Into the deep end

[finnickohdear]

Who| Finnick and Anyone
What| Swim lessons
Where| The pool in the training center
When| Just before the crowning
Warnings/Notes| None. No one will be drowning today.


It has come to Finnick's attention that some of the tributes from District 4 don't know how to swim. That is utterly unacceptable so he's going to do something about it. He had one of the stylists from their district to get swimsuits made for all his tributes and made sure they were all ready and handed out before he got things set up.

The escorts had been instructed to send his tributes down to the training center with no ifs and or buts, with their swimsuits on if they knew what was good for them. There was a sign set up there instructing District 4 tributes to come to the pool, with an arrow pointing them in the right direction. Of course, there was nothing preventing anyone else from coming to the pool also.

Anyone who investigates will find Finnick in his own skin tight swim suit sitting at the edge of the pool waiting for tributes to arrive.

"Everybody in. The deep end if you know what you're doing, the shallow end if you don't."

Comments

[finnickohdear]

Finnick wasn't surprised to see Hawkeye show up in his normal clothes. Or at least in clothes that weren't appropriate for the task at hand. Hawkeye just had a knack for making everything that much harder, on himself and on others. When he was addressed as 'teacher' Finnick snorted and lifted himself out of the water.

"No, you should have gone to the bathroom before class. Now get in the pool and give me five laps or you'll be in detention the rest of the week."

[swill]

It was a pleasant surprise to see Finnick playing along, but not so much to learn Hawkeye wouldn't be getting the answer he'd been betting on. With a great pensive air, he hiked his shoulders up a notch and crossed one arm across his chest so that it supported the elbow of the other, which he used to gesture at the pool. "Do you really want me in there before I've tinkled?" he asks, deadpan and serious and he's not expecting to be taken seriously at all. "We had a swimming hole right up the road where I grew up," he explains, as if it's the best part of his excuse. "With a tire swing and everything- it'd always be full in the summer when school would let out and the whole gang would run there. It'd be our little secret meeting place too, the nights we felt like being secretive, though it strikes me now that a place so obvious couldn't have been a big secret to our parents or anything." Hawkeye pauses again and then adds, "The water was freezing."

[finnickohdear]

Finnick was ready to call Hawkeye's bluff. It was a real shame to not have tributes from District 4 know how to swim. Swimming could save lives out there in the Arena, and that was the sort of thing Finnick was all over.

"There's enough chlorine in here to kill off even the nasty things you could bring to the pool. And if you're that worried about temperature you'd better get in quick. The longer you wait, the colder the water gets. Besides, if I can be in here without shame, I'm sure you can do the same."

He had a feeling that challenging Hawkeye's manhood might get him in the water. But still, this was going to be a tough nut to crack. So to speak.

[swill]

Hawkeye debates saying he was allergic to chlorine even knowing it would just be rightfully brushed off. He had no idea Finnick could stay so patient- courteous, sure, in a way, but everyone Hawkeye knew would have snapped at him to get his sorry ass in the water- and in those words. So it's a little out of respect for the boy that he steps a little closer to the edge of the pool, and kneels down.

"Well, not all of us are hunky enough to pull off a skin-tight suit," he teases, a lazy look to him that communicated he was either baffled or disinterested even after the jab. "But whatever you do, please don't pull it off." Hawkeye thinks about just doing as the fella says. He surely wouldn't be allowed to just walk away without at least hearing someone nag him the rest of the day. It just wasn't worth the headache, which of course only begged the question of why he was insisting on making it one. "I already told you I know how to swim. What can you teach me?"

[finnickohdear]

"I don't care if you get in wearing everything you have on now. If you can show me you can swim I'll leave you alone. But I'm afraid I can't just take your word for it. I won't take the risk that one of you makes me look bad in the arena, or the risk that I have to watch your colorless, lifeless corpse get hauled out of the water."

Finnick was serious about this, he wasn't going to let Hawkeye or anyone else off the hook so easily. He may not have known the tribute all that long, but he knew better than to just take his word for something like this.