The continuation of Perfection in the Form of Topiary.

Annie is not a big fan of the holiday season. It was not because every November and December is full of busy people finishing final essays and shopping for gifts. Not because the thick mounds of snow would seep into her boats and freeze her feet. It was because her unnaturally large family would get together, sit around a table in a luxurious dining hall and talk overtly about their superficial lives of business ventures, sporting tournaments, unsuccessful relationships and over-achieving sons and daughters. It became more and more isolating each year. As an Early Childhood Education Instructor, Annie did not make the kind of big money her lawyer or doctor cousins made. She earned enough money to rent a small apartment and have the fewest of luxuries.

The night of December 20th, she stood behind the small stage in the gymnasium. Two lines of twenty-four students stood beneath the shining spot light as Ms Trinket lead the class in Christmas carols. Rows upon rows of parents watched in awe as their children upheld the annual District Seven Public School tradition. As Annie watched, she felt her stomach knot and hands grow cold. Just like at dinner with her own family, she felt secluded here too.

"Goodnight, Rue. Have a safe trip! See you in January," Annie waved back at the four year old, who had a firm grasp on her mother's hand. Turning away from the closing door, Annie made her way back over to the main classroom. Rosy Mellark was the only one left. She sat quietly, hunched over the drawing table in her red velvet dress. Her brown hair twisted into two even braids down her back while bright blue eyes shone in delight as she overlapped red and green for the tree trunk of her drawing.

Looking up at the clock, Annie realized it was quarter to seven. Her mother and father should have been here to pick her up by now. The concert had been over fifteen minutes ago. Were they not in the audience tonight?

"Rosy," Annie sat beside her, "Do you want to call your mom and dad and see where they are? It's getting kind of late."

Rosy looked up from her colouring, "Daddy's here. He's probably talking to somebody."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah! Daddy loves talking to people. He said it's okay to spend a little extra time to learn about someone 'cause you don't know if they'll be your next customer."

Annie smiled. Rosy's father, Peeta, is the head pastry chef at a bakery in the downtown core. Rosy had explained to her that that Peeta slaved for hours over the baking and frosting of cupcakes and macaroons that he almost never got to socialize. On the rare occasion, he would be asked to take till and serve the clients as well. He would listen as they would give him the highest of praise and make promises to recommend his bakery to all their friends. Apparently, Peeta never had a slow day.

They waited and waited. Five, ten, fifteen minutes past and Mr. Mellark had not shown up.

"Rosy, I'm going to call home," the three inch heel from her shoe clicked against the floor as she made her way towards the landline, "Let them know that I'll drop you off."

She could feel his warm breath graze across her cheek before his lips and tongue had formed his words, "That won't be necessary, Ms Cresta," he purred, his hand resting on the small of her back. "She's coming home with me."

"Oh and why's that?" she spun in his arms.

Finnick took a step back and removed his hand from her, "Peeta said Katniss had to take Aidyn to the hospital. Munchkin is running fever of 104. Peeta asked if I could watch Rosy until tomorrow morning."

"Really?! It's okay that she comes over?!" Noah's small, round face lit up as he tugged on his father's hand. The six year old had been standing beside his father, holding onto a small pouch no larger than a clutch.

"Of course. I can't leave Rosy all by herself," he smiled while ruffling his son's hair.

"Can we stay up late, watch movies and eat popcorn then?" Noah asked as he ran over and dragged Rosy towards them. He had his tiny hand woven into hers. Annie felt her heart melt a little bit.

"You have to ask our guest first."

"Oh. Okay. Rosy, do you wanna-"

"Yeah, I do," Rosy nodded enthusiastically.

"Good. Now, what do we say to Ms Cresta?"

"Happy holidays," They chimed as they both hugged Annie tight, followed by Noah trying to reach up and give her a kiss on her cheek.

"Annie, you should come watch movies with us tonight, too!"

Annie's breath caught and face paled as she took a quick glance in Finnick's direction. He had not been kidding Annie when he had mentioned his good friend, Johanna Mason, was jealous of her. After a rather messy introduction - filled with far more verbal abuse than Annie had ever thought she'd be on the receiving end of - she has not seen Finnick, privately, since. It has been three months.

"I don't know about that, kiddo. Maybe we can spend time with Annie some other time?"

"Daddy, you said Auntie Jo was working late tonight, right? If she's not there it's okay, right?"

"Noah," Finnick began as he knelt down to be at eye level with his son. "Auntie Jo is being very very nice by letting us live with her. We wouldn't be acting very nice towards Auntie Jo if we let someone into her home she doesn't want there."

Noah huffed, "I need to talk to Auntie Jo about this. This isn't fair!"

"It's okay, Noah. I'm not upset," Annie reassured. "We'll just have to make another play date. Maybe you can come over to my house instead."

"Ah! We should do that tonight!"

"Wait, Noah I-" Annie began to protest but the joy that flittered across Finnick's face was hard to ignore. The fluorescent lights made his eyes shine while his smile grew so wide that she could count all of his teeth.

"That's a fantastic idea! What do you say, Annie? Can we have a sleep over at your house?"

He looked so much like Noah in that moment that it made her heart hurt. It also made it impossible to say no. "As long as there are no Christmas movies and you bring the popcorn. I ran out."

"Yes ma'am," Finnick saluted.

Annie's two room apartment did not feel quite as squishy as she anticipated with all four of them in it. It helped that Noah and Rosy were very petite. A little too petite. They nearly got lost amongst Annie's pillows and plushies, who the kids had to share the bed with.

Closing the door to her bedroom, it was well past eleven by now. The kids were out like a light fifteen minutes into their second movie. Not that this bothered either Annie or Finnick, the quiet was welcomed amongst the gentle orange glow of the room.

Shadows developed in the cervices of Finnick's face as he slouched into the couch. Clad in a v-neck and sweatpants, his bare feet were propped up onto her coffee table. The remote control dangled from one hand, a can of beer in the other.

"It's the end of December, with zero degree weather and you are in a t-shirt and no socks?"

"I'm not a socks guy." He flipped a few channels.

"And you radiate a ridiculous amount of heat I take it?"

"Comes with being from Miami, baby," he winked as she rolled her eyes. He had gone through all the two-hundreds and was onto the three-hundreds section now. All the while, casually sipping at his beer like he owned the place.

"Getting cozy, I see?" She teased while sitcom titles, holiday specials and televised sporting events rolled past her eyes.

"This couch, the impromptu hospitality and your beautiful presence make it so hard not to be." He had surfed his way up into the four-hundreds, which had equally as much variety as the last three-hundred stations.

"Finnick pick something, or else," Annie warned half-heartedly.

"Or else what?" he asked, placing his now empty beer can on the end table.

"I will make you watch a made for TV, modern remake of the Christmas Carole."

"Is that your teacher voice I'm hearing, Ms Cresta?" Finnick continued up into the five-hundreds, his button clicking speed increasing. "Those children get quite a treat to be able to hear that every day."

"Finnick, please stop."

"Oh? And here I thought Ms Annie Cresta couldn't get any sexier."

"Finnick Odair, hand me the remote this instant."

" ."

Annie stomped over to him, in her white slippers and stood directly in front of him. Naturally, Finnick was unphased by her stern 'teacher look'. His thorough amusement only added heat to the fire. However, with his attention trained on her, his hands ceased to surf through channels. Dropping the remote control on the end table, his hands reached out and neatly wrapped around her slim waist. Annie lurched forward and - even though she should have expected this, she had not- found herself in his lap.

"I've missed you," he whispered while the tips of his fingers climbed up and under her slim fitting t-shirt.

"I've missed you too."

"Thank you for having us over tonight," his fingers tracing the hem of her flannel pajama pants, "It'll be something neither Noah nor I will forget any time soon."

"I'm glad you enjoyed it," she smiles, leaning down to press a kiss on him. Though, Annie managed to only come nose to nose when she pulled away. Feeling the oddly timed vibrations of Finnick's phone go off against her inner thigh.

Finnick laughed lightly, yet the clouding of his eyes gave his discontent away. "I should take this. Could be Peeta." Fishing the blackberry out of his pocket, Annie took a peek at the screen and believe it or not, Peeta Mellark was the one to cock block them.

"Hey! How's the little munchkin doing?"

"Good. Better." Peeta sighed. "We're still at the hospital. The doctor gave him some stronger Motrin so he's sleeping the rest of the fever off."

"That's wonderful! Glad to hear it."

"How's Rosy?"

"Rosy's good, asleep. Watched a movie. She was conked out in Annie's lap before we could get to the second one though."

Annie could hear the slap of hand on forehead followed by Peeta's the airy laugh in the background, "You're so lucky Katniss isn't around to hear that. She'd have cut off your balls and fed them to Brutus."

Finnick laughed, "I don't think my balls would go well with kibbles and bits."

"Brutus won't be able to tell the difference if they're soaked in gravy."

"I better watch out then."

"I'd say," Peeta and Finnick shared a quick laugh.

"Anyways, I'll let you go. Please, keep it in your pants. If Rosy comes back home wondering why she found Annie in a … questionable position, the three of us will be in a heap of trouble."

"Will do, sir. Have a good night with your lady." Finnick smiled, "Take care. If anything changes, let me know," and hung up after Peeta had. While putting his phone onto the end table, Annie shifted out of his lap and curled up into his side.

"Couldn't keep us a secret could you?"Annie teased as she idly watched the bright colours of a Christmas themed commercial play. Slipping his hand into hers, Finnick weaved their fingers together and squeezed. His exposed thumb stroked her ice cold skin, slowly.

"Peeta and Katniss have just as much of a right to know who I am seeing as Johanna does. They are two of my closet friends. I can't leave them in the dark when they've raised Noah as much as I have." The tips of his nails dug into her palm. She felt his hand tremble in hers. The crow's feet and stress wrinkles became visible on his face, making it look as if he had aged five years.

"Finnick… I was just kidding. I-"

"Annie, I was twenty-two years old when I moved here. I had left Illinois State, spoiling my scholarship, to go back home to Miami. When I got there, with Noah in my hands and no Catherine on my arm, my parents weren't too happy. I don't come from wealth, feeding a fourth mouth didn't fit in their budget. My father was ready to kick me out that door but my mom convinced him that they could help me for one month. And one month only. I was lucky that Johanna had come back in town for Thanksgiving. She said I could stay up with her as long as I didn't mind the cold. A Canadian winter beats living out of a cardboard box."

Annie could feel her hand go numb in his. The orange glow of the lamp made the glisten in his eyes more noticeable.

"Of course," Annie nodded, as she caught the hot tears roll down his cheek, "that's perfectly reasonable." She kissed his cheek, then his nose, and finally his lips. "So, what problem does… Katniss… have with me?"

Finnick smiled, pressing them more firmly to hers before he spoke. "Oh, no no. Katniss doesn't have problem with you at all. She loves you! Thinks you're a wonderful role model in the classroom. She has a problem with the fact that I like you the way I'm not supposed to like her daughter's teacher."

"Ah."

"Yeah."

"I'm zero for two then, aren't I?"

"If Peeta can convince Katniss to have one kid, let alone two, I'm sure he can work that charm of his and persuade her that our arrangement isn't so bad. There is a lot of good private Annie can do for me. " Finnick chimed into Annie's lips as he scooped her back into his lap. Her arms wound around his neck as her bony hips pushed into his, pulling a groan from between his preoccupied mouth. "Not that Peeta's really… allowed to explore all those possibilities."

"Not that I would really want him too."

"Aww, Annie, I'm touched!"

She giggled, lifting her shirt up over her head, "What about Johanna then? How will you get her to approve of me?"

"Well, Jo, she'll just have to live with being second best now won't she?" Finnick replied, his lips making their way down her neck slowly. Until they met with her collarbone. Small, light kisses bee lined down the slope of her cleavage.

Sifting her fingers through his long, thick hair, she held him steady against her chest trying desperately not to make a sound. "I thought you agreed to keep it in your pants tonight, Mr. Odair?"

"I take certain liberties with my promises, Ms Cresta. I, also, have no intention of anything being taken out of my pants tonight. However, nothing was said about not having a little fun while we can."

"We owe it to ourselves to try, don't we?" Annie smiled, her hands sifting down the collar of his shirt. Fingernails grazed his smooth, strong back gently. Inch by inch she followed the lines formed by his defined muscles.

"Annniiie," Finnick arched his back against the back of the couch and shifted from side to side. Pulling back, he rested his head against the top of the sofa, which successfully got her ticklish hands out from under his clothes.

"Can I get you another beer?" She giggled into the shell of his ear.

Finnick's green eyes sparkled blue at her. It was as if the ocean itself laid rest in them. The more light the more brilliant and crystal clear the colour.

"I brought a bottle of wine. Would you like to share that instead?"

"Hmm… sure. Why not?"Annie lifted herself out of his lap and hopped over the armrest. Her tiny, soft padded footsteps taking her to the kitchen where she found a bottle of Pinot Noir 2001 had made itself home on her counter. "You went all out, didn't you?" She lifted the cork carefully out of the bottle, to avoid making a pop.

"I'll have you know that price does not always dictate how delicious food or drink is. Quality over quantity." Finnick said, his chin bouncing on her shoulder as he spoke. His hands rested lightly across her stomach.

"I can agree to that," She said, twisting around to hand him his glass. "A toast…coming down from a long day…"

"To ideal nights with beautiful company..."

"And favourable and unfavourable circumstances."

"To Noah and the Mellarks as well, then?"

"Especially to them," Annie smiled, taking a long sip from her glass. Placing the empty glass on the table, her vision blurred slightly. Annie had not prided herself on her ability to tolerate low dosages of alcohol. It was rather embarrassing in all honesty. Though, it was never a skill she readily felt the necessity to work on. Nausea was another thing Annie was not very fond of. As she held herself balanced on the counter, with Finnick's hand secure on her hip, warmth ran up and through her body. It lay rest in her throat and trickled down to her stomach. However, it did not linger. She could hear more rapid thumps pound in her ears as the warmth snaked into her chest. Her stomach was in loose knots, made of silly string and candy floss. Her hands, enclosed in heat.

"Annie, you okay there?" Finnick chuckled, "Your cheeks look a little warm."

"Yeah," the corners of her mouth stretched abnormally high, "never better."