You Certainly Took Your Time, My Love
Annie didn't know what had happened.
One minute she was old and frail, laying in bed with her sweet Caspian beside her. She'd died, she'd thought, looking at her son who was the exact picture of Finnick. Caspian's wife, Isla, and their twin daughters Naia and Talassa, were in Annie's kitchen, making a meal for her as she'd long since lost the ability to walk. Caspian had looked worried, his eyes filled with tears as Annie spoke slowly, and dying? Well, it had just felt like falling asleep.
But she woke up. Emerging from some kind of pool, she looked around the landscape. It was dark, thousands of tiny lights glittering in the darkness that Annie soon realised were stars. A gleaming white path stretched out into the distance, and the water around Annie's ankles fitted between colours, shades of pink, blue, green and red dancing beneath her feet.
And in front of her was Finnick.
"You certainly took your time, my love." He grinned, looking every bit as young as he had the day he had left her in 13. His body was flawless, no signs of the injuries inflicted upon him by the mutts Katniss had told her about years after he had passed, green eyes reflecting the lights surrounding them.
"What can I say?" Annie smiled, carefully stepping out of the pond and walking towards him. Her body was also young, probably slightly older than Finnick now - maybe around 25 or 26 - and clothed in a simple white dress that matched Finnick's loose clothing.
"I couldn't leave just yet."
"I'm glad you didn't," Finnick reached out to her, and he two embraced tightly, both shedding quiet tears for a matter of minutes before pulling apart. "I saw everything, Annie. Our son, his marriage, Naia and Talassa... You did so well, Annie. I'm just sorry I wasn't there to see it alongside you."
And Annie reached up to wipe the tear-tracks from his face, reveling in the way he nuzzled into her hand subconsciously. "What do you mean?" She asked, "I felt you beside me every day. Caspian knows you, and so does Isla, Naia, Talassa... They know you, and Mags, and Uncle Haymitch, Uncle Peeta and Auntie Katniss were always telling them stories of you. They knew you were there, watching over them."
Finnick was openly crying now, head still cradled between Annie's hands, and she leant in to kiss him gently. It was a sweet kiss, even filled with salt, and she let him pull himself together a little before asking her questions.
"Where's Mags? Haymitch? Johanna?"
"All down that path." He pointed. "They said it felt right to walk it. Mags waited for me, but she walked down that path after we... beat up, Snow. When he came through that pond we might have battered him a little bit."
"We?" Annie asked, a smile tugging at her lips.
"Yeah. Me, Prim - she left when her mother arrived -, Mags, Cashmere, Gloss, Wiress, a couple of guys from the squad, and two others. A Lucy Gray Baird from 12 - won just before Mags, they apparently enjoyed talking a lot before Snow showed up -, and a Sejanus Plinth. He didn't get the chance to walk the path - once we were done he took a step and just fell through it."
"I'm glad," Annie grinned, "he deserved it. So the rest of them are up that way?"
"Yep." Finnick nodded, resting his head on her shoulders. "And now it's our turn. Unless you're tied here?"
And Annie looked at the pond, looked at Caspian comforting his family at her funeral. Watched Katniss and Peeta and their children offer their condolences, being each other's support system and holding each other tight. Heard both of the adults from 12 telling him about how in love his parents were, and that they were surely reunited again to be sickeningly in love all over again.
He didn't need her to watch him.
"He'll be fine." She decided, taking Finnick's hand and starting to walk down the path. "I think we need to catch up."
And when Katniss and Peeta finally joined them, within a couple hours of each other, Annie and Finnick had already started their new life. In their own little segment of heaven, that tied on to Johanna's, and Haymitch's, and Prim's, and Lucy Gray's, and Sejanus's, was already inhabited by Mags, who greeted them with warm hugs and hot chocolate ready and waiting.
Annie had never seen Mags so young, with curly brown hair and warm brown eyes that had remained the same throughout the years, and it took her a minute to recognise her. But Mags had already helped create the landscape - a beautiful beach that lead onto a meadow, with a sweet little cottage tucked in. The cottage was perfectly sized for the three of them, full of soft furnishings and sweet decor that had been mimicked from their actual lives. Finnick's shell strings from his sister's were hung up in the living room, Caspian's childhood drawings hung up on a fridge alongside Naia's and Talassa's. Even some that Annie didn't recognise - with a small little F.O in the corner that Mags looked at fondly.
And sat on the golden sand, with Finnick's head in her lap, watching the waves lap lazily at their toes, Annie waited patiently for Caspian to join them.
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