The needle in the brain (a ballad of songbirds and snakes fic, Coriolanus/Casca)

1.

Coriolanus Snow stormed out of the Dean's office, the door slamming shut with a loud bang behind his back.
Expelled.
The word reverberated dully through the walls of his mind in a constant chant of shame.
Expelled.
His breath shortened as his pace quickened and he found himself suddenly running with no apparent direction nor destination to reach, bile rising in his throat as his conversation with Highbottom kept playing like a distant echo in the back of his head:
"As an alternative to public disgrace, you may join the Peacekeepers by the end of the day." He'd said, with the hint of a smirk, just the shadow of a winning little smile hidden under a disinterested frown in his bloated, pale face, but Coriolanus had noticed it.
He had less than ten minutes to get there and report himself, de facto renouncing to all he had left in his already poor life.
Tigris. The Grandma'am. His house. Even his mother's compact, confiscated by Highbottom as proof, all gone, for good.
He reached the Peacekeepers recruiting station and stared at the high door, unable to cross its threshold, the guard to his right eyeing him squarely before letting him know that if he really wanted to enlist that day, he'd better get a move on.
But he hadn't.
Instead, he walked all the way back until he found himself at the Citadel, looking for Dr. Gaul, whom had denied him any access.
"Please." He insisted weakly, his voice sounding obscenely high even to his own ears. "My stitches hurt, they may be infected."
The woman at the front desk exchanged a telling look with the Peacekeepers at her side, and that had been when Coriolanus decided to slide his way in without getting noticed.
What had he still to lose, after all? He pondered while waiting for the right moment of distraction to rush right in under their nose.
For all he knew, his life was already over.
He moved along the corridors, heading straight underground where Dr. Gaul laboratories were located, walking silently and unnoticed across the endless forks and turns of the basements, until he'd finally reached the Headmaster's office, not without difficulty.
The basements had always been an intricate maze, after all, designed and projected to protect secret experiments and trials from the outside world.
The woman had her back turned to him, engaged in studying a cage filled with small, black-feathered birds.
"What are you doing here?!" She stated, after he'd revealed his presence to her with a small cough. "I expressively ordered the Peacekeepers to keep you out."
Coriolanus furrowed his brows with a clear sting of irritation and treachery in his chest: not that the woman owed him anything, especially after all he'd done, yet he couldn't help but feel offended at being cold shouldered so openly.
"I told the assistant outside, but she probably misunderstood me: my stitches may be infected, and I was wondering if you could've..."
"Please! the cut is perfectly fine, I can tell from here." Dr Gaul inspected him from behind her thick glasses with impatience, but also clear interest.
"I suspect there might be a much more concerning reason for your interference with my work today, am I mistaken?"
Coriolanus pressed his lips in a thin line: of course, coming to the cruelest of women in charge to beg for help was going to backfire, he couldn't have been any more foolish than that.
"I..."
"I guess Casca summoned you to his office." Volumnia said instead, taking him by surprise, while dropping against her chair with a feral little smile.
"Sit down. What did he tell you?"
"He... expelled me." Coriolanus stuttered, falling into the chair in front of her, realizing with absolute loathe that Highbottom must had consulted with Dr. Gaul before speaking with him.
"Well, of course, there wasn't much else he could've done once we've discovered the trick you pulled with my snakes to help your tribute. That was quite brilliant, I have to admit!" The woman cackled in a rather unpleasant way. "You used the information I gave you against my little creatures."
Her eyes glinted dangerously, as she regarded him with something akin to admiration.
"I wasn't really thinking..." Coriolanus attempted to deny, worried to find himself in an even worst position than he already was by pissing Dr. Gaul off.
"Oh, I highly doubt it: you're definitely not as impulsive as you'd like everyone else to believe. That's what I really like about you, and that's what Casca hates about you the most."
'He does?' Coriolanus had wondered in his mind, unsure of what to believe anymore.
"I find the fact that he decided to merely expel you quite intriguing: he'd seemed rather thrilled to have finally something to hold over your head, last I spoke with him. Hasn't he told you anything else?"
"Not really." The blond one stated with a small croak, clearing his voice before adding: "Well, he said the only other choice I had, to avoid a scandal, was to enroll with the Peacekeepers by the end of the day, or he'd also bring my family name to the mud."
Volumnia well-painted eyebrows shot up in unexpected surprise.
"Really?" She mused, and her voice had sounded as amazed as the look on her face.
"Mmm..."
Coriolanus stared at her hard, his forehead scrunching up in the effort to make sense of how she was reacting and what she was implying with her words.
"What do you mean?"
"Oh, I just thought he was going to use your misstep differently." She shrugged nonchalantly. "He must be quite scared of you if he's willing to send you to the farther district in whole Panem, instead of keeping you here and savor his victory."
Coriolanus shook his head, unable to grasp what that woman was talking about.
"Why would he be? It's hard to fear someone who has nothing." He admitted bitterly.
"On the contrary,young Snow: it's the ones who have nothing that we should be worrying about. Which makes me also wonder if you actually walked out of Casca's office and went to enroll or just came up here, to, er, bargain with me."
Coriolanus teeth clenched: the Headmaster had figured his lies out in a split second, he should've really known better.
"I... was just..."
"You were hoping that I would've helped you?" Volumnia laughed derisively, eyeing him like the predator she was. "If that's actually the case, then I guess you're not as smart as I thought."
'Evidently not' Coriolanus thought grimly, as the last glimpse of hope he'd so desperately clung onto was being pulled roughly from his fingers.
He felt his heart sink, a sense of dread starting to creep over his arms and legs, shattering him to the core: so that was really it, he had only one chance and had blown it away, and now Highbottom would've surely turned his revenge on him even more vicious because he'd refused to enroll with the Peacekeepers as he'd been instructed to do.
He snorted lightly, whipping himself for having acted out of emotion instead of common sense, and something snickered along with him, a feminine voice, that sounded nothing like Dr. Gaul's.
"What was that?" He asked, paralyzed on the spot, his ice blue eyes looking into Volumnia's ones, searching for answers.
"Oh, only a little experiment." She scoffed, her attention turned towards the birds' cage. "I guess you never saw them in the flesh, right?"
"It's... the birds?" Coriolanus struggled to understand.
Right in that moment, the bird to the far left started chuckling, a familiar sound which suddenly clicked in Coriolanus' brain, filling it with horror and abhorrence.
Arachne Crane.
Once noticed, it was impossible to deny.
"This is..."
"Amazing, right? Imagine the things we could do in war, with such an unassuming weapon! There's still so much to study and improve, but I have the feeling this project will bring us much satisfaction... and I'm rarely wrong." She cast Coriolanus an open look, that sent shiver all the way down his spine in a rather uncomfortable way.
"I know you can do better, young Snow, and sending you among the Peacekeepers could actually bring out something in you, but I guess I'm feeling magnanimous today, and will tip the odds in your favors."
"You mean...?"
"Oh, I wouldn't call it helping, really!" Dr. Gaul tittered delighted.
"How you will make use of the information I'm about to give you, will be entirely up to you."
Information... some gossip on Highbottom, maybe? He was sure there might be more than one... but how could rumors save his reputation and amend his sealed fate?
Coriolanus leaned forward in his chair, listening carefully, as the birds went quiet and still, and Arachne's laugh could be heard no more.