Author's Note: Longest chapter yet! I felt like you all deserved it, I haven't been updating frequently lately. It's because I have my big end of year exams coming up in 2 weeks, so for the next month my updates are going to be quite slow. Thank you everyone for reviewing, but I would love if some more people reviewed! There's a new character in this chapter, Luke, courtesy of kiralol101. Once again, enjoy the chapter and I would love it if you reviewed!

Crowd of Two

Chapter Seventeen

Grey's POV

After meeting Cato on the roof, I return to my district floor with the expression of a dog with its tail between its legs. My acting must be to a better standard than I thought, because Finnick gives me a condescending and pitying expression and doesn't even suspect that I had just returned from meeting Cato.

"I'm glad you've calmed down enough to see reason," He says, running one hand through his hair. I give a forced smile and don't reply. "The others went to bed a while ago. You should think about doing the same, we have our first day of training tomorrow."

"Oh yes, I'll get to bed right away." I originally think that the sarcasm has gone over the victor's head, but he interrupts me when I start walking away.

"Look, Grey…" He begins. "I know you're still missing Cato but you're going to have to put that thought out of your mind. If it's any consolation, you probably won't see each other's deaths." I snort as I shut the bedroom door in his face; he'd been following me as I had made my way into my bedroom. I don't sleep for a long time, and instead I sit on my bed and stare at the wall, wondering what the boy from District Two was doing.

Cato's POV

It takes me a long time to get down to my floor by taking the stairs. I could have easily taken the elevator, either with or without Grey, but I was afraid the noise would disturb the rest of the tributes on my floor. For some reason I knew that they would instantly see the smile on my face that I couldn't get rid of and make the assumption of who I had secretly met minutes before. I couldn't afford that, what with Enobaria already on my case after the tribute parade. After being Clove's mentor last year, the fact that I got out of the arena "the dishonourable way" meant that she had it out for me every time I even spoke. My job, she had told me on the train to the Capitol, was to get my head into the game and spend my time finding my old career personality.

Oh they had tried back at home. Showing me footage of a young boy with a heart of steel that took pleasure in breaking his opponents limbs after a wrestle, only stopping when he was pulled off his victim and his laughter danced through the air. I sat through these repulsed at myself, and no matter how hard they tried I couldn't find the same pleasure in pain anymore. It was easier to just pretend, but I really wasn't a good actor. I presume sending me back into the games as a victor volunteer was their way of getting rid of me. Out of sight, out of mind after all.

I arrive at the door of the District Two floor with barely a raised heart rate, even after descending over twelve flights of stairs. The thought disgusted me, because I sounded like I was more monster than man now. Even normal human weaknesses were beginning to disappear from my body. I slipped through the tiny gap in the doorway that I make for myself, trying to be as quiet as possible. Unfortunately I knock a side table over with my side before even talking two steps, and an expensive sounding ornament crashes to the ground and splits into pieces. I wince into the darkness.

"Ah Cato, never particularly good at stealth were you?" A voice purrs and I have the hindsight to look towards the voice before the lights of the main room are switched on and Enobaria is standing much too close to me. We end up looking eye to eye, and she raises one eyebrow in surprise. I had recently gained the habit of refusing to make eye contact with anyone from my district team, and the former mentor despised the show of disrespect.

"Does it matter?" I spit back. "I'm going to be armed and prepared, and I want my victims to know I have them cornered."

Enobaria slowly circles me while I stand military straight, staring ahead and hoping this lecture will be over soon.

"Not bad, boy," she says, using Brutus' nickname for me. Where was Brutus, ah yes, most likely hiding away from me in shame. "Did you train back in two after you returned?" I sneer at the memory.

"Every day," I growl, "I wasn't allowed home until I put on all the muscle I had lost in the games." The woman cackles and grips my bicep with her hand. As she has her mouth thrown open I get a good view of her pointed teeth, a purposeful move to unnerve me. It doesn't work but I tense my arm so she can have what she wants, proof that I have put the muscle back on.

"Are you finished?" I say through gritted teeth after another minute of her inspection.

"Yes, you're free to go. And by go, I mean to bed. If I find out you go to visit your little friend again like tonight, maybe my knife will slip in the bloodbath and she'll be the first one dead." She giggles and I growl as I walk away from her towards my room. I'm not surprised that she found out I met Grey tonight, because I know that Enobaria has connections everywhere in this building.

"Don't you dare touch her," I hiss on my way down the hall. Enobaria follows a step behind and I hope she can feel the hatred emanating off me in warning.

"Oh by the way Cato," She says sweetly, causing me to stop, "Brynn wanted to talk to you." I turn back to face the woman with a look of partially hidden confusion on my face.

"What? Who the hell is Brynn?"

"Ugh, your district partner! Just forget about it, you'll see her tomorrow, but at least learn their names for Panem's sake." Enobaria rolls her eyes when I shrug my shoulders and sneer at her as I slam the door in her face. She calls out a sarcastic "Good night" before locking my door from the outside, leaving me trapped inside, which fittingly was exactly how I felt.

Grey's POV

My sleep is disturbed all night from the sound of Capitol citizens screaming in delight about the new batch of tributes. I give up on the idea of sleep several hours before I'm wanted for breakfast on the first day of training, but I decide that I might as well get started now. Not unexpectedly, when I come out into the main room, showered and already in my training uniform, I'm met with Titus in the same position as me.

"Hello." He says coolly. Titus and I had been distant basically ever since I returned back to District Four, and it was taking a big toll on our friendship. I wanted Cato, not him, and that strained his good cheer. The dark haired tribute is sitting on one of the chairs at the empty table and I go to join him, sitting down right next to him.

"Hi" is my quiet reply, and Titus turns his head sceptically to look at me.

"Couldn't sleep?" He asks and I nod, giving him the ghost of a smile.

"Those silly Capitol people couldn't keep their mouths shut for even a second!" I exclaim and he lets out a laugh. For a second it almost feels like we shared a joke together.

"You came in late after the parade last night." He states. "Finnick told me you met Cato on the roof, he came out here in the middle of the night too." Titus' comment doesn't sound like he is blaming me, but my reply still comes out defensive. How did Finnick even know I had seen Cato? I guess he chose to ignore it. He's better than I thought.

"What does it matter if I did see Cato? He is my boyfriend." Titus sighs and runs a hand through his hair.

"I know, and I understand more than most people how hard it is for you to be forbidden to see him. But I'm trying to just be a good friend here. You know what? Just forget about it. Let's have something to eat; you have to admit this Capitol food is pretty great!" We both laugh and the tension about Cato quickly fades.

However as I'm looking over the food options, commenting to Titus about the particularly strange ones that neither of us have heard of or have enough guts to try, I get an unexplainable headache all of a sudden. Titus catches my look of discomfort and leans towards me with a concerned expression.

"Are you alright Grey?" He asks gently, and I nod my head vigorously.

"Yeah yeah, it's fine. I'm probably just tired." The pain fades away once both Titus and I have told the Avoxes at our side what we want to eat, but when the meal comes I suddenly feel ill and get to my feet quickly.

"I just… I'll be back." I say hurriedly before rushing to my room. I barely make it to my bedroom before I am sick in the nearest piece of furniture, but luckily it's the sink. I stare at my reflection in the mirror in confusion, mentally asking the equally confused person in the mirror what on earth is wrong with me. I think back to the last… no, I can't be. I shake the thought out of my head just as Titus pokes his head around the door.

"You all right in here- oh my Panem Grey, what happened?" He is instantly at my side, rubbing my back gently. I don't feel sick anymore, but it feels nice to have him as my familiar old friend again.

"It was weird, I don't know what happened! Stupid rich Capitol food I guess." I say to Titus' unconvinced expression.

"But Grey," he comments, "You didn't even eat dinner last night, you were with Cato when we ate…" His eyes suddenly go wide and I instantly speak to stop him continuing.

"That's what it is, I must have just been really hungry. Come on let's go back, I need to get some food into my system!" Titus opens his mouth to say something but I rush into the hall before he can say anything. Our meals are ready when I step into the main room, and we both sit down in silence, neither of us willing to talk about what just happened.

Titus and I are sitting watching a recap of the reapings when Finnick and Caria wake up and slowly get ready a couple of hours later. I had missed districts three to twelve after all, and I needed to at least recognise who was a career and who could be allied with. Titus gives me strange looks every once and a while, asking how I'm feeling, but when I tell him that I'm fine and to shut it the third time he asks, he doesn't mention it again.

We all go down to the training center together – a few minutes late because of Finnick's grooming routine – and the speech I got last year about how many ways we could get killed in the arena has already begun. The tributes from District One stare at me and whisper to each other but the District Two tributes stay stoically looking at the trainer who is speaking. Cato catches my eye for an instant but he quickly looks away and I know that he plans on following his idea to not interact with me at all if possible.

Since we have no mentors this year, Finnick is the only one who can tell us which stations to visit. He sends Titus to the sword station which is close to the hand-to-hand combat station, both of his best abilities. Caria lets out that she is reasonable with a bow and arrow so Finnick tells her to go there first.

"What are you going to do Finnick?" I ask him once the other two have gone, leaving us on our own as all the tributes begin to practice.

"I'm going to go up there" He points to the mezzanine floor of the training center where the gamemaker and sponsors are watching us closely "and try and get us sponsors. Since there is going to be no one here during the games to get us sponsors, I need to make an impression now." I ask the question that had been bothering me ever since I found out we had no mentor.

"Where's Mags this year?"

Finnick frowns.

"She didn't want anything to do with a game that sent in perfectly good people that had already been through it once. But enough about that, I'm sure I can get us some sponsors quite quickly." He winks and I grin at him before asking, "So Mister Odair, which station am I starting at?"

"Well," The supposed sex god begins, "You got a lot of good training in with Clove last year with your knife skills, and if you were anyone else I would send you there. But… that's awfully close to sword fighting and I really don't want you near Cato right now." I open my mouth in shock.

"You mean I can't do what I'm good at because you don't trust my self-restraint?!" I exclaim. Finnick flings his hands up defensively.

"I didn't say that. Just give it a few hours at least. I know you're good with plant recognition, you did that last year too, so I don't think you need any more practice at that. How 'bout you go to knot tying, we'll need that skill!" I sneer and shrug at my old mentor.

"Whatever. Knot tying it is!" I say sarcastically before heading to the station.

Obviously there is no one else at the knot tying station, and I plunk myself down on the ground muttering about the indecencies of Finnick. The trainer wisely stays far away from me.

"Stupid Finnick… telling me I can't practice with knives… can't trust me with Cato…injustices…" I mutter to myself as I make a knot without even looking at the rope in my hands. I had been making knots basically since I was born; knot tying was a quickly acquired skill in District Four.

I don't even notice I've made a miniature noose until a voice laughs from behind me.

"Not having fun there, are you?" The voice says and I turn around just as the boy who had spoken sits down beside me. He's awfully close and I have the urge to move away from him.

"I can do this in my sleep." I grumble, throwing the knot down. The boy picks it up and inspects it. He has shaggy brown hair that nearly covers his eyes and there is a certain twinkle in them that reminds me of Finnick.

He laughs and his mouth spreads into a wide grin.

"Why are you still at the station then? I'm Lucas by the way, but you can call me Luke! District Nine." He sticks out his hand for me to shake, and I tentatively take it, my grumpy mood temporarily gone.

"I'm Grey, District Four. Last year's victor with Cato?" I question to see if he knows about me and he nods, gesturing for me to continue. "I was told to stay away from the knife station, my forte, because Cato's at the adjoining station." I sigh and Luke looks over to where Cato is swinging his sword around expertly, grunting at every hit of the dummy.

"He's the grunting one, right?" Luke says with laughter in his eyes, and I nod with a smirk.

"That's him. But we can't see each other anymore, because well, you know. Fight to the death and all." He nods and for the first time actually looks serious.

"It's probably not a consolidation, but if you wanted, we could form an alliance together. I'm pretty pro with the scythe." He must see my confused expression, because he makes hand movements as he pretends to wield his special weapon. From what I get from his acting, it's a long stick with some sort of curved blade at the end.

"How come you aren't at the …scythe station?" I ask him. He laughs.

"Well for one my mentor told me not to show all my secrets on the first day! But truthfully they actually don't even have the weapon here. It's sort of special to District Nine and Eleven. What with our industry being grain and all. But that's okay; I'll train with the sword one of these days, when your boyfriend stops hogging the station." I laugh at him and realise that I really like this kid.

"You'll be waiting a while if you're waiting for Cato to stop playing with his sword!" I say grinning. "You know Luke I think I'm going to take you up on that offer. You'd make a great ally."

"Great! To be entirely honest, the other tributes from my district are a little weird." He points out a couple of older tributes, obviously the victors, who are sitting at the camouflage station and painting their faces. "Those are the morphlings. They haven't told me their names and I don't plan on asking. They freak me out a little, because I mean, I don't want to turn out like that." I nod in agreement and he points to a girl standing on her own. "And that's Peyton. She never talks. I tried to get to know her but all I managed to get her to say was that she was good with hammers. My attempt to make a district alliance with her fell pretty flat." I look curiously at the girl with short, jagged blonde hair as she stands in the corner of the room with her arms folded moodily.

Luke gets sick of the knot tying station barely a minute later. He can't even do a simple knot, but his excuse is that since he's allied with me, only one person needs to know the knots. I shrug and laugh at him, and we move onto the next station. Over the next hour we go to wresting (a bad idea) and the gauntlet, where I stand staring at it for a good few minutes thinking about going on the gauntlet with Cato last year. Luke gives me space and goes on his own, eventually returning and giving me a pat on the back, suggesting we move on.

We pass Finnick at the trident station and I introduce Luke to him. Their personalities are quite similar but they instantly get along rather than fight for dominance. Finnick starts explaining to Luke how to wield his prized weapon but when I attempt to lift one lying on the ground I can barely keep it balanced, let alone throw it accurately, so I walk off and leave the two of them to practice.

I pass Caria at the bow and arrow station, and she is having an in depth conversation with Katniss from Twelve. They are both holding a bow and smiling about something, so I hope that we have another ally in our group. Beside her stands Haymitch and the boy I remember as Rory, who I learned was Gale's younger brother. Haymitch is watching while Rory fires arrow after arrow, and he is actually reasonably good. The drunken victor gives me a thumbs-up and I keep moving.

Alone and bored, I sit myself down on a chair close to the knife throwing station. The station is completely full, as most of the smaller tributes flock there because the knives are the easiest to throw, but the female careers usually take a liking to them too, so I'm left waiting until someone moves on. I amuse myself by watching Titus, who was practicing with swords as far away as he could get from Cato, who was pouring sweat and looking furious at each of the dummies he decapitated.

A few minutes later however, Cato calls out to Titus.

"Hey four, yeah you with the sword, get over here!" He calls out and Titus tentatively moves closer. I sit up and strain to hear what they are saying.

"What is it Cato?" Titus says calmly, probably remembering the fishing trip they had last time they met. I want to call out a warning that Cato shouldn't be messed with in training, but that would probably make the situation worse, so I watch with dread as Cato asks Titus for a sword fight. Titus instantly raises one eyebrow and gently tells the blonde victor that tributes can't fight one another, and I can hear Cato growl in irritation from all the way over here.

Titus must get the attention of the trainer at the sword station, because they put their hand gently on Cato's arm, at least it looked gentle but when Cato tries to pull his arm roughly out of their grip, the hand stays clamped. The trainer whispers something in Cato's ear and Cato sneers, looking annoyed at the ground. When the trainer lets go of him, he throws the sword on the ground and storms off away from the station, ending up sparring angrily with a trainer at the hand to hand combat station. I watch him go, wanting to comfort him but knowing that it's a bad idea.

I sit there for another few minutes when I am interrupted by Luke.

"Wow, your boyfriend isn't someone to be messed with, is he?" I don't make eye contact with him as he sits down on the bench beside me, but I answer.

"He was fine last night, but suddenly when everyone's watching he turns into this."

"You shouldn't judge him; you don't know what his district partners are telling him. To me he looks like a trapped animal with nowhere else to go." Luke pauses for a second letting his words sink in, but when I make no move to reply this time, he softly says, "Come on, there's space at the knife station now."