Puppet Strings

Chapter Two

Cato still wouldn't speak. He grabbed Peeta's shoulders and forcefully pushed him onto his back on the bed. Before Peeta could voice his concern again, Cato silenced him with another powerful kiss. Peeta's heart stuttered and jumped. He was feeling a mixture of arousal and fear. He didn't know what to make of what was happening. Was Cato really angry or was he just releasing some sexual frustration from a hard day's work?

"Cato, hold on a second, just"- Peeta was cut off when his boyfriend pressed his hand against his mouth, cutting off any possible means of speaking.

"Peeta?"

His heart lifted. "Mmmf?"

"Shut up."

His heart sank just as quickly. Peeta scowled and tried to push Cato's hand off his mouth. What the hell was wrong with him? He watched with increasing worry as Cato unbuckled his pants and shucked them off. The older man was almost working on autopilot, doing things without really thinking about it. Why was he acting like this?

"I'm not in the mood for talking. I just want to get my mind off a few things."

Okay, that seemed . . . alright. As long as he was okay, Peeta supposed. He calmed down a little and allowed Cato to part his thighs. He tried to move Cato's hand, deciding to keep his mouth shut to allow his boyfriend some thinking time while he allowed him what he wanted, but it was like a rock. Solid and unmovable.

Peeta forced himself to settle down. He convinced himself that it was just like when they were roleplaying. Kind of like being gagged. Except Cato's hand felt like it was bruising his face, so bad that hot tears were curling in the corners of his eyes. Peeta squeezed his eyes shut and forced them back. Why was he crying? It was preposterous. It was only a tiny slither of pain. God, he was such a wimp.

He failed to realize that he was crying because he was scared.

Cato's eyes were on fire but they were also distant. His nails dug into the pale flesh of Peeta's hips as he practically shoved himself into him. It hurt so much, Peeta whined behind Cato's hand. He had pushed into him with such brutality, something Peeta had never experienced before. He told himself he was just being a coward, that he was being a wimp who couldn't handle any pain. Cato was just being a little rough, that was all.

Peeta told himself to pull himself together. To settle down and relax. Enjoy it.

Cato locked eyes with Peeta. He smiled, almost devilishly, and took hold of Peeta's length. He must have noticed that the younger boy had been too lost in his confusion that he hadn't allowed himself to enjoy the pleasure he was bestowing. Peeta's back arched upwards and his eyes fluttered shut. The pain was mixing with the shockwaves the grip Cato had on his length created.

He moaned softly into the hand still over his mouth, his hips beginning to thrust upwards to meet Cato's own needy pushes. Goosebumps broke out across his skin because of the cold and Peeta wished that Cato hadn't pulled the covers off him. They could have done it just as much underneath the bedcovers. It was late autumn after all, it was freezing at this time of night.

Peeta wound his arms around Cato's neck and tried to make it a least a little bit intimate. The hand on his mouth finally disappeared, instead grabbing Peeta's wrists and pinning them above his head so he couldn't touch Cato at all. It was kind of frustrating but it was Cato's bad day, it wasn't his place to ruin whatever it took to make him better.

Although . . .

"C-Cato, can you ease up a little?" Peeta whimpered, his toes curling into the mattress in a confusing ode to the pleasure he was feeling. "Any harder and I'm probably going to . . . bruise."

"Sssh." Cato kissed him and pounded him harder. Tears were forming in Peeta's eyes again and he couldn't understand why Cato was being so forceful, despite the fact he had just told him that he was in pain. There was something wrong, there had to be. Why wasn't he telling him? Did he not trust him or something?

Peeta was almost relieved when it was all over which was surprising because he'd normally want to savour every moment of, what he thought was, making love with Cato. Cato seemed to go back to normal afterward, like releasing into Peeta was his stress reliever. He sighed and hugged Peeta close to his body. "I feel better now," he admitted.

"That's . . . that's good," Peeta replied weakly. His whole body was in pain, screaming with aches and needles of agony. He couldn't believe that one round of rough sex could put him in such a tender state. "Any chance you'll tell me what happened that put you in such a state?"

Cato kissed the nape of Peeta's neck and snuggled his head between his shoulder blades. "You don't need to worry about it," he muttered.

"Well, it would have been nice to know why I'm internally bleeding." It was to come off as a joke but Cato tightened his arms around his waist as soon as he said this. Peeta wished he had just kept his mouth shut.

"Don't worry about it," Cato repeated.

"Okay," Peeta said, learning from his mistakes.

"I promise it's nothing to worry about."

"Okay."

Cato fell asleep soon after that but Peeta couldn't bring himself to even close his eyes. What happened, exactly? Why did Cato act so strange tonight? What exactly happened that made him so mad? What was his other job? Would he ever tell him?

Something told Peeta that Cato wasn't going to tell him. Not any time soon, anyway.

A/N: Sorry it's a day late but I was busy yesterday so I hope you guys don't mind! I'm going to try to post this chapter uncensored but if it doesn't work out and gets made private I'll delete it then post again with the ending censored a little. It isn't in painful detail anyway so I'm hoping it will be left alone.

Hope you enjoyed ^_^