You Asked For This - Finnick Odair

Seventeen

"i'll spend a lifetime remembering you."
— astrid suu

...

Cora woke up, her skin itching terribly from the events of the night. Her shoulder ached, but moved okay. And her cuts had just begun to scab over. Katniss and Peeta were asleep nearby while Finnick was by the shore, placing shellfish from his net into a woven bowl.

She got up and walked over to the man. Though his beauty had been marred by the effects of the fog, she still found him to be the most handsome man in the world. She cringed, though, at the thought of what she might look like.

"How are you feeling?" he asked once she sat down next to him.

The waves lazily rose and fell on the shore. It was peaceful, like home.

"Awful, but I'll be just fine. How about you?"

"About the same," he gave her a tired grin.

He had her knives in a pile next to him. He had retrieved them last night after she passed out. Cora took them and secured them back to her belt, thanking him as she did so. She used one of the knives to open up some of the shells for her and Finnick to eat while he finished piling his catch into the bowl.

"Hey, Cor?" Finnick asked, gently breaking the peaceful silence that had settled over them.

"Yeah?"

"Can you sing for me? I missed hearing you sing yesterday."

Cora smiled. "Of course."

She took a deep breath and began to sing, her dream from the night before coming back to her as she did so.

"Combat, I'm ready for combat.
I say I don't want that, but what if I do?"

Ten-year-old Cora throws the first punch at a girl who's bullying Ocean. She's always the one who starts these fights. She doesn't know what else to do.

"'Cause cruelty wins in the movies.
I've got a hundred thrown-out speeches I almost said to you."

When she gets up, her hands are bloody. But the girl below her isn't Ocean's bully. It's the girl from District 6, the one she killed to become a Victor.

"Easy they come, easy they go.
I jump from the train, I ride off alone."

She's no longer in school, but in a hotel. Everyone who has ever paid for her company passes by in a blurr.

"I never grew up, it's getting so old.
Help me hold onto you."

She's still ten, double braids in her long hair. She's so scared. But ten-year-old Finnick passes by and he stops and stands by her. And, for some reason, his presence makes her feel better.

"I've been the archer;
I've been the prey."

Scenes of violence done to her and by her flash in front of her eyes. But ten-year-old Cora's never experienced this. She doesn't know what's going on.

"Who could ever leave me, darling?
But who could stay?"

She sees her family appear next to Finnick. But, one by one, they fade away. Why are they leaving?

"Dark side, I search for your dark side.
But what if I'm alright, right, right, right here?"

She looks to Finnick– what if he knows what's happening? And she sees flashes of his own violence. Some older version of him, killing people with a trident. But it doesn't scare her like it should.

"And I cut off my nose just to spite my face,
Then I hate my reflection for years and years."

She turns and, suddenly, there's a mirror. She's still ten, but she wears Capitol makeup. She punches the mirror. She doesn't know what else to do.