Alrighty, here we go, chapter one *crosses fingers and hopes it's alright*

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Hunger Games, or Cato and Clove, none of it :/ I wish XD. Hope you enjoy the first chapter!

Twisting my knife gently on the tip of my finger, I listen to the wind around me. A light breeze trails across my senses, the sweet smell of pine filling the air, the coolness tingling on my skin, and the sound of it moving through me. I become lost in thought, staring blankly into the darkness and becoming distracted by the memory of earlier this morning…

"Clove…" I stir, turning my face to look at him.

"Yes, Cato?" His face looks pained, causing me to turn my body in his direction, worry crossing my face as I trace his cheek gently with my fingertips "What is it? What's wrong?"

"Please….please just be careful." He whispers, staring at me, then sitting up and turning his gaze to look at the ground on his right. Today is the feast, there are six of us left, including me and Cato.

My expression softens and after sitting up as well, I take his chin in my hands, turning his face back toward me. "Look at me…" His eyes are still averted, staring at the grass, and I am forced to crane my neck down, getting in the way of his gaze. "I will be. I promise…not that I need to be." Finally looking at me, he opens his mouth to argue, but I beat him to it. "You'll find Thresh and he'll be no match for you with your sword. The red headed girl from five…I doubt she'll even show up, and if she does I can kill her easily. Lover boy is probably on his death bed as we speak, you know where you cut him. And Katniss…she'll be a challenge but I can take her. She's good, I'll admit, but I'm better…" I have to turn his gaze back to me "We're better." Our eyes meet. "Alright?" He nods solemnly, wrapping his arms around me gently and resting his face in the crook of my neck. I hug him back softly, whispering in his ear "Stop acting like this is the last time you'll see me." As he doesn't respond, I'm forced to push him away slightly so that he will look at me again. A grin crosses my face "I'll see you for dinner." He still looks reluctant, "By tonight we'll be back in the capitol, sitting down to a fancy supper and preparing ourselves to go home, victors Cato…together. We'll get to live in the victors' village; we'll be famous, rich… no one will ever look down on us again." I finally get a small grin out of him and he stands, pulling me up with him. I give a light laugh, staring up at him.

"Together…" He mutters quietly, seemingly testing out the word "victors…together." I watch a grin cross his face, a gleam in his eyes more noticeable in the moonlight.

"Together." I confirm, thankful for the darkness as a small blush and look of longing fills my expression when he kisses my cheek lightly. I feel a small flutter inside my chest that I had never felt before in my life…except for the other night when he kissed me.

The memory quickly shifts into that day.

Cato and I were laughing about the helpless look the district 3 boy had on his face when Cato killed him. It was good to see him happy again, especially compared to the night before. He had kicked around cans, screamed, even beat the ground with his fists. It took ten minutes for Marvel and I to calm him down, not that marvel helped much. He had been a wreck since the tracker-jacker incident. We weren't sure why, but I had my suspicions that something was going on between him and his district partner, Glimmer, who died during the attack. He wasn't helping in any way, yelling and cursing at Cato to calm down, that food wasn't everything and we'd all be fine. I shoved him out of the way, telling him he needed to calm down, and that maybe he should go search for whoever was responsible for helping the person blow up our supplies. There was no way they did it on their own. He snarled at me, grabbing a spear and walking into the forest. "Idiot." I remember mumbling, then calming Cato. We waited until nightfall, only a few hours, and as soon as we discovered the district 3 boy was the only death, we made our way into the woods.

We searched all of the next day for Katniss, and in the middle of the day heard two cannons "Maybe Marvel found her…" We both thought so, we were sure of it, sure he'd be at the lake, so we turned to head back. As we reached the lake, we heard the anthem start as darkness filled the arena, and we turned our gaze to the sky. To our surprise, Marvel's face was in the sky along with the little girl from eleven's. We couldn't believe it.

As shocked as we were about Marvel's death, Cato and I continued our hunt for Katniss. "I wonder why Lover Boy's face isn't up there yet, maybe katniss found him and they're down there making kissy faces at each other." I laughed at it, but Cato didn't seem to find it funny, he was so quiet that day, lost in thought. I rolled my eyes, not caring. As we walked deeper into the woods, nearing the river, an announcement rang through the arena "Attention tributes…there has been a slight…rule change." 'What? A rule change?' I wondered. "Under the new rule, both tributes from the same district will be declared winners if they are the last two alive." The next thing I'm aware of as Claudius Templesmith repeats the change is Cato stepping in front of me, leaning against a tree. "Come on Cato move, we need to keep searching." I told him, annoyed he was in my way.

"What if we don't." He suggested.

"Well why would we stop when it's much more fun to spill someone's blood?" I tried to push past him and one of his arms wrapped around me. I tried to shove away, confused, scared for a moment he might kill me. It surely would be easy for him, it took only a matter of seconds to kill that boy. "Cato, what are you doing?"

It was completely unexpected, uncalled for, took me by surprise when he took my face in his hands and kissed me. My eyes widened and I didn't know what to do, but I found myself raising onto my toes to reach him better and entangling a hand in his hair, pulling myself as tall as I could. The emotions that ran through me at that moment were intense, especially since I had never experienced them. My entire life all I had known was pressure, anger, hopelessness, determination to be the best…and now all of it had melted away into a wild jumble of passion, intensity, and a strange sort of calmness. My muscles relaxed as I kissed him back, not wanting it to end. He wrapping his arms around me, raising me higher and holding me up. After a little, the kiss slowed down, gentler, close to ending as we both needed to breathe. Cato set me down gently, then almost reluctantly parted from me. After taking in a few big breathes of air, I had just stared at him, confused, shocked, and…happy. "What was that..?" I got out quietly, blushing slightly at the way he looked at me. His gaze so full of admiration, happiness, gentleness, and would I dare say…love? I didn't understand. I didn't understand why he did what he did, or why I kissed back. I didn't understand how these feelings rose up in me…what was happening to me? I don't blush. I don't laugh, I don't often smile. I'm not calm, or loving, but…that seemed to be all I was capable of at that moment.

He didn't respond to my question, but instead, kissed me lightly again, a teasingly light brush of our lips. And that was all I needed to send shivers through me. A realization hit me. I had liked Cato since the day I met him. He was the only boy I ever looked at, chose to fight with, longed to be touched by even to just shake hands as a friendly gesture. I'd been in love with him for years, and only now realized it. 'How long had he felt like this toward me?' I wondered silently to myself. My heart beat had quickened as his arms stayed around me and all we did was look at one another.

Ever since that night all I could think about when I looked at him was that kiss, my feelings, and how I wanted him to hold me like that, kiss me like that again.