A/N: Up 'til 11:30 tonight writing. C:
Alot of you were upset because Cato was acting, and then lots of you were wishing for Clove to go away already. And I know, I sort of messed up Katniss' character last chapter, and some of you were against that. Then there were the ones who REALLY wanted some nice fluff. So I tried to meet as many of your requests as possible. Hope that this chapter is alright.
Enjoy! :)
Cato:
Ok, I probably brought this new rule on. Enobaria said that the Capitol liked the whole "Katniss and Cato" affair, but do they really like it this much?
"You're not even his district partner!" Clove yells at Katniss.
"So it's my fault to want to get out alive?" She retorts.
"Calm down, you two. There's plenty of me to go around." I smirk. But inside, I'm getting more and more confused.
"Not funny, Cato. Who are you going to choose?" Clove slaps me in the arm and then proceeds to glare at Katniss with renewed hostility.
Ok. Moment of truth. Clove, who may just be my best friend…or a strange girl that I've only met a few days ago. A girl that I had been so set on killing until that night under the willow. Since then, I guess that she's grown on me a bit. A bit.
The answer is so obvious, so blatantly laid out. Of course I should choose Clove. But I can't ignore Katniss' wide grey eyes, ever hopeful. She's so innocent that she can almost be cute at times.
But now that I have to choose between them, I see both of them in a different light. Clove, with her personality so similar to mine, a companion for almost a decade. Always up for some violence, never afraid to speak what she is thinking. Then there's Katniss. She can be so stubborn. But she's always trying to help other people. Lover Boy and the District 11 girl…that wasn't necessary. Then she insisted on getting some of that ointment onto my arm.
They are the only two girls I've met that I don't get bored with. And I have to choose? Damn it.
"We'll stay with the alliance for now. I'll decide later." I say, stalling for time. I think that I'll just wait until one of them is killed, or until it's just us three left.
"Ugh. The choice should be obvious, Cato." Clove snorts, turning her back to Katniss and me.
It should be obvious. But it isn't.
Katniss:
Today you're not going to act like an idiot in front of Cato or Clove. You're going to act normally. Before I open my eyes, I repeat these lines over and over in my head. I'm not going to be that crazy blushing girl again. I need to be strong…for everyone back home who's watching me right now.
I open my eyes and sit up. Cato is refilling water bottles by the lake, and Clove is sharpening knives.
"Finally up?" Clove remarks as I stand up. She tosses me a loaf of bread a little too forcefully. I know that she's still annoyed about last night.
"So we'll try to get District 3 today." Cato is saying. "Or we could try for Lover Boy and the girl."
Clove runs a finger over the flat of a blade. "Why not both?"
"We could if we split up. You can get District 3, and I'll get Lover Boy."
"What? That is so unfair! I want to get Lover Boy." Clove's face starts contorting into a scowl, and she stabs a knife into the ground.
"And where will I go if we split up?" I ask. Hopefully not with Clove. I have a feeling that she will have no trouble killing me if the need arose.
"She's not coming with me." The brunette sends me a dark look and continues slicing up the grass with her knives.
"Whoever has her gets to kill Lover Boy." Cato smirks offhandedly. Clove pauses and seems to be thinking it over.
"Nah. Not worth it."
"Thanks Clove. That makes me feel wonderful as an individual." I interject sarcastically. I've been sort of useless without a bow, but I can't really be that bad.
"Since you probably can't do much with that knife…" Cato looks at the small silver weapon in my belt. I agree with him, the knife hasn't been of much use.
He unzips his rucksack and pulls out…a bow and a quiver of arrows.
"I thought that you'd thrown them into the lake!" He hands them to me, and I run my hands over the bow fondly.
"Did I tell you that? Oops." He snickers. I check the quiver. There are 12 arrows, lovely silver arrows.
"And don't you even think about shooting one of us with that bow." Clove snaps at me. She glowers at Cato; she was probably against giving me the bow.
"I'm not going to shoot you!" I reply, annoyed. Did she really think that I would do something like that when either one of them could kill me just as fast?
"It's not too late to change your mind about having her with you. With that bow, it'll be quick." Cato grins at her teasingly.
"I don't want it to be quick." She scowls, packing up her knives.
I feel a new kind of power with this bow in my hands. I know that I can be useful, dangerous…deadly.
…
"Don't move." I whisper to Cato. He hasn't noticed it yet, but a large bird is roosting in a tree. He pauses midstep and gently puts his foot down at my words.
I silently string my bow and take cat-like steps closer to the bird. It seems to be sleeping, one leg is tucked into its stomach-feathers. It's too easy. The bird falls from the trees with a thump. I pick it up by the neck and pull out my arrow from the feathery body. Not my usual clean shot through the eye, but good enough.
"Lunch is served." I say, returning to where Cato is still standing. He looks at the bloody carcass in my hands, a look of disgust flashes over his face.
"I'm not eating that. We already have food." Oh yeah. He's probably never eaten stuff that someone actually hunted. District 2 is very wealthy in contrast to the other districts, so I guess that all his life, Cato's been having luxury meat. Pigs and cows and chickens raised to be slaughtered.
"It's meat. Take it or leave it." I snap. We're in the freaking Hunger Games, there's no room for pickiness.
"I'll just have the stuff in my backpack." He smirks. I should be the one smirking, it's his loss. Back home, I could probably trade a large fowl like this for a few loaves of nice bread, and maybe a few coins a piece of fruit.
I quickly pluck the bird and start a fire. As I roast the meat, Cato stares at me, chewing on a loaf of bread and a strip of dried meat that he pulls out from his bag.
"Don't tell me that this is the first time that you've shot something and ate it." He snickers. The way he says it makes me sound barbaric.
I don't want to answer, because I might endanger the people back home by implying that I've hunted before.
I change the subject. "Where do you think they are?" We haven't seen any signs of Peeta or Rue. But we see the charred remains of trees everywhere, although not as many as there should be. I have a feeling that the Game makers will have all the burned greenery gone by the end of the day.
"Definitely near a water source. Maybe in a cave, but not in the open." He replies. I remove the roasted bird from the fire. Normally I would eat it with some type of flavoring or herb added in, but I've found nothing of the sort in the arena.
"Are you sure that you don't want any?" I rip off a leg and offer it to him. Cato wrinkles his nose.
"No. I'm sure. Can you eat that while we walk?" He stomps out the fire and swings his backpack over a shoulder.
"Well you're not giving me much of a choice." I reply. I wrap the rest of the bird in a piece of cloth that I found in my backpack and eat the leg as we start walking.
"I wonder how Clove's doing." I say.
"Probably still looking."
"Yeah, we would probably hear screaming if she's found him." I smile at the thought. Clove would definitely try to have fun with District 3 when she found him.
"Yes, that's something to be expected." He smirks and pushes through a tangle of leaves.
Cato:
She really is damn good with that bow. I think grudgingly as we step through a mess of branches. If she hadn't been in the alliance and had that bow, I would have made her a top-priority opponent. Luckily she is on my side. I doubt that she'll even think about shooting me with that thing.
Thank god she isn't acting like a blushing idiot today. I hate girls like that.
It seems like the bow has given her confidence…while she seemed so weak and powerless before, now I regard her as an equal. Well, almost an equal.
"Cato, look!" Katniss suddenly says, stopping. I turn, expecting it to be another one of those filthy birds, but it's not.
A shred of black fabric is snagged on a branch, clearly ripped while the person had been trying to escape quickly.
"We're close." I rub the shred between my fingers while scanning our surroundings for more clues.
"There." Again it is Katniss who notices the…is it a sock? Yes, a sock is on the ground, covered with a black film of ash, about ten meters ahead.
We move with more caution now, it doesn't matter if they try to run, but I'd rather catch them by surprise.
We continue for a bit, every few yards finding something that leads us on. They must really be careless, they've basically laid out a trail for us to follow.
"Shhh…" Katniss suddenly whispers. She seems to be listening for something. Then I hear it, the sound of quiet talking coming from further ahead. I think that the stream is where they are, we'd veered off of it earlier to follow the trail.
"I'll get Lover Boy, you shoot the girl." I mutter. Katniss nods, although there is some doubt in her eyes.
I rush forward, pushing through the brambles near the stream. Katniss quickly follows. But the situation is not what I expected.
Both of them are clutching knives, posed to strike. They look like they've been ready for a while. We all stand there, motionless for a second. It's a trap.
In the split moment that it takes for my hand to grab a knife from my belt, Lover Boy throws his at us.
I think that he was aiming for me, but he clearly could not throw at a target, and the knife zips towards Katniss instead. She still seems to be confused and her bow is slack in her hands.
Lover Boy's look of determination changes to one of horror as he realizes what will happen next. The knife seems to sail through the air in slow motion, directed at Katniss' chest.
Shit.
Katniss:
Peeta would do something like that? And Rue too, clutching a knife with a fierce expression on her face. I think of the gentle boy with the bread and I can't imagine him setting up a trap like this.
My eyes are concentrated on Peeta's face, questioning his motives. I see something silver zooming towards me, but I do not comprehend what it is.
.
Just then, Cato slams into me, pushing me to the ground. I turn my head in time to see a knife pierce his arm and the red substance that seems to spray into the air on impact. I realize what happened, and my hands tighten around my bow as I shakily rise.
"What are you doing? Shoot!" Cato yells as he falls. I string my bow and point it at Peeta, then Rue. But I can't. I can't shoot. The way that their faces reflect the horror that is definitely on my face…
"Shoot already!" Cato is wincing as he quickly pulls out the blade lodged in his bicep.
Peeta seems to come to his senses, and grabs Rue and starts hobbling away as fast as he can. I let go of my arrow, eyes closed. I don't want to see them die.
By the cry of pain that pierces the air, I know that I've hit the target. But when I open my eyes, I still see the escaping forms. My arrow is sticking out of Rue's shoulder. Not fatal, definitely painful.
"Give me that!" Cato suddenly yanks my bow from my hands and nearly rips my quiver while picking an arrow. He lifts the bow, pulling back the bowstring with his uninjured arm.
Peeta and Rue are still in shooting range, and Cato rushes forward, bow in hand. He lets go, and I watch the arrow sail through the air and…
Rue collapses with a faint thump, the arrow went through her back. Peeta looks back and his eyes widen. I watch as he kneels down beside the small body, uttering words that I cannot catch.
Cato drops the bow and dashes forward with a knife in hand- it is the one that Peeta threw at him, I can tell by the blood that still drips from the silver blade.
As the cannon fires, Peeta runs. At the same time, Cato throws the knife.
As soon as the knife is out of his hand, Cato is clutching at his wound, trying to hold back the blood that is trickling out of it. Oh…he threw with his injured arm. Peeta is out of sight before the knife hits the ground, and I can't help but feel relieved.
.
"Oh my god! Are you okay?" I burst out as Cato lets out a sigh of disappointment.
"It's fine." He replies, but more blood trickles down his sleeve and I notice his fingers tightening.
"Let's get out of here, I'll patch you up." I say, eyeing the blood-soaked shirt sleeve. We move further downstream, and stop at a patch of clover that spreads from the stream to the trees. Sunlight filters through the branches of an oak above us.
"Ok, let's stop here." I look through my bag for the cloth that still holds the remains of the bird as Cato sits down, wincing.
I find it and wet it in the stream.
"Uh, I might have to cut up your shirt." I say lamely. The wound is pretty high up on his bicep, almost at his shoulder.
"It'll be easier for me to just take it off." Cato manages to smirk as he takes off his bloodied shirt.
Ok then…
"I'm going to clean off some of the blood, okay?" I try to gently wipe his arm with the cloth. If only Prim or mother was here to tell me what to do…
When most of the blood other than the fresh blood seeping out of the cut is gone, I lean forward to take a closer look.
"It's bad, isn't it?" I bet that Cato's in pain, but his voice sounds remotely bored.
Actually, it's worse than I'd thought. The knife seems to have pierced through the muscle, not quite to the bone, but about half-way through. I rinse out the cloth and start wiping at the new blood.
"No…" I draw out the word. Cato sighs again and when I look up, he is rolling his eyes.
"You don't have to lie. I know that it's pretty bad."
"That knife was meant for me." I mutter, rummaging through my pack for bandages.
"No, he was trying to hit me. But he obviously couldn't throw." Cato snickers. I don't know how he can be so…Cato-like…even when he's hurt.
"If his aim was right, would it have hit you?" It's my fault for not moving out of the way that Cato got the knife, so I feel guilty.
"No." He says, then he pushes his pack towards me. "Bandages are in the front pocket."
I take out a bandage and wrap it around the wound, carefully. Cato doesn't make a sound, not even a whimper or hiss of pain, but instead just stares at my hands fumbling with the knot.
"Would the knife have killed me if you didn't jump in front of me?" I can't stop asking questions, I feel horrible about the whole situation. If only I had acted quicker and shot at Peeta before he threw the knife…
"Probably."
"Then why didn't you just let me die? You and Clove could win together then." I say.
"I don't know. It was the first thing that came to mind." He replies. I tie the bandage tightly and repack the bags.
"I'm sorry…about everything today." I say quietly.
"Clove was wrong. It was worth it." He replies, a small smile forming on his lips.
"What was?"
"Bringing you along."
My eyebrows furrow in confusion. Because of me, he was injured. How can that be "worth it?" I take his shirt and wash out the blood in the water.
"I got to see you use the bow." He continues. The answer is so simple, I check his face to see if he's being sarcastic.
"I'm not being sarcastic." Now a smug tone has crept into his voice.
"How-"
He pulls the still-wet shirt over his head.
"I know you better than you think, Katniss."
Katniss:
We are in a meadow. Cato is smiling a real smile. The sun shines down upon us. Cato is laughing, and he grabs me up and spins me around. I laugh too as the warm breeze passes my face. Then we stop, and he is clutching me to his chest. I feel so safe, even though it's just the two of us in this seemingly endless meadow. I could stay like this forever.
Cato leans down and whispers something in my ear, but I cannot hear it above the twittering of a thousand mockingjays dancing in the sky.
Then he leans down and kisses my forehead. Even when he straightens up again, I can still feel the warmth of his lips on my face.
He hugs me again, and I grin with happiness.
Cato:
She's shivering. It seems to be extra cold tonight, colder than both nights before when the Game makers attempted to freeze us to death. In her sleep, Katniss has been smiling at something that I cannot see, but even as the serene expression appears on her face, she is shaking with the cold. The wind even seems to be affecting me in a way. I've been coughing for the past hour or so as more gusts of the same icy wind pass by.
If the damn Game makers keep on lowering the temperature and sending these drafts, we'll definitely catch a cold or hypothermia. And I left my sleeping bag in the tree with the food, I thought that we'd be done with everything before dark.
I cough again and eye Katniss' slim figure in her sleeping bag. Even through the dark cloth, I can clearly see her body racking with shivers.
Damn it. They'd better be satisfied with this.
I scoop Katniss up, sleeping bag and all, and place her on my lap. Ugh.
Her head naturally falls onto my uninjured shoulder, and I notice the wind receding a bit. I adjust my position against the oak. She provides some body heat, but not much.
As I lean back my head to stare up at the cold night sky, Katniss stirs in my arms. She opens her grey eyes, and I see confusion flit over her features, deep confusion.
She turns her head a little to look into my face. Already I can see her slipping back into sleep.
"Is this a dream?" She whispers, snuggling into my chest. Normally she'd be off my lap and on the ground in an instant, but I put up with it since the Game makers will probably send in snow or something if I don't keep up this whole "love affair" thing.
"Yes. It's all a dream." I try to make my voice sound soothing. She relaxes at my words and her eyelids start closing.
"You'll forget everything by morning."
Ta-da! A longer chapter! (by two pages on Word) How was it? I think that I did a better job with Katniss this chapter, and I tried for some fluff? Eh...I didn't want Cato to get hurt, but it would be stupid if none of them were injured at all. And then Rue died. A little sad about that, but...
Anyways, I hope that you all enjoyed this chapter. Please leave a review, (even a little comment is fine) if you liked it? It would make me feel wonderful to know what my readers are thinking.
I might be able to update on Mon/Tues if I am motivated enough...I feel like the chapters are getting harder and harder to write. And I'll be back in school with homework and everything, since vacation is ending today. So motivate me if you would like an update soon, darlings? With your reviews? Love you all! :D