I don't own The Hunger Games.

Clove was content.

No, she was more than content.

She was happy. She and Cato had finally broken through that initial rough patch where he was nothing but a pain in her ass, and now she saw the guy that everyone had told her he could be. She was excited to see where this would lead- it had been a long time since she had strong feelings for someone.

"Um, Earth to Clove. Clove…Clo?"

"Clo?" Clove returned from her own little world to Cato's presence. They were lounging on his couch in the half hour prior to Clove's soccer training. Clove was sat cross-legged, Cato's head resting on her knee.

"Well, yeah. Couples do nicknames. It's like the law." He reasoned, flicking through channels on the television.

"Except we're not a couple." Clove reminded him, poking the space between his eyebrows.

"Yet." Cato smirked, earning himself a flick on the nose.

"Get up." She instructed. When he didn't, she pushed his head so that he rolled over and reluctantly sat up.

"Is it so bad that I want to be close to you?" Cato asked, raising an eyebrow. Clove melted a little inside, but threw the feeling off with a mock look of disgust.

"Yes. I have to go back to my room and change."

"Can I come?" Cato laughed until he started to whither under Clove's glare.

"Seriously though, I want to see you in action."

"Cato!" Clove punched him hard in the shoulder.

"I meant as soccer captain!" He protested, but Clove continued to glare. "Honestly, that's what I meant."

"Fine. Meet me at the elevator in fifteen minutes." She said, and got up to leave.

When she got back to her room, Melissa was already back from her own training.

"Hi!" She greeted Clove sunnily as she grabbed a bottle of water from the mini fridge.

"Hey." Clove nodded to her. "You shouldn't drink that- it's expensive."

"I'll fill it back up with normal water." Melissa promised. "So…I have something exciting to tell you."

"Shoot." Clove pulled her t-shirt off and replaced it with a skin tight black sport vest.

"I think I'm in love." Melissa smiled shyly at her.

"What?!" Clove stopped halfway through changing into her bright pink spandex shorts. "With who?!"

"This really, really amazing guy that I've been friends with forever. It's Cato. Cato Stone. I just feel like I have this really deep connection to him and I really want to try and make a go of things with him. I'm going to ask him out when we get back to school." Melissa explained, grinning as she fiddled with the label on her water bottle.

Fuck my life, Clove thought to herself. Of all the guys in their school, of the guy's on the whole damn planet, it just had to be Cato. Melissa had been hanging around him forever and she always grinned at him, but Clove had thought it was just a little crush that would pass quickly and never be acted on. But love? That was not good. Melissa was always there for Clove, and she'd known Cato for way longer than she herself had.

"Well." Clove forced a smile. "That's great. Good luck in advance, for when we're back."

She was screwed. Royally, epically, massively screwed.

…

"Clo. Clovey. Clovers. Clo-clo."

"Excuse me?" Clove addressed Cato coldly when she met him at the elevator.

"I'm just trying out new nicknames. You know, for when I'm going to end up as the best boyfriend you've ever had. So far I think I'm going to go for 'Scary', especially if you keep looking at me like that." Cato smiled at her warmly, and outstretched his hand.

"I don't think you should come to my training." Clove said emotionlessly, looking at the floor.

"Why?" Cato asked, looking slightly confused.

"I just don't, okay?! God, why do I need a reason?" She snapped at him. It hurt her to act this way, but it was the quickest way to get the job done.

"Keep your shit together, Clove. What's up?" Cato asked. Why did he have to be so damn nice to her? He was making this harder than it needed to be.

"Maybe you should go get some training in yourself! You know, maybe start acting like the athlete you claim to be? I don't need you to hover around me, so just fuck off and leave me alone!" Clove yelled, punching the elevator button next to his arm.

"You know what Clove? If you're going to be a bitch, then I'm going to walk away. I'll call you tonight and hope you don't bite my head off then as well." Cato glared at her before scoffing and walking off.

It had been a day and this 'relationship' was already a fucking mess.

…

Cato slammed his door shut and growled in frustration. He didn't understand girls- he never really had had and he never really would. One minute Clove was laughing and having a good time with him and the next…Well. It hadn't exactly gone well. Cato let out another growl and kicked the door for good measure.

"Whoa." Finnick popped up from behind the breakfast bar, chocolate bar in hand. "Who pissed in your cereal?"

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Cato asked, after having jumped out of his skin at the appearance of his friend.

"Raiding your mini fridge, duh." Finnick looked at Cato like he was crazy.

"You're such a fuckling." Cato sneered, throwing himself onto the couch.

"A fuckling?" Finnick chuckled. "Seriously though, what's wrong with you?"

"It's Clove. She's just…ugh. I don't even know." He explained, turning the television on with the remote.

"You've got to give her time. She's not used to…Well, to you." Finnick abandoned the mini fridge and joined Cato one the couch.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"She's not used to guys that get a lot of attention, or could swim in a pool of money, or doesn't give two shits about those things. Her last boyfriend was poor, barely communicated with his family, and now gets with anything that moves." Finnick explained, reclining back on the brown leather.

"How do you know all this?" Cato looked at him suspiciously.

"Annie told me."

"How does she know?"

"Melissa."

"Great. Nothing's ever private." Cato sighed, rolling his eyes in distaste.

"That's just life, kiddo." Finnick shrugged his shoulders.

"Don't call me kiddo, you freak."

…

Johanna was not a happy bunny. Her day at started with her being shooed from some guy's hotel room because his girlfriend would be back soon. Then somebody had walked into her and spilt coffee all over her shirt. Now she was at training and it was freezing, but that was okay because Clove was melting the ice with her fiery hot glares.

"I said ten laps! Now!" She screamed at the girls, who were standing around panting.

"We just did five, on top of all that dribbling work." Katniss panted, holding her side.

"Did I say you could talk?!" Clove snapped. "Twelve laps, now!"

"Clove, they'll get injured and we can't play tomorrow with half a team." Johanna stepped in as the team began their laps around the pitch.

"I'm doing this so they don't get injured. It's called fitness, Johanna. Look it up." Clove said, narrowing her eyes at the older girl.

"Calm the fuck down Clove. I do not need to come out here and get shoved around by you- none of us do. Ease up or I will bench you." Johanna snapped back, pointing a finger at Clove.

"You can't bench me, I'm the captain." She rolled her eyes.

"Keep this shit up and watch me. You know me, I'll beak your leg if I have to."

"Fuck you, Johanna. This is my team. I can do what I want."

"Listen to me, girlie." Johanna stepped closer to Clove, glare in place. "I don't know how things work for you on the track team, but here this won't work. You can't scream and shout and get your way, no matter how pissed off you are. We don't care that you're mad, we're here to train."

With that Johanna jogged away, calling for the girls to stop running and start doing their drills. Clove rubbed her face wearily and sighed into her hands. It seemed like nothing was going her way that day, and like nothing would for a long time.