She was nine when they met, and he was eleven. She was small and shy, never talking to anyone and always sitting alone at lunch; he was big and strong enough to scare the younger and even some older careers without even looking at them. She was ignored by everyone - "little girls never last" someone told her once -; and he was popular and confident. Not that Clove needed any confidence, she just like to keep it to herself – like always, she was saving the best for the right moment.

Cato was training when he noticed her for the first time, when her knife cut the air making it´s way towards his head. She could have hit him, kill him without anyone having a chance to blink, but the knife hit the wall, so near to his head that the boy could almost feel the cold blade, and stayed there.

Cato was mute for seconds, staring with hate and anger at the small girl in front of him. "You could have killed me, you bitch!" he yelled.

Everyone was looking at them, waiting for the blonde to walk to her and break her neck in seconds, with a simple movement of his hands. He didn´t. And she laughed. A crazy but somehow childish laugh that sent shivers down his spine. She´s crazy, he thought, frowning as Clove softly shook her head and turned around, walking back to the knife section.

That day, he couldn´t take her face out of his mind. He didn´t know if he liked her face, those delicate lines and the upturned nose covered by dim freckles, or if he hated it. Her hair was dark like a night without stars and her body was thin and short. He couldn´t take her off his mind for more than he tried – and he did. Cato had the image of her eyes, with a haunting and sinister spark, stuck on his mind. He wanted to know what color those fierce, crazy eyes were. They looked dark at the distance she was from him, but Cato wanted to see every little detail of that body of hers. He wanted to know even the tiniest detail of that twisted soul before he killed her.

(that was when the curse fell over him, an invisible shadow that would follow him until his last breath)

He got her name the following day by a friend. Apparently, no one knew that Clove Hadley even existed until she threw a knife to Cato´s head. Now that he knew her name, he was a bit closer and his mind was already creating scenarios for her death.

"I heard her mother hates her. She tried to kill her own mother with a knife, some months ago" a friend of his commented at lunch, when she passed by their table, not even blinking, and sat on an empty one "That girl is nuts."

Cato contained a smirk and filled his mouth with more rice, glancing at the girl alone. He had a thing for messed up girls.

Not much later, Cato made sure she knew his name too – it was unnecessary though, she already did. As he watched her train, throwing knives with an incredible precision and always hitting the bulls eye, he picked up his favorite sword, short and large with the sharpest blade. He walked towards her back slowly and silently, not making any sound, but when he was lifting his weapon, Clove said, with a taunting tone "Try not to break the blade". Cato was surprised to say anything, but not to move. The blade hit her arm in the right moment her knife hit the center of the dummy, cutting her skin and making blood run down her arm.

She didn´t cry or yelped in pain.

He didn´t apologized.

She was hurt, but not surprised.

He was satisfied, but only for now.

After she got her arm healed, he pinned her against a locker and grabbed her neck like he was going to strangle her. Clove fought back, kicking him with her legs and scratching his face with her nails. Cato let her go moments later; he just wanted to see something.

That night, he dreamed with her green eyes.

They started talking during training, first it was just about weapons and how swords were better than knives and vice versa. Cato liked to watch her as she talked about something she liked, like knives and pain and blood. Clove looked almost happy as she talked about it; she looked almost like a child, which is what she really was. But she also liked to watch him choosing his sword, analyzing the blade as making sure it would cause enough pain to the victim. She liked to watch him run his big hand through his messy dirty blonde hair. His hair… Clove loved his hair. She liked it so much that one time she punched him hard in the face and, while Cato was focused on his pain, she cut a full hand of that blonde hair. He still doesn´t know that she keeps it in her room.

As months passed, Clove was not seen as the crazy girl anymore. Now she was not just nuts, she was also the favorite company of the most dangerous boy at the Training Academy. It was not like Clove and Cato were a couple, they just enjoyed each other's company and how similar they were.

He kept having fantasies about her death, though they were much different now. Cato didn´t wanted to only make her suffer anymore. He enjoyed the idea of giving that little girl pain and pleasure at the same time. He was just waiting for the right moment to make his fantasies become reality.

Two years later, they kissed for the first time. It was rough and hard, not soft like the girls from the other Districts wish they first kiss will be like. His hands made bruises all over her neck and arms and there were bites and sucking and licking. There was blood and her nails digging on his flesh.

But there was something more too, the beginning of something that was the nightmare of any career.

A feeling that killers were forbidden to have.

(the curse was now a weight over them, an invisible and deadly weight that would be their ruin)

At fifteen, Cato invites Clove to spend Christmas with him. She accepts. Anything is better than spending Christmas with her family. No one knows, but her mother likes to beat the shit out of her and her father just watches, sitting on the couch and drinking, drinking, drinking. Sometimes he laughs at her; a crazy laugh that reminds her of her own.

Cato surprises her when he tells her they´re not staying in his house, with his family.

"Here" he says, as they arrive to a small cabin on the mountains "Just you and me, without losers near us".

She smiles and walks after him.

It was a small cabin, with a couch – where Clove would sleep – and a room. There was food enough for days and the little house was warm and welcoming. Everything Cato was not – Clove liked him that way though; cold and crude. He was just like her, but maybe a bit more sane.

It´s cold that night, but she still goes outside and lays on the snow, opening her arms and legs over and over.

"What are you doing, freckles? Wanna get sick?" he asked, frowning and walking outside. She was beautiful like he had never seen before. Her face was so serene and Clove looked so calm and happy; she looked just like a dream. Cato had been staring at her for minutes; it felt like they could be like that forever.

(and for moments, he wished they could)

"I love snow" was her answer. Clove stayed there, eyes closed and a shadow of a smile on her lips "You can join me, you know. I don´t bite" she invited.

He nods and joins her on the cold ground, covered by snow.

When she smiles after him saying some stupid joke about a girl on the Training Academy, Cato thinks she should smile more often.

When they fuck for the first time, Cato isn´t a virgin anymore. He tries to be nice to her for the first minutes – not gentle, just nice. But after she is used to having him inside her, they go wild and savage, just like they really are. Cato has the best sex he can remember. It was like a dance, a synchronized dance where both fought for dominance. As always, all they won were a few more scars and bruises and a satisfied grin.

After both come, together just like if they had planned it, he kisses her roughly and tells her she is his now and nothing can change that. She doesn´t deny it, she just laughs. It´s a crazy, childish laugh that sends shivers down his spine, just like the first time he saw her.

Cato thinks she should laugh more often.

He starts wanting more and more of her, like there´s a black hole inside of him sucking every bit of satisfaction. Cato is always hungry for more and Clove gives him what she wants, but the way she does it makes him starve even more. He hates that about her, the power Clove has over his mind and body.

He can´t wait to break her bones and feel them crashing under his fingers as she cries in pain.

They are always fighting on the way to the Capitol. She says he shouldn´t have volunteered, because now she will have to kill him. "Such a waste. You should have kept your fucking mouth closed and waited for the female tribute to be selected". Cato doesn´t reply to her comments, he just punches walls and breaks things – for desperation of the Avoxes who have to clean all the mess.

He doesn´t know why, but the idea of killing the small dark haired girl doesn´t make a smirk spread on his lips anymore. He doesn´t want the times he has with her to come to an end, he doesn´t want to be surrounded by people but feeling like no one understands him again. Those thoughts make him distressed and anguished, like someone is slowly twisting a knife on his chest.

When they arrive to the Capitol, Cato realizes the reason why he feels like that. He curses it every day.

The bitch on Fire is someone to watch out for, she is dangerous and they know it. Besides her, there is the boy from eleven, but Cato is confident that the career pack can easily kill him. For him, those, besides him and Clove, are the tributes with more chances of winning.

Glimmer is good with bows and arrows and she flirts with him all the time in the training center. Cato likes it, but not because he wants Glimmer. He likes it because he sees how Clove tightens the grip on her knives, how she grits her teeth and shoots deadly glares at the blonde girl. He likes it because it is the way he has to know Clove feels for him what he feels for her.

He fucks Glimmer one time though, when she invites him to the District One floor and they get drunk. It is fast and he never comes; he leaves her as soon as she is finished. Cato stumbles back to his floor and falls on her bed while Clove takes a shower. He smells like sex and alcohol and she cries. For the first time in his life, Cato sees her crying and it hurts like hell. It´s not a childish cry though, because she hits him and yells terrible things at him as the tears stream down her face.

In the end of the night, they are both on her bed, bodies pressed to each other, and Clove isn´t mad anymore. She carved her name all over his body. "You´re mine now" she whispers before she falls asleep.

He soon realizes he can´t hurt her and it doesn´t matter how much he wants to win.

(the curse is already visible)

The alliance was quickly resumed to only Cato and Clove. Glimmer and the girl from 4 were killed by tracker jackers – it was Katniss´s fault. She made the nest fall while they were sleeping -, the boy from 3 had his neck broken by Cato because he was useless and he got into his nerves and Marvel was also killed by the bitch on fire.

It was just the two of them and they couldn´t feel better. They could talk like they used on District Two and sometimes they would forget there were cameras filming them and everyone in Panem was watching the ruthless careers being something more than that.

When the rules changed, they kissed hard and passionately. He promised Clove they would win and he would buy them a house in the mountains, where they would live. He would buy her all the knives and everything she wanted, because he wanted to hear her laughing. She said they would be remembered forever and that they would kill Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark together, just like it was supposed to be. The cruel couple from Two and against the star crossed lovers from Twelve. "Bitch on Fire has no chances".

She was supposed to cut Katniss´s throat and let her bleed till death. It would be painful and she wouldn´t have to take any risks. But Clove liked to take risks, she liked to feel the adrenaline running and burning her veins and she forgot that what she had to do. She wanted to make Katniss die humiliated, she wanted to make her scream and cry and beg for death. But Thresh came and her plans were ruined.

"CATO!"

"Clove!" he runs as fast as he can. He knows she is in trouble and she needs him. Clove couldn´t die, not now and not never. They were going to win and they were going to be as happy as killers like them were allowed to be.

"CATO!"

He sprints and calls her name. But he isn´t fast enough.

When he has her in his arms, broken and dying, he begs her to stay.

"Do-on´t cry" she tells him, swallowing. "Don´t be-e we-eak. Go away. Win".

Her skull is dented and there is blood coming from her nose. Cato kisses her anyway, trying to hold his tears. He tries to clean the blood on her face, but it only makes his clothes all dirty and bloodstained. The knife that has been being twisted on his chest it taken off. There is a hole in his heart and Cato feels betrayed. Clove is his, she has to stay with him; she has to do what he tells her to and stay. She can´t die. She can´t die, she can´t die.

"C´mon, Clove, stay with me. You deserve better than dying because of a rock. Please…" she nods and holds his hand. He sees how hard she is trying to keep her eyes open, but Cato also knows that it´s futile, she can´t be saved.

Her body becomes limp in his arms and Cato starts desperation even harder. "Clove, no! Stay!"

In her last moments, Clove´s eyes focus on his. It´s like she can read his soul in those moments and what she sees pleases her.

She laughs. It´s a crazy and somehow childish laugh that sends shivers down his spine and more burning tears down his face.

The cannon sounds.

He hears her laughing again when the mutts find him. He knows she´s waiting for him and he won´t make her wait any longer.

Cato´s last wish is to hear her laugh again.

Please.