Something Worth Living For [THG] // Finnick Odair

XI

"Friends show their love in times of trouble, not in happiness."

--Eurípides

My alarm goes off at 9:40 p.m.. It takes me fifteen minutes to convince myself to get out of bed. It is already too late to do anything else so I just get into the lift and make my way to the gymnasium, Finnick is already there.

Before he says a single word to me, he throws cold water at my face. I scream but he puts his hand over my mouth so no sound can come out.

"What the hell?" I demand angrily as soon as he removes his hand.

"You looked like a zombie, and I need you wide awake." Finnick explains to me. "Did you try something new?"

I know he didn't mean any weapon or station or anything related to that. He meant food. New food, at least new to me, I nod.

"And?"

"Harder than it seems." I say, I didn't want to give him any more details but before I know it, I am telling him what happened. "It took me almost an hour to swallow a pitiful small piece of fish, and then I threw up. But after that I managed to keep some small pieces inside of me."

My voice sounds angry and annoyed. Not because he made me eat it, because he actually hadn't done that. I am not angry because he had thrown cold water at me. I am not angry because of all he said to me at lunch time. I am angry because such an easy and normal task was too hard for me. And I feel like if I have failed. Like if I have failed him.

"You have to start somewhere." He doesn't look upset, but not happy either. "Here."

He gives me a sword and grabs another one for himself. I know I would have to fight eventually, but I don't really want to fight right now, mostly because I am not good at it. The sword weighs a ton, at least to me. It seems like for Finnick it weighs as much as a feather.

We train and train and train more. I haven't been able to do much until his sword finally flies out of his big hand and I point my own sword at his neck. He smirks at me and nods in approval as he pushes the sword away from him. I can't help but smile and feel proud of my little triumph.

We rest, well, I rest for five minutes before I am made to stand up again and do it all over again. If it was a real fight, if I were in the arena, I would have been killed dozens of times by now, but I would have killed Finnick three times, which is more than I have ever expected.

When we are done we let our swords fall to the ground, and I collapse to the floor out of tiredness. My arm is so tired from carrying and swinging that heavy sword for an hour or so. Finnick sits next to me and lies down, we both are breathing hard and heavily. Our faces and bodies are covered in sweat. Some drops are still falling from my forehead.

"I'm sorry." He whispers, he is not looking at me, but at the ceiling.

"Why?"

"I shouldn't have screamed at you earlier. I feel bad about it. And I cut you, there."

It was just a mistake, but Finnick did cut me on my forearm. It is a small cut and I hadn't even felt it until he pointed out I was bleeding. I didn't really care. And about the screaming, I didn't care either.

"I was shocked at first but only because your words were true. Eating is part of surviving and is probably the most important thing I have to do out there. I was and still am being silly, you don't need to apologize for stating the truth."

"I should have done it different, though."

"Maybe if you would have done it different, I wouldn't have reacted and realized you were right." I say shrugging. "Seriously, I don't mind about you yelling at me, actually I should be thanking you, for training me, for giving me some of your valuable time." I say, turning to look at him and smirk a bit at him.