She saw Haymitch that night in his train suite.
Perhaps not the best time, as he was completely drunk, slurring his words and seeming completely out of it. She doubted he would even remember the conversation in the morning, but nevertheless, Katniss wanted clarification and it could not wait till morning.
"Why didn't you tell me?" She pressed in a low but demanding voice.
Haymitch sighed. "Don't worry about it. You will most likely not be used like that."
"Why not?" Katniss expected him to say something along the lines of 'you're too young' or something like that but instead, he answered, "Peeta."
Katniss froze. What did Peeta have to do with this?
"Peeta loved you. You loved Peeta." he continued.
It was slowly dawning on here but obviously now fast enough for Haymitch because he continued, "You are the Capital's heartbroken sweetheart, just play the part right and you probably will be alright."
"Probably?" She pressed.
Haymitch shrugged, while pushing past her toward his bedroom, throwing back a lazy, "Don't worry about it sweetheart."
Katniss just stood there a few seconds, seriously considering barging into his room.
Instead, she turned to go back to her room and it was then that she saw Marvel, arms folded, lounging against the door, not even bothering to hide the fact that he was eavesdropping on their conversation.
Katniss sighed and tried to calm herself from the sudden surprise of turning and seeing him there.
She wasn't planning on addressing him, and instead tried to surpass him through the tiny space left at the door, but he gave her a smile, much too cheerful to be genuine.
"I know your secret, Girl on Fire." He mused.
"I have no secret. " Katniss deadpanned as she moved past him. She could hear his small chuckle and it kept on replaying in her head far after she reached her room.
Katniss usually ate breakfast earlier than everyone else, so that she could get the dining suite to herself.
However, this happened only occasionally because she found out early that Cato too was an early riser who liked to occupy the dining suite before everyone else woke up.
It usually depended on who got their first. If Katniss was first, he would come in and without an exchange of words or even glances, collect his food before leaving. If he was there first, Katniss would do the same.
They have never sat in the dining suite together for breakfast, and she never saw Marvel awake sooner than ten o' clock on days that they weren't required to wake up early for the camera or arriving at a District.
So, when Katniss arrived at the dining suite and saw Cato sitting at the table, along with Marvel she tried not keep her face as emotionless as it usually was.
She moved towards the coffee machine. She had never drank coffee before the Hunger Games, mostly due to not being able to afford it, and she recalled that she did not care much for it when she first tasted it on her way to the Capitol for the Games, but these days she was perhaps addicted to the beverage.
Her back was towards them, and when she heard the loud exclaimed, "Morning, Katniss", from Marvel.
She silently cursed in her mind, as she ignored the drops of coffee that spilled from her cup onto the coffee table.
She would have to walk over to where they sat to get food, and while Cato usually ignored her and her him, Katniss had a feeling that would not be the case with Marvel.
Before she even decided what she wanted to do, Marvel pulled out the seat beside him and declared, "Come sit next to me, Girl on Fire."
So, there it was. The decision had been made for her, and Katniss wasn't sure if he saw her eye roll before walking out the suite.
It wasn't until he reached District 2 that he approached her directly.
Directly, because for the days prior he did his best to annoy Katniss in the slightest of ways by just trying to get her attention.
"I have a proposal for you." Was all he said as he approached her in one of the many train's hallways.
Katniss made a move to walk past him, but he suddenly shifted and was now directly in front of her, way too close for Katniss comfort, however, she did not pull away instead holding her stance.
"I'll be a deal you are interested in too." He continued.
Katniss wasn't interested. She could not fathom anything having to do with him that she would be interested in. She continued to stare at him in silence.
He sighed and tilted his head. "Aren't you going to say something?"
No. She wasn't. She hoped that he picked up on that soon enough, and that he would just continue his one-sided conversation so that she could get back to her room as soon as possible.
"I heard what Haymitch said that night." It took Katniss a few seconds to pick up on what night and what was said, when she did she could control the immediate action of squinting her eyes at him.
"Yeah." He smirked at her smirk reaction.
"How is that any of your business?" Katniss sniped at him.
He shrugged his shoulders, then continued, " I was thinking we could help each other out here."
Katniss stared at him. She wondered how much of the conversation he heard that night.
"I don't need your help." She snapped moving to walk away.
"How long do you think it'll take for them to find out the truth?" He asked, causing her to pause in her movement.
"Do you honestly think that Snow doesn't know?" His voice was a perfect mix of humor and accusation. "That he won't announce it to the public just so he could punish you for your little stunt in the Arena?"
Katniss's heart rate increased, and she wasn't sure if it was the content that disturbed her or the fact that he knew and was saying it out loud.
He was standing much closer to her now, so much so that she could feel his shirt brush against her arm and his breath on the side of her face as he said, "You're a good pretender, Katniss, but a really bad liar. So, how long do you plan to grieve your dead fake boyfriend?
She flitch away, hand itching to push him away, slap him, shove him out the train window.
"Don't talk about him." Her voice was stoic.
His face broke out in a smile, before he said, "I'm not talking about him, I'm talking about you."
Again, she fought the urge to punch him in his smug-looking face, and instead moved to walk again, this time he didn't try to stop her.
Cato had to do the speech for District Two, like Marvel had to for District One.
However, Cato's tone was far from Marvel's, who at least attempted to sound a little bit ecstatic at being a Victor, albeit one of three.
Cato's speech despite its hopeful words were delivered in a deadpanned, apathetic tone. Katniss didn't care much except for the annoying snickers coming from Marvel who stood next to her trying not to laugh out loud. But it was so bad, that after the speech only a few out of the crowd clapped and Katniss wondered if it was because of the deadpanned speech or because of the less than ideal outcome of the Game for their Victor.
Later in the evening, they had dinner with Cato's family which consisted solely of his older brother, which slightly interested Katniss. His brother actually tried to make conversation, which contrasted heavily to Cato's stoic nature during dinner.
It was generally uneventful, and Katniss was looking forward to leaving tomorrow.
In the night, she woke up to find the bathroom, which led her to the kitchen where Cato and his brother were talking, and as Katniss stood in the dark, with the light in the kitchen illuminating a few feet in front of her, she picked up that they were actually arguing.
There were no shouting, the exchange was spoken so quietly that Katniss had difficulty understanding most of what was said. She however, did pick up on the few words, 'disgrace', 'pity', among others that clued her into the nature of the conversation.
It wasn't until she heard a loud noise from the kitchen, that her feet moved towards the light and the scene before her made it clear that noise a few seconds before was from the slap given to Cato by his brother.
He was looking at her, they both were and Katniss quickly crooked out that she was looking for the bathroom.
She walked away when Cato's brother told her to keep walking down the hallway.
They were stuck in District Two for another day due to train maintenance problems.
Katniss opted to stay on the train until they were ready to leave, hoping to get some time alone. She was alone for the majority of the day, until she heard shuffling of another person around the late evening hours.
She found Cato in the dining suite. She was planning on having coffee and candy for dinner, not wanting to walk back or see anybody for the evening. But he was there.
He barely looked at her as she walked past the table towards the coffee table.
She had to push the button to make the coffee, and it would take a few minutes for it to finish.
She stood in front of the coffee machine, the silence in the room was reminiscent of all the other times when only they occupied the dining room.
And like all the other time she didn't plan on saying anything. She didn't care about his argument with his brother. She didn't care about why he got slapped. It wasn't her problem, after all. She had her own set of dilemmas.
It wasn't until midday after they left District Two, that Katniss realized that perhaps her innocent mistake.
That Marvel was right, about Snow using any means to punish her.
The dining suite became eerily quiet as she entered and as she moved towards the food, Haymitch grabbed her arms and marched her out of the door she entered just a few seconds before.
"I'm not going to blame you because it's not your fault." Haymitch started, rubbing his hands down the side of his face. "Entirely" he added.
"What's not my fault?" Katniss asked as her attention was captured by the rising voices coming from the dining suite.
Haymitch extended the small device in his hand towards her and Katniss tentatively took it and touched the screen.
As she read the words, her eyes widened. The title of the news piece was sensational at best, and completely comical above the picture of Katniss and Cato innocently standing and sitting in silence inside the dining suite a few evenings before.
"This is fucking ridicuilous." She cursed while handling the device back to Haymitch. She wasn't even interested in reading the article, knowing that if the title was any indication, the entire piece would be fabricated lies of a relationship that did not exist.
This was complete comedically, and if the implications of the blatant news propaganda wasn't so ominous, she would almost laugh. She and Cato haven't exchanged any words since they came out of the Arena, their only encounters consisted of him trying to strangle her on the aircraft out of the Arena, and the multiple silent encounters when they were both alone and with others. At times, Katniss doubts that she even exists to him, and the feeling was definitely mutual. Both of their silence and apathy made that possible; ignoring Marvel was harder due to his ostentatious personality but until his recent words with her, she was doing quite well at forgetting he existed too.
"That's not the point, Katniss." Haymitch countered. " If the right people start believing this, if enough people start believing this, it won't be good."
Katniss scoffed, and snided, "The Capitol do love their romance. Is it too much to ask to keep me the fuck out of it?", before walking back to her room.
Dinner was worst, because she overslept, and unfortunately she and Cato seem to be on the same eating schedule, because he was there, alone, again.
She paused at the door. She now knew that the dining suite had cameras, that they were being watched, and that they had the means of turning a picture of them standing away from each other, not even talking, into evidence of a "blooming, passion fling".
She didn't want to be seen alone with him. Hell, she didn't even want to be alone with him, but she needed to eat.
She hoped that he would have the common sense to get up and leave when he saw her. She was assuming that he too saw the scandalous news article and was less than happy with it.
Katniss saw that he paused when he heard her come in, his fork wavering above his plate, but after a few seconds he continued.
Dinner wasn't like breakfast, she usually ate a pastry for breakfast, something that she could bring back to her room and munch on. She usually ate dinner in the dining suite either with everybody there or more often nobody there.
She didn't want to have to eat dinner in her room. But, more importantly there was a part of her that resented having yet again Capitol lies push her hand. So, she grabbed her plate and sat at the seat furthest away from Cato.
She hoped that he would get up and leave. He didn't.
"Am I - interrupting something?" Marvel was at the suite door, his joke accompanied by a big smile on his face. His laugh came a few seconds later.
Katniss rolled her eyes, but a small part of her was grateful for his presence and hoped that he stayed long enough for her to quickly eat and leave.
"Who would have thought?" He continued his joke as he walked into the room and stood behind a chair halfway between Katniss and Cato. "But then again, you two did have the entire train to yourself for the night." He added suggestively, echoing the title of the article that started this whole mess.
When neither Katniss or Cato responded, Marvel moved the chair to sit down and continued, "Well, at least, now we know that we are being watched, and recorded. It's like the Games never ended." He lounged back into the chair, folding his arms behind his neck, "Good times. Great times."
His entire monologue was making it difficult for her to eat, but she began to think about what he said about them being watched and recorded. She thought back to everything she did while she was on the train, and then stopped chewing the meat in her mouth as she thought about her conversation with Marvel in the hallway. How close he was, and how their encounter was much more suggestive, yet they didn't use that.
She was too happy to focus too much on why that was. Nevertheless, she glanced at him quickly before resuming eating.