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Ok. I got time to update this because it's an extended weekend :3 THANKS for the reviews, alerts, and so on! (≧∇≦)/

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DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THE HUNGER GAMES. JUST THE IDEA!

CHAPTER 8

"Ugh…" Katniss tried sitting up, for some reason she was lying down. All of a sudden there was throbbing hit her head and it hurt.

"Hey don't get up." A hand covered her eyes and pushed her lightly back on her pillow. Once the hand was pulled back she realized it was Cato.

"C-Cato?"

"How much does your head hurt?" He questioned. Katniss had to fully concept what had happened. She fainted and she remembered someone caught her, now she was in her bed.

"Katniss does your head hurt?" Katniss finally realized Cato was talking to her.

She turned her head a bit to face Cato, "It does hurt…" she clenched her stomach, "And I'm a bit… hungry."

"Sit up," Cato ordered. Huh? She thought that he didn't what her to get up. Cato set her pillow up and had Katniss lean back against it.

"My head hurts…" Katniss whined. Whining? That was not like her.

"Stop being a kid," Cato said, "Hurry and eat." Food?

"I'm not hungry." Katniss retorted.

"With such a headache plus you're not very stable," Cato smirked, "You probably fainted because you barely ate."

"I'm not hun-" Katniss was cut off by the spoon shoved in her mouth.

"Eat." He demanded. She swallowed the broth and slowly chewed the ingredients in the broth.

"It's good…" Katniss whispered.

"Yeah?" Cato handed her the bowl and sat on the chair next to her bed and watched as she ate. He found it quite interesting.

"Umm… Cato I'm sorry…" Katniss said.

"Hmm?"

"...for slapping you..."

"Oh, well it didn't hurt," Cato said smugly.

"How does it not?"

"It just doesn't." He shrugged, "How's your arm?"

"Well since I'm not like you, it hurt and there's a small bruise. I don't think it's that bad..." Katniss took the bowl and drank it.

Cato watched as she licked her lips after drinking the broth. Great, now he was thinking about her lips. Why you ask. Well he doesn't know himself. Cato pushed off those thoughts and pulled out something from his pocket.

"You want some Aspirin?" Cato held out the box.

"Umm... I don't know what that is." Katniss admitted. She doubted that there was Aspirin in District 12. It's probably some special Capitol medicine.

"It helps your headache, just swallow it with water." Cato explained.

Katniss cocked her head to the side, "My headache will wear off, and I don't need to take some medicine."

"It's just a simple pill, if you wait till it wears off then it might get worse." Cato pointed out.

"I'll be fine. I've dealt with it before." Katniss responded. The only time she got a headache was when she was little. Her father gave a hot towel and just placed on her forehead, and she just slept it off.

"How?" Cato asked intrigued about this.

"Back in District 12 there was no such thing as Aspirin." Katniss didn't notice she said her District number.

"District… 12…?" Cato repeated. She was from District 12? That brought quite the shock to him.

"Not anymore… I work for the Capitol." Katniss gripped her blanket.

"I see." Cato raised an eyebrow. Katniss waited for him to ask more but he didn't. She had the sudden urge to explain everything to him.

"My dad died from a mining accident and my mom went into depression… we got a small amount of money and when all of that was gone, I had to manage somehow food for my sister and I," Katniss gripped her blanket tighter, "One night it was raining and I was looking in the trash of the bakery, the baker's wife yelled at me." Katniss glanced at Cato and he sat there showing no emotion, maybe a tint of sadness?

"You could stop, I don't mind." Cato said softly. Katniss eyes widened at his comforting voice.

Cato couldn't believe he had a soft spot for her. How can that be? Soft spot, no way.

"Well after that," Katniss continued, "The baker's son noticed and burned two loaves of bread and instead of feeding it to the pigs he threw it to me. He got a beating by his mother and well he didn't care. The next day the first dandelion fell and that gave me hope.

"When I was 12 I met Gale and we became hunting partners."

"Hunting?" Cato questioned in an amused tone.

"Yeah, my dad taught me how to use a bow and arrows. We both needed the food and money so we became close friends."

"No I mean how did you two go hunting? Peacekeepers have jobs you know," Cato said monotone.

"They don't really think we are the people to actually escape. The electric fence that kept us in District 12 were broken, so we go through and hunt in the forest. We trade the stuff we hunt at the Hob."

"The Hob?"

"It's sort of like the Black Market," Katniss replied.

"Are you going to continue your story, or you could stop there." Cato directed it back to the point.

"Umm… I'll continue…" Katniss strangely wanted to tell Cato everything. Weird, she barely knew him.

"Everything was fine from then on, though I did get tessera for me, my sister, and my mom." Tessera? Cato never had to use it. He didn't need to.

"When I was 15 the Hob was burnt down by the Peacekeepers." Katniss said in a whisper, "That caused a big uproar because the Head Peacekeeper was also switched. Everything was stricter too. District 8 meanwhile were rebelling, and I guess things weren't really in peace. That year an announcement from Snow told us all that there won't be a Hunger Games that year." Her gaze averted to her hands, her head started hurting again.

Cato had remembered that year; he was 17- one year away from entering the Hunger Games. No one knew why the Hunger Games weren't going to happen that year. The only reason that was spoke of was that things had to be fixed.

"The Seam had a pact thing where they chose to rebel. Gale and I weren't exactly part of it; the people wanted us to lead the rebellion because we were young and more 'knowledge.' We disagreed immediately and before we knew it, there were more people in the rebellion, not just from the Seam but from the higher part of the District as well.

"Then the day came where the rebellion began. They attacked Peacekeepers, everything was chaos, I'm sure a lot of people died just from that. In a way I started the attacking, I shot an arrow at a Peacekeeper. The Peacekeepers I'm sure had all died and we knew that was just the beginning but we won that beginning of the rebellion. Prim… my sister… stayed home… I went out to the forest (one part of the electric fence wasn't fixed) to just clear my mind and when I came back everything was on fire…" Katniss remembered it very clearly, "Prim was still in the house."

:::: ~FLASHBACK~

"Prim get out of there!" Katniss shouted as she looked through window of her burning home.

"Katniss!" Prim cried, "Buttercup is still in here."

"Forget about Buttercup, you need to get out!" Katniss backed up as the flames enlarged. She narrowed her eyes and began to run in but someone pulled her back from going.

"You're going to die if you go in!" Gale trapped her in his grasp.

"I don't care!" Katniss struggled, "She's going to die!" All of a sudden something fell from the sky and exploded. A bomb. From above were helicopters and a bunch more Peacekeepers coming down. Another bomb came falling down, and a lot more came down.

Katniss realized that Prim was still in the house. Everyone else was frantically trying to escape.

"PRIM!" Katniss screamed and made move to run in but she was trapped by two logs. Tears stained Katniss cheeks as she saw a log from above lit with fire began falling right towards Prim.

"NO!" Prim was gone and burned away.

Katniss turned around slowly and realized all around her was fire. There was no one either. Captured and then killed or burned away.

"You could go in the fire and die or I could kill you myself." A Peacekeeper stood there holding a gun.

Katniss was speechless, she was too traumatized. Prim was gone and Katniss had watched her die.

The Peacekeeper dropped his arm to the side, the gun wasn't pointing at her anymore, but she couldn't run. She couldn't move.

"Come with me." The Peacekeeper said, "President Snow wants to keep you."

::::~END FLASHBACK~

Katniss didn't realize she was crying. Cato sat on the bed and wrapped his arms around Katniss. She stiffened at his touch.

"Hey just cry. You don't need to tell me the rest," Cato said. Katniss loosened up and gripped his shirt.

"S-snow… kept me as an Avox… and for some reason he didn't cut off my tongue. He said I was a special case. I couldn't die either or defy him either… cause he said he knows that there are still people from District 12. I d-didn't believe him and defied him, but he showed me prove. Gale, my mom, the baker's son… on a moniter… They seem so real and alive so I couldn't do anything about that. Not listening to him caused me some beatings but I didn't get killed. However with those pictures shown I still didn't listen to him and he showed me my d-dad… in real life… he was alive…" Katniss muffled into Cato's chest, "At first I thought it's just some illusion so Snow let me talk to him and I asked Dad the song he taught me. He sang it, 'The Hanging Tree.' I knew it was him, no one knew that song besides me, him, and my mom." More tears sprang from her eyes.

"I was happy but that didn't last long as Snow himself k-killed my d-dad…"Katniss cried even harder. "I know the power Snow possesses and I just work for him, I don't believe that anyone can possible be alive from District 12 except for myself but you never know… and he says that if I do work as the Avox he won't harm any District and the people of 12. H-However… I don't know why he doesn't cut off my tongue." Katniss cried into chest.

"Well I'm happy he didn't cut off your tongue. If he had I wouldn't be able to talk to you." Cato hugged her tighter.

"You don't think… my life is strange…?"

"Like hell it is, but you had it rough and I think you're pretty strong willed." Cato rested his head on her head, "I see why you're so shocked to see Hawthorne, he could've got hurt if you kept on defying President Snow."

"C-Cato… aren't I just a bother to you?" Katniss mumbled.

"Sort of…" Cato bluntly said, "But you're amusing to be with." Cato's phone started ringing, he sighed and let go of Katniss to pick it up.

"Hello." Cato growled though the phone.

"Now?"

"Fine." Cato snapped his phone shut. Marvel had to call him now of all times, emergency? Yeah right.

"I've got to go." Cato got up, "Mum is going to be back soon so she'll take care of you."

"Cato!" Katniss grabbed his arm, "Don't go. Please?"

I hope Katniss's past seems okay (° ロ°) and hopefully this is a big Cato/Katniss moment. I would have continued but I got tired and stiff so yeah... Oh and I'm sorry for my mistakes!

Please REVIEW! and tell me what you think! ^.^ They're inspirational! Next chapter will include some Eric and his suspicions!

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