Forever [Prim/Cato]

Chapter 14 - The Fight

last min a/n: if you guys know my writing, especially lately, you know how I love to set a scene. I've linked a song here - listen to it while you read this if you'd like to be me for a moment and feel the moment where I wrote this chapter and then heard this song and realized how perfectly it described this chapter. happy reading

Prim:

The walk and elevator ride back to the Penthouse was silent on my part. Willow was as happy as she could be. She was almost 16 years old and — who cares about the Hunger Games right now, she just got her first gun! — spent the entire time gushing about her new gift with Cato. Cato, in turn, quizzes her on things about the gift, smirking proudly every time she gets an answer right. It was an effective way for him to ignore the desperate, frequent glances I tried shooting his way the entire trek back. Being shut out by them both isn't new to me. I'd gotten used to being the third wheel when the two are together, but this is not a time that I am okay with it.

It's hard to fight with Cato, but it doesn't happen often, and we usually make up within a day or two because the fights are almost always ridiculous to begin with. I think the last thing we fought over was how we were going to school Willow. I don't know the last time Cato was so angry with me that he wasn't speaking to me.

Wait, yes I do. It was right after the Interviews for my Games... remember? After Cato revealed we were seeing one another and then Peeta announced that we'd kissed right after... and so on the hovercraft, everyone was really mean to me and Cato and I didn't talk for days. Was he mad at me then, or was he hurt?

We never actually talked about that, come to think of it. Cato has never asked me about it.

Is he hurt now? He seems purely mad.

While we are riding the elevator up, I lean onto the wall and the weight of the world slumps down onto me, sagging my shoulders down and dragging all of the life out of my lungs with it. It's been a really, really long day, and I just want to try and get some sleep. I can't sleep without Cato and I'm worried he won't want to sleep next to me tonight.

I need him to forgive me. It's like dying a thousand deaths to not get to talk to him. He's my whole world.

The elevator pings as it finally hits the penthouse, our first home together after the 74th Games. As Cato opens the doors, we are met with the familiar warmth that always welcomed us home when we lived here full time. I'm hit with an overwhelming wave of nostalgia. Before Willow, it was just Cato and Prim. We stopped being two separate entities and soldered ourselves into our own wonderful prize, and that all started here, the first time he brought us home. He brought us home, I grew our baby in this home, and then we raised her here. He is my life. I could never imagine my world without him in it anymore.

I wish we could come here together more often. We only ever visit during the Games season, and we can never really get ourselves to enjoy the time given the circumstances. Now it seems we've exhausted all those chances.

Cato reaches his arm around Willow as I'm turning to shut the doors behind us. He pulls her into a hug before kissing her head. "You've had a long day," he says. "Effie will be dragging you out of bed pretty early tomorrow morning for prep, so go straight to bed, okay?"

Willow sighs and nods, returning his hug. "I'm sorry, Dad," Willow says with her face stuffed into Cato's chest.

Cato frowns and kisses her again. "I'll make it right," he replies. "Daddy fixes everything, right?" Cato pulls her from his hold to catch her gaze. Willow pouts and nods once. "Then I'll fix it. I love you. Go to bed."

Willow glances at me before she turns back to her dad. "Don't be mad at her," she whispers to him. Cato gives her a sad look and glances in my direction before his attention is back on her.