Sparky She-Demon: you'll get your wish! Neat Game of Thrones story, by the way. It's an interesting twist on "Robert's Rebellion is defeated".
Guest with the smiley faces: Cato and Clove had to be evil for the sake of the story, but I like to think the career academy mentally conditioned them to be sadistic as possible to increase chances of victory in the games.
It was nighttime when Clove finally regained consciousness for good. Everything hurt, stung, or was on fire inside her. He head felt especially bad, and when she put a hand on it, she felt some sort of stitches on one side.
"Wouldn't touch that if I were you," was Cato's all too familiar voice.
It was only then when she realized they were back at their small camp by the lake. She was wrapped up in the blankets and right next to a fire, no doubt Cato's doing. He was eating something from an MRE. "God, I feel like shit."
"You should. Thresh did a real number on you. You're lucky a sponsor sent a first aid kit for cleaning you up." He held up the plastic container, then pointed to a gash on her shoulder that had been wrapped with gauze. "Very stupid of you to lollygag around with the Fire Girl when you had her."
"You're in no position to judge. You would've done the same. Cutting her up painfully, to get it out of your system."
"At least I would've checked my surroundings before doing so. You didn't."
"Yes I did!" But her voice was weak, and it expended a lot of energy to try to yell at all. "I had her, meathead. Bad fucking luck."
"Yeah, I was wondering if you jinxed it after the two victors rule got announced." Cato finished his side dish and tossed away the trash without another word. "Thresh's bag had several MREs in it. He must've run out of food for them to give it to him."
"And us? What did we have?"
"Armor." He motioned to a pair of Peacekeeper riot suits, minus the helmets. These were customized to fit the two of them, however, and painted pitch black. They were sleek, compact, and lightweight. "No way Fire Girl's arrows can go through that. Not exactly something we desperately needed, but it's the thought that counts, right? Some sponsor must be betting big on us for them to give us body armor."
"That's nice," she said weakly. "Sorry."
"For?"
"Taking my time with Fire Girl. You seemed pissed about it just now."
"Because you could've died." He moved to her and took her face in his hands. "I'm not losing you, even if you make it hard sometimes. Got it?"
"Yeah, I do." Then she thought of something. "Kiss me. Like you mean it."
"Seriously?"
"Seriously. If the kids from 12 want to play the lovers angle, we should do the same. It's not like we have to hide it anymore, and it might get more sponsors as well."
"But we have freaking body armor. There's not much more they could send us besides a pair of assault rifles."
"Can't hurt our chances. So go ahead, meathead. Prove to me you didn't want to lose me today." She coughed, this time with a bit of blood. He got out of her way just in time to make sure he didn't get any blood stains on him – although his clothes hadn't been washed in days out of necessity.
He wiped her mouth with a spare rag, the proceeded to kiss her. There was the faint taste of blood among the saliva. He didn't care too much, though. Did the audience think him bloodthirsty? Fine by him.
She moaned into his mouth for a moment before slowly letting their lips break. "Cuddle with me. Get a full night's sleep for once."
"But the others-"
"The others are recovering as well. 5 isn't a fighter and the kids from 12 are dealing with Lover Boy's bad leg. They won't be out tonight." A few days ago, not taking watch shifts would've been stupid. But between the herd being thinned out and Clove needing the rest, it struck her as a good idea to get one last rest before some Gamemaker threat forced them all back to the Cornucopia again.
He sighed. He was tired. Tired of fighting others, tired of arguing with Clove. "Alright. Just this once." He got comfortable with her, kissing her neck before letting his arms wrap around her, and tried to get some of that blessed sleep.
Both of them woke that morning within minutes of each other. Silently, they ate their breakfast and mused about what would come next.
"They'll have something to drive everyone to the center again," Cato repeated. "They're tired of fox girl and Fire Girl and Lover Boy all holed up with no fighting going on. Whether it's mutts or more of those fireballs, they're going to lure everyone back to where we are again."
"Duh. But how long till that happens?"
"Long enough to heal you. Try that armor on. Brutus had a note saying it should fit perfectly yet still be movable."
She did, and sure enough the riot gear fit like a glove, at the same time not weighing her down heavily like she anticipated. It must've cost whichever sponsor sent it a lot of money, but that person was no doubt betting big on the District 2 tributes winning it all this year.
"Try shooting through that, Fire Girl," Clove muttered, tapping on the flat black breastplate. There was no way an arrow was penetrating that, she thought to herself. "I wonder if we'll keep these after we win."
"I think so. Brutus' spears from his games are in a display back at the academy. I think they might do the same with our stuff." He twirled his sword, thinking about how the weapon would look back home, a proud reminder of who had won the 74th Annual Hunger Games. Alongside a pair of Clove's knives, of course.
It wasn't until the afternoon until anything interesting happened. The cannon fired once, and they were left to guess who it was. "The girl from 5," Clove suggested. "It it was Lover Boy or Fire Girl, there'd be a second cannon."
"How'd she die?"
"No idea, doesn't matter. It's down to us and 12, and the sponsors must be really hedging their bets now." A final showdown was in order soon, probably by nightfall. "Want to set up by the Cornucopia?" Cato suggested. "Give us an advantage when they're drawn back over here."
"Sounds good to me." The horn was the only readily identifiable place on the map. By now she could walk to an extent, but he helped her most of the way, and then made a second trip to grab the last of their supplies. It was highly likely they wouldn't be needed much longer than a day by now, but it was worth taking them with them.
Inside the Cornucopia, they rested from the sun and laid out their weapons, preparing them for the inevitable clash. Cato had just a single sword left, but it was a trusty weapon. Clove had half a dozen knives, all able to be stashed in her jacket and easily accessible at a second's notice.
"Keep your eyes open," Clove said to Cato as the sun set for the evening, soon enveloping the entire arena in the nighttime darkness. Rested from last night, the two of them were more alert than usual, and figured they could nap once they were dual Victors, the first in Panem's history.
Then the first one came out.
It was some combination of a wolf and a large bulldog, ugly and aggressive, and at least the size of Cato. Barking and yapping, it charged for him out of the treeline, seemingly out of nowhere. He readied his sword, bracing himself for the blow.
The large mutated animal jumped at him, but he swung first, sending the muttation to the side, if not off balance. It came for him again, but this time he slashed it in the face, and stabbed a few more times until the corpse became absolutely still. He examined it for a moment after catching his breath. Blond fur, green eyes, the vague pattern of the number 1 on its back…
Glimmer. This muttation was supposed to be Glimmer, however it was made in the lab.
"Is that…" asked Clove, obviously having the same idea.
"I think so. I'll be there's twenty others that look like-"
He froze, seeing something. There were multiple pairs of eyes in the treeline, along with some barking and growling. The Glimmer mutt was an outlier, and the rest of them were about to strike, catching the District 2 tributes like a deer in the headlights.
"Up," said Cato as the mutts started moving towards them. "Roof of the Cornucopia. Unless you have a better idea."
"Up," agreed Clove, running to where the jump up to the top was the lowest and easiest. "Care to help life a girl up?"
Cato grinned and picked up Clove quickly, getting her on the roof as the mutts kept closing in. She struggled to pull his weight up alongside her, though, and he had to kick at least one of the mutts down. He thought it looked like the fox girl, with red fur all about it.
"Fucking pull!" He yelled at her while the Thresh mutt kept trying to bite off one of his boots. Their armor didn't cover their ankles and feet.
"I'm trying!" She pulled once, then twice, and then three times. After that, a fourth time finally did the trick, and with all her might she got Cato up just to where he was out of the reach of the ugly mutts with features of the fallen tributes.
They had just a few seconds to catch their breath and pull out their weapons, when they saw Peeta and Katniss emerging on the other end of the Cornucopia's roof. One way or another, things were going to be settled once and for all. Clove made the first move, tossing a knife towards Lover Boy, one that she didn't mind losing if it fell over the edge. She had several more where that came from.
Cato, meanwhile, took on Fire Girl, not wanting Clove to take any more risks with her again. The body armor deflected off the arrows Katniss sent his way, and he was soon struggling to force her down to the ground, where the mutts could finish her for him. Peeta, although distracted by Clove and a knife to his face, was able to kick at Cato enough to where he let her go, and had to fight normally, one on one.
But he'd been training for this his whole life, against people with proper experience. This stupid girl in front of him? She had nothing. She was nothing. Nothing more than an annoying obstacle to the ultimate crown and victory.
She swung the bow as a weapon, no doubt a desperate attempt to offset the advantage he had with his body armor making the arrows useless. They could've gone in his hands or feet, where there wasn't any armor, but she didn't have time to see that and went for the first option available. Cato struggled with her for the bow for a moment. In the corner of his eye he saw Clove and Peeta doing the same with a knife. Clove was the better fighter, but Peeta had some raw strength to him, similar to Thresh the other day.
Then Cato was able to twist Katniss' wrist, getting a yelp out of her before shifting the bow to where he had the girl on fire in a headlock with it. It was quite effective in keeping her from squirming about as much as she usually did, and he had a free hand to hold her down lower, on her chest.
A few seconds later, Clove got the upper hand against Peeta. She dropped her knife and let him have it, only to blur with a second knife, which slashed across his chest. It caused enough pain to where she could get around and hold him at knifepoint, a blade to his throat.
They finally had twelve where they wanted them, defeated and ready to die. The question was, who would go first? And how?
"Got your friend," Clove taunted to Katniss, drawing a drop of blood from Peeta's throat. "Can't help each other, now or ever."
"Who should we kill first?" asked Cato. "They're both dead anyways."
"Kill me first," Peeta said, a hint of bravery to his voice. "So I don't have to watch Katniss die."
"That's so sweet of you," Clove said mockingly, drawing more blood from Peeta's throat. "You really did have a hard-on for her this whole time. But why should you have all the fun? Cato, go ahead and kill the Fire Bitch."
"With pleasure." He snapped Katniss' neck with the bow locking it in place, before tossing first the bow and Katniss down below, to where the mutts were waiting. They eagerly began to sink their teeth into their former prey turned chew toy.
Peeta gave out a bloodcurdling scream of agony, which Clove could only smirk at. She enjoyed watching Lover Boy cry out in pain for Fire Girl. She had to hold him in place so the next part of their little show could go smoothly.
But things would not go smoothly. "They'll get you too," Peeta said through gritted teeth.
"What are you talking about?" Clove asked annoyingly.
"The Gamemakers. They'll revoke the rule and make you kill each other. That rule change was for me, not you. They'll love watching you and Cato fight each other for their own sick amusement."
"Highly doubt that, Lover Boy. We're from District 2. The Capitol loves us. You're just stalling for time."
"I'm dead anyways. But I'll go down knowing at least one of you is going with me to the grave."
"Would you shut up already?" growled Cato. "Just kill him already, Clove. One more kill."
"Let him talk. It means nothing." The moonlight shone on them, and only them, and Clove wondered if that was a Gamemaker trick to make the television show easier. "Any last words, Lover Boy?"
"Just kill me. They'll kill you too, they'll kill you too."
"Ugh, you couldn't say something different. Shame." She cut his throat, and then tossed him to the dogs as well. She then realized they hadn't heard a cannon for either Katniss or Peeta, but then again it was effectively over, the Games. They were the two Victors.
They'd be going home as the first dual winners ever in the Hunger Games.
"We did it," exclaimed Cato as he ran to Clove, picking her up in a tight embrace before setting her down to kiss her. She kiss him back with just as much need, moaning loudly into his mouth. If the spotlight wasn't on them, she'd go find some dark corner and fuck him then and there.
The kiss seemed to last an eternity. They had all the time in the world, having just won the 74th annual Hunger Games. But then the voice of Claudius Templesmith came on again, and it wasn't to congratulate their victory:
"Attention. Attention, tributes. There's been a slight... rule change. The previous revision allowing for two victors from the same district has been revoked. Only one victor may be crowned. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favor."
Peeta may have been desperately looking for a way to get posthumous revenge, and maybe the Gamemakers had caught on to him and his final words.
Though none of them realized it, not Clove, Cato, Claudius Templesmith, Seneca Crane, or even President Coriolanus Snow, that decision to revoke the two victors rule would set off a chain of events that would set Panem on fire once more.
Some people who write Cato/Clove fics make the deaths of Peeta and Katniss really sadistic and drawn out, but I'm inclined to do something a little differently.