𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐲-𝐨𝐧𝐞

─── new enemies

          𝕴 disappear the moment the train starts moving, going to find my room and even Cato knows better than to follow.

I just need a moment alone, a moment to cling onto my mother's ring and Katniss' mockingjay pin and clutch onto my hope. It had gone the way we knew it would, and now, now I needed to focus and get into the mentality that would help Cato and I win.

Even if it meant that I destroyed myself in the process.

An hour or so later, Cato comes to find me.

"Mitz..." He trails off, before opening the door and slipping in anyway. He slumps down beside me, reaching for my hand as I sigh. "You were right."

"Yay for me." He chuckles at my snarkiness, before I roll over, flinging my legs over his and holding on tightly. Cato's arms snake around my waist, before he's kissing me softly and I'm tightening my grip on him. "This is going to be different. Everything about it."

"My mum called, last week. My father had to go into the Capitol, he told me that they've done everything up, made it all specially for this. There's a new training centre, new Tribute living quarters, everything's new."

"And specifically designed to imprison us." I bet as Cato agreed. "Your dad, has he been reaped?"

"I don't know."

"Cato." I pull myself upright. "What do you mean, you don't know?"

"I couldn't watch them without you, didn't feel right." He mumbles, as I clamber off of him and haul him upright.

"Geare!" I shout down the train, yanking Cato after me. "Pause dinner. Put the reapings on. I want to know who we're facing and Cato doesn't know if his dad was reaped or not."

It's already on by the time we reach the living area. I clamber over the back of the couch, slumping down beside Geare, whilst Cato sits ahead of me. Jasmine has a notebook and pen, Aurelia's in charge of the projection and we're ready.

"You're facing Capitol favourites, that I know." Aurelia trilled. "They're smart, cunning and just as skilled as you two, though you are the youngest."

Cato and I hummed.

"They all know each other, you two are the outsiders, fresh meat." Geare turned to us as Cato and I nod. "It's going to be all the more harder to beat them because they'll have years of alliances already, their mentors will know each other and the best people in the Capitol to speak to, to get sponsors."

"Last year is going to look easy in comparison." Jasmine shook her head. "These are experienced killers."

"But, they've been retired." Cato points out. "They've been out of the game for a while, we've only just left. We have that edge."

"You're right." Geare nods. "But that's not everything. Aurelia, if you will."

The Capitol woman pressed play as District 1 came up.

"When we look at them, think allies, think who we can trust and who we can best. Cato, I know you're used to the Career pack but I'm not sure how favourably they're going to look on you know that you're Outer District."

"Depends who's in the Careers." Cato pointed out. "If it's my dad, then we have allies. If not, then we don't."

"We'll hope he's not there." Jasmine muttered.

"Cashmere and Gloss." Two tall, muscular, blond people appear on the screen. "Brother and sister. District 1."

"That's terrible." I mutter. Brother and sister forced to go into the arena and kill each other for the Capitol's entertainment.

"They won back-to-back Games. Capitol favourites." Jasmine explained.

"As much as us?" Cato cocks an eyebrow.

"Not as much as you, but still, not to be underestimated. They'll have lots of sponsors." Jasmine continued. "They will be lethal."

"Yay." I muttered.

"District 2." Aurelia trilled. Cato leans forward, as the pool of victors is shown for District 2. I can make out Augustus in the crowd, arms folded, face dark. Enobaria is called first and Cato's eyes flutter shut for a moment. Enobaria was his mentor and I know that Cato was close to the woman, she had got him through the Games and supported him on the other side.

Geare and Jasmine also sigh.

I forget that all of them know each other sometimes.

For the men's, Cato holds his breath and I cling onto his arm.

"Brutus Hardwick!" Cato slumps back against the couch, eyes closing as a different man gets called up, one that was standing beside his father.

"Okay," Jasmine pats Cato's shoulder in relief. "Brutus and Enobaria. Both strong fighters in their own right, haven't been in the Games in a while but I can assume that they've been training."

"District 3. Wiress and Beetee." Geare read out as the clips showed two older victors, both smaller than the previous Careers. "Not fighters, not in the slightest, but they are brilliant. Really tech-savvy. He won his games by electrocuting six Tributes at once."

"Let's hope there's not a socket in the arena then." Cato shoots me a grin as I laugh under my breath.

"District 4. These two, get them as allies." Jasmine suggests. The clips roll. It reveals two very District 4 esque victors. Finnick is tall and bronzed, a charming smile playing on his lips and a swagger that seems to indicate that he thinks he's already won. The woman is smaller than her male counterpart, with lighter blonde hair and narrowed eyes. Her shoulders are squared and fists balled but she doesn't falter at the camera.

"Anika Dawsey and Finnick O'Dair." Cato's eyebrows furrow. "They're the two for District 4?"

"Yes." Geare nods. "Finnick, won his Games at 14, youngest ever to do so. Charming, handsome, the Capitol's darling, they love him here. Smart and very skilled in combat, especially in water. But, his weakness...Anika."

"She doesn't look like a weakness." I point out. Anika's face is determined, but pale, her arms behind her back but she manages to shoot a similar charming smile as Finnick's to the camera.

"Anika, won at 16, two years after Finnick, he was her mentor, they are incredibly close and he would do anything to protect her." Jasmine explains. "He made her into the Capitol's sweetheart, she's also very well liked and she's brutal. Don't let her appearance deceive you, she might be Finnick's weakness, but she won her Games by hunting down other tributes and killing them, and then won by beating an 18 year old District 2 tribute to death with a rock. Her weakness, the Games."

"Anika suffers from severe PTSD, it's common knowledge to all the mentors." Geare explained as he saw our confused looks. "So, if she goes back to the arena, is she going to be able to get back into the Games mindset or is she going to crumble? If she crumbles, Finnick will do everything to get her out. That will expose him."

"Right, moving on." We continued to watch the reapings, before it showed ours and a thought occurred to me.

"District 12, they only have one victor. What have they done for female victor?" I question as Geare's eyebrows furrow.

"I'm not sure. The male is Haymitch, certainly." Aurelia plays the clip and my heart breaks. They were carrying out District 12's reaping for the women as normal. Some poor kid was going into this arena against Victors, with no training.

"The female tribute for District 12..." Their escort trailed off and my eyes narrowed. "...Primrose Everdeen."

That wasn't what any of us were expecting.

But the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. A way to punish us would be to have our younger sisters go in, but Snow couldn't do that if he wanted to reap me. So, what would make the Capitol look on these Games even more favourably...? If the younger sister of one of the star crossed lovers of District 12, who volunteered to save her sister the first time around, was then reaped with no older sister to protect her, into an arena full of Victors, with impossible odds against her, then the Capitol would go wild.

"Their poor mother..." Jasmine shook her head, writing Prim's name down. A thought leaps into my mind as I turn towards Cato.

"You don't think-" I chew my lips. "You don't think this is because I spoke to her when we went to 12, when she saluted us. You don't think this is my fault that she got reaped."

"Don't think like that. You can't." Cato shakes his head, as the train continues to speed to the Capitol.

We eat in silence, before retreating to our beds and I curl up beside Cato as we try to fight off sleep. Both of us know that we'll be haunted by nightmares.

"We have to go bigger than last time." Cato whispers. "I-I have an idea for the interviews, but I'll need your help."

"Are we getting married on stage?"

"No." Cato shook his head. "How about we do a little reveal instead?"

"A reveal?"

"I'm thinking perhaps a pregnancy announcement."

"Things are progressing fast." I joke at him, trying to find some light in the situation. "We were only getting married a few months ago and already, a baby? How scandalous!"

"Stop it." Cato grins, chuckling as I press kisses to his jaw line, tracing my fingers through his hair. "If we do it, we'll have to commit. One of our hands on your belly, a lot of hovering and then reveal it in the interviews."

"We can have some conversation in the Games, when we have the quiet moments about what to call it, that always plays on peoples hearts." I pointed out as I pressed my ear to his chest.

"If..." He trails off. "If we get out, if we're free and there's no more Games, no more threat over our head and we were safe, if we had a kid, what would you call it?"

I almost tell him to save it for the Games, but then I see the serious look on his face and I think seriously.

"Kai, if it's a boy." I tell him the name that I'd always wanted to call my son if I had one. "It's a strong name. What I would have been called if I was a boy."

"Kai..." Cato trails off, as if for imagining what our son would look like. His lips twitch into a smile.

"Maybe Marnie if it's a girl. I know it's like Mitzi and a little on the nose, but I like it." I tell him. I wonder if we live long enough to have children, what they would look like. Would they have dark hair or blond hair? Would their eyes be dark or blue? "What about you?"

"Magnus for a boy. Livi or Livia for a girl." Cato smiles softly and I grin.

"I like Livi." I tell him as he smiles.

"It's my mother's middle name. Really traditional District 2 name." Cato explains, before laughing. "When my father used to annoy my mother, or get on her nerves, he used to call her Livi instead of Juno, and he used to buy her flowers and treats and call her Livi until she finally forgave him. He always said Juno was the name that everyone could call her but Livi was his name for her, his special endearment for her in a sense because he wasn't that romantic otherwise."

"Your dad must have been a romantic if he was buying her flowers and treats. My dad offered my mum the farm and she said it was the best gift she ever got." Both of us chuckle. "But pregnant."

"Pregnant." Cato smiles as I grin. The thoughts of night terrors and all the rest slips from my head, no longer as prominent as the thought that Cato's put in my head of children, in a time where it's safe. "And allies."

"Prim. I'm not leaving her on her own." I tell him.

"I thought as much. District 12, who else?"

"District 4." I nod my head. "If Finnick O'Dair is so set on protecting his fellow victor, he'll be looking for an alliance."

"Then we've got our list."

──⭒─⭑─⭒──

Hiya,

So, Prim has been reaped, you've seen Anika and Finnick as well and Cato and Mitzi are super cute. I just love them so much and they're little conversation about kids is super cute and I just think that they're super sweet. Anyway...

Let me know what you think,

Love Li xx