Sand - Finnick Odair

"Hi Annie," I greet her like I usually do at three in the afternoon. It's a routine of hers: she'd be by the shore, sitting, oblivious to the world every time the clock ticked three o'clock. She sits there, and I follow suit, always saying "Hi Annie" and never getting a reply, or a small acknowledgment of my existence.

I never give up talking to her, though. I tell her about my breakfast, the amount of seafood we got that day, or how Mags taught me to weave another basket. She doesn't move, and I don't too. I wait for her to get up before I do the same. And so ends another day with Annie Cresta.

I'm not surprised at myself for being drawn to her. She's growing on me by the day, the hour, the minute. Her green eyes that often stare out in oblivion; her messy hair that was often combed by me and adorned with a crown of flowers; her perfectly-sculpted face that makes me lose myself. How could such beauty make me feel so weak?

I follow her the next day into the beach. She sits on the shore, her green dress complimenting the blue water in a harmonic way. She stares out into the sea and I make myself comfortable beside her.

"Hi Annie," I begin. No answer. I strip off my shirt that's sticky with sweat and the smell of shellfish. I take out a comb from my pocket and start combing her hair, which feels like silk running through my fingers.

Annie likes pretty things, but even the basket of flowers beside me aren't enough to garner her attention.

"Mags taught me another knot today. Said she could teach it to you if you stop by her house tonight." It's as if I was talking to the sea and not to a person. I tuck the comb back in my pocket. I reach for the basket of flowers and take what seemed like posies, Mags said, and daisies, petunias, and baby's breath. With a district so close to the sea, one would think that we only have fish and other seafood. I start weaving another crown of flowers that would adorn my queen later on. I don't know what she does to the earlier crowns I weave, but something tells me that she doesn't get mad at me for always setting atop her head crowns.

"Aria said that she's going to cook your favorite soup for dinner. Would you like for me to take you there?" No answer. Just the silent waves of the sea crashing on the shore. "I'll take you there when you feel like standing up." I am done with the crown and fit it into her head. The queen of the sea. The queen of the flowers. The queen of my heart.

I talk on and on until she stands up. She waits for me to do the same. Of course, we're going to Aria's. I take her hand in mine and we walk.

The next day, Annie is there again. I've come from helping my friends catch fish (although that task should not be required of me since I won the Games).

"Hi Annie!" I greet her with a smile. I take off my shirt and look her right in the eyes. It's not as if she would find me distracting.

"I collected clams today. Two of them had a pearl!" I produce the said pearls out of my pocket. They glimmer under the afternoon sun in the palm of my hand. "I'm going to give Mags the other one, while the prettiest stays safe with you, okay?" I open up her clenched fist, which is propped properly on her lap. I gently place the pearl in the middle of her palm and close it. "There. Now you're just like the clam protecting the pearl." I grin, but to my everyday disdain, even a shuffle wasn't given to me. I sit beside her and begin my daily account.

I am in the middle if my story about a school of blue fish when Annie stands up.

"Annie?" I ask her, my voice full of worry. "Where are you going?" She walks slowly sits behind me. I turn my head to the side and see that she has made herself comfortable.

Was she that sick of me now? I chuckle in my head. She must've had her fair share of Finnick Odair. Now she's never going to speak to me again. Not like she did properly, after her Games.

I feel grains of sand splatter my back, to which soft hands follow. I turn my head sideways again and out of the corner of my eye I see Annie massaging my back with sand. She massages, takes two handfuls of sand, and splatters it on my back. She repeats her cycle again. I could almost feel myself choking back tears.

"Hi Finnick," She says as I stared out into the sea, and I could no longer hold the tears in anymore. For the longest time, I heard Annie speak in her normal, sweet voice, without the shrill that often came with it. Instead of screams, it's my name that came out of her mouth.

Her fingers run on my back. I cry silently. Tears of joy.

"Hi Finnick," she repeats.

"Hi Annie," I reply, a whisper drowned by the crash of the waves on the shore.

A/N: Finnick/Annie is one of the few OTPs I have in the trilogy and they can have all my creyyyssss. Please read and review! 3