Chapter Text
All he needs is the disconsolate look of the Peacekeeper beyond the closed bars to realize that he will not get out of that arena.
Coriolanus does not even have time to think, the knuckles of his hands are burning and noises are approaching from his right. A girl laughs, perhaps Coral.
But she is to the left.
He knows how to find her. He has no time to do anything else, not even to swear at the Peacekeeper or Dr Gaul, nor to listen to Sejanus' furious screams.
He runs.
He will not be killed by a handful of Tributes; he will not become a martyr for Panem, yet another forced excuse to hate the Districts once more.
He will not bend to anyone's will.
***
Dawn rises with Sejanus throwing open the doors of the amphitheatre and hopping limply down the steps. He does not look well and is furious.
Festus pulls himself up from his makeshift sleeping bag and untangles himself from Persephone while the others who stayed over at the school also wake up, groggy.
“A disaster has happened. They wouldn't want me to talk, but we have to do something. It is for Coriolanus,” he says, as serious as he has ever been, while Lysistrata mumbles something intelligible.
The amphitheatre is empty at that hour of the morning, not even the TV crew has arrived.
“Speak,” Festus tells him, as a nameless shudder shakes him.
***
Lucy Gray cried for hours, snuggled on his chest, while Coriolanus stroked her back, trying to convey a non-existent consolation.
Now that he had time to stop, now that he had time to think , the anger rose up like a slow rising tide, leaving him to stew in the injustice of the whole situation.
They are safe - for now. They are tired, sore, hungry and dehydrated. Jessup sleeps beside them, shaken by the chills of infection, and Coriolanus clings to Lucy Gray because she is the only thing keeping him sane right now. Eventually she also falls asleep. He stays on guard for a few more hours, and then Jessup wakes up and relieves him with a grunt - he's not in the best condition to do it but Coriolanus can't afford to be squeamish. At least he didn't try to kill him. He suspects it is only because of Lucy Gray, who even in her sleep holds him so tightly that her knuckles turn pale.
Coriolanus falls asleep, returning the embrace.
Somehow they will both come out alive, he promises himself.
***
"Oh dear, oh dear, what happened tonight?"
Lucky Flickerman is as exaggerated as ever and, in a theatrical gesture, covers his mouth with his right hand.
"First Bobbin's death and now... Am I mistaken or is that one of our Mentors? What is Coriolanus Snow doing in the arena? What an unexpected development!" he turns to the benches of the other Mentors, but no one is paying him any mind. They are all staring at him with a serious, hard expression.
Lysistrata impatiently taps her fingers on her screen, but she knows that until the three of them come out of that room, she cannot send them food or water - and she knows that Coriolanus knows this, but they still cannot do it while Coral's group is still on the loose, not with Jessup reduced to that state.
She waits, impatiently, along with everyone else.
***
Coriolanus wakes suddenly and Lucy Gray presses a finger to his lips. They have slipped off the column they were leaning against the night before, and are both lying on the filthy floor of that forgotten room.
Coriolanus is hungry and thirsty, his knuckles ache, and the anger of the day before has settled in his soul, turning into a cold fury that tastes of revenge.
Lucy Gray smiles, though, and that is enough to distract and confuse him.
"Sleep well, Gorgeous?" she asks him, in a quiet whisper, and Coriolanus finds himself reluctantly returning the smile.
It is as if only they exist in the world. Jessup has moved closer to the door to better monitor the movements outside and is breathing shallowly, which is easy to ignore.
“More than sleep I think I've practically passed out,” he replies, still in a low voice, focusing only on Lucy Gray's face and her expression so... Mysterious.
Tears have dried on her cheeks, where the mark of the mayor's slap has almost disappeared. Lucy Gray has heavy purplish circles under her eyes that hardly suit her grey eyes, and her hair is a tangled, messy skein. Yet, at that moment, for him, she is the most beautiful girl in the world.
"Today may be the last day of our lives" she says, and she is not bitter, but serene as she utters those words "So, I was thinking..."
Lucy Gray raises her left hand and her fingers descend in a gentle caress from his temple to his neck, passing by his cheek, lingering for a second on his lips.
Coriolanus swallows and the world still shrinks around him, around them.
***
They are all tense, a hornet's nest ready to explode. Lucky seems determined to ignore the bad atmosphere and keeps talking to his stupid parrot. Dr. Gaul finally shows up, with that childlike smile too wide for her face, to announce to Panem that she doesn't know why Coriolanus has slipped into the arena but that disrupting the Games is a crime and that she is looking forward to watching the next developments, to see if the Tributes won't miss the opportunity to pick on a respectable citizen of Panem, a member of one of the city's most prominent families, giving vent to the worst bestial instincts of which they are composed.
"Shame on you!" interrupts her Festus, standing up and clenching his fists "We know it was you who threw him into the arena!"
The audience behind them erupts into an agitated murmur and Lucky tries to regain control, desperate.
"Mr Creed, these are heavy accusations to make! Don't you think..."
"Look!" interrupts everyone Persephone, pointing his finger at the screen "I don't really think Lucy Gray wants to kill him, quite the contrary!"
***
Within seconds, Coriolanus has sunk his hand into her hair and is finally kissing her again.
Again . Lucy Gray, in his mouth. The taste of her that has already made him a prisoner once.
And deep down he knows it. He has been lost ever since the Reaping ceremony, ever since he first saw her through a screen, ever since he heard her sing.
He is prey to her mermaid spell.
Lucy Gray is not satisfied. Her hands descend further, searching for the skin under his shirt. Coriolanus is shaken by a nameless thrill as everything in him lights up.
And then.
And then Lucy Gray fumbles with the waistband of his trousers.
Coriolanus breaks the kiss and opens his eyes wide, but he cannot retract or escape. Lucy Gray slips astride him, opens the skirt full of ruffles to cover them, and then her hands sink back into his underwear.
"We might die today," Lucy Gray says again, looking at him with an expression so intense that his erection jerks "And if it's going to happen, it will only happen after I get my wish."
Coriolanus is paralyzed, he cannot protest - he does not want to protest.
Lucy Gray is right. They could die within the day. That sudden fire inside him, all those new sensations he is experiencing for the first time, demand satisfaction. At least that.
Lucy Gray closes her eyes, inhales deeply and sinks down on top of him, making him sink into her flesh.
Coriolanus cannot resist - it is all too intense and a strange sound leaves his lips without him being able to do anything about it.
***
"Was that... Was that a moan?"
***
Lucy Gray arched her back for a moment, savoring the intensity and depth of that new contact between them. Then she opened her eyes again and leaned towards him, seeking his lips.
And she began to move, first rocking shyly and then rising and falling, faster and faster as she tried to stifle the moans in his mouth.
For Coriolanus there is only her, only her face with its contracted expression, her fiery kisses and the warm embrace of her flesh, so new, so imperious, so longed for.
There is no arena. There is no Jessup beside them, his breath suffering. There is no Coral out there, ready to kill them all while the others watch her back.
There is no hunger, no thirst, and no more of Bobbin's blood on his knuckles.
Coriolanus grabs Lucy Gray by the back and starts thrusting, going along with her rhythm as the kisses take his breath away.
***
The bubble of silence is broken by Lucky Flickerman.
The man looks away from the screen, glances uncomfortably towards a camera to his left, and then, with a half-smile, exclaims: "... Are we allowed to show this?"
The audience awakens at that moment, like a disturbed monster in its sleep. Men stand up, indignant, while several mothers cover the eyes of the children present.
"You crazy witch!" shouts someone, pointing at Dr Gaul, who stares horrified at the screen and seems unable to react.
"What did you give those poor kids?!"
"You drugged them to put on such an immoral show?!"
"Lucy Gray is underage!"
"You want to bring child porn into the homes of Panem?!"
Sejanus stands up, puts his hands around his mouth, like a loudspeaker. This is his moment. Dr. Gaul is slowly recovering from the hard blow she suffered, and still seems confused by the turn of events.
"IT WAS HER!" he shouts, cheering the crowd "I SAW HER! I SAW HER CLOSE CORYO IN THAT ARENA!"
And the crowd moves. With shouts and expletives, while some - a few - trying to save themselves - and the children - by going against the current, most of the crowd converges on Dr Gaul. Before she can even think of escaping Festus, in three strides, stands in the doorway. Two seconds later he is joined by Pup, Hilarius and Lysistrata. Dr Gaul tries to charge them but Festus pushes her back.
Two seconds later she is overwhelmed by the angry mob.
***
And Coryo falls over the edge. Lucy Gray's kisses cannot stifle the moan that accompanies his orgasm, which overwhelms him, taking away even the last glimmer of lucidity. Coriolanus has his hands on Lucy Gray's hips and is fully immersed in her - he has pushed himself so far up that he touches her soul.
Lucy Gray also screams, and rolls her eyes. Coriolanus feels her contracting all inside.
She too. She too has come for him, with him.
Coriolanus feels proud, before a huge sigh brings them back to reality.
Suddenly the world returns, and returns with a recoil, loud and overbearing.
The filthy ground beneath his back. The hunger. The thirst. The pain in his hands.
Jessup.
Jessup sighing one more time and banging his head against the metal door.
"... At least I'm already dying," he murmurs, "I hope the infection kills me before the other Tributes do."
Lucy Gray, without a word, moves away from Coriolanus and releases him. She again uses her skirt to cover him and blindly tries to fasten his trousers again - his hands are immediately there, helping her. A few seconds and they are both sitting again, Coriolanus with his back against the column and Lucy Gray kneeling in front of him, watching Jessup with a wrinkle of concern on her forehead.
"'Act as if I'm not there' I could have said, but no, they wouldn't have noticed anything" Jessup was continuing, in his fevered delirium "And I was also forced to watch, in the event that this was just a diversion to kill me... After I mounted the guard for you..."
"Jessup," Lucy Gray tries to interrupt him, worried, but the boy is a river in flood.
He stares into Lucy Gray's eyes for a second and then raises a hand, his finger pointed at a spot to their right.
Everything is back. The hunger, the thirst, the sore knuckles, the arena...
“I hope at least Panem enjoyed the show,” Jessup concludes, disgusted.
... The cameras.
Of course. How could he forget?! Of course there are cameras. Until the day before, Coriolanus was on the other side of them, watching a frightened and lost Lucy Gray as she hid in the arena.
And now...
Now he just wants to die.
***
On balance, sex between teens was not the worst thing Panem witnessed that day.
It lasted a few minutes, a quarter of an hour at most, but to everyone it seemed like a lifetime.
The Peacekeepers dispersed the crowd and pushed the citizens out of the amphitheater with the help of smoke bombs. When the fog cleared, Dr Gaul's lifeless body lay sprawled on the floor, in plain sight for the cameras to see. Ambulances were called for the injured - several - who were either crushed by the crowd or blinded and suffocated by the smoke bombs, and at the end of the day, five people died in the assault.
The Mentors found refuge on the stage, climbing on the equipment and trying to reach elevated spots to escape the destructive fury of the crowd. When it was over, they dismounted and were ushered out through a back door - the one Festus and the others had blocked - and found themselves next to a weeping Lucky, who held the corpse of his stupid parrot in his hands.
President Ravinstill came running. He took the testimonies in person, surrounded by a host of Peacekeepers, and made a decision.
The only sensible one.
***
Less than an hour later sirens sounded in the arena. A metallic voice made the announcement.
Attention. The Hunger Games have been canceled. Remain where you are and wait for the Peacekeepers to escort you out of the arena.
Attention. The Hunger Games have been canceled...
Coriolanus and Lucy Gray exchanged an incredulous look, mouths wide open, not daring to believe their ears.
Will it be reality or another Panem trick?
They wait.
And the Peacekeepers really come to set them free.
***
"You have been drugged," announces a very serious Strabo Plinth, "You act in a confused manner. I have already procured all the necessary evidence. If you want to live, it is your only solution, and your only line of defense. I will explain everything to you later. Now go."
Strabo intercepted them as a Peacekeeper was escorting them to an unknown destination. He nodded to the soldier and then they entered the hallway of a half-destroyed building, where he told them those few, cryptic words. Then the Peacekeeper swung his rifle and forced them out of the hidden corner and marched off again, as if nothing had happened.
Coriolanus and Lucy Gray look at each other, frightened and confused. She grasps his hand.
Together.
As long as they are together, everything will be fine.
***
Clemmie is with him in the hospital, sitting at the foot of his bed, her expression so distraught that Coriolanus can't even look at her, and it's not because of her snake eyes.
"You mean," she repeats after a long, long moment, "That you actually had sex in front of all of Panem and that this caused the death of Dr. Gaul and the end of the Hunger Games?!"
Coriolanus covered his face with his hands, unable to answer.
Sejanus was with him until about ten minutes ago, with Tigris, explaining to him with a toothy grin everything that had happened since he was prevented from leaving the arena. Clemmie, who to everyone's ears is still in quarantine with a nasty flu virus, managed to find out in some mysterious way that he had been taken to the hospital and showed up at his door before he had even finished putting on his scrubs; and then, when sudden noises announced the arrival of visitors, she had no choice but to hide under his bed.
And she listened to everything.
And now she looks at him, and judges him, and Coriolanus just wants to die. Again.
Will this shame never end?!
***
"What do you mean the Tributes have been crammed into a room all together for four hours now?!"
Lysistrata's voice is so high-pitched that she could almost shatter the window glass behind her.
Her anger was fuelled by the difficulty she had in locating the exact hotel where President Ravinstill had decided to throw the Tributes, pending the calming of the waters , and her indignation grew to a fever pitch in the last five minutes, during the heated conversation she had with the Peacekeeper on watch.
"And why the heck hasn't anyone given them food and water?! Jessup is sick, I have to treat him before it's too late! "
It says it all that the Peacekeeper lowered his gaze, mortified.
Ten minutes and a couple of furious phone calls later, President Ravinstill ruled that each Mentor can take charge of his own Tribute - and that of others, and thank you very much - and take care of it as he sees fit while he tries to appease the citizens.
(It didn't help that during the emergency press conference someone shouted "Dr Gaul was wrong! We are all the same! Today it has been proven that we are all, all of us , beasts at heart, capable of violence! Being citizens does not make us immune to cruelty!" Two Peacekeepers took care of the disturbing element, but not fast enough).
Another ten minutes and a crowd of Mentors is in the hotel lobby. She, Festus, Persephone and Sejanus are ready to take charge of the Tributes left without a Mentor - or whose Mentor has defected.
"Lucy Gray will stay with me," Sejanus sentences.
Lysistrata nods. She also believes it is the best choice.
The Peacekeepers finally open the door to the room. Festus is handing out sandwiches as a sign of peace, and Coral almost bites his hand off as well.
Jessup is left behind, sitting against the wall. Lysistrata approaches and places a hand on his forehead, then shakes her head.
He is hot.
Too hot.
"Help me," she asks, desperate, and the Peacekeeper who was on guard lifts Jessup into her arms and carries him personally to the car with the driver who was waiting outside.
They leave in a hurry towards her home, where her father is waiting with antibiotics.
***
"Why the heck can't I see her?!" exclaims Coriolanus, frustrated, pacing back and forth in the Snows' bare attic living room.
What was the point of trading his dignity to cancel the Hunger Games, if they're going to keep him away from Lucy Gray?!
“It's not that simple,” replied Sejanus, nervous “My father is looking for an excuse to make it work, really. But now the whole of Panem thinks you two are victims of the system, and we can't disprove that, or the country will descend into chaos. Dr Gaul paid with her life and we were all acquitted, but the president is furious…”
Coriolanus doesn't give a damn about President Ravinstill. He wants Lucy Gray.
He wants his girlfriend.
"Be patient."
It has been almost a month.
A month since the incident, a month since the ex-Tributes settled in Capitol City. A month since the creation of the Innocent Survivors Tribute Protection movement led by Lysistrata and Jessup and the Make Life Better In The Districts We Are All One Country movement led by Festus and Coral.
A month since he saw Lucy Gray.
And Coriolanus has had enough.
***
“All right,” concedes the old Ravinstill, defeated, abandoning his head on the desk with a dull thud. He only allows it because Felix is his interlocutor - Felix, his beloved nephew, who has been led astray like everyone else by those damned Tributes and his even more damned classmates and who now looks at him with that indignant, superior air. And Felix knows he can't say no to him “Alright” he repeats “I'll do whatever you want. And the Hunger Games are over . Now appease your friends, please.”
***
"I'VE FOUND IT!" announces Strabo Plinth loudly, stepping out of the lift.
Coriolanus runs into the hall, alarmed by the man's enthusiastic shout, and sees that he is advancing with his hands raised in victory, one of them clutching what looks like a photo.
She doesn't even have time to ask him what happened, because behind him....
"Lucy Gray!" exclaims Coriolanus, running towards the girl, but something is wrong: Lucy Gray keeps her gaze down and wrings her hands.
"... Lucy Gray?" he repeats, this time alarmed, and she lifts her head only to grant him a tremulous smile that lasts less than a second. He places his hands on her shoulders and looks around, bewildered and panicked "What did you do to her?!" she asks Sejanus, who emerged last from the lift, but he merely smiles slyly.
"Oh, what have you done..." he replies, mysteriously "Come, let's go to the living room. You must sit down."
Coriolanus shuffles but grabs Lucy Gray by the hand. Whatever is wrong with her he has decided he doesn't care and won't let her go again anyway, and to hell with Panem's future too.
“I have the solution to your problem, Coriolanus,” Strabo says, holding out the photo to him and smiling in his son's perfect pair “At first I thought I'd have to fake it, but then... Ooooh… ”
Coriolanus looks at the photo, which is all gray with a small speck in the center. He doesn't even understand what he's looking at.
"Ready to get married, Coriolanus Snow?" urges Strabo, excitedly.
" What?! " exclaims Coriolanus, taken aback. He casts a glance at Lucy Gray, who is always looking down.
"Well, it's the only way," interjects Sejanus, "To keep Lucy Gray's honor."
Coriolanus is lost, no longer knowing who to look at.
"What does marriage have to do with honor?" he finally asks, as confused as ever.
Lucy Gray sighs, and draws his attention. She looks up, and there are restrained tears in her eyes.
"I thought it was the last day of our lives," she whispers, her voice trembling "I didn't mean to... I didn't mean to get you into this mess, or force you to marry me, Coriolanus."
"No, marrying you is fine" Coriolanus replies, automatically, without even having to think about it, and Lucy Gray falls silent "I just don't understand..."
"Boy" interjects Strabo, putting his hands on his hips and pointing with a nod of his chin at the photograph "Haven't you ever seen an ultrasound?"
"Congratulations, daddy-to-be," exclaims Sejanus, bursting with joy from every pore, as Lucy Gray's tears break through the levees.
Tigris, who in the meantime had slipped quietly into the living room, lets out a little scream.
And Coriolanus faints at that moment, overwhelmed by everything - but still holding Lucy Gray's hand tightly in his.
***
It is alienating to see the people moved at his wedding - because, Coriolanus knows, those cries are actually of despair, as the citizens of Panem are of the opinion that this is a forced marriage, forced as a result of the girl's unexpected pregnancy after the two were drugged and thrown into the arena to make an indecent spectacle.
He occasionally hears someone muttering under their breath 'Damn Gaul' but ignores them, ignores them all because his eyes are fixed against the end of the aisle, where Lucy Gray is due to appear any minute.
It has taken Strabo and Ma Plinth two months to organize everything - the former has interceded with President Ravinstill, convincing him of the need for a reparatory wedding at Panem's expense to avoid dragging Lucy Gray's honor through the mud even further; while the latter has had fun with Tigris organizing the practical side of the wedding, which is being held in one of the city's most luxurious hotels and which counts among its guests a number of high-ranking strangers that Coriolanus would gladly have done without. They are the ones crying, after all, forcing him to have to mask his endless joy on the most beautiful day of his life.
Only a small handful of close friends know the truth - the former Mentors and Tributes, all of whom are obligatory and welcome guests.
President Ravinstill lifted the ban on travel between the Districts and the Capital as one of the last reparation concessions following the Hunger Games, so along with the Tributes there are families, brothers or sisters, parents or partners, who will enjoy the luxury of the Capital for a whole day. The Coveys have also arrived, guests of honor, served and revered by the capital.
The only thing Coriolanus has chosen, together with Lucy Gray, is the rose arch under which he intends to marry. His grandmother is standing next to him, proud and erect and with a sullen expression, and although she disapproves he knows she has to make it fit. Tigris, on the other hand, is sitting in the front row and wringing her hands between them, super excited: she can't wait to have Lucy Gray home and knows that he really loves her.
Finally the music starts and Lucy Gray makes her appearance. Strabo carries her by the arm and in her still slim figure - despite her nutritious diet in Capitol City - the small belly peeps out in the folds of her dress.
Coriolanus manages to look away from his child only because Lucy Gray's face claims his full attention.
Lucy Gray. His songbird. His Tribute. His wife.
The mother of his son.
All his dreams are coming true and Coriolanus thinks it was all worth it in the end.
A few minutes of public humiliation and he has done more for Panem than ten years of peace. In some time, after all, the citizens will forget the indecent spectacle in the arena. The life he has gained, on the other hand... The compensation from Panem itself, the Plinth prize, the honors degree and the university that awaits him; even the humiliation of Dean Highbottom, who one does not know whether he is drinking to forget the aired scene or drinking because the unexpected success this brought to Coriolanus still gnaws at him... All this is priceless.
Lucy Gray advances towards him, hints at a shy smile. Strabo places her hands between his, giving her to him in marriage with a beaming expression, and something shines through him.
He no longer fears for the future. He feels that he no longer has to fight for his place in the world. Yes, there will still be challenges, he will have to learn to be a good husband and a good father, which frightens and excites him at the same time; he will have to pass his exams at university, work hard to follow his ambitions, and the world still has much to offer him. But, for once, he will be able to do it with a full belly, with a roof over his head, with his family beside him and with the woman he loves walking with him, hand in hand.
And under the arch of roses, Coriolanus and Lucy Gray seal their promises.
***
"I saved your life and you saved mine. We belong to each other. It’s written in the stars."
***
Ten years and five children later, the citizens of Panem are finally convinced that underneath it all, every cloud has a silver lining, and that young Coriolanus Snow has indeed found his happiness with Lucy Gray Snow, née Baird.
All is well.