❝Do you always act like you've got one of your beloved tridents stuck up your ass? Or is it only when I'm around?❞
In which Venus Andeva wants more than the life she's been dealt.
↳extended summary inside
↳catching fire
↳finnick odair x fem...
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VENUS ANDEVA BELIEVED that time was the biggest liar of all. A clock's hands whispered soothing, steady fibs into the minds of the world. A calendar pointed at them and laughed. Even the sun and the moon embarked on a journey of joining the delusion. Honesty couldn't be expected from something so incomprehensible to the human mind.
She watched as Porter stumbled into the train carriage, arms flailing about like wings trying to keep her upright. Time took Venus in its hands and dragged her backwards to the first day she had visited the Capitol, five long years ago. Her mentor had also been on her feet that day, pacing in front of Venus with too many words for the seventeen-year-old head she was throwing them at. The sweat sticking to her fingers and the rapid pounding of her heart had taken up all of her attention. Venus blinked and was brought back to the present.
One of the fake eyelashes clung to Porter's eyelid for dear life, but it didn't seem to be bothering her. In fact, a smile was pulling at her lips that were smudged with pink lipstick — presumably messed up from the number of drinks she must have had over the past few hours. While Venus had mostly stayed away from the food and drink, Porter enjoyed using the opportunity of parties to indulge.
"I found a diamond," she proclaimed, the words slurring together as she swayed on the spot. As she briefly moved beneath one of the train's lights, Venus caught a glimpse of the few grey hairs beginning to jump out. Only two weeks ago someone in the Capitol had asked her when she was going to invest in a wig or some hair dye. Porter had punched the sucker; when recounting the story to Venus later, she had said she liked the indicators that she was aging. After all, there had once been a time that growing old didn't look too likely for her.
Venus got up and led her to one of the seats. The train was built so that it was nearly impossible to feel it moving, but she didn't think that Porter would be steady enough on even the most solid of grounds right now.
"A diamond?" asked Venus. "Another for your collection?"
Porter nodded enthusiastically until her head fell to Venus' shoulder. "I like pretty diamonds."
"I know." Venus gently deposited her mentor on one of the blue velvet couches. She plucked off the stray eyelash before it could poke her eye, flicking it to the ground.
Porter brought her legs up so that she was lying stretched out across the chair, though her height made it so that her feet dangled off the edge. Then she twisted, fumbling around for something in one of her pockets. When her hand re-emerged from the vast ocean of fabric that was her dress, she was holding the diamond in question. Only it wasn't new or one she had found.
