Love at Sea (Finnick Odair)

Chapter 7

"Plutarch," Taiya took a deep breath. He just stared at her with a smile. "You might want to pull the pens away buddy," she smiled sweetly at him.

It took a moment to compute before his eyes widened and he immediately reached out and grabbed the five pens that were on the table.

"I just thought it'd be a good idea," he tried to defend. "Finnick when he was... struggling, would talk about how badly he wanted to get married. I assumed you had the same dream."

"Tread carefully," Taiya warned, her eyes darkening. But she had to hold her tongue, if she reacted too poorly, she may not get access to Peeta. "I do want to get married more than anything. But I want to get married for us. Not for one of your protos."

"Propos," Plutarch coughed.

"Whatever. Finnick has spent the last 8 years being horrifically exploited by the Capitol. The only thing he had to bring him comfort was me. And now you want to exploit us again for some silly little campaign? You're out of your mind if you think I'd ever agree to that. And don't think about going behind my back to ask him. You manipulated him into doing his last propo, you won't be doing it again. When we get married, we will be doing it for us. Not for you. We'll be getting married on the beach, with our friends, the District 4 way. Not underground in some prison."

"You're not a prisoner here," Plutarch shook his head.

"I can't go above ground," Taiya pointed out. "No one can except Katniss and Gale. Except I think that might be more of a mockingjay exception. But that seems like a prison to me. I would know, I was just in one, remember? You left me to get taken there... ringing any bells?"

"You're not well enough to be going above ground Taiya," Plutarch sighed. "It's dangerous."

"No wedding. Not an option. Don't ask again."

"Well, I need you to give me something. You've given me your conditions, but I need something in return."

"I'll give you some secrets," Taiya shrugged.

"We need more," Plutarch pushed. "I need something with you and Finnick. You spoke on air and told the whole of Panem that your whole relationship was all a lie and everything you said in the Games was a lie."

"I was trying to avoid being tortured!" Taiya snarled.

"I know, I know. He countered that with his propo. But we need you to come out declaring the truth. That way people will know what to believe. At the moment there are two stories circulating around there. We need you to set the record straight."

Taiya frowned as she mulled over her options. She had an idea of something they could use. She didn't want to suggest it, but it wouldn't really be taking anything away from them. They'd already had their engagement party at home with their friends from home. So in a way, it wasn't taking away anything from them, right?

"How about I compromise with an engagement party?" Taiya glanced up with a sigh.

"Yes. That's it. Right there," he nodded excitedly. "I always knew you and I would make a good team," he happily wrote the idea down in his notebook.

"I think I preferred you better when you just awkwardly nodded at me from across the room," Taia mumbled, referencing when he was a Gamemaker and she'd sit in on their meetings.

"Well we've evolved from there haven't we Taiya?" he smiled at her. "Look where we are now. Progress. This is the beginning of a new era for Panem."

Taiya did have to frown at this. He didn't seem deceptive when he said that. Almost as if he really thought with Coin at the helm of the ship they could achieve true democracy. But there seemed to be something in his eyes that was holding back.