A/N: Quick update - apologies if there are a few small errors, it's nearly midnight here in England.
I blinked, I was staring at the treetops, why was I on the floor? Where was I? How did I get here?
"Clove? Are you awake?" Cato's slightly panicked voice asked.
"…yeah…how did I get here?" I replied, my head was hurting like crazy.
"I carried you here…you collapsed shortly after we killed the 11…" he told me, there was a certain amount of concern in his voice but he was trying desperately to hide it.
"Oh…how long have I been out?"
"A few hours. No-one's been around, the girl from 5 has stayed clear of us and the mutts from 12 are nowhere to be found."
I sat up and looked around, Cato hadn't been doing anything productive other than building a fire and cleaning his sword. My eyes fell upon my bloodied knife and the bag marked with a 2 next to it, I reached out but then my sight became blurry. Before I knew it I was receding into darkness, I could hear Cato calling my name over and over but could do nothing about it…
Cato's P.O.V
"Clove?" I asked, she didn't respond. "CLOVE." I repeated. It was no good, she had gone again. Whatever that 11 did to her was effecting her badly, if only the god damn sponsors would give us something to sort it out. She hadn't been like this for hours, she'd been like it for days. She hadn't eaten, neither had I, paranoid that she'd be picked off by the girl from 5 if I left her alone.
I looked through the treetops to the sky, hoping a parachute would drop down with a remedy for whatever was wrong, I couldn't bare it if I had to go home, not without her. Her knife still led next to the bag, I picked both of them up and started wiping the knife with my shirt. It tore several times as I wiped the dried flecks of blood off, such a small weapon yet so dangerous – just like Clove.
My thoughts turned to the bag, I hadn't opened it yet as I had been too focused on keeping Clove alive. The bag didn't look as if it contained much, then again I wasn't sure what we 'needed' as such other than some sort of remedy for Clove – but that would mean the gamemakers would've had to have known what the 11 was going to do…
I shook my head and opened the bag, it had a small wooden box inside, within the box was a small glass bottle of purple liquid. It didn't smell of anything nor did it taste of anything, there was no label so I had no idea what is was.
"What the fuck is this supposed to do?" I snapped, disturbing a flock of birds somewhere in the forest. The only thing I could come up with was it was some sort of Capitol product that would help us – which was the entire point of the 'feast'.
My stomach growled quietly, it had been doing that a lot. Not eating for several days has its disadvantages but I couldn't leave her unprotected. I got up and sat by her, I tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear, my hand resting on her pale cheek. She looked so defenceless, so fragile, just led there totally unaware of her surroundings, almost angelic…
"No Cato." I muttered as I caught myself daydreaming. "Just no. Clove is too deadly to be angelic."
My stomach refused to let me forget about its desire for food, I had to find someway to protect my only remaining ally and get food. It hit me, snares, set some traps and then I won't have to actively go looking for food and I can make sure nothing happens to Clove. I placed her under a small shelter I had built and put her newly cleaned knife next to her in case she woke up whilst I was gone. I then collected my sword and some tattered rope we had lying around before glancing at her one last time and setting off into the woods, I promised myself to not go too far and to not take forever – all I needed was one or two kills to keep us going.
I returned from setting up a few snares to Clove, still sleeping where I had left her, totally undisturbed, half of me sighed in relief and half of me was still concerned for her. It was hard to figure out what time of day it was as the trees obscured the sun but it was certainly hot, I sat next to Clove again, measuring out how much rope I had left to make any new traps with when I saw the bottle again. Obviously we needed it, or were going to need it shortly, if only I knew what it was for.
"…Cato…" A faint whisper came from next to me. I looked down at the small body of my ally. "…Where am I?" she asked.
"You're in the forest Clove…" I replied "We're in the arena. Wake up." I lightly shook her, she sat up and looked around, she seemed more aware of what was happening – I hoped it would last.
"How long have I been asleep?" she asked, looking directly at me with a hard stare.
"A couple of days, about three at most." I answered hoping she wouldn't be mad.
"And what have you been doing?" she asked.
"Uh. Making sure you didn't get killed. I set up some traps so we can catch some food."
She turned away, surveying the clearing and the woodland. "So what was in the bag?"
I was relieved her memory was more or less intact. "A bottle of…something…I don't know what."
"Let me see it."
She was being very demanding for someone who had been unconscious for three days, I handed her the bottle and she examined it, smelt it, tasted it and then promptly drank the entire contents.
"What are you doing?" I exclaimed.
"It was a painkiller. Obviously they assumed that if we needed anything it would be painkillers." She replied "And I think we'll both agree that I'm in more need of it than you."
I stared at her. Where had the Clove who promised to start a life with me go? I was more than confused. She seemed to read my facial expression and broke into a smile.
"You're so easy to confuse Cato." She smirked.
She had been playing a joke on me….she..was..joking..
Clove's P.O.V
I laughed, his expression said everything; he was confused and it was funny. My head still hurt but not as much as it had been, my priority now was to eat.
"So when are you going to check your traps?" I asked the still confused Cato.
"I-uh…I don't know.." he replied.
I saw my knife in the shelter perfectly cleaned, I then saw that Cato's shirt was ripped around the edge – I put two and two together and smiled. He'd cleaned my knife whilst I was out of it. How sweet. I picked it up and slotted it into my belt with its siblings before looking back at him – he was peering into the forest at something…or someone. He gestured for me to follow him as he disappeared into the foliage, our careful footsteps were almost silent amongst the birds chirping away around us. With our weapons drawn we continued trekking through the undergrowth until we found another clearing; it had a camp set up similar to ours…
"Well…I think we found 5's camp…" he whispered to me. I nodded in reply, she didn't appear to be around but that didn't mean she wasn't here, after all she could move through the forest quickly and silently. Without a doubt she would be the hardest to eradicate.
"…so do we wait? Or do we leave?" I asked.
"…do you feel up to combat?" he replied.
"Of course Cato. Years of training taught me to be ready anytime and anywhere."
"Okay, we'll wait a while."
We waited, it was getting dark and I wasn't one hundred percent sure if she was even intending to come back when we heard the cannon go off. I turned to Cato, he looked blankly back at me before shrugging.
"So…out of those three who just died?" he speculated.
"Loverboy? Maybe the precious medicine didn't work."
"Nah, it probably did. 5 might have killed firegirl though…."
"I think we should get ourselves to the cornucopia…" I said "Something tells me that shit's about to go down and that is the place we'll be drawn to anyway."
Cato nodded, we headed back in silence and gathered up the necessary stuff to survive, we then found Cato's traps - which had successfully caught three rabbits – before walking back through the forest to the cornucopia. By the time we got to the metal shell it was dark, only the moon provided light for us.
"Well, we're here now. So what do we do? Sleep?" he asked as we looked around for any signs of life.
"I don't think so." I replied. I had a feeling things were about to get messy and that we were about to meet the last two tributes. "I want to get on top this thing." I said gesturing to the cornucopia. "Get a better look around."
"Alright." He gave me a boost up on top of the slippery surface of the structure, I then gave him a hand up too. We sat looking over the trees in the moonlight, sleep wasn't going to occur tonight. We skinned the rabbits and ate them raw – too lazy to cook them.
"We'll probably die of some sort of food poisoning you know." Cato joked as we finished eating.
"Oh well, at least we'll die together." I replied quietly.
He turned to me, half his face illuminated in the silvery light of the moon and half hidden in the shadows, it made him look mysterious in a number of ways – unlike I've ever seen him before. A hand came up to my face and stroked my cheek, I didn't protest, we were about to have the final showdown and I wasn't prepared to lose but sometimes the odds just aren't in your favour…
"Clove.." he whispered, his face suddenly closer to mine. "Let me…."
"Let you what?" I asked.
Next thing I knew Cato was kissing me, on top of the cornucopia, in the moonlight, right in the middle of the 74th Annual Hunger Games, and I was enjoying it. It ended quickly though as he pulled away – his eyes glinting in the moonlight. We sat in an awkward silence for a while before a distant howl of an animal brought us out of our thoughts.
"What…was that?" I asked slowly.
"I don't know, there aren't any native animals that make that noise here…we would've seen them or at least some evidence of them." Cato replied standing up.
We then heard screaming and running followed by growling. Whatever it was…it was scaring the other two tributes towards us. I grabbed a knife from my belt and Cato grabbed his sword, whoever was left; we were going to kill them. I dragged Cato to the tail of the cornucopia where we crouched in wait – hoping to surprise our victims when they climbed the cornucopia to safety.
"Ready to win Clover?" he asked with a smirk playing on his lips.
"Totally Kitty-cat." I replied. The howls were getting louder, I could hear the frantic yells from the woods nearby. We then saw them; Loverboy and a girl, running towards the metal shell. Behind them was a pack of what looked to be dogs in pursuit – they were the size of horses and were howling all along.
The girl reached the cornucopia and lifted herself up before turning to her partner and lifting him up beside her, the pack of dogs scratching the base of our safe house. Cato crept out from the shadow of the tail and grabbed Loverboy in a headlock, the girl spun around and lifted her bow – it was firegirl alright.
"Ah, I can do this!" Cato said placing a hand on Loverboy's head, for a baker's son he sure knew how to struggle. "I can end it here."
Firegirl kept her arrow pointed at Cato, she obviously thought I was dead or just not here, which played to our advantage actually. Loverboy continued struggling against Cato's grasp, I had to time this just right otherwise things could get ugly.
"Let him go!" She screamed. The dogs howled in protest at not getting fed.
"Nu-uh." Cato replied tightening his grasp, I slide myself slowly sideways so I was directly behind her, one knife would be all it took, then loverboy would be tossed to the dogs and we'll be the victors.
I clenched my hand around the handle of the knife, I then noticed that loverboy was trying to tell his partner to shoot Cato's hand. It was now or never. I launched myself onto my feet and at Firegirl, I disarmed her and threw her to down to the roof. She screamed in response as I pinned her down for the second time these games.
"Shut it already!" I snapped. "You die here firegirl." I held my knife against her throat. I heard Cato encouraging me to finish her. "Gladly, you've caused me many problems Katniss, and now you pay."
Her eyes widened, I slit her throat. Blood poured out onto my hands, she gasped and then lay limp under my weight, I wasn't satisfied though, I stabbed her and ripped her torso with the knife covering myself in more blood. The cannon fired. Loverboy screamed her name over and over again until Cato snapped his neck. Once again, the cannon fired. We had done it. We could go home.
