The Heiress {Finnick Odair}

A Proposition

Adrien walked out the next morning in the training attire that had been set out for him and saw Finnick slouched over a bowl. His eyes were red as he stared at the cereal like it would grant him the solution to all his problems.

Adrien was suddenly glad he woke up early.

"Uh oh," he muttered as he sat down next to Finnick. "What happened?"

"I screwed things up with Amara," he muttered. Adrien raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. "She's feeling betrayed because I was in the Capitol for work a lot this year, but never came by to see her."

"You never saw her?" Adrien asked, surprised. He was well acquainted with how often Finnick traveled to the Capitol. Finnick just shook his head. "Why?"

"No one wins the games," he said quietly. "The Capitol demands a lot of you after you become a victor and it takes so much from you. I just didn't want her to see me like that."

"So you chose not to see her at all?" Adrien asked. "That's stupid."

"I know," Finnick snapped. "And now she doesn't think she's a priority in my life, and I don't know how to make it obvious she is. We've even been dis-invited to dinner."

"Grovel," Adrien advised. "It makes sense that you won't be able to completely explain what happened this year. She will never really understand what it means to be a victor. But you can try your best to explain it and show her how much she means to you in every other way possible."

"How?" Finnick asked, but Adrien just shrugged.

"Long distance friendships are hard. We only lose you for a month every year, and Annie and I struggle because of it. But Amara? You mean so much to her and she only sees you for that month every year. You have to see how your lack of communication would kill her."

Finnick looked down at his cereal as Mags strolled out.

"Good--what happened?" she asked, seeing Finnick's bloodshot eyes.

"Girl troubles," Adrien said as he hopped off his stool and walked around to grab his own cereal.

"Is this going to affect our dinner tonight?" Mags asked.

"No," Adrien said, causing Finnick to look up to meet his friend's pointed stare. "He's going to fix it before then."

Finnick suddenly felt like he was being threatened.

**

The irony behind this whole thing was that Finnick had no idea where Amara lived.

If he was the friend she wanted him to be, he would have visited his new apartment weeks ago. Instead, he was stuck having to swallow his pride and go down to the second floor.

When the elevator doors opened, the District Two tributes looked up in surprise. It wasn't often that the districts visited one another. The two tributes glanced at their mentors, assuming they would handle this.