lover/fighter - Finnick Odair

Chapter 51 - Rules, and those who break them

Their arms keep touching each other as they walk through the streets, pressed close together to fit under the umbrella that Finnick has dug out of the hall cupboard. It has been raining cats and dogs since the morning and there is no end in sight. Nevertheless, it is still warm, which makes the air uncomfortably thick and heavy.

Wrapping yourself in a rain jacket under these circumstances doesn't make it any better, it just makes it even more unbearable. Normally, he simply accepts the vagaries of the weather and prefers to just get soaked by the rain, but Rhea is not so keen on this idea. She wants to pay Ava another visit, so he has decided to take her there.

So far so good, but it turns out that his mind is still preoccupied with yesterday's conversation with Kip. It leads to his head carrying out the most unimaginable thought experiments, fueled by the fisherman's wild ideas. It makes him think about what a real date actually ought to be like for him.

Going to the beach together, setting off on a sailing trip or enjoying a home-cooked dinner. In the right context, these are all things you would do with someone you have a romantic interest in, but that doesn't mean it automatically qualifies as a date. It is only a real date if it is planned as such, if the nature of the meeting is defined as romantic by both parties.

On the other hand, don't you go on dates in the first place to find out what kind of relationship you want with someone? There are certainly enough people who have been out as friends many times before the underlying mood changed at some point. So where is this point at which spending time together is no longer purely platonic? Well, the simple solution would probably be to ask, but that would also expose you at the same time. You'd have to be able to read each other's minds, then everything would be so much easier. On the other hand, he dreads the idea that she could hear his thoughts right now.

He goes round and round in circles without gaining any meaningful insight. It hasn't been this quiet between them for a long time and, for once, only the pattering rain fills the silence. He is always on the verge of saying something. It feels as if there is something he really wants to say, but he just doesn't know what it is.

His unusual behavior does not go unnoticed. "Is something wrong?" Rhea asks him after watching him wrestle with his thoughts about something for a quite a while. Unlike her, Finnick is not usually so easy to figure out, a fact that caused her quite a few difficulties at the beginning. However, when something is really bothering him and his thoughts are intensely focused on just one thing, even she can clearly see that. Otherwise, the reason for this is usually of a worrying nature, something that is bothering him in a bad way, which is why that is her first thought now too.

Finnick turns the switch in an instant. "No. What makes you think that?" he replies. This restlessness is slowly beginning to stress him out, but he is at a loss as to what to do about it.

Rhea looks at him skeptically and scrunches her eyebrows together. "You've been acting so strange since this morning," she remarks. If she thinks about it carefully, it's actually been since last night and the fear creeps in that he might have taken offense at the little prank she pulled on him yesterday at the harbor. "Whenever you're so quiet, there's something going on in your head."

Finnick laughs softly and replies jokingly, "Are you subtly telling me that I don't use my head enough?" Because despite everything, it is rather rare that he has nothing to say.

"That's not what I meant," she replies, rolling her eyes.

"I know," he laughs. He has probably successfully distracted her for the time being, but he knows Rhea too well by now. She won't let up until he puts something else in front of her, so he has to come up with something quickly, something credible with some truth at its core. But his thoughts are still going round in circles, getting stuck again and again on the things Kip has said.