Cato wouldn't see the sun rise again. He knew it. Cato denied it to himself but deep down he knew it. There were too many mutts, even he couldn't fight them all off. His heart beat was slowing down. The grass beneath him was red with his blood.
He no longer saw the mutts. Cato saw his first kiss with Clove. It hadn't been after an "I love you." It had been after a fight. Just like it should be.
"You don't seriously think you will one day win the games. Do you Clove?"
Clove had been fourteen and Cato had been fifteen at the time. Clove had her hair pulled back into a ponytail and her fingers wrapped around the handle of a slim knife. Her muscles tensed, her cheeks were red with rage, she was preparing to attack. She slowly turned her head to face Cato, who was standing in the middle of the training centre as if he didn't have a care in the world. Moonlight entered the room, making the reds more vivid and the rest of the colours duller.
"Cato, your opinion is neither required nor desired. So why don't you stop wasting breath?"
Clove's red lips formed a vicious smile before she spun around and sent the knife in her hand flying to a dummy's "heart." She had just picked up a knife with a curved blade when Cato started speaking again.
"Don't you want to know why, why you won't win the games?"
His voice was mocking. He did love teasing Clove. She was talented and vicious, not that he would ever tell her. He didn't taunt her and try to unhinge her because he enjoyed it, which he did, but because Cato liked his girls insane and broken.
"You are going to tell me anyway, aren't you, Cato?"
Her voice was dripping with frustration. Clove wouldn't admit, not to him, not to herself, not to anyone but she was afraid of Cato. She was scared of how well he knew her; of how he had gotten under her skin. It also scared her how alike they were, they would both promise love one day and would skin you alive the next.
"You care too much. You will lose because you care and that makes you weak."
Cato waited for a reaction, anything that would show he had hurt her. Clove was stronger than he had given her credit for. She spun around to face him and laughed. Her laughter was cruel and mocking and echoed through the entire training centre.
"Me, caring?" She laughed once more, the same mocking laughter. A few seconds passed before she spoke again. "Why would you think that Cato, that is if you do indeed think?"
"You care about me." Cato wasn't entirely sure why but he wanted Clove to admit she cared about him. Now as he was dying he realised he cared about Clove, too.
Clove would have preferred if he had yanked her hair and punched her in the gut, she was certain it wouldn't hurt as much as this. How dare he reveal her ultimate weakness, her only weakness. She couldn't grasp it but she cared about him. She hated when someone made him angry, unless she had been the one to make him angry, then she thought he looked incredibly sexy. Clove took two furious strides towards Cato. Their faces were inches away.
"I. Do. Not. Care. About. You." Clove's words were as sharp as the knives she was so deadly with. "In fact nothing would make me happier than to rip your heart out."
Cato felt the claws of one of the mutts dragging across his chest, as if it wanted to rip his heart out. Life did love to be ironic.
"I will cut you open and hang your insides as…"
Cato's lips crashed against Clove's in a passionate kiss, in part because he didn't want to hear what she was planning to do with his insides, in part because he wanted a taste of his own personal forbidden fruit. He doubted anything had ever tasted sweeter. For a few seconds Clove's lips remained perfectly still. Cato was certain she wouldn't respond. He was pleasantly surprised when she bit his lower lip, not to reject him but to show who was in command.
Clove was tired of denying what was right in front of her eyes. She cared about Cato even if she hated it. She didn't want a knight in shiny armour like the other girls in the district; Clove wanted a man as vicious and volatile as herself. She wanted Cato.
Their lips were moving in perfect sync, with such a force they feared bones would snap and blood would be shed. It didn't happen. Clove pulled away before it could happen. Clove pulled away because this would lead to love and weakness and she wasn't weak.
She cleared her throat and spoke in a firm tone. "Cato, I want you to remember what just happened as you die. I want you to remember the moment I cared about you and even kissed you. I want you to remember the moment you made me think I had a heart. Because I swear it won't happen again. I won't care about you again. Ever."
Being a man of his word he remembered, because he was dying, he could no longer deny it. His cannon went off and all that was on Cato's mind was the hope that death might have changed Clove's mind.
I am really excited because this is my first proper Clato one shot, I do hope it is not fluffy. This was written for nightlock recs prompt challenge, inspired in the prompt red. I sincerely hope you liked it, don't favourite without reviewing.