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"No," Taiya breathed in despair as she heard Finnick's name readout. "No," she repeated firmly. Taiya went to move out to grab Finnick when she saw him begin to walk up to the stage, when the girl beside her grabbed her arm, holding her in place. "Let me go," Taiya hissed to the girl she recognised as Kenna, a girl in the same year at the academy with her.

"If I do they'll just hurt you," Kenna whispered back. "That won't help Finnick at all."

Taiya turned her eyes back to the stage as Finnick looked at her, their eyes meeting. As subtly as he could, he shook his head at her, warning her to stay quiet. Taiya nodded and relaxed, she had to do everything she could to keep him calm. As soon as he saw she wasn't going to act out his face broke out into a cocky smirk and he waved at the crowd. "He knows what he's doing," Kenna whispered to her.

"He doesn't want to be there," Taiya muttered.

"No one does, but he has to win sponsors now," Kenna said, smiling at the girl beside her before releasing her hold on her arm.

"Here we are," Moxie says clapping her hands in excitement. "Our tributes from District 4."

Taiya's father then steps up to the microphone, he looks straight at his daughter, registering the pain on her face as he reads the Treaty of Treason as he is required to do every year. As soon as he finishes he turns to look at Finnick, "you both may now shake hands," he declares and Finnick and Halle step forward to shake each other's hands, Finnick only briefly removing his smiling gaze from the crowd. Finnick drops Halle's hand and turns back to the crowd, waving at the crowd and the camera with a smile plastered on his face as the Panem anthem plays.

The moment the anthem ends, Finnick and Halle are quickly marched away by peacekeepers and the square begins to clear. "Taiya, Taiya," Theo calls, pulling her out of her shocked trance, she hadn't moved a muscle. "Come on," he said taking her hand, "we have to see him."

Taiya nods and allows Theo to lead her towards the Justice Building where they can say their goodbyes to their friend. "Why him?" Taiya chokes.

"It's just the way it is Taiya," Theo answered, but Taiya could see he didn't mean that. He was trying to keep his emotions hidden from her, to shield her from the truth that they likely wouldn't see Finnick again after today. "We're here to see Finnick Odair," Theo said to the peacekeepers at the front.

The peacekeeper nodded, "you can go in when his parents leave," he said moving out of the way to let them in the building.

Theo led Taiya to the door of the room Finnick was in and turned to her, placing his hands on her shoulders, "now Taiya you've got to snap out of it. He needs us right now. We have to help get his head in the game and if he sees you upset he'll break ok?"

Taiya nodded and the two of them waited in silence for Finnick's parents 5 minutes with him to be up so they could farewell him. A peacekeeper walks up to the door and knocks, "time's up," he calls and Finnick's sniffling parents file out of the room. "You two can go in," he says to her and Theo.

The second she's given the go-ahead Taiya sprints into the room and throws herself at Finnick who was there ready to catch her. "Hey Ariel," he jokes with a laugh that makes her sigh as she pulls away from him slightly.

"I can't believe you're joking right now," she says giving him a light smile as she stands in front of him, both of their hands still gripping each other's arms.

"Yeah well you swim like a mermaid," he shrugged as he pulled her into his side, wrapping his arms around her as he turned to Theo, "hey man." Theo nodded at him, not sure what to say. "I need to talk to you after," Finnick said to him, looking down at Taiya and Theo understood exactly what he wanted but nodded anyway.

"You can win Finn," Taiya determined. "I know you can. I know you're scared but I wasn't joking before, you're in the top of the class. We're a career district Finn. You can do this. You will do this."

Finnick pulled Taiya away from his body and moved so he was in front of her. He looked at both her and Theo and said seriously, "I'm not joking. I'm going to try. I swear to you both, I'll do everything I can. I'll be one of the youngest in there but I swear. I'll do everything I can," he assured.

"You need a token," Taiya realised. "You're allowed a token from your district. What are you going to use?" she asked.

"Probably nothing. I can't really think of anything I'd use as a token."

Taiya's eyes lit up, "take this," she said and she reached behind her and undid rope knot at the bottom of the braid in her hair and began tugging at the rope that was weaved throughout the braid. "Come on, come on," she groaned as it didn't budge.

"Turn around," Finnick laughed as he spun her around and began loosening sections of her hair in order to remove the rope.

When her hair was mostly free, Taiya raised her hands and removed the rope herself, "take the rope," she said handing it to him. "Use it like I do. When you're worried or anxious, tie knots in it. I know you've seen me do it. Trust me, Finn, it helps."

"Thank you," he said taking the rope from her and tying it around his neck for safekeeping. "I mean it thank you," he said pulling her in for a bone-crushing hug as he kissed her forehead. "I need to talk to Theo before our times up, I need you to wait outside for him."

Taiya pulled back and looked at him, she couldn't deny him this request no matter how much she wanted to. She gently nodded before quickly grabbing him for one last hug, "please win Finn, if you don't I don't know how I'll survive," she whispered before quickly releasing him and racing out of the room, leaving Theo and Finnick by themselves. She didn't look back, she couldn't. She knew if she looked at his face she wouldn't have the willpower to leave. As soon as she exited the room she walked down the corridor and slid down the wall, the tears now freely streaming down her face as she waited for Theo.

After a few minutes of waiting she heard footsteps and looked up to see a solemn Theo standing over her, "here," he said taking her hand and helping her off the floor.

"What did you talk about?" she asked.

"Let's go sit at the beach. I'll tell you there."

"Theo?" Taiya asked as they sat down on the sand.

"He made me make him a promise."

"What kind of promise?" Taiya asked.

"To look after you. I mean, of course, I was already going to do that anyway, he just wanted to hear me promise him," Theo said as he glumly traced patterns in the sand.

"Why do I need looking after?"

Theo sighed and threw his body down so he was lying down as Taiya flipped onto her stomach to look at him, "he doesn't want you to watch him get hurt." He could see Taiya was about to protest so he quickly spoke up, "he's going to try his best. He promised. But he just wants me to stay with you and if…" he started to say but began choking on tears. "If he does die in there, he wants me to make sure you don't watch, to make sure you don't break." Tears began to fall down Theo's cheeks but he continued speaking, "he wants me to make sure things with your mom don't get too bad, wants to make sure you do the work in the academy. I swore to him I'd be your guardian angel basically."

"I want to go watch the trains leave," Taiya whispers.

"You know we can't," Theo answered sadly. "Look, hey," he said taking her hand, "just come here," he said holding his arms open. Taiya sniffled and grabbed one of his hands in both of hers as she leant her head against her shoulder and he wrapped his spare arm around her.

The pair stayed in that position until the sky began to turn pink, signalling the end of the day, "I should get you back to your house," Theo said, interrupting the silence they'd cultivated.

Taiya nodded and pulled away from Theo's hold, slowly hauling herself to her feet. "He can do it, Theo. We'll see him again. If he can convince the game makers to put a trident in there no one will stand a chance."

"Well let's hope he gets the message across and they give him one," Theo said giving her a small smile. "Come on," he said waving his arm, urging her to follow him off the sand as they made their way back to her house.

"This is it," Taiya said numbly as they reached her front door.

"Finnick's probably in the Capitol now," Theo noted. "It's a short ride from here."

"Probably," Taiya nodded.

"Look, I'll come by tomorrow evening ok? Get you out of the house. We can watch the tribute parade at my place, just take the day tomorrow to come to terms with everything that's happened alright?"

"Sounds like a plan," she said giving him a smile that didn't meet her eyes. "Thank you, Theo, good night," she said opening the door to her house and stepping inside.

"Where have you been?" her mother snapped.

"Not now Azalea," her father said. Taiya looked over to see him sitting at the dining table rubbing his temples.

"Are you ok dad?" she asked, taking a seat opposite him as her mother stood glowering in the corner of the room.

"Not at all sweetie, I just had to send Finnick Odair off to the Hunger Games," he said looking up at his daughter. "I'm so sorry," he said reaching over to squeeze her hand.

"The Hunger Games keep the peace in Panem," Azalea reasoned as she took a seat at the table. "The boy should feel honoured." Taiya and Caspian just sat in silence. Her mother had lost her youngest sister to the Hunger Games the same year Taiya was born, it had scarred her, turned her cold. Taiya just had to hope that when Finnick did come home, he'd be the same person as he was when he left.