InsaneJournal

Who: Finnick Odair and Peeta Mellark
What: Finnick's Dreams End
When: Backdated: Saturday, December 3rd. Late Evening
Where: Cabin during Gale's Hunting Trip
Rating/Warnings: Mostly Family Friendly. Hunger Games Talk
Status: Complete!

Finnick had never been on a hunting trip before, but oddly enough in some ways it had reminded him of the Quarter Quell. Sure, there were no traps waiting for them, but that didn’t stop Finnick from keeping his guard up; the last thing they needed were Mutts or jabberjays attacking them. He’d had enough of that earlier in the year when he had been attacked by them. Of course all of that paled in comparison to the dreams he’d just woken up from.

He’d known the mission to Snow’s mansion was coming and he’d known that it was likely going to be dangerous, but what he hadn’t expected was to get killed. He should have expected something bad to happen, considering things had been going so well. He and Annie had just gotten married, so of course something bad would happen.

While it wasn’t exactly a surprise, seeing himself get killed by a lizard mutt was unnerving and it wasn’t surprising that he hadn’t been able to get back to sleep, so he’d gone out to the main room of the cabin and built a fire in the fireplace and was currently sitting on the couch, staring into it.

It had been a long time since Peeta had been on a hunting trip, probably sometime back before the military. He hadn’t really thought much about the activity after his accident, but he shouldn’t have been surprised that this was the route of the bachelor party. It was very Gale to go have some fun in the woods and briefly reminded him of District 12 and then of the trip into the Capitol to kill Snow. At least there wasn’t anything trying to actively kill them out in these woods and Peeta was able to keep his mind off of that aspect of it.

Unfortunately he seemed to be the only one. He heard the noise of Finnick getting up and moving, but he tried to get back into sleep, but it wasn’t going to happen. He rolled out of bed, reattached his leg, and made his way out into the main area. He might as well go check on his friend especially since he seemed to be staring into it. “Finnick? You okay?” he frowned as he made his way to the couch and leaned against the arm of it and waited for the man’s answer.

Finnick had been so caught up in his own thoughts that he hadn’t heard Peeta coming up behind him and couldn’t help but jump slightly at the sound of his friend’s voice. “Hey….yeah.” He said, turning slightly so that he was looking up at Peeta, “Actually, no. Pretty sure I just had my last dream.” More than pretty sure, but he was still a little in shock over the whole thing.

Peeta felt a little guilty when he saw his friend jump. Obviously something important had occupied his mind and Peeta made his way over as Finnick failed to reassure him that he was okay. He could sense something in his voice, but then as he was going to prompt Finnick a little further he admitted it. His last set of dreams. The ones that ended with a lizard mutt devouring him and leaving Annie alone to raise her son. God, Panem was absolute shit. “Oh god, I’m sorry, Finnick. Dreaming …. That is so hard,” he moved to the couch to sit beside his friend.

Finnick wasn’t surprised that Peeta had dreamt about his death because he knew that his friend had finished dreaming awhile back, “How hard has it been to not tell me?” He didn’t blame Peeta at all for not telling him, because in a way it would have been worse, knowing that he was going to dream about his death and simply waiting for it to happen. “Shit! Annie has dreamt it too hasn’t she? That’s why she looked like she’d seen a ghost when we met.” It was all making sense now.

“It’s been incredibly hard. I wasn’t sure if it would be better to know when you start dreaming or not. I’m sorry about that, I should have asked you,” Peeta frowned when he explained that out loud. Man, now he really felt like an ass because he probably should have straight up asked Finnick if he wanted to know what would happen or not, “And yeah, she has. It was a surprise to see you, that’s for sure.”

Finnick shook his head, “No, I don’t think I would have wanted to know. Then I just would have spent all this time wondering when it was going to happen,” Knowing all that time that he was eventually going to dream about dying, he wouldn’t have wanted that. “So, I don’t blame either of you for not telling me.”

“Yeah, that is the hard part. Knowing that you’re going to die and then never knowing when it was going to happen. I did hear from Annie afterwards, she sent Katniss and I a letter.,” Peeta commented and reached over to gently pat Finnick’s knee, “I think your death was the hardest one for me to handle. I wish it didn’t happen. I really really hate Panem.”

He hated thinking about how his friends had had to handle his death, “Really? I’m glad you guys kept in touch. I’m guessing that means you were successful in stopping Snow?” Considering he’d died on their way to President Snow’s mansion, he didn’t actually know what had happened after that, but if Annie was sending letters to Peeta and Katniss then they had obviously made it.

“Do you want to know what happens?” It was a bit of a whirlwind once they made it to Snow’s mansion and then with Katniss and Coin. If Annie hadn’t revealed everything to him then he at least deserved to know how it all went down. To know that his death actually meant something in the end, “I’m cool with spoiling you as long as you’re cool with knowing what happens.”

Finnick didn’t even have to think about it before he nodded, “Yeah, I do. It’s the only way I’ll know what happened.” Not knowing what happened left Finnick to speculate and while he liked to try and be optimistic when it came to the task they had gone out to accomplish, there was always the chance that the others had lost and Snow had won and there was really only way to find out if he was right or not. “I mean, is it really spoiling it for me if I didn’t make it that far?”

“That’s very true,” Peeta pointed out with a small smirk. He would probably feel the same way if he hadn’t made it to the end of the battle in the Capitol, “So, we manage to get to Snow’s mansion, but there’s a bomb that goes off. Katniss’ sister, Prim, died in the blast. Katniss blacked out and while she was out we took over the mansion and took him as our prisoner. She finally came around and Coin allowed her to shoot the arrow to kill Snow in a public execution. However, Katniss doesn’t take direction well, and shot Coin instead and Snow died in a massive riot that broke out after. She was acquitted and sent back to District 12 and then I came back a few months later.”

Finnick couldn’t help the way his brows rose as Peeta spoke, “She killed Coin? Why?” The only thing that Finnick could think was that the older woman had had some sort of ulterior motive that would cause Katniss to kill her instead of Snow. “Tell me that you guys ended up together and had nauseatingly adorable kids.” He was mostly teasing Peeta, but he knew how much Katniss had cared for Peeta in the dreams and he hoped that it wasn’t awkward for Peeta to think of himself with someone else in the dreams while he was with Caroline in the waking world.

“I think she basically concluded that Coin was going to end up being just like Snow. You saw how she was using Katniss to do her dirty work. It was probably for the best because the person who ended up in charge was the better choice,” Peeta pointed out to him. He still never found out the exact reasoning on Katniss’ part, but that’s what he had learned secondhand, “And yes, we did, actually. It took quite a while until she felt comfortable enough to have children, but she was a great mom. That’s kind of how my dreams end - a few years after our second child was born - they just stopped.”

“Then it sounds like Katniss did what was right.” Finnick had never known Katniss to do anything she didn’t truly believe in or want to do. Sure, there were times when she had played along for fear of what would happen to her mother and sister if she didn’t, but in the long run she only ever did what she wanted. “You would get the good ending, huh? I mean, it makes sense, the dreams are primarily about you and Katniss. The rest of us were just there to help you along.” He gave Peeta a small smile.

“Oh whatever, you guys are just as important,” Peeta was going to allow Gale to tell his side of the story to Finnick when the time came, “I just wish everything could have turned out okay, but Panem is not that kind of place. Don’t you ever wonder what the rest of the world is doing? We’re off killing each other in the Hunger Games. I wonder if everywhere else was just as fucked up.” Or did they all sit around watching them and thanking their stars that they hadn’t been living in America.

“Right? Like what’s going on everywhere else?” Finnick had the feeling that in the dreams themselves they knew what was going on in other countries, but for whatever reason they didn’t recall it in the waking world like they did other facts from the dreams, “Hopefully, if they’re lucky though, they don’t have a President Snow of their own.”

“I hope not,” Peeta yawned before leaning back and stretching out his arms, “Are you sure you’re okay though? I think I’m gonna head back to bed if you are. I just don’t want you being here by yourself if you’re still upset. Being lonely isn’t any fun.” Peeta totally understood how that went when he was going through the hijacking things - he didn’t want to be left alone.

Finnick took a moment before nodding, his gaze on the dwindling fire in the fireplace before glancing back to Peeta, “Yeah, I think I’m gonna be okay. You know as okay as one can be when they just dreamt of being killed.” He inhaled deeply then let it out, “Not sure if I’ll be getting back to sleep tonight, but I think I’ll be alright.” He was glad that if he had had to dream about dying, it had happened while he was with a friend. If it had happened while he was alone, Finnick wasn’t sure how he would have coped. “Thanks, Peeta.”