Request: Clato after the rule change
It is mid day and Cato and I are walking through the forest looking for any of the remaining tributes. We have given up on hunting at night when they are likely to be asleep and easy to kill, partly because chasing them first makes it more fun and partly because now that there are only two of us, sleeping during the day makes us vulnerable.
It has been a while since we have seen anyone and I am starting to get bored and hungry. "Cato can we eat now?" I ask him and he looks over at me surprised by the sudden noise of my voice. He nods and we sit down on the leaves.
"I was so sure I had seen him come this way." He says, he is talking about Thresh.
"I don't know. I haven't seen him at all since we got in the arena." I respond, pulling food out of my backpack. We don't have very much food left since that bitch from 12 blew up our supply and we have been scavenging for what we have now. I wish I had paid more attention to those lessons in the training center but it is too late for that now.
I sit and eat some berries while Cato just stares off into the distance. All of a sudden I hear Claudius Templesmith's voice from above me. "Congratulations to the six of you who remain in the games." He begins and me and Cato look at each other smiling. They must be calling a feast, I think. What a great time to take out competitors. "There has been a change of rules." He states and I see confusion pass over Cato's face the same way it must be passing over mine. "Now, both tributes from the same district can be declared winner if they are the last two alive." I don't understand and I look over at Cato to see his reaction but all I see is confusion. Claudius repeats himself but it still takes a while for it to click in. A rule change. Cato and I can both go home.
He seems to get it right after I do and we sit there smiling at each other. We both stand up and he quickly covers the distance between us. I am in his arms and he is twirling me around. and for a while I am so caught up in it that I don't think about anything else. Then he puts me back down on the ground and I look up at him. "What caused them to change the rules?" I ask him and he simply says "I don't know and honestly, I don't care. We can both go home." I think about it for a second, about me and Cato back at home. Together. Until this moment I had not allowed myself such thoughts because I knew it was impossible. But now it could happen. I hug him again and we stay like that for a while. Then we let go and I just smile up at him while he smiles back.
This is too good to be true, I think. But Cato seems to be having a different train of thoughts. "This is all the better reason to end this. The faster the rest of them are dead the faster we can go home. Together." He says and gives me a deadly smile. One that I return. "I have been watching the screen every night with the faces of the dead and if I am right then the six left are; you and I, Thresh, the girl from 5, and the two from 12. So there are only two pairs. and the other pair is separated." he says.
"Alright so if we take out one of the kids from 12 before they can reach each other our chances are even better." I state.
"I like the way you think." Cato says to me before turning around and heading in the direction we were going before we stopped for lunch. And I follow him knowing for the first time in a while that Cato and I have the chance to be together.