Disclaimer: Yep, still don't own the Hunger Games. I only own my OCs.
I have a photobucket album and Spotify playlist linked on my profile. I constantly update Spotify and will add new character models as they're introduced.
This chapter is pretty uneventful, more of a foundation as well. Next chapter will have the chariot ceremony, and Mal and Finn's dad's homecoming and finding out that Finn is in the Games. Mads Iwahara will be an important character, so will his (Finnick's) other two friends.
Temporary
Is this the moment where I look you in the eye?
Forgive my promise that you'll never see me cry
- David Cook "Permanent"
I'm still in shock when the Peacekeepers lead him inside the Justice Building at the conclusion of the reaping. My nails dig into the dirt and grass, grains of the sandy soil sneaking under my fingernails. The guys pick me up off the ground, my eyes still wide with the worst kind of bewilderment. Mads, always the gentlest of the group, takes my hand and leads me to the Justice Building.
My head is spinning as we follow Ronana and Anri inside with Peacekeepers everywhere, guns wielded, loaded, ready. I try my best not to have a panic attack as we walk down the narrow halls.
"Here to see him or her," snaps a gruff woman's voice from behind her Peacekeeper helmet. I vaguely make out her bright blue eyes and dark hair.
"M-my brother," I stammer.
She gestures with her gun to the room to the right. "Three minutes, kids."
"She's going in alone," Ronan says.
"We'll see him when his sister gets her turn," Anri adds.
Mads opens the door for me and ushers me in, closing the door behind me.
Sitting in the chair by the fireplace is Finnick, the flames illuminating his face, reflections of embers in his eyes. He almost doesn't look like himself without his carefree smile. No matter what, Finnick is always smiling. Except now, he isn't. I cross the room and embrace him, gasping in surprise when he harshly pulls me closer.
"Don't you cry, don't you dare cry," he hisses in my ear.
"How can I not?"
"Please Mal," he pulls away and holds onto my shoulders. "If you cry, I'll cry."
"No you won't," I force a smile. "You never cry."
He falls silent. Not having hit his growth spurt just yet, he's only a few inches taller than me, but it still seems like he's as tall as our father when he speaks to me in his 'respect-my-authority' voice. "Mallory Brooke, I mean it. You're a tough girl but you're going to have to be a whole lot tougher since I won't be-"
"Don't talk like that! Don't you dare talk like that, not after all we've been though!" I shout.
"Since I won't be there anymore." He continues, ignoring me. "Don't you ever take out tesserae, Dad's allowance and the money you earn from working on ships and the docks will be enough to support you. Anri's sister is got married, so there is an extra room at the Graham's house for sleeping if the kids at the Home are just too mean. You know Richie rich Mads always has room. I'm not coming home, Mal, so-"
Crack! My palm connects with the side of his face. Finnick backs away, his mouth agape.
"Finnick. Ibrahim. Odair. You will be coming home. How can you just give up like this? You're top of the training academy! You and I endured living with our mother for most of our lives! Our mother made us vomit, suffocated us until we were near-dead, poisoned us so that we'd mimic symptoms of Njord knows what! We've survived the Community Home together because of you. I have nothing to do with it; it's all you. How can you give up now, Finn? How?"
"Because I'm fourteen, Mallory! Do you know how many fourteen year olds win the Hunger Games, even well-trained ones? None, zero, zip, zilch, núll! I have no chance, none."
"If you die, I will never forgive you," I seethe. "Never, Finn. If you give up, then so will I."
"That's not fair."
"Is it?" I unclasp my whale necklace and hand it to him. "Here's your token."
His face pales as he stares down at the piece of jewelry. "I can't accept this. Mal, it's your special necklace."
"Even more the reason for you to take it. If you die, you can't give it back. If you can't give it back, I'll hate you forever for losing it. So you have to come home and hand deliver the necklace back to me."
"If there's a trident, then maybe-"
"No maybes," I take the necklace back and take it upon myself to clasp it around his neck. "There will be a trident. If not, use your sex appeal or whatever to get sponsors somehow, they'll get you one."
He laughs, "Never say that I have sex appeal again. I get enough of that bullcrap from girls that are not my sister. It's incesty coming from you."
"It's supposed to be, genius." I chuckle. "But seriously. Girls here fawn over you; rich Capitol girls will do the same if you just flaunt what the Odair Pretty Gene has given you."
He smiles and exclaims "The mythical OPG rears its mythical head!"
"Win." I tell him. "Win."
"I'll try."
"There's no try. There is do and there is do not."
Finnick blinks his sea green eyes at me, far different than my bright blue, and shakes his head. "Today of all days. I'm sorry that this happened today. It's your-"
The door bursts open, a Peacekeeper coming in to tell us time is up. Finn grabs me and hugs me one more time and kisses my forehead. As the Peacekeeper drags me out he shouts, "Mal, Mal! I'll win, all right? I'll win!"
As I'm led down the hall, I encounter the rest of my brother's posse and look directly at Mads. "Tell my brother I love him. I…forgot to."
"Of course I will," says Mads.
~.*~.*~.*
After the reaping, I go back to Pier Beach and sit atop the pier to watch the ships come in. Just because the Capitol is taking my brother away doesn't mean that I can just stop being happy about the fishermen and sailors returns home. There're still plenty of things to be happy about today, so long as your name isn't Mallory Odair.
It hasn't even been an hour and already I miss my brother.
Some of our classmates think we're creepy close for a brother and sister. Even the workers at the Home think so. Maybe it's true, but not for the reasons that they think. Our closeness is anything but the taboo, incestuous thing that they make it to be.
Our parents married when our mom was fifteen and our dad was nineteen- girls marrying as young as fifteen is the norm in 4. They were married for a few months before our mom became pregnant with our older brother, Declan. Declan was born just before Mom turned sixteen, but he fell ill with a mysterious sickness when he was two years old and he just never got better. Finnick and I hypothesize that Mom made him sick and killed him on 'accident.' Our parents were very sad when he died, but wanted to have more children anyway and soon, our twin sisters Ariya and Corrina were born. Corrina died in her crib one night when she was four months old. SIDS, they say, but I have a better idea of what happened. Ariya was luckier, though. She lived to be three. Our brother Raiden was born when Ariya was one and lived to be fourteen, but in the meantime, brothers Emerson (five years) and Gavin (seven years) happened. Emerson had another 'mysterious' illness. Gavin, however, we are sure wasn't a victim of our mother. Gavin was swimming with his friends one day. He never was a great swimmer. Our dad was on a small boat near the shore when he saw a small child drowning. He didn't know it was his son when he dove in to save him, but it was too late by the time he swam over.
Devastated, he became overprotective of Raiden and refused to have any more children. Funny thing about life is that it doesn't work out as planned. Mom became pregnant with Finnick when she was thirty and was barely thirty-one when he was born. Papa wanted him to be the last, but whatever contraceptive measurements they were using didn't work out too well, because Finn wasn't even a month out of the womb when I happened. Ten months after he was born, I was. Raiden was still alive. He still might have been, had he not been in that fishing accident. Neither of us remembers him, but we have pictures.
It's no wonder we were never allowed in the ocean without one of our parents until Mom got kicked out. It's no wonder that the only time we could be away from home without Mom or Papa was when we were at school or at training. We had nobody to play with besides each other, no one to hang out with besides us. Finnick and I became more than siblings, we became best friends and each other's lifelines.
I can see where the incest rumors stem from: us typically sharing a bed in the Home, him sometimes holding onto my arm on busy days in town, the fact that we are almost always together. But it's nothing like that. We both need each other is all. We rely on each other for almost everything. I'm all he's got and he's all I've got.
My neck feels empty without my whale. At least the emptiness reminds me that my brother will be home soon. I brush my fingers through my brown hair and stare at the ships, wishing that Papa's would come just four days sooner.
Four more days, I can do it. I can wait four more days. I'll just sleep at Anri's or Mads' place instead of the Home until he gets back. Mads' place, that is. Anri…is nice and all, but intimidating. It's just four days.
Only four, and in four more weeks give or take, Finnick will come home. I know he will.
~.*~.*~.*
The Iwahara family likes to pretend that they aren't rich. Frankly, it's quite noble of them. As heads of the largest fishing company, they have more money than everyone in three District 4s combined. They're wealthier than the victors of 4, even. They're so wealthy, that none of the Iwahara's ever really have to worry about being reaped, because their names are exempt- the parents would raise hell with the Capitol and the fishermen would be ordered to strike. Can't have that, can we?
Still.
Despite their fortune, the Iwahara children train, attend school, and function like the rest of us. Their clothes are never torn and patched, never threadbare, but not any finer than anyone else's. Oh, the girls have far prettier reaping day dresses, but other than that it's the same ho-hum getup.
The Iwaharas have offered many a time for us to come live with them while our father was at sea, working for them. I always liked the idea, but my brother always refused to accept it. I'm not sure it is pride, shame, embarrassment, or just politeness that makes him decline with; I can take of us, Mr. I. Thanks, though. Really, thanks.
I'm not as considerate as he is. Yet another department where son-of-Njord-Finnick and I differ. As soon as the clouds finally gave in and let the rain pour, I ran to the Iwahara house. One of the sisters opened the door and let me in- a maid ran over with a towel. I don't even think about my answer when I say yes to staying until my father's Docking Day.
I'm not looking forward to breaking the news about Finnick to him. Nor am I eager to deal with the Finnick Odair obsessed girls at school. Oh, well. Such is life, Mallory. Such is life.
A knock on the door of my temporary room pulls me from my thoughts. Three guesses who. "Hiya Mads."
"I um, brought you some extra blankets. This room can get drafty."
"Thanks," I take them and put them on the bed. "What did he say when y'all talked?"
He throws himself on his back onto the bed and looks up at me. "I told him you loved him and he went ape. He told us all of these things he wanted us to do in case he didn't come home. They all involved you, of course. Take care of you, be your brothers, don't let you go hungry, keep bullies away, scare away any gentleman callers like he would, always make sure to make it a point to celebrate your birthday, never let you sell yourself to Peacekeepers to make ends meet, et cetera. We all promised of course."
"He's coming home," I tell him.
"Oh, I know he is," Mads smirks. "Finnick Odair is too stubborn to let a little fight to the death take him out."
"You can say that again," I mumble.
Mads laughs and rolls himself off of the bed. "Sleep well, Mal."
"Mads, wait!" I say.
He pauses by the door. "Yes?"
I point to the digital clock on the nightstand. "It's 10:22. PM."
He smiles, but the look in his eyes is apologetic. "I'm sorry this happened today."
"So am I."
Mads opens the door and flips the light switch so that the only light in the room comes from the hall lights and stands in the doorway with his back to me. He turns his head and looks over his shoulder to say:
"Happy fourteenth birthday, Mallory."
