Katniss
She couldn't sleep. It was too loud and two quiet all at once in the Capitol. There was the hum from the walls that sounded like moaning and the honking of vehicles outside. It was too much. She was in the elevator before she even formed the thought.
There were too many voices in her head. Haymitch's slurred voice telling her that she needed to be likable, that she should smile more. Stop glaring. Peeta's kind tone telling her stories at lunch, images running through her mind with his voice floating over them. Effie's high pitch stabbing at her eardrums. It was all too much. The air was suffocating her.
The moment she hit the outside air of the roof it was the sweetest relief she had felt it two days. Maybe three. Had it been three days since she was home? Had it really been that long since she held Prim? Katniss felt the edge on her strength crumbling now that she was alone and that maybe for once she wasn't watched. No crying. No crying. She told herself, she could cry when it was over, she could cry when she was home.
The shock of blond hair in the garden startled her more than she thought possible. She had missed him as she walked to the edge but when she turned to console herself she saw him sitting by the wind chimes with his back to her.
"I thought you were asleep Peeta." Katniss said walking towards the garden. But as she got closer she realized that it was the wrong shade of blond to be Peeta. It was lighter and much too short. At her approach the boy turned to look at her and Katniss realized whom she was speaking to. The victor from the 73rd Hunger Games, Cato sat in front of her.
It was shocking to see him not on a television screen. In person he was still rather huge but it was different. He wasn't towering and scary here. He was dress in what looked like pajamas for all intense and purposes. A lose pair of grey shorts that came to his knees and a black shirt that seemed like it might be a size too small. This close it was easy to see the network of scars that decorated his arms and hand and even most of his legs.
He had gotten pretty beat up in the arena. The only weapons provided last year had been tiny knives that could barely make deep cuts. It had been a mostly hand-to-hand year. Cato had stopped using the knives at the end of the first week and simply beat the other tributes to death or snapped their necks.
"Oh I'm sorry." Katniss said realizing she had been studying him for longer than was perfectly polite or necessary. Cato shrugged those broad shoulders and then patted the space on the bench next to him. "No it's fine. I don't want to bother you." I don't want to be near a monster. She turned to leave when he spoke.
"You won't feel any better inside. And you won't sleep." Cato said casually but something in his voice set Katniss on edge.
"And how would you know?" She snapped.
"I got maybe three hours of sleep the week before my games." Cato admitted. "These help." He held up something small and metal. "Catch." Katniss reached out before she even thought about, years of hunting too ingrained.
Katniss looked at the object in her hand and was rather confused. It was a series of metal links that seemed to be stuck together and a few of them were slightly lose.
"What is this?" She looked at him to see he had pulled another one out of his pocket.
"They are called brain teasers." Cato said twirling the one in his hand. "They keep your mind busy and your hands. Makes it harder to break you." Katniss was surprised to find she sat down next to Cato and fiddling with the brainteaser herself.
"Aren't you supposed to hate me?" Katniss said feeling odd next to this boy. He was the monster victor. She had trembled watching him kill those kids last year. She had stayed near the back of the crowd during his victory tour, wanting to as far from this animal as possible. But here she was having a conversation with some one she was sure she hated.
"Because you are district twelve scum?" He said with a rise of a blond eyebrow.
"Yes." Katniss hear more venom in her voice than she had expected.
Cato laughed, a deep rumbling laugh that vibrated the bench beneath them.
"You think that's funny? So what my district is all a big joke to you?" Katniss barked at him.
"They really picked right when they set you on fire." He said still smiling. It was striking. His face wasn't perfect when he smiled but was actually rather lopsided.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Katniss was not enjoying this conversation.
"It means I like your spark." Cato was fiddling with his teaser. He pulled a link out and set it down next to him. "Too bad you are just as brainwashed as the rest." He gave a little tap to his temple with his right hand.
"I'm not the brainwashed one!" Katniss shouted. How dare he! He was the monster. She was here to save Prim. He was the killer, he and all the careers like him.
"Oh that's right. I'm the one that was brainwashed." Cato shrugged. "My mistake."
"You're crazy." She snapped and got up. She didn't need this, she needed sleep and less to think about. Not have some freak from another district talking nonsense. Just as she got to the elevator she heard him call out.
"Katniss." He shouted. That stopped her. Not twelve like the current careers. Not girl on fire like the capitol. Not sweetheart like Haymitch. But her real name. Katniss. "When you are in there remember it's just hunting." Katniss was floored to hear that, words so similar to what Gale had said. How could he know that?
"How?" She asked wanting to know how he could possibly know about her hunting. Katniss turned to look at Cao and he raised his right hand and wiggled the fingers.
"You have the hands of a hunter." She looked down at her hands trying to figure out what he saw. "Archery has really distinctive calluses." Heat crept up her face in embarrassment and she beat it out of there faster than she thought possible. Only later when she was back in her room did she realize she still had the brainteaser. Reluctantly she gave it a shot and half way through working it out Katniss feel asleep. It was the first real sleep she got since the reaping.
Cato
She was good. He had to hand it to her. She had a temper and a backbone. Coming to the roof had been a gamble. If he really was going to sponsor Katniss Everdeen she needed to get a good look at her. See the fire burning in her eyes for himself. Make sure she wasn't one of the sheep.
He had been rather surprised really when she came to the roof in the middle of the night. Most capitol citizens where still up, in fact many of the mentors were awake as well talking up sponsors. But tributes kept to the sleep schedules of their homes. Working schedules.
But she was a hunter and a hunter now in the position of prey was restless. He could see it in the way she walked. The way she stumbled out of the elevator and inhaled sharply spoke volumes about her mental state. She was holding it together with sheer stubbornness and willpower.
The real test had been talking to him. To see if there was fear in her eyes or if she looked at him like a treat she could take. He needed a look at her mind and that required eye contact.
She was startled first. Not good. Easily startled hunters were dead hunters. But then she took a good look at him. Her eyes moved and he saw her catalogue every one of his scars. Better. Then she sneered, just for a second when she put together all the things he had done. There you are. In those brief seconds he got a good look at the brain behind the beauty and frankly he liked what he saw.
He could see the fire in there. But beneath that fire and strength was a caring person. Some one who would throw themselves on the sword literally to save another. A hero. Someone better than all of us. If only she wasn't so deep in the capitol's clutches to see what was really happening. Give it time. The games will open her eyes.
He just really hoped that when she got out she was more intact that he was. Then again he was attempting to break almost every capitol rule there was, so maybe he was less scrambled than even he believed.
I cannot tell if this was a good chapter. I am either having a really anemic day or coming down with something nasty because I am dizzy as all get out. So I am convinced this is a trippy mess but you guys be the judge.
Thanks for the reviews. Glad so many of you like what I feel like is mush seeping out of my fingers. But its therapeutic because I am busy working out some issues with my novel and this seems to help me hate my male lead so much less.
Also to whoever said they liked the clipped style. (Those were not the exact words and I cannot find the exact review for the life of me.) But yeah thanks. Basically I am not going to get all flowery about how people or places look. If you are reading this, you have read the books and/or seen the movie. So we know what's up. So I skip that stuff so I can get down to the nitty gritty.
Yay.
I am going to go take an iron supplement and a nap now. Thank god I have a steady full time job and get to go home at a reasonable time. -E
