I'm a little burned out on Catoniss right now and always wanted to write something for Katniss and Finnick. I loved their deformed friendship in the book.
This is slightly AU. Katniss is just a bit more crazy in the beginning.
The mental ward in District 13 is silent for the most part. They manage to keep most of the patients well sedated and only on occasions can you hear somebody breaking out into hysterical laughter or screaming bloody murder.
She doesn't notice him at first. Not the first few days anyway. Maybe she was just so used to seeing him by now.
Or maybe they were lowering the dosage that they were giving her these days. Either way she looks over one afternoon, or evening, it's hard to tell in this District, and sees him sitting there. That's Finnick Odair, she thinks without much concern.
One night her floor turns to snakes, all hissing and snapping at her legs on the low bed. She screams at the top of her lungs but finds no salvation in her panic. Orderlies run in and wrap their arms around her, telling her in such calm voices that she needs to come back to reality. But don't they see the snakes clamping their jaws down around her legs?
After that her dosage must be doubled for she can barely lift her head up the next day in the rec room.
Haymitch visits her. He's unpleasant as usual but it's almost a comfort to see his face again, much more thin and pasty but still her Haymitch.
"You think you can see Prim now?" He takes her hand and her instinct is to pull away but instead she basks in its warmth. There's a doctor behind him that she's just now beginning to notice.
"I don't think she's quite ready for that."
Her eyes widen and she snaps immediately. "No."
Both the doctor and Haymitch seem startled by her sudden voice, croaky from lack of use as it may be.
"I want Prim."
She doesn't get Prim.
Instead of snakes it's President Snow she finds in her room that night. He stands above her bed and laughs when she attempts to get up. She opens her mouth to scream but nothing comes out as he sick's the hounds on her.
She's not sure how much time passes. Eventually though she's able to think again and does her best to set the facts straight.
My name is Katniss Everdeen.
I'm 17 years old.
I'm in District 13.
Because there's no District 12.
Peeta's in the Capitol. He's probably dead by now.
The doctors say I had a mental breakdown.
They won't tell me much else.
The first person she has a full on conversation with is Finnick.
It's not really a conversation though. Mostly it's him teaching her how to tie knots. It clears her mind for the first time in a while and she feels comfortable even when her hands are raw. He smiles at her when it's time to leave the rec room and back to their rooms.
She goes to give him back the rope but is both surprised and pleased when he puts his hand up and tells her to keep it.
She lays in bed and ignores the force field that squeezes in on her, ready to electrocute her body and fry her to a place worse than death. Instead she moves her fingers around the rope and attempts to make up her own knots.
Finnick starts talking to her one day. She sits and half listens to him as she continues to play with the rope he gave her the day before. He tells her about how beautiful the beach is. How District 4 has a smell you have to be used to in order to find as lovely as he does.
She wants to tell him about the day she spent at the beach with Peeta in his District but can't bring herself to. She can't bring herself to think about Peeta for more than a few seconds, actually.
He doesn't seem to mind though. He just keeps talking. The only time he stops is when he says the name 'Annie.' His body tenses up as his skin pales. He shakes his head and continues on, refusing to mention the girl again.
She attacks one of the doctors.
He stood above her bed with the needle just as he did every day she's been there. Only this time when she looks up at him she sees not a doctor in a white coat but a Tribute with a knife.
She fights for her life as she scratches and punches him. She throws the needle against the wall and beats his face raw. She sees only red and wants nothing more than to be his death. Images surface in her mind of gouging out his eyes and tossing them against the wall, watching as they fall and are sliced against the broken needle across the room.
Instead she is grabbed from behind and pulled off of him. She's dragged from her room screaming at the top of her lungs. They drag her for so long that she nearly loses her voice.
She's thrown down and she jumps up just seconds after hitting the floor. The door slams in her face and she's left in a padded room with lights beaming down on her skinny figure.
She's given three meals throughout the next day before the door opens instead of the slot beneath it. Her eyes snap to Finnick standing there and quietly shutting the door behind him. He sits beside her and pulls out a rope. He bites on it until it snaps in two. He hands her the second piece and despite his saliva on one end, she begins their ritual.
She leaves the room with him. Nobody tries to stop them.
Finnick becomes her roommate.
It makes her happy.
The meds slowly begin to disappear. She's reduced to just two pills a day.
The only person she can bring herself to talk to is Finnick. They are allies after all.
"I hate the Capitol." She says one day. It's liberating to voice and she suddenly wants to scream it aloud, for everybody to finally know her feelings.
He smiles with his eyes closed and resting on a fluffed pillow. "Easy there Tiger."
According to the scans of their brains they are getting better.
Eventually they are allowed visitors. She frowns when her mother visits her. When Prim hugs her. When Gale stands uneasily beside her. Her frown deepens when the door stays closed and nobody comes to say hello to Finnick.
Eventually they are moved to the regular hospital room, much farther from the mental ward.
And still he is without visitors.
They go swimming once.
She can't stand the water on her skin or the panic she feels when she dips her head below the water.
It does bring her some comfort though, to see him paddling through the water with such a familiarity.
He swims all over the pool, his splashes (what little there are) echoing in the empty room. Her teeth begin to chatter from lack of movement and she's ready to get out when he suddenly dunks below the water. She watches his figure cutting straight through the water until he pops up right in front of her. He's too close, as he usually is, and he forms in 'O' with his mouth before he squirts water straight onto her face.
When the initial shock wears away and that goofy grin is on his face she brings her hand back and splashes the water back at him.
They splash each other, scream at each other, get annoying as they can possibly be to one another.
He's just finished kicking a wave of water at her when they finally realize they have company.
Gale and her mother stand beside the pool watching them curiously.
Finnick immediately jumps out of the pool and stretches upward, fingers aching to touch the roof as he lets his shorts ride dangerously low on his hips. Her mother blushes and Gale looks immensely uncomfortable.
Katniss's laugh echoes throughout the room.
They're finally allowed to mingle with the sane.
They take their breakfast in the cafeteria and sit across from each other.
"Sugar cube?" He asks.
"Of course."