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Disclaimer: I don't own the Hunger Games. I don't own the trident of Finnick Odair. Sigh.
I love my dress. It has long lace sleeves that tickle my arms. The bodice is tight and covered in diamonds. The bottom has pearls sewn into it to make it glimmer. My hair is perfect, loosely curled and pulled back slightly. I wear a small crown of sea-green pearls and opals, to bring out my eyes. My makeup is almost non-existent, only covering my scar, so you can't see it. My eyes are lined with something the prep team calls kohl, which make my eyes even more noticeable.
My father takes my hand as Liza clips on my veil. We walk down the stairs from Victor's Village onto the beach. There's a long white carpet covered in red rose petals that my father and I walk on. And, of course, I wear no shoes. The sunset has turned the sky a spectacular purple-blue color. There aren't many people here, which is fine with me. The less, the better. More people would just ruin it.
I make a mental list of who's here. My sisters and my father, Remora, and Annie's family. Then there's the cameras from the Capitol, and the rest of the victors from for. Mags, Triton, Ray, Sandy, Emily, Neptune, Hyacinth, Finnick, Annie, Amphitrite. There's two more that are deceased, Julian and Kaia. Including Marlin and I, there's eight girls and six boys. Other than that, though, that's it. Marlin's family was killed the year after he won, so of course they won't be here.
I stand where I'm supposed to, right across from Marlin. I find myself blushing as I meet his intense gaze. Finnick drapes the wedding net over us, since Mags (who's presiding over the wedding) is too short. Mags reads from the book that all the fishermans carry with them, the one that's forbidden but carried anyway. She fills a bowl with salt water and holds it out to us. We dip our fingers in it and press it to each other's lips. Marlin's fingers are warm, and the saltwater smells good, just like the water from home Finnick sent me during the games.
Then she motions for us to say out vows. Marlin goes first.
"I, Marlin Hudson Shores, take you, Victoria Rose Marino, to be my beloved wife, my constant friend, my faithful partner, and my love from this day forward. In the presence of our family and friends, I offer you my solemn vow to be your faithful partner in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, in joy and in sorrow. I promise to love you unconditionally, to support you in your goals, to honor and respect you, to laugh with you and cry with you, and to cherish you for as long as we both shall live."
I have tears in my eyes. My lips find themself moving, completing his already said words.
"I, Victoria Rose Marino, take you, Marlin Hudson Shores, to be my beloved husband, my constant friend, my faithful partner and my love from this day forward. In the presence of our family and friends, I offer you my solemn vow to be your faithful partner in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, in joy and in sorrow. I promise to love you unconditionally, to support you in your goals, to honor and respect you, to laugh with you and cry with you, and to cherish you for as long as we both shall live."
Mags nods and moves her hands in what I take to be a kiss-the-bride gesture. Marlin takes my face in his hands and kisses me. Warmth spreads down my entire body, making my toes tingle. The kiss seems to last forever, even though it's only a few seconds. Then Finnick takes the net off of us. A little boy holding a pillow with two rings on it comes up next to me.
I pick up the ring I bought for Marlin about two hours and slide it on to his finger. He takes mine, a small pearl ring, and slips it onto my finger. The little boy just stands there, his wide blue-green eyes glancing around. Hmm... they remind me of someone, but I can't remember who. Marlin and I walk down the aisle and up the staircase holding hands. I slip into our house to change, because my dress is sorta heavy, then slip back out and walk the rest of the way to the Justice Building with Marlin, who was waiting for me.
The mayor's son, Guy, is already in the grand ballroom. Azula must have invited him. After all, her attention span is much too short to sit around for hours and wait to go home. I get to do the honors of shutting the doors in front of the Capitol cameras, because the Capitol citizens don't deserve to see the reception. I dance with Marlin most of the time. I dance with each of my sisters, and once with my father. I also dance with Finnick once, because he did get me out of the arena alive, but the rest of the time he dances with Annie.
What's up with him? He SHOULD be nursing a hangover from drinking that entire bottle of wine yesterday evening, but instead he's dancing? I don't get it- Ahh, he lied to me. So, Panem's resident playboy actually has feelings? And since when? I see him go get punch for both of them, so I walk over.
"I know about you and her," I whisper in his ear. He looks up, and I literally can see his eyes dilate in fear, so much that you can barely see the sea-green part. "Please, princess... you can't tell anyone... I only do it so they won't hurt anybody. If I didn't, they'd hurt her... in unspeakable ways..." "I don't know what you're talking about, FiFi, I only meant that I know you like her. You lied to me in the Capitol, you really should get help for that," I say, rolling my eyes.
He lets out a relieved sigh. "But seriously, what do you do that I can't know about?' I ask him curiously. "You'll find out... eventually," he says, laughing bitterly. "Never mind, then, I'll just have Marlin tell me later," I say. I feel a tugging on my skirt and turn around to find the pillow boy with his hand on my dress.
"Oh, that's Noah. He's River's brother," Finnick says airily, like our conversation never happened. I glance at him, then turn back to Noah and get on my knees. Yes, it's definitely River's brother. "The tall man over there-" he points to Marlin, "-told me to ask you to dance. He says it's my turn," he says timidly. Oh, he's sooo cute. I ruffle his bronze hair, but it just sticks back up again. "Well then, lead me to the dance floor."
It's kind of hard to dance with him, since he's so short, but somehow I make it work. When the song is over, I lead him back to a man that can only be his father. I stay and chat for a while, but eventually I have to turn away because they both remind me of River so much it's painful. River's gruesome death flashes through my mind over and over again.
The party ends when Leona (who was NOT invited) shows up and reminds everybody that I need my beauty sleep. I walk home with Marlin, who tells me who lives in which Victor's house. "-then Hyacinth, then Amphitrite, then Finnick and Annie, then us." " Whoa, FiFi and Annie live together?" "Yeah, they ran out of houses, but they told me and Finn that she had to live with one of us, since apparently she's certifiably insane, so Finn volunteered to take her in." I tell him about what Finnick said at the punch bowl.
"Oh, you mean how President Snow sells his body evertime he goes to the Capitol? Yeah, either you do it or Snow has hitmen kill your family," Marlin says, squeezing my hand tightly. "Did you ever get sold?" I ask him. "I... I don't want to talk about it." "No, no, I'm married to you now, I have the right to know." "Fine. Yes, I was sold. And he my family killed anyway, just to show he could. Except my brother, Caspian. Snow rigged the reaping for him the year after I won. He didn't stand a chance."
"They can actually rig the reaping?" I ask in wonder. I knew it was possible, but Marlin did what Snow asked, so why have his family killed? "Yeah, and I'll bet anything he rigged it for you when he found out you were my girlfriend. I surprisingly managed to keep that quiet for a few years, thanks to the fact that you were my friend before the games."
I'm shocked. "You really think it was rigged for me?" I ask as I sit down on his- no, our bed. I hadn't even realized that we had went up the stairs and I had taken off my sky-blue chiton and pullled on one of Marlin's t-shirts. They go down to my knees, because even though I'm tall, he's half a foot taller than me. "Eeew, Marlin, you didn't look away when I changed clothes!" I whine. My mother raised a proper young lady in me, thank you very much.
"We're married now, remember?" he says, grinning mischeviously. I giggle and close the door.