My clato fanfiction, as promised. Hope you enjoy this first chapter.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games or any characters (unfortunately).

As hard as I tried, I couldn't help but grin uncontrollably at the situation that Cato and I were currently in. Our risky plan to win the Hunger Games and bring pride to our District was going all too smoothly. Even the major issue of there being only one winner and two of us, that Cato and I had repeatedly unable to find a solution to, had been miraculously solved as the gamemakers had changed the rules to allow to tributes from the same District to become victors. Now only Cato and I and the two idiots from twelve remained. It had all turned out pretty perfectly – there was no way we could fail now. Not against them. I personally had never doubted our immanent success but Cato hadn't always shared my confidence - until now, that is, when there was no denying it. He was smirking as much as me; I'm sure as able to taste the undoubted victory.

The safe haven of the cornucopia that surrounded us only offered minimal protection in a literal sense but gave me a satisfied feeling of power and superiority that I was sure was radiating from my smug expression. Cato must have caught on to my pride, for making it as far as we had, and anticipation, for those final, winning kills, as he laughed lightly, tossing his sword from side to side.

"What?" I purred grinning, knowing that he'd be feeling the exact same way.

"Nothing," he chuckled, absently running his hand through his hair. He placed the sword down on the lush grass beside where we were both sitting in the centre of the open space, just daring someone to attack. "You really are insane, you know that?"

I sighed, twisting a strand of my long, dark ponytail around my finger. "I know. But you can hardly talk."

Cato just shrugged, smiling lazily.

"So what's the plan?" I asked. Despite being perfectly capable, if not better suited, to devising a plan of action to end the District 12 leftovers myself, I allowed Cato to have his moment of glory. Cato gets his enjoyment, the tributes die, and it's a win-win. Cato seemed to sense that I was humouring him letting him take the lead even though I easily could have but didn't say anything about it. He wasn't the type to express himself through a gushing thank you; the recognition in his voice was enough to please me. Our relationship was simple – I preferred it that way.

"Well," he began, smirking in that malicious, sexy way that generally inferred that someone was about to suffer. In other words, my favourite type of smile. "The sun's almost set. We may as well wait for tomorrow, then attack. Give them one last, pathetic day."

I nodded as much to myself as him. It seemed like a good enough plan, although I didn't know why he insisted on waiting until tomorrow. I'd rather allow them as little time to make the first move as possible. It was all about the theatrics though; we had to please the audiences. I wasn't worried about their attack – of course we'd defeat them, almost painfully easily – more the fact that we'd look weak. True victors attack first, rather than waiting like cowards. The reason I chose not to voice my concerns was because they were so small that they practically didn't exist. If there was one thing that Cato and I were not, it was cowards. And anyone with a brain already knew that. So I didn't bother worrying about it all too much.

"Just one condition," I growled.

"Let me guess – you want the girl for yourself?" he laughed.

I grinned, baring teeth.

"You know it."

"Well, what if I want her too? The boy will be too easy. I'm bored at the thought."

"No way," I exclaimed, "that's my kill. Go get your own."

"Why don't you come over here and make me?" he teased, probably joking. Before I could stop myself, I whipped a delicate yet deadly knife out of my jacket and leaped onto his broad frame, pressing the blade against his throat until a trickle of blood seeped out. He threw me off him immediately, violently enough so that I ended up on my back with him looming over me. We both wore fierce expressions of rage plastered on our faces but our eyes were sparkling with humour. Unlike the boring lives that 'normal' couples lead, Cato and I enjoyed the same kind of banter that few others seemed to.

Finally he rolled off of me and we both returned to the identical sitting positions that we had been in before, albeit a little more out of breath. Cato raised a hand to his throat which was still dripping slightly with blood. I raised my eyebrows, amused, waiting for him to speak. It didn't take long.

"Fine, you can have her," he groaned, giving in. "I'll just have to make Peeta's death extra long so I don't get too bored."

I snorted. "You would have done that anyway."

He just laughed, confirming my suspicions.

After a while, I slowly closed my eyes and allowed my thoughts to drift to how like would be when we escaped this depressing arena. The look on everyone back home in District 2's faces, the pride shining down on us. But what I was really looking forward to was the fear. Everyone would fear us once we were victors, no one would dare look down upon me. Although, to be honest, extremely few did so already. And those who did generally ended up regretting it. Practically everyone my age or below was scared of me, even some who were older. Despite my size and gender, people in District 2 understood that I meant business and would never, ever back down from a fight, never mind lose one. That was what separated Cato and I from the other incompetent careers – we had earned peoples fear, demonstrated our courage back home. People like Glimmer and Marvel assumed that since they wee from District 1, everyone would bow down to them. I'll be they hadn't even killed anyone before he games. Weak. That's what they all were. And that's why they were all now dead.

Glimmer, the stupid, stuck-up girl from 1 who'd had had her eye on Cato since the beginning, hadn't even been killed by another tribute, but by the gamemakers effectively, through the tracker jacker nest that they had planted in the arena. How embarrassing. Cato and I would never bring shame to our District like that.

There was only one thing that would or could kill me in these pathetic games and that was Cato. Although, somehow I doubted that would happen. The false alliance that we had been forced to join with the other careers had been one of the worst parts about being in the games. The unbelievable level of patheticness that radiated off of every single one of them was enough to drive me insane. Well, more insane than I already was.

"I can't wait to get out of here," I muttered. Back to the comfort of District 2 where the people feared me for the right reasons; because they knew me. Although the games had given me a lot of support and 'fans', I refused to accept the Capitol's fake adoration. They only did it because of who they'd seen me kill, not because of who I was.

"Soon," was all Cato replied, smirking to himself.

I couldn't smile back, scowling and tapping my foot repeatedly against the grass impatiently. How much longer would we have to endure this for? Not being able to leave this stupid arena that reeked of death and desperation.

Cato snarled under his breath, silencing me with a stare. I glowered at him for a while before deciding to let it go. Our silent conversation mirrored many we'd been having of late, unable to express our true thoughts through speech due to the huge number of people watching.

Another reason I wanted to leave this God-awful arena already – to have some alone time with Cato. Come on, a girl has needs. We hadn't been intimate in weeks. Our only time alone was now, once almost all the other tributes were dead, but still didn't allow for us to actually do anything. The cameras hidden everywhere made sure of that.

Stop thinking about that, I ordered myself. The weakness in my thoughts was shameful. But that was my one weakness: Cato.

It was definitely not the time to get distracted by such things at that moment, though – I had to remain completely focused until we'd won. It wasn't hard to switch off my personal thoughts and focus on the task at hand - I'd been training for this moment since I was seven years old, Cato the same. There was no way we could lose now.

The artificial sun had now completely set, leaving us engulfed in darkness. I longed to go hunting but decided to bite my tongue and go along with Cato's plan, despite my concerns. What's the worst that could happen? (Right).

The silence, which had been comforting and peaceful, suddenly seemed… off. Less… silent. I slowly raised myself into a crouch, cocking my head to the side, listening intently.

"What-"

"Shh!" I hissed at Cato. Couldn't he see I was doing something?

Suddenly, there was an almighty crash and my vision was blurred with an array of movement. I ignored the shapes to my right, whatever they were, my eyes unable to look away from the horror in front of me. Three huge, boar-like monsters were charging towards us at full speed, gnashing their teeth in savage hunger. Work of the gamemakers, no doubt, for the big finale. After taking less than a second to process this, I leaped to feet, dragging Cato with me. He gave me a leg up to the roof of the cornucopia, where the beasts couldn't reach, then I yanked him up behind me. I heard Cato cussing about how he had left the sword on the ground.

Panting and shaking at how fast it had all happened, I glanced over to where there had been movement earlier. I saw four other of the wild animals galloping towards the cornucopia from another direction. They seemed to be following… It was only then that I noticed the two other people that were hauling themselves on to the opposite end of the cornucopia roof. The gamemakers must have wanted us to all be pushed together. Well, well, well. I thought my midnight snack was due.

"Cato, look," I grinned, nodding as the two idiots were collapsed in exhaustion, unaware of our presence. I wondered how long they'd been running for.

How stupid are they? I wondered internally. Thinking that they could come to the cornucopia without us being here, waiting. This was our territory and they should have known that, I didn't care if they were chased here or not.

Before I had time to scare them into noticing us with a mocking comment, they became acutely aware of our presence by themselves. Well, Katniss did and quickly alerted Peeta, much to my disappointment. Why did she bother him? Oh, yeah – they were in 'love'. District 12 wouldn't know love if It slapped her in the face.

By this time, they had picked their pathetic selves up off the roof the cornucopia and Katniss was standing in a fighting stance with her bow and arrow ready to shoot, Peeta perched awkwardly behind her. I failed to smother my laughter at the idiocy of them, Cato doing the same. I looked over at him and when our eyes met I laughed even harder at how he had reacted in exactly the same way.

"Shut up!" Peeta shouted, doing his best to sound menacing, as if that weed ever could.

"Ooh, look who finally got some guts," I leered, trying to hush my mocking laughter. "Why don't you come over here and make me?" I challenged, repeating Cato's earlier words. I may have been smiling, but the challenge was genuine. I bored easily of the two buffoons that stood in front of me, itching to fight.

The beasts below, that were now circling the cornucopia panted and growled in frustration, which only added to my desire to kill. I wanted out of this arena as quickly as possible.

"Well?" Cato snapped, clearly as agitated as me.

I rolled my eyes as they both stood there looking lost and vulnerable. How on earth had they made it to the final four of the Hunger Games?

As I went to reach for a knife from my jacket to speed up the pointless stare off, Katniss jumped at my sudden movement, sending an arrow shooting from her bow. The silver, Capitol-made arrow landed squarely in my left shoulder. I took a sharp intake of breath before biting down on my lip hard, refusing to expose the searing pain that was shooting down my arm. You've had worse. Do not let her think you're weak. I looked down and ripped the silver stick out of my flesh, ignoring the screaming protests that my brain was throwing at me.

"Oh, you're gonna pay for that, bitch."

Cato snarled menacingly in fury – overprotective, as ever. Surely he should know that I could fight my own battles.

Katniss seemed surprised at my lack of response or pain – well, good – and hastily loaded up another arrow.

"Cato, can we hurry this up? I'm bored," I declared, trying to hide my wince and sound as blasé as possible despite the blood pouring out of my wound.

This time, when Katniss show her arrow, it was no accident, but Cato and I weren't stupid and it easily sailed past us.

"That all you got, twelve?" Cato taunted as we edged forwards. I hated the way that both Peeta and Katniss were staring at me as if they wanted to take me out first, as if I was the weaker one. Physically, Cato was obviously stronger than me, but with all our skills considered, we were fairly evenly matched. So the way they assumed that I would be easy to kill made my insides flood with rage. Sure, my shoulder may have been screaming in agony and oozing with blood but that did not make me the easier target. And I could prove it to them.

As I moved, Katniss shot again, this time hitting me in the thigh. I furiously scolded myself for letting out a tiny howl of pain before I got my pathetic self under control. Take. Her. Out. my mind ordered in a scream. Before I'd had a chance to end Katniss Everdeen, though, Cato roared, flinging himself as her and crashing them both to the ground. I heard the satisfying squeal that came from Katniss as Cato tore the bow and arrows from her grip and tossed them into the beasts circling below. I was about to go and help him finish her off, since it was me who'd claimed her kill, when I was suddenly sent tumbling to the hard surface beneath me, hitting my head with a crack. Ow.

I took a second to recover the breath that had been knocked out of me and whilst doing so, attempted to find out who the hell had pushed me. Oh, Peeta. I had completely forgotten about him, standing like a useless, incapable idiot at the edge of the cornucopia roof. Somehow, he had landed on top of me and was attempting to pin me down. Well, we'd soon change that. I swiftly bought my knee up to his stomach and used his hesitation to flip him onto his back. Now that I had the upper hand he didn't look so smug. Just as I was taking a knife out to clean up the mess that was District 12, Peeta landed a punch squarely in my injured shoulder. I whimpered, reaching for my shoulder instinctively. Peeta used my second of weakness to shove me off him and leap to his feet. Despite the protests from my body, I quickly followed, attack him without hesitation. I curled my arms around his neck from behind in a vice-like grip.

Finally, he went still when he felt the cool, long blade that I was holding against his throat. Wise.

"You really think you can win, don't you?" I panted, trying to sound intimidating but probably failing. Never mind, the knife did most of the work for me, intimidation-wise. All I had to do was hold it.

I didn't bother waiting for his answer. "Well you can't. So you may as well accept that."

"Who says we can't?" he choked, attempting to sound tough.

I leant close to his ear and pressed my lips rights against it, breathing in his face. "Me," I whispered, causing him to flinch slightly.

I glanced over and Cato and Katniss who weren't actually fighting at that moment, just circling each other like hungry sharks. Good. I wanted her to see this.

"Hey, Girl on Fire," I called, a smile clear in my voice. This had all turned out rather well.

Katniss spun to face me, as did Cato with a questioning look on his face. Katniss took one look at Peeta and mouthed his name, looking pale.

"No, don't – Peeta," she whispered, frozen in place.

I stayed statue-still for a couple of seconds longer for a bit of extra drama. I bet the viewers were loving this. I waited for Katniss to tear her gaze away from Peeta and look me in the eyes before I spoke.

"Happy Hunger Games," I sneered with a grin as I ripped the blade of the knife across Peeta's throat and felt the warm blood trickle onto my hand.

"No!" Katniss screamed deafeningly. "No! Peeta!"

She went to run at me but Cato grabbed her arms and held her back. Peeta's body slowly went limp in my hands and as I let go, he flopped on to the floor, dead. The canon sounded dramatically.

Katniss was still screaming, although now she had collapsed on to the floor in a sobbing heap – no need for Cato to restrain her.

"Peeta! No, no, no…"

My eyes connected with Cato's and I nodded. Her glanced once more at Katniss before jogging over to where I was standing, checking me over for wounds.

"You okay?" he asked, running his hand through over my head – it came back red. "You're bleeding."

I rolled my eyes. "Cos that's never happened before."

Cato ignored me, looking at my shoulder and steaming on with his next question. "How bad is it?"

Cato was the one person in the world who I could be completely honest with but I had to remind myself that the whole of Panem was watching us. I couldn't afford to look weak.

"It's nothing."

"I can tell when you're lying, Clove," he insisted. Damn him. I just scowled, remaining silent. Cato sighed. "Come on, talk to me. It's not like she's listening," he nodded to Katniss.

I supposed that the audience was more likely to be focused on Katniss right now, anyway.

"Fine," I snapped, exasperated, "it's bad, okay? Like really bad. The blood hasn't stopped since she hit me. Happy now?"

"Of course not, dummy. Look, the sooner we get out of here, the sooner we can get someone to see your shoulder. And leg. And anything else."

"I know. So what are we going do to?"

Cato shrugged unhelpfully. "All we can do – kill her."

I nodded, taking a deep breath to calm my shaking hands and blurring vision. All this blood loss was definitely not helping.

I turned around at the sound of a struggle and gasped because Katniss had Cato gripped from behind and was yanking him by the hair. Oh no she didn't.

Instinctively, I reached for a knife from my pocket and with a deft flick of my wrist, sent it plunging into Katniss's arm. She screamed, yanking her hand away from a now very angry Cato. In other words… dangerous.

Furiously, Cato backhanded Katniss so that she slid almost all of the way over the cornucopia roof. He then picked her up by the collar of her jacket and shook her around like a worthless rag doll.

"What makes you worthy of winning this thing?" he spat at her in rage. "What have you done to deserve it more than Clove and me? Idiots from twelve do not win. It's over and you know it, Girl on Fire. I did promise Clove she could have you, when it came down to it, but you just crossed a line. Do not ever think that you're stronger than a career. If you think that for a second, then… well, then I guess you'll end up how you are now. I guess you'll be seeing loverboy sooner than you thought, huh?"

And with that, he spun her around and kicked her squarely in the back, sending her toppling over the edge.

Her shrieks and cried didn't die down at all as the huge monsters tore apart, slowly and painfully, limb by limb. I knew that she deserved what she was getting; she had sent the tracker jacker nest falling on us, she'd shot me twice with her bow, she would have killed me if she could have. But another, annoying part of my brain insisted that I would have done the same to her. She hurt Cato, I whined. The sensible part of me reminded me that I had killed Peeta first. I had always been under the impression that Katniss and Peeta's love was an act for the Capitol, but judging by her reaction – well, I guess I was wrong. And I had gone and killed him in front of her. If she had killed Cato—I couldn't even finish that thought.

Hissing at myself for looking so soft in front of everyone watching but still unable to stop, I marched over to the edge of the roof and soon spotted Katniss thrashing and screaming below, surrounded by mutts. I stared at her for a second before throwing a razor-sharp blade in the general direction of her heart. It must have worked because the whimpering abruptly cut off and the beats soon lost interest and galloped off into the forest. The boom of the canon echoed through my head, reminding me of the throbbing pain coming from the spot where Peeta had attacked me.

A beat of silence followed.

Cato rushed over ad engulfed me in his arms and for the first time in a long while, I didn't – I couldn't resist. I collapsed against his broad frame and allowed myself to soak in the fact that we had won, that I'd get to stay with Cato as long as I wanted. We would both walk out of this alive. How impossible was that? I will not cry, I will not cry… Tears burned behind my eyes but I refused to shed them. There were tears of happiness of the future with Cato that was now secure, tears of regret for the deaths that I'd inflicted and simply tears of shock that it was finally all over. It was over.

"Congratulations, tributes," Claudius Templesmith's voice came from above, piercing the silence. "I give you, your victors from District 2."

I imagined the Capitol audiences going crazy, the District 2 people's faces. We were famous. We had won. All of my life I'd trained for this moment and, despite what some people may have thought, I was grateful for it. Cato and I would finally have the life that we deserved without having to worry about the stupid Hunger Games.

Cato's eyes burned into mine. "We won," he whispered in awe. "We won."

"Told you we would," I grinned, laughing slightly hysterically at the surreal situation. I had dreamt about this for so long but now that we'd actually won…

He tilted my face up to his and gently lowered his lips to touch my own. The moment was so perfect that I didn't even mind when the tears spilled over.

Please let me know what you think :) x