Author's Note:
So this really was just supposed to be a one shot but I kind of like the idea of it, sooo, here this is. Also, this was supposed to be more Cato than Glarvel but I can't help it because I just have Career feels everywhere.
Thank you to everyone who reviewed/favorited/alerted(?) the first installment of this. I may or may not add to this later on, but I'll keep it as complete for now just in case.
I also like really ambiguous endings, oops.
Jealous
a Hunger Games (© Suzanne Collins) fanfiction
Marvel sees the way Clove looks at Cato and Glimmer. He sees the hate in her eyes, the bitterness in her scowl, the irritation that write itself across her brow every time the two are together. Truth be told, it isn't entirely unlike his own expression.
Unlike him, though, Clove does very little to disguise her jealousy. Marvel notices because he has always been able to read people well (and, he'd grudgingly admit, because he is in the same position). Glimmer notices because she has dealt with jealous girls before, and though she may fear Clove, she probably enjoys teasing her more. Cato certainly notices because, while his arms are wrapped around the blonde and his lips are whispering sweet nothings into her ear, his eyes are always on Clove.
He thinks it's a sick romance in a twisted fairytale.
"You shouldn't let your emotions affect you so much," he says poignantly one day when he and Clove are paired up to hunt. Though she doesn't reply, he sees her shoulders tense and her fists clench. The previous night, Clove was using her knives as darts and when one barely when whizzing past Glimmer's ear, she made the claim that she missed a lizard. It would have been easier to believe were it not for the simple fact that Clove doesn't miss. "Someone could… Anyone could get hurt."
"I can take care of myself," she snaps.
"I wasn't talking about you." When she stops walking, he makes sure to put space between them; he doesn't doubt she'd have no qualms about killing him and making it look like an accident. She isn't quite glaring, but the look she gives him sends shivers down his spine.
"Oh yeah?" she asks, an edge in her voice. "You're watching your own back, huh? Or…" The way she leers at him makes him forget that he's taller than her until she steps away, but even then she manages to look condescending. "Or just pathetic."
She's already walking away when he finally recovers from the shock, and he has to jog to catch up with her. "I'm pathetic?" he hisses heatedly. "I'm not the one throwing knives at the girl I'm jeal-"
Clove spins and pushes him back so suddenly that he actually falls onto his back. "Shut the hell up." Fear bubbles in his stomach when she hovers over him, dark eyes flashing dangerously. She's grinning, but there's nothing friendly behind it. "You don't know what you're talking about. So shut the hell up."
He waits until she starts walking before he stands back up. He brushes the leaves and twigs off his clothes as he carefully follows her. Clove is definitely a Career tribute, deadly and vicious and set on winning. The fact she's small and young doesn't affect her at all; if anything, it fuels her drive and makes her a more dangerous package. Marvel has seen her vulnerability, though, and he knows that she isn't invincible.
Later that night, after they skewer their dinner and sit around the fire, Marvel watches as Cato grabs Clove by her upper arm (his fingers wrap entirely around it once) and drags her away. He watches as she protests and bites at him, as the fire lights up in his eyes, as they both yell and say terrible things to each other before completely disappearing into the brush. Out of the corner of his eye, he watches Glimmer, who doesn't look the least bit bothered by what just happened.
"I'd think both of them were cute," she begins in an ironic tone, "if both weren't so stupid."
He raises his eyebrows. "But you and Cato -"
Glimmer's glower is much sharper than Clove's. "I know you aren't stupid, Marvel." He senses a double meaning behind her words, feels his cheeks heat up in embarrassment. She doesn't laugh at or mock him, though; she just smiles sadly into the fire. "Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I hadn't've volunteered. If I hadn't been training for these Games my entire life. I wonder what kind of life I would have, who I would marry, if I'd have kids, if I'd be working… Sometimes I think it'd be nice to just be… normal, I guess."
Marvel doesn't quite understand because he doesn't really know what normal is. For him - for all the families and children of Panem - normal is the Hunger Games. Normal is waiting for your child's name to be put in the reaping bowl. Normal is watching with baited breath as the escort pulls out names of the damned. Normal is sending children to the slaughterhouse. Everything that Glimmer wants is abnormal, to be honest.
"I guess you wouldn't get it," she sighs, shoulders drooping.
"I do," he says without thinking. He's never thought of getting married or having children or getting job, but he knows what - who - he wants, and that's close enough.
She blinks at him curiously before she smiles softly. "Hm. Maybe you do." When she looks at him the way she does, he can't help but wonder if he's been doing as good a job of disguising his feelings as he initially thought. "I'm a little jealous, to be honest."
"What?" he asks, trying not to sound too shocked. "Of…"
Glimmer sees his eyes travel in the direction that the other two disappeared, and she laughs. "No. Definitely not. Not them. The couple from twelve - the girl on fire and her lover boy. They get to be so openly affectionate, and it pays off. They get sponsor items for holding each other and rave reviews for sucking face."
"Isn't that what you're doing with Cato, though?" There's no malice behind his words, no ill will or anger. It's a genuinely inquisitive question that actually startles her.
She even looks pretty when she's scowling, he thinks. "It's different when it's a romance between two people who are bound to lose, and two people who can definitely win. It's more tragic, I guess, which is appealing to people who've never experienced tragedy for themselves. It's different…" A lock of hair falls away from one of her braids; he has the urge to reach and push it back. "It's like love, what they have."
"'Like' love?"
Glimmer shrugs. "I've never been in love. I wouldn't know."
Part of him feels relieved to hear this, while the other mourns. When Marvel really thinks about it, though, does he actually love Glimmer? Doesn't he think she's just pretty? Just pretty and perfect and charming and friendly?
No, he thinks fervently, she's much more than that. If she was just a hot body and a beautiful face, he wouldn't be so angry every time he saw her and Cato together.
When Cato and Clove return, they both look worse for wear. Cato is sporting several bruises that are sure to look even more terrible in the morning, while her jacket is disheveled and her hair has been ripped out of its ponytail. Both are snarling so viciously that neither he nor Glimmer have the courage to ask about the confrontation, and the District 2 partners end up sleeping on opposite sides of the campfire. Glimmer takes up her role once more, giving him an enigmatic smile, before walking over to Cato and curling up against his body. Marvel's eyes stay glued to her figure until he's sure she's asleep.
He's cold and irritated and just angry when he rolls over onto his side. Clove doesn't get to be jealous. Clove doesn't deserve to be because she has Cato, regardless of who he has his arms around and lips on. Clove is closer to Cato even when she's laying on the other side of the fire, than Glimmer who's snuggled against his side with her hands on his chest. Cato is an ass and Clove is a psychopath, but the two have each other even in this death-ridden Hunger Games.
All Marvel has is his want and his desire and his jealousy. He'll be far away from Glimmer as long as she keeps the distance between them, and she's the smartest of them all - she'll never give in to her emotions. Everything she does, everything she's done, has a purpose. So it doesn't matter why she's with Cato or if she actually likes Marvel or she wants to be normal and have a normal romance like the star-crossed lovers. To Glimmer, jealousy is just a word.
To people like Clove and Marvel, it's much more dangerous.
