The Hunger Games themed Ontae Fic;

Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three 

Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six

Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine 

Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven

Taemin stared uncomfortably to the ground, watching one of his own slender fingers drawing patterns into the boulder’s surface absently as a distraction. He felt Jinki’s fumbling hands stop half way through tying the knot of his sleeve, yet he didn’t look up at Taemin either. 

“Looking for me?” He asked quietly, resuming with what he was doing. Taemin nodded silently for a moment before realising Jinki was waiting for an explanation. Crap, he didn’t have one.

“Y-yeah, I mean, you had saved me, from Jonghyun, at the cornucopia and I wanted to know if you were okay.” He mumbled, half slurring a few of the words in his attempt of hiding what he was saying, perhaps hoping that Jinki would mishear. His cheeks flushed red as the man beside him let out a soft chuckle.

“You were doing a terrible job of tracking me, I was behind you.” He finished, leaning back slightly and appreciating his medical work. 

“Thanks,” Taemin muttered, taking an unobservant look for himself. There was blood staining the clothes already, the taste of it tingled on the tip of his tongue. He looked away again awkwardly, catching Jinki smiling to himself and shaking his head a little. For a moment, Taemin stared at him, a little unsure of Jinki, a little unsure of himself, and a lot unsure of the situation.

“Don’t mention it,” he replied calmly and glanced up to meet Taemin’s eyes, sensing the cautious atmosphere and blinking a little, smiling slightly shyly. 

“Why haven’t you killed me yet?” Taemin slammed his mouth shut once the words had escaped him, biting down on his bottom lip and mentally cursing himself. Jinki stared at him silently through slightly wide eyes, his innocent expression suddenly nervous again. 

“I thought we could be friends. I have no intentions of killing you, twel-” he twitched his nose, frowning a little, “Taemin.” 

“Friends?” Taemin stared at him incredulously. “You do know where we are, right?”

“I do,” Jinki nodded softly and smiled to Taemin, “and that’s why you have nothing to lose in becoming my friend, right?”

It was true. If it wasn’t Jinki that was going to kill him, it would be someone else, in which case he was right, there was no harm in befriending Jinki. He wasn’t sure that was what he meant, but it was simple enough reasoning to Taemin, who latched on to any piece of comforting companionship he could. He nodded once silently, saddened slightly by the though his only friend has the potential and the justification to kill him. 

Jinki raised, sensing the sudden change in mood. He patted Taemin’s shoulder lightly and smiled down at the younger boy, who’s eyes remained watching his fingertip daintily drawing continous rings on the rock’s surface.

“Come on, let’s go see if any of your traps have caught us something to eat,” he held out a hand for Taemin, who glanced at it unsurely before slipping his smaller, slender hand into Jinki’s sweaty palm. A curious warmth flooded Taemin’s hand from Jinki’s, tingling up his arm like flames crawling along wood, spreading into a wildfire over himself. He dropped his hand awkwardly once raised, shyly moving it to behind his back and hanging his eyes in shame of the slight rejection, a pang of guilt and confusion temporarily washing through him but Jinki seemed oblivious as he smiled gently and nudged Taemin forward a little.

The two of them walked along quietly through the woods. In the silence, Taemin became aware of how loud footed he was. With each step, the cracking of foliage and sticks beneath his shoes rang throughout the woodland, whereas Jinki remained silent. Like a mountain lion, his feet were light against the ground, barely making a noise. His breathing, a sound Taemin quickly became attuned to, was louder than his footsteps. Taemin occupied himself by listening to it, a little breathless at times and uneven, until finally they reached back to one of the traps. He smiled a little proudly to see a pheasant dangling lifelessly from the snare, but then he realised he didn’t really recognise where they were. To him, all of the woods looked the same, so he didn’t think much of it, but he hadn’t been paying attention to where he was going, and so hadn’t expected to find a trap at all, let alone so quickly within a matter of a few hours. In fact, it just occurred to Taemin that he had been following Jinki’s lead. 

Taemin frowned a little, and glanced up to the other man. 

“How did you know I had set up traps..and where I had set this one?” Taemin asked suspiciously, tilting his head a little. Jinki’s eyes diverted to the floor with a small shrug and an inaudible whisper. 

“Jinki?” Something flashed across his face, a passing expression that was too fleeting for Taemin to grasp and recognise but it was replaced with a little smile.

“Ah.. that..” he mumbled hesitantly and cutely twitched his nose. Taemin waited patiently, searching Jinki’s face for an answer but all he got was a light blush and fumbling lips with no more words. He shook his head, beginning to connect the lines.

“You were following me, weren’t you?” He asked boldly and the light rose tint on Jinki’s cheeks flushed into a brazen red. 

“Ah…I know that District 4 had hit you with his knife…” Jinki trailed off, raising his thick arm to rub the back of his neck warily.

“Thought I was easy picking, huh?” Taemin scoffed, but a certain drop of fear and some kind of disappointment welled in his stomach. He skittishly jumped slightly when he looked up to see Jinki’s face creased with offence. 

“Yah, if I was going to hurt you I would have right? You were hardly anything but vulnerable when I found you!” His voice was shaken with anger, but his bottom lip jutted out in a little pout, that rather than feel ashamed or frightened of his sudden temper, Taemin smiled slightly.

“Is it so hard to understand that even in a place like this maybe I just want to care about you?” His voice softened into a quiet jumble of mutters. Taemin’s smile faltered in surprise. He had come to terms that perhaps Jinki wasn’t about to kill him yet, he couldn’t wrap his head around the idea that Jinki really cared about him. Perhaps he was afraid to. He didn’t say anything more, and instead silently watched Jinki untie the pheasant from the trap for them to eat.