Cage me like an animal • F Odair¹ •

VII

"What if I'm not speaking as a mentor?"

•∘♛∘•

Dinner that night was a silent affair. Even without the fact that Athena and Kai were being trained separately, the weight of the Games tomorrow was heavy on all of them, silencing them. Even Alayne did not give her usual brave attempt at small talk. Athena focused on eating as much as she possibly could, even if her nerves protested against putting so much in her stomach. Food would be scarce in the arena. She might as well eat as much as she could while she could.

Afterwards, Mags pulled Athena aside to speak with her privately, offering her more advice. A part of Athena wanted Mags to stop, because it all felt like too much, like she was going to burst from it all. The rest of Athena knew that avoiding the inevitable would only get her killed, so she listened to Mags as best as she could.

"As soon as... in the arena... get a sense of surroundings... evaluate other tributes... may act confident now... everything changes in... arena."

Athena nodded. "Okay. What about the Cornucopia, though? How do I get what I need without getting killed in the bloodbath?"

"Be quick," Mags said simply. "Get what... need and get out. No lingering."

Be quick. Athena could do that.

"Finnick and I... send you... many gifts as we can... lots of sponsors want you... will help. Stay strong in... meantime."

Stay strong. Athena could probably do that. When Mags was finished giving her final advice, she sent Athena away to bed, insisting she ought to get a full night of sleep while she could. Athena surprised herself by falling asleep quickly, but she didn't stay that way for long, waking up after fifteen minutes. Try as she might, she couldn't bring herself to sleep for much longer, tossing and turning restlessly. Finally, she gave up, getting up and escaping to her usual refuge: the roof.

She found someone already on the roof, sitting on the edge so that their feet dangled off of it. After a moment, she recognized the person to be Finnick. Athena stood there for a moment, arguing silently with herself, before making up her mind and moving to sit beside him. He didn't seem particularly surprised to see her, nor did he make any argument against her being there, but he did say, though without any real conviction, "You should be getting rest. You'll need it for tomorrow."

"You think if I could get any rest I'd be here right now?" she retorted.

"So I'm a second choice?" Finnick asked, raising his eyebrows.

"The roof was a second choice," she corrected. "You just happened to be here."

"Funny," he said.

"I wasn't joking."

"Come on," he said with a grin, "don't act like the high possibility that I'd be here didn't influence you at least a little bit."

"Your unwavering certainty in yourself is actually a little inspiring," Athena replied, not wanting to have to reply to his actual question.

"First you insult my looks, now this?" he said, mock-offended.

"I never insulted your looks," she said, "I just said I never noticed you were good-looking."

"Speaking of which," he said, grinning cheekily, "you've gotten much better at lying."

"Who said anything about lying?" she replied.

"You stare at me a little too often for that to be convincing."

"I don't stare at you - " she began defensively.

"Sure you don't," he said disbelievingly. "In any case, you did well in your interview. Everyone in the Capitol adores you. You'll have no trouble getting sponsors, believe me."