Okay, this fanfiction is now officially an on-going fanfiction! So, it will contain one-shots that are connacted to each other but there is not a certain timeline that I'm following. Also, this is all Katnick/Everdair! No other ships will be taking place. Not Keeta, not Kale, not Finnick&Annie. But of course, there's going to be platonic love and stuff, some drama, some action, some adventure... Yet, this is basically an Everdair romance story. Just so let you know. ^^
Finnick and Katniss might be a little out of character but I'm really trying hard to keep them in character, so please be understanding.
Oh and, this chapter includes the deleted scene from the movie and the scene is called "Finnick ties knot". You should check it out totally if you haven't already!
Okay, enough with the babbling. Here's your new chapter and... enjoy! (:
A/N: English is not my native tongue so please ignore my grammar mistakes if there are any! Thanks.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but this fanfiction. All the rights go to Suzanne Collins.
It was a little past midnight when we finally went back to the train. The party in the Presidental Palace was absolutely a disaster. We had to meet plenty of people to get them as sponsors. Me and Peeta did our best to act like we were crazy in love and all of them actually bought it. We really knew how to play this game but it wasn't easy. Everyone's eyes were on us all night long and I kept hearing people whisper that we were so adorable. Those stupid people talked about us like we were puppies and it annoyed me so much.
I sighed as I plopped on to the bed and started taking my high heels off. They had been a burden all night long. The most difficult was the dress though. It was a long dress so I had to keep it's tail away from other people in case they stepped on it and ruined it. I was also having a hard time right now trying to open it's zip. But when I managed it, I got it off of my body immediately. Then I found my pyjamas and wore them, finally going to the bathroom to wash of my heavy make-up.
When I looked at myself in the mirror, I noticed how tired and lost I looked. The more I washed away the make-up, the more the purple circles under my eyes became clearer. I also had some creases on my forehead that I hated. They made me look old... Well, thinking of what I've been through all along in my life, it was normal for me to look old. I felt old like I lived a thousand years and stayed undead like a zombie.
Then my entire life flashed right in front of my eyes and I squeezed my eyes shut. I didn't have a good childhood, I've always felt like a grown-up and I never found love like most people did. How people ever found love was still a mystery to me. No matter what Haymitch and Effie thought, I wasn't in love with Peeta. I just cared for him, like a little brother. He was a nice boy and he never meant harm to nobody. He deserved to live longer than me so I was absolutely not going to let him die on the arena. If someone was going to die, it was going to be me.
I sighed as I finally finished cleaning of my face. Lastly, I brushed my teeth and went back to bed. When I lay down on the bed, all my stress was finally gone. I felt my body and my muscles relax. I closed my eyes, ready to sleep. But instead, suddenly, his face popped up in my head. I opened my eyes wide and stared at the ceiling. I didn't just think of Finnick Odair now, did I? For God's sake, I loathed the guy. There was nothing to think about him and yet, here I was, thinking about the way he kissed me tonight. Well, it wasn't a big deal but it wasn't a simple kiss either. He basically nipped my lower lip and I enjoyed it. I hated myself for it. He made me feel low when he kissed me. He made me feel like I was on the same level with those foolish Capitol women. I know he did it to tease me, or maybe it was his way of saying goodbye but it wasn't something I could stay silent about. Then I decided what I was going to do about it—because if I didn't do anything about it, I'd go insane.
I decided I would talk to him in the training area tomorrow.
The next day I woke up to Peeta calling my name. He was poking my shoulder and calling my name and my eyes snapped opened.
"What, what is it?" I asked him, panicking already.
"You didn't come for breakfast so I came to find you. We have to go to the training area today, you know." He said and shrugged.
I sighed as I got out of the bed, groaning. "I hate this." I complained. "Okay. I'll come in five." I said and I made my way to the bathroom. I had shower, brushed my teeth, braided my hair and wore my training suit in about fifteen minutes. I was a quick person when it came to morning routines.
When we finally came to the training area, Peeta, as promised to Haymitch, made his way to talk to some people about alliance. I thought I'd do the same too and saw Mags over there, trying to knit a fish net with her trembling little hands. She was a lovely woman but unfortunately she was really old. If someone was going to die first, it'd probably be her and that saddened me. I didn't know the woman yet but the sincere smile on her face while she was knitting the net slowly convinced me that she was a gracious person. Plus, she basically sacrificed her life for a girl named Annie who had been in the games before and... well... went nuts. Mags volunteered for Annie just like I volunteered for Prim back in the day. I somehow thought that Mags was like an older version of me.
But then I remembered Finnick. Maybe it was because I saw Mags, his ex mentor, or maybe something else but I needed to find Finnick and talk to him first if I wanted to concentrate on training. Then I wandered around the training area a little bit. He was nowhere to be found. So instead I went to the knots training spot and held a rope in my hand. The description and the tutorial popped up right in front of me, a slow training method being shown on the blue transperent screen. I tried to follow the knot on the screen with my eyes but I wasn't really doing well. Looking at the screen and at the knot in my hand at the same time was really hard.
That's when I felt someone's hand on my hands, whispering into my ear: "Here, let me."
Before I knew what I was doing, my body reacted on its own and I stepped away from the person almost immediately. I saw Finnick in front of me, laughing at me like something really funny happened but I saw nothing funny about it. "Sorry. I'm really sorry." He said and leaned back while tying the knot already.
"Now, let me show you the best knot to know in the arena." He said. I only stared at him, throwing daggers at him from my eyes. "Don't look at me, look at the knot." He said as he chuckled.
I hesitantly looked at the knot he was doing but he was so fast that I couldn't even understand what he did there. Then he wrapped the rope around his neck and tightened it, letting the rope squeeze his neck a little bit. "Well, it's... it's really..." he said and shrugged as I kept staring at him.
"Funny." I completed his stupid sentence.
Then he just stared at me with his big innocent eyes as if he had never done a wrong thing in his entire life. "Do you wanna take me for a walk?" he asked me.
I narrowed my eyes at him. "What is wrong with you?" Now was my chance to talk to him.
"I don't know what you're talking about." He replied.
"You know you do." I snapped at him. "All this being seductive stuff." I waved my hands in the air, trying to emphasize what I was saying and how ridicilous I found it. I moved closer to him and folded my arms on my chest. "You kissed me at the party. Do you think any of this is funny?" I hissed at him.
He smirked at me. "Oh, now we know what's actually been bothering you, Miss Everdeen." He said and moved closer to me. Right now, only my arms on my chest were seperating us apart. "Seems like you've been thinking about our kiss." He whispered to me.
"Your kiss. You kissed me. I didn't kiss you back." I snapped at him again and unfolded my arms. My hands were now clenched into fists. "And no, I haven't been thinking about it. I just have been trying to erase the disgusting feeling it left in my mouth." I knew they were harsh words and a lie but he made me angry. His cool-guy posture was just an annoyance to me.
For the first time, he finally took off his mask and looked angry. I knew I insulted him and he seemed to have been offended by it. Good. That was my exact intention.
That's when he took one more step closer to me and now stood a few inches away from me. He leaned in closer until our lips were almost touching. We were in the damn training area with everyone else, for God's sake, what was he trying to do? But then I looked around me and saw everyone was busy with training. I saw Peeta was talking to Beetee and his back was turned to me. Basically, no one was paying attention to us which relieved me only a little bit.
"Aren't you supposed to make allies today because you're doing exactly the opposite, darling." He told me mockingly.
I gulped and looked into his eyes.
"You're making wrong people your enemies." He told me and I could see his eyes darken. I felt my heart beat faster. I knew he was doing this to scare me, of course, but he was also succeeding. He was a strong competitor and I was saying rude things to him. I was a fool for acting this way.
Though, I kept my posture cool as I answered him. "Are you threatening me?"
He shrugged. "You can understand it in any way you want to, honey." Then he took a step back from me. He was threatening me. I was scared, yes, but I wasn't going to let him know that. Foolish or not, I disliked him and didn't want him as my ally. Actually, just then, I put him as number one on my killing list. We were going to see who was going to die first. Plus, what was up with those stupid petnames he kept calling me? They were sickening me.
I was so angry I started shaking. He had no right to threathen me. I was so angry I couldn't hold myself back from vomitting my hatred to him. "You're insufferable! I only spent a few hours with you and I am already sick of you!" I confessed but then I noticed I quite yelled at him. I also noticed how silent the area became and I felt everyone staring at us.
"Who do you think you are just because you're the Girl on Fire?" he snapped back at me. All his seductive, cool posture was gone. He was as angry as I was.
"Keep your voices low, you two!" I saw Peeta running towards us as he yelled at us—mostly me. He stood in between me and Finnick now and he was throwing me daggers from his eyes. But I had done nothing wrong!
"And who do you think you are just because you're the Capitol darling?" I snapped at him, totally ignoring Peeta.
Finnick took a step closer to me and now Peeta was sandwiched between us. He put his hand on Finnick's chest to stop him but Finnick didn't seem to notice his presence at all. "Don't call me that."
"Or what? You'll kill me in the arena? You're already going to do that anyway!" I yelled back at him, again unable to steady my voice.
That's when he finally looked at Peeta who looked bewildered. "I am breaking our alliance. I am absolutely in no way teaming up with this fireball in the arena." He told Peeta.
Now it was my turn to look bewildered. "What?"
"I convinced him to become allies with us Katniss. He came to tell you that while you were trying to tie knots." Peeta explained and my eyebrows furrowed.
"She was doing quite bad anyway." Finnick said from there as he rolled his eyes.
I narrowed my eyes at him. "You know what? It's me who is not teaming up with you, you cocky man!"
That's when I heard a loud laughter nearby. I turned my head around to see the girl named Johanna—who stripped naked in front of me, Peeta and Haymitch in the elevator—standing there, laughing histerically. "You two are fighting like stubborn, married couples!" she said and kept laughing. There was something odd with the way she laughed but I ignored it. She had a point. We were fighting like two stubborn people but I didn't agree to the married couples part obviously. If I ever married this man-which would obviously be by force, I'd die on the second day of our marriage. Or I'd just kill him because he was absolutely and utterly an intolerable person.
I looked at Finnick who was also looking at me and noticed how stupid our fight actually was. We were two being stubborn just like Johanna pointed out and we were for no reason threatening each other. Yes, I really disliked him but not as much as I actually claimed to—or rather wanted to. Maybe I only disliked him because he was so... perfect. Nothing was wrong about him. Not his features, not his looks, not his techniques, not his way of fighting...
I sighed. I was jealous. I had to admit it to myself and move on with it. He was perfect and it was a fact that could never change.
I touched Peeta's arm and he turned around to look at me. I smiled at him and nodded, assuring him it was okay. He hesitantly moved away from us and left the two of us alone again. Though, everyone was still watching us from the corner with curious eyes.
"I forgive you." Finnick told me, smirking.
I gritted me teeth. Here he goes again. "I didn't say I was sorry."
He shrugged. "You were about to."
"No, I wasn't." I insisted.
But he, instead of saying something back as a reply, thrust out a hand to me. I looked down at it for a few seconds and then looked at him. If I held his hand, it was truce. And it meant we were going to become allies.
So I did the only logical thing I could do to save both me and Peeta some time from my stupidity. I shaked hands with Finnick Odair. The Finnick Odair.
Then he left without uttering another word but I saw him smiling wide at me. Peeta, from far away, rolled his eyes and smiled at me.
Haymitch was going to love these news.
Okay, so I hope you like this and I hope you will keep following the story because there's much more to come! I will try to update the story as often as I can.
Reviews are like candies given to kids on Halloween! So... Please leave a review? (:
xoxo Louvreangel
