Just a warning before you plunge into this: it's rated Teen because it focusses on Finnick's forced prostitution. Nothing explicit or detailed, but it's there. I hope you enjoy it!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games or it's characters.
Something Good
Finnick was lounging in a café with Chaff, Haymitch and Johanna. Their tributes were already dead, so they'd figured that since Haymitch needed supervision to make sure he didn't do anything stupid and typically drunk, they might as well enjoy themselves. They sat straight under the TV where the games were broadcasted so they wouldn't see a thing, talking around crystal-like cups of coffee and mocha, and a plate of tiny chocolate croissants that could fit in your palm but still feed a District 12 family.
The little 'ding' of the door opened and the victors barely looked up. They had no responsibility right now.
"Mr Odair?" Someone said. Heads spun and a man wearing a dark uniform with golden eyebrows and brown hair was standing there, holding a slip of paper folded like a triangle in his flat hand said.
"Hello," Finnick said, recognising the uniform and the logo on his chest pocket. The armoury of Panem.
"Message from the Very Honourable President Snow," the man said. Finnick gingerly picked up the triangle, as if it might explode.
He thanked the messenger, did not tip him, and unfolded the corners. The writing was computerised.
Name: Barbara Aquiline
Place: Suite 223, Aquiline Industries Suite
Time: 9:30 PM
Pay : Your crippled love lives
Finnick locked his jaw and crumpled the triangle in his fist. Annie was not crippled, she was a victim. A victim of the Capitol's stupidity and arrogance and need for blood and death and gore. A diamond in the rough, an angel sent down and tortured and a martyr for softness and innocence.
But he released his breath. Barbara Aquiline it would be.
He was pretty sure her husband owned the industry that owned the suits.
He knocked on the door and hoped the 'client' (the bitch) wouldn't be present.
But the door opened to a Capitol woman wearing a short golden dress, with curls the colour of honey packed up behind her head and big blue eyes. Bright pink loops hung from her ears and her heals could have pierced through a man's lungs. Gems dotes her arms and her low neckline.
"Hello Finnick," she said pushing on the clip in her hair to release the curls down her back. "I've been waiting for you."
Finnick's throat clogged up. He didn't want to do this, not right now.
Pay : Your crippled lives
"I've been waiting all day," he said. The woman giggled and Finnick wanted out even more.
Stop it. Focus. Find something good about her.
He looked at her again, top to bottom and she grinned, probably thinking she was making a good impression.
No she wasn't. Finnick hated the way you could tell her hair was died, her clothes were worth more than the whole of District 12, and she was a total slut.
But her eyes were big. Bigger than they should.
Not as big and bright and naturally so as Annie's, but it'd do to get him through the night.
Name: Decima Arvina
Place: home address; 457, Hunger Cressent
Time: 9:00 PM
Pay : We keep feeding the cripple
Finnick wasn't sure if she was dressed or not, because the black lace showed a lot, but the Capitol's fashion may have changed since the last time he'd been here. He'd been spending a lot of time back home with Annie and Mags, Fisher, Triton and the other guys. It'd been heaven, but heaven didn't last.
Her blond hair was long on one side and nearly shaved on the other. Her eyes were a glittering blue and she was barefoot, which made her about as tall as his chin.
"You're late," she said.
Annie came up to his chin. When she'd walk to his house in the middle of the night because she knew he would make it better, he could rest his chin just above her head.
"Well let me make it up to you," Finnick said.
He was let in.
Name: Tita Barbatus
Place: 356 Jupiter Avenue
Time: 9:30 PM
Pay : We allow you to leave the Capitol and go home
She sprawled on the bed, without a doubt waiting for him to make a move.
He didn't want to. This woman was beautiful by Capitol standards, but in his mind, she was just a woman with long limbs, a blue tint to her skin that reminded of those who'd fallen into the ocean and had stayed there for hours before being rescued and amber eyes with piercings outlining the shape of them.
She was a mess of a person from a mess of a city; a sex addict he'd knew he'd have to deal with multiple times.
He lied down next to her and touched her hair. Long and dark with waves like the ocean. Long and dark like Annie's.
Okay, he could do this for one last time before going back home to her.
Name: Spuria Calvus
Place: the manor at the end of Senator Street
Time: 9:20 PM
Pay: We might consider not stopping the buying of fish from your district
He had to make a good impression, he had to. If this woman wasn't absolutely delighted, Snow would do it.
The door opened and he saw the redheaded woman with the swirling tattoos at the corners of her eyes, lips, going down her arms like some sort of tribal art. More importantly he picked up the green eyes; the beautiful sea green eyes. No doubt contact lenses to impress him; perhaps even pigmentation implant surgery.
"Hello Spuria," Finnick said. "I'd introduce myself but you know who I am, why don't we just get inside and get to know each other?"
She giggled and opened the door wider; Finnick put a hand on her hip and telling her to lead the way, trying to convince himself that those green eyes were Annie's.
Name: Julius Pictor
Place: Grand Imperial Hotel, room 45
Time: 9:00 PM
Pay : The peacekeepers will leave the Victor's Village
Finnick yelled out in rage and squashed the note in a ball and ripped it and threw it at the wall.
A man. Were they serious? Finnick did not care who this man loved, man or woman, but this was different. The Capitol knew he was in love with Annie, so this… prostitution (what an ugly word) was bad enough. But hooking him up with a man? That wasn't right. None of this was right, but this frustrated Finnick more than anything ever had. He didn't want to be tossed left and right and up and down as the Capitol wished and the money led.
The peacekeepers will leave the Victor's Village
That's where Annie lived. And Mags. And Dew, Fisher, Card and Hook; the other victors whom he counted as friends. He thought of how terrorised Annie was of the Peacekeepers, and how she hated seeing them near her home even more.
He picked up the note, stretched it out again, and checked the address.
Name: Lucia Gaia
Place: Five Star for Stars Hotel
Time: 11:30 PM
Pay: The cripple will still live in the Victor's Village
The woman was an inferno of pink. Hair like that cotton candy the Capitol children ran around with their fingers and lips stained of, lips like glitter glue, the tint of pink across her skin, and a kimono covering the rest of her.
"You're early," she said taking his hands and allowing herself to real in closer to him. He didn't want her this close- he didn't want anybody this close. Not anybody in the Capitol anyways.
Her face was closed to his and he traced its shape with his fingers. Heart-shaped, like Annie's. It felt wrong to do that to another girl. Like somehow this was backstabbing Annie and cheating on her. Just the shape of her face, a heart with a pointed chin and her bangs brushed out of her forehead.
He pretended it was her face, that it wasn't just a shared trait with this Capitol girl. He pretended that they were up to their ankles in the tide, with the air smelling like the sea and the sun shining on their faces, trying to make them squint even if they refused to do so. They only looked at each other.
"I couldn't wait," he lied.
Name: Marca Uritinus
Place:
Time: 9:00 PM
Pay : The peacekeepers will leave the Victor's Village
He was weary of this before the chauffeur even opened the car door and let her in next to him. Tomorrow was Annie's birthday and if he didn't get out of it by that evening, he'd miss the last shot he had of getting back to District 4 before Saturday. He wasn't completely stupid about his chances- he'd given Maggs the first clue to the treasure hunt that would bring Annie through his house, hers, Maggs', Fisher's, the pond in the center of town with the orange fish swimming along the bottom, the net shop, the Training Institute and the bait store, and finally the beach where her present was hidden. Although he wished he could see the look on her face himself…
The door opened and a woman wearing a blue sundress with sleeves made out of some expensive fabrics in the likes of 'chiffon' stepped in. She looked up at Finnick. Her cheekbones were high, so it looked like her mouth was always smiling. Annie had that, except her lips were smaller and he enjoyed kissing those more; that he already knew.
"Hello," he said. "So you must be the lovely Marca."
"The one and only," she smiled.
"Lucky me," Finnick said with a wink.
Finnick had a loose arm around Annie, and she was leaning into him the way she always did. It made her feel safe; it made him feel strong. Strong enough to protect her.
Her piano fingers, experts at weaving nets, were fiddling with her necklace.
"Do you like it?" Finnick asked.
She nodded. "Did you get it at the. The. The- the-"
"No," Finnick said. "I didn't get it there, I made it."
"That's what I thought. It's too pretty to be from the… there." She said. She couldn't say the words. Some words weren't in her vocabulary anymore, not after the Games. Mags had explained that that was how Annie's brain dealt with the stress and prevented from giving itself attacks. She shut off knowledge of things like the Capitol, the Games, knives, most weaponry, floods… The words couldn't get out of her mouth, and when they came out of someone else's, there was a reaction.
Finnick kissed above her ear and she got up and kissed him above the ear too. She smiled at him. Her heart shaped face and high cheekbones were framed by rolling black waves of hair, making her bright and abnormally big eyes the colour of the sea stand out. She was wearing an airy white dress that left her shoulders bare, and the sand squished in between her toes. Her fingers toyed with the necklace, a simple seashell that he'd polished for days and strung on a black string. She brought it to her ear.
The shells were called song shells; there were legends that said that fishermen who drowned trapped messages in Song Shells for their families before dying. People dove for them after a relative died at sea. Finnick –although he was very much alive- had decided to do the same for Annie for all the times that he wasn't there; for all the times that he was nearly drowned in the Capitol's frivolous and eloquence life. He knew what she was hearing.
I want to be near you when I'm faraway,
I want you to be with me to light up my day
But since I'm gone, and since you're here
You'll just have to bring this shell to your ear.
She dropped the shell and it took back its place on her chest.
"Can we go rowing, Finnick?" She asked. "Fisher got a new board while you were gone."
"Of course," he said. "You're queen of the day, birthday girl."
"That will be delightful to watch," Mags promised.
"Helping yourselves to my boards, are you Miss Cresta?" Fisher asked. Annie smiled shyly. "Oh alright, I'd have let you go anyways."
Annie smiled in thank you. "Come on, Finnick." She said running back towards the Victor's village, kicking up sand while she did so.
Finnick got up and ran.
"Race you!" Annie called over your shoulder.
"That's not fair!" Finnick said running after her. He actually heard her laugh and that stopped him dead in his tracks.
This was why he put up with it. Bits and pieces of that were what he looked for in the customers to find at least something good to hold on to. So that he could come back home and have her entirely.
For her.