Shades of Gold and Blue | Finnick Odair

Twelve

I'm sitting in front of the television in the lounge, watching my Grandfather sip at his tea cup from his own lounge in the mansion. It's a Monday afternoon, the time where I would typically be with my Grandfather in the Rose Garden taking our tea – something we had done ever since I was old enough to talk.

We all had our special time to spend with him, our own little traditions. He had told me once that he had never been a terribly good Father, he was always busy as he rose through the ranks of government. With us it was different, he had the luxury of being comfortable in his position as President now and so he made an effort with us that he hadn't been able to with his own children. He and I took tea on Monday afternoons, he took Laelia on a boat ride every Wednesday after classes, Juno and Hestia are taken to the zoo on Sundays and Atticus is brought for a visit on Friday mornings. He took the whole family to some kind of event once a month, in a few weeks we were all going to the theatre to watch the opera.

We had never had our tea over a video call before, I had never been away from the Capitol so there was no need.

He smiled at me as he placed his cup and saucer back down on the table, an Avox swooping in to fill it again, "So darling, is it everything you had imagined?"

"It's lovely, you should have come with me – the sea air would have done you a world of good."

He scoffed, "The air here is perfectly adequate."

I giggle into my teacup, "You're such a snob!"

"Aren't we all?"

"I don't think so, I'm not."

"Ah," he smiles, "but you are the exception darling, you're a diamond in a sack of coal. Truly one of a kind."

I roll my eyes at his theatrics and take a sip of my own tea, "I went to visit the orphanage in the town the other day. They had a big hole in the roof, the place was freezing."

"And they asked you to fix it did they?"

"Well, no, but I think we should."

"And why would we do that? They are given an allowance each month and what they use that allowance for is completely up to them."

"They don't even have enough money to give them all a meal each day! How're they supposed to afford that?"

"They told you they couldn't afford food?"

"It was implied."

His face becomes amused now and he raises a brow, "And you believed them?" His voice is mocking and I feel my own face become red. "Cassiopeia, you have a rare quality about you – an openness and empathy. People see that and they use it to their advantage. These people are angry at us, they're angry that we won the war and that they did not and they will never stop resenting us for that, believe me."

I frown, "There's a peacekeeper here, cutting off the hands of children who steal food because they're starving. Do you think they made that up too? Because I saw a boy's hand bloodied and bandaged."

"These things do happen from time to time, I'm sure there was more to it than that. There are three sides to every story are there not?"

I sigh, I'm losing my chance to get the supplies for the orphanage roof, "I just think that if like you say, the people in the districts resent that we won the war – we should be doing everything we can to show them how generous we can be. And what are a couple of planks of wood, some nails and a piece of waterproof fabric?"

"They are money and resources."

I roll my eyes, "They're nothing. But to this group of children, it would be everything. You would gain so much out of helping these children and it would cost you next to nothing. There are up to one-hundred children that would see you doing something to show you care for them, those children are going to grow up and become citizens who love you for the kindness you once showed them. But more than that, I would love you even more if you did this for me. It would really mean a lot to me."