Work Text:
“I’ll take the bow,” Vi says casually, her hand moving to grip it as Caitlyn instinctively pulls back.
Her eyes narrow at Vi, a hint of suspicion in them, before Vi rolls her eyes with a smile and steps away, lifting her hands up in mock-surrender. “I’m just kidding.”
The tension in Caitlyn’s shoulders eases slightly, but she still grips the bow close to her chest. “Very funny,” she responds stiffly, because joking about stealing someone’s weapons is exactly what she wants to hear in a murder arena.
Vi just shakes her head in amusement, walking past Caitlyn, supposedly to do what Caitlyn had suggested—scope out the area, maybe find food if they can spot some. Caitlyn watches Vi leave her periphery, then exhales softly, fingers clenched around the bow.
They’ve made it this far. They can make it to the end.
Both of them.
She doesn’t like the feeling of not having Vi in her eyesight, but this is the quickest way to cover ground and the clock is ticking. Caitlyn finally starts moving, walking slowly and quietly through the forest and praying that Vi isn’t causing too much noise wherever she’s going, because she’s had a habit of doing so in the few hours they’ve spent together.
She holds her bow in a position that prepares her for attack at an instant’s notice, arrow already knocked in case someone comes running her way. Even as she spots some berries and crouches to pick them up, pocketing a few and leaving a few others with her bag, she scans the woods around her, knowing that letting her guard down for even a moment means death.
At some point, she almost thinks that she hears a noise behind her, but the explosion from earlier also might have been messing with her hearing—the ringing in her head is less loud than it had been two days ago, but it still makes her jumpy.
She waits for a moment, listening closely for any movement until—
Boom!
The cannon goes off.
Caitlyn startles, ice flooding her veins as she thinks, Vi .
There’s no one here. She tries to hear for Vi, tries to think what direction Vi would be going and starts turning to run, but then—
The bushes start to rustle, loud footsteps crunching on leaves, and Caitlyn lifts her bow and aims toward the noise until pink hair bursts out of the trees.
“ Cait ,” Vi breathes, a look of utter relief on her face as she rushes over. It’s almost foolish, the way that Caitlyn immediately abandons all caution and drops her bow as well, pulling Vi close to feel her alive.
“Vi—”
“Wh—Fuck, Cait , did you eat this?”
As soon as Caitlyn’s relief comes, it disappears, as Vi pulls back sharply, holding a handful of the berries Caitlyn had picked up in her hands, “This is nightlock , Cait, what the fuck —”
“I didn’t!” Caitlyn immediately rushes out, eyes widening at what had seemed like harmless fruit. “I just—I saw them and I thought—”
“Thank the fucking gods,” Vi mutters, pulling Caitlyn into another rib-crushing hug, her arms wrapping around Caitlyn’s waist as the berries fall to the ground.
Caitlyn tries not to feel the butterflies in her stomach at Vi’s touch, fully aware of where they are right now, but she can’t help it. She leans in closer, burying her head in Vi’s shoulder and breathing in her scent, letting the warmth spread throughout her body—up until Vi pulls away, leaving her cold again.
She meets Caitlyn’s gaze for just a moment, her eyes shining with something that Caitlyn can’t name. Then, her shoulder brushes against Caitlyn’s as she starts walking away in the direction Caitlyn had come.
“Who’d you think it was?” Vi asks, and Caitlyn has to jog a few steps to catch up to her, now leading the way in the direction of her bag and supplies that she hadn’t brought with her.
Caitlyn had seen the female tribute from District Two killed at the Feast, which had been the only death of the day up until a few minutes ago. “Four left,” she says, breathing heavily as they walk, “Including us. I suppose we’d be lucky if it was—”
“Maddie,” Vi’s voice cuts her off, but it’s barely above a whisper. Caitlyn looks up at Vi, then in front of her, and sees—
Maddie . District Five.
Dead, slumped over across Caitlyn’s bag, her hand filled with the berries Caitlyn had stashed in there earlier.
“I thought I heard something earlier,” Caitlyn murmurs, her feet frozen to the ground. She should be used to death by now, should’ve been used to it when they first got here, but seeing Maddie lying there, knowing it was Caitlyn who’d inadvertently killed her—
She’s fine. She shoves the guilt down, compartmentalizes it for later, swallows the bile in her throat.
“One less person, at least,” Caitlyn says firmly, more to herself than to Vi, who’s also staring at the body. She crouches down to pull the bag out from under Maddie, then takes the berries from her hand and stuffs them in her pockets. “Maybe someone else will be hungry, too. Or maybe Rictus and Loris will kill each other, if we’re lucky. Come on, the aircraft will be here soon.”
Vi stares, and stares, and eventually Caitlyn needs to nudge her shoulder before she finally looks away and starts to follow Caitlyn, no more words leaving her mouth.
Two left. Then she and Vi can go home .
-
The mutts come at night. Caitlyn had been trying to sleep with Vi keeping watch when they’d heard the screams, one of the other tributes whose voice Caitlyn couldn’t make out. Immediately, Vi had shook Caitlyn awake, grabbing their bags and the bow and arrows with only one instruction:
Run .
Caitlyn can hear the growls from all around, Vi’s footsteps chasing behind her, the screams from the other tribute fading away, and the cannon a few seconds later.
She can barely feel relief at the fact that there’s only one person left, that she and Vi outnumber them, and that the end is in sight because she’s running for her life.
Her bag gets caught in a branch and she lets it fall, stumbling only briefly as Vi catches up to her, not even daring to try to toss Caitlyn her weapon because it would only slow them down, and they have no idea where the mutts are even chasing them to.
A glimmer of silver from the Cornucopia shines in the night sky, and Caitlyn can feel her legs strain as she pushes onward, just to make it there— can mutts climb?
Thankfully, it seems that Vi has the same idea without Caitlyn having to shout it out.
Unfortunately, another tribute seems to think similarly as well.
Caitlyn can spot Rictus from District Two in her periphery, running in the same direction as them. She can’t even bother herself to think of a way out of the confrontation, her focus going entirely towards leaping out of the way as a mutt’s jaws come scarily close to her leg and running, running, running .
She makes it to the cornucopia before Vi, surprised to see when she turns around that Vi’s still holding on to Caitlyn’s bow and quiver, but has ditched her bag at some point. She doesn’t think on it too hard, simply holds out her hand immediately to pull Vi up—which Vi reaches for as soon as she throws the weapons for Caitlyn to catch and then pushes herself up the base of the cornucopia.
When Caitlyn’s hands latch onto Vi’s jacket, one of the mutts makes it to her feet, and Caitlyn feels the sharp tug nearly take Vi from her hands—but Caitlyn’s grip only grows tighter as she pulls , grunting and heaving as Vi lets out a shout of pain, kicking at the mutt’s head even as another climbs higher, biting at her waist.
Not yet , Caitlyn pleads to Vi in her head. Don’t die just yet .
One more strong pull and Caitlyn goes tumbling back, Vi falling nearly on top of her, as they land on the tip of the cornucopia. Caitlyn doesn’t release her hold on Vi’s jacket, making sure they’re balanced and won’t fall off as the mutts continue to jump and bite at the edge.
Immediately, she looks to see Rictus—on the other side of the cornucopia, his arm bloody and torn from a mutt that’s latched onto it, attempting to pull him down.
Caitlyn’s first instinct should be to find her arrows and shoot him. Right now, so that the games will be over.
But instead, she quickly shuffles to Vi’s side, lifting aside the ripped pants that had been stuck to Vi’s leg with blood, torn apart by the mutt’s teeth. Then peeking through more tears on her shirt, which reveals a deep red wound just below her ribs.
“Fuck, Vi,” Caitlyn mutters under her breath, instinctively reaching behind her for her bag, which she hopes still holds some of the medicine from yesterday—but no, that’s left behind somewhere in the woods, never to be seen again. The only way to save Vi is to get her home, which has been the plan from the start, so Caitlyn reaches for her bow—
Caitlyn screams as hands wrap around her throat, pulling her up and back as she chokes, arms frantically reaching for anything she could use as a weapon.
She finds nothing.
When her vision returns to her, slightly blurry but there, she sees Vi on her feet, clearly favoring the left leg, and for some reason holding the bow and arrow in her hands.
The cold glint of a knife brushes Caitlyn’s throat.
“You want to win?” Rictus’ voice comes from behind her, and the knife presses against her skin. “Kill her, too.”
A brief wave of relief washes over Caitlyn.
It’s fine. She’s taught Vi archery, not well enough to actually get them both out of this scenario alive, but enough for her to kill Rictus, even if it brings Caitlyn down as well.
She’s alright with that. Had made her peace with dying in these games when her name was first called, actually.
It’s only fitting that she goes in the way she had planned.
But Vi needs to aim somewhere fatal, or somewhere that’s painful enough to knock him over and to the mutts, even if Caitlyn knows that would be condemning herself to a slow, painful death. She could only hope that Vi would take mercy on her and shoot her herself—though, again, that relies on Vi’s aim.
Caitlyn tries her best to nod, to reassure Vi that it’s alright to take the shot, even though all she sees is pure fear reflected in Vi’s eyes.
The word forms on her lips, but can’t escape her throat: Shoot .
Vi doesn’t. She stands still, the arrow knocked and unmoving.
Caitlyn should take control of the situation, move sharply in order to get Vi in action—even if she ends up killing herself, it’ll be worth it, instead of Rictus waiting her out. Caitlyn doesn’t even know why Vi’s taking so long, why she’s acting like she’s not currently bleeding out, why she cares so much about keeping Caitlyn alive.
That had never been the plan.
So Caitlyn slowly moves her arm up, and Rictus is talking behind her but she can’t give a damn about what he’s saying. She flinches slightly each time the knife breaks through another layer of skin, starting to sink deeper with his movement.
She tries to come up with a strategy in her head, tries to make it a foolproof way for Vi to come out of this alive—
She points her finger to Rictus’ hand, just above Caitlyn’s collarbone.
Shoot .
The arrow flies.
It’s by pure miracle that it doesn’t end up hitting Caitlyn, that she’s quick enough to duck her head so that when Rictus stabs with the knife using his other hand, it slashes straight through Caitlyn’s eye rather than her throat.
Her vision goes black, whether that’s from the blood or the pain, but with all the force she has, she pushes Rictus off of her, not caring if she’ll fall down the cornucopia as long as she takes him with her.
As long as Vi stays alive.
She falls on her knees, hands planted on the cold metal of the cornucopia as the sounds ring in her ear:
A scream.
Mutts.
“ Cait .”
Vi’s voice is choked, desperate, torn between words and sobs. A hand cradles Caitlyn’s face, wipes the blood out of her eyes, and she’s so relieved when she can still see Vi out of one of them.
She’s so close, pulling Caitlyn into her arms as they sit, and listen, and wait for the cannon to go off.
Caitlyn pulls back slightly, her hand reaching to Vi’s cheek to look at her face, to whisper, “We’re going home.”
Vi doesn’t react the way she should. With a crooked grin, or a laugh, even if the last tribute is currently being torn to pieces beneath them.
Her gaze looks faint. She’s not focusing on Caitlyn’s face anymore, and her grip around Caitlyn’s shoulders feels loose.
Caitlyn’s hands move in a panicked motion, again, reaching for Vi’s waist, pulling up her shirt which has now been thoroughly soaked with blood.
“Vi,” Caitlyn whispers, and then again, “ Vi .”
“Caitlyn,” Vi says, her syllables slurred together. Caitlyn finally sees her eyes, grave with acceptance.
No .
No. No.
No, No, No, NoNoNoNO —
“Remember,” she rasps, voice low and barely audible, “the bread?”
“Vi— Vi, no, you’re not—”
“You saved my life,” Vi whispers.
She coughs, choking on blood.
“You’re going to be alright, Vi,” Caitlyn says firmly, trying to calm the wavers in her voice. Where is the cannon? “I’ll kill Rictus myself, we won’t—we’ll make it in time, the Capitol will—”
She’s already moving, even though she doesn’t want to move an inch away from Vi now, and even though she’s not sure her aim will be any good through one eye, but then—
Boom .
She could laugh in relief as she pulls Vi close, holding her tight. Her arm reaches down to the wound, hand covering it and trying its best to keep the blood in. “See, Vi, they’ll come any second now, you’ll be—”
“There has been a change in the rules,” says a monotone voice through the speakers, filling the entire arena. “ The previous rule change of two Victors being allowed from the same District has been revoked. Good luck. ”
Caitlyn’s ears go static.
“Cait,” Vi starts again, with another cough. “Don’t let my sister starve.”
Caitlyn doesn’t know if her vision is going blurry from blood or tears, or both, because her hands had already been halfway to taking off her jacket, planning to wrap it around Vi’s wound to keep it compressed, and now—
Her fingers brush the inside of the pocket, curling around the nightlock.
She doesn’t want to live without Vi. She can’t.
“You’re going to live, Vi,” Caitlyn whispers, mostly under her breath as she forces Vi to look at her. “I’m not letting you die.”
“Cait—”
She can’t think as she presses her lips to Vi’s, one last, desperate kiss. She tastes blood on her tongue.
Vi won’t ever forgive her.
She’s alright with that.
Because if this goes wrong, which it most likely will, Caitlyn won’t risk Vi dying. She’ll swallow the nightlock before her pulse goes out, let her go home to her family, hope the Capitol’s medics make it in time.
But before that—
“I’ll kill myself!” she shouts, loud and guttural at the empty night sky. Hands shaking, she lifts up two of the berries, then presses them to her lips to make it clear what she’s threatening to do. “You won’t have a victor! As soon as she dies—”
“Cait,” Vi gasps, horrified, but Caitlyn isn’t looking at her. She reaches for her hand, though, fingers finding Vi’s pulse.
Weak, but still there.
“I promise, I will, I’ll kill —!”
“ Drop the nightlock ,” comes the voice from the overhead speakers. Caitlyn’s breathless; she feels like she’s going mad, but the interruption means—
She places the berries in her lap. She has more of them in her pocket, anyway.
There’s a hesitation over the speakers, and Caitlyn hopes that they’ve bought it, that they believe her, that she’s so absolutely crazy in love that there’s no other option but death.
It’s the truth.
Her nails dig into her palm. Her finger presses into Vi’s pulse point.
“ May I present ,” the voice finally rings out across the arena, “ The Victors of the Seventy-Fourth Annual Hunger Games. ”