Luckily for Clem, Mako wasn't moving too fast considering he was carrying Kade, who was around the same weight as Clem, had a lot more height to consider, which was just a little more room handle.
Clem knew they really shouldn't be jostling Kade around too much considering he had some sort of injury guessing from the blood that was stuck to part of his head.
"How long do you think he'll be out of it?" Mako asked, shifting his arm that was underneath Kade's knees for a second.
Clem had been staring at the ever growing pool of lava that was seemingly driving all the tributes up the sides of the pyramid walls, leading to whatever awaited them at top, but now he snapped back into the present.
"Not long, what's odd is, I had programmed the shock to be a temporary blackout, like it had been on Peace. What's understandable for Kade's delayed awakening is the fact of his condition before he was shocked. What doesn't make sense is why Verena took so long to wake up, well assuming she's up now that is. She would've had to have a recent exposure to some other electrical involved injury for it to do much damage." Clem began to ramble, though as normal, wasn't being as observant of his surroundings as he was being focused on Verena's puzzling symptoms.
"But Verena had been electrocuted before." Mako said, recalling about when they had been stuck with the electric eel, which had buzzed Verena, Indigo, and Zale.
"We were trying to get our weapons but there was an electric eel in the way, but I only recognized the markings and got out of the water so I wasn't hit that bad, it was just a little tingle in the air because I was still wet. But Verena, Indigo, and Zale had been fully emerged and were all hit pretty bad."
Clem winced, he had taken great care to make sure that the electric shock from the mines wouldn't kill them, and just put them into shock, but he hadn't taken into account that any of them had been exposed to an electrical outlet of any sorts. Though in his defense, it's not like there were any threats that he had encountered that would have reminded him to consider this factor.
Even if it was an accident, had Clem been the one to kill Verena, considering he was the one who rewired the pressure plates from contact proximity release to all around motion proximity release, and made it an electrical shock, even if he didn't push the button, it would still be his fault. And that's why he had a pang of guilt lacing through him regardless of the fact that she wouldn't even hesitate to take his life should she be given the chance.
Not that he would blame her for doing so, they are in the Hunger Games after all.
Realizing Clem had gone silent, Mako stopped walking and turned around to face him, which made Clem have to stop walking as well, given the fact he had been trailing behind the boy.
"Hey look, we didn't have a choice okay? And it wasn't your fault you didn't know she had already been electrocuted. Besides, it was me who pushed the button, not you, so if it really was her who died, then that's my problem." Mako insisted, moving slightly so Kade's head wasn't dangling in the air so much, and so it was propped against Mako's side.
It had been a couple hours since they had begun to walk, and the silence in terms of canons had been slightly disturbing to Clem.
So three people had died back to back, and they knew one had been Aaron, but not who the other two were, other than they suspected Verena.
Which could be a good thing considering she was a formidable opponent in terms of strength. And given the fact she came from district three, then that probably meant she was a lot smarter than she initially lets off, or let's people know of.
"We should probably camp for now, so we don't move Kade around too much." Clem murmured, not wanting to continue the conversation from a couple seconds ago because he knew that no matter how much Mako tried to convince him otherwise, Clem would still feel the guilt rising in his stomach when Verena's possible death was the topic at hand.
Mako agreed and began to carefully rearrange Kade on the ground so that he could rest peacefully.
Clem scooted closer to both boys, starting to check up on Kade's vitals to make sure he was doing okay still, when he noticed something was off.
"Oh no-" he muttered quietly, tension forming over his forehead as he double checked to make sure, pressing his ear close to his chest.
"Is something wrong?" Mako asked, tilting his head to the side and grazing his eyes over Kade's form.
"I don't hear anything." Clem whispered, feeling tears prick at his eyes. He had to take a couple deep breaths to push the almost overwhelming guilt away that threatened to collapse his sanity. There could still be time, there hadn't been a canon for him yet.
"Mako, hold out one hand facedown and put the other on top of it and lace your fingers, now." Clem demanded, holding out his hand and waiting for him to comply. "I need you to press down to the beat rhythm of one hundred and ten beats per minute, over this point okay- push down until his chest sinks about as long as your thumb, quickly too." He ordered.
"Uh wait, what are you going to do?" Mako asked as he held his hands in the position Clem instructed.
"Just focus on what you're doing okay." Clem said, holding up a finger. "Start . . . . Now!" And so Mako went and Clem mentally ticked down every pump until he reached one hundred and twenty. "Stop-" he ordered before gulping and tilting Kade's chin up, pinching his nose close before connecting their lips so he could force him to breathe.
When he sat back on his heels briefly, instructing Mako to continue with the beats, the look on Mako's face was almost unreadable.
It was almost like he was oddly disturbed, or maybe concerned, or maybe he was just shocked because Clem hadn't given a warning about what he was doing. Any way, it didn't really matter at the moment.
Around the third repetition, Kade's eyes flew open right as Clem was starting to pull back.
"Agh!?" Kade's pale green eyes blinked as he pushed himself upright, both Clem and Mako sitting back on their heels, panting out breaths of relief.
"Where am I?" He finally blurted, his eyes becoming focused as he started to realize he wasn't in that much danger. At least, not as much as he had been when he had been electrocuted.
"Up the path a little ways- I electrocuted you so we could get you out but then your heart stopped so Clem had us do CPR I think-" Mako began to explain rather quickly, before Clem realized that wasn't what Kade was asking.
"Aaron won't be a threat to you anymore." Clem interrupted before Kade could start being angry from being electrocuted.
His face froze and his eyes darted to the path behind them, his face turning pale.
Kade was silent for multiple seconds before he swallowed and said quietly. "Who did it?"
"I did." Mako whispered, miming himself pulling back a bow and arrow and shooting.
"Thank you." Kade's normally crisp british accent cracked as he looked up at Mako- his eyes watery as he looked like he was debating something mentally.
Clem's mouth dropped when Kade pulled Mako into a hug, and from the boy's shocked expression, Clem could tell that Mako hadn't been expecting that either.
Kade whispered something very quietly, which was difficult for Clem to hear, but he said this. "You have no idea how much I needed that."
He guessed the thing Kade needed, was to be free of his oppressor.
"I also feel like I should say something, because like, I hope you don't mind the fact that I had to you know- sort of kiss you to make sure you didn't die-" Clem stammered as Kade pulled back, rubbing his cheek as though scrubbing tears off of it.
Kade let out a short laugh, and gave a wave of dismissal, "it's fine, it might just make a certain boyfriend of mine back home a little jealous." Kade said, giving them a grin that showed off his dimples.
"I get that- I mean- I've only kissed one other guy so-" Clem began to say, but the look on Mako's face make him pause, raising an eyebrow.
"Is something wrong Mako-Bako?" He joked punching him lightly in the arm.
"Do you not get any other kisses or what?"
"You both mean to tell me that both of you are gay and you didn't tell me?" Mako asked, almost as though he was appalled that the two would leave something as important as this as a secret.
"Uhhh . . . Well it never really came up that I liked guys- though Kade that really didn't mean anything- i was just trying to save your life- just so we're perfectly clear about that." Clem assured, which Kade agreed with obviously.
"You like . . . . . Guys?" Mako muttered, which sort of made Clem uncomfortable because he wasn't sure if this could mean the end of their alliance.
To that, all Clem did was nod and shrug like it was no big deal.
What shocked Clem next was when Kade started laughing, never would he ever have expected a sound like that to come from the emo boy.
"What?!" Clem and Mako both asked bewilderingly before Kade snorted and said, "Mako you are really bad at this, if you want to do it, just do it and get it over with."
"Bad at what?" Clem asked questioningly, turning to Mako who was now bright pink.
Then understanding dawned on him, making his purple eyes really big. "Oh- so wait-"
Suddenly the small moment they had right after the interviews made sense. And why Clem had always felt awkward when Mako carried him.
And why Mako would almost always try to make sure that Clem wasn't feeling down, though he had thought that it was just because he was a good friend.
Seeing as how Mako was definitely blushing now finalized the thought that Clem had decided on.
"Well, there's really no harm, and as Kade said, do it now or you might regret not doing it later-" Clem stared to ramble before Mako finally moved.
It was almost too fast, but also as though in slow motion as he made his move, his fingers finding the side of Clem's jaw, tilting it upwards so he could press his lips against the flustered boy's own pair.
-Agent Bay