The Sterling Nightingale ⟷ Finnick Odair/OC

This strange provocation

Chapter Forty Six | This strange provocation

"The lust of blood grows with its satisfaction, there is no satiety; the crowd had seen a hundred noble heads fall beneath the guillotine today. It wanted to make sure that it would see another hundred fall on the morrow." Emma Orczy, The Scarlet Pimpernel

Tommy has been in this line of work for several years now, ever since Sil had recruited him one night when he had been too tipsy to hold onto his loathsome opinions regarding the Capitol. Had she not been at the very same party that he was attending at the time, he probably would have ended up in a prison cell and left to rot there for his lack of decorum. He had been lucky that she'd found him worthy enough to break character and drag him out of the crowd, though he hadn't made it easy for her at the time. Back then, he had known her only as the inane Victor from District 1 – as ridiculous as the rest of the Capitol, if not more so – and he hadn't exactly seen her in a positive light despite him having been born into that society himself. His opinion of her had all changed, of course, when she had pulled him into the streets, snapped at him to keep his opinions quiet, and had proceeded to initiate him into a world that he never could have dreamt of before that moment.

It was a world that he had thrown himself into. A role that had given him purpose. Sil had saved him in several ways that night.

"Should I even ask where you've been?" her voice questions from the dismal light of the alleyway, and for a split second, Tommy's heart leaps up into his throat.

He turns to look at her, shaking his surprise away the first moment it comes. He shouldn't be so shocked that she would track him down. Their relationship has come full circle, it seems, in the last few hours. He thinks it's a little bit ironic.

"You're not usually the type to ask useless questions," is all he replies, then pauses and jokingly adds, "Well, at least not when you're dressed like that."

He raises his eyebrows at the padded armor that curves around her form, and chuckles. Then, glancing down at himself, he quips, "Do you happen to have another outfit like that one? I'm a little jealous."

Sil can't stop the laughter that blooms from her lips upon hearing his inquiry. Her eyes flash with amusement at him, even as she sighs and steps forward, glancing furtively over her shoulder as she says, "Perhaps if you had met me at Dorsey's like you said you would, you wouldn't be jealous, Tommy darling."

He grimaces a bit at the words that are delivered with far more backbone than usual and mutters, "I got a little...stuck."

Sil looks over at him with crossed arms and skeptically repeats, "Stuck?"

He shrugs halfheartedly and explains, "Once the Peacekeepers started overrunning the streets, it was a bit difficult to leave."

She hums in the back of her throat and sighs again as she leans against the wall, head tipped back against the concrete. At this angle, he can just about see the hint of her shockingly blonde hair peeking out from the confines of her hood.

"In the message you sent, you said that you received orders," Tommy prompts her, stepping to the edge of the alley and glancing out to see if there is anyone in the streets. For now, they are empty, but he knows that this false sense of security won't last. They are too close to the President's Manor to have true peace here. He looks over at her and murmurs, "Why does Coin want us to break into the prisons? It seems like a waste of time at this point."

Sil puffs her cheeks out and nods in agreement. "I do believe we're being demoted, my dear. Perhaps she doesn't trust us to join up with the rebel army."