I am more appalled at my pathetic attempt at writing an argument than Katniss is at Cato for being a jackass.
So, then. I'm back! Yay! So I have an updating schedule and other random shit at the bottom of my profile, so go look at that after you read and review this!
Also, important announcement thingy: I'm going to delete Should I Continue SWSF the twenty-third (if I remember). That means it won't say I updated the next time I update (or it shouldn't, that is, unless they fixed that bit). So just remember to check on this story on the next day that my profile says I'll update it, and while you're waiting, read my other stories or something X-D
Also, this takes place when they get to the Capitol and then the morning after that. I forget kind of how Victory Tours work, but I think Two and Twelve would be last? I don't know. Let's go with that.
Also I don't know where they should live! Two or Twelve or should they just live in their own districts or what? Since you can't post more than one review on a chapter, if you posted on "Should I Continue SWSF?" you won't be able to review this chapter, so PM me your opinion please! I really don't know and I'm kind of stuck until I know. I know I said they'd be moving to Two but I don't know.
CATO ALLENS
Brutus and Haymitch do not work well together. Adalian and Effie try to keep them in line while Trisdy and Cinna simply try to make sure our outfits for the final interview in the Capitol are all ready. Katniss will be a flickering flame, much less striking as her chariot costume from our Games but still beautiful, and I will wear a suit. It's less glamorous than Katniss's dress but it's fine.
Brutus tells us to be professional. Haymitch tells us to be lovers. They bicker. Adalian tells Brutus to calm down. Effie tells Haymitch repeatedly, "Put the drink down!" I'm pretty sure the stylists are just counting down the hours until they're out of the mentors' and escorts' way for a while. I, admittedly, like Haymitch's plan of being lovers with Katniss, because I like her, and maybe she'll forgive me if we go through with this. And as for Brutus… well, he may have excellent strategies for the arena, but he sucks when it comes to this sort of advice.
Katniss and I sit and wait together in the dining car, picking at small things. Neither of us wants to ruin our appetites, because even though it's not like the food in District Two is as bad as it is in Twelve, when you compare it to the Capitol it most certainly is. Still, we agree together, it's best that we don't look like pigs at the banquet after our victor interviews… and the cookies the Avoxes have laid out are just too good not to eat.
"So," Katniss says, looking toward the car. Brutus and Haymitch are yelling now. "What do you think they'll decide?"
I shrug. "Haymitch's suggestions seem the best when it comes to… you know," I tell her. What I say isn't entirely clear, but she gets it: when it comes to the fact that we defied the Capitol, and that I'm in trouble because of it, because I felt something for her and couldn't let her go, we both know that a little bit of stepping up on the love wouldn't hurt. "I think we should listen to him instead of Brutus, even if he wins."
She rolls her eyes. "I think we should always listen to whatever Brutus doesn't say."
I smile at her. "Agreed," I say, "unless it's arena strategy."
Katniss manages not to say anything about me dying in the arena, which I am surprised about but grateful for. Instead she rolls her eyes and leans against me slightly. I'm even more surprised by this. She hasn't been close to me since the arena, and we've both made it perfectly clear that we didn't know what was going through our heads back there. I died and came back. It's very distracting. And kind of confusing.
"Katniss?" I ask quietly.
She looks up at me and sighs. "I'm scared of this next part, Cato," she admits to be reluctantly.
I take her hand in mine and kiss the top of her head lightly. It seems to surprise her catch her off guard, but I don't care. I've wanted to hold her closely again every since the Hunger Games ended and we went back to being acquaintances that flirted and annoyed each other. But I haven't been quite so forceful about it as I was in the arena. I remember thinking about how I would stop at nothing to make the girl on fire my girl, and now that she is mine I can hardly keep her.
"I am too," I tell her honestly. I am. I don't want to lose everything that I ever was here, but I know it might happen. My fame, my family, and my life—it's all on the line. And on top of all that, Katniss Everdeen is on the line. She is up there higher than my fame, higher than my life. She is a part of me, just as much as my family, and I don't want her to die or hate me like I know my family hates me.
She leans her head against my shoulder. "I've been having nightmares," she says softly.
I look down at her. "You have been?"
Katniss nods.
"About what?" I ask her.
Her face is pained. She pushes the anguished look away as quickly as it came. "Our Games," she says. "And the mines."
I squeeze her hand lightly. "It's okay. There's nothing we can do about our Games," I say, "and as for the mines, Prim got out safe."
"I couldn't protect her, though. Just like in the end I couldn't protect Rue or Peeta."
I wince slightly at the mention of Peeta, who I know Katniss genuinely liked. She adored him. I'm quite certain that if I hadn't come along, she and Peeta would've gotten together like they were supposed to. The star-crossed lovers of District Twelve feels so much safer than the rebels bound by love from Districts Two and Twelve. But that's what we are, even if I don't resent the Capitol. I defied them. I wonder if Katniss resents the Capitol more than regular non-Career citizens do.
"It's okay," I promise her. "Anytime you have a nightmare, you come and wake me up if I'm around, okay? I'm here for you."
She nods weakly.
Effie and Adalian burst into the room. They both have the same look on their faces: exasperation. "Those two are ridiculous!" Effie exclaims.
Adalian nods. "Aren't they?" she groans. "Listen, you two, just do what we say."
Effie enthusiastically says, "Oh, yes! Brutus and Haymitch will never stop fighting, I'm sure. Just listen to us."
Katniss and I look at each other briefly. "So…" I say. "What do we do for the interviews?"
"Oh, um…" Adalian begins with a frown and looks at Effie, who adjusts her wig and looks down at the floor. "You, uh—listen to…"
"What Haymitch says," Effie pipes up. "You both are absolutely adorable! I hardly doubt you'll be able to resists each other anyway."
I give Katniss a sly, though slightly grim, smile and kiss her cheek affectionately. It practically makes our escorts faint from the excitement.
"Okay, Effie," Katniss says, nodding to her. "What do we do about Brutus, then?"
"Brutus. Oh. Hmm." Effie looks to Adalian expectantly. "Brutus is all yours."
"Unfortunately," she grumbles.
Effie rolls her eyes. "Oh, if you think he's a handful, you take care of Haymitch until we take him home!" she protests.
Adalian raises an eyebrow. "I will gladly, if you take care of Brutus," she offers.
"Any day!"
"Then it's settled."
I grin at Katniss and find that she's having trouble holding in laughter as well. Maybe tonight won't be as bad as we think.
We arrive in the Capitol ready to go. Cinna dresses Katniss in her beautiful flickering dress and Trisdy puts me in my simple but elegant suit. We're ushered to where the interviews will take place. Caesar Flickerman is set up and ready to go, few preparations left. Last minute adjustments are made on our makeup and Katniss's gorgeous hair, and Haymitch tells us the plan: We're in love. Desperately. If asked about future plans, say it's a secret. People will assume marriage is in question. Katniss looks appalled at this, but Haymitch says, "There is not end to this anymore, sweetheart. The Games never end after you're reaped."
She looks at me and sighs. "What do you think?"
I shrug helplessly. "I don't think there's any choice."
"There isn't," Haymitch says.
The interview starts. Katniss and I get a loveseat to sit on, and she curls up next to me, which makes the audience sigh happily. I hold her hand as Caesar introduces the show. This year his color appears to be a forest green that makes him look like his face is bleeding green—and let me tell you, that is not a good look on him… or anyone, for that matter. He definitely needs some new stylists.
In the interview, we play the audience and Caesar easily. She isn't nearly as good at it as I am, but she doesn't have as much practice as me, so it's not her fault. I help her along and she even seems better than me when Caesar begins to help her too, like he usually does with all tributes. At first the questions are easy: What do you think of winning? How has the Victory Tour been? What have things been like since the Games ended for us?
But then they start to get trickier when Caesar poses his first question about Prim and the mines.
"So, Katniss," he begins, "I know this is a touchy subject, but we're all dying to know what it was like for you when the mine blew in your district."
Katniss's face goes red and she looks desperately up at me, swallowing. "I—" she starts. Then she looks back to Caesar. "No comment, sorry."
Caesar looks apologetic at least. "Okay. I'm sorry for asking, truly, Miss Everdeen," he says sincerely.
She shakes her head. "It's alright. It's just… still feels real."
He nods slowly and gives her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. Then he looks to me. "Cato," he begins in a gentler tone than before. "Do you have anything… planned?"
Haymitch called it. He knew this would happen. I hate to admit it, but that man is brilliant when it comes to this kind of stuff—way, way better than Brutus even though Brutus's life hasn't been washed away to alcohol like Haymitch's has.
I smile slightly, pulling it off through my nervousness. Girls in the audience look at their friends excitedly when I look in their direction and those who have boyfriends—well, their boyfriends certainly don't look happy. If they do this with me and it makes me feel a bit weird, I wonder how Finnick Odair, the sex symbol of Panem, feels when all the girls practically faint when they catch sight of him. Then again, I feel weird mainly because I have Katniss. Finnick doesn't have a Katniss to keep him at bay.
"Ah, it's a secret," I tell him mischievously. Katniss does her best to look surprised, but it doesn't work out well, so I make up for her bad reaction by kissing her cheek. The crowd squeals in delight and looks expectantly at me, begging with their eyes for more romance or in the least a few details. "But, uh, I guess we may see soon enough." I look adoringly at Katniss.
She looks up at me and gives me a small smile that to the audience is just a loving look. But to me I see her real meaning: Nervous, huh? I chuckle and the crowd obviously wishes they were in on the little inside joke we just shared. Even our awkwardness sends them into riots throughout the interview. They love us. They adore us. They never want to let us leave, and I take that as a good sign. You can't kill victors that the Capitol loves so much.
But you can kill their families.
The party after the interview is decked out with food. Katniss vows to try a bit of everything and I smile at her. "Good luck," I say, looking out over everything they have for the guests.
The president's mansion—where the banquet is held—is filled with people and decorated fancily but not with flames. It surprises me that even though the whole "girl on fire" thing went so well, there isn't one flame decoration in the whole place. Then I realize that the real important people may see that fire as a threat—a spark to start another war. The idea sends a chill down my spine. I decide not to tell the already nightmare-ridden Katniss about this thought.
Katniss busies herself with eating and I try to stay with her, but a lot of people that, in the words of Adalian and Effie, "I simply cannot refuse!" ask me to dance. I simply don't refuse and dance with them, much to Katniss's annoyance. I grin at her slightly as she scowls at me when I dance with a particularly pretty, only mildly grotesque Capitol woman. She almost looks human.
Katniss, I can honestly say, looks nowhere close, but she is not a witch. She is a goddess. She is Aphrodite, she is Venus, she is Freya—any beautiful goddess from any mythology you can think of is what she is. Cinna has really outdone himself, and now that we're not being pressed by Caesar for relationship details, I can truly appreciate the simplicity of her appearance, and the way it makes her breathtakingly gorgeous. No wonder people keep coming up and talking to her. Actually, now that I've gone to dance, she actually gets up and dances too by the request of some man. Now I know how she feels. And I'm annoyed.
After a while, I see that she's dancing with an older man. He shows her a watch, which somewhat confuses me. I turn away and sit at our table, waiting for her. Then Effie says, "It's time to go!" and Adalian rushes me around to say goodbye to all the important people in the mansion. Effie whisks Katniss around. By the time we're on the train, I'm extremely tired from the party.
"Time to sleep now!" Adalian exclaims.
Effie nods. "Tomorrow's going to be a—" She stops when she sees Katniss mouthing to me, a big, big, big day! "Katniss, that was rude."
"Sorry, Effie," she manages.
When the two escorts leave us in peace to say goodnight, we laugh for a minute and then she sits down with a heavy sigh that turns into a yawn. She's exhausted too. I sit down next to her and take her hand. It's cold. I get up, get a blanket, and drape it over her. Then I sit back next to her on the couch and retake her hand. She looks at me for a moment before laying her head on my shoulder.
"I wonder where we're headed next," she says softly.
I almost shrug, but I don't want her to take her head off my shoulder, so instead I wrap my arm around her, letting her hand go. "I don't know," I admit quietly. I lean my head against hers and let out a small sigh. Then I frown, because it hits me that I really don't know where we're going next, what's going to happen. She curls up next to me, and I know one thing for sure: "But I'll make sure that no matter what, no matter where we end up, you'll be safe. Okay?"
"I think I'm going to be the one protecting you," she tells me quietly, and I smile.
"Maybe so, girl on fire."
Maybe so.
KATNISS EVERDEEN
I had a nightmare last night, after I finally got to sleep.
The house is on fire. My father is not home, but I know he is still alive because I'm only ten and Prim is only six. My mother is working. I don't remember this happening ever before, but it seems vague and real, like a memory instead of a dream. Prim screams from the bedroom, and I run to get to her but I can't. Fire is blocking the door. I try to yell at her to go out the window, but my mouth won't let me. And when I try to run out of the house to get her out the window, I can't. I try so hard, but my feet won't cooperate.
When they do, I appear at the window. I see Prim lying dead on the floor, and millions of tracker jackers swarm all around her. Rue is in there too, and she's trying to tell me that there are tracker jackers, but then they sting her, and the fire licks over both little girls. I scream.
I wake up and realize I screamed in my dream and for real. I'm sweaty and my blankets are a mess.
Cato comes running into my room to my surprise. "Are you okay?" he asks me.
I look up at him and nod. "Nightmare," I admit in a whisper.
"Oh," he says. He sighs and fixes my blankets. Then he sits on the edge of my bed and kisses my forehead, like I'm a little girl that still needs tucking in. "Do you want to tell me about it?"
I shake my head. "Not tonight, Cato," I say.
He nods. "Okay. Night, Katniss."
"Night." He kisses my head again and leaves the room.
I'm glad to be out of the Capitol. It was less infuriating to pretend to be so in love with Cato this time. Most of my anger has subsided but that doesn't mean I'm not very close to strangling him most of the time, though that's just my natural feelings when it comes to Cato. I realize that he is safer than most things are around me lately, yet he is more dangerous than most too. I'm willing to forgive him to keep the safe side around.
Cato and I are heading to his district, which he and I both dread. He tells me that he liked Clove. He respected her. I simply dread to go meet his family, though he's met mine. His family is a line of Careers; my family is a group of quiet people who simply don't like a Career intruding in on our lives. They sort of accepted him, but I doubt that the Allens family will accept me no matter what I do. I get the feeling that they hardly accept Cato, their own son.
While we wait to arrive in District Two—it won't take but an hour or so, maybe less, I don't know—he and I sit and wait, watching the television as people in District Two prepare for us. They replay a bit of our final interviews from the Capitol, which I think went disastrously but Cato tells me went marvelously. I don't think I acted well enough. He tells me I did.
Well, nonetheless what happened in the Capitol: It's coming time to meet Cato's family.
