At the sound of the cannon, Blaine jumped off of his plate, lurching forward to grab the knife, wielding it as tight as possible in his right hand and then he turned around, retracing his steps to grab the water, as his shaking hand wrapped around it, another set of long fingers overlapped his. His head snapped up, gazing into the hungry eyes of the male tribute from 11.

Taylina’s voice echoed in his head. “Run, do not stay for the fight at the Cornucopia.” Blaine pulled his hand out from underneath the other tributes, and started running towards the forest, he was almost into the opening when a pull on his hood sent him flying backwards onto the ground, his back taking the impact. He struggled for breath, panting as the District 11 and 9 tributes stood over him. They grinned at each other slyly, obviously a predetermined alliance.

“Rory?” The District 9 tribute asked the other.

“You can” Rory replied, taking interest in another weapon nearer the Cornucopia. “I’m gonna get an axe” he said proudly.

As soon as Rory stepped away from the District 9 tribute, Blaine heard his screaming.

Intense, blood curdling screaming. Blaine barely managed to push himself up and make sure his knife was gripped in his fist before the body slammed onto the ground next to him, eyes rolling back into his head, the axe lodged in his throat coated in fresh blood. Blaine pushed himself backwards against the hard ground and scrambled around until his free hand wrapped around the bottle of water he’d been fighting for, he looked up briefly, straight into the shocked eyes of the District 9 tribute, but they only locked eyes for a second with Blaine when three arrows shot simultaneously into the District 9 tribute’s throat.

Choking, he spluttered blood over the ground in front of him, and Blaine managed to move just in time. He didn’t turn around; he didn’t want to become the next target, which he was sure he already was. His hand was sweating around the knife, but he was not going to drop it, he wasn’t going to make himself even more vulnerable.

He pushed the water bottle into one of the large pockets on the jumpsuit, and then, when he heard oncoming footsteps behind him, he started to panic. He looked urgently around, his eyes roaming over the trees, as he decided whether it was worth attempting to climb them, but that became impossible rather quickly as the footsteps got even closer. His heartbeat was pounding in his ears, and so he went for the only option he had left: he ran.

His legs began to ache after a while, he wasn’t athletic, it was only about 10 minutes before he needed to rest for a while, but he couldn’t, he didn’t have time. There was no where around where he could stop, so he had to keep going. The footsteps behind him, he thought they had faded. However as he began to slow down, they sped up, but it wasn’t the Careers. It couldn’t be, it didn’t sound like more than one or two people, Blaine ran to the left instead, he ran until he found a low branched tree, one which he could stand behind the leaves of, and maybe be concealed. He stood still behind them, his breathing bound to give him away, but he closed his eyes, trembling. He bought his knife up in front of his chest, ready to at least give a bit of a fight to whoever was there. The footsteps became louder, faster and it was only about five minutes before he heard them slow down near him. Then he heard the breathing, panting. The zipper of a bag and the click of a bottle.

“Hey, 12?” A voice called out from the other side of the leaves. Blaine saw fingertips stroking across the curtain of plants disguising him. He sucked in his breath, arm pushed forward to be able to move the leaves out of the way if he needed.

Blaine heard the tribute drinking, the clicking as the bottle shut and then he heard the zipper of the bag again.

“This is the worst camouflage I’ve ever seen, 12.” The tribute added, laughing under his breath. He turned away from Blaine and took a few steps back. “I guess I’ll just wait here for you then” Blaine heard him say.

After a few moments, the tribute added. “I’m starting to wonder if you even know who I am,”

Blaine had made it very clear that he wasn’t going to make friends with the tributes; it would just be that much harder for them to watch each other be killed. He didn’t need someone else to protect, just himself was enough. He didn’t even want to think of the other tributes as being possible friends, they were just obstacles. Just as he was re-telling himself this, he began to wonder why he should know who he was.

“I think you sort of owe me, you’d be dead at the Cornucopia if I hadn’t taken care of those two rodents for you.” The tribute added and it was making Blaine restless. Why did he owe anyone anything? He hadn’t asked for him to be saved, he’d much rather have left the games early, been the person dead at the Cornucopia.

“I’m not gonna ask for anything...just, come talk to me at least.”

Blaine was trembling, but he pushed the leaves out of his way nevertheless, striding forward a few steps and raising his knife to the other tribute’s neck. He immediately recognised him as the District 1 tribute that helped him in training.

Blaine pressed the blunt blade against Kurt’s neck, not enough to actually cut the skin, but enough pressure to make Kurt stay still, looking into his eyes intently. Blaine licked his cracked lips.

“Tell me why you’re here.” His voice came out shakier than he had hoped.

Kurt swallowed, feeling the blade against his throat.

“I-I want to be allies.” He admitted, looking down as much as he could with the knife being held against his throat.

“Why?” Blaine demanded, his palm sweating around the knife handle.

“Because,” Kurt started, his free hand coming up to Blaine’s elbow as he saw a glimpse of something in his eyes which told Kurt he wasn’t actually going to do anything. “My mom grew up in District 12, and if I joined the Career group, I’d end up killing myself just so they wouldn’t have a chance.” He wrapped his long fingers around Blaine’s forearm and added. “Besides, you need me, 12.”

Blaine let Kurt pull his knife away from his neck, but he scoffed.

“My name’s Blaine.”

“I know.”

“I don’t want any allies”

“I know that as well, but I think it’d be a bit cruel for me to just kill you right now, don’t you think?” Kurt smiled a little.

“You’ll end up killing me anyway, eventually. Once you’re done using me as an ally”

“I’m not using you, Blaine. Put your knife down.” Kurt snapped when he saw Blaine raising his arm again. “If you don’t trust me, then kill me.”

“Kurt-”

“Oh so you do know my name,” Kurt grinned, pulling his bag from the ground onto his back. “Look, we can’t stay here. They’ll be coming before long, we need to move out. Now, are you with me or not?”

“How did you get that?” Blaine looked questioningly at the bow and arrows on his back and then the bag covering them, the axe hanging in his hand.

“You want the axe? I don’t like using it.” He offered it over to Blaine, who shook his head.

“I don’t really want it.” Blaine started. “I know that sounds stupid but I just-”

“It’s not stupid.” Kurt said simply. “We’ll stash it, it’s okay” Kurt moved to put it behind the curtain of leaves, moving a log until it rest securely over the axe. “No one should find it.”

“Can we uh...I mean, can I put this in your bag? I don’t have anywhere...” Blaine trailed off, waving the knife around in his hand.

Kurt smiled. “Sure. Wanna put your water in too?”

“Thanks” He pulled the bottle out of his pocket and moved behind Kurt to drop it into his bag alongside the knife. He made sure it was zipped back up and then he turned back to stand at Kurt’s side.

“Ready?” Kurt checked.

“Yeah”

Just as Blaine moved to start running forward, Kurt grabbed his wrist. Much a like he did in training.

“Stay near me, I don’t want to lose you already.”

Blaine nodded, and Kurt eased up on his wrist as they started running through the forest. Blaine kept up well with Kurt’s pace, trying to step where he stepped and avoiding running into trees. After about 45 minutes, Blaine started to slow down, he didn’t have the stamina to keep going for much longer. It wasn’t long until he could barely hear Kurt anymore, and that’s when he heard them.

Voices, about four of them all arguing. Blaine looked around, panicked. He couldn’t call out for Kurt, they would hear him and know he was alone. Blaine looked back up to where Kurt was, but he couldn’t see him anymore. The voices were growing louder from the right, their footsteps heaving over the uneven ground. Blaine’s breathing was getting more frantic, he had stopped running and was stood frozen in the middle of the trees, if they hurried up a little bit more, they’d see him within a matter of seconds, so he ran in the opposite direction to them, away from Kurt. He ran harder than he thought he could, the pounding of his heartbeat becoming louder as the footsteps and voices grew more intense. They were so close.

They were almost there.

A hand slammed across Blaine’s mouth, crashing his body against a nearby tree, his head and shoulders took most of the impact but he was pressed too tightly against the tree to move. His eyes had shut on instinct, he tried to scream against the hand, but it became tenser across his face.

“Shut up” Kurt’s voice hissed into his ear, their bodies pressed together against the tree, his hand dug into Blaine’s hip to keep him still.

Blaine immediately stopped trying to call out when he realised it was Kurt, his eyes fluttering open slowly, settling on Kurt’s warm blue eyes just an inch from his face, only his hand separating them. Kurt edged them silently around the tree, just staring into Blaine’s eyes as they came to a still. He pressed his mouth the other side of his hand, close enough to be able to rest their foreheads together and whisper to Blaine without being heard.

“I told you to stay with me” he whispered, Blaine could only look at him in response. The footsteps grew closer and Kurt leant his head back away from Blaine’s to look cautiously around the tree. He could feel Blaine trying to resist against his hand, so he moved it away, bringing it down to his hips to help move him around the tree when things got too risky. The Careers grew closer, they were within hearing distance now so that if Kurt spoke, they’d hear him. They seemed to stop, and Kurt could see Blaine becoming worried, his breathing was heavy again, and Kurt knew that he was just a few seconds from blowing their cover completely.

Kurt rest their foreheads together again, hoping that if he spoke quiet enough, he could keep Blaine calm without attracting attention. Blaine kept his eyes locked on Kurt’s, trying to express how scared he was, Kurt seemed to understand.

“Shhh,” he breathed, it was almost inaudible. They were safe. “Shhh” he repeated, rubbing his thumbs across Blaine’s hips.

Blaine just stared at him, moving a little bit to rest their foreheads more comfortably together, Kurt was stood between his legs, their bodies pressed together to keep them as inconspicuous as possible. Blaine began to breathe heavily again, he could hear the Careers so close. They were searching for Kurt.

We can find the girls later, we need to get Kurt. We need him, he’s one of the best tributes I’ve ever seen. Did you see him in training?

We all saw him, Mike. We just need to find him.

Let’s keep going, he couldn’t have gone too far, we saw him heading this way, just go.

Blaine glared at Kurt. Was he really that valuable? But Kurt just looked apologetically at him, their noses rubbing together accidentally as Kurt shifted a little closer, hands no longer resting on his hips but moving around to hold his back.

Blaine heard the Careers take a few steps closer to the tree, and he moved to let out a worried whine, Kurt could see it about to happen. He’d seen people under pressure before during school when they were taught how to train for the Hunger Games, he knew when someone was about to scream out, to cry or to break down, and Blaine was. He didn’t have time to move his hand back over his mouth, and even if he did, he’d make too much noise and the Careers would see him, so instead he leant forward more, and took Blaine’s bottom lip into his mouth, their lips crushing together, Blaine releasing a small breath instead of a whine. Kurt held their mouths there for a moment, only moving to suck Blaine’s lip further between his when they began to fall apart. Blaine listened as the Careers moved on, running at full speed further into the forest away from them, but neither moved. Neither wanted to risk them making a sound and the Careers coming back for them, they’d want to keep Kurt, but they wouldn’t care about getting rid of Blaine nice and early.

When Kurt was sure it was safe, he let his eyes drag back open and he pulled away from Blaine, pulling his bag further onto his back. When Blaine moved to speak, Kurt grabbed his jaw with his hand and pressed their bodies back together again.

“Don’t say a word. Follow me.” He demanded. Blaine’s eyes widened in shock, but he nodded.

Kurt lead them quietly through the forest, only picking up to a jog once they were 10 minutes or so in walking distance from where they’d seen the Careers. They jogged for about half an hour when Kurt stopped suddenly and moved to sit down against a surrounded tree, they wouldn’t be seen here. Kurt took his bag, sheath of arrows and bow off of his back and laid them on the ground, sitting beside them, his back against the tree as he regained his breath.

“Sit” he instructed. Blaine obliged sitting against a tree next to the one Kurt was against, his legs outstretched under Kurt’s bent ones. Kurt unzipped his bag and offered Blaine his water bottle, he took it with a careful smile.

“Thanks”

“Blaine, I’m not gonna babysit you.” Kurt finally said, glaring at him. “You’d be dead right now, you can’t just stand there when people are running around trying to kill you.”

Blaine scowled back at him, taking a sip of his water before screwing the cap back on.

“Well it didn’t exactly sound like they were after me.”

“They would have been if I wasn’t there”

“That’s the whole reason they’re running around right now, Kurt! Because of you! Because whatever you promised them! I don’t need you to protect me!”

“Would you just listen to yourself.” Kurt pressed his head back against the tree, gazing up at the sky, it must’ve been early afternoon by the looks of things. “Calm down,” he added once he realised how riled up Blaine had become. “We need to keep going for a while, we can stop and sleep tonight but we need to get far out”

“How much longer?” Blaine asked, taking another sip of his water.

“A few hours, probably 4.” When he saw the look on Blaine’s face, Kurt smiled and turned his head to look at him, lowering his legs so they rest on top of Blaine’s. “We can take breaks, and look-”

Kurt opened his bag, pulling out a spare jacket which he had found inside the bag from the Cornucopia. He ripped a strip of the fabric from the inside, it was about a metre long in length and five inches wide. He shuffled over on his butt closer to Blaine.

“Lift your arm.” Kurt said, holding one end of the fabric between his fingers. He tied the fabric around an empty belt loop which was on all of the jumpsuits. He tightened it and then tugged. “Is that okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, it’s fine” Blaine replied. “You’re not literally keeping me on a leash, are you?”

Kurt grinned at him and bought the other end to his own belt loop. “I’m just making sure we stay close...I don’t want to lose you, again.”

Once the fabric was tied around Kurt’s belt loop, he tugged experimentally to check that it wouldn’t just unfasten at one sharp jolt, when it didn’t, Kurt smiled happily at himself.

“How do I know you’re not just gonna lead me to get killed?” Blaine asked, his finger tracing a shape in the dirt.

Kurt pulled his legs up off of Blaine’s and moved to kneel by his waist.

“Really?” he questioned with a smile, cocking his head at Blaine.

“It’s just all a bit...” he waved his arm in the air.

“A bit what?”

“I dunno. It’s weird. You’re a career, you’re meant to be the ones hunting everyone else down.”

Kurt leant forward until he had to place his hand on the opposite side of Blaine’s hip to steady himself.

“Do you trust me?” Kurt asked, leaning closer to his face.

“I-Erm. I don’t know.”

“Yes or no.”

“I guess...but I don’t want to.”

“Why not?” He was getting closer with every question, a smile toying on his lips.

“Well why should I?”

“Where would you be right now if I wasn’t here? Probably lying dead at the Cornucopia, and if you’d managed to escape that, you’d be dead leaning against one of those trees from earlier. You need me, Blaine. Trust me, I’m not gonna let anyone hurt you. I swear it.”

He sat back. “Now come on, we need to go” Kurt passed his bag to Blaine. “Are you okay to carry this? Take a knife out, I don’t want you unarmed.”

Blaine nodded, taking a knife from the bag and then putting the bag over his shoulders, once it was sat comfortably he waited for Kurt to arrange his arrows on his back, and then he picked up his bow.

“Alright, let’s go. Don’t drop your knife, don’t panic, if anything happens just do as I say, okay?”

“Okay” Blaine agreed, holding the knife tightly in his left hand, the one furthest from Kurt. Kurt slipped a bow into his arrow just in case he needed it at short notice, and began to jog through the forest. Blaine kept up at a good pace, the tie between them relaxing them both to know they weren’t alone, they were safe as long as the other were there.

They jogged at a constant speed for about 2 hours, stopping a couple of times for water and to figure out what time they’d need to start finding somewhere to sleep. Each time, Kurt would ask the same questions. “Are you okay?” “Is there anything you want to say?” and then he promised, “If you want to stop, we will, okay?”

Each time, Blaine answered that he was okay, he didn’t want to say anything and that he knew if he wanted them to stop that they would, but in all honesty he just wanted to get as far away from the Careers as possible.

So they continued running.

The only time they slowed down after that, was when Kurt said he heard voices. Blaine didn’t hear them, but who was he to question it? He followed Kurt’s instructions, to stay behind him, not as far as the tie would let them, but far enough that he was a couple of steps behind. Kurt moved to the right of where they were previously running when he pushed Blaine back into a nearby tree.

“Stay silent” he instructed quietly. He held up his bow and pulled back on the string, prepared to fire at any moment. As soon as he moved forward, the tie tugged too tight, so he moved back to Blaine, leaning to his ear. “Cut the tie, I need to go see something. Stay here, don’t you dare move” Blaine nodded and used his knife to cut through the fabric, Kurt turned and kissed his forehead. “I mean it, stay here” he whispered. Blaine just looked at him, watching as Kurt turned and moved amongst the trees, he stayed still for a minute or two and then moved forward a few steps. After five or so minutes, he turned back, lowering his bow and walked over to Blaine. He was silent, as he walked up to Blaine, he wrapped his hand around the hanging fabric and leant to his ear again. “Walk, now.”

He waited a few moments until Blaine was walking with him. The ground started to descend downhill, Blaine didn’t ask any questions until Kurt pulled him into a small area which was covered with moss between a few trees, they managed to sit under it, and it was completely covered over once Kurt pulled some of the moss over the front.

“What was it?” Blaine asked, both of them sat with their knees to their chests.

“A Cornucopia. It wasn’t ours though, Santana was there, leeching over the bodies.”

“She’s horrible” Blaine commented.

“She’s not too bad. I’ve known her since I was about 6...we grew up near each other. She’s just a bit...guarded.”

“I don’t really see myself ever being friends with her, so I think it’s okay” Blaine smiled. “So what do we do?”

“We’re gonna need to eat soon, so I say we just stay here, I can go hunt for us and find us something we can eat without having to cook, the last thing we need right now is the others seeing the smoke from a fire.”

“I can make a small fire,” Blaine offered. “Just so the wood’s burning, but not flames. I dunno if it’ll cook the food...just forget it”

“Hey, hey.” Kurt leant a bit further towards him. “That’s perfect, stop bringing yourself down.”

Blaine grinned. “Thanks...”

“You’re an only child, am I right?” Kurt asked, straightening his legs out in front of him.

“Yeah, how did you know?”

“Just the way you act. You’re shy, and seriously lacking confidence. Having a sibling makes you tougher, and I’m not saying you’re not tough, because you are. It just, builds things you can’t get from not having siblings.”

“How many do you have?” Blaine asked, untying the fabric from his waist.

“One. Younger brother.”

“How old is he?”

“11.” Kurt smiled and chuckled fondly. “He was upset because he’s not eligible to be a tribute yet,” Kurt drifted off, realising the look on Blaine’s face. “I’m sorry. I just, I forgot. It’s a really big thing where I’m from, it’s not the same.”

“I know. But either way you end up dead, I just don’t know why you’d want that.”

“Because it’s an honour!” Kurt exclaimed.

“Give me a reason they didn’t drill into you at school, please.” Blaine asked, looking at Kurt accusingly.

“Because...” he started, licking his lips. “My mom came to District 1 from 12. That’s unheard of, Blaine. It’s not just uncommon, she’s one of the only people to ever do it. I had to do something to...make them proud.”

“Would your mom really be proud? She came from District 12. She knows what it’s like there.”

“It’s not the same, Blaine! We’re prepared for it! We know what to expect, we can fight. In District 12, you’re not even doing anything apart from school until you’re 18! The odds are never in your favour, victors from District 12 are one in a million.”

Blaine wrapped his arms around his knees and put his head on the top.

“So you’re what, just pitying me because I don’t stand a chance?”