It's almost impossible to make out any distinct noises underwater, but when Annie hears someone cheering louder than anyone else in the crowd, she knows who it has to be. She pushes herself as hard as she can that final stretch. Ten meters, five, two, one, finally. Her hands hit the wall and she comes up for air, already removing her goggles. One quick glance at the scoreboard tells her that all those weeks of practice have paid off; she's lost almost two seconds and stolen first place. It's poor sportsmanship to do much more than smile and maybe wave to the audience, but she does a little victory dance underwater anyway. She's earned it.
He can't be more than ten feet away when she pulls herself out of the water. "Great job!" Finnick says as he pulls her into a hug. She hasn't dried off at all, so she must be soaking him, but right now, she doesn't care. Annie hugs him back even more tightly. "You did it!"
"Good job, Cresta." Their coach claps her on the back before she turns to Finnick. "Odair, stop dawdling and get in the pool. You can make goo-goo eyes at Cresta after your race. She isn't going anywhere."
Finnick turns pink, and Annie laughs, but she doesn't give it much thought. People have been whispering (or openly gossiping – the other swim team members aren't the most discrete bunch of people) about the two of them practically ever since Annie joined a year and a half ago. Maybe it is strange for a man and a woman to be such close friends, but who cares about strange anyway? Everybody's at least a little bit weird.
She grabs a towel from the rack and finds a spot in the bleachers to watch Finnick's race. He's an absolute monster in the water, tearing through the pool like it's what he was put on this earth to do. With the exception of the tall, pale man in the fourth lane, the other competitors don't even stand a chance. She still screams for him the whole way through. Any extra motivation helps, and ever since Mags stopped coming to the meets last year because of her stroke, he hasn't had anyone besides his teammates to cheer him on.
He beats the next best by three body lengths, and they repeat their usual post-race embrace. The medal ceremony has never been her favorite part of these competitions, but it's a necessary evil, and she does like having another medal for her collection, especially when it's gold. When the ceremony is done, she meets up with Finnick again, and since she still hasn't turned twenty-one (March seventh can't come soon enough – she's tired of being the baby of the group) they skip their teammates' post-race barhopping and grab takeout Chinese on their way back to the hotel.
"You did good."
"Well," she corrects him almost without thinking. Annie finishes slurping her bite of lo mein and grins across the room towards him. "But thank you. You weren't half-bad yourself."
"Good to hear." He looks down at his almost-full bowl of orange chicken. "So, um, I've been thinking."
What's up with him tonight? Finnick is usually confident to a fault, but for the last few hours, he has been jumpy and anxious and, well, finicky. She doesn't like this change at all. "Sounds dangerous."
Finnick shifts in his spot. "So, well, um, you and I have a good thing going right now, y'know, with training, racing, being buddies, and all that shit." Annie doesn't respond, instead waiting to see where he's trying to take this. "Well, I don't want to mess all that stuff up, 'cause it's great, but, yeah, you see, I really like you kind of a lot, and I was thinking that maybe you liked me too."
Oh gosh, he probably wants a response to that. It's not like she hasn't thought about it a few times – heck, he's handsome, smart, and the sweetest guy she knows, any straight woman would have at least considered it – but she didn't think he'd actually be interested. Her tongue feels like an ugly, swollen slug, and it isn't helping her confidence right now. "That's… neat." Is that really the best response she can come up with? God, she shares hotel rooms with this guy without a second thought; she should at least be able to 'fess up to a crush.
"Oh, okay, cool." He focuses on a dark stain in the carpet, the origins of which she doesn't even want to give more than a cursory thought toward. The two of them should really start forking over a little more money for nicer hotel rooms. "I should probably go. See you later."
He gets up to leave, and her mind finally snaps back to the conversation. No letting her mind wander now. "I mean, I like you too."
Finnick freezes in the most ridiculous pose she can imagine, stopping completely for a moment before turning back to her. "Really?"
"Really really."
"Whoa." He comes back and sits down next to her again.
Annie has to laugh. "You're such a dipshit sometimes." She hopes he realizes that really means "I love you," and when she kisses his cheek and he hugs her tight against his side, she's pretty sure he got the message.