Love at Sea (Finnick Odair)

Chapter 1

June 10 - 3 years ago

Nothing special happened on June 10th. But it was the memory Taiya held dearest to her.

It started in the living room. Finnick was lying on the couch throwing a ball up in the air while Taiya was practising her piano.

Finnick exhaled as he caught the ball and Taiya's eyes briefly flickered over to him.

She tried to ignore it, but on the fifth sigh, she hit her hands down on the keys, making a loud noise before she turned to look at him.

"Ok, fine. I'll bite. What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing," he hummed as he continued throwing the ball in the air.

"Fine," Taiya dismissed, spinning back to the piano. "Just try and contemplate life quietly, please. I'm trying to practise."

"I wasn't making noise."

Taiya smirked as she turned her head to look at him. Dramatically she began to breathe heavily until he smiled. "That's what you sound like babe."

"Little over the top," he turned his attention back to the ball.

"Well, it distracts me," Taiya began to play her song.

"Are you saying you find me irresistible?" Finnick perked up as he sat up to sit on the edge of the couch.

"Go back to your ball Finn," Taiya rolled her eyes.

"No, no, no," he jumped off the couch and came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist as he kissed the side of her neck, immediately making her hands freeze on the piano. "I want to hear more about how distracting I am."

"Are you going to tell me what's wrong?" Taiya asked, wanting to go back to the reason he'd been incessantly sighing.

Finnick pecked her neck one more time before he let his chin settle on her collarbone. "Nothing's wrong."

"You're a liar," Taiya sang. "Come on, tell me. I don't bite."

"I do," Finnick nipped at the bottom of her ear.

"Ok," Taiya laughed, reaching behind her to give him a light shove away. "You're being silly. Come on, let me practise! Just sit and behave for twenty minutes then we can hang out."

"Ok," Finnick relented as he went to sit on the couch and watch her play.

It only took five minutes, however, for him to sigh again.

She immediately stopped playing and turned to look at him, an eyebrow raised in question.

"I heard it that time," Finnick relented, admitting to his sigh.

"But not the other twenty times?"

"No," Finnick shook his head.

"You going to tell me what's on your mind?" she asked as she walked over and took a seat beside him.

"No," he shook his head.

"You mean you don't want to tell me?"

"Correct."

"But there is something?"

"Yep," he popped. "Finish your playing and then I'll tell you," he teased.

"Oh come on," Taiya rolled her eyes, pushing his shoulder so he was laying down on the couch before she climbed on top of him, her legs resting on either side of him.

Taiya's hands found their way to the back of his neck, tangling themselves in the waves that sat at the nape of his neck.

His eyes never left hers. And she sat there studying them. Committing the colour to memory. Sea-green with flecks of blue.