The KOTLC Games: A KOTLC Hunger Games Crossover

Chapter VIII: L'il bit of Love

Sophie paced across the forest floor. "I can't believe you went without us!" Keefe practically shouted clenching his fists. They'd had no chance to explain what had actually happened there, barely able to get a word in edgeways. Sitting still, staring into space, Sophie tuned out the angry conversation, quietly humming a tune to herself.

Sophie jumped when Biana lightly touched her on the shoulder.

"I saw the anthem," she told her softly. "And I assume that you were there." It wasn't a question, but Sophie nodded anyway. Biana got up from the ground and brushed the twigs of her skirt, and don't ask how she had a skirt in this arena. Probably a joke from a sponsor. Tam was unsubtly moving towards Biana, Keefe smirking at him.

"Smooooth Bangs Boy, smoooooth." Tam glared at him.

"I told you, don't call me Bangs Boy!" He said angrily, exasperation clearly evident in his voice. Keefe grinned evilly.

"Whatever Bangs Boy." Tam let out a low growl, hand out to push Keefe into the lake, before Keefe caught it, tutting. Sophie instantly began laughing, prompting Biana and Keefe to start, Tam reluctantly cracking a smile.

"What's happening?" Fitz called from behind the quartet. The laughter died away as Fitz glared at them.

"Yikes," Tam whispered to Sophie. Fitz stepped forward as Tam stepped back, grasping onto Biana's hand. She stared at it but didn't let go. Fitz cracked a smile, but it didn't hide the hollowness in his eyes from losing at them.

"Fitzy's a teensy bit jealous," Keefe hissed loudly. It was probably meant to be a whisper, but it completely failed.

"Why would I be jealous?" Fitz snapped back. "I'm not jealous, I've got nothing to be jealous of," he added slightly too quickly. Keefe sniggered.

"Right... Totally," he replied sarcastically. "Fitzipoo, how much you have to learn about the art of lying."

She had no idea what happened that night, only that she woke up bruised and sore, a gunky mess on her leg and a white dot in the centre of it, painfully stinging. She finally identified it with some help from Biana as a sting from a type of wasp, and that sounded really anticlimactic. Apparently, if she rubbed some lotion on it today it should be fine really soon. Finding a pot of cream in a box on the ground, she sniffed it, wrinkling up her nose but unscrewing it anyway. Finding a place below the trees, the scraped some onto her finger, spreading it over her purplish leg. It really did look disgusting.

She slowly massaged it; forward, back, forward, back, forward, Keefe? She didn't realise she'd said this last part aloud until Keefe laughed. He walked beside the campfire to sit beside her, no shirt on. Sophie blushed, meaning she nearly missed what he next said.

"You know what happened after the interview," Sophie nodded - she wasn't sure what else to do. "Want to talk about it?" Sophie didn't know how to coherently reply, so she stayed silent. "Or we could skip the talking." Sophie didn't know what he meant, but her heart picked up pace rapidly and her hormones went haywire. Keefe reached for her hand, and Sophie took it gratefully, her cheeks on fire, seeing the guilt in his eyes.

"It's not your fault Keefe."

"In some ways it is," he sighed. "If I'd noticed before the council got overthrown a couple years back, then they wouldn't exist." Sophie tightened her grip on his hand, but one part of what he'd said didn't make sense.

"Wait... Lady Gisela said this was the 74th hunger games. If the council only got overthrown a bit after I arrived..." She knew the answer but she wanted to hear it from him, make it a bit, more real she supposed.

"They did it before in secret," Keefe hastily added. "They forcibly broadcast it onto the TVs, except the humans who didn't know we existed and stole children. The winner was sent back with their mind wiped."