𝗪𝗢𝗥𝗟𝗗 𝗙𝗨𝗟𝗟 𝗢𝗙 𝗗𝗔𝗥𝗞𝗡𝗘𝗦𝗦 ༄ 𝖿𝗂𝗇𝗇𝗂𝖼𝗄 𝗈𝖽𝖺𝗂𝗋

chapter nineteen

- WHEN A PLAN COMES TOGETHER -

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WITH EACH LAYER of darkness that slowly passed over them, Nadia reached what she suspected to be the peak of her anxiousness.

Overthinking was exhausting. The sky was dark, her head was thrashing around like the current that almost killed her earlier and all she wanted was a moment of silence.

Just one little moment.

Finnick picked up pretty quickly on the distance of her mind, the two trekking into the jungle with Katniss' spile while the others were going over the logistics of Beetee's plan.

Her erratic eyes bouncing back and forth with no real attention made him worry for her safety. She was so out of it, Finnick was looking back every few seconds to make sure she didn't trip over her own feet.

     She may be able to pull off a facade like nothing was wrong, but he'd known her for years and hardly anything could get past him. Albeit, her state of mind made her almost see-through. Anybody could read her now, he was sure.

     "Here's good." He pointed to a tree.

Nadia steadied herself after almost stumbling over an uprooted branch sticking out of the ground, failing to notice Finnick shaking his head at her while he jammed the spile into the tree with a rock he found a few paces back.

He juggled with the options of whether he should say or ask something. Anything, really. She probably still needed some time to think, or maybe she wanted space. He couldn't be sure, he's never had this problem. He's never experienced her so off.

     He finally decided the best thing would be to just say something. If she hurt herself from being too distracted, he saw it as his fault having not snapped her out of it sooner.

—Plus he missed her voice, but that's not important—

     "What's wrong, Nadia?" He started, his voice drawing her eyes to his as she turned and he smiled. Because he always smiles and she hated it, wishing she could too. "You've nearly tasted dirt twice and you know what they say about the third time."

     She only shrugged, crossing one arm over the other as she diverted her eyes to the spile that had yet to produce water. "Nothing I can fix tonight..."

     "Something I can fix maybe?" Finnick inquired with a hopefulness in his voice that made her heart swell.

     "No." She nearly snorted out a laugh. He must think he's funny, the man being the center of her worries that had multiplied a tenfold once meeting him. "You're practically the bane of my existence at this point."

     He didn't buy it. His brows turned down but a smile remained, the man clearly not taking her words seriously. "At the risk of sounding too confident, I find that hard to believe."

     "Well, it's true. You're a real pain in my ass." She said half joking, half not. She leaned her back against the tree before looking around the jungle like she was expecting a Career or a mutt to jump out and attack at any given second.

     "At least I'm something to you." He snickered, willing to play along with this little game of hers for at least a few minutes more.

     It was silent aside from the distant sounds of waves hitting the beach and whatever insects were added to make the arena more life-like.

     The spile had running water and they both took a few sips and splashed their faces before Nadia was positioning half of a coconut husk under the metal tool.