Disclaimer- I don't own the Hunger Games or any of its characters!
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Finnick says these four words to himself every time he wakes from a nightmare until his breathing evens out and his heart goes back to a normal rate. He doesn't know what else to do; the only other thing that would be able to calm him is Annie and because he's fourteen and she's thirteen, they can't exactly be together like this. At least, not yet. So he's alone, left to work out these nightmares alone.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
It's two years later, and the nightmares have barely eased at all. President Snow was now having Finnick come to the Capitol for one week every month. He was careful not to tell Mags and Annie about it. How he kept everything from them, he didn't know. Finnick can feel himself falling apart, but doesn't know how to fix it without telling them everything.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Annie was quiet now, and quite honestly, it scares Finnick. Annie has never been the quiet type, at least not until her Games. They destroyed her, broke her into a million pieces that Finnick is determined to try to put back together. She spends nearly almost every night with him; apparently, he's the one that's able to calm her, much like she can do for him. Still, he teaches her his technique, the one that had to work for so long, just in case.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Finnick knows he's alone once again. District Thirteen has been kind to the victors, but he still misses Mags dearly. He can barely think of Annie without wanting to break down on the spot, and yet, she's all he thinks about. Katniss has been kind, too, and understanding. No one knows a victor like a victor, as Mags had told him so many years ago. Now he's seeing so much more truth in these words than he did when he first heard them. Finnick tells Katniss a lot, because she's trustworthy and the only friend he has available to talk. He tells her about Annie, about the nightmares. He tells the world about the secrets, the ones about President Snow and what he made Finnick and so many other victors do. Releasing those secrets to the world feels so, so good.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Annie repeats this in her mind every night. There's no Finnick to help her now, and she's broken. She's trying to stay strong, because there's a baby boy around. He looks so much like Finnick, who she named him after. The other victors write fairly regularly, making sure she's okay. Annie makes sure they all have a picture of Finn, and she tells them that she makes sure to breathe in and breathe out.
Because, really, isn't that the way to keep living?