"Annie, I'm fine really," Finnick says as Nat pulls up to the hospital. Finnick got discharged a day later, but Annie is still insisting that Nat pick them up so Finnick doesn't have to take public transit.
"You're not at best friend status yet, Annie," Nat says as she got into the car. "He never tells anyone about the peanut allergy. I'm like one of three people on this earth who know."
"A lot more people know now," Finnick says. "And she may not be best friend status, but she's girlfriend status," he says, kissing her.
"Okay, rule number one," Nat says. "No PDA. Rule number two, next time one of you sits up front with me. Can you really not be apart so badly that you both have to sit in the back?"
They both nodded and Nat rolled his eyes. "It's nice to finally meet you in person," Annie tells Nat.
He nods. "You too. You're very pretty. Finn is very lucky." Annie blushes and leans against Finnick's shoulder. A few moments pass where no one says anything, before Nat fills that silence again. "So, Finnick, since you have a girlfriend, am I relieved of dentist duty on Saturday?"
"Dentist duty?" Annie questioned, not quite sure what they were getting at.
"Finnick hates the dentist, so he makes me take him. I think since you're the girlfriend, that duty should be passed to you this year."
"I'll take him" Annie says. "How bad can it be?"
"You'd be surprised."
"Ooh, there's a Starbucks," Annie says as they approach the dentist's office. "Can we go to Starbucks after? I haven't had it in forever and I kind of want one of their holiday lattes."
"You like Starbucks?" he asked.
She shrugged. "It's not my main coffee choice, but it's nice sometimes. I figured you would like it. Some of their coffees are really sweet."
"It's not sweet enough."
"I need to take you to some sort of support group for sugar addicts."
They get into the office and his body goes rigid. Annie then realizes what Nat was talking about. Finicky doesn't just "not like" the dentist, he's terrified of it. He sits in the waiting room, jiggling his knee, barely able to keep still. She takes his hand hoping it will calm him, but he still looks petrified.
When the hygienist comes out to call his name he squeezes her hand so hard that she thinks it's going to fall off. "You'll come with me, right?" he asked. She nodded. They keep holding hands, and when they get to the room, the hygienist has to pull in a chair from another room so she could sit next to him and hold his hand. Annie heard of people who hated the dentist so much that they had to go to special dentists so they could be sedated the whole time. Finicky didn't seem to be that bad, but once there was a tool that sounded like a drill, he looked like he was either going to jump through the ceiling or vomit over the poor hygienist.
His dentist, a smiling lady with dark brown hair and light brown eyes, came in to inspect his teeth. "Good news and bad news," she informs him. "What do you want first?"
"Good," Finnick says, his face practically draining of color.
"The good news is you have no cavities. I know how much you hate getting them filled." Finnick nods. That's an understatement. Before they realized they should just sedate him when filling cavities, he ended up kicking one of the poor hygienists in the nose. "The bad news," she says, getting right into it, "Is that you have to get your wisdom teeth removed. And soon, since we don't want them getting impacted."
"No," he says, simply.
"Finnick, unfortunately that's not an option. You're given anesthesia and the only pain that really comes from it is afterwards. It's like pulling teeth, just a little worse."
"No," he says again.
"We'll make the appointment," Annie says, taking his hand and leading him out to the waiting room. She makes it for next week so he has time to recover before going back to school. "It's not that bad," she says. "The aftermath is the worst. You can barely eat and it hurts, but that's the worst part of it all."
"I don't get it," Finnick said. "Why are we born with teeth we don't need? Why are we born with teeth that are hazardous to us? What is the point of them?" he asked, loudly as they get their Starbucks order. She laughs at the misspelling of Finnick's name.
"Phil Nick?" she asks. "Do they think you have two first names?" He laughs and goes to the counter with the sugar and milk. He got a Frappuccino without whipped cream. He takes a sip so there's some room in the cup and then pours a mountain of sugar on top. "Easy there, Phil Nick," she says, giggling.
"Is that the new Annie Pie?" he asked, stirring the sugar into his already sugary drink.
She nodded. "Annie Pie and Phil Nick. What a pair."
Annie and Nat sit in the waiting room waiting for Finnick to come out. Even though Nat was less than thrilled about coming to the dentist for such a big procedure, Annie really needed him to bring his car so Finnick wouldn't have to go on public transportation while still hopped up on anesthesia.
The hygienist tells them they can go see him. She explains that everything went well, instructs them on what he can and can't eat, and tells them when he has to change his gauze. Annie nods remembering a lot of this from her own wisdom teeth surgery.
Nat pulls out his phone. "What are you doing?" Annie asks.
"I have to film this," he says. "Have you ever seen people take videos after they've gotten their wisdom teeth out? They're gold." He turns his video on as they walk into the room. "Hey, Finny," Nat greets, as if he's talking to a child. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm angry," he mumbles, his words being muffled by the gauze.
Annie laughed. "Why are you angry?"
"I feel like I got the short end of this bargain."
"What bargain?" Nat asks.
"My name is Finnick like fins but I'm not a fish. I just want to be a fish. Imagine how good I would be at swimming."
"Honey, please try not to talk," the hygienist informs him.
"Make me," Finnick taunts.
Annie takes his hand. "Thou shalt not talk."
"This is going to be gold," Nat says.
Annie was preparing lunch for the three of them, when Finnick came out of his room with a blanket tied around his neck. "What are you doing, Finn?"
"I'm a superhero. I must go save the city."
"Later," she says. "You have to eat lunch first."
"But the city needs me."
"Sit down. The city can wait," she says. It was like dealing with a child.
"Fine," he mumbles, sitting down next to Nat.
"What's your superhero name?" Nat asked him.
"Phil Nick," he says laughing.
Nat looks confused so Annie explains the Starbucks incident. He laughs. "I once got Gnat. G-N-A-T. That's a bug. I don't get it. I think they do it on purpose."
"I think so too," Annie says. "I think it started out as a few mistakes but now they do it because it's become a thing."
The kitten hopped up on the couch and Finnick got distracted and picked it up. "Poor little unnamed kitten," he coos. "Poor poor little kitten. So young, so nameless."
"Name him then," Nat said.
"Poseidon," he announces.
"That's such a big name for such a small cat," Nat says, laughing.
"We can call him Posy or Sy," Annie says, kind of liking the name.
"Ring around the Posy," Finnick sang. "A pocket full of…" He trailed off and put Poseidon down.
"I like it," Annie says, laughing.
"It feels weird hanging out here," Gale says.
"God forbid you leave the apartment," Madge says sassily.
Everyone came back today and they decided to hang out at Finnick and Annie's apartment since Finnick was still recovering from his wisdom teeth surgery. Madge and Gale were being cordial, but they still hadn't had a talk about where they stood, and they were being kind of cold to each other.
"I want one," Peeta says, scooping up Poseidon.
"I hate cats," Katniss says, eying the small ball of fluff. Peeta lets him go and he curls up on Katniss's lap.
"He likes you, though," Annie says, laughing.
Annie opens her laptop and her FaceTime starts going off. "It's Johanna!" she announces excitedly. She puts the laptop on the coffee table and they all crowd on the couch and in front of the table so they can see her.
"Hey, Losers," she greets.
"What time is it there?" Peeta asks.
"Time to get a watch," Johanna jokes. She laughs. "It's noon."
"We're in separate days," Finnick says, still kind of hopped up on pain medication.
"How was the wisdom teeth surgery?" she asks.
"Horrible," he answers. "I have big gaps in the back of my mouth and I hate it."
"I heard you almost killed yourself by eating peanut butter," she says. "Nice job, Idiot."
"How are you hearing all of this?" Annie asks, curiously.
"Katniss sends me updates via WhatsApp. I call her my Idiot Informant."
They hear a muffled voice in the room and Jena comes into the frame. "Hey, Guys," she chirps. Jena is from England, grew up in Australia, and went to college in the United States. Her accent is a strange mixture of the three.
"Hey, Jena," they all greet.
"How's Australia?" Madge asks them.
"Lots of hot men," Johanna jokes. "You should come down here since you're newly single and all." Madge blushes. "Cut the shit you two and get back together." They didn't say anything and Johanna turned her attention to Finnick and Annie. "I heard you finally got together." They nodded. "Thank God." She looks at them. "I can't believe I'm looking at a room of people where the couple with the longest relationship is technically Mellark and Everdeen."
"Why technically?" Annie asks.
"Because Gale and Madge are still a couple in my brain," she says, simply.
Her voice was pretty loud, so Poseidon woke up and climbed onto the coffee table. He started hitting the screen with his paw and Annie laughed and lifted him off of the table.
"You got a kitten?" Jena coos. "Jo, we should get a kitten."
"We're not getting a kitten."
"Please?" she begs.
"No," Johanna says, not budging. "I'm going to go. I'll talk to you guys later."
"Bye, Jo. Bye, Jena," they all chorus before hanging up.
"It was good to hear from them," Annie says.
"I can't believe you've told her everything that's going on," Madge whined, glaring at Katniss.
Katniss shrugs. "I have to keep her updated."
"I don't want to go back to school." Madge groans.
"At least we're done with Psych," Annie points out.
"Hallelujah."
"I graduate in a semester," Finnick says. He had been very quiet for most of the night, partially because the meds he was taking made him so loopy. He either barely said anything or never shut up. There was no in between. "Speaking of," he says, "Northeastern is having a formal."
"Yeah," Katniss says. "It's all everyone can talk about. It's not until February though."
"That's fun," Annie says.
"I don't do formals. No thanks."
"I love to have a girlfriend who's so into romance," Peeta jokes.
"If you want romance, date Madge."
"Why does everyone want me to date all of a sudden? Maybe I just want to be single and mingle for a little while," she said, hoping it wasn't obvious that she was lying. Breaking up with Gale was a mistake, but she also was too stubborn to forgive him right away.
"It's not natural for you to be single," Annie says.
"I have to use the bathroom," she says, wanting to avoid the subject. "It felt weird to talk about being single, but it felt especially weird because Gale was in the room.
When she leaves, Peeta turns to Gale. "So are you going to propose?"
He shrugs. "I'm afraid she's going to say no, so I'm just going to leave it right now."
"She's not going to say no," Katniss assures him. "You just were really bad at keeping secrets, so you need to do it before she finds someone else."
"Maybe on Valentine's Day," he says. "She would like that."
Madge comes back in the room and they fall silent. "Maybe I should get that Tinder thing people talk about."
"No," Finnick says. "It's horrible. Don't get it. Ever."
"You have one?" Annie asks.
"I did. Before I met you. Most people just use it for sex."
"Maybe that's what I need. Some good old casual sex. No strings attached."
"I'm going to go," Gale says, getting up. "I'll see you guys." He leaves and Peeta gets up. "Maybe we should all go."
"I'm going to stay," Madge says.
"You can crash here if you want," Annie offers. "I don't use my room anyway. Finnick and I were thinking of renting it out to someone else."
"Maybe I'll take it," Madge says.
"Do you think they'll be okay?" Annie says quietly as she gets into bed with Finnick. "I miss them being together."
"They'll be fine," he assures her. "He just needs to propose."
"Promise me we'll never get like that," she says. "If we break up I wanna stay friends."
"I wasn't planning on ever breaking up with you," he says, smiling.
She kisses him. "I love you."
"I love you too," he answers. Poseidon climbs over them and lays by their heads and they both burst out laughing.
"He's jealous," Annie says. He lets out a little meow and Annie pets him. "He was the best Christmas present ever."
"Next year I'm not getting you a present. I'm just going to get myself with a strategically placed bow."
"Oh, shush," she says, laughing. She kisses him on the forehead and he smiles.
"Don't worry. I have to keep my record up for extremely kick ass presents."
"My mom wasn't really a kick ass present."
"That one doesn't count," he says. "That was a mistake. It could have went way worse than it did though."
She nodded. "It was the thought that counts anyway."
She gets up and turns out the light. Before moving in with Finnick she had barely ever shared a bed with anyone and now she can't even sleep alone for too long. She snuggles up against him making sure she doesn't crush Poseidon in the process.
"You know what, Annie Pie?" he asks after a long pause.
"What, Phil Nick?"
"I'm glad you're my roommate and my girlfriend."
"I am too."