Kate's gaze flicks to Finnick's hand, a startled blink that does nothing to hide the quick move to control the violent self-protective impulse. Her fingers tighten on the spatula and she breathes out deliberately.

It's not Finnick. It's that without Declan around touching her all the time and with the topic what it is, yeah, old habits.

Once she's settled, she glances up to meet his gaze again, shrugging apologetically while she rolls the tension out of her shoulders. "You've heard about alternate universes, right? How sometimes people here are from worlds that are almost like each others' but different enough that they don't really know each other?"