CORIOLANUS WATCHED AS THE LAST MOCKINGJAY SCATTERED into the sunlight, screeching, the tail end of its song wrecked by the spray of bullets and wood chips. Green bits of leaves fluttered around him like rain, showering his shoulders, coating him in ember. Sunlight beamed like the brightest coins.

Lucy Gray Baird was dead, and all he could think was, not another one. 

He kept doing this. He kept letting his finger slip, letting his temper go, and suddenly there was a dead body. Lucy Gray. Sejanus. Mayfair Lipp. Bobbin. He could see their faces, hear their voices, feel the spurt of blood on his cheek as the bullet ripped through their bodies...

At first, he had killed for her. 

Now, he wasn't sure who he was killing for. 

"Yourself, obviously," a low, light voice said, amused. 

Coriolanus startled, back to the dim chandelier and red carpeted floors and wallpapers covering hole-riddled walls and rotting floorboards. Back to a dining table, spread with finer foods than anything he'd seen in the past month. 

"What?" 

"That's who you must be in love with," Soma Plinth teased, rolling a grape across the back of her fingers. "You keep staring into that mirror like you can't take your eyes off it." 

Coriolanus tore his eyes away, narrowing in on her instead. "I don't understand why you're so invested in whom I like." 

She crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue. "Whom, really?" 

"It's called grammar." 

"It's called pretentious. Sejanus would--" 

The conversation grated to a halt, and suddenly Coriolanus' throat swelled, his tongue thick and heavy in his mouth. Soma looked like she had been slapped by her own hand, the grape dropping to the floor and rolling down the thick carpet. Quickly she wiped the expression from her face. 

"I'm just saying, you sound like Gaul or something," she said stiffly, flashing him a clunky smile. 

Coriolanus recovered just as quickly. "If you can't beat them..." 

"Then try harder," she supplied. "Don't join them. Not them." 

"They are your parents. Your wealth. You already have joined them, Som," Coriolanus said coldly. "Don't be so quick to call the kettle black." 

"Always speaking in proverbs and platitudes, Coryo," she returned, sipping from her faded glass. "Makes me wonder if there's any original thoughts in that head of yours." 

He could've shown her his original thoughts. The betting, the gambling, the mentors. The way that Victors would never really win. The way that the cameras and microphones captured every bit of rebellion, the way that the arena coincidentally shifted to destroy those most dangerous to the Captiol. 

Oh, he could have shown her his original thoughts. The cabin in the woods, a frothy bouquet of rainbow skirts, a pale hand and a warm hand twined together. A spray of bullets shredding trees. 

Instead he gave her a Capitol-prim smile. "You would be surprised." 

"No, I wouldn't," Soma gave him a smile, the two curled rolls at the sides of her temples tilting with her head. "I know you better than you think, Coriolanus Snow." 

"I'm not who you think I am." 

"No," she agreed. "You're much more predictable now."

"How was District Four?" Coriolanus changed the subject, spearing a sliver of meat on the end of his fork and placing it to his lips. 

"Invigorating. I feel like I woke up from the longest nap," she indulged him, he knew it, he could see it in her black, black eyes. She knew what game they were playing. "It's so nice to be by the sea. Everything feels much more alive there." 

She did look brighter, cheeks redder, hair fuller. Something like wildfire had bloomed in those eyes when Soma had been gone.

"I'm glad you enjoyed," Coriolanus smiled, almost sincerely, and took a bite from his plate. 

The meat was juicy, soft and rich, filling his mouth with a salty, gamey flavour that satiated every tastebud, soothed every tooth. He closed his eyes softly, relishing it. 

Soma leaned across the very long table, a smile on her lips, intent on capturing every expression he made. 

"Do you like it? It's snake meat." 

His eyes snapped open. "Snake." 

Soma gave him a demure smile. "Snake." 

A flash of neon coloured serpents, a girl singing to a field of venomous creatures, a swollen arm and drunken haze of panic. 

Coriolanus slowly put his fork down. "Did you speak with the district people?" 

"Is that what we're calling them now? Not unpaid labor? Not slaves? Oh, no, let me guess, esteemed and established labourers," she deliberately placed her own slice of snake meat between her lips. Chewed. Swallowed. "What is it, exactly, we're calling prisoners of war now?" 

"They're rebels, not enemy troops." 

"From the way you treat them, I would assume that they are one and the same." 

This was unlike her. The Soma Plinth he knew had been the ideal daughter of Strabo Plinth: power-hungry, desperate to forget their District Two roots, and an avid supporter of the Hunger Games. Something had changed. But what? His skin prickled with irritation, sending a flame through the rash hidden under his skin. He had come home expecting an ally, and returned to find a snake in his sheets. 

"Why are you being so difficult? When did you become so rebellious?" Coriolanus demanded, fingers curling into his palms. "We used to agree on everything." 

Soma gave him a look. "The mind of a sixteen year old girl is pliable, Coriolanus Snow, and so is her heart. Speak to me of a time where there was no blood between us, and I will not hear you." 

Snap of a neck. "MA." Jabberjays and mockingbirds calling in the voice of a dead man. 

How did she know? How could she have known? Nobody but Gaul and Highbottom knew the truth, knew how Coriolanus' fingers were soaked up with blood from pressing an innocuous button. Nobody living, at least. His rash spread. 

"What blood?" Coriolanus gave her a confused look. "I didn't take you to be once so affected by the Games, Soma." 

She sighed, tugging her dark hair over her shoulders. She gave him an expression he had seen on countless mothers and impatient school teachers. 

"Deny it again." 

Screams. Dangling hands. The Hanging Tree.

"I don't know what you're talking about." 

The table screeched as Soma stood up, shoving her chair back, eyes burning, hair flaming around her shoulders like the darkest ink. The victory rolls in her hair bobbed with indignation. 

They sat in silence as the resounding screech filled the room. 

"You may be a Gamemaker. You may be the pet of Gaul. But you will be nothing, nothing, but a snake." 

Coriolanus gave her a level look, white eyebrows raised, unimpressed. "I've been called worse." 

Soma snarled at him, cheeks flushed with rage. "Don't forget who's house you stay in. Who's money you live off. For all your pretty talk, Coryo, you will never be like those in the Capitol. Your money comes from district scum, and your power lies with the parents of a man you murdered. A wolf cannot change his clothing. A snake can't hide his fangs." 

"I have an empire at my disposal. I lack for nothing." 

"You have nobody." 

He laughed at her. Empty threats, empty insults. "Soma--" 

She tossed an envelope onto the table, watching it slide silently down the table and come to a stop before him. Then she fisted her entire serving of snake meat in her palm, violently nails digging into the flesh, and shoved it all into her mouth. 

"Open it," she taunted around her mouthful, snake blood oozing from her mouth. 

Coriolanus opened the envelope. 

It was a transcript from the hospital. A bill, several hundred dollars, as well as a formal, cold condolence. 

"Your grandmother passed two days before you arrived," she said, slowly, lazily, wiping snake juice from her chin. "You haven't even noticed. What kind of person are you?" 

The black letters swam before his eyes, turning into snakes, with pointed fangs. 

By the time he looked up, Soma had gone. 

author's note! 

yay, chapter one! i know the title doesn't really make sense, but Lucy Gray's "death" is what sets off the entirety of this book, so i thought it best to recall back to that before getting deep into the plot. 

also if there are any canonical mistakes... just ignore it. i haven't read the book in a while, so i'm going off the Wikipedia page until i can get a library copy LMAO </3. and i think i'll adjust to fit with the movie plot as well, so it's a hybrid of both. a muttation, if you will. ba-dum-chhhh. 

anyway. thanks for reading! stay tuned for more fun characters and please give me tips for writing lovers to enemies to lovers to enemies to whatever this relationship is going to be. 

and lemme know if you want a chapter dedicated to ya! xoxo