"Hey," Taiya greeted as she came down the stairs in the morning to see Finnick cooking breakfast in the kitchen. "You're never up this early."

"I wanted to make you breakfast," he smiled, "I thought we could talk."

"Oh," Taiya nodded nervously. "Thanks," she said as she sat down on the other side of the bench.

"Here," he said, handing her a plate of french toast.

"Looks good."

"Yeah I got the blueberries from Mags' garden," he explained as he sat down opposite her.

"So…" Taiya chuckled awkwardly as she poked her fork at the breakfast.

"So," he chuckled back. "We kissed."

"We kissed," Taiya sung before pursing her lips. "What does that mean?"

"You first."

"No way, you go," Taiya insisted.

"I really like you, Tay. I always have."

"I don't want to ruin our friendship," Taiya interrupted. "You're my rock."

"Well, we can prioritise our friendship first. No matter what, our friendship is the most important."

"You say that now Finn, but we don't know what will happen. How many teenage relationships actually last?"

"Your parents. My parents. It's in our genes. It's meant to be," he smirked.

"That's not funny Finnick," she groaned.

"I'm not joking around Tay," he disputed, leaning forward to hold her hand across the bench. "I'm not saying we need to move fast or anything. I'm just saying that this isn't some silly teenage relationship to me. And I don't think it is to you either. I think we both feel similarly for each other and you're just afraid. But I'm not afraid. We've lost so much Taiya and I don't think of this as a loss of our friendship, it's just taking our friendship to the next level, it's a gain."

"A gain?" Taiya repeated and he nodded. "How long have you felt like this?" she asked.

"First day of seventh grade."

"You have a date?" she smiled.

Finnick nodded, "I watched some guy flirt with you at the academy and I got so mad."

"Adrian?" Taiya asked, her eyes widening. "You wrestled him on the first day of school. You beat him up," she realised and he looked down embarrassed. "He wasn't flirting with me."

Finnick laughed, "Taiya you never notice. You have no idea the effect you have on men. I kept it hidden but it wasn't until the day of the reaping when I thought you might have feelings for me too."

Taiya's head tilted to the side, "that was the day I realised I might like you as more than a friend," she confessed. "I heard your name and my heart just stopped. How did you know?"

"You wouldn't let go of me when you were saying goodbye. I just realised that I had to get home to you, I couldn't die not knowing if you felt the same. I kept the rope you gave me from your hair, you know that. I held it every night for security."

"But you waited two years to bring it up?" she asked.

"I got home and I saw how close you and Theo had gotten. I thought maybe I'd been mistaken."

"Theo?" Taiya asked. "Theo is just my friend and yours too."

"I know," he smiled, standing up and walking to stand in front of her. "Mags managed to get it through to me."

"Were you going to kiss me on your birthday?" she asked, reaching out to hold his hands.

Finnick blushed and looked down with a chuckle. "Yeah. I really wanted to kiss you. I wasn't sure you'd kiss me back."

Taiya stood up out of her seat, "I would've."

"Things got messy after that," he breathed as he brushed a loose piece of hair behind her ear.

"And now?" Taiya asked as they leaned into each other.

"I want to be with you."

"The reaping's next week. You'll have to go mentor in the Capitol. You'll be gone for a month."

"And I'll be thinking of you the whole time," he said quietly as he ran his hands down her arms. "It's what got me through the first time so it's what will gets me through this time."

"You're being all mushy," she smiled.

"I don't have to pretend with you," he explained and she stopped smiling as she looked at him seriously. "With you it's real. I'm real, it's not a mask."

Taiya touched his cheek lightly before she leaned up and pressed her lips to his. Just as their lips connected, the doorbell rang and they sprang apart.

"I'll get it," Finnick smiled before he stepped away from her and walked to the front door, allowing her to let out a shaky breath. After a minute Finnick walked back into the kitchen looking confused. "It's Tyler, he's here for you."

"Oh shit," Taiya gasped as she saw Tyler. "I'm so sorry, I'm running late. Let me run and get changed, I'll just be a minute," she apologised as she ran out of the kitchen and upstairs to get changed.

"Ok ok I'm back," she announced, as she ran back down the stairs in her exercise gear, throwing her hair into a ponytail.

"What are you guys doing?" Finnick asked.

"We run along the beach trail every day," she lied.

"I've never noticed," Finnick frowned.

"Yeah, well you're not usually up this early," she smiled, leaning up to quickly kiss him.

"Ready?" Tyler asked.

"Yep, let's go. I'll be back in a couple of hours," she farewelled as she pulled away from Finnick, shooting him one last smile before she left the house with Tyler.

"Why don't you just tell him what we're doing?" Tyler grunted as he grabbed Taiya's fist and flipped her so she landed on the ground.

"Because," she groaned as she stood back up. "I don't want to worry him. He got really serious about training me for the games for a while and it hasn't really crossed his mind since our parents died."

"You never took it seriously before, why now?" Tyler asked as he wrapped his arms around her neck and spun her so her back was against his front. "And you're dead."

Taiya shoved him and pushed herself off of him, "I don't want to be serious around Finnick. He was teaching me to be defensive. You're teaching me how to attack," she explained as she crouched down and swung her leg, collecting the back of Tyler's feet and sending him to the ground.

"Good one," he complimented as he stood up. "You may as well tell him Taiya. We've been training for 2 hours a day for the last 6 months. If you bothered to put in the effort at the academy you wouldn't need private training," he huffed as she rolled away from one of his attacks.

"What does that mean?"

"It means I see you when you train at the academy Taiya," he said, pausing their attacks so she would listen to him. "Mentors have to visit there a few times a year. Every instructor was always keen to point out that the mayor's daughter was in their class. You'd never once be trying. You used to muck around with Finnick and Theo, and now that Theo is putting in effort, you're fooling around with that girl Kenna. If you apply yourself you have talent. You're strong Taiya, you've got a good aim and a smart mind, yet you're consistently one of the lowest in your class. You're excellent when you train with me, you can almost keep up, but in class, you're a mess. It just doesn't make sense."

Taiya looked at the ground before taking off her knuckle protectors and storming over to the knife-throwing section of the currently empty academy. "You wouldn't understand."

"Try me," he offered as he came to stand by her side.

Taiya threw a knife and it landed right in the target. "My mom always panicked when I came home and talked about the academy. I've already told you how she was about the games. Whenever I'd talk about training she'd freak out. I just think I found it easier when there was nothing to tell."

"That doesn't make sense Taiya. I'm sure she would've rathered you train and have the best possible chance of surviving if god forbid you were ever reaped."

Taiya glared at the knife in her hand and threw it as hard as she could towards the target's head, hitting it right in between its eyes. "I'm sure you're right. But I've had this mentality about the academy since I was like 10, it's hard to change it, especially when she's not here anymore."

Tyler sighed in sympathy before he changed the subject, "can I give you a word of advice?"

Taiya paused her throwing and turned to look at him, "go on."

"Don't go public with whatever your relationship is with Finnick."

"What do you mean? Why?" she asked.

"It's not safe."

"How?" she asked sceptically.

"Look, they're trying to foster a reputation for Finnick in the Capitol and having a relationship would jeopardise that," he answered cautiously.

"What kind of reputation?"

"As a ladies man."

Taiya snorted, "a ladies man?" she laughed. "I think I'm the only girl he talks to. They've all got crushes on him, but he never talks to them, he doesn't know what to say."

"I know, I know. But the Capitol doesn't know that. Finnick's popularity in the Capitol is giving people a positive perception of District 4, if they changed their mind about him, it could affect resources."

"Are you trying to tell me that the Capitol is so fickle that if Finnick came out with a girlfriend one day they'd stop giving us supplies?"

"That's exactly what I'm telling you," he said seriously. "And trust me, they wouldn't look kindly on you either," he said sadly.

"Are you ok?" she asked.

"I had a similar situation after I won my games. They wanted me to be a certain type of victor but I wasn't interested. I had Aila waiting for me at home. I wouldn't succumb to their image of me and the stress of the situation drove her mad."

"I didn't know you had a girlfriend," Taiya frowned.

"I don't. She died. The last thing I want to see is history repeat itself. Not with you."

"How did she die? If you don't mind telling me," Taiya asked.

"She was shot accidentally by peacekeepers," he said, his eyes flashing.

"Aila Pennyway?" Taiya gasped. "I've heard of her."

"I had to watch her suffer, I don't want any harm coming to you. Just keep yours and Finnick's relationship in house ok? You never know who's watching."

twinia1: Not going to lie, there'll definitely be some of that, and I'm not going to write too much on that, I more want to focus on the mental health ramifications as a result of that treatment rather than the treatment itself. I feel like it's a very big part of that backstory of The Hunger Games, but obviously given the target market of the series it's not explored deeply and I don't really want to do that either. She won't be subjected to it from winning to the quarter quell, it'll be there for some of it, and then I have a different idea.

gryferrinpride8: Thank you! I don't want it to be the same as every other fic and go straight to the quarter quell so I want to spend a bit of time building relationships with characters and actually fleshing out the character before all the drama starts. I'll admit, I have two ending ideas, one where he makes it and I haven't decided which way to go yet haha!