𝐑𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐎𝐟 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐮𝐢𝐧

𝐈

***𝒯𝒽𝒾𝓇𝒹 𝒫ℯ𝓇𝓈ℴ𝓃 𝒫ℴ𝓋***

—<༻𝐀𝐫𝐠𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬༺>—

Katniss looked down at the Careers and Peeta from her perch in the tree, the throbbing pain in her leg making it nearly impossible to stay calm. Clove leaned her back against a tree, her gaze fixed on Katniss, watching her every move like a predator stalking prey. The careers have been there for well over 4 hours. They had just now started to start a fire.

"Clove," A voice called out. Clove didn't even need to glance over to know who it was, she knew that voice too well. "You hungry?"

   Cato stood not too far away from Clove. He was sharpening his sword with a rock he found on the ground a few hours ago. He turned to look at the brown haired girl only to see her eyes were glued on the girl from district twelve.

"When did we last eat?" Clove replied, her tone indifferent.

"Yesterday afternoon," Marvel answered, his focus divided between her and trying to spark the fire.

"I can make it till the morning," She sighed, crossing her arms as if the hunger didn't faze her.

Marina, from District 4, giggled in amusement, as though Clove had said something ridiculous. Clove's sharp gaze immediately shifted from Katniss to Marina, the knife she had been fidgeting with now held steady in her hand.

"Did I say something funny?" Clove hissed, her voice low and dangerous.

   Marina chuckled. "Oh no, not at all! I'm just surprised you're not hungry, considering your stature of course."

   Clove's eyes narrowed, her mind calculating whether it would be more satisfying to kill Marina quickly or make it slow and painful. But instead, she decided to take a bite at her ego instead.

   "Don't forget that my 'stature' was fast enough to catch the brat from 5 who almost got away," Clove said sharply. "Or did your face scare him into killing himself?"

   Marina's face flushed, not with embarrassment, but with anger. Clove had hit the mark, just as she intended. She wasn't sure why Marina didn't like her as much as the others, but whatever the reason, Clove didn't care. All that mattered was keeping her in check.

   "Well, at least I don't need to kill from a distance," Marina retorted, raising her voice in frustration. That was it, Clove's breaking point.

   "Oh yeah?" Clove stood abruptly, letting go of her knife with a slight toss as it embedded into the ground beside her. "If another word comes out of your mouth, I'll show you how well I can kill with my bare hands. I'll snap your neck in half."

"Hey!" Cato yelled, clearly frustrated. Marina and Clove didn't need to look at the rest of the careers to know what they were doing.

Cato quickly stood, stepping between them as Glimmer and Marvel moved to help separate the two before things got bloody.

    "Clove, look," Marvel sighed, placing a cautious hand on Clove's shoulder, which made her whirl around to face him, her expression as cold as the blade she usually held. Marvel looked as he was at a loss for words.

Glimmer, sensing Marvel's struggle to defuse the situation, chimed in. "Clove, we're exhausted. We need to stick together, not tear each other apart. Or just until competition starts to thin out."

   Cato, standing with his arms crossed, locked eyes with Clove. "Not to mention, upset with each other. Cut your shit. No more fighting, well have enough of that once we spilt up." He said firmly, eyeing Clove up and down before heading back to what he was doing.

   Marina mumbled a quick apology to Clove. She nodded back at her as a sign of her thank you with a slight scowl and sat back down next to the tree and continued people watching. Even though it was only Katniss up there. She eventually got lost in her thoughts. She wasn't sure if she was surprised that she listened to Cato or that she didn't cut Marvel for touching her shoulder. She noticed that Katniss was now in her sleeping bag. Probably still awake.

   Clove slowly shifted her gaze back to the careers. Everyone was still awake. Except Marina and Peeta. Both of them were already tired. Makes sense since the entire day they were hunting dinner. She got up and walked towards a rock under the tree and sat on it. This slightly caught Catos attention. Cloves eyes grew heavy and her back started slouching.

   Hours seemed to slip by as Clove's gaze wandered, her body weary from the day's exertion. Her eyelids grew heavy, and before long, she found herself leaning against a rock beneath the tree, losing the battle to stay awake.

   Cato noticed her struggle from across the camp. He approached her quietly, still keeping a bit of distance as he spoke. "You're falling asleep, Clove."

   "I'm not tired," she mumbled, though her posture said otherwise.

    "Bullshit," Cato scoffed, his voice low but firm.

    "Excuse me?" Clove's tone sharpened, though her body remained slouched.

   "I said bullshit," He repeated, the frustration clear in his voice. "You stayed up all night on watch, and now you're literally falling over. Go to sleep. I'll get someone else to keep an eye on Twelve."

   Clove straightened her back, stubborn as ever. "I'm not tired, Hadley. And even if I were, you definitely don't get to give me orders."

   Cato let out an exasperated sigh. "So what, when you get tackled by someone like Eleven, and you're not well-rested or fed. You're going to get yourself killed?" His voice was low enough that no one else could hear, but the intensity wasn't lost on her.

   They stared each other down in silence, neither willing to back down. Katniss watched from her tree, almost hoping they would fight, it would certainly liven up the night. But after what felt like an eternity, Cato broke the silence.

   "Fine. You want to get yourself killed, be my guest," he muttered, standing up. Before walking away, he leaned down and whispered something in Clove's ear, something Katniss couldn't hear but that clearly affected Clove.

   Cato's large frame blocked Katniss's view of Clove's face, but when he moved away, Clove's body language had shifted, tense and uneasy. Katniss wondered what he said to his district partner to make her so uneasy.

   "Marvel, you're on watch," Cato barked. Marvel, not wanting to fuel Cato's temper, nodded in agreement.

    "You got it, C," he said casually, earning a small chuckle from the blonde boy.

   Marvel flashed a smile at Clove, trying to ease the tension, but her mood didn't soften. Glimmer glanced over at Clove, concern flickering in her eyes.

   "You okay?" she asked gently.

   Clove gave a tight-lipped smile, nodding slightly, though her mind was miles away.

-----------------

𝙵𝚒𝚛𝚜𝚝 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚠𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎! 𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚍𝚘 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚔? 𝙸𝚝𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚊 𝚋𝚒𝚐 𝚍𝚒𝚏𝚏𝚎𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚝𝚠𝚎𝚎𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚘𝚛𝚐𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚕 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗, 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚊𝚜 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚐𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚘𝚗 𝚒𝚝 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚎 𝚖𝚘𝚛𝚎. 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚑𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚜 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚐𝚎𝚝 𝚊 𝚋𝚒𝚝 𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐𝚎𝚛 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚝𝚘𝚘 𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐. 𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝𝚜 𝚊𝚕𝚕!

𝚀: 𝑁𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑙𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑒𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝐶𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑜.

   -Charlotte<3