No matter how many times he's seen her like this, on the verge of panic, it never gets easier, because there aren't many people in this world he cares about left, and Annie is the single most important thing in his life, and he can never stand to see her hurting. But hurt she does, every moment, every day, like he does, like any of the other victors do, but at least she doesn't have to make a spectacle of herself every year like he does, like Mags and the others do.

Mags. She was meant to be in the arena with him, but where is she? She's not here and Annie is, Annie, who should have been as safe as she could be, for what little that mattered when she was having to watch not just kids she didn't know from their district, but Mags and Finnick go into the arena.

Annie's palm is sweaty under his hands, but he can't hug her, can't kiss her, can't pull her to him and whisper into her hair like he would if they were alone, if this were his house in the Victors' Village and they were enjoying the only privacy they can ever have together. That's why his hand is holding hers so tightly, why he doesn't care how hard her slender fingers are grasping at his wrist, because he knows that look on her face.

She's trying not to panic. She's trying not to panic, and he's already shaking his head to tell her that he doesn't care, that she can break into his house if she wants to because she's always welcome there, that none of that matters, but then her hand's gone back to her mouth and he can hear her breathing grow faster, hear her words break, and he knows he's the only one who can help her, but there's so little he can do just sitting next to her.

"Annie." His voice is quiet, low, so nobody can hear them, and he can't bend his head too low, he can't let his expression get too fond, but there's a combination of hurt and love, all the love he can possibly express without doing anything to give them away, in his eyes.

"Annie, it's okay. It's okay, I can get it fixed, whatever you broke."

There's nothing in that house anywhere near as important to him as her.

But it's not the house, and it can never be the house, because when he's going back into the arena, the security of his house, the broken door or window or whatever it was she used to break in, doesn't matter. Annie thinks he's going to die, and maybe he is. He'd agreed to die to protect Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark if he needed to, even knowing what losing him would do to Annie.

(If he does die, that's the one thing he'll regret.)

"It's okay, Annie. It's okay. I'm here."

He's not in the arena.

It's all he can say, and he knows it's a lie. Because if he and Mags die in the arena, okay is the last thing she'll be. There's nothing he can do to protect her from that except try to keep them alive until the rescue. But she doesn't even know about that hope, can't, because of the danger she'd be in.

He doesn't know why he's here, or why she's here, and the one thing ... if anything happens to her because of this plan, he'll never forgive himself.