VENUS《 FINNICK ODAIR

Chapter 56. PARTNERS IN CRIME.

A/N: this is extra long as a 1 year anniversary present of this story being started (on the 15th) thank you all so much for sticking around this long, ill actually talk more in the a/n at the end of the chapter, its a little rushed but I hope you still enjoy ♡

****includes light spoilers to a ballad of songbirds and snakes.

THE CRISP WINTER AIR ESCAPED FROM THE OPENED DOOR, JIRA SCOWLING AS SHE BRUSHED THE DAMP SNOW FROM HER LEATHER BOOTS. Edith grinned at the sight of her, immediatly passing her a hot coffee she brewed up in anticipation for her arrival.

"I. Am. Freezing. I think my nose might fall off," Jira chattered her teeth. Edith wrapped a warm blanket round her shoulders, guiding her to the lounge chair closest to the fire.

"Wouldn't that be a headline?" Edith rolled her eyes, shaking her palms and sitting on them once she found her own chair, strategically the further one from the fire.

Winters weren't very forgiving to someone still shaky around large fireplace fires or bonfires. Adrenaline helped her when she was at an event or when Snow used it to intimidate her. But at home, it was a vulnerability on lonely nights. But knowing that in reality fires kept their wandering hands within their hearths was what Edith chose to focus on usually.

"Oh god- you should've heard what Petunia was spouting on the way back to the train with Silvanna if you really want a good headline-" Jira snorted, bringing her legs up onto the seat, cross legged.

Edith scowled into her own tea, "Do I even want to know? She's been Escort for two minutes and she managed to screw it up. Even at lunch she kept asking questions when Titus wasn't opening up his mouth."

Jira just gave her a devious look, and in her most high pitched, Capitol accent she could muster, she repeated the words from Edith's manager herself, "Hold on, let me get the accent right- 'You know Petunia, isn't young love so sweet? Jira and Titus, finding eachother in such glory? Cheering eachother on from the sides?' God, I could vomit. She's so foul she forgot the fact that just because I am a similarly aged Victor accompanying Titus on this stupid Victory Tour that it doesn't mean we are dating. The audacity."

Edith spat her drink out, "No she didn't- really?-"

Jira just slid back in her chair, "On live television too- I'm so glad Titus had a braincell to actually speak and shut down her assumption and remind her the fact he isn't interested in girls- I just stood there like an idiot. I bet some dirt column will pick that up as unrequited love or something stupid. Since I even got forced on this Tour I promised myself I'd at least try and be a Victor Titus can trust unlike the rest of the Victors back home but- seems I can even screw that up without trying..."

Edith bit on her gums, "He didn't say much at the lunch did he?"

"Barely anything, actually- I did this without your permission so that's my bad- not that it actually came to anything. Since our train's buggered for the foreseeable future, I asked him if he wanted to come with me to see you to pass the time... I mainly asked cause he'd be left with Brutus and Petunia and that is not a good duo for fun. But you know what he just did? He just stared blankly at me, not in confusion or like he didn't hear me- just as if he was waiting for me to give up. I'm done. Well, at least until I then give in again and try to help him."

Edith sighed, nothing more needed to be said about Jira's attempts at friendship with Titus over the Tour.

Jira had been casted off on the Tour team with Titus since Pea and Enobaria wanted her away from Clove so she could train fairly without interference from her step-sister. Clove was the star at the academies, and they wanted her a fair run without Jira's attempts at convincing her otherwise. It left her applying all that energy onto Titus as if that would do anything to help either cases.