"So, how are we going to look for the girl from Five?" I asked Cato as we exited the cave and began walking. I had no clue where we were going, but I followed Cato. He took my free hand in his and intertwined his fingers with mine and I felt myself blushing. It was the first time we had held hands before, especially in 'public' with all of Panem watching. He led the way on our walk and I simply followed.

"We don't," he answers quickly. My brows furrow in confusion.

"Then.. how is this supposed to work?" I question.

Cato looks back at me with his deadly smirk. "I know all the tributes and their moves. Five is sneaky. She follows tributes around so well that you don't even notice, and when you slip on even the slightest hand movement steals things, but makes sure that you don't even see it. It's funny, though, because she doesn't, nor hasn't she, killed anyone yet," he explain.

I nod my head, processing all the information. If he knows all the tributes and their moves, does that mean he knew all mine? It was amazing how well he knows this girl when I assumed he never even talked to her, let alone glanced at her for more than a second. It proves just how prepared he was for the Games. It takes a lot of skill to be able to observe and anticipate movements and actions of others while still keeping himself alive.

"Okay," I say slowly, "so how do we catch her?"

"We don't," Cato says again. Now he's really confusing me. If we don't catch her, then we are still one more person away from going home.

I stopped walking and stared up at him. Cato realised I wasn't holding his hand and turned back to me. "What?" he asked. Cato walked back to me and reattached our hands, pulling me to continue walking.

"You're confusing me," I tell him. "First, where are we going? And second, how are we going to handle Five?" I ask him.

Cato laughs at my confusion but continues walking. "Okay, to answer your first question, we're looking for a specific bush. Remember when you helped me out during training and I learned all that stuff about plants?" I nod my head, recalling the first time I actually started conversation with him. The thought makes me smile. "Well, I spotted one of the poisonous berries, a whole bush of them, so it looks like you've helped me out a bunch, Kitten," Cato explains, looking back at me with an amazing smile, one that was kind of boyish and made him look much younger.

"You're welcome," I tease. "So what does that have to do with anything?"

"We're going to accidentally drop them while running, so when she steals and eats them, she's gone," he explains with a mischievous grin. His plan was pretty smart, and I wouldn't have to feel as guilty for physically killing her. I personally didn't know the girl, and I'm not even sure if I've seen her more than once. Well, I may have seen her, but my mind was probably so occupied that I actually wasn't seeing her. Did that make sense? No...? Okay.

"That's a good plan," I told him. "It's sneaky, but easy nonetheless."

"Exactly."

"But what if someone else gets in the way?" I question. This arena wasn't exactly huge, so it's possible that we may run into a different tribute while plotting after Five.

"Then it's just killing two birds with one stone," Cato says, plastering his beautifully mischievous smirk on his lips.

We stop talking and just walk for a while, Cato being extremely observant of our surroundings. His shoulders were perfectly squared, and he was watching for even the slightest movement that could potentially hurt either one of us. Cato was like a watchdog. Ready to attack in the blink of an eye.

"So-"

"Hey," Cato interrupted, "no more questions. It's story time anyway," he says, stopping at a bush filled with Abadia, a very poisonous berry that takes maybe five minutes or so to take its effect. It gets broken down in the acid of the stomach, and once it's almost completely degraded, poison is activated by the stomach acid that causes the stomach to burst and the person to die. It's a very complicated fruit, but creates such a spontaneous aftereffect.

"What are you talking about?" I ask Cato as he gathers some of the berries into a pouch attached to his belt. He observed the bright pink berry, studying it with hard intesity, yet held it loosely in his hand as if clutching it too hard would kill him like it would Five.

"Remember what I told you the second day on the roof?" he asks, glancing back at me with a strong, serious expression.

My mind wandered back to that evening. There was why we were both late, and then he told me about his mother..

"Oh. One thing about your life whenever we have a moment?" I asked with a smile. My being filled with glee at him remembering something like that.

I swear, Cato may act like a bad boy, but deep down, he really is a sweetheart.

"Yeah," he answers, taking my hand again. We walked away from the bush and started moving somewhere else; a place I couldn't place. I had no idea where we were headed next.

"Okay," I nodded. "So, what's the topic of today, your favorite color?" I teased with a laugh.

Cato snorted, but had a smile on his face at the same moment. "That's red. But no, today's topic is my little brother."

My eyes widened in shock and my jaws fell. He wanted to talk to me about his brother?! I had no clue that he even had a brother six days ago.

"I hadn't even known you had any siblings," I mumbled.

"Well, he's not someone I talk about to just anyone," Cato admitted.

I felt a blush creeping up my neck and landing onto my cheeks. Cato basically admitted to me that he trusted me. That means a lot. Even though all of Panem could be listening in on what was to come in the next few moments, I knew that whatever he says will only be meant for me.

"Thank you for telling me then," I told him.

"So, Charlie." I nodded, urging him to continue. He didn't say anything for a while so the only sounds was of crunching leaves and cracking branches under our feet. "Charlie is eleven, and next year he's going to be twelve. From the moment he came home with my mother from the hospital, I became attached to him. I was so amazed by how tiny he was, but how similar he looked to me."

"Does he still favour you?" I interrupt.

Cato nods. "Anyway, once he grew older, I made it my priority to take care of him. I protected him from anyone that could threaten or hurt him. I helped him with his schoolwork, and I even started teaching him about girls, even though he's still too young to understand a lot of that concept." Cato stops to laugh as he revels in a memory that he must have had with his brother while teaching him about girls.

"Sounds like you guys are close."

Cato's smile faded a bit and his grip on my hand tightened slightly. His eyes became became bright as he reminisced about his baby brother. "Yeah. He's such a good kid. He's super smart and works hard at everything. He loves my Mom, so much, sometimes too much, if you ask me."

We reached the pond of water where the Careers' base was still stationed, yet they were nowhere to be found. I guess that made us lucky, though I sensed that if all three of them tried to attack us, we would be okay.

Cato refilled both our water supply while continuing his story. "Charlie was so upset the day of the reaping, but I could see in his eyes that he was prepared to protect Mom for the rest of his life if he really had to. He's so strong; a real fighter. I guess I taught him to be that way," Cato comments with a small shrug.

My mind goes to his father. I know that I didn't have much time to get to know my father, but I assumed that fathers were supposed to be the one taking care of their children, not the children caring for each other.

I guess that makes Cato and Katniss alike. The thought makes me smile.

"Why.. why didn't your father teach him all the things you did?" I ask hesitantly. Cato visibly tenses at the mention of his father and he stands up from crouching at the pond. He turns around, staring at me with a hard expression, his jaw clenching too much. His head starts to shake slowly, and I know I've hit a touchy subject.

"No. None of that in our story today," Cato mutters just a slow as he shook his head.

I nod my head way too quickly. "Okay. I'm sorry I brought it up," I apologise. Cato's body relaxes and he smiles at me.

"Alright, Kitten." I scowl at the nickname and he laughs. He's so mercurial. One minutes he's mad, and the next he's laughing.

"You know I hate when you call me that," I say with a pout.

"Whatever, Kitten." Cato steps closer and brushes my hair to the side. I feel the heat radiating off of me and he leans his lips close to my ear. His hot breath causes blood to rush to my cheeks again. "She's here," he whispers.

My eyes bulge. How on earth does he know that?! I didn't see or hear anything.. He really is good.

"Now what?"

"Now we run."

Cato takes my hand and pulls me so sharply that I wince in the pain that it causes my ribs. We begin running in no particular direction, just anywhere to stick to his plan. I don't know how long we ran for, but my thighs were burning after a good time and my heart was about ready to burst. I know we didn't run for long, but Cato had long legs and longer strides, so my small legs had to do double the work to keep up with him.

After a couple more minutes, I couldn't run anymore and I tugged on Cato's hand for him to stop.

Cato's legs stopped abruptly and he turned to watch me, bent over with my hands on my knees and panting hard.

"What?" he asked through his quick, harsh breathing.

"I can't," I gasped for air, "I can't run anymore. You're.. you're too hard.. to keep up with." My breathing was too ragged and harsh, so I definitely needed a break.

Cato rubbed my back softly as I sputtered. "That's fine. We made it a good distance, anyway," he says, handing me some water. I take small sips while I regain consciousness and control of my heart beat.

"Did you do it?" I ask once my breathing is slightly normal again.

Cato nods and grins like a schoolboy. "Yeah, and we should be hearing a cannon soo-"

A cannon goes off and I'm staring at Cato like he has two heads. He's looking down and smirking at me like he just won a huge prize. How on earth did he know that the cannon was going to blow? And when did he even drop the berries? I didn't even notice him do it.

That makes sense. I was too busy trying to keep up with him.

I didn't say anything, just stared at the man in front of me in pure shock and confusion. I could feel the adrenaline radiating off him like some intoxicating drug. He was back in the game, killing people and loving the rush it gave him.

Surprisingly, I wasn't afraid. Instead, I played a part in his plan.

Cato laughed and pulled me to him. "Surprised, huh Rose?" he asked. I continued to frown up at him. That was freaky, completely crazy.

Cato pulled me to attacked my lips with his rough ones, taking control over my tongue with his velvety one. I let him, but I was still completely shocked.

Cato let go, breathing quickly. "One down, five to go," he says with a laugh.

I had a feeling that the next day would be our last. At this rate, Cato could have this while arena cleared, with the exception of us two, in a matter of hours if he really wanted it that way. He was a rebel, a killer, but a man filled with so much love that he has to hide it with rage. He was smart, much smarter than any of the other tributes that came in with us, especially the older ones.

How on earth did I get stuck with this beautiful maniac? It can't be fate, or luck.. what is it that brought me to him and him to me?

The same adrenaline that course through his veins flowed off of him and transferred to me.

I was ready to go home.. with him.