Come Back to Me

XXXIV

"What?"

Her mouth stayed parted, and she almost pushed to call her mother and sister's bluff.

"He's upstairs!" Mira said quickly.

"Mira!" Their mother hissed sternly.

"I'm sorry," The girl cover her mouth, eyes widened at Rina, "I couldn't stop myself, I swear!"

Cordelia's feet carried her just about as fast as the day the cannon had sounded to send her off of her pedestal and into the Cornicopia. Rina stepped into the doorway, wrapping her arms around her daughter tightly, and honestly it comforted Cordelia.

"Please, just hold on," Rina whispered gently as Cordelia fought to get out of her grip. After a moment, things calmed and she was able to speak again, "I'm not gonna stop you from going up there."

In all honesty, Rina could already see it. To her it was obvious the day she saw the way Cordelia reacted to her district partner bringing up the boy who was stood just up the stairs, behind her bedroom door. And she knew the look in her daughter's eyes so first handedly, and understood that there was nothing she could truly say. The bubble she meant to keep her children in had been popped the minute the first one was of reaping age.

"Lia, I just want you to remember exactly what I told you before."

I just want you to be careful.

Cordelia straightened herself out, gripping her mother's shoulder lightly, "I know. You know he's said the same thing to me when he was helping me get ready for the arena?"

Rina's expression softened immediately at the mentioning of Cordelia's games.

"Mum, he's one of the things that kept me alive," She meant that it more ways than one but, what mattered was he literally gave her the advice and connected who to sponsors who helped her survive, "give him a chance. Please."

Silently, Cordelia's mother nodded and stepped aside. She barely gave herself enough time to deliver a smile of thanks before she was moving again. Anyone would've thought thirty people were stumbling up the stairs instead of one but, Cordelia didn't care. She needed to know that he was really there.

And as she opened the white tinted wooden door to her room and saw his back facing her, she choked on air.

It took a second for her to catch her breath, no longer than it took him to register the sound of the door creaking open. It had been four months, a little less than even. But, when you spend each day waiting to see or even just hear someone that's completely disappeared, just under four months can start to feel like just under a decade. And now, here he was, four feet from her. His eyebags were more prominent than she had seen, even when she had just returned from the arena but, his green eyes still shined the exact way they did the first time she looked into them. His hair was pulled all sorts of ways, cluing her in on the assumption that he was probably stressed for a reason that was unkown to her.

"Cordelia." He breathed out, almost shocked to see her.

That made her angry.

"I'm sorry," Her response was flat, and cold, "are you surpised to see me in my room, because I think I should be the one in shock."

Finnick said something but it was too quiet for her to pick it up.

"What?" Asked Cordelia.

"You're right." He mumbled.

"Are you alright?" She wondered carefully. Already she wanted to kick herself, submitting more of her than she had planned. Finnick's nod was far from convincing but, instead of pushing him any further she gave a shrug.