Little Puppets with Broken Strings

"I'm A Walking Travesty But I'm Smiling At Everything"

--Finnick--

"What are we going to do? I'm not going to let him kill Maddie. How is he going to explain her just randomly showing up when we never finished the Reaping?" I yelled, pacing back and forth.

"I told you I was going to protect them and I will, it doesn't change just because she's in the arena. As for the explanation, a video of Maddie's name being called and the three of you standing side by side on stage is already being aired with the other tributes. They stopped the live footage as soon as your name was called. Then claimed technical difficulties." Julian explained, calmly sitting in one of the chairs.

"How does he do these things and get away with it?" I felt so powerless against him.

"We are going to put an end to that." I turned around and looked at Julian like he was crazy.

"How? I've tried that and look what happened, Jules! We'd need an army."

"What if I told you we had one and we are going to break you guys out of the arena and start the rebellion, for real." That got my attention. I sat down across from him as he explained the crazy plan.

"So District 13 isn't destroyed, they have an army, and we are going to hijack the Hunger Games?" I asked in disbelief. Julian nodded with a huge smile. "This is insane."

"There's a catch though, Snow obviously knows something is happening and Mags and Coco know the plan, but just in case Snow tries to go after Mads, you can't tell her anything."

I nodded. I didn't like the thought of Snow trying to go after her, but I knew it would be safer for her if she really didn't know anything.

We went back into the main lounge where Mags was sleeping, Coco was going over a schedule for tomorrow, and Maddie was sitting on the window staring at the passing landscape.

"Hey, Mads, how are you doing?" I asked, sitting down beside her.

She turned her face towards me and I could see the tears streaming down her face.

"I can't do this. I can't kill these people. It doesn't even matter, I'm dead anyway. Finnick, I don't want to die." She sobbed, her head rested on my shoulder and I wrapped my arms around her.

"You won't. I swear to you that you're not going to die. You're going to get out of this and you're going to be fine." It felt so good to be able to say that and mean it, to have an actual plan as to how we were going to get her and Mags to safety. Julian also told me that my mom and Annie would meet us there.

It was the middle of the night when we arrived at the Capitol, so it was decided that we would greet people outside in the morning. We all went to our rooms on the 4th floor and got into bed.

--Maddie--

I waited a while after everyone went to sleep before slipping out of my room and into Julians.

"Jules, wake up." I whispered.

He groaned and rolled over. "What are you doing in here?"

"I need to talk to you about something, but you have to promise not to tell Finnick. I'm serious, this is important. " I begged, sitting on the bed facing him.

He sat up, "this doesn't sound good, but okay, I promise."

"I need you to make sure he gets out alive. He said that he's going to get me out, but that's stupid. He's the one who has something worth going back to. He has Annie."

"Okay, I'll do that, if you tell me something." He replied.

"What?"

"Why won't you let anyone in? You have these walls up and sometimes you let them down, but only for a little bit. I mean, you've never even told me about what guy you like." He joked, not knowing he hit a nerve. He was my brothers best friend and five years older than me, but I've liked him since the day he took care of me after what my dad did.

"It's complicated, I can't, no guy could ever like me." I whispered, concentrating on my fingers picking at the threads on the sheets.

"Why would you think that?" He asked.

"You don't understand, the things I've done-"

"The things Snow made you do, because you care so much more about the people you love than yourself." He cut me off. "Finnick told me." He confessed when I gave him a confused look. "You're an amazing girl, Mads. You're kind and funny and not to mention crazy beautiful. Don't ever let Snow or anyone else take that away from you."

I felt like my heart was going to explode from the things he said, "no one's ever said anything like that to me before." I whispered.

"I love you."

I immediately got up and tried to get out the door, but Julian grabbed my arm and spun me around to face him.

"You can't say that!" I yelled.

"Why not?" He half asked, half begged.

"Because, I can't lose you. I can't say that I love you because if I do, it becomes real and if it's real, it can be taken away." I don't know when I started crying, but his thumbs brushed away my tears.

"You're not going to lose me." He leaned forward slightly, but stopped. "I don't want to-"

"It's okay, I want to, it's just, I've never, I mean I have, but not when I wanted it." I stuttered, suddenly insecure.

He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and gently pressed his lips to mine, then pulled away. "I'm never going to treat you like they do, it's never going to be like that."

I was completely breathless.

"Whoa, when did this happen?" We both jumped apart when we heard Finnick talk.

"It just did, don't worry no one is keeping secrets from you or anything like that, now can you please leave?" I pushed him out the door and closed it, not caring why he was coming in here in the first place.

"At least we got that out of the way." Julian joked.

"Can I stay here tonight?" I asked sheepishly.

"Yeah, of course." He replied.

"Okay." I stood there awkwardly, even after he went and laid down. I had no idea what I was supposed to do or say. I'd never done this before.

"Mads, relax. I don't bite." He smiled and I couldn't help but laugh a little. I crawled into the bed next to him, keeping space between us. He sighed and laced his fingers through mine. I smiled to myself and closed my eyes. For the first time in years, I felt safe.