Fall Away

“Holy mother of God, stop it!”

My scream echoed through the room, but nobody paid any attention. Another panel of wax was ripped off my leg, and my leg jerked upwards reflexively, almost kicking one of the women in the face. She easily ducked it and went back to work as if nothing had happened.

“Is the injection prepped?” Another woman asked. The first woman nodded in reply and grabbed two needles, handing one of them to her.

“On three,” She said, but rather than counting, she simply barked out, “Three!”

They each stabbed the needle into my leg near my knees, and I yelped out in pain.

“What the hell was that?” I demanded, propping my upper body upright to glare at them.

“It slows down your hair follicles.” Said the man who had been working on my eyebrows. He pulled my upper body back down and continued to pluck my brows down to whatever shape he liked.

My arms were lifted, and another needle was poked into each armpit. I winced, but at least this time I was a little more prepared for what was going to happen.

“This could be considered torture. You do know that, right?” I grumbled.

“Beauty is pain,” The man said simply.

“Then I must be pretty damn gorgeous, because I think this is more painful than being stabbed in the kidney.” I wasn’t normally this irritable, but I figured that I should start trying to be more aggressive – though complaining to my beauty staff wasn’t really very aggressive, it was a start.

The man grimaced at me and gave a particularly painful pluck at my eyebrows for revenge, and I quickly shut my mouth to avoid angering them any more.

For the next hour, they worked desperately to whip me into shape. My nails were filed and shined, my skin was exfoliated and moisturized, my hair was trimmed and given highlights, and about a dozen strange creams and potions were applied to various parts of my body. I had thought that I would need less work this time, since my living conditions were much better, but if anything they spent even more time on me.

There was a knock at the door just as they were finishing up, and I looked up to see a man who looked to be in his late 40’s walk in and inspect me, hiding all emotion from his face.

“Um…hello?” I said hesitantly.

“You’re still scrawny,” Was all he said.

I tightened the bathrobe around myself protectively, a frown on my face. “Who the hell are you?”

“I’m Rafa, your mentor. Would it have killed you to lift a few weights or do some muscle-building exercises over the past two years? You have the body of a teenaged boy.”

Though I knew he was talking about my lack of muscle, I wasn’t sure if he was also mocking my lack of feminine curves, and I crossed my arms indignantly. “Some teenage boys are muscular,” I muttered.

“Sorry. This isn’t the best foot to get off on, is it?” Rafa murmured, straightening up and smoothing his suit. “You look wonderful, my dear, but you don’t look very intimidating.”

I crinkled my nose. He seemed rather fake, but I decided to try and ignore that. “Okay, well I still have good weapons skills, so even if I’m not good with brute force I can still make an easy kill.” My stomach churned at my own words, but I swallowed back the nerves and put on a stony front.

Rafa stared at me for a few moments blankly. “Why are you here?”

“Well, I got off the train, and it’s mandatory for me to come here and have them make me hairless apart from my scalp and eyebrows, so I didn’t really have much of a choice.” I said with a shrug.

He rolled his eyes. “I didn’t mean it that way. I meant, why did you volunteer to go back in the Games? There are plenty of other tributes from Districts 1 and 4 that would have happily volunteered in your stead. Weren’t you and Adri trying for a baby? You two were supposed to start a family and have your girly little ‘happily ever after’ in District 1. Why did you both volunteer?” He said, flooding me with questions.

I glanced down at the floor with a frown. I hadn’t volunteered, but President Snow had told the media that I did, so I was stuck pretending like I had – the same was true for Adri. “We couldn’t have kids, so we figured we’d come here and save someone else from having to volunteer.” I said, only half-lying.

Rafa looked like he wanted to reply but didn’t know how, so he just stood there awkwardly, glancing around There was a knock at the door, and in walked a heart-shatteringly familiar face.

“Hi, Winnie.” Finnick said softly, one hand in his pocket while the other one ran nervously through his hair. “Nice to see you,”

My palms grew sweaty. “Oh. Hi, hello. How are you?” I stammered like an idiot, clearing my throat and straightening myself up.

“Okay, no. Not going to work. You need to be aggressive! You’re acting like a shy little girl with a crush,” Rafa interrupted in the abrasive way I was coming to assume was his normal manner.

Finnick and I both tensed up in unison at his poor choice of words. “Sorry,” I murmured, casting my eyes to the ground.

“Rafa, can we get a moment alone?” Finnick asked with a sigh.

Rafa shrugged in response. “Fine by me. But you two had better have this awkward tension worked out by tonight’s broadcast, or so help me…” He muttered ominously before stepping out of the room, closing the door behind him.

I watched Finnick’s face carefully, trying to gauge his emotions, but his expression was completely blank. The last time I’d seen him, I’d turned him down right in front of Adri, and then the two of them nearly broke out into a fight. I was honestly expecting him to hate me for humiliating him, especially after all that he’d done for me. I didn’t know if I was ready to see my old mentor, the man who used to be one of my closest friends -- even if it was only for a brief amount of time – hate me with a passion.

“You look terrified,” Finnick said, his voice even. I couldn’t decipher any emotion in his voice, and I wanted to yell at him to just tell me how he felt.

I straightened up, trying to look aggressive, but that was incredibly difficult in a bathrobe with angry pink hairless skin. “What would make you say that?” I asked.

“You’re fiddling with the hem of your robe and your hands are shaking,” Finnick said, a half-smile spreading across his face as he gave me a pointed look.

Relief flooded over me. He was smiling. “But…don’t you hate me?”

He blinked and crinkled his nose in confusion. “That’s a strange and sudden change in topic,” He said bluntly.

I winced, realizing that I probably should have been a bit more subtle. “Well…do you?” I said, unable to find a way to cover up my mistake.

He ruffled my hair. “Of course I don’t. What’s done is done,” He said simply.

I bit my lip and stared at the ground awkwardly. I couldn’t think of anything to say, but a thick awkward silence had fallen over us that was begging to be broken. “So, um…how have you been?”

“Really? Two years without seeing you, and all you can ask is how I’ve been?” He demanded, an incredulous look on his face, but his grin grew even wider.

“I can’t think of anything else to say, dammit!” I grumbled.

“Why don’t we talk about us?” Finnick said, taking a step closer to me and leaning against the edge of the vanity. His voice had changed now, and he sounded like his old seductive self again.

“What about us?” I asked, gulping as he leaned in closer to me.

His lips grew closer to me until they were hovering over my ear, and I could feel my pulse racing. “Our angle,” He whispered finally, chuckling before pulling back. “God, I forgot how much fun it is to scare you like that.”

I narrowed my eyes and glared at him, crossing my arms over my chest, but relief washed through me. “What angle does Rafa have in mind?”

Finnick raised an eyebrow. “I’m not sure you’re going to like it…it’s a bit much. Well, it’s a bit much for you; I’m fine with it.”

“Finnick, just tell me.” I pressed.

He continued to watch me for a moment, as if trying to find the right words to say. “Oh, you’re really going to hate this.”