BLOOD ON MY HANDS || Finnick Odair

four; the private session

With hands clenched into fists, it took everything in him not to leap off his bench and wring Darius' throat until he would finally shut up. Eden knew it wouldn't prove to be a difficult task, since he was used to handling cattle and a teenage boy wasn't all that different if you thought about it. But he didn't want to upset Flora.

So he closed his eyes and clenched his hands into fists, jaw clenching in effort to stay where he was. But she gently clasped his right hand in both of hers, soothing the fingers to loosen until she could lace them with her own. "Let it go," she told him softly while patting the back of his hand.

"She won't last long, 10!" Darius bellowed from the opposite end of the room, grinning sadistically. Amethyst was laughing along with him, and Sloane from 5 was smiling to herself as well.

Eden inhaled a slow breath. "I'm trying," he promised. "I really am...but I might have to interrupt his private session to put a knife in his throat."

Immediately, Flora slapped his arm. "None of that," she scolded, her brows furrowed and lips pulled down into a frown as she looked up at him from his left-hand side.

The tributes had been called down to endure a boring afternoon of impressing the game makers with the things they'd learned so far, so they could take notes of things they could do to make the games interesting, or if someone had a skill they wanted to keep secret from the rest. The room they'd been put in was cold and bland, with metal benches and paneling all around them, dim lighting on the ceiling.

He had spent his entire morning working on throwing knives, since he knew he didn't have the stamina to fight with the swords and already knew how to use knives pretty well. Eden knew that if he hadn't been so underfed while growing up, working in the wheat fields would've made him bulky and much stronger than anyone here. But because his body was taking in every calorie it possibly could, it left him thin with a wiry kind of strength.

Thankfully Volt had decided to stand with Flora, because he wasn't so sure he'd be able to handle him like he wished he could. But the training had helped him learn to use his thinner frame to his advantage, and he could at least be thankful for that.

"Sorry," he muttered to her quietly, rolling his lips inwards and biting down slightly to refrain from yelling anything back at him. "I promise I'm trying."

The way the room had been positioned was at the back left corner, Volt and Amethyst were on their designated bench. Then it was Darius and Lara, then the District 3 tributes, and so on up until 6. Then District 7 was sitting at the back right corner, and it continued on forwards to the front of the room.

Flora smiled sweetly at him, her left hand rising up to cradle his jaw in her palm, pulling him to her so he could press a gentle kiss on his lips. It made him smile slightly, and his right hand automatically shifted to rest on her baby bump. "I love you," she murmured as she pulled away from him, allowing the pad of her thumb to graze across his cheek before it fell back into her lap.

He thought back to the ring sitting under his pillow back in District 10, waiting for a use that would never come.

"I love you."

He held tightly onto her hand as Volt left the enclosed room they'd all eventually spend time in, his expression completely blank. Eden watched him leave without a word, and then Amethyst was going in after him. In time, he watched Darius follow, then Lara, the pair from 3, Beau and Isla, and so on. After some time Flora was asleep against him, her posture making him smile softly to himself.

She was curled around her belly with one hand resting atop it, the other fisted in the fabric of his shirt while her head laid limp on his shoulder. He had never taken into consideration just how vulnerable a person was when they slept.