Clove didn't like to complain. It was a sign of weakness, and there is nothing she hates more than weakness. So although, she felt like shit: She was cold and starving, and the river water was too cold to drink, she didn't complain.
"Are you cold?" He asked her.
She realized his habit of asking stupid questions and decided to a while to just ignore him if she didn't have the energy to shot back something sarcastic and offensive.
"No. I just like shivering. It's a hobby of mind."
"I'm sure it is." He responded as he stood up.
She noticed that he was more responsive to her jabs now, and at this point, their conversation could be described as bicker and banter, either word work.
He walked towards her only to stop when he was a few inches from her. Seemingly, over time her threats lost seriousness and he now also has no hesitation of invading her personal space.
He sat down next to her, and it is only to slight warmth that his body gives to her side, that stopped her from pushing him away, or more practically, sliding away from him.
"What are you doing?" She asked although she was well aware of his intentions.
"I doubt either of us have plans of freezing to death."
She didn't respond.
"Maybe we should have found a better place? Like the meadow?"
She wondered if this was his way of saying that he was right. After weeks of exploring around the river, they found several landscapes comprising of a meadow with a rusting, large structure, next to a lake.
Peeta was quite fond of the place and thought that it was best if they stayed there. Clove, however, was suspicious of staying anywhere near the large monument due to their ignorance of what it even was, as well as, the meadow being circled by trees, meaning that if another forest fire broke out, then they would be trapped.
The river bank was more open and if some other freak natural disaster happens, they could easily escape (well, she could escape. He still didn't know how to swim, not that she cared).
She told him that if he wanted to stay in the meadow, then she didn't care, but she was going to stay at the river bank.
She had to admit, her surprise or more like confusion when he followed her bank to the river bank that day. But it made her consider what he thought the relationship between them was. She has no hesitation of leaving him behind, if it came down to it, but apparently he wasn't thinking the same. On one hand, she didn't like the prospect of having some naive puppy following her around, but on the other hand, she realized she could use his naivety and his decision to stay with her to an advantage.
Either he had developed some stupid love crush on her or he was just one of those overly-nice people who happily make people take advantage of them, but over their time together, he complied with every request she made. He wouldn't ever ask her to keep watch but instead would volunteer to stay up all night, while she slept, leading him to take naps in the day or doze off often while he was supposed to be keeping watch. This concerned Clove since his dozing off while he was supposed to be keeping watch, could lead to her being in danger. That's why she sometimes suggests keeping watch when she woke up at night , to see his eyes drooping.
He was suspicious, the first night she did this. Leading to her stating, "If I wanted to off you, don't you think I would have done it already?"
He simply nodded and lied down in the sand.
She lifted the leaves again and stopped mid-air when he flinched away. Grey eyes meet sapphire ones, and without saying a word, he understood. He needs to stop flinching, it wasn't making it easier for her.
Her hands moved and place the leaves on the open wound on his shoulder.
"You need to more careful." She said as if she was his mother and he could get injured by playing too much on the playground. It amused him but didn't smile. "Don't you need to be saying that to him?" He nodded toward the other boy in the cave, who was laying down recovering from the cut along his torso.
"You both need to be more careful." She exclaimed.
"Ok. Mom." Marvel murmured.
Katniss glared at him but he didn't see it since he was staring at the cave ceiling.
"Fine. Stab each other to death. See if I care." She bit back before focusing her attention back to treating him. Her anger or at least annoyance, made her apply pressure to the leaves and Cato couldn't help but grimace. Was she sure this was helping, because it didn't feel like it was?
"Sorry." She murmured, proving that she noticed his grimace.
She threw the leaves down on the ground and then placed her hand on his shirt that was only half on. He only stared at the hair flowing around her shoulder as she attempted to put his arms in his shirt. He noticed that if he looked closely at a particular angle he could see that her hair wasn't completely black but had some stands of dark brown in it.
It wasn't until she pulled back that he stopped.
She moved away before he could say thanks, which suited him since he wasn't that good at saying thanks and was actually dreading what he would say to her after she was finished with him.
"It was an accident, you know. We weren't actually trying to kill each other." Marvel murmured.
It wasn't as if Katniss didn't know that they practiced sparring. They started because of the growing boredom that they experienced, after a few weeks of eating, sleeping and trying to explore their surroundings. They couldn't wander off too far due to concerns of getting lost from going too far away from the cave to get back before dusk. It was Marvel's idea, and initially, Cato thought it was dumb and a waste of time, but if Marvel had any skill, it was annoying someone until they did what he wanted them to do.
It wasn't that bad. It wasn't like training at the Academy but it was a good way to keep in shape and improve his technique, two things that were important to him.
Marvel attitude towards their sparring was both an annoyance and relief to him. Annoyance because the other boy was obviously just doing it to ease his boredom, as a distraction to the situation they were in and was not taking it as seriously as he was. But it was also a relief since he never happened to spar with anybody who wasn't trying best him, or show up his weak points.
Marvel wasn't competitive. He laughed when he continuously lost to Cato and had no hesitation to ask for one more round after being severely beaten by Cato. And he also laughed when his spear managed to best Cato's sword. He laughed as if it was all just fun and games, and trivial.
Whenever, he would show signs of being angry after losing, such as walking away or giving the silent treatment to both Marvel and Katniss, later that evening or night Marvel would always joke about his victory being a lucky shot or joke about Cato's attitude towards losing. At first, it annoyed him, but over time he guess he adapted some of Marvel's attitude towards sparring. He didn't have to take it so seriously. He was becoming comfortable. And that was bad.
If he is comfortable. Then he becomes complacent, and being from District 2, he can never allow himself to become complacent.
"Are you stupid?" He was usually the one saying that line, but this time it was him that was on the receiving end of it.
She was in front of him, and although his vision was fading in and out sharply, he could see her green eyes filled with panic.
"Please tell me that you didn't eat them too." She exclaimed looking up, and he figured that she was taking to Flinch.
"Open your mouth."
He was a bit unsettled by her strange command but didn't struggle or perhaps he didn't have the energy to struggle as she gripped his chin and propped his mouth open with her fingers.
"Shit." She cursed, as she moved around him, placing her hand on his torso. She was clumsily tightening her arms around his torso, and it made him very uncomfortable, but he couldn't move. He felt the bile rising as she continued and it wasn't until he threw up that she stopped.
"Those are poisonous nightlock." She declared.
He laid down on the ground not caring that he vomited only a few inches from where he was now laying. She gently pulled him over, so that he was further from it.
"From now on, I'm in charge of finding the food."
Neither him or apparently Flinch discouraged her in the moment.
The next thing knows, he is waking up and it clear that it is night. Despite the cold air on his face, the rest of his body is warm, and it only took him a second to realize that he was in a sleeping bag.
He leaned up to see another body in a sleeping bag, and then another sitting up, arms wrapped around shoulders to protect from cold.
"Why aren't sharing the sleeping bag with Flinch?" It was obvious that his voice startled her since she flinched when his first words came out.
"If you haven't noticed, I'm supposed to be keeping watch." She whispered, between shivers.
They had two sleeping bag and it became a habit for the persons not keeping watch to occupy them. However, it wasn't usually this cold.
He zipped open his sleeping bag, and the cold air hitting his body made him want to crawl back in the sleeping bag. Nevertheless, he crawled over to her. He could see that she was shivering much more than he could notice back in his sleeping back.
"I'll take over watch." He spoke.
"You need to recover from earlier." She shivered.
"I'm fine."
It was dark, but he could see her look of disbelief since he was so close to her.
"Go." He nodded towards the sleeping bag.
When she made no movement to go, he sighed and crawled back enough so that his hand could grip the sleeping bag and pull it over to her.
He literally had to pull her in the bag, when he moved to zip it up, "Wait-" She murmured. She sat up slightly and watched as she quickly took off her jacket, and handed it to him.
"It's cold." She murmured as if he could feel the temperature out.
He helped her zipped up the sleeping bag.
It was his way of saying thanks for earlier and returning a part of the favor (she did save his life, so he was sure this wouldn't cover it all), but she seemed to have increased his debt slightly, by giving him her jacket. The soft whisper of "Thank you" from her lips didn't help either.
Aww, my babies are developing their relationships with each other. I think this is going to start to get really fun for me and hopefully for you. This chapter takes place after a few weeks of being in the Arena. I intend for them to be in the Arena between 3 to 5 months before any major events happen, so the next few chapters will be jumping between weeks and consist of mentions of events instead of writing out everything that happens between them. (Sorry, I am a lazy writer, but it is because this is only a portion of what I have in store, albeit very important, since the big question is "how close are they going to get?")