I don't own The Hunger Games.

"Hey."

It was a breezy day, and the figure in front of Clove had his grey hood pulled over his head. She recognized him easily though, from the white and blue basketball shorts he wore.

"Hey. What's up?" Marvel grinned warmly at Clove and stood up to greet her. They hugged for a few seconds before she pulled back.

"I'm sorry I called you out of the blue. I know that we're not really that close, I just-"

"Don't." Marvel stopped her. "I may not have known you all that long, but you've been a good friend the past few weeks. It's fine that you called- I'm glad you did."

"Oh. Thanks." Clove smiled, and made a mental note of how genuinely nice Marvel was.

"So what's going on? You sounded pretty tense on the phone." Marvel sat back down again and patted the sand next to him. It was a grey day at the beach and there was hardly anyone around, but Clove liked it better that way.

"Ugh. I can't really get into it." Clove sighed as she sat down and rested her head in her hands.

"I'm a good listener, but if you just want to sit and look at the ocean then we can do that too."

A few minutes of silence passed. Clove played with fistfuls of sand as Marvel watched the water.

"It's just…" Clove looked up at him, frowning. "Do you ever feel like you're a planet, orbiting the sun? Like no matter what you do, despite your best efforts, you always end up being pulled back to the same old thing?"

"Sometimes." Marvel nodded thoughtfully, not breaking eye contact. The wind whipped at his hair, sending strands flying upwards. "Life's tough. Sometimes you just can't shake something that's holding you back for a long time."

"But…The sun isn't holding me back. It makes me feel alive, only there are other planets that orbit it and I know that I'm not the right planet to get there." Clove said, sticking with her metaphor. It made sense- everybody seemed to revolve around Cato like he had some sort of pulling force over them.

"Well, sometimes a bad thing is disguised as a good thing. Sometimes what makes you feel good for a while can make you feel bad for a long time afterwards. You just have to cut it free." Marvel shrugged, tracing lines in the sand. Clove sighed again and looked away.

"Come on." Marvel said after a short silence. He took Clove's hand and pulled her up. "I hope you're wearing flip-flops."

He pulled her towards the water's edge and picked up a flat, grey stone.

"You skimmed a rock before?" Marvel asked, offering her a lopsided grin.

"Obviously." Clove snorted. She took the stone and skimmed it across the waves, counting four bounces before it disappeared into the depths.

"Not bad, not bad. But watch this." Marvel effortlessly flicked the rock across the water, and it bounced seven times before vanishing.

"Impressive." Clove smirked. "But how does this relate to anything?"

"Wait for it." Marvel grinned again and pulled a black marker pen out of his hoodie pocket. He scrawled something onto a new rock and skimmed it across the sea.

"What did you write?" Clove frowned.

"My problem." Marvel offered her the pen. "I wrote down what had been troubling me on the stone, and then I flung it away. You try."

Clove took the pen and found a flat brown rock. She tapped the pen against her chin for a few seconds before writing 'LIFE' in big letters across the surface. Then she skimmed it away as Marvel applauded.

"I know that there's more than one problem here, Clove. Do it again." He ordered. Clove mock saluted him with the pen and thought about what to write. This time she wrote 'BRYCE' in block capitals and flung it into the ocean.

"Again!"

The pattern continued, with Clove skimming rocks and Marvel yelling at her to keep going. Finally she held the last rock in her hand. She thought about it for a few seconds before writing 'CATO' across the surface. She skimmed it, but it only bounced twice before sinking.

"Guess that's the problem you can't get rid of." Marvel grinned.

"No." Clove muttered. "Perhaps not."

…

Dinner had been nice. Melissa made for good company- she was a nice girl, and she laughed at his jokes. Their conversation had mainly focused on football, cheerleading, college and going back to school. Cato didn't exactly feel a connection to her, but they had another hour at least left of their evening and he wasn't going to give up hoping that maybe there was a little 'Clove' inside her.

"So, what's your favourite colour?" Melissa asked, going straight in for the deep question. Cato snorted as they walked down the beach, Melissa carrying her sandals in her right hand.

"I don't know, blue?" He shrugged.

"Your favourite colour says a lot about you, you know." Melissa smiled up at him. Cato couldn't help but smile lazily back- she was like a puppy that got excited to be around you.

"Yeah? Like what?"

"I'm not really sure." Melissa shrugged. She walked ahead of him a few steps and turned around to face him as walked backwards. "That you're hot? That you're falling in love with me?"

Cato laughed and subtly avoided eye contact.

"The ocean looks nice." He pointed at where the reflection of the moon glimmered on the surface.

"Right? Let's go closer." Melissa grabbed Cato's hand and pulled him to shore line.

"Look." She crouched down and picked up a rock, running her finger along it to know off the sand. "That's really weird."

She handed it to Cato, revealing his name written in black across the flat surface of the rock.

"That is weird." He agreed, pocketing the rock.

"Maybe it just means that this is meant to be." Melissa grinned at him.

"Look, Melissa-"

"Wait. Let me go first." She took a deep breath. "I know that I don't look like Glimmer or Cashmere, or have Johanna's wit, or Katniss' patience, or Clove's athleticism. But that doesn't mean that I'm not great in my own ways, and I want more chances to prove that to you."

"I know that you're great, Missy. Not many people could live with Clove for so long and avoid being murdered, so that must make you pretty awesome." Cato smirked. Melissa laughed lightly, and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Seriously. You're a good-" Before he could finish his sentence with the word 'friend', Melissa had pressed her lips against Cato's.

Ah, fuck it. Cato thought to himself, and kissed her back. At least he was getting somewhere with one of the sisters, albeit not the one he wanted.