the calm before the storm;
❛ ENIGMA ❜ ↷ the hunger games
❝ you two are more similar than you think ❞

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When people would describe District Two, they would usually start off by saying it's a District full of riches and big, beautiful buildings, the biggest district after the Capitol, the place peacemakers come from. It was a District that had the biggest number of victors and the place with a beautiful forest on the back that connects them with District Three. Well, more like a forest that you can get arrested for trespassing in, but even looking at it feels like a breath of fresh air compared to a crowded District like that.

Alina King, on the other hand, would describe her home as a painfully colorful place with too many stuck-up people for her to count. Living in the richest part of the district where a large part of children is trained to become killers from a young age has its perks. At least they were not living like District Twelve, who, based on the pictures she could see online, were literally living in dirt.

And now, as she walked into the Academy she spent most of her life training in, with her sister right by her side, she didn't know if she was gonna miss her home or not after she leaves it tomorrow. Permanently or not, she had no way of knowing until the last cannon rang through the arena in two weeks.

Who was she kidding? Of course, she was going to miss it. Because no matter how fucked up her District was, there were enough people to make her life not entirely miserable. Even though she had her heart and head fully set on winning the games, she never knew what could go wrong. So she wanted to take a long look at the most important place in her life before she volunteered for the most dangerous game known to mankind.

The Academy felt like her second home. It was the place where she met her best friend, the place where she bonded with her sister, the place where she could escape her mother's glare even if it was just for a few seconds. Sometimes she could still feel her gaze burning at the back of her head, watching every move she made from across the training room.

Reina King was one of the most respected women in the District, being one of the many victors District Two has collected over the seventy-three games. Alina's father was one of them himself, but he passed away a few years ago, for reasons still unknown to her since she was so young when it happened. Besides the fact that her mother was pressuring her into volunteering, another reason she was doing it was to make him proud.

Many people would ask how killing twenty-three children would make a father proud of their child, but what would make him proud (or at least what her mother has been telling her her entire life) was she gaining their District and their family another year of glory and victory.

But putting the games aside, the Academy was also the place she met the guy she hated the most.

"Doing some last-minute training for tomorrow, King?"

Speaking of the devil, and he shall appear.

The King sisters stopped walking into the Academy and watched with dismay as Cato Hadley blocked their way in, sporting his usual smirk on his face. His attention fully set on the older sister and he was completely ignoring Clove, which only made the short brunette roll her eyes nonchalantly.

"Need something, Hadley?" Alina asked with her eyes narrowed, crossing her arms over her chest with a cold expression on her face.

Cato shrugged and mirrored the way her arms crossed, raising his chin to make a point of towering over her, "Just asking a simple question. No need to get your panties in a twist, Angel."

Alina's glare hardened when she heard the familiar nickname slip through his tongue with ease and her jaw twitched, "Don't you have anyone else to annoy? Or maybe do some last minute training yourself? We both know I'm not gonna go easy on you in that arena."

"Just wanted to see how you were doing." He chuckled and held his hands up in mock defense, "Nervous? Scared? Have any second thoughts?" He asked, his tone changing at the end not being teasing anymore, more like...𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦𝘧𝘶𝘭?

No, that can't be right. Alina was probably still as bad at reading Cato Hadley as she was from day one.

A cold and vicious smirk slipped onto her lips and she tried to not let her facade falter at the fake concerned act he was putting on, "You're not getting rid of me that easily."

"Good," He hummed and rubbed his chin, his icy blue eyes glued to her like a magnet, not being able to look away, "because we'll be seeing a lot more of each other starting tomorrow."

"So, seeing me six times a week for the past nine years wasn't enough?" Alina raised an eyebrow, only a little bit amused.

Clove could not stop herself from rolling her eyes. She was the only one that was lucky enough to watch their relationship grow from friendly competition to frenemies to enemies with a lot of unresolved tension and it was getting pretty annoying. The brunette just wanted them to hook up and get rid of the tension because it was making her extremely uncomfortable.

𝘐𝘧 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘩𝘦 𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘭𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘵𝘦𝘭𝘭 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦.

"You know I'll never get tired of looking at you." Cato replied coyly and without missing a beat, in return receiving another eye roll, this time from both the King sisters.

"Of course, you won't." King huffed and stepped around him to enter the big building, "Now if you'll excuse me, I would like to do what I came here to do and that does not include talking to you."

"Harsh." The two girls heard him muttering to himself but chose to ignore him in favor of continuing their way further into the building. They headed to the changing room to set their bags down and change into proper training clothes.

"You know I think I'll try the bow today." The redhead stated thoughtfully, with a glint of frustration in her voice as she tightened the high ponytail on her head, "I'm already pretty much perfect with knives and everything else. I just can't seem to get my aim right."

"Try the knives first since they are your specialty. Mom is gonna be watching the first bit of your practice today to make sure you are going full out today and she will probably switch up to the junior group an hour or two before lunch." Clove told her, getting a nod from Alina.

The two of them have always had a pretty tight bond. While their mother always put Clove through less shit than Alina, they both still grew up constantly under the pressure of their last name. And they were both pretty similar too. So they did not just look out for each other because they were blood. There was mutual trust and respect there too.

Once they got changed, they headed into the training room where Alina immediately walked up to Bellamy who was waiting for her on a bench next to the weapons, while her sister went the other way and to her friend group.

"Hey, Bellamy." she greeted one of her closest friends and watched as his face broke into a small grin the second he lifted his gaze from his shoelaces to look up at her.

Their friendship was surprising, to say the least. He has always been Cato's best friend (which Alina never really found herself understanding) and despite that fact, he was a literal softie once you look past the fact that he was kind of Cato's lap dog rather than his best friend. At least that was what their friendship looked like to everyone else in the Academy.

Bellamy was very level-headed and witty, also the real reason Alina was drawn to him, so he would never take Cato's bullshit. He was the one to hold him back from fights rather than just stand on the sidelines and watch without lifting a finger.

He was different from Cato and a little too similar to Alina herself. And when they got paired up in Chemistry together, she was shocked when she realized just how much they actually had in common. The only difference was that Bellamy was not afraid to let loose every once in a while.

The brunette boy got to his feet and met her halfway, "Are you nervous for tomorrow?"

"More excited than nervous." She admitted with a breathy sigh, looking at the rest of the training room over his shoulder, her eyes found themselves traveling to Cato magnetically, to find him surrounded by his actual two lap dogs Clint and Ape. He was gripping the spear in his hand tightly, almost as if he was afraid it would slip from his fingers, and the black Academy t-shirt made the muscles she was sure he was flexing more visible at the brightness of the light in the training room.

She swallowed and when looked up to meet his gaze. She found him already staring at her with a strange look on his face. But there was still a small knowing, provocative smirk ghosting his lips. That icy look was what made her stop her ogling to turn her attention back to Bellamy, her voice coming out a little quieter than before, "I think Hadley is trying to psych me out. He is messing with me more than he usually is."

Bellamy rolled his eyes, "He is not trying to psych you out. He is just staring at you like he usually is. Just this time, you are paranoid and you are noticing everything you are not used to noticing."

"He usually stares at me?" Alina furrowed her eyebrows dumbly, blinking in surprise.

Rolling his eyes once again, the brunette scoffed, "Of course, that's all you got from that. Panem, you two are more similar than you think."

"First of all, that is incredibly insulting." Alina glared, starting to get a little defensive, "And second of all, I am not paranoid. This is normal. I am leaving District Two tomorrow and there is a slight possibility I might never make it back alive."

"See, paranoid." Bellamy deadpanned and then flinched when he heard the sound of one of their mentors, Druig, calling him. He looked down and gave her an awkward smile while giving her shoulders a squeeze, "You'll be fine, Red. I will be helping some of the juniors today, you can come and find me if you need a sparring partner or someone to hold your punching bag." He gave her a short wink and picked his water bottle up, before spinning on his heel and jogging out of the main training room and following Coach Druig to the smaller one where juniors trained. To the room where kids from the age of ten to fourteen were trained how to kill.

-

Alina had a tendency to spend more time than necessary in the knife-throwing section of the training room. It was sort of 𝘩𝘦𝘳 place for multiple reasons. First of all, she was the best at it and everyone knew it so she never even bothered to try and be modest about it. Second of all, the way she flawlessly threw the knives at the targets was a (debatably) healthy and good way for her to aim the anger at the pressure on her shoulder at something that was not her mother or Cato Hadley's stupid face.

She threw a knife at the head, heart, and stomach of every single target besides the last one, and just as she got to that last one and prepared to throw the knife at its head, an all too familiar yet unexpected voice spoke up behind her.

"What did those mannequins ever do to you?"

Alina swore she almost cut herself when she almost dropped the knife in her hand. She snapped her head around to give the amused blond a sharp glare, "What the fuck, Hadley?"

As usual, Cato brushed off her angry reaction and simply smirked and chuckled in amusement. He raised a curious eyebrow, "You aren't going to lunch?"

"I'm not hungry." The girl responded and dismissed him by turning away from him to start sharpening the remaining knives at the stand next to her.

"You know, you are gonna need your strength if you want to beat me in that arena, right?" He raised an eyebrow. His tone was serious and showed slight worry which made Alina even more frustrated.

"And you want me to do that, why?" she snapped with an annoyed glare. She got even more snappy towards him when he interrupted her training and tried to get her to lose focus in the middle of it.

"I want our District to get the crown this year. I don't care how." Cato shrugged nonchalantly, "Now go get something to eat. It's the pre-Reaping feast."

Alina was stunned into silence as he gave her a ghost of a smile and turned on his heel to walk off. Her eyebrows furrowed and she blinked in surprise, staring after him with a puzzled look on her face.

-

It was past midnight and everyone had already left the Academy.

Well, everyone besides Alina.

She moved to bow and arrow a few hours after lunch and she has been there for hours. Despite how long she was there, she still could not manage to hit the center of the target. She was perfect at every single thing related to fighting and weapons. Everything except shooting an arrow.

It was her fatal flaw and the number of stressful hours she usually spent trying to fix her shooting skills was killing her. Bow and arrow was the one thing she was bad at. Yet it was still something her mother has never failed to rub in her nose.

Alina swore she was so close to just grabbing the bunch of knives, putting them around her thigh holster, and running off to the woods toward District Five where no one knew who she was.

She took out another silver arrow and put it next to the string of the bow in her hand, the end of the bow touching her top lip a bit before she shot it again but it went straight past the target and into the wall behind her. An angry huff left her lips.

Alina clenched her jaw and was about to go again, but just as she was ready to shoot a voice behind her spoke up, successfully scaring the shit out of her once more.

"Try the Mongolian draw. Turn the bow to the right." Cato's voice was deadly serious, with no hint of mocking or teasing in his voice. He was giving her actual advice? 𝘚𝘪𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯?

Alina has yet to turn around to face him and she has stayed completely still since the sound of his voice echoed through the previously quiet room. Her eyes narrowed and she only hesitated for a split second before following his instructions.

Because honestly? She was willing to try anything right now.

"Move the arrow away from your lips." He added, the sound of his footsteps getting closer to her now filling her ears.

After letting out a shaky breath, she moved the arrow a few inches away from her face and took a deep breath before firing the arrow. Her eyebrows shot up in surprise a bit as it landed straight into the maniquent's neck.

It did not land in the center but it was a damn good start.

"A 'thank you' would be nice." Cato spoke up again once he realized she was not going to speak up, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

Alina turned around to see him looking at her with his usual cocky smirk glued to his lips.

"What are you still doing here?" she asked instead of thanking him like he previously suggested. She was not buying his smoldering look as all the other girls in this entire damn District did. She saw right through his smugness and so-called charm.

𝘔𝘢𝘺𝘣𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘰 𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘯 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘩𝘦𝘳. 𝘚𝘩𝘦 𝘥𝘪𝘥𝘯'𝘵 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘳𝘺.

"Well I was going to leave and get a good night's sleep for tomorrow but watching you fail miserably at shooting an arrow is much more amusing." Cato shrugged with a humorous look on his face that made her purse her lips and squint her eyes at him in annoyance.

"Stop gloating." she snapped, "You could have freely gone along with your original plan. I prefer staying here alone. In peace."

He made a disapproving noise at the back of his throat and waved his finger in the air in front of his face like the asshole he was, "No, no. I think that if I went home in the first place you would still be doing what you have been doing for the past six hours...failing miserably."

"Okay, I get it." Alina huffed "Alina King is not good at everything. I am so over that."

"You know that you can still train in the Capitol, right?" He narrowed his eyes at her, "We 𝘢𝘳𝘦 gonna be there for two weeks before the games."

"Those two weeks are meant for making allies and for sensing the weak spots of the other tributes." Alina pointed out and placed the bows down before shrugging "Besides, I think I'm done for tonight. You bring a cloud of misery and toxic masculinity wherever you are."

"You didn't seem to mind my company a few weeks ago." He ghosted his fingers along her arm, making her freeze at the realization of just how close the two of them actually got after the few steps he took to get closer to her, "When you were basically shaking beneath me. You remember that right? Or do you want me to refresh your memory?"

Alina refused to look up yet, already knowing his body was currently towering above her own in an intimidating manner ── not that she would ever admit that. She fought the urge to shiver at the feeling of his touch against her bare skin.

She would be the biggest liar of the century if she would say that the memory of having sex with Cato Hadley in this exact training room just two weeks ago has not been on her mind ever since it happened.

The redhead has spent the training session in the bathroom with Bellamy, getting high, because of her mother's absence and when she went to get her training bag from the locker room she accidentally walked into the guy's changing room and then somehow ended up having shower sex with Cato.

Worst mistake of her fucking life.

𝘎𝘦𝘵 𝘢 𝘨𝘳𝘪𝘱. She scolded herself internally and met his smolder with a heated glare, surprising both of them when she didn't stutter while speaking her next words.

"Sorry to break it to you Hadley, but that was called a one-night stand. Which means it will not happen again. Especially not tonight." Alina almost growled, feeling as if her stomach was currently on fire.

"What?" A short chuckle escaped his lips, his voice surprisingly deepening and making her insides tingle, "Afraid you will not be able to walk onto the stage with your head held high? Will the memory of what can happen still be on your mind tomorrow?" He fake pouted, now clearly mocking her.

"Goodbye, Cato." Alina just said, rolling her eyes and starting to walk out of the training room, ignoring his piercing stare that was glued to her back until she was completely out of sight.

No one seemed to fire her temper as Cato Hadley did.