Fatal Attraction [Catoniss - The Hunger Games]

Two;

I walked out of the elevator and stepped into our apartment, seeing that Peeta and Haymitch were sitting on the sofa while Effie was worrying about where I was.

She was going on about how I was going to get myself killed before the Games even began if I played Games with the Careers, so I assumed Peeta must have told her about me staying in the Training Centre when only the Careers remained down there.

"Oh, Katniss, there you are." Effie sighed in relief as she walked over to me and pulled me into a hug, her stupid dress scratching against my arms before she released me and walked back over to the spot she had been pacing up and down on before.

"Effie thought you were dead." Haymitch stated.

"Clearly not dead or I wouldn't be here now. Those Careers are nothing more than puppies." I shrugged, walking over to the sofa and taking a seat beside Peeta with a smile on my face as I knew what had happened downstairs and I knew that they were worried about the threat I could cause when the time came.

"Don't joke about it Katniss. They're violent people and they will kill you." Effie panicked.

"Effie, I'm sure she knows what she's doing. She's not going to be stupid enough to ally with the Careers, are you?" Haymitch asked and I shook my head, although Peeta looked less convinced and it was like he could see right the way through me.

Like he could tell what I was thinking and that he knew I was actually considering asking if I could ally myself with them, even if it guarenteed me living for longer than I should have been allowed to.

I was pretty strong and my ability with a bow and arrow shouldn't be underestimated, so there was every chance that I could take them out by myself once the alliance wasn't need anymore. They might have been training all their lives, but they were fighting for nothing other than pride and to make thier families happy.

I was actually fighting for something worthwhile

I was fighting for my family. For friendship. For love.

"You're not going to join the Careers? Are you?" Haymitch asked again, suddenly alarmed by my reaction and my silence to the question before.

"I haven't really thought about it. I've had Prim on my mind most of the day." I shrug.

"Katniss. They're not to be trusted." Haymitch states as he gets closer to me and the smell of alcohol becomes more than apparent the closer to me that he gets.

"They're murders. It's all they know how to do." Peeta stated with a look of hurt on his face that he wasn't my first choice for an ally, but if we were the last two left, then one of us was going to have to kill the other and I didn't want to be responsible for that.

I didn't want to be the one that killed her own district partner or the one that was hated for killing the only person she was supposed to trust in the arena.

"Look, I need to make sure I get home and I'm going to do that in any way that I can." I snap at both Haymitch and Peeta before walking back towards the elevator, needing to get the hell out of here before I did something stupid and got myself into even more trouble.

"Young lady, where are you going?" Effie practically squealed after me.

"Somewhere you're not." I replied harshly, stepping into the elevator and pushing the button for the Training Centre.

I needed to get rid off this anger that I was feeling and I needed to do it in a place where I wasn't going to hurt any real people, so the Training Centre seemed like the best option to be able to do that and not get myself into too much trouble.

I walked into the Training Centre, thinking it was empty, grabbing the bow and arrow from where it was sitting and walked over to where the dummys where standing.

Loading up arrow after after arrow as I hit the targets straight in the chest each time, never even missing a shot.

"You know, you really do have an amazing shot." someone spoke from behind me and I turned around to see the cocky male from District Two standing there with a smile on his face.

"I thought I told you I didn't need to hear anything like that from people like you." I sighed.

"There's no one here now, so you can drop the act." he replied as he sat down on the floor, leaning against the wall as he did so. 

"Act? I'm not the one acting, but how about you?" I questioned him, leaning against the wall beside him and looking down at him.

"Pfft. I'm not acting either." he laughs at me.

"Oh yeah, really? If you weren't acting then you would still be the same cocky idiot you were being not an hour ago in front of all your friends." I laughed back at him, now going down to his level and sitting next to him with a slight smile on my face.

"Well, being from District Two means I'm supposed to be the tough care that everyone is scared of."

"And me being from District Twelve means I'm supposed to be weak and scared of every other Tribute. Right?" 

"I watched your reaping earlier and actually thought it was really brave of you to volunteer for your sister. Now, are you going to stop acting and just be yourself or are you going to keep being cold with me?" he asked, looking me straight in the eyes with a smile on his face.

When you looked at him up close and actually talked to him, there wasn't really anything to be scared of.

He was just the same as the rest of us and he had a life outside of the Games too. 

He was putting on a show just like the rest of us were, only he wasn't allowed to step out of character because, if he did, then he would be a shame to his district and they would never be able to forgive him for doing so.

If I stopped putting on a show, then no one would really give a damn and none of them would think anything different about me because they would know it was all a show from the start.

"Isn't your partner going to be wondering where you are?" I asked him.

"I told her I was going to be down here for a while, so she's not going to care where I am. What about you?" he replied.

"Told them I was going somewhere none of them were, so if they come looking for me, then I guess they'll only be more annoyed with me than they already are." I sighed as I placed my head against the wall, and looked at the ceiling wondering what my mother was going to be doing now.

Wondering if Prim was asleep or if she was wide awake, worrying about what was going to happen to me.

Wondering if Gale really missed me or if he was continuing on with life like nothing had changed.

"I'm Cato by the way." he said breaking the silence.

"Katniss, but guess you already knew that." I smiled at him.

"Yeah. I did." Cato laughed back.