Finnick was pacing again.

Four steps, then he turned on his heel and took four steps in the opposite direction. This was repeated many, many times. Peeta watched him wordlessly, leaning against a nearby tree. Beetee was muttering to himself as he tinkered with the wire.

But all the 24-year-old from District 4 could think of? Reyna Bowman.

Now, I know what you're thinking. 'Ugh, he's just a lovestruck idiot.' You couldn't be more wrong.

Reyna and Finnick had been friends for years before he was Reaped, and then he helped her survive her own Games. They were in middle-class families with enough to get by, but with Reyna's three sisters and Finnick's own siblings, they didn't have much extra.

Thus, the oldest kids started working at a fairly young age, while learning in school and such. Reyna and Finnick had already been friends since they were 8, and he would always keep her out of trouble. And with Reyna Bowman, it wasn't the easiest thing to do. She got in fights with her sisters' bullies constantly, and Finnick had to help her up, dust off her clothes and clean her scrapes. Literally.

That's not to say he wasn't tough. He and his older brother, Sebastian, were laborers at the docks. One of the reasons Finnick survived his Games was because of how fit the work made him.

His well-won respite from the fringe of poverty was short lived. Reyna was Reaped the year after he was. Which was, by the way, around the time he had finally mustered the courage to tell her how he felt. About her. In a more-romantic-than-platonic-way.

He did everything in his power to keep her alive. He did missions for Snow, slept with Capitol citizens who wanted the famous Victor's 'company.' Anything that would give her the upper hand. Even if seeing her with her ally (who she obviously was falling hard for) made his heart shrivel in his chest.

And she won, because of his efforts and the training her parents had given her from the tender age of 5 years old. Why didn't her sisters receive training, you ask?

Two of them were too young, but her older sister, Abby, had asthma, among other sicknesses. She wouldn't have lasted a minute in the Games. That's why Reyna volunteered for her.

Then, when she won, she was expected to prostitute herself, as Finnick had. She turned Snow down, against better judgement. And that's why her family was slaughtered.

Finnick was the one to comfort her. He would calm her down during her panic attacks, would keep her from lashing out at the very few people around her who cared. She would've gone insane without him.

So he sold his soul to the devil, to keep her from having to go through what he did on a regular basis. Snow owned him, because Reyna was the one thing he couldn't bear to have taken away. A supposed 'sickness' took out his family while he was in the Games, for mocking Snow. She was all he had left.

He was gone often, too often. That's when she made the necklace for him, out a shell she had found washed up on the beach amongst the warm sand. The twine was dyed his favorite color. It just so happened that the rope was the color of her eyes when she was happy.

Slowly, she recovered. No, that's not the right word. She learned to cope, but the scars would always be there.

The next years were hard to remember, like a good dream that's vivid when you're in it, but fogs in your mind when you wake up.

It seemed like the universe was shoving back against him somehow. Poverty, his Games and his family's deaths, Reyna's Reaping and her own orphaning, her PTSD, Snow, and now, the 3rd Quarter Quell.

He was snapped out of his anxious reverie when Peeta made a startled sound of shock and surprise. He turned to see what was the matter, and fear filled his eyes. Not for himself, for Reyna.

She had been guarding the wire, which had been taut the entire time.

It had gone slack.

Reyna couldn't afford to look back at Finnick as she left with Jo and Katniss. If she did, she wouldn't be able to leave.

They made good progress toward the beach, moving quickly. Her fingers were shaking, so she switched the coiled wire to her other hand. It didn't really help much.

Everything was fine until the wire seemed to get caught on something. Then it bounced loose, like it had been cut. Reyna had her sword in her right hand in an instant, glad her better arm was free for fighting. It was Brutus who had cut it.

Then Katniss fell next to her, groaning. A sharp blow to her own skull, and she was on the ground, too. Haymitch's instructions rang in her ears.

"Stay with Katniss, keep her safe. Johanna will cover you two. Get our bristly little ball of stubbornness to the pickup point, by the tree. If everything goes as planned, which it probably won't, Katniss will be far enough away from the blast."

"And if it doesn't? If she isn't far away?"

"You're a smart girl, Reyna. You'll figure it out."

So now she had to stick with Katniss. Which included getting knocked out. Her younger friend's near-wailing woke her, that and the insistent shaking.

Miss Everdeen was clutching her arm, but had gotten them both leaned back against the wall of the small trench they had been walking in before Johanna 'attacked.' Her head throbbed awfully.

"Johanna! Reyna! Where are you!?" Finnick shouted.

Reyna's throat went dry, and she opened her mouth to shout back. Katniss slapped a hand over her lips before she could, and it took all of her willpower not to claw her skin.

She still tried to get up. The desperation in his voice was wrenching at her heart. Katniss yanked her back down, but the noise caused Finnick to stop. "Reyna?" He whisper-shouted in their direction. Upon hearing no answer, he kept moving.

"Peeta..." Katniss whispered hoarsely. That cut off Reyna's would-be snarky comment quite quickly.

And of course she had to follow the wounded girl back to the lightning tree that might blow up and kill them at any time. Yay.

A/N: let me just start by saying wow. 3K views!!!!!! You guys have no idea how happy this makes me! I actually started writing this because I wanted a Finnick story I could really connect with, and here we all are now, readers and writers. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Feel free to tell me what you liked or didn't like, I'm not joking when I say I love comments and feedback. Don't forget you can PM me if you want to comment but you're shy or something! And vote! And comment! And share! Bye, I'll update again in a few days (1-2!)(hopefully)