Oh.

My.

God.

I actually updated. :D

Finnick Odair and Annie Cresta belong to Suzanne Collins

"So…"

"So."

It was nothing short of awkward. There was nothing that I could say that would lessen the tension.

"Let's just cut the bullshit, Mr. Odair." She spoke bluntly, as if she knew exactly what was going to happen to her in the next few days. "I know what's going to happen in that arena. I know that I'm going to die. At least there's no one to mourn my lifeless body when they send it back in a crate like they sent my sister's."

I had never seen a tribute with such resolution. To go in and know that you won't come back alive, and still be okay with that? It was nearly impossible to find such a tribute. They all either went in desperate, clinging onto some pathetic hope that they would be the one to win, or overly confident, believing that death was not an option. I was, of course, the first type.

Annie looked at me with a playful smirk. "Since I'm not coming out alive, I should probably try to kill as many tributes before they kill me." The words spilling out of her mouth were horribly morbid for such a pretty, innocent face.

"Don't." I barely choke out the words. It's hard for me to not be speechless, considering the situation I'm in. "Don't kill the tributes." I begin to walk toward her and place my hand on her cheek. "Don't become tainted. Don't let the games suck you in. Don't let the Capitol change you. Don't become their pawn. Just, don't."

She gently pushes my hand aside. "There's nothing I can do to stop from becoming their pawn. From the moment my name was picked, I became their toy. Their plaything." No, I thought to myself, you were their pawn from the moment I walked into your home, attempting to comfort you. "The most I can do to try to defy them is to break the rest of their toys."

"But don't you see that that's playing right into their hands!" I was beginning to feel angered and trapped. I wish I could just grab Annie and run far, far away from the Capitol, from the districts, from everything. We could live together in the woods. Only the two of us. We could do it. But, sadly, we were too far into the games to run away now. There were far too many watching. One wrong move and I would guarantee Annie's death in the arena. "Annie. You're not going to die. I won't let it happen."

Her playful smirk was wiped off of her face, "I thought I said that we would stop the bullshit, Mr. Odair."

"Why must you call me 'Mr. Odair'! I'm only two years older than you! Are you mocking me? Do you want me to call you 'Ms. Cresta'? Do you want me to love you or not? What do you want me to do!" I was beginning to become desperate. "Please, just tell me," I pleaded to her.

I looked up to see how she took my outburst, and strangely, she was crying. It wasn't the loud, whining, and gasping for air kind that I was so used to hearing, but instead she was silently crying, the tears quickly streaking down her face and it seemed like she was trying to hold back her tears, although unsuccessfully.

"I don't know what I want you to do. I don't know what I want at all. I'm only sixteen!" she stood up as she said this, her voice rising with each syllable she enunciated. The next part she added in a very feeble voice, "I just want to see my sister again." She collapsed into a heap on the floor, tired from this seemingly long conversation even though it had only been a couple minutes. Now, she let her tears freely flow and whimpered slightly every few seconds.

I kneeled down next to her, and attempted to comfort her by placing my hand onto her shoulder. It was incredibly awkward, seeing as that I'm an incredibly awkward person and the situation itself was just strange. She responded to my touch with a slight recline, but she didn't fully protest my patting, so I gently picked her up and held her in my arms until her crying subsided.

"Why do you do this to me?" Annie whispered. As usual, she left me completely clueless.

"I have no idea what you mean," I seemed to say this to her hair, but I was sure that she could hear me.

She abruptly untangled herself from my arms and fiercely stared into my eyes. "You know exactly what I mean. You play with my head. You tell me you love me, and then you ignore me for four years. And just when I finally accept that you hate me, you barge into my house for no apparent reason and sweep me off my feet just like before. And now, you yell at me, tell me that you're going to keep me alive when I know that you're just begging for me to die so you can move on with your life." She took a deep breath. "I just want to know what your actions mean and not to be thrown off by your many, many mixed signals." Her point of view from what I've done the past four years baffles me. I had no idea how the situation looked from her point of view. I just selfishly based her feelings from the very few things I observed about her.

I began adlibbing the next thing I would say to her. "First of all, I'm sorry. Wait, what do I have to be sorry for? Forget that, I'm sorry. OK, I need to stop apologizing. Now I'm getting off track, where was
I? Right, I'm sorry. I have no idea how to explain how I feel about you. Sometimes, you infuriate – is that the right word?- to no end, and other times you baffle me with the amount of stuff – maybe not stuff – that you have to say about any subject. But, I can say for sure that I don't hate you, or dislike you. I'm not sure whether my feelings toward you are infatuation or love, the difference is unclear in my mind, but either way it is not a negative feeling – unless you hate being loved, and I'm not sure how you feel about that," The longer I talked, the less coherent and confident my sentences would be. Annie was starting to look very confused and trying to sort out what I am trying to say. "My main point is that I feel positively towards you, and I did not mean to send so many mixed signals." I sighed in relief, I have absolutely no idea what I had just said, but I hope that it made some sort of sense.

She stared at me in utter disbelief. I knew it. I didn't make any sort of coherent sense. "What the hell was that?" She began laughing at my confused state. "I know you were pouring your heart out and everything, but when you start stuttering and become awkward, it's too cute for me to stand." She spent the next few minutes laughing at my frozen awkward state. "But I feel the same way about you." She wiped tears from her eyes. "Why must we change moods so quickly? We start out award, then angry, and then know we are awkward again. Only 30 minutes has passed before I stepped into this room and we started talking again. Now, since you're so stubborn and want to have me make it out of the arena alive, we should probably start talking about what I'll do in there."

My mouth hung open for a few seconds before I regained control of myself. "Are you sure you're not going to give up in there?" She nodded slightly. "Great. First of all, you must not try for the Cornucopia, under any circumstances. Just run from there as fast as you can. You are not to participate in the bloodbath. If you do, you will be overtaken by the Careers and you will no doubt die." She was listening to my rant while nodding, as if she could fully understand what I was saying. "Second, you must find water. If you don't, you will die within a few days. Make sure to hydrate yourself and put on some extra weight that you can lose in the arena. Finally, you are to avoid contact with any other tributes. Any of the tributes. If you do not follow my instructions, you will have as much tougher time than needed."

"Since you're telling me all this and you're determined to have me live, I'm assuming that you're secretly planning to sacrifice Dylan?" She said, calmly.

"Who's Dylan?" I had never heard this name before.

"The other tribute. You know, the boy you plan on letting die in order to keep me alive." She looked at me, horrified. To have such a detail slip my mind was apparently a terrible thing. I have never quite paid attention to who I have been mentoring for the past couple years. Although, it's too bad that none of them are alive now.

"Oh. Yes. I do plan on letting him die in order for you to live. I would do anything to keep you alive, even if I were to die myself." I say this as sincerely as I can. And I really would sacrifice anything for her. But not because I love her. Instead, it's because I owe her. I can't let her die.

She quickly changes the subject before I start professing my love to her again. "What else should I do while I'm in the arena?"

I give her a flurry of advice that I doubt she understands. I try to educate her on every possible situation that could occur in the arena, which is literally everything. I attempt to recall what has happened in all the past games, but my memory is somehow a bit fuzzy from all the events that have happened in the past couple days.

- Time Passes –

The two hours passed far more quickly than I originally thought it would. It seemed to go by in such a flash that I wish I was with Annie even though I was just with her a few minutes ago.

"So…"

"So."

This time, there was none of Annie's spunk to break the awkward silence. There were no tearful apologies, no angry rants, nothing but awkward silences and few words.

"I know you don't care about me."

Oh look. Apparently he does have some spunk.

"I know you plan on letting me die so you can get Annie out of the arena." Am I really that obvious? I thought I was hiding my plan pretty well.

"No, no, no, no. I wasn't planning on doing that." I try to convince him that I actually am trying to keep him alive, but I'm a poor actor. I'm pretty sure that he could see right through me. "I don't want you to die in the arena, Derek."

"My name is Dylan." Damn. I thought that I had finally learned another tribute's name for once. "You don't even plan on learning my name before I die, are you?"

"Of course I'll learn your name, Dylan! See, I already know your name, and I am going to try to keep you alive." I feel horrible, lying to him like this. It seems like that I am actually convincing him, but that just makes me feel so much worse. This tribute is going to die, thinking that I actually tried my best to keep him alive.

"Well, I would want Annie to win anyways. I know it seems cliché, but I actually have a crush on her." He adverted his eyes and his face turned incredibly red. I know it's wrong, but I felt jealous of this boy who would be able to protect Annie from everyone else. I wanted to be able to sacrifice myself for her, but I had already tried to do that to her sister. It's possibly that I would mess up again and let another one of the sister's die. "Even if you plan on keeping me alive, I would still sacrifice myself for her if it came down to the two of us." I wish I could do that, I selfishly think to myself.

The rest of the two hours pass with me giving Dylan the same advice as I gave Annie, but I only put half of my heart into attempting to educate him on the ways of the Hunger Games.

- Time Passes –

When we first enter the Capitol, I'm immediately pulled away from Annie and Dylan and taken to my first client. I don't want to do this, but there's nothing I can do to stop it.

When I finish my job, I find out that my client is one of the gamemaker's for this year and I try to coax some secrets out of her. It turns out that it's not very hard to do.

She told me that they plan to bring the tributes to a bowl like valley, with the main source of water as a pond at the bottom. She went on to explain the variety of traps that would be included in order to make the games as interesting as possible. I doubt Annie would be able to escape any of them. She tells me that if the games go on for too long, they plan on flooding the arena.

"You know, you're such a beautiful boy," she says, taking my face into her wrinkly old hands.

And you're an old hag who would pay a small fortune to be able to sleep with me first.

"If you weren't so damn lovey-dovey with your tribute, I would try to keep you all to myself." She dramatically sighs. "Maybe I should just arrange it so that Annie Cresta dies in the arena and pay the president - Agh!" I start to choke her as soon as I hear that she wants to kill Annie. My hands squeeze together tighter and tighter, until she literally can't breathe and is turning blue. She finally manages to get me off by kneeing me where it hurts. "Learn to respect your elders!" She spits in my face.

After managing to get more air back into her lungs, she shrieks reproachfully, "You can guarantee Annie Cresta as good as dead!"

hahahaha... so bad at cliffhangars :'D

I'm not gonna try to promise when the next update will be, but I'll try to do it as soon as possible!