A/N: Finnick's POV

Draven wasn't in terrible shape, we were told, when he was picked up by the hovercraft and transported back to the Capitol. Three to four days, it was suggested, and then he would be able to be reintroduced to the public.

"They want him back to a healthy weight," Scarlett said with a shrug. "And the dehydration, I guess. They don't want him doing his interview with chapped lips or something. You know how silly they are about looks here in the Capitol."

Oh, I knew, and I looked across the table at Scarlett and tried not to think about the way she looked that night in my bed.

Who could really blame the Capitol for wanting her? They would be mad not to.

But we weren't talking about Scarlett Delannoy, were we? We were talking about Draven Dupre, and I was sure that he would be joining us as soon as they could get him started on being a Capitol whore.

There were several reasons I didn't like this idea.

For one thing, Draven was attractive and strong and really just about any woman's dream. How was I supposed to compete with that? And if I wasn't wanted... Well, what use did they have for me? What else might they use me for?

For another, he seemed to have a profound interest in Scarlett, and he was older than her, by a few weeks, and as she said... she didn't have any interest in younger men. Despite the fact that she had iterated that nothing was going to change between us, there was always a chance that she would begin to see me differently. But if Draven came into the equation I might not ever have that chance.

"Is it always this boring?" Scarlett whined. "Waiting for them to be reissued into society?"

"Yes," Blight muttered, looking out the window at the streets below, the people celebrating Draven's victory. "It is always this painfully dull. You could always go throw something if it would make you feel better."

"I did that this morning," Scarlett sighed, propping her chin on her hands. "Maybe I'll go visit Haymitch."

Blight snorted.

"I wouldn't if I were you," he said. "He's wasted again. Mags, could you pass another roll?"

Mags tossed a District Seven roll over to Blight.

We had been staying out of our own floor since Luke's death. I was seeing his glassy eyes everywhere I turned, and it was bad enough that I had to know that I wasn't able to keep him alive, despite my best efforts.

Mags had told me that not everyone would live no matter what we did. It was a one-in-twenty-four chance each year, although sometimes we got a better shot than others, and most years we have better than average. Still, there was never a guarantee. After all, Scarlett and I had been far from guaranteed wins.

"Fine," Scarlett sighed. "I think I'm going to take a nap, then."

She'd worked the night before, so we just watched her go back to her room, my own pain at the way I was used being transferred onto her as she walked.

The following day was supposed to be the last day of Draven's confinement, and Scarlett and I decided to go throw things at targets in the training center just to keep from being bored.

"What was it like for you when you got out?" Scarlett asked, grabbing a rack of knives and another of axes.

"Mags was there," I said with a shrug. "And the others. You know, stylist and everything. It was normal, like the ones you see every year."

"No, I mean, what did you feel like?" she asked with a sigh. "I mean, I know what it's like. It's always the same. But how did you feel?"

I hadn't thought about it in so long that I had to stop for a moment.

"I guess I was relieved," I said, shrugging and picking up a spear experimentally. "The whole experience for me was so fast that I didn't even know what to think."

"I felt a bit sick," Scarlett whispered. "I still felt guilty about the kid I came in with."

She had officially had to kill the kid, I remembered, actually remarkably similarly to how Draven had killed Luke, and the boy had begged for it to be quick, too. No wonder she had seemed out of sorts since the last day of the Games.

"Do you think the Games make us crazy, or that they make us do crazy things?"

I shrugged.

"I think it depends," I said, thinking. "I mean, Titus was obviously crazy, eating people and whatnot. I think Charlotte was probably crazy. But you, me? I don't know. We definitely did crazy things, but we're not Haymitch or anything."

Scarlett nodded, but I couldn't help but see the wheels turning behind her eyes as she threw some knives at the target. She wanted to know about madness because...?

Because she thought she was mad? Because she worried Draven was mad?

She didn't seem to have liked my pointing out that we weren't Haymitch, but because she didn't want to be insulted somehow, or because she didn't want to be compared with him? I really didn't know the answer, but she didn't seem to be in any mood to be giving me any answers, so I didn't ask.

Instead, we just threw things at the targets for a while until we ran out of things to throw, and then we made our way back up to the District Seven floor, where Mags and Blight were talking about something in hushed tones, something they stopped talking about almost instantly.

"He's up," Blight said after a moment. "Just got word. The watching of the Games is tomorrow. Better get some sleep."

"Sounds good," said Scarlett, taking off to her room without another word.

I watched her go, wishing I could have followed her instead of going down into my own bed where the nightmares were.

The next day, we went out to watch the highlights of the Games again with Draven Dupre, who was looking a lot more like himself from before the Games had begun, except a bit more buff, I thought. Scarlett and Blight were there, sitting in the row in front of Mags and I, and Haymitch was behind us.

"Well, this ought to be interesting," Haymitch said sarcastically, as Caesar Flickerman schmoozed with Draven about trivial things, lightening the mood a bit before they rolled the film.

We watched Draven's face as he watched the Games and I couldn't help but notice that he seemed unfazed by everything, including the lizards eating people.

When the watching was over, Caesar announced that the three hour interview would be the next day, and we watched him and Draven shaking hands for the camera, smiling, and I looked down at Scarlett to see her frowning slightly, watching Draven like she was trying to figure him out, or at least trying to figure something important.

"I'm interested about this interview," Blight said as we made our way back to our own beds, well except for me and Scarlett, who were working.

"Yes, it could be very interesting," Mags said, nodding in agreement.

I was a bit concerned that her speech seemed to be deteriorating even more. But I had other things to focus on as I went straight back to my room, found my card, and went off to my night with some rich old woman.

But all anyone wanted to talk about, for the moment, anyway, was Draven Dupre. Even the woman I shared a bed with was tittering about how soon he might be on the market, and I just smiled and did everything I was supposed to do, trying to pretend she was Scarlett, but somehow that made it worse.

I didn't want to think about Scarlett sleeping with Draven Dupre, either.

The interview was the next day, and I settled into my seat in the audience again, watching as Draven was led onto the stage in an all-white suit that actually looked surprisingly good on him. He sat down beside Caesar and the anthem was played. I could see Scarlett shifting uneasily in her seat.

She wanted to know about the hatchet, I realized. That's the bit she was waiting for.

It took a while for Caesar to get there, though, as he talked Draven through his method of gaining followers (as 'allies' didn't seem the appropriate term), through long days of wandering, through what the lizard muttations tasted like, which I certainly could have gone all my life without knowing, but apparently it was what the Capitol viewers wanted to hear. Caesar had a good feel for that sort of thing.

"Now, Draven," Caesar finally said, "let's talk about the last two deaths, all right?"

Draven nodded.

"You and Charlotte parted ways, so that's not your kill," Caesar said, smiling. "Why did you team up with Charlotte in the first place?"

"To be perfectly honest," Draven said with a bit of a grin, "she was easy to convince with a smile. And that was pretty much my only criterion. There might have been better people to have teamed up with me, like Luke perhaps, but Charlotte was determined to outdo Scarlett Delannoy for whatever reason, and that drove her to do some things that made my own job a lot easier. Like starving our other companions when they became more of a burden than an asset. That wasn't really my sort of thing to do, but Charlotte was ruthless and desperate enough."

"So, let's talk for a bit about Luke's death, because that was really something you don't see every day," Caesar said good-naturedly.

Well, I would certainly hope you don't see people sticking weapons in each other's foreheads every day, but there are some pretty sick people in the Capitol. So maybe.

"I had planned that death for whoever was at the end," Draven said slowly. "Like I said, from the moment I saw the hatchet in the pile of weapons, I knew that's what I wanted for my finale. In a way, I'm sort of glad it was Luke. He deserved at quick end like that."

"So if it had been Charlotte?" Caesar prompted.

Scarlett shifted in her seat again.

"I might have dragged it out a bit more, yes," Draven said slowly. "But only because she deserved a painful death. I really wanted to recreate the moment when Scarlett Delannoy killed the boy from her District, as a mercy killing. I'm a bit... Well, I'm going to be honest with you, Caesar, I've been obsessed with Scarlett since she was first called at the reaping last year."

I looked down to see that Scarlett and frozen and tensed, and that many eyes throughout the audience were turning to her.

"Were you impressed by her?" Caesar prompted. "Was there something in her strategy you liked? Or is it something else?"

Draven actually smiled, a shy sort of smile, and I couldn't help but feel a stab of jealousy in my chest when I saw how good-looking he was when he wasn't being cocky.

"My first thought was that she was the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen," Draven said quietly, and the whole of the room was still as he described Scarlett. "And then, then they showed her in the chariots and I knew she had to be the most beautiful girl in the world. And then the interview... She's like an angel, so sweet and caring. And the way she took care of the boy from her District as long as she could... And then, then she came out swinging." He grinned. "She's a fighter, a really deadly machine. But she's human. She couldn't hunt. She couldn't climb a tree. She had weaknesses too, but I was hooked. She's what I was working toward winning for. I want to really meet her, as a fellow victor."

Caesar wrapped up the interview at that, and President Snow came on to crown Draven Dupre as a victor.

When the lights and cameras stopped, we all went down to the stage, all went to meet Draven, although no one in particular stepped forward to talk to him. For a moment, people just watched him, just took in his appearance, and he looked around at us, as if trying to decide whom to address himself to first.

"Hello," he said awkwardly, to the group at large.

Blight pushed Scarlett forward, just as I had been pressured to be the first to talk to Scarlett after the Capitol had decided we would make a cute couple.

"Welcome to the victors, Draven," she said softly, in her sweet, Games voice.

"Scarlett Delannoy," he said, reverently. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

There was some smirking around the group as he lifted her hand and kissed it, and a few people whispered to each other. Although Scarlett really didn't react to the gesture, I wanted to rip his lips off his face.

But I probably would have gotten in trouble for that.

"I'm not younger than you," he said, pointing out, as I had feared, that he was the one more suited to be with her.

"I know," she responded dryly.

His eyes searched her face for some sort of sign, for something he could use to win her over.

"I know everything about your family," he said softly, smiling.

"My family's dead," she said coldly, pulling her hand from his grasp and instantly dropping the sweet exterior. His face flickered with shock and horror. "A fire. An... an accident."

I wanted to reach out and hold her, knowing how difficult even discussing that little bit would be for her, but I stood rooted to the spot. She wouldn't have wanted to be publically comforted by anyone. Scarlett Delannoy was a strong, independent woman.

But she was a child, and weak, and scared. I'd seen her fears and I knew what she looked like when she cried with pain from her very core.

Draven Dupre could never understand that. He could worship her strength and revel in her beauty, but he could never, ever know her like I did.

Why?

Because she knew, like I did, that if she let him in at all like she had with me, he would be in danger. Scarlett didn't like the thought of anyone being in danger on her account, and she even pushed me away when she could, what little bit she could. But she needed me, and she needed Haymitch, because she needed someone. And she'd already let us in.

No, Draven Dupre would never understand, and yet despite the hurt on his face at her sudden coldness, I watched as he continued to try to win her over as we all stood talking to each other, and I realized she was toying with him, leading him on and then cutting him down, for amusement, perhaps, or to wear him out so he would stop trying.

But he showed no sign of relenting, so if that was her goal, only time would tell.

The thing that stuck out to me more than anything, though, was the way all the other victors rejected him.

Draven Dupre, I realized, would not be joining us watching the Games the following year. Our group showed little interest in him apart from Scarlett, whose only interest appeared in teasing him mercilessly. The other victors paid no mind to him either, and the only people who showed any concern about him at all were Ptolemy and Rayne, his own District victors. Ptolemy especially, because it meant that he could finally retire.

Eventually we were told that it was time to clear out, and we were given our times for train departures for the following day. I watched Draven trail after Scarlett as we made our way to the elevators, and I managed to squeeze into an elevator with the two of them. Draven gave me a dirty look, but Scarlett almost looked relieved as I squeezed in between the two of them.

"I'm tired," I sighed. "All the excitement's worn me out. Can't wait to sleep in my own bed. You?"

Scarlett got the hint and nodded, glancing at the indicator that said we were on the fourth floor. I didn't get out, though. She frowned at me.

"I have something I wanted to talk with Blight about."

Draven looked more than a bit irked, but he held his tongue.

When we got off on the seventh floor, Scarlett and I watched the elevator doors close on Draven before turning to each other and just staring at each other for a long moment, silent.

"He's crazy about you," I said conversationally.

"He's stupid," she retorted, turning toward the table slightly, but not moving at all. "You sound jealous."

"I'm not," I lied, and I knew she could tell I was lying, but I didn't know what else to say. Yes, I'm so jealous of him, let me prove how much better I could love you? No, I'm not jealous of him, I don't need to be, he's not seen how heavenly you are screaming in passion?

No, I had nothing else to say. I just stared at her, wishing she would tell me that she didn't care about him at all, that there was nothing to be jealous of because Draven Dupre meant nothing to her, but she just stood there, saying nothing.

"It meant nothing," she finally said. "With us, Finnick. It was just to help you. Nothing is changing."

"Of course," I choked out.

Blight arrived on an elevator by himself and he looked at me questioningly for a moment, but I just shook my head.

"Good night," I said firmly. "Both of you. See you next year."

And with that I turned on my heel and caught the next elevator down, ignoring the fact that they watched me as I stood there waiting.

When the elevator doors closed on me, I sank to my feet, burying my face in my hands, and dreaming up all the ways I could make Draven disappear if he touched Scarlett.

But all I could do was wait the long months between.

A/N: That's it for Luke's Story! I'm going to be starting the next bit soon, since my finals will be over on Wednesday. Keep your eyes peeled for The 68th Games: Kimbra's Story! It will have more Finnick/Scarlett/Draven/Haymitch drama!

-C