Keep Your Enemies Close

*CLOVE'S POV. Cato and Clove both think the other is out to get them, but really neither of them wants to hurt each other..

Clove couldn't lie to herself. Anyone else, no problem, but there was no denying the truth. Secretly. 

She was slightly wary of the look Cato had given her after his fight with the pathetic Baig, but after all, she had been the one to challenge him, and it gave her a small power she was fond of. 

She stared Cato out until Loson clapped him on the back so he turned away. Clove couldn't help but smiling to herself. 

"Cheered up, have we, Clove?" Nila said, interrupting her private victory.

"Yeah," She said, nodding, still smiling. "Yeah, I'm just great." 

Clove turned on her heel and made for the exit, but not before pausing at the door and turning to catch one last look at her new rival. Cato was watching her again, and there eyes meet for a fraction of a second before Clove shut the door pointedly, blocking him from view. 

***

Later on, Clove was sitting by herself in the balcony that overlooked the main training hall. Everybody else had gone home, but Clove had always put that off for as long as possible. Her knees were tucked under her chin, and her arms wrapped around her knees. She looked into the semi darkness below her, the only light that was shed upon the locked cabinets of weapons were the security lamps. 

The training centre was Clove's home from home essentially, she knew every corridor and room and short cut there was to know. She had favouirte areas, favourite training mats and rooms. It was as if the Training Centre got Clove, when nobody else ever had. 

There it was.

A sudden shift in the constant glow from the security lamp made Clove's alert senses buzz. She gingerly picked herself up off of the bench, and brought her eyes level with the just over the top of the barrier. 

There was a shadow, a tall, big shadow of someone. Clove could tell they were just behind the spear cases. She brought her hand to her waist and clutched the handle of her knife tightly. Narrowing her eyes, which were now sparkling at the prospect of a fight, she pulled her knife out of her belt and carefully took aim, waiting for the mystery idiot to come out of the shadows. 

Their shadow became bigger and bigger and Clove sucked in her breath, in anticipation of the present attack. Then all too quickly he stepped into the light. 

Clove's knife clattered to the floor. 

Cato Fort's head snapped up in the direction of the balcony, and with trainee instinct, he threw the sword he was holding, shooting up right at Clove. 

With a shriek Clove failed to hide, she dropped to the floor. Breathing fast, she lunged for her knife and crouched, her back against the balcony barrier wall. 

"Show yourself!" Cato yelled. Clove heard him drawing another sword. 

Still breathing rapidly, Clove began to nod to herself, "Okay." 

Then she jumped up and sent her knife flying at Cato. It was inches away from his forehead when he smacked his hand onto the blade, sending it skidding across the floor. Clove could tell by his grunt of pain and the blood reflected by the light, streaming down his arm, he'd cut himself on her knife. 

"Alright! Okay! You want to be a coward? FINE BY ME." Cato's voice was rising by the minute, clear anger on his face. 

Clove being Clove, this made her smile and a sadistic grin spread across her face. She bent down and unzipped her boots, where she kept her back up blades. She pulled out two and straightened up, just as Cato's second sword came flying over the balcony, grazing Clove's arm. 

Laughing to herself, Clove sent the two knives straight toward his chest. 

Cato deflected the first with a sword, but the second went sailing into his lower midriff. Evidently, furious at being beaten was getting to Cato Fort, so he made an angry warrior cry as he charged out of the training centre doors. 

Clove cackled to herself for a minute, trying to memorize the look of pure insane madness on his face. 

Then she heard a door slam below her. 

Cato was making his way up the balcony, where Clove was now, armed with two blades and cornered. 

Clove ceased laughing immediately and thinking quick, swung her leg over the balcony barrier and climbed over it, skirting along the edge precariously. Clinging onto a window ledge that overlooked the hall, she heard the too close for comfort sound of a door being barged open. 

Clove could hear Cato panting, but also the rage in every step he took toward the edge of the balcony. 

"Aw, run away have we! Are you scared of facing me? FACE TO FACE?" Cato shouted, his voice echoing around the dark hall. 

And in spite of herself, and her current situation, Clove sniggered. She pressed her forehead against the cool wall, and tried to suppress the laughter bubbling up inside her. 

But instead of thundering footsteps or a long sword being thrown into her heart, she heard nothing but softer footsteps, and Cato's head appeared over the balcony. He reached his arms out over the side as he saw Clove hanging from the window ledge so dangerously. 

He was unarmed.

Clove's jaw dropped open in shock. Was Cato Fort passing up the opportunity to kill her, and... helping her? The violent one, the brutal one. 

The one many were convinced had no heart. 

Cato's whole facial expression softened as her watched her hanging limply from the window, her face the perfect picture of utter bewilderment. 

"I'd advise you edged your way back over here, you might lose your grip and fall now, and who'd want that?" And Cato's face broke into the most heart aching yet shy smile that it was far too much for Clove. 

Unaware of her actions she let go of the ledge in surprise and went plummeting to the hall floor far below. 

"CLOVE!" She heard faintly in the rush of the wind past her ears. 

She hit the ground with a smack and before blacking out, she formed a clear thought in her head: 

Many are convinced I have no heart, either. 

Author's Note

So there's Chapter 3!
Sorry this chapter's longer than the rest, I just wanted to get it all in!