Glimmer Point of View
7 was beautiful, and now we were on our way to 8. These Districts were very different from us Careers, but we were learning they also had a lot of offer, just in other ways.
Still, the waves from us and fake cheers from the crowd continued. It was tedious and boring, especially here. Wynn thought I'd instantly like the place since they produced textiles, and made clothes. But it wasn't all that interesting. Cato yawned behind his hand several times, and I didn't blame him. Though the tour was made to look glittery and fun, it was getting rather predictable.
That night, we found it would be a three day ride to 9. They produced grain, meaning there were giant fields spanning for miles, with barely enough room for a track to be built. So I got dressed and went to Cato early.
He wasn't ready yet, and as I opened the door, I found him standing with nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist, looking for his nightclothes. A bright blush made its way up my face. You could see the toned muscles on his torso and chest, and I gulped. Was he hot or what? And with his hair still wet and a bit floppy, that just made him look sexier. Slowly, I turned around, just as he had done the times when he'd accidently walked in on me. I heard him drop his towel and quickly pull his clothes one. I hadn't thought that just a couple of months after the Games; I'd feel so strongly like I did for him.
But I did, so when he came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist, letting me feel how his hips fit so snugly over mine, I didn't pull away. The position was very amours, and I liked it. As long as he didn't start grinding into me, I was comfortable. And out of nowhere, he put one hand on the back of my knees, another below my shoulders, and picked me up, bridal style and carried me to the bed. I laughed as he put me down, and he smiled as he climbed in next to me.
His hand rests on my stomach before again beginning to circle the skin there. And tonight, when his hand goes higher, up around my ribs, I don't think of anything bad. When his thumb grazes just under the fabric of my top, not touching anything, just a light graze, I don't go stiff and push his hand away. He slides his hand a bit higher, this time I can feel him lightly brush the bottom of my breasts. I don't stop him, but he seems to know that there is only so much he can do before I'll get scared, and knows he's reached his limit. So his hand rests higher that night as we try to fall off to sleep.
"You let me touch you." It's not exactly a question, more of a statement and a question in one.
"I trust you." It's the answer I've given him before, one we both like. So we settle down, him kissing my hair and whispering sweet little nothings into my ear as I drift off to sleep in his arms.
Another day spent on a train in boredom. Cato and I cuddle in his room and watch TV, flipping through channel after channel. We watch commercials, which seems to fill some of the time. I wish I could call my family back home, but Wynn has said that because of the grain fields I can't. Eventually I end of lying on the couch, my head in Cato's lap as he strokes my hair, us asking each other random questions.
"What's your favourite colour?"
"Green, just like the colour of your eyes." I blush and smile before continuing.
"What's your favourite food?"
"No doubt about it, my mother's homemade apple bread. It's the best thing in the world, and I can prove it." We both smile.
"What's your favourite animal?"
"A lion," I quirk my eyebrows at him, so he explains. "They were the kings of the jungle back in the day, the most important, and some of the most ferocious hunters."
"Okay, if you could have one superpower, what would it be?"
This one makes him think, and I grin as he contemplates his answer. He smiles as he comes up with it.
"Seeming as I'm already disarmingly handsome, brilliantly smart, and amazingly strong, along with a wonderful dose of charisma and charm, I suppose I would want more patience. I have a hard time waiting sometimes, and I can test boundaries that can get a little shaky." I know in part he's talking about me, about us. And I like that that's what he wants. I nod, and he smiles at me.
I feel his hands on my waist, pulling me up so he can kiss me. He wraps his arms around my back, pulling me close. I put my hands under me, pushing me up so I'm sitting on his lap before I wrap my arms around his neck. I feel his tongue graze my lips, and I open them, just a little. I've never French kissed anyone before, so I'm just going off of what I've read in books. One of his hands goes to the small of my back, the other to my hips, pulling me up, smashing our lips closer together. I feel his tongue slip into my mouth and it's weird at first, but I like it too. It's almost like he's...tasting me.
By the time we're done kissing, I know what they mean by a breathless kiss. We're both gasping, me more so than him. His hands are supporting me this time, and I'm still in his lap. I glance up at him, and he just smiles before planting his lips on mine again. This goes on for several minutes, perhaps more, I've lost track. After a few more kisses, both of us slowly getting drunk off each other, I feel his hand on my butt. He's...feeling me up. I feel his hand run down and hook on my thigh, and he just keeps doing that for a few minutes. When we're both truly out of breath, we stop. His hands are back on my waist, as if what he did never happened.
But I peer up at him as I catch my breath, wondering if he'll deny it if I ask. So I do, hoping he won't get angrey, and hoping he won't deny it.
"You felt me up." He looks at me and nods, and I can tell he's hoping he didn't cross a line. I smile at him and get off his lap. If Wynn found me like this, he'd kill me. Just because we had won didn't mean anything, Career's had no emotion, ever.
Cato Point of View
I've gotten something from her now. I didn't think she'd let me touch her like that last night in bed, and I didn't think she'd let me stick my tongue in her mouth, either. But she did, and I could tell we both liked it.
That night in bed, I come to her, and I try it again, running my hand up under her top. She lets me get even higher this time. Pretty soon, things will be happening, and I think we'll both enjoy them. She sighs into my touch, but when I try to go even higher I feel her hand on my wrist, pulling it away, and I can see her shake her head in the dark. No, she's saying with her eyes, no, not that far, not yet. I understand, and I can be patient. So I just smile and lean down to kiss her. But tonight I don't slip my tongue in her mouth, not so soon after her rejection and not in the darkness that frightens her so.
"Please don't try anything." She's peering up at me, scared, worried. I sigh and rub her cheek with my thumb, smiling gently.
"I won't, not unless you want to." Then I say what I've been meaning to. "I want you, Glimmer, I really do. But I'll wait, I promise. I'll wait until you give me the okay."
She nods slowly, cuddles into my chest, and gets comfortable. I can tell she wants to ask my something, I just don't know what. So I wait.
"Are we...in a relationship? Or is this just...something else?" I smile at her, bending a little to kiss her nose. But she plants her lips on mine, wrapping an arm around my neck and pulling me closer. Her tongue grazes my lips, and soon I'm almost on top of her, our mouths plastered together. Mistakenly, I put my knee between her legs, not to push them apart, just to put my weight on. Still, she stiffened a little, putting her hands on my chest, pushing me up slightly.
"Not..." she gasped slightly, out of breath from our making-out. "Not yet." So I move so that I have an arm around her waist, rubbing her ribs, me next to her. She smiles again, and I'm amazed that she's bounced back so fast. Still, she puts her hands back on my chest and curls into me, and I wrap my arms around her back. We sleep like that, her breath hitting my chest, my head on her hair. It's like if we can hold on to each other, we'll never have to let go.
We're in District 9 now, almost to the end. It took a few days, but we're finally here. The grain fields are beautiful, and Glimmer is up once more, early, to watch the sunrise on this new landscape. It's rare when we get to travel, especially so much, and we're finally starting to enjoy it. It's surprisingly pretty- the fields in bathed in golden light, the sun rising, blocked only by a tree here or there as we race through the landscape.
Again, though, there are the fake cheers and our bored waves, the tedium greatly overtaking this. It used to be such a thrill, but now, after doing this for so long, we're bored of it. Our nights together are much more interesting.
This night is spent locked in each other's arms, whispering stories about our pasts, our secrets, things we've wanted to say but are too scared to, so we whisper it to each other in the darkness. The most surprising confession, though, comes from here.
I'm holding her, when she takes a breath and blurts out in a whisper something I can hardly believe.
"You didn't meet my real family." I stare down at her suddenly, my eyes going wide with shock. But...she looks like them, they clearly love her dearly. What is she saying?
"Glimmer, what on earth are you talking about?" She takes a shaky breath, and I realize that what she is about to say I am never, ever, to repeat, no matter what.
"My biological family...my mother died giving birth to twins, a boy and a girl. After that, my father went mad. He...turned to alcohol. He was never a victor, no one in my biological family ever was. We lived in the middle-class part of town, both of my parents worked in factories. But after what happened with him...one day I came home, I was 11, and he was so drunk he could barely stand up straight. But I came in from school, with a letter about going to train at the Academy we had across town. When I showed it to him, he went wild. He took a lamp from the side table and...hurled it at me. I dodged it, but then he came after me." She sniffled into my shirt, and I rub her back soothingly. "I went to bed black and blue that night, and woke up with stiff and sore limbs. I told everyone that I had gotten in a fight with an 18 year old, and enough people believed me. But my teacher didn't, and without even asking, she said I was never to go home again. So I didn't, and they relocated me with my family."
I can hardly believe her. What type of father would beat his child? And if he had beaten her... I had thought Thresh was first, but now, I wasn't so sure. Gently, I lifted her chin to look at me.
"Please tell me that he never..." She shook her head, and I sighed, relieved. Thank the Lord he wasn't that kind of father. I had known others who weren't so lucky.
"No, he never did...that. Who would do that to an 11 year old?" I laughed cruelly, holding her tighter against me chest.
"Oh, you have no idea. A girl in my training academy back in 2, she was 12. The older boys, most of them 17 or 18 in a pack of five or six, cornered her when we were all going back to our sleeping dorms. They put her up against a wall. I tried to help her, but one of the guys who was younger, probably about 16, held me back. I was 13; I couldn't fight him, as hard as I tried. Trust me, people will do unimaginable things."
Her eyes were wide, scared at the very possibility. But I held her close and kissed the top of her head, whispering sweet, calming things in her ear to sooth her to sleep. Luckily it worked, and soon she was breathing deeply in my arms.
As slowly as it had taken to arrive at 9, we were gone quickly and in 10. The place was for livestock, and it wasn't near as pretty as the others we had gone through. In fact, it smelled a little, and I was grateful to board the train and be whisked away as soon as possible. It seemed neither of our guardians could stand it, and being from the Capitol, I can see why.
That night as we got on the train, Wynn pulled her aside. I didn't know why, but I stayed in my room, waiting for her. She didn't come. Perhaps she didn't want me to come, but I knew it would be best if I let her come to me when she was ready. For the first time in weeks, I fell asleep with empty arms.
