CLOVE
Hours pass slowly. The only decoration in the entire room is a clock. I spend 11 hours watching each second, avoiding looking at Cato, and shoving down guilt over Brutus. I snap awake from a doze once or twice, terrified to fall asleep. Cato is a statue of grief. I want to help him but I shouldn't.
Enobaria catches me looking at Cato. "For gods sake," she snaps, "Brutus and a hell of a lot of other people are risking their lives for our freedom. Whether we win or lose you still have to suffer the spotlight. This prison may be the only place you're free. So if you care about each other, do something about it." I glance at Cordelia to see what she thinks but she lays shell-shocked on the floor, just as she has been for hours.
Cato doesn't hear Enobaria through his grief. Gathering my courage, I push off the wall and stand up. A crushing silence falls on the room. Each step is a painstaking effort. I have spent so long being afraid to hurt people that I don't know how to help.
Finally, finally, finally. I reach Cato. Crouching down beside him, I lean against the wall. Mustering all my courage, I pull Cato into my arms. And suddenly I am safe.
Enobaria glances at us and I swear she smiles before turning away to give us privacy.
Cato is warmth in the freezing shelter, light in this darkness. "I'm worried about him too," I say. Cato turns into me, burying his face in my neck, our arms and legs so intertwined we are a knot. He holds me tight and shakes and doesn't say a word.
In that moment, I know, it is all worth it. This war the Rebels are waging is worth the cost. Because we all deserve a happy ending. And for the first time in my life, I have hope I will get one.
Days pass, blurring into one another. Cato and I never stop touching in some small way, except to use the bathroom in the far corner. We sit with our foreheads pressed against each other, telling stories. I repeat back books I've read but Cato makes them up. Often he tells stories of Scarlet or Ryan or a better world. I like his stories better.
On the third day I am woken by a sharp rapping on the door. My heart freezes in my chest. Cato sits up and pulls me tighter against him. The door bursts open with a clang! For those first hopeful seconds it is too bright to see out. Then a slim figure steps through the doorway.
"The Rebels have won," says Moxy, "Welcome to the start of happily ever after."
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Clato: The Cost of a Broken Heart
FanfictionClove trained her entire life for the Games. She left District 2 to escape her father and tormentor, Favian, and bring honor to her District. Against all odds she and Cato both managed to survive. But one of them was meant to die in the arena. And P...
