Katniss POV

Clove wasn't hard to find. She's up in a tree, high enough to where the mutts won't actually be able to reach her, but I could still easily see her from the ground. She seems to be attempting to get down, but the branches are giving her trouble.

"What are you doing?" I yell, a slight smile on my face as I watch her struggle above me. Even after everything that has happened, the sight of anyone, especially a career, especially Clove, stuck in a tree is funny.

She's startled by my voice, and lets go of the branch she had been clinging to, falling onto a sturdier one a few feet below, and something cracks as she lands on her back, then falls the rest of the way down the tree.

I run to her, and help sit her up. She's breathing heavily, but still grins when she seems me.

"I thought you were dead. I was coming to see if you were alive, and to kill Loverboy if he was alive. I'm a… Not much of a climber. The mutts chased me up, but getting down was kinda hard. Well I guess it wasn't as hard as it could be."

"Are you hurt? I heard something crack when you hit that limb."

She shakes her head, and I pull her up so she's standing. She slowly starts leading me out of the woods, and towards the cornucopia. There are no words. She just takes my hand in hers and starts walking, and soon I match her pace, even though it is not as fast as I would have liked. My eyes scan our surroundings for any danger, specifically the mutts. I don't want to have a run in with them, not with Clove in the state she's in. I don't think she would be able to run, and I know we couldn't fight them all off.

Yet we make it to the cornucopia without any sort of disruption from our peaceful walk, and I can't help but be suspicious. Night has fallen by the time we arrive, and Clove starts to slowly make her way up the side of the cornucopia. I haul myself up after her, and then she finally speaks.

"It'll all be over tomorrow you know? They wanted to see what we'd do. They left us to our own devices, and hoped we would just kill each other. I highly doubt they will kill us in the night. They want it to be brutal. They want the winner to wish they were dead. Death might end up being the easy way out. The dead one won't have to go through the pain of recovering from whatever awaits us. But if I can spend the rest of the night with you, without any of those things, I'll be ready to face whatever the morning will bring."

I grasp her in my arms and kiss her, and I feel her grip onto me, and I know she needs this just as much as I do, and that everything she just told me was true, even the part about how much pain is to come. They won't let us both live.

"Nightlock." I murmur as I reluctantly pull away from her. "We could both take it. They wouod surely stop us. They need to have someone win." I whisper

"That might work, but then what would they do to us afterwords? What would happen to your family? They would do the same thing to your family that they did to Johanna Mason's. Her whole family was killed a little after she got back. She disobeyed someone high up, I bet Snow, and then she paid for it. I won't let that happen to your family. I'll think of something else. You just sleep now. I'll take first watch. I'll wake you when I'm tired."

She unwraps herself from me, and I frown at the loss of contact. She grabs my sleeping bag, and allows me to get in it before she zips me in, then sitting beside me, running her fingers through my hair.

"Goodnight Katniss. I'll see you in the morning. I'll have everything all figured out by then, I promise." She kisses my forehead, and almost immediately I feel myself drifting off, knowing I'm safe with her there.

Clove POV

I wish there was another way for this to end. I really do, but there are people who depend on her, and the loss of them would ruin her. I know what I have to do, but I still don't know if I can do it. I'm scared, and as selfish as it is, I had let myself think of a life with her, one where we both somehow made it out, and fought the Capitol, and won.

I allowed myself to think about things like that on those few nights when I was away from her, the nights now I wish I had just gone with her, because our time together has been too short. But I kept her safe, which was why I stayed away.

I plan to spend the rest of my night watching over her, peaceful in sleep, unaware of my plan. I hope she doesn't hate me.

Katniss POV

I awake to the sound of a canon, and I know. The sun is bright, and seems to be hitting Clove in a dramatic fashion from where I lay. She sits in the same position as last night, right beside me, and she's looking at me, a smile on her face. One of her knives is sticking out from her chest.

I cry, unable to keep up that strong façade I had tried to maintain, as I hear my name being announced as the winner of the 74th Hunger Games.