Author's Note: Thank you to the 4 people who reviewed the last chapter, I really appreciate your lovely comments! Although I wish you sneaky silent readers (I don't blame you, I'm like that a lot with the stories I read) would reply, I'm just glad that you are reading and hopefully enjoying my story. But of course, if you DID review, that would be awesome!

I'd just like to add before you get onto reading chapter six, that yesterday I uploaded a one-shot that talks about Cato. It follows both the movie and the book, but talks a bit about the childhood that I made up for him and I'd love it if you took a look at it! Ok, without further ado...

Chapter Six

Grey's POV

I don't know when I fall asleep, but when I wake up I have an incredibly sore neck from lying around Cato, who's still lying on the bed beside me with his cheek pressed into the sheets. For a second I think that he hasn't moved since last night, but after I've rubbed my eyes and stretched the kinks out of my limbs I realise that his hair looks slightly damp and he's stripped off his suit and changed into jeans and a button up shirt. At some point he must have pulled up the blanket from the bottom of the bed because he has it wrapped tightly around his upper body, shielding himself from the night chill.

I peek beyond Cato's form and I'm not particularly surprised when I see the three photo frames missing. I sigh because this is typical Cato, it's not a problem unless it's glaring him in the face and by hiding them order is somehow restored.

"Morning…" A tired voice says and I notice Cato leaning on one elbow and looking up at me. Well actually, I notice the enormous bruise on the left side of his jaw first. He must see my shocked expression because he tentatively reaches up to touch the swelled skin and winces when he makes contact. He swears softly and avoids my gaze.

Cato's POV

Earlier…

I wake up with a splitting headache and eyes that scream 'I cried myself to sleep.' Perfect. I slowly force myself to sit up and get rewarded with a spinning sensation in my head that could only be due to the alcohol Lux forced on me last night before I went to retrieve Grey from my mother. Grey is sleeping in a curled position around the spot where my head was lying, oblivious to the fact that I'm awake, so it's easy for me to slip off the bed without disturbing her. The photograph of Chase and I is crumpled in my hand and I inwardly wince when I open it to look at it, causing a dull ache to form in my chest again. Why did she have to find the photos? I think to myself, I was doing such a good job of hiding him from everyone.

I return the picture to its frame and stuff them all in one of the empty drawers of the dresser, putting it out of my mind for the moment. Hopefully Grey will know to stay away from the subject and not mention it again. The towel I had found for Grey is lying on the floor, exactly where I left it last night and I pick it up so I can use it to take a shower myself. I quietly open the door and leave the room, turning back to look at Grey's motionless form before heading down the hall towards my personal en-suite.

By the way the light reflects in the passage I can tell that it's rather early in the morning, I would have only slept for a few hours at the most. It's been like that since I left the games, sleeping for short periods as though I still have to change watches with the rest of the career pack. My friends would either have left last night when they figured I wasn't coming back, most likely cracking jokes about how I "was going to get some tonight," or else they'd be passed out on couches, ready to be kicked out by my father when he goes out to train at the crack of dawn like he does every day before work.

I shuffle through my bedroom and into the bathroom where I turn up the shower until it steams up the entire room. I stand under the hot water until my head stops throbbing and my eyes feel like they've gone back to normal, then I get out and change into the first things I find: a blue plaid shirt (with two buttons undone of course) and some jeans.

It's only when I'm heading back to check on Grey that I come across my father for the first time since standing on his doorstep yesterday afternoon. We're walking in opposite directions and I figure that he's going to get ready for his usual training session so I step out of his way, but instead he clamps his hand on my arm and roughly pulls me towards him. I'm tall and muscular, but my father had always been bigger, even bigger than Chase, so my father easily pushes me against the closest wall with his hand pressed on my throat. I've done this many times before so I know this time to stay quiet and still as he begins whatever rant he's decided on for today.

"First you disgrace our family with a joint-victor." He hisses, his ice blue eyes digging into mine. I'm ashamed that I got my looks from him, and I'll never be able to change that. "And then I find you in bed with that District 4 rat? At first I thought that it would be for the sponsors, and once you came home you would be a strong boy, just like Chase. But no, the son that lives is the one that comes home with dreams of marriage and a family."

I growl in reply, unable to form words that express how angry I am and also well aware that anything I do will just make my punishment worse. Apparently the sound angers him enough because he winds his fist back and punches me in the jaw, sending my head smacking into the wall behind me. I bounce back instantly, my lip curled dangerously, but again I say nothing.

"Ah, he remembers something from his training. Not going to show weakness now, Cato? A little too late don't you think? I expect to see you in training today, fighting as hard as your brother always did. Not that you were ever as good, but I have to hang onto something, don't I. Now get out of my sight, I don't want to see you until you're sweating so hard that all the little thoughts about your petty girlfriend come dripping out of your body." With that my father pushes me away from him and stalks away, leaving me seething with anger and breathing heavily.

I grab the first porcelain object I can find, a decorative vase that's possibly worth more than this house, and I chuck it into the wall, revelling in the sound it makes as it shatters. Although it helps for a second, I instantly want to keep destroying things until my hands are torn and bleeding. At least that's what I would have done if I had been the person I was before. Instead, I slide down the wall into the remains of the vase and dig my fingers into my legs, trying to calm myself down. I couldn't let Grey see me like this; she'd never want me if she knew that I was so close to insanity in my own home that just a few words from my father could tip me over the edge like this.

But my need for her, the need to one day be a part of her, to be connected to her, is for once greater than my need to hurt. So far we hadn't gone further than that night before the games, lying on her bed in the Capitol. It seems like so long ago. I could feel a deep ache in me every time she kissed me, and I wanted more than anything to feel her bare skin underneath my hands. These thoughts keep me sane as my heart rate slowly begins to drop and I calm myself out of a temper.

For the first few minutes it is utter torture and I feel like I'm going to break out of my skin. I've never tried to calm myself down without violence before. But then I feel like I've broken the surface of water and I have a surge of relief that I didn't do something I wouldn't be able to take back during my rage. I sit there for a few minutes until I feel like I can get up again, and I slip back into Grey's room where I curl below her with a blanket wrapped around me. My temper must have exhausted my energy, because I'm asleep in minutes.

I wake up again when I feel the figure beside me sit up, and I nuzzle my cheek deeper into the blankets but hiss and sit up when the bruise I had temporarily forgotten about makes itself known. Grey's eyes are instantly drawn to me and I make an effort to smile and offer a good morning, before gently prodding my bruise and swearing because it's become so obvious and pronounced. Grey's acting like she's never seen a bruise before and her mouth is open in shock. I try not to shy away when she gently touches my jaw, placing her hand protectively over the swollen skin, but it hurts both physically and emotionally and I can't help but move my head away.

"Oh Cato," She murmurs, her hand dropping away in defeat, "Your face… How did this happen?" I'm tempted to lie, to tell her that I bumped into something in the middle of the night, but I figure that she'll find out soon enough when she sees the broken vase outside.

"I ran into my father on the way here. Called me a disgrace, told me I would never amount to anything near what my brother was. Normal father-son stuff." Grey grimaces and I know that my comment was pretty insensitive but I don't offer an apology. She's returned her hand to my jaw and is tilting my head towards the light from the window, inspecting my wound. I wouldn't admit it, but being nursed doesn't feel half bad.

"What's with your father's constant comparisons between you and Chase?" She presses on the inflamed skin gently and I wince, both at the pain and the question she's posed to me.

"He always liked him better than me, thought he deserved to win. I am merely an afterthought who has officially overstayed his welcome." I growl. There's no reply for a couple of seconds, and I wonder if she's going to say anything at all, but like the stubborn girl she is, she presses on into the deep recesses of my emotional being.

"But you're not Chase, you're Cato. Doesn't he realise that you have the right to be yourself?"

"I'm apparently not good enough to be myself. He thinks that if he drills it into me enough, maybe I'll wake up one day and be just like him."

There's silence again as Grey ponders this and eventually it seems as if she's exhausted the possibility of continuing this conversation, because she leans forward, gently kisses the angry skin on my jaw and changes the subject.

"You didn't gel your hair this morning. I think it looks nice like this." She runs her hand through my hair, which is soft and slightly fluffy from the lack of hair product in it. I stop myself from sighing and sinking down against the bed and instead sit up straighter, composing myself.

"You're changing the subject. But no, I don't like it like this."

"I'm guessing Chase was au natural?" I cringe at the return of my brother into the conversation, but it doesn't sting as much as it did last night. Maybe, just maybe, it's okay to start talking about him after all this time.

"Yeah. You have no idea how much of my life is influenced by a brother that died five years ago."

"No, I can't imagine. But I'm going to help as much as I can, and support every decision that you make, okay?"

I can't think of anything to say to that but inside my heart is blooming; the heart that I assumed had frozen over, at the fact that someone cares enough to find out who the real Cato was. Not Chase-Cato, not my father's Cato. So when I kiss her, I try and push all those emotions from my soul to her, so she can know how much it means to me without having to actually form words. It's been so long since I could kiss Grey without any regard for how much danger we were in and whether a tribute would appear and stab me, so I instantly press my body against her so we fall onto the bed, passionately reminding each other that we are there for one another.

I feel one of her hands on the back of my neck as the other snakes its way up the back of my shirt and I outwardly groan in pure agonising bliss. I am embarrassingly horny. We kiss until all the thoughts in my head have melted away and my lips feel swollen. Then our mouths separate and I pull her body against mine, tucking her shoulder into my armpit and letting my feelings simmer down for the second time this morning. However this time, I'm ecstatic.

We don't leave each other's arms until someone, presumably one of the cleaners, knocks on the door hesitantly telling me that I'll be late to the training center if I don't get up now. My father must have told our help to make sure I got to training, even if he posed it as if I had a choice. Grey sits up at the comment; I hadn't told her about my intentions for the day.

"You're… going to train?" She speculates, rubbing her eyes. I nod an affirmative and she sighs, swinging her legs out of bed so she's sitting on the edge.

"I'll come too then." She replies, not commenting on the fact that I shouldn't need to train at all. Maybe she remembers last night's conversation with Lux and Seb, where I promised them that I'd show them who's boss now that I'm back in my home district.

The training center is only a few blocks from our house and because I know the way there almost by muscle memory, as soon as we have gotten changed and had breakfast at the deserted table we are walking briskly down the road. The building where training is held is already bustling with people, even though it is barely mid-morning. The foyer inside is split into two sections; one area for teenagers training for the games and one for the adults post reaping. I'm proud to sign in as "Victor and guest" on the adult side for the first time, but I doubt I would have been able to return to the room where I spent all those years training alongside Clove anyway.

Grey's hand tentatively finds mine as we enter the large training center and we are bombarded with the sounds of adults fighting with every weapon imaginable and I squeeze her hand tightly. She hasn't had any contact with weapons since the games and the memories of the tributes she saw killed are obviously resurfacing. I am about to tell her that it's okay if she wants to leave and that she doesn't have to train, when I see a flash of light brown hair and suddenly Seb has bowled me over and his hand is on my face, grinding the back of my head into the sparring mats. I know I could easily overpower my close friend, but I can hear Grey giggling softly so I allow my head to be pressed against the ground for a bit longer before I push him off me.

"Good morning to you." I say jauntily with a slight smirk on my face before I tackle Seb to the ground and we're rolling around like we always used to as children. Children that didn't know the true meaning of the games, children who thought that being a victor was the greatest accomplishment that you could have. How naïve we were. Seb had been one of the ten boys that the mayor had chosen for the volunteer shortlist, but he had been taken off when we were down to the final 4. He held no malice against me for taking his place in the games and I had a deep respect for him that he could move on with his life so easily. It seemed wrong somehow that I, the victor, ended up more messed up than the young man who failed to make the cut.

I hear a shriek from above me and I look up to see Grey laughing at the two of us tussling like children. After a while Seb and I split and we sit up, panting and looking around. A few adults are giving us looks with rolled eyes, but most are obliviously lifting weights and practicing with weapons like nothing had happened. I realise that Grey has disappeared and after a few seconds I locate her at the spear section with Lux. The dark haired boy is competing against her, trying to get the best score on the target placed ten metres away, but I know he is joking around letting her win, because I can hear her laughter all the way over here. It almost seems like Marvel is still here with us and I'm glad that she's enjoying herself, especially in a place that could be so solemn if we let it.

I don't see my father at all while we are training which I am very relieved about. I figure that he left for work a long time ago, bored of waiting for me to turn up. Often before the games I would wake up early and train alongside him, but it was always uncomfortable for the both of us as I obviously didn't match up to how he remembered Chase and so I slowly distanced myself until we were training at completely separate sessions. I would be glad when we left my district and travelled to meet Grey's parents; at least I wouldn't have to deal with a father that wanted me to have died instead of my brother.