He read the note. He's staring at me, like he's trying to figure me out.
"You know what?" he asks. "Asphodel, you might not be able to talk, but you might just be the single most fascinating and intriguing person I've ever met."
I just stare at him, unsure of how to respond. He takes my hand and leads me to the couch, then pulls out a box of tapes.
"Whose Games do you want to watch? We should get to know our competitors," he says.
Mags? I write the first victor I can think of. He nods, slipping the tape into the player. He sits back on the couch, and pulls me close to him. He tugs a blanket off the back of the couch and drapes it over me.
"Lights, please!" he calls, and an Avox has turned the lights off in seconds. I can hear his heart beating, since I'm so closely curled up to him. Slowly, I fall asleep to the sound of his breathing.
•••••
I wake up in an unfamiliar room, with an arm around me. Terrified, I shoot up.
"Wha-?" Finnick cuts himself off. Finnick. "Asphodel, you okay?" I nod slowly and lay back down. "Sorry, I, uh, you fell asleep. You were in the extra room, but you woke up with a flashback. I brought you in here and figured maybe you'd be less afraid if someone held you while you slept. So here we are."
He cares? He actually cares about me?
I don't do anything except snuggle back up to him. What? He's warm...and strong...and gorgeous...and he seems to actually care about me.
"Snow can't hurt me," he says softly. "I'm not going anywhere."
I peer up at him and he kisses my forehead gently. I tense up slightly, but relax when he gently strokes my cheek. My older brother used to do that when I was scared.
"I won't leave, Asphodel," Finnick promises. "I won't leave you." After a second of staring at him, he adds, "I promise."
•••••
"How about I show you how to throw tridents? In exchange for two hours of trident lessons, you give me two hours of knife-throwing lessons. Sound good?" Finnick asks me. I shrug and nod, agreeing. I can do that.
"Do you want to start with tridents?" he asks.
I nod again. He grabs my hand and entwines our fingers together as we ride the elevator down. I let him, since we're supposed to trust each other. I do trust him, I swear I do. It's just hard to get used to the fact that he cares about me.
Everybody stares at us as we walk into the Training Center. I glare at Enobaria. I don't care who she is or how she won, I got my throat slit and I still won. When I was fourteen. So beat that.
"Okay," Finnick tells me once we're at the trident station. He picks up two tridents and comes over to me, handing me one.
"This is how you do it."
•••TWO HOURS LATER•••
"How about you do it first? Just to show me. Then we'll get started on the lesson?" he asks and I shrug, nodding.
I slip the training belt on and lace it with twenty three knives. I walk inside the holographic room and go up to the panel, entering the correct information. I put in my weapon type, that I want twenty three targets, and I press on 'advanced'.
I draw two knives and the room darkens. Suddenly, I see a holographic figure made of gold blocks running at me. I throw a knife between its eyes and the blocks shatter. Two more run at me while a third runs along the track overhead. I destroy the ones running at me, flawlessly embedding knives into them, then watching them shatter.
The one running earns itself a knife in the heart. Two more appear and one throws a spear at me, but I swiftly dodge it and send a knife into its mouth. The second fires arrow about the same time the first throws the spear, so I throw a knife into that, as well. Another has a trident and I can only guess who that's supposed to be, yet I still throw the knife into where its right eye should be.
One I assume must be Enobaria comes at me with a sword and as she swings it, I duck and bury a knife into her head. I smirk and continue dodging fake weapons while murdering holograms. I easily dodge an axe from Johanna, as well as several thrown knives and daggers from Gloss and Cashmere.
Finally, the last hologram explodes and everything is silent. Not a single noise in the entire gym. I turn to see that every tribute is standing outside the room, watching me through the glass. Their expressions range from shock, to envy, to hatred, to fear.
They don't call me the Silent Killer for nothing, I guess. Because I throw knives, or any other weapon, really, so fast that all you hear is a short, sharp whizzing a millisecond before it impales my victim. I never miss.
Everyone watches me as I leave the room. Katniss gives me a small smile and I give her a brief nod in return. I'm not looking to make friends. Finnick, Johanna, and Ryder will be my friends in the arena.
I grab two more belts, exchanging my empty one for the new one. I gesture for Finnick to come over, then I hand him the second belt. He clips it on and slowly, everyone disperses. We walk inside the room and I have still targets set up. I point at the first target and Finnick throws a knife.
I wince as it barely sticks into the target. I watch his technique and see that he isn't holding it right, nor throwing it right. I grab his hand and pull a knife from his belt. I adjust his hold on the knife and close his hand around the handle. I feel his eyes on me, considering I'm holding his hand, in a way.
I release my grip after I have him holding it perfectly. I guide his arm as I have him bring the knife back over his shoulder, then flick it forward and release. The knife lands in the dead-center of the bullseye, right where the heart would be. I step away from him and gesture for him to do it again, this time by himself. He does exactly what I showed him and the knife buries itself in the center of the target's chest.
Not my first choice to hit, since there's only a chance it'll puncture the lungs, but it's still an ideal hit. A knife to the chest would be hard to recover from. So it's still a good hit.
He looks over at me and I nod. I throw a knife into the second target's head, just between the eyes. Finnick nods and aims for the head. However, his knife hits the very top of the head, just skimming it. I gesture for him to move him arm down a little, so he does. He throws another knife and this time, it hits the forehead. Not bad.
We keep at it for two hours, meaning we end at lunch time. After we take off our now-empty training belts, Finnick kisses the side of my head and gently takes ahold of my hand.
"You're amazing at knife-throwing," he compliments. I blush slightly, but shake my head. "No, really. You are. You're the best knife-thrower I've ever seen."
I only smile slightly, not sure what else to do. With a sudden burst of confidence, I rise to my tip-toes and quickly kiss his cheek.
"Aw is this your next lover, Odair?" Enobaria sneers, walking up to us.
I can see why Enobaria wasn't sold. Nobody likes her.
"None of your buisness," Finnick snaps. "Leave us alone, Enobaria."
