When he had still been a child, no older than ten and not as jaded as he'd been at fourteen, he used to look over his shoulder and peer at his footprints in the sand. Once, he'd gathered the broom from his house and had made the short trek to the beach to sweep the mounds of sand into a smoothness not even the waves could manage.
Throwing the broom as far as he could, he'd walked the length of his own designed floor, picking his feet up properly, sliding them along the grains, even pressing the tips of his toes into the sand as he reached the very end. He used to look back at his footprints, at the journey he had taken to get to his destination, and had always found himself amused by how the sand was manipulated by him.
Finnick doesn't steal a broom from any home, nor does he peer over his shoulder to spy his journey, as he knows the sand won't be as dry and colourless as it had been before. There's blood staining the grains now, as it does his hands. But where he doesn't peer back, Lara does.
He hadn't wished to give her the memory of being fourteen and too caught up in the victory the Games would win him and his district. He hadn't wanted her to see the part of him that he'd be greeted with when he returns to his own apartment to peer at himself in the mirror. But it'd been her at his back once again, on the beach with the tide the only noise, as she had encouraged him to consent not to her seeing him at his worst, but in trusting she'd be at his back if he so happened to fall.
He doesn't have a broom with him now, but he remembers those exercises his father had tried to teach him as a child. Fourteen and untouched by the games, he'd insisted it was better than any broom sweeping along the sand to make it smooth enough to write I love you in or any sandcastle he could ever build. To place trust in someone to keep him upright would be the greatest sign of love he could ever be given.
When he peers over his shoulder at the sand, he finds not only his footprints but hers.
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drop a ship ‣ finnick + lara
for bella; finnick + lara & this