Deep down, Prim knew there wasn't anything exceptional about her when compared to her sister. Katniss was the best at everything—she was strong, independent and could fend for herself without a second thought. Throughout her life, Prim had always needed someone there by her side, whether it be her mother for a short period of time, or Katniss, and when she was gone, Gale had stepped in. The young blonde hated that about herself, which was part of the reason she had agreed to go out into the forest with Gale the year before, and why she continued to try and land just one shot with a bow and arrow. When everyone was gone, just as Prim knew they would be sooner rather than later, she wanted to be able to take care of herself.

It was dark among the trees, and only a few peaks of silvery moonlight managed to shine through to the forest floor. Prim's eyes had adjusted to the night, though, and she could make out the shape of the deer as it moved about around she and Gale. It was stumbling, but a wounded animal was perhaps more dangerous than a hungry one—Katniss had taught her that years ago. Her fingers were curled around the knife in her hand, but she was surprised as Gale took it from her, and handed the bow off instead. She was confused, unsure of why Gale would take the chance with a throwing knife when the bow was more reliable.

As Gale threw the knife, Prim nocked an arrow onto the bow and took the proper stance as she pulled back. The deer had risen up on its hind legs, and somewhere behind her, but she remained calm and kept her hands steady before releasing the arrow toward the deer. It flew off of the string with incredible speed and [i]wooshed[/i] through the air before burying itself thickly in the animal's chest. The creature dropped dead to the ground and Prim's eyes were wide with disbelief. It was hard to believe that she had done that, and not Katniss or Gale. For the first time, she was starting to see that she wasn't as helpless or ordinary as she once thought, and that it was possible that she could be the key to her own survival.

From the trees behind her, Katniss had rushed forward and Prim found herself wrapped in her sister's arms. She laughed softly into the other girl's coat, hugging her back as she was still in shock. “Yeah,” she nodded, “Gale started teaching me last year.” Looking over Katniss's shoulder, Prim could see that Haymitch was sulking, looking angry that he had been wrong about her. Prim liked that feeling, the pride that came along with shutting up a person who had underestimated her. She stood a little taller, and began to gathered up the firewood that had previously been dropped before following along with Katniss, Gale and the deer on the way back to camp. 

After the four of them had made it back to the clearing where the deer was soon skinned, portioned and put on the fire for dinner. Prim was sitting close to Katniss, watching the fire crackle and waiting for their meal to cook. “Thank you,” she replied to Gale with an appreciative smile before he got up to speak with Haymitch. Prim then turned to Katniss and gave her a nudge, “thanks for letting us come with you tonight.” She hadn't thought Katniss wanted her around. “I miss you now that you're out with Haymitch so much.” Not that she didn't miss Katniss any other time.

Haymitch had been debating on whether or not to leave the group and go back to 12. The night clearly wasn't going to be productive, as Katniss was too distracted by her sister being able to shoot [i]one[/i] arrow the right way to train for the upcoming Games. Haymitch couldn't say for certain that he wanted to train either, but over the last few weeks the pair had a system of pushing each other and it didn't function when one of them didn't have any motivation. On top of that, Katniss was angry with him for not wanting to be close. The aging Victor didn't understand [i]why[/i] she wanted to be friends in the first place when he was just going to die. Hadn't getting close to Rue been enough of a lesson for her? As it currently stood, Haymitch was starting to think teaming up was a mistake.

Suddenly no longer alone, Haymitch looked over when he saw that Gale had moved seats. He raised an eyebrow at the younger man, nodding so that he could say whatever it was he needed to say.

By the time Gale was done, Haymitch was in dire need of a drink. It had been a long, long time since he had heard such a stupid, self-involved warning wrapped up in the need for a favor. He had already done what he needed to do in order to keep Peeta out of the games entirely, and he had spent the better part of time since the Quarter Quell announcement training with Katniss and putting up with her bad attitude and random bouts of anger. Why Gale thought he needed to be reminded about how important the Games were was beyond him, but Haymitch wasn't going to be lectured.

“She knows not to save me. Believe it or not, pretty boy, there's things she doesn't tell you.” At least, Haymitch assumed Katniss knew better than to worry about him once the Games began. The whole point of him volunteering for Peeta was so that he could die and she could live, and her trying to protect him would really defeat the purpose of everything thus far. “You know how she won the last time?” He asked rhetorically, “she did what she had to in order to live. If she wants to keep living, she'll do it again. That's how these things work.” He wouldn't expect Gale to know anything about that, though. “Now, get the hell off my back about it.” 

Haymitch knew that he was hard on Katniss and he pushed her to do things she might not have wanted to do, but there was no time to be courteous of her feelings. She had to win, and if that meant making her uncomfortable or making her work out until she had to literally crawl into bed at night, he would do it. This wasn't just about Katniss anymore, this was about all of them and Haymitch was angry that Gale couldn't see that and instead was projecting his feelings for Katniss into this misguided talk.