Disclaimer:I own nothing
A/N: I recently became obsessed with Clato and this was the result. Reviews are greatly appreciated and constructive criticism is welcome.
"Why did you have to volunteer?" Clove didn't even flinch as Cato stormed into the room. The minute they had been led onto the train she had run off, hoping to avoid this very confrontation.
"Why did you volunteer?" She responded coolly. She stood up and walked over to the mirror, taking great care in undoing her intricate updo.
"I'm 16 Clove! I had to volunteer this year. They might have gone with another volunteer, and I would have to try again next year, and the year after that. You're only 14, you have plenty of time before you turn 18." He said in frustration.
He had a wild temper, everyone knew that, and it was obvious he was about to lose it sometime soon. Any rational human being would have tried to calm him down and diffuse the situation, this was after all a boy who had been training to kill his entire life. But Clove found his temper amusing, she wasn't scared of him, which is why during their many years of training Cato and her had become almost friends. To be clear, none of the kids who were training were really friends with each other, after all, they might have to fight each other to the death in the Games. However Cato and Clove were both highly skilled, they were the best fighters District 2 had, and that brought them together in a weird way. Clove was the closest thing Cato had to a friend, and vice versa, which is exactly why he was so upset she had volunteered for the 74th Annual Hunger Games.
"Why should I wait until I'm older when I'm ready to fight now?" She asked, the smile on her face infuriated Cato even more.
"Who says you're ready to fight? You could train harder, become stronger, and learn to throw something other than your damn knives!" He replied, and she rolled her eyes.
"What's the point? If I'm not ready now, I'll never be. Either I win the games, or I die trying,"
"The point is I don't want to kill you!" He screamed, if his volume affected her she didn't show it. Instead, she removed the last pin from her hair and watched in the mirror as her straight, brown hair tumbled down past her shoulders. He watched her hair too; it was weird seeing her hair down, he had only ever seen it up before. The only time the two saw each other was during training, and it was mandatory that she keep it up and out of her face then. She was really pretty, he thought to himself. The way it framed her face and flowed endlessly down her back made her look even more beautiful. He told himself to snap out of it, they were about to enter an arena where only one comes out, this wasn't the time to think about his little crush.
"Maybe if you're lucky someone else will kill me before you have to," she answered teasingly, a smile playing on her lips.
"Stop joking around here Clover." She subtly flinched at the use of his nickname. "I was hoping that if I won the Games this year, and you won in the future, then maybe, I don't know we could-" He narrowed his eyes when she scoffed at him.
"What Cato, date, get married, grow old together?" She laughed at the idea. He shrugged. "You honestly think that after I win the Hunger Games I'll settle for being your little housewife? That's not that I want Cato." Immediately he became defensive.
"Look you don't have to be my damn wife if you don't want to, but you are the closest thing I have to a friend, and now, thanks to you, one of us has to die."
"I think you're being a bit melodramatic," she answered, keeping her tone light. Underneath though she was worried, she thought Cato just considered her his ally, the only other person that could fight as well as he could. Instead he had just revealed that further down the line he wanted to marry her? It would've helped if he had told her all of this before the reaping. Now, there was no going back. They would both fight, she had to grow thicker skin and stop caring so much about him.
She caught his gaze in the mirror and they stared at each other for a few moments. His hands curled up into fists by his sides, and he turned around and stomped out of the room. The door slammed so hard behind him one of the hinges came loose.
At the training centre Clove and Cato properly met the other tributes. They bonded with the other Careers over their mutual hatred for the girl from 12, she was stealing all of the spotlight. Besides, it's not like she even had a chance of winning this, not only was she from an outlying district but she wasn't very good at any of the activities in the training centre. In fact, she wouldn't even touch a bow and arrow. Meanwhile Cato headed straight for the swords and Clove the knives. Their tactic was to show off their strengths to the other tributes; people had to be scared of them.
Clove couldn't pretend she didn't notice the girl from 1. Glimmer, and her flirty attitude. She seemed to be especially flirtatious around Cato, and while he wasn't encouraging it, he definitely wasn't doing a whole lot to make it stop either.
The night before the Games Clove was having trouble sleeping, along with practically every other tribute. All she could think about was how tomorrow it would begin, around half of them would be dead by this time.
Cato was studying a butter knife when he heard a knock at his door. Who on earth wanted to speak to him at this hour? He wanted to shout at them to go away, although he figured they wouldn't be at his door the night before the Games if it wasn't important. He was extremely surprised to find a nervous looking Clove standing at his doorway. He studied the expression on her face; it was one he had only seen a few times before.
"You're worried," he stated, and watched as a look of alarm passed over her face. Though as quickly as it had come it vanished, and she returned to her calm self.
"Hello to you too," she answered.
"You're worried,"
"No, I'm not," she answered, pushing past him and walking into his room. He shut the door behind her and watched as she looked around his room, her eyes resting on the butter knife.
"I talked to Glimmer and Marvel, from 1, and they agreed to form an alliance. Marvel took a bit of convincing, but Glimmer agreed right away."
"Of course she did," Clove replied.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing." She sat down on the couch and picked up the butter knife. "Just that it seems she can be convinced to do things very easily, especially coming from you." He laughed at that, and she made a shallow scrape on the coffee table with the slightly serrated edge of the knife.
"What, now you're jealous?" He asked in an amused tone as he sat down beside her on the couch.
"Yeah right," she answered quickly, which made him smile even more.
He leaned in closer to her, his voice just above a whisper, "You're jealous," she shuddered as his warm breath tickled hers skin. He moved quickly, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her closer to him. Unconsciously she leaned into him, feeling safe and secure with his arms around her. Reality came back to Clove all at once, and she stood up abruptly.
"I'll see you tomorrow at the Cornucopia," she said, walking out of him room and shutting the door behind her.
After the initial bloodbath only their alliance was left standing at the Cornucopia. Along the way they had also picked up the boy from 12, it was Cato's decision for him to come along with them. He knew that he was their best way of finding the girl from 12. Now, with all of the supplies for themselves, they had fun selecting weapons and munching on some food as they went. Clove went straight for the best knives, and no one else objected when she took them all. Cato grabbed his sword, it was in the very mouth of the Cornucopia, and he knew it was one of the most lethal weapons in the Game. When Glimmer picked up the bow and arrow Clove outright laughed, she had seen Glimmer in the training centre and knew she couldn't shoot to save her life. Still, she let her have it, it's not like the bow was any use to Clove either.
The next night the alliance found themselves camping out underneath a tree that currently held Katniss Everdeen. All of them were on edge because they hadn't managed to kill her yet, and now they simply had to wait for her to die up there or for her to come down. Clove watched as Glimmer continued to flirt with Cato around the campfire, and that night, claiming she was 'cold', Glimmer rested her head on his arm. Clove tried to stay calm, soon Glimmer would be dead anyhow, it was obvious she didn't have what it takes to become the victor. Besides, she decided Glimmer could have Cato if she wanted. After all, Cato and Clove didn't really have anything going on between the two of them, she shouldn't feel so jealous.
However, the next day the Glimmer problem was solved when she died from the Tracker Jackers 12 dropped down on them. At the same time they were betrayed by the boy from 12, who had helped Katniss escape, and so Cato took care of him, or at least that's what he thought. Clove was still mad at him for not killing the boy completely. Eventually they also lost the boy from 1, Marvel, to Katniss as well, and only Cato and Clove were left in their alliance.
"I knew it would only be you and I left," Cato said after they figured out that Marvel had died. "We're the only ones that have what it takes to win,"
"My thoughts exactly," Clove responded evenly. And in one swift movement she had knocked Cato onto the ground and was straddling him. Her sharpest knife pressed up against his throat. His sword had been knocked out of his hands and lay a few feet away.
"I should have seen that coming," he smiled. "Go on then, kill me,"
"You're not even going to attempt to fight back?" she asked pressing the knife closer to his throat. She made a small, shallow cut, it barely even bled. He didn't flinch at all, over the years he had built up a pretty good pain tolerance.
"You and I both know if I make any sort of move that knife goes straight through my neck. So what's the point?" He said, and she shrugged, he had a point there. She tightened her legs around him to keep him in place, just in case he tried to get away. Stay strong; show no mercy, she reminded herself repeatedly. If she finished him quickly it will be less painful for the both of them.
Just as she was about to push the knife through his neck, an announcement rang out over the arena. Clove's knife remained pinned against Cato's neck as the two listened to the sudden rule change, allowing both tributes from the same district to become Victors. After the announcement ended the pair stared at each other, stunned.
"They've never done that before," Cato said. Slowly Clove withdrew her knife and placed it on the ground. The second the knife was safely out of Clove's hand Cato sat up, one hand rested on Clove's back, so that she was still straddling him. Without hesitation he leaned forward and kissed her hard. She returned the kiss with the same amount of passion, and eventually they both had to pull back to breathe.
"We're both going home," she said quietly, smiling at him.
"Together," he answered laughing.
Little did they know.