Heavenly Bodies¹ ━━ Finnick Odair

iii. siren's song

     Everything is gaudy and expensive. Aphrodite loves it.

     Faces appear, names are exchanged, pictures taken, kisses brushed on cheeks. Clarence is overjoyed to introduce Aphrodite to his dear friend, Effie Trinket.

"You are an absolute inspiration!" Effie gushes. She's practically in tears. "I saw how you fell off that cliff while I was getting my eyebrows dyed, and when my stylist messed them up, you made me feel brave enough to tell her."

What. The. Fuck.

"Uh. . . wow. . . !" says Aphrodite with the biggest smile she can muster.

     Internally, she's thinking, This lady is fucking crazy.

Call her dramatic, but it's survival of the fittest from here on out when you're the Capitol's Darling. Everyone wants to talk to you. Everyone wants to kiss you, kill you, or be you. Which is a little exhausting.

Well. It's not falling off a cliff.

So at least there's that.

      All the while, a single question burns like acid in the back of Aphrodite's throat. She cannot forget what she saw on the tapes yesterday. Romulus had sacrificed himself for her without her even knowing.

     Icarus would know why. He was friends with Romulus.

     But she takes one look at her older brother, and she decides it's better not to ask.

After about 3 minutes of this night, Icarus is annoyed. After 30 minutes, he looks like he might kill someone. He's got a pack of smokes in his pocket, but that doesn't seem to be enough. Not tonight.

"I need drugs," he snaps when someone bumps into him. "Fuck — "

"Do my eyes deceive me? Did the Capitol's favorite junkie actually make an appearance?"

Icarus grins. "Oh, thank fucking god. Finally."

When Aphrodite turns her head, Finnick Odair's famous glittering green eyes are only inches from her own. They are liquid, soft, light, incandescent, the color of sea foam.

"Finnick, this is my annoying little sister," Icarus introduces her carelessly. "Aphrodite, this is my friend, Finnick."

Finnick Odair. Somewhat of a living legend in Panem. Since he won the 65th Hunger Games at 14, he's still one of the youngest Victors. Being from District 4, he's a Career, so the odds already were in his favor, but what had really sealed the deal for him is his extraordinary beauty.

He stands there now, like something out of a dream. The sun seems to glow from straight inside his chest. Perfectly tousled blonde curls crown his bronzed face, his smirk a crooked flash of lightning. District 4's symbolized by water; Finnick certainly is an ode to the ocean, with his shifting hands and eyes the color of sea foam.

"Don't worry," adds Icarus. "You'll never get used to the nudity."

He says this mainly because Finnick's outfit consists solely of silk black pants. No shirt. His abs are so intense that they could probably win their own Hunger Games.

Finnick wets his lips ever so slightly with just his tongue as his sensual eyes drink her in. "You are absolutely breathtaking."

Icarus snickers.

Aphrodite could laugh, too. No way this golden sex symbol is about to make her lose her cool girl attitude.

Instead, she tosses a sheet of glossy black hair over her shoulder and smiles. "I know."