OK, so I have 10 chapters of this written and ready to go. It's a bit of a common idea but I don't really care; you can't have too much Catoniss. Or at least I don't think you can. Also, I get bored of reading the scene where they get ready for the reapings again and again so I just skipped it, you guys probably all know it pretty much by heart anyway.
I'm also considering some other minor pairings for later on; Brutus is quite a caring figure with a tough outer shell in this so maybe Mrs. Everdeen/Brutus. Just an idea, tell me what you think.
I am also seized by a sudden idea for Enobaria/Haymitch. I haven't seen it done before and both would be very late on in the fic. Enobaria is also like Brutus; a tough outer figure and caring inside. You'll see what I mean quite early on.
Setting: Cato won the 73rd hunger games and kept on killing people after. Pretty much everyone is frightened of him but snow doesn't care that he keeps killing people because it shows how the 'rebellion left everyone scarred.' Katniss has just been reaped for the 74th hunger games and so on goes the story.
Chapter 1.
Cato hadn't actually seen the two district 2 tributes since the reapings. He knew that Clove had volunteered because she had told him she would a couple of weeks ago. He had killed someone that day. Again. The boy was also a volunteer but he hadn't bothered to find out his name, he didn't particularly care.
Cato had broken in his games. He had been put forwards to volunteer a year early and he had wiped the field, now holding the record of most tributes killed and the shortest games. Although he had broken in the process; the first 6 months and his victory tour had been spent in a haze blood and death as he killed anyone who touched him, looked at him funny or surprised him. He still did kill the odd person if they caught him by surprise but he was allowed to see friends and family if he had another victor playing escort.
After the reaping he had shut himself in the TV room and no one had disturbed him, the other victors knew him well enough to not disturb him and the tributes were probably too afraid to come into the same room. Even fearless, bloodthirsty, violent Clove was no longer comfortable in his presence. She tried to hide it but he had spent hours studying her body language as they fought in the academy and it had given her away.
He was sprawled across the sofa with his head thrown over the back. He heard a knock on the door and after a pause Enobaria stepped in. Behind her filed Clove and her partner followed by the other 7 living district 2 victors. Cato followed them with his eyes as they silently took seats with a view of the screen. Lyme pulled the heavy curtains across the windows, plunging the room into maroon semi-darkness. The 4 victors squeezed together on the sofa opposite Cato so that she could sit, despite him being the only person on his sofa. None of them would admit it but, with the exceptions of Enobaria and Brutus, they were all slightly afraid of him. The boy tribute was putting on a front of being utterly relaxed but his gaze was fixed too firmly on the blank TV on the wall.
Enobaria reached over to a small coffee table and brushed her fingers over a metal disk. The screen on the wall flickered to life and the replay of the reapings began. Cato lifted his head slightly so that he could watch the proceedings. The two from 1 were not up to their usual standard, the boy lacked their usual blond beauty and the girl didn't have the look of a killer. Then Clove volunteers in place of a skinny 14 year old girl, her partner lunges forwards to volunteer, almost knocking over the 12 year old whose place he was taking. Cato learned that his name was Dominus.
The girl from 5 caught his attention; her eyes betrayed a fierce intelligence but her build was slight and weak. Clove and Dominus had already dismissed her though and Cato mentally chalked up their first mistake. Everyone laughed cruelly when a boy with a crippled leg was selected from district 10 but their amusement faded when a tiny girl was reaped from 11. Even the most bloodthirsty of the victors didn't like having to kill 12 year olds. Her partner was a huge 18 year old boy and Cato could hear Brutus telling the two tributes that he would be one to watch out for. Then district 12 was up and their escort with her absurd pink dress was fishing in the reaping bowl with her pink nailed fingers. Finally she drew out a slip and her heels clacked sharply as she tottered over to the microphone.
'Primrose Everdeen,' she announced, her eyes already scanning the crowds for the unfortunate girl. The cameras zoomed in on a tiny, stick-thin girl with her hair pulled into two blonde braids. One of the district 2 victors let out an unhappy sigh, the girl didn't even look 11. Suddenly there was a commotion at the back of the shot and a brunette stepped out into the aisle between the boys and girls.
'Prim! Prim' The girl cried. She sounded shocked and she hurried forwards, sweeping the younger girl behind her without a moment's hesitation. 'I volunteer!' She gasped and the victors and tributes around Cato stirred in surprise. Cato pulled his sprawled limbs in and leant forwards, his interest captured.
'I volunteer as tribute!' The brunette from district 12 repeated more clearly this time. The people on the stage shared uneasy glances, unsure how to act in the face of this anomaly. The escort said something but Cato wasn't listening. The younger girl had begun to scream, clinging onto the elder's legs until she was swept off by a tall boy with similar features to the girl. The mayor looked slightly pained as the girl declared her name; Katniss Everdeen. Then the escort finally called for applause but the entire district remained silent, then a single starved looking man, blackened with coal dust, raises his fingers to his lips and into the air towards the girl on the stage. One by one the rest of the district followed in their strange, silent salute. The commentators didn't seem to know what to say of the refusal to applaud; one eventually said that local customs were charming. Then the drunk fell off the stage and the spell was broken. The boy from her district was nothing special though and the TV flickered off before he had even announced his name as Enobaria brushed her finger over the control again.
'There we have it. A weak field this year, your main competition this year will probably be the male from 11…' Cato tuned out the annoying voice of Kurt Bonatz. Yes, the boy from 11 would be competition but so would the volunteer from 12. He wondered how the others hadn't noticed it yet.
R&R please