The "Take Care" Meme

[redheels]

The "Take Care" Meme
a shipping meme

Life is hard. You can go through rough patches and over bumps, and sometimes it feels as though you're definitely worse for the wear, both physically and mentally. It's nice to have someone - someone more than a friend - there for you in those times...even if you don't think you want them or deserve them. But they're here, and they'll take care of you.

How to Play:
* This is a shipping meme for more tender, soft moments, but a little more serious than your usual "fluff." It's for people who've been broken down by their experience and those who wish to heal them.
* Comment with your character/your preferences. You may also want to specify whether your character will be the one "cared for" or the one doing the "caring" + pertinent information, but for most effectiveness, it's best to be open to both.
* Comment around.


Prompts
1. Know You've Been Hurt By Someone Else: There are scars left on their heart from a past relationship or fling, and you have to let them know you're not the same way.
2. Can Tell By the Way You Carry Yourself: The person you have feelings for is one of those "cold stone wall" types who pushes people away. Can you get past that?
3. I've Asked About You: You've only heard bad things about this person, but you don't believe it.
4. What's a Life with No Fun: Lighten up a bit! You'd do anything to bring a smile to their face.
5. Please Don't Be So Ashamed: You have a big, BIG secret you don't want the other person to find out about, because surely they wouldn't want to even be near you if they did.
6. I've Had Mine, You've Had Yours: You've both had problems, and it could help to compare wounds so they can begin to heal.
7. Those Lies Heal: Protecting your loved one is more important that the truth, isn't it? It's a lie, but there are good intentions here.
8. You Can't Sleep: Because of past trauma, you're having a sleepless night. Luckily, this time you have somebody to help you and give you some comfort.
9. You Cry Still: The obligatory "seeing your significant other/love cry over something and wanting to make them stop at any cost" option.
10. All Get a Little Taste: Your loved one is sick or injured - literally this time - and you're looking out for them and trying to get them better.
11. You Just Don't Know: Either through magic, torture, or blunt trauma to the head, your special person can't remember you! It's up to you to get them to remember what was between you two by showing all the ways you cared for each other.
12. I Give Her Space: Part of being a careful lover is knowing when you need to leave them alone.
13. Tryna Run from That: Uh-oh, you don't want to fall in love, because you've been there, done that! Maybe there's still time to escape from this...or maybe it's too late.
14. I Will Care for You: After a particularly rough day, you're need a little TLC. Your loved one is going to do everything for you - a bath, food, the works.
15. All the Baggage Just Ain't as Heavy: You know it will take a while for this person to mend psychologically and spiritually, and you're willing to wait.
16. Change the Pace: And the smut option. Show you care through sex.
17. We'll Just Go Slow: You're going to take things one step at a time. No need to rush and define things. Just enjoy each other's company and the healing it brings.
18. We All Have Our Nights: Your lover, because of their past experience, is having a complete breakdown. You have to bring them back from the edge.
19. You Don't Say You Love Me: You both know how you feel, but one of you is having problems saying the four letter word. That's okay, though. Your lover understands.
20. To Save You: After months or years, you've both worked on the problems and old scars and you might just be ready to start something resembling a normal love.
21. CHOOSE SOMETHING ELSE

Comments

Annie Cresta | The Hunger Games

[stayafloat]

6 /o/

[insecrets]

[The train ride back to District 4 is smooth and quiet. Finnick doesn't know where Mags is, but that doesn't particularly bother him at the moment. Instead, he keeps letting his gaze drift back to the girl on the seat across from him. Annie, a victor, a survivor. He glances away again, staring out of the window.

A fluke, they called it. The dam breaking and drowning the other tributes still left alive.

He's quiet in a way that Finnick doesn't usually act in front of other people, but he figures... He figures that he can be himself in front of her. Who is she really going to tell anyway? He glances back with a small smile.] We'll be home soon. Are you ready for this?

[stayafloat]

[They've told her it's going to be alright, that she'll be alright, that she's safe now, but she's not. Not so long as she can still hear the cannon measuring out the deaths, can still taste the artificial water of the arena, maybe not ever. She's broken, she's not the victor they wanted, she knows that.

The train ride may be quiet, but that's because Annie is still lost in a haze, curling in on herself and covering her ears when the screaming gets too loud, the waters close over her head -- but there's a change, suddenly, and she gives Finnick a startled look.] I can't. [It's very nearly a whisper, and she curls her knees up under her chin and shakes her head.]

Can't, shouldn't, I was boring.

[insecrets]

I don't know, I kind of liked the swimming personally. It was very... [The joke dies on his tongue, unable to even come up with some witty comment. It's obvious how much this has affected her. Not the water, not the drowning, but watching her partner die in front of her.

Her Games were different than his. He remembers feeling elated, each death that he caused bringing him closer to victory.

And what that victory has cost him in the few years since then. He's just as broken as she is, but it's in different ways.] Maybe boring's not such a bad thing to be. I'd like to be boring.

[What could it hurt, to tell her something like that?]

[stayafloat]

[She never wanted to kill anyone, never wanted (or expected) to win, that's true enough. She probably told him so, back when they were training, when she was sane.

In any case, she settles a little, absently picking at the sleeve of her shirt.] Finnick Odair can't be boring. Maybe at home.

[insecrets]

[It's not often that he hears those words from one of the tributes he mentors, but he did with her what he'd done with them. Smiled and told them they'd do what they had to to live.

It's all they can do.] Finnick Odair isn't allowed to be boring. There's a difference.

[stayafloat]

[She lifts her eyebrows for a moment, then nods. Different. That's her, now, come back wrong from the arena, but somehow talking to him makes things a little better, makes her feel calmer.]

Come with me, then. [It's a brief, silly thought, but she can't help but say it.] You can feel sorry for the poor broken girl and we can be boring.

[insecrets]

[He's quiet for a moment, looking her over. There's something appealing about the offer. Not just because she's a beautiful girl - that one is obvious and hard to ignore, even considering what she's just gone through.

But nobody's ever said something like that to him before. Offered to let him be boring.] Okay. [The corner of his mouth twitches into a smirk.] But do I have to feel sorry for you all the time? That sounds like hard work.

[stayafloat]

No. [She'll likely get more than enough of that once they arrive, once her friends and family see what's happened to her. She's picking at her sleeve again, absently, trying to keep herself at least somewhat grounded.]

No hard work, we get to go to the Village a-and...[That sleeve of hers is getting abruptly crumpled.] Too many people, we get to have a feast and people will talk, too loud, watching. They're always watching, all the time.

[insecrets]

[The smirk falls again, and there's a weary look that crawls over his face instead as he watches her, watches the way she picks at her sleeve. They're always watching, all the time. And so is he, he guesses. Which is probably strange and probably makes her uncomfortable, but at least he gets it.]

We always have to work hard, Annie. [There's a bitter note to his voice.] And they'll never stop watching. The Capitol always watches us, especially if we're interesting. [She'll be boring, but he's Finnick Odair. And if they're watching him, they'll try to watch her too. The idea of them being boring together would just... Get her hurt. And he doesn't even know why he cares, but he does. It's the first time in a long time that he really cares about someone else besides himself and Mags.] Just ignore them, if they talk too much. They don't matter anyway.

[stayafloat]

[It doesn't make her as uncomfortable as the stares in the Capitol did, the none-too-hushed whispers when she'd go anywhere.]

They don't stop. I can hear them. [Her hands are inching up to her ears again, maybe if she covers them and closes her eyes tight she can fight off the looming wave of panic. She won't yet, though she is seriously fighting the temptation.]

[With a shaky breath:] I just want to go home. I want it it to stop, make it stop.

[insecrets]

They're not real. [His voice is gentle as he says it, following her hands as they inch higher.

He glances away again, fingers twitching. Rope. He needs rope, is reminded of the lump in his pocket where there's a nice length waiting for him in there.] We're going home. [He shifts in his seat, leans forward, toward her.] You are going home, but only you can make it stop. [But he also knows that she probably won't be able to. None of them can. All of them are broken in some way. Mad, crazy, fucked up.]

[stayafloat]

[Not real. It's not, not yet, and his words are enough to make her drop her hands, though now she's gripping the edge of the chair.]

I don't know how. [Quiet again, but honest, and she chances a direct look at him.] Maybe I'll run. It worked before. [Almost a joke, there, even if it is a dark one.]

[insecrets]

[A smirk curls up on his lips again, but there's no real humor to it. Running doesn't get them anywhere, but maybe she won't be bothered. Talked about, thought about, but not dragged into the typical lifestyle that a victor holds. Her madness trumps her beauty. Her lackluster victory trumps any plans Snow could have on her.]

Where would you run to?

[stayafloat]

I don't know. [She realizes they probably shouldn't be talking about this, not on the train where anything could be planted anywhere, but they've gone this far already. If they're listening, they'll know by now anyway.]

The ocean, maybe. [She's almost dreamy, giving him a shy smile.] Build a boat and run away and hide.

[insecrets]

[In his experience, there are very few places that are safe these days, but he doubts the train is bugged. There's nothing that can be said that will bother Snow. Finnick's unlikely to leave, and Annie... She's been written off as mad.]

I've thought about doing that. [It's a quiet admission, something he's never told anyone but Mags before.] Drifting away, maybe finding another land. [That's a stupid dream from a stupid child, though. How could other places exist outside of Panem?]

[stayafloat]

It'd be better than here. [She's studying him now, cautiously, like a deer about to bolt if it gets too close.]

We could do it. Two victors, one and a half... [And suddenly, the ocean is visible from their windows, and she turns and smiles, the first real smile since before the Games.]

Look!

[insecrets]

[Her smile is beautiful. It makes her look real and complete again, and for a moment, he thinks of watching her face instead of looking out at the ocean. But the ocean is a draw he's never been able to resist. Doesn't want to resist, either. The ocean is home and safety and everything the Capitol isn't. He stares out the window, smiling softly.]

He'd never let me go, Annie.

[stayafloat]

[It is for her too, the one thing she's been waiting to see since they got on this train back home. She chances another shy glance at him, while he's distracted, and silently scoots across the aisle to sit somewhat nearer to him. Not next to, not quite, but it is an overture, at least.]

He doesn't deserve you. None of them do. You're too good for them.

[insecrets]

[He looks up in surprise when she moves closer, but isn't particularly bothered by it. Part of him feels sort of glad that she seems to trust him enough to be closer to him, at least. Enough to hold a conversation with him.

Finnick snorts.] I'm not any better than them at all.

[stayafloat]

No, you are. [She curls up again, folding her knees under her.]

You care. I think you do, at least, or else you wouldn't.... [A shaky breath.] I'd be in my room tied to the bed.

[insecrets]

[He's quiet again, fingers twitching. They want to be useful, work on knots, something. Anything.

He cares. Of course he does. That's how he's in this situation now. If he didn't care, everyone he loves would be dead.] That could still happen eventually. [He says it slyly though, an automatic response to the image of being tied to beds.] Caring doesn't make me better than them. They care about things. We just have... Different priorities.

[stayafloat]

They care about themselves. [It's vehement, angry, almost a complete 180 from the earnest quiet girl of no more than a few minutes ago. When she gets like this, you can easily see the fight in her, how she got along so far in those Games even with her partner.]

Not us, they want their Games and their food and their victors and they don't want what happens after. Not until next year, we disappear and go back home.

[insecrets]

[The venom surprises him, and Finnick has long thought he's beyond being surprised. But it seems like Annie is full of them. He likes that. It makes her different, unique. He's used to people throwing themselves at him, used to compliments, but it's never been like this. About his character and his well-being.]

You're a little spitfire. [Joking's easy. He hasn't had anyone to be himself with in a long time.]

They want us if we're useful to them. If we made them happy and excited. [They want him.] But no, they don't actually care about us. We have to care about us. [And most victors don't even get that far. They just stop caring.]

[stayafloat]

I don't know if I can. [She rubs at her cheek, absently gnawing on her lip, turning her attention to the relative calm of the sea again. That helps, a little, it helps her forget the Capitol for now.]

No one wants a broken toy. [That makes her laugh, though it's hardly the time or the place for it.] Not even one they made themselves.