Chapter Three- Three Secret Keepers

I feel a cool breeze on my back as I stir slightly, bringing my knees up to my chest. At my movement, I hear someone beside me groan and I open my eyes slowly, smiling when I see the equally sleepy Finnick lying next to me. "Hey, Finn," I say, shutting my eyes again as I rest my cheek against his chest.

"G'morning," he replies, barely raising his hand with enough energy to stroke my back. "Sleep well?"

"Hmmm," I mumble. "Better, now that I know that you're here, with me, instead of fighting for your life, with another girl."

He chuckles at my quickly added last comment and sits up slightly, causing me to roll off and open my eyes to stare at him. "Miss Annie Cresta, are you jealous?" he accuses, propping himself up on his elbows to look at me, too.

"I have never been and I have no intention of ever being jealous of the girls that follow you around," I answer, smiling. "I know that I've always got the position of your best friend, which is more than they'll ever have."

"You are jealous." He laughs again. I glare at him but he just waves it away, smiling at me instead. "Come on, Annie, lighten up. I've just come home and you're all still doom and gloom."

I shrug, taking his offered hand when he climbs off the bed, lifting me down after him. "I'm absolutely fine, I think you'll find. You're just too cheery for your own good."

"Oh, if you're going to be like that, hush," he complains, putting an arm around my shoulders as he leads me towards the front door. "I want none of your bad mood rubbing onto my good one."

I elbow him slightly in the side, the smile returned to my face when he laughs, momentarily tickling me. He grabs the front door and pulls it open, nudging me out before he locks the door behind us both.

When we've turned around to start walking through the District, we're met by a slightly flustered looking Melia, who is glaring at her son with her hands on her hips. "My goodness, Finnick Odair, your escort has been going crazy for nearly an hour, looking for you. I thought she was going to kill someone if you weren't found, so you are unbelievably lucky that I guessed you would have come here."

Finnick looks slightly panicked, dropping my hand to run his own through his hair. "Really, mum? It can't be nearly eight. Surely I've got loads of time to get back-"

"Finnick Odair, get yourself down to the Victors' Village right now, before someone else gets over here and threatens you much worse than I can," his mum interrupts.

He sighs, beginning the run back to the Village almost as soon as his mum has finished talking, turning around only once he's at the end of the path to wave at me.

I smile softly at the gesture, but then blush as I put my hands in my pockets, feeling the woman's eyes focussed on me. "Did you really mean that?" I ask. "Have they really been looking for him for hours?"

"I'm afraid they have, dear," she replies quietly. "They wanted to begin making him look good for the cameras."

It's my turn to sigh, now, wishing that it wasn't all pretty looks and playing his part for the cameras. In all honesty, it would be nice if he got to spend some time with his family, but I want him to be with me all the time now. "Did you tell everyone that you were coming here to find us?"

"Annie, they hardly noticed you were missing, too, and I have the right to protect you as my own child now. Of course I didn't tell them. Mags- Finnick's mentor- Dylan, and I are keeping your and Finnick's secrets safe," she promises, squeezing my shoulder.

I look up and smile. "Thanks," I mutter. "I know I won't be able to do it without you three."

"It's really nothing," she reassures me, smiling, too, as she begins to slowly walk in the direction that Finnick ran a few moments before, me following quickly after. "I am, honestly, over the moon that you continue to make him as happy as he is, especially after what happened in the Games."

I bow my head slightly, focussing on my bare feet as I wrap the fingers on one of my hands around my other hand's wrist, hiding the rope bracelet. "What happened in the Games was terrible, at such a high cost to both Finnick and the girl's family. I just hope that, one day, maybe, he'll be able to go to District Two and thank them for their daughter." Tears form at my eyes and I stop speaking, saved by Melia, anyway.

"No doubt, he will be able to, on his Victory Tour, if he's lucky," she says.

Silently, I nod, choosing not to say another word as I walk through the streets with the latest Victor's mother. Luckily, Melia chooses not to speak either, allowing me to enjoy the last few sweet minutes of silence that we will get before we return to Finnick's house in the Victors' Village, which will be where all the cameras and flashing lights will be housed. Oh joy.

And, of course, we're not entirely free of people's questioning gazes and looks on the way there. As Finnick rightly pointed out, it is only just nearing eight but, even so, some brave reporters have woken up early to catch us out, but there are also some people from the District who talk to us. Well, these people talk to Melia and see me, simply, in the same way as Finnick saw me yesterday.

When we finally come into sight of the houses, most of the reporters hanging around the front, I glance to the woman at my side, asking quietly, "Do we have an excuse for why we're not inside?"

She returns the glance towards me, before replying, "You got up early and decided to go for a swim on one of the beaches you used to go to. You left a note, letting us know, so I came to get you."

I nod, my eyes meeting hers to give her a silent thank you that she understands and accepts. As she walks up the path, I am careful to stay close behind her, able to easily follow through the crowds through the slight gap that she makes. As well, as I focus the whole of my attention on getting past without making a fool of myself, it means that I pay the minimal amount of attention to the reporters themselves.

The front door shuts behind us and we are met with the immediate craziness of the house. However, I can't help but smile when I hear Finnick's escort shouting directions to everyone, her shrill voice and definite instructions reminding me happily of my own escort that I used to hate when I was constantly bossed around. I know it's awful to think but, now that the instructions are focussed on someone else, they're not half as bad.

However, soon, Finnick comes down the stairs, throwing his hands in the air. "Look. I don't care if you've got a schedule to stick to and that I've already messed it up by arriving late and not looking perfect, as you seem to think I naturally do. I want breakfast and, if you're that desperate to stick to your timings, "prepare me" whilst I eat." He spins around and heads towards the kitchen, before spotting me.

"Hey, Finn," I say, the smile that appeared on my face through his confrontation with his team growing when I see the look in his eyes. "How are you enjoying your makeover?"

He smirks, a twinkle appearing in his eyes. "You know what, Annie? It's not actually too bad." He then turns to look at the three people who followed him downstairs, a look of confusion on their faces. "However," he inclines his head in my direction, "I think Annie would like a makeover more than I would. For one thing, she's a girl, but she's also never got to experience one before. Why don't you treat her?"

My mouth falls open as I glare at him, shaking my head quickly and looking around for help. "No, it's alright-"

"Such a good idea, Finnick!" interrupts his mentor, clapping her hands together. "They can give her a quick makeover whilst you have breakfast."

"Oh no, I really don't think that is necessary," I stutter, still staring at Finnick.

He winks at me, before walking to the empty space in front of me and pressing a finger to my lips. "I think you'll love it, really."

I frown but, before I have the opportunity to respond, someone has grabbed my wrist and begun to pull me up the stairs. Without thinking, I grab Finnick's hand and begin to drag him with me, until he plants his feet on the floor and refuses to move. "Finn, come on," I moan.

"I'm taking this chance to have breakfast," he reasons, still smirking.

"Get room-service or whatever," I suggest. "You're coming with me."\

"No way." He shakes his head. "I'm saving it for myself for later. I don't want to spoil it."

"I want my best friend to be with me, Finn. I'm scared," I lie, pretending to pout at him. "I've never had anything like this done to me before."

He holds my gaze for a few moments, trying to work out how best to reply to what I just said, without giving away my real identity, before he sighs, stepping up onto the step I'm on. "Mum, can you bring some breakfast up to my room, please?"

Melia steps out of the front room, a small smile also tugging on the corners of her lips as she pretends to be preoccupied with the creases in the shirt she holds. "I thought you were going to have it down here."

"So did I, but someone else threatened something close enough to the death penalty if I didn't come with them." Finnick throws a look in my direction. "I've avoided it up until now, so I'd like for that to continue to be the case."

Melia allows the smile to properly creep onto her lips as she nods, not saying a word.

At this movement, I finally begin to follow the prep team upstairs, leaning towards Finnick's ear as we walk. "You know, whatever food you get, I'm still going to throw it over your head for doing this to me."

I hear a gasp from in front of us and look up to meet the escort's stern gaze. "Miss Cresta. That is no way for a young lady to behave."

A smirk crosses my lips as Finnick puts him unheld arm over my shoulders, saying, "Don't worry, Raeanne, I'm used to it now."

She huffs slightly and turns away, walking across the landing and to Finnick's room, pushing the door open as soon as she gets there. Quickly, she ushers us all in, before shutting the door behind us, the clicking of her impractically high heels informing us of her journey back downstairs, where she'll probably complain about Finnick and I's habits to Melia.

Finnick takes advantage of my brief lack of concentration and leads me over to the seat in front of the mirror, pushing me down into it. He then pulls his hand out of mine, taps my nose and smirks as he walks away, sitting on the windowsill and crossing his legs over. He leans back onto the wall and continues to watch me, the smirk on his face not dropping once.

I sigh, rolling my eyes and sticking my tongue out at him. This draws a slight chuckle from him, so I turn away from him and to his prep team, focussing my attention on them now. However, when I do this, I have to try not to cringe when I hear their suggestions for the outfits I will wear, the elaborate designs usually saved exclusively for the Victors.

Soon, they've walked in my direction, so that they're all standing around me, touching my face or my hair as they continue to decide what they'll make me look like. I try not to pull away from them, disliking how they seem to be treating me, without a thought for how I'm feeling. Too, it's not helping the situation when I hear the sniggers from behind me from Finnick.

"Miss Cresta," one finally says, "you seem very well-groomed for someone from a District."

"What's that meant to mean?" I ask, pretending to act shocked and offended.

"We mean, usually, we have to do a lot of prepping to make tributes look presentable, and you've had no reason to prepare yourself for this, really," explains a second member of the prep team.

I struggle to find words to answer them with. How am I meant to tell them that I look so conveniently perfect already because I have been "prepped" recently? I've not only been treated by another prep team, but I've also had an entire makeover from the Capitol.

"She's always been one who's been concerned with her appearance," Finnick covers, meaning I sigh in relief. "She was always careful of what she looked like, especially since I left because she was worried that a camera would come to speak to her when she wasn't looking great." I throw him a thankful smile and he nods to show that he has seen and recognised what I'm saying.

The team don't say anything else as they begin their work, meaning that I have no further excuse for how to avoid the makeover. Instead, I shut my eyes and leave them to do what they have to, only opening my eyes when Finnick walks past me, towards the bathroom. I jog the hand that holds his juice, causing him to send a somewhat annoyed look in my direction, but I just wink and shoo him away.

When they've finished- if I'm lucky, it was only about half an hour- I am told to open my eyes to look at my appearance, so that I can tell them if it is suitable or not. Around my eyes, the eye shadow is partially green, partially purple, the two colours carefully blended in with each other, and a slight glitter dusted on with them. Within there, there is a thick line of eyeliner to match the mascara. The colour that they have painted on my lips is a pale pink.

Too, they have obviously put some consideration into the hairstyle that they styled for me. My dark hair has been curled, but they've pulled it into a neat ponytail that falls over my shoulder, letting the curls, generally, free. There is only one curl on the other side of my face, pinned in place by a little green flower, to balance out the style, or something like that.

The outfit they have put me in consists of a green skirt of a reasonable length, the pleats coming out slightly, but the waist held in with a thick brown belt. Tucked into the skirt is a billowing cream top, decorated with what looks like tiny black flying birds. To finally match the belt around my waist, I wear brown heels, these, luckily, not a ridiculously high height.

For the first time ever when I have had a Capitol prep team working "with" me, I allow a smile onto my lips. This time, it's not too much because they're not trying to make me seem more desirable or anything, so it's just a pleasant makeover to make me look nice. I thank them all for such a nice gesture, but they only brush the words away, reasoning that it's only there job.

I roll my eyes and step back from the mirror, thanking them once again, despite their protests. I plan to go back downstairs to eat the breakfast that I haven't yet had the chance to eat, but I am stopped from going any further when I hear the bathroom door open, Finnick stepping out with a towel in his hands to dry his hair, currently unaware of how I have moved.

"Hey, Annie," he says without looking, "I'd really appreciate it if you didn't chuck anything over me right now, considering how long that shower took. I haven't, yet, got the hang of how that thing works, so I really don't want to have to try again- Hey." He pauses, having finally dropped the towel from his face to see me gone. "How come we're playing hide and seek now?"

"Well, I don't know about you, but I know that I'm certainly not playing that," I reply, causing him to spin around and stare at me.
His eyes first land on my face, where he looks at all the details with a slight look of shock on his face. As I try to work out if it's actually really bad and I saw something different, his eyes continue to travel over the rest of me, his shocked expression turning to a little, then gradually bigger smirk. Because of this, I begin to blush, playing with the hem of the skirt, just as he looks back to my face and smiles, the smirk gone.

Before he gets the chance to say anything, however, the door to the room bursts open, filled with Finnick's escort- Rainy, wasn't she called? "My, my, my, Miss Cresta, don't you look adorable? You look just like a girl with a brand new outfit, who's waiting to show herself off to the world. How cute!" she exclaims, carefully studying me.

I frown slightly, unsure of what I want her to think about me, but pretty sure that I don't want to look "adorable" or "cute".

"Now, now, Miss Cresta, we don't want that horrible frown to spoil that lovely little outfit, do we?" she scolds. "Mr Odair, isn't that right? Doesn't she look adorable when she's wearing that, until she frowns? It spoils the whole thing, doesn't it?"

Finnick looks a little awkward at the question directed at him, for he begins to play with the towel in his hands, not meeting my gaze. Surely, if we were on our own, he'd tell me what he thinks, but, now that his escort is watching, neither of us want to hear it.

"Mr Odair?" she pushes. "We'd all love to hear what you think."

Slowly, he looks back up at me, his eyes, once again, travelling over my body. When he finishes his examination of me, he meets my eyes and smiles. "I suppose that Miss Cresta could look adorable, at a push," he pauses, watching my face drop, "but I'd say she looks more beautiful." A grin settles on his lips and I smile back, too.

"Thank you, Mr Odair," I say, pretending to curtsey, before sending a wink in his direction. "But, now, I must go to have the breakfast that you interrupted."

I wave, laughing a bit when he bows, calling after me, "Fair thee well, good maiden."

In little time, I am downstairs and in the kitchen, where I can fix myself some food for breakfast, from the large array of foods in the cupboards. At this moment, I'm the only one downstairs because Finnick's still upstairs, being made to look beautiful, and his family are also upstairs, getting themselves ready, so I take my breakfast into the living room to eat, beginning to read a book as I wait.

I don't know how much later it is when I hear footsteps coming downstairs and I stay still, expecting that, whoever it is, will not want to speak with me. However, when the person flops onto the sofa next to me and flashes a grin in my direction, I can't help but scold, "You want to be careful, Finn. You don't want to ruin that handsome outfit, now, do you?"

"Yeah, probably not." He shrugs, anyway, lifting the book out of my hands and placing it on a nearby table. "We've got a couple of minutes until everything's done, though, so do you want some fresh air?"

I nod slowly, taking his offered hand when he stands. "Please be careful, though, because I don't want to be held responsible for not stopping you when you began to ruin that stupidly gorgeous suit of yours."

He laughs and leads me out of the room, then out of the house, taking me onto the beach and breathing in deeply.

Next to him, I do the same, resting my head on his shoulder when he puts his hand on my waist. "Only a few more weeks, Finn," I mutter, looking out at the blue sea. "A few more weeks and everything will be back to normal."

"Oh, Annie, how I wish that could be true," he sighs, squeezing my waist gently. "But, you're right. We'll try and make it as normal as we possibly can. Whenever possible, we'll try to forget this all happened."

"I'm looking forward to going swimming with you again," I admit, making him laugh slightly.

"Soon, I promise," he whispers. "We'll do anything you want to do, now that I've got the money to."

"At least that's one benefit of this whole thing," I remind him softly.

"One," he repeats. "Although I can think of one that happens at the end that doesn't make it worth it in the slightest." He brings me closer to his side but, before I get the chance to reply, someone from the house calls us in, telling us we need to go. I sigh and turn to head back, but not before Finnick catches my chin and whispers, so that only I can hear, "You're my secret and no one else needs to know. Not ever. I'll keep you safe, until the end of my days. I promise you that. And I really mean it."

Author's Note: Hush, now. If anyone asks, I did not update this. I am only updating I Volunteer, like I said I would. I am certainly not updating this because I had a really nice weekend/Sunday with Georgie last week and a really nice watching-of-the-tennis yesterday.

Awww no reviews for the last chapter, though :( and hardly any views, too. I just hope the new summary is more appealing...

Next chapter: A couple of weeks later, when the cameras have gone, and Finnick and Annie can begin a normal life.

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