Sorry it's been so long since I updated this story, I'm a busy person with school starting soon and whatnot. And I tried to be cool and change settings on my account on the family computer so I made myself an administrator, effectively blocking myself from seeing all the files that have to do with my fanfiction. How come? Because no one but you guys knows I write fanfiction and it'd pretty hard to explain to my parents that ya, I write stories about kids killing each other and violence in my free time for fun. So yeah, but I fixed it, so now I can see where I left off and update. And as usual

I own nothing..not even a copy of the Hunger Games on DVD yet, that should arrive on my doorstep within a week, and when it gets here. Oh the whole neighborhood will know.

Also, whenever I see a still from the hunger games and I think of Cato's death I start to cry. Because Cato is an amazing person, he's just misunderstood. And now I'm crying cause I'm thinking about it. And because he's played by alexander who's just too damn sexy to die. Which, when he does, I'll be that old lady who locked herself in a closet to cry her eyes out for days on end. But let's not think of that, let's think of them both, and their abs. cause those are happy thoughts.

Also, this story will be ending within the next like….i don't know, fifteen chapters?

So enjoy:

The news that Cato and I would be the tributes for the Seventy Fourth Games spread fast. Really fast. And things changed, for Cato and I at least.

Training got, easier, in a way. The drills were just as hard, just as painful. The punishments, if anything, were worse. Since now the Academy also controlled on whether or not you got to eat dinner. You get hurt in training, by the time you get back to your apartment the food has all been cleared out by Avoxes, and in the morning, you're lucky if they've restocked you during the night.

But as for easier, Cato and I get more slack. We can sneak off during training, and we're not punished. Because everyone wants to keep who could be a future Victor happy. And so it's not rare, or a first, when Cato will grab my hand, bring me over to a more secluded corner of the training center, and then start an urgent make out session right where some people can see.

When I asked him once why he does that, he just shrugged and said he gets bored.

But as a pair, Cato and I are stronger together than ever before. We thrive off each other. Just his presence there and my fighting improves by, what the trainers say, is at least thirty percent. Cato's punches are harder, swifter, which for us, is good. If you break another kid's arm, or any bone really, then you and your partner get extra food that night.

Cato and I have known we're the tributes for about two months now.

The Games had come and gone as always, though this year, we had watched more intensely. We would talk a loud to each other more. The landscape had been mostly water, with small islands dotting the vast spread. I had given a Cato the great speech of I-told-you-we-shouldn't-have-gone-in-this-year which he had just ended by throwing a plate at my face. He missed of course. When a new mutation would appear, we would discuss on how to kill it. How to stay alive if we were in there.

Though neither of us said it aloud, we both knew we would've died in an arena like that. It wasn't really a huge shocker when the female tribute from District Four was crowned Victor.

But none of that mattered right now. Because right now. I was about to give myself over to Cato, and him to me.

No, I'm not having sex with him. He's still pretty pissed I haven't yet, by the way.

But we had agreed to do The Branding. A rare, sacred ceremony between two people, where it means you'll be each other's forever. It's what the Capital calls marriage. Though this is an extreme of that, no rings, just pain. Usually only young kids do it together. It's actually a simple process. You take a knife; hold the tip over a fire until it's white from the heat. And then, you brand your partner. You brand your name on the inside of their forearm. The larger the name reads, the more dedicated you are to your partner.

In my lifetime I've only seen one person with a Partner Brand. The name on her forearm read Yeaks, and it wasn't that large, so I assume the pain became too much for her.

But now Cato kneels before the fire we built, knife slowly turning white as the snow that sometimes falls during winter here.

"It's ready" he tells me, looking back. I just nod. Cato comes towards me with the knife now, he opens his arms, which I gladly go into and I wrap my arms around him, making sure my right forearm is up and facing him.

I place my lips on his neck and breathe him in. Just his scent makes me relax. That is until I feel a searing, blinding pain coarse through my whole body from my forearm. But I don't scream, I really want to, because this pain may be the worst I've ever felt, but instead I just bite Cato; who growls in response as he continues dragging the searing knife across my forearm, I can feel the 'C' that he's writing.

And even when the flat blade is gone, I'm still in pain because of the second-going-on-third degree burn my partner is giving me. Not a second later is it back and I feel him burning a large 'A' onto my skin. After he finishes his name, I'll be dunking my forearm into a bucket of ice water we have off to the side. My skin will blister over, then new, darker skin, will grow over it. Leaving a noticeable claim of me on myself and I will no longer be able to feel anything that touches the scar. Having killed the nerve cells under the affected skin.

"You're okay" Cato murmurs in my ear and I switch to just kissing his neck instead of biting it. I'm trying to distract myself. Pain is good. I remember what we were told our first year. If you're in pain it means you're still alive. You can still fight. Pain is good.

It retreats and then comes back as Cato starts with the 'T'. He does it quickly, just sliding the blade over my skin twice, not keeping it down very long, just enough to burn.

I close my eyes now and just clamp my teeth together, no longer kissing Cato, just putting up with what he's doing to me. Do it for him. Put up with it for Cato.

"Done" Cato says and then he takes my arm and pulls me over to the water bucket. I shove my arm in and a sigh escapes me as all the heat is retracted out of the burns. Cato leans over and presses his lips to mine. I kiss him back, though it doesn't last long. Because I'm taking my arm out, and then we're both looking at it. 'CATO' is burned vertically down my forearm in neat, dark, burned skin letters. Cato takes his hand and lightly presses down on his name. And I feel nothing. I smirk at Cato and he returns it before he kisses his name on me. "It's beautiful" he murmurs

"Course it is"


Just minutes later, we repeat the process, this time with Cato's arms around me as I burn my name onto him. He doesn't scream either, just stiffens. I do my work quickly, barely giving Cato time to register that I've started on the next letter. Within two minutes, I'm done and he's soaking his arm in the water.

Once he's done he takes our arms and puts them side by side.

I am Cato's. And he is mine.

And now the world will know that as well.

Hurray! So I'm just going to start replying to reviews every other chapter, so I'll reply in the next chapter. I love all of them though! Help to keep going and you guys give great advice! So the story is going to be moving pretty quickly from now until the Games, so that's a heads up. I'm going to have two more chapters for year four and then most likely I'll just do one really long third person view year five chapter as just an overview. Then the Games and everything that goes along with that.

And just so you guys know, someone asked this, I do not plan to follow what happened to Cato during the Games in the book closely, it'll be different. Clove will not be making any appearances as well. So yeah. Please review!

Oh and I updated Liv It Up with the actual chapter after I did that little sorry note about how I did a chapter hated it and then deleted it off, so now the real chapter is up!

Please review! I'll love you forever!