A/N: Okay, first off, so sorry for taking longer to update this time around. I have been dealing with some personal issues, you know how it is. I'm in a sort of dark place, which should actually help with writing this story. :p And my tablet went crazy on me and now the display is so messed up I can barely see what I'm doing. Looks like it got wet, which it didn't. And also, I had a bit of a writer's block which was unfortunate, since I had waited a long time to get to the point in the story when Clove and Cato finally meet. But I just didn't seem to be able to finish it, maybe because it was so hard to write this chapter the way I wanted it to be, but then still keep them somewhat in character. Plus, now that I think about it, writing this one was actually stressful. I rewrote some parts a few times. And I'm still not sure whether I am satisfied with it completely. Anyway, hope I did the characters some justice, though and that I won't let you guys down.

Secondly, thank you so much for your reviews! And again shout out to dominicana. :) So sorry for keeping you waiting!

Onyx, I am not very sure what you're asking me about. If by "canon", you mean a different story, then no, this one doesn't follow it.

Enjoy!


"You've been the only thing that's right.

In all I've done."

- Snow Patrol "Run"


Clove squeezed the handle of her knife and got ready for whatever was about to happen next. With one swift movement, she turned on her heels and lifted her weapon only to end up being pushed against the wall behind her. The hand that held the knife was trapped by her opponent's arm above her head and she was stuck and unable to move an inch. She looked up, ready to face whoever it was that had taken her by surprise like that.

As soon as she did, her blood froze in her veins and she forgot how to breathe.

Those eyes...

"Hey, little girl. How's life?"

She couldn't breathe. She couldn't think. It was too much. The closeness. The smell of him. His body inches away from hers. His arm pinning both of her hands above her head. His chest moving up and down steadily. And those eyes... those eyes that were gazing deep into her own with such intensity that goosebumps covered her skin. He had never looked at her the way he was in that moment and she was mesmerized. Without realizing it, she loosened her grip on the knife and before she knew it, it fell from her hand and on the ground. It was that easy. Within a second, she was unarmed. He still made no attempt to hurt her and it seemed like he was in a trance, just like her. He held his sword in the hand of the arm that he was using to keep her in place and it was nowhere close to her body. She could feel his hot breath on her skin. Her eyes roamed over his face and she noticed dry blood on one of his cheeks and down his neck. She wondered how many deaths he was responsible for. She wondered what were the chances he wasn't just about to kill her, too. If she didn't know him any better, she'd say she was dead already. But she did. She did know better. To anyone else, he'd look blood thirsty. But to her, he looked powerful. Calm. Contained. The look in his eyes, as cold and piercing as it was, screamed that he was not even close to thinking about hurting her. It terrified her how well she was able to read him. It terrified her that she was capable of looking past all that ice and numbness in his eyes and find something more than that. Way more. Funny how she didn't realize how well she knew her partner until she ended up here with him. Until she found herself in the arena with him where whether she knew him or not, didn't really matter anymore. Because they would never get the chance to make it count.

They stayed like that for a good few minutes, just staring at each other, afraid to break this moment. The moment when they were still both alive. The moment when they saw each other for the first time in the arena. They stayed like that, until he snapped them both out of that intense trance;

"Did you really just try to stab me?" he asked with that, familiar to her, smile of his slowly spreading across his face. She frowned a little, taken aback by his amused face and the entire encounter itself. She had a feeling her voice was gone, so she licked her dry lips and swallowed before responding: "Did you really just sneak up on me?"

Cato's smile grew a little wider and she could tell he was proud of himself.

"What can I say? Months of practice."

As much as she wanted to roll her eyes, as bad as he was pissing her off, as much as she hated him, she did, Clove still couldn't help but let the corners of her mouth turn upwards just a little. "Months? How come you suck at it so bad then?"

"Suck? As far as I can see, I got you pinned against the wall."

"Apparently, you can't see very far."

"What I see is that no matter how many knives you have on you, little girl, you won't be able to reach any of them."

She glared at him, which only succeeded in him smirking at her. He was right, though. Normally, she would be able to fight him. But not in her state. Not when she felt weaker than she ever had in her entire life. She could tell he knew she wasn't well. She had to do something, though. It was time to end this little chit chat, as much as she found herself enjoying it. Which made her realize something. And it scared her to death. She guessed the only good thing was that he would never find out about it. At least that was the plan... until-

"Damn, you missed me." Cato whispered, that smirk still present on his face, but the look in his eyes told her he was genuinely shocked with his own discovery. Hell, she was shocked with the thought itself, let alone the fact he had actually figured it out. She held her breath, unsure what to say or how to act, completely distracted with the closeness of his body against her own. "Trouble breathing?" he teased, because he wouldn't be Cato if he didn't. She was grateful for that playful question of his, though, as it helped her get back in the game.

"That's because you stink."

Cato let out a whole hearted laugh, but with the blood all over him it made a shiver run down her spine. He looked murderous even with a smile on his face. As a matter of fact, that made him look even scarier. Clove looked him in the eyes, trying to figure out what his real intentions were. Was he just playing with her? Was he trying to pull off a good show for the Capitol? Where were his allies?

Where was Thresh?

"You look thoughtful." he growled suddenly.

"I'm a thoughtful person." Clove said with a sarcastic smirk, wondering why he still had her pinned against the wall. As sure as she was that he was not going to kill her, just yet anyway, she couldn't help but consider that possibility. She squirmed a little, feeling very uncomfortable all of a sudden. His smirk was long gone by then, as he opened his mouth to tell her something that she had a feeling was important, but he never got that chance. What he got was a sharp sword poking his back, right before the silence was interrupted:

"Get off of her."

A deep voice snapped them both out of their intimate moment and Clove felt adrenaline run through her veins at the sound of it. She knew that voice very well by now. Cato noticed the look on her face and quickly put all the puzzles together. He didn't move an inch, though, still not ready to let her go.

"And why would I do that?"

He didn't take his eyes off of her. He just continued to stare at her intensely, as if his life depended on it. And she found her eyes attached to his, as well.

"Cause you have five seconds before I rip a hole in your back."

Cato smirked to himself mockingly, very unimpressed. But still, he obeyed when he felt the pressure of the sword on his back become stronger. He gave her one last look, then dropped his own sword on the floor and slowly moved away from her, taking his sweet time doing so. Clove turned her head and saw Thresh standing there with Katniss by his side, both looking pretty beat-up. He had his sword inches away from Cato's chest now, as a warning. Katniss quickly picked up Cato's weapon and he gave her an amused look when she did so.

"You alright?" Thresh asked, keeping his eyes on Cato. She glanced at the sword and then back at her district partner, who returned her stare immediately. She frowned. Why did he give up so easily? He could have killed all of them if he chose. Why was he just standing there, all defenseless now?

"Clove."

She shook her head and looked at her ally. "What?"

"Did he hurt you?" Thresh asked her and she could swear he almost sounded like he cared. Both of her allies didn't fail to notice Cato's glare. But she easily missed it.

"No." Clove whispered, brushing a few loose strands of hair out of her face. "How did you find me?" she asked, deciding to break the tension.

"Coincidence." Thresh said, returning Cato's glare. "We got out of the woods and saw the cabin. We didn't know you were in here."

Clove nodded, feeling kind of awkward, as that reminded her of how she'd completely abandoned them back there. What was going on with her? Since when did she feel guilty? Since when did she feel anything?

"We should go before someone else finds this place." he told them before glancing at her hesitantly "are you... gonna take care of him?"

Clove furrowed her eyebrows, looking from Thresh to Cato and back. What was that supposed to mean?

"What he's asking you, little girl," Cato barked, having noticed her confusion and purposely using his infamous nickname for her. "is are you gonna kill me."

Clove's eyes widened, despite her best effort to not let any emotions show, and she stared at her allies, who were watching her carefully, probably awaiting her reaction. They probably assumed it was going to be harder for her only because Cato was from her district. And because she was originally supposed to be allies with him.

They had no idea.

"We can't let him go," Thresh reminded her, quickly catching on her hesitation. "you know we can't. "

Clove's throat went dry, as she stood there, still trying to recover from the fact Cato was even here. Now Thresh had managed to shock her to the very core. How did he expect her to just murder Cato? Just like that, in front of them? Weren't those from other districts supposed to be more humane? Show compassion? Something that tributes from district 1 and 2 were supposedly lacking? Wasn't she showing compassion now?

It was as if time was going by in slow motion. Thresh was staring at her with a sort of reassuring look on his face that at the same time screamed for her to just get this over with. She glanced at Cato who stood there, looking as if he had no intention to try to attack them and she silently thanked him for that. He gazed deep into her eyes again and she forgot where they were. There was no arena. There was no cameras and anxious audience, awaiting what she was going to do. There was no Thresh and no Katniss. There was just her. And there was just him. She knew what should be done in order for her team to survive. But if she were to be honest, the only person she actually cared for in this room was definitely not Katniss, or not even Thresh, as much as she was fond of him. What were they going to do if she refused? She realized that her hand had reached for one of her knives some time when she was lost in her own thoughts. She squeezed the handle tight and Cato gave it a quick glance before looking her in the eyes again. Her breathing quickened, as she lifted her arm, ready to throw.

"Clove, don't act like you don't give a shit." Cato's voice from weeks back echoed in her head right before the knife found its way out of her hand and was sent flying toward Cato. He had no time to move an inch. She was too fast.

The knife flew right past his left ear to dig itself in the wall behind him. He blinked quickly in surprise and looked over his shoulder at the blade that had almost just hit him. He turned his head around again and their eyes met. By then, Clove's heart was pumping blood through her body like it was going insane. She stared at Cato with an apology written all over her face. She'd obviously missed on purpose. But that's not what she was apologizing for.

She had considered not missing.

"I can't kill him."

Those words came flying out of her mouth, before she could stop them. Cato still stood there, defenseless, not a smile on his face. He looked so calm and contained, though and it rubbed off on her. She felt her heart starting to slow down. Katniss didn't seem very shocked, if anything she looked indifferent and tired of this whole thing. For once, Clove couldn't blame her. Her eyes wandered from Fire girl to Thresh and she swallowed hard. He looked at her in a way that he might have thought was going to somehow change her mind, but it was no use. Clove didn't change her mind.

"I can't kill him." she choked out again, shaking her head. "I can't."

The guy, who had saved her life not too long ago, was holding her stare until it became uncomfortable and he found himself looking away first.

"Okay." Thresh whispered softly and nodded in understanding. He glanced at her one last time before adding: "Well, I can."

He moved to give Cato a fatal blow, but before the sword could reach his body, Clove put herself between them with her mouth open, as a yell came out of it: "wait!"

Thresh stopped the sword right in front of her face, shock written all over his own. She felt Cato's chest moving rapidly behind her and she could only imagine how startled he must have appeared. What she did was utterly spontenous. She didn't think twice of it; there was no time for that. All she knew was that it took her less than a second to decide she was not letting anyone have her watch Cato die.

"Clove, did you forget where we are?" Thresh asked, his dark eyes expressing astoundment, like never before. He definitely did not see that coming. "Only one of us will come out. He would have killed you in cold blood if we-."

"Trust me; if he wanted to kill me, I'd be bleeding out by now. And so would you." Clove told him, staring up at him, fearless. Thresh let out a heavy, resigned breath and lowered the sword so that it wasn't so near her face anymore.

"We can't let him go, Clove."

"You wanna tell me that if it was Rue, you'd just kill her right now like it's not a big deal?"

Thresh's face relaxed in an instance and Clove knew she touched a nerve.

"This is different." he argued, but she noticed his hand, that held the sword, started shaking.

"Why? Because he's a Career? Because he's from district 2? Cause if that's the case, then you should kill me, too. Get this over with, Thresh."

"You know I can't do that."

"Why not?" she almost laughed, although she was far from being even close to amused. "I'm a Career, too, remember?"

"Move away, Clove." Thresh told her calmly, but his request had a threatening tone to it.

"The only way to reach him with that sword is through me." she declared and she had never heard herself sounding more serious before. Cato's breath quickened and she wondered how that must have felt for him. To have heard such loyal words come out of her mouth. To have seen her put her own life at stake for him.

"I am not killing you." Thresh told her, squeezing the sword's handle to stop his hand from shaking.

"You're worried about the stupid rules? You know as well as I do that it's bullshit. And they're not gonna last much longer."

"It's not about the rules. What do you suggest we do? If we let him go, he'll only track us down and kill us later on."

"Don't flatter yourself, Eleven." Cato's deep voice rang out from behind Clove suddenly. "If I wanted to kill you, you'd be long dead by now."

Thresh tore his gaze away from her to send Cato a dark glare, before he looked at her again, his eyes softening. She bit her lip and glanced at the guy behind her, trying to figure out a plan and think of a reason why he had risked forfeiting like that. What the hell did he think he was doing? He just stood there, as if that had been his plan all along. Not at all concerned about the aftermath of his own actions. Stupid. He had worked his entire life to get here and for what? There was no way he didn't have a reason. There had to be more to it than just the fact that he was out of his damn mind.

She looked him straight in those blue eyes, silently asking him one simple question: what the fucking hell? He still just stood there, though. Still contained.

What was she supposed to do?

"You're right, we can't let him go." she said finally, turning her head to look at her allies. "And if we can't let him walk away, then he's coming with us."

Reaction to her words was immediate.

"What?" Katniss gasped. "There's no way we could ever trust someone like him."

"You don't have to trust him." Clove told her, before meeting the girl's eyes. "Trust me."

"Like that makes much of a difference." Katniss snorted, receiving a glare from both district 2 tributes. Thresh looked over his shoulder at her and she gave him a firm shake of her head by which she could only mean "do not even think about it". He furrowed his eyebrows, thinking intensively.

"Thresh."

He slowly turned his head around to look at the girl he was so confused about. The girl who had him hate her before the Games, only to become someone completely different in the arena. The girl whose life he had saved and would have to take away in order to save his own in the end.

"Please." she whispered. And if she didn't feel her own lips moving, she would have never believed that this word had come out of her mouth. She figured she was definitely not the only one that was surprised. Cato was probably trying to suffocate the urge to laugh it up. She didn't look behind her to check, though. It didn't matter. Thresh was studying her with curious eyes now. As if she was a mystery he was planning on solving. He didn't know who this girl was. He didn't know anything about her past with Cato. But he knew one thing; she owed him. He saved her life. And if there was one thing Careers believed in, it was pride. Right?

She owed him. And if he was right about Cato, which he knew he was, then Cato owed him, too. Seemed like the only person that hadn't figured it out yet was Clove.

"Alright." he said finally, lowering his sword to the side. Immediately, Katniss looked at him with widened eyes, like she just saw him for the first time.

"What, are you kidding?" she asked him, looking absolutely stunned. "cause it's not funny."

Thresh glanced at her calmly. "If they can play us, then we can play them in return. Nobody said we weren't allowed to join forces."

"Join forces? This is Cato we're talking about here, as in Cato from district two. He doesn't care for anyone."

"Correction." Cato threw in coldly. "I definitely don't care for you or that bonehead."

Thresh almost smiled at that remark. He definitely was right about him. But Clove was still one hundred percent clueless. And here he thought that she was the one that had changed so much. Looked like he had been more wrong about her district partner, than Clove herself.

"The feeling is mutual." Katniss snapped at him, narrowing her eyes at him hatefully. She was obviously completely not noticing the tension between Clove and Cato and given that she thought of them as heartless monsters who were incapable of feeling, she didn't consider Clove's attempt to save his life as a sign of friendship and loyalty. She simply saw it as an attempt to try and get him on her side so he could help her kill them later on.

Cato's jaw clenched and he took a few quick steps forward but was stopped by Thresh's sword that almost buried itself in his stomach, making Clove's face turn white.

"Listen, Girl on Fire." Cato hissed. "The only reason you two are still alive is because you are Clove's allies. In case you haven't figured it out yet, that's the only thing that is keeping you safe from dying by my hands, do you understand? I would love nothing more than to see your face up in the sky right now. But as long as you're on her team, I can't touch you. I'll help protecting you." His face was covered by a grimace by the time he was done talking, as if his words tasted like vinegar. "So if I were you, Katniss, I'd make sure Clove stays alive. Or I'll be the one to make sure that you personally experience what I originally came here to do."

Clove couldn't believe her own ears. Was he actually here to protect her? It damn sure sounded like it. And it would have explained a lot. Maybe he was just trying to keep his promise to her and make sure they'll be the last two standing in the arena. But what then? And why would he bother? She glanced at Thresh who seemed extremely occupied with his own thoughts, probably trying to process everything Cato had just confessed. He didn't say it literally but reading between lines, Cato had just told everyone his biggest secret. Which was by now obvious to everyone, but Clove herself, who still was far from making that sort of assumption. She was still debating when exactly Cato would come around and try to murder them all.

"Let's be honest with each other for a minute here." he continued, having recieved no response from any of them. "As long as I come in handy and am delivering some protection, all the way increasing your chances, what do you care if I don't give a shit about you?"

Katniss licked her dry lips and her eyes found Cato's again.

"Does that make you feel more confident about letting me tag along?" he asked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Her eyes darkened.

"Why should it? The minute they call off the new rules, you'll try killing us, won't you?"

"Damn right I will." he said, sending her an evil smirk. "But let's not leave you out of this, Katniss. Because so will you."

Her face hardened instantly and Clove knew that Cato was right. As good and innocent as she wanted to come off as, Katniss Everdeen herself knew that if it came down to it, she wouldn't hesitate to try and survive which equaled killing others. It was human's instinct. Clove could see fear in her eyes. She could see how afraid Katniss was of what kind of monster she had inside of her. At least Clove already knew hers.

"Now if you're all ready to move the hell on, I got something that you might wanna see."


The awkward, dangerous silence was filling up the air between them, as they were making their way through the woods to whatever place Cato claimed they had to see. Thresh chose to stay behind with Katniss walking next to him, their eyes plastered to Cato's back, as if they expected for the guy to suddenly pull out a granade and throw it at them. Clove was walking in the middle, keeping her eyes on her district partner, as well, but she did it in a way that wasn't suggesting she expected any sort of attack from him. Her stare was curious, as she studied him, trying to figure out what the hell he thought he was doing. Why did he not kill them? Why did he seem like he actually wanted to join them? What did he want them to see?

"This is a trap for sure." Katniss' voice rang out from the back, as she whispered to Thresh. "I'm telling you he's trying to get us killed."

"I can hear you, Twelve." Cato called, not even turning around. "You might as well stop whispering."

Clove looked at her over the shoulder with raised eyebrows and Katniss just shrugged, looking a bit taken aback, though. She shook her head at the girl and turned to look at Cato again. What was he doing?

"How far are we from that place?" she asked, feeling nasauous again all of a sudden.

"Not too far." he replied and she was the only one who failed to notice that his voice sounded much softer whenever he spoke to her. "Almost there." he added, turning his head to look at her. And as soon as he did, he frowned. "You okay?"

Having heard him, Katniss threw Thresh a surprised glance to which he responded with a dismissive shake of his head.

"Yeah, why?" Clove snapped without looking him in the eye.

"Because you don't look okay." Cato told her and he actually stopped walking, waiting for her to catch up. The other two also stopped, but Clove just kept going. Sweat was covering her forehead and her face was getting whiter by the minute. Her breathing was quickened and she felt like throwing up.

"I'm fine." she attempted to push past him, but he grabbed her arm and pulled her back. Immediately, Thresh retrieved his sword, alarmed. Cato sent him a cold look, then stared back at Clove.

"You look about ready to black out, what's up?"

"Cato, I'm fine." she snapped at him through gritted teeth. "Let me go."

He stared deep into her eyes and she looked away, feeling somewhat invaded. As if he could hear her thoughts.

"Clove." he said her name almost softly. "Are you hurt?"

Thresh came over closer to them, looking concerned and awaiting her response. But silence was the only answer they got.

"Look, I know when you're lying." Cato reminded her, letting go of her arm and taking a step back to inspect her. His eyes stopped at her thigh, as her ripped pants caught his attention. He looked back up in her eyes and she looked away. He felt something squeeze his throat. Judging by her state; her sweaty, pale face, shivers and pretty high fever which he could tell she had by the heat radiating off of her body, he knew she was in trouble. All those symptoms were definitely not a good sign.

"You might have got it infected by now." he told her, knowing she knew that herself very well. "You could go into septic shock, Clove."

"How do you know that?" Thresh asked, concern now visable on his face. Clove could tell he was actually worried cause he even forgot to hatefully glare at the other guy, while speaking to him.

"Why the tears?" Clove choked out sarcastically. "You should be happy that I might be dying."

"Well I'm not." Thresh told her firmly, bringing a small, halfhearted smile to her face.

"I see you two have bonded." Cato said, throwing a deadly glare at Thresh, who just shook it off. "We get educated on generic biology and anatomy in district 2." he added, answering Thresh's previous question.

"I bet you do." Katniss threw in, still having not moved from her spot a few feet away. "Makes you better killers, right?"

"That's right." Cato said, sending her a dangerous look that shut her up. He kept his eyes on her for another while then looked at Thresh. "Got any bandages?"

"I'm fine." Clove snapped again, annoyed.

"You know better." he snapped back. "You passed your biology test with a much higher score than me. You know better, Clove."

She swallowed hard, her eyes filling up with tears of pain and fatigue. His eyes softened and he could sense how all the cameras were on them right at that moment.

Thresh put down his backpack to get the bandages out without paying any attention to the sword he had just abandoned and which was now on the ground. It was like he knew that Cato was not going to try anything. It was almost as if he trusted him in that particular moment.

"Here." he said, handing a bandage roll to Cato who grabbed it from him, then kneeled in front of Clove, taking a closer look at her injury. He began to wrap it around her thigh tightly and she hissed under her breath. He threw her an apologetic look, then went back to treating the wound. When he was done, he got back on his feet and wiped his hand across his forehead tiredly, leaving a red mark on it. Clove looked up at him with a silent "thank you" written on her face.

"You got some of my blood on your face."

"Well, I bet it suits me." he said with a light smirk and she shook her head with a small smile. "This should stop the bleeding for now and it'll keep it from getting more infected.. I'll clean it when we get there, though, think we may have something that'll help."

Having heard that, Katniss and Thresh both looked at him and asked questions at the same time:

"We?"

"Get where?"

Cato glanced at them, then back at Clove with raised eyebrows.

"How have you managed not to kill them?" he asked and she knew he was only half joking. She risked a glance at Thresh, who picked up the sword quickly without taking his eyes off of her. Cato didn't even care and simply turned around and began leading the way again.

"You alright?" Thresh asked, looking down at her leg.

"She won't be for long so I suggest you keep it moving." Cato called to them with a threatening hint to his voice before she had a chance to respond. Clove just nodded to Thresh and motioned with her head for him to go ahead. He took a few seconds before following the other guy reluctantly. Katniss passed her by with a suspicious, yet curious look on her face. Clove could tell how the brunette was trying to figure out what was in their heads. She probably couldn't believe her own eyes when Cato was treating her wound. That was not something a Career was supposed to do. She had probably expected Cato to snatch that sword from the ground and cut her limb off. Careers never foolled around. They never wasted time on acting or making others think they had good intentions. Clove knew Katniss realized that and it was messing with the brunette's head as much as it was making her own spin.

She felt a strong pinch of pain in her thigh and it made her gasp. She touched the bandage and felt something warm. She then looked at her hand and her throat went dry. It was covered in blood.

"Clove."

She glanced up at Katniss who looked like she was actually waiting for her to catch up. Her eyes focused on her hand for a second before she stared at her face again and there was surprisingly no sign of hatred or disgust in the look she was giving her.

Clove wiped her hand on her pants and walked right by her in silence. Because what was there to say?

She knew she was slowly dying. But then again, what did it matter? Being that they were all in the arena, she was positive that she was already just as dead as anyone else here.


"Hey."

She didn't need to look up. His voice was the only thing here that was familiar to her.

"Hi there."

"May I?" he asked politely, but she knew he was just screwing around and sure enough when she did look up, a smirk was spread across his face.

"Feel free." she said with a shrug, staring down at her untouched salad. He sat down at her table and put down his tray that was packed with food on its entire surface. She raised her eyebrows. "Uh, hungry much?"

"What, you're not? Cause you should be. We are days away from starving."

"We won't be starving." A flirty voice interrupted them and they both turned to look at Glimmer who stood there with Marvel by her side. "The Career pack always gets all the supplies." she informed them as if they weren't aware of that fact, then sat down next to Cato without invitation. He seized her up, then looked at Clove who returned his half amused, half annoyed look. Marvel sat down next to Clove and Cato's eyes darkened.

"Glad you're all here." he announced suddenly and his voice let everyone know how he was anything but glad. "I have something to tell the two of you."

"Yeah?" Glimmer asked naively, smiling and making Clove want to puke. She knew what the blonde's plan was. She wanted to create an illusion of a love affair between her and Cato to gain sponsors. Clove thought it was safe to assume he might have not refused that idea if she weren't here with him. But since she was, Glimmer could only dream of that plan actually working out for her. Cato's next words proved her right.

"Yeah." Cato said, faking a smile back at Glimmer before he turned his head to lock eyes with Clove. "She will be my kill."

Marvel and Glimmer both stared at her, then at Cato, then back at her as if they expected something to explode between them. But the two of them just held each other's gaze as if their lives depended on it.

"The only person that will lay hands on her is me." Cato said and despite every attempt to stay fearless, she felt a shiver run down her spine. He broke their eye contact to look at district 1 tributes. "Put a finger on her and you're dead. Touch her and there will be hell to pay. Are we clear?"

There was no more smile on his face, fake or real. If the look on his face made goosebumps cover all of her skin, she could only imagine what it did to Marvel and Glimmer who both sat there, unmoving with their eyes slightly widened. It was pretty funny to watch.

"Are we clear?" his voice seemed to have frozen blood in everyone's veins. They nodded, their eyes now plastered to their lunch trays. "Say the words." Cato hissed.

"We're clear." Glimmer and Marvel said together, gazing at one another, almost as if they were trying to read each other minds. Or silently making an escape plan.

"Don't know what you're expecting, Cato." Clove spoke, breaking the tension. "But I ain't going down so easily." she told him, sending him a smirk, that suggested she was not to be underestimated. He tore his gaze away from district 1 and a smile formed on his lips when his eyes fell on her.

"I'm counting on it."


Thankfully, Cato was no liar, because after another maybe ten minutes of walking through the woods, he finally stopped to look around. Thresh and Katniss watched him carefully, as he kneeled and started digging in a pile of leaves on the ground, while Clove tried to keep herself concious, resting her body against the nearest tree. Cato heard her quickened breathing and looked up at her but she had her eyes closed. He swallowed a growing lump in his throat, ignoring the feeling in the pit of his stomach. The worst thing was that now he was able to identify it.

Fear.

He looked away from Clove and went back to his previous task. Eventually, he found what he was looking for and pulled at it, revealing an entrance to the hidden shelter. Katniss and Thresh exchanged looks before taking a few steps closer to investigate what possibly could be underground. Having heard the noises, Clove opened her eyes and as soon as she did, she pushed herself off the tree and came closer, surprise written all over her face.

"After you." Cato growled, motioning with his hand for Katniss to go down there. The three of them turned heads to look at him and he didn't need them to say anything. There was no way any of them were going in first. "Fine." he sighed, holding up his hand in mock surrender, before he began to walk down the stairs and into the darkness. Clove glanced at Thresh who didn't seem very optimistic. Well, she couldn't blame him. Still though, she followed Cato down the stairs slowly and heard her allies' steps right behind her before the trapdoor was closed.

She reached out her arm and felt the wall with her shaking hand. Finally she made it to the end of the stairs and was now walking forward, completely blind. All of a sudden she felt threatened. What if Katniss was right and this was a trap? What if Cato was in fact about to try and kill them? But if that was the case, why hadn't he done that already? What would have all the acting been for?

And then there was a click and the room turned so bright her eyes squinted instantly. Through tears she managed to see a few figures moving and coming closer and then she heard voices.

"Katniss!" someone gasped. Clove's eyes got used to the light just in time to see no one else, but Lover Boy himself hugging it out with her ally. She suddenly sensed someone's presence beside her so she looked to the side and saw Thresh standing there, looking absolutely stunned. His eyes were actually teary and she followed his stare to the little girl that was nervously peeking at them from her spot by the wall. Rue.

Thresh squeezed the handle of his sword and walked away without another word. Clove watched him come closer to Rue. He then kneeled in front of her and pulled her in a hug. She squeezed her eyes shut and let a few tears roll down her cheeks. Clove looked away from them, before she did anything stupid, like allowing herself to smile at them.

She looked around and found the one person she felt she had anything in common with. He silently stood by one of the tables, going through a backpack. He must have felt her eyes on him because he turned his head to look at her. She didn't know how to act. What to think. How did they find this place? The shelves were full of food and there were piles of clothes and more. Basically, they had everything they needed to survive here.

Cato motioned with his head for her to come over. She threw a glance at her allies, who were by now deep in conversation with their district partners, then obeyed and walked over to where he was standing.

"Sit down." he said, although it sounded more like a request. She licked her dry lips then sat on the table. He began to unwrap her bandage carefully, without looking her in the eyes, while she was unable of looking at anything but him. When he was done, he tossed the bloody bandage aside and stared down at her thigh. "Okay. I'm gonna need you to take off your pants."

"What?" she almost laughed, making him look at her. "I'm not taking anything off."

"I need to clean the wound and wrap a clean bandage around it. I can't do it with your bloody, ripped pants covering the whole thing. So take them off." he told her calmly, but firmly. "Now, Clove."

She narrowed her eyes at him, then sighed tiredly, hopping off the table carefully. She unbuttoned and unzipped her pants, taking her time, as she was feeling somewhat invaded. Then she slowly slid them down her legs. Nothing like undressing in front of district 11 and 12 in some underground bunker with Cato's and all of Panem's eyes on her.

"I hate you." she snapped quietly at him. He smiled.

When she was done, she sat up on the table again and watched Cato treat her injury with gauze he had soaked with hydrogen peroxide. That's all they had. Hydrogen freaking peroxide.

"That won't reverse the infection." she said under her breath, catching his eyes.

"No, it won't." he admitted and she had never seen his blue eyes this light before. "We don't know if you even have one. You have probably just lost a lot of blood, that's why you're feeling shitty."

Clove let out a halfhearted laugh. "Yeah. Shitty is right."

"You'll be okay." he assured her. "I'll get you medicine."

"What for?" she asked, assuming he wasn't actually being serious. "Why would you want to help me get better? Thought you said I was going to be your kill? So why bother?"

Cato held her stare for a moment before looking down and continuing to clean her wound. He grabbed a new bandage and was silent for a few more minutes, while he worked on her leg. For some reason she couldn't tear her eyes off of him. He was such a big mystery to her now. Not like before, when she could read his mind, almost as if his thoughts were written down on his forehead. At least she always liked to think she had that ability. Now? Not so much.

Out of the blue, he murmured something unintelligible, making her frown. Because Cato never murmured.

"What did you say?"

"I didn't mean it." he said louder now, looking up at her. "I only said that to make them stay away from you."

"What?" she asked, confused and he made some sort of noise through his nose, placing the rest of the bandage on the table way harder than necessary.

"I never planned on killing you myself, Clove." he declared, now glaring at her with irritation, annoyed with how she didn't find it obvious. Furious with how she thought he was actually going to hurt her. With how clueless she seemed. All that quickly overwhelmed him to the point he couldn't help but shout it out: "Don't you see?" She didn't. "Damn it, I was trying to protect you! Has that ever occured to you?!" he yelled, not being able to help himself. Maybe he thought he wouldn't have been able to get them out if he hadn't screamed. That, unfortunately, brought all the attention to the couple. Clove felt her allies' eyes on them, but for once she didn't care. All she could see at that moment was Cato and she blamed it all on fatigue. Because there was no way she had changed so much. There was no way she cared so much. Right?

What if she did? What if he did? As clear as he tried to be, there was still one thing she couldn't quite understand;

"Then how did you want to win?"

Cato let out a heavy breath and ran a hand through his hair tiredly. He stared at the floor for a long while, as if it was something too attractive to look away from and then finally opened his mouth again to whisper: "I don't know."

Silence filled up the room and something was in the air. Something that none of them was able to name, but all of them could sense.

"Maybe I didn't." Cato added dismessively, as an after thought, before he moved away from Clove and realized everyone had been staring at them. He fumed. "Got nothing else to gape at?!" he snapped, making Rue shudder. "You two." he called to Katniss and Thresh. "Grab backpacks and pack them with whatever the hell you want. We're getting out of here."

Surprisingly, Katniss quickly got on her feet and went to gather supplies with Thresh following her close behind. Cato rubbed the back of his neck in annoyance, then caught Rue's stare. Her eyes were filled with nothing, but understanding. She looked at him in the same way Lily once did, after she had heard him call for Clove in his sleep. He couldn't stand it so he walked away to grab a new pair of black pants from one of the shelves. He picked the smallest ones he could find, then walked back to where his district partner was still sitting, bare legs and all. He threw her the pants without another word and she caught them swiftly in the air. He didn't look at her. He didn't say anything. He walked away.

Damn you, Clove. Damn you.

He cursed her and himself in his mind, because for all he knew, he just handed the Capitol the greatest weapon to use against him. And he was damn sure they couldn't wait to do so.


A/N: I tried. I really did, so I hope you liked this chapter and again, my apologies for the long wait. I'll try to update as soon as possible. :) Happy Halloween!