Clove snarled as Cato approached her, repeating her series of swear words. She blinked up at him and paused, she felt like her throat was closing. She was so stupid; she should have known that Cato would have volunteered for the Games. They had made a pact in Grade school that if one of them won the games, the other would buy them a round of beers from the most expensive pub in the district. They never considered the fact that they might have to kill each other on the way home.
If she wasn’t so psychologically messed up, she might have felt pity for herself, because she was going to have to not only kill the closest thing she had to a friend, but return to 2 with absolutely no one. But, since she was a trained career, she just smirked at Cato, who was currently sitting on the chair beside her like some sort of cocky Roman God, and she spat at him.
“I would rather fight to the death then have to be in your bedroom, Mars. Now untie me.” She demanded, and felt her face twitch into a bit of a smile when he laughed. He patted her hair affectionately, and she resisted the urge to bite his fingers as he started unbuckling the restraints around her wrist.
With an unnecessary loud scuffle, her father, their escort and the woman that Clove immediately recognized as Enobaria came bustling into the room.
“No no no no no no no! She is mentally unstable! A psychopath! She cannot be let out!” The escort squawked, flailing her arms around.
“There’s nothing wrong with her except for the fact that she has a tendancy to swear and spit.” He noted, finishing unbuckling her.
“She can’t be trusted…” her father said, pulling up his sleeve to reveal a long gash in his forearm. Clove would’ve clocked him if Cato didn’t hold her to the bed with one arm. Even if she kicked him in the family jewels, his arm was about as thick as a tree trunk so it was no use trying to fight.
“You stay the hell away from me you bastard!” She spat, and they got into a shouting match of swear words and death threats before Enobaria yelled “ENOUGH!”
“We need a fighter. She’s from district 2, is she not? From what I’ve been told about these two, they might make quite a team in the arena… well, until they kill each other.”
“Peachy…” Clove muttered, scratching her wrist.
_____
"Don't think so highly of yourself. You were just going to serve me food and make my bed." he whispered as the tantrum ceased, a small smirk curving the corner of his lips as his ice cold blue eyes moved to look at the annoying escort, Clove's father and Enobaria. Man, Clove really hated her dad... he wondered why. Cato didn't really like his own parents much either but he never had to... hate them. Actually, he had never thought about it too much. He was too busy running after his siblings but now that he was heading to the Hunger Games... he sure was going to have a lot of time to think. Was thinking actually good when one was about to confront the biggest challenge of his life?
He forced the thoughts out of his head, it wasn't the time nor the place to get deep. "Apparently she's perfectly ready to be thrown on the arena and slaughter the cattle. Besides, if she goes a little nuts, it would be quite a show for the Capitol, am I not right?" Another sign of a faint smile appeared and the rest didn't say anything. Enobaria rolled her eyes but she knew he was right. The Capitol would love some drama into the whole thing, the Tributes couldn't be perfect after all. Their insanity could be represented as the heavy consequences of disobedience and the Capitol's good heart for sparing the rest and not shoving high quality weapons into their hands and sending them to kill each other. His face turned to stone when he spotted his family walking past their door and continuing down the hall, to where those rooms were supposed to be. Where he was supposed to go and say goodbye. He took a deep breath and clapped Clove on the back with his heavy hand, "So you're going to behave while I'm gone, right?" He didn't wait for an answer, he just crossed the little dark room and managed to squeeze through the crowd of Peacekeepers who had gathered at the door. He hadn't moved even 2 meters down the hall when he heard Clove's voice rise again, followed by her father's deep growls. This was getting quite interesting. Why did she hate him so much?
Walking down that strongly lit hall, reaching the door, it felt like a whole eternity. The background music to his steps was his fast heartbeat, his hands became oddly cold and sweaty, an uncomfortable lump appeared in his throat from the tension, as if suffocating him, blocking the oxygen from his lungs and removing his ability to speak. His fingers wrapped around the circular golden knob and lingered there for a second before he pushed the door open to find his family waiting for him inside. His sister looked like she was about to cry, their youngest brother was unusually quiet and his cousin was keeping his cool as usual. Hadrian never let Cato down when it came to moments like this. His parents' eyes were piercing him, their gaze was heavier than usual as if they were finally aware of the fact that they had a son. A son who was going to fight to the death against many others. Somehow his father's eyes showed confidence, he was sure that Cato was going to win although he didn't utter a word... but his face still remained quite emotionless. His mother had wrapped her thin arms around his father's arm and was just staring at him. He didn't expect nothing more from her. And this is where the corniest moments of his life happened.
"I'll be back." He said after a few minutes when his parents left them alone. His mother hugged him which felt kind of awkward and his father just patted him on the back with the same confident look in his eyes. Now he was with the most important people in his life.
"You promise?" Aeliana said, her voice sounded strangely thin at the verge of shaking from the accumulating emotions.
"I promise."
He was dragged out of the room by Peacekeepers once their time was up, they headed for the back where he met Clove surrounded by many other Peacekeepers and Enobaria. She actually looked entertained in contrast to Clove who looked like she was about to stab someone. He didn't even feel like picking on her then, he knew she had no friends nor family that had come for support. Or at least not any that he was aware of. Having a huge scandal with your father right before leaving to a place where you could possibly die, wasn't the best last memory to hold on to. The huge doors opened slowly to reveal a huge crowd of paparazzi, cameras and photographers, the flashes were so strong, for a moment he thought he was epileptic as they managed to make him dizzy. A weird tingle travelled up his face as he almost slammed his face in a camera. Of course, they were shooting everything quite closely, trying to catch every emotion that his face could possibly show. It would make for a good show. But he had forgotten how to show his feelings long time ago.
