A/N: well here it is guys; the first part of my Clato story! It will be updated whenever i get the time to. Which hopefully after all my exams will be more often! (Bearing in mind i have another fic that i am also writing at the same time as this one) Anyway I hope you enjoy it! :D

Chapter 1

Cato and I were the only ones left out of the careers; we heard the cannon go off twice. Marvel was nowhere to be seen, we both wanted him to come bounding through the forest celebrating a double kill. However as the minutes ticked by we became more sceptic that he survived, after all; that bitch from 12 probably killed him.

I threw a knife into a nearby tree. This was frustrating, we still had to get rid of the guy from 11, the girl from 5 and then whichever one of the star-crossed lovers was left. It wasn't impossible, just frustrating that it was now up to Cato and I alone, that and our food supply had been recently blown up.

"Calm down Clove." Cato instructed as he paced back and forth amongst the rubble of our supplies. "You'll give away our position."

"I think they know we're already here Cato." I sulked. "It's pretty damn obvious."

"Look, it's not my fault he went off on his own." He protested "I mean I would've gone with him but-"

"But what? Scared to leave me alone?" I snapped "I would've been fine Cato."

"What would've happened if that guy from 11 showed up? You would've stood no chance."

"Oh hush Cato." I growled. I hated how he thought that size mattered, he saw me kill several other tributes – why did he think that now I was too small to take down someone twice my size? I could easily kill him if I wanted to.

Night was approaching quickly, with no Marvel around our camp seemed emptier than it already had. First were Glimmer and the girl from four during the tracker-jacker chaos, then that prat from three who basically blew up our food and now possibly Marvel. It was getting too quiet around here.

"Do you want to take first watch?" Cato asked me.

"Let's wait and see who died first – Marvel could be alive and in the woods somewhere." I said, I was sceptical to say the least, but there was a slim chance he was just too injured to move.

"I doubt it, but okay." Cato muttered, sitting on the grass next to our dwindling food stocks. I sat next to him and lay my knives out in a line, debating which one I'd kill the district 12 mutt with. I soon felt quite drowsy but refused to give in until I knew Marvel's fate – we careers had to stick together until the final act.

The loud anthem played throughout the arena and woke me up; I looked to Cato who also looked stunned and somewhat half-asleep. We looked at the sky which showed the Capitol's logo before it was replaced with Marvel's picture. So he was dead. Cato and I were the last one's standing out of our pack. The only other picture that came up was of the girl from 11, the friend of the love-stricken Katniss. I was about to tell Cato that I wanted first sleep when an announcement followed the anthem;

"There has been a rule change! From now on if two tributes from the same district are still alive they may both be victors. I repeat; if two tributes from the same district are still alive they may both be victors."

Our eyes met each other's. We could seriously win this and go home basking in glory and honour. "The only other tributes who could win are the girl on fire and loverboy." Cato stated. "We have this in the bag."

"So who do we go after first?" I asked

"11. He's our biggest threat physically. Loverboy is too injured to move so Firegirl won't leave his side. God knows where the girl from five is."

"Okay, so when should we get him?"

"Let's rest tonight; I think I know where he's hiding. I'll take first watch."

I nodded and collected my knives up before settling down in a sleeping bag. With the hope that I will be able to go home a victor I fell asleep quickly.

"Hey wake up." Cato's voice drifted into my head. "Clove, get up. I'm tired."

"There's always room for one more…" I mumbled sleepily.

"Nice try, it's your turn to be watch." He smirked. It was still fairly dark in the arena, I got up and sat beside Cato's sleeping bag. I took out a knife and started sharpening it – waiting for someone or something to attack. After a while I glanced over at the sleeping Cato, his facial muscles had relaxed and he looked quite peaceful, the sun was peeking over the horizon slowly, illuminating the fairly damaged land around us. I found some food in one of the rucksacks and ate whilst surveying my surroundings.

If we weren't fighting for our lives then I'd have relaxed more, however ignorance kills in the arena and I wasn't going to die because of it. I slotted all of my knives back into their holders within my clothing; I then debated waking Cato up so we could hurry up and kill another tribute. However one look at his sleeping face made me think otherwise – I couldn't disturb him, one; he'd probably be annoyed and two; he looked too peaceful.

"Stop being stupid Clove." I muttered to myself. "He'd tell you to do something useful like patrol the cornucopia." So I got up and walked around the grassland surrounding the metal shell, it had surprisingly survived the explosion a yesterday.

As I continued peering into the trees, looking for any sign of another tribute, I became aware of the feeling of being watched. It was still too dark to tell if there was anyone around so I climbed on top of the cornucopia for a better look. The sun's rays were only starting to lighten the grass and the trees around the clearing; I couldn't tell if there was anyone watching me but the feeling was still there. Perhaps I could just sense the cameras of the Capitol focusing on me, maybe I was the only one awake, maybe they had gotten bored of the star-crossed lovers. I laughed; they'd never get tired of them, not unless someone took their place….

"Stupid Clove." I muttered. "Cato would never go for that, he'd be paranoid to be seen as weak."

"I'd never go for what?" A voice came from behind me. I turned around and a sleepy Cato was climbing on top of the cornucopia.

"Nevermind." I replied. "So are we going to look for the 11?"

He didn't look convinced but he shook his head. "No, I think we'll wait out a bit, maybe try and find some food. Our stocks are becoming low."

"Fine. Where should we look for food?"

"You any good at hunting?" he asked.

"I'm okay I guess, good enough to snag us a few small animals."

"Okay, you go hunt, I'll stay here and guard what little supplies we have left." He ordered.

I nodded and jumped off the cornucopia before running into the forest. Finally I was allowed to do something for myself. Ever since the tracker-jacker incident Cato had demanded we stay alert and stick together, I knew he'd be able to handle anyone who tried to invade our camp.

I secretly hoped I'd run into the girl from five whilst I was hunting, however I had no such luck. I did manage to kill a few small animals and a rather plump bird. Whilst I was examining my last kill on the way back to the cornucopia I felt the uneasy presence of someone again. I was adamant that Cato was still back at camp, I carefully surveyed the foliage around me, there was no-one around that I could see. My pace quickened as I made my way through the undergrowth back to Cato.

"I thought you were 'okay' at hunting!" he exclaimed when I showed him my hunting efforts; six squirrels, two rabbits and one heck of a fat bird. "Did you slit all their throats?"

"No, I actually set up traps and then broke their necks when they got caught." I boasted. "Just like you did with the boy from three."

His eyes seemed to light up when I said that. It was as if he was proud that I learnt from him. "Well….good job." He muttered. Cato was never a person for compliments, and probably never will be, but it still made me feel happy when he praised me.

We skinned the animals and plucked the feathers off the bird; Cato made a fire and started cooking a few of the squirrels as I prepared the bird for roasting. It wouldn't matter if they went cold after we cooked them 'cause they'd still be edible, the trick is to have them all cooked so we can eat them when we need them the most. That didn't stop me sneaking chunks off the rabbits that had already cooked.

At first Cato didn't notice, however when an entire leg was gone off one of them he was a little confused to say the least. "Where did the leg go?" he asked as he placed some cooked squirrel on a piece of wood we were using as a plate.

"Um…" I uttered wiping my mouth.

He took one look at me and then burst out laughing. "You're not a good liar Clove." He said finally after laughing for a while.

"I was hungry, and I was the one who caught it." I said in my defence.

"That is a good point." He replied holding the bird over the fire. "Get some more wood for me?"

I sighed and left the camp again in search of firewood. Tomorrow he was getting everything, I quickly gathered some dry branches and got back to camp. The sun was high in the sky meaning it was about midday, it was also quite hot today. I couldn't decide if the game-makers were going to cause a drought or leading us to think there will be no rain and then unleashing a hurricane on us. The wood was added to the fire and the remaining foodwas cooked, Cato wasted no time in eating.

Despite Cato saying we'd be going to find the boy from 11 we found ourselves simply sat in the sunshine, it was an odd occurrence to say the least. I felt too vulnerable out in the open like this, as if someone could easily pick us off with an arrow or something. Everytime I heard a twig snap or the trees rustle I'd flinch and turn to where I heard it, at first so did Cato but after a while he seemed to stop caring – however he got a little annoyed after a while.

"God damn it Clove, nobody's there!" he snapped. "It's probably the animals."

"I don't care." I sulked "And I thought we were going to look for the 11 today." I pouted.

"I decided against it. The game-makers will draw us all back together at some point anyway so why not just rest up until either that happens or he comes to find us?" Even though I was currently bored I agreed with him, why waste energy?

We sat and waited, every now and then one of us would climb on top of the cornucopia to have a look for other tributes. Time passed slowly. We didn't talk much, and when we did it was only about how we'd killed the remaining tributes.

"I'm thinking we should break the 11's neck…" Cato contemplated.

"Too easy, I want him to be in pain." I replied.

"You always want that, save all your angst for firegirl."

I laughed, it never occurred to me to think of killing her single-handedly. We always worked as a team, unless our mentors instructed otherwise.

"Indeed, 5 will be harder to find. She moves to quickly and quietly, she's smart too so any trap will most likely be a waste of time." He went on. "I guess the game-makers will lure her to us eventually. Then we'll be at an advantage."

"Well it seems like you have this all figured out." I remarked. "We just need to actually kill them now."

The sky overhead darkened, it wasn't nightfall, not yet. The clouds were black and threatening, a distant rumble of thunder confirmed my thoughts that there was going to be a storm. Yet we had nowhere to shelter other than the cornucopia – which was blood stained and quite cramped inside. However Cato seemed unfazed by its condition as he gathered up our make-shift camp and relocated it inside the metal shell. Sure enough once we were both inside it started raining like there was no tomorrow. I hoped the other tributes drowned in the river.

The rain had been relentless for what seemed like weeks, although it had only been two days. Our food stock was running low again however hunting wasn't going to happen in this weather. Cato was getting irritated as we hadn't been able to do anything for nearly 48 hours now except sleep and talk – and he wasn't a talker, regardless of what the Capitol people were told by the media – he didn't like talking. Not when it was with me, alone in the metal shell of the cornucopia.

"This is stupid." He muttered for what seemed like the hundredth time.

"Blame the game-makers Cato…they are obviously doing it for a reason." I sighed as I led staring the roof over us.

"We're running out of food Clove, we need to do something."

"There's always the sponsors."

"Like they're going to give us anything – if we're not killing then we're nothing to them."

"Cato I doubt they'd let us die."

"I need to eat Clove, my strength depends on it." Classic Cato; never caring about anyone but himself.

"And you think I don't need to eat?" I replied.

We sat there in silence, which had occurred a lot in the past two days, sooner or later he was going to flip out and do something stupid. I wondered why we hadn't heard the cannon go off, surely loverboy's wound was killing him…unless they were getting parachutes from their sponsors…I wondered if we'd get anything if we'd start a star-crossed lovers act. I quickly banished that thought from my mind.

"Ugh, how else could we get food?" Cato snapped, standing up and nearly hitting his head on the roof in the process.

"Sponsors, hunting, stealing from another tribute, foraging….." I listed off.

"Stop being a smart aleck and think properly!"

"I am!" I snapped back.

"Yeah right. How do you think loverboy's survived? Because of the bloody sponsors!"

"Well maybe we should think of someway to charm them ourselves then!" I shouted standing up to face him.

He stared at me, I stared back. The rain drummed on the cornucopia above us and made the silence between us all the more noticeable. A smirk started playing on his lips, it unsettled me slightly, I wanted to know what he was thinking but I was too scared to ask.

"Well…got any ideas?" he asked, smirking slightly.

"….no…you?" I lied.

"…how does 'the star-crossed lovers of District two' sound?" he answered "…'Raised to kill instead of love'…"

I laughed, mainly because I imagined the faces of our mentors as they watched this exchange. Truth is the idea wasn't that bad, it just needed a lot of good acting to pull it off. He continued smirking but his eyes portrayed something else, I wasn't sure what but it was not a simple desire to live by lying to the Capitol audience.

I nodded. It dawned on me that if our sponsors were watching then they'd know it was all an act…unless we really did a good job of it. As soon as I had nodded he pulled me into an embrace; my short skinny build against his tall muscular one, his arms held me securely and close to his chest. I could feel his heart beating steadily as the minutes ticked by.

"Well then Clover, let's win this game and start a life together." He said.

"You bet Cato." I smiled. Killing these last few tributes was going to be even easier if our act paid off, but one thing nagged me in the back of my mind; what if we did win? Would Cato still want to have a life together? The question burned inside of me as we sunk to the ground and listened to the rain, still wrapped in each other's arms.