Here's the next chapter! Enjoy! I do not own Mockingjay.

Ch. 27

No one talks for what seems like hours when Katniss and Boggs walk away. Her head was hung low and his muscles were tense, it looked as if they had been defeated. My stomach turns as I realize I am the cause to all this pain. If I hadn't come, if some anonymous soldier was sent instead of me, then all would be fine. Only I would feel defeated in the confines of District Thirteen.

The fire crackles as sparks blow into the cool twilight air. Fire was mesmerizing, the way it licked the logs in a caring way, looking after it as if were it's child. As a human I had to look at fire as something dangerous, if I stepped too close to it my skin would begin to scream in protest. But I look at in a different way, not in danger, but in a need.

We needed fire. Long winter nights back in District Twelve would have been unbearable with out it. And my whole father's career, thrown out the door.

With out fire this revolution would not have started. Katniss and I gave it a spark, an ember, to catch fire; I couldn't just sit back and watch, as it turned into something beautiful. I had to be apart of it.

That's why I don't surrender and go back to Thirteen, that's why I decide that no matter what they say or do, I was staying. I had to be apart of this beautiful danger.

I don't notice Finnick beside me until he kicks a rock into the pit. His eyes watch the ground shyly. I've never seen him like this, so…I can't come up with a good word for it. So unhappy, un-Finnick. And I guess I didn't really know him. Before the Games I knew him as the Capitol heart throb. In the Games he was the guy that saved my life, the guy I wasn't sure about. Just recently, I wasn't sure anymore. My feelings for Annie had come and passed, I saw the way she looked at him.

He was much more than what people thought he was. Much stronger than anyone could ever really know. I realize that leaving Annie for the Capitol might be one of the hardest decisions he's ever made. I can't really connect with him, I don't have a love like that, not anymore anyways, but I do know it's something powerful.

I hadn't seen Annie much in the past week, only walking through the halls, or sitting in the Dining Room, but from what I could tell she was doing okay. Maybe that's all Finnick needed to know right now.

"She's okay." I say, it's quiet but only because I don't want anyone else to hear. This is something only Finnick needed to know.

"How can you know?" He whispers back. The others don't look at us and if they weren't trying to listen they probably didn't even know we were having a conversation.

"I can't, but from what I've seen." I answer. Annie was strong too, like all of the victors were. She could handle the absence of her lover; she had to know the urgency.

"She's fragile, Peeta. I promised her. What if I can't make it back? What then?" He looks up from the ground now into my eyes. The face that millions of Capitol people had fallen in love with looks so vulnerable in this time of war.

"Don't think of it that way. We're going to win and make it back and be able to go home. Then you'll be safe. You'll be able to take care of Annie and maybe someday, have a family." Something I say brings a small smile across his face, but not big enough to register as happiness. It's almost sad, the smile he gives me.

"You can't always be optimistic Peeta." I'm almost taken aback by what he says. I wasn't optimistic all the time, but he was right that was what I was being right now. I had to step back and look at it differently. What if we don't win? What then?

The 76th Hunger Games would be much harsher than any Quarter Quell had been. All of us would be executed. At least I hope they would give us that. That small bit. I hope they won't take away my dignity for a second time.

"You're right, I can't." And why was I being so optimistic? The same reason I had told myself that I wouldn't be reaped because the alternative was down right scary. I shiver at the idea of loosing. I shiver just at the idea of Annie losing her rock. It was too scary and blunt to think about it. I had to be optimistic, even when my body told me to do otherwise. "But we have to."

I say this seconds after I had the first part. The conversation could've ended if I hadn't said that.

He pauses to think for a minute before answering me. As I wait I look up to see Gale looking at us from across the fire. The sun has gone down by now and the light from the flames lick across his face. It would've been intimidating if I hadn't noticed the sad frown he had on.

"Yes, we do, it's just hard. After living a life like this, there is a time when we run out of luck." He says. His eyes stray back to the bright fire before us.

I had never thought of my life as lucky. I was thrown into the Hunger Games twice, hijacked, and ripped from my family. There was luck though. I had lived through both of those Hunger Games. District Thirteen rescued me. And though my family is gone, at least they didn't have to live through this. There was truth spoken in Finnick's words.

"Maybe it's not out yet." I say, trying to add some positive spin to this otherwise depressing conversation.

"The odds can't always be in my favor." He says as he walks away from me and into one of the small tents set up around us.

I really wanted to have a conversation between Finnick and Peeta, so that's why I wrote this chapter. Finnick is probably my favorite character right next to Peeta, so I thought I'd do something, besides he's bound to want to know how Annie is doing. The thing that killed me about writing this was the 'luck running out' part because as we know Finnick's luck does run out, so sorry for those emotions.

I'm really sorry I took so long to update! This week has been a whirlwind!

Don't forget to REVIEW on the way out! Thanks! ~boywithbreadlover