𝐓𝐎 𝐁𝐄 𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐍 𝐀𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄 * 𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐎𝐋𝐀𝐍𝐔𝐒 𝐒𝐍𝐎𝐖

𝐃𝐎𝐍'𝐓 𝐒𝐀𝐘 𝐆𝐎𝐎𝐃𝐁𝐘𝐄, 𝐒𝐀𝐘 𝐈 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔

He moved Tigris out of the way, barreling out of the door as he pulled Venus into his chest. Taking in her touch and the smell of her jasmine perfume, he felt his eyes well up with tears. He kissed her on her head, just holding her for dear life as if she would fade from his arms or worse, his memory.

After a minute in her embrace he let her go, wiping his eyes of any sadness. "I, um, sent the staff home for the evening—"

"We can't continue with lies between us." Venus interrupted, nodding softly and trying to inadvertently tell him that it was okay. "Will you let me come in?"

Coriolanus hesitated. What if she saw something that forever placed a permanent stain on what she felt for him? This was the last time he would ever get to be in her presence and he didn't want to waste it because of his financial instability. He guided her within the home, past Tigris who was sitting at the kitchen table, she was the only one up since Grandma'am had retired to bed for the evening. Not fully comprehending that her Grandson was leaving forever.

Venus took everything in, looking around the small walls of his room as he closed the door behind them. It was significantly less than anything she expected of him and she felt terribly for everything that he had gone through. It was clear that he was not truly among the elite, that he had been maintaining the illusion for as long as Venus could remember just to keep up appearances.

She wondered how he had managed to hide this for so long?

"My family lost all of our money in the war." Coriolanus broke the silence, sitting on his bed and carefully watching Venus examine the space. "Everything we had was tied up in Thirteen. When that went up in flames so did the Snow fortune. I apologize if that changes your opinion of me ... if you don't see me as worthy anymore." 

Meeting his gaze, her shoulders dropped. "Money does not make a man, but character does." She calmed him, heading to his bed and bending down to be eye level with him. Placing a manicured hand on his cheek as she gave him a small smile. "Your gesture of taking a punishment for me tells me that you've grown from a boy to a man, Coryo, one that I love very much."

"I'm so sorry for all of this." He shook his head, trying to look away but she wouldn't allow him to. "I was so obsessed with winning and now I have nothing."

"You have me." She protested, inching herself closer to his face. "And that's better than any prize or education since my life is no longer in question." His blue eyes screamed with perplexity. "Gaul believed my initiative to keep Dill alive was inspiring. My effort turned her Games into a success, the public is obsessed with the spectacle that I helped create. Her threatening my life was baseless, a tactic used to light a fire within me to survive."

She brought her hands to his knees, resting them on his lap. Unknowingly, ripping his heart into pieces at the knowledge that she would live to see another day without him. "As juvenile as it sounds, I've been doing things to catch your attention ever since I met you, Venus. Only now did I finally get it, right before being banished to the Districts for twenty years." He lets out a sullen laugh, shaking his head in disbelief. "In all those years of rivalry, we could have turned it into something beautiful together."

"We still have time." She counters. "One more night before you start a new life and forget all about me."

Coriolanus huffs. "You're wrong. I will never forget you no matter where my life takes me."

"And you will always have me, Coriolanus, it doesn't matter where you are." She agrees. Her focus so piercing on him that it almost made him uncomfortable. "I'm willing to burn the world down and build it up again, all for you." 

Cupping her chin, he brings her lips to his. Kissing her with a sense of starvation that he had never felt before. The love of his life would continue to live out her days in the Capitol, without him by her side, surely this had to be the worst form of punishment he could face. He would spend the rest of his life thinking of her, missing her, craving her. Whoever she would marry would never amount to the man he was in her eyes. Venus's husband would constantly be living in the shadow of her first and last love.