Chapter 13
My dreams are filled with sex and mischief, when I wake I'm met with a problem I haven't faced but knew I would eventually. Morning wood. I try to subtly shift my pants, stopping the irritation but as Cato looks at me from under his bowl of muesli I see the corner of his mouth curve upwards. I wait a few minutes until it's not rock hard.
I sit up, feeling groggy and covered in sweat. My stings look almost invisible, though, now tiny scabs. The gash along my forearm has healed well, too. I just have to get over this fever and I'll be fine.
"How's your head?" Cato asks putting down his empty bowl, refilling it with cereal.
"I feel lousy," I say as he adds water to powdered milk, "but my stings are gone and my arm's looking good,"
"Good, mine are too. Here you go," he says, handing me the bowl.
It's been a while since I've eaten and I wolf it down hungrily, then have seconds. When I'm finished I give Cato the bowl and lay back down. The sound of the mockingjays singing keeps me relaxed as I burrow further into my sleeping bag.
The day progresses and I find myself feeling colder and colder but my body temperature increases. I presume that the effects of the pill I took last night is wearing off.
My thoughts turn back to when I woke up on the morning of the games. Up until now when I picture what happened the night before it's like I'm cutting and pasting different images together to form a new imagine. Like if I try to image somebody naked I take their face and guess what their body would look like from bodies I've seen that are be similar to theirs.
Now, when I think of the night before the games I'm not seeing a compilation of different images, I'm seeing Cato sitting on top of me, jerking himself off while jerking me off with his other hand. I'm not seeing the image, I'm living it. I remembering it.
I think back to earlier that night. Marvel had invited me to his room because earlier that day I asked to join the Careers. He guided me to Cato's floor, avoiding detection, into his room where I was offered a drink. I began to feel weird after drinking it and put my hand on the wall to steady myself. Marvel helped Cato and me back to my floor and Cato took me to my room. I lay down on my bed and for some reason Cato joined me.
I shake my head, trying not to think about it. If I do I'll get angry with Cato when I'm supposed to have forgiven him. I shouldn't have shaken my head because the throbbing in my head gets unbearably painful for a few seconds. Cato must notice me squeezing my face because I feel his arm around me.
I hear a quiet tapping outside and get alarmed, thinking we're being attacked. Then I remember they wouldn't tap first. It's rain. It becomes louder and I see drops fall outside. It becomes so heavy that it's all I can hear. The occasional boom of thunder is heard as the rain hits even harder. I let the cosy atmosphere it creates send me back to sleep.
A louder clap of thunder wakes me up. I sit up, gravity getting a thousand times stronger. Cato's etching drawings into the wall with a shard of rock. A simple pattern of wavy lines. I remember the cupcakes I decorated with colourful icing back at the bakery.
We must be on a slant because no rain has leaked in through the entrance. I manage to go and sit next to Cato without falling over and pick up a rock shard, starting my own pattern that compliments Cato's. The patterns entwine, looking like a flowing river.
"Feeling any better?" he asks when our pattern occupies the floor.
"When I walk I don't feel sick, I guess," I say, morphing the pattern to look like a fast current.
"It's a start," he says vacantly.
"How are you so good at drawing?" he asks after a while and I notice you can tell from the quality which are his parts of the design.
"Practice, I guess," I say, bringing the river up the wall.
"How did you practice, I mean?" he asks.
"At the bakery I frosted the cakes, same thing basically," I say as I add a waterfall to the river.
"You said you baked bread," he says, looking at my hand flow across the stone, my shard getting blunter the more I draw.
"Bakers don't cook bread exclusively, you know. When you train you don't just lift weights do you?" I retort.
"I guess not." he says, "You went to school, didn't you? Got any friends?"
"Yeah, most of the people in my class were my friends. I know this sounds vain but I don't think anybody didn't like me. I had a best friend, Roman, but he..." I feel a lump in my throat, "never mind."
"Was he your boyfriend?" he asks.
"No, he died. Starvation." I say after a long pause, remembering when his mother told me, it was the worst moment of my life, "What about you?"
"Well... I," he begins, then looks at the river which disappears into a crack in the rock, "that looks awesome,"
Is he avoiding my question, did he have a boyfriend? Either way I should probably avoid the question, now's not the time. I let the river resurface through a different crack in the rock.
When the section is complete Cato lies in my arms, exhausted. He must have stayed up all night keeping watch.
It gets dark, the rain failing to cease, and I hear the daily announcement. Only Katniss, Rue, Clove, Cato and me are left. Once Clove is gone I doubt it'll be long until we end this thing.
"Oh shit," I say when I feel my head on the cold, hard stone. I open my eyes. Cato is at the entrance, looking outside into the rain, "sorry."
"What for?" he asks, turning around.
"Going to sleep," I say.
"I can hardly blame you, you're still fighting off the venom. Feeling any better?" he asks. Only the back of my head hurts, but that's because I've been lying against it.
"Yeah," I say with a smile. He walks over to me and places a hand on my forehead.
"You're still a bit hot, but you're getting better,"
"What's the plan for today?" I ask after a while.
"We can't really do anything," he says looking up to the ceiling, the sound of raindrops echoing.
After eating I decide to continue drawing my pattern and by early afternoon I'm finished. All around is the pattern that Cato started.
"It looks really cool," Cato says, admiring my work.
I should make an attempt to be more intimate with Cato, for the Capitol but the silence is so serene and peaceful. I'm surrounded by my own drawings and the gentle tapping of light rain. It's not as heavy as it was yesterday.
The bags from the feast catch my eye. We're going to have to use the lube if we want to win, despite how much I block it from my mind. Who's going to be the bottom? It will end up being me. How long until we need to talk about it? Hopefully I can put it off.
The cannon fires from a distance. I exchange a look with Cato as we wait for another one. Nothing but silence.
"Who do you think it was?" I ask, knowing who he's going to say.
"Clove," he says, just like I guessed.
Katniss and Rue, Cato and I are the last four. The equivalent of the last two tributes left. It won't be long before we're all driven together. It won't be long until we fight our last battle. Cato takes my hand and gives me a look of near victory, not knowing what that victory will cost.
A/N: It won't be long now. It's going to end. It's not a very long chapter, I know. Let me know how you want it to end, I've only had one suggestion. I just hit 50 reviews so I think I'll start putting previews a the end of the chapters. Y/N? Thanks!
SakuraDrops141:
Well, the Clove idea won't happen because I just killed her off :L Peeta doesn't want to kill Katniss either, but it's life or death and a lot of people depend on what she hunts, which sucks.
RueRajaram:
When you say Katniss better sing do you mean when Rue dies? She may have other, more important things to be worrying about.I really like your idea! Especially the parts about meeting the parents, bringing Gale into it and the possibility that Cato has/had a boyfriend. I think I'll continue this story as a different story once this hunger games is finished, like in catching fire. I have a few different ideas so I don't want to say anything until I've made up my mind. Also we'll assume that Clove's stings were really painful.
sOMEBODYsTRANGE:
I was hoping it would make people laugh. I was going for cute so yay! Thanks.