Not The Plan

Chapter Sixteen: Stay with Me

Cato and Clove were having a normal night, or a normal night in the games when the announcement rang out that there would be a 'feast' tomorrow at the cornucopia.

"We have to go!" Clove pleaded.

"There's nothing we need that we don't have Clover," Cato said with an eye roll "Drop it."

"Cato," Clove pleaded "Twelve could be there." Cato's eyes flashed with excitement for a second

"I'm not going," He grumbled "There's no point."

"Then I'll go," Clove said with an eye roll.

"Fine," Cato said with an eye roll of his own "See if I care." Cato in fact did care. A lot more than he'd care to admit. So when Clove woke up early and left Cato wasn't far behind her, wanting to keep her safe. He hung back in the trees, not prepared for what was about to happen. Clove grinned as she set her eyes on Katniss, immediately throwing a knife at her and jumping on top of her. They fought for a few minutes, Clove ultimately getting the upper hand. Clove loved to draw things out, be a tease one might say. And that scared Cato more than anything.

"Where's loverboy?" Clove asked Katniss with a smirk "Oh I see you are gonna help him right? Well, that's sweet, it's too bad you couldn't help your little friend that little girl what was her name again Rue?" Clove felt guilty for all the kid's deaths, but she couldn't afford to show that, especially not to twelve. "Well we killed her and now we're going to kill you." Before Clove could process what was going on she felt herself being lifted up, fear shooting through her body. Thresh. The boy from eleven.

"You killed her!" He shouted, holding her up above against the cornucopia "You killed Rue!"

"Not me!" Clove spat out in fear "Please don't kill my baby," Clove pleaded tears rolling down her face "Please don't."

"You killed Rue," He said sharply "And now you're going to pay."

"Cato!" Clove yelled as loud as she possibly could as Thresh slammed her head against the cornucopia roughly, making her woozy. Before she could process what was going on she felt herself drop to the ground, Thresh suddenly disappearing. She vaguely remembered blood splattering everywhere as Cato mercilessly killed Thresh.

"Don't you ever lay a hand on her again," Cato spat "This is what you get for hurting her and hurting my baby?" Thresh fell to the ground beside Clove, dead. "No Clover," Cato said, falling to his knees as tears streamed down his cheeks "Stay awake, stay awake baby."

"I can't," Clove managed to spit out, fighting to stay awake "It hurts so bad Cato."

"I know," He whispered quietly "I know, but you're going to be fine," He said through tears, even though they both knew that wasn't the case "You're going to be fine ok?"

"I don't want to die," Clove mumbled out, growing more and more delirious as time ran out.

"I love you, Clover," Cato spit out, before he could stop himself "I love you so much," He said with a voice filled with emotion "I love you more than anyone on this entire planet and I wish I would've told you sooner."

"I love you too Cato," Clove mumbled out "I've loved you since the first time we kissed."

"I've loved you since I first met you," Cato said, stroking her face, wincing at the amount of blood that was pooling around her head, he took his jacket off without a second thought, wrapping her head in it "I've loved you since you skipped a level to be in my level at only 9 and you walked in with those two pigtails and those little red bows in you're hair, and when you challenged me that day to fight and you won I've loved you more and more," He said, tears streaming down both of their faces "I loved you even when we'd fight every day, I loved you even when you hated me, I've loved you since I was ten years old Clover and I'll never stop loving you." Clove watched him intently, love filling her tired eyes. Cato just hoped that a sponsor would send something soon, Clove was too fragile to move. "Keep your eyes on me, baby," Cato pleaded as Clove's eyes were glazing over, lifting her chin up "Just think of our baby."