My eyes open as I realise that I must've fallen asleep. I notice that me are not in the Capitol and wonder why we stopped. A gunned, masked hulagon appears. Cato stands up and steps infront of me.
"What do you want?"Cato growls meanacingly.
"Gold." The hullagon says. Cato steps forward again, intimidatingly but the thug seens unaffected.
"Let me rephrase that." the thug throws the gun and an arm from behind me grabs it. But there was no one behind me...
All too soon another arm holds me to their chest and the gun is held to my head. I freeze and my eyes fill with fear. Cato's face flashes with vunrebility before contorting with anger. He storms out and for a moment I wonder if he's left me. The first hulagon hesitates before motioning to the other thug. I'm kicked off the carriage and Cato appears shortly after with a bag. He throws it to the first thug and snarls.
"Now let her go."
"Why have we stopped?" Queen Enborias voice rings out as she steps out of the carriage. She screams and Brutus and my father appear just in time to see me pushed to the ground as they run off with the gold. Cato immedeitely rushes over and helps me up. I breath in slowly and Cato holds me to his chest. I don't know whose heartbeat I hear but it's going incredibly haywire. Considering what just happened it could be mine or his.
"Are you OK?" Cato asks, pulling away and looking at me worridly. I try to speak but instead just nod. He seems to visibly relax slightly. A guard takes me back to the carriage and Cato emerges a few minutes later after having recalled the events. The carriage jerks into life as Cato sits next to me and interlaces his fingers with mine. In my state of mind, I don't find the strength to push away.
"Are you sure you're OK?" Cato asks and I nod again. He holds me to his chest again for a few minutes and a few tears slip out of my eyes. When did everything get so crazy and messed up? Cato pulls away and wipes my tears with his thumb.
"Don't cry, pretty girl, it's all going to be alright." He assures and I lean into his side and drift back off to dreamworld.
The next time I wake, we're in the Capitol. I'm still leaning against Cato and he is, oblivious to the fact that I'm awake, running his fingers through my hair soothingly. I groggily sit up and look outside. The sheer wonder of the kingdom makes my jaw drop. Cato laughs. We pull up into an extravagant courtyard and I'm hit with a pang of fear. Something I don't often feel. Cato see's my face and tucks a strand of hair behind my ear.
"It's going to be Ok. I won't let anything happen to you." Cato offers his hand which, after mild hesitation, I take. Why is he being so nice to me. He could've let me get shot! We walk into the crowd of crazed Capitol citazens. I see my father looking approvingly and I realise that my hand is still interlaced with cato's. I blush slightly and look at the floor. Cato expertly guides me through the crowds and into the palace. Just the sight takes my breath away. Cato squeezes my hand encouragingly. The other Capitols appear and Lola hurries over to Cato.
"I missed you Cato." She grins and he drops my hand to spin her around. I'm almost thankful as I found it unsettling, especially around our parents.
"It was only for a little." Cato laughs as Lola hugs him tightly. Cato gently sets down Lola and Enboria coughs impatiently.
"The ball will be tomorrow. Cato you can show your fiancee to your room." I bite my lip anxiously. I'll be sharing a room and more importantly a bed with Cato! God, help me! Cato once again interlaces our fingers and leads me up a few flights of stairs and corridors to his quarters. It seems that he's always lived in his marriage quarters to make life easier for when he got married. He opens the door for me and I step in cautiously. Cato shuts the door and sits down on the bed. He rakes a hand through his hair and then falls backwards onto his bed. He lets out a sleepy sigh and I fight back a giggle. He sits up groggily and sends me a crooked smile.
"What you want to do Princess?" I shrug uncomfortably.
"If it puts your mind at rest, we have never had problems with thugs before. No one has ever broken into this palace." I smile slightly but it seems to die quickly. Then a maid rushes in.
"I'm sorry I'm late Prince." She beams. She has pale blue skin and a dark blue wig.
"Clover, this is Sapphire. She's my maid." Sapphire walks forward and by her movements it's obvious that she fancies him. Cato, though seems completly unaware or fine with it. If he's known her for a long time then he's probably used to it. She giggles and leads him to the bathroom, to 'prepare him' for tonight, whatever that means. A few moments later a woman, about 20, comes in. she has black hair and pale skin.
"Princess? I'm Nikki, your maid." I smile slightly and she takes me to another bathroom. She washes me and brushes my hair. Then she dresses me in a white nightgown. She takes me back to the bedroom where I see Cato sitting on the bed.
"I'll see you tomorrow princess." Nikki smiles and exits. Cato looks up at me and swallows. He gets a weird expression on his face which is a mix of longing, desire and suprisment. I feel my cheeks warm as we stay in our positions. Me standing and him sitting on the bed. He seems to keep moving around uncomfortably. All in all, I'm scared. I mean after what Callie's been through and is still going through I have every right to be.
Cato clears his throat awkwardly. It's obviously that he finds this rather unsettling also.
"Should we maybe, um...qo to, you know,...bed?" He asks, daring to look at me. I shrug awkwardly. He gets up, moving in a strange way and gets into the bed. I notice that he wears only a thin white top that shows off his abs. I hesitantly walk over to the bed and get in, as far away from Cato as possible. I pull my knees up to my chest and struggle to sleep. It may be due to the amount of sleep I endured on the carriage ride, the different bed and setting or the presence of someone else in the bed. My guess is all three.
Cato also seems to struggle for sleep and late in the night I hear weird mixtures of groans and moans. I can not handle this every night. Fearing the worst for the morning I eventually force myself into sleep. It is dreamless.
We're woken up at 7am. A grand lay in for me. Nikki washes me and tells me that I have dress fittings for the ball today. My hair is put into a plait and I'm dressed in a red velvet dress for breakfast. I'm walked to Breakfast with Cato who looks nice in a jeans and a red top. He smiles at me casually as we walk to the dining room. I can't help but wonder what the noises Cato was making last night were and why they were happening. We're sat next to each other during breakfast. It goes uneventfully and I notice that my portions are not only smaller than everyone elses but I'm eating less as well. It seems that everyone, including myself, are trying to starve me.
Afterwards I'm taken to a room where I try on dresses for 3 and 1/2 hours. Queen Enboria watched and decided on a dress and I found out that I tried over 300 dresses! The horror! After another awkward lunch I'm prepared for the ball. I'm washed again, my hair is brushed and straightened. I have light make up put on. Foundation, blusher, a natural eyeshadow, mascara, lip gloss. I'm dressed in a red dress that has a lot of wonderful gold designs. I feel amazing in it and I actually look like a Capitol Princess (in a good way). I'm put in gold heels and then walked to the ball.