Dangerous by Big Data
You understand, they got a plan for us
I bet you didn't know that I was dangerous
It must be fate, I found a place for us
I bet you didn't know someone could love you this much
Chapter 10
The curves of Winnow's mouth lifted marginally when she saw the dark-skinned young man hovering near the sparring mats. She'd been dying to have a minute with Kern Allerdyce ever since she'd discovered who his rival was. Her beloved brother, Finnick.
"You remind me of someone." Winnow remarked, tapping a finger on her chin musingly. The young man spun around in surprise. He was handsome enough, Winnow supposed. But his expression turned surprisingly lustful surprisingly quick.
His arrogance was a strike against him. His dark eyes raked up and down her figure – clearly having been dead for ten years hadn't spoiled his libido. "Who?" Kern asked in response.
"Someone who nearly killed me." Winnow answered honestly.
His attitude – his whole manner changed. It was as if those five words had solidified Kern's opinion of her – as someone weak. "Is he who killed you?" he questioned, pointing a long finger in her direction lazily.
Winnow crossed her arms over her chest, a smirk rising to her lips. "No. We killed him," she responded, nodding over to Cato. She followed Kern's gaze to her fiancé, all six feet and two inches of muscly goodness, or danger, in Kern's case. Kern immediately reassessed, predictably seeing him as the greater threat.
"Cato!" Winnow called over to him. The blond turned and took slow, measured steps towards them. He said nothing, merely looking at Winnow expectantly. "Tell Kern what we did to Thresh." she requested.
Cato shrugged. "You did most of it," he said. Kern went tense.
"Oh, but I'd like for you to tell him," Winnow insisted.
Cato eyed her with obvious confusion. Never the less, he turned to look at Kern for the first time. "Winnow wove a net out of rope given to us as a sponsor gift; and we laid a trap with it. She lured him to it – let him nearly beat her to death – all in order to get him strung up in the net. Then I came," Cato paused, his eyes darkening and a grin spread over his lips as he relived that bloody memory. Kern was transfixed, standing stock-still, dark eyes darting between the two. "Winnow handed me her trident – I stuck him with it – right between the ribs. Then we watched him bleed to death."
Cato grinned down at Winnow, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and giving her a brisk tug to his side. Winnow took this all in stride, her dark eyes alighting on Kern again after just a moment. "Isn't that how you died, Kern?" she remarked ever so lowly. "Didn't Odair trap you in a net, too?" Winnow continued, voice gentle though her eyes were filled with malicious glee.
The dark-skinned young man seemed to be vibrating with such rage that Cato tensed, bracing himself to strike back if and when Kern did. But Kern managed to restrain himself, letting out a long breath before he walked away about as quickly as he could. "Beware!" Cato called after him, chuckling a little as Kern tried to put as much distance between them as possible.
Cato and Winnow looked at each other finally, once the amusement at what had just occurred had passed. "Are you ready to spar now?" Cato asked.
"Yes, I think so," Winnow replied, a genuine smile rising as she looked at her fiancé.
"Well then," Cato said, gesturing towards the sparring mats. "Shall we?" Winnow pursed her lips, trying to restrain her amusement at his antics.
Once they were on the mats, their demeanor changed instantly. All playfulness gone, there was only focus and a certain wariness to the pair now. Cato and Winnow circled one another, waiting for the first move to be made.
Winnow would certainly admit later how very surprised she was when Cato took her down on the mat with a flat-out tackle. She let out an exasperated grunt when her back hit the mat, his body covering hers as he fought to keep her pinned.
They scrapped wildly on the floor for a few moments before Winnow resorted to dirty tricks in order to dislodge him. First, Winnow threw the scrap and allowed Cato to think he'd won. Just as the triumph began to dawn in his eyes, she smiled.
Cato only had a split second to be suspicious before Winnow's knee met his crotch. He dropped to the floor beside her with a cacophony of groans. Winnow couldn't help but laugh a little as she got to her feet. Cato glared at the hand she offered to help him up, though he took it after only a moment of tribulation.
"I didn't know you'd be this merciless," Cato muttered. He was still doubled-over, one hand cradling his crotch.
"Well, after that tackle, I figured you were ready for it," Winnow responded, patting him on the back unsympathetically.
"You promised this would be foreplay," Cato complained.
Winnow giggled, rubbing circles on his shoulder. "Don't worry, I'll help you ice your balls later," she assured him.
It was only a few minutes later that Winnow and Cato were sparring again – and took up blunted knives. Winnow danced around her foe and lover with a surprising swiftness, tapping him with her knife each time she landed a hit.
Cato couldn't keep up, she was far too quick, and he had no real will to hurt her like he knew he could – and put a stop to her attacks. So he simply tried to block her blows, grunting each time a bruising blow was laid upon his flesh. It was as he saw an opening to strike at her that he found her weapon at his throat.
Exhaling loudly, Cato dropped his own blunted knife in surrender. Winnow stepped away, weapon dropping to her side, a grin rising on her lips. She thought the match over. But Cato took her by surprise (again) and struck her hard in the shoulder, forcing her to drop the knife. He followed the attack with hard tackle to the mat, knocking the wind from her lungs.
"That's for the crotch hit," Cato said as he began to sit up in order to let his fiancée up. The savage smile that crossed Winnow's lips did nothing to prepare him for the headbutt she had in store for him. Winnow's forehead met Cato's nose harshly as she launched up, giving him a bloody nose and her an aching forehead.
Trainers were quick to separate them, pulling them apart with reprimands and cloths plied onto their sweaty, bloody bodies. "Find different sparring partners for the rest of the day – if you insist on continuing on," one man told them with a curled lip – as if disgusted by their play.
Winnow and Cato looked at him seriously for one long minute and then laughed, turning away from him to tend to each other. They sat down on the edge of the sparring mats to take a short rest – and finally looked at one another.
Aside from being disheveled and out of breath, Winnow didn't look too bad. Her short, dark hair was all askew from where she'd twisted it back so carefully, and her cheeks were flushed dark red from their exertions. She wasn't visibly hurt, but she knew from experience that she would be bruised from her and Cato's matches.
Cato, on the other hand, had a cloth pressed to his nose, trying to staunch the flow of blood coming from his broken nose. His hair was likewise ruffled, but it was difficult if he was really flushed or if it was just the blood smeared all over his face.
A laugh burst out of Winnow as she looked at him, her hands covering his to help him press the cloth to his nose. He winced at the added pressure even as he leaned into her touch. "I swear I didn't mean to break your nose," Winnow said, fighting to keep a smile off her lips.
Cato scoffed, though his stormy eyes held amusement. "Sure, Winnie. Just like I didn't mean to tackle you. Twice." he responded, his voice suddenly nasally.
Winnow rolled her eyes, tugging at both his hands and the cloth to get a better look at his nose. "Let me see it," she ordered firmly. Cato whined unnecessarily for a moment but gave in, as he always did. Winnow peered closely at the cartilaginous flesh on her fiancé's face, wiping at it carefully with the cloth. "It's crooked. Do you want me to fix it?" she asked him.
Cato grimaced, his eyes closed to keep her from brushing blood into his eyes. "I don't care if it's crooked. You just want to cause me pain," he retorted, jutting out his chin. He peeked one eye open and flashed her a grin.
Winnow tilted her head and glared at him. "It won't heal right if I don't set it. You want to condemn me to a lifetime of listening to you snore because of a deviated septum that could have been fixed?"
Cato took a long moment to pretend to consider the question seriously before a big grin spread over his lips. "Okay, okay, fine. Fix it." he finally consented.
Winnow finally flashed him a smile and positioned her fingers on his nose right where she would press to fix it. Cato inhaled deeply, closing his eyes. "The pain's only a plus," she remarked suddenly, causing Cato's eyes to fly open just as she pushed his nose back into place.
Cato let out a low curse, glaring at Winnow after a moment. She merely flashed him a grin in response. "For you alone I will be weak," he whispered soon after.
Winnow's grin diluted into something between a frown and a smile. "And for you alone I will be strong." she promised in return.
Cato's words acknowledged something Winnow didn't like to think about. For her alone, Cato would suffer. He would take anything, any abuse – for her. It was something Winnow didn't completely understand. You mustn't misunderstand – Winnow completely reciprocated those feelings. What she didn't understand – still didn't understand – was how he came to love her this way, so very strongly.
Winnow knew Cato loved her. It was something she just knew, something just as apparent as water being wet and grass being green. She just didn't understand why, sometimes.
They had been through so much, together. That is why the talk of strength and weakness meant so much. Those words meant they both were willing to undergo any trial for the other. Any trial. Any suffering. They would both take it and survive. For each other.
Cato's jaw tensed as they both merely looked at each other. Winnow leaned forward and brushed her lips against his. "Later," she swore, glancing back to the sparring mats. Cato nodded, taking her hand as they rose to their feet at the same time. Winnow wiped carefully at the blood on Cato's face one last time and then they parted ways to find new sparring partners.
Cato found Eero Flamsteed first. The beady-eyed boy was Gloss' rival, and Cato was not impressed by him. Eero had shaggy black hair and a slight, short stature. He was quick, supposedly. Eero certainly seemed to think himself so.
He wasn't as fast as Winnow, so it took Cato all of thirty seconds to catch Eero's wrist as he tried to stab Cato with the blunted weapon. Cato gave hardly gave him or his terrified expression a thought as he wrenched Eero's wrist, an audible crack following the motion.
Eero cried out loudly, frozen in Cato's unrelenting hold. "Release him!" a trainer shouted. Unlike his urgent tone, the trainer did nothing to hurry towards them. Raising his eyebrows, Cato dared the trainer to come closer.
Cato leaned down towards Eero's ear, his grip still firm on the boy's broken wrist. "Being quick means nothing if you're not the quickest," he advised before releasing him. Eero whimpered in pain, immediately cradling his injured arm to his chest. The trainer finally found the time to approach and escort Eero from the center to be treated.
At this time, Winnow circled her own new sparring partner. Leonis Ogilby was a classic Career, but with half the brains of her Cato. He was supposedly Beetee Latier's rival and had died via electrocution. Leonis had the sandy blond hair to suit his name, and was exceedingly muscular but disturbingly short.
Winnow found him cocky, but appropriately wary of her. She was pleased. "This match won't take long," she muttered just loud enough for him to hear. The minor irritation ended up being just enough to cause Leonis to lunge at her.
Winnow used his momentum against him as she grabbed his arm as it reached for her, giving it a yank and making him topple to the mat. Leonis found a blunted trident poking him in the back just a moment later. He wisely surrendered and Winnow turned to observe Cato as his next match began.
Blye Inchcape was Cato's challenger, and he was Johanna Mason's rival. He supposedly despised weakness so much that he had dismissed Johanna completely as a threat and saved her for his last kill, allowing her to have free will throughout the Games. Or so he thought, since he was standing here with them. He was tall and bulky, with caramel colored skin and dark eyes.
It was clear to Winnow that the match had lasted longer than any of theirs – Cato seemed to be very careful of this one. Blye was proving himself, as they observed, to be a heavy hitter – but oh so very slow. Otherwise, he and Cato seemed nearly evenly matched. But Cato was faster, and he managed to disarm Blye because of it.
Once Cato's match was over, Winnow turned her attention to find herself another partner – and found Orchid Galloway ready and waiting opposite her. They stared at each other for a long moment before Winnow nodded, acknowledging that she would fight Orchid.
The other girl smiled. She had bulked up in their time here – while she was still near skeletal, she was much more muscle than skin and bones now. Orchid's grey eyes glittered at Winnow dangerously, two blunted knives already in her hands.
Winnow traded her trident for a pair of knives to better fight Orchid with. She turned towards Orchid, rolling the weapons in her hands to secure her grip amidst sweaty palms. The two young woman measured each other up for long moments before they clashed – knives glancing off each other and sparking with noise.
Most of the rivals and trainers stopped to watch. Cato himself stood close, watching them both very carefully. Orchid managed to land a blow on Winnow with an illegal strike at her eye, though the blunted weapon glanced up and cut right above her eye.
Winnow was filled with such rage as blood obscured the vision of her right eye that she surged forward unexpectantly and managed to knock one knife from Orchid's hand. Then she swept Orchid's legs out from under her with a single forceful kick. The skinny girl from Twelve went down hard, though she managed to hold onto her other weapon.
Until Winnow pinned Orchid's hand beneath her shoe and balances her other foot on the girl's back to keep her down. With a deep set frown and anger that seemed to be crackling inside her, Winnow slowly added more and more pressure to where she stood on Orchid's hand. "Yield or I'll break it." Winnow threatened.
Orchid did not respond. Not until the pressure on her hand had increased painfully, until she could no longer stand it. She released the weapon and held up her free hand in surrender. Winnow drew in a long breath through her nostrils and stepped down, sighing as if disappointed. She left the ring without another word, without even looking at Orchid.
Cato met her half-way, the bloody cloth from his nose earlier in hand. He carefully pressed a clean corner to the cut over Winnow's eye and attempted to use the end of it to clear away the drying blood blocking her vision. He glared back towards Orchid, who still sat on the mat, breathing hard and looking dazed.
"Have we done well?" Winnow asked, wincing a bit as Cato pressed the cloth down a bit firmer in order to stop the bleeding. He cast a precursory glance around the Training Center, finding most still had their eyes on them, expressions wary.
"Oh yes." He answered without hesitation.
"Then let's go," Winnow said, taking the cloth from Cato's fingers to apply it herself as well as taking his hand. She headed towards a secondary exit of the Training Center, one which he knew led towards the pool. "Another swimming lesson, then?" Cato asked.
I can think of nothing more appealing right now." Winnow said as answer, leading the way. Cato hummed in agreement. One Peacekeeper broke away from the others and followed them, the same one from before, as she recognized his gait even through the blood that obscured her eye.
They'd only been back in their rooms for perhaps ten minutes before Peacekeepers burst in unexpectantly. Cato was pinned to the wall as they swarmed him – and a gun pressed to Winnow's forehead. She didn't even have time to stand up.
Cato was yelling and shouting, though he quickly found a gun pressed to the back of his head; while Winnow is frozen with terror and surprise.
And then an old man smelling of roses comes through their door. President Snow surveyed the quarters with a curled upper lip as he put on a pair of white silk gloves before he fixed his gaze on Winnow. Cato went silent at the mere sight of the tyrant.
Snow takes a few moments to merely look at her. "Do you understand that at the mere twitch of my fingers, a single word… these good men will end your miserable lives?" he asked.
"Yes, President Snow." Winnow answered through gritted teeth, her fingers digging into the arm-rests of the chair she sat in.
"Then why are you making such a fuss, Miss Fontanne? If you were as clever as I thought you were, you would be trying to remain beneath my notice." Snow wondered out loud. Cato was quiet, listening to Snow and wondering at what the hell Winnow's done.
Several Peacekeepers still pinned him to the wall, a gun was still pressed into the back of his head. He was helpless. "Because as clever as I am, sir, you are cleverer still, and I never would have remained beneath your notice." Winnow said carefully.
The old man laughed at Winnow's words. "Flattery will get you nowhere, my dear. But you were right… I do still need you both until you enter the arena. And if you keep pushing as you are…Dear, you may both come to a very quick and unpleasant end there." President Snow cautioned.
"I'd think you would want to keep Cato and I alive. Since Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark are responsible for it all," Winnow retorted.
Snow looked at her carefully. "And I'd think you'd be a little more careful in the face of death."
Winnow gritted her teeth again and looked towards Cato. She only caught a glimpse of him through the sea of Peacekeepers and he could not even look at her. "You want a show and you want them dead. We can give you that," Winnow informed them.
Snow's eyes flashed, he motioned a finger back. The gun is pulled back from Winnow's forehead, but there's still less than a meter between the muzzle and her forehead. "I'm listening." Snow said.
Winnow knew she had him then. Her eyes flash to Cato again. "Cato and I… we want revenge. But a quick, simple death just won't do for those two, or am I wrong?" she suggested. Snow said nothing, eyes watching her very carefully. "We've been thinking for a long time about how to go about this. We intend to drag it out, gain their trust, and then kill them at the most climactic moment." Winnow explained nervously.
The old man remained quiet for a few more moments, simply staring at her. "Then you and I agree on something." Snow said, exhaling loudly. He beckoned with his left hand and a Peacekeeper handed him a single piece of paper and a pen.
Snow signed the document with a deliberate slowness and handed it to Winnow. Then he and all the Peacekeepers left just as quickly as they came.
Winnow slumped back in the chair and let out a sigh of relief. She felt boneless, relieved and yet still terrified. Cato crossed to her quickly and took her by the arms. "What the hell did you do, Winnow!?" he demanded, a mix of terror and anger in his voice. The paper fluttered to the floor.
Winnow brushed Cato's hands away, and leaned down to pick it up. She read over the text on the page, her eyes growing wide. "What is it?" Cato asked, hands falling to his sides.
Winnow looked up at him in astonishment. "It's our marriage certificate, Cato. President Snow signed it!" She exclaimed. He sidled closer to be able to look at the document himself. Cato and Winnow Elestren looked down at the document with a sense of wonderment and glee.
Thank you for the response to the last chapter! I worked really hard on this one, so I hope you like it. Bring me your A game in those reviews, eh?
And don't worry, my lovely hopeless romantics... the romance comes next chapter!
Please Review.
Love, Suz