A/N: Alright, so this is Chapter One of the sequel to "The Fire and the Flame." I hope you enjoy it, let me know what you think!
The train sped along the track; alarmingly fast. However, since the gait was so smooth, the passengers inside the train hardly felt the movement at all. But that could also have been due to the fact that none of them were really paying attention.
"Young man, what exactly are you doing in here?" a shrill voice screeched and after a moment's pause within which the speaker must have gotten a response, she was revealed to be Effie Trinket, who was furiously tottering away in her heels down the corridor of the train's compartments, off to find Haymitch. Laughter echoed behind her as the door of the room that she had just excited opened a bit more to reveal a blushing Katniss. A man's arms wrapped around her waist from behind as she stepped through the doorway.
"Does she really expect us not to see each other?" Katniss asked of the person who held onto her. "We are on the same train for a month."
In response, the young man bent his head down and kissed the side of her neck once.
"Be thankful she only saw us holding hands," Cato answered as Katniss blushed. The latter turned her head away from him to hide it.
"It's not like we've done anything more than that," she muttered. Cato continued to trail kisses across the silken skin of her throat and she shivered.
"Oh, did you forget the time I walked in on you two making out? Or where those two people a different Katniss and Cato?" a voice called and the couple turned to see Haymitch walk into the room, looking completely sober. He wagged a finger at them, pretending to be disapproving, but there was spark of amusement in his eyes. Cato smirked and Katniss' blush deepened.
"You saw nothing," she said to her mentor, a smile growing upon her face.
"Correction: I saw more than I wanted to," was Haymitch's reply as he poured some cordial from a glass tumbler into a goblet also made of glass.
Cato snickered and Katniss turned in his arms to hide her face from Haymitch in his chest, pleasantly embarrassed.
"Don't feel bad, sweetheart," Haymitch reassured, walking up to them and putting a hand out to rest on her right shoulder. He turned her back around to face him. "If I were in your position, and I have been, I would want that kind of companionship." Here, he winked. "Then I might not be such a bitter, old man."
"You're not bitter and you're not that old," Cato joked. "You're as old as my father, give or take a century." He ducked down behind Katniss when Haymitch threw a mock punch at him in response.
"I may be ancient, but I still have my fighting blood," Haymitch said with a smile when he relaxed. "Never forget that." The mentor sighed and then looked around the train car, frowning when he noticed something was out of place.
"Where's Peeta?" he asked of the other two tributes. Cato and Katniss shook their heads in unison. This whole car was supposed to belong to Katniss, it didn't make sense for Peeta to be in here.
"Have you checked his own private cars?" Katniss queried, stepping slightly towards Haymitch.
"Well, that's where I was heading before Effie found me, shrieking that you two-" Here, he pointed a large finger in between Cato and Katniss. "-were performing all sorts of debauchery."
"Debauchery is a big word for you, old timer," Cato teased and Haymitch winked.
"We weren't 'performing debauchery,'" Katniss interjected, feeling the need to come to her own defense. "We were sitting on my bed, talking and holding hands."
At her words, Haymitch chuckled, his long grey hair swinging forwards into his face.
"Is that all?" he asked with a snort as he brushed his hair back behind his ear. "She made it sound like you were in the middle of an adult-rated movie."
"Well, we weren't," Katniss insisted just as Cato whispered "I wish," in her ear. She nudged him in the ribs. "Shut up," she whispered back but an amused smile was on her face.
"Well, I'll be off to find him then," Haymitch said and he patted Katniss' cheek affectionately. "Take care until dinner, sweetheart." Her mentor then nodded to Cato and departed from the bedroom/living room car that belonged to Katniss for as long as she was using it for the Victory Tour.
The two tributes stayed standing in the same position for a while, relishing in each other's closeness and the silence that an empty train car provided them. Katniss' was the only car where some type of music wasn't playing over a set of well-hidden speakers that were hidden in the ceiling.
After a few more moments, Katniss sighed and relaxed completely into Cato's embrace. She still didn't know how Peeta was truly handling the idea of her and Cato being together out of the public eye. But they would stopping at District 12 soon, their old home. What would everyone else think about the 'star-crossed lovers' relationship? She could only hope that people saw through the fraud and could accept her and Cato for what they were: a couple.
A/N: So, what did you think? I didn't want to make it too long. Please review and may the odds be ever in your favour!