Short little story between Katniss and Finnick as they're waiting for the rescue team to come back for Peeta and the other victors.

Katniss's POV

The agonizing wait for the return of the rescue mission is slow. It's been fifteen minutes since Finnick and I been in the hummingbird room and it feels like hours. Looking at Finnick his fingers are moving fast tying and untying knots. I'll finally get to see Peeta again. I'm sweating from anticipation but I'm dreading the moment. What if the capital did something to him? What if Gale comes back dead? Stop it Katniss, they will come back. I try emptying my mind. Do not think of Gale. Do not think of Peeta. The more I try the more I hear an echoing ticking in my head.

Tick-tock, tick-tock...

I can't stand this.

"Did you love Annie right away, Finnick?" He doesn't look up from his rope.

"No, not at first," Finnick messes with his rope twirling it between his fingers. "She snuck up on me." I stare my rope beside me. The rope Finnick gave me to pass the time, to try to forget the pain. Finnick spoke in a soft way,

"When I was a kid, my father and I would go fishing together every Friday. The first time I went I saw this girl on the beach watching us. Every Friday I began to notice that she'd be there; sitting on the beach in the same spot. It soon became something I would look forward to. I would wonder during the week 'is she going to be there?' Then one day she didn't come to the beach, or the next week. After about a year, when I was thirteen, my father became sick. When Friday came around I wasn't going to go, but my father insisted. When I got there I saw someone in the water. They were splashing and screaming for help. It was the same girl who watched me and my father every Friday, it was Annie."

"She didn't know how to swim?" Finnick nodded.

"That same year when Annie and I became friends my father died. Annie was then the one who went down to the beach with me every Friday," Finnick laughed. "Of course she made me teach her how to swim first,"

That's how she won the hunger games. It was Finnick who taught her how to swim.

"That following spring when I was chosen for the hunger games, Annie told me she loved me. Only I didn't feel the same, but when I survived and she was chosen the next year I knew I had lied to her. I really had loved her, I was just afraid to accept it because I thought I was going to die. Ever since I was twelve she slowly snuck up on me. That beach was the best thing that ever happened to me." I had a flashback of me and Peeta on the beach when we were in the games. That was the last night we were together. I reached in my pocket rolling the pearl along my palm. Panic starts to roll in. "Finnick, what if I'm not ready to see Peeta? W-what if I don't love Peeta?"

"All this time I thought that you were acting out your love for him, but it wasn't until Peeta hit that force field and nearly died that I knew you're-" Finnick stops his ministrations on his rope; his fingers raw.

"That I'm what?" I looked up at Finnick. Our eyes met, I saw pity and regret in Finnick's ocean blue eyes.

"-that you're just like me. I misjudged you, Katniss. Maybe you didn't love Peeta at first but there's no doubt you love him now," Tucking his knees into his chest Finnick buries his face. "Peeta crept on you just like Annie did to me."

The door to the hummingbird room opens slowly revealing Haymich with dark bags under his eyes. "They're back." I look over at Finnick who had gone rigid, and to tell the truth Finnick is just like me. Peeta had slowly snuck up on me. I do love Peeta, I'm just too afraid to admit it.