Hey, so I have been working really hard to capture cato and clove in a realistic way; a way tht i feel could actually have happened during the books. Let me know how you think Im doing so far! Idk why but I just love this couple.

Clove could tell that Cato was currently in a blind rage in the room right beside her. She knew that much for sure because she could it hear it through the thin walls of the Justice Building; him yelling obscenities, punching things, throwing anything he could get his hands on and basically just being as destructive as possible. What she didn't understand is why he was so angry. He had gotten what he had always wanted. He was District 2's male tribute for the Hunger Games this year. He would be going into the arena. But be careful what you wish for applied to the current situation in a way that made Clove feel sick to her stomach. Yes she wanted to go to the Hunger Games, and she had been jealous of Cato and Deanna getting their chance this year. But she hadn't realized how dangerous that thinking was until it was too late. Because somehow, the Academy's plan went awry, and now Clove was also getting what she had been waiting for her whole life; only it was a little premature given the circumstances. Clove would also be going into the arena this year and eventually would be faced with the difficult task of murdering Cato, the boy she had grown... not necessarily to like, but to tolerate (at least more so than anyone else). That thought felt surprisingly unsettling and unpleasant to her.

She thought back to the reaping that had taken place earlier this morning, knowing nobody would be coming to visit her, she allowed herself to be fully enveloped in her reflections.

Clove stood mixed in with the other 15-year-old girls, all a-buzz with fear and excitement. Clove herself, had honestly never been more bored in her entire life. She was just waiting for this to be over. What would she do at the end of the reaping? She wasn't sure yet.

She thought she might go say goodbye to Cato, tell him to win, to come back so she didn't have to be bored with all the sane and droll other people in her district. He had been right about how he was the only one who didn't bore her, but telling him that would only inflate his ego to an unbearable size and that was not a very appealing idea.

Even though she knew she should probably say something before Cato left for the games, she had a feeling she would most likely head off to some remote area and throw knives until he had left. Clove had never been one to have emotions, let alone express them. But it was Cato who shook her world up, and that freaked her the fuck out. There was a part of her hoping that he would die in the arena so she could return to the cold emotionless person she was used to being. But there was another part of her, a deeper part, that hoped, no that knew, he could and would win the games.

Clove had been so lost in her musings, that she had not realized the annoying incessant giggling of a few girls around her until one of them had bumped into her. "Watch it." Clove snapped at the little blonde beside her impatiently.

Normally these girls would fear her, but the blonde who had nudged her, apparently on purpose, gave her an amused look at Cloves' response. This infuriated Clove, but the blonde (who now looked more fearful), hesitantly explained, "The hot blonde guy from the Academy, he wanted me to get your attention." Clove rolled her eyes. That really didn't help her much since there were many blonde guys in the academy. However, out of sheer curiosity, she craned her neck to see who they were giggling about like brainless morons.

What she saw surprised her. It was Cato who had gotten the bumbling, blonde idiots to get her attention. Clove shot him a questioning look. 'What?' She mouthed at him, feeling her expression get very unpleasant. She remembered earlier getting dressed for the reaping and he had mocked her for picking a lavender sundress with flowers on it that tied around the waist to wear to the reaping. She still wore it now, mostly to piss him off. She had even braided her hair back and gone for a fresh-faced innocent look. He hated it when she did that. He felt it didn't quite capture her spirit in the correct way, considering her spirit was one of a psycho, sadistic, masochistic bitch. That comment had earned him a cut on his neck from her favorite knife, which pleased her to see it was still bleeding slightly. Why did Clove care if she didn't look like her true self? She wasn't even getting Reaped this year, so it didn't really matter all that much to her.

This time, he rolled his eyes as Clove glared. He just mouthed, "See me after, ok?" She knew she must've looked skeptical because he looked almost pleading (something he never looked like), "Please?"

Hesitantly Clove nodded, and the annoying girls around her dissolved into giggles again. She was seriously considering breaking the rules of killing outside of the arena right as the irritating Capitol lady stepped onto the stage. Wanda Renoir. Idiot. "Welcome, Welcome, to the reaping of the 74th Annual Hunger Games. I am so excited to see all of your eager faces once more. Let's not waste any time getting started. Remember, may the odds be ever in your favor!" She walked over to one of the big glass bowls, saying, "Ladies first!" In that obnoxious, high-pitched voice of hers. She fished around and pulled a name out, walking back to the middle of the stage. She opened the slip of folded paper, and then said clearly, "Clove Carson!"

Clove's eyes widened with excitement as clove thought to herself, 'Me. She had said me. My name. Me.' Before she even finished saying her name, Clove darted towards the stage. But before she had even climbed the stairs, she realized that any second, Deanna would volunteer, and she would lose my chance. Clove didn't falter, but she felt the excitement dull as she climbed the stairs. Wanda called for any volunteers. Clove waited, and waited... and waited. But nothing. She searched the crowd and saw Deanna shift uncomfortably, looking at the ground. Clove narrowed her eyes, and stared her down. Deanna would not meet her gaze. Clove knew Deanna had been pressured into the Academy by her parents, and when she was faced with the opportunity to go in to the arena she had faltered and lost her nerve. 'Coward.' Clove thought to herself, letting the excitement of being Tribute take over her as Wanda moved on with the reaping. Clove felt elated, but also like she was forgetting something, something vital.

It was only when Wanda drew some sickly looking 12-year-old boy's name out, and someone cried "I volunteer!" before he even reached the stage did Clove realize what she had forgotten. Cato walked up to the stage, sauntering up as if he owned the town square. Clove only let it slip for a moment, but then she forced her smirk back on her face. She had not seen Cato's anguish before when she had been chosen and Deanna didn't volunteer. She had not seen he himself falter before finally shouting that he volunteered. He did not see the look of pure shock and misery on Clove's face when she realized too late what had happened. They were both going to be entering the arena together. Which meant their games were over. In three short weeks, one of them would be dead.

When the shook hands, Clove saw a hard look in Cato's eye. He held her hand so tightly it almost crushed her hand, but she didn't flinch, instead she just dug her nails into his hand in return.

Something made out of glass crashing agains the wall in Cato's waiting room brought Clove out of her reverie, making her jump. She rolled her eyes, letting out a sigh. Cato was so predictable. When things didn't go the way he wanted, he lost control and had a temper tantrum like a small child would.

After an indefinable amount of time had passed, the peacekeepers came and escorted them both to the train. Once they were on board with their escort and mentors, Cato stormed of to his room without a word to anyone. Wanda looked offended, and Enobaria and Brutus (their mentors) looked to Clove for an explanation.

"Well what was all that about?" Wanda said.

Clove found herself rolling her eyes again (she noticed she was doing that a lot lately), saying "Cato is throwing a temper tantrum, because he is apparently a five year old." Enobaria raised her eyebrows, and Brutus looked really confused. Clove went on to explain further, "This is not how things were supposed to go. He doesn't like it when things don't go his way."

"Well it seems that you know him." Enobaria stated.

"He's my training partner." Clove said, right as there was a crash from somewhere a little ways down the train. Without another word, she turned around and followed the noises to a door which she took to be Cato's room. Before Clove had even fully entered the room he had grabbed her by her upper arms and slammed her up against the wall.

He had a wild look in his eyes, different from any she had ever seen before. He looked like he had lost complete control. They stayed like that, the only sound being their breathing, for what seemed like forever. For the first time in a while, Clove actually felt a little... not scared, but nervous. Finally Clove broke the silence. "Throwing a temper tantrum won't make things go your way Cato. Pull yourself together." She said in a reproachful tone.

"But it's not fair! This wasn't supposed to happen." He shouted. Clove knew he could be childish, but this was getting a little ridiculous.

"Life isn't fair. Get over it." Clove hissed harshly. "Because you acting like a small child is most definitely not going to change anything."

In hindsight, that was a mistake, considering she knew how unstable of a person Cato was. He pulled her away from the wall, throwing her against it again, causing her head to smack against the wall painfully. She saw stars as he shouted in her face. "But it's not fair! Deanna was supposed to volunteer! I could've won! Killing her would be easy! I didn't mind her, but I could've snapped her neck in a second and not thought twice about it."

Suddenly it dawned on her what this explosion was about. She said what he wouldn't. "But you couldn't kill me?" He refused to look at her, letting her go, pushing away from her, turning away. "Cato?" She said, touching his shoulder. He pushed her down to the ground roughly, standing over her.

"WHY DID THEY HAVE TO CHOSE YOU?" He screamed, getting in her face once more.

She shrugged. "They did. That's the fact. You can't change it. The question is, how will you handle it?" He thought for a second, then grabbed her by the arm, pulling her up off of the floor, and crashed his lips down on her with a sense of urgency. She threw her arms around him, kissing him back just as roughly. He pulled her with him, and they once again fell to the bed. She let him take his anger out this way, and she realized even she was probably taking a little of her own anger at the situation out on him as well.

Later on, after they had made sure to bruise each other thoroughly for the next day, they laid tangled together, Cato's arms around her. Out of nowhere Clove spoke. "If it makes you feel any better, killing you is not necessarily something I want to do."

She felt him shift a bit, looking at her in a way she didn't quite understand. But she felt uncomfortable under the gaze. "You say that," he said, moving a bit of hair out of her face. "however we both know when the time comes, you'd still do it."

Clove wasn't sure why, but she felt offended. "And you really think if it was down to us, you wouldn't kill me?"

He shifted once more, putting his hands behind his head, looking up at the ceiling. "I don't know." He said honestly, she could see a far off look on his face as he was deep in thought. "You've been a pain in my ass from the first day they made you my training partner."

Clove snorted a laugh, "Oh yea, and being your partner has been a total cake-walk for me too."

Cato ignored her though, still deep in his own thoughts. "Some days, I wanted to throttle you. I wanted to slice your throat open with my sword and say 'Who's the clever one now, little Clover?'" Clove shivered at his words. "And I know you've thought more than once about mutilating me with your knives." She felt herself grow hot at his words, she wasn't sure why though. He was right. She had thought about it. Whenever he bested her in practices; or whenever he had been extremely difficult to deal with, which was often. "And I know sometimes, you honestly hate me as much as I hate you." He said. "And yet, here we are, lying next to each other, without malicious intentions." For someone who was brute force, he was being strangely insightful. It's like he knew her from the inside; like he was her, or a different version of her.

"Cato. This doesn't change things." Clove said, propping herself up on her elbows to look at him. "The way we... feel won't change the situation we've gotten into." Clove spat the word "feel" like it was a curse... to her it seemed like one. Until Cato, she didn't really know what feeling was.

He looked up at her. "I know. I also know that you understand what it means to my parents and my brothers... and what it means to me. I know I shouldn't have volunteered... but it was my last chance and I was born to-"

"I know, Cato. I don't blame you." She said for the first time since...ever. "I blame Deanna, because she is a spineless coward." Clove continued on honestly. "But, I couldn't help but feel excited to go into the arena, even though-"

"Yea I get it." Cato said, letting his head fall back down on the pillow. "I know you better than you think I do." She looked away, and he caught her movements, but didn't comment. "I also know how much it means to you, even though you won't say it." She looked back at him. "It's because of them." Clove knew who he meant without him even needing to clarify. Her parents. She looked away again. "They were terrible to you when they were around. That's why you are so glad they aren't there most of the time. They pressured you to do this, to be this. You want to win, to go home and show them you did it and didn't need their help. That you don't need them and you never did."

Clove felt too close to Cato right now. He did know her better than she thought; he'd paid more attention to her over the years that she had thought he had. Suddenly she felt like this whole "sharing time" they had going on was just way too much for her to handle. She pushed herself up into a sitting position and grabbed for her bra, but his hand shot out, holding hers tightly. "No. Don't do that."

"Do what?" She said, pretending she wasn't just about to leave.

"Don't leave just because this is too much for you right now. It's too much for me to, ok? I don't wanna feel at all. But I do for you, even if it is twisted." He said, and she could tell how uncomfortable he was saying all this, he almost seemed like he was in pain just saying the words.

Clove tried to hide it but she couldn't help but smirk at him. She let him pull her back down to the bed. She straddled him, sliding her hands down his stomach, feeling the muscles tense under her touch. "Wow Cato," she said in that way that seemed like she was turned on, but there was an edge. "I didn't know you had become so... WEAK!" She shouted, laughing hard, knowing it would piss him off.

"Hey, watch it, you!" He growled.

"Oh I'm so scared!" She taunted him.

He flipped her over, pinning her down with a growl, causing her to shriek with delight. He didn't mention, as he kissed her roughly enough to bruise her lips, that she was just as weak as he was. But he knew saying that would make her close off and stop talking to him, stop being with him. He didn't want to risk that considering how short of an amount of time they had. He was gonna enjoy it while he could.