So, I've leaped headfirst onto the Hunger Games bandwagon and am thoroughly a District Two fan. Not because it's awesome, but because it's badass in all the worst ways.
Anyway, here's a little oneshot about what would probably have happened if Cato won. Why Cato, you ask, when I could easily have kept in canonical by making it a random tribute from any other Games? The answer is simple: the rule change, which would have affected his relationship with Clove in a way no other tribute has ever experienced.
Oh, and I don't own the Hunger Games. Just in case it wasn't obvious.
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He won.
When they pull him out of the arena, he thinks it's over. He's free.
But then he's not.
They parade him around the Districts on his Victory Tour, flaunting him around like a new piece of jewellery.
He hates every minute of it. He's tired, and he wants to go home.
Well, find a home, rather, because District Two wasn't a home to him. A training ground, maybe, but not a home.
It makes him sad when he realises that the closest thing he's ever had to a home was the arena, in those last few days, when he and Clove clung to each other and they both found someone who could understand, someone who knew what they'd been through, someone to trust at last.
Then she died, and now he's alone again.
So he goes back to District Two, to his new house in the Victors' Village, alone. His family stops by, congratulate him. He doesn't have anything to say to them. He never does.
A girl he used to know, she comes by and says hello. They comforted each other just a few months ago, when he and she were both training. And by comfort, he means fuck.
Because that was the only way they knew how to communicate, the only way to show they understood.
Before he knows what's happening, he finds himself screaming at her, because she's not Clove and she doesn't get it, not anymore.
She leaves and Enobaria replaces her, and he clings to Enobaria because she's his mentor. She doesn't pretend to know what goes through his head, but rather, teaches him again, just like she did before the Games.
He doesn't talk and she doesn't let him, because the Capitol is watching.
Sometimes the phone rings. Sometimes he doesn't answer. But when he does, he feels sick.
Because he's not only the Capitol's ornament anymore, he's the Capitol's whore too.
So he goes and fucks a stranger. He pretends she's Clove, but the neon orange eyelashes and dark purple skin make it hard to do so.
The girl he used to know is reaped for the Quarter Quell, where there are no volunteers and everyone's District partner is their sibling.
There are no weapons.
Just before her brother strangles her, she cries and says she's sorry. Then she dies and the cannon fires. Her brother wins.
And then, for one blissful minute, he thinks he's free. The Capitol has a new trinket now.
But then the phone rings, and he knows he'll never be free. The Capitol owns him now, and forever.