Thicker Than Water

Day Two and Three: Training

Training couldn't have been more daunting with people all older than her. Her last Games wasn't so bad, they were all at least in the same age range. But now she was one of the youngest. There was her, Katniss, and Peeta, everyone else was at least 20 or older. Finnick was 24, Johanna was 21. One of the first things she saw was Johanna slicing through the air with her ax. She caught Kallan's eye when she paused and threw in a wink, which made Kallan roll her eyes. Plan was, between her and Finnick, to not show their skills so much this time. They didn't have to. Practice them, yes, but the Capitol knew this family. They were sending them things in the arena regardless, they didn't need to show off. So they would spend the first day or two strategizing, working survival skills.

Finnick stuck to her side for a bit, still clearly a little on edge from the night before. They worked on testing their knowledge of the plants, worked on some easy knot tying, traps that could be set, like the ones Finnick used to win his Games, like the one Kallan had used to kill her ally.

"No, that needs to be tighter," Finnick was telling her, and she scrunched her face up at him.

"No, it's good."

"Kallie," Finnick tilted his head at her like she was stupid.

"I promise, look," Kallan went to the computer board, running a quick simulation. A hologram rabbit made of yellow pixels ran up to the trap quickly, and got caught by the neck. Kallan smirked at her brother triumphantly, and it was his turn to roll his eyes. "Just because you're older doesn't mean you have all the answers."

"I do, though."

"Can you show me how to do that?"

Kallan whipped around at the voice, knowing it far too quickly. In an instant she felt her outward demeanor shift. Finnick, surprisingly, stood back to let Kallan do the talking. Her eyebrow was cocked already, arms were crossed. Though in this black and gray training outfit that they were all wearing, there was thankfully nothing to cover. Not that Peeta would look anyway.

"Your fiancee never taught you?" she jeered slightly, having seen the Games last year, having known what Katniss was capable of.

"Actually, no," he admitted. Kallan hummed thoughtfully about it, looking over at Finnick.

"I'll leave you to it," he said, raising his eyebrows at his sister as he strutted off.

"Okay," Kallan said, gesturing for Peeta to join her by the ropes. She began to explain it to him, in between thinking about whether or not he'd seen her Games, whether or not he knew that she'd used these traps to kill a person. Standing next to him now made her consider if she could consider him an ally. Having any others besides Finnick seemed dangerous, she couldn't have them turning on them and hurting her brother. But Peeta didn't seem like he'd want to do that, even if he had to.

She ran the same simulation, with the rabbit, even though there was no guarantee of even having a rabbit in the arena. It went through the snare, but it ran off with the rope. Peeta breathed out frustratedly, and Kallan couldn't keep back her amused laugh.

"No beginner's luck, I guess," she said, and he looked over at her, meeting her eyes.

"Never been much for hunting." Kallan let out a sigh once she was done laughing at him.

"Ah well, try again later, bread boy," she said, giving him a playful pat on the back and heading off in another direction. Partly because she needed to keep training, partly because she couldn't spend another second in that close proximity to Peeta Mellark. He smelled surprisingly good for someone who had been throwing around weights all morning... not that she was looking. She was just taking in the other tributes, seeing what they were up to.