Katniss laid in the middle of the clearing, the blood from the wound in her leg pouring out and seeping into the ground beneath her. She held it and tried to stop the bleeding, but didn't think it was helping and she didn't have anything to cover it. She was vulnerable and helpless. Who was the cause of her horrible demise?

Peeta.

The boy from the bakery, the one that she thought that she could trust, but apparently not. The careers had taken a liking to him, more than Cato, apparently they had dropped him and made Peeta their new "leader." Why? Katniss wasn't absolutely sure why. He was a great contender and everything, but she wasn't sure why or how they had gotten rid of Cato, why would they? He was the leader, and she was surprised that he hadn't killed all of them on the spot. As she heard someone draw close, she closed her eyes and slowed her breathing to make it seem as if she was dead. She knew that she was already going to die, but she didn't want to go through anything else. This was already enough.

She heard someone curse and then tap her side. She bit her lip and then someone grabbed her arm and pulled her up. "You're not dead..." a familiar voice said. She opened her eyes and looked at Cato.

"Please, just leave me here to die... I-I'm going to be gone soon anyways," she said and chewed roughly on her bottom lip.

Cato looked at her and smirked lightly. "Kill you? No... I need you 12." He said and started carrying her out of the clearing.

"Need me?" She whispered. "What do you mean need me? I'm no use to you..." She whispered.

"You're going to help me get rid of the Careers... I have some medicine back at my base that should help that nasty knife wound of yours. Then you'll definitely be of more use to me." He said as he walked through the woods.

"I'm not helping you do anything!" She shouted. "I'm not going to be a puppet of yours like those Careers had been! You're not going to use me and then just kill me when you're done with me!"

He stopped and threw her to the ground. She groaned and Cato held an arrow he had taken from her to her throat. "Then I'll just kill you right now... Stab you right in the throat and let you die. Maybe your mom and sister will be watching. Didn't you want to win this game for them? What about the boy you mentioned...? Gale? Wasn't that his name? Your friend from your district? Maybe he'll be watching. They'll all see you bleed out and die in this way... Who says I was going to kill you later anyways? You're a good tribute, 12. I wanted you to stay around and, hell, maybe the two of us will be the last ones standing..." He said and took the arrow away from her throat before picking her back up.

Katniss stayed quiet as they continued on. When they got to Cato's base, he set her down and then rummaged through one of his packs that he had laying around. Cato took out a small jar and then looked at Katniss. She was chewing on her lip roughly and nodded. He bent down and coated his fingers in the medicine before rubbing it on her wound. She winced and squeezed her eyes shut and bit down on her lip. Cato finished and put the jar back.

"There, all better," he said in a mocking sort of way. "It will take about an hour to heal. Until then, you stay here and guard the packs. I'm going to climb a tree and start setting up the beds for the night. We'll be safer up high, but I guess you already know that, right?" He said and smirked.

Katniss' memory went back to when she had been hiding from the Careers in a tree one day and they had staked her out all night and she proceeded to cut a hive of tracker jackers onto them. Glimmer was killed in the process.

"R-Right," she said and nodded. She took her bow and arrow and propped herself up a little bit. The wound on her leg was already beginning to heal, the pain had vanished and was replaced with a cooling sensation that the medicine gave off. "Just hurry up, I'm not going to do much of the protecting stuff because, honestly, I can't," she said and looked to him.

Cato shrugged and nodded. "Seems fair enough, I'll be quick 12," he said and looked up at a tree. "And trust me, I know how to climb them now. Better than I had before." He side smirked at her and then jumped onto a branch and started climbing up. Katniss chewed on her lip and forced back a smile.

She had to admit, he was charming... She just told her brain to shut up and stayed focused on the task at hand which was watching the packs.

A few hours later, Cato came climbing back down the tree and looked at her. "How's your leg? Do you think you can climb up by yourself?" He asked. "Two sleeping bags are set up and there's a sling to hold the four packs that we have, okay?"

Katniss nodded and stood. She put pressure on her leg and smiled when she could actually walk on it. "Yeah, I think I can climb," she said and put her bow and arrow on her back. She climbed up and sat on her sleeping bag. Cato climbed up as well and smirked lightly before tying himself in. Katniss did the same and Cato opened a pack taking an apple out and handing it to Katniss. She reached her hand out to take it and as she did, Cato put a handcuff around her wrist, and then cuffed her to a branch that was longer than the ones that they were one, so if she tried to get out then she'd fall. "W-What the hell?!" She yelled and pulled at it.

"It's to make sure you don't try and skip out on me," Cato said and smirked as he took a bite of the apple that he had been offering her.

"Take it off," she said sternly. "Take it off or I'm not going to help you."

"No can do, 12," he said.

"I swear to God, I will kill you right here and now if you don't undo these cuffs!" She yelled.

"Oh yeah..." He took the knife off of her belt and then took her arrow sheath. "I'm going to hold these until the morning so I don't wake up dead.

"Damn it, Cato!" She yelled. "You fucking ass! Take it off now! I swear... This sucks! Let go!"

"Language, language, miss... We're on television," He said and smirked. "Want something to eat?" He asked.

"No! I want to be let go! Right now! Please? If I ask nicely?"

Cato still shook his head head and smirked. Katniss groaned and laid back on her sleeping bag. "Listen, instead of fighting with me, let's talk... I know the careers' paths and everything about them, of course, since I was their leader for a long time. Now... Tomorrow is the day we... I mean... ah, them... They get their water... Their's a stream not far from here where they go. They'll kill anyone or anything that's in their sights. I think we should blitz attack them. If we take down the leader, they won't know what to do. The'll be scared and they'll just start trying to kill us instead of having some kind of organized attack. They'll be scared and frantic..."

"Kill the leader? The leader now is Peeta right?" Katniss asked and chewed on her lip and looked down in her lap.

"Yes, kill him."

"Cato, I don't know if I can do that. I think... I just.." She took a deep breath.

"Katniss, he turned on you. You didn't turn on him. He's the one who tried to kill you. I know you two were "in love," hell, maybe you still are. But, he tried to kill you, okay? You have to realize that much, okay?" He said softly.

"Cato... I can't... I can't kill him..." She whispered.

"You're the long shot... You can work a bow and arrow and you can kill him by surprise..." Cato took a deep breath and took her hand lightly. "You can do it... You're stronger than him, okay? Do you understand?"

She took a deep breath and then nodded lightly. "Yeah..." She whispered and took another breath looking at him and then down at their hands, he was playing with her fingers. She gently tugged her hand away and looked at Cato who looked almost embarrassed. "So... tomorrow..."

"Around noon," he said and sat up straighter. "We'll go a little earlier in the morning and stake out the usual spot."

"What if they know that we might make a move..."

"They won't... They think I'm injured and they think you're injured. They don't think that we would team up or can team up." Cato smirked. "That's the surprise of it all."

Katniss nodded and took a deep breath. "Okay..." She whispered and then laid down. Cato did as well and closed his eyes. They both fell asleep.

They had gotten up that morning and taken up camp in a tree by the river. Katniss looked down at her hands, zoning out completely as she just stared and thought about Peeta. She was going to kill him. She had to. The others would fall soon after like Cato said. It was the best for her... She would be one step closer to going home, to being with Prim again.

"Katniss?" Cato asked and touched her shoulder. She jumped and sniffled lightly and cursed herself for crying in front of Cato. Why was she crying anyways? "Are you okay? Are you crying?"

She shook her head quickly and bit down on her lip. "S-Sorry..." She whispered. "I'm just thinking... I'm so nervous about this damn situation... I can't help but think of all the crap that can go wrong... I keep thinking about killing Peeta and I can't help but think about how he helped me when I needed it! He was there for me and my family! I can't help but think of all this stuff and... my head is so jumbled and crazy and I just don't know what to-" She was cut off by Cato placing his lips on her's.

She looked at him a second, his eyes closed and his lashed floated out against his defined cheekbones. He continued to kiss her. He pulled back and bit his lip lightly and smiled. "Can you shut up? They're going to hear you..." He said and then continued what he was doing before.

Katniss sat there baffled for a moment, not knowing what to think. She smacked him upside the head and he cursed looking at her. "What was that?!" She whisper yelled.

"I was trying to shut you up," he said and shrugged.

"You don't kiss me!"

"And why not?" He asked. "Because you actually liked it?"

She chewed on her lip and looked away playing with her bow.

More time had passed and finally, the careers showed up. Cato pointed to them and when Katniss saw Peeta, she froze looking at him. "Now Katniss.." He whispered.

She looked at Cato and nodded lightly. With a deep breath, she raised her bow and swallowed. "I'm sorry..." She whispered. As she got ready to let go someone screamed. Katniss lost her balance as she was startled and Cato caught her before she could fall and then a canon went off Katniss went and held onto Cato for more balance. The Careers ran off and Cato cursed.

"We missed our chance..." He whispered and shook his head. Thresh came running out of the woods and Katniss watched him grab some water and then run back. She wondered who he had killed. There weren't many people left. "We'll stay here for the night... Then, tomorrow, we're going to trek to where they set their best trap..." He said.

Katniss nodded and looked at him lightly. "Thanks for catching me..." She said softly.

He smiled and bit his lip lightly. "No problem..."


Oh my goooooosh. Okay, hi. I was reading over my last Cato/Katniss piece and I got this idea. It was supposed to me a one shot and then I'd put in a lot of other one shots, but.. um... That's not how shit works out for me... So... This is probably (maybe hopefully I can control myself...) going to be a short story... Some shit is going to go down. Some things I post with this may make it M but... I don't know. I haven't gotten that far yet. This is kind of a go as I please story. I literally wrote this in the copy-N-paste thing on here. ANYWAYS enjoy. Comment. There will be more. :)

xxKellyn