❝you said i have to trust more freely❞

LEXA AND ISLA HAD NOT SAID A WORD TO EACH OTHER. Once the Armada woman confirmed that Finnick was safe, she fell completely silent and would not look at the other girl for more than a couple of seconds. She had fallen in love with trusting eyes exactly like those before, and it had not ended well for her. She was not about to make that mistake again, no matter how much Finnick swore she was all right.

"You don't trust me, do you?" Isla finally blurted out after about an hour of just slashing through the forest and looking for a place that they could camp for the night so that they could find Finnick and the others the next day. She was a person that could not just sit in silence, even though she hated it when annoying people bothered her. At that moment, she was the annoying person, and she knew that.

Lexa glanced at her again, not sure how to respond. The truth was that she really did not want to trust the girl, but if she stared into those sweet eyes for any longer, she might just do anything the blonde girl asked of her. She finally sighed and answered, "Finnick does."

"But you don't," Isla clarified because that had not really answered her question. Well, she knew what the answer probably was, but she wanted to know why the woman was so distrusting of her. The blonde woman knew that Finnick trusted Lexa, and she trusted the Odair man. So, she felt safe with the Armada woman, even though she was honestly very scary and intimidating.

Instead of answering the question, Lexa just asked her a question, wondering why she was even asking. They had known each other for less than a week, and the Angler woman was acting like she would put her life in Lexa's hands. She was not sure that she liked that because she really did not want Isla to put all this trust in her, and then she let her down. "Do you trust me?"

"I think so," the blonde girl answered because even though she might not trust Lexa with her biggest secret in the world, she knew that she was not about to turn around and stab her in the back. The Armada woman knew how that felt, and she would have to be a complete monster if she was going to do the same thing to a person that trusted her, let alone her friend's almost-sister.

Lexa had not talked to anyone about what happened during her games, about how she felt about the betrayal. Most people assumed that she was just mad or angry. She was both of those things, but she was also kind of happy that Costia betrayed her because if she had not, then Lexa would probably be in the same boat as Isla, trusting someone just because her friend said so.

The brunette woman furrowed her eyebrows, and she paused and turned around to look at her. She threw her hands up in the air, her sword swinging around as she did so. "Why?"

"I can just tell. I trust my gut," Isla answered. Lexa, despite having this whole tough exterior where she refused to smile or show any emotion at all except for anger, had a soft side, and the Angler woman had seen it. She saw just little tiny moments when the brunette had let her guard slip, at the district parade, before the interviews. She could smile. It was possible. Her face muscles worked normally sometimes.

"Well, I trusted my gut in my games, and then my ally betrayed me," Lexa informed her, even though she knew that the girl had probably already already heard the story or even watched her games. She sighed, shaking her head. "The only person you can really trust is yourself."

Now, that was definitely not true, and Isla knew that Lexa knew that. The brunette woman had friends and allies that she would trust with her life. She trusted other people more than she trusted herself, and she would sacrifice herself for them in a heartbeat. The blonde woman did not know it, but Lexa was sacrificing herself for people she had never spoken to — Katniss and Peeta. "You trust Finnick and Johanna."

"I've known them for years. I've known you for days," Lexa explained to her.

Isla then furrowed her eyebrows because from the conversation that was happening, she was gathering that she should not trust Lexa because she had only known her for less than a week. "So, are you telling me that I shouldn't trust you?"

"I'm telling you that you need to be more careful about who you do and don't trust," the Armada woman told her with a sigh. She was not planning on killing the blonde girl, and if she was being completely honest, she might throw herself in front of someone that was trying to kill her. She just needed to understand that not everyone in the world was trustworthy. "You never know who is going to try and stab you in the back."

"You're making me a lot less comfortable being alone with you," the Angler woman joked. She was honestly a bit offended because it felt a hell of a lot like Lexa was speaking to her as if she was just some naive little girl that went around just making allies with anyone that looked at her. She knew that not everyone was a saint, but she was just trying to say that she trusted Lexa.

Finally, the brunette woman just turned around. "We need to keep moving."

Later that evening, before the sun went down, they found a secluded spot in the forest where they could lie down and get some sleep before their big day the next morning. They needed to be prepared for anything, and they needed to be working off at least a couple hours of sleep.

"Do you want to keep watch first or should I?" Isla questioned with raised eyebrows. TNeither of them were dumb enough to assume that they could both sleep at the same time. They knew that there were a lot of sneaky tributes out there that would not hesitate to jump in and kill both of them before they could even open their eyes. Someone needed to be awake at all times to make sure that nothing weird was happening.

Lexa was quick to answer. "I will."

"You're a little too eager," the Angler woman said suspiciously, eyeing her up and down. She was joking, but it was just a bit weird how excited she was to not sleep.

"I'm not going to kill you," Lexa assured her, rolling her eyes. Although, she was a little proud that the woman was being suspicious of her. Maybe their conversion from earlier had had some effect on her. She needed to be more careful around other people. "Finnick would never forgive me."

Isla just smirked a little bit as if she was a guy trying to convince a girl that he was trying to pick up to cheat on her boyfriend. She had surprisingly seen that happen a weird amount of times during her many trips to the Capitol where she hung out at parties and in bars with the people that hired her. "Finnick would never have to know. You could just say I drowned or that someone else killed me."

"Are you seriously trying to convince me to kill you?" Lexa questioned, a little bit concerned about the fact that the girl was coming up with a cover for her to kill her.

"Good point." They both looked up when the Panem Anthem began playing, meaning only one thing. The night sky was illuminated by the pictures of the fallen tributes. Isla sighed at the sight of the man that she had stabbed to save Peeta, and she wondered what the games had turned her into. Once it was over, she breathed out a sigh of relief when there were no other familiar faces. "No one we know. That's a good sign. Lexa?"

Lexa was staring up at the stars, even after the show had ended, with an unreadable expression on her face. She then glanced over at the blonde girl before looking down at her feet. "Cassius — my district partner. He was my mentor during my games. He was an asshole, but I've known him forever."

"I'm sorry," Isla sighed, and she then felt bad for being happy after the showing.

"It's all right," the brunette assured her, and it was honestly the nicest thing that she had said to her all day. She then dug through her pack and tossed the Angler woman a sleeping bag that she had grabbed. "Now try and get some sleep. I'll watch over you."