Don't Drown | Finnick x OC

Trade

Day Before Tribute Announcement

I sat on the docks, my sketchbook in my lap, waiting for my pencil to move. Somehow nothing happened. Everything felt still. I had always been able to pour my feelings onto paper. The last time I hadn't been able to was my games.

They weren't always pretty- the drawings- and they definitely weren't always happy, but no matter what, I always could draw. And today... I felt empty. Like I was beyond emotions.

Footsteps began to walk on the dock behind me, I whipped around. A habit that, it seemed, would never go away.

"Just me." Finnick said.

My shoulders visibly relaxed and I turned back around, waiting for him to take his seat next to me. When he did, he was quiet for a long time. He just stared out into the water with me before he finally spoke.

"Mags told me something before...." He trialed off but her didn't need to finish.

"Oh yeah?" My voice sounded hollow, not like my own.

"She said that she would have volunteered herself if your name was called."

The lump in my throat began to rise again. It was like it was always there this past week, just waiting for an excuse to make itself known.

"I'm not surprised." I finally said.

It would have been nice, if she could have been there to volunteer. As much as I wouldn't have wanted to lose her, the logic was hard to ignore.

But she was gone. Her heart, the one that had fought for so long, had finally given out. And I was happy for her. Truly, if she didn't have to be in this hellish world anymore.

And yet... there still seemed to be this hole. She wouldn't be there to calm us down, to offer advice, to volunteer.

It hit me like a wave.

"Finnick." I suddenly said.

"Hm?" His voice was lazy as he looked into the blue depths beneath us.

"We're going back."

He paused.

"Isla, there are technically three other tributes from 4 to choose from..."

"No, we're Capitol favorites. If we keep fooling ourselves that they're not going to fix it, we'll never be prepared."

He was quiet for several moments.

Even though we had won our games a couple years apart,  his when he was fourteen, mine when I was sixteen, we were almost the same age and had known each other for so long. We knew how to work together. Not just in the arena but in life. 

A good while ago, Finnick had taken to calling me 'his person' and it stuck. What we were didn't need a label, but we did need each other. I just needed him to see it clearly right now.

"I'm not preparing for the damn games. They want me? They can have me, but I'm not going to try."

"Yes you are."

"Isla—"

"You will try in that arena because, my god Finnick, I refuse to watch you die."

His hands grasped my face, his thumbs wiping away the tears forming.

"If we go to the Capitol together," he practically whispered. "they'll know."

We had kept our relationship secret for so long. At first because it wasn't romantic at all, we couldn't have the Capitol getting the wrong idea, but when it became romantic Finnick insisted I would be in danger. Everything they used him for, they wouldn't want a complication attached to his heart.

"We'll have to figure it out. Press events, we can hide it and—"

"I don't want to hide it. Not in our last..."

He trailed off. But I knew what he meant. Not in our last few days.

"I know." I removed his remaining hand from my face and kissed it. "But in the arena it won't matter, we're already in there. Plus... I bet we can disable the cameras in the tribute center's bedroom."

I winked and he gave a small chuckle. Humor was hard to insert right now but I prided myself in trying.

Another beat of silence.

"Okay." He finally agreed, somber again. "Under one condition."

I rolled my eyes, this was just like him.

"If it comes to a decision between me and you in there, we pick you."

"No." My response left my mouth before I could even blink.

"Isla—"

"Hell no, Finnick."

"Listen to me. I watch you react every time the fiddle starts to play. I know you wish you weren't, but you are a weapon. I have absolute faith that you can win this thing." His voice was calm and rational.

"I win, the capital continues to use me for their own gain." I muttered.

"You are not— I repeat not— going to use this as an excuse to die. Promise me you will fight all the way through." His grip on my hand tightened and I looked into his eyes.

They usually held some kind of mischievous glint to them, but right now, they were dead serious.

"Alright." I swallowed and forced my voice to be more firm. "Okay, I promise."