“Shhh. Shhh. It’s alright,” Blaine said, gently patting Kurt, trying to get him to calm down a little. “Everything is going to be fine. You’ll be fine.”

“Blaine, you don’t understand. I’m NOT going to be fine because I don’t have a chance in hell!” Kurt yelled, sitting-up, trying to calm himself down as well now. “You wouldn’t understand because you don’t go to McKinley. You haven’t seen the people in my Glee club. I literally have no chance. There’s Finn, Puck, and Sam who are tall and strong. Sue and her pack of fighters are the strongest; they have the mentality and the physical stamina to fight. Then there’s people like me who are just useless pawns in the games and are just there for someone’s dinner.”

“Heeeyy!! Now stop that!” Blaine shouted, standing up. It actually made Kurt jump. He had never thought someone of Blaine’s stature and mindset possessed such abilities to be utterly terrifying when they’re mad. The only the other time he’d seen or heard someone as mad as Blaine sounded was Burt when Finn had called Kurt a fag right in front of Burt and Carole. That, and when Sue Sylvester goes on her weekly tirades of throwing solid objects across rooms and at students to show how infuriated she is at…well, everyone. Anyway…

“Kurt, shut-up! Honestly! If you’re going to play the pity party then yea, you have absolutely no chance. These are the actually games now, Kurt. These aren’t any childish mumbo-jumbo that you’re going to see on the big screens. No, this is real life Kurt. If you want to have any fucking chance of surviving, then the first thing that you’re going to have to do, above all else, is knock off that whiny “the world hates me” attitude.”

“Blaine, I’m sorry but-”

“No! Just stop it!” Blaine interjected. His little stature actually made him all the more terrifying because you wouldn’t suspect someone so small to inflect THAT much terror in you as opposed to someone that stands well above the six foot mark. No, Blaine Anderson was not a person to fuck with when he got angry. Kurt was learning this more and more. Thank heavens he wasn’t one of Blaine’s employees.

“Kurt, look at me. I want you to promise me—swear to me! Swear to me that from now on you’re going to cut the crap. Yes, it honestly fucking sucks to go into the games. Yes, you should feel sad for a little. But do you think playing the pity party in the games is going to make any of your competitors want to kill you any less?”

Kurt shook his head. Though he was being slightly over reactive, he had a point. If he was going to have any chance at all, he needed to stop pitying himself and start strategizing.

“Well?” Blaine demanded.

“Blaine, yo-you are absolutely right. I’ve felt sorry for myself this whole time that I haven’t even bothered trying to figure out what I should do. I’ve just been sad. But I promise—no! No, I swear! I swear to you, and to myself, and to Burt and Carole—that I am forever going to stop being sad and miserable and start to try. Yes, yes I am!”

“There we go!” Blaine said, smiling for the first time, cooling off from his momentarily frightening fit of rage.

“Can you promise me something as well?” Kurt asked delicately, trying to make sure Blaine didn’t snap his head off again.

“Potentially.” Blaine said with a snarky grin.

“Promise me that you’ll never be as terrifying as you just were. I felt like you were about to cut my head off.”

“Haha—I did didn’t I? I’m sorry for that. I usually can contain my anger but it only gets like that when I care about someone so much.”

Kurt blushed. Oh my god…he just said he had feelings for me. That’s cool…it’s not like that just made my night—or life—you know.

“But I apologize for being so hot-headed. I promise I won’t do that ever again…just as long as you keep your promise!” Blaine said, sticking out his pinky finger.

“You’re still a little fifth grader making me pinky swear, Blaine Anderson? My how you become cuter and cuter by the minute?” Kurt said, extending his pinky and wrapping it around Blaine’s finger. It was now locked and sealed. And then, Blaine tugged Kurt over to his chest, having Kurt collapse on top of him while he fell backwards onto the blanket. Kurt on top of Blaine, staring into Blaine’s eyes behind a background of a complete scatter of dusty stars. Kurt kissed Blaine again and for the fourth—maybe fifth—time today; Kurt was transformed into a glob of crey; wanting to be with Blaine in their interlocked lips forever.

Blaine sat up after their minute of intimacy.

“Pause. Let’s come back to that in a minute. First, do you even know what you’re going to do? Like…your partner? Strategy? Anything?”

Kurt sat-up giggling. Blaine was so cute. At one moment he was all intimate and loving and relationshipy and the next he was Kurt’s protective raccoon, looking out and worrying over everything he was going to do.

“To be quite honest, I haven’t even been remotely concerned with finding a partner or anyone because I figured I was just going to die so I don’t, no!” the witty- smart-ass of Kurt said.

“Oh lord, we may have to pause this for an hour.” Blaine laughed. Not a happy laugh, but one of those “oh god, we have a lot of shit to go through and figure out god dammit I just want to kiss you but I can’t because we need to plan this first” type of laughs.

“Okay, first thing is first: Partner. Any ideas?”

“Hmmm…well I mean, from what I know, there aren’t even enough members of Glee club alone to fill up all the spots. So from what I know, Sue could bring in anyone she wanted but…that’s a funny thing, bringing in people? I thought this was only the Glee club...gotta impress the Capitol right?—haha, I mean…”

“Kurt you’re rambling.”

“I am? Oh, right, yes s-sorry. I tend to do that ramble stuff when I’m nervous.”

“Just take a deep breath. It’ll be fine.”

Kurt inhaled the cold, night air. His lungs expanded as he tried to clear his mind of any worries and just focus on a partner. He exhaled as part of his butterflies escaped his stomach. He felt a little better.

“Okay. Yes…Uhmm. I think my best bet is Mercedes. We’ve been friends for the longest, I can trust her, I don’t think anyone else has taken her yet and I think we’d make a good team…for as long as possible that is.”

“What if it came down to only you two?” Blaine asked.
“Would you be able to kill her to win?”

Oh shit. Kurt hadn’t thought about that. That by the slim chances he and his partner made it remotely close to winning and it was only the two of them left, how would the other person die? He wasn’t even sure about killing people like Sue or Santana, who would have his head on a stick in the blink of an eye, let alone people he had come to know and love like Mercedes. No, if the unlikely happened where he and his partner made it as the last two competitors standing, he would just let the elements take one of them.

“I couldn’t. I don’t plan on killing people unless they are specifically at me. I won’t be the hunter. But I certainly won’t be the hunted.”

“That’s very respectable. I couldn’t agree more. Then what exactly is your plan?”

Kurt was confused now. Wasn’t that his plan? To remain out of everyone’s way and not go after anyone and only kill people when they were trying to kill him?

“What do you mean my plan?”

“I mean like…what if the arena is a desert? Or what if it is mostly an ocean? Or what if you’re put into a freezing cold mountain top with a ragging blizzard?”

Well fuck, I suck at all of those

“Oh shit, well, I hadn’t really thought about that until now…fuckkkkkkk.” Kurt buried his head into his hands, trying not to feel hopeless but it was already getting to him. The stress and anxiety of waiting for the games to begin and to just get this whole thing over with.

“Hey-hey! Remember our deal?” Blaine said, lifting Kurt’s head out of his palms. “There’s none of that! We got this! Okay, let’s think. What is the absolute worst possible case scenario?”

Worst?! What the!?

“Huh?! Worst…Blaine, why would we-”

“Think about it! If you are prepared for your worst—you, not anyone else, but your—absolute worst possible scenario, where it seems as though the Capitol stole into your room in the wee hours of the morning, read your brain waves and transmitted them and found out exactly what you hate and/or suck at and made that into an arena; if you are ready for that, then you’ll be ready for anything.”

As odd as it sounded, it made perfect sense. Focus on all your weaknesses and discover a way around them, then you’ll be much more prepared for anything they throw at you.

“That actually sounds….”

“Brilliant? They don’t have me in those business meetings for nothing you know! Anyway, what do you suck at?”

“Excuse me?”

“Sorry it isn’t dolled-up like the teachers say ”Honey, you aren’t as proficient in this skill but you’ll do much better at that blahblahblah” No. Tell me now. What do you absolutely suck at doing?”

Kurt thought for a minute. Usually he could think of all the things that he sucked at or why he sucks as a person but being on the spot, he couldn’t really think of something he was so absolutely terrible at.

“Well..I-uh. I hate swimming!”

“That’s different. Hating swimming versus saying you suck at swimming are two different things. You’re like a cat. They may hate the thought of water and despise even trying to be pushed into it…but when the time comes down to it, you could swim…couldn’t you?”

He had a point. “Yes, you’re right…okay, let me think.”

Think back to Glee…was there anything we did that they were good at that I wasn’t

That time they all rolled around in wheel chairs! It wasn’t like he was bad at sitting…but his arms got tired much quicker than all the other guys.

“Yes! Okay…well, it might not be a good thing, but I honestly have no upper body strength…so if we had to climb something?!”

“Like let’s say a tree or a face of a rock to escape those nasty tracker jackers?!”

Yuck, bugs. Even if they were laboratory creations, the matter of fact was that they still were small, buzzing creatures that liked to sting. Not appealing.

“That too!” Kurt shouted. “I had forgot about those nasty mothers…I hate bugs.”

“Okay, this is good. So I think that if you were put into a jungle? Where there were tall trees and LOTS of bugs, that wouldn’t be your specialty, is that what you’re saying?”

“Yes. Yes, if there were a jungle, I would be screwed.”

“Not so fast hot shot. Now let’s think. What could you do that would let you escape the climbing and the bugs all together?”

“Eat the poisonous berries and call it quits?” Kurt said sarcastically.

Blaine punched him and laughed. “You’re a butt, you know that? I’m trying to help you and you’re here fooling around—haha.”

“Well someone so handsome as you can’t even contain my natural sass. It’s a proven fact.”

“What? That you would rather make fun of you being weak than actually try to figure out a strategy?!”

Kurt didn’t want to push it too far—Blaine was, after all, trying to help him out through this. He could have just as easily passed along his condolences and a box of chocolates and have been gone. He was being generous. Quite generous.

“No-no, you’re right—once again. Okay…So what should I do, all high and mighty?!”

“Well, if you ask me—which is a good thing you do—then I say you figure out how to blend into the jungle. In training use the camouflage station and figure out the easy methods of blending into the environment in which you’re given.”

“And what makes you so sure I could be good at this camouflage…stuff! Have you seen my artistic abilities, or lack thereof? It’s atrocious.”

“Trust me—it’s your best bet. Besides…you’re my chameleon, Prince Pascal. And what are chameleons good at doing?”

Blending into their environment. God, he’s so cute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For the next three weeks. Kurt and Blaine were inseparable. Every day they were attached at the hip and went everywhere and did everything together. Whether that be going out to eat, going on a walk, talking about life, their past lives, or the games, or even—and quite possibly both of their favorites—sleeping together. Yes, everything as far as Kurt knew was completely perfect for those last three weeks of freedom. But today was the day that all of that ended. Today was the official day of the new and improved reaping.

News station crews and anchors from across the districts flocked to McKinley High School, where Sue had set-up the reaping in the auditorium. Kurt got-up early that morning, after having a rough on-and-off sleep the night before. It was the first night that he and Blaine hadn’t spent together since they first met. Blaine insisted that he go back to his own apartment that night. Some excuse for some business meeting the next day and he thought Kurt needed to get his sleep that night. Which didn’t really make sense because the void of Blaine’s body huddled up next to Kurt made for the exact opposite reaction to Blaine’s intention of getting Kurt to have a long, good-night’s rest. Yes, the lack of Blaine meant that Kurt couldn’t stay up late and fool around with Blaine, but Blaine hadn’t thought of how nervous and lonely Kurt would feel that night without him.

That morning, Kurt ate a big breakfast. Finn had already left early that morning. Carole and Burt were quiet around the television. They both knew that by the end of this all, one of their sons wouldn’t be coming back. That was a definite. The possibility of neither coming back was slightly less…but still extremely greater than the possibility of one of them coming back. After eating, he got dressed into his assigned wardrobe that the Districts handout every year.

Carole and Burt were still silent when he said he was leaving. Carole kissed him on the forehead and both Burt and Carole gave him a long, silent hug.

“Alright, Buddy. We’ll see you after the…the…”

There goes Burt.

“We love you honey—so much. We’ll see you soon. Stay strong. For our sakes.”

Kurt shut the front door as Carole chased after Burt. Pretty soon, Kurt arrived at McKinley high for the first time in nearly one month. One thing he did like about the games was how it afforded him to miss the constant stress of six periods of school work. He missed some of his school friends, but Blaine had filled that void pretty quickly. Besides, most of his friends he was about to see again. Sadly, not under his favorite of circumstances.

Kurt walked into McKinley and to the Auditorium. The woman that he despised was there. Every year her ominous, droll voice kept the line of teenagers moving forward with the only word she ever said: “Next” It was different this year. Usually there would be hoards of boys and girls surrounding Kurt. This time, there were just four kids in front of him—Brittany, Jessie, Quinn, and Holly.

They pricked his finger where a small dabble of blood appeared. They printed his finger and scanned it. They always scanned it because in years before, twins and some siblings who looked eerily similar had tried to switch themselves into the games to save their siblings. The Capitol would have none of that.

“Kurt Hummel” rang the computerized machine.
“Proceed to the auditorium. Next” said the woman.
Kurt walked in where most of his former Glee club friends sat in the first few rows of the auditorium. A few rows were left vacant and behind that lay a swarm of reporters. Cameras, video cameras, phones, and flashes of light made up the back half of the auditorium. Kurt quickly rushed to the side of Tina and Mercedes.

“Hey” Mercedes said, trying to sound slightly optimistic but still sounding pathetic and miserable.

“Hi. How…how are you?” Kurt asked, trying to make small talk, but suddenly the lights dimmed as Sue Sylvester took the stage.

“Alright! Alright! Enough with this pointless jibber-jabber! Let’s get to the reaping so I can have Will Shuester’s head on my mantel faster. Queue the lights!”

The lights faded completely now as the video that signals the beginning of the games commences. Old shots of the war mixed with dejected faces about summed up the video. President Figgins voice hummed in the background, describing why the games are significant and are honorable. Then he explained the rule changes before pretty soon the video concluded and Sue was back-up on stage.

“Doesn’t that always warm your heart? Alright. So, as most of you are little headed buffoons and can’t even jell your hair properly, I’ll try and make this as least complicated as possible. The reaping is completely different than in prior years past so pay attention—especially you William, I know how much thinking hurts your head so I’m going to need you to pay extra close attention.”

Will shook his head; his hands were clenched in fists of rage.

“Now, I am going to pull a name out of this bucket. Whosever name I call, they will come up to the stage and pick their other partner for that team number. I know this hurts all of your heads so I will pick Santana to go first. Santana, front and center.”

Santana smirked and jumped up from her chair and onto the stage.

“Hmm…this is going to take a while…oh wait. Not. Britt.”

Brittany clapped her hands and made her way to the stage.

“Now, after a team has been made, they will go to the high chairs on the stage and pick a team number.” Sue echoed, pointing for Santana and Brittany to go pick a team number. They choose team number two.

“Great. Now let’s get star-”

“Woah! Sue, that’s not fair. They can’t just sit up there. They weren’t even picked yet.” Emma interrupted.

“Ginger,I'm going to stop you there. I understand you are sad that no one is going to pick you because you’re, to be quite honest, a freak and weak. But that doesn’t mean you discriminate against these two ladies.”

“Sue! That’s not-”

“Oh-William!” Sue interrupted Will. “Just shut up and sit down. Either way you’re going to be dead. What difference does it make. I’m in charge and what I says goes!”

Sue reaches into the jar.
“Sebastian! You’re up! Let’s go!”

And one-by-one, the teams were picked the finalized teams were:

1) Sue/_____
2) Santana/Brittany
3) Sebastian/Jessie St. James
4) Puck/Lauren
5) Sam/Quinn
6) Finn/Rachel
7) Mike Chang/Tina
8) Will/Emma
9) Bryan Ryan/Holly Holiday
10) Artie/Becky
11) Sugar/Rory
12) Kurt/Mercedes

Kurt sat with Mercedes on stage in their number twelve seat. They had been chosen last. Actually, Mercedes was chosen and her only options were either Kurt or one of the auditorium chairs, which probably wasn’t allowed. Even Becky had been picked (purposefully by Artie) over those two. Kurt at least got the partner he wanted. But there was still one thing wrong. Sue had no partner.

“And with that I call this reaping to a cl-”

“Wait! Wait! Sue!” Will shouted. “You still don’t have a partner!”

“Uh! I can’t believe I almost—thank you, William! For once you’ve proven yourself useful! I’ll remember that when I’m scalping your head in a few days.”

Sue turned to the crowd of reporters.

“Ladies and Gentleman, as you can see, the Glee club was one short on members and therefore forced me into scouting my own partner. After much deliberations and business meetings, I have found the perfect team member to help Sue Sylvester on her quest for her second victory in the games….”

Business Meetings? What?

“…don’t be too quick to judge. He may seem like a hobbit, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t lethal…”

Hobbit? Small…no…it can’t be..it’s not…

“…Ladies and Gentleman of the Capitol, I present to you, from District Six, Blaine Anderson!”

WHAT THE FUCK

Kurt nearly fainted as Blaine Anderson; evil grin and completely stoic, walked devilishly onto the stage, ready to kill.

I’m screwed