Forbearance • A Cato Hadley Story

2.18

 As Livia and Cato walked into the training area they each scanned the room to get a good look at their fellow Tributes for this year's games. Enobaria had instructed them to interact with a few people here and there to see who they would prefer as allies. Livia already knew she wanted Eliza Tech as one of them. They had met at the big party in the Capitol and Livia could tell even from their short encounter that she would be a good ally. But she wasn't too sure who else she would want as an ally.

Just scanning the room, she wasn't too sure about anyone. Most of the victors, now tributes, either seemed too frightening and made Livia think they would kill her in a split second or too skittish and wouldn't be much of a help in the arena. The couple stood in the doorway of the training area and let the door close behind them. Cato squeezed his girlfriend's hand before speaking quietly. "Remember, Liv, today's about making allies." he reminded her.

She took a deep breath and nodded, quickly squeezing his hand back. "So far I'm not overwhelmed by our choices." she admitted, scooting a bit closer to him. From where she stood she could see who she recognized to be Johanna Mason swinging around an axe in a battle-like manner. After a few moments she swung the axe, digging it into the ground with a grunt. "I guess we just try to figure out who we can trust and work backwards from there." Cato told her.

The blonde stayed silent and just nodded as they let go of each other's hands and went off on their own. The first person the girl spotted was who else but Eliza with her District partner, Beetee. From what it looked like, the two were struggling at an attempt to start a fire. Beetee would move the stick in between his hands, hoping for a fire to come about as Eliza sat beside him giving tips that didn't exactly seem to help the process much.

The blonde walked over to the two and took a squat in front of them while Beetee continued to try and make a fire, muttering tips on how to get it going. "Friction generates heat, heat generates fire. And here it..." he trailed off as he focused harder. A bit hesitant, Livia put her hand on the man's getting him to stop. Both him and Eliza looked at the blonde curiously, yet Eliza still managed to smile at her kindly.

"You should move your hands downward." she told them, rubbing her hands together in a downward motion. The pair from District Three let their gaze on her linger for a moment before Beetee looked back down to the stick and repeated Livia's action's. After a few tries he managed to get a small fire going, both him and Eliza getting weirdly excited over it. The man switched his focus back onto the blonde and smiled at her kindly. "Thank you." he said.

Eliza on the other hand didn't seem to be paying attention to the girl. She seemed more focused on something where all the Gamemaker's were hanging around, chatting, eating, etc. When her District partner and the girl from Two noticed her focused expression, they too looked up to where she had been. "By the corner of the table." she said blatantly, her expression remaining the emotionless yet intrigued look that had taken over for the past few minutes.

"Plutarch?" the blonde asked as she jerked her head slightly so she could try and see whatever the brunette was seeing. Eliza nodded, though it was almost impossible from how little she moved her head. "No, next to him. Force field." the girl corrected. Beetee lifted his free hand and pointed up to the small area full of Gamemakers. The small girl tried to follow but simply didn't understand what she was supposed to be seeing.

"How do you know?" she asked, still adjusting herself so she could catch sight of the object. The girl was doing her best to see what they saw but just couldn't see it. It made her wonder momentarily if what they were looking for couldn't actually be seen and was just obvious to the pair because they were trained to notice certain things.