the girl who played with knives || clato ✔️

21

Clove

After the interviews we retreat to our floor, and I immediately run to my room. Madeline comes to tell me that dinner's ready, but I'm not hungry. The interviews went fine, but this means that tomorrow is the start of the Games.

I fight the urge to find Cato and crawl into his protective grasp, but I must resist. Instead I go to the bathroom and take a shower, scrubbing the makeup from my face and undoing my hair. I'm just stepping out of the shower when I hear a knock on the bathroom door.

"Yes?" I call out.

"Can I come in?" It's Cato.

"Um..." I jump out of the shower and hurriedly wrap a towel around myself. "Yeah."

Cato slowly opens the door and peeks in. He looks like he's been crying. He hasn't even changed out of his suit yet.

"I just wanted to have one more night with you before..." He trails off and looks at the floor.

I walk slowly towards him and reach out a hand to touch his arm. He grasps my hand and our fingers intertwine, then I feel his hand moving up my arm. To my elbow. To my shoulder. To my neck. He uses his other hand to pull me closer, then closer still, and our bodies are pressed together as if we are one and it makes a shudder run down my spine. This closeness, it's completely new to me. I try to drag my mind away from the fact that I'm only wearing a towel and just focus on Cato. But I keep getting these odd tingling sensations that I can't control.

"Clove, are you ok?" Cato asks me.

"Of-of course. I'm..." My voice is shaky.

"Clove, I can go if you're uncomfortable."

"No. I'm... It's a good kind of uncomfortable."

Cato moves his hands down my back to my legs and picks me up, and suddenly my legs are wrapped around his waist. Then the kisses start. Cato leans towards me and first kisses my temple, then just above my eye, then my cheekbone, then just above my mouth, slowly working his way to my lips. The kiss is slow and gentle at first, but grows stronger by the second. I feel Cato's tongue grazing my lips and I let them part, allowing entrance. Our tongues twist together as Cato starts to back out of the bathroom towards the bed. Our hands travel across parts of each other's bodies we've never explored.

Cato spins around and lays me down on the bed, our lips still locked. I can feel his body on top of mine, and his lips pressed to mine, and his hands roaming over my body, and it all feels extremely intimate.

Our lips part and I open my eyes for a moment and see Cato taking his jacket off. He unbuttons his shirt and flings it across the room. My hands move over his bare chest to his stomach, where my fingers trace his muscles.

"Clove," He pants.

"I love you," I sigh and lean in to kiss him again.

There's a burning intensity that drives us closer and closer until I don't know where my body ends and his begins. We are a raging fire that can never be extinguished. My hands move down to his hips, and my fingers slip lower and lower. Cato picks me up again and presses me against the wall, trapping me in his grasp. His kisses move from my lips to my neck, to my chest, and back to my lips. I can't stop. I will never stop. I can feel the towel sliding away, and suddenly I have to stop, because it's too much. It all happened so fast.

I break apart and set my hands on Cato's chest to keep him from pushing further. We are both breathing hard now, and there's a glistening in our eyes.

"I love you, too," Cato whispers after a while.

I don't know what to say so I say nothing. I secure my towel again and sit on the bed. Cato sits beside me and wraps an arm around my back. I sling my arm over his shoulders. We sit for a long time, just basking in each other's presence.

"Can you stay with me?" I ask, turning to look at him. He stares back and I lose myself in his eyes, which are so very very blue.

"Always," he mutters, and I realize his eyes are glistening with tears.

"Cato..." I whisper. A single tear falls down his cheek and I kiss the spot where it fell.

"Maybe we should get some sleep... So we're ready for tomorrow," Cato says.

"Okay," I say. I rise and go to my dresser and pick out a soft red tank top and black sleep shorts. Then I step into the bathroom to change. When I come out, Cato has also changed into his sleep clothes, which consists of only his underwear.

He laughs at my nervous grin.

"Shall we?" He asks, gesturing to the bed.

"Okay," I say.

Cato lies down first, then I lie down beside him. He pulls my closer and holds me tight. We wrap the covers around us and I try to fall asleep but it's hard. Finally I do, and am cast into a world of nightmares.

-

"Stay with me." The phrase echoes through my mind. Everything is covered in blackness. It's just me. I am the only one in the world. "Stay with me."

"Hello?"

"Hello, hello, hello, hello, hello." An echo comes back to me.

"Where am I?!"

"Where am I?! Where am I?! Where?! Where?! Where?!"

Suddenly I spot something off in the distance. It's two glowing green shapes, and I soon realize they are Glimmer's eyes. I turn and try to run the other way but I get nowhere.

"I'll kill you!" Comes Glimmer's voice from everywhere at once. "I'LL KILL YOU!!"

"Stay with me! STAY WITH ME, CLOVE!!" It's Cato's voice.

"I'LL KILL YOU!! STAY WITH ME!!" The voices intertwine, then I hear a scream, so loud it makes me fall.

"CATO!!" I shout. I spot another shape ahead of me. "Cato?!" I run towards it and gasp in shock. It's Cato, but he is almost unrecognizable, just a mass of blood and bone. All I can really make out is his eyes. So very very blue.

Then I hear an inhuman growl behind me and a sensation of the worst pain I've ever felt and then it's all over.