I don't own THG. and a big thanks to For-Prim for being a fabulous beta! Anyways I hope y'all have a happy new year and enjoy!

Annie curled up in the back of the cab. She drew her knees up to her chin and let out a shaky breath.

"Where to?" the cab driver asked. Annie met his eyes in the rearview mirror. He looked away almost immediately. She knew her eyes were probably rimmed with red, but she knew that crying girls were probably nothing new to the cabbie, that crying was probably something that occurred multiple times per night. This thought was enough to bring at least a small smile to her face, comforted by the fact that she would not be alone in her suffering tonight. To the cab driver she would just be another sad girl whose night was ruined by a boy.

"The village, please," Annie answered quietly. She was glad for each rotation of the wheels that put distance between her and Finnick. He was the last person she expected to see tonight. She hadn't thought about him once while she was with Johanna and Madge, which she considered quite the accomplishment. He had been taking up far too much space in her thoughts for her liking. As soon as she saw him tonight she had to wonder whether her subconscious hadn't conjured him. But no, he was really there in the flesh, bringing Johanna a drink and was apparently going to sit down with her. She couldn't handle that. But what she really couldn't handle was the look she saw in his eyes. There was an apology there like he knew he was treading dangerous ground. The fact that he seemed to know her and what she was and wasn't ready for scared her the most.

When they had their first encounter she brushed it off as a handsome man flirting the way he would with any girl he encountered. He was extremely handsome, no doubt about it and she gave into his charms for a moment, but that was it. At least, she thought that was it. She didn't give him or his offer to discuss the novel a second thought until the day she saw him at the outdoor market reading the book. It honestly shocked her, that she could have possibly made an impression on someone like him. She did her best to rationalize that he was just doing it for his nanny that he had mentioned (she tried not to focus on how adorable it was that he still called her his nanny) or that he had merely been enraptured by the book after she read a passage (it would be hard not to be) and that it had nothing to do with her.

But then he came back to the store and said her name, effectively dashing any illusion she could have created in her head. She should've known something was different about him when she actually spent more than five minutes talking with him during their first encounter. She never did that. She was always polite to customers but she was never one to actually engage in conversations. She dreaded it when other people attempted it with her. She often felt clouded with embarrassment over her initiation of conversation at their first meeting. She really was just surprised at the man who was buying a specially requested edition of The Awakening.

She arrived at her apartment complex in about fifteen minutes. She paid and thanked the driver. She walked to her door and then paused. She knew what was waiting on the other side of the door was a living room floor covered in shoes, scarves, and books. Her drying rack was set up in the middle of the room. She needed to clean her apartment so badly, but she knew she wouldn't. She wasn't ready to go home. She stepped back and took off to the next building of apartments. She stopped in front of a familiar door and knocked. She heard footsteps through the door and soon it opened. Annie smiled when she saw Marvel's face, but Marvel looked surprised to see her

"Hey boo, what are you doing here?" Marvel asked. Annie rolled her eyes.

"My night out with Jo and Madge didn't really go as planned, " she answered.

"Do you wanna come in? I've got wine and Netflix. Your favorites," Marvel said teasingly. He stepped back and Annie walked into an apartment that was essentially a copy of her own, just much cleaner. She inhaled the scent of gingerbread that was emanating from a candle on his coffee table. She was often jealous of his ability to make his apartment feel so like a home. Her apartment was just piled high with crap that she couldn't bring herself to throw away. Sometimes she felt like her apartment was closing in on her, and escaping to Marvel's was always a welcome respite. She settled on the couch and immediately picked up his Wii controller to search through titles on Netflix.

"What did you do tonight?" she called across the small space to where he was grabbing cups for the two of them.

"I had a date, but it was a dud. The guy was a lighting designer, and I'm all for being passionate about your job but this was just too much. He would not stop talking about it," Marvel answered as he made his way back to the couch, a cup in each hand.

"Ooooh plastic cups," Annie cooed as she took one from him. She took a sip and her face scrunched in response. "Is this Franzia?" she coughed.

"Only the best for you, my sweet," Marvel chuckled at her facial expression. "Yeah, it's about all I can afford and it goes a long way. Why else do you think I'm agreeing to go on dates with lame guys? I'm trying to get a free dinner out of it." Annie frowned at this but didn't say anything. She didn't want to have a pity party, she just wanted to blow off a little steam from her night so she continued to drink her bad wine.

"So, what happened to mess up your girls night?" Marvel asked. His voice laced with curiosity. Annie sighed. She didn't want to get into it.

"Nothing, just dumb boy stuff. You know how that is," she said in what she hoped was a nonchalant manner. Confusion flashed across Marvel's face.

"But you don't really have issues with boy stuff. Jo defintely does, but you…" Marvel trailed off, and Annie hoped and silently prayed that he wouldn't put two and two together. "Wait a second, does this have to do with bookstore guy?" Marvel asked excitedly. Annie groaned.

"It totally does. Annie, what happened?" Marvel prodded her. Marvel was the only person she had told about Finnick, albeit it wasn't much. It had been another wine filled night that had led her to spilling that she had a man who came to see her at work. Marvel had taken to calling him either the bookstore guy or her gentleman caller. She hadn't told Johanna yet for fear of what Jo would do. Johanna had a tendency to baby her and she didn't need her to make her feel like even more of an emotionally stunted fool.

"Nothing happened!" Annie exclaimed, tired of this conversation already.

"Annie, please don't lie to me. You know you can tell me anything," he said gently. Annie immediately softened at this and met his eyes. He was right. Annie loved Marvel with everything she had and she knew he loved her right back. He was the best discovery she'd made in college. She leaned her head against his shoulder and sighed. She had him, Johanna, and Madge. She was suddenly overwhelmed by a feeling of contentment that had been missing all night. She yawned and closed her eyes.

"Can we talk about this later? I'm very sleepy," Annie mewed. She felt Marvel's arm wrap around her and she was lulled into a peaceful sleep.

Finnick hardly slept that night. Whenever he closed his eyes all he could see was Annie's tear-stained face telling him she wished they'd never met. He didn't know what had triggered the reaction. He wanted to blame it on the drinks she had consumed that night, but he knew that was just wishful thinking. He didn't understand what was going on in her head. She was an enigma to him. They had finally reached a point where they were spending time together on a semi-regular basis, just twice a week for about 45 minutes, but that was a vast improvement in Finnick's eyes. Until last night of course, when she had once again run away from him. All he wanted to do was speak with her again. Ask her to please explain what was going on. Why she seemed so afraid of him. It was driving him crazy.

He had given up on sleep for the time being. Tossing and turning wasn't going to do him any good. Tomorrow, or today, he supposed was Saturday so he had the day off. He could catch up on sleep later. He headed into the living room and found a channel that was showing reruns of Frasier. Hopefully watching another man's romantic foibles would make him feel better about his own. Eventually he fell into sleep on his couch.

The smell of coffee filled Finnick's nostrils slowly, and he blinked awake, slowly taking in his surroundings. It took him a moment to recognize his living room, where he had fallen asleep on the couch. He looked up and saw Peeta moving around the kitchen.

"Hey, how are you feeling this morning?" Finnick croaked out. Peeta looked up, surprised to see his friend up. Peeta shot Finnick a lopsided grin.

"I've been better. But I am making pancakes if you're interested," Peeta answered. Finnick nodded and stretched. He stood up and lumbered into the kitchen where he poured himself a cup of coffee. Finnick and Peeta drank coffee and ate their breakfast in silence. Finnick couldn't tell if Peeta was hungover or if he merely could sense that Finnick needed time alone. As Finnick showered and dressed, he couldn't stop seeing Annie's face. He felt overcome with shame. For what, he didn't know. He just knew he needed to fix this.

When he went to hang up his jacket that he wore the previous night, he remembered the slip of paper that Johanna had shoved into his pocket. He pulled it out and stared at the numbers on the sheet for a minute before he grabbed his phone and quickly added the number to his contacts. He sat on his bed and wrote out a message to the girl.

Hey Johanna, it's Finnick. We met last night. You said you wanted to talk?

It wasn't ten minutes later that he heard his phone buzz with a response.

Hey, yeah I've got some stuff to discuss with you. Can I call you or are you one of those people who has to talk in person?

Finnick chuckled, even sober (he hoped she was sober) she was just as blunt as she was last night. He quickly typed back a response.

Calling is fine.

And he waited.

His cell phone rang a minute later.

"So how exactly do you know my Annie?" Johanna asked, not even bothering with formalities.

"Hello Johanna, nice to hear your voice," Finnick responded drolly.

"Cut the crap and just tell me how you know my baby girl," Johanna demanded. Finnick sighed and sat down on the edge of his bed.

"I met her at the bookstore she works at. We…," Finnick stopped wondering exactly how to explain their situation. This was the same reason he hadn't told Peeta. He didn't even know how to define it. "We got coffee once, and I visit her at work sometimes," Finnick continued. Johanna was silent. "That's all, I swear," he finished.

"You got coffee with her?" Johanna asked, her voice laced with disbelief.

"Yes," Finnick quickly answered.

"And you visit her at work? Like how often?" She asked fervently.

"I visited twice a week for almost three weeks," Finnick replied.

"She never told me," Johanna practically whispered to herself. "Why wouldn't she tell me?" Finnick didn't know what to say to that. "She should have told me if she was seeing someone. I mean the last person she dated was Marvel! This is a big deal!"

"Um, we're not… I mean Annie and I aren't… dating," Finnick said bashfully. He heard Johanna release an exasperated sigh on the other end of the phone.

"Are you or are you not going and seeing her on a semi-regular basis?" Johanna demanded.

"Well, yes," Finnick responded.

"And you are romantically interested in her?" Johanna asked, clearly annoyed with him. Finnick paused. He didn't really want to tell this girl that he didn't know that he liked her friend. He didn't know Johanna or what she wanted from him.

"I SAID are you romantically interested in her! I'm not having some guy fuck with her heart," she said as rage bubbled in her voice. This only angered Finnick. Of course, she would assume that he would hurt Annie. Not the other way around. As if Annie wasn't capable of completely destroying him.

"Do I like your friend? Yes I do, but that doesn't matter because she made it clear last night that she doesn't want me to come around any more," Finnick shouted into the phone. He breathed heavily and immediately regretted letting go of his anger in that way. It dawned on him that this was the first time that he actually said the words out loud. He liked Annie. He wanted to hold her hand, their fingers intertwined. He wanted to embrace her, her body pressed against his. He wanted to sit in that back room of the bookstore and talk for hours and hours with her. Shit.

"I'm sorry. I don't mean to yell. I just… I have no idea what made her so upset at me, and I'm guessing you don't either. No offense," Finnick said.

"You're right. I don't. She didn't tell me she had a boy in her life," Johanna spat out. "Whatever, but listen- if she's really pissed at you, give her some space. She'll come around. And by that I mean wait a week and then try and talk to her because if you leave it to her, you'll never see her again," Johanna said and then the phone went silent. Her last words haunted Finnick.

You'll never see her again

Annie felt something cold and icy press against her face, effectively waking her up. She sat up groggily and glared at Marvel who was holding a can of soda. He laughed.

"Annie, it's one in the afternoon. I love you but I want to watch TV and you're on my couch. Now you know you're welcome to stay but know that in about an hour I'm going to do Insanity and if you're still here, you have to do it with me," Marvel said, his voice teasing. Annie groaned and rubbed a hand down her face only to look at it and see mascara and eyeliner smudges on it.

"Oh yeah, you fell asleep with your makeup on. So, why don't you run into the bathroom and wash up with your stash of toiletries that you think I don't know about," Marvel said. Annie blushed. She ended up sleeping on his couch so often that she snuck a bag of necessities like face wash, deodorant, and a toothbrush into the bottom drawer in his bathroom. She dragged herself off of the couch and walked into the bathroom where her raccoon eyes stared back at her from the mirror. She quickly washed her face and brushed her teeth. She walked out and gathered her stuff.

"No Insanity for you?" Marvel called from the couch. Annie shook her head and waved goodbye. Marvel blew her a kiss as she left his apartment and trudged back to her own. She stepped inside and was immediately visually assaulted by the mess that covered her floor. She sighed and kicked aside a pair of shoes and stepped around her clothing rack. She walked into her bedroom and peeled her shoes off and pulled out her cell phone. It had died in the middle of the night so she quickly plugged her charger in and restarted her phone. The first thing she saw was that she had seven missed calls from Johanna. Annie closed her eyes. She could only imagine what she wanted to talk to her about. Probably about how she stormed out of a bar last night with Finnick on her heels.

Finnick.

Oh God, the shame of her actions last night flooded Annie's being and she dropped to the ground in a ball. Seeing Finnick outside of the bubble that they had created caused something to snap in her. He glowed in the low lighting of the bar and it made the entire situation seem more real. That he was real. That he was someone that she could get attached to. That she could want and desire. Someone that could be disappointed in her.

She looked at her phone when she realized it was lit up. Johanna was calling again.

"Hello?" Annie answered.

"Thanks for telling me about your man," Johanna snapped at her. Annie immediately cringed. This was exactly what she had been trying to avoid.

"I don't have man," Annie responded. Trying to sound as cool and collected as possible.

"Yes you do. You have a beautiful man who likes you and comes to visit you at work," Johanna said.

"How do you know that?" Annie asked. Panic beginning to rise into her voice.

"Well, since you like to keep secrets from me, Finnick is interviewing for a position as my new best friend," Johanna replied.

"I wasn't keeping secrets from you, I just didn't think I had anything to tell,"Annie explained. Johanna scoffed.

"Did you tell Marvel?" Johanna asked snippily. Annie was silent.

"Figures," Johanna said, her voice eerily quiet. "I think you should give this Finnick guy a chance. He seems nice. He didn't hit on any girl at the bar last night, and turned down my advances. I think he really likes you."

Annie wasn't sure how to respond. She knew to some degree that he had to like her. He wouldn't go through the trouble of visiting her if he didn't, but to hear someone put voice to the words that threatened to overtake her brain was almost too much.

"I have his phone number," Johanna paused. "I gave him mine to ask him about why you freaked when you saw him. I'm going to give it to you, and I expect you to use it. Don't be yourself for five minutes and call him. I know he'll be glad to hear from you."

"I can't," Annie started.

"I said do it!" Johanna shouted. Annie had to pull the phone away from her ear. "I'm texting you his phone number now." The phone clicked off and soon enough in Annie's hand was the combination of numbers that would put her in direct contact with Finnick.

She stared at them. She set her phone down. She showered. She hung up the clothes on her drying rack. She gathered up her shoes. She organized her magazines into a neat stack. She fixed herself some dinner and contemplated having a glass of wine before dismissing the idea. She walked back into her room and stared at her phone. She figured she didn't have anything else left to do. She dialed the number and the phone rang once, twice, three times before a voice answered. A voice she didn't even realized she had been wanting to hear again.

"H-Hello? Finnick? It's me Annie," she said, her voice wavering only the tiniest bit. She could hear him swallow on the other end.

"Annie. Hi! Hi! Um, how did you…" Finnick breathed out. Annie almost laughed at how anxious he sounded.

"Johanna," she answered.

"Right, right. Uh, well, what's going on? How are you? Wait! Are you okay, after last night? Is there something that I did? I have no idea and I'm so sorry," Finnick continued to ramble.

"Finnick," Annie said. Finnick stopped. "I was wondering if you'd like to get dinner with me sometime." The silence that immediately followed that question nearly killed her until she finally heard Finnick's answer.

"Yes."

She swore she could hear him smiling through the phone. She smiled too.

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