After the parties end, Blaine holds Kurt until he falls asleep and then sneaks away to meet privately with Burt. They talked every night about their plans for the arena and how to keep Kurt out of harm's way. Blaine knew it was difficult for Burt to accept that their planning ended with his death, but he also knew the man's parental instinct would overpower anything he felt he owed Blaine. Manipulating the Capitol audience was something Blaine knew he could do on his own, but he needed Burt's help when it came to preparing for the actual Games. In the arena, they had 22 other tributes to contend with, all with the same goal: to be the sole survivor. The part of Blaine's plan that he hadn't yet articulated to Burt was that he didn't intend to let Kurt kill anyone in the arena. That's why he'd been working so hard learning to use weapons and fight against larger enemies during training. He wanted Kurt to be the first victor to leave the Games without blood on his hands. Kurt once told Blaine how his father still wakes up in a cold sweat most mornings after seeing the tributes he'd killed during his nightmares. Blaine didn't want that for Kurt. He didn't want the Games to take away what was left of his innocence.

The day before their interviews, the tributes were sent one by one before the Gamemakers to demonstrate any special skills that would give them an edge in the Games. These were closed evaluation sessions and each tribute would be scored from 1-12 based on their performance. The tributes would go through a simulated obstacle course that included dangers seen in previous arenas. Throughout the simulation, there would be opportunities to demonstrate skill with a weapon or a particular survival strategy. The Gamemakers could also use the simulation to target perceived weak areas or test strategic abilities. Sponsors were more likely to pay attention to the higher scoring tributes, so the pressure was on to impress the Gamemakers. Each tribute was called one at a time, starting with District 1, so Kurt and Blaine sat facing each other holding hands as they waited their turn. They were quietly discussing their plans for the obstacle course.

For the first time since the opening ceremony, the male tribute from 4 approached the couple, sticking his hand out. He had the attitude of someone who clearly thought Blaine should feel grateful to be shaking his hand. Kurt and Blaine both ignored the hand and looked up at the boy suspiciously.

“What do you want?” Kurt demanded. He had a weird feeling again. The boy from 4 ignored Kurt as if he wasn't even there and addressed Blaine.

“Hey there handsome. I've been waiting for an opportunity to introduce myself when the rest of the beefy boys weren't around. Name's Sebastian. Of course I know who you are. You're all anyone has been talking about since the reaping. I kept thinking all I know about this Blaine Anderson is that he's sex on a stick and sings like a dream, and I just had to meet you before we got to the arena. I might not get another chance at it, you know? After all, I couldn't help but notice that you're putting all your cards on the table with this little romance. If you get into the arena and you find that's not working out for you -- for whatever reason -- I would be open to forming an alliance of our own.” He gave Blaine a look that was probably meant to be seductive and sexy, but fell depressingly short in Kurt's opinion. “Or romance if that's your preference.”

“Listen, Sebastian, was it? Kurt and I aren't looking to form any alliances, and if we were, you and your buddies from 1 and 2 definitely wouldn't make the cut.” Blaine didn't like the way Sebastian was insinuating that he would ditch Kurt if he couldn't hold his own in the arena. He also was extremely uncomfortable with the sexual overtones in Sebastian's little speech. He wanted the other boy to pass it along to his friends in the career pack that District 12 wasn't interested in joining their circle of killers. With any luck they'd all kill each other and save Blaine the trouble. Still, he would be watching his back against them in the arena.

They were spared whatever retort Sebastian had for them when the Gamemakers called him in for his individual session. Kurt and Blaine went back to quietly discussing their plans, trying to act like the interruption had never happened. At Blaine and Burt's insistence, Kurt had focused his training on defensive techniques so his strategy was to demonstrate his speed and agility which would hopefully help him get away from any attackers in the arena. He knew the obstacle courses simulated different terrains they might encounter, and Kurt was hoping to beat a record or two by getting through quickly. He had been using the practice terrains all week. When Kurt's name was called, Blaine kissed him for luck and reminded him to use his momentum to his advantage if the obstacle course threw anything tricky into his path. He nodded in understanding before he followed the trainer through the door. When he entered the room, he politely introduced himself to the Gamemakers who indicated that he could begin when he was ready.

Kurt ran through three simulations: a deep forest, an open field, and the mountain terrain. He focused his breathing and pushed himself to his limits as he quickly ducked and dodged simulated weapons, climbed over fallen obstacles, and found obscure places to hide from enemies. He knew time was on his side and he had definitely broken some of his practice records and hopefully some of the other tributes' as well. In the final phase of the obstacle course two holographic enemies were engaged in a vicious fight and Kurt was in his chosen hiding spot waiting for them to finish each other off and end the simulation. It was a great spot, high up in a tree where he had an easy view of the fight below but couldn't be spotted through the thick branches unless an enemy looked directly up from underneath him. After a few minutes Kurt realized that the simulated fight was dragging on and really doing some damage to his stellar course time. He decided to look and see what could taking so long. As he got a good look at the fighters' faces the wind was knocked out of him and he almost fell out of his tree. It was Blaine.

It took Kurt 30 seconds or so and he already was halfway down the tree, his heart pounding, before he remembered that this was just a simulated holograph and he wasn't really watching Blaine fight for his life against another tribute. Which means it's a test. After a few more seconds he realized what the Gamemakers were doing. His entire time in the simulation had been about avoiding a direct fight. He had shown them how good he was at running, dodging, and hiding. But the audience would get bored pretty quick if Kurt spent the entire Games in hiding. They wanted to see what it would take to draw him into a fight. He had a choice to give them crucial information about his character right now.

If he jumped down to try to save the simulated Blaine, the Gamemakers would know that in order to get Kurt to fight all they needed to do was put Blaine in danger. Which they could easily do from the Games' main control room. If Kurt stayed hidden in his tree and let the fight play out, the simulation would be over and the Gamemakers would assume that Kurt was willing to let Blaine die rather than attempt to take on a dangerous competitor himself. As Kurt weighed these choices, the simulated Blaine let out a pained cry that went straight to Kurt's heart. He decided that in order to keep his boyfriend safe, he had to let this holographic Blaine suffer. It proved to be harder than he thought as Kurt watched the fight continue and the other tribute took his time beating the life out of the simulated Blaine who kept crying out in pain. He remained in his hiding place and kept whispering to himself “it's not real. This isn't real.” Kurt had tears running down his face when the simulation finally ended a few minutes later and he climbed out of his tree. Walking toward the exit, Kurt passed the now dead, broken, and bloody holographic version of his boyfriend. As he passed the Gamemakers' table on shaky legs, Kurt gave them a sharp nod and thanked them for their consideration.