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    FINNICK'S LOVE confession had the crowd swooning even as he retook his seat. Jupiter dared to glance up at him as he passed, meeting his eyes with a frown. The brightest star. She swallowed thickly, and looked back to the stage as the District 5 female tribute passed her. The interviews continued along a similar path, plucking sympathy points from the audience, making arguments about being sent back into the arena.

    Johanna Mason's was aggressive, but her plea was met with support. Both Axle and Fawn spoke of the freedom they felt on the farms at District 10, and how sad they were to be brought back. Progressively, the audience was growing more and more distraught over the Victors being sent back in. Seeder of District 11 brought up how President Snow is all-powerful– so why didn't he change the Quell? And right on her heels, Chaff insisted that Snow could change the Quell if he wanted to, but it must not matter to anyone.

    And then the killing blow came in the form of Katniss Everdeen.

    The already hysterical audience could barely take the fact she was in her wedding dress, as Caesar tried to quieten the audience down to listen to her. They played off each other for a few moments, before Caesar went very serious, speaking close to the microphone.

    "So, Katniss, obviously this is a very emotional night for everyone. Is there anything you'd like to say?" he asked.

    Katniss' voice was shaking. "Only that I'm so sorry you won't be able to see the wedding," she responded, the audience sighing dramatically.

    "And am I right in assuming this would have been the dress for that wedding?" Caesar said.

    "Yes," Katniss responded with a nod. "I just... wanted everyone to see it."

    And then she began to twirl, and spin, and the dress caught alight as if on fire. The crowd let out sounds of distress, and Jupiter's eyes widened slightly, but Katniss only seemed unbothered as she was engulfed, smoke and ash fluttering off her, pearls from the dress clattering to the floor. The fire stopped, and Katniss stopped spinning, revealing a dark dress in place of the white, wedding one.

    Jupiter could feel the tension, as Katniss lifted her arms, sleeves falling like wings. The fabric glistened, as if it were made of feathers, as Caesar looked stunned. "Feathers– you're like a bird," he commented.

    "No, a mockingjay," Katniss replied, looking flustered herself. "The bird on my pin."

    The crowd rippled with applause and cheers at the transition, but somewhere Jupiter knew, this meant so much more, even with the scattered information.

    "Well, hats off to your stylist, then!" Caesar chimed in. "Cinna– where is he? I think you better take a bow." The stylist stood from the front of the crowd, taking a gracious bow as people around him clapped, the cameras enlarging his face all around them. "Yes, yes, spectacular," Caesar said, almost drowned out by the applause.

    When Katniss' three minutes were over, she passed Jupiter to get down the line. The older Victor could tell by her face that the transition was unexpected, and Peeta did not meet her eyes, either. Cashmere only looked annoyed by the turn of events, turning her nose up at the smoke still filtering off the girl.

    The last interview of the night, and Peeta and Caesar were as natural as they had been the year prior. Jupiter remembered watching them. It was the expected banter, the tragedy of the wedding, and the reveal that they had gotten secretly married in light of the Quell. All very in line with the rest of the Victors past District 3, and Jupiter was wondering if she had missed something in what they were supposed to say.

    But then Peeta said perhaps the one thing no one had expected.

    "If it weren't for the baby."

    "What the fuck?" Brutus murmured besides Jupiter before he could stop himself.

    Chaos erupted. The crowd was practically riotting, demanding for the games to stop– horror, panic, all up in arms after the possibility that a child not even born yet would go into the games. Ironic, Jupiter thought, but a stroke of genius, as Peeta was dismissed through the noise and retook his seat. Caesar could not rein the crowd back in, and the program attempted to drown out the noise with the anthem.

    Jupiter glanced down the line to see the Victors had started to stand, and joined them, just as she realised what they were doing. Besides Brutus, Wiress was holding out a hand– Beete was then holding Mags, and so on. All down the line, the Victors were joining hands, and Jupiter, in spirit, reached out to Gloss, who looked disgruntled but took hers. She slapped her other into Brutus', as he relented and took Wiress'.

    It felt odd to stand united in an unbroken line of those who had suffered at the Capitol, but it felt right. The screens around them began to shut off, and moments later the lights went out. Gloss pulled his hand from Jupiter's, but Brutus stayed with her as the stage erupted into chaos. Peacekeepers had now arrived– not the Capitol orderlies from when they had arrived.

    Jupiter swallowed thickly, pushing through the mess with Brutus leading the way. She swivelled her head, desperately looking for Finnick's signature auburn hair or the pale shirt he had been wearing. Brutus released her as they got closer to the elevators, and in that moment, someone shoved into her.

    Finnick took her by the shoulders, looking down at her with desperate eyes. "Meet me tonight," he told her.

    "What?" she asked above the noise. She could hear Brutus shouting her name– there was a Peacekeeper charging towards them.

    "Please," Finnick insisted.

    Jupiter didn't have time to respond that she had already been planning to, before they were separated. She glanced over her shoulder, catching sight of him just before she was piled into an elevator. Brutus' arm went around her shoulder as he helped pull her in, and then they were shooting upwards, the chaos of the program cut off as soon as the doors closed.

    Jupiter was breathing quickly, and the dress suddenly felt far too tight. Their elevator stopped soon, and they got out on their floor, moving in silence. Aurelia, Lux and Brutus' stylist hadn't returned yet, leaving the pair of Victors alone in the deathly quiet room.

    "What was that?" Brutus demanded, sounding more confused rather than accusatory.

    "Unity," Jupiter told him simply.

    "For what?" he asked in exasperation. "Tomorrow, they're all enemies."

    "People are angry at being sent back in," Jupiter said matter-of-factly, looking at her old mentor as if he should understand. "It affects all of us."

    "And so what? A Quell is supposed to be unusual," Brutus retorted.

    Jupiter narrowed her eyes at him. "Typical," she scoffed.

    She watched the switch flip in Brutus, eyes hardening at her jeer. "What'd you say?" he snapped, taking a step forward.

    Jupiter flinched– she flinched badly.

    Brutus stopped, realising her reaction and what he'd done, but it wasn't enough to stop her from leaving, speeding to her room, bottom lip trembling. She pinched the bridge of her nose, exhaling. Tonight had been about taking back her agency, acknowledging her brother as everything he hated– his father, a coward, proud of her, not a Victor, just a Peacekeeper.

    She was supposed to be free of him. But she would never be free from District 2 and its conditioning, and Brutus was no different from her brother at the end of the day. She knew what he expected of her in the arena, and she knew he did not care that the Quell was a sign of change or that there were riots in the Districts or that the Capitol feared the Victors standing together.

    He just wanted a Hunger Games– like any other year.

    Jupiter shouldn't have been there. Enobaria was supposed to be in her place, agreeing with Brutus in that room, instead of stripping out of the interview outfit and into loose clothes. Enobaria would not be squeezing her eyes shut and wishing she had one more day, or even begin to question what was going on.

    But Jupiter was not Enobaria.

    She was Saturnus Marrow's daughter, and he had been a good man. He would have hated the Quarter Quell, too, and he would have spat at the fact he was expected to kill friends and people who had also survived. He would have looked her in the eye and told her to be strong, do what needs to be done– things were changing, but she still had time.

    Jupiter wondered if that was what he had done the night he had ended his own life. She wondered if he had prepared for it, made peace with it. Did he do things he enjoyed most before he passed? Did he regret it– as he bled out, waiting for someone to find him? She hoped wherever he was, he was free. Maybe she would see him soon, maybe she'd be able to tell him she had tried to do what she thought was right.

    Brutus had disappeared to his room when Jupiter reemerged, and Aurelia was having a hushed but urgent conversation with someone in the living space of the Second Floor. As quiet as possible, Jupiter made it to the elevator, slipping in and wincing at how loud the beep was. She wondered if the Peacekeepers were still crawling around, if she would be denied this final moment of warmth.

    But she encountered nobody as she arrived on the Fourth Floor, and it was almost eerie. Swallowing thickly, she knocked as lightly as she could on Finnick's door, pressed so closely to it as if it would hide her from anyone walking past. It opened quickly, and she looked up at him.

    "Finnick," she breathed. He took her into a tight embrace, hands twisting in her hair. She let him– it was already a tangled mess from removing the headpiece.

    The door shut, and then she was kissing him, and she couldn't stop kissing him, knowing it would be the last time they'd get a moment alone. All the maybes and could be's were out the window, she would not get the chance to spend a night alone with him again. Hadn't she always done what she could with the nasty hand life dealt her?

    He moved with her, hand coming up to hold her face, thumb tracing her jawline as he met her lips and returned the favour. They had done this many times over the years, even their first night in the Capitol for the Quarter Quell, but she could feel the longing in the way he touched her, the way he lowered them to bed. He was kissing off the silver glitter Lux had sprayed on her, and she was smudging the bronzer on his cheeks.

    Neither of them cared.

    "Jupiter," her name was spoken like a prayer, against her skin and through shallow breaths. "Do you trust me?"

    "Yes," she answered easily.

    "No– I mean it," Finnick said firmly. She paused, pulling away as she hovered above him. "Tomorrow we're going to be dumped in that arena and expected to kill each other."

    Jupiter sighed. "I know. Can we please not–?"

    "Do you trust me?"

    The intensity to which he spoke caught her off guard.

    She looked at him carefully, his eyes dark, fingers still tracing her shoulder. She thought of the years she had known him, both pinned under the Capitol and behind closed doors. She thought of the sweet murmurs against her hair , the way he traced the planets on her spine and painted pictures in the water droplets on her skin.

    It was hard to put a name to what Finnick was to her– or how much he meant to her. She had never opened herself to someone the way she had to him, and she knew he was the same. In that arena, she knew, if it came down to it– she wouldn't be able to kill him. She had killed before, and once it had been second nature, but Finnick was a loophole. She wondered if he knew that, she wondered if he felt the same.

    Jupiter found that she knew he felt the same.

    "Yes," she murmured. "I trust you."

    Finnick nodded, looking satisfied. "Find me," he told her, moving his hand to caress her cheek, finger brushing the corner of her lip. "When the cannon goes off– you find me." Jupiter nodded. "Say it– please."

    "I'll find you," she told him.

    Finnick only looked relieved, capturing her in another kiss. "Did you get my message?" he asked quietly when they pulled away, looking up at her through his lashes.

    "I loved it," she told him. She was so close their noses were brushing, and she could see the apprehension in his face. "You don't have to say it," Jupiter said. "I know."

    "Good," he said against her lips as she leaned forward.

    Jupiter wondered if there was a more perfect and tender goodbye that they could've had. She trusted Finnick with her life, but she wished she could share the calmness he had about going into the arena– as if he believed everything would be okay.

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they're so important to me

ongoing, you'll notice i combine dialogue and details from the book and movie together to make it all flow as smoothly as possible, so some lines will be from the movie, others will be book, etc etc. the effects of the acid fog also differ in the book, as you will see! 

important: if you keep up with my mb/follow me, you may have seen my posts that i am currently trying to finish this fic completely before the end of the year. i am currently very, very close. in saying that, from here on out all the chapters are arena content, and i am set on editing them all together so they're cohesive, so i am unfortunately hoarding chapters to edit together. if there is a slight break between this chapter and the next, just know it's bc i am polishing this story off to completion so it's a good thing!

the story currently ends at chapter 26, with a small little epilogue to round it off.

anyway, thank you for reading see you next time <3