lover/fighter - Finnick Odair

Chapter 13 - Matters of the heart

It is not until many hours after his conversation with Snow that Finnick has the opportunity to really let his words sink in. It's evening again and he's struggled to get through his daily schedule. Fortunately, it's been mostly interviews about his opinion of the new victor, his appearance on the Victory Tour, and of course, everyone wanted to hear some stories from the big party to satisfy the hunger of anyone who hasn't been lucky enough to get an invite. He's basically told the same story 100 times today, but generally it's not the words that people are interested in anyway.

When Finnick comes out of the bathroom after a long cold shower, the sky above the Capitol is already drenched in bright orange and the sun is on its way to disappear behind the mountains that surround the city like a wall. From the outside they make the Capitol look like an impregnable fortress, but inside it is more like a prison. The walls are high and to overcome them one would need wings.

The cold water has him more or less awake again, and in the meantime his nerves have calmed down a bit. Now that he can think clearly again, he notices a certain aspect of the conversation with Snow, which he has not paid attention to until now.

It happens rarely, not to say never, that President Snow makes disparaging remarks about his own people. Finnick doesn't imagine that this is because Snow actually feels anything like loyalty to them. None of them really mean anything to him. But the way he talked about Griffin Ashway at least made it sound like Snow knows him on a more personal level, and apparently has known him long enough to see him repeat his missteps.

'You'd think he would have learned after so many years that you don't get involved with the kind of woman who isn't impressed by money and power,' those have been his words. Finnick wonders in what way this friend of Snow's must have become "involved" with Rhea, and vice versa.

Perhaps it is his work in the Capitol that is affecting his judgment in this matter, but the first thing that comes to mind is an affair. If at some point there was a relationship between the two, that would explain how the debacle came about. Maybe there was a messy breakup and now the former mistress is trying to turn a profit by threatening to sabotage the rich Capitolist's business.

Finnick doesn't remember meeting the man before, so it's hard to assess how likely that possibility actually is. All he knows is that he must be very rich and his business must be profitable enough for Snow to make such a high profit that he even invests Finnick's time in solving this problem. Snow wouldn't do that if it wasn't worth it to him in the end. That means that whatever deal this Ashway guy has with Snow, he still brings in more than what the people in the Capitol pay for Finnick's company, and that's quite a bit.

So there's definitely a lot to get from this guy. That would be a reason for many to get involved in such a relationship, no matter if the unpleasant ending was planned or not. On the other hand, it is as Snow said. If Rhea were only interested in money, then the matter could certainly be settled differently. Maybe it's revenge she wants, that would be a conceivable reason for her stubbornness. But with a woman like Rhea, as he sees her so far, there must have been strong feelings involved to trigger such a drastic reaction in her that she even messes with the president himself. He doesn't realize that he's already pretty much right about intense feelings, only that they're not the kind of feelings he's thinking about, but very similar to the ones he feels whenever he has to spend a night with his own "affairs".

As he stands in his living room in his fresh clothes, staring at the sky, he makes up his mind to find out something about Griffin Ashway when he gets a chance. He finally wants to know what this is all about and if Snow leaves him in the dark then he uses his own sources, after all he has enough of them. Maybe that would also help him to get closer to Rhea.