"Think we might find some food here?" Katniss' voice broke the solemn silence that'd been cast over the room for the past hour.

"Worth a look," Finnick agreed. Since they weren't heading back to base, they'd have to scavenge food, they hadn't brought any with them. "You ok?" he asked Taiya quietly, she'd been resting her head on his shoulder while her mind whirled with thoughts.

Tyler. Mags. Buck. Annie. Johanna. Gloss. Haymitch.

They all would think that they were dead.

"Yeah," she sat up slowly. "I'm just going to sit with Peeta," she mumbled as she made her way over to the boy who was still slumped despairingly against the stairs.

Finnick cast one last look at her before he stood up to join Katniss and Gale in searching for food in the kitchen.

The first cupboard he opened was bare. That wasn't a good sign.

"Psst," Taiya whispered to Messalla as she watched him stand up to go help them. "Just two minutes," she pleaded with him. The three victors searching weren't going to have any luck finding food in the cupboards. They would've all been emptied. But the hidden provisions surely wouldn't have been. And there was no way those three were going to work out where Capitolites hid their stashes of food. Messalla knew. Taiya knew.

Messalla frowned but scooted closer to them. "Why don't you want to help them?"

"For my own entertainment," Taiya shrugged. "Finnick and Katniss are just collateral damage, but I'd love to get Gale's stress levels up about there being no food."

"Two minutes," Messalla agreed cautiously. He didn't want to get involved in whatever beef Taiya and Gale had going on, but he also wasn't going to risk pissing Taiya off. The girl was unstable at the best of times, and he didn't want to be the one to make her snap.

"Dammit!" Gale groaned as he opened the fourth cupboard. "There's nothing here!"

"I found a potato," Finnick offered, holding up a half-rotted potato he'd grabbed out of a drawer.

Both Gale and Katniss surveyed him for a moment, trying to work out if he was being serious. He was.

"Good job, Finnick," Katniss smiled briefly at him. "Let's keep looking."

"Can we help now?" Messalla asked Taiya quietly.

"Yeah," she nodded. "That was embarrassing to watch."

She stood up to follow Messalla into the kitchen, she couldn't wait to show off to Gale how much smarter than him she was.

"No, no, not in there," Messalla shook his head as Katniss opened up yet another empty cupboard. "I used to live in a unit just like this," he walked over to the mirror-panelled wall and pressed on the one pane that acted as a door.

"What the shit!" Taiya gasped. It was empty.

"It's ok," Messalla tried to calm her down. "People in the Capitol aren't used to going through hard times. We'll just try another spot," he smiled at her before walking into the hallway. There should be some food stashed behind the ventilation screen.

As soon as Taiya got a look at it though she was sprinting back into the main bedroom. The vent in the hallway was also empty.

"NO!" everyone heard her growl in anger when she found the hidden bedroom cupboard was also empty.

She came storming out of the bedroom and towards the group in the hall. Everyone held their breaths, they weren't quite sure what she was going to do. A relieved sigh left them all when she just pulled Finnick in for a hug.

"He did it on purpose," she whined to him. She was convinced. As soon as he evacuated, Taiya was sure Lucius had emptied the provisions cupboards because that was just the kind of ass he was.

There was another apartment nearby though that would be fully stocked. One where she absolutely knew where all the provisions were hidden.

She knew Finnick wouldn't approve. But, if she did it though, they could call it even on the whole sneaking away without telling the other thing. Her leaving wouldn't even be as bad as his leaving was. She wasn't leaving the District. Hell, she wouldn't even have to leave the building.

She needed someone to go with her though, to help her carry the food back. She needed someone disposable, and her mind went to only one person.

Dale.

She pulled out of Finnick's hold and turned to look at the younger man. He was just leaning against the wall staring at the foodless vent like a sulk.

Once she caught his eye, she widened her's dramatically at him, attempting to convey a message that she hoped he'd pick up on.

"You and I need to talk about Peeta, Hawthorne. Now!" she glared at him, keeping the dramatics up for the benefit of those around them. "Follow me," she took a step in the direction of the main bedroom.

"Tay," Finnick touched her back lightly.

"I promise I won't hurt him," she smiled at him. It only took one smile, and he was like putty in her hands. He wasn't comfortable with this, he knew she hated Gale, but he couldn't deny her anything when she smiled like that. So he just nodded hesitantly and watched her go.

Gale followed Taiya into the bedroom, closing the door behind him with a soft click. His expression was guarded, arms crossed in front of him as he regarded her. "What do you want?" he asked, his tone clipped. "I'm assuming it's not to do with Peeta."

Taiya met his gaze, her own eyes flashing with disdain. "While there are many things I do want to say to you about how you treat Peeta, I'm putting that on hold for the moment. We need food."

"Yeah, we do," Gale nodded as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Slight problem with that though."

"I can get us food," Taiya cut him off before he could continue. "Mine and Seneca's old apartment is in this building. The penthouse. 14th floor. If you feel like going up those stairs with me, I know where the food is, I just need help carrying it."

Gale's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "You still have access to that place?"

Taiya nodded. "Should do. But it might be a trap. Seneca made the computer system untraceable. That way Snow wouldn't know how much time I spent there. Romulus developed the system for us, he didn't know why he was making it, but he's good with computers. So long as it's not bugged, the entry code system shouldn't give us away. But I don't know if Snow's rigged the place on the off chance I'd go back. It might be a one-way trip."

"That's a chance I'm willing to take. There's a long way to go and we all need fuel," Gale turned to leave the room, but Taiya grabbed his arm.

"There's one more thing…" she hesitated.

Gale frowned. "What is it?"

"Finnick can't know," Taiya shook her head urgently. "He won't let me go. We have to distract him."

Gale's expression hardened, his mind whirling with plans. "I've got an idea. Katniss can't know either, she'll rat you out to Finnick. Jackson will help," he said as he walked towards the door of the ensuite and closed it. He held the door handle before he threw his shoulder into it a couple of times.

"What are you doing?" Taiya frowned as she watched him.

"I'm going to tell him I locked you in here," Gale explained his idea. "He'll think you're in here and be too busy trying to break it down that he won't even know you're gone."

"That's not a bad plan!" Taiya nodded, impressed with his thinking, but she knew how to make it even better. If Finnick called out to her, it'd be suspicious if she didn't call back. So, Taiya leapt over to the bedside table. That's where the panic button was. "Move," Taiya instructed Gale, who quickly stepped back just as she pushed the button.

A metal door came sliding out, slamming shut, locking whoever would've hypothetically been in the bathroom inside.

"That'll do it," Gale nodded as he looked at the metal door. There was no way Finnick could smash that down with his shoulder, and there was no way he'd question the lack of angered shouting coming from the bathroom. "Let me check the hall," he looked at Taiya before he slowly opened the door and stuck his head out. "All clear," he turned to her. "You get in the hall vent, I'll corral everyone in here, and when they're distracted trying to open the bathroom, I'll get you from the vent and we can go. They'll all be working on the door for a while before they notice."

"Ok," Taiya nodded. This was going to work. She raced over to the hall vent and picked up the cover, handing it to Gale before she climbed in and allowed him to seal her in.

Gale walked back into the main room, but before he could take a seat, Finnick's concerned voice cut through the air. "Where's Taiya?" he asked, his eyes staring in the direction of the hallway, waiting for his wife to appear.

"In the bathroom," Gale replied, his tone matter-of-fact.

Finnick made a noise of acknowledgement, but his worry was palpable. "Was she okay?" he pressed, his voice tinged with concern.

"Not sure," Gale replied, keeping his tone neutral. "I locked her in."

As Gale's words hung in the air, Taiya listened anxiously from her hiding spot. She heard the racing footsteps of Finnick as he bolted down the hallway and into the bathroom.

"Taiya! Tay!" she heard him calling out, his voice filled with urgency. "Guys, I'm going to need some help here!"

"Seriously, Gale! You can't get along for just a few days," Katniss snapped at him, frustration evident in her voice. She and the rest of the team raced to help Finnick, their footsteps storming past Taiya's position.

The cover for the vent was then pulled off before Gale helped Taiya out and they raced into the living room.

"I told Jackson quickly," Gale explained as he passed Taiya her gun before strapping his own on.

"Make it quick soldiers," she instructed them both. "Any sign of trouble you both bail. Am I clear?"

"Crystal clear," Taiya smiled.

"Good luck soldiers," she handed Gale a satchel to store the food in.

Without another word, they were off, racing towards the stairwell that would lead them to the penthouse. Despite their fitness and training, the climb to the 14th floor proved gruelling. Taiya's legs began to burn with each step, but she pushed through the pain. The quicker they completed this mission, the quicker she could get back to Finnick.

Finally, they reached the penthouse, their breaths ragged and their hearts pounding in their chests.

Taiya collapsed against the wall and slid down. "I'm going to sue whoever invented running," she snapped through frantic breaths.

"Yeah, well we've still got to get back down after this," Gale pointed out.

"You know how you can get down faster?" she asked, looking up at him innocently.

"How?" he was eager for any suggestion.

"I could push you down?"

"Just open the door," Gale rolled his eyes and stood up straight.

Taiya pulled herself up and turned to look at the keyboard. She remembered her code. It was the same code she'd set for Gloss' compartment in 13.

3466425.

"346 what?" Gale frowned as the door unlocked, he was trying to work out the symbolism behind the numbers. It didn't work for a birthday.

"3466425," she glanced back at him. "It spells out Finnick on a keypad," she smiled softly before she took a step into a dead man's penthouse.

Taiya and Gale entered the penthouse cautiously, Taiya gripping two knives tightly in her hands, ready for any potential pod that may have been planted there. Gale stayed close by her side, his senses on high alert as they scanned the spacious apartment.

"In and out," Gale reaffirmed to her, his voice low but determined, his eyes constantly darting around the room, scanning for any signs of danger.

"In and out," Taiya agreed, her focus split between the task at hand, and the photo frame on the table by the entrance.

It was a picture of her and Seneca, taken way back before she'd had to break his heart. Seneca had always kept it there, a reminder of happy times.

No one had touched Seneca's belongings since his death, leaving the apartment frozen in time. Technically, the place had become Taiya's after Seneca's passing, but his father's dispute over his will had left everything in limbo. He'd never liked her. 'Why should a District girl be given a Capitol apartment' was his argument.

"Taiya?" Gale's voice pulled her attention back to the task at hand. "Focus."

"Yeah, yeah," she agreed, grabbing the photo frame and removing the back of it so she could pull the photo out and tuck it in her pocket. She turned back just in time to catch Gale's eye roll. "Do you have something you want to say?"

"It's just hypocritical," he snarked.

"What? Me?"

"Yeah. You," he couldn't help but scoff at her sentimentality for a Capitol man. "You're on the side of the rebellion, Taiya. How can you care for these people after everything they've done to us? That man put 24 kids in that arena every single year. He put Katniss and Peeta in there. 23 dead kids every year are on his head."

"Plutarch was a Gamemaker as well!" Taiya snapped. "Why don't you give him crap for it? He worked alongside Seneca the entire time I knew him. Just because Seneca was part of the system, that doesn't mean he was the enemy. The enemy is Snow. And technically the last year only 22 kids died."

"The enemy is anyone working on Snow's side in any way," Gale shook his head as he walked further into the apartment. But Taiya wasn't done.

"Seneca wouldn't have been on that side in a war. He would have listened to me."

"No, no, he wouldn't have. Don't you get it?" Gale rounded on Taiya. "Everyone here is equally guilty. Everyone partaking in this whole ridiculous sham. Look around Taiya. This is someone's home! No one needs anything like this! I had to fight every day to get food on the table for my whole family. This man had his life served to him on a silver platter."

"You can't hate them for being brainwashed," Taiya argued back. "This is all they've ever known. This is how they were raised. They don't know what it's like to grow up in 12. They go to school, they get taught the Capitol's propaganda. They don't have any hope of having any other opinions. But when the rebels win the war, we can expand their knowledge, and educate them! Help them understand! Not everyone in the Capitol is evil, just like not everyone in the District's is innocent!"

"You can't afford to be soft in times like these. There is no middle ground, Taiya. There never will be. There's us and there's them. Anyone who partakes in this is guilty."

"Just as guilty as who? Snow?" Taiya snapped. "You don't have a clue what life is like here Gale. You've never had a chance to. I know. I've been around these people. They're not evil, they're just ignorant. That doesn't make them criminals. Some people, sure, yeah, they're criminals. But people like Seneca? No. They're not. His brother kept me safe when the rebels left us to get kidnapped. He helped me! He got intel to Plutarch about new pods! Are you saying he's guilty?"

"If he's not actively on this battlefield fighting with us, then yeah, I guess I am," Gale barely got the words out of his mouth before his head was whipped to the side as Taiya punched him.

"They're ignorant but uneducated," Taiya shoved him. "But you're educated on social matters and you're still an ignorant fool," she snapped at him. "These people aren't criminals for leading the only life they've ever known. Lots of them are just victims of brainwashing. Some yeah, I'll give you that, some are evil. Snow. Lucius Creed. Hamlet Gaul. Evil. But the Crane's? They're not evil, they're just misguided. And I can tell you for a fact that when you do educate them, they listen, and they realise how bad it is out there. We're fighting for a better future, but that doesn't mean we have to lose our humanity in the process. Casting everyone as guilty just like that is reckless. You're just a pig-headed fool," she pushed past him and headed into the kitchen.

As soon as she was out of Gale's sight, she was able to shake out her hand. That punch had really hurt. She hadn't held back.

It was only a minute until Gale joined her, helping her scoop out food from the secret compartments she was opening and loading them into their bags.

It took about 10 minutes to clear everything out. They'd worked in silence. They were never going to see eye to eye. So why bother trying?

As Taiya and Gale arrived back downstairs, they could feel the tension radiating from Creed's apartment.

And they could hear Finnick's voice yelling before they even reached the door.

"You can't stop me!" Finnick yelled definitely.

"You're to wait here, soldier," Jackson tried to maintain control. "That's an order."

"She's my wife! I don't follow orders when it comes to my wife!" Finnick's revelation seemed to stun Jackson into silence momentarily. She'd known they were engaged, she hadn't known they were already married.

"It's ok, Finnick. Gale will watch out for her," Katniss' voice cut through the tension, an attempt to calm the distraught Finnick.

"Oh, please," Finnick's voice was filled with scepticism. "She'll probably kill Gale."

"Finn!" Taiya called out as she swung the for open, revealing herself. Immediately, Finnick's demeanour shifted. His trident had been held aloft in the air in the direction of Jackson. He'd been determined to go find her, no matter who stood in his way.

As soon as he saw her though, he dropped the trident to the floor and was racing towards her, wrapping her in his arms.

"Don't do that," he pleaded, his voice choked with emotion. "Never do that."

The fear of losing her had driven him to the brink, but now that she was safe in his arms, relief washed over him like a wave. He held her tightly, as if afraid she might disappear if he let go.

He could never let her go.