After a night of constant care and under watch of Marvel, Clove lost the feeling of grogginess from the sickness, and was allowed to enter morning training the following day. She woke in the morning, to find herself enveloped in his arms. She wriggled closer, the heat from his body luring her to him. He rolled onto his back, as he slowly dragged himself out of the fidget free slumber. Her cheek was pressed against his chest and her eyes softly stared into the mirror across from the bed.
"Morning, gorgeous." He mumbled, stretching his arms high above his head and letting them flop back around Clove again. She hummed in response, closing her eyes and drifting off again to the gentle beat of his heart underneath her ear. His heart. She even tried to breathe in time with him, so their hearts would beat together. His heart, she had his heart. No one else did. She did. And she didn't like to admit it, but he had hers too. His fingers traced the curve of her back so carefully, zigzagging up towards her neck. She moaned softly in response, her head shuffling over his chest to find another comfy spot. She repositioned her head to fit perfectly underneath his chin, and they stayed there in quiet for a while. Listening to each other's breathing, their beating. Outside the door, the floor rose to life. Bonnie's morning voice was singing some sort of melody through to the dining room and Cato's snoring had ceased.
"I better go." Marvel whispered, gently planting a long kiss in her hair, before lifting the covers off of both of them, and shuffling from underneath Clove, and pottering over to the pile of his clothes in the corner. The dawn cast dim shafts of light through the windows; Clove could just see the contrast between Marvel's pale skin and the dark wallpaper behind him.
"Nice ass." She muttered, covering herself again with the thick, thermalized covers and rolling over to hide her face in the cushions.
"Why thank you." He grinned and hopped into his trousers. Fully clothed, he crept back to the bed and his lips found Clove's ear.
"Don't panic too much; your beloved is only on the floor below." He chuckled softly in her ear, kissing her cheek afterwards and disappearing off through the balcony doors.
"I'll try." Clove whispered to herself, drifting off back into a light slumber in the early morning light.

"Clove? CLOVE! GET UP YOU LAZY PRICK! WE NEED TO GO!" Cato's head peeked round through her door, he suddenly exploded to find her still in bed, when they should have left for the training center minutes ago. He marched over and shook her shoulders angrily, throwing her from unconsciousness and back into reality.
"Arggh! Cato!" She finally opened her eyes and shoved him away. Sitting upright she clutched the covers to herself protectively.
"Get out!" She boomed. He threw her a you-better-get-your-ass-out-of-bed-or-I'll-kill you scowl before slamming the door and muttering unintelligible curses under his breath. Reluctantly, Clove freed herself from the warmth of the sheets and strode on the balls of her feet towards the drawer that Bonnie had so kindly named the 'Training Drawer' which held all of her clothes for training ranging from socks, to jumpsuits and even to underwear. Her palms clasped her elbows across her chest to hold onto the last drabs of heat she could.
"Curse you Cato." She seethed, rushing through brushing her teeth and tying her hair back. She hated sleeping in, especially the frantic rush that shortly followed. If she slept in in District 2, her mother would insist she had to stay in bed for the rest of the day and miss training. 'If you think sleeping is more important than your training, you better catch up on it!' Clove felt her words ring through her skull. She smiled and shook her head as she opened the door Cato had almost had hanging off its hinges and joined him and Brutus at the lift.
"Why did you sleep in?" Brutus was less vicious than Cato was, but the sharp edge to his words was still there.
"Um, I was tired?" Clove shot back, an element of sarcasm hanging on her lips.
"You were naked when I walked in." Cato added, his arms folded across his chest knowing that what he was hinting at was probably true.
"Because it's cooler like that?" Clove was grabbing at straws here, one more question from the pair who stood so high above her would guarantee her crack.
"Oh, ok." Cato smirked, holding his head high as the lift doors opened onto the ground floor. Clove glared into the floor, she knew that Cato had sussed it, but she was glad that her interrogation was over. Barging past Peacekeepers and officials at the Training Center, Clove had her eyes fixed on the memorized path towards the center.
"Someone's on a mission." Brutus laughed, as he and Cato followed behind her. She glared past her shoulder at him. Not looking where she was going, she collided straight into another tribute.
"Hey!" She growled, "Watch where you're going you idiot!" She snapped, glaring into the startled blue eyes of Peeta Mellark. Her encounters with him on this training schedule were beginning to annoy her, and she roughly shoved past him.
"Watch it, 2!" An equally angry female voice seethed behind her. Clove abruptly stopped, relaxing her back and turning on her heels. Her black eyes glaring into those of Katniss Everdeen, standing with her feet parted in front of Peeta protectively.
"Aw, protecting little Lover Boy here are we? That's sweet. But just for the record, no one is buying your pathetic little Love Game. You may have got the Capitol's affection, but the rest of us tributes can see right through your stupid little act." Clove leaned into her words, she hadn't done this for days, maybe she had been too preoccupied to be cruel to others.
"Why don't you come over here and say that?" Katniss growled, gesturing to the space in front of her.
"Why don't I do just that?" Clove yelled, her eyes laid on Thresh's knife in the 'CONFISCATED ASSORTMENT' box to her left. Her hand ripped it from the pile and she moved swiftly towards Katniss.
"Whoa, hold up here. Save it for the arena." A Peacekeeper was at her side, his steel grip over the knife in her locked fist. She rived her hand free and shot him a deathly look, before glaring back at Katniss – who seemed bewildered that Clove actually went for her – and turning her back on them all and signing herself into the center. She and Cato seemed to be the latest district in the center, as she could see two pairs of each number apart from two and twelve. And, One? Glimmer had Cato trying out the archery station, and she held herself close to him as she corrected his position. But where was Marvel? With the question lingering on her mind, she began to make her way to the other end of the arena, to the unoccupied station of knives. Clove kept close to the wall as the hand-hand combat station had left it's podium, and the two girls were recklessly fighting in a wonky pattern around the entire center. Close to her station, Clove began to plan out her strategy for the day. When out of nowhere, a flying object hurtled towards her. Without any time to react, Clove tried to brace herself for the impact. It cut through the air like knife through butter, and threw Clove into the wall behind her. Her collar was pinned to the plaster behind her, deeming her unable to escape; she glanced over at the object that was too close to skewering her neck. It was a spear.
"We meet again." Marvel, like the spear, materialized out of nowhere before her. His nose was toughing hers and she let her head fall back into the wall as she laughed.
"I should have known." She met his eyes. They were cocky, and bright. He watched her for seconds, smiling slowly as she did the same.
"You are going to release me then?" She raised her eyebrows and her fingers skimmed the metallic surface of the spear imprisoning her to the wall. Marvel pulled away, his arms still wrapped around her waist and his pelvis touching hers.
"Hmm, I don't know, maybe later." He fully pulled back and began to walk away, the smile soon fading from Clove's lips.
"Marvel? Marvel, I'm being serious, let me go." She called out, but his grin fixated in place as he began to choose a spear from the rack only fifteen feet away from her.
"Marvel! Let me go, this isn't funny anymore!" She cried, tugging at the spear, but from the angle it was wedged into the wall, and the position by her neck, she couldn't drive it free, and she knew that if she tore her training jumpsuit, she wouldn't here the end of it from Bonnie. But Marvel continued to ignore her, throwing spear after spear into the desired target. After some time, Cato strolled over with Glimmer on his arm.
"Looks like Marvel's got you prisoner." Glimmer giggled, elbowing Marvel playfully in the rib. Clove sneered and rolled her eyes at the blonde.
"Cato, you're strong enough. Get me off this thing?" She pleaded, but he shook his head all the same.
"Ah, that's where you are wrong. You see, I specialize in swords and fighting. I'm not too good with spears…"
"YOU DON'T NEED TO BE GOOD WITH SPEARS JUST HELP ME!" Clove yelled across at him, but he just snaked an arm around Glimmer and turned away.
"After that nasty outburst, I don't think I will." And with that, he was gone towards the swords station. Glimmer as well. Clove wildly tugged at the spear, but nothing she did could even loosen it.
"Marvel." Her voice slackened in defeat, and her shoulders loosened, tired from the attempts of freeing herself.
"Yeees Clove?" He turned to face her, leaning on a spear with the same grin as before plastered across his lips. He moved towards her, leaving the spear stuck vertically in the ground. His forehead dropped to hers and without warning, his lips pressed against hers with force that brought her head back up against the wall. The blaze inside of her egnighted, spreading over the gentle touch of Marvel's fingers on her waist, to the hand which cradled her neck, and his lips against hers. Clove's closed eyes and focused senses, didn't even register Marvel swiftly pulling the spear from the wall. He pulled her away from the icy surface and cupped her face within his hands, lifting her chin upwards. Clove pulled away to breathe, Marvel looked down at her with a cheeky glint in his eye.
"Now, please tell me why I was stuck to that wall all this time?" She folded her arms across her chest and leaned back on Marvel's arms to get a better view of his face. She thought his smirk couldn't get any bigger than it already had, but it did. He grinned down at her, huffs of laughter escaping from his tightly pulled lips.
"So you'd do that." He chuckled, but only loud enough for her to hear. She gently slapped his chest playfully, as he turned her around to walk towards the benches.
"How long have you been planning that one then?" She smiled up at him daringly. His arm squeezed her closer for a second as he pretended to count the days on his fingers. Clove dropped her head back into his shoulder, he was stood behind her now and his head was resting on her shoulder. She found herself lifting her hand up to his face, and twisting his brown curls within her fingers. Marvel closed his eyes, but the grin didn't fade. Clove's eyes stayed open though, and her mouth was set in a straight line. She didn't want this to end; she didn't want to go into the arena and have to kill him if she wanted to be crowned victor. But it was going to happen. The Capitol would make sure of it. His head almost fell straight for the laminated floor, when she unexpectedly moved away from his hold and over to the knives. He followed her all the same. She filtered the knives into two piles, one for the closer targets and the others for the distanced targets. Yes, this was her strategy.
"Marvel?" She spun on the balls of her feet and smiled pettily at him.
"Yes?" He smiled back, hoping she wanted something that was in his favor too.
"Go away."
"Why?"
"I need to train, and I can't do that whilst your stood watching me." She spun around back to the knives, hearing him get up and move towards her.
"Why's that? Do you find…" He unzipped the top half of his training jumpsuit, "Distracting?" Revealing the polished torso complete with its own perfected set of abs. Each individual square of muscle over his stomach even had their own shadow, and his skin glowed under the light and the look on his smug face told Clove that he was proud of his perfect body. Holding each side of the suit open, Marvel then quickly zipped it up and winked at Clove over his shoulder as he pranced off towards his station.
"Would it be bad if I did?" She called after him, a playful smile dancing on her lips. He shook his head, still with that silly grin he threw a spear high into the air and caught it. Show off. Clove thought as he spun it around his fingers at speeds she couldn't follow.

From then on, Marvel left her to clean up her skills, she was grateful too, seen as the training session she had to miss yesterday afternoon, took its toll on her aim, sending the blade always that tiny bit to the left.
"Can all tributes please make departure for their lunch, and resume with training from 1'o'clock onwards please. Thank you for your cooperation." The voice called out over the center, and the twenty four tributes began to filter through the double doors, and towards the lift. Cato was nowhere to be found and neither was Glimmer, so instead of waiting in the line for the lift on her own, Clove 'accidently' collided into the side of Marvel as he waited patiently with no one.
"Looks like your stood by yourself, thought I'd be the kinder one and join you." She winked and stood beside him at the rear of the line. His arm snaked around her waist and pulled her closer, she draped an arm around his and leant her head into his chest.
"The only reason you'd stand with someone alone like me, is because you are a loner yourself." He winked down at her and she smiled back.
"I guess we're just loners together then." She winked back, not even aware that it was only them in the queue for the lift now, and the doors were open and waiting for them.
"Dining with me are you then? I wouldn't want a vulnerable little girl like you all alone until one." His hand had found hers and was leading her into the lift. Clove mocked offence at the 'vulnerable little girl' and pushed him away.
"I'm not the one who creeps into your bed at night so I'm not all alone in the dark." She folds her arms across her chest and lets him pull her close again.
"Actually I do that for your benefit." He states, as they both hop off onto the jewel encrusted quarters that belong to Marvel's district. The Avox children had already set the table for four, little did they know it was only Marvel and Clove eating there that day.
"Mmm, steak." Marvel rubs his stomach and licks his lips exaggeratedly, smiling over at Clove when he sees her fighting back the laughter. They sit side by side and a word is not shared as they both wolf down the steak and the garnish beside it. Clove leans back after completely devouring everything on the plate in front her, to find Marvel's awaiting arm at the small of her back. He's leant back to and smiling like a goon into her turned head.
"I'm guessing you were hungry." He whispers, to full to verbally respond, Clove answers with one slow nod of her head. Before she could resist, the room was spinning around her, the table was behind her. Once she regained her stable vision, she realized she was cupped in Marvel's arms as he carried her bridal style towards his room.
"Stop right there, Marvel. I'm afraid Clove is going to have to come with me." Brutus's voice was unmistakable. Marvel abruptly spun to see a very tearful Glimmer stride past to her room, leaving a very angry Cato and superior Brutus awaiting Clove in the lift. Marvel froze for a second, as if he were actually deciding whether to obey the previous victor, or run in the opposite direction, Clove still within his arms.
"Now." He urged. Marvel whispered something that Clove didn't quite catch as he gently set her to her feet, giving her a small nudge in the small of her back to encourage her towards Brutus.
"What's going on?" Clove insisted, as the doors closed behind her and Marvel disappeared below them.
"Oh, you'll both find out when we get to the floor." Brutus stated, nodding his head towards the now open doors. Clove gave Cato a confused look, but it seems he knew as much as she did: They were in a huge heap of trouble.