Sad...takes place immediately after the District 2 reaping.

I own nothing and please enjoy. Comments and reviews in the doobly-do

Cato, my friend

Part 4

It was the visiting hour, the small amount of time between being selected as tribute and boarding the train for the Capitol. They placed me in a tall sparsely decorated room with one extremely large window going from floor to roof at the end of the room. I looked out the window to see almost all of district two below me. Sprawled out in a maze of buildings and shops, I had seen it all before, but from a better view. Errol had shown me how to climb to the top of the station tower, it was the highest place in District two. We climbed there after my training and his deliveries, we had lunch and I gave Errol a piece of Lemon cake, which I knew was his favorite. He ate it quickly and laughed while he did it.

It then occurred to me what kind of person Errol was. Kind, energetic and to an extent, brave, but he was weak, a weak fragile thing who's only real method of survival was his ability to run quickly and jump with incredible agility. But somewhere in the bottom of my gut their was an odd feeling, it just kept making me think, "What would he be like as an opponent in the Hunger Games?" I laughed inwardly at the thought, but as I looked at him staring over the city, with lemon cake crumbs on his messenger scarf, part of me never wanted to find out what Errol was like in the games.

Mom and Dad visited first, they were so proud, mom told me the best methods of controlling the weaker Tributes and making them do my dirty work, just to stab them in the back when they had served their purpose. Dad when on for a few minutes about how to make the deadliest cut with a knife, sword, spear and other weapons we had trained with over the years. The three of us planned for as long as we could before their time was up.

A few of my friends from class visited me, they all told me to win and make those lesser tributes suffer for daring to be in a game against me, as if they had a choice. Eventually time ran down and it was my last twenty minutes. As the last of my family and friends left the room Errol walked in. Errol was always my guilty pleasure. My family didn't really know about him and my school friends picked on him constantly, but as he walked in, so shy and so out of place I was happy to see him. He walked past my family and took a seat next to me on the couch.

"Aren't you happy for me?" I asked with a crooked grin. Errol only looked up at me. "Cato, please don't die." He said in almost a whisper.

This was almost too much. "The hell are you talking about?" I stood in front of him, my hulking frame almost completely overshadowing his. "The champion never dies!" I was fuming at the thought, of all the people I expected to believe in me I always thought Errol was one. I had saved him from danger countless times, but he still didn't think I was strong enough to win the games? "Calm down Cato, I don't mean it the way you think. Please sit down." I sat slowly, Errol was being unusually direct today, he never told me what to do.

-Errol's View-

When Cato finally sat down I continued. "We've all seen the game Cato, the evil and destruction the Hunger Games causes. People...good people, forced to fight for their lives only to be picked off like animals!" I balled my fist and welled up.

"Please don't be that!" I pleaded to him. "Don't be a killer who treats life like a contest, those other tributes are people too. Full of lives and passion for the ones they love!" At this point I was crying, but I continued with tears streaming down my face. "I don't want the Cato that I know to die! The Cato who protects me and makes me happy, the Cato who took me to a field of flowers, because he knew I loved them! The Cato who protected me from the bullies and saved my from falling to me death. The Cato..." I sniffled, still having troubled getting the rest of my words out. "The Cato who said he would always be there to protect me...The Cato I love..." I had said it, because I knew I might never have another chance to say it. "So please...please don't let that Cato die..." I finished and tried wiping the tears away, but my face burned at my eyes were stinging red.

I didn't look at Cato, I couldn't, but I felt him grab my shoulder and he pulled me closer. He grabbed his shirt and started drying off my face. It was something that Cato had always done for me when we were kids, and a few times in the more recent years. It always cheered me up because when he was using his shirt to wipe my face he exposed his stomach, and seeing it always made me smile inwardly. After he finished he lifted my face up and forced me to look in his eyes, and he spoke with the calmness and force of the sun itself, "Like I said...the champion never dies." He pulled me into an embrace. It was so warm, full of the compassion and mercy I knew few people were afforded from Cato. I wrapped my arms around him and squeezed out a few more tears. We stayed like this until the sound of a throat clearing alerted us to Talmud's presence.

"Time to depart." Talmud said before leaving the room. Cato let me go and wiped my face one last time. He looked down at me and said the last words I would ever hear face to face with him. "I'll be home soon." With that I stood and walked out with Cato as far as I could. I kept crying as Cato disappeared behind the doors with Talmud, and like a fantasy he was gone.

I'd wished I'd said more, but our time was short, but as he walked with Talmud past the doors I saw him pull up his tear stained shirt up to his own eyes and quickly wipe away tears that would blend with mine.