Stay with me? [Finnick Odair]

73

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Chapter seventy three
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Finnick and I sleep for as long as we can, getting some much needed rest in, before we're interrupted by Mae and Haymitch walking into the room. Mae doesn't seem surprised to see us in bed together, but Haymitch instantly covers his eyes.

"Woah! Sorry," he apologises loudly, both me and Finnick sharing an amused glance. I quickly pull a shirt on and giggle.

"You can look now."

Haymitch peeks through the cracks of his fingers, seeing I have a shirt on, he sighs in relief and lowers his hand. Rolling my eyes, I shake my head gently as Haymitch starts to speak. "We have some news. Katniss saw how Peeta was and requested to go somewhere else," he explains and we both give him a look telling him to get to the point. "She's going to District two and we want you to go with her."

"What?" I immediately say, eyes wide, he folds his arms across his chest.

"We need people to see that The Sparrow is alive and well, that the Capitol have not broken her, so we want you to join Katniss in District two."

"I'm not going without Finnick," I say immediately, placing my hand in his, and Haymitch frowns at this.

"You can't be doing any of... this," he says reluctantly, gesturing to us sitting in bed, and Finnick and I give a laugh. "When you're there."

"I don't care, you want me, Finnick has to go too."

Haymitch sighs. "Okay, fine. You leave soon, so pack some things cause you're gonna be there a while."

✩

During our time in District two, Finnick and I try to keep the romantic stuff to a minimum when Katniss is around — seeing as her fiancé has been turned into her assassin, just waiting for his opportunity to kill her.

It's clear that Peeta's transformation is breaking Katniss, tearing her apart from the inside, but she manages to ignore these feelings with helping out in District two as much as she can. We've been here two weeks and I can finally feel my strength returning, I manage to help Katniss out with more and more, and I've even been able to help out more with meetings about the war and such. They never let me anywhere near the combat, though. They've deemed me too 'fragile' to fight.

I've filmed short propos for Katniss when she's too busy to do some, Finnick is always sitting beside me, and I can't wait to see the look on Snow's face when he sees he hasn't been able to get rid of me so easily.

I could honestly live here forever rather than in thirteen. We move around a lot for safety reasons, but it's so much freer here. There's no stupid schedules telling me what to do, I don't have people staring at me because I look like I've been dragged through hell and back, and Finnick and I have had our fun finding secluded spots in order to have some alone time. We've gotten caught a lot more than we have gotten away with it, but there's nothing they can do about it.

They can't send us home, they want to rub it in Snow's face that I'm alive. They can't send me anywhere else either.

So, in conclusion, we're stuck here. Not that I'm complaining.

One afternoon, after Katniss got the news that Haymitch was sending out a team to help with the mountain, I sit down with Finnick not far from where we've set up camp — in a village — we sit on an extra large log and I lean my head on his shoulder as we just enjoy the silence.

Everyone at District two has appreciated our help during our stay, the people in this village have taken a liking to me and Finnick, and they're all so welcoming. It's strange to see in the middle of a war.

Anyway, while we're enjoying our down time, we notice Katniss's propo director — Cressida — hovering around us with her little hand held camera. She eventually sits down beside us and we greet her with a kind smile.

"How are you feeling?" She asks me, her camera focusing on mine and Finnick's interlaced fingers, I give a shrug and she points the lense back on my face.

"I'm okay. I won't lie, I didn't think I would feel this okay being here, but..." I trail off, my eyes meeting the camera and a smile tugging at my lips, I see Cressida smile from behind the camera and nod her head.

"And what about you, Finnick?" She asks.

Finnick takes in a deep breath through his nose for dramatic effect before speaking. "I'm just glad I'm here with the one I love," he said charmingly, though I couldn't help but snigger as he sent a wink towards the camera.

"That was so cheesy," I giggle, making him look towards me, his face held a hurt expression — but I could tell he was just holding back his laughter.

"What?"

I giggle harder, shaking my head. "Are you serious?" I asked playfully, raising an eyebrow. "You couldn't think of anything better?"

Finnick scoffed, dramatically acting as though he was hurt by what I said, and it only made me laugh more. These were the moments I loved. The moments I could laugh with Finnick no matter who was watching.

"Well, let's see how funny you find it now —!"

He lurches for me, his hands at my sides, he starts tickling me and I burst into laughter. Squealing for him to stop, he just ignores my cries as Cressida captures everything with a beaming grin on her face. I try running away from him, but he only catches up to me within seconds, grabbing me by the waist, he pulls me closer to him and my laughter immediately fades away as I become enchanted by the perfect absentminded smile upon his lips. We completely forget the camera is there. He plants a light kiss on my lips, smiling against him, I can't help but wrap my arms around his neck as my eyes flutter closed.

God, I love this boy.

"And cut!"

Our lips pull apart as we see Cressida standing from her seat on the log, smiling towards us, she pockets her camera and Finnick wraps an arm around my waist.

"That was perfect."

With that, she walked away. Finnick and I looked at each other, unable to hold back our laughter, we share another kiss before heading off to find Katniss; hoping that the team had arrived by now...

•••

Oof, sorry this one took a while. I've been doing a lot lately. I moved house, got a new phone, etc. But also Christmas was a thing haha so, sorry this one took a while but I hope you still enjoyed! Thank you so much for reading!

Also, holy shit! Pardon my language, but I did not expect this to get 30 thousand reads! Geez! That's awesome, thank you so much for taking the time to read this book (and for putting up with my inconsistency haha)

Anyway, I'm gonna go, ciao!