Thank you all so so much for 200k reads. Never in my wildest dreams did I think the story would hit that mark. I remember being so excited when the story hit 100 reads, and thinking that was amazing! Imagine how 15 year old me would react to this!

Waiting for 12 to arrive is always the most painful part of the pre-games. Everyone is confined to the Tribute Tower, and the tributes aren't allowed to interact until the Tribute Parade. Once that is over tonight, us mentors will be free to interact with sponsors, and the tributes will be allowed to talk with each other and start to form alliances.

The parade will enable me to start pulling strings behind the scenes and allow for Cato and Clove to try and work their magic in front of them. Honestly, I think they're looking forward to their "tribute re-makes", not that there's much for the assistants to do considering both Cato and Clove are very well kept. Although, I'll be the first to admit that the waxing hurts like a bitch. But I'm not going to tell them that.

Since we're not allowed to use the training levels just yet, and since I'm not allowed to use them at all, Cato and I are practicing in the living room. We've pushed aside all of the couches and tables to make a clearing on the floor. We've thrown the cushions onto the ground, something Fallon will not approve of or appreciate, to make sure that we don't get injured.

The cushions are so thick that the ground is now a bit bouncy and slippery, but it makes it all that much more fun. Cato and I pace around one another, waiting for the other to make the first move.

I flinch, trying to psych Cato out, but he doesn't buy it. Deciding to use his non-response against him, I drop to the ground and try to somersault past him, so I can go at him from the back.

Cato looks at me in confusion but then sees what I'm doing. He flips around and makes sure to cover himself, so I can't attack him from the other side. Dang it. For a split second, I chose not to stand up, staying in a crouching position while I try to figure out my next move.

Before I can think of what to do, Cato sweeps my feet from out under me. I'm completely flat on my back on the floor. Cato makes use of his surroundings and throws a large cushion on top of me. I try to get up but I feel a heavy weight on top of my, and I can guess that Cato is sitting on me.

I start to try and wiggle my way out, not wanting to give up yet. Cato only laughs at me from atop the pillow. In my defence, he's six foot two, and probably close to two hundred pounds.

We hear a knock on the door, and I quit struggling and let my head flop to rest so I can see the door, albeit it's upside down for me.

"Come in," Cato and I call simultaneity.

The door opens, and I see Finnick walk in the door. He politely closes the door behind him, "Hey guys, what's.... oh my god, what are you doing?" says Finnick once he noticed that not only was our room torn apart, but Cato was sitting on me, while I was sandwiched by cushions.

I give a small wave.

Finnick looks at both of us in bewilderment. "It's 7 in the morning."

Cato and I look at each other for a moment, not getting what he was trying to say. "And...?"

Finnick looked like he was trying to figure something out. "Wait, what time do you two usually get up?"

"Five thirty," we both answered.

"Okay, never mind then. But can I ask, what's with the pillow fort, and why are you sitting on her? I'm not saying she doesn't deserve it, just curious," adds Finnick sarcastically.

Cato laughs. "We were practicing. And she lost."

I roll my eyes. "I let you win, I didn't want to hurt you."

Cato shifts his weight so that he's squishing the air out of me even more. "Yea right."

Finnick looks amused. "You know, based on what I walked into, I'm gonna believe Cato on this one."

I scoff, offended that Finnick would take Cato's side over mine. I narrow my eyes st Finnick. "You know what? I don't think you could beat me."

Cato looks highly entertained.

I couldn't read Finnick's face completely. He looked like he was a mix of confused, interested, and surprised. Despite the reactions on his face, he answers me pretty quickly. "Are you sure? I don't want to hurt you," he says smugly.

I narrow my eyes confidently. "Oh, don't worry about me, it's you who should be worried."

Finnick walks over to the pillowed floor, stretching and swinging his arms as he goes. Cato trades places with him and grins. Finnick might be a lot bigger than me, but so is Cato, and I can hold my own with my brother. Not only that, but Cato knows that I've been training hard for the past couple of years, so I would probably be much more in-shape than he is.

Finnick looks back to Cato. "Are you gonna place your bet, kid?"

I'm making sure to get back into my zone. Finnick might be my boyfriend, but I'm going to beat his ass. And there's no going easy on him here. I try and centre myself, something that I had done at the academy to put me in my fighting mood. I feel the change in my body, and my eyes narrow at Finnick, who in my mind, is now just my opponent. I give him a signature career smirk that says, 'I'm about to floor you'.

Cato laughs. "Yea, sorry buddy, but I'm going to go with my sister on this one. She's a lot scarier than you."

Finnick turns back to me and nearly jumps when he sees the death glares that I'm giving him. "Holy shit, are you about to fight me or murder me? Because I genuinely can't tell right now."

As funny as they are, I don't let his words bring me out of my zone. "You're going down, Odair."

Finnick takes a deep breath, readying himself into a fighting position. "Okayyy, murder it is then."

Cato drops his arm, signalling for the fighting to start.

Since Finnick still looks quite relaxed, I go against my usual tactics and barrel straight towards him. He looks surprised as lunge towards him and push him onto the ground, luckily the fall is more than padded by the cushions.

I don't go after him, because I knew that the match would've been over. I've just woken him up now. He gets back up, and dust's himself off.

He tilts his head at me, and I know that the real fight is on.

He throws a series of hits at me, and I swiftly dodge them as if I were dancing. I keep my hands behind my back to show off the fact that I can anticipate his every move.

What can I say? I spend a lot of time with him, I'm so used to his body language. He's probably not used to fighting opponents who could read his tells.

Finnick mixes up his moves and tries to hook my arm to grapple me, but I grip his wrist and flip it. I smile evilly. I've got him now.

Out of the corner of my eye, I can see Cato cringing. He knows what move is coming up next because I've used it on him so many times.

I throw all my weight into my next move. With Finnick's wrist in my hand, I grip it with the other. I spin his wrist over with all my might and use my leg to take out his. With all of my momentum, I manage to flip him into the ground.

Before he can recover, I get on top of him and pin him down. Finnick is much bigger than me, so I have to use one of my legs to hold down one of his wrists.

Finnick moves a little, probably assessing how good of a grip I have on him. He smiles at me sarcastically, "Cute party trick."

Finnick makes his move and flips the script on me. I guess I had misjudged how strong he was, because he managed to get flip me over, and now he was the one pinning me down.

Finnick looks rather pleased with himself, I think, because he believes he's just won. But I have another few tricks up my sleeve. I mean, I don't think the academy would let me even pass if I couldn't handle an opponent bigger than me.

I hook my legs onto his shoulders. Now the trick of this, well, trick, is to use my opponents' movement against them. Finnick isn't competently stupid, so I know he's going to try and throw his weight forwards because people who use this move typically try to throw their opponent backwards. I take advantage of his weight, shifting forwards and use the power in my legs to throw his body over my head. I make sure to tuck my head in as he goes over me, so I don't hit heads with him. Finnick goes somersaulting over me, and I am once again back on top.

I tap him lightly on the chest over the heart, "Boom, you're dead, I stabbed you."

Finnick chuckles. "You know that's quite a literal way of breaking my heart. I think you could've gone with a more subtle approach."

I laugh. "Shut up."

"Hey, hey, hey, you're the one who just beat me up, you can't tell me to be quiet too because then I'll have nothing left."

"Do you have to be so dramatic all the time?"

"Yes. It's part of the Finnick Odair charm," he says sassily. "And as much as I'm enjoying the view right now, I'm sure you're brother isn't."

Cato rolls his eyes. "Dude, I'm just happy that I wasn't the one who got beaten up this time."

I get off of Finnick and extend a hand out to help him up.

Then I think of something. Why is Finnick here so early when he asked why we were training at this hour? Did he not think we would be up? I turn to him. "Wait a minute. If you're so opposed to being an early riser, why are you here?"

Finnick walks over to Cato and claps his hand on his shoulder. "I told him yesterday that I'd come by and talk to him a little about strategy."

If that's not something that's going to melt my heart, I don't know what would. I mean, how cute is it that Finnick and Cato are already going off and making their own plans. I was a bit worried that they wouldn't get along because they were too similar, but just two days in and they're already making their own plans. My family, my own happy little family and what I've always wanted is right here. I feel emotion swelling, especially near my eyes, and I try to push it down. This is not the time to cry, especially over something silly like this. 

I can see Finnick's eyes grow panicked because I've been staring too long. "If that's okay I mean, I just thought I would because you know--"

I chuckle. "Finnick, it's fine. I'm just glad to see that you two are getting along. Now go teach him all he needs to know," I say as I motion towards Cato's room.

Finnick gives me a big smile and nods. Cato leads him towards his room so they can have privacy once the others in the apartments start to wake up, and because this is floor 2, everyone should be up soon. In fact, I'm surprised no one else is up now.

Smirking, I call to Finnick, causing him to stop in the doorway and look over his shoulder. "But Finnick, maybe skip the part about being a ladykiller. I already have to chase girls off my doorstep."

He gives me a goofy grin in return. "No promises. I can't help it if it just rubs off naturally."

I walk over to the kitchen and make myself some coffee. I take my time, not being in a rush to do anything. I make my coffee decaf and black because that's how we drink it in 2, at least at the academy anyway. No sugar for obvious reasons, no milk because of the extra calories, and no caffeine because you can't have a winning tribute if they're going through caffeine withdrawal, right? Although to be fair, some of the Victors are pretty lax with that last one, we're done with the games, so a little caffeine addiction can't hurt, right?

Just as I'm about to bring the coffee up to my lips, but I hear a noise that startles me and causes me to spill it all over the counter.

"So your little fish friend is here," says Brutus as more of a statement than a question.

I look at him in surprise. "Did Brutus just make a joke? Someone call the press."

I see the corners of Brutus' mouth twitch and form a smile for a split second. This must be some kind of record that he's laughing at something I said rather than at me. "Don't tell anyone, or I'd have to kill you."

I pretend to zip my mouth shut and throw away the key.

"Finnick seems to be really getting through to the kid. I think he's been a good influence on him."

I nod. As funny and witty and flirty as Finnick maybe, he has a heart of gold that he likes to hide away from the world; he guarding it against people like the Capitolians. 

Brutus' eyes shift uncomfortably, whatever he's about to say must really be something because I've never seen him like this. "And Octavia, I don't know how to say this but... I think he's a good influence on you too."

I stare at him, shocked. I don't know what to say. Brutus has been more of a father figure than my own father. He raised both me and Cato in the academy. So hearing him say this is... I don't know what it is. Or what it means.

But Brutus isn't done. His face softens a bit, but not much, from his standard rigidness. "Octavia, this might not mean much to you, but I think Finnick is a good man. Look, you might not be my kid, but you're one of my kids, you know? One of my first cohorts too. I watched you grow up. I trained you. I know I can get a little overprotective of all of you, so.... if you want it and it would mean anything to you... you and Finnick have my blessing."

For the second time this morning, I feel emotions flood me. Brutus and I have had our disagreements over the years, mostly just the Percy situation really and a few spats about Cato's training, but we've always worked it out. If it were anyone else, I don't know that I would of forgiven him. But it's Brutus, so I did. I know it sounds crazy, but I didn't have the heart to stay mad at him forever.

My parents shipped me off to the academy at a ripe and young age. Just left me there. Didn't even pick me up for the breaks that we had every year. 'You don't win by taking breaks', they would tell me in their letters.

But Brutus was always there. He was tough but fair. And he would always tell me stories about him and my dad when they were both in the academy to cheer me up when the other kids got to go home on break. Sure maybe I could've done without picking up Brutus' cocky attitude or having to train for a death arena constantly, but home is still home, you know?

I come to a sense of realization. Maybe that's why I keep going back to the training centre, even after all these years. It was my home for so long, and I couldn't give it up. And Brutus was like my second dad, my centre dad. So I guess he is family in a way.

"Thank you, Brutus," I say sincerely. "And you might not be my dad, but you raised me. And I'm proud that you've decided to call me one of your kids."

Brutus smiles happily. "Thanks, kid."

Wanting to break the moment Brutus speaks up again. "Now you should go shower because you smell like sweat."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A while later, I step out of the shower, happy to have nice and hot water once again. Sure, District 2 had showers unlike some of the poorer districts, but even in the Victors Village, the water never got hot like this, only warm.

It's probably closer to 9 now, meaning that everyone else on the District 2 floor should be up by now. I wonder if Finnick is gone? If he's not, Clove and Augustus might start to notice that something is up, but then again, it might not be a bad thing if they were to know.

I start to weigh the merits of both sides as I step out of the bathroom. it might be better if we were to--

I jump straight up into the air because they're a figure sitting on my bed. Once I realize who it is, I put my hand to my chest in relief.

"Oh my god, you almost gave me a heart attack."

Finnick smiles cheerily as he pops what seems to be a sugar cube into his mouth. "You know, that's too bad because if you did have a heart attack, I could give you mouth to mouth."

"Well, of course, you would have to because no one from 2 knows how to do CPR; they only teach us how to stop hearts, not start them."

Finnick scrunches his nose at me playfully. "Hm, funny."

I smile. "I know I am." I walk over to the bed and plop down next to him, staring up at the ceiling. "What did you and Cato talk about?"

"Mostly just strategy talk, he had some questions about interviews and making alliances with some of the outer districts. I mean we did share a few more embarrassing stories of you, don't worry I didn't tell him about the noodle incident--"

"Oh, nuh-uh, we do not talk about the pasta noodle incident in this house." I hit Finnick playfully in the chest, but he catches my hand, and I turn my head to look at him.

His eyes give me a reassuring look. "I know you're worried about him, Vee. But this is what he wanted, he was gonna do it either way. But this way he has a big sister who is gonna love him and look out for him every step of the way. And that's all you can do."

I want to say, 'but what if it's not enough?' But I can't bring myself to say those words and accidentally will it into the world.

Finnick strokes my hair, he must know what I'm thinking. "We're going to bring him home."

There's a silence, but it's not uncomfortable. Trying to distract myself from the idea, I bring up something else that's happened today. "Brutus gave us his blessing."

"I'm sorry, are you sure that it wasn't his twin or something? because that doesn't sound like him."

"It was weird but... nice. I don't know. He raised me in the academy, so it was nice to hear that someone who knew me when I was a child approves of what I'm doing now. I feel like all the other adults who raised me are either dead, don't talk to me, or hate me so..."

Finnick's expression was unreadable now. "Well, that was nice of Brutus then. Especially coming from a guy like him. You know, I could never tell if he liked me or not, so I guess I'm more charming than I thought," says Finnick, trying to lighten the mood.

I turn to him fully, propping my head up with my elbow. "I guess that charm has gotten you more than you bargained for... Brutus...me..."

Finnick chuckles, pulling me into him. "Oh no, I definitely bargained on getting you."

"Mhm, I don't believe you for one second."

Finnick runs his hand through his hair. "It's true! The night after I met you, Mags gave me a talk, and she told me to 'keep it in my pants' because you're her friend's granddaughter. Trust me, those are her exact words too. I was completely traumatized when she said that to me, so I think I would remember."

I furrow my brows. "There's no way that you liked me like that early on."

"Well, not a crush, but that didn't stop me from thinking you were hot. Then we became friends and then best friends, and then I'm pretty sure there was a period where you didn't like me at all--"

I take a pillow and hit him in the face. "You know you always say the sweetest things, and then you just keep talking."

"Oh c'mon, you love me because I talk so much."

"No, I love you despite the fact that you talk so much."

We laugh for a minute, before growing silent. Finnick just holds me as I'm curled up into his chest. I listen to his heartbeat, wishing that I was able to stay in moments like this forever. No games of death looming over us, no politics.

The man I'm with right now is the man I hope I'm with for the rest of my life. Finnick everything I never knew I needed. Sure, I could have lived a life without him, but that life would have been so grey. He was there for me at my lowest point, right after the games when I felt like everyone in 2 was a monster, including myself. I thought there was nothing left for me, I had done my purpose and won the games. But he showed me that there's so much more than that. You can have fun, get a drink, go to a casino, and hang out with friends, real actual friends too. That doesn't make everything bad go away, but you don't have to let the darkness consume you either.

But normally, us being together would be impossible. We live in two different districts, separated by borders that can't be crossed. But if my deal with Snow comes through, then we could be normal, live in the Capitol together. As normal as two kids who survived an arena of death can be. But Snow isn't that unreasonable, he'll come around. I just have to play my cards right.

The beautiful moment comes to an end once I hear a knock on my door. And it wasn't just any knock, it was Fallon's signature six knock melody. "Octavia, are you in there? I have something for you, and I need to go over the schedule for today."

Finnick's eyes widen as he tries to find a hiding spot.

"Uh, just give me one second, I don't have any clothes on," I lie, trying to bide Finnick more time to hide and making sure that Fallon wouldn't walk in. I shrug at him, not impressed with my own excuse.

"Yea, I wish," mumbles Finnick as he decides to hide in the bathroom.

"Shut up." I wait until Finnick is settled, and I can't hear his movement in the bathroom before calling back to Fallon, telling her that she can enter. 

Fallon walks into my room and seems disheartened by the lack of a made bed and that I have clothes laid out on a chair. "Darling, I have this letter for you, it came from downstairs, and they told me it was confidential, so I'm not sure who it's from, but they said it was important."

Fallon hands me the letter, and I expect it to see the seal of President Snow, but instead, it's a Panem seal that I don't recognize. Definitely not Plutarch's either, but it looked similar to his. I thank Fallon for giving me the letter.

"As for our schedule today darling, it seems that 12 is running on time this year, so they'll be here by noon. So we'll have to get the tributes down to the re-make centre for that time. But I'm sure if we're a few minutes late, it'll be fine seeing as our tributes don't need half the makeover some of the others need."

Fallon then turns to me dramatically. "But you my dear, we need you to get ready for all the sponsors this year. All eyes will be on our Capitol darling in the days to come, so whenever you make an outing, let me know. I've gotten several requests from designers all over the Capitol who want you to wear their dresses, all made just for you and the measurements just right. I have some pictures if you'd like to choose from a few."

Fallon shows me a few pictures on her device, all the dresses are incredibly beautiful, some are too 'Capitol' for my taste, so I stick to the ones that feel a bit more toned down. Honestly, I don't find Fallon to be that bad anymore. She's a bit annoying, but after being in the Capitol for so long, I can appreciate that she's one of the better ones.

After what felt like a million years later, Fallon finally wrapped things up and left my room. As soon as the door closed, Finnick came out of the bathroom. "Wow, she really loves fashion."

I give him a disapproving look. "Ya think?"

He turns to me seriously. "Okay, so how am I supposed to get out of here if everyone is awake?"

A/N once again shout out to my Beta Reader ParadoxicalMoose for their help!

Coming up next is the Chariots and our first glimpse of a Katniss POV. This chapter was mostly to establish that Cato and Finnick are getting along well, and to show off how all the relationship dynamics are working going into the games. Also hoped ya'll loved this fluff, because there's a lot of angst coming through the next chapters and throughout the 74th Games...

Also what do you guys think of Seneca Crane in this story? Let me know what you think in the comments down below!

Bonus: Our Love Could Be Lethal Characters as Vines/Memes

Finnick when he sees Octavia go into fight mode: