Before training.
I wake up with a smirk on my face "Today is going to be fun" I tell myself. The light is leaking into the room from the gap between the curtains, making this dull room a little less bleak. The light of the atmosphere reminds me of my home back in district 2, warm and homely. But this place is anything but homely. Ironic isn't it?
I roll over and out of the bed. My arms stretch themselves out and I yawn. Clove was over last night, we were planning how we were going to play today. And today we decided that we should give the competition a littlescare. We aren't going to do anything drastic. Just maybe cause a fight or two. Nothing major. For us anyway. We were up until at least midnight planning shit. It was fun. I enjoy cloves company. She is evil and deceptive. I like that.
My feet make their way over to the Capitol clothing filled cupboard. "Ugh, that's fucking putrid" I mutter to myself as I withdraw a pair of tangerine pants from the cupboard to throw them into the corner of the room. Eh, the avox can clean it later. Everything in this cupboard looks like someone vomited a disgusting rainbow over unaturally tightly woven and misfiguered clothes. Who In there right mind would wear it? I wonder back over to my bed and pick up the t-shirt and loose pants I had brought with me and put them on instead. I'm not wearing the Capitol clothing, even if it is only to breakfast. I think I would rather go nude.
"Cato, hurry up. Breakfast is already being eaten" a hoarse voice snaps at me. Brutus. My mentor if you didn't already know. I don't like him, personally I think he is a jackass. But he does do his job well.
"yeah give me a moment" I growl back through The closed door, splashing my face with some cold water before making my way to the eating quarters.
Capitol food is very overrated. It's nice, I'll admit that. But back in district 2, you could survive a full day of training on a handful of nuts if you really desired. "Morning Enobaria" I chime as I enter. I don't mind Enobaria, her and my mother were close when she was alive, she is like my aunty I never had. So I actually try to respect her more than I respect Brutus. He is just a pure hearted dick. Actually people say that I remind them of him.
"Good morning Cato…. Someone happy this morning, actually clove was pretty happy too" she replied giving me a mysterious look.
"Where is she anyway?" I ask looking around, noticing her empty seat and her plate with a few crumbs on it.
"She went to put on her training Clothes" Enobaria replied sinking her golden razor blades into some description of food. A pastry of some kind? I disregard the thought and grab an apple, biting into it.
"Yeah, we decided that we are going to torment the other tributes today" I reply smugly.
"Oh we did, did we?" in walks clove with her uniform on "I believe that was my idea?" she lowly grows, re-taking her seat.
"Whatever" I reply shrugging my shoulders. So what if it was her idea. we both agreed. I finish off the remainder of my apple before pouring myself a cup of clear capitol water. Nothing like we had back home. Our water was often very murky and had a thick feeling when you were drinking it. But after a while it becomes unnoticeable. Until you have fresh, pristine Capitol water that is.
I rise from my seat and walk back to my room. "Im done eating. im going to get changed" i mutter walking out of the quarters.
"Hey wait up" Clove lunges forwards to me and walks with me back to the rooms. "So, i was thinking…What if we have a fight? you know, a fake one. It would be just like combat training for us, but to them it will make us look more intimidating than what we already are" She smirks at her idea.
"that actually sounds like a really good idea." i have to agree with her for once. "Then they wont think that we will ally in the games."
"Who said we were allies to begin with?" she smiled deviously at me. "Im just kidding with you"
"good," i mumble back before walking into my room, and to my surprise she follows. "What are you doing?" i ask as she closes the door.
"Oh come on. Surely your not scared to show a little skin" she pushes past me and sits on the bed. folding her legs beneath her and resting her face in her petite palms.
"Whatever" i shrug again and walk over to the other cupboard with the set training clothes in them. I strip myself of my top and look over at clove. i throw the dirty t-shirt at her face and hit her on queue. I poke my tongue out at her as she shoots me daggers. "dont act like you dont like what you see" i reply turning to her and raising my arms shoulder height, displaying my body.
"Well…" she mouths out before i see something that i didnt expect to see. At all. She is Blushing. Clove, the sadistic ruthless killer is blushing.
"aww, are you blushing?" i ask sarcastically before pulling down my pants and throwing them at her too. She fumbles to catch them, her face going even brighter.
"Fuck off Cato, your just ho- i mean im just hot" she blurts out quickly, i cant help myself but laugh. "Asshole. hurry up and get changed, we haven't got all day"
"Calm down, look I nearly have my clothes on ok?" and with that I pull the training pants on and search for the top which I may or may not have misplaced yesterday. "Can you see my shirt anywhere?" I ask throwing some shit out of the road.
"Your kidding me? You lost your shirt…." she says like it is the most stupidist thing in the world.
"Yeah so…." I pan the room as she gets up and starts looking. Then I see it. "Look, your big butt was hiding it" I tease walking over to where she was sitting, my shirt slightly crumpled underneath it.
"Your such an ass Cato, in glad that I am killing you in a few days." After she said that the air was so thick you could cut the tension with a knife.
"Yeah" I finally reply and pull my shirt over my head. "We should get going, I don't want that Atala chick on our asses." I say before going over to the bathroom to run some more cold water over my face. "I wish I could read her mind right now" i say silently. I glance back over to her and she is now looking out of the window. She is truly beautiful, one of te most physically attractive people I have ever met. But I have to push all thoughts like that out of my head. I can't let her stop me from winning my games. I just can't
Training
When we arrive at training clove and I smirk at each other before taking a spot on the floor a far distance from each other. If we don't want the tributes to be suspicious then we need to distance our selves,for now.
We plan to make our little 'fight' scene happen in the lunch break. If we fought when we were actually training, then we would be punished from the guards and trainers. Atleast in the lunch break, Seneca will still be looking but it is somewhat Unsupervised. We could almost get away with murder. the guards and trainers are eating in a separate are and the game makers are above us, always observing.
We await for the remainder of the tributes to pile in. Clove occasionally throwing me funny looks when a certain tribute she wouldn't like walks in. For example, when glimmer entered the center Clove gave me a death stare flicking her eyes from me to her. Its Obvious that Clove doesnt like her, i dont mind her. She ir pretty attractive, but she seems utterly hopeless from what i have seen.
"Ok tributes listen up, if you can't hear me then tough" Atala, the head trainer commands us. "Today you will all have to go to the survival skills section for at least half of an hour. We actually want everyone to have a decent chance" She scans the crowd of 24 looking at each and everyone of us. "I suggest using your time wisely…. Dismissed" and with that we are all on our feet and spreading throughout the training center floor.
"Lets get these fucking survival skills over and done with know" Clove struts over and lowly growls
"Sounds good, why do we even need it? we have been trained in this for years"
"Dont argue Cato, just shut up and tie some fucking knots"
"Whatever" i shrug and walk to the other section of the survival skills station. I give the trainer a look to leave me alone, and she happily agrees. i tie some knots, make a fire and identify some berries before the trainer comes over.
"Your compulsory 30 minutes up, you can go about your business now." she mutters before walking over to tell clove the same thing. I pass her and classically smirk.
"See you in 2 hours"
"Yeah, see you when im attacking you" she smirks back and walks over to the knife station. Classic. I make my way over to the weights and do some of them, not pushing myself too far. I notice the boy from 6 looking at me, so i put more weight on a lift it easily. He seemed intimidated and ran off to the camouflage station.
After the first 2 hour session is over, we make our way into the eating room. Clove follows me from a distance a I line up in the cafeteria styled room. She pushes in front of the district 7 pair snickering as she slots herself behind me. She nudges me with her knees discreetly. I know what she is thinking and I turn around "Not yet" I growl so low I'm not even sure if she heard it. I get my food and walk off to a table in the middle of the room. Glimmer and marvel take a seat on the table sitting across from me
"Cato right?" Asks the one I know as Marvel.
"Your kidding right? Yes I am Cato, and I'm guessing that you want to set up to be allies?" I ask flatly, looking down at my plate.
"It's settled then" Glimmer chimes and moves to sit next to me, she flips her golden locks and giggles. "I think this is going to be a great partnership Cato"
"Your in my seat." Says a very flat stern voice, we all turn to see clove staring at glimmer. She doesn't move at all. "Your in, my seat. Move" she repeats again. Glimmer stands up and walks back over to the other side, giving clove an obvious snarl and shoulders her as she walks past. And Im pretty sure that Clove mutters the word "Slut" as she sits down next to me. I give her a little kick under the table. Signaling her that it is time.
"Ok, so I'm thinking that we kill everyone at the bloodbath then it's every tribute for themselves" I suggest purposely taking cloves fork and using it, giving her something to start off the argument. They all nod in sync before Clove speaks up.
"That's my fork you arse" she hisses as I put the food into my mouth.
"Oh boo hoo, just get another one."
"Cato, give me back my fork" she picks up the knife that was on her other side, I know why's coming next so I quickly duck as the knife goes flying past the top of my head, sinking into the wall behind.
"Whatch it you crazy bitch" I yell standing up, she stands up on queue with me and launches herself onto me, pushing me on to the floor.
"Say it again"
"Crazy bitch" I hiss and a harmless punch lands into my chin. To them is looks painful, but we are only uses weak sparring moves, not intended for injury. I roll us over so that I have her pinned down to the floor, she starts thrashing about and I send a 'punch' to her stomach. She coughs so dramatically you would think that I had broken her stomach if that's even possible. I look around and every eye is on us. "what are you all looking at!" I tell standing up and kicking her in the side.
I take my seat and continue to eat. She stands up and send an actual flying punch into my shoulder. I grimace and snap my head towards her shooting her daggers. She just smirks. I look up at the district 1 tributes who look absolutely horrified. As does everyone else actually.
The remainder of the meal is eaten in silence. Everyone keeping quiet and no one dares to make eye contact with us. It's funny actually. We leave for the last 1 hour training session that goes flying by. The only interesting thing that happens is some district 3 kid took my knife. i think, so i went off at him. giving them something else to be fearful of us. I dont think that Clove leaves the knife station the whole time. Well, in my opinion, she is the best knife thrower i think i have ever seen. I guess it just goes with everything else that i like about her, her smile, her freckles, the way she can mercilessly kill someone… Dammit Cato, snap the fuck out of it. she is your competition.
after training
When we enter the elevator that leads us to floor 2, we start laughing. "Did you see there faces?" she laughs hard.
"They looked like they saw a ghost"
"They looked fucking petrified!"
"They were petrified!" i hold my stomach from laughter as the elevator door opens. Enobaria and Brutus are standing there waiting for us. They seem to be taken a bit aback by our hysteria.
"what's so funny?" Enobaria gives us an estranged look.
"Our plan worked like a charm Enobaria" Clove chimed, taking a few calming breaths before she finally stops.
"They were petrified" I say with a devious smirk.
"Good" is all Brutus dares to butt in. i give him a flat look and push past him.
"They could be brothers Clove" Enobaria hissed to clove, in hopes that we wouldn't hear.
"Heard that" Brutus and i say in unison. I look at the 3 of them before leaving and going to my room. "Call me when the food is ready" i yell through the closed door. I unchange out of my clothes, and put on just my loose pants. The capitol is a pretty balmy place, and even though it is the capitol. the source of cooling someone down is shit.
After half an hour or so of basking in the silence of my surroundings, there is a faint knock on the door. "It's open."
"Hey Cato, let's talk" it's clove if you haven't guessed. She has her hair pulled up ontop of her head and she is in a bright purple Capitol embroided top and black tights. I laugh at her top and she scowls at me.
"Cute top" for that comment, I get a swift whack up the face,
"shut up, my other top was dirty…. Speaking of tops, where is yours?"
"Dirty, like yours, but I'm just too lazy to put mine back on" I smirk at her a laugh. She begins to blush that cute little blush again. Jesus Cato, get a hold of yourself. I mentally shake her from my thoughts and get my mind straight again. "So what did you want to talk about?" I ask getting my thoughts clear.
"I want to talk about… The games." I slightly freeze as the words come out.
"Oh, Um, well I guess we stick together until-"
"Until we have to kill each other?"
"Yeah, that" Why is this so hard for me to over come? I always knew clove, but not like I do know. It's like this things had made us closer. And that the last thing I want right now.
"Cato I don't want to die" her voice has become shaky. "I thought I was ready for this but I'm not."
"Clove your not going to die" Wait, what the fuck just came out of my mouth?
"What? No Cato, your not doing that" she snapped.
"Well why not?" Holy hell Cato, shut your fucking mouth! Stop letting mind travel and think about her, only 1 person is coming out of the games and it is going to be you,
"Because I won't let you die for me" her voice is now more stern. More demanding. "I am stronger than that. What am I kidding, I can kill you!" she hisses before abruptly throwing her head into her hands. I move over to that I am right next to her. I hesitantly put my arm around her waist in attempt to comfort her. To my surprise, she lifts her reddened face and puffy eyes from her hands. "Cato, I'm scared" her voice cracks with the last word. I pull her closer to me and she doesn't object.
"So am I Clove, so am I" there, I finally admitted it. I'm scared, petrified. I don't want to die. But for some reason, Clove has grown on me, she is probably the only person who actually respects me as much I respect them. I can't believe I am saying this, but I think I have fallen for her. But when I fell, I fell hard. Headfirst into a pit of rust nails. As my mind rushes, so does my heart beat. Why did I have to fall for her now, why not at a later time, or another universe? damn fucking emotions. They cause me nothing but torment. And right now it is tormenting my mind.
Her breathing become steadier and her face returns back to its pale glow. But her eyes are still red. I have to hold back the over coming urge to kiss her. She is right there in front of me. Actually she is almost in my lap, why can't I just kiss her? I know why, because one of you are dying in a matter of weeks. I look into her deep emerald eyes, getting lost in their beauty.
I forget where I am for a moment before I get pulled into reality by a warm tingle on my lips. Clove has her soft lips upon mine, I have to overpowering urge to kiss her back, and I do. But there is a little voice in my head telling me how wrong this is, how you are only digging a deeper hole. But I don't care at the moment.
Her lips are so soft, considering how harsh she is. I pull her onto my lap as our kiss becomes a little more fiery, her lips moving in time with mine. I run my hands through her hair, pulling out her hair tie. He hands travel down my bare stomach and trace my muscles, a tingling sensation, erupting through my body. I have to stop, but she was so addicting it was contagious. She wrapped her legs around me and tangles her hands in my hair. I move my hands so they are resting on her waist and we break apart.
"Cato were fucked, aren't we?" she asks with a very weak smile. Placing her forehead on mine.
"Extremely" I reply , catching my breath. "But I don't care anymore" Our lips crash together again and we contain ourselves in a passionate kiss, all I want to do is keep this moment forever. Bottle it up, and keep it in my pocket. We both know how wrong it is, but I think that drives us towards each other more. All I want is her, and for the next week, I can have her. In secret, Tormenting our minds.