Love at Sea (Finnick Odair)

Chapter 9

Finnick had been gone from District 4 for two days. He had told Taiya he was gone to the Capitol to inspect the Tribute Centre, to make sure he was comfortable with the facilities before he had to mentor for his first year and Mags had been staying with her to keep her company. On the second night of him being away, Taiya woke up to yelling. She rolled over to see it was 2 am and groaned. Who would be making such a ruckus at this hour of the morning?

"I couldn't do it Mags! I couldn't do it!" Finnick yelled. Recognising Finnick's voice, Taiya quickly sprung up in bed and crept out onto the landing. As she got outside her room, she caught a glimpse of Finnick crying and pacing in the foyer downstairs. "What have I done Mags? What have I done?" he asked as he pulled at his hair.

The older lady tried to get a hold of him but he just kept pulling away. "You need to calm down," she instructed. "You'll wake Taiya."

"No!" Finnick cried. "She can't know, you can't tell her. Please Mags don't tell Taiya."

What was Finnick keeping from her? They didn't keep secrets from each other. That wasn't their relationship. They always told each other the truth. That was their policy. She quickly ducked down so that she was out of sight and could eavesdrop without being noticed. She didn't want to spy, but curiosity got the better of her and she wanted to know what Finnick was keeping from her.

"Why don't you talk to her?" Mags suggested. "Tell her what's going on."

"No, I can't. She'd never understand. She'd hate me."

"Don't be silly," Mags comforted as she brushed the hair out of Finnick's eyes. "She'd never hate you. She'd understand Finnick. You'd feel better for talking to her."

"But I love her Mags."

"I love her too," Mags agreed with him.

"No. No, Mags. I'm in love with her," Finnick said quietly and Taiya's eyes widened as she listened. "It's always been her Mags, and I can't, I can't... do what he wants me to do when I know she's back here waiting for me to come home."

"I think you need to talk to her," Mags suggested and he just shook his head.

"What's going to happen Mags? I refused. I couldn't go through with it. He's going to do something. He's going to hurt me again. He knows how to hurt me. He'll hurt HER!"

"Finnick you need to breathe," Mags coached. "Tyler promised you he'd watch out for her and he has. Everyone in this village has been watching out for her. She's not alone Finnick, she'll be safe."

Finnick wiped his tears and stood up. "I'm going to check on her," he said hugging Mags lightly.

"She's just sleeping she's ok."

"I know," he nodded. "But I just want to check."

Taiya, who had been sitting on the ground dumbfounded, quickly snapped into action and crawled as quickly as she could back to her room, shutting the door softly and throwing herself onto her bed and pretending to be asleep. A few moments later, the door to her room slowly creaked open and Finnick quietly walked in. As soon as he saw the rise and fall of her chest he let out a sigh of relief and left to go to his room.

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Taiya flung up in bed a few hours later to the sound of screaming. It wasn't an unusual sound in their house. Finnick was having another nightmare. Taiya quickly jumped out of bed and ran out of her room, bumping into Mags who had also come to help. "I've got it, it's ok," Taiya assured as she opened Finnick's door. Mags nodded sadly and retreated back to her room.

"TAIYA!" Finnick screamed and Taiya whipped her head around to look at him, he'd never screamed out for her before. "Leave her alone!" he yelled as he thrashed around on his bed.