The months had passed since the games, Addison had grown from stiff glares and crying whenever in the same vicinity as me. Now it was a small smile and a tentative 'hi' followed by awkward conversation.
My family had decided to keep their home, deciding it would be better to live outside of the victor's village. I now had too much space and zero clue what to do with it, Finnick practically lived at my house for the first two months, taking up residence in the spare bedroom until the late-night screaming started. After I woke up crying the first week, he would sit in my room, stroking my hair until I found peace with myself.
Andante and Asher visited regularly, often staying overnight and taking up another of the many spare rooms I found myself to own. This morning they sat at the large dining table with steaming mugs of tea, chatting animatedly about the various activities they were undertaking at school. A knock sounded at the door shortly after which I opened to find a heavily pregnant Ophelia who waddled in exhaustedly. "I'm just about ready to rip this little thing out of my body," She remarked, collapsing on a chair at the dining table with a steaming loaf of bread in her hand.
Over the months, Ophelia and I had grown quite close- she and Mags would come over quite often to enjoy cups of tea and talk together. Often, we would walk on the beach but since Ophelia reached the third trimester, she had been getting more and more exhausted. "Ophelia, I wasn't expecting you!" I smiled, hugging the girl around her shoulders. She turned around and kissed my cheek as Asher stood up to make the woman a cup of tea.
"I had to see you off before the tour," She explained, "I wasn't exactly sure how strict Sylvia would have made the schedule,"
"Knowing Sylvia, I'm never going to catch a break," I chuckled as Asher reached the table again with a steaming mug of tea for Ophelia and a knife for the bread, "You two better be off to school then, Reign was going to pop around shortly, he'll walk you there," She told them. The perks of being a victor in District Four meant that if you were stable enough for it, you were hired as a trainer within the academy. I had been instated about a month ago, the same time Ophelia had taken maternity leave, Mags had left as well, now with constant doctor visits and bed rests. She was healing, however slowly and had been working hard on her sign language, both Reign and Ophelia had learnt the language to communicate with her.
Reign arrived shortly after, giving me a strong hug and a ruffle of my hair, he beckoned Asher and Andante to walk ahead before turning to me. Reign's voice was interesting, in his games he had inhaled a severe amount of gas that had affected his voice box, he spoke with an eerie whisper that was comforting in a way, "Aurora," He said kindly, "This tour, it can bring up some bad memories, I want you to be prepared for that,"
Ophelia nodded in agreement, "Just remember, Mags and Finnick will be right there with you, you'll be back home in two weeks, he'll be out by then," She smiled, patting her stomach fondly.
"She'll." Reign corrected, giving his wife a tender kiss, "Safe travels Rory, I'll see you soon,"
I waved him off as he walked out of the victor's village, my younger siblings bounding ahead, Ophelia kissed me on the cheek and wandered across the street to her house. I was left alone until I spotted a flash of blue, "Aurora, my dear! Oh, how I've missed you,"
The capitol accent, the outrageous blue hair, "Sylvia," I breathed, "You're here early,"
"Sylvia's never early- just on time is far too late," Another voice mused from behind her, carrying dress bags and makeup boxes was my prep team, Venus, Titan, and Blaze. I grinned at Blaze's voice, tackling the man with a strong hug.
"I missed you so much," I smiled as he squeezed me in return, this tour would bring back many unpleasant circumstances for me, but if anything, it brought me Blaze, and for that I was grateful.
Gaia greeted me next with a strong hug and kind smile, from there we got straight to work. Blaze and Titan began removing the hair from my body as Venus worked on washing my hair. Sylvia read out my itinerary as Gaia planned out the outfits to match each occasion. Titan then got to work refining my eyebrows, Blaze and Venus painted my nails.
Gaia handed me a navy-blue silk robe to sit in while the team worked on the rest of my look, "For the tour, I've tried to conform your outfits to what the Capitol already depicts you as,"
"The Pearl of the Capitol," I said in a pretentious voice, Blaze responded with a snicker as Sylvia swatted my arm.
"Precisely, I've stuck with a specific colour scheme, beige, light blue and white to stick to the coastal colour scheme." Gaia said snapping her fingers, "For the short, televised advertisement, you're supposed to appear more casual, that's why I'm putting you in this," She held up a pair of beige dress pants, followed by a white flowy top with a milk-maid style bodice and flowy white sleeves. The winter month in District four still allowed us to get away with wearing fewer layers, so to match she had styled me with a pair of white heels. My hair had been styled in a messy braid, my makeup was simple and the only jewellery I was wearing was a pair of pearl earrings and Finnick's pearl necklace.
At the mention of the necklace from Gaia, I realised he and Mags were still yet to make their appearance. I sat in the dining room in my bathrobe, as the rest of my prep team made coffee and waited for my mentors to arrive. I decided to work on my talent, a specific hobby that a victor can take up to appear as more than a murderer to their district. The obvious choice for me was painting, which I had taken advantage of to work on my portrait painting skills. I sat on the floor of my living room, finishing up the shadow work on my most recent portrait of Mags as my mentors burst into the room.
"Sorry we're late," Finnick smiled cheekily, holding multiple large bouquets of flowers, "I couldn't just stop by without getting some gifts for my favourite people," He winked, handing each of the people on my team their respective bouquets of flowers. "You look beautiful," He whispered, kissing me on the cheek as he handed me mine last.
"I'm not even dressed yet," I chuckled.
"If there weren't so many people watching, I'd say you were wearing too much," He whispered into my ear and pulling away with a wicked smirk, I scoffed, hitting him aggressively on the shoulder and trying very hard to mask the blush forming on my cheeks. Unfortunately, Finnick noticed the colour rising on my face, making his grin grow even more arrogant as he turned away from me.
The bouquet of flowers was beautiful, a collection of white and pink lilies. Finnick had fallen into a recent habit of buying me an increased number of flowers, something I would never complain about. However, it had made me confused and somewhat flustered, as if I were letting my idealism mask what was truly there.
Perhaps he felt sorry for me, trying to deal with this new life all alone and knowing Finnick, he probably thought it was funny watching me get so worked up over such insignificant things.
Finnick and the rest of the boys exited the room, allowing me to change into my interview outfit which to my lack of surprise, fit me perfectly. Mags grinned brightly, kissing me on the head and signing to me much smoother than she had six months ago, "You look wonderful."
"You flatter me too much Mags," I giggled at the woman, enveloping her in a hug.
Finnick entered the room after the rest of the team announced I was ready; he held his arm out to me as we walked onto the back porch. The view was perfect, I could see the cliffside entrance to the Cove, the ocean beat against the rocks serenely. The sky was fading from its blue into an array of purples and pinks. "I'll miss this," I whispered, letting my hand slip into his.
"This?" He nodded into the atmosphere, "Or this?" He asked, holding up our entwined hands.
"The first one," I said without a second thought, Finnick's face fell s mine grew into a cheeky smile, "Whichever one shrinks your ego,"
"You're no help for my self-esteem, you know that?" Finnick mused, stepping behind me, he ran his hands up my arms, reaching my shoulders he flipped me around, so I faced him. My lips parted in shock as I felt him lean down, unintentionally my eyes closed wistfully, "But," He interjected the short moment, my eyes snapped open to see a dark smirk on his face, "It's truly adorable watching you try and hide your blush around me,"
My mouth hung open in utter shock as Finnick laughed at my expression, "Finnick Odair you... sly little tease-" I scowled as the boy turned on his heel, strutting back into the house. I shook my head and followed him, snatching his arm in my hand, and pulling him back towards me, I peered up at him as he smirked at me once more, "And I do not blush at you of all people,"
"No?" He raised an eyebrow, poking his tongue in between his teeth and lips.
I watch the action as if in a trance before snapping out of his hastily "No!"
"You hesitated,"
"I did not!"
"Aurora Hartley," Finnick sang, leaning down to my level once more, "Are you lying to me?" I rolled my eyes, ignoring his question and brushing past him with a confident smirk, "I'm going to take that as a yes," He chuckled, catching up to me and throwing an arm around my shoulder.
"You think you're funny," I scoffed, trying to shrug his arm off.
"I think I'm adorable," He swooped down unexpectedly and kissed me on the cheek, I felt the heat rising on my face once again, "There's that blush again,"
"I'll kick your ass," I threatened.
"I'll cause a scene," Finnick shot back cheerfully.
"Children," Sylvia hissed, gently shoving Finnick away from me who pouted in response. With her hand on my shoulder, Sylvia led me over to the doorway, "Now remember, big smiles, good posture and be polite, you can be as angry as you want on the train,"
"Easy for you to say," Finnick groaned, "I'm going to be the one to deal with it,"
"And you wouldn't have it any other way," I said sweetly, blowing him a kiss, which he pretended to catch, putting it in the pocket of his trousers. I rolled my eyes allowing the door to creak open as I stepped into the street.
"There she is! Our very own Aurora Hartley all the way from District 4, how wonderful it is to see you, my dear!" Caesar Flickerman's voice boomed over the speaker.
I had not missed this. I hated the publicity and the fake smiles, I hated pretending to be ok with slaughtering people for their entertainment. Nevertheless, I plastered on my best smile, waving to the camera in front of me, "Hello Caesar!" I grinned, putting my hands in my pants pockets as a light breeze drifted over the back of my neck.
"How is the life of the victor treating you in District 4, my dear?" Caesar asked, I could hear the Capitol cheering behind him.
My sister is terrified of me, my parents hardly speak to me anymore. I live alone, waking every night to nightmares of me murdering children. I train children in an academy to kill each other, my best friend is the only person treating me normally and I am trying to mask the fact that I have feelings for him- all in all it is not working.
I can not say this however, instead I masked the hurt in my eyes and smiled wider, "Everything's great over here Caesar, I'm settling in just fine!" I glanced over at the doorway, seeing Finnick who had his lips pursed with concern.
"And how is your counterpart?" Caesar asked, the men and women from the Capitol began cheering for Finnick, who from the doorway inaudibly groaned and banged his head against the doorpost.
"Finnick's doing great, we're both doing great," I smiled.
"That's good to hear Miss Hartley, we'll be seeing you soon," Caesar grinned.
"That you will," I responded and with a wave, the cameras shut off and the fake smile instantly dropped from my face. The rest of my prep team greeted me with bags of luggage as we began walking up to the station where the train would meet us for District 12.
Finnick took my hand as the pair of us dragged on behind the rest of my crew, "You did well, don't worry, it's all going to be over soon," He comforted me. But it would not be over soon, every year I would return as a mentor, I would be forced to partake in his games, not physically, but the mental component would never leave.
I would not voice my concern, Finnick was worried about me enough as it was. Instead, I wrapped one arm around his waist allowing myself to absorb some of his body heat, "I'm lucky to have someone like you, Finn,"
"On the contrary, love, it is I who is the lucky one,"
I love my babies <3