The Assassin (Finnick Odair X OC)

Chapter Twenty-six: The First Job

Chapter Twenty-six: The First Job

I see Jewel before she sees me, her head bent and focused on the gravel that she's walking on.

I stand, tilting my neck to the side to crack it. I looked up the train schedule and figured out roughly when she could get here so, for the past five minutes, I've been sitting on my porch. I packed up a duffel bag of everything that we'd need - some money, a few bandanas and my computer - and I now pick that up from the porch as well, stepping off of it.

The creaking of the steps makes Jewel's head move upwards instantly. Our eyes meet and she grins. "Kai!"

She speeds up from her meandering pace and extends her hands outwards. I accept her hug, a smile sliding onto my face as well, and we separate after a few seconds. "You talk to me everyday, Jewel. This isn't that exciting."

"Of course it's exciting. I get to see the great Kai Shields in the flesh. The phone doesn't do you justice, you know." Her eyes flick to the duffel bag that I'm holding before she looks back up into my eyes. "You went into the basement?"

"I had to, to read Kyle's message." I say. The tips of my lips curl upwards. "You're acting like I'm going to break."

"Trust me, I have no preconceptions about how mentally strong you are. I met you before the Games, I'll have you know." She retorts good naturedly.

I snort at that, not saying anything. We are silent for a few seconds before I nod forwards. "Shall we?"

"Sure. There'll be a train in around a half hour, if we don't fuck this off. You're lucky we have to go to Five, you know." Jewel remarks, reaching down and taking the duffel bag out of my grip. I let her, not really caring who holds it, and we turn and walk out of my yard. Both of us turn right; we don't need to talk about how we're going to get to the train station, because both of us have sneaked onto trains at this station dozens of times - much more for me.

I glance over at her. "Why is it lucky?"

"Well, Five is close - at least moderately. It's just through District Nine. This would be a much longer trip if we had to go to the Capitol or something." She elaborates and our eyes meet for a few seconds.

I return my attention to the gravel path that we start to walk down.

There are a few beats of silence before I speak. "This seems like a perfect job, honestly. It's good that you told me about it."

"Yeah; it seems moderately low risk. I don't know much about this peacekeeper but you'll be able to make light work of him." I detect some pride in her voice at my casual praise.

"He's a bit of a dick, honestly. This should - well, he's not a dick; he is just really controlling of his district. I always found him a bit hypocritical."

"Why?" Jewel asks.

The path that we are walking down starts to slope downwards, which means that in a few minutes we will start to see other houses. I - I haven't been this far out of Victor's Village since I've been back and I really hope that no one sees me or anything; it shouldn't be a problem because it's early enough where children haven't left for school yet and businesses aren't open, but you never know. Someone could always come around a corner and decide to slap me in the face for killing James.

A pit starts to form in my stomach as James' eyes flash through my mind, but I answer Jewel in a very calm and steady voice. "Well, he's willing to pay Viper. This job will be something along the lines of him not trusting someone in his district or us investigating something illegal he thinks is sprouting up in Five."