Chapter 14: District 4 Wedding in District 13

I first meet Katniss Everdeen the morning after my argument with Finnick. She is very beautiful, but also very kind. She offers on the spot to loan to me - still a total stranger - one of the many wedding dresses designed for her Capitol wedding to Peeta, but were never used. "Finnick owes you his life," I tell her.

She swallows thickly. Her gaze is a flat affect, but intense. I don't know why the thought occurs to me, but I suddenly wonder if she is asexual. Katniss, like Johanna before her, seems like the kind of girl who could have a man take her in his bed, and not bat an eye. Not because she would not consent, no, she would just be... unimpressed. I don't know why I get this impression as Katniss swallows thickly. "Thank you."

I feel sorry that I ever thought of her as a... I can't even bear myself to think the word now. Finnick and I marry in a beautiful wedding thrown entirely by District 13. It is complete with many District 4 traditions that are important to our homeland's refugees here. And Haymitch somehow commissions Peeta himself into doing our wedding cake, complete with waves and little fishing boats. To hear the old drunk tell it, having Peeta do the cake served as a sort of therapy. If my wedding cake helps him get better, even gradually, who am I to object?

Finnick and I are pronounced man and wife and we kiss. Never mind that we have just broken the Victors' Code. All of that doesn't matter now. But if marriage for a Victor is rare, then marriage between two Victors is even rarer. Aside from now Finnick and me, I can think of only one other instance. Woof Casino and Savera Inchcape were married in secret for years. Very few of their colleagues knew about it. It only makes me wonder where Finnick and I went wrong, if close to 60 people knew the secret to our relationship and yet managed to keep it to themselves and not give away such information to the Capitol. Except for those damn jabber jays using my voice to call Finnick's name... That was an arena trap on the second day of the Quell, in which the surviving tributes were tortured by their loved one's screams. Katniss heard her baby sister, Peeta (even though he was safe in the very next clock wedge), and another male whom I didn't recognize at the time, but would turn out to be Gale. Finnick heard only me, and he ran about like a madman trying to get to me, screaming my name: "Annie? ANNIE!"... Anyway, I actually knew a Scorpii Inchcape, a Career Victor from District 1; she and Savera were distant cousins once removed or something. So the story goes, Savera fell in love with her tribute Woof leading up to and during the 17th Games, and did all she could to bring him back alive. When he did win, they entered a relationship, and wed in secret soon after their pupil, Indigo, won the First Quarter Quell. Being the new Mrs. Finnick Odair, I wonder if Katniss Everdeen would be willing to become Mrs. Peeta Mellark. Maybe not now, with how poorly Peeta is doing, but... someday.

Som refugees break into the traditional wedding song: "I tell ya of young men in black-and-white coats, and it's say, to the port side, heave ho. You'll cart your bride off in a flat-bottomed boat to mysterious fathoms below."

There is dancing, too. And at one point, I get to dance and talk with Katniss.

"We've never been properly introduced," I say.

"Why, no," she smiles.

"I'm Annie Cresta." Then I catch myself. I'm a married woman now. "I mean, Annie Cresta Odair."

"Katniss Everdeen," she replies. We shake hands and talk as we dance. I think that we might have the start of a great friendship. All at once, Haymitch approaches us.

"Katniss, Peeta would like to see you."

Katniss suddenly looks fearful, so I feel the need to warn her. I take her hand.

"Katniss, the Peeta you see in that locked-down room might not be the same Peeta you remember."

But I get the funny feeling that, as she walks away with Haymitch, she already knows.