It had taken ages to fall asleep.
There was a table in between Taiya and Finnick, set up by Taiya to keep them separate. She had told him that, despite there being no separate rooms, it didn't mean he was escaping the sleeping on the couch punishment. She just had to adjust the set-up. He hadn't protested. He'd willingly taken the punishment, which slightly irritated Taiya. It just didn't have the same impact when he was happy to oblige.
She was sleeping on the ground opposite Peeta when his loud voice broke through her sleeping mind.
"And now, ally? Yeah, I'll add that to the list of words I use to try to figure you out!" Peeta snapped.
"Peeta," Taiya groaned, rolling over onto her stomach to bury her head against her arms. "Hush child."
"I'm sorry," Peeta meekly apologised. He hadn't intended to wake anyone up.
Finnick had sat up though, wanting to know what argument Peeta and Katniss were engaging in. He empathised with both parties, but even he felt like Katniss had taken it too far. She'd cast Peeta aside, he would never have done that to her. Before everyone had gone to bed, Finnick had dug into his pocket and pulled out one of Taiya's old ropes, one that he always kept on him and had given it to the boy to tie knots in.
"I just can't tell what's real and what's made up anymore."
"Then ask," Finnick suggested. "It's what Annie does." Finnick tactfully left out the part about how Taiya had taken to this technique as well to help her filter through the voices in her head. She didn't like talking about that with anyone but him.
"Ask who?" he asked sadly. Taiya was just about the only one who was nice to him, but being half-asleep, she wasn't exactly in the mood for a chat.
"Us," Jackson answered. "We're your unit now."
"Go team, go," Taiya mumbled against her arms.
"You're my guards," Peeta retorted.
"That too," Jackson admitted. "But you saved a lot of lives in Thirteen. It's not the kind of thing we forget."
"Go Peeta, go," Taiya rolled onto her back with a sigh. There was no getting back to sleep if people were going to chatter around her.
"Your favourite colour is green?" Peeta asks after a minute. "Is that real?"
"Yeah, that's real," Katniss' voice cracked. Taiya had to open her eyes to look at her. It was like she finally understood. Now that she knew everyone here empathised with Peeta, she understood how affected he was by the Capitol torture.
"That's so cool, swamp potato," Taiya sat up and leaned against the table. "My favourite colour is green too! Like a sea green."
"Thanks," she heard Finnick from behind her, she didn't even need to look at him to know he was smirking. His eyes were sea green.
"Shut it, Odair," she warned gently. He was still in the naughty corner. "What kind of green is your favourite?"
"Like the forest," she answered before looking back at Peeta. "Yours is orange."
"Orange?" he seemed unconvinced.
"Not bright orange. But soft. Like the sunset. At least, that's what you told me once."
"Oh," Peeta closed his eyes, trying to picture the image in his head. "Thank you."
"You're a painter. You're a baker. You like to sleep with the windows open. You never take sugar in your tea. And you always double-knot your shoelaces," Katniss' words tumbled out. "You were right," she directed at Jackson as she stood up. "I can't do this," she quickly took off. She didn't want anyone to see her cry.
"You're so wholesome, bread boy," Taiya teased as she moved to lean up against the wall beside him. "Sleeping with the window open… don't you get cold?"
"Well you close it if it's cold," he shrugged, still staring in the direction Katniss left.
"Wait a second," Finnick scooted closer to them. "What does she mean you don't put sugar in your tea? Wha… how could you not put sugar in tea!"
"Finnick not everyone is a sugar addict," Taiya rolled her eyes with a smile on her face. He had a problem.
"But it makes it taste so much better!"
"Peeta, if you learn one thing from me in life, it's don't let this man tell you how to make tea. He has a problem. He makes a really crappy cup of tea."
"You and Buck have got to get over that. I have Annie on my side, so I'm happy," he smirked at her.
"Peeta, I have a very important question," Taiya turned to her friend. "If you're making a tea, do you put water or milk first?"
"Water," he answered immediately. "Obviously. Who starts with milk?"
Taiya slowly turned her head to look at her husband with a smirk. That was another one on her team.
"You guys are crazy," he huffed. "Try it with milk first Peeta, you'll never look back."
Taiya, Finnick and Peeta stood in line, trays in hand, waiting to collect their breakfast rations. Katniss was strategically keeping Gale a fair distance away to avoid tensions flaring back up.
Just as they reached the front of the line, Jackson's voice cut through the air. "Soldier Ambersnow!" she called out urgently, and Taiya turned to see Jackson rushing towards them.
"Shit," Taiya muttered under her breath. Her eyes widened in realisation; she knew exactly what she was in trouble for. She'd forgotten to put her cuffs back on. They were lying underneath the table she'd slept next to. Sleeping was nearly impossible for Taiya with those things on. So she'd fiddled around with her new knives and found a feature that unlocked the cuffs. She'd meant to put them back on in the morning so she wouldn't get in trouble, but she'd forgotten.
Jackson reached her, a stern expression on her face. "Where are your cuffs, Ambersnow?"
"Erm," Taiya looked down at her hands. "Would you believe that they actually just fell off?"
"No," Jackson shook her head unimpressed. "I wouldn't."
Jackson was about to say something else when Boggs stepped in. He looked Taiya up and down. "Leave it," he instructed Jackson. Jackson immediately turned to Boggs, wanting to protest. "She's not a danger. She's in control. She was defending her friend, she's been punished. We can leave it for now."
Jackson hesitated, glancing from Boggs to Taiya. Eventually, she reluctantly nodded and retreated.
"Thank you, Boggs," Finnick immediately thanked the team leader.
"Don't mention it," he glanced around their trio. "Did you break them to get them off?"
"No," Taiya bit her lip to stop a wide smile from appearing.
"Then get them back to me later please," he requested. "And let's not attack Gale again. Don't need you embarrassing me in front of Jackson," he joked before walking away.
"I can't believe you forgot to put them back on," Peeta sniggered. "You almost got in trouble."
"Shut up, Peeta, I got in trouble defending you," she chuckled. "Why was Boggs nice to me?" she asked Finnick, everyone else she'd interacted with from 13 had been a pain in the ass.
"Boggs is a good guy," Finnick explained. "You can trust him."
"Alright. Katniss, Finnick and Gale. You're with me," Boggs's voice boomed over the room, grabbing everyone's attention. "We're going to film a quick propo."
Taiya immediately spun to look at Finnick, her heart rate increasing. She didn't come all this way to reunite with him for him to go off and film propose without her.
"Hey, hey," he immediately recognised the beginning of her panic. "You'll be with Peeta, ok? You'll wait here at camp, we won't go far."
"I'll keep you company Taiya," Peeta promised. "I'll even let you beat me at slaps again."
This immediately pulled her attention away from the anxiety of being separated from Finnick. "Stop telling people you're letting me win. You're not letting me, I'm just beating you fair and square, no ifs, ands, or buts."
The whole squad had dedicated the entire remaining portion of the preceding day to playing "Real or Not Real". Turning it into a game had been Jackson's idea. They had transformed the longstanding tactic the District 4 gang had employed with Annie, into an entertaining game. While Taiya had dabbled in this with Peeta before, the scale of this surpassed all of her previous attempts with him. Throughout the evening, the entire squad gathered in a circle and answered all of Peeta's questions.
Jackson had arranged the night watches strategically to ensure that there was always someone well-acquainted with Peeta on hand to answer his questions.
At least Gale was making himself useful. He was the one in charge of answering all Peeta's questions about District 12.
Finnick answered his questions about both of Peeta's Games, having been a mentor in one, and a tribute in the other.
Katniss had to answer questions about herself, which were no doubt the most difficult for him to process.
Taiya wasn't given a watch. Probably because Jackson had overheard Taiya joking with Finnick about getting Peeta to join her in a prank. She'd been wanting to try and capture a spider to put in Gale's hair.
It wasn't until the following afternoon that they formulated a plan to move the squad.
The moment had finally arrived to unleash their superstar into a propo video.
Superstar Peeta.
They'd gotten commentary from Plutarch on the propo Katniss, Finnick and Gale had filmed the previous day. Very dull and very uninspiring were his exact words.
"It's because they never let us do anything," Katniss complained to Taiya. "All we do is play-act with our guns."
"We're headed 5 blocks north. We've been given a special block to film in," Boggs addressed the squad. "It has a few active pods in it. So everyone needs to follow my lead."
Taiya, curious about Boggs' awareness of where the pods were, inquired, "How do you know where the pods are?"
"We have a holo," Boggs answered, knowing she'd missed the meeting where the whole squad had been run through it. So he pulled out the device and turned it on, projecting up the map of the Capitol for her to see.
Finnick eyed Taiya warily, recognising the realisation in her face that was akin to the one he and Katniss had felt upon first seeing the map. This was an arena.
Taiya stepped closer to the map and looked it over. "5 blocks north," she breathed. "Which block are we filming?" she asked quietly. She knew that area well.
"This one right here," Boggs pointed to the location on the map.
"Tay?" Finnick whispered, coming to stand next to her. She'd gone pale.
"We shouldn't film in that block," her voice wavered as she spoke. "That pod," she pointed at one that was on the far left of the courtyard. "I don't know what it does, but whatever it releases will be worse than water."
"How do you know that?" Boggs frowned.
"I know who designed it," she lifted her gaze to Boggs. "Lucius Creed designed it just after Seneca got his role as Head Gamemaker. After Annie's Games. I overheard the two of them talking, Lucius said it was what Hamlet Gaul should have put in the dam that broke during those Games. Whatever it is, it's not water. Could be acid or something. You definitely don't want to trigger that."
Boggs peered down at the map, seeing it was simply labelled as 'flood'. "How do you know it's that specific one?"
"That's his apartment building," Taiya pointed to a building on the block's edge. "He wanted his first design to be on the same block as his building. You can't trigger that pod," she emphasised. "Lucius is a psychopath. Whatever that pod is… it's bad."
"Understood," Boggs nodded his head. "You heard her everyone. No one takes a step towards the far left of this square. Is everyone clear?"
A brief murmur of acknowledgment spread through the group.
"Ambersnow, are these other pods labelled correctly?" Boggs asked.
"I don't know," she shook her head. "Seneca didn't design any of those, so I don't know, sorry." Unlike Lucius, Seneca hadn't wanted any pods he'd designed to be placed on the same block as his apartment. Just in case anything ever went down, he didn't want to be anywhere near his own pods. They were dreadful. Having Lucius' pod on his block was bad enough.
"Alright," Boggs accepted. "Well, from their labels, we can see they're no good. This one in the centre releases a spray of gunfire. This one here," he pointed at the map. "Releases a net to trap a person. So, no one takes a step without me authorising it first. Cressida and her crew will be releasing smoke bombs and adding gunfire sound effects to increase the sense of jeopardy on screen. Everyone is to suit up. I want to see everyone wearing their bulletproof vests, no exceptions."
Taiya was in the corner struggling to get her strap tight enough when Finnick moved to help her. He pulled her shoulder strap tight, ensuring the vest sat perfectly against her body.
"I have a bad feeling about this," she admitted, turning to face him.
"Just hold my hand if you get stressed," he reassured, running a hand up and down her arm. "If we follow Boggs, we'll be ok."
"Just don't wander off, okay?" she implored, looking him in the eyes.
"I'll be with you and Peeta the entire time," he promised as they walked back to the group.
"Listen up," Boggs announced, dismantling a gun and holding the magazine up for everyone to see. "The mags empty. It's only for the propo," he reassembled the weapon and handed it to Peeta.
"I'm not much of a shot anyway," Peeta just shrugged. He'd been busy staring at Pollux. He quickly turned to Taiya. "There's something about him," he whispered to her.
"What do you mean?"
Peeta just shook his head. "I'm not sure. When he swallows…." he stared intently at Pollux, and Taiya could sense people were starting to get a little bit concerned. It was bordering on creepy. "Oh!" he gasped. "You're an Avox, aren't you?" he asked. "I can tell by the way you swallow. There were two Avows with us in prison, weren't there, Taiya?" he turned to his friend.
She sucked in a breath. She hadn't wanted this to come up, ever. She hadn't told anyone about what she and Peeta saw.
"Darius and Lavinia, but the guards mostly called them the redheads. They'd been our servants in the Training Center, so they arrested them, too."
"Peeta," Taiya breathed out, not wanting to hear what he had to say next, but he hadn't heard her.
"Taiya and I watched them being tortured to death. Taiya's escort and one of her stylists were there as well. Moxie and Antonia. Lavinia and Antonia were lucky. They used too much voltage and their hearts stopped right off."
"Peeta," Taiya protested a bit louder this time, but he still hadn't noticed. Finnick, however, had noticed her hands shaking and immediately placed his hand on her shoulder, trying to catch her eye.
"It took days to finish Darius and Moxie off. Darius lasted a day longer than Moxie. They beat them. Cut parts off of Darius. I guess the only thing that saved Moxie from that was that she was still an upstanding Capitol citizen. They kept asking them questions. Moxie had no idea what was happening. But Darius couldn't speak, he just made these horrible animal sounds. They didn't really want information, you know? They just wanted us to see it."
"PEETA!" Taiya yelled, slamming her hands over her ears as her whole body started to shake.
"I'm sorry!" Peeta's eyes immediately widened. He'd been so engrossed in the memory he hadn't noticed Taiya unravelling beside him.
"We'll be back," Finnick led Taiya away from the rest of the squad. "Hey, hey," he pulled her into his chest, holding her against him as he rubbed up and down her back. "You're ok. You're with me. You're not there anymore."
It took Taiya a few minutes to calm down, she had to clear the disturbing image away from the forefront of her mind. But when she did calm down, she didn't pull away. She just let her head drop against his shoulder as she removed her hands from her ears and wrapped them around Finnick's body.
"You didn't tell me."
"I didn't want to remember," she confessed. "I can still see it. I can hear it. She was screaming for help, Finnick. But I couldn't do anything."
"That's why you panicked when Effie mentioned Moxie that one time," he realised. She just nodded against his shoulder. "I'm so sorry, honey. I'm so sorry," he kissed her head.
This was why he was doing this. Snow had to pay for what he'd done.
"I'm ok," Taiya pulled away and looked up at him. "Thank you."
Finnick smiled softly at her as he wiped a tear off her cheek. "I've always got you, love."
"I love you."
"I love you too," he quickly kissed her.
"Let's go back."
"Are you sure?" Finnick asked. He wasn't going to make her go back until she was ready.
"Yeah," she nodded. "We have to film this propo."
"You two good?" Boggs asked the couple when they returned.
Taiya nodded for the both of them.
"Good. Let's move."
"Taiya, I'm really sorry," Peeta apologised.
"It's ok, Peeta."
Finnick picked up his trident from the couch he'd left it on and clicked a button so it opened and closed.
"Do you want a go?" he offered Taiya as he noticed her watching him play with the trident.
She nodded and took it from him.
"It's real cool," he began explaining the special features to her that Beetee had programmed. "You know I have this metal cuff," he pushed his sleeve up to show her. "Check it out," he took the trident from her and threw it to the side, before clicking the button on his cuff. It instantly flew back into his hand.
"No way!" she smiled, pushing up her sleeve to show him the same cuff. "I have it for my knives! I call them lazy girl knives. That can be your lazy boy trident."
"Lazy boy trident," he mused as he spun it in his hand. "I like it."
"Hey Peeta," Taiya waved the younger boy over. He'd been walking slightly behind them. "Pew, pew, pew," she joked as she held her gun. Her gun was loaded; it was just his that wasn't.
But he did have to smile at her call back to their morning workout times.
"Do you need help memorising your speech, Peeta?" Finnick offered.
"Let's see it," Taiya snatched it out of his hand, not even waiting for a response. "To the citizens of the Capitol," she mocked in a high-pitched voice.
"Give it here," Finnick chuckled, pulling it out of her hand. "Funny voices won't help him," he teased. "You ready to go over it, Peeta?"
"Yeah," the boy nodded nervously.
"To the citizens of the Capitol," Finnick began. "Our war is not with you."
"To the citizens of the Capitol. Our war is not with you," Peeta echoed.
"You will be a vital part of the democracy, that follows our victory."
"Be a vital part of the democracy," Peeta sighed. "That follows our victory."
"You got it," Finnick encouraged.
"You missed the 'you will' in the 'you will be a vital part of the democracy' bit," Taiya critiqued. "But up top!" she cheered, holding her hand up for a high-five.
Peeta just smiled lightly before obliging her high-five request.
"You know I'm sure you could alter that speech slightly. Make it way cooler. 'Hey there all you groovy Capitol citizens. This is the coolest baker, Peeta Mellark, coming to you live from the Capitol'," she narrated. "Although I guess it's not live by the time the propo goes out…"
Taiya froze as they entered the courtyard they were filming in. She'd spent a lot of time here. She hadn't been back since Seneca died.
"Boggs," Cressida ran up to the man. "This is a good spot. Through there in the courtyard."
"Okay, let us clear it. Alright squad, gather round," Boggs turned to them. "The gunfire pod is positioned about a third of the way down," he pulled up the projection of the street so they could all see. "We should be able to trigger it and after that, it'll be disabled. The net one, though, that'll require someone to set off the body sensor mechanism. It'll capture you, but we'll cut you down. Do I have any volunteers?"
Everyone's hands went up except for Taiya and Peeta's. Peeta didn't quite seem to know what on earth was going on though. Taiya though, reached up and aggressively pulled Finnick's hand down. There would be no more volunteering for District 4 men.
"Now right over there," Boggs pointed in the direction of the flood trap. "That's the pod Soldier Ambersnow warned us about. No one is to go over there. Cressida, you can start setting up the shot."
"Katniss," Cressida's assistant Messalla called the younger girl over. They were applying makeup to Katniss' face for the close-up shots. Who knew war needed an on-call makeup artist?
"You okay?" Finnick asked Taiya quietly. She'd been staring up at a window. That was the apartment she had shared part-time with Seneca. She was staring at her bedroom window. She sincerely hoped that the apartment would make it through the war. It looked undamaged so far; some other apartments looked as though they'd had the glass blown out. But Seneca's was still intact.
"I'm good," she nodded. "How are you Peeta?" she asked the boy who had started muttering.
"I'm fine," he nodded, but his eyes were shut, and he clearly was not fine.
"Follow me, squad," Boggs marched them forward.
As soon as they stepped into the square, Taiya's hand was instantly in Finnick's. He adjusted his grip on her hand so their fingers were threaded together.
He could tell her anxiety was spiking.
"You know this block?" he whispered.
"Yeah," she nodded, sucking in a deep breath. "It's…"
"Pods here," Bogg's voice cut her off. "Split," he firmly instructed them. "Take cover."
Everyone leapt into action, immediately separating and heading for either side of the marble wall.
Boggs moved to the right of the archway and Taiya immediately took off after him. She wanted to be on his side. Finnick trusted him; he'd been nice to her. She'd follow him. She pulled Finnick along with her and Finnick immediately grabbed Peeta's backpack, pulling him over with them. Nothing was going to happen to Peeta on his watch. Katniss and Taiya both loved the boy, so he was determined to look out for him.
Finnick promptly tucked the boy into position behind Boggs. Taiya crouched down beside Peeta, turning to ensure Finnick was right beside her.
Finnick smiled as he quickly leaned forward, kissing her head. He'd always be right beside her.
"Stay back," Boggs warned them all as he picked up a chunk of rubble from the ground.
"Stay back," Taiya snorted to Finnick. "Yeah as if we're going to…" she started joking before she jumped as the rapid fire of machine guns echoed around the courtyard. She'd been too busy looking at her husband, she'd missed Boggs setting off the pod.
She immediately slapped her hands over her ears and buried her head into Finnick's shoulder; his hand quickly held the back of her head in comfort. The bullets were slamming into the wall, sending bits of concrete flying everywhere. The gunfire just kept going and going until finally, it ceased.
Taiya slowly opened her eyes and looked up at Finnick. He had a wide grin on his face.
"Were you smiling that whole time?" she asked and he nodded. "Why am I the only one in therapy?" she grumbled bitterly as she stood up. He definitely needed some therapy as well, because smiling while being shot at was not normal.
Taiya looked around the courtyard. There was dust and smoke everywhere. An archway they'd just walked through had been shot to pieces and was now a pile of rubble on the ground.
Boggs was the first one to walk out into the open to check if the pod was deactivated.
"All clear," he declared.
"I'm going to need some close-up shots," Cressida stopped them all. "I need to get your reactions."
"No thanks. That was not fun," Taiya stood up and turned to look at Peeta.
He was not ok.
"Peeta?" she crouched down next to him. "Peeta, Peeta, Peeta," she frantically called to him, but he was stuck in the confines of his own mind. "Hey, hey, hey," she grabbed his face, trying to stop him from hitting his head against his gun. "Run it through with me. Just like we've done before. What do we know is real?" Taiya looked around the courtyard until she made eye contact with Katniss. She jerked her head at the younger girl; she had to get out of Peeta's line of sight, it wasn't safe for her.
"Let's go film over here," Katniss pulled Cressida around a corner, with the majority of the squad following them, leaving Taiya and Finnick to calm Peeta down.
"My name is Peeta Mellark," he mumbled frantically. "I always sleep with the window open. My home is District 12."
"You're okay, you're okay. Go again," she encouraged.
Peeta finally opened his eyes to look at her. "My name is Peeta Mellark. My home is District 12. I always sleep with the window open."
"You've got this," Taiya encouraged. "Are you feeling okay?"
"None of this is okay," Peeta replied, looking at her with tears in his eyes. He was right.
"Are you good to stand?" Finnick asked, placing his hand on Peeta's arm for support as they held him stand up on shaky legs.
"What are we doing now?"
"Filming close-ups for Cressida," Finnick told him. "You don't have to if you don't want to."
"No one is going to pressure you into anything Peeta," Taiya backed him up.
"Just give me a minute," Peeta dropped his head against the wall.
They could hear giggling from around the corner as the couple worked to get Peeta's heart rate down. Evidently, filming the close-ups wasn't going as well as Cressida hoped.
"Pull it together, Four-Five-One," Boggs said firmly, but you could hear the smile in his voice. "I'm going to go check on the others."
Then there was an explosion. Boggs had stepped on a bomb.
ShiaraS46: Peeta deserves all the love! And now I legit want a t-shirt with those hashtags haha
Mim3: OMG thank you soooo much! Your English is great! Don't worry. Where are you from!?