Hello there, everybody!

Thanks for sticking around this far, and here is the very first chapter to the second sub-story!

Disclaimer: Suzanne Collins owns the Hunger Games.

Finnick's POV

The Capitol is angry.

They act as if they're happy to have a District 5 winner, but I can tell they are not.

She was supposed to die. It was obvious. The mutation ram, the harsh rain, the treacherous path, the avalanche, all the attempts of getting her to fall off the mountain.

But she won.

She's smiling, smiling all the time in front of the cameras. She's happy, glad that she won.

The Capitol is not.

She found a way to kill off all the other tributes and completely deform the whole arena while she was at it.

I was on the hovercraft that was sent to pick her up from the arena. All of the mentors were.

When we arrived, the whole arena was no longer a blinding white.

Instead, the whole arena was burnt to a crisp. For miles on end, the ground was a black and brown mess, all of the trees shrivelled into crisps. The mountain was half crumbled, smoke erupting from it like an erupted volcano.

There was smoke, thick in the air, smothering everything.

It looked like a wasteland. I imagined this was quite how District 13 looked like after the Capitol demolished it.

We were in the hovercraft, trying to look past the smoke to find the victor.

We finally found her, an hour later, sprawled on the debris and rocks of the crumbled mountain. She stood out in the brown and black of the barren world.

We all thought she was dead, lying there, unmoving. She was sprawled on her side, her white-blonde hair fanning out everywhere, pale arms and legs marred with scars and wounds. Her eyes were half-closed and empty, disturbingly unfocused.

They spent minutes patching her up, but it took her hours to finally wake up again.

When she finally did wake up, she was quiet and lethargic. She barely spoke and kept on staring at the walls.

Vinster told us that she was quite often like that, at least when she was with him before the Games started.

But then all of us mentors had to leave, except Vinster, and I haven't seen her in person again.

Now, on the cameras, she's bubbly and happy, enthusiastic and talkative – the exact opposite of how Vinster described her.

I thought everything was okay. A new victor crowned – now on to next year's Games.

But I was wrong.

.

I was just minding my business one day when I stumbled upon her.

Okay, we all know that's a lie.

I was escaping one of my 'satisfied customers' and quickly boarding the train that would take me back to Four when I saw her in the train's back corner.

She was curled up in the corner, her head in her knees. I could see her shoulders shaking, though she emitted no sound.

I wanted to walk on, ignore her, and get on with my day, but I couldn't just leave her stranded there.

I sighed and sat down next to her.

"Are you okay?" I asked her gently.

She only continues crying softly.

I reach out and touch her shoulder, and she quickly jerks away. She makes a squeak of panic.

I look at her for a bit, suddenly piecing everything together.

She looks up at me, eyes red and tears flowing.

"They didn't…" I trail off, horrified. "Did they?"

She nods shakily and cries harder.

"Come on," I say, gently pulling at her wrists, "let's go to my compartment."

Immediately, I realize my mistake too late.

She shrieks and claws at my hands around her wrist. I surrender to her sharp nails and drop her hands.

She sobs silently, her hands to her eyes.

I pry her hands away and stare at her eyes, even though she tries to avoid eye contact.

"I won't do anything, I promise." I say softly. "They did the same to me."

She stares at me, tears still streaming down her face. Then slowly stands up and waits, ready to follow me.

I walk slowly, making sure she was behind me. She walks slowly, her arms crossed across her chest self-consciously. Her eyes are red, her makeup running down with her tears. Her hair is a bird's nest, tangled like she run her hands through them multiple times.

I lead her to my compartment and point her to the bathroom. She hurries in quickly and I soon hear the shower starting.

I scramble around for some clothes in the drawers and finally rummage up my largest shirt and a pair of baggy shorts.

She would be needing clothes. She was only wearing what looked like a men's collar shirt, buttoned up haphazardly and sleeves rolled up.

The shower stops.

I leave the clothes in front of the door and knock, telling her that I left clothes in front of the door.

She seems to hesitate for a few minutes, then tentatively opens the door a crack, sticks a pale arm out, grabs the clothes, and yanks them in.

I chuckle bitterly and wait for her to emerge.

.

Anxol's POV

My first kiss.

And it was anything but magical.

I try not to cry as I think of it again.

I can remember his cold hands on my hips, his lips crushing painfully on mine, his –

Stop.

I shudder and force myself to forget that memory.

I slip on the clothes Finnick Odair left me – extremely oversized and smells a lot like salt.

I hesitate before opening the door. I knew that Finnick was the same as me – it would explain a lot of things – but what if he was just the same as those disgusting Captiol people?

What if he actually enjoyed it?

I shudder again.

But his voice sounded sincere, sounding empathetic. He sounded like he understood.

I gather up what courage I had left and opened the door.

He didn't turn around as I entered. He was sitting, staring out the window of the train.

"Clothes fit you alright?" He asks, still staring out the window.

"Yes." I answer, even though they are anything but. "Thank you."

He turns around slowly. I feel exposed as his eyes are on me, just like how he was staring at me just hours ago.

"Are you okay?" He asks gently.

"I've been better." I answer. I find, to my dismay that my voice is shaking.

He sees my shaking and says, "I'm not like them."

He looks hurt almost, that I could possibly see him like that. I feel guilty for thinking so, even if it was just for a second.

I sit down tentatively on a chair next to a desk.

"When did you start?" Finnick asks, staring at me with those piercing green eyes.

"Yesterday. I turned sixteen two days ago." I shift my eyes away from his gaze.

"I remember my first. She was terrible." Finnick shudders, looking at me with sympathy. "But you don't want to hear it."

I smile to myself.

It's quiet for a moment. An awkward, but at the same time, oddly comfortable silence.

"Is it what it's like all year?" I ask timidly, staring at my fingers. "Captiol at night, home during day?"
"That's right. You board the train in the middle of the night and board it again at morning." Finnick smiles grimly. "It's not all year long. You'll have to mentor the Games, of course, but that's hardly any better."

I sigh sadly to myself. My future was not looking bright.

"And of course – " Finnick nods to the door, " – this is the cargo train. There's only one compartment. I hope you don't mind sharing."

I bite my lip. I did mind, but it's not Finnick's fault.

Finnick catches my look.

"I can sleep on the couch, if you want." He offers kindly.

I shake my head. "We'll rotate."
He nods. We'll work out a schedule later.

"You might want to consider bringing clothes, too." Finnick gestures to the closet. "They really come in handy."

This time, it's me who nods.

"I would say it's not too bad," Finnick chuckles bitterly, "but it is."

I nod again, tears brimming in my eyes.

I feel like I have betrayed myself.

Thanks for reading!

Well, I know in a lot of fanfiction stories (it might have been even mentioned in the books, I'm not too sure) Finnick stays at the Capitol for half of the year and then returns to his home district for the other half. Or something like that; where he stays at the Capitol for a certain period of time before returning.

WELL, I SAY BULLOCKS.

Not really. Well, I don't hate the idea of that, it's just that since this is a Finnick/OC story, and since the other character doesn't originate from District 4, it just isn't going to work out if Finnick follows that plan. So obviously, I changed it.

I hope you guys don't mind too much; it was for the sake of the story.

And yeah, don't worry guys. Things will be kept PG. Or, at least, rated T.

What did you guys think of this chapter? (I'm dying to know!)

Any questions? Comments? Feedback? Feel free to leave it as a review!

Thanks again for reading!