The sleep I had just went through was blank. No dreams, nothing. I woke up in Cato's arms with him still sleeping soundly, his fingers softly gripping my upper arms. My head was laying against his chest, hearing his heartbeat.
He slowly woke up a few minutes after me.
"Morning." He murmured, still trying to wake up from his sleep.
"Morning to you too." I slipped out of the sleeping bag and took the time to stretch, and then moving my arms and legs to shake them awake. As much as I'd love to sleep all day, we need to go hunting for 4 more tributes.
"What about the bags, Cato?" Who could forget about that. It was the very two things that got Clove killed. He stared grimly at the bags before tossing me mine and started to open up his in silence.
I nodded before opening up my bag, revealing to be some cream of some sort. An instant thought came to my mind as I rubbed it onto my leg wound, which still wasn't treated. Hopefully that will help it.
Cato pulled out a skin tight suit of body armour. Two of them, actually.
'The other one was probably meant for Clove.' I thought bitterly. But is the armour meant for metal? Claws? Heat? That I had no clue, and neither did Cato.
A cannon suddenly boomed. If I were to guess, probably Foxface. It was still early in the morning and Luna and Adam should probably be hidden.
Cato and I went to a stream to get some water, I remembered something he said a while back.
"Cato?" His attention turned towards me.
"What were you going to say when I was going to go get the bags?" I tilted my head, asking innocently to see if I can pry.
He smirked. "You want me to tell you?" I nodded eagerly.
"Guess you'll have to earn it."
"Oh? How?" I felt adrenaline being prepped to rush in.
"Whoever can successfully pin each other for 10 seconds wins." He removed any weapons he had on him to make it fair, as I did the same.
A competition eh? I see I see! This'll be fun. Hopefully it could distract me from the one we lost.
We got into positions.
"Start—" he was interrupted by me immediately tackling him into the dirt, rolling on top of him.
I grinned, using my leg to pin his one arm while using my right hand to hold his head back. He grinned, obviously plotting something and waited till the 8 second mark.
Suddenly, he leaned to the side causing me to lose balance. Shoot no!! I forgot he had more muscle than me, dang it!!
He instantly pinned me, now I was under him. I raised my eyebrows. "You intended this to happen?" I continued trying to struggle out of his grip.
He chuckled while I was squirming around. I noticed my left leg was free. I lifted it up to try and push him off me, but he noticed and caught me off guard in the most unusual way, shocking me in place.
He pressed him warm lips onto mine.
Time stopped. My cheeks turned a bright red, my eyes widening. Cato's eyes were closed, and the kiss wasn't as if he was trying to pin my head. No, it felt genuine, soft, and tender.
Was this for real? Was Cato, the boy from 2, the one who made me feel butterflies in my stomach kissing me? How do I know this isn't an act?
Before I could even kiss back, he pulled away and smiled at me. "I won."
I was flabbergasted. What was I supposed to say?! I couldn't move or speak, my voice caught and unable to say anything.
Soon I finally uttered some words out. "You just kissed me..."
"Yes I did."
"Was that kiss genuine?"
Silence hung in the air until Cato nodded, still on top of me. "Yeah, it is."
My heart skipped a beat. Maybe even two.
"So... the reason you didn't want me to go to the cornucopia..."
"Was because I didn't want to lose you." Cato confirmed my thoughts. I gasped, lowering my eyes to look to the side. So many thoughts were going through my head. Many of them were happy. He tilted his head, worried.
"You ok? I'm sorry if I did anything wrong-"
I interrupted Cato by softly kissing him and pulling away before he could react. A blush covered my face in embarrassment.
He smiled and put the pieces together. "Love you, (Y/N)." This made me smile.
"I love you too Cato."
As much as we both would love to keep this bittersweet moment going, we came to our senses, knowing we're still in the games.
He pulled me up and tossed me some armour, probably the one that was meant for Clove. I put it on and it felt like it was meant for me.
We then got our weapons and headed over to the cornucopia, knowing right now we wouldn't be able to do much in the forest.
Suddenly the sky turned extremely dark.
Cato and I exchanged glances at each other.
"It must be the finale." I told him. Suddenly, a sound of a man screaming mixed with wolves of some sort echoed to the right, near the forest, making us flinch. Confirming my statement. It was the finale. A canon boomed.
The tribute's picture was above so we could see who died. It was Thresh. I smiled. I'm glad he died. 'That's what you get for killing Clove.' I thought.
"So Districts 2 and 7 versus 12 eh?" Cato looked at me and smirked. I smirked back. "Ready to go home?"
"Hell yeah." I responded. I ran over to the cornucopia, Cato jogging behind. He helped lift me up on top, and I helped pull him upwards.
We instantly noticed Luna and Adam running away from something. Wait... the eyes... the number on their collar... they're so familiar, they're just like...
"That can't be Glimmer... right Cato?" My face paled, turning to see his reaction, his did the exact same.
It was. With blonde fur, and Glimmer's pair of eyes, along with a District 1 on her collar, there could be no doubt that it was her.
All this could mean is that there will be 20 other mutts with the eyes and features of the dead tributes.
I prepped myself for the other two to appear. They soon climbed up the cornucopia, staring down at the mutts in shock.
Cato used this opportunity to grab a hold of Adam and wrestle him. He sent a punch to Adam, while I moved over and threw one of the throwing knives I picked up from the cornucopia. I sliced Luna's arm and she countered, sending an arrow to my shoulder.
I winced in pain, gripping my shoulder, however made sure I was still steady so I didn't fall over into the deadly pit of jaws. I ripped the arrow out before going back to attack Luna, making her lose her grip on her bow, having to fly somewhere else on the roof of the cornucopia.
Adam threw Cato to the top of the cornucopia, seeming to get closer to him. Not thinking twice, I tackled Adam and slammed him to the ground. I soon lifted him up and turned to Luna, using him as a shield while she notched an arrow and pointed at Cato, who just retrieved his sword.
"Shoot him and your little friend dies too." I warned.
She turned straight to me. Adam was in a headlock, I held him as tightly as I could by the neck to prevent air from properly getting into his system. If we stayed in this position long enough, Adam will surely die.
I smiled, and in a time like this, it would look like twisted, sadistic, and probably inhuman.
"I mean you can shoot both of us. And we'll go down. Then it'll be between you and Cato. Do you really have the heart to kill your district partner?"
Cato froze, and from the look on his face, I don't think he knows what to do in this situation.
Two people are going to guarantee die. That's for sure. Who it's going to be will depend all on this situation.
The mutts were below us. If both of us fall then we're goners for sure.
I felt the faint trace of someone's finger tip tracing an x onto my hand. Oh no.
Luna shot an arrow at my hand, causing me to let go of Adam and lose my balance. As Adam pushed me, I gripped onto the sleeves of him. "Say bye to Adam then." I smiled, as the other tribute's eyes widened in horror.
"No!" Cato called out. It was too late, I had pulled Adam down with me as we fell onto the mutts. And they attacked us.
I heard Cato's sword impale Luna as she screamed in pain. The mutts clawed away at both of us. Thank goodness I had some armour, it shielded me from most of their attacks.
I pulled out my dagger and swung at one of the mutts that resembled the girl from 3, and stood up, trying to fend myself from them. Cato went to the edge and reached out for me, praying I was still alive.
As I was trying to head to Cato, a larger mutt pinned me down and slashed me by the upper stomach to the outside of my waist. Thresh. He's going to kill me, just like he killed Clove.
I braced myself for the impact until he was knocked off of me by two mutts. These two instantly recognized me, one of them being tall, with brown fur, and the other being short with black fur. Wait, are they...?
The brown haired mutt bit onto my jacket and threw me onto the cornucopia, making me collapse onto Cato. I looked up to see the shorter mutt slash Thresh and finished Adam off with knife-sharp claws.
"Clove and Marvel..." I whispered, still holding onto Cato.
"They helped us from beyond the grave." I smiled weakly.
When they were done their attack with Adam, the two mutts looked at us and confirmed my theory. Marvel's and Clove's eyes, the collars on their necks, all that was enough. All the mutts soon walked away and into the forest, disappearing out of sight.
I slowly tried to stand up, Cato helping me. He cupped my face and kissed me desperately, as if he was begging to me that I won't leave him. I tugged his shirt, holding on to him desperately.
He pulled away after a minute, the two of us gasping for air. He held me tight, and I could feel his arms shaking.
"You almost died." He whispered into my ear.
"But I'm here now. And we can go home." I put my forehead against his, while he held me close.
The sky slowly turned a lighter blue as the fake sun began to rise. Cato helped me down the cornucopia as I held my stomach in pain thanks to Thresh.
"Why aren't we going home?" Cato called out to whoever is listening. He's right, at this point, we've won the games. We would be going home.
It was silent. We waited a little longer, before a voice spoke up.
"Attention tributes, attention. The previous rule allowing two victors to be crowned has been... revoked. Only one may be crowned. Good luck, and may the odds be ever in your favour."
My heart dropped. Was this what they wanted to do? To have us work so hard to survive together only for one of us to die? Did Clove's sacrifice mean nothing?
Cato looked at me, sadness written across his face. "You can kill me."
I looked at him in disbelief. "No, I'm not."
"But you need to, you have your family. If you die—"
"I'm not leaving without you!"
No one said anything for a few seconds. He looked at the ground before pulling some berries out of his pocket. I knew what these poisonous things were. Nightlock.
I covered his hand, thinking he'd eat them all.
"Trust me, (Y/N)." He put half of them in my hand so we could both have them. So then... we'd be together.
"I got these just in case you died." He smiled sadly. "Cato..."
"I'll see you in heaven?" He looked at me and smiled his charming smile, the one that made me fall in love at the worst time.
"It seems so."
Before we had a single berry touch our lips, the voice of Seneca Crane halted our movements.
"STOP!!
"Ladies and gentlemen...may I present to you,
The winners of the 74th Hunger Games."