Warriors ("Allies" Sequel)

Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Finnick and I went to the sit down at the cafeteria to wait. After what seems like hours he finally speaks up.

"I'm sorry for not telling you," he begins.

"Don't. You have nothing to apologize for," I tell him while I squeeze his hand.

"So you don't think less of me?"

The tone with which he says it breaks my heart. "No," I whisper. "Finnick, you did what you could to keep Snow from hurting people you loved. And going through that and still being able to carry on the way that you have is... inspiring, to say the least."

He gives me a slight smile before he kisses me and I can feel his tears on my lips. I pull him closer trying to protect him in some sort of way, from everything but it already happened and there's nothing I can do but to be here for him.

When I pull back I don't realize I'm crying too until he brushes the tears away from my cheeks. "Thank you," he says.

I take a deep breath before asking the question that is in both of our minds, "do you think they're dead?"

"I... I don't know. At this point I can't help to think that but to be honest, it's the best situation we've ever been in. Tonight they'll either be dead or with us."

"Yeah I guess you're right. How long has it been since you last saw Annie?" I realize I've never really asked Finnick much about Annie, mostly because I don't want to picture him with her, but now I want to keep his mind off of things.

"The reaping was the last time I saw her so, months," he says. "I can't imagine her coming to the Games with me. A part of me was a little glad Mags volunteered so she'd be safe but, she's not."

I try to picture Annie coming instead of Mags, would Finnick and I be in the same situation right now? Would we have developed a relationship or would he have been too busy looking after Annie? And more importantly, would she have allowed it? I don't really know how she feels about Finnick even though he's made it clear they're just friends, best friends.

One would think that being so close to Gale myself I'd understand completely but I don't. My relationship with Gale started and remained because of hunting, but where did Annie and Finnick's come from? Bondage through being Tributes, maybe?

"Finnick, I can't help but wonder, how are we gonna tell Peeta and Annie that we're, you know, together?"

"We might have to keep it to ourselves for a bit, we don't know what they've been through. I mean, Annie and I are just friends so that's not a problem," he says, as he wraps his arm around me.

"How will I tell Peeta, the boy that has been in love with me for years that, while I was pretending to be his lover to save his life, I fell in love with the guy who was supposed to be the enemy?"

"The enemy, huh?" he raises his eyebrow.

"You know what I mean," I say.

He laughs lightly. "Yeah, I do. Well, as I said, we'll keep it a secret an once we see that they're alright we'll tell them."

"I'm getting ahead of myself now, I don't even know if they'll come back and I'm already worrying about how to break down the news."

"It's fine. It's good to think like that, to have hope," And as if by some miracle, as soon as he finishes his sentence Haymitch appears.

"They're back," he says.

Both Finnick and I don't know what to do now, we don't know if we should laugh, hug each other, run towards where they are... so we just stay there paralyzed for a second until we realize what this means: our friends are safe and with us.