Illicit Affairs ☆ Sejanus Plinth

Three ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

She tucked a few pieces that had escaped the front of her braided hair behind her ears as she made her way out of the bathroom, down the long hallway that led to the grand staircase and finally into the kitchen where her breakfast had already been plated up.

"Thank you," She muttered softly as she took her seat, the silent man who pushed her chair in only nodded before heading back to complete his tasks.

Winter had always been grateful to the staff her father kept, the chefs, the drivers, the nannies and the servers. They had always been nothing but nice to her, she knew it was part of their job, but she still appreciated it. It was them who made her house feel like a home, them who she spoke with, who she bonded with. The obnoxious size of her childhood home meant that she could live her life on one wing, while her father lived on the other. They ran on different schedules and scarcely crossed paths. Winter was grateful for that, too.

As she ate her food she found her eyes landing on the television that sat in the corner of the room, watching as weatherman, Lucretius "Lucky" Flickerman spoke into a microphone outside of the Capitol Zoo that housed the tributes every year before the Games, her eyes rolling at the sight of him. She had never liked Lucky, she found his whole magic gimmick with the coin to be tacky, she just wanted to know the weather for the day if she wanted to see a clown she'd go to the circus. Just as she was about to turn it off her eyes caught the sight of a familiar boy in red standing hand-in-hand with Lucy Gray Baird. It was Coriolanus, and he was inside the enclosure.

The girl almost choked on her food as she watched him smile his charming smile for the cameras, showing Lucy Gray off like she were some sort of shiny trophy he was proud to be the owner of. She watched as he addressed Lucky and the crowds, introducing his songbird to the Capitol. The girl's grip on her fork tightened in displeasure as she watched him.

Quickly, she dropped it onto the plate of half-eaten food and made fast work of grabbing her satchel, slinging it over her chest before hurrying for the door as she called out a goodbye, desperate to get to the Academy to have a word with Coriolanus before classes began.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

Winter sat with her head in her hands as she did her best to focus on the work in front of her, they had been tasked to come up with questions to ask their tribute in an attempt to let the Capitol get the chance to know them better, but her brain found itself drifting to thoughts of what she had seen on TV not too long ago. After the stunt Coriolanus had pulled at the zoo she found herself wishing that she had been there with him. Maybe not actually in the enclosure, but with her tribute, supporting him as he was launched into this whole thing. She was bitter at the fact Coriolanus had shown her up, had shown them all up. By being the first and only mentor there to welcome his tribute to the Capitol it made the rest of them seem unmotivated, unbothered, when that was far from the truth.

Winter cared. She actually cared about Reaper, about his well being, probably a whole lot more than Coriolanus cared for Lucy Gray, she was sure. She knew her friend well enough to know that he was only there to get ahead of his classmates in the battle for the Plinth Prize. He hadn't been at the Academy when she got there, and he wasn't in the room now, she suspected he was still prancing around at the zoo.

The doors of the classroom were tossed open catching the attention of everyone inside and they all looked up to see and flustered Coriolanus hurry inside, and quickly made his way to his spot beside Sejanus.

"You're little excursion is in violation of about five different Academy rules, Mr. Snow." The Dean told him, not looking up from his papers once. "Chief amongst them, endangering a Capitol student." Coriolanus stopped in his tracks, his brows pulled into a scowl.