A different Time and Place

Authors Note - Sorry i haven't been on in a while, but i am back, even if i am going to collage in a few days :)

Chapter 8

By lunch time, Cato and Katniss had only got 3 hours of training in, because it took forever for all of the tributes to arrive and then Atlanta went on the tell them, without naming any names, that harming any other tributes, whether they fought back or not, is against the rules. Cato, Katniss and Their mentors knew who this was aimed at and it seemed that by the way he was being glared at, the other mentors had felt it fit to inform them.

"Your good, fire girl. I knew that you with a bow and arow meant that you might win, but i never knew you had such skill with them as well as the knives." Cato jokingly said, as he sat down next to her, a light sheen of sweat on both of their skins and breath slightly labored after a 45 minute run.

"Your not to bad yourself, you giant brute." she teased him right back and genuine smiles came onto both of their faces, before they dissapeared again. Just as Katniss stood back up to stretch her body to calm down, a door on the far right opened, only they hadn't seen it before. Out through the door, stepped Seneca Crane, a couple of the other game makers they'd seen in the box and a man they knew to be The president. Dropping what they were doing, they both stood to attention then bowed in unison and stood back up again. This was the official sign of respect if you were to ever meet the president.

"President Snow." They intoned, keeping their eye's down but their bodies straight. You could only tell by looking at Katniss's hands that she was nervous, but Cato show nothing. He was used to things like this, being from District 2.

"Katniss, Cato, how wonderful that I finally get to meet you. You both have definitely made everyone interested in you two, haven't you? What with Katniss in the opening Ceremony, and your surprising relationship... Not to mention how talented you both are in training." He finished at that and started to walk around the training room, leaving them to look at each other in confusion. Cato nodded to Katniss and opened his mouth to speak.

"Thank you President, we are trying hard to make these Games more enjoyable for the people watching them." Since Cato was from 2 and his father dealt with the president more than once, he knew what was right and what was wrong to say when in his presence.

"I appreciate that, you both are going to be tributes that need to be watched in the games, just as we are watching you now. But enough of that, i have a offer for the both of you. You do not have to choose it and if you do not choose it, then nothing will change... But this offer is to make the games more interesting from the start, as you both want to do that anyway, i thought you might be interested."

The way he said things, it was as if it was all their choice and nothing would happen, only they knew the president and there's always a catch. If they didn;t say yes to whatever his offer was they may not be hurt, but what about their families? And if they said yes and it didn;t go his way, what could happen them. They could only wait and see what his offer actually was.

"Only you two will know this, but near the end of the games, we will announce that there will be two winners, as long as they are in alliance with each other. And we want those winners to be you. We know that you two have known each other for quite some time before this, but not on the how, only that it was probably illegal. But we will over look that, if you band together, whether just in a two like you are now, or if Katniss joins the Careers. And if you make the games interesting in anyway you can, we can gauntree for you both to win this. What happens after you win the games, if you do take us up in this offer, is entirely up to you, or we can make another deal when the times comes. Because you both are quite the catch and i'm sure th capital would love the pair of you, especially if you both won..." he left the sentence open, to let them think what they wanted, and Cato clicked onto it immediately. Katniss however looked on confused and glanced at Cato and then to the floor, trying to figure out what he meant.

Everything he offered them sounded great. A chance to win the games, together and nt have to kill each other, work in an alliance and show off what they can and they came even make the games even more interesting for the capital. And the only catch is that they... Become something for the Capital to exploit? Katniss paled in shock as she realized what they were going to do to her and Cato, if they won. They were going to be sold for the capitals 'Entertainment'. She wanted to grimace at the thought but knew she couldn't with the President around. Looking back over t at Cato, he was staring at her as if trying to see what she was thinking. He nodded to her then to the president and she knew he was trying to convince her. Convince her to do it.

The president did say that they could come u with another deal, when the times comes, so maybe if they agree'd to do it, them maybe they could find a way out of it.

"Mr President, we both agree to what you are proposing and we will make the games more entertaining for the public." Cato's cool and collected voice broke through the silence and the president turned to them, a smile on his face that didn;t seem at all genuine, and clapped.

"Excellent, then, we will leave you to train. When the games get down to 8 tributes left, we will announce that there will be 2 winners, as long as they were in the same alliance. In the games you cannot split from each other and try and win with someone else, you must win together or not at all. And you must give it your all, and make it worth while watching, which also means you must get high scores in the private meetings. Good luck, and may the odd be ever in your favor." With that they all walked out of the room leaving Cato and Katniss there to stare into space.

Moments later, they both sat back down next to each other and the shock started to wear off.

"Cato, Did we just agree to what i think we did?" Katniss's normally unaffected voice sounded small and meek. Cato turned so he was facing her and pulled her to his side, leaning his chin on top of her head.

"Yeh. We just agreed to make the games interesting and in return, we both get to win the hunger games... Atleast now I wont have ti kill you hey Catnip?" he tried to make it sound funnier than it actually was and they both ended up laughing. Even if they did sound slightly hysterical.

20 minutes later Brutus and Haymitch wandered through the door and stopped short when they saw Katniss on the ground seemingly unconscious and Cato swinging his sword around and around.

Haymitch rushed over to Katniss, only to find no marks what so ever on her. Frowning he questioned Cato.

"Cato, why is Katniss on the ground unconscious?" in his mind, he was thinking of what he could do to him if Cato had done something to Katniss.

"She's asleep. The president visited us about 30 minutes ago and gave us a chance at winning the games, together, if we did something for him. We agree'd and i think it didn't hit her until he'd left. She got a little hysterical and she fell asleep on me and i let her. I was going to wake her up soon, so she could get something to eat." His voice was emotionless as he kept swinging the sword around and around.

Ignoring them, he dropped it into it's stand and crouched over Katniss. Stroking her hair slightly and putting a hand on hers he whispered her name quietly and her eye's shot open. If it hadn't been for his hand on hers, then she would have swung for him.

"Time to go to lunch, you think your ready? We have to be nice for the other Careers and get you into an alliance with them."

She only nodded and as soon as she stood, they left the room, leaving two confused and slightly irritate mentors in their wake.

Turning to Haymitch, Brutus muttered, "There are gonna be the death of us in these games, if they keep doing things like that."

Authors Note - Sooooo... What do you think?

~Kitty