𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐏𝐈𝐄 ━━ finnick odair ✓

𝐭𝐞𝐧. ( assimilation )

           The lights are white above me, the room smells sterile and cold. The linoleum floor of the cell seems soft, like they've laid a blanket out below me. My head isn't on Ronan's leg, but I feel his arm draped over my stomach.

The floor really is much too soft to be linoleum. This can't be the cell.

I shoot upright, knocking the arm off of me. My breath comes in gasps as I look around, not observing any trace of the glass panes and white walls I expect to see.

"It's alright, kid." Ronan is standing beside me. "We're good. We're in District 13."

I look down and see that Gloss is laying beside me, not Ronan. He's wide awake now, shocked by my fast jerk upwards. There's someone else too, head laying on the side of the hospital bed. I scoot backwards away from him.

"Who's that?" I ask, looking to Ronan to gauge the safety of the situation.

Ronan reaches across the bed and shakes the man's shoulder gently. Trustworthy, then, if he feels comfortable doing that. The man raises his head, eyes blinking hard to ward off sleep.

"Finnick!"

I leap forward, flinging the blanket off of the bed. I have to touch him, just to prove that he's real. His biceps are solid beneath the grip of my fingers. His sleepy grin is just as I remember it. He rises to meet the embrace of my arms.

My heart thunders a rapid beat in my chest. I have enough energy right now to power an entire city's grid. I could run for miles and not tire. This is Finnick.

"I can't believe you're here," I say into his shoulder.

"I can't believe you're here either." He hums.

His voice is like music to my ears, medicinal after not hearing it for so long. Every single step of the journey was worth it to experience this moment. This is my Finnick. This is the man who I've spent months longing for, not sure if we'd ever get the chance to meet again. I can't possibly find the words to properly express all of this to him, but I try.

"I don't think saying that it's good to see you could possibly encompass this. I don't think I have the right vocabulary to explain it." I lean back to examine his face.

"That's a first." He smiles wider.

I want to dive headfirst into the gleaming shine of his teeth. I could live in the dimples on his cheeks. I never knew that I was just as starved for Finnick as I was for food.

"So we made it. This really is District 13? The exact place we're sitting right now is District 13?" I ask, surveying all three of them.

"Yes. Your journey's over now," Finnick answers.

Even through the elation of the moment, doubt prickles at the forefront of my mind. The journey definitely isn't over. It's likely that it never will be.

"What's next?" I ask Ronan this question.

"Debrief for you. We gave ours last night." He smiles grimly.

"What do I say?" I pale a bit, not quite ready to rehash everything so soon after arrival.

"The truth, every bit of it that you can."

I can't possibly tell it all, both for lack of time and will. I don't have long to prepare my statement before the time to disclose is upon me. The man in charge is large and burly, the way Gloss used to look before everything. A woman accompanies him, hair almost infuriatingly neat framing her face. What a mess the three of us look, gnarled and whipped by the months of woodlands travel. I can't wait for a hot shower.