lyra was being aggressively dragged along by a peacekeeper as she hummed to herself. the young girl tuned out the uproar of complaints and protests that spilled from the district four mouths once her name was called out. most of them had gotten to know lyra and they knew she wouldn't survive a second hunger games as she barely survived her first.
finnick was reluctantly following the peacekeeper and his girlfriend, loudly yelling at the latter to be more gentle with the girl. when they finally got to the train, both victors were released, one furious and one oblivious. finnick then took her hand in his rough one and guided her slowly to sit down on one of the overly fancy sofas lining the side of the train, keeping a tight hold of her hand the entire time.
Neither Mags nor Annie had arrived at the compartment yet, leaving Finnick to talk to Lyra for a while and see what she remembered or thought she knew. A few seconds later, she looked up from her lap and looked surprised at who was in front of her. "Hi Finnick!" She exclaimed happily, very clearly having no idea what was happening.
"Hi, sweetheart. You know where we're going?" He asked carefully, not wanting to overwhelm her too much. He didn't know what was going to happen once they were back in the games but he knew that certain victors weren't going to go easy on her.
Yes, many of them had met Lyra previously and, quite frankly, it was near impossible to hate Lyra once you had met her. But there were certain tributes [mostly from district one and two] who didn't care how defenceless she now was and only cared about winning.
she nodded, confused as to why he was taking to her like she was a child. "The victory tour, right? That's why we're on the train?"
Finnick shook his head, trying not to seem too disappointed. Not in her, never in her, but disappointed in how everything had turned out. He wouldn't change anything about Lyra. Absolutely nothing except to take away the permanent injury that the games caused on her memory. He sat there patiently, waiting to see if she could get there herself. "No, no, that was a while ago" she muttered to herself. "It's the quarter quell?" She looked at Finnick for confirmation with squinted eyes.
"Yeah that's it, well done" he praised "do you remember the reaping?" Finnick hoped he wouldn't have to explain what had happened.
Lyra thought back to the last thing she remembered. She remembered sitting on their sofa, waiting for president snows announcement. Finding out the tributes would be reaped from the existing victors. "Annie got reaped, but I couldn't let her go..." she paused, furrowing her eyebrows trying to remember "so I volunteered" she concluded.
It clearly hadn't registered in her brain that it was a terrible thing, that she was going back into the hunger games. A part of Finnick was happy that she wasn't freaking out, but a part of him was upset that she didn't know what was going on. She had the right to be able to react how she wanted to, she had the right to cry and scream. But she couldn't because the games took that away from her as well.
"You know that means going back in the arena?"
"I know, it'll be okay though. I'm a very intimidating person, Finnick" she joked, turning in her seat. She was now facing him, sitting with her legs crossed on her seat.
She knew this was a bad thing, a very bad thing. No one truly wanted to go back in the arena, no one wanted to go in there the first time and now president snow was making them do it again. She just couldn't bring herself to cry. She wanted to, she really did. She wanted to cry and scream and say that it won't be okay but that wouldn't do anything and for once, Lyra could make sure Finnick was okay.
Since her games, she felt like Finnick was looking out for her all the time. She wanted to be okay and she wanted to be normal again but when she forgot what she had just said or where she was and sometimes forgot what was happening all together, it was hard to be independent.
But right now she had forgotten how exactly to express how she was feeling and she was going to make the most of a bad situation. "Are you ok, Finn?" She asked, knowing the answer.
"Not really, Ly" Finnick replied, sounding exhausted after acting so confident and cocky in front of the cameras. She shuffled closer to him, wrapping her arms around his neck. He pulled her on to his lap, wrapping his around her waist, burying his face in her neck. Finnick occasionally pressed a kiss on the crook of her neck, making Lyra smile lightly.
They just sat there for a while, tears welling up in both their eyes as the train got closer and closer to the capitol.
Lyra's hands ran through Finnicks hair cradling the back of his head. They were both taking calm, slow breaths, neither wanting to put the other into a panic.
After a few minutes, Lyra broke away from the hug. She looked at him with a soft smile before softly muttering "it'll be okay, y'know. I'm a very intimidating person, Finnick"
He smiled at her before realising that he recognised what she'd said. She'd said that same thing a couple of minutes ago. He sighed sadly knowing that he had to double check that she knew exactly where they were going.
"Sorry, sweetheart, where were we going again?"
"You sound like me, Finn. The capitol"
Finnick had a proud smile adjourning his face, happy that she was just repeating herself accidentally and he wouldn't have to relay the bad news to her once more. "Yeah, thats right" They both sat there, waiting for Annie and Mags, both hearts heavy.
───── authors note ! Hey loves! next chapter is a scene with katniss
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