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clatoera · 9 months

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Always Remember We're Burned for Better Chapter 18: Not My Homeland Anymore...So What Am I Defending?

Howdy guys! Here we are. Chapter 18. It's.. a big one. And important one. With the big declaration of loyalty from Cato and Clove, which everyone knew was coming. I got the 'vid while writing this so it took forever. I cannot believe we only have three more chapters after this. What a wild it has been.

Title from exile (t swift)

AO3

Masterpost

As always. Thank you to my besties. You are truly the reason I am capable of writing. @ohhowwehavefallen is my literal sounding board and helps me as my dictionary of panem. @kentwells listens to me whine daily, and @crookedlyniceperson I'm not sure what the meme content here is but...it's coming!

That being said..the things said here are not final.. They are SPECULATING. They don't know who's alive out there. Thats all i'm gonna say.

“Great job Clove, that's it baby.” Cato half hollers, half grins, giving her a reassuring pat on her hip before he crosses towards the front of the armory, to gather the precious five knives she had to throw. He recollects them from the outside in, each knife lodging closer and closer to the center of the target. “You’re getting better.”

“Not good enough.” Clove groans, rolling her right wrist out in the couple of seconds she has between rounds of tossing her knives. They had worked on this for weeks– maybe it was even close to a month, now– and while she was getting closer and closer to herself she still had what Cato would call limitations. She would call them failures, of course. Namely, being that she could only get about a dozen or so throws in before her shoulder and wrist began to feel that dull throb deep inside the joint spaces. “Enobaria would fucking kill me if she saw me now.”

“Enobaria isn’t my biggest fan, but I think she’d agree with me, Clove.” Cato raises an eyebrow at the girl, holding out one of the knives for her to take back. “I think she’d just be glad to see you alive.”

“Think she’s alive out there? Or Brutus?” Clove cocks her head, cracking her neck side to side before bringing the knife up past her shoulder. When she flicks her wrist and releases the blade, it lodges itself only a couple of inches left of the target. She slams her fist down in defeat, a dissatisfied whine escaping her. “If we were in the games i’d be fucking dead already.”

“I don’t know who’s alive. I don’t know what's left out there.” He admits to her, handing another knife out blade forward. “Good thing we aren’t in the games then, right? Just a war.”

She laughs, for about half a second, before she lodges another knife immediately to the right of her last. “For fucks sake!”

“That was technically closer than last time-” Cato is interrupted when the heavy metal doors to the armory swing upward, and the clicking shoes that echo towards them are revealed to belong to their very own ex-gamemaker, Plutarch Heavensbee.

“Cato..Clove.” The man greets, giving them each a very informal nod. “Theres are very own District Thirteen careers–”

“We aren’t from thirteen.” Clove snaps, but brings the knife in her hand to rest on her hip rather than throw it in front of him. Old Clove would have thrown knife after knife and hit the target time after time. Intimidation tactics and all that. Missing the center wasn’t going to impress anyone– it might even make her look like a target.

“What do you want, Plutarch?” Cato takes a step closer to Clove, draping his arm over her shoulders possessively– or maybe it’s protectively.

“If you two will follow me… it’s urgent.”

Cato and Clove shoot each other a look, but when Cato gives an imperceptible nod of the head, they take the steps forward to follow the leader together.

“A word of advice? Agree to this.” Is all Plutarch warns as they weave down hallways and descend to even deeper levels of the fortress that is District Thirteen.

They are eventually led to a room, filled with only three others. Katniss Everdeen, Haymitch Abernathy, and one Alma Coin.

“Please. Sit.” The president urges them first, nodding to two chairs across a broad board-room style table. There's something in the energy in the room that keeps them from putting up a fight or questioning it– a tension that they know better than to add to from years and years of academy training.

“I will make this short. District Two is the last of the districts aligned with the Capitol and Snow. As you two are well aware, it’s also the military center for the country. With Two on their side, the Capitol can continue this fight. That's where we are bringing you two in. Katniss here-” The gray haired woman gently gestures her left hand to her side, where Katniss sits nearly expressionless except for something frantic dancing behind her eyes. “Has assured of the loyalty you two have formed to our cause. We are sending you two to District Two, along with Katniss and the others. It is your responsibility to bring your home to the side of our cause.”

“District Two has long had loyalties to the Capitol. It’s what we’re raised on, I don’t know if they’ll listen to us.” Cato hesitates, leaning back in his chair and bringing his arms across his chest. “They probably see us as traitors.”

“Let me make something abundantly clear. This is a courtesy to your district. The numbers across the districts make me hesitate to outwardly destroy Two, in terms of population left to recover from the war. But we will not allow Two to stand between us and victory. If you cannot convince them, that is fine. We will handle this accordingly. And if the two of you show any sign of loyalty to them? The consequences will be dire.” President Coin pushes herself back from the chair and stands, straightening the front of her suit jacket.

“What if we don’t want-” Clove starts, but is very quickly shot a lot of fear from Katniss before one of utter disdain fills the gray eyes of Coin.

“This is not a request, Miss Kentwell. This is an order.” The clicking of her shoes echoes in the borderline empty room as she heads towards the door. “You leave in an hour.”

A guard follows her out, and as soon as the victors are left behind with Plutarch, Clove’s head whips around to face them. “Convince our district? They aren’t going to listen to us, they’ll think we’re just traitors!”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that. There is some resistance in two, it’s there, but you two do have the power of being one of them.” Plutarch lowers himself to sit beside Cato, and he gestures between Cato and Clove. “The two of you are the best Two has to offer. And you have proven your district loyalty again and again. And now you can show that even the best of you, especially you, Clove, are not immune to the brutality of the Capitol and Snow. It’s a powerful testimony you can offer.”

“And what if they don’t like what I have to say?” Clove scoffs, rolling her eyes and leaning back in her chair next to Cato, mirroring the same irritated posture. “What am I supposed to do? Show them my x-rays.”

“Tell them what they did to you.” Haymitch suggests, chiming in and leaning towards them, adjusting the beanie on his head before he does so. “There's other victors out there in Two, You know that. You have family, you probably have friends…okay maybe no friends but I know that you have family, Cato.”

“What did she mean by the loyalty thing..does she think we're going to turn back to the Capitol after what they did to her?” Cato suggests, looking at Katniss for the answer, the tense history of her and Coin not quite a secret to him.

“If there is any…concern..that you two may still have loyalties to the Capitol, yes there will be consequences.” Plutarch interjects, but not before Katniss can take over.

“She’ll probably have you killed.” Katniss admits. “I wouldn't put anything past her these days.”

—

The ride to two is harrowing and silent. It takes a couple hours, maybe. Not that either can tell, not without windows to mark their journey. Not that either dares to speak, either.

They sit side by side, backs against a metal wall with legs touching in utter and complete silence.

Best not indicate sympathies and be shot before they even land.

–

The landing is aggressive and jarring, and would have knocked them to the ground had they not already been sitting. Still, it knocks Clove more harshly into him and she grabs at his thigh to brace herself with the rough landing.

“Are we ready for this?” Clove half whispers, tightening her grip on his thigh, not looking up so that her hair would shield them from their conversation being held.��

“We have to be.” His hand found hers and squeezed, before the large door at the front of the craft began to open. They scramble to push themselves to a standing position, before guards with guns can assemble around Katniss and lead her out.

They follow last, hesitation flooding through them both as they stand at the top of the metal sloping door. Clove pauses first, Cato stiffening beside her as the undisguisable sound of bombing echoes through the hollow metal.

“Are you coming?” Someone calls up to them, and it doesn't matter who, because they take the steps down into the open town square of what was once their home.

The first look is shocking, to say the least.

There are no words to explain the feeling of seeing your home resolved to rubble.

There are no words for seeing the ashes of your childhood school, or the crater that now sits where the rest of the Justice Building once was, or the resounding sounds of more explosions off in the mountains.

There are no words for the horror that hits Cato and Clove in the very core of who they are.

“Cato, what’s happened to this place?” Clove whispers, squinting into the distance where she can see rising smoke along the entirety of the mountain range their houses and the various villages and mines once were. “What have they done–”

“There's no time to explain that right now” Haymitch interrupts, placing a hand on both of their shoulders. “We need to get inside”

They are numb, completely numb as they are led into the remnants of the justice building. T

They ascend the marble steps, slipping past the crumbling pillars and broken stairs, and Clove cannot help but remember the last time they had climbed these stairs, hand in hand, formally and officially married.

Cato tightens the grip on her arm, clearly thinking the exact same thing.

“We’re never even going to get to tell anyone.” Clove reminds him in a harsh whimper, once they are under the cover of the marble archway. “There's no one left.”

“We don’t know that..” But he cannot outright deny it.

When they hear a booming voice welcoming them to District Two, Clove sees red.

“Cato, Clove. Welcome home. You are a welcome addition to our cause.” Lyme, now ‘Commander’ Lyme calls out, a welcoming and nearly warm smile on her face. “I was shocked to hear of your shifted alliance, but we are nonetheless happy to have you.”

“Oh go to hell,” Clove hisses, and the arm that was around her arm slips around her waist as Cato instinctively knows to hold her back. “You sent us to die, you fucking cunt.” She struggles against Cato’s grip, but he does not let her go, he does let her fidget.

“Clove, You have to understand. I didn’t want to send you in, but I couldn’t go. I was part of something bigger, that you are now part of too, surely you understand–”

“They left her to die! Like hell do we understand! You sent us in there, willing to kill us both for this!” Cato agrees, but due to his struggling wife in his arms he cannot take a step towards the other ex victor, no matter how his anger may want him to.

“To die for this cause is a price we all must be willing to make-” Lyme insists, but her calm demeanor only serves to anger them more.

“Yeah. But YOU weren’t willing to be the one to do it. Sacrifice us! Because killing your young is how we survive, right? Isn’t that the point of the games!” Clove nearly screams, but Haymitch, once again playing peacekeeper, is stepping between them.

“This is not helping, and you know it, Clove.” He insists.

“Where is Enobaria! You wanted to preserve the other victors, where is she!” Clove growls, finally breaking free of Cato’s grasp, her long-earned resolve not breaking when she realizes just how much that hurt.

“Clove, I can’t tell you that information–”

“Where. Is. She? And Brutus! Are they alive where ARE they?” She insists, now the center of attention in the entire room, all eyes focused on the mad woman they plucked out of the Capitol.

“I can’t tell you those things.” Lyme doubles down, before turning away from them, now addressing a broader group around the table.

“Do you think they’re dead?” Cato wonders out loud, and Clove shakes her head rapidly. “No..no they can’t be dead.”

“We are thankful for your help here in Two. As you know, we have had quite the fight with the Capitol on our own. All of the villages on the north side of the mountain are destroyed, along with those on the south. All that remains on the west face is the peacekeeper barracks.” Lyme pulls up a holographic map of their home, complete with smoke billowing from the ashes of bodies and livelihoods. “We are what remains. The city to the east.”

“This is all that's left?” Clove looks to Cato, expression dropping as the reality of it all settles on her shoulders. “All the villages, the mines..”

“There's no way, that's most of the district” Cato denies but he finds himself glancing past the table, to the rising smoke on the side of the mountain.

“Cato, your parents live on the south face…” She narrows her eyes at the diagram, wondering if the small town at the base of the mountain had been spared in any way. “What about Cora and your mom and your dad and-” She makes no mention of her relatives, of her grandma in the south or her father and his new family to the north. They may as well have died to her years ago, God knows neither would stand beside her now.

They’re discussing the fate of family and villages, zoned out when they hear the absolutely insufferable voice of Gale Hawthorne, along with Beetee and Boggs offering some sort of plan to take the military stronghold inside the mountain. It would have been the hardest part, Clove or Cato could have told you that. If you didn’t win the games, that was the place to work.

Clove doesn’t pay him much mind, not that Gale ever says anything worth listening to, when she hears the word Avalanches.

“...Trap the Enemy inside..”

“...You risk suffocating everyone inside...”

“..Not if we blow it up..”

A refute from Katniss followed by “Killing isn’t personal”

The reality of the words falls heavily on the crowd, and the majority look to Lyme, their voice of reason and balance from two.

“They should have the chance to surrender.”

“You’ll kill everyone.” Clove asks, though it is more of an accusation than a question. “Just like that. Those are people in there, those are our people.” She glares something akin to the daggers she throws at Lyme, before she whips her head towards Gale. “You didn’t come here trying to spare numbers at all, did you.”

“No. I don’t care if a single one of you survives, frankly. Your people? Your people are the ones who burned my district to the ground.” Gale recalls, giving Clove and Cato a look that can only be described as disgust. “Every single person in Two is guilty as far as I’m concerned. Peacekeepers to Janitors, you’re all the same, in Snow’s pocket. You two can crawl in the mine too, we don’t need people like you in this war, either.”

If you ask Cato or Clove who move first, neither will know. It’s instinct, to flow in the same direction as one another, to feed off of the other like two heads on the same snake. All they know is that they went for the same target.

Cato reaches his first, his arm around his neck in half a second, hands on either side of his head poised to twist and dislocate it at any given moment. Clove’s got a knife, from god knows where, how she managed to sneak it on this mission no one knows, pressed to his abdomen.

“Go ahead. Say it again.” Cato urges, a sick laugh escaping him as he sees the guns trained on them. “You wanted an excuse to kill us anyway, do it. What's one more kill Gale, what did you say a few minutes ago? It isn’t personal, why don’t we remind you just how fucking personal it can be!”

“Let him go.” Katniss pleads, taking the step forward to put herself between the action and the guns aimed at them. “Let him go, they’re going to let people surrender.” She turns, now, to face Lyme, Boggs, and the others incharge of the operation. “You let people go. You let them surrender. We are not killing an entire district.. We aren’t Snow. We aren’t the Capitol.”

It is Beetee who, rolling forward with his hands up in cautious surrender. “We will leave the train tunnel open. Now. Let Mr. Hawthorne go..”

“No. He doesn’t deserve it. What did he say? Bring on the avalanches? Wanna know what it’s like to suffocate, Gale?” Clove sneers, tracing the blade of the knife over the plane of his cheek. If the way he was coughing was any indication, Cato was already making that a reality, with the way his upper arm twitched.

“We’re letting your people have a chance. Let him go, Cato. Clove.” Haymitch urges, his wide as his hands also come up to mirror Beetees. Something about that man, they feel the urge to trust. He nods to them, and Cato and Clove lock eyes. They let him go, and there's a chance they’ll be shot. They kill him, and they definitely will be. She gives a nod of her chin, one only Cato would pick up on, and they let him go.

As Gale falls to the ground, gasping for air, Cato and Clove are both grabbed by the arms and dragged from the room.

Clove does not give them the satisfaction of crying out.

And so here they sit.

Sit by side, on the marble staircase of what was once the entrance to the Justice Building. Sure, they are somewhat exposed. At this point..who’s wasting a bomb on them?

They watch, in mutual horror, as District 13 bomb after bomb absolutely annihilates the main mountain in the city. Clove swallows back the nausea she feels at the distant screams of fear, that are all suddenly cut off as the avalanche of the bomb cuts off their air.

Her head finds his shoulder, and it is the gentle rocking she feels that lets her know he is silently, wordlessly crying, too.

“Everyones dead, aren’t they?” Clove gets out, and the minute the word dead slips out her resolve crashes. “We have nothing to come home to, do we?”

“We aren’t even going to have a home to come back to, Clove.” From where they sit, they can see the remnants of what was once their home. The great training academy that was not only the foundation of their training, but the foundation of them was nothing more than its own marble steps and endless rocks.

“Do you think they killed everyone in there?” Clove gestures to their once home, which still seems to smoke.

“Probably.” Cato admits, resting his head on top of hers as yet another round of attacks aim at the mountain.

There was once a time in her life when Clove had slept best under a rainstorm in a room, hitting the windows above her bed. Now, as the bombs explode like thunder, Clove is sure she’ll never sleep through one again. Every strike of lighting will bring her back here. Watching her entire life burn to the ground.

“Enobaria…Brutus..Cora…your mom..dad…they’re probably gone, huh?” Clove says the silent fear out loud. They are all they have left.

He doesn’t verbally respond, instead reaching out and resting his arm over his shoulder, squeezing gently, careful not to hurt her.

“We were announced as victors. Right here. On these steps.” Clove points out, gently running her hands on the marble beneath her. “We got married here. All the pictures and the speeches.. And now we’re just..losing everything. Right here. On these same steps.” She strums her hand on his arm, squeezing gently. “Well. Not quite everything.”

They’re interrupted by soft steps behind them, and a gentle clearing of the throat.

“Hi, Katniss.” Cato sighs, turning to phase the symbol of freedom herself.

“I’m sorry. About your District.” Katniss tries, sitting on the marble steps besides them both. “I know it isn’t easy.”

“Thank you for keeping us alive back there. It’s no secret they want us dead.” Cato clears his throat looking out at the smoking remnants of his home. “We owe you for that.”

“We’re miners, too. In Twelve. You don’t… you don’t subject other miners to that kind of death. I’m sorry for what we did.”

“Thank you.” Clove finally agrees, for the first time actually acknowledging the good in Miss Katniss. “For saying that. And your friend, Katniss–” “I know, you don’t have to apologize, he was wrong–”

“I wasn’t going to apologize. He’s dangerous, Katniss. The way he thinks..he’s not that different from Snow.” Clove warns, when a voice calls out for Katniss to return. “Better fly back to the nest, Miss Mockingjay.”

“It’s for the surrender. They want you two there.” Katniss explains, giving them a pitiful glance. “I know. But they think it looks better to show you two are on our side.”

They do not fight, remembering the words and cautious glances of Haymitch Abernathy back in two.

When they are led to the mouth of the train, with Katniss ahead of them and cameras trained on her, Clove feels a pit in the depths of her stomach.

“Let us up there.” Clove half whispers half yells to Katniss. “We can help, more than you can. These are our people. Let us talk to them.”

Haymitch, who is to Katniss' left, gives a nod of approval. “Remember, you’re talking to everyone here.”

The camera woman, Cressida gives Katniss a hesitant nod, As Cato and Clove come to flank her sides.

Her mouth is dry as the train car opens, and people pile out with heavy district thirteen weapons aimed in their faces.

“They’re hurt…” Katniss whispers, and before she can rush forward Cato grabs her by the arm and holds her back.

“They’re angry, Katniss.” He warns, just as the lights of the cameras find their faces. Cato has never been the one with the words to persuade. He is a rallyer. The great golden boy of District Two, to talk about the glory of the games and winning. He can bring everyone to their feet in a cheer…but a call to surrender? That was never going to be Cato Hadley.

Clove, on the other hand. A girl who had spent her whole life justifying her strength, that girl, she was a manipulator.

“Do you remember us?” Clove starts, as Cressida gives her an approving nod. The light is blinding in the dark of the train tunnel, but she continues to focus in on the camera. “You have to. We’re the pride of this district, aren’t we, Cato and I? That's what you called us, anyway. Cato and Clove..the best victors this district had in a decade.” Haymitch steps out of the frame, so that it instead focuses on Cato, Clove, and Katniss. Twelve and Two, standing united.

“We’re the best.” Cato chimes in, giving a sure nod and that signature cocky grin. “We still are…but that didn’t matter to Snow, and to the Capitol.”

“We..are the best. We are the most loyal. We are perfect victors and it didn’t matter.” Clove continues, and for some reason she feels like she is talking to more than just the people of her home, now, with the way the Camera is focused in on her face. She is hesitant when she reaches for the buttons on the front of her District Thirteen jumpsuit. “I was perfect, and it didn’t protect me.” She pulls the neck of the jumpsuit down, revealing the continuous bruising along her collarbones that refuses to heal. “They beat me and they broke my ribs and my arms and they destroyed my body. They do not care about us. They don’t care about the victors, and they don’t care about any of you, either.”

“They’d kill us all, if they have to.” Cato agrees, giving a solid nod of her head. “They did this to her, because they thought I was involved in this war. And now we are. And we know this much. No victor, or family member, or district matters to them. We’re all expendable. And we aren’t willing to die for them, anymore. We offered to, once. We were willing to die for glory in the games..but we aren’t willing to die for them anymore.”

Clove redirects her attention directly to the crowd. She can see faces now, people she recognizes. People she knows.

The boy who Cato beat to go to the games, who had become a peacekeeper.

The Woman who worked with her grandmother, and came by every Tuesday to carpool with her.

One of their peers a few years younger than them, who never even made it to the top of their classes.

“None of us matter to Snow. Stop killing for him.” Katniss calls out, stepping forward from between them so she is more directly in the spotlight. “You hear them! They’re the best of what Two has to offer, right? We’re the same..more than you realize. District Twelve, and District Two.”

Cato pulls Clove back, out of the light, as soon as Katniss starts her speech.

In the same second a man steps forward and pulls the trigger of a gun directly into the chest of Katniss Everdeen.

What happened next is a blur.

Next thing they know, they are on a plane back to Thirteen, Katniss Everdeen fighting for her life at their side.

They, too, are sedated before they can ask too many questions.

–

“She’s alive, you know.” Clove kicks her feet off the side of the industrial metal kitchen counter, swinging her feet all to like a child waiting for a treat. “Cato went to see her earlier. She’s alive.”

“I didn’t ask, Clove.” Peeta Mellark chimes in, brows furrowing as he works a spatula to blend the teal and white icing, creating the illusion of wave caps cresting on an ocean. “What are you even doing here?”

“You care, loverboy.” She swipes her finger in the bowl, stealing the remnants of turquoise dye and buttercream frosting. “I’m here because I haven’t seen you at all since we were rescued, and we’re now trauma bonded and all that, or whatever it is they tell Johanna in therapy.”

“I’m not loverboy, and I don’t care. She’s a monster.” He gently taps her hand with the bag of icing, but he does give her half of a smile, far less than the sunshine boy of the past but still something. “Stop sticking your fingers in there!”

“You’ll always be loverboy to us!” She taunts, but hops off the countertop anyway. “Yeah? People call me and Cato monsters too. Even monsters deserve love, Breadboy.” Clove gives the cake a once over, with an appreciative nod. “Are you going to come to the wedding?”

He gives a quick shake of the head. “I’m not cleared for that.”

–

It felt wrong, being at a wedding so close to the bombing and destruction of their home.

Still, Finnick and Annie were their friends. Even so..it wasn’t like they were likely to be invited to any other weddings in their lives.

Cato and Clove sit side by side in the very back, Clove fanning herself with the flimsy paper program that had been designed to look like the waves meeting the shore.

“This wedding is very…District Four.” Clove whispers to Cato, nodding her head towards the golden nets that are draped over the two of them. Finnick had likely made it by hand, considering tying knots had been his hobby and outlet in their long stay in thirteen. “Where did they find a bunch of kids who knew the wedding songs of that district?”

“They’re from twelve, I think.” Cato whispers back, draping his arm over her shoulder and pulling her closer, not entirely not so he could also get some of the air she was generating by fanning herself. “Annie organized the rehearsals.”

“Is that Effie Trinket?” Clove gestures towards the front, where the escort has somehow donned a large wig and a shimmering pink dress. “Why the fuck does she look so ridiculous?” “I think Katniss brought dresses back from twelve or something, that's where Annie’s is from.” Cato points out the ocean green dress the bride wears, so unlike the traditional white of the Capitol and upper districts. “Maybe that's it?”

“Will you two stop talking?” A teasing voice comes from directly in front of them, as Marvel turns around to face them. “It’s a wedding not a social hour.”

“You’re just jealous because Katniss didn’t get you a pretty dress.” Cato mocks, but does shush for the rest of the ceremony.

It really is lovely, all things considered, working with what they have in Thirteen.

The reception is as close to a party as possible down here under the ground, especially considering the prohibition.

“Does it feel wrong to anyone else, that we’re having a party as the world is ending.” Marvel asks, leaning against the wall with the other victors. Cato holds Clove in front of him, with Johanna Mason on the side opposite of Marvel.

“May as well go out with a bang.” Johanna shrugs, opening her arms with a dramatic laugh as Katniss cautiously approaches them. “Speaking of going out with a bang, there she is, a shooting survivor. You’re like a cockroach, they really just cannot kill you!”

“And considering every single one of you have tried...” Katniss nearly teases, coming to rest her back on the wall alongside Johanna.

“I'm happy for them.” Katniss announces, giving a little nod. “They deserve it.”

“Jealous?” Clove taunts, but nudges her gently with her foot. “Loverboy is going to come around. They can’t break us all forever!”

“Why didn’t you bring me a pretty dress?” Johanna teases, gesturing towards Annie and Effie. “Maybe I wanted to be a pretty pretty princess.”

“Glimmer got the one you liked anyway. The blue one I wore in two?” Katniss points out, and as if on cue, the back doors open and in slips the girl of the hour.

“God damn.” Johanna whispers, when the blonde girl enters in all her glory. The blue velvet falls to her feel like a river, those gorgeous bombshell curls framing her face and rolling down her shoulders like the star she is. At about her knees the dress turns from velvet to sapphire colored glitter, that catches the light as she walks heel before heel, all eyes in the room unable to look anywhere but her. There isn’t much makeup or jewelry here, but she’s never needed it. She shines regardless. “The capitol sure did some fucked up things to her but if they did anything right, it sure is market how gorgeous she is.”

Noone pays any attention to Marvel, who’s tightened his jaw beside Cato and Clove, his entire body language stiffened at the attention of glimmer.

She reaches them very quickly, and the joy on her face is contagious. “Thank you so much, Katniss, for letting me borrow this. The alterations aren’t permanent, I just pinned it!”

“It looks like it was made for you,” Katniss admits when she catches her sister’s shining eyes from across the room. She would go to her soon, but for now she would play nice with her fellow victors.

“I didn’t really want to come.” Glimmer admits tucking herself in beside Cato and Johanna, opposite and far from Marvel. “It’s hard to see these things knowing you’ll never do them but.. Finnick and I have been through a lot together. I’m happy to see him so happy. He deserves it. One of us should have it!”

“Come on, Miss Panem, let's try some of that cake. You could use it.” Johanna playfully raises her eyebrows, before linking her arm through Glimmer’s and practically leading her away. Clove notices the pins on the back of the dress, holding the fabric close to her skin. She must be terribly small, for a dress that was designed for Katniss not to fit her.

“She’s a fucking beauty queen.” Clove agrees, unable to wipe the smile off her face at the way she simply glows in the expensive fabric.

“Yeah…she is.” Marvel clears his throat, and pushes himself off the wall. “I need to–”

Clove leans into Cato’s arms as she watches Marvel walk off after Glimmer, Cato pulling her attention before she can watch him reach her.

“See, Katniss? We’re all starting to heal. Peeta will be soon.” Clove promises, noting the longing look the Mockingjay tries to hide.

Katniss nods, but changes the subject abruptly before she could dare show emotion. “I’m going to see my little sister, I think.”

Cato shuffles, twisting Clove in his arms to face him.

“What do you say, we go to intercept that cake before Johanna and Marvel have to fight over Glimmer.” He teases, and gently nudges her in the direction of Peeta’s great confection.

Clove wordlessly agrees, walking hand in hand with her husband over to the sliced cake displayed on the table. Most of the guests are busy dancing to some folk-esk music, save for Annie and Finnick who had already had their first slice, and so it was Cato and Clove home free with the cake.

They stand in the corner, one plate and two forks between them, laughing as Cato nearly misses Clove’s mouth as he tries to feed her a bite of the cake.

“You usually have better aim than that.” Clove taunts, swiping a bit of the turquoise frosting on his nose.

“I could say the same for you.” He catches her wrist in his free hand, and instead licks the icing right off her pointer finger. “You know I would have gone for chocolate cake, but beggars can’t be choosers.” Cato grabs her by the face and pulls her in for a kiss, the grainy taste of buttercream lingering on their lips.

“You know, Clove, I would have thought you and I would have done this when we got home. The whole big party..”

“You’re the one who said it, Cato. There won’t be a home for us to go back to.”

#arwbfb tag #the hunger games #clato #cato and clove #clato fanfic #clove kentwell #clove #cato hadley #thg fanfic #thg fanfiction #thg #johanna mason #glimmer and marvel #peeeta apears #katniss appears #etc etc #love y'all

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