BLOOD ON MY HANDS || Finnick Odair

ten; the first of many.

Aside from the back of his coat being drenched in cold mud and the mist that had collected on his face, Eden was comfortable with honestly saying he'd slept well, aside from the fact that he'd been woken up by the firing of a cannon. His eyes cracked open to the sight of sunlight cracking through the clouds, though there wasn't much of it. He could feel Flora's arms around his middle with her swollen belly pressing into his left side and her head on his arm as a pillow.

A crack of sunlight had fallen across her face making her hair look like it was made of sunshine itself. He couldn't help but smile down at her and smooth her damp hair off her face and then hovered the back of his hand over her parted lips, feeling her breath hit his skin. Just knowing she was still alive, and the life inside her was as well made his heart swell with so much love he could hardly breathe.

Without really meaning to his hands found their way to her belly and he sighed, eyes drifting closed again. Right until he felt several pushes dig into his left palm, and they snapped open.

The baby was kicking.

Eden found he couldn't help it as he closed his eyes, a series of tears rolling down his cheeks as he stared down at her in complete awe. Someone off to the left snorted themselves awake, but he couldn't even bring himself to look at them. He could see Lara's head lift up in the corner of his eye but he couldn't Sven bring himself to look as tears continued to roll down his cheeks.

He knew the cameras were likely focused on him now, since it was a heartfelt moment that Capitol citizens would just eat up, but that didn't matter. "Everything okay over there?" Lara asked softly, her voice concerned.

Eden sniffed and frantically wiped his eyes as he looked over at her, unable to stop smiling; it was probably a rare sight in the games. "Yeah, she's fine, just — come over here."

She stepped carefully around the others sleeping bodies and knelt down in the space of grass on his other side, and looked at him expectantly. Without a word he moved her hand to where his was pressed, and watched her face twist in confusion before just moments later it lit up in amazement. "Oh," she breathed out softly, pulling her hand back.

"That's my baby," he whispered to her.

Lara smiled sadly at him and patted his shoulder. "I'm gonna go pee, alright; you make sure she drinks some water, she said her stomach was a bit crampy yesterday."

With a nod she'd stood up and was moving through the bodies again, though not as carefully as before, and just at the sound of a grunt. "That's my hair," Beau uttered rasping, rolling into his stomach for a brief moment before looking up at her through squinted blue eyes.

"You'll survive."

Eden looked up as she passed Volt with nothing but a soft murmur and wandered the fifteen feet over to the forest so she could go to the bathroom in private, and then looked back down at Flora in amazement. He kissed her forehead a trio of times before nuzzling his cheek into her hair, inhaling the scent he was oh-so-familiar with.

The sound of someone clearing their throat caused him to look up, and he was met with Beau's knowing smile. "Baby's kicking?" He guessed, though it sounded like he already knew the answer.

"Yeah," Eden confirmed softly, using the pad of his thumb to wipe away thin smudge of dirt on her cheek. "Yeah, my little girl is moving around in there," he beamed happily.

Beau watched them fondly and sat up, a sad smile on his face. He ruffled his hair and bits of muddy grass flew out, making him frown at the sight. "You know, the moment I watched the reapings and saw her walk up on that stage, I knew I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I came out the victor," he murmured, his entire body slouching. "I thought about just avoiding you all together, that if someone else killed you both that it wouldn't be my fault, but then I thought that...that if she died and I lived, the guilt would just...it would eat me alive."