"I VOLUNTEER, I VOLUNTEER!" The scream left Katniss's throat before she even realised it, scratching her voice like a razor blade. Did she ever think before she spoke? No. This wasn't anything new.

Except it was.

Watching your name get pulled out of the large jar, filled to the brim of little slips of paper with names on it. Katniss couldn't take it. How could you go? She put her name in the Reaping so many times for food, probably fifteen or eighteen at max. Yet, you got picked? This wasn't fair. But, in all honesty, the Capitol wasn't fair, was it? That's a rhetorical question.

Of course it was.

Something pierced at her heart when Effie's cheerful voice echoed into the microphone, bouncing around the platform from where kids twelve to eighteen were split into age groups, all sat in orderly groups. She pushed past Peacekeepers and stood there firm. Time slowed down for Katniss until those four words left her mouth.

"I volunteer as tribute."

She spoke after a beat of silence. A warm hand touched her shoulder - it was yours. Your mouth opened, words of weak insults almost began to stream from your mouth. "Katniss Everdeen—" you began until she grasped her cold hand around the side of your jaw, pulling you into a kiss, making sure you were as close to her as physically possible. The whole platform was silent, watching the two girls.

“I’d rather walk into the fire than watch it burn you. Stay safe. Stay alive. That’s all I’ll ever ask of you.” Katniss said, parting from the kiss, her eyes closed, breathing heavy, forehead touching yours.