So I absolutely love Cato and Katniss together. I know other people have written stories about what would have happened if Cato won instead of Peeta, but I promise mine will be different. It might be a little similaere at first(first few chapters) but don't worry! I hope everyone likes it. Please, Please, Please review!
PS: Rated M for lemons in later chapters. (butthere's more to the story than that)
Disclaimer: I do not own the hunger games (as usual)
Peeta is trapped! Cato's strong arm is around his neck, strangling his. His face is slowly turning blue. I only have one arrow! I aim it at Cato's face.
"Shoot me, and he dies too."Cato growls. It's true, if I shoot Cato, Peeta will most certainly die. All around us the mutts are pacing, growling, and leaping .Peeta is dying the wound on his leg is killing him just as surely as Cato's death hold. Then Peeta raises only bloody finger and draws an x on Cato's hand. I aim my final arrow and let it fly. It pierces Cato's hand in the dead center of the x. To my horror Cato manages to retain his grip on Peeta.
"Please!" I beg to him, "Please let him go!" Then I see the knife in his hand, and I know. I feel that I am watching the next bit in slow motion. Cato's knife descends towards Peeta's neck. Then Peeta crumples to the ground, lifeless. The cannon fires. I fling myself forward. "Peeta! Peeta!" I shake him. "Wake up! Please wake up!" But I know it's too late. I look up at Cato, still standing in the same place, hands covered in Peeta's blood. "Kill me." I whisper. He shakes his head ever so slightly.
Then Claudius Templesmith's voice, "Ladies and Gentlemen I am pleased to present the victors of the 74th Hunger Games Kantniss Everdeen and Cato Evans." Then the world goes dark.
"Wake up Sweetheart!" Haymitch's voice awakens me.
"Peeta? Peeta!" I cry out. I feel Haymitch shaking me.
"Come on get up." I open my eyes to find I'm back in the training center. Haymitch is there, leaning over my bed.
"Peeta?" I croak.
Haymitch looks sympathetic. "No time for that now, Sweetheart. Come on up you get. I'd better go tell Cinna that you're awake." He gets up and exits through the door. Besides I don't need him to tell me what I already know. Peeta is dead. Slowly I get up and walk to the bathroom. After a steaming shower I feel slightly more alive. But there's no real point in being alive now, is there? I throw on some clothes from the closet. Then I pause, I'm going to have to go out there, and act like a happy little victor. When in reality I'm broken. Then there's Cato. I hate him. He killed Peeta. I remember my shock at the announcement that we had both been named victor. I must have passed out. I realize. I briefly wonder how long I've been out, but then brush it aside. What does it matter? If it were up to me I would be dead, but it obviously isn't. I kind of hope that Cato had died while being fixed up after the games, but I highly doubt it. The capitol would never allow that to happen. If they wanted both of us alive, then alive we would be.
I slowly make my way down the hall to the living room. Haymitch, Effie, and Cinna are all waiting for me. Effie rushes forward and embraces me.
"Oh you did so well!" she beams.
Cinna gives me a small smile, "Well done Katniss." But I know that he can tell how broken I am.
"Yes, yes, good job, Sweetheart." Haymitch says gruffly. There's a large table of food set out for us. Haymitch only lets me take a small portion because, as he says, "You're so malnourished that your stomach probably can't handle more than a little bit, and we don't want it all coming back up on stage." During the meal Effie chatters continuously about what a good job I did and how all the capitol citizens are just dying to meet me. Everyone else remains quiet, letting her talk herself into silence. Then Effie and Haymitch leave to go see about the arrangements for the Victor's Night. I am left alone with Cinna. We don't speak but I think he understands how I'm feeling right now. Then my prep team barges through the door.
"Oh, Katniss! You were amazing!" Octavia squeals, rushing to hug me. They all congratulate me on my success then Cinna departs to look after my dress for the ceremony, leaving me at the mercy of my prep team.
They don't waste any time in getting me ready. They fill the bathtub and lather me down with a lotion that smells strongly of orange. When I'm clean they do my nails. During the games they saw a lot of wear, but now they're back to perfect ovals. Each one is painted gold with a little white flame on it. Then they brush out my hair, putting it, not in its usual style but in thick glossy curls down my back. They don't do much makeup on me, just enough to make it look as though the arena never happened, and I jumped out of bed looking flawless. Throughout it all they keep a continuous stream of conversation, all of it about the games. It's really disgusting to hear them talk about it like it's a sporting event of something. The memory of it is too fresh for me to be able to treat it as such. I try to tune most of it out, but I can't, not when they start talking about Peeta.
"Oh, so tragic!" Flavius says, "I just couldn't believe it!"
"I cried for hours." Says Octavia.
"And then Cato refusing to kill Katniss!" Venia says with disbelief. All this makes me want to curl into a little ball and cry, but I don't. I can't afford to look weak now. After what seems like hours they leave, I pick up my robe of the floor and put it on. Cinna comes back in with a dress bag.
"I'm so sorry if they upset you Katniss." He says quietly. "They don't really understand what you've been through." He gives me a questioning look. "How are you Katniss?"
"I'm- I'm okay." I say tentatively, when the opposite is really true.
"I know this has been hard for you." Then he smiles, "I have something for you that might chear you up a bit." He pulls something small out of his pocket; my mocking jay pin. I hadn't even thought about it till now.
I smile, "Thank you."
"And I designed this dress specifically to match it. Shut your eyes." I obey. And I feel the gown fall around me. It's not heavy like my interview dress. It feels like I am floating in a cloud of silk. I feel Cinna pin the Mocking jay to the front of my dress. "Alright open your eyes." Despite myself I gasped. I was dressed in a floor length gown made entirely of a floaty gold material. It was synched and drawn tight around my torso, but then fell around my legs in a cloud of gold. I looked beautiful. My pin looked perfect against all the light gold fabric. I reached down and ran my fingers along the waistline of the dress only to pause as my fingers felt padding.
"Sorry," Says Cinna apologetically, "But everyone agreed that this was better than surgically altering you." I couldn't help but agree more. The padding added to my boy the curves that the games had stolen.
"Thank you." I smile.
"Now we have to get going."
"Isn't it a bit early?" I ask.
"Yes, but Haymitch wanted to talk with you beforehand." We walk to the elevator, were my prep team is waiting. On the way down they all complement Cinna to no end on my dress. When the doors slide open, Haymitch and Effie are waiting for us. We are in a poorly light area that I guess is under the stage. A brand new metal plate is set up to lift me to the stage. Immediately Haymitch grabs my arm and pulls me away from the others.
"Alright Sweetheart, there's no getting around it, you're in trouble."
I stare back, "How so?"
"President Snow is furious that you let Peeta die, the-"
"I didn't let him die! Cato killed him!" I cry furiously.
"Even so, the whole romance thing was playing really well in the Capitol. And what's the hunger games to them but entertainment? Anyways President Snow needs these games to have been a success, and the rating plummeted when Peeta died. The citizens want a romance, and if it's a romance they want, then it's a romance they'll get." A horrible suspicion was beginning to dawn on me. "So now you're going to have to-"
"I am not pretending to love that- that fiend!"
"Well your gonna have to Sweetheart, or Snow will wipe out your family."
"Fine." I snap. I won't let the capitol get to my family no matter what. I'll pretend to like Cato, but only if it keeps my family safe.
"Now you don't have to leap into his arms the moment you see him, that'll just confuse the audience. Most of them still believe you were madly in love with Peeta. Just show the crowd that you trust him,"
"Which I don't"
"and," He continues unperturbed, "If you're gonna cry, make sure it's on his shoulder.
"Fine."
"Good now, get ready to meet your adoring fans." He shepherds me back to the others and onto the plate. "Good luck Sweetheart." I set on and it starts to lift me towards the stage. I'm shaking; I'm going to have to pretend to love the monster that killed Peeta.
The anthem blares and the lights momentarily blind me. The crowd erupts into wild applause; stomping and shouting.
The he is there, across the stage. He looks so different than the ruthless bloody boy on top of the cornucopia. His hair has been combed, and he now looks to be in the bloom of health. To my horror he is dressed in a black suit with gold accents. We match! I want to scream, but the safety of my family is depending on how I present myself tonight. Instead I make my carful way over to where he is standing. I lace my fingers through his and hold our interlace hands up where the audience can see. I'm not really sure what I mean to simplify by this. Unity? Trust? Never the less the crowd goes wild. Cato, if my family wasn't in danger I would kill you here and now. I think. He gently leads me over to the victors chair. Normally it is one ornate chair for the victor to watch the recap of the games from. But this year since there are two of us, the gamemakers have provided a plush red loveseat. My heart sinks, but I allow myself to be seated next to him. Caesar Flickerman makes a few more jokes, and then the show begins. Three hours, that's how long I have to relive the horror of the arena. It starts with the reaping, the chariot rides, training scores, and finally the interviews. Then it is into the arena. I watch in horror as Cato kills kid after kid in the blood bath. I look at him, but he doesn't even seem to notice. He's watching the screen intently, not even flinching when he drives a spear through the stomach of one of the younger tributes. I want to fling myself away from him. How can someone watch all the suffering they've caused and not even care.
Then we see me dropping the tracker jacker nest on the careers. Glimmer dying again, Peeta saving my life. I really don't want to watch any more. I don't want to see all my fellow tributes dye again, once was enough. Cato must sense my distress because he puts his strong arm around my shoulder. I really want to shove it off, but I don't. Some people sigh in the audience. When it comes to Rue's death I know I am going to cry. They let me sing my whole song, but cut out the part where I cover her in flowers. I'm trying really hard to fight back tears now, thankfully it cuts back to a shot of Cato and Clove hunting for us, and I manage to get a grip on myself. Then the announcement that we could win besides out district partner. I see myself nursing Peeta back to health. I hear some muffled sobs from the audience when I drug Peeta to go get the medicine. At the feast we get to rewatch Cloves brutal death. After his ambivalence towards the other tributes deaths I don't expect Cato to react much to her death. To my surprise though, I feel him tense beside me as Thresh delivers the fatal blow. Then he is there, calling her name, begging her to come back. I vaguely wonder if there was something between them. In a mean spiteful way I kind of hope there was, because then at least he understands how I feel right now.
I watch Cato hunt down and kill Thresh. Then Foxface eats the berries. Finnaly the mutations. This is the part I've been dreading. Peeta and I climb to the top of the cornucopia. Cato grabs Peeta, cutting off his air. I know what's coming and I can't bring myself to watch it any longer. I burry my head in Cato's shirt, very aware that he is the reason Peeta isn't here with me right now. When I finally raise my head I see myself, crouched next to Peeta's lifeless body, begging Cato to kill me. But he doesn't. You can see in his face that he doesn't want to, and then he shakes his head. Then the anthem plays and the screen goes dark.
President Snow himself in mounting the stage followed by a little girl. On a cushion she holds an ornate crown. President Snow gives it a little twist and it splits in half. He places the first half on Cato's head the second on mine. The crowd explodes in wild cheers and Caesar bids them all good night. Cato looks down at me. I glare back. The whole of Panem may think otherwise, but I will never forgive him, and I want him to know that.
How did everyone like that? I hope It was good. Please review and tell me!