Hak and the Mockingjay

Disclaimer: I don't own Akatsuki no Yona or Hunger Games

|4 years ago – forest between district 11 and 12|

"Hi there Catnip." Hak, a dark-haired boy having a braid with a feather and a golden pin hanging from his face greets the girl.

"Good to see you're still practicing like I showed you." Hak says, walking over to the girl, carrying the bird she just shot with an arrow.

"Hak, what are you doing here? Isn't your districts reaping any time now?" Katniss Everdeen, a brunette, carrying a bow and some arrows over her plain dress asks him.

"You're one to talk. Your districts reaping is before ours." Hak tells her.

"Oh, right." She replies, having forgotten that part.

"Anyways, it's good that I find you here. I wanted to give you something before the reaping takes place." He tells her.

"What is it?" She asks excited about receiving a gift.

"It's my lucky charm. So you won't ever have to fear the reaping." He tells her, removing the golden pin hanging from his hair.

"Are you sure? You have to enter the reaping too." She asks him uncertain while Hak pins the golden accessory picturing a Mockingjay onto her collar.

"I'll be fine." He tells her reassuringly.

"Anyways, I have to go now, you should hurry too. Good luck Catnip." He tells her before making his way back to his district with her shouting after him, "It's Katniss! How often do I have to tell you not to call me that!"

|2 years later|

Katniss, now 14 years old is running through the forest she often hunts in, carrying her bow and a quiver with arrows.

She stops quietly when she spots a deer drinking from a river and readys her arrow.

Moments before she releases the string the deer however gets spooked by something and runs away.

"What the hell? Couldn't you have been more careful?" Katniss yells angrily at a teen going towards the river from the other side.

"Sorry, I didn't see it." Hak replies, looking towards her while wearing a weird mask made out of an animal skull on his face. (AN: Shin Ah mask)

"What is up with that mask, Haloween hasn't been celebrated for 70 years." Katniss asks him, cautious of the masked teen.

"Don't pay it any mind. I only came to get some water, I'll be out of your hair in a moment." He tells her, glancing at her again while filling a flask with water, freezing once he sees a familiar pin around the girls neck.

"Say, what is your name?" He asks her, trying to sound casual while actually being nervous about it.

"It's Katniss." She tells him, making him drop his flask.

"Shoot." He curses and runs after the flask which is slowly being carried away by the current.

"Maybe I'll see you around." He yells before disappearing from her sight.

"Weird guy, now where is that deer?" Katniss says and starts tracking the animal.

|2 months later|

"Hey, nice to see you again." The masked Hak greets Katniss who is sitting on a fallen tree at the outer edge of the woods.

She simply continues to sit there and stares into the woods wordlessly.

"You OK there?" He asks growing concerned.

"Katniss. There you are." A boy says arriving behind the two of them.

"Gale." She says weakly, turning to the newcomer.

"Who are you?" Gale asks Hak, weirded out by his mask.

"He won't tell you." Katniss answers for the masked teen, closing the distance towards Gale and hugs him strongly, letting her tears fall freely.

"OK, something is going on, can somebody fill me in please?" Hak asks, shocked by her outburst of emotion.

"Have you heard about the mine collapse two weeks ago?" Gale asks him.

"No. I'm from district 11." Hak replies.

"Well both mine and her fathers were down there when it collapsed." Gale tells him, starting to tear up as well.

"I'm sorry, is there any way I can help you?" Hak asks.

"Just leave." Katniss tell him, lashing out at him.

"Allright." Hak says dejected and disappears into the woods, only showing himself to her on few occasions but constantly keeping his eye on her whenever she enters the woods.

|today|

It is the day of the 74th annual reaping and Katniss enters her sister room to calm her down after she wakes up with a nightmare about the Hunger Games worried that she will be drafted.

Katniss manages to calm her down by singing her a song. "You know Prim, I have something for you." Katniss tells her, taking off her necklace and hanging it around her sisters' neck.

"This will keep you safe. Trust me." She tells her. An hour later the two of them have to get ready for the reaping and wash themselves before putting on a blue dress their mother got for them.

|at the reaping -12th district|

"Now, the time has come for us to select one courageous man and woman for the honor of representing the district 12 in the hunger games." The announcer says ceremoniously.

"As usual, ladies first." She says and reaches into one of two huge glass bowls, selecting a piece of paper at random.

"Primrose Everdeen." She says, reading the name on the card.

Katniss's sister slowly makes her way to the stage until Katniss tries to get to her, shouting her name before finally calling out, "I volunteer! I volunteer as tribute!"

"You need to get out of here, get out of here and go find mom!" Katniss tells her little sister, sending her away with the help of Gale, who carries her over to her mother.

"District 12th very first volunteer. What is your name?" The announcer asks Katniss after helping her on stage.

"Katniss Everdeen." She says quietly, her mind trying to catch up to what is happening.

"Well I bet my hat that was your sister, wasn't it?" The lady asks.

"Let's have a very first volunteer Katniss Everdeen." The lady says, clapping her hands with the kids raising their left hand into the air, displaying a three-finger salute.

"And now for the boys…" The woman says.

|11th district|

Hak has been watching the 12th district's results on a television and shuts it off at this point. He gets up, putting on his trademark Chinese battledress and puts his Glaive in the holster on his back, storing the mask in one of the big pockets he has in the jacket.

"It happened after all, at least we're 16 now." Hak says with a sigh, having watched the 12th districts Reaping every year after he got reaped on the 70th Hunger Games and won, having set the record as the youngest to ever win at 12 years old, and the record for having killed the most contesters as a single individual. This is how he came to his spectacular looking weapon, which is a black staffed glaive with a razor-sharp edge which he takes care of regularly and golden lightning bolts going across the blade part of the weapon on each side.

"Time to volunteer." He says decidedly and leaves his home to head to his districts Reaping which will happen in half an hour.

|30 minutes later|

The announcer for district 11 has just called Rue, a twelve year old dark skinned girl out as the female contester and says "Now for the boys…" going over to the other bowl to fetch a card but before she reaches it Hak already made his way to the stage, not having been stopped by the guards since he's a champion and they assumed that he's supposed to mentor the two new tributes.

"I volunteer!" Hak says arriving at the stage when the woman was about to grab a name.

"My my, look who we have here. District 11th very own record setting champion wants to enter the Hunger Games AGAIN!" The woman says shocked.

"Well here we have them our tributes from district 11. Rue and Hak the Thunderbeast!"

Meanwhile at district 12 Peeta Mellark has been called as the male tribute and both he and Katniss are being held in the districts security center, where they are allowed to receive a brief visit from family and friends. Katniss gets visited by her sister and mother and tells her mother to take care of Primrose and promises Primrose that she'll do her best to come back home. Primrose slips her the pin her sister gave her that morning telling her "You need it now."

After that Gale see her off and she tells him to take care of her family.

|20 minutes later on the train headed for the capitol|

"Have you met him? Haymitch?" Peeta asks Katniss while they are sitting on two chairs waiting for their mentor to arrive.

"Look Katniss he is our mentor, he did win this thing once." Peeta tells her, still only met by silence from the girl.

"If you don't want to talk I understand but there is nothing wrong with getting a little bit of help." Peeta tells her, making her look at him and remembers that when she was starving a year ago, lying on the street near his family's bakery how he threw some burned bread in a puddle for her, not wanting to step into the rain.

A drunken, blonde man then enters their wagon and starts looking for booze.

"Have you seen the ice?" He asks, getting headshakes no in response.

"OK, so when do we start?" Peeta asks Haymitch, who slumps down on a chair across from them.

"Wow, so eager, most aren't in such a hurry." Haymitch tells him.

"You are our mentor." Peeta says confused.

"Mentor? OK, let me give you some advice, embrace the probability of your imminent death and know in your heart that there is nothing I can do to help you." He tells them.

"So why are you here then?" Katniss asks him.

"For the booze of course." Haymitch answers, taking the bottle and leaving their wagon.

"He'll come around. I know he will." Peeta says going after Haymitch while Katniss leaves to her compartment to look at some footage from previous Hunger Games.

Hours later she sees a teen win by bashing another teen's skull in with a brick while the announcer talks about it passionately, she shuts off the TV and leaves to check in with the others now that it's morning.

She arrives at the food wagon and sees Haymitch, Peeta and their escort Effie having breakfast.

She joins them and gets the advice from Haymitch to be likeable, so they get sponsors.

After arriving at the capitol, the tributes all get washed and prepared for their districts' stylists to make help them make their impressions on the sponsors.

"That was one of the bravest things I've ever seen, with your sister. I'm Cinna." A latino man tells Katniss, walking into the room she had to wait in.

"Katniss." She replies shaking the man's hand.

"I'm sorry that this happened to you and I'm here to help you in any way that I can." He tells her.

"Most people just congratulate me." Katniss tells him surprised.

"I don't see the point in that. So tonight they have the tribute parade to show you off to the world." Cinna informs her.

"So you're here to make me look pretty." Katniss says.

"To help you make a impression. Usually they dress people in clothes from their district." Cinna says.

"Yeah well mine's coal miners." Katniss tells him.

"Yeah, you probably don't want to do that. You want to do something people will remember. Did they explain about how to get sponsors?" Cinna asks.

"Yeah but I'm not very good at making friends." Katniss tells him.

"We'll see. I just think that somebody that brave shouldn't be dressed up in some stupid costume." Cinna tells her before he gets both her and Peeta ready for the parade.

"It's not real fire, these suits are build so you won't feel a thing." Cinna tells the two, who are dressed in black cloathing with Catniss wearing her hair styled in braids which come together in a sort of halo behind her head.

"Ready? You won't feel a thing." Cinna asks them.

"I'm not afraid." She tells him.

Moments later the parade starts with a huge crowd filling the stadium as well as the event being shown on TV.

"There they are. This year's Tributes. Oh, and look how excited they are. It just gives you goose bumps." One of the two announcer says when the first chariots enter, drawn by two horses each with the styled tributes of the respective district standing on them.

"Yeah and the stylists are so clearly able to reflect each district." The other announcer agrees passionately.

"Right, right like district four." The other one says.

"Fishing I get it. And behind them we have two powerplant workers. And then… What is that?" Comes the reply.

"Interesting, both district 11 and 12 have a similar effect. The 11th district is wearing green to symbolize the farmers district, but they have lightning shooting off them and look the 70th Champion is showing off his prize, the Thunderbeast indeed." One announcer says enthusiastically.

"And behind them we have district 12 who are appearing to be on fire. Now this is a sight for sore eyes." The other one adds.

After the chariots stop in front of a huge podium president Snow takes the stage saying "Welcome. Welcome tributes we welcome you. We salute your courage and your sacrifice. And we wish you happy Hunger Games and may the odds be ever in your favor." After his speech the tributes all head back to their stylists.

"That was amazing." Cinna tells Katniss and Peeta.

"It was." Haymitch and Effie agree.

"Are you sure you should be near an open flame?" Katniss challenges the blonde man.

"Are you sure you…" Haymitch starts to say but stops upon seeing the 2nd districts tribute looking at them intently.

"let's uhm, let's go upstairs." Haymitch tells them, not breaking eye contact with the 2nd tribute until Hak, steps in the line of sight, headed for them.

"You looked good out there." He says approaching them relaxed, having left his glaive behind at the chariot.

"So did you, how'd you manage to do that lightning thing?" Peeta replies, eyeing the slightly taller teen with care.

"Ask him, I'm sure he'd know it. You do right?" Hak replies with a shrug and points at Cinna.

"Yes." Cinna answers, looking at him uneasy.

"I'm sorry did you want something? We were about to go upstairs." Katniss asks him.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to keep you. By all means go ahead." Hak tells them politely.

"Alright then follow me." Haymitch tells the group and leads them to an elevator which brings them to a very fancy suite for all of them. Effie shows them around the suite and tells them to clean up before dinner.

|the next day - training facility|

"In two weeks 23 of you will be dead and only one of you will be alive. This depends on how much you pay attention over the next four days. First, no fighting with the other tributes. You'll have plenty of time for that in the arena. There are four compulsory exercises the rest will be for individual training. My advise is, don't ignore the survival skills. Everyone wants to grab a sword but most of you will die from natural causes, 10% from infection, 20% from dehydration, exposure can kill as easily as a knife." One of the trainer tells the group before the training starts while the game host and a few major sponsors are watching them from a booth.

The compulsory training consists of plant knowledge, physical training, like using two gymnastic rings to get across bend beams, lighting fires and combat training.

Everyone goes through everything but the combat training on their first day and finish it off with individual combat training.

"Hey, is it really forbidden to even spar lightly if both sides agree?" Hak asks one of the trainers.

"Yes." He simply replies.

"Alright, just wanted to check. Mind getting some more trainers? There must be a few ones not occupied." Hak asks him.

"Alright." The man replies shrugging his shoulders and leaves to get four more trainers.

"Good, good. Now come at me, I haven't had a real opponent in years." Hak says, readying himself for unarmed combat.

"Two trainer storm at him after exchanging looks with the others.

Hak ducks under the first ones punch while kicking out the second ones' legs with a sweeping kick. He then rolls over the downed man and axe kicks him in his chest hard, knocking the wind out of the man, who rolls himself off the training platform. The remaining four see that they have to take this very seriously and gather to make a quick attack plan.

After their gathering, during which Hak was stretching the four turn to him.

"You guys ready now?" Hak asks, watching them spread out around him. While they are circling him Hak also notices that he's got the attention of all the tributes.

"Yes." One says and the one behind Hak starts the attack, feigning a kick to his head but actually jumps to the side the last second while Hak simply stands there. The second one aims a jumpkick at Hak, who turns sideways while Grabbing the attackers foot and using his own momentum against him, sending him flying past a few tributes into a training dummy.

Another trainer gets angry and engages Hak in close combat, punching him in his ribs once before Hak can counter by grabbing the man's shoulder and violently headbutting him, knocking him out.

Hak turns to the last two trainers who attack, one trying to sweep his leg while the other one jumps at him, trying to tackle him. Hak jumps onto the sweeping leg, causing it to give out with a crunch and grabs the other man in a choke, keeping the hold strong while staring right at Cato, the 2nd districts tribute. When the man passes out Hak lets go of him and goes over to a training area with some trees in it, pushing past the shocked tributes which will have to go against him in a few days.

"Yo, Rue mind showing me that trick you told me about?" Hak shouts over to her, snapping her as well as the rest out of their shock as she goes over to him and shows him how she climbs trees faster.

"Hmm, I see." Hak says watching the small girl intently.

"Say Hak, are you going to fight me?" She asks him worried.

"Not if I don't have to. There is one thing you have to be aware of though." Hak replies, motioning for her to come closer and whispers "You see that girl over there? She is the one who must win at all costs. At least that's what I'm fighting for this time." While pointing at Katniss, who sees this and goes over to them against her better judgement as well as Peeta's warnings.

"Is something the matter?" She asks when she reaches the two tributes from district 11.

"No no, I was just telling my little friend here that I think you are very beautiful." Hak replies with a barely noticeable smile.

"Play your mind-games somewhere else." She tells him and goes over to the training platform with a knife instructor.

"Why didn't you tell her?" Rue asks confused.

"I don't think she remembers me …" Hak says before catching himself.

"Why am I telling you all this?" He asks himself, leaving the girl with the trees while he makes his way over to the shooting area, pulling a case of glaives with him, making some people give him an annoyed look at the rattling noise.

Hak sees a bow lying on a shelf at the shooting area and shrugs his shoulder, picking up the weapon and aims at one of the targets.

He fires and misses it completely. Not being bothered by this since he hadn't shot a bow in 2 years he takes the next arrow, letting it fly and again hits nothing. On his fifth arrow he at least hits the rim of the target. Getting annoyed at the district 1 and 2 tributes who have grouped up snickering at his failures he readies the next arrow but accidentally pulls the string back to far, making the metal frame break with a loud bang.

"Sorry, can someone please get another one? Or a few ones?" Hak requests and one of the trainer leaves while shaking his head.

Katniss makes her way over to him, taking the lane with targets next to him and picks up a few knifes.

"You don't want to try out the bow?" Hak offers her the remaining bow.

"No thank you. My mentor told me not to." She replies.

"He did huh? Well I'd recommend you try it at least once. They are not the same we know." He tells her.

"Hmpf." She grunts back and tries her luck at throwing knives, hitting the target but not making them stick, meaning they wouldn't hurt anyone more than getting a pebble thrown at them.

"Need some help?" He offers, still trying his luck at shooting, slowly getting closer to his mark.

"From you? No thanks. I'll get an instructor, I doubt you can do anything other than butt heads." She tells him, hoping to get him to leave her alone.

"No need to be mean, I'm only trying to be friendly." Hak tells her, taking three of her knifes and throws them in quick succession at his target, all hitting only quarter of an inch away from the bullseye. He then quickly picks up a glaive and throws it like a spear, hitting the target right in the middle as well as breaking its mounting. He goes over to the downed target and collects the knives, the glaive and the arrows scattered around him, bringing them back to Katniss.

"See?" He asks her.

"See what? That you're breaking everything?" She asks annoyed.

"No, before that. I middle all of the knives." He tells her.

"So?" Katniss asks.

"Nevermind." He says defeated and hands her back the knives.

He then takes another lane and gets back to practicing with his bow, actually being able to hit wherever he wants after the second shot and missing intentionally so the others will underestimate him. When Hak always shoots the same areas in the same succession on his tries, with some of them being vital areas She notices that he's only faking it and looks at with with a deadpan expression.

"Shh." He tells her with his finger over his lips.

"Now onto swords and daggers." He says winking at Katniss and holds out the bow for her but she doesn't accept it. He shrugs and leaves for the sword training area, where he again fakes being bad.

|that evening – district 12th floor|

"Easy career. You know what that is?" Haymitch asks the two teens while they're having dinner.

"District 1." Katniss says.

"And 2. They train at special academies and volunteer when they're 18. By that point they're pretty lethal." Haymitch tells them.

"But they don't receive any special treatment. In fact they have to stay in the same exact apartments you do." Efie tells them.

"So how good are they?" Peeta asks concerned.

"Obviously they are pretty good. They win it almost every year. But they can be arrogant and arrogance can be a big problem." Haymitch answers.

"So what's the situation, you can shoot?" Haymitch asks Katniss.

"I'm alright." She says.

"She's better than good. My father buys her squirrels, she hits them right in the eye." Peeta praises her.

"Peeta's strong. He can throw a 100 pound sack of flour right over his head." Katniss tells Haymitch.

"Well I'm not going to kill anyone with a sack of flour." Peeta says.

"Either way, like you said we didn't show what we can do to the others." Katniss tells Haymitch.

"What's even the point? I have no change of winning alright? Everybody knows it. You know what my mother said? She said that finally district 12 might have another winner and she wasn't talking about me." Peeta tells her.

"I'm not very hungry." Peeta says excusing himself and goes to his room.

"Haymitch, what about the guy from district 11?" Katniss asks him.

"Oh, you haven't heard?" Haymitch asks.

"Heard what?" Katniss questions.

"He is the champion of the 70th Hunger Games. If you go against him alone you'll be dead in seconds, believe me that. Basically, the only chance at winning against him is either with traps or grouping up with some tributes, but even then it's a long shot." Haymitch tells her.

"Is there anything else you know about him?" Katniss asks.

"Like what?" He asks. Effie gets pulled aside by a servant who asks her a question after which she quickly nods her head.

"We have a guest." Effie tells them.

"Who?" Haymitch asks confused.

"Hi there, hope I'm not interrupting your dinner." Hak greets them walking over to their table.

"What are you doing here? It's rather unusual for another tributes district to enter each other's apartment." Haymitch asks him cautiously, sliding a knife into his sleeve just in case.

"unusual but not forbidden." Hak tells the man, rounding the table so he can sit across from Katniss.

"you can put the knife back by the way, I'm not here to cause trouble. The opposite in fact." He tells them.

"What do you mean?" Effie asks confused and a bit upset at him just sitting down wherever he wants.

"I came to again offer my knowledge to the beautiful Katniss over here." Hak explains.

"If you want I can give you a few pointers on how to fight in the arena. I know you're smart and good enough to survive the nature, but can you handle man yet?" Hak asks her, raising an eyebrow challengingly.

"Why would you help me? I'm your opponent." Katniss questions wearily.

"That may be so, but I don't see it this way but I doubt you'll believe me even if I told you my reasons. So I'll wait for until we're in the arena to tell you. And you're ready to listen." Hak says.

"Look kid, I don't appreciate you barging in here and trying to sell us some piece of crap story here." Haymitch tells Hak annoyed.

"Alright, have it your way. But Katniss if you change your mind you're welcome in our apartment or I can come back here anytime." Hak offers, getting up and leaving them alone.

"Who does he think he is? Trying to play the innocent sheep while he's actually the most dangerous wolf out there." Haymitch says angrily.

"I could learn something from him though. And I have seen how strong he is." Katniss says thoughtfully.

"Look Katniss, I can't order you not to do it, I can only advise you not to do it." Haymitch tells her.

Over the next three days the tributes all train themselves diligently while Hak is just hanging around the tree area, climbing them or running in the terrain, anything to get used to the coming surroundings.

"Tomorrow they'll bring you in one by one and evaluate you. This is important because higher ratings will mean sponsors. This is the time to show off everything. There'll be a bow and you make sure you show your strength. The two of you will be last, but I have to stress this, make sure they remember you." Haymitch tells Peeta and Katniss over dinner.

|the next day – at the evaluations|

Katniss and Peeta are sitting on a bench in the waiting room tense as can be while Hak is almost asleep on another. Rue, the girl from his district was just called in.

"You nervous?" Hak asks them, looking directly at Katniss from his lying position.

"Yes, now please leave us alone." Peeta tells him, annoyed that over the past few days Hak often showed his face around Katniss.

"I wasn't talking to you." Hak replies, still looking at Katniss, waiting for an answer.

"Yes I'm nervous." Katniss answers, feeling he won't leave the matter alone.

"Let me give you some advice. I have been there after all. Aim 4 degrees to your right. And don't be afraid to show your personality. You are very straight forward and not afraid to show yourself, make that clear to them and you'll get good ratings." Hak advises.

"4 degrees?" Katniss asks confused, but then his name gets called.

"I got to go, if you feel like you need help take a breather and remember what I said." Hak tells her, brushing over her shoulder gently while he walks past her to the entrance.

Katniss gets called in a few minutes later and announces herself to the people on the stands talking amongst themselves wildly. She takes a bow and fires an arrow, only hitting the outer rim of the target, making the judges laugh and ignore her.

"She looks at them and the target confused, picking up another arrow and takes a breather, remembering what Hak told her and fires it, hitting the arrow dead center this time after correcting the 4 degree angle Hak told her about. She looks back at the booth and sees that no one is watching her, so to grab their attention she remembers Hak's words about her personality and not being afraid to show it. She picks up another arrow and fires it into the booth, pinning the apple which is in a fried pigs' mouth onto a wall.

"Thank you for your consideration." She says bowing to them and leaves, putting the bow back while they watch her stupefied.

|A couple hours later -12th apartment|

The group is waiting for the results

They are getting berated by Effie.

"It's just fine." Cinna tells the woman.

"Just fine? How about showing some manners." Effie tells them.

"Finally, Haymitch, I hope you notice we have a dire situation." She tells Haymitch who joins the group of four while giving Katniss a thumbs up.

"Nice shooting sweetheart. What did they do when you shot the apple?" Haymitch asks stifling a few giggles.

"They looked pretty startled." Katniss replies.

"Hahaha, now what did you say? Thanks for considering? Genius." Haymitch laughs when she nods her head.

"I would have given everything to have seen their faces." Haymitch tells her.

A bit later they are watching the revealing of the ratings.

The announcer reveals the ratings starting from district 1 and everyone has gotten anything in between 4 or 10 when he gets to district 11. Rue from district 11 with a score of 7. Hak from district 11 with a score of 12. Katniss Everdeen from district 12 with a score of 11 and Peeta Mellark with a score of 8.

"Yes!" Cinna shouts out with everyone else celebrating as well, for both of their scores.

"Congratulations." Peeta tells her sounding as though he just threw up in his mouth.

"I thought they hated me." Katniss says surprised.

"They must've liked your guts." Haymitch tells her.

"To Katniss Everdeen, the girl on fire." Cinna says cheers to everyone and they share a drink.

"I'm sorry, I have to excuse myself for a moment." Katniss tells them, leaving their apartment.

"Where is she going?" Haymitch asks confused.

"To the 11th districts apartment. By the way, I want to be trained on my own from now on." Peeta tells him, going to his room.

"You have a guest." A servant for the 11th district tells Hak and rue, who have been watching the announcement on the TV themselves, with their escort.

"Let her in." Hak replies and the servant opens the door for Katniss.

"Wow, it's exactly the same." She says surprised.

"It is, congratulations." Hak tells her, offering a seat to her.

"Thank you and I think I should congratulate you shouldn't I?" She asks.

"Phe there really wasn't any other score they could've given me." Hak tells her with a shrug.

"What do you mean?" Katniss asks.

"I mean, I didn't even do anything when I was supposed to be presenting my skills, they just asked me a few questions and send me away." Hak tells her with a scoff.

"Weird." She says.

"Yeah well, as I was saying before Katniss arrived Rue 7 isn't a bad score, when I first entered, I only had an 8 and that was enough to win." He tells the girl.

"But you were trained. I am not." Rue replies.

"Look, I told you our plan right? I'm sorry that I can't do more for you but this has been my intention for the last 4 years." Hak tells her.

"I know, I'll just have to hope for the best." She says some tears welling up in her eyes.

"Yeah, maybe It'll all work out." He tells her before she disappears in her room.

"Plan?" Katniss asks surprised.

"Yeah, I told her I'd try to protect her if we cross paths and I am not needed elsewhere." Hak says.

"Where would you be needed?" Katniss asks confused.

"Don't worry about it." Hak tells her.

"So what brings you to our not so humble abode?" Hak asks the girl.

"I came to thank you for your help." Katniss tells him.

"You are welcome." Hak replies.

"But there is one thing I maybe should have warned you about beforehand. High ratings mean more people out to get you. Especially those from district 1 and 2 will be gunning for your head." Hak tells her.

"I know." Katniss replies.

"Also with the Game starting soon, one more thing be careful of your surroundings. I studied the past three Hunger Games, who have our current Game Master and he isn't shy to interfere to get a fight going, like a spreading forest fire, some kind of animal attack or an event to lure everybody in." Hak advises her.

"Why were you studying the last three Hunger Games? Why are you here anyways?" Katniss asks.

"Wait until tomorrow, maybe you'll understand after the interview. If not then maybe during the Game." Hak tells her.

"OK. I better head back or Haymitch won't let me live it down." Katniss tells him and leaves the apartment.

|the next evening - interview|

After interviewing the people from district 1 to 10 as well as Rue Hak is the next one up and enters the stage, dressed in a fancy version of his Chinese battle dress.

"Next up we have Hak the Thunderbeast!" Cesar says, making the crowd go wild while Hak walks over to the blue haired man.

"Cesar, it's nice to see you again." Hak greets him with a handshake.

"Hak, please join me." Cesar says sitting down with him.

"So first question which is on every bodies mind is, why are you competing this year? Being a champion, you are free from the reaping, but you bravely volunteered for your district." Cesar asks.

"Well, I heard that there is someone competing who is worth trying to protect." Hak answers.

"Ohh, a girl?" Cesar asks.

"Yes." Hak confirms, causing the crowds to cheer even louder.

"Dare I ask who?" Cesar questions.

"How about this Cesar, you give your written guess to my escort and if you were right you can have my trophy. You know which one I'm talking about." Hak offers.

"Hah. And what if I'm wrong?" Cesar asks after gasping while the Glaive Hak won is displayed on the screen behind them.

"How about you treat me to dinner?" Hak suggests.

"That sounds like a good deal to me." Cesar says joyfully and shakes Hak's hand.

"The publicum can guess too, I'll even give you a hint. It's not Rue." Hak tells them.

"You sly dog." Cesar laughs after everyone was waiting for the hint and only gets a pretty obvious answer.

"One question before you leave, what will happen if you two were the last ones to survive?" Cesar asks Hak, making the crowd go silent in anticipation.

"I'd probably lay down my life for her." Hak tells him honestly, making the crowd cheer again.

"Good luck to you Hak and I hope I'll see you again." Cesar tells him.

After him Katniss enters the stage, her mind still being on Hak's interview, guessing that he meant her although she doesn't know why. She quickly rebounds from her momentary freezing up and engages Cesar in small talk, showing the crowd that the rim of her dress can go up in flames too.

After this Cesar asks her about her sister and wishes her good luck in the Games.

After Katniss, Peeta is the last one to go on stage and he tells Cesar and the rest that he is in love with Katniss.

After his interview Katniss presses him against a wall and accuses him of sabotaging her and making her look weak.

Haymitch peels her off Peeta and tells her that he made her look desirable.

"He did you a favor. I can spin a story on star-crossed lovers from district 12." Haymitch tells her.

"We are not lovers." Katniss shoots back.

"It's a god damn television show." Haymitch tells her.

"And being involved with him could get you sponsors and even save your damn life." Haymitch tells her.

That night Katniss can't sleep and sneaks out of the apartment, going downstairs to the 11th.

Hak gets woken by a servant and tells them to let Katniss in.

"Sorry, did I wake you?" She asks him.

"Kinda." He tells her, nodding his head sleepily while leaning up in his bed and motions for her to take a seat.

"I couldn't sleep and part of the reason is, my mind has been wondering were you talking about me?" She asks Hak.

"Yes." Hak confirms this.

"Why would you want to protect me? We don't even know each other." She tells him.

"We did at one point, maybe we still do I don't know it's complicated." Hak tells her.

"What do you mean?" She asks.

"I don't know how to explain what happened Catnip. I'm sorry. I just really don't. You don't know how much I want to explain but I…" He says, taking her hands in his but releases them after a second of speechlessness on his part.

"I'm sorry, this shouldn't distract you when the competition starts tomorrow. The only thing you need to know is I'm on your side." He tells her.

"I better get back now." She says, still not sure if he's only screwing with her or if he's serious about his claim that they know one another.

|the next day |

"They'll put all kind of stuff right out front. Even a bow. Don't go for it." Haymitch advises her.

"Why not?" She asks.

"It's a bloodbath. You turn, run and find high ground and don't step off that pedestal early or they'll blow you sky high." Haymitch tells her as they are making their way to a shuttle with which they are transported to the arena. When they arrive at the arena they enter compartments underneath it, where they receive their clothes from their respective designers.

Cinna fixed the mocking jay pin on the inner part of Katniss's jacket and motions for her to keep quiet about it.

"Thank you." Katniss says, brushing over the metal.

30 seconds. A voice says, meaning Katniss has to enter her tube soon.

"I'm not allowed to bet but if I could I'd bet on you." Cinna tells her, kissing her forehead while Katniss is shaking from fear.

When she reaches the tube, once again patting her pin she remembers what Hak told her last night. Or to be exact she remembers him calling her Catnip, something only one other boy has done before. The one who taught her how to shoot, the one who comes from district 11 and the one who disappeared right when Hak was crowned Hak the Thunderbeast victor of the 70th Hunger Games.

'It can't be.' She tells herself.

'I always thought he died. Afterall why wouldn't he show himself?' Katniss thinks.

'It must just be coincidence he used that name.' Katniss finishes her thought and claps her cheeks to get her mind back on track with the tube elevating her up onto the tributes' starting platform.