A/N- Okay, I am so sorry that this took so long, especially since it is so short. My best friend since like first grade is moving away, so I've been spending all of my with him. I did manage to get this written out though, and I swear that I'll have a ton more by Friday. Thank You to everyone who's reviewed this or added it as one of their favorite stories.

Finnick 17, Annie 15

"You're beautiful," I whisper, burying my face in the woman's hair and kissing her head. It feels all wrong, my gut twisting horribly, but I know that I have to do that. The women, maybe thirty, puts her hands on my chest.

"Nothing compared to you," she giggles. I kiss her hard, like I can't wait to get enough. I taste the wine on her lips. My skin starts crawling, but of course she doesn't notice.

"Nah, you've got me beat Angel." I've learned that they like it when I call them Angel, every single woman in the Capitol. Something about the heavenly creatures appeals to them for some reason that I can't quite comprehend. If I was being honest, I would call them witches.

"You're such a sweet boy," she says, then laughs, obviously drunk. If she wasn't crawling all over me, I would almost laugh at how obviously wrong this all is. She can't keep her hands off of me, and she's calling me a sweet boy.

"You do realize that doesn't mean this is free," I tell her, keeping my voice in the same seductive purr that I've been using, even though I doubt that she can notice. She puts a pink hand on my face.

"Oh, you must realize that doesn't matter for me. Just name your price." I lean in close to her ear,

"All that I need to know is your secrets." She turns her head and kisses me once, biting my lip softly. A shiver runs through my body, but definitely not in a good way.

"I like the way you deal," she says. "Now, what do you want to know?" I smile now, ignoring the horrible feeling that this always gives me. At least something good comes out of this, something that can help the growing rebellion.

"Tell me about President Snow. Everything that you know." The woman, his secretary from two years ago, laughs hysterically.

"You aren't going to believe any of this," she manages to get out through her drunken laughs. Then she launches into a plethora of stories that one day may ruin the Capitol. I close my eyes and lean my head back against my pillow. Even if this does help bring Snow down, is it worth it?

"Why do you keep doing this to me?" Annie shrieks as soon as I walk into my house. She was waiting for me. I guess she can't stand it anymore. That was my fourth trip to the Capitol. The first time, I had an excuse. The second time, I was careful enough not to get caught. She cried the third time, until I convinced her that I wasn't going to do it again. Now, I did it again, and I can tell that there's no way I'm going to get out of this. The truth is dangerous, but I don't know what else to do. I have to either tell her or lose her.

"Annie, Honey, calm down."

"Don't call me that. I hate you." I try to kiss her to make her stop, but she elbows me in the gut. I back away. "You can't just make this go away. I want an explanation."

"Annie, it's complicated." She takes a deep breath, trying to calm herself down, but it obviously doesn't work.

"It's pretty simple to me. I'm not old enough for you, or maybe I'm not pretty enough, so you have to tear through the Capitol women whenever you get a chance."

"So what? You think I'm a whoremonger?" I shouldn't be getting mad. She has every right to hate me, and I know it. There's no way that I should be yelling at her for something that isn't her fault.

"I don't know what to think."

"I love-"

"No, you don't." I run my hand through my hair and walk away, trying to collect my thoughts. I have to tell her, but some place where President Snow can't hear. The only place that I know of is the cave where some of the victors meet to talk about our strategies for the rebellion, but that's a six mile walk. I guess the only thing that I can do is try to convince her to go on a six mile hike with me without making it obvious to President Snow that I'm going to give away my secret.

"Annie, this is stupid. I just want to be alone with you and forget the Capitol."

"Really? Because you don't seem to eager to forget about the Capitol when you rush there every time you get an invitation. Don't you know how to say no?"

"Annie, I've been gone for two weeks. I want to spend time with you," I say, ignoring her.

"Why would you even care? Isn't it nice to be able to get away from your bitchy sort of girlfriend for a while?" I put my hands on her shoulders and hold her in place when she tries to step away.

"You are so much more than just a girlfriend, and I'm totally lost when I'm not around you." She looks at her feet and shakes her head.

"I don't understand you."

"You don't have to. Just come with me and I'll make you forget everything."

"I'm not stupid," she says.

"I know that."

"If we've ever had anything, it's over." I take a deep breath and close my eyes. I can't help but being slightly devastated even though I know that it won't, can't last, after she hears what's really going on. And she isn't stupid, she knows how to keep a secret, she isn't going to allude to it or do anything wrong. This isn't putting her in danger.

"No, Annie. Just give me one more chance. I swear that you'll understand if you just give me a chance." She sets her jaw and looks me straight in the eye. It takes everything that I have to hold her gaze.

"No." She turns to walk away, but I grab her arm. Then I pull her really close to me so that my lips are brushing against her ear. She tries to pull back, but I root her in place.

"It isn't safe to tell you here." She sucks in a gulp of air, then steps away from me.

"I don't want to go with you," she says again, but now it's obvious that she's just acting for whatever bugs are stuck around my house.

"Please. You'll understand if we just have some time alone together."

"Fine."

The walk up the mountain is silent. She's still mad at me, and very cautious, because she has no idea what's going on. I'm starting to wonder if it'd be safe to say something outside of the cave, but then I realize that her life is at stake, and if I so much as muttered an out of place syllable that Snow heard, he would kill her.

"Where are we going?" she asks after a few miles. She doesn't seem tired, but I'm guessing that she didn't expect it to be quite this long either.

"It's just another couple miles," I say back. She doesn't say anything else until we get to the cave.

"This is it," I say, my voice now constricted by fear. How am I going to be able to tell her this?

"So what is going on this time?" she asks me, almost tiredly. I take a deep breath.

"If you are a victor that is considered physically attractive, President Snow encourages you to 'give back to the people of the Capitol'. Borglum and Eliza both have to do it to." She stares straight ahead, not even batting an eye.

"And how does he encourage you?" Another deep breath.

"He threatened to kill you, and my entire family." She swallows, then looks down at her feet.

"You wouldn't joke about this, would you?"

"No, I wouldn't." Then she runs over and hugs me tightly. I hold her against me, again hoping that the feeling of strength I get whenever she's close never leaves. I know better, but I can always hope.

"Is it really that complicated?" I almost shout. Everyone stares at me like I'm going crazy.

"You'd just get yourself killed," Mags says.

"No one would believe a word of it," Borglum adds.

"And if they did, it wouldn't do any good anyway. People wouldn't risk defying Snow based on rumors that you start," Eliza finishes. I sigh.

"There's going to be a risk factor involved no matter what we do," I say weakly, knowing that I'm outvoted on this.

"But other plans that we're making have a better chance at working," Eliza says. "Besides, we don't need to make the districts mad at the president, we just need to give them a plan that's sound enough to work. You're just trying to fuel the flames, even though it's about as high as it's going to get."

"I don't think that's completely true," Felix says to Eliza. "Every little thing that will remind the districts of how unjust this is will help. There isn't any limit to how high this fire can burn. Sure, getting a foolproof plan would be nice, but wouldn't pisses the districts off until they can't take it anymore work as well?"

Felix says the whole thing as nicely as possible, but Eliza starts to get pissed off anyway. She can't stand to be disagreed with, and I know that she's going to argue until everyone agrees with her.

"We don't want them to get mad enough to stupidly rush at the Capitol with torches and pitchforks. There's no way that we'll win if the only thing that gets us going is anger."

"I'm getting confused," I say out loud. First the obvious answer is to get someone to lead the rebellion, now it's to lay down a foolproof plan, but we don't want to make the districts angry, like they aren't already dreaming about President Snow's death. It seems like there isn't anything that's going to get the districts to actually rebel.

"Torches and pitchforks? Is that what you think of the other districts?" Felix asks, ignoring me. "No one would just start trying to beat up the Capitol. We'd get generals, make plans. Even if everyone isn't as smart as you, most of us have functioning brains."

"Really? You're stupid if you think that those other districts are smart enough to win this thing without everything going perfectly. What about the districts like 11 and 12, where everyone is starving, and a good chunk of the population is uneducated. Or how about the districts that are close to the Capitol, like 1 and 2? Neither of them would fight with us unless they're sure we're going to win. Everyone is going to die if they follow you!" Eliza shouts at Felix. Her usually pale face is now glowing bright red.

"Would you guys shut up?" Borglum asks. He glares especially at Felix, probably because he should know better. I'm mad at Eliza for mouthing off like that, but I don't have an actual opinion on the issue.

"I'm sorry, I guess we got carried away," Felix says. Then he looks at me. "What were you talking about?"

"Telling Snow's secrets."

"Well, I'm sorry, but I may have to agree with Eliza on that one. It's a good idea, but we can't afford to lose you, and you would die if Snow got even the slightest inkling where the information came from."

I wonder if this guy was even listening when we came to that conclusion five minutes ago.

"Yeah, I realize that now."

"So, is anything else that we want to discuss?" Eliza asks.

"I'd like to recommend Cashmere Pearl as a possible leader for the rebellion," Borglum says.

"She looks like a bitch," I offer.

"So do you," Eliza shoots back. "She has a pretty face, but how smart is she? And would she even go along with the rebellion? She's from One. It may be a fatal mistake if we try to enlist her help."

"I second that," Felix says.

"I can't trust her," Mags says.

"Same here," I say. Borglum shrugs.

"Just an option." Not a very good one. If they didn't want to pick me because I don't have a story, picking a rich girl from District 1 wouldn't be much of an improvement.

"We're getting desperate," Eliza says.

"Well, duh. We've been talking about this crap for over a year and not a single thing has happened," I tell them.

"We're waiting for the right time," Mags says, but I can tell that she's worried too.

"This isn't going to happen overnight," Eliza says. Everyone mumbles agreement then, because we know this is right. Everything has to be perfect before we start, no matter how long that takes.