After sending their tributes to bed, Ambrosia following behind them, the two mentors were left alone in the apartment. They stood in silence for a few moments before Finnick beckoned for Hebe to follow him, striding out of the apartment and out towards the elevator.

There was no laughing and joking as they ascended the floors of the training centre, not like there had been when they snuck up to the roof the night before Hebe's games. She felt the tension hanging heavy in the air just like it had for the past two days, and as painful as it may be, she tried to focus on that rather than the feeling of shooting upwards in that elevator.

The flashbacks to the games had gotten better as time went on, and now they very rarely came back to her in daylight. Instead it was all concentrated into her nightmares. But, despite this, she still had to battle to keep her grip on reality, especially when she was faced with objects and scenarios that were acutely similar to her games, such as Anise's blood splattering onto the glass of the elevator.

The one positive about the Capitol elevators is that they were fast, so before she knew it Hebe was stepping out of the glass cylinder and out into the cold night air, Finnick following behind her.

They walked to the edge of the roof, stopping by the barrier so they could see out over the rooftops of the Capitol.

Hebe took a deep breath, before tapping her companion on the shoulder, and signing to him.

"Are there any cameras up here?"

"Yes," Finnick signed, "There are cameras. No microphones though."

Hebe looked at him, uncertain, "Are you sure?"

"I'm certain. I asked Beetee to double check. If we face outwards the cameras won't be able to pick up our faces." Finnick said aloud, and Hebe nodded in response. She trusted Beetee's technological understanding much more than her own.

They fell back into familiar silence for a few moments longer before Finnick finally asked her:

"So. What happened?"

Hebe opened her mouth to respond but he cut her off before she could, his voice quiet as he rambled from topic to topic.

"Because, I thought we were, y'know, quite close on your tour. And then suddenly you won't go near me. I left you all those messages, I asked Juno and Annie what was wrong with you and they didn't know. You just…disappeared. And I was so worried that something had happened, that I had done something. And then all of a sudden, 6 months later, you're sending me birthday gifts?! I mean, I didn't think I did anything wrong-"

"No. You didn't do anything wrong. Just, let me explain." She said emphatically, looking up at him for permission to continue without further interruption. He nodded at her.

"When Snow came to see me," Hebe began, "To give me that… job. That wasn't all he said. He gave me a warning just before he left, that I shouldn't get too close to you, and that the Capitol 'weren't stupid'."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Finnick asked, incredulous.

"I think he was trying to tell me not to let anything get in the way of our jobs." Hebe explained.

"But you didn't start ignoring me until after the tour-"

"I'm getting there. When Snow had the party, at his mansion, he called me into his office. I thought it was just to discuss details. But when I got in there, he started asking all these strange, roundabout questions, and then he told me I had disobeyed his rules." Hebe sighed, steadying her breathing. "He brought up footage of us on the train. The night I went to you after a nightmare."

She felt Finnick stiffen beside her, but didn't turn to face him, instead maintaining her focus on the skyscrapers of the Capitol.

"He told me that I was 'taking the property of the Capitol'. And threatened if I didn't stop 'what I was doing' he would, he would hurt Annie." Hebe took in a shaky breath, still not facing the man beside her as tears welled up in her eyes.

"So I ignored you. You have to understand, I couldn't have him hurt her. I told her not to volunteer, but it was all useless anyway," Her voice broke slightly, "Because she was reaped despite it all."

"He rigged it." Finnick said in breathless realisation.

Hebe nodded, "To punish me."

"God, Hebe, why didn't you tell me? Me and Mags, we could've helped you, we could've done something-" He asked, exasperated.

"I don't know. I'm so sorry. I am. I just wanted to save her." Hebe began to grow hysterical, tears now streaming down her face.

"I wanted to save her. I couldn't save them but I thought I could help her. I can't lose her Finnick, I'm so sorry. You don't have to forgive me, but I'm sorry anyway."

The boy wanted nothing more than to reach out and comfort her, but he knew that very action was what had led them here, so he held back.

"It's ok Hebe." He said, his voice as soothing as he could make it, "I understand, and I do forgive you. I would've done the same thing in your position, we all know what Snow's like. He's a manipulator, his biggest pleasure in this world is tormenting us victors."

"Thank you. I won't," She stopped speaking to take in a small shaky breath, "I won't keep you or Mags in the dark again."

"Please don't. I'm not sure I can take any more stress."

"Stress?" Hebe asked, wiping the tears from her eyes.

"From worrying about you," Finnick sighed, "You had me worried sick for months."

She opened her mouth to apologise again but he held up his hand to stop her.

"Nope. I don't want any more apologies from you."

"Ok. I'll try not to say sorry again." She said, attempting a weak smile at him.

Finnick returned it, and they stood for a while, smiling at each other, silent apologies and thanks floating between them. Then, suddenly, Finnick's expression fell into its familiar smirk. Hebe narrowed her eyes at her mentor.

"What are you gonna say now?"

"Always so accusatory." He responded, bumping her shoulder with his, "I was just wondering if we could be friends again, but if you don't wanna…"

Hebe glared at him, although it was probably less intimidating because of her puffy red eyes. "Are you seriously gonna make me say it?"

"Oh, how I've missed that glare. And yes, I am going to make you say it. It's my payback. Remuneration for 8 months of loneliness."

"Loneliness? Are you admitting I'm your only friend, Odair?"

"Maybe. And stop trying to avoid saying it."

"Fine. I would love to be friends with you again." She gave him a dramatic bow, and put on her best Capitol accent, "If only you'll have me, good sir."

"Why of course, my lady, how I've missed my only friend!" He said, and they both laughed, and Hebe allowed herself to grin genuinely for the first time in months.

"Hm, as lovely as it is to be outside," Finnick continued, "I think it's time you go to bed." He then began walking back to the elevator, Hebe begrudgingly following.

"You can't order me around anymore."

"And why not?" He responded, pressing the button to close the doors of the elevator.

"Because I'm not your tribute anymore."

"Aw, don't say that," He turned to her with the kind of expression a proud mother wore when talking about their child, except his was more mocking than genuine, "You'll always be my tribute."

"And you, Odair, will always be insufferable!"

He frowned for a moment before declaring, "I have one more condition to add to our new found friendship."

"Oh?"

"No more last names." He said firmly, his tone strangely serious.

Hebe laughed at his seriousness, slightly bemused, but willing nonetheless.

"Fine. You have a deal."

That night, Hebe slept better than she had in months. A weight had been lifted off of her shoulders, and whilst there was still some residual guilt she felt for her actions, the return of Finnick's friendship made up for it entirely. Now she could focus all of her energy into coaching Annie to the best of her ability.

Clearly all of Ambrosia's nagging had paid off, because she woke up just as early the next morning, and was yet again the first one to arrive at breakfast. Although her former mentor wasn't far behind, emerging from his own room only a few minutes later.

"Morning sweetheart." He said, his voice chirpier than usual.

Hebe rolled her eyes at him, "Morning. What's got you so happy?"

Finnick didn't respond at first and just grinned, sweeping around the table to sit across from her.

"Oh, y'know, just happy to not be so lonely anymore. It really was tough being all on my own."

"Aw, poor Finnick. Must be tough to have only one friend." Hebe mocked, but returned his infectious smile nonetheless.

"It is. Which is why you're now stuck with me for life."

"Oh god. Can I withdraw my application to be your friend, or is it too late?"

"Too late." He said around a mouthful of cereal, giving her a sly wink which she just chuckled at. She hated to admit just how much she'd missed him.

At that moment Annie walked in, and Hebe greeted her friend brightly, meanwhile the tribute just had a conspiratorial smirk on her face.

She came and sat down next to her sister, grabbing a few pieces of toast before asking her burning question.

"So you two have made up then, huh?"

"Yup," Finnick grinned again, "I was just telling your sister how she's stuck with me for life."

"Unfortunately for me."

"Yeah, really unfortunate." Annie smirked, but dropped the expression when she was smacked across the shoulder.

Hebe didn't give any time for Finnick to compute the interaction before she was moving the conversation forwards.

"Yeah well, now that we've sorted that out, it's time to get started on mentoring, have you seen-"

She was about to ask for the whereabouts of the other tribute when he walked through the door, with that same sour expression on his face, Ambrosia following behind, clearly having just woken him from his slumber.

Victor took the seat beside Finnick, casting the usual nasty glares around the room for a moment before tucking into breakfast.

"So, Annie, Victor, what are your strategies for training?" Finnick asked, taking the lead in the conversation as the more experienced mentor.

"Aren't we training separately, should we really be talking about this right now?" Victor asked, sulky as always.

"You will be trained individually, but as careers it is typical you will also be allied together, as well as with 1 and 2. And, as I said, we'll be sharing our wider strategies as a team."

"But if we always ally with 1 and 2, why didn't she last year?" The boy asked, pointing at Hebe from across the table with a derivative expression on his face. The mentor had to resist rolling her eyes. Did he know nothing about how the games worked?

"Because last year they were arrogant little shits."

"Hebe! Language!" Ambrosia cried, focusing on the right things as usual.

Finnick tried to shoot Hebe a glare for appearances, but the twinkle of amusement in his eyes was unmistakable, "Like I said, it's typical for 1, 2 and 4 to ally together, but it's not like that every year. Now, as for strategies, I want you both to spend the next few days working on your weak points, as well as scoping out allies. We'll discuss more in depth with the both of you individually what those weaknesses are."

"Remember to show off a bit too." Hebe added, "Your careers, you're meant to be intimidating, so keep that up throughout training. But don't expose any of your best talents, save those for the individual assessment."

Finnick nodded at her, before checking his watch for the time, "We have a little bit of time before you need to go down to training, so we'll talk with you both individually for a bit."

Hebe quickly finished off her own toast, before getting up with Annie, and leaving to go to the girl's room.

They both sat down on her bed, and immediately got down to talking strategy.

"Right, first off, who do you want to ally with?" Hebe asked.

"Well, I assumed that we'd be locked in with the other careers?"

"Not necessarily. I mean, I can make it happen if that's what you want, but you don't have to ally with them if you don't want to."

Annie pondered it for a moment before asking, "What do you think I should do?"

Hebe hesitated slightly, not wanting to influence the girl into making a poor (and possibly life-threatening) decision.

"If I were you, I'd go with the careers. It's the safest option for you, especially since your district partner isn't particularly reliable."

The red haired girl furrowed her eyes at that statement, "What do you mean? He isn't that bad."

Hebe just looked at her, utterly bewildered at how oblivious she could be sometimes.

"Ann, he's had it in for you since before you even got on that train. He's not the kind of guy you want watching your back."

"So what do I do?"

"You use that charm of your's to get close to the careers, in hopes that you can safely ally with them in the arena. But to do that you're also going to need to impress them in some way. Show them you're not a complete shitshow." Hebe instructed, thinking back to Enobaria's words at the party.

"Ok. And you want me to work on my weaknesses too, right?"

"Yes. Prioritise hand to hand over other things, I know how good you are with knives but at some point in the games you're going to have to get up close with someone."

At that moment, Ambrosia knocked on the door to call for them, and the two girls quickly got up off of the bed.

"You'll be fine Ann." Hebe said, patting her on the shoulder. The other girl nodded in response, walking out of the room alongside Ambrosia and Victor, before the three left the apartment together.

The victor sighed, running a hand through her hair as she thought about her friend. She worried about her going into the games. The way she always saw the best in people, whilst it may be a good quality in everyday life, didn't make her suited to the hunger games. She needed that element of paranoia that kept you sharp and alert at all times.

She tried to ignore it. Maybe it was for the best that she wasn't like Hebe, who was always naturally suspicious about things.

She spotted Finnick in the main part of the apartment and walked over to him.

"Hey, how'd it go?"

He sighed, rolling his eyes slightly, "Awful. He's too arrogant. A proper career, that one."

"Lucky you."

He scoffed, "Yeah, I'm real lucky. Anyway, how about you?"

"Eh, it was ok. She didn't realise that he wouldn't look out for her in the arena."

"What? How?"

Hebe shrugged, "She always sees the best in people. I love her, but she can be a bit… naive."

"That won't work in the games." Finnick responded, a concerned expression on his face as he perfectly echoed Hebe's previous thoughts.

"You don't have to tell me. But, hopefully she can get in with the careers and then it won't matter so much."

"Yeah, it would definitely be in her best interests to ally with them," Finnick said before groaning, "Ugh, it was so nice not having to deal with 1 and 2 last year."

Hebe rolled her eyes at him once again, "They aren't that bad. Well, Enobaria's ok."

"Oh yeah, I forgot you guys were best buddies now." He replied, his voice derisive.

"What, you jealous I have other friends?" Hebe asked, smirking at him.

Finnick just snorted, "I assure you, I am not jealous of Enobaria."

"Whatever you say."

She paused for a moment, before asking, "Do they normally prefer to be trained separately?"

Finnick mused thinking back through all the mentees he'd had over the years, whilst trying not to get too lost in the details of their lives.

"Hm, it's about a 50/50 split. Although you were a special case, and I suppose so are Victor and Annie."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I mean, you were dedicated to making sure the both of you got to the end, you don't normally see that in district partners. I mean, they normally have a slight friendship, but not to that extent. And, while rivalries are decently common, they aren't as bad as Victor is with Annie."

"Huh. I just assumed that careers would always stick together. Since they always tend to ally together in the arena."

"Not really. I'd say other districts' tributes tend to be closer, just because of the mindset all careers have. It's difficult to get close to someone that you are eventually going to kill."

Hebe furrowed her eyebrows. She could understand that thinking logically, but it was hard to dissociate herself from the experiences with her own district partner, and in her own games.

Finnick smiled at her in a way that was almost wistful, "You can't imagine it, can you?"

"Imagine what?"

"Not having someone to protect."

Hebe thought for a moment, before letting out a small laugh at how perceptive the comment was.

"No, I guess not."

The rest of their days were spent cycling between photo shoots and Capitol parties. She much preferred the parties to the shoots, despite the fact there was more socialising with Capitol citizens. At least when she spoke to them, as dim-witted as they were, she had the chance to inspire someone to sponsor Annie. The photo shoots felt more like she was being put on sale, as they had her in increasingly skimpy outfits doing increasingly lewd poses.

Luckily, she still hadn't been contacted in regards to being 'sold', and hadn't had a single client since arriving in the Capitol, and strangely, neither had Finnick. It worried Hebe slightly, and she couldn't help but think that Snow had some kind of sick surprise in store for the pair of them during or after the games.

But, just because they weren't working didn't mean that the parties were any less painful. However, the ones that took place later on in the week had increasingly less rich and important people, which made them slightly less insufferable and took some of the pressure away from Hebe impressing them. After all, a shopkeeper couldn't exactly go to Snow and demand she be executed.

Each day they were returned back to the tribute centre in the late afternoon, and the pair just about had time to clean themselves up before their tributes arrived back from training.

They were both making good progress, and had managed to secure a relatively stable alliance with the other careers. Annie had been working on her hand to hand skills and seemed to feel much more confident about fighting in the arena. Hebe was confident that she was in a good place as far as training was concerned.

The one wrench in their plan was Victor. He seemed to have ramped up his scowling in the last few days, and Hebe was growing increasingly concerned that he would cause issues for Annie in the arena.

Unfortunately, she couldn't do anything about it, except warn Annie not to trust him.

What she could do something about was exploiting the personal connection between Annie and herself. At first she'd wanted to keep it quiet, for fear that it would be dangerous both in and outside of the arena. But, she'd realised that eventually the Capitol would dig it up, so why not use it to their advantage? After all, who wouldn't want to sponsor Annie, knowing that she was a close friend of one of the most popular victors?

So, she'd found Caesar at one of the more prestigious Capitol parties, and given him some obvious hints about the kinds of questions she wanted him to ask during the interviews. Luckily he seemed to have understood, and Hebe just hoped she'd done the right thing regarding that.

The party in question was during the final afternoon of training, meaning when her and Finnick returned back to the tribute centre they were responsible for coaching their tributes through the individual assessments over dinner, a topic Finnick had asked Hebe to be responsible for, since she had scored an 11 and he a 10.

"...Overall, the most important thing isn't how talented you are with weaponry, or your age, or your physical strength, it's how memorable you are. If you're memorable that makes you entertaining, and that's what the gamemakers want from a tribute." Hebe said, her gaze wandering across the table to the male tribute, who was picking at his fingernails and didn't appear to be paying much attention.

"Victor?"

"What?" He snapped.

"Just wanted to check you were paying attention."

"And what if I wasn't?"

"Excuse me?" Hebe asked, her voice incredulous as she stared at the boy's impassive face.

"Why should I listen to you? You've never mentored before. I mean you were barely a career! And you're, like, one year older than me. You have no experience." He spat, his voice even more venomous than usual.

The female victor was slightly shell-shocked for a moment, and for once her and Ambrosia both had the same reaction. Although, she still recovered fast enough to stop Finnick from jumping in to defend her, his expression angrier than she had ever seen it.

"You wanna know why you should listen to me? You should listen to me because I won the hunger games, have you ever done that before, Victor?" She asked, her voice soft, but unmistakably angry.

He opened his mouth to retort but she cut him off.

"No, you haven't. And no matter what training you think you've gotten from the academy, you don't understand until you've been in that arena. You won't understand until you've killed people with your own hands."

"So y'know what, Victor, until you can live up to that name, I don't want another word about my 'inexperience' coming out of your mouth." She spat, her gaze not straying from the boy's face.

For once, he didn't seem to have a snarky response, instead he sat there, frozen, looking slightly intimidated.

"Do you understand what I'm saying?"

He nodded, and Hebe returned the gesture, leaning back in her chair for a moment, before politely excusing herself from the table and going to sit on the sofa in the main sitting room.

She heard Ambrosia scolding Victor for the way he spoke to her, before promptly sending the two tributes to bed. She could then hear Ambrosia talking to Finnick in slightly more hushed tones, and she assumed that she was instructing the boy to come over and scold her for threatening her tribute.

Hebe didn't move from the sofa, almost certain that Finnick would come over to her any minute to give his opinion on her stunt with their tribute.

And, of course, she was right.

"You good?" He asked, slumping down beside her.

"Better than ever," She laughed, "So, did Ambrosia tell you to come over here and scold me?"

"Maybe."

"Is she really mad?" Hebe asked, but wasn't massively affected either way. She didn't dislike Ambrosia like she used to, but it didn't mean she cared all that much for her opinion.

"Eh, she's more pissed at him than she is at you." Finnick shrugged.

"And you?"

"What do I think?"

Hebe nodded.

He smirked at her, "I think the brat had it coming."

The victor laughed at her former mentor. She wasn't massively surprised that he was on her side, after all she had seen the look on his face during the argument.

"Yeah, well, hopefully he'll lay off me and Annie from now on."

"He better."

Hebe couldn't help but let out another laugh at his dark expression. Finnick then turned to face her, a confused look on his face that just made her laugh even more.

"What are you laughing at now?"

"Sorry," She said between giggles, "It's just, y'know, that face."

"What's wrong with my face?!"

"Nothing. Don't worry, your beauty hasn't been spoiled." She let out another breathy chuckle, "It's just that face you made a minute ago, when you were trying to be all, like, assertive, was really funny."

Finnick then put on his best sulky face, but as usual he couldn't hide the light shining in his eyes, "You are truly evil, y'know that? First you ignore me for 8 months-"

"Not my fault."

"-Then the first chance you get you insult my masculinity!"

"Too bad. I'm your only friend, remember?"

Finnick sighed, mumbling, "God I wished I picked someone else."

"Me too." Hebe responded, barely dodging what would've been a pretty sharp slap.

"Seriously, though, how's Annie dealing?" He asked, his expression morphing into something more genuine and serious.

Hebe sighed.

"Alright, I suppose. As far as the games are concerned, it's all great. She's improved on her hand to hand skills, and I dropped that hint to Caesar we talked about for the interviews."

"But.." She hesitated, looking down at her feet.

"But?"

"I'm not sure she's thought everything through. Like, what the games might actually be like. Or the-the possibility that she might not make it out."

"I thought you said she was going to volunteer?" Finnick asked, his brows furrowing.

"Yeah, she was. I talked her out of it."

"So how could she have not thought about the consequences?"

The girl sighed yet again.

"Look, I told you Annie's a bit naive, didn't I?"

"Yeah."

"Well she's not particularly realistic either. Or, self sufficient. Mentally I mean."

Finnick didn't reply, a confused expression on his face that told Hebe she needed to explain herself further.

"Her whole life, she's been provided for. Her parents had money, so she knew that every day she could go home and have a hot meal for her. She didn't need to find work to survive. But, her parents are emotionally unavailable pieces of shit, and so for emotional support, she came to me."

"Now, don't get me wrong, I'm glad to have her, and I'd do anything for her. But she's not good on her own. She needs people around her for reassurance and support, that's what she's always been like. She's not like us, she's never had to learn to survive by herself."

"And I'm worried that in the games, if she hasn't properly prepared herself for the things that are gonna happen, then she won't be able to handle it. Especially not on her own."

"Are you sure you're not just being-"

"Irrational? Overprotective? Overly cautious? Yes, I almost certainly am. But still, it worries me that she won't be able to handle it."

Finnick hummed, before answering, "You do know her best."

"I do. And I also know that she hasn't reacted emotionally since she got reaped, and I'm almost certain she's trying to push it all away to focus on the games. And we both know from experience that that never works."

"No, it doesn't. But still, we have to hope that you're wrong."

Hebe laughed bitterly at that, well aware of how stubborn she could be about being right.

They stayed silent for a while, before Hebe decided it was time to go to bed, excusing herself and bidding goodnight to Finnick.

"Hebe?" He asked, watching as she stood up off of the sofa.

"Yeah?"

"Are you sure you're ready? To deal with all of this, I mean."

"Probably not, but I have to be. I have no choice. Besides, I have you here, and that helps." She gave him a bright, yet sad smile, before returning to her room, leaving her mentor behind with an ache in his heart, knowing that this time, there was nothing he could do to alleviate her pain.