Though our departure is only precious hours away, our specially assembled squadron coalesces in HQ far past dinner, receiving more and more information about our assignment. Days ago, half of our group was wicked angry at the outlining of our goals. Now, we're serious, silent, and ready to accept everything at face value. Even Finnick and I, who have been involved in enough meetings to know that our unit was always designated for cosmetics, have gone through the stages of anger and bargaining for more important work. Plutarch always reminds us that we'll be encountering real danger regardless of what we're tasked with doing, but a group of disgruntled victors hardly considers anything short of face to face combat an urgent battle.
The technical name for our squadron is 451-Sharp Shooters, but nobody really calls it that. I call us the cosmetic front, Boggs calls us the Star Squad, Finnick calls us the sexy soldiers, Gloss calls us something too vulgar to repeat. It's unfortunate for the genuinely trained sharpshooters who join us. The Leeg sisters, Leeg 1 and Leeg 2, don't seem to mind very much, but they're young enough to still be caught up in the excitement of a flashy title. The older members, two men we call Mitchell and Homes, are obviously less enthused to join us. The oldest, a woman named Jackson who takes the mantle of Boggs's second is perhaps the least amused of all.
From what I can tell, she used to hold the same rank as Finnick and Gale, given her own squadron to command through the Capitol. My best guess is that they pulled her to join us so that no choices had to be made about who outranks who between the two other former generals. I don't know Gale very well and never intend to, so I can't say whether or not being demoted upsets him. I do, however, know Finnick like the back of my hand and can see that he's rather relieved to not be in charge of the lives of a dozen men and women on a battlefront. The arrangement we've found ourselves in suits most of us, and that's about where the positives end.
Our group is undoubtedly intimidating on camera, which is the whole point of our existence. We look the part of soldiers ready for battle, wary faced and lean. We've all had our hair shorn close to the scalp with the notable exception of Katniss and Finnick, who tend to stand out from us in many regards.
Gloss, Gale and I are important figures and Plutarch wants our fighting on camera, but it's obvious who the main characters of these propos will be. It's fine by me, I've never had a taste for the spotlight. It makes the most logical sense to use them as well, Katniss is the maestro of the districts and Finnick has a chokehold on the Capitol. Gloss and I have each had our glory days respectively, but we don't command nearly the audience that the other two do. Gale is even less recognizable on camera, known only in relation to Katniss. If not for the slight cosmetic edits to our uniforms, we wouldn't stand out from regular soldiers at all.
Even now, during our simple verbal briefing, the cameras are trained on them. They stand shoulder to shoulder, a powerful pair to behold. It's an unimaginable pressure to withstand public scrutiny, I feel for both of them passionately.
As the room starts to empty, Ronan sidles up to me under the pretense of looking at a map. When we're alone, he lets his arm drop around my shoulders.
"I need you to know that it's not too late to drop out of this mission. I could forge a medical file to get you out of combat." He rests his chin on top of my shorter-than-ever hair.
"You know I'm going to say no." I hum at him.
"I wish you never grew out of your meekness." He moves behind me and embraces me from above, I squeeze his bicep gently with my hand.
"No you don't," I say.
"No, I guess I don't. I'm proud of who you've become. I guess it's more accurate to say that I wish you had role models who taught you that you don't need a death wish to matter." His tenderness hints at emotion playing just below the surface.
YOU ARE READING
𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐏𝐈𝐄 ━━ finnick odair ✓
Fanfiction❥ 𝐀𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐍 𝐏𝐈𝐄 • • • 🇺🇸🥧▐ . ˖࣪ Faraday Jones has been the subject of Capitol attention for years, likely even before she was born. With a mother who became pregnant during the victory tour after her win in the 54th Hunger Games, her f...
