Chapter Six: The Darkest Hour

I could just sleep away the rest of my life. It would be so simple. I'd just go to bed one night and never get up. Eternal peace.

If only I weren't so hungry.

Internally, I kick myself for not eating last night. That was pretty stupid of me – now I have to get up. I glance over at the clock, desperately hoping that it's not ridiculously early. The numbers tell me that it's 12:07.

12:07!

Groaning, I drag myself out of bed – there's no way I'm going to make it until morning without food. I throw on a robe that's hanging in my tiny closet, and step in to a pair of slippers that are by the door. I stumble into the hallway and make my way to the dining room. Someone's already there, though. My throat goes dry.

What? It's just Cato. Why would my throat dry up because of him? I hardly had anything to drink last night, I reason with myself. All I had was that tiny glass of water I ordered from that machine in my –

Ah, hell. I really need to start using my brain a little more in the morning.

Cato looks up at me. "You couldn't sleep, either?"

I shake my head, embarrassed. "I was just hungry."

"Oh yeah," he says, frowning. "I forgot you didn't eat."

Nodding, I walk over to the buffet counter on the far side of the room and fill a small plate with food. Then, I sit down across from Cato.

He raises his eyebrows. "Um, you do know there's a machine in your room and you can just go ahead and order–"

I cut him off. "I know, I know. It's the morning thinking. I tend to not think things through all that well until I've been up for a while."

He grins. "I can see that," he says, nodding towards my slippers. Glancing down, I see that they're on the wrong feet.

I close my eyes, sighing. "I'd say that's the most ridiculous thing I've ever done in the morning, but that'd be a lie. I've had much worse than this."

Cato smirks. "Such as?"

I sigh, resigned. "Okay… well, there was one thing when I was maybe twelve. I had to get up really early to train with Brutus, and he had told me the day before to bring a mace, because he thought I needed to work with them more. Only, I had stayed up really late that night, and the next morning… instead of the mace, I grabbed the whisk. Brutus thought I was completely insane!"

Cato doesn't respond, and I look at him anxiously. I see that he's doubled over laughing, and his face is turning purple.

I smack him on the arm. "It's not funny!"

"It's very funny, and you know it," he chokes out.

I glare at him.

Finally, he calms down. "Don't worry about it," he says. "I've done some pretty stupid stuff, too."

"Such as?" I ask loftily.

He sighs. "Okay, you know how I kind of bounced between trainers?" I nod. "Well, it was my first day with a new one, and I was actually pretty nervous, because I'd heard that she could be really mean. Anyway – you know, this is kind of similar to what you did – she had told me to bring a mace. Only she talked kind of funny and it sounded like she said lace…"

I grin. "Don't tell me…"

Cato groans. "It was awful! I showed up with twenty yards of my mom's best lace, the trainer thought I was mental…"

It's my turn to laugh. "Are you serious? What did she do?"

He closes his eyes, as if trying to block out the memory. "I don't remember exactly, I was really young. Believe me, if that happened now I'd know that she wouldn't have asked me to bring lace!"

I shake my head, still giggling. "I can't picture that."

Cato narrows his eyes. "What, me bringing lace to training or being able to know that I shouldn't?"

This just makes me laugh harder.

Cato stands up and walks over to me, where I'm bent over and clutching my sides because they hurt so badly. "Whisk," he whispers in my ear.

This is very effective in shutting me up.

"So, why are you here?" I ask curiously.

He frowns. "Do you want me to leave?"

I sigh. "You know that's not what I meant. I mean, why are you out of bed? Didn't you eat last night?"

"Yeah," he says. "But I couldn't sleep. I kept thinking about what Enobaria said. About us not acting like Careers." Cato's eyes seem to darken. "She's right! It was so easy for her to scare us, to distract us with a little lie about Finnick Odair."

"In our defense, it was a pretty big lie," I mutter mutinously.

"No! That's the point, Clove! Who cares if he was related to them? If he's their mentor anyway? I'm sure Finnick trained tons of people back in Four. And he tries his best to get his tributes back no matter who they are, every mentor does!"

After thinking about it for a minute, I have to agree with him. "I guess so," I say slowly, "but still. That was kind of a lot to spring on us at once."

He shrugs. "That's the Hunger Games for you, though."

I decide that I'm sick of discussing such serious topics. I try to lighten the mood. "So, have you decided what angle you're going with for your interview?"

Cato rolls his eyes. "We're allies, Clove, but I can hardly give away all my secrets!"

I blush. "Right."

He scowls. Wow, people have been doing that so much today. "I don't really see that it matters. It's just a stupid interview. I don't care what they think of me."

"But it's very important!" I exclaim, shocked. "The interview is where potential sponsors decide whether or not they like you. And sponsors can make or break your entire Games!"

He just glowers at the floor. "I don't care! It's not important to me. And besides," he adds, his tone becoming much lighter, teasing almost, "it only matters to you because it means you get to wear another pretty dress!"

I grin at him. "Maybe. But I can't help but feel like this time it's going to matter. Like something big is going to happen."

Cato snorts. "Sure, Clove. But really, you did looks nice at the opening ceremonies. And the reaping, too," he says, smiling.

I blush again. Why am I blushing? I don't know, but one thing is clear. This cannot continue, or we're going to get hurt.

"What are we doing, Cato?" I whisper.

He looks surprised at my sudden change of tone. "What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean!" I say desperately. " What I mean is that I don't think I could kill someone who feels like a friend. So having someone who I care about in the arena is dangerous for me. And the more I'm around you, the better we seem to get along, and obviously that's a bad thing. Because sometime in the next couple of weeks, one of us is going to die. Die, Cato. So we can't be friends. Ever."

Cato stays quiet for a moment. "Do I feel like a friend, Clove?"

I press my hands against my eyes. "I don't know," I say angrily. "All I do know is that we can't be friends. Period. If we try, all it's going to do is get us both killed!"

He's silent for another minute. Then, "You're right."

"I know I am."

He hesitates. "So… still allies?" I nod, silently wishing that we were back in District Two. There, we wouldn't have to worry about killing or being killed or any of this. We could be friends.

And this is exactly why we need to quit this. Because victors do not go around making friends, or wishing they could be friends, with their opponents. It's just too dangerous!

I turn to leave – I can't take much more of this. But his voice stops me.

"Clove?"

I turn back around. "Yes?"

He smiles at me. "We still have dibs on Fire Girl, right?"

I give him a small, sad smile in return. "Sure," I say quietly. "I think we should still be able to handle that."

Cato lets me go without another word, and I'm grateful. Somehow I make it back to my room, and I collapse on the bed, feeling completely miserable.

I loved writing this chapter. :D Clove and Cato might seem a little OOC, but, you know, they're both tired, it's late, and they've had a long day. Anyway, there's not going to be any Cato/Clove romance in this story, because that's just waaaay too OOC for me to write. For now... maybe I'll write something like that later on. ;) Anyway... I was going to wait until tomorrow to post this, but I got really nice reviews for the last chapter. :) So, I hope you liked this... review, please!

~What the Quell