Love at Sea (Finnick Odair)

Chapter 20

"Keep your eyes open! Taiya!" Theo yelled at her as they sped through the current of the river.

"Ok," Taiya stuttered in between gasps as her eye's threatened to flutter closed.

"No, no, no," Theo panicked as he felt her body relax further in his arms. "Just a little longer Taiya," he pleaded as he kicked his way over to the edge of the freezing river. They'd been carried along the river for a few minutes, putting them a good distance from the tributes from Districts 1 and 10. Taiya's head rolled off Theo's shoulder and she spluttered as her head went below water. "No, you don't!" Theo yelled as he grabbed the collar to her coat and tugged her head higher above the water level. "You stay awake!" he yelled at her semi-conscious body as he clambered out of the river before pulling her out and laying her on the snow.

"Theo," she tried to speak as her body violently shook from the cold.

"We've got to find shelter," he said looking around. "The wind is going to make this worse," he realized. He pulled the shaking girl up slightly and smiled when he saw that her backpack was waterproof. He quickly pulled the backpack off of her, and unable to use his hands properly, he used his teeth to unzip it. "Ok Tay, I'm really sorry but I'm going to have to get these clothes off you."

"Why?" she moaned.

"The water in the coats will start to freeze, it'll make us colder. Trust me. We've got to get these off, it'll be better in the long run, can you help me with that?" he asked her and she nodded.

Slowly, she pulled herself up and tried to unzip her coat. "I can't, my hands are shaking too much," she cried.

"Mine too," he sympathized and he used his teeth to unzip her coat before helping her pull it off.

"Here," she said waving him forward before copying him and using her teeth to unzip his coat.

Theo leaned forward and ripped her beanie off her head. "Put out your hands," he instructed as he pulled out the blanket Finnick had given them and rubbed it against her hands, trying to use friction to warm her hands up to the point that she could use them. "Did that work?"

"A bit," she nodded.

"Ok, get the rest off," he said and she began to take off the rest of her clothes.

"Do you need help?" she asked as she watched him struggle with his shoes.

"I've got it," he grunted as he managed to kick them off, leaving the both of them in just their underwear. He quickly ran around the area and shoved their weapons into the backpack, leaving just the sword in his hand. "Alright, come here," he said standing up. Taiya stumbled over to him and he grabbed the blanket and wrapped it around the both of them. "Just hold onto me. We need to try to use each other's body heat to function properly. We need to get somewhere the wind and snow can't get at us and hopefully Tyler and Finnick can get us some new clothes."

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Theo and Taiya stumbled around for half an hour until they found a cave to hide in. Theo leaned the both of them up against the wall and looked over at her to see her eyes glazed over and her body not shaking anymore.

"Hey, hey," he whispered tapping her face, making her slowly blink in response.

"Is that Taiya?" a quiet voice asked and Theo instantly jumped up, sword at the ready.

"Who's there?"

"Please don't hurt me," the voice pleaded. "I don't want any trouble."

"Then show yourself," Theo challenged.

Out of the shadows of the cave stepped Cooper with his hands raised in the air. "What happened?" he asked as he got a good look at them.

"We had to jump in the river," Theo answered cautiously, not lowering his sword.