His careful hands elegantly braided her dark hair down her back. He finished by tying in an ribbon, but even in the short time it took for him to help her up it was falling loose. Finnick only smiled, and tucked the stray locks behind her ears. "You look beautiful, Annie."

She smiled back and took his hand in hers. "You're going to be perfectly safe." she brought his hand to her cheek and simply held it there.

Finnick grinned, adoring her and drew her toward him gently. "You have such faith in me." he lightly touched her face before kissing her softly on the nose.

Annie giggled and kissed him back. "Of course I have faith in you. You're the only one who has faith in me."

The innocence and truth in the last phrase, and the whisper in which it was uttered, struck a nerve in Finnick. He suddenly felt as though it would end badly if he went out to the Capitol. But he'd survived so much else: being without her, committing sins in order to protect her, watching her battle for her life in the arena, battling for his own...

"I'll be back before you know it. Safe and sound." Finnick promised and touched his lips to hers, running his fingers down her hair.

"Safe and sound." Annie repeated, her sea green eyes trained on his. Finnick stepped back and walked toward the door, his hand in Annie's until their fingers could no longer touch. He stood there, just looking at her, wishing he didn't have to leave her for anything.

They exchanged "I love you". Finnick turned to go down to Command, but Annie stopped him by saying. "I'll have a surprise for you when you get back." Finnick raised his eyebrows, but Annie shook her head and smiled. Grinning, Finnick closed the door slowly behind him.

Just as the door was about to cut off his view of her, Annie turned so Finnick saw her at an angle. It might have been the light, or the sparkle in his eyes of unshed tears, but for just a moment, she looked a bit bigger than usual. Shrugging it off, Finnick reminded himself that it had to wait. Annie would tell him when he returned...