Cato pulled his second, and last, pair of pants up and to his hips, fastening them carefully before tugging the shirt over his head. Outside Katniss draped the clothing over branches where the sun's rays were the strongest. Her fingers slid over the fabric a moment too long as she imagined the heat was from him. Cato emerged from the cabin and grabbed the fishing rod once again, she settled by his side and in silence they spent the day at the side of the lake.

The sun began to lower in the sky, offering a reprieve from the heat blasting them throughout the day. Cato watched Katniss deftly clean the fish, scraping the scales as though it was second nature. She discarded the organs in the river, offering them to the creatures as sustenance before they carried the fish into the cabin. Several minutes later he had learned how to start a fire from scratch and the fish were frying in the pan, the aroma filling the tiny space and making Cato's stomach growl impatiently. They had also found edible roots to cook with the fish for roughage. They sat at the table quietly, watching the glow of the fire play upon the walls around them.

"What was it like growing up here?" Cato looked to Katniss, watching as her face twisted in discomfort and she shifted slightly in her chair. Finally she looked up at him and he was satisfied to see a slight blush crawling up her neck as her gaze slid over his jaw and mouth. She cleared her throat and looked back to the fish, poking at them slightly with the cooking utensil.

"Hard. From infancy we know hunger, wanting, loss. The mines are dangerous; no family goes through life without losing someone dear to them. Every day is a gamble as to whether you're about to lose a loved one." She paused, looking at him again for a moment. "But some things are easier. We are allowed more freedoms than some districts. I remember Rue…" A pause as she gathered herself, tears forming in her eyes and grief thickening her voice. "She told me about how they would work from sun up until sun down, there was no talking, just work. The Peacekeepers were there for the Capital and the Capital alone. In District 12 they are almost like one of us. They trade with us, they look the other way when they can, and they understand us. We are both cursed and blessed; sometimes it's hard to remember that. Especially during The Reaping, when it isn't about sending us off for glory, but to slaughter."

She kept her eyes fixed on him as she finished, not afraid to show him her disapproval, the pain the more poor districts felt at sending their cherished children off to die against districts that excelled in the art of death.

"Yes, we are favored." He admitted, meeting her gaze steadily. "We are trained from a young age to hold our own and win in The Games. But we have the chance to ensure our family comes home, we teach them what they need to know in order to return to their mothers and fathers. Can you really tell us we are wrong for doing that? From your viewpoint we are the devils; to us we are responsible for every life that leaves to compete in the arena. We are giving them the best chance we can."

Katniss huffed, leaning back in her chair and glowering at him.

"You break the law but the Capital turns away because you are the special child. You steal the chance of the others to see the return of their offspring. Everyone else watches helplessly as their own are slaughtered, the Careers revel in the deaths."

Cato closed his eyes briefly, opening them only to gaze down at the table. What could he offer her as an explanation? It was true; they broke the law in order to send warriors to slaughter the lambs. They were wolves or lions, skilled predators that thrived on the hunting of the weak. Yet Cato still felt her accusations were directed at him and him alone.

"We are the perfect pawns of the Capital, aren't we?" Cato finally whispered, his eyes shut and head leaned back, unwilling to look at her as he spoke, knowing she would be angry at what he was about to say. "We were born innocent of all of this bickering between districts, all of us with possibilities that most will never discover. Yet here we are, still pointing fingers and laying blame at each other. Is it the Careers you hate, or are we just safer to point fingers at?"

His eyes opened, gaze lowering to look at her. Instead of the enragement he was expecting, Cato was the subject of her scrutiny. A long moment passed where neither said anything, only the cracking of burning wood and fish fat kept the room from suffocating them with its silence.

"We are victims too, you know. Marvel, Glimmer, Clove… none of them will ever see their homes again." Cato began tapping his fingers on the table, releasing his frustration against his fingertips. "I listened to their hopes and dreams for themselves and then watched as they died, only having known cold shoulders and threats."

"You never knew hunger, you never knew true fear."

"That's a bullshit cop out answer if I have ever heard one." Cato shook his head at her. "You knew love while we knew taunts. You grew up as children, we were trained as warriors. I have never fished with my father or learned skills from my mother. I have gone my entire life never knowing if my mother was capable of smiling or if my father loves me as his child or I was a way of bringing glory to himself."

Katniss opened her mouth for another rebuttal, but Cato had had enough of the entire conversation.

"Quit the self-pity, it doesn't become you."

"Or you." Cato looked up in surprise at her then smiled, earning him a tentative smile from her in return.

"It is pointless, isn't it?" She said, taking the pan with the now slightly smoldering fish from the fire. "I've spent my entire life hating your district when you're just another result of the Capital's hold over all of us."

Cato nodded, but did not speak. Mentally he was exhausted from the entire conversation and the cloud it had hung over the pair, a stark reality that they truly were from completely different worlds, but in another life could have grown up like true children together.

"Tell me more about your district, but not about what it means to be from there, I want to understand."

And so she talked, telling him about the seam, the hob, how people could sometimes truly come together when need presented itself. He listened to everything as he ate the slightly burned fish, fascinated by the dynamics of her district and amazed at what the people did to not only endure, but make a true life for their people. As he listened, he also felt raw rage forming underneath the calm exterior. It was an anger formed from helplessness, a feeling he cherished as much as a knife through the temple. None of them truly had a choice in anything, not really. Volunteer or not, those from his district were taught from such a young age that volunteering was an honor and privilidge that they never really understood they were only dying for the fleeting enjoyment of those who demanded their blood as a sacrifice for a wound inflicted far too long ago. But maybe, just maybe, his 'death' would offer him an opportunity to really make a change.

Hours later, with their voices hoarse from sharing stories, Cato lay in his sleeping bag and stared sightlessly at the black ceiling above him. He was lost in the vivid recollections of Katniss' life and his intense need to seek revenge on all those who had made a lie out of his childhood. His hot headed nature told him to just rush into the Capital with guns blazing and that was how he knew he was nowhere near ready. But listening to Katniss' soft breathing reminded him that there were so many peaceful moments robbed from so many every single day. How had it come down to this? How had so many succumbed to such a macabre decision by so few? How had they bowed for so long that they no longer knew what the sky looked like?

So lost in his tortured thoughts, Cato almost missed the disturbance in Katniss' even breaths until the whimpers began. He turned toward her though he could not see, listening to the nightmare that took her once again in sleep. Carefully he made his way over to her, whispering in her ear once again. This time she did not fall still under his comforting ministrations, but instead her eyes opened. As she gazed up at him, unshed tears caught the glow of the moon and reflected it back at him. He didn't ask of what she so often dreamed or why they tormented her so powerfully. Instead he lifted his hand to stroke over her cheek with his fingertips, again cherishing the softness of her hair with gentle caresses. Katniss didn't move beneath him except to study the contours of his face as he felt the curves of hers.

Unable to fight temptation for another moment, Cato lowered until his lips fell upon hers. Taken by surprise, Katniss didn't return the kiss until moments later when Cato's lips became insistent. Their mouths played upon one another and his hand gripped her hair gently, holding her to him until the hunger enveloped so strongly that he broke it, resting his forehead against hers while fighting the pounding of his heart. Still no words came, and he doubted any that did form would belie his confused state. Instead he simply moved to release his grip in her hair in order to gather her to him, curving his body protectively around hers. He fell asleep like that, contentment warring with shock within his mind.

When he awoke she was gone, his body still slightly curled from where she had laid in his arms. He again cursed the gimp arm that had fallen uncontrolled to the side and allowed her to slip from his embrace undetected. He stood, stretching the kinks from his sore muscles before noticing a slip of paper barely peeking out from underneath the backpack she had brought with her supplies. Tugging the paper slowly, a feeling of dread already taking hold, Cato lifted the paper to read as a small fold of money fell to the floor.

"Cato,

My absence is going to be noticed soon, I had to go back. The Victory Tour is about to start, so I won't be back for a while. If you run out of something you can't catch, go to the Hob and find Greasy Sae, she will hel—"

The paper crumpled in his hand before falling to the floor to join the money he had disregarded.

Not too terribly pleased with this one, but it needed to be done in order to have those two work things out a bit. But now comes some of the fun parts, time to get some more drama and action going on in here!