Trust Me

I leapt out of the bed, my legs shaking in protest as I stood for the first time in weeks, but I didn’t care. I ran towards him and jumped at him. He caught me easily, and I snaked my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck. He wrapped his arms around me and held me to him, and I felt like every cell in my body was singing.

I crushed my lips against his, tightening my fingers in his hair. He kissed me back, bewildered but eager. I pulled back after a few minutes, and by this point we were both panting for air.

“I hate you so much.” I hissed before attacking his lips with mine again, cutting him off before he could say anything. I kissed him for as long as I could before pulling back for air. “You’re a despicable bastard.” Before he could reply, my mouth was back on his. After I had used up another lungful of air, I pulled back again. “You’re lucky I don’t kill you for real right now.” I snapped.

This time, he didn’t even try to get in a reply, he just pulled me back to him. His fingers snaked up the back of my hospital gown, running gently over my scar as his lips danced with mine. He controlled the kiss this time, taking it from an intense and desperate kiss to a deeper, more passionate one. He ran his tongue lightly along my bottom lip, and I parted my lips with a shiver. His teeth grazed my bottom lips before his tongue snaked into my mouth, and I felt my muscles melt. He tightened his grip on me to keep me from slipping off as my arms lost the ability to hold myself up.

The door swung open, and I heard several sets of footsteps walk in. Adri started to turn his head and break the kiss to see who it was, but I pulled his face back to mine, completely ignoring whoever was at the door. I moved my lips down to the spot where his jaw met his neck and sucked and nibbled at the skin, earning a soft husky moan from him. I’d finally won this game, I realized with satisfaction. Adri was completely at my mercy now. More importantly, he was here with me.

A hand locked on my shoulder and pulled me off of Adri. I found myself dangling in the air, being held by someone from behind. I whirled around to see a burly looking man in a security guard’s outfit glowering down at Adri. “You’re in big trouble, young man.”

I wriggled out of the man’s grasp and took Adri’s hand in mine. “He’s an approved visitor.” I challenged. “In fact, I demand that he stays here.”

“You can’t deny a Victor what she wants. Besides, this probably means we can take her off the anti-depressants.” The blonde nurse from earlier piped up.

I glanced over to give her a grateful nod when I saw Finnick standing in the doorway, a blank look on his face as he glanced at Adri and I. I felt a pang of guilt as I remembered the way Finnick had kissed me before I entered the arena. He hadn’t liked me, had he? If, for some reason beyond my understanding, he had liked me, surely that would explain why he seemed so hurt after walking in on Adri and I kissing like that.

“Fine. You’ve got five minutes.” The security guard said gruffly.

“Make it two hours.” The nurse huffed. “They’ve got a lot of talking to do.”

The security guard sighed and shook his head absently. “Whatever,” He grumbled before walking out of the door.

The nurse followed behind him, and Finnick stood uneasily in the doorway, as if he was unsure about whether he too should leave, or if he should stay.

“Finnick…” I said softly, unsure of what to say. I didn’t want to be vain and assume he liked me, but in the rare event that he did like me, I didn’t want to just ignore him.

“I think you should help explain everything to her.” Adri suggested, twirling his fingers with mine and drawing circles on the back of my hand with his thumb. I squeezed his hand tightly in mine, and he cast me a strange glance as my grip tightened.

“I’m afraid you’re going to disappear. I can’t believe you’re really here. I’m afraid this is all just a hallucination as a side effect of the medications.” I murmured.

“I’m really here. I promise. How could I leave you after such a warm welcome?” He said with a smug grin, raising an eyebrow and licking his lips suggestively.

I blushed and ducked my head, then caught sight of Finnick. He looked extremely uncomfortable, and I couldn’t blame him. “I think it would be best if both of you explained everything. And I think it would be best if you did it right now.”

Finnick explained most of it, because apparently Adri had been unconscious for the first few weeks after the Games just like me as they tried to fix up his stomach. I wanted to ask how he was, knowing he’d lost a lot of blood and that stomach wounds were usually worse to heal because they damaged so many organs, but I didn’t dare interrupt Finnick. I was afraid that he’d stop explaining it if I even asked so much as one question.

Finnick told me that Adri and I had both been alive – but just barely – by the time the Game makers decided to act. They refused to have two victors, but they couldn’t have none. They must have decided that two was slightly better than none, even if it was only to keep Panem from rioting. If there were no victors, nobody knew how wildly the population would react.

The Game makers tried to play a Romeo and Juliet angle, even going so far as to air a montage of all of Panem’s favorite “Adri and Winnie” moments. The most common ones were the kissing scenes, the scene where we had played in the rock pool, and the scene when we’d first met. The Capitol had the population in a constant candlelight vigil as everyone prayed for us to heal up well. Very few details regarding our condition had been released, but the Capitol made sure to tell everyone in great detail about my reaction when I thought that Adri was dead. They wanted to air the footage from the security cameras in my room, but Finnick stopped them – mainly by pointing out that me hugging him might have ruined the whole ‘lover’ angle between Adri and I.

“I can’t understand it. How could they possibly let two victors out?” I said quietly.

“At first, they were very firmly set on getting both of us healed up and then placing us back in the arena to duel it out.” Adri murmured.

“But not only would that have caused a great uproar throughout the population, it would have most likely ended the same way it did this time; with one of you trying to kill yourself if the other was ever hurt.” Finnick said.

“So they’re letting us just walk away together?” I asked, incredulous.

“Yes, but that’s just it. You have to be together. They want you to move to District 1 with Adri and live together. As soon as you’re well enough, you’ll announce your upcoming marriage and after a few years, they’ll be expecting you to start having children.” Finnick said, his voice sounding cold.

“So they didn’t save our lives. They just extended their control on us.” I said bitterly.

Adri nodded. “You could argue that they did take our lives, even if we’re still breathing.” He murmured.

There was a soft knock at the door, and a nurse walked in. Her uniform was different from the nurses that had been tending to me, and it took me a few moments to realize that she was from a different specialized injury department. “Adri, it’s time to clean your cut and change your bandages.” She murmured.

“Wait, aren’t you healed up yet?” I asked, pulling up the back of my gown to inspect the cut on my back. If mine was a perfectly healed scar by now, surely he was past cleaning and bandaging his wound.

“Not exactly. That knife hit a lot of organs. They had to keep the wound open so they could have access to my organs during surgery, and I needed several rounds of surgery. I’m fine now, but the cut is still healing.” Adri explained with a heavy sigh, reluctantly standing up.

I didn’t want to let go of his hand, but I knew that he needed to be cleaned up. I forced myself to pull my hand from his, but not before I gave his hand a little tug. He glanced back at me curiously, and I glowered up at him. “I still hate you.”

He grinned and leaned down, kissing me. I wrapped my free arm around his neck, and his other hand leaned up to stroke my cheek. I didn’t want to let him go, not even for a second.

The nurse cleared her throat. “Adri.” She said once. Adri ignored her. “Adri,” She said again, but once again, Adri acted as though she wasn’t even there. “Sir!” The nurse practically yelled this time.

Adri broke the kiss and sighed reluctantly. He squeezed my hand and grinned at me. “I like it better when you hate me,” He said in a low voice, before letting go of my hand and following the nurse out of the room.

After Adri left, I was hooked back up to my IV and monitors. The nurse gave me another round of antibiotics, as well as some sedatives to help me sleep.

“I know you don’t want to sleep, but it really is for the best. Believe me, your body will thank you for taking it easy over the next few days.” The nurse said as she fluffed my pillows and pulled my blankets over me.

“If Adri’s alive and doing well, then that’s all that matters. I’ll do whatever you ask of me.” I promised, still overwhelmed with this new revelation that Adri was in the same building as me, still in one piece.

Finnick stood and headed for the door, but before I knew what I was doing I had called out for him. He turned back to me with a confused look on his face.

“Will you stay with me? Just until I fall asleep. You don’t have to if you don’t want to…” I said, my sentence trailing off.

He gave me a half-smile, though his expression looked defeated. “Of course I will.”