Coriolanus Snow X Reader (The Hunger Games)

Part 4

Coriolanus Snow and Y/N walk through the streets of where the Capitol stands. It was extremely hot out and Y/N was getting dehydrated, her lips were chapped and she walked at a slower place than her mentor. "Hey red jacket," she huffs. Coryo turns around and looks at her curiously. "Think we can stop for a second? My legs are getting sore." She tells him. Coryo immediately smiles. "I have a better idea." He motions for her to follow him and she does so, following him into a dark alley where they hide behind a cold, damp wall. Soon enough a Capitol vehicle approaches and once the driver was past the opening to the alley and the pair were out of sight, Coryo nods at Y/N and has her follow him to the back of the truck. He jumps in first, leaning over the edge to give Y/N a hand in order to pull her up. What Coryo didn't realize is how light Y/N really was, making his pull a lot stronger than it needed to be. Y/N does indeed make it into the back of the truck, but not without her slight fall being cushioned by Coriolanus. Coryo grunts when all of Y/N's weight lands atop his chest and abdomen, but soon after starts laughing when she starts apologizing over and over again after getting off of him. "What do you weigh? 20 pounds?" He jokes with her but stops laughing when he ends up looking closely at Y/N, noticing how skinny and weak she really was. He frowns. She'll have no chance in that arena if he can't fatten her up. The problem was that mentors weren't really supposed to give food to their tributes, they were to find their own food. Then again, Coryo wasn't afraid to break a few rules. Some believe he's overconfident because the Capitol sees great potential in him and wouldn't want to waste that, Coryo believes he was just sly and wouldn't get caught since he believed he was great at keeping secrets. He also believed his ideas were always the right way to go, as most of them have lead him to something good and/or important. For example, he still believed the whole tribute mentor friendship thing was a good idea, even if Dr. Gaul said otherwise. He'd be rich if he got a quarter for every time he did the opposite of what she told him and still got away with it. In all honesty, maybe he was just a little overconfident. But, upon meeting his tribute, he had more hope in his mentoring skills and could maybe even win the prize if he got enough people to notice her and root for her.

Y/N's mentor reaches into his stitched handbag, shuffling things inside it around before pinpointing a few necessary items and setting them out in front of Y/N. "What is this?" Y/N asks, picking up a lukewarm bottle of water and a turkey and cheese sandwich. "Your lunch. Eat up. And hurry, we'll be there soon." Coryo tells her, leaning back against the edge of the truck's tailgate. "Where'd you get it?" Y/N asks him something again. "My house." He replies. "For me?" Y/N was just a bit surprised. "Well, it was my lunch, but I'm not very hungry so you can have it." Coryo nods at her and points to the food in her hand as a way to signal her to start eating. Y/N unscrews the cap on the bottle and goes to drink the water, stopping just before the liquid hits her lips. "You didn't put anything in this, did you?" She asks, still unsure if she can trust Coriolanus. Coryo smirks, "yeah, I poured some rat poison in there to kill my only chance of winning the prize this year." He says while shaking his head and chuckling. Y/N stays silent and drinks the water; it not being cold didn't bother her, she was just so thirsty. After a few seconds of chugging, the water was gone. It also didn't take her long to devour the turkey & cheese sandwich. She was still hungry, but was afraid to ask her mentor for more. Maybe she'll be given more food at the Capitol. Y/N didn't speak for the rest of the trip, she kept thinking about what Coryo had said about the prize. Was that all she was to him? A ticket to win his prize? Perhaps she misjudged him.

The truck comes to a stop on a dirt path surrounded by pine trees. Y/N wastes no time and stands up, hopping out of the truck before Coryo could lend her a hand again. She was feeling a bit better after the food and water. Coryo hurries out as Y/N starts walking off into the forest by herself. "Y/N!" He yells out. "Do you even know where you're going!?" He grunts and chases after her, grabbing her shoulder when he catches up. "What are you doing?" He asks, panting. Y/N glares at him, "I'm getting out of here." She says and tries to take off again, but Coryo had a strong grip on her wrist. "Let go!" She screams, panic arising in her chest. "Calm down! I'm not gonna hurt you, but I can't let you go. They'll find you and shoot you on first sight." Coryo tells her, frowning. He moves his grip from her wrist to both her shoulders, "Listen to me. There's no way out of this, people have tried already. There's no place to hide in the real world. Your best shot at survival is trusting me. I'm here to help. We'll train together and go over strategies for the next two weeks. I'll make sure you're as well prepared for the chaos that you'll experience in the arena as possible." He explains to her while gently rubbing one of her shoulders with his thumb. Y/N shakes her head and pulls back, tears starting to stream down her cheeks. "Trust you? How can I trust that you actually want to help me if all you really care about is winning that stupid prize? You and I both know I won't win these games, there's no point in trying." She wipes a tear from her face and sighs. "I'm sorry I couldn't get you that prize." Y/N looks down at the pine cones scattered throughout the leaves, now wiping her nose. Coryo gives her a moment to calm down before speaking again. "The only reason I care for the prize is because it would tremendously help my family and friends. I don't care for the fame, I just want to help the people I care about. Make them proud of me. But Y/N, you are my friend now. Whether you like it or not, I'm going to care for you and help you out the best I can. I promise." A quick grin forms on Coriolanus's lips before he clears his throat, "we should get you back to your fellow tributes before they think I kidnapped you."

The pair approaches the area where the tributes were to stay. It was... a cage in the middle of the woods. Y/N shakes her head. "Are you kidding me? You're making us stay in a freaking cage?" She complains. "Not me. If it were up to me tributes would get to stay with their mentors up in the Capitol. But unfortunately, I don't make the rules. Come, I'll let you in." Coryo leads his tribute to the side of the cage where he punches in a code to get the gate to slide open, letting Y/N inside and quickly closing it once she was in. Now there was a barrier between them, but that didn't stop Coriolanus from spending a little more time with Y/N.

"I got you something." Coryo says while reaching into the handbag again, gently pulling out a flower: a white rose. "My Grandma'am grows them, she says they're for protection. I have one too, if you didn't notice." He points to the left of his chest, just where his heart was, where the white rose stood. He bends the stem of the one in his hand and sticks his hand through the bars to place the rose into Y/N's hair, being cautious as to not mess up her hair. "Now we're both protected." He beams at her and stands up from his crouching position. "There's something else I have for you, but I'll give it to you tomorrow when we introduce you to the citizens of Panem. Get some sleep, okay? I'll see you tomorrow morning." Coryo says before turning to walk away. "Wait, Coriolanus." Y/N speaks, and Coryo stops in his tracks to turn his attention back to her. "Thank you." She says while getting locked in his sharp blue eyes again. Coryo nods at her then continues his way back to where the other mentors were; in which he was running late, as usual. But he didn't care.