When I woke up the next day, I immediately knew Cato and I slept for at least twenty-hours. It was still pretty dark outside, yet I felt completely rested. Cato was still asleep, with his head resting on my chest, his large arms wrapped around my waist and one leg placed in-between both of mine. I woke with my chin resting on top of his head, one hand placed on his cheek and the other splayed out on his back. His weight was pressed down on me, causing my body to be extremely hot, especially under the blankets.

I didn't wake him up, though, because I didn't want him to be grumpy. He needed the sleep more than I probably did, so I let him make me hotter than a volcanoe under his weight.

I was almost scared when I woke up to find him under me. I thought everything that happened yesterday was a dream, but it obviously wasn't.

Today, or technically tomorrow morning, was going to be a good day because I would be going home. After the Victor's interview, the Victor would take the long train ride home where the whole District would be waiting at the train station. I was so excited to go home, to see my Mother, Katniss, Gale, Maggie, and Buttercup.

The only complication was obviously Cato. I didn't know if he wanted to go with me since I knew he couldn't wait to get home to be with his mother and little brother Charlie. I was thinking that maybe he would try to ask me to go home with him, but I didn't think I could do that. I would be abandoning my family, something that I couldn't do, but I don't think I was important enough for him to abandon his.

What were we going to do? I wanted to go home, but I couldn't stand to be away from him for more than one second. Getting up to get the soup from yesterday night turned out to be a horrible decision on my part, so what would happen if we were apart to go home? Who would be there to make sure that his nightmares don't take control of his life?

Things were so complicated.. I guess we would just figure things out once he woke up.

"If you keep doing that, I'm going to go back to sleep and never wake up again."

My body jumped at the sound of Cato's morning (technically evening) voice and then it froze at the thought of him never waking up again. I already went through that, and I don't want to go through it again.

I realised that I had been rubbing his back in the midst of my thoughts. My hand immediately stopped moving and Cato sighed and closed his eyes, placing his head back on my chest.

"Go back to sleep, Kitten," Cato mumbled, tightening his arms around me. He started rubbing along my hips in an attempt to lull me to sleep.

"I can't," I whined.

"Well, if you can't sleep, then I can't sleep. And I really want to keep sleeping," he said. The stubble on his face tickled my neck and I laughed.

"Can you wake up and talk to me?" I plead, pouting my lips for leeway. Pouting should get me what I want.

Cato groans and ducks his head. "Don't do that puppy face," he grumbled.

He peeks his head out and looks at my pout again, rolling his eyes and groaning. "But I wanna talk to you," I whine, pouting even more.

Cato sighs and sits up, turning his body around to face me. I smile and cross my legs, placing my hands in my lap and he grabs for my feet, playing around with my toes.

"Fine, let's talk," he mimics in a girly tone.

"Thank you," I smile.

"So, what are we supposed to be talking about?" he asks, wiggling my toes around with his fingers.

I shrug my shoulders, playing with my fingers. "I dunno. Um, how was your day?"

Cato tries to look angry, but he smiles and then laughs at me. "Really? How was my day?"

I try to stifle my laughter and nod. "Yes, how was your day?"

"Well," he sighs, "I slept.. and I slept.. and slept some more. It's been a very productive day." Cato's finger tickle my feet and I squirm.

"Sounds like you had a great day."

Cato nods, giving me a huge and beautiful smile. "How was yours?"

"It was pretty much the same as yours. I slept, ate soup, slept some more. It was very normal," I answer with a smile mirroring Cato's.

"I'm glad to hear that," he says, laughing at how ridiculous this whole conversation was.

We sit in silence before I finally come up with something to talk about. His name.

"What does your name mean?" I ask him, pushing myself closer to him. Cato opens his arms and I tuck myself into his lap, letting him play with my still curled hair. He twirled pieces around with his fingers while kissing my forehead.

Oh. He never kisses my forehead.. or my cheeks. Or my hand.. Hm. What's gotten into him? He actually wants to talk about nonsense with me? Wow..

"Cato?" he asks.

"Yes, Cato," I answer with a laugh.

"It means 'all knowing'," he answers. "There was a man, Marcus Cato, said to live during the Ancient Roman time. He was a leader, very strong. He worked with his hands, joined the military, and took control over the entire land."

"That sounds just like you," I mumble. This Cato from Rome sounded like a strong and confident man, much like Cato is now. He likes to take control over everyone and anything, especially me, and he made sure that everyone knew he was a leader. Cato's mother was very smart in picking such a name for her son.. he definitely lives up to the expectations of his name.

Cato grunts and continues his story. "Marcus Cato was also known for being a strong family man. He cared for his wife and family more than he cared for his job as a Senator."

Wow.. Cato's mother really did a great job with choosing his name. It was completely obvious that Cato cared about his mother and little brother more than anything else in this entire world, even me, although he cares a little too much about me as well. He may not show it very often, but Cato is a sensitive man. He tries to hide it with anger and dominance, but he definitely holds a heart. I place my ear onto his chest and listen to the steady beat of his heart.. it was strong, fast, confident in itself, just like Cato, my saviour.

"He treated his wife with so much respect and pride, not like other men would do."

"Do you hope to do that one day?" I ask him. His heartbeat quickens and he hesitates.

"I don't know. I haven't really thought about marriage before. Or kids, for that matter," he answers honestly.

I do not know why I thought Cato would love to have a child of his own. I think he would be a great father.. He would suffocate and protect the kid to the end of the world, but he'd still be a good father.

"Would you ever want kids?"

"No."

Well that's definitely not a surprise. Cato's too hard on the outside, and a kid would probably bring out his vulnerable side. "Why not?"

"Because I don't want to cause a kid the same amount of pain that my father did to me." Cato squeeses me tighter.

"Oh," I mutter.

"Plus, I'd rather it just be the two of us anyway," he says. My eyes widen and my heart starts beating just as quickly as his was before. I stare up at him and he looks away, his face reddened significantly. He was blushing.. Jeez.

"You want to stay with me?" I ask in disbelief. This was turning out to be an interesting conversation. Cato was being so open, so sensitive. He was throwing away his armour and shield and opening himself to me for one night.

Cato faces me again and open his mouth to say something, and then closes it when he realises the words are not spilling. His fingers trace my cheek and he leans down to kiss me sweetly, with no added force or dominance. It was something different, with no trace of asserting who he was. It was like he was savouring my taste, telling me that he would never forget it.

He pulls away and stares down at me. "If I didn't, we both wouldn't be here." His cheeks redden and he blushing again.

"Okay," I say, not wanting to make him any more embarrassed than he already was.

Cato clears his throat. "What about your name?"

"Primrose?" I ask with a smile, mimicking him from earlier.

"Yes," he smiles, "what does it mean?"

"Oh, it's nothing special, it just means 'first rose'," I answer with a shrug.

"You're my first rose," Cato says with a smile. I gasp, completely taken aback. Now he's complimenting me.. what is happening to the old Cato?

"Are you okay?" I ask, pushing myself up and away from him so that I can look at him fully.

Cato frowns at me and nods. "Why?"

I shrug, not really knowing what to say. "You're just.. you're not acting like you used to.. you compliment me, and you're saying sweet things, and you actually wanted to sit up and talk to me when you could have just gone back to sleep. Are you sick? Do you have the flu?" I question.

Cato starts laughing, clutching his stomach. "No, I'm fine."

"Then what changed?" I ask, pouting at the fact that he was still laughing at what I asked him.

He stops laughing, wiping beneath his eyes and shrugs his shoulders. "I dunno. Maybe it was the nightmare, maybe it was being away from you and the fact that I realised how hard it was."

"Oh."

"Do you want me to stop? Because I definitely can," he says with his stupid smirk.

I roll my eyes and throw a pillow at him.

After a while, it was just completely silent as we sat up on the bed. I felt myself getting drowsy and laid back down on the bed, Cato following suit next to me. He closed his eyes and it looked like he was just about to go back to sleep, but then I remembered something, and my mind couldn't shut off anymore.

I tossed and turned on the bed, trying to make myself comfortable in order to sleep, but it wasn't working and Cato seemed to be getting frustrated with all my moving. "Go to sleep, Rose," Cato mumbled with his face pressed into his pillow.

I huffed, slamming my fists into the blankets and laid back, my eyes trained on the ceiling. "I'm going home tomorrow morning. I'm too excited."

Cato opened his eyes back up and frowned at me. "No, you're not going home," he said, sitting up to prop himself on an elbow.

I raised my eyebrows. I can't go home..? I am going home. "Yes, I am going home. The Victor always goes home," I told him, sitting up on the headboard of the bed.

Cato shakes his head and stares up at me with tired eyes. "No, we-" he motions in-between us, "can't go home."

I didn't understand. I didn't know there was a person that could tell us whether or not we could go home. I thought that was non-negotiable. "Why not?" I ask.

"Because with the agreement I made to get us out of the arena, we have to stay here."

No.. no way. I have to stay here?! I can't stay here, I hate the Capitol! If I stay here, I'm going to get myself kicked out for rebellion. I know it's probably so that Cato and I can be together and can be monitored and used by the Capitol for some publicity and payback for letting us live, but if we could stay anywhere else, anywhere, I would be there.

"But I didn't even agree to that, though, Cato. I don't want to stay here. I want to go home," I said, raising my voice a little. Why on earth would he make a choice for me without even giving me the chance to give my opinion about it?

"Well that's too bad. We're staying here, and that's the end of the story," Cato grumbled, plopping back down on the bed as if to signal that the conversation was over. This was not over.

"Cato, I'm going home," I said, crossing my arms in front of me. He was not going to force me to be here. My family was more important than anyone else, and I thought he felt the same way about his own family.. I guess not, if he can agree to live without them from now on.

Cato rolled his eyes and stared impassively at me. "No, you're not."

I scoff and jump up, standing to my feet on the side of the bed. "So what are you saying? That I'll never be able to see my family again?"

Cato frowned and sat back up, rubbing his face with both palms. He rolled his eyes upward before letting them settle back on my figure. "That's not what I'm saying."

"Then what are you saying?" I yell. He was frustrating me. First, he tells me that I can't go home, and then he started confusing me.

"You can see them, but you can no longer live with them."

"And what does that mean?"

"Exactly what I said," Cato states angrily.

"Cato, I can't stay here with you. I need to go home, but if you want to stay here, by all means, do what you want."

Cato plops back down on the bed and closes his eyes. "Do whatever you want, but as soon as you step foot outside of Capitol grounds, they're going to kill you and your whole family," he says before sighing and turning back around.

I stand by the bed, waiting for him to tell me that this was some type of joke. When he didn't, I almost screamed, but I stopped myself and gathered some of the pillows and a blanket from the bed. I wasn't staying in this room with him, not when he was acting so stupidly and wouldn't even tell me why I had to stay in the awful place. He could sleep here by himself, and when he was ready to tell me what was going on, I would come back. For now, I was sleeping in his room.

Cato's eyes snapped open and he stared at me gathering the things. "What are you doing?" he asked as he watched me walk toward the door.

"What does it look like? I'm going to sleep somewhere else," I snapped, walking out the door.

"Rose-"

I slammed the door behind me and stomped the twenty something feet to the room next to mine. I opened the door and walked to the bed, stepping out of the slippers on my feet and arranging the pillows and blankets I had with the ones that were already on the bed. I slipped under the sheets and laid there for a moment, willing myself not to cry.

I wanted to go home. That was the whole reason why I told my family I would win the Games.. to come back to them. I didn't want to be trapped here with these people so that they can rewire my brain and change who I am. Sure, home wasn't anything compared to this place, with all the resources and luxury, but it was much better because that was where reality is. The Capitol was a place where people imagined and dreamed; I wanted the real world.

I wiped the silent hot tears slipping down my cheeks as time passed. I still couldn't sleep, and I didn't know if Cato was able to sleep in the room next to me. I didn't hear any noises, so I assumed he was okay. The bed smelled like him.

I heard the door creak open and I quickly pretended to be asleep, not knowing who it was.

"Rose?" I heard Cato whisper. I didn't respond, just pretended to be asleep.

"Kitten?" Still, no answer.

I heard him sigh. "If you're awake, can you please come back in there with me? I know you're upset with me, but I can't sleep without you."

I almost got up and ran into his arms, but I needed to be strong and keep myself composed. If I got up, I would never get the chance to go home and see my family again. I needed to stand my ground.

"Kitten?" Cato asked again. I kept my eyes closed. I heard him sigh again before the door to the room closed again.

I breathed and came from underneath the sheets, returning to being trapped by my thoughts. How was all of this going to work?

No more than twenty minutes passed before I heard Cato, for the second time in two nights, yelling in his sleep.

I gave up, letting my conscience take a back sleep as I stood up and quietly trapsed back to my room, opening the door to Cato turning violently in his sleep, shaking his head harshly. I walked to the bed and crawled inside, getting underneath the sheets next to him.

I trapped Cato's hands in mine and wrapped them around me, pushing myself to his sweaty chest and kissing his cheek. I wiped the sweat on his forehead as he whisped "No" and "Stop", making my heart break over and over for him. Sooner or later, he would stop having his nightmare, but I needed to let him sleep through it so he could work through them without me. I won't be here for him forever, so he needed to learn to face his fear.

I had lost tonight's battle, but I wouldn't be losing the one we were having tomorrow morning.

Whaddup y'all, this is finally done. I'm all off schedule but whatevs.

How is school going? Meet any cute guys? Hate it already? Comment how school's going for you.. You could ask me about my experience, or about guys.. anything really. I will answer honestly. I pawmise. Hit me up people! I'm bored at night! Literally, comment or inbox me about anything. I'm dying of extreme boredom here.. HELP ME!

Vote, comment, share, follow and thank you so much for reading!

Cheers. Laters, baby.

Myesha xx