Love at Sea (Finnick Odair)

Chapter 2

"No," Taiya breathed in despair as she heard Finnick's name read out. "No," she repeated firmly. Taiya went to move out to grab Finnick when she saw him begin to walk up to the stage, when the girl beside her grabbed her arm, holding her in place. "Let me go," Taiya hissed. It was Kenna who'd grabbed her, one of her best school friends.

"If I do they'll just hurt you," Kenna whispered back. "That won't help Finnick at all."

Taiya turned her eyes back to the stage as Finnick looked at her, their eyes meeting. As subtly as he could, he shook his head at her, warning her to stay quiet. Taiya nodded and relaxed, she had to do everything she could to keep him calm. As soon as he saw she wasn't going to act out his face broke out into a cocky smirk and he waved at the crowd. "He knows what he's doing," Kenna whispered to her.

"He doesn't want to be there," Taiya muttered.

"Well duh. No one does, but he has to win sponsors now," Kenna said, trying to reassure the girl beside her before releasing her hold on her arm.

"Here we are," Moxie says clapping her hands in excitement. "Our tributes from District 4."

Taiya's father then steps up to the microphone, he looks straight at his daughter, registering the pain on her face as he reads the Treaty of Treason as he is required to do every year. As soon as he finishes he turns to look at Finnick, "you both may now shake hands," he declares and Finnick and Halle step forward to shake each other's hands, Finnick only briefly removing his smiling gaze from the crowd. Finnick drops Halle's hand and turns back to the crowd, waving at the crowd and the camera with a smile plastered on his face as the Panem anthem plays.

The moment the anthem ends, Finnick and Halle are quickly marched away by peacekeepers and the square begins to clear. "Taiya, Taiya," Theo calls, pulling her out of her shocked trance, she hadn't moved a muscle. "Come on," he said taking her hand, "we have to see him."

Taiya nods and allows Theo to lead her towards the Justice Building where they can say their goodbyes to their friend. "Why him?" Taiya chokes.

"It's just the way it is Taiya," Theo answered, but Taiya could see he didn't mean that. He was trying to keep his emotions hidden from her, to shield her from the truth that they likely wouldn't see Finnick again after today. "We're here to see Finnick Odair," Theo said to the peacekeepers at the front.

The peacekeeper nodded, "you can go in when his parents leave," he said moving out of the way to let them in the building.

Theo led Taiya to the door of the room Finnick was in and turned to her, placing his hands on her shoulders, "now Taiya you've got to snap out of it. He needs us right now. We have to help get his head in the game and if he sees you upset he'll break ok?"

Taiya nodded and the two of them waited in silence for Finnick's parents 5 minutes with him to be up so they could farewell him. A peacekeeper walks up to the door and knocks, "time's up," he calls and Finnick's sniffling parents file out of the room. "You two can go in," he says to her and Theo.

The second she's given the go-ahead Taiya sprints into the room and throws herself at Finnick who was there ready to catch her. "Hey Ariel," he jokes with a laugh that makes her sigh as she pulls away from him slightly.

"I can't believe you're joking right now," she says giving him a light smile as she stands in front of him, both of their hands still gripping each other's arms.

"Yeah well you swim like a mermaid," he shrugged as he pulled her into his side, wrapping his arms around her as he turned to Theo, "hey man." Theo nodded at him, not sure what to say. "I need to talk to you after," Finnick said to him, looking down at Taiya and Theo understood exactly what he wanted but nodded anyway.