Time Has Brought Your Heart To Me (Clato)

Chapter 6 "Lucky"

Cato’s PoV

Clove grabs the remote and the screen blacks out. I start whimpering with my face in the palm of my hands. I would be scarred forever. Clove gently takes my hands of my face and brings my head closer to her. She holds it where her shoulder is and makes quiet sounds to me. Her hand slowly moves up and down the back of my head.

“It’s going to be okay.” She whispers. “Winter’s not going to be hurt anymore, wherever she is.”

I lift my head back up and she wipes my tears away with her thumb.

“Could I be any luckier to have my own little lucky Clover?” I tease, trying to lift my spirits up.

“I’ll let that go, just this once.” She giggles.

**3 years later**

I sigh as I look at Clove, throwing knives at the dummies while they light up. She was growing up now, twelve and it would be the year she would have her first Reaping. I keep staring dreamily at her until someone accidentally knocks me over. I fall on my arm and I look at a blur of people crowd around me. Clove pushes through the crowd and stands there with her hands on her hips.

“Ha! You should really pay more attention.” She laughs.

“And you could really help me up, Clover.” I reply sarcastically. She rolls her eyes and lends me a hand.

“How much time left ‘till we go home?” She asks while we get our weapons.

“Umm… about ten minutes.” I mumble while looking at the clock.

“Okay, I’ll meet you outside later.” She smiles. I hit the red button and the dummies start moving forward to me with swords in their hands. I start charging at them. One of them swings their sword at my head but I dodge it in time. I slash its head in half and it slides off. I smile to myself in triumph.

Clove’s PoV

The training academy had emptied out so quickly when the bell rang for the end of the session. I walk out when it was completely empty, there were no bags left though.

“Where the hell is my bag?” I mutter to myself. I finally give up and head outside. I give Cato a look, suspecting him for stealing my bag. You see, whenever Cato did something to annoy me, he would have this giant smirk drawn on his face. I reach him and he hands me my bag.

“What took you so long?” He jokes.

“I was looking for my bag.” I say with my teeth gritted. He laughs at me some more so I punch him in the arm.

“Ow!” He exclaims while rubbing the spot where I punch him. “I’ll make it up to you.”

“How?” I say playfully while raising an eyebrow.

“Piggyback?” He smiles.

“Sure.” Cato always knew I loved piggybacks. I jump on his back and wrap my legs around him. I was a lot smaller than him so it was easy for him to lift me up.

“Now you can be tall.” He laughs.

“Hey! I like being short.” I reply while putting my arms around his neck.

“Whatever floats your boat.” Cato says while getting ready to run.

The wind blows my hair out of my face as he runs so quickly that my surroundings were just a blur of colours. I laugh from all the fun I was having. Cato turns his head to me and gives me a big grin. I get lost in the moment when I look into his stunning icy blue eyes. He turns his head back and keeps running. I look up at the cloudy sky while we make a stop at our destination, our place. There was only three-leaf clovers left now, I practically collected the rest up years ago. It would be amazing to find one here now but this place still meant everything to me. It was where I grew up with Cato. I slide off his back and sit on the bench. He silently sits next to me and rummages through his backpack. What was he looking for?

He pulls out a neatly wrapped box. I give him a look of curiosity.

“I got something for you…”He mumbles shyly. Cato hands it over to me and a smile spreads right over my face.

“Why did you get me this?” I ask.

“For luck, because your first Reaping is this year.” He answers quietly while I pull the wrapping off. I look at the box, which was glass on one side. Inside it was a knife with some sort of message on it. I read the message it said; to my little lucky Clover. From your best friend, Cato.

Cato’s PoV

She mouths the words as she reads it and starts smiling. She glances at me and I make a weak smile.

“Aww, that’s so sweet.” She finally says. I sigh in relief. She suddenly hugs me tightly and keeps like that for two minutes. I felt warmth all over my body. As she pulls herself away, our cheeks brush against each other lightly and she plants a kiss on it. I could feel love and only love. Snap out of it, Cato, she’s way too young for you and she’s your best friend.

“Was that a bit too far?” She asks while blushing crazily.

“At this stage, yeah, but I liked it. You should do that more often.” I flirt jokingly.

“Shut up Cato.” She smiles. I hear grass crunching behind us. I see my mum’s shadow appearing.

“I knew I would find you two here.” My mum says.

“Oh, hi there, Mrs Hadley.” Clove greets casually.

“Cato, you should be home now.” She scolds.

“I’m leaving. Bye little Clover.”

“Bye giant.” She answers and walks off to her own house.