AN: Just kidding, I missed a one shot! This is really the last one this time. :) While I have your attention, allow me to nudge you in the general direction of "The Smell of Roses," which is my current WIP. Okay, I'm done talking now; here you go!
Annie Cresta had never liked the spotlight.
Oh, they thought she did. After all, she was the Capitol's sweetheart, the golden girl of Panem. Not only had she won the Hunger Games, but she had heaps of money and beautiful clothes and she could make any man swoon with the bat of an eyelid. Of course she loved the spotlight.
Yes, that's what they thought.
Snow knew better. She knew he knew about her relationship with Finnick, the boy from her district who had won the most recent Hunger Games. She had been his mentor. That alone had ignited a spark of interest in the Capitol citizens, who were more than happy to offer their sponsorship of District 4 in exchange for a night with Annie. Finnick emerged from the arena victorious, but highly traumatized.
Now, they were making their way from one district to the next, completing Finnick's Victory Tour one day at a time. Annie found herself fighting to conceal her unadulterated loathing for the Capitol every time Finnick took the stage to face the families of another pair of tributes who had perished in his Games. But she knew she had a responsibility to keep her cool—she had too much to lose if she didn't.
Every now and then, Finnick would still be awakened in the middle of the night by his own screams, fighting to break free of a nightmare that had transported him back into the arena. Those were the nights that he and Annie would stay up together, talking about nothing and everything, promising to help each other get through the present and lending voice to their hopes for the future and trying constantly to shake the demons of the past.
"Sometimes, I don't even know what's real anymore," Finnick said one night on the train to their next Victory Tour stop, addressing Annie but allowing his gaze to drift away from her and into space. "I'll get up on stage to read a speech and I won't be sure if I'm even standing there at all. It's not going mad, as they call it—it's forgetting the difference between real and imaginary and…and losing the ability to keep the past behind you."
Annie took his hand in hers, bringing his focus back to her. "You're right, you're not mad," she told him. "They can call it what they want. They can say what they want, and here's why—this is real. Right now.
You're real, I'm real, and the past is behind you. That's where it belongs and that's where it's going to stay."
Those were the words that got Finnick through the rest of the Victory Tour. When they arrived for the grand finale in the Capitol, Annie found herself once again in the spotlight, perhaps even more than Finnick. She smiled for the cameras and gushed her way through the interviews just like she always did. She pretended to relish the attention, just like she always did.
And she didn't do it for her own sake. She didn't do it to garner more support from her District, and she definitely didn't do it to attract more attention from the grotesque Capitol citizens. She did it so Finnick wouldn't have to. If it would keep Snow content and her loved ones safe, Annie would smile and gush and flirt for the rest of her life. Sure, she hated the spotlight—but they didn't have to know that.