Marvelous -Foxface/Marvel- (For Annemarie's Contest)

The red haired girl stares at the swirling patterns the light creates on the forest floor, forcing herself to calm down. She made it out of the Bloodbath alive, which she's certain no one expected a small, secluded girl from District Five to do.

She pants heavily, having run a long distance. How far, she couldn't tell you, what with the heavy adrenaline pumping through her veins. It's presence is still obvious in many ways.

Her palms are damp with sweat, her heart is racing, and she wants to keep running as fast as she can. Her bangs have fallen down from her ponytail into her face, and a few strands are plastered to her forehead with sweat, dirt, and blood from the small cut she'd gotten running into a branch.

She sinks to the dead leaves below her to catch her breath, waiting for the cannons to start, each signifying the death of a tribute. Her chest continues to rise and fall, and her throat grows drier by the minute. Water. The girl needs water.

She rises warily, and softly peers all around, surveying the area before moving. She begins slowly trekking through the green forest, occasionally seeing animals, none of which she recognizes.

Five, which is the science district, don't see many plants or animals, due to the smoggy pollution that covers most of her home.

The fox-like girl is getting nowhere fast. Realizing this, she stands at the base of a tree and uses her small but powerful thighs to launch herself into a nearby tree. She shimmies up the trunk until her feet land on the first branch. She hauls herself up as high as she dares, and looks all around the arena. She can see a few small figures still sparring at the Cornucopia. The ground is stained red with the blood of her competitors.

She notices the lake, but feeling uneasy about returning to the Cornucopia, scans the rest of the arena, trying to find another source of water.

There's a river running down towards a collection of caves, but it looks far away. The ginger cranes her neck to the other side of the arena, and notices a spring not far from where she is, maybe a mile or so. 

She jumps as she hears a noise, unfamiliar with the forest. She yanks a knife out of her pocket, but grabs the blade accidentally, slicing her palm open. Swearing under her breath, she takes her hand out to inspect it. The cut isn't too deep, but she rips a part of her shirt to make a bandage for it, just in case.

She climbs down, clenching her teeth whenever something digs into her injured palm, but makes it to the forest floor without too much difficulty. She sighs briefly, her throat still incredibly dry, and heads for the spring.

She hadn't gotten much from the Cornucopia. Only a knife. She'd had a nice water bottle - full and everything - but she'd dropped it when the monstrous girl from One had charged at her, wielding a bow and arrows she had clearly not known how to use.

If this weren't a death match, the girl thought, this might be a nice vacation from District Five.

She was enjoying the fresh air, free from the contaminants of her own district. She pauses as the cannons begin to fire and counts them silently.

One, two, three, four...

All the way to eleven. Eleven tributes down, twelve to go. The girl allows herself to let out a shaky breath of relief. Nearly half of the tributes are dead already, and surely more will die tonight. The Careers will hunt them down,

A little bit of a burden having been released from her shoulders, she walks with a little bit more of a spring in her step as she heads to the small pool of water.

She reaches it fairly quickly, and eagerly stoops down to drink some. She gets some of the flowing water, since she doesn't have anything to purify the stagnant water with, and drinks it.

She's still drinking when she hear a branch snap behind her, and whips her head around, looking around. Cautiously, she remains low, peering into the dark forest, expecting to be impaled by a spear at any moment.

Slowly, her hand wraps around the handle of the knife, and she pulls it out. No other noises arise from the woods, but she doesn't allow herself to relax for another ten minutes before carefully placing her knife down and drinking some more water. It was probably a stupid rabbit or something.

She starts splashing water on her face when she feels a hand on her shoulder. Grabbing her knife, she stand and turns, holding the knife awkwardly in a position she hopes is threatening.

A boy she recognizes as Marvel Frell holds his hands up in surrender. "Hi there," he says in a snarky tone, smirking a bit. As far as the redhead can see, he is weaponless. She doesn't speak, or even move. She stands with her knife, and something in his eyes is daring her to plunge the knife into his gut.

Slowly, she relaxes her stance, erecting herself and holding her hands by her side. She still doesn't speak.

"Do you know English?" Marvel asks, as if talking to a baby or a puppy or something equally stupid and fragile.

"O-of course," she say eventually. "Why are you here?"

"The Careers split up to find people to kill," he says dryly, inspecting a cuticle on his right index finger. The girl grimaces a bit at the District One behavioral habits. "What's your name again? District Five, right?"

"Yes."

"Your name is Yes?" Marvel asks, obviously quite amused.

"You never answered my question."

"But I did. The Careers split up. Here I am."

"So kill me," she spits, tightening her grip on her sole weapon. She knows she can't take him, even defenseless. For a stuck up One kid, he has some big muscles. "Why didn't you just go ahead and do it? Or do you like to get to know your victims before you murder them?"

The corners of his mouth turn down the slightest bit into a frown. "I didn't ever say I was going to kill you, did I?"

"You're a Career. I'm a normal, weak tribute. If you're trying to draw this out, I really don't appreciate it," she hisses.

"It looks like I'll have to spell this out for you," he says, sighing. "And I thought you were the smartest." That throws me a bit off guard. It's true, I'm brilliant, but he really isn't making much of any sense. "You caught my eye in training," he admits.

She blinks a few times, still not quite getting it. Foxface feels quite stupid. "What, with my outstanding archery skills?" She asks, finally settling on a sarcastic response.

"No... You're much dumber than you look."

"Look, I'd rather be insulted than killed any day, but if you're going to waste my time, I'm going to leave," the girl threatens, but she knows she wouldn't. She wants to know where he's going with this.

"This is different," Marvel says nonchalantly, shoving his hands in his pockets. She gives him a quizzical look, still not sure why she's holding a conversation with her competitor, and he presses on. "Look, I like you... And it's embarrassing, not only because only one of us can win, but because I'm supposed to be strong. But Cato's practically falling over Clove, and Glimmer's head over heels in love with Cato, so I guess it's alright. That, and I don't know your name."

The ginger hesitates when she speaks. "Um..." How do you respond to something like that?

"So... You wanna join my alliance?"

Hr eyes instantly narrow. "With the Careers?"

"No. Our own alliance."

She considers it. "I'm sorry, Marvel. I'm not particularly the trusting type. I don't like alliances. I like to rely on myself, and only myself." In all honesty, I'm not sorry. I don't care. Marvel would be a useful alliance member, but I can make it on my own perfectly fine. "I'm going to have to refuse."

"That's too bad," he says. "I guess I'll go find the Careers again."

"Why don't you?" she asks, pursing her lips. He picks up a spear he had concealed behind a tree and disappears into the forest.

Her eyes widen and she sits next to the spring. Those things he said... They weren't because he was defenseless... He had a weapon this whole time, that he could have used at any moment to kill her with.

What had she just done? She really could have trusted him, and just refused him! He would've been a damn good ally, too. He could be the brawn, and she would've been the brains. They would have been unstoppable, and she just threw all that away!

She looks into the forest, and considers going to find Marvel. The forest is huge, though, and he was probably moving fast.

A few days later, she sees Marvel in the sky. Silently, she curls up in the bush she's been sleeping in and cries herself to sleep.

I know, I hate Foxface with anyone. But I love Marvel and Foxface, and I figured if I wrote about them, maybe I would find another crack pairing I like. And it isn't so bad. Okay, so Foxface/Marvel isn't my new OTP, but this one-shot isn't as terrible as I thought it would be. Oh, and sorry about the title. I made it up in ten seconds, so it sucks.