Rick Riordan's Hunger Games [PJO AU]

Ep 8 - "Team"

It was strange that Piper kept insisting on picking fights with him when she was the one who used to criticize him for quarrelling with Clarisse, but he chalked it up to her finally getting feisty.

Percy though, just sort of sat around not doing anything. Although the forest wasn't any of their domains, it was the least appealing to Percy.

Clarisse had started calling him Prissy, and Bryce, wanting to jump on the bandwagon of bullying someone, started calling him Pacy. It was short for both passive and pacifist.

"So we stick together for the feast," Bryce said, ignoring Clarisse's comment. His excitement was blossoming too much to be bothered by her. At last! Something exciting to satisfy his bloodlust.

Percy yawned, "Can we go to sleep now? I feel like the moon's glaring at me."

Bryce only had to ignore Pacy for a few days longer...

Because when it's the Final Eight, they'll break the alliance and hunt each other down. Surely it won't take too long.

◼▲◼

Nico wished his sister were here. In the months she'd been hiding in District 11, he had gotten used to missing her and trusting that she was alright and coming back. This time was different because he knew she wasn't.

He'd nearly walked into the Careers again, which made sense since the forest was smaller now and other tributes were probably hiding whereas the Careers hiked around.

Nico made a point to only move at night when it was hard to get spotted. But that also limited him to walking in the cold. He hoped the exercise would keep him from getting hypothermia.

Someone was stumbling around about a hundred meters away, so loudly Nico could hear them clearly despite his permanent tiredness.

He shuffled behind a tree and tried to make out who it was.

The moon lit up the guy's curly blond hair, and Nico realized that it was Will. Deciding that he couldn't leave the other boy to die, he ventured into the open and stopped in front of him.

Will was sunburnt and had two punctures on his cheek, which had swollen disproportionately. He stared at him oddly, "Nico? Oh, wow, yep, I'm hallucinating."

Nico tried to steady him, "You're not hallucinating."

"That's what a hallucination would say."

Nico resisted from rolling his eyes and cast a wary look around them. "Can you not talk? Or be that loud?"

"Sure," he said. And then promptly collapsed.

It was hard to gauge what to do next. It was too dangerous to try to get Will up a tree. And he had stick arms and bad coordination, so that really wasn't an option at all. Dragging himself around already required too much energy.

"Will," he hissed, poking him in the head. "You need to get up. I'm weak and dying so I can't lift —"

He raised his head so fast Nico nearly jabbed him in the eye, "You're dying?"

"Um," Nico said, "yeah. I've been really cold for a while and I'm worried I'm sick. I also got stabbed on day one."

"Oh my god," he said, sitting up, "let me see."

"This isn't a good place for that," he warned.

Will tried to stand. "The forest sucks," he managed, pushing his sweaty hair back. "We should get out. I only came here to find you."

Nico stared at him in disbelief, "Seriously? Why?"

"We're a team, remember?" he managed to stay upright, though he was leaning on his shoulder. "Oh wait, I shouldn't do that. You're dying. Where were you stabbed?"