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Being an original Capitol citizen had its perks, but when you fell hard for the District 4 golden boy, who won the Hunger Games? You being a Capitol citizen was suddenly something you would have given away if it was so simple as that.
Snow had adopted you when you were a child, your parents had died in a fire. You were nothing but his puppet under the surface, a porcelain doll who stood by him looking pretty. Yet to the public, he was seen as your saviour. You were like a phoenix in a way, risen from the ashes, Snow laying his eyes on you and deciding to take you under his wing out of pure goodness of him.
And in public, he did appear as a loving father. Protective, making you a strong leader like him.
But behind closed doors, none of that was true. Well, except for him attempting to make you a strong leader, a successor to him.
As said, Capitol offered a lot of things. Endless luxury, never worrying about food or shelter, and of course, access to every Victory Tour and Games event like it was your personal front-row seat. But none of it mattered when your eyes met his.
Finnick Odair.
Victor. Heartthrob. Fisherman.
And entirely off-limits.
Snow would lose his mind the moment he saw what you were to him.
A lover. Someone who seriously considered running away with him. A traitor to the Capitol.
You had tried to stay away from him, oh how hard you had tried — but no matter what, you always ended up in his arms, your lips on his, still talking about running away.
“Do you think we’d ever be able to pull it off?” you asked one day as you laid against him, tracing your finger along his jaw. “Just… leave everything behind and start a new life somewhere he can never find us.”
Finnick was quiet for a moment. “Every so often, I let myself imagine it. I close my eyes, and I open them to see news how you were a traitor and were executed by Snow, who has now retreated to his palace to mourn his only successor being a traitor. How they’d come for me too within minutes.”
He wasn’t exaggerating. You agreed that would be exactly what Snow would do. He’d pretend to mourn for the loss of you, but he would actually only be furious you refused to be kept in a leash like he had taught you.
So you nodded, silently letting him know how you agree with him. Running away was not an option right now. Maybe someday, if Snow one day slipped, or if the raging crowd got their hands on him… maybe something would open a window that would make your escape possible.
But for now, you had to live assuming nothing like that would happen and you’d have to just manage. Even when it killed both of you from inside.
You felt Finnick’s lips press against your head as he cradled your body closer, and you let yourself just imagine, for a moment, that there was no one in the whole world who would be against your love.