Forbearance • A Cato Hadley Story

1.14

Eleven cannons went off. Eleven tributes were dead. It had only been about an hour and almost half of the tributes were gone. Livia was thankful she had her three friends with her. She was somewhat thankful for Peeta, mostly because he would lead them to the one person she personally wanted to get rid of. It was now nightfall and the five tributes were searching for a place to camp out for the night.

In the midst of their hunt for a few yards of empty land, they spotted something glowing. Someone had been stupid enough to light a big fire in the middle of the night when everyone would be able to see the light. All five teens readied their weapons and quietly made their way towards the fire, ready to get rid of whoever it was. The boy from Twelve stayed in the back of the group and kept quiet the entire day.

Not that anyone else was complaining, as they didn't want to have a conversation with the boy. They were about five yards away when Peeta leaned forward and whispered into Livia's ear, informing her that the girl by the fire was in fact the girl from District Eight. The blonde just nodded and the group slowly inched towards the girl, careful not to make any noise so she wouldn't know they were coming.

Soon enough the group was a matter of feet from the girl. Livia stood on Cato's right with his sword in her right hand, waiting to hand it to the boy when the time came. After a moment of watching the girl try to warm herself up the tall boy nodded to the blonde on his right, signaling for her to let the tribute on the ground know that they were there. On cue the small girl stepped on a twig by her left foot, causing it to crack loudly underneath her.

The girl from Eight snapped her head towards the source of the noise, making immediate eye contact with the muscular boy. Her eyes widened in fear when Livia tossed him the sword that made him that much more intimidating. The boy stepped forward and the girl crawled backwards, begging him not to kill her although she knew she had nowhere to go. In one swift movement his sword was through her stomach and quickly taken out, ending the poor girl's life in seconds.

He then handed the sword back to the small blonde beside him and she took it in her right hand, wiping the blood off of the weapon and onto her pant leg so it could be reused. With a swing of his arm, the boy's right arm found its way around the Perez daughter's shoulders and the group went back to looking for untouched land. Four out of five of the teens couldn't help but laugh as they walked around the woods.

Glimmer was at the front of the group laughing along with Marvel while Cato and Livia walked next to each other, Peeta trailing along a few yards behind them. "She was so pathetic!" Glimmer called out, laughing as she spoke. Marvel chuckled and sighed as he wrapped an arm around the girl's waist. Livia laughed along as well, leaning into Cato slightly who was also laughing, losing her balance from the laughter.

Marvel joined in and spoke up over all of the laughter. "I mean did you see the look on her face? It's like what did you expect?" he asked enthusiastically. Behind the pair Cato laughed along with the group and pulled the smaller girl closer to him, only for her to pull away so she could face the boy. The pair stopped as Glimmer and Marvel continued on and she took a few small breaths, trying to catch her breath from the laughter so she could mock the girl.

"Oh no! Please don't kill me! Oh no!" the smaller girl mocked letting out a small chuckle towards the end of her sentence. Cato's smile widened and he leaned down slightly as he whispered something in her ear to make her giggle before he turned his head and put a somewhat serious look on his face. "Hey, Loverboy." he called out to the boy from Twelve who quickly appeared from behind a few trees, moving at a bit of a jog.

Once Peeta caught up to the pair, Cato looked at him questioningly. "Are you sure she went this way?" he asked the tensed up boy who stood there panting from trying to keep up with the group. The boy stiffly nodded his head and pointed in the direction they had come from. "Yeah, I'm sure." he answered. Livia sighed and the pair left Peeta to run ahead of them with Glimmer and Marvel. Once she was sure that he was out of sight and couldn't hear her, she looked at Cato pleadingly.

"Are you sure we just shouldn't just kill him now?" she begged with puppy dog eyes that only made the taller boy smile down at her. He put a hand on her right cheek, which she leaned into as he looked at her seriously with a sigh of partial frustration. All of the careers wanted to get rid of Katniss badly and they wanted Peeta gone too. They knew he was possibly the only way that they could find her but she had a feeling that they wouldn't really need him.

He was useless to them. He was a dead weight. "Nah. He's our only chance of finding her." he told her with a smirk at the thought of killing the girl from Twelve. She sighed defeatedly. Livia didn't really think he'd be useful but she wasn't going to argue with Cato so she just nodded with a fake smile. The boy smiled back down at her and placed a lingering kiss on her temple as he put his arm back around her shoulders and they went to catch up with the other three.

Sure the two liked each other, not that they would admit that, but they were in the Hunger Games. Within the few weeks they knew each other they had really bonded. Although Livia was intimidated by him at first. They both knew that there was no time for relationships at a time like this. So they would be affectionate with the other but neither would let anything come out of it. Once the two caught up with the rest of the group they agreed to build a small fire.

Not one large enough to be seen in the distance but just large enough to where they could be provided with enough light to do what they had to do until they were ready for bed. Peete thankfully knew how to start a fire and worked on that while the others set up camp. Cato would sleep on Livia's right, Glimmer to her left and Marvel next to Glimmer. Livia was thankful when she dug in her backpack and found a sleeping bag near the bottom.

She offered the sleeping bag to the others, except for the boy building the fire, since she was the only one who had acquired one but all of them refused because it had come from her bag. She then decided that she would use her backpack as a pillow as the others planned to do with theirs. Once Peeta had finished building the fire they all sat around it for a bit of warmth in the chilly arena.

Cato sat still, letting his sword heat over the fire, Glimmer shivered in the cold even though she was by a fire so her and Marvel sat close and kept each other warm, and Livia was sat up next to Cato, throwing a knife every once and a while at lizards that roamed around them. "Peeta." Cato said, earning the attention of the boy who had just been staring into the fire for God knows how long. The muscular boy then looked at the girl next him, silently telling her to continue for him.

She grabbed her knife from the now dead body of a lizard and put the knife into her backpack before zipping it closed and facing the boy from Twelve. "We want to sleep. So you're going to keep watch. If we wake up in the morning to any of us dead, we will not hesitate to kill you. Got it?" she spoke aggressively, scaring the boy slightly. Her district partner smirked at her words, loving how intimidating she got when she wanted to be.

The four careers then got ready for bed, the pair from District One still suspiciously close, and made themselves comfortable on the forest floor. Livia's backpack was surprisingly comfortable for what was in there. The 'what' being  a few knives, a bottle for water and a rope which she wasn't planning to use as of right now. Peeta then put out the fire and the blonde let herself drift off to sleep, not letting herself feel bad about what she had done.