Liberosis - The Hunger Games

51

Finnick barely got any sleep during the night.

I had been wading the shoreline, spearing at small fish that caught my eye when he awoke, screaming and dragging himself up from his lying position. Immediately I abandoned my job, bolting over to the man, and cradling him protectively until he realised, I was beside him. It had taken him a while to calm down after that and even then, he had been scratching at his hands and picking his nails with anxiety. By the time the sun was rising, he was hissing in pain and drawing blood around his cuticles.

The best thing to do was stay busy, forget about Atlas and focus on filling our stomachs and guarding our safe position on the shoreline. We had gotten to work weaving bowls to carry water, a third was filled with shellfish we'd scavenged as the small fish we'd speared in the water. Another mat was woven and stabilised over the top of Katniss and Peeta using large sticks to protect them from getting sunburnt. Finnick and I would be more immune to the sensation, but the heat of the early morning was enough for me to shed the top half of my wetsuit, leaving me in nothing on my torso but my sports bra and the bloodied claw marks on my shoulder.

Every so often I'd noticed the man's gaze flicked down to my exposed stomach with concern before his eyes would move back to become engrossed in the task at hand. At first, I paid it no mind to it, but now, I had begun to think something was terribly wrong. "Finn," I began slowly as the man's head snapped away from my appearance for what felt like the hundredth time in a day.

"Rory," He responded in a similar fashion, drawing out the last syllable of my name in a childish way.

"Is something wrong?"

He choked on his words before responding, "No, nothing is wrong, why would you think that?"

"Because I can tell when you're lying- and you just did, that and the fact you keep looking at my stomach like my guts are spilling out of it or something,"

"Just admiring,"

"I'm engaged, you know that?" I said teasingly, displaying the very ring that the man had proposed to me with only a short while ago. Finnick quirked his eyebrow challengingly and I reciprocated the gesture, a smile playing on my lips.

Finnick smirked and I felt him suddenly turning on the Capitol-adored playboy-charm "Oh I know," He sang, standing up from his weaving and stepping into the sunlight where I was. He, much like myself, had taken off the top half of his suit, leaving his torso shirtless- the sunlight bouncing off his bronze skin. "You know, considering that at least one of us is going to die, I should probably let you know that your fiancé is a total asshole,"

"Is that so?" I feigned offence, cocking my head to the side, "And tell me, Finnick Odair, what is so horrible about my fiancé?"

He hummed lowly, enjoyment clear in his eye, "To start with, he's completely full of himself, a chronic flirt- it's a good thing he's pretty otherwise I have no idea why you'd be interested in him,"

"Careful Odair, it's starting to sound like you have a crush on my fiancé," I teased, tracing my hand over his chest and brushing past him and over to the shade, "Besides, there are other good things about them,"

"Such as?"

"Well, I don't think many of them would be appropriate to say, the whole world is watching, remember," I responded with a grin, sitting back down in the sand as Katniss stirred herself awake. She mumbled something under her breath about 'flirting being the last way she'd want to wake up' before greeting us with an exhausted expression. "Morning, girl on fire," I waved to her, taking an oyster from the basket of food we collected before she awoke and carefully shucking it with one of the knives strapped to my belt.