rising from the ashes || a hunger games story

chapter twenty

willow's pov

i open my eyes and i'm in the same position i was in when i first woke up. my memory is a bit blurry and then i remember everything that happened. i don't know what came over me. 

it was probably all the stress from the games and the attention. having my love life broadcasted all over panem. why did it take having to kill people to survive for finn and i to confess our feelings to each other?

what if it really was an act and finn just said it wasn't because of the cameras? i sigh. i'm overthinking things. i sit up against the wall. the door opens and i see haymitch walk in.

before he can talk i interrupt him, "i want to see finn." haymitch opens his mouth to talk but i speak again, "before the interview." he sighs, "are you done?" i nod.

"okay. well, you're going to be seeing him before the interviews. he refuses to leave to get ready and we've tried to cancel the interview and just send you guys back to 12 but he refuses to leave."

i nod slowly, "when can i see him?" he hands me folded clothes and a pair of shoes, "just change into these and i'll take you. i'll leave the room and you can change while you sit on the bed because you can't stand on the leg. call me when you're done." i nod and he leaves the room.

i move my body so my legs hang over the bed. since i'm wearing a hospital gown, i'm not wearing any pants so i just slip the gray sweatpants on.

i take the gown off and put on the white shirt. i tuck the shirt into my pants. inside one of the shoes is a pair of socks. i slip the socks on and then the black shoes. i call haymitch's name and he walks back in with a pair of crutches in his hand. 

he hands them to me, "use these." i grab them and use them to stand up. "why do i need these?" "when you walked to the bathroom, you opened up your stitches and made the cut worse." i nod.

he walks out of the room and i follow behind him. when i walk out of the room, i see a long hallway. we turn right and he leads me all the way down the hallway, about 10 doors down. 

he stops in front of a door that has the number 621 on it. a sign hangs next to the door and i see "finn odair" written on it. "this is his room. i'll come back to get you guys and get you to your stylists," haymitch says as he walks back in the direction we came from.

i take a deep breath and i knock on the door and open it slowly. i hear finn say, "i already told you i'm not leaving." he's in a hospital gown and he's sitting on the bed so he's facing the wall in front of me so his back is facing me. 

"are you sure?" his head whips around when he hears my voice. he looks emotionally drained. his eyes are red and puffy and it shows that he's done almost nothing but cry. 

he gets up slowly, tears filling his eyes. "you were dead," he says quietly. "how are you alive?" 

i give him a small smile, "daydream berries." he lets out a deep breath. finn spent little time in the edible plants station. he spent enough time to know what daydream berries were and what they did but not enough to tell the difference between daydream berries and nightlock. 

"you tricked me," he says with a face of slight betrayal. "i had to. i had to so we would both live." he continues to walk over to me slowly, the betrayal washing away. he wraps his arms around me. i wrap one of my arms around him making sure the crutch under that arm doesn't fall. 

"i'm so glad you're okay," he whispers. he pulls away from me and i get a hold of the crutch again. "why are you in crutches?" "merlin's knife did more damage than i thought."

the leg i'm putting pressure on starts to hurt so i walk over to the wall, place the crutches against the wall and hop over to the bed and sit down. finn sits down next to me. 

his left leg is propped up on the bed so he can face me. his left hand reaches up and starts to play with the ends of my hair. my hair is perfectly combed out so his fingers don't get tangled in my hair.

his hand then reaches up to my face and he places it on my cheek. i bring my right hand up and place it on top of his hand and lean my head into his hand. my thumb caresses his knuckles and i realize they're bandaged. 

i remember they were bleeding when merlin died so they're probably just healing. he starts to lean in and i can feel him kiss me. when he pulls away he keeps his forehead on mine. "i love you, willow"

"i love you too"