Cage me like an animal • F Odair¹ •

XVI

"I want you to stop denying it!"

•∘♛∘•

Athena watched Kai. When they were walking in semi-silence, trying to find shelter; when they had finished searching the abandoned home, relatively intact, and settled into the spacious sitting room; even as she tended to her injuries, both old and new; and she watched him now, as he used a stone to sharpen the tips of his arrows, before moving onto his knives. They both sat against walls opposite each other. She made her staring as subtle as she could. She was trying to learn how to predict his actions; she had no idea how to read Kai, his actions had always seemed unpredictable to her, even during training. She could not afford to have an unpredictable ally, especially not at this point in the Games. If she could just learn how to read him, then she would be able to sense when he was about to turn on her, and she could find some sort of way out of the situation without having to kill him herself...

"You want to use this?" Kai said, when he was finally done sharpening all of his arrows and his knives, holding up the stone. Athena had switched to looking busy adjusting the straps of her backpack just in time, then looked back up at the sound of his voice, as though she hadn't been paying attention before. "You know, for that?" he elaborated, gesturing at her spear.

Athena looked down at her spear, running a finger along the blade. She realized that, though it was still sharp, it had dulled considerably over time, and it could probably benefit from being sharpened. Athena held out her hand, and Kai tossed the stone at her. She caught it in her hand, murmured her thanks to him, and set to work on sharpening the blade of her spear. She still watched Kai out of the corner of her eye, trying to set his behaviours and his mannerisms to memory.

"So, I told you about how the arena's been treating me; what about you?" Athena said suddenly, mostly because she did want to know, but also partly because it gave her an actual excuse to study him.

Kai shrugged, looking slightly surprised at having been asked. "I've had an easier run of it than you. I mean, I wasn't in any explosions or anything. Didn't get stung by any Tracker Jackers. I met with the Careers pretty much the morning after we got separated. Most of what we did was go hunting for other tributes."

"Was it as glamorous as everyone says it is?" Athena said, trying to keep her sarcasm minimal.

Kai definitely sensed the sarcasm but did not comment on it. "Not really. I didn't get much sleep. You know, they're the best tributes in the arena objectively, but you never know what they're going to do. They all act on impulse. They might see you sleeping and decide to kill you right then and there. I saw it happen. Everyone was awake except Sapphire, and they all spent fifteen minutes debating whether they should just kill her because she had been bothering them. The only reason they didn't in the end was because I told them we should keep her alive for a little longer. After something like that, you can't really bring yourself to sleep a lot."

Athena refrained from asking Kai what he had expected from them, but only said, "Well, if you're tired, feel free to get some rest. I'll take watch."

"No, I'm fine, I'm sure you need - "

"I've gotten tons of sleep," Athena lied, speaking shortly. "I'll take watch."

Kai stared at her thoughtfully for a moment, before nodding once. "Fine. But I'm not tired yet."

"Then don't sleep," Athena shrugged. "Makes no difference to me."

For a moment, there was silence. Kai was staring at Athena now. She searched for a change in subject; as hypocritical as it likely was, Athena did not like the idea of being examined the way she was examining him. Before she could find one, he spoke.