Hello~
Yayy, Annie's turn! I have quite a strange fondness (obsession) for (with?) District Four (Finnick and Annie oh I ship them so madly) even though, yes, it *might* be overrated. But this; this tripped into my head in the middle of the night without any type of premeditation and I'm quite proud of it~ I hope you guys like it.
PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW. THEY MAKE MY DAY, REALLY. PRETTY PLEASE~
Annie and Four and Finnick and (everyone) the whole THG series; it all belongs to Suzanne Collins~ (that's why he died, see)
He's a little wisp of a boy, and Annie always thought he was around seven or eight but it turns out he's thirteen.
He really is nothing but eyes, and they shine, with a terrified gleam, as he walks up the steps of the Justice Building.
Annie remembers him from the fishing docks, remembers that he used to have a family, uncles and big, strong cousins and a father with a glossy yellow beard, and she remembers the fire that licked them all away because she saw it happen, she saw the flames float on the water and she remembers how she crouched there for a long time, hidden, but she still doesn't know if the screams were from his family or the arena.
He lives with his mother now, and Annie remembers that she's very frail and not exactly there, poor thing, because that's what everyone says so she believes them.
(Finnick tells her that part of the lady died on the ship when it burned down; she thinks she understands that better, but she thinks that makes it even more sad.)
So she doesn't say anything when the boy steals handfuls of bread and salt from her stores, and she sees the missing coins and occasional blanket but she doesn't mind, because food goes stale and she doesn't need the money and she never really feels warm so he might as well take it all.
He still goes out to the docks though, at night, and she stays, hidden, in the shadows, or behind the great mast of a boat, or in the water itself, and sometimes she sees him trace the Capitol seal engraved on the gold and the sigh that shudders through his frail body and it hurts her too, but she knows he's better off without someone like her in his life.
(That doesn't make it stop hurting, but she sees Finnick and she knows.)
And all his classmates make fun of him and call him names, but she likes how he looks, she likes how his eyes bug out of his face and how his elbows poke out of his skin and how his hair is always the color of dull hay. She can hear Verena screaming now about how he'll never amount to more than an anemone, that he doesn't match any of the color palettes she's prepared, but Annie's not really listening because that's the whole point.
She doesn't think he can fight but then again, she doesn't really want him to because she doesn't really want him to live, and she tells him solemnly that that's going to be their strategy, to die before the Capitol can kill him.
And she can almost feel tears welling up in the back of her eyeballs and they squeeze against her brain, hot and searing and burning, but he only smiles a little, holds her hands, asks her to take care of his mother, please, because he doesn't care if he dies, as long as she doesn't.
She says yes, of course, don't worry, and he looks at her with eyes so grateful, so desperate, and they swim in salt water, salt water that drops to their hands, seeps between their fingers, binds them together with the seal of a promise.