Author's Note: Hi! I'm quite excited because so as I write this, Crowd of Two has 20 reviews for 4 chapters! Way more than Wrong Crowd got in it's first chapters, which is great because I always assumed that my sequel would get much less attention. So thank you everyone that has been reviewing! It's even made me start to review the stories I enjoy a lot more, because I know how great it makes a writer feel.

I'm curious to see what everyone thinks about this chapter, because Cato is a bit OOC. Hopefully it just benefits his character and makes you see a different side of him, instead of making you think he's too un Cato-like.

Chapter Five

Grey's POV

"Cato's got a girlfriend!" Someone calls out as we walk into the center of the room and suddenly everyone around us is shouting and calling out as we are bombarded with Cato's friends. There are about a dozen people in the room with us, most of them strong looking boys that are obviously Cato's training buddies. The thought crosses my mind that if Clove hadn't gone into the games, she would be here now with us but I try to put it out of my mind. Now isn't the time to mourn for our lost friends. But actually so far, I haven't found a time that is.

I am so busy looking around the room greeting each person who approaches me that I'm surprised when I feel an arm wrap around my stomach. I turn to see Cato standing beside me with two teenage guys that I have yet to be introduced to walking towards us. The first boy comes up to me and instantly wraps me in a tight hug, nearly lifting me off the ground. He has black hair and the brightest green eyes that I have ever seen, and he reminds me a lot of Marvel and also Titus, my district 4 best friend, in terms of his stature.

The second boy is the smallest out of the three and is only slightly taller than me. His hair is such a light brown that it might even be copper or blonde in some light. He seems more secluded and only reaches out to shake my hand, but when we make eye contact I see a playful expression in his eyes that tells me it's just a ruse. Maybe because Cato and the black haired boy are both so outgoing and loud, he feels the need to show he has a quieter side to balance the other two out. The two of them look quite young compared to Cato, with faces that are more common on people younger, but I suspect that both of them are 18 or 19.

"Grey, meet Lux," Cato gestures to the black haired tribute who bows extravagantly to me, "and this is Seb!" Seb looks up and grins widely, apparently now comfortable enough to show the personality I expected from him. I smile widely at the two and I see Cato nearly bursting with excitement seeing the important people in his life together. He has his chest pushed out and his chin slightly up, and he looks adorable although I'd never tell him that here.

"We've been in the same class at the academy since we were 12 years old!" Lux beams, obviously proud that he is lucky enough to know one of the newest victors of the Hunger Games, "Cato always used to beat us at sparring, but Seb won against him in a wrestling match once!"

I assume that this year was their last chance at going into the games, as Cato will be 19 next year and out of the reaping pool, but it seems that neither of his friends holds any hard feelings about the situation. Seb is positively beaming at the memory of beating his best friend at a strength match, even if it was just once.

"Never again, Sebby," Cato smirks, "Tomorrow we can go to the academy and I'll spar with you until you scream for mercy." I'm shocked by Cato's outburst but Seb and the people around us just laugh and I force myself to join in, realising that this is just how he jokes with his friends.

I answer a few more of his friends' questions as enthusiastically as possible, with an unsurprising amount being about the weapons in the games and how I learnt to fight. But after a while the attention makes me feel quite tired and I want to just curl up in bed and sleep for 12 hours. I gently tug on Cato's suit sleeve and he turns to me, eying my sleepy stance at once. He instantly has one arm around my waist as he starts to say goodbye to his friends, but I interrupt him.

"No no Cato, don't worry about me, you can come back after you show me to my room. You haven't seen these guys in a month; you deserve to spend time with them!" Lux howls in delight, shouting something about me 'blocking Cato' but Cato drags me out of the room before I can ask what he means.

Cato takes me back into the foyer where we first entered that afternoon and up a huge majestic flight of stairs. He bounds up the stairs so quickly and naturally that I have to jog to keep up with him. The house is only two floors and once we get to the top, we end up in a long corridor with various ornate doors leading off into rooms that are irrelevant to me. There's so many that for a moment I even ponder asking if Cato actually knows where all of them lead.

Cato stops at the top of the staircase, where the passageway splits and goes in two directions. He points to the left.

"My room is that way, but my father set you up in the guest room, all the way over this side." We walk down the right path and I count four closed doors before we stop in front of one and Cato opens it. I walk inside without hesitating but Cato stays leaning against the doorframe.

"Are you sure you don't want me to stay?" He grins at me slyly, probably thinking about all the things we could be doing right now. I want more than anything for him to push me against the bed so I can feel the strength he has in his body, but I'm exhausted and I would possibly fall asleep half way through so I shake my head at him.

"I do, but I'm so tired… You have no idea how conflicted I am!" I reply as I walk fully into the room, taking notice of my bag in the corner before turning and making eye contact with the blonde young man at my threshold. Cato rolls his eyes as if he's annoyed but then grins at me.

"I believe you… This time. Remember, if you wake up during the night, just come and see me, okay?" I nod, knowing that although Cato is acting like we'd have some fun if I happened to appear in his room, it would most likely be due to nightmares and he knows it. The blonde victor kisses me on the nose and then disappears down the hall again, wishing me a goodnight with a wink.

I close the door after Cato's footsteps fade away and take a look at my surroundings. I'm in the guest room and apart from a few photographs it's not very personalised. The room is decorated as if we were living multiple centuries ago, which fits with the old style that the rest of the house falls under, with brown tones and hints of royal red. The bed is the center piece of the room, done up beautifully and perfectly matching the dresser and mirror adjacent to it. There is an enormous window that takes up nearly the entire wall opposite the dresser, and it somehow manages to create a modern twist on an old styled room. I love it immediately.

My interests about the room itself sufficiently quenched for the moment, I move over to the dresser where there are three photos propped up in frames in front of the mirror. I drop down to my knees to look at them and I turn to the one on the far left first. It's a family scene with four people dressed in white, and I immediately recognize Cato who is standing between his father and an older boy that I don't recognize. Cato's father towers above his son, who I presume to be about 10 at the time this photo was taken. Cato is looking adoringly at the boy standing beside him, who has his arm wrapped around him protectively. They look extraordinarily similar, both with the same light hair and ice blue eyes. But I thought Cato was an only child…

I shuffle over on my knees so I have a good view of the second picture. This time it's only a picture of the two boys, except a lot of time has passed since the last photo was taken. Cato and the older boy are wearing some sort of track suit which bears the number 2 on the front. Cato is holding a large sword fiercely in front of him but he's too young to have the muscle mass that he has now and the weapon looks comical in his hands. The other boy is staring at Cato with an exasperated but loving expression on his face, and I instantly know that they had a strong bond. Surely this couldn't be Cato's brother, why keep it a secret if he has one? And why have I never heard about or met him?

The third and final photo shows only Cato, and I recognize the outfit he is wearing from his reaping, a simple black suit with blue embellishments. He is standing at the District 2 train station, supposedly ready to board for the Capitol, but it's his face, not the setting, that strikes me as puzzling. When you first look at it you see a strong, cold, calculating expression, the face of a career, but if you look closer you see the conflicted emotions in his eyes. I wonder where the boy of the first two photos has gone, and I pull the second picture out of the frame, hoping to find a caption. Luckily, Cato's family is very organised and there is a small sentence of handwritten cursive on the back.

Chase (17) and Cato (14) training at the academy.

Chase. There's a tiny flicker of recognition when I hear the name, but my mind can't make the connection. I give up trying to figure it out after a few moments, and with my curiosity having been quelled until I see Cato tomorrow, I'm about to put the photograph back in its frame when the door opens.

"Hey Grey, I was just coming to bring you a towel in case you wanted to sh- Oh." I look up and see Cato standing stock still in the doorway, the towel dropped and instantly forgotten on the floor. He's looking at the photo in my hand and suddenly he's next to me, tugging it out of my grasp and pulling the other frames off the dresser.

"I can't believe my mother left these here." He mutters, sliding them into his suit pocket.

"Cato?" I interrupt his irritated rant and he looks me straight in the eye, his gaze calculating and defensive. "Who's Chase?"

"He's no one. Someone I knew a long time ago. Just forget about it Grey, please." Cato says quietly, beginning to walk away from me. I stop him with a hand on his arm, but he shrugs away from the touch. However, he stops after a few steps and when he returns his gaze to me I see through his eyes that his emotions are shattering. I know instantly that I've hit something that he's tried hard for a long time to keep hidden.

"Please Cato, tell me. You can trust me." I try to lead him to my bed but he stays standing there like a statue as I sit down. It almost looks like he's going into shock. His earlier joking personality is long gone and I can see his shoulders heaving as he attempts to control his emotions. He is probably trying to come up with an excuse so he can leave, but after a second of conflicted silence he must give up because he follows me to the bed and lies down so his head is in my lap and his face is looking towards the ceiling.

He relinquishes the photos to me after some coaxing and I run my fingers through his hair to try and make him elaborate on this mystery boy. Eventually he does.

"Chase was my older brother. I looked up to him like he was a god. Everything he did I wanted to do, and that included becoming a career tribute. He was the most amazing sword-man that you could ever imagine, and I worked hard to become just as good as he was." I stay silent, knowing that this is something that Cato does not tell everybody. Even now his voice is cracking and I hold my breath, praying that the unusual display of emotions from his own body won't make him stop.

"Reaping day snuck up on all of us. I was 14 at the time. Suddenly my big brother was volunteering for the 70th Hunger Games, and I was so proud. Everyone in my family was, especially my father. He always loved Chase; Chase was perfect in his eyes and I guess I never matched up in quite the same way. We watched the games from start to finish, cheering at Chase's successes, throwing things around when someone got the upper hand. But we always knew he was coming back; there was no doubt about it. Until one day he didn't. I was the only one watching, down to the final two as he and Darryn from District 7, the first career to be from 7 in a long time, fought on the cornucopia. His opponent got the upper hand somehow, maybe Chase was tired, and in an instant my brother's neck was broken and he was just another dead tribute in the dust. I called for my parents and when my father came rushing in and saw the broadcast, he slapped me in the face and called me a liar for fabricating my own brother's death. It was never the same after that. Not with any of us."

My mouth is open in shock when Cato finishes his story and I look down at him to see that there are silent tears streaking down his face. He reaches up his hand for the photo I'm still holding, the one of him and Chase, and I readily give it to him. How could I deprive him of that after what he just revealed to me? There's a few seconds of silence as he looks over it, and I begin to think that Cato has finished speaking, when he adds one last comment.

"This was the last picture that was taken of the two of us. He died a month later in the arena, even though he promised me that he would come home. Brothers aren't meant to break promises like that." And with that Cato's face scrunches up and he presses his palms to his eyes, letting out a guttural moan as he starts to cry harder, big sobs that look exhausting and remind me of Clove's death. Except this time there is no anger or regret, just grief, and I stroke his hair, his neck, his tear stained cheeks, until at some point he falls asleep, clutching the last photograph of his lost brother in his hand.