stand a chance, he still feels as though he can't leave them without giving them everything he has to offer. Telling them to run, it's all he has.

He crawls close to Kurt, kisses his lips longer than the brief goodnight kisses they'd shared thus far into the week and lets himself cry. He opens up a little, not much, about the thick knot of guilt in his stomach, where he knows they won't get out alive. He tells Kurt about the hope that lives inside his veins, the tiny hope they'll be smart enough. He doesn't tell Kurt about the part of him that thinks it's better this way, better if they die because neither of them are equipped to deal with the aftermath.

He does make Kurt promise to be there for Lumox, to be a friendly face and not a distant one. Tells Kurt how important it was for his willpower last year to have someone who cared. Kurt nudges him, jokes he isn't going to kiss Lumox and kisses Blaine long and hard to prove a point. Even if he cares for Lumox, acts as a friend and keeps him calm, it won't be as honest and heartfelt as it was with Blaine. He promises, though this is not the time and place, with Blaine it was different. Special.

“It wasn't because you were my first tribute,” he breathes between their lips, “it was because it was you. It's always you.”

It's all the reassurance Blaine needs for now, they'll talk about this later, but the nagging feeling of unease around Kurt at least disappears and in Kurt's arms he's able to find some kind of rest that gives him strength for the next morning. He doesn't think he sleeps per se, but when he opens his eyes he realizes he must have. Kurt is gone, there's a low rummaging in the dining area that indicates Quinn and Cooper are there already. He checks the alarm clock next to the bed and gets out in a hurry.

The bloodbath is mostly watched from District's quarters. They all have perfectly fine television sets in all the bedrooms and sitting areas and it's not until after that victors need to go out and cruise for sponsors. Medicine for their injured, water for those who ran without supplies. He needs to worry about that when, and mostly if, his tributes survive the initial fighting.
On the screen they see recaps of the boys' and girls' interviews, their reapings and the arrivals. In each and every part Katniss Everdeen seems to outshine anyone, she smiles brighter, she's alight in flames. She's the most human as them all, calling out to be a volunteer as the first in an outline District. No one from a District as poor as Twelve could ever have the ability and opportunity to train the way career volunteers can. She doesn't do it to be a hero, to be a celebrity when all of this is over. She does it for her sister, for her little girl. She does it, Blaine realizes most of all, out of love. The way he would take his place for his mother, his father. For Cooper or Quinn. Katniss Everdeen, who loves so dearly she'd risk her life and who is loved so dearly in return by Peeta Mellark, he'd give up his life to get her sponsors. Because thinking about it, that's the only thing he could have done here. Add more fuel to the fire that is Katniss Everdeen.

And then the screen changes, Blaine takes his place next to Cooper on the couch and watches the tributes being risen into the Arena. It's a green one, the golden horn of the Cornucopia bright with sunlight and the open field lined with a forest on the left and a large lake on the right. Something doesn't seem right, when Blaine looks at it, his stomach starts to churn and he feels as if the breakfast he hasn't even eaten yet will come right up.

“That's your Arena.”

As the sixty seconds for the tributes start, they broadcast some images of the Arena and Blaine immediately knows Cooper's right. That's his Arena, the one he triumphed in, one year ago next week. He wonders of these games will be as short lived as his, as cold, but it seems like they've learned their lesson. People died from hypothermia, there weren't enough fights. No, though the pine tree forest and the lake are the same, the Arena has very much changed in the past year. If anything, it seems bigger. It's possible, Arenas are just pieces of land where they form a force field around, one that can help them control the weather.

It's something the tributes from District 3 had explained to Blaine on the victory tour. It's how he knows they cranked up the temperature after Pennie's death, because the Capitol was bored after three days. There were too few fights, and not enough tributes left to make it interesting for very long. Something tells Blaine the games this year will be much longer than last year. This Arena, with the Cornucopia turned 180 degrees, may be the same as last year, these games will not.

“It's probably because they're already busy preparing for next year,” Quinn quips, “Quarter Quells always have a very special Arena.”

Blaine wants to react what Quinn says, about it making sense, but before he can his eyes are jerked towards the screen. The countdown has hit zero and the kids are all off their plates. It all seems to happen in slow motion, or maybe that's how they broadcast it, but it's slower than Blaine remembers it from his own games and he had to run through snow. A hundred things happen at ones, both in the Arena and inside Blaine. His stomach turns, he's jerked back in time when he sees the little girl from Eleven circle the Cornucopia and follow Blaine's footsteps. He's afraid someone will find her, remember where Blaine had hid, checking if anyone did the same. She climbs up swiftly and hides in the same corner as Blaine had the year before.

Then he sees his own tributes, Jane surprisingly quickly sprinting towards the forest and Lumos. Silly Lumox, running towards the Cornucopia and then diving to a pack he sees on the right. He dives exactly the same time she does, though he's less lucky. The knife enters his back and the blood he coughs all over Katniss's face confirms it has punctured his lungs. He falls to the ground, Katniss pries the backpack from him and blocks another knife with it. She slings it over her shoulder and runs off towards the forest.

Blaine's eyes stay trained on her, in the corner of the screen where they project the tributes not participating in the bloodbath. He'd look for Jane there too, but doesn't have to. Katniss jumps over her limp body and Blaine wishes he wouldn't have seen it. the way the girl from Eleven jerked him back to his own bloodbath, seeing Jane lying there with a spear impaled in her dead body brings him right back to Tish. Her body in the white snow, the blood so bright red like Caesar's hair.

It's different with Jane, she's not in white snow and the spear entered her from behind. She lies face first on the ground, but the spear is still a spear and just like that Blaine has lost his two tributes. He was right, they wouldn't make it past the bloodbath.

And as the bloodbath settles, Blaine starts to wonder where Kurt might be. He knows Kurt had sent Lumox into the Arena, knows Kurt's face is the last friendly face the boy saw before he died. Has Kurt had to watch his tribute die alone, in the sterile and blank room under the Arena? Had he watched it somewhere else? He would have had exactly sixty seconds to get somewhere else before the bloodbath started. Did all those people die right over Kurt's head? Blaine doesn't know, he's never thought of it that way. Never realized what must be under the Arena, how that is probably where the gamemakers design the weather and the mutations.

On the screen he sees the bodies of the dead tributes being retrieved, Lumox before Jane. They show some footage of the career pack traveling off into the woods, Peeta Mellark in their tail. Blaine wonders how he convinced them to keep him alive. They show the little girl from Eleven high up in a tree, leaping to another. It makes Blaine smile, the cameras may catch her but he knows she's amazingly disguised from the hunting tributes on the ground. They show Katniss hiking as far as she possibly can, and all Blaine wants to know is where is Kurt?

They wait all day for the stylists and escort to come home to their floor. The broadcast of the Games in the background, the deaths being recapped over and over again. Jane took a spear through her back trying to run away. She listened, Blaine realizes. She listened and she still died. There's nothing he could have done for her. Blaine is also sure the spear wasn't even meant for her. She ran right in front of Katniss and when the spear took her in the back, she fell over as Katniss leaped over her. It was a spear from the boy from District 1. He was obviously aiming for the girl from Twelve.

When Kurt, Tina and Isabelle finally walk through the door it's well past dinner time. They hurry Blaine and Quinn through a quick prep and put Blaine in a suit Kurt had designed for his victory tour, and they are taken down to the studio floor. There are eleven deaths from the bloodbath and since both the Nine tributes were amongst them, both Quinn and Blaine will be interviewed. Cooper isn't an official mentor this year, he just joined them to guide Blaine through his first year. Technically Blaine was Lumox's mentor, he had nothing to do with Jane but it doesn't feel like that.

“What do I tell Caesar?” Blaine asks Kurt. He hadn't prepared for this, he'd been too busy trying to get the kids to listen, trying to keep them alive, to think any further than that. Of course, he knows every mentor is interviewed after one of their tributes dies but Blaine never realized that was something he would have to do now.

“Just answer his questions,” Kurt urges and squeezes his shoulder. Blaine knows Kurt wants to do more, maybe kiss him, but they can't. The Capitol can't know about them, where they can hurt him when the time comes. He's long decided he won't participate in the Capitol's games, won't let them buy him the way they try to buy Quinn and Cooper. The way he knows Finnick Odair gives himself up to protect Annie. Aside from that, Blaine doesn't even know if it's legal what he and Kurt are doing. He knows love affairs between people from different Districts are forbidden. How could they not be, when traveling between the Districts is forbidden. He wonders how many people are being torn apart, not able to be with whoever they want to be with. He wonders if one day he will be one of them.

“We need to talk,” he tells Kurt, and Kurt nods. Kurt knows, too, they need to talk about things. They need not be so silent and awkward anymore. They need to know where they stand, what this is and what it is going to be from now on. There's no telling how long the Games are going to be, though they will surely be longer than Blaine's, there's no telling how often they can see each other.

Blaine barely gets through Caesar's interview, answers every question honestly and with a vague sense of restraint. He doesn't tell Caesar about the guilt eating him away, or the way he feels like there are two more deaths on his conscious now. He tells Caesar about the sweet boy, let's the talk of the quiet girl over to Quinn. He tells Caesar how crazy fan-boyish Lumox had been and that it was a real treat for him to spend his last few days in the Capitol. He doesn't tell Caesar it's probably best that he died, because he would have never been able to handle the trauma that comes with surviving the Arena.

He does tell Kurt, later that night. He tells Kurt about how guilty he feels and his dreams. He's told Kurt before, but he needs to tell someone again. Someone other than Quinn or Cooper, because they know too well what he is talking about and they are dealing with their own pain. They have just lost tributes too.

“So did I,” Kurt says when Blaine tells him, “I didn't lose my tribute last year, he won. I didn't care for Lumox the way I did for you, but I still cared. He was sweet and thought I was awesome. I think he thinks anyone interviewed by Caesar ever is awesome.”

Blaine chuckles, “he really did.”

“But we lost him,” Kurt sighs, “and in a strange way I feel responsible. I know for a fact people will line up to sponsor for the Twelve girl. If I had made him stand out as much…”

“We did everything we could,” Blaine says, “you didn't make me stand out as much as her and I still won.”

“You were a victor's brother,” Kurt answers, “and a popular one at that. Plus, April would do anything I said.”

Blaine strokes a soft hand over Kurt's cheek. He's missed this, even if it's maybe a bit misplaced on Kurt's part, he's missed them talking. He missed the connection they had and it's back. With no more tributes to worry about, cruel as it sounds, he feels himself allowing to be close to Kurt again. He crawls up against Kurt's body where he lies long and stretched on Blaine's bed. His torso naked, pale and muscled. Well fed, so different than the bodies he sees walking around half naked on the square in Nine during hot summer days.

With his finger he traces a line along Kurt's ribs, revels when Kurt shudders beneath him. He kisses softly behind Kurt's ear and the licks the shell, knowing how it will make Kurt sigh with pleasure. He whispers softly, then, as he watches Kurt's face. So angelic, so soft and innocent. So unlike any other Capitol person he's ever met. So real.

“What is this?” he asks.

“What?”

“Us. What are we?”

Kurt opens his eyes, rolls on his side to face Blaine and cups his cheek. He strokes Blaine's cheekbone strongly, a bit rough and completely perfect. Kurt's eyes are green today, even with the silver lines around his eyes more prominent than ever before. The heart at the side of his eye disappears where his face lies int eh soft pillow and everything about him is everything Blaine needs right now.

“We are two people who care about each other,” Kurt says and he seems transformed, wiser suddenly and it's the first time Blaine really feels Kurt is older than him. It's not by much, only four years, but after his Games last year he had always felt as if his life experience had made him older. Still, here in bed it's Kurt who's older. Out there in the world, where people die and fight to stay alive is where Blaine is more experienced, but here in this bed in this room where it's just the two of them it's Kurt. Kurt has loved before, possibly, and Kurt hasn't had to think about the safety of his family. Kurt hasn't had the nightmares, hasn't had to think about what the Capitol would do to him next to hurt him deeper. Kurt has had time to think about this before. Kurt has the answers.

“We're two people who can only see each other once a year, we are two people who want badly to see each other more but can't. You can only travel here on Capitol invitation and I don't have the status to make an official request for you. My dad does, but I could never ask him because that would require explanation and I can't have an affair with you unless I pay for it and I don't want to pay for you because I want everything between us to be of your free will.”

Kurt knows about everything. He knows.

“Besides, I might get outbid and you would still have to come here and be with someone else. As long as I don't speak up, they won't see you as desirable. You're a kid to them, the little brother card has worked to your advantage because they see you the same way Cooper does. You're their little brother. As soon as someone bids on you it would be different. So I can't bid on you, because I don't want to buy or own you and because I'd be outbid. I'd only hurt you.”

“Kurt…-”

“I want to be here, in your bed, every night for as long as we can be and I think that's what we are. We are two people who want to – but cant be - with each other, so we make the most of what we have for as long as we have it.”

And that's it, the only thing he can do is press his lips to Kurt's desperately and cling to his naked back. Kurt opens his mouth willingly and as Blaine licks inside he's harshly reminded of Kurt's Capitol status again. A metal stud meets him, he wonders for a bit why anyone would maul their tongues like that but then Kurt glides it along his teeth and winds it around his tongue and he is gone for. Whatever the reason was for Kurt to get his tongue pierced, this is definitely worth it. This is by far the only piercing Blaine could ever imagine having a purpose and god, is that purpose working for him.

He lets Kurt lick inside his mouth, along his jaw and lets Kurt suck his pulse point on his neck, he makes Kurt stop because it can't show in the morning but Kurt promises he has a cream that will make it fade straight away. So he lets Kurt suck on his neck while he works inside Blaine's slacks and he lets Kurt be as close to him as possible. He's missed this, more than anything he's missed the feel of Kurt's naked skin on top of his own. The milky paleness against the harsh bronze of Blaine's chest, Kurt's smooth torso on top of Blaine's hairy chest. It's the first time he's been like this, having been groomed beyond recognition on the victory tour. He worries for a brief bit, but the way Kurt sucks on his nipples and ignores the hair makes him relax and sink back into the bed to fully enjoy what Kurt is doing.

Days pass in which nothing much happens. Blaine had half expected the train to arrive pretty quickly after their tributes deaths, but it seems that all mentors are obliged to stay until the victor is announced. Cooper introduces Blaine to his friends that he hadn't yet met on the victory tour. Johanna Mason, a vicious girl who seems angry all the time, takes a liking to Blaine. She ruffles his hair and calls his curls cute. She doesn't have any tributes left in the Games either and tells Blaine what most of the other mentor's strategies are. How she listens in on them and then helps out her favorites. She likes Peeta Mellark this year, she says, the way he will do anything to protect the girl from Twelve. She tells him he probably won't win because protecting someone else is never a good tactic, but it's an honest one and she appreciates it.

Blaine thinks he understands what she means, winners sometimes have allies and people they care about, but after they die they're quickly forgotten. He thinks back to his own games, how quickly he'd moved on after Pennies death and he'd only had time to grieve her after he'd won. Peeta wouldn't be as strong, he'd break once he failed to protect her. He isn't a victor by far, but he's an honest boy, he truly loves and so people will support him. He's determined to get Katniss out and maybe with his protection she will.

Only things turn around when Katniss drops a tracker jacker next on the career pack, including Peeta. One of the boys injures Peeta and no one seems to root for him anymore as he creates an amazing disguise. It's almost as if the gamemakers forget about the boy as well, he lies there motionless and almost bleeds to death. Blaine just looks at him, watches him and things of Tishs amazing disguise skills. She and Peeta would have gotten along, he reckons.

What's more interesting is Katniss Everdeen and the girl from eleven, Rue, teaming up. Kurt and Blaine only watch the evenings recaps, spend the rest of their days on the square in front of the tower or on the roof where they're sure they can't be overheard. Haymitch lets them up when Quinn says it's okay, and when he's sure Effie Trinket is out trying to find sponsors for her tributes. Haymitch seems less drunk than before, and even goes out hunting for sponsors. Something he didn't do for Pennie and Barse last year, Cooper tells Blaine. Apparently this year's tributes have a positive effect on him.

Kurt takes a liking to Peeta Mellark as well, especially because of the disguise. He's a talented boy, Kurt says, only someone who knows about color and patterns and has an eye for it can make a disguise so convincingly. Kurt also likes the way he will do anything to protect Katniss, says he'd do the same for Blaine. Blaine doesn't have the heart to tell him he'd probably be dead at the bloodbath, because it's no use. Blaine tries to accept Kurt is a romantic, someone who doesn't understand the pain and suffering behind all those kills on your name.

When the Games are going for almost two weeks they're getting to the dangerous side of dull, things very quickly turn. It starts with Katniss and Rue blowing up the Career pack's food. She gets injured and as Rue goes looking for her, she ends up in a net. The boy from one kills her just before Katniss kills him in return.

Then, she does something no tribute has ever done and probably shouldn't do. Something Blaine immediately wishes he had done for Pennie. Should have done for her, because she deserved a goodbye just like Rue deserves it. Katniss sings her to sleep, to death, and then covers her in flowers. She sends her off in dignity and makes her death something people know should be grieved. She openly grieves on screen, she holds three fingers out and Blaine, who watches the whole thing happen live on the screens in the square, looks at Haymitch for explanation.

“Dumb girl,” Haymitch mutters, “dumb dumb girl.”

Eventually it's Johanna Mason who explains to both Kurt and Blaine what it means. That she showed respect, remorse, for Rue's death. It's an old sign from District 12 and Katniss Everdeen just made Rue's loss a real one. She sent her condolences to District 11.

“She's a strong force, that one,” Johanna says with a tight smile on her face, “she's exactly what we need.”

The weirdest thing is, Quinn and Cooper seem to completely agree with Johanna. Especially when Katniss gets sent bread and thanks the people from District 11. Blaine agrees there's something weird about it, as well as amazing, but why they suddenly want her to win he doesn't understand. If anything, she would probably be better of dead. She's done things the gamemakers and the Capitol won't like. Her family is as good as dead, if he understands correctly. Haymitch's family was killed when he pissed of the Capitol, Quinn's parents were dead as soon as she refused to be bought. What Katniss did was so much worse, why would they want her to live through all that pain?

The audience in the Capitol is angry, even Isabelle is agitated when they have dinner that night. The Games are boring with the little girl dead and Katniss alone and ready to kill the careers but they won't come for her. They're too afraid, everyone is hiding and nothing is happening. Peeta is still disguised and apparently his heart is beating, or there would have been a cannon and his body would have been retrieved by a hovercraft. The bets on who will win go crazy, one day they think it will be Katniss, the other time they think Peeta might just outlive everyone. Thinks they will murder each other out and forget all about the boy from Twelve.

And then Cooper gets an idea, says they really need Katniss to win because Eleven has set things in motion and he doesn't realizes he says it with Blaine and Kurt present. He runs to the elevator and lets himself up to the twelfth floor to talk to Haymitch. When he gets back he only says he thinks it might work. Sure enough, about an hour later a voice booms around the Arena announcing that two tributes can win as long as they are from the same District.

They first show the boy and girl from Two, who are in a hiding place together. They high five and start discussing plans, but what Cooper had hoped for happens later. Katniss hears the announcement, screams out Peeta's name and immediately starts her search for him. Blaine tries to get the Capitol's reaction from Kurt, assumes the rest of the audience will react vaguely the same way he does and they're not disappointed. Everyone roots for the star crossed lovers, who suddenly aren't so star crossed anymore.

Whatever the reason is that Katniss is so important to Cooper, Quinn and Johanna, it works. The first night Peeta and her are together they get sent broth. It makes Blaine nauseaus just a tiny bit. He's not been able to stand any broth since he left his Arena, but he understands it's something Peeta needs right now. Salty, liquid, things to get stronger. Blaine notices before Katniss does that Peeta has a fever, and he also notices whatever Katniss shows in affection isn't real. She's playing this, to get sponsors. If only the sponsors will fall for it the way no one in their team seems to do.

Apart from Kurt, who seems the be infatuated by the love affair on screen.

When a feast is announced, Haymitch stumbles into their quarters without announcing himself. He grabs Cooper by the arms and shakes him thoroughly.

“Tell me how you got the medicine last year,” he says, “the prices have gone up and no one wants to buy them anything.”

“They're getting medicine at the feast,” Kurt looks puzzled.

“He won't let her go,” Haymitch says.

“I don't think the gamemakers will like it if you send it while they can retrieve it at the feast?”

“They either need medicine or I need to find a way to make the boy let her go.”

“She could go when he's asleep,” Quinn brings up, smiling wickedly and Haymitch turns from Cooper to her, grabs her and kisses her square on the mouth. She doesn't respond, ignores Cooper's angry glare and laughs.

The end of the games are nearing, with only six tributes alive, so the prices of the gifts have gone up tremendously. People are willing to send food and small gear like matches but sleep syrup is so extremely expensive it would take some extreme convincing to get someone to send it. If everyone in the room chipped in, they would probably have enough but mentors and stylists aren't allowed to give anything and it would also cost them two months of winning money. They'd go hungry back home, which hasn't happened since Cooper won the Games.

“I agreed to watch the recap with my friend April tonight,” Kurt says. Blaine can see on every angle of his featiure that he is lying. “Anyone care to join me? You're welcome too, Haymitch, if you want.”

Haymitch waves it off at first, but when Cooper nonchalantly asks if that's the friend who sponsored Blaine last year he quickly joins them. April lives across the street, is thankfully drunk enough to be able to think she was the one who forgot plans and then offers them all a share on her whiskey. Haymitch is the only one who takes it.

Quinn lays it on thick, talks about how devastating it is that Peeta will die and Katniss will have to face the team from District 2 on her own. Heartbroken and alone. April weeps exactly at the moment Quinn wants her too, and Blaine is only a tiny bit annoyed when Kurt seems just as affected. Cooper turns into a charming young man Blaine has never met before, he plays the celebrity card like a champion. He knows exactly which buttons to push to make April giggle shyly, he seems to have this act down to a perfection Blaine has never seen him use. It almost makes him sick, the way his brother transforms into a douchebag first class without the person he's being a douchebag too noticing. He plays April's interest in him to a finesse, making sure she'd do anything he'd ask of her.

“If only there was a way he would let her go to the feast to get his medicine,” Cooper says, “but the only way is if he was in the same state as Haymitch is now.”

“It's because the booze,” April says, “she'd have to get a lot of alcohol in him to get him to sleep like that.”

Haymitch snores a little louder for show, and it makes everyone laugh though April is the only one who thinks it's adorable. The others just know how fake it as and how bad of an actor Haymitch is, especially when drunk.

“I can only sleep like that when I get sleep syrup,” Blaine says and April's face lights up.

“I could send her sleep syrup, he'd be asleep within seconds and she could go!”

They ‘wake' Haymitch, and April is too far gone to notice how easily they do. He signs the papers, which Blaine and Kurt then rush to the gift center. It's scanned, made sure that it's Haymitch and April are the ones who signed it and they set things in motion. Getting back to their quarters, Isabelle is out for the night and Cooper and Quinn seem to still be at April's. She's probably keeping them there to talk to them, celebrities from District 9. It's the first time Blaine and Kurt have the floor to themselves and they curl up on the couch, watch a redheaded girl hide herself inside the Cornucopia for the feast and then they see Katniss receive their cough syrup. She feeds it and soon Peeta is fast asleep. She gets some rest too, and as all the tributes are done preparing their plans and settling for sleep, Kurt and Blaine too decide to head to bed.

“Do you think their love will survive outside the Arena?” Kurt asks as soon as Blaine is settled next to him.

“You do know she doesn't love him, right?”

“Oh come on, they've been kissing like two hormone filled teenagers!”

“Because she knows sponsors will fall for it the way April did,” Blaine says. But Kurt is a romantic, he wants to believe in love and so he does. He wants to believe in a force stronger than survival, stronger than the need to live and he thinks that's why Katniss is out there trying to save Peeta. Not because his death would be the worst of all, knowing he could have lived along next to you if you'd just tried to save him. Blaine knows he'd have done anything to save Tish, had he known they both had a chance of survival. It's one less death on your conscious, it's got nothing to do with love.

“What would they need to do to convince you, huh, have sex on screen?” Kurt asks teasingly, running a finger along Blaine's sensitive side. Blaine giggles.

“With his fever? No, I think they'd better not. He'd overheat.”

“How about you? Do you have something that needs taken care of, Blaine?”

Kurt drops his hand into Blaine's slacks, cups him and presses him down on the bed with his other hand.

“How about I see if I can overheat you the way she overheats him? Maybe then you'll believe me they really love each other.”

Blaine laughs, outright laughs and lets Kurt strip him off his clothes. Kisses him back eagerly when Kurt kisses him and lets Kurt devour his body the way he has been every night since the Games have started. It wears him out, in the best, most satisfying way and he wonders how he'll ever sleep soundly again without Kurt next to him. He probably won't. It's dumb and stupid, but the Games will forever be the best part of his year, the time where he will get to sleep with and next to Kurt.

And it's how they fall asleep, no more Katniss and Peeta on their minds. No more feast, just the two of them naked and pressed together. Nothing separating them and fully content. They lie like that, peacefully, until morning comes and a rough voice interrupts them.

“Clove's dead!”

Cooper takes in the sight in the bed before him, Blaine realizes too late Cooper has a perfect view of Kurt's naked back and perfect round butt. He covers them up quickly, nudges Kurt to turn around he greets Cooper awkwardly.

“Sitting area, now.”

They both listen to Cooper immediately, getting dressed in a haze and joining him in the sitting area. Cooper's expression is strict, but not judging and he is almost scarily composed as he addresses them.

“I'm not happy you hid from me,” he says, “I always had a feeling. I'm trusting your judgment, Blaine, but I need you to know that you have to be very careful about who you're with in this place. The Capitol is full of nasty people and getting in with the wrong one might just get everyone you love killed.”

“He'd be one of them,” Blaine shrugs and takes Kurt's hand, “I wish I could explain, but there's just something inside that tells me I need to be with him. I'm not sure why, but I felt it the first second I saw him and I know he's trustworthy. No one knows except for you and Quinn.”

And that's it, Cooper does give them a few angry and suspicious glances throughout the day but he mostly retrieves with Quinn and takes her out to talk to Johanna Mason. Something big is about to happen, Blaine knows and he thinks that the time they have been talking about might be nearing. Whatever his brother, father and Quinn have been hiding from him might come to a light with Katniss Everdeen winning. They need her, for something, that much is clear. What for it is isn't clear yet, but they need her and Blaine will find out why.

It happens so quickly, no one was really prepared for the events happening. The boy from Two kills the boy from Eleven, the girl eats Peeta's poisoned berries and just like that it's two against one. The boy and girl from Twelve against the boy from Two. The wolves appear out of nowhere, Cooper presses Blaine to his side as soon as he sees them, holds him tight and keeps telling him it's not real.

It all feels very real. This is his Arena. The lake isn't frozen and the wolves are about twice as big as the ones Blaine had to fight, but it's all real as they chase the boy down the lake towards the Cornucopia, where he runs into Peeta and Katniss. They run after him and before they know it they're all atop the Cornucopia, they end their Games where Blaine had started them. They fight, the boy kidnaps Peeta and then Katniss takes him out. They wait, have to wait until his heart stops beating until they can call themselves the victors of the 74th Hunger Games, but it's real. This year two tributes have won.

Until they haven't.

The announcement angers everyone in the room, as well as down on the square. They can hear the angry chants all the way up on the ninth floor. Katniss has her arrow pointed at Peeta, who seems just about ready to drive a knife into his own stomach. He'd do that, he'd kill himself to save her. He must really love her. Blaine knows now he was right. The way she's ready to kill him, she can't nearly love him as much as he loves her.

“They have to have their victor,” Peeta says.

They can practically see Katniss do the math in her head, before she takes out the berries. They need a victor. They can't both die, so if they threaten to they'll both survive. It's the Capitols choice. Either have no victor or have two. They need their victor.

“This keeps getting better and better,” Cooper says as they watch Peeta and Katniss being hauled into the hovercraft. They've won. There are two victors this year and it's perfect. They're not in love, Katniss was just about ready to kill Peeta until she realized he'd do it himself. She couldn't live with that. She made the Capitol crown them both victor. They see her slamming against a glass wall when Peeta's heart stops, and for a second Blaine thinks she might actually love him, but quickly throws the thought away and knows she must care, but not love. Of course she's upset his heart stops when she just saved his life. They revive him and the screen goes black, then Caesar and his lilac hair grace the screen.

“Ladies and Gentlemen,” he says proudly, “there is a first for everything and this year I am happy to announce we have two victors! How about that, huh, the star crossed lovers of District 12 can go home together.”

Blaine wonders what kind of home she'll go to. Of course, one of the houses in Twelve's Victor Village with her mother and her sister. Her sister, who she volunteered for. The girl she fought for, the girl she won for. Katniss Everdeen, in her first year being attached to the Games, has saved two lives. Her sister's and Peeta Mellark's. Blaine, in his two years, has saved none but, selfishly, his own.

Kurt, who'd been away for the last day to spend it with his father, storms into the Nine quarters out of breath and dishevelled.

“You have to warn Haymitch!” he yells, “they're blaming her for unrest in the Districts and they're going to kill her if she doesn't calm it down!”

“She's not allowed to know, you're not even allowed to know,” Kurt says, “I overheard my father talking to his friend. They're planning something about it, but the Capitol is angry and my father and his friend are worried for Katniss. They know she doesn't love him..-”

“So you believe me now?”

“I think that was obvious when she almost shot that arrow through him, I would never shoot you.” Kurt answers, then continues. “The Districts know she doesn't love him, they know it was a game with the Capitol and they know she won and now they think they can win, too.”

“We need to tell Haymitch to warn her,” Blaine says hurriedly, pressing the button for the elevator to come repeatedly. It doesn't come quick enough.

“No,” Cooper says strictly, “wait here, we all need to talk.”

It's so easy to listen to Cooper when he uses his authority, as if he was born with it. If he wasn't a victor, Blaine thinks he would have done well as a teacher at school.

“We needed Katniss to win because of this,” Cooper starts as soon as Quinn joins them. They lace hands and Kurt looks so surprised, then awes and takes Blaine's hand in his. Cooper nudges to their hands, then, too. “Katniss, the girl on fire, she has set things in motion. People are sick and tired of the Capitol taking away their choices. No one can choose their own profession. Like how I want to be a teacher, I'm not allowed. I'm a victor and that's all they'll ever let me be. Quinn wants to be a mother but she can't, knowing they'll send our kids in that Arena. When we refuse something they lay on us, they punish us. For the longest time I waited for an accident for you, Blaine, but instead they sent you into the Arena and you survived. You haven't done anything wrong since, unless you count a secret affair with your stylist, so your loved ones are mostly safe. But if they find out, they'll kill Kurt.”

Kurt inhales sharply, squeezes Blaine's hand and moves closer. As if to prove the death threat doesn't faze him, that he'll want to be with Blaine regardless. Blaine would reassure him that it's fine, that it won't happen, but he's too busy listening to Cooper to do anything more than squeeze back.

“We can't choose what we want to do and we can't choose who we want to do it with. It's not only us, as victors or stylists, it's anyone. Here in the Capitol people don't notice because there's enough money and your profession is decided on your talent, but what if Kurt hadn't wanted to be a designer, a stylist?”

“I'd had to,” Kurt says, “in school they make you take all the subjects and then when they find out your talent you're put there.”

“Exactly, you never chose this, but you're good at it and it pays your bills so you never questioned it. It isn't like that in the Districts. We work our butts off, we do anything we can to gather money and then all our hard work gets shipped to the Capitol. There's hardly enough food for anyone and I just know it from District 9 first hand. I know it's worse in other Districts. And the punishments are harsh, when you do something they don't like they hurt you, they murder you if they think it's bad enough. They hurt your family if they can't hurt you for some reason. Like the victors, like Peeta said. They have to have their victors. We're public figures, they can't hurt us, they need us, so they hurt our families, our friends.”

“Just.. what are you saying?” Blaine asks, getting the vague impression calming the Districts down isn't what Cooper is aiming for. Blaine tries to imagine it, people fighting. How many people would die, how many people would fall? And would it be worth it?

“Katniss, she's started the revolution without even knowing,” Cooper says. Revolution, Blaine has heard that word before. Right before his favorite teacher got dragged off by two peacekeepers to never return again. A revolution, a time in which society changes for the better. A time where the residents of a country decide they've had enough. A time where people stand up against the government. Is it time? Is Panem a place that needs a revolution, is Panem ready to change, forever and for the better? Blaine supposes Katniss Everdeen made sure it is.

“I'll warn Haymitch,” Cooper says, “but in time we need to tell Katniss about this. She needs to know what she has started. Our father, Quinn and I have been waiting for this opportunity a long time. Just three people can't start a revolution, you need a spark and the girl on fire has made sure it was her. She defied the Capitol in every way. She, a simple girl from Twelve, volunteered for her sister. She stood out and was on fire, she gave a young girl from Eleven a death to remember and she broke barriers between Districts, when she thanked Eleven. She made two people survive. She's a rebel without knowing she is. We need her. I'll tell Haymitch to keep her in check for now, but in time she needs to be the face of the revolution.”

Blaine doesn't point out they're doing the same as the Capitol does now, making the decision for the girl. Not giving her an option, forcing her to be the face of their plans. He supposes they need it, it's for the greater good. Maybe he's always seen this coming, the way Quinn and Cooper refused to play the Capitols games. He understands why his father had been so distant, felt so guilty, when he got sent into the Arena. He blamed himself. He makes a note to himself, tell his father there's nothing to be sorry for. Panem needs to change, everything needs to change and Blaine will join them in the fight.

“I need to call my father,” Kurt says. Blaine had almost forgotten he was there and for a short while Blaine thinks he's going to rat them out, but then Kurt turns to Cooper.

“That word, revolution. My father used it too. He said ‘this is the time to start the revolution, we need Katniss before Snow decides to kill her'. My father is high up in the government, he is in direct contact with Snow and I know he hates him. Ever since they killed my mother, he's wanted things to change. I never knew it was to this extent, but I think you need him.”

Kurt goes to his room to use the phone in there, and meanwhile Cooper informs Blaine in who has been in this little secret club of them. Johanna Mason, obviously, Finnick Odair and Seeder and Chaff from Eleven. They can't do much without the Districts cooperating, but there seems to have been a start. Things will really go from here. Cooper says he trusts Kurt, though they have to be careful, and that if the things about his father are true they'll have a real chance now. If not, he warns, they'll all be dead in 24 hours. Blaine has felt the fear of dying before, he supposes if he can take all that way from any child in the future, he'll take the chance now.

Burt Hummel arrives not much later, with another man in tow. Blaine recognizes him from the rating panel, he's a gamemaker. Blaine doesn't trust it at first, but Burt Hummel grabs him by his shoulders and hugs him tight.

“So you're the boy who's had my boy so happy lately?” he asks, to which Blaine dumbly nods.

“Listen,” he orders, doesn't beat around the bush when he says: “they killed my wife because she was very outspoken about what she thought of the Games. I agree with her, Snow needs to go and rules need to change. My friend here, thinks so too. He's a gamemaker and he doesn't like it one bit. He wants things to change, I want things to change. You all want to change, so let's start that.”

Cooper holds out his hand, introduces himself as Blaine's big brother and Quinn smiles sweetly as she shakes both the men's hands. She introduces herself as Cooper's girlfriend, which is probably the first time in her life she's been able to do that. Blaine kisses her cheek and squeezes her hand, before extending his hand to the round man next to Burt Hummel.

“I'm Blaine,” he says, “Blaine Anderson.”

“Plutarch Heavensbee,” the man answers, “pleased to meet you Blaine.”