Seafoam and Stars

▬▬ 𝟏𝟎 ∙ 𝗘𝘂𝗽𝗵𝝾𝗿𝗶𝗮

･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽

˚✩ ⋆｡ ✩┊ 𝐒𝐞𝐚𝐟𝐨𝐚𝐦 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬 ┊✦ ˚ · .

▬▬ 10 ∙ 𝙴𝚞𝚙𝚑𝚘𝚛𝚒𝚊

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

IT'S YOU. It has always been you.

I don't sleep for the rest of the night, laying in bed and hoping that sleep will overtake me and wishing that it wouldn't so I wouldn't wake up and find this to all be a dream.

I don't think either of us do.

I listen for any telltale signs that Finnick's fallen asleep and come up empty. Even if I wanted to sleep—which I don't—I don't think I'd be able to either. My mind runs restless, replaying Finnick's words like a broken record, over and over and making me a little giddy every time.

It is hope, I realize after the long hours pass with nothing but silence and my never ending thoughts filling the minutes, that I am feeling. Hope, like a match struck against the side of a matchbox, a spark bursting from the tip. Hope, like the birth of a fire from nothing into something, hot and ethereal.

Right now, hope is my entire being, from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. Hope floods through my body and I feel invincible as long as no one tells me otherwise. I feel it pulsing through me, accelerating my heart as though it can't understand that it is not under stress anymore. It is not worry causing it to beat, but something else.

Hope is dangerous.

Hope is powerful.

✯✯✯

I hear Moxie coming down the hallway soon enough to jump out of bed, having gotten less than two hours of sleep and somehow fully awake. I run for the door, slamming it shut and twisting the lock before Moxie can barge in. If she manages to kick the door down, that's another problem, but for now, we need her not to freak out.

I turn back to my bed to see Finnick standing next to it, looking very concerned by the incoming presence of Moxie.

Three, two, one.

The doorknob wiggles as Moxie tries to open the door, then she raps at it, her voice sharp when she yells, "Cordelia! Why is the door locked?"

"Because I'm changing!" I yell back through the door—I really need to work on thinking on my feet if that's the best I can come up with.

"Is Finnick with you?"

I look back at him, and he shakes his head rapidly. "No!"

"Then do you expect me to believe that he walked out of his room in the middle of the night?"

"...Yes! Absolutely, he just sleep-walked right out of there!"

"Hmm... that's interesting. Finnick, did you know that you sleep-walked right into Cordelia's room, because if you don't, that's an issue."

I look back and stare at Finnick; he stares back at me, then we both look at the door, hearing Moxie laugh. "You think I haven't figured you two out after this many years? Be down in ten minutes."

"Did she just laugh?" Finnick whispers to me.

"Yes, I indeed did just laugh, Finnick. The fact that you find that so peculiar is alarming—I am not a robot, contrary to popular belief."

"Did she just make a joke?"

"That's very funny. Ten minutes." We listen as she walks away, and I think she goes downstairs because I don't hear her waking anyone up again.