I'm not Suzanne Collins. I'd much rather be JK Rowling.
Haymitch had jokingly said he was a nice guy, humble even.
"Really?" she had asked skeptically.
Haymitch snorted. "Hell no," and then proceeded to call him a peacock.
Yet Haymitch had chosen him to give the gold bangle to, thus making them allies.
Finnick Odair.
A royal pain in her ass from the moment he asked her about sugar cubes.
Until he saved Peeta Mellark by bringing him back to life after that force field had killed him.
She'd nearly killed him that day, because he'd pushed her out of the way and she thought that he was going to kill her, but thankfully she didn't release her arrow. She watched with tears in her eyes as Finnick tried to revive Peeta with mouth-to-mouth.
He claimed before that he wanted to know all her secrets. Apparently he found out one she was still learning about herself: how she felt about Peeta.
She didn't trust him, and that proved just how young naïve she was, because the man saved her ass more times than she could count, and literally saved Peeta's ass when it counted the most.
Still, he was cocky.
"Well I guess we're not holding hands anymore," he had said, clearly amused.
And he was way too sure of himself, even though he had the right to be, because he was insanely strong and incredible with a trident.
It was just so easy to hate him, with his Greek-like body, six pack, bronze colored skin, dirty blond curls, and sea green eyes that could make any woman weak in the knees.
It was easy to see how women fell for him, if she wasn't partial to cerulean blue eyes that rivaled District 4's cleanest ocean and blond locks that glittered like gold champagne on his worst day—that is, if she admitted that she was partial to a blue eyed blond haired boy.
Though they were allies it still took some time for Katniss to realize that maybe somewhere along the way she had misjudged Finnick. It took them being trapped together, both hearing their loved one's voices escape out of the mouth's of Jabberjays that Finnick had feelings too, and a family that he wanted to get back home too, just as much as she did.
Something like that tends to bring you closer together. They were the only two who experienced that. Who else could understand?
It hit her then, that maybe there was more to Finnick than Katniss knew or understood.
He always had her back, at least, and she started to realize that maybe she was wrong about him.
It took them being in 13 for something to really click into Katniss' mind. Haymitch had given him the bangle. She'd been wrong about Haymitch all this time. He was calculating, cruel, and could lie so well his pants should be permanently ablaze, therefore consuming him in all his alcohol glory.
Haymitch, who had been scheming with an underground Revolution for years, had given Finnick, of all people, the token to show that they were a team.
Haymitch, who had chosen to save Finnick over Peeta, just like he had chosen her.
It should have made Katniss resent Finnick even more, but it didn't.
It made her hate Haymitch more, if anything.
But how could she hate Finnick when he was in the same boat she was in? Annie, his girl, had been taken to the Capitol too, just like Peeta.
If anything she realized she could learn a thing or two from Finnick. Even as the Darling of the Capitol he had found love with somebody, and it didn't take her getting taken for him to realize it, even if he did claim she crept up on him.
He was better than her. He saw love, recognized it for what it was, and embraced it while he had the chance.
When he told her that he thought she loved Peeta, she realized that he had gotten his wish to know her secrets.
And then he revealed the biggest secret of all: the fact that Snow had turned him into a prostitute. She had felt positively horrible, and it took a lot to make her feel horrible. Just the thought that all those rumors of him and all his lovers was nothing more than an act for the cameras, just like she and Peeta had been doing all this time.
It was a difficult propo to watch and shoot, and she felt like an idiot as she listened to him talk, revealing secrets of poison and perfume to mask the scent of blood. How could she be so stupid to think that she and Peeta were the only ones who had to deal with the wrath of Snow? Was her bubble that small? Her mind that warped? Wasn't Haymitch living proof that Snow could do anything to anybody at any given time?
But she never expected it. It blindsided her, the depth of his deception, and how well he played the part. He was believable.
The thing that sticks out in Katniss' mind, though, even more than his transformation when Annie was rescued, and he had gone back to his usual self, was the way he helped her with Peeta.
He knew what it was like to love someone who was crazy, and his game of questions, which later turned into Real, Not Real, saved her relationship.
He was brilliant, Finnick Odair was, and as she watched his son watch his bride walk down the aisle, Finn an exact replica of his deceased father, Katniss couldn't help but remember Finnick's wedding in 13 to Annie all those years ago.
Annie openly wept with joy that her son had found somebody to love. As if that wasn't enough, all of his father's old friends had gathered together. Annie had her arm intertwined in Katniss' and she had her fingers locked with Peeta, their daughter and son sitting next to them.
Katniss sat there, tears prickling her eyes as she watched the man, once a little boy, who came from a man she never would have suspected could create such a wonderful creature as Finn.
She wished she'd gotten a chance to tell Finnick sorry for all the misjudgment, and thank you for teaching her the beauty of questions, and showing her how much she loved Peeta during a time that she was still confused.
He had protected her, and eventually they had grown to care about each other.
It was ironic, really, how he had survived two Hunger Games and joined a Revolution to take down the Capitol, but he was still taken by mutts. Sure it had been in combat, but she'd rather him have died by a gunshot wound or fighting.
Something. Anything, really, other than the way he went.
He deserved a much better death.
As she watched Finnick's son, with tears in his sea green eyes, eyes just like his father's, smile at the future Mrs. Finn Odair, it pained Katniss to know that Finnick not only never met his son, but never even knew he existed.
Finnick would have been so proud of Finn on this day, and it'd be him that would be sitting right next to Annie as opposed to Katniss.
They would have made it through all the hardships after the Rebellion, just like she and Peeta had, because she had been wrong about Finnick Odair.
And she hoped, wherever he was now, that he knew how sorry she was for that.