let it fly | cato hadley

12 | The Beach

"Is that so? Well, I've heard so much about you too. Celeste talks about her sisters all the time," He answered with a smile. With one last glance up and down, Cecilia moved back and gave Celeste a nod, too small for Cato to even notice.

"I didn't know Celeste talked about us so much," she answered instead, pinching her sister's cheek. Celeste slapped her hand away and sent her a death glare.

A minute later, she heard Finnick and Darian laughing outside, causing her to rush towards the door. At the sound of Finnick, Cato followed quickly behind, peeking out the door.

"Loverboy!" Finnick yelled out once he noticed Cato, gesturing for him to come over.

Cato quickly complied, making his way over to the two boys. From the corner of her eye, Celeste noticed Annie sending her a thumbs-up.

"He's cute,"  she mouthed as she observed the boy, causing Celeste to chuckle under her breath.

"When did you get here?" Finnick asked the boy, surprisingly really happy.

"A few minutes ago. I had to get away from Brutus," Cato replied, recalling his time with Brutus back in Two.

"That man does not stop does he? The games just ended," Finnick complained, rolling his eyes at the mention of Brutus.

"He really doesn't," Cato agreed with a chuckle.

-

After greetings and pleasantries were exchanged between Celeste's family and Cato, the group all sat down to eat dinner, enjoying Mags' Seafood gumbo.

Thankfully, Cato got along with everyone just fine, easing Celeste's nerves so that she could eat dinner in peace. Conversation flowed easily, and eventually, all the food was gone.

"You know what we should do?" Celeste whispered to Cato.

"What's that?" he replied, raising an eyebrow in interest.

"We should go to the beach," she answered with a smile. Cato's eyes widened.

"Really?" he asked, eyes wide with interest.

"Let's go," she answered, pulling him out of the house. The walk wasn't too long, but it was beautiful. Cato seemed to be enjoying the view as well, scanning his surroundings.

Once they reached the beach, Celeste pulled him toward her favorite spot. A smaller pool of water, hidden by the rocks and hills. Not many people knew it was there, not besides Celeste and her companions.

"Welcome to my little hideaway," Celeste announced with a chuckle.

"Wow, this is so different from Two," Cato breathed out as he looked around his surroundings. Celeste laughed as she plopped a blanket on the sand.

"Take off your clothes," Celeste demanded, causing Cato to let out a laugh.

"You lured me out here just to get me naked?" he teased, covering his body.

"No, you weirdo. We're going swimming. You don't want your clothes all wet do you?" she responded with an eye roll.

With that, the two quickly stripped down into their undergarments. When Celeste finished, she turned around to see Cato balling his clothes up and putting them on the blanket. It was only then that Celeste really noticed how toned and strong the boy was, mentally tracing his muscles.

"Like what you see?" Cato interrupted, a wide smirk etched on his face.

"I've seen better," Celeste teased back, causing Cato to let out a disbelieving huff.

"Yeah right. There's no one better than me," he responded, flexing his muscles. Celeste playfully scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"Get in the water, tough guy," Celeste teased, pulling him in.

The two stayed silent for a while, enjoying the beating sun and cold water and for the first time in a long time, Celeste felt completely relaxed.

"Do you have beaches in Two?" Celeste suddenly asked as she got out to dry off.

"We have lakes. But, we don't really swim in them unless we are training. Most of the time, we just stay within the fence," Cato replied as Celeste tried to remember her visit to District Two 4 years ago. Though all victory tours happen during winter, so all she could remember were snowy mountains.

"You guys learned to swim just for the games?" Celeste questioned, tilting her head in confusion.

"We did a lot of things just for the games," Cato answered with a shrug. And once again, Celeste was reminded of how much brainwashing went into the careers heads. The same brainwashing that was taught to her. Only Celeste was lucky enough to be from a District that knew when to stop.

After a few more moments of silence, Cato finally made his way out of the water and joined Celeste on the blanket.

"It's peaceful here," he started with a small smile.

"It is," Celeste breathed out, still stuck on their previous conversation.

"So is this where you worked? Before the games?" Cato asked, pointing towards a few boats in the distance and drawing Celeste out of her trance.

"Sometimes, yeah. I used to split my time between the nets and the spears, so sometimes, I was left on the beach to hunt," she replied with a smile, recalling her time before the games.

"I can't imagine you doing that," Cato let out a laugh. And Celeste realized he was right. Both of them were only 15 during her games and ever since then, the Capital had worked tirelessly to make her their 'princess' and strip her of her old identity.

"Well, not now. Picture a slightly younger-looking Celine and that's what I looked like," Celeste answered with a proud grin.

"I'm not so sure I can see that either," he teased, causing Celeste to laugh.

"I'll have to show you pictures then."