Luhan felt the sun shining on his face and he scrunched his face more into his pillow. It felt warm and comfy all at the same time, nothing that he ever had a home. He inhaled deeply and caught a whiff of mints and laundry detergent. Luhan loved the smell of newly washed sheets, he burrowed deeper into the pillow until he felt something.

The pillow was definitely not a pillow.

Luhan cracked one eye open and saw Oh Sehun’s face. Centimeters away from his. Luhan didn’t know what to do, continue sleeping or kick Sehun off the roof. The boy’s hands were circling Luhan’s waist in a very soothing way and their feet were tangled, in a mess of limbs. Luhan felt Sehun burrow his face in his hair and breathe in.

He had to do all he could to suppress his giggle, Luhan was extremely ticklish and the way Sehun would occasionally blow into his hair, just made Luhan want to kick him in the crown jewels. But Luhan could never do such a thing! Especially because of that stupid sponsor. L.Joe was persistent on him getting along with Sehun rather than killing the younger. Luhan felt Sehun suddenly grab his waist and pulled him closer, flush against Sehun, if it was even possible to get any closer. Luhan could feel heat rising to his face and wished that he could sink into the ground and get away from the younger. Luhan just wanted to push the younger away but did not have the heart to.

Luhan could hear Taeyeon laughing now. Taeyeon was known as a match maker and loved to set people up with each other, she had named Luhan her apprentice and taught him everything she knew.

“Luhan remember that these people have to be compatible.” Taeyeon sternly reminded him.

“Taeyeon noona this is boring!” Luhan whined, “Why can’t we go swimming?”

“Don’t you think that we need a little more love in our lives?” Taeyeon asked, “The Capitol thinks that we are machines that can be toyed with doing work until we can’t work anymore, then they throw us out, only to replace us with another machine.”

“That was a very good metaphor.” Luhan pointed out.

“Thank you, anyways should we work together to set mom up?”

“That’s not such a great idea Taeyeon.”

“C’mon she needs a man!” Taeyeon insisted, “I want her to feel happy again!”

“Yes, but doesn’t she have us?” Luhan asked, “what more could she possibly need?”

Luhan being a mere 10 year old did not understand that his mother was probably feeling very lonely without the warmth and comfort of her husband. But Taeyeon knew, in her 14 years of love experience, despite being an infant for about 2 of them, she could feel her mother’s pain. Taeyeon felt an empty void in her heart as well; pouring her love onto Luhan could not mend what a father’s love was supposed to do. Luhan on the other hand was completely clueless and oblivious, being the oh so independent male he was, he was of course hurt without a father, but nonetheless stood proud.

“You’ll never understand,” Taeyeon smiled weakly, “besides, love always makes someone cheer up when the situation is good or bad.”

“How is love the answer?” Luhan questioned Taeyeon’s logic.

“Love can make someone forget something horrible that is happening in their life and just focus on the time they have with one another.”

“How about the love that you mom and I have?” Luhan cocked his head to the side.

“That’s family love, the love I’m talking about is the one that makes your heart flutter, but at the same time, you can’t describe it.” Taeyeon knocked Luhan on the head playfully.

“You seem to know a lot about love.” Luhan commented.

“Oh please, I always have someone to run back to.” Taeyeon looked into the distance. “But he’s what I like to call difficult.”

“Whoa there.” Luhan held his hands up, “you’re 14.”

“Love has no age, young or old.”

“What is love?” Luhan muttered.

“You’ll find love one day Lu.” Taeyeon smiled as she fixed Luhan’s messy hair.

Luhan was snapped back from his thoughts when a flash went off. He cracked open an eye and saw L.Joe and Chunji taking candid photos. Luhan immediately pushed away from Sehun as the younger sat up and backed away.

“This is going to get me a lot of favors.” L.Joe clicked his phone around with a sly smile, “The sponsor is going to be ecstatic!”

“What the f-”

“Do not curse Sehun!” Chunji slapped Sehun in the head, “Be happy we documented your first couple scene.”

“Nothing was happening!” Luhan shrieked, oblivious to his horrible case of bed head.

Chunji and L.Joe smirked at the two with knowing smiles, and exchanged a look.

“You want to see otherwise?” L.Joe slowly began to scroll through his phone, showing the pictures of Luhan and Sehun. Luhan gulped, in the picture he was practically snuggled into Sehun, laying his head across Sehun’s chest as the younger’s face was buried in Luhan’s hair. It explained his unusually bad case of bed head, but made the older blush in agony.

Sehun lunged for the phone, attempting to wrestle it out of Chunji, Chunji let out a very loud yelp.  “Back off man, you got to chill.”

“I will not chill! You took photos without permission!” Sehun roared, “Besides we aren’t even a couple!”

“You have to be; by the way you need to get ready because you need to go into the arena soon.” L.Joe said solemnly, “give each other a good bye kiss before the arena.”

Sehun and Luhan turned to each other.

“Don’t do anything stupid, the Careers need to last.”

“Ditto to you, lisp face.”

“That’s an interesting way to say things but, let’s go.” L.Joe dragged Luhan back up to the room. “Your hair is fabulously messy.”

“Thanks.” Luhan mumbled.

“What were you and Sehun doing last night?”

“Nothing, I was sitting up there and he came and we talked and fell asleep.” Luhan fought back a hot blush that was creeping up his cheeks.

“I’ll take that as an answer, right now I need to go over the strategy before the stylists take you.” L.Joe faced Luhan as Kyungsoo scurried over.

“Where have you been?”

“No questions right now Kyungsoo we only have a few minutes before the stylists take you two.”

L.Joe looked at them both with stern looks. “Look, the key is, head straight for the Cornucopia get whatever weapons you need make sure you take packs and get the heck out of there with the other Careers. The arena turns into a bloodbath, whatever those sick Capitol bastards are planning is intense, bombs in the ground, anything. The more blood that spills the higher ratings. But I need you all to live.”

“But we’re going to die in the end.” Kyungsoo whispered.

L.Joe turned to Kyungsoo, “Are you sure?”

Kyungsoo was taken aback by this answer, what could L.Joe possibly mean by that? Was there some message that he was trying to convey to him? But before he could question, L.Joe continued.

“Be careful of things, Kyungsoo you are very observant, beware of the natural foods it could be poisoned. I want you both to understand that you must live, keep the others alive. That is all I can say. Both of you stay safe and spill as little blood as possible.”

“L.Joe are they ready?” Juniper asked excitedly, followed by Rosalie.

“Yes,” L.Joe smiled weakly and hugged the boys tightly, “Be safe. Be smart. Act like you’re in love.”

“You are one of the only people I like here, thank you.” Luhan pulled away.

“I’ll miss you and your weirdness.” Kyungsoo waved goodbye as he followed Rosalie to prep.

“What do you think of the outfit?” Luhan asked Juniper as he fitted into a pair of pants a thin white shirt and some sort of hunting jacket that had a belt.

“I’ve never seen the outfits so plain and blah.” Juniper frowned, “they stepped it down.”

Luhan wanted to knock himself with a pan, he would’ve known that!

“But I must say, it will provide very good warmth on cold nights and the belt can hold your trident if you find one.” Juniper fixed the jacket on Luhan and straightened Taeyeon’s locket.

Luhan drank down a glass of water as a voice bellowed to step into the panel.

“Good luck.” Juniper smiled, “Show em who’s boss.”

The panel soon lifted him up and into the arena. Luhan squinted and saw that he was standing on a panel in the middle of a vast green field. The atmosphere was beautiful and flowers were blooming everywhere. He frowned; this had to be a trap. Something that the younger tributes would fall for and the ones who had watched the games enough to avoid. This had to be something used to separate the trained killers from the confused children. Luhan whipped his head around and saw Kyungsoo, decking the same clothes and looking forward at the Cornucopia. Luhan could see a pile of weapons; he just hoped a trident would be there somewhere.

“Let the Hunger Games begin, may the odds be ever in your favor.” A gong shrieked and Luhan began running across the sickening field that made his stomach drop to the Cornucopia. Luhan had to admit that he was a pretty fast runner and he made it to the pile of weapons at record speed. He frantically searched for a trident or some sort of weapon that he could use.

His eyes finally rested on a beautiful silver trident and he grabbed it immediately. He heard something step from behind him and he quickly drew out his newly obtained trident to spear its neck. A sword clanged with his as he saw Sehun looking at him with a poker face. “I’m pretty sure we’re in an alliance.”

Luhan nodded as he found another trident and slung it into his belt; he took an awl as well.

“Is there any food packs?” Sehun asked as he took guard over Luhan. Luhan bent down and noticed something buried underneath the piles of weapons, the food packs were hidden beneath them!

“They’re underneath; I have to crawl to get them.” Luhan crawled underneath the pile and grabbed seven packs and came back out.

“Where are Kyungsoo, Baekhyun, Chanyeol, and Jongin?” He asked.

“They ran off into the woods, we’re going to meet up with them.” Sehun answered, “They grabbed their weapons on the other side of the pile and told me to go north when we were done.”

Luhan looked to the side and saw a tribute from District 9 running towards them with an axe. He quickly chucked is trident at him, sending the boy to the ground. “Sorry L.Joe.” He looked up into the sky as if L.Joe could hear him.

The two made their way to the other Careers and they started their walk around the arena.

“I’ve concluded that we have to stay away from that field.” Kyungsoo announced as they walked, “It is in fact hemlock.”

“Hemlock?” Jongin echoed.

“The poisonous hemlock, acutely toxic to people and animals, it can be deadly, I read in an article of hemlock being used in aerosol cans that were distributed around stores and every person who used a hemlock aerosol can died.”

“Definitely a reason to not linger around that field too long.” Baekhyun agreed. 

“Is there anything in the packs?” Chanyeol suggested.

“There’s jerky, crackers and an empty water bottle.” Sehun reported. “We need to fine water then.”

They rounded a clearing and found a beautiful stream, a small waterfall pouring into it.

“Perfect, we can fill up our bottles here.” Chanyeol began to unscrew the cap but Kyungsoo stopped him.

“No.”

“But its water, we need it.” Chanyeol gave him a puzzled look.

“This is like that field, it’s beautiful but looks can deceive.” Kyungsoo frowned as he studied the water.

“Yeah you can just see how the water ripples are different.” Luhan agreed as he stared contently at the water, “the ripples should be coming from the waterfall, which they are, but additional ripples are coming from somewhere to the right.”

“Ripples can’t tell you if the water’s poisoned.” Sehun pointed out, “Maybe something fell in.”

“Or something is pumping into the water.” Baekhyun suggested, “Like in pools when they pump chlorine.”

“Again, you don’t know your words.” Kyungsoo sighed, “You don’t pump chlorine into pools.”

“Well what do you do then?” Baekhyun sassed back.

Kyungsoo opened his mouth to answer but Jongin slapped a hand over his mouth, “Let’s just focus on the water okay love?”

“Don’t use endearments with me.” Kyungsoo frowned. “After an easy conclusion there is arsenic pumping into the water.”

“How can you make such a conclusion?” Sehun questioned.

“Well for starters, arsenic poisoning is found in water and can lead to coma and death.” Kyungsoo shot back, “unless you want a taste, fine by me.”

“Let’s just take his word on it okay Sehun?” Jongin asked the younger. “Don’t want to risk it.”

Kyungsoo gave the younger a smile, “thanks Jongin.” He could picture L.Joe giving him thumbs up.

“How many canons did you hear initially?” Luhan asked as they trudged away from the pool.

“When we got away from the Cornucopia I heard about five, including the District 9 you killed.” Sehun answered.

“That means there are still 19 of us in the arena.” Kyungsoo frowned, “The numbers are still pretty high.”

“Once the day ends there definitely should be more deaths, did you see District 12?” Baekhyun asked, “That Tao and Kris can definitely take us out.”

“Don’t be so negative, the ratio of them to us, we could definitely taken em.” Kyungsoo fixed his bow and sheath of arrows.

The “sun” was nearly setting and they decided to set up camp for the night.

“What is that?” Luhan held his hand to see a snowflake falling into it.

“Snow,” Kyungsoo exclaimed, “This is what the terrain is, a bipolar type!”

The snow began to fall even more rapidly and soon the whole arena was covered in snow.

“We have our water source.” Chanyeol shrugged.

“Again, don’t eat something that you don’t know doesn’t contain poison!” Baekhyun slapped Chanyeol on the head.

“Sorry Baek.”

“Don’t call me Baek!”

Luhan frowned and whispered to Baekhyun, “We’re supposed to be in love, can you act it?”

“Same to you.” Baekhyun shot back.

Chanyeol and Sehun exchanged looks and nodded.

“Sorry Baekkie,” Chanyeol slipped an arm around Baekhyun’s waist and pushed him onto his lap.

Baekhyun blushed beet red, “what are you doing!”

“Hugging my Baekkie.” Chanyeol smiled, “Baekkie sounds like baby.”

“Can you not?” Baekhyun cried, struggling against his grip. He yelped in pain when Luhan delivered a swift kick to his shin. “Luhan!”

 Luhan rolled his eyes and sat on the snow covered ground. “Anyone know what this stuff is?”

“I don’t know, but don’t eat it.” Kyungsoo answered, “Unless you want to die.” He glared at Sehun.

Suddenly, Luhan’s ears pricked as he heard shuffling through the trees he saw the silhouette of someone in the distance. “Watch out!” He cried as he pushed Sehun to the side, landing in a heap on the ground. It was too late, Luhan felt a sharp pain in his arm and he looked at it, it was gushing blood onto the white snow. Luhan would’ve been embarrassed by this, his face only centimeters away from Sehun’s, but the pain in his arm was enough to distract him.

“We’re under attack!” Kyungsoo notched an arrow and whipped around, looking for the attacker.

“This is the famous Career pack?” A voice asked hauntingly, “You guys are a real let down, a bunch of babies, you have baby faced members and are too kind to each other.”

“I’ve seen you before, what’s your name?” Luhan snapped back, “Ben Ben?”

The stranger scoffed, “My name is Kris.”

“Where’s that dark circle District buddy of yours? You couldn’t possibly have tried to attack us alone.” Chanyeol already had Kris in a killing position, holding the boys neck with a sword to it.

“Tao is…late.” Kris smiled, “I wouldn’t try to kill me.”

“Why is that?” Kyungsoo asked, “You could fall at our hands right now.”

“I’m here with a proposition.” Kris answered simply, “Drop the fake lovers act. Stop getting favors from the sponsors.”

“You think this is all an act?” Luhan asked as he got off of Sehun.

“I can quite frankly see through anything, I’m not blind like the rest of the Capitol.” Kris grinned manically, “The rest of us don’t have a handicap, why should you?”

“I h-happen to…l-love…Sehun.” Luhan spat as he looked at the tall boy.

“I saw how you all acted in the training.” Kris rolled his eyes, “I can see through a lie.”

Suddenly, a boom blasted around them, “That’s my cue.” Kris smiled, “Pleasure stalling for time with you.”

The ground began to shake, bits of earth were flying around them and explosions were sounding.

“Is this an earthquake?” Baekhyun shrieked.

“No they’re bombs! That Kris was pouring oil everywhere!” Kyungsoo screamed, “Get the heck out of here!”

“Ahh!”

 “Chanyeol!” Baekhyun’s voice cried throughout the arena.

Hey Guys!

Ugh this was a monster to write, I have a question...

Do you guys want longer updates but less frequent or shorter updates (about 1,500+ words) but more frequent?

Anyways, more shameless advertising: THE CFCK CLUB! Another story! This one is all fluff and humor, please check it out!

See you soon :)