I thought up this theory while desperately trying to find a way for the Cato x Katniss ship to sail, so please don't judge.
I wrote this like six months ago and haven't posted it yet...so here it is. ( this is the edited version, I just split the first chapter so its not massively too long.)
I don't own the hunger games, sad but true.
I had watched her, studied her, and tried to understand her. But still her actions brought about more questions than answers. The capital people love her, the common people love her, heck even the other tributes love her. This is a dog eat dog game, kill or be killed and she allies with the smallest, the weakest. We would have taken her in a heartbeat in the careers but she allied with the little girl. Why? The more I watched the more I became captivated…
Of course I had watched the unusual reaping of the district twelve girl everyone had, and I saw her when she paraded down tribute trail on fire. But I pretty much forgot about her until the night the scores came out. I had expected a high score and until they announced her score I had the highest, a ten, but she blew all of us out of the water with a ground breaking eleven. How did she do it? I began to obsess over it for the next few days. During training she stayed far away from the intense sections like weapons, trying out the survival skills as oppose to the offensive. From what I saw she seemed to be like any other average tribute, but she was far from ordinary.
I did not discover how abnormal she was until the games actually began. Standing on the pedestals the only thing on my mind was strategy, I knew without a doubt that I could out run a majority of the other tributes. So I had to get to a weapon, my mentor had advised me to run for and axe if possible, and take out as many tributes as quickly as I could. And kill I did.
The first was the boy from district six, Jason, he had stolen my knife in training and I threatened him, I hadn't intended to kill him first he just got in the way. Something strange happened after the first kill, I felt my body moving but I was no longer in control. My instincts no doubt kept me alive in that moment of shock. Someone ran up beside me and I swung the machete at him, he dropped. Then a girl jumped at me, I dodged her attack and kicked the sword from her hand. She crashes into some crates. That's when I heard glimmer scream, my mentors had arranged an alliance between us, so I stabbed some boy and ran to her aid. At this point my own consciousness had caught up, I was back in control. I rescued glimmer from some random boy, by killing him. Then I marched through the cornucopia, most of the tributes had cleared out, just a few remained.
I caught movement out of the corner of my eye, I turned and slashed at the oncoming boy. Only when his lifeless body hit the floor did I realize he was the young boy from four, he was only twelve. He was the last to die in the initial blood bath. The rest of the careers grouped up around me and the young boys' body, where I still stood in shock. I had killed this child.
"Cato we have to go, they're getting away!" clove shouts at me, she is giddy from the fight. I on the other hand am still sick, but I have to lead this group.
"Okay, let's gather the supplies. Then we can chase the rest of the" 'I stop at the sound of pounding feet running away. I take off running in the direction of the fleeing boy, I recognize him as the boy from district three. My mentor told me to keep him around if possible, apparently he can help us. I get close enough to him to tackle him.
"PLEASE, please don't kill me- I can help you, I have skills." I grab the young boy and drag him to the group, and toss him on the floor of the cornucopia. Clove raises the sword she recently acquired from one of her victims. I grab her wrist and shake my head.
"No, clove. This is the one Brutus told us about." I turn to him, and smile deviously, hoping to scare the boy a bit and make him more cooperative.
"My mentor, Brutus, seems to think you can help us protect our supplies. I am not sure how it is you can do this but I do know that if you don't I will personally kill you." Marvel laughs.
"Ya, and if he's dead. We'll kill you." The group looks at marvel, no one even bothering to comment on his stupid remark. The terrified boy sits up slowly finally able to speak.
"I-uh specialize in explosives. I think I can-"clove point the sword at the kid's throat, he gulps.
'"YOU THINK?" she shouts.
"Clove." I warn, she drops her sword down and huffs. "Continue."
"I know I can rig the explosives from the pedestals up around the supplies, if we put them into a pile. Then no one can touch it but you guys." I smile, he will indeed be useful.
"Okay do it, but I want it done by the time we get back." I turn to the rest of the careers. "We are going to be proactive about winning this game." Glimmer smiles and skips over next to me.
"I like your idea, it so much more exciting than just waiting around for them to come to us." She glares at marvel who shrugs.
"Hey it's a perfectly good plan, if we have all the supplies they have to come to us sooner or later." I ignore the bickering kids, it's something I'm used to by now they been doing it since we met.
"Let's just get moving." I say, grabbing a sword off the wall. The rest of the group all grabs weapons as we move all the supplies into a pile. Glimmer grabs a nice metal bow and arrow set, clove grabs knives of all shapes and sizes, and marvel picked up a couple of spears.
After that we set off into the woods, the sun begins to set and our attention is drawn to a certain area by the smoke of a campfire. What idiot lights a campfire in an arena of kids who want to kill you? An idiot who wants to die. She soon met that fate at the hands of glimmer, but not before she hand the chance to beg for her life. It was sad, but it's the game what else can we do.
"Isn't this exciting, Cato? We finally get to do what we've been trained for our entire life to do." I wrap my arm around cloves miniature shoulders, I cannot agree with her. I hate this, I hate killing, I hate that this is what I looked forward to my entire life.
"No, clove it's not exciting." Her face falls into a look of utter confusion.
"What do you mean?" before I can answer marvel and glimmer draw our attention towards them.
"Cato! Cato, we found the twelve boy and he says he can help us." glimmer walks in front of the short blonde boy and her much taller district partner.
"And how is it that you can help us?" peeta stares at the floor and speaks in a soft whisper.
"I can lead you to katniss." And just like that we gained a new partner.
"How?" I ask, I want that girl on our team. I couldn't care less about what happens to this boy, in fact I might let clove kill him when we catch katniss. Peeta stares blankly back at me, my question still unanswered. "Well?"
I-uh we made a plan to meet up in the middle of the arena just outside of the cornucopia. If I take you to her are you going to kill her?" I shake my head.
"No she won't be harmed." I turn to clove. "Don't let this boy out of your sight. And I need him alive still, so just don't kill him." Clove nods and prods the boy forwards with the rest of the group, who are all still energized from the latest kill. And they should be, we are winning. I should be just as ecstatic as them, but I'm not. Why?
"Cato, Cato? Did you see me kill her? She was all like, oh no please don't kill. Oh no Ahh" she breaks off into a fit of giggles. I have to play along.
"Ya that's actually a pretty good impression." It wasn't, but I humor glimmer. The girl is clingy, and desperate, not my type at all. I want a girl who is not afraid to be herself and doesn't need to hang on someone. Glimmer and I catch up with the group that has stopped for some reason.
"Hey lover boy are you sure she went this way?" clove and marvel begin walking again once they see I'm still with them, but peeta hangs back so I can talk to him.
"Ya I'm sure, that was her snare we found back there." he gestures a few feet off where a rope thingy is hanging from the tree, I hadn't even noticed it. I nod and he begins walking again.
"Baker boy, get your butt up here." He sighs and half-heartedly jogs up next to the miniature psychopath. If he likes her as he claims to, why is he leading us to her? Does he value his own life more than his love for her? It is the only logical explanation. This is a game of survival, risking your life for someone else would be stupid.
"Are you sure we shouldn't just kill him now." Glimmer grabs my arm.
"Na, he the best chance we have of finding her" I have an eerie feeling of someone watching me "come on lets go." That night the group settles in a clearing in the woods
"Someone get the fire going" I shout as I plop down on the hard forest floor. Glimmer slides in next to me, I don't really like her this close to me but I just ignore it. Clove drags lover boy along beside her as she collects firewood. She points to a log on the ground.
"Pick it up, useless." She has taken to calling him things like useless, waste of space, and baker boy-depending on her mood. Marvel begins laying out his stuff to make a bed, I watch him until I drift off to sleep.
The next day I am the first awake, I glance around the camp at the others. Glimmer is lying next to me curled onto a ball. Marvel is sprawled out next to the still smoking fire. Clove and peeta are to the left of marvel, peeta is lying flat on his back with cloves tiny body stretch out across his stomach; most likely in an attempt to hold him there.
I grab the back pack marvel was using as a pillow and slide it out from under him. Inside is where we packed our food, I pull out an apple and a piece of bacon. As I munch on my breakfast I begin to think about my strategy. There are twelve tributes still alive: us four careers, peeta, the boy from ten, the boy from three, thresh, the little girl from his district, the red head girl, and katniss. If we hunt down katniss convince her to join us, then go after the boy from ten and the redhead girl. Maybe the little girl will be dead by then and we won't have to kill her ourselves.
"Morning Cato." Clove yawns and stretches, she looks so sweet and innocent, till she pulls a knife from her jacket and smiles. She takes the knife and trails it down the side of his face, his eyes pop open.
"Good morning baker boy." She whispers in his ear, then skips off into the woods. The rest of the day was relatively uneventful. We continued to follow the boy from twelve and he continued to not find her. That night we found a similar clearing to camp in, I curled up against a tree. Glimmer, who still didn't take a hint about me not wanting her near, curled up next to me. Marvel again set up a bed of his supplies near the fire to sleep on. This night clove slept next to peeta, I guess she is starting to trust him not to run away.
The next morning we were woken up early by smoke, and I don't mean a little bit of smoke from a campfire; I mean a massive cloud of smoke that covered half of the sky. I made the executive decisions to move out in the direction of the fire. My choice did not go without opposition.
"What the heck is wrong with you?" glimmer shouts at me. I roll my eyes continue walking.
"I have to agree with glimmer here. If we know there is a dangerous fire in that direction why would we go that way, besides if we are going to catch up with the girl from twelve we need to go in that direction." Marvel points behind us. I stop and whip my machete from where it was strapped to my back.
"Is that a challenge?" I growl at him. He shrinks back and shakes his head. Clove, with peeta close in tow, grabs my arm as I'm about to march off towards the fire.
"Why do you want to go towards the fire?" I have known clove for ten years; we met when she began training at the age of five, she threw her knife and it went so off course it hit me in the face. I still have a tiny scar on my chin from the injury. Ever since then we have been buddies, she's the only one who truly understands me, and for all intents and purposes she is really the only family I have left.
"The game maker is smart he would just set half the arena on fire for no reason, I'll bet my sword there's someone over there. And since lover boy has got us nowhere with finding katniss, It's the only solid lead we have." She nods in agreement.
"Okay everyone, we are going to the fire and if you don't like it I'll stab you in the face." Peeta whimpers, drawing cloves attention. "Not you baker boy, you're too much fun to kill now." The group continues on for a while in silence. We are now close enough that we can hear the crackle of the fire.
"Hey guys, get this." Glimmer skips over to my side. "What if the tribute we find is katniss?"
"Oh I get it, then she really would be the girl on fire." Marvel adds and for some reason the whole group, excluding peeta, finds this extremely funny. As we round the corner glimmer bumps into me because she is laughing so hard. We continue laughing until marvel points at the water and yells something. And that's when I see her, katniss Everdeen, floating in the water. The whole group begins sprinting towards her. She jumps from the water and bolts for the woods. We follow close behind, hooting and hollering the whole way.
We finally catch up to her when she climbs up a tree like monkey
"How's everything with you?" she calls down to me. I shrug.
"Well enough. Yourself?" I retort back.
"It's been a bit warm for my taste. The air's better up here. Why don't you come on up?" she's is teasing me because she doesn't think I can reach her. She may be right, the only form of grip by which to climb the tree with are small, too small to withstand my weight. But With some encouragement from the others
"Get her Cato!" clove shrieks, I decide to climb up after her.
"I think I will." After responding to her question I reach up and grab a knot on the tree and heavy my body up. I'm able to find a groove for my foot, I push myself higher. Just high enough for me to reach the branch nine feet under hers. Once I pull my body securely on the branch I realize, at this height if I jump I'll break my leg and I don't have a prayer of climbing back down. I am past the point of no return. I glance up at the girl, who is now scurrying up higher into the tree, I know I won't be able to reach her and she has realized that.
"What's the matter? You stuck?" she leans down from her branch keeping herself just out of reach.
"I'm not stuck." I snarl, she just laughs.
"Maybe you should throw the sword. " She teases and pulls herself up on to her branch, I notice she is being very careful with her right leg. She's injured. The group is getting anxious, they have dropped off all the supplies.
"Cato, do you want us to come up?" marvel asks, he is answered by an elbow in the gut, courtesies of Glimmer.
"I'll just shoot her down." She takes aim with the bow.
"No, she's injured." Glimmer drops the bow to her side. "She'll have to come down eventually, and if she doesn't she'll just bleed out. Now just make camp down there, I wait for her here." Glimmer is the first to obey, followed by marvel. Clove and peeta continue staring for few more seconds, as if waiting for more orders. I motion for clove to go on.
"Take your pet with you and go build a fire." She nods and trudges off into the woods pulling peeta close behind. I situate myself on the tree so I can watch katniss and not fall off if I happen to fall asleep.
She didn't do much, and I almost fell asleep. My eyes had just began to flutter closed when she started moving again. She reached into her bag and pulled out a bottle, most likely containing water, because she began pouring the liquid on her wounded leg. She flinched when it made contact, she must have a deep wound. I have to admit, for a nobody from a nowhere district she has quite a bit of survival skills. She pressed her sleeve down on the wound, she made a little yelp of pain, I had expected much more. She is tough.
"Does this scare you?" clove tosses her knives at a lizard pinning it to the ground. Peeta, the addressee of her question, audibly gulps. They are the only two still awake.
After taking care of her wound she settled in, I waited till I heard her breathing steady out before I let my self-attempt sleep again. The rest of the careers had already fallen asleep when I started to go. I was the last one to drift off into dreamland, but it wasn't much better than the real world. My mind flashed through images of my victims, the moment they realized I was coming for them, their face as my blade ripped through their body, and finally the way the corpse dropped to the floor. My thoughts finally centered around one specific tribute, the twelve year old boy. He was terrified, probably hiding until he was sure he could escape with the little yellow sleeping bag he had procured. I hadn't meant to kill him, I mean if I didn't kill him he would've died in a more horrific way by the hands of another or by nature. This game had made me a monster, I can't justify it. I can say it's what I was raised to do and I had seceded, bringing pride to my district, no matter I'm a killer. Even if I do win I could never go back to normal life, the victor is the true loser, because they are forced to keep living in this terrible world.
My eyes flutter open just in time to see a tracker jacker nest plummeting towards the camp under me. I sit up and shout to them but it's too late, the nest explodes on impact. Sending merciless killers loose on the sleeping tributes, glimmer shrieks and tries to run, but she is unable to keep on her feet after the wounds she's received. Marvel who was farthest away from the nest, took off he's long gone when glimmer fell. Clove and peeta stumble down the hill in the opposite direction of marvel. They've obviously been stung, but from how they are acting it wasn't too serious. They'll probably be fine. I feel a sharp pain on the back of my neck, then another and another. I swat at the bugs, I'm not sure if I killed them or if they flew away; but within seconds the world starts spinning.
Katniss jumps on to my branch and off again before I can bring myself to react, it feels like my limbs are made of jello. I dive after her, my head spinning the whole way down to the ground. The force from hitting the ground knocks the breath out of me, my vision is going dark, all the sudden I see katniss; I must be hallucinating, she should be halfway across the arena by now. There is someone else with her, a little-miniature person. Who could it be, maybe that girl from a district with a number- wait all the districts have numbers.
"No katniss!" the little one shouts, shh little one I am trying to hide from the girl in the tree- what's her name again? Nisskat, yup that's it. Is she still in the tree-no I jumped out of the tree with her?
"Why? He will try to kill us." Who? I'll kill him, he can't hurt my friends.
"He won't. Did you hear him, he called us friends." How does the little one know what I'm thinking?
"Okay, but I can't listen to rambling anymore." The girl with the pretty hair and beautiful eyes picks up a rock and walks towards me. I like rocks, they are fun to throw. My friend throws knives, that sort of like rocks.
"Just be gentle." The little one whispers, right before a sharp pain on my head makes everything go dark.
My head is pounding, I feel like I've been landed on by a hover car. Ugh, a few times. I try to move my hand to rub my face, but it's restrained. I am tied to a large tree. I keep my eyes closed in hopes to plan an escape before my captors realize I'm awake. There doesn't appear to be anyone near, I strain to hear any source of life: movement, breathing, the crackle of fire even. But there is nothing. I crack open my left eye, there's no one here, it doesn't even look like anyone stayed here. They must have tied me up to give themselves a head start. I tug at the rope, its solid; I'm not getting out any time soon.
"Where did you learn to hunt like that?" a voice ask off in the distance, it's a familiar voice. But I can't put a face with it.
"My dad taught me before he died. My family wouldn't survive without the food I catch." I instantly recognize this voice, it belongs to the girl on fire. They are headed my way, I take deep breaths to steady my breathing and relax to give myself the appearance of slumber.
"Katniss, look" the higher pitched voice gets closer, I feel someone touch the back of my neck. "The swelling has gone down. He could wake up any moment now." The small child removes something from the back of my neck, it feels like leaves.
"Good, once we start this fire we'll have to get moving. I'm tired of dragging his worthless carcass around." The small child strokes my hair in a nurturing way.
"He's not worthless, the careers really will trade supplies for him, and I'm sure. I've watched them, they are hopeless without him."
"Rue, go get some more fire wood please." Katniss's voice sounds tense, and I wasn't the only one to notice it.
"Oh, okay. Is everything okay?" the child walks away, probably to go get more wood. She seems to do what katniss says, they must be allies. There is a prolonged silence, Rue is far enough off that I can no longer hear her footsteps. I feel a sharp, cold metal object press up against my throat.
"I know you're awake." I open my eyes to see katniss holding my machete to my throat. He twisted into an intense glare.
"Good job girl on fire, it was my breathing that gave me away, wasn't it?"
"No, and don't call me that." I shrug.
"Then what was it, I didn't move, or blink. What was it?" she stands up straight after checking to see if I was still restrained. Satisfied that I'm not getting free she sits down and starts building the fire. I watch her every move, in hopes that she will grow uneasy and talk to me. I was beginning to think she wasn't going to answer my question, when she pauses and meets my gaze.
"Your wrists." I look at them, there is swelling from when I struggled to get free.
"Remarkable, are you a detective twelve?" she huffs and goes back to ignoring me. She runs her hand across her braided hair, it's different from what is was in the beginning of the games, there's also a weird purple ribbon holding it together.
"Katniss, I found some-"she stops and stares at me. "he's awake." A huge smile breaks out on her face, it warms my heart. No one has ever been that excited to see me-well not in a long time... I don't even know this girl. The little girl skips towards me katniss throws out her arm to block the child's path.
"We don't know if it's safe, if he's safe." She glares at me, I shrug.
"I won't hurt the child." I direct my next words specifically at the child. "My name is Cato, what's yours?" she shyly rubs her foot around in the dirt at her feet.
"I'm rue." I smile, glancing at katniss, who is furious.
"Well thank you rue." I gesture to katniss. "I heard you save me from this one." She nervously plays with her short black hair.
"It was nothing, katniss didn't really want to kill you-'
"Yes I did." Rue rolls her eyes at Katniss's response.
"You got stung, three or four times. You've been out for three days. I changed your leaves twice." She comes over to me and sits on a large tree root to my left.
"Wow, two days. What happened when I was out?" she bites her lip as she tries to remember.
"The girl form one, and the girl form ten" I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding, clove is still okay.
"What about lover boy?" katniss ignores me and continues working on the fire.
"Oh, he's fine. He and the girl from two are down by the valley." She looks over to katniss. "is all that true, katniss? You and him?" katniss tosses the younger girls hair, then gabs the squirrels they were catching when I first woke up.
After they finished cooking the vermin, they began talking. I think katniss is trying to ignore me. They talked about their home lives, katniss has a sister about Rues age; the one she volunteered for. Her father, who she was apparently very close to, died when she was younger. Her mother has been less than perfect, she completely check out when her husband died, leaving katniss to raise her sister.
Rue's life was completely different, not better, just different. She is the oldest of six children, she has both parents but still lives in poverty. She works from dusk till dawn, giving her food rations to her younger siblings. Rue spoke often of her siblings, they are very important to her. She also has an aunt and uncle that she is extremely close to, her uncle was the one who taught her to whistle.
They also talked about the supplies they had been able to retrieve from the cornucopia. Katniss had gotten a backpack with many items in it: an empty water bottle, a sleeping bag, rope, a bottle of iodine, matches, coil of wire, some food she had already eaten, a knife clove threw at her, and a pair of what she thought was sunglasses; rue quickly informed her that they were night vision goggles, an essential tool in her field of work.
Rue had also grab a knapsack, but it contained significantly less than katniss'. It had an extra pair of sock, iodine, an empty water bottle, and a few nuts and berries. The girls laugh at the size of the sock, katniss joked that they were not much use to the little girl, but rue informed her that she used them to keep her fingers warm in the cold nights. This broke my heart, I've been worried that don't get as much joy out of killing as the others do; while this little girl has been freezing so me and my pals don't come and kill her.
"It's about time for us to move on." Katniss glares back at me finally acknowledging my presence. "How are we going to move him?" Rue spins around on the log she's sitting on and smiles.
"We don't have to do anything, he's awake. He can walk now."
"How did I let you talk me into this?" Katniss grumbles as we walk through the forest. She holds the rope connected to my bound hands. Rue answers from up in the trees with a giggle, she is scouting out where we should go. Or should I say where they should take me. I could probably over power katniss if I wanted to, but I'm kind of enjoying myself with them. For having only met a few weeks ago, their relationship has progressed far beyond a simple alliance for survival; if I'm not mistaken I'd say katniss see rue like a little sister.
"If we go north, we'll end up diagonal from the cornucopia; but the trees are extremely dense so we should be able hide if we need to." The little girl scurries down from the tree.
"Sounds good to me, lead the way." We trudge through the forest, for what felt like hours before the girls settled on a "safe spot." The area they finally decided on is a tiny clearing at the mouth of a cave, it's virtually impossible to see until you've stumbled onto it, as we learned.
After binding me to the nearest tree. The girls instantly got to planning their big trade; rue seems to believe that the careers need me to survive. She also believes they will trade some of their supplies for my safe return. Katniss is afraid the trade is too risky, going out in the open leaves her vulnerable. They finally decide to lead the careers to an empty camp-well what looks like an empty camp-. In that camp will be a message telling them that katniss will meet them at the cornucopia with me ready to make the trade. This gives her time set up at the cornucopia and have her demand ready.
"There's only one problem with your little plan, twelve." Rue turns to face me, giving me her full and undivided attention; unlike katniss who pretty much acts like I don't exist. "What's left of the careers don't need me to survive. This is what they were trained to do. If you go out there, they'll just kill you." Rue turns to katniss, she stands on her tiptoes waiting for katniss to respond to my claims. It's something I've noticed she's done a lot, it kind of makes her look like a little sparrow. The kind that gather in the town square when no one has walk through in a while. Sophia and I used to watch them when our dad went into town to trade the swords he made. She was obsessed birds, well really all animals. She loved "rescuing" them, more like kidnapping them until mom or dad made her let them go. Always giving them dumb little names like dot, flower, or buttercup. But that doesn't happen anymore, not since the accident.
"Okay, so you're useless to us? And we should just kill you, is that what you're saying? "I shrug
"I guess, if that's what you really want to do twelve." She scoffs and marches over to me, putting us face to face. "Is that what you want to do?" I can feel rue eyes on us. Something in Katniss's eyes changes, something has clicked in her mind. I can see it in her grey-blue eyes.
"No, I think you are bluffing. Those kids are just as unsure as we are, they need their fearless leader." She turns to rue and begins stuffing the supplies into the backpack. That is when the first drop of water drips on my forehead and slides down my face. "Rue I'm going to go set up the message camp. You stay in the cave and don't go near the boy. He's is dangerous and I am not kidding." She nods as she helps katniss pack up the supplies.
"So you are going to just leave me out here. While it rains." I give her a fake pouty face, she flashes back an unapologetic smile.
"A little rain never killed anyone" it took her about fifteen minutes to finish packing and finally leave. She gives me one final glare before leaving, my mischievous smile gives her pause.
"If you hurt that girl, I'll make you pay tenfold."
"Tt-what makes you think I'd do anything to her. I don't hurt children." She scoffs.
"I beg to differ." I drop my gaze to the floor as my mind rushes to the face of the twelve year old from district four. I shake it off, I have to be strong.
"That's different, if I wanted to hurt either of you you'd already be dead." She rolls her perfect blue-grey eyes.
"Not really." I can tell our conversation is over as she turns to the entrance of the cave. "Bye rue, be safe." She peeks her little head out of the cave and nods.
"Good luck." Rue chirps. I settle down against the tree, my plan is to sleep until the girl on fire returns. I close my eyes and listen to her footsteps grow softer and fainter as the seconds pass. The silence is relaxing, I quite enjoy the forest. In district two we don't have very many trees. Just lots of buildings, and large angry people.
The snapping of a twig next to me draws my attention.
"You're not very good with obeying orders are you?" I ask the tiny girl who has tip toed out to sit by me. She shakes her head.
"No, I-uh… I just have a few questions for you?" I gesture for her sit next me.
"Ask away, I have nothing else to do." My tiny captor nestles into the grass beside me.
"Ookay, question one. What is your favorite time of day?" I stare at a tree and its leaves as they sway in the wind. Thinking over her question doesn't take long.
"Night, when the stars come out." She smiles.
"I like early morning, when the sun peeks over the horizon. That's when I start work, do you work?" I nod as the large droplets of water smack my face. Rue has positioned herself out of the rain, something I am unable to do.
"Yes, a little. When I wasn't training. My father is a skilled swords craftsman, I help him on occasion and sometimes I'd take a couple of shifts in the mines."
"Favorite color?"
"Red, you?" she smiles
"Purple and yellow." She points to some flowers growing off in the distance. "Like those."
"They are pretty." I say, earning a smile.
"What is your district like?" I sigh.
"Insipid, dull, bland. Need I go on?" she giggles.
"You're funny…thresh is funny, too" her bright smile slowly fades away from her face.
"Is it okay if I ask a few questions as well?" she nods. "okay, how do you know thresh?" she sits up a little straighter in preparation for my question.
"He and his family live next door to mine, and he works in the same corner of the fields that work in. he's my best friend. Do you have any best friends?" she ask, man this girl is inquisitive, in a cute little kids way. Sophia was like that too.
"Just one, clove. We met on her first day on training. She threw a knife and it gave me this." I angle my face so she can see the scar on my chin. "Everyone else is either scared of me or not worth being friends with."
"Oh, are we friends?" I give her a reassuring smile and nod.
"If you want to be friends with a big brute like me." She giggles and nods, the rain starts to pick up, now drenching me. Rue, who now is getting hit by the rain, scoots closer.
"I'd like that." She pauses, as if electing whether or not to speak. "We should get out of the rain." She finally says. I nod
"Ya go get in the cave, we don't want you getting sick." She stands up.
"But… what about you? Won't you get sick too?" I shake my head.
"No I'm stronger and older. You go in there and get some sleep katniss will be back soon." She nods and turns to head towards the cave. Suddenly she stops.
"Who is Sophia?" her questions hurts more than a stab wound, it's been three years and hearing her name still stings.
"Go get some sleep." She plops down in her spot.
"Not until you tell me who Sophia is."
"Okay-"just stop-stop saying her name, I think to myself. Taking a deep breath, I sit up taller to give myself a strong look. I don't like looking weak. "Where did you even hear that name?" she shrugs.
"You kept talking about her when you were ranting in your sleep. Katniss said it must be your girlfriend, but I didn't think so..." her teeth begin to chatter.
"I'll answer you, but first go get that sleeping bag and cover up or you are going to freeze to death." She nods, quickly bouncing off to get what I told her. She returns within seconds, wrapped like a caterpillar in a cocoon. She snuggles up next to me.
"Who is she?" she stares at me with her sparkling brown doe eyes.
"She was my little sister."
There will be more...eventually. so if you like it hold tight the rest is on the way. (If you read the first version they are exactly the same just split into two chapters.)
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