AN: REVIEWS PLEASE! (sorry if I sound pushy but they are encouraged!)
We arrive District 4 at dawn, the rose-pink light of dawn shining above the buildings of District 4. We are escorted back to my house, where Katniss will be staying, by four peacekeepers, trying to hold off the obsessive fans from hurdling towards us and shredding us to pieces. My house is similar to Katniss' house in Victor Village, it was big and was decorated in green, blue and white furniture, sea-themed since we did live in District 4.
"Finnick!" I hear a woman squeal, my mother, she comes running and throws her hands around me. I hug her back, missing the motherly warmth and sense of security that is there when she's around. I pull back and hug my father, who was well-built for his age, the stubble on his chin now more visible than when I had left. When I pull back from the hug my father steps aside, revealing Killian standing there with his arms crossed in front of his chest. He looks up and meets my eyes, stepping forward and extending his hand to shake hands with me.
"Finnick." He says sternly, shaking my hand firmly.
"Killian." I reply, looking at him with confusion. He hasn't said a word to me since my games. I shake my head and step aside, pulling Katniss to my side. "This is Katniss, she's from District 12. She'll be staying with us for awhile with us." I explain to them. My father nods and shakes her hand meanwhile my mother hugs her and expresses her regret over Peeta's death. Katniss smiles sadly at my mother and looks at me, I hope Killian doesn't say anything offensive and rude. I swear to God if he does, well let's just say he wouldn't want to meet Victor Finnick.
"Katniss. Nice to meet you." Killian says, extending his hand to shake with Katniss'. My eyes are wide with shock, I did not expect him to respond this way to her, but I'm glad.
"Come on Kat, let me show you your room and the rest of the house." I tell her, tugging her hand with mine. We're probably going to share a room to fend off the nightmares. But I won't say anything that might give my parents the wrong impression. I take her to my room and put our bags in the corner of my room.
"You can take a shower there," I tell her, pointing to my bathroom. "I'll bring us something to eat." She nods and mutters a thank you and goes into the bathroom, towel in hand. I hear the water running and take it as my cue to leave to get the food.
"So, Katniss?" My father asks me, taking a sip of coffee out of his mug. I hear my mother giggle softly from beside him, looking at me over her magazine.
"No. She and I are just friends." I tell him, grabbing some bread and 2 mugs of hot chocolate. My father quirks one eyebrow up, "We're just close friends dad, nothing more." I tell him with a hint of disappointment in my voice. My father seems to catch up on this and leaves me alone. I go upstairs and find Katniss with her hunting pants on and a black shirt, her hair still dripping wet. "I got us some bread and hot chocolate. While you eat, I think I'm going to take a shower." I tell her and excuse myself to the bathroom. The buttons are exactly the same with the ones in the Training Centre, but having to go there every year I'm already familiar with what I have to press and what I should avoid pressing. I rub some sea-scented soap on my body and some shampoo and conditioner on my hair. I rinse it off using the warm water, sighing heavily and leaning against the wet tiles of the bathroom wall. It feels nice, getting away from all the attention and pressure. Just being myself. I can only do that by myself and Katniss, of course. I come out of the bathroom and put on some green shorts and a white shirt, the perks of living in District 4. You can dress as simple and casual as possible and no one will look at you like you're some kind of freak. Not that the Capitol isn't already full of freaks that is. I go back to my room, grabbing a bread roll and start to munch on it. "So, what do you wanna do today? How about I show you around town? Maybe go to the beach?" I ask her, already excited with all the things we can do today. I start planning all the things we'll do in my head and she laughs lightly and rolls her eyes.
"Sure Finnick, whatever you want." She says flatly, rolling her eyes in amusement over my childish behaviour. "Maybe after that we can go to the playground and pick dandelions!" She says in fake excitement. I pretend to be hurt, my hand clutching just over my heart.
"That hurt. Wow Katniss. I was just being excited." I tell her, pouting and lowering my head.
"Yeah, yeah. Whatever Fishboy. Let's go show me around." She says, tying her hair back into a high ponytail. Even without makeup, she looks beautiful.
"Okay, let's go charm everyone with my presence and charisma." I tell her teasingly walking out the door. I show her around town, the popular shops I go to, the cafe I usually meet my friends and finally get to the beach. It's around 5 P.M., the creamy beach sand warm against my feet, the sea breeze cool and calm. I look over to Katniss, her soft brown hair flying because of the wind. I sigh in pleasure of this moment, The beach and Katniss. It's all so perfect. "It's beautiful isn't it?" I ask her, looking at the soft, delicate features.
"Yeah." She sighs, but when she notices that I'm referring to her not to the sea by looking at her with so much intent, she blushes and looks down to her feet. "I wish Prim and I could have grown up by the sea."
"I wish I could have met you sooner." I tell her, giving a sincere smile, I rarely give out sincere smiles, they never reach my eyes. Thank god the people from the Capitol are too caught up with themselves to notice. "Come on, we're missing the sunset." I tell her, tugging her hand forward to follow me to the edge of the beach, just where the water starts to come out to the sand. We sat down, leaning on our hands and looking out at the sea, the tides pulling and pushing the water to and from the soft-creamy sand which divided the water from land. The sun drowned in the horizon, it's rays of light glistened in the newly-found darkness of the clouds that faded and the pale moon revealed itself to us. The sky was painted an array of pink, orang and yellow, it looked serene and relaxing. I wish I could stay in this moment forever, Katniss beside me was all I could ever have wanted, and being in District 4, in front of this beautiful scene was just a bonus. But I have to face facts, if Katniss asked me to go with her anywhere at all, I would go without even hesitating.
"Peeta loved sunsets. He loved the colour of the sky when the sun was setting. He once saw a flash of green light before the sun was fully gone and he took it in his interest to see that flash of green light again. But I guess he won't ever be able to do that again." Katniss tells me, her hands playing with the creamy sand beneath us. There was obvious pain in her hoarse voice, agitation in her words. I sigh and pull her up to her feet, I'm going to make it my goal to make her laugh. She's always so serious.
"Come on. Let's meet Mags and my friends." I tell her, No doubt Caspian and Tom will flirt with her. But she's probably will just brush them off. I hope she's nice to Mags though. She's like another mother to me. When I get back to my house, Mags and my friends, Caspian, Tom and Oceane are already there. Oceane is my childhood friend, she's not-too girly but not a tomboy like Johanna is, and she's very nice. She has black hair and brown eyes, she's skinny and tall. Caspian and Tom are brothers, they're both buff and tall, they have brown hair and orange eyes that look like the sun when it's setting.
"Finnick! Long time no see!" Caspian shouts from the kitchen, lifting his bottle of beer up to my direction. Tom comes over to hug me, "You're Katniss Everdeen!" He comes to realisation, "Nice to meet you." He says, planting a kiss on her hand. She pulls her hand away and wipes it on her shirt.
"Can't say the same about you." She says, disturbed by his gesture. Oceane laughs at Tom and comes over to hug me.
"I'm glad you're back." She tells me, hugging me even tighter. For such a skinny little girl, she sure is strong. "And Katniss, don't mind him. He's usually nice enough, once he's accepted the fact that you only want to be friends with him." Katniss laughs and Oceane glares at Tom who now look's pretty pissed off at Oceane.
"Buzzkill." Tom mutters and goes over to the kitchen to get a beer. Mags hobbles over to me and Katniss and kisses my cheek, patting it afterwards with a knowing smile on her face. Katniss smiles at her and hugs her, I love how Katniss is good with Mags. Mags mutters something to Katniss, which I don't hear and Katniss laughs and nods.
"Yes, he sure is a handful." She says, rolling her eyes. Why do I get the feeling that they're talking about me? Mags laughs and pats her cheek, giving me a thumbs up then leaving us alone.
"I'm going to go to bed. I'll see you in the morning." Katniss tells me and heads upstairs to my, well our room. I smile and watch her go upstairs, analysing her movements, she's stealthy and so cautious, the beautiful dark huntress revealing herself in front of my eyes.
"She sure is something Finn." Tom says, raising an eyebrow at me. I chuckle and sit down on a stool near the kitchen.
"Too bad she doesn't know you like her." Oceane says in a sing-song voice, fuck. How'd she find out. Play it cool Finnick. You can't let them know.
"Like her? She's just a friend and as the Capitol's heartthrob, I get to show her around and accompany her." I say teasingly, winking at them. Their eyes widen with the realisation of what I was trying to imply, They think I just want to fuck her. I shrug and look around for Mags, thank god she already went home.
"You haven't changed after all have you?" Killian speaks out accusingly, sneering at me. "You're just like all the other victors, in exception to Katniss. Self-centred jerks who only want a good fuck." He spits out, stomping out of the room. I sigh, He just had to make a scene didn't he? I decide to go to sleep so I say my goodbyes to my friends and walk up to my room. Katniss was already there, curled up and her hair scattered everywhere, framing her face perfectly. I lay down closely beside her and she unconsciously snuggles to my side, chuckling I wrap an arm around her waist and fall effortlessly into a lovely sleep.
Katniss' POV
It turns out that Finnick had appointments even in District 4, so he had to leave me for a few days by myself to attend his appointments. I usually just stayed in the room, sometimes going downstairs to get some food.
"Hello Katniss." Killian greets me, pulling a chair back for him to sit in front of me in the kitchen. I glare at him, how dare he talk to me when he treats Finnick like that. What makes me so different from Finnick? I've killed children to survive too, why is he talking to me? "Enjoy your stay?" He asks me politely, grabbing a mug of hot chocolate. I ignore him, taking a bite out of my pancakes in front of me. "Hello? Katniss?"
"Sorry, I don't have time for people who think all victors kill children for fun." I spit out coldly, returning my focus on the my pancakes in front of me.
"I never said that."
"Whatever. You know what, killing children is the worst thing I've ever done. But I did it to survive, so I could get back to my family. Get back to my little sister, Prim. I don't care what you think of me, so don't get too full of yourself yet. I just don't want you having to pretend like you like me, like you like us victors." I tell him, getting out of my chair to leave. I don't know why I'm so mad at him. But it's true. I couldn't afford standing up against the Capitol in my games, I had to become a piece of their games in order to survive for Prim.
"Katniss! Wait." Killian calls out to me, grabbing my wrist which I pull back harshly immediately. "You're different. Maybe I have misjudged Finnick but it was just because I couldn't get over the fact that he killed 12 children. I know he did that to survive and to come back to me and my parents." His voice softens when he confesses. My eyes soften and I take in his presence fully. "I just need someone to talk to." He admits, looking down at his shoes not daring to meet my eyes. I sigh and nod, he's just a lost kid. His brother had to kill so many children and he couldn't take the fact. If Prim did that, I don't know what I would do.
"Come on, let's go to the beach. I'm getting sick of being indoors." I tell him, he looks up and smiles cheekily like a child. We walk together to the beach, sharing stories about our families and conversing in small talk about Finnick and our games. Killian turned out to be a nice person who even tolerated my witty and sarcastic profile, laughing whenever I said something sarcastic to him. The next few days were spent with me and Killian talking about almost everything, Finnick was still busy with appointments, has been for 3 days now. Killian showed me around town, his family's boat and his secret hideout when Finnick was in his games. I pitied Killian, he was so misunderstood and he wanted to make amends with Finnick, but never knew how to. Finally after 5 days without Finnick, he was off-duty and free to spend some time with me, and hopefully now Killian. I finally persuaded Killian to apologize to Finnick, it took a lot of persuasion and witty comments, which he felt offended by, but at the end he agreed.
"Finn. Look, I'm sorry. I was a jerk and I didn't know what to act cause I couldn't get over the fact that you killed 12 children. When you were gone, Katniss made me realize that you didn't have a choice and-" Finnick cuts Killian off by pulling him into a man-hug and patting his back.
"It's fine." He says with a smile, pulling back and walking to my side. "Thanks Kat." He tells me, squeezing my hand. I smile weakly at him. Our train leaves at noon and it's now 4 P.M., Killian's pretty down but I roll my eyes when he say's his parting words.
"You know there's something called visiting right?" I ask him sarcastically, rolling my eyes. "I'll visit you sometime. Now stop acting like such a brat." He laughs loudly, which makes Finnick and his parents turn and glance warily at us. Finnick raises and eyebrow but I just shrug to tell him it's nothing.
"Look Katniss, for all it's worth you're my best friend. When you're around I can be myself, I'm more open and nicer. Thanks for that." He tells me, hugging me tightly. God this guy has a strong grip.
"Glad to be of assistance." I tell him and pull back from the hug. Finnick comes over to us and eyes us suspiciously.
"God, it's like everyones hitting on you! Now there's one more person to have as competition! Jeez Kat, you really are a piece of work." Finnick says jokingly, wrapping an arm around me protectively. "So little brother, thinking of stealing her from me?" He asks Killian who now looks amused by his jealous brother. Finnick's not jealous. We're just close friends. He's probably just being protective, he doesn't want to see me get hurt.
"Nah, we're just best friends. And to think I would never see the day Finnick Odair get jealous! And Katniss Everdeen is the cause!" Killian guffaws.
"If anything, Katniss should be jealous of all the screaming women out for me." Finnick retorts back, waggling his eyebrows and smirking at me.
"Which is why we're alone right now in this deserted train station." I tell him, picking up my bag. Finnick chuckles and shakes his head in amusement, grabbing his bag for his stay at District 12.
"Well we better get going. See you in a week!" Finnick says to his family, getting on the train.
"Thank you for letting me stay with you. I really appreciate it." I tell his parents, Finnick's mom hugs me and his dad pats me on the shoulder. Killian runs and hugs me, lifting me up in the air. I scowl at him and board the train, District 12, here we come.
AN: Short chapter, sorry :( I'm sick but I'll keep writing for you guys! Thank you for the reviews! Keep 'em coming! REVIEW! Reviews = Love