ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴇʟᴏᴅʏ ᴏꜰ ꜱᴡᴇᴇᴛʜᴇᴀʀᴛꜱ ᴀɴᴅ ꜱɴᴏᴡꜰᴀʟʟ

𝚜𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗

"Snow." Lucy Gray murmured, smiling warmly, though the corner of her mouth was upturned as if she was smirking at him, "a little unfitting for a District 2 boy, ain't it, Yarrow?"

There was a twang to her words as if she had come from the southern area of Panem before the Districts had even been formed, and it had been some time before he had ever heard someone speak that way, like the feeling of Grandma'am's cookies that she baked before the First Revolution.

"Now, don't be rude, Lucy Gray," Yarrow chided, taking the basket and loading it with bread, "Mr. Coriolanus is a newcomer. Will be staying with us for a while so we might as well be friendly," he placed the basket in front of her.

"Coriolanus," she enunciated, "I like the sound of that name. Sounds fancy."

The Southern twang of her voice was oddly charming, and he thought about asking her to say it again, but Yarrow's wife interrupted his thoughts before he could speak.

"Friendly is one word for it," Sessile chuckled, "you're like a deer, curious about almost everything."

"It's in my nature! What's it now- the both of you ganging up on me?" he feigned offense, and the two girls laughed in turn.

"I take it you three know each other." he offered, still leaning closer against the counter.

"Why, how could you tell," Lucy Gray teased, "we've been tight as peas in a pod since we were kiddos. They had a hand in helping raise my little cousin," her smile faded, "before my people were rounded up and brought here."

"Rounded up? Like cattle?" Coriolanus joked.

Both Yarrow and her smile faded, as she cleared her throat, bundling the bread into the white cloth and picking the basket up, "I best be going. Yarrow, Sess, I'll see you at the weddin'?" she raised her hand in a mock salute, as the duo returned the gesture, and the bell rang, signaling her leave.

Sessile turned to him, expression suddenly hardened and unwelcoming, "you best watch what you say in front of Lucy Gray, stranger," she warned.

His eyes grew wide, and he opened his mouth in apology, "I'm sorry, I don't-"

"Sess, you're freaking out the poor guy," Yarrow waved off his jitters, "my wife's a little overprotective of her best friend. But seriously, not a good joke. Lucy Gray and the Coveys... they've been through a lot,"

"Coveys?" Coriolanus asked, puzzled at the unfamiliar word in their vocabulary.

Yarrow had gone to the back of the store, leaving him alone with his now terrifyingly angry wife who was trembling as she continued to decorate the cake meant for the mayor's daughter.

"Just who do you think you are?" she demanded, after a bout of silence, and he jumped, the clearly-irritated tone of the baker's wife now cut through the silence like a knife through butter.

She flipped the barrier between the counter, and marched over, hands on her hips, eyes ablaze with anger.

"That was cruel."

"I-I'm sorry," he spluttered, bracing himself with the counter for support, "really, I didn't mean- I didn't know-"

"You don't make jokes like that, especially to the Coveys. Lord knows they've been through enough horrors this past decade." she leaned closer, hands marked with powdered sugar and cheeks dusted with the purple used to dye the icing.

"Hey, Sess, I found the-" Yarrow chirped, walking through the closet door holding a basket of colorful tiny , completely oblivious to his wife's temperament, "w-what are you doing?"

Sessile's hair was tied back neatly in a bun bounced as she whipped around to face her husband, "giving this stranger a piece of my mind."

Yarrow guffawed, although Coriolanus felt severely intimidated, his pride damaged heavily by the sight of a pregnant woman screaming her lungs off at him for his ill-placed joke.

"Just say you're sorry, Mr. Snow." her husband seemed unfazed by his wife who was invading Coriolanus' personal space, "trust me, it'll ease up her frustrations quite easily."

"I-I did!" Coryo spluttered, "multiple times."

Yarrow eyed him, "do it again. Works around the fourth or fifth time if ya really mean it."

"Sorry! Sorry!" and suddenly, he couldn't smell the buttercream icing, and Sessile now appeared behind the counter once more, pressing a kiss to her husband's cheek as she prepped her piping bag.

"Good enough for now," she huffed, wiping the powdered sugar onto her apron.

"Sorry, Coriolanus Snow, I'm afraid you've gotta leave," Yarrow winced, seeing his wife's hands clench around the icing, "otherwise she might spray us both with buttercream icing."

He lifted the barrier between them and escorted him gently outside of the bakery, chuckling softly to himself, momentarily taking off his chef's hat which sat lazily on his head, brushing his hand through soft brown hair, dusted with flour.

"The Coveys are a sensitive subjects for Sessile... ever since we've been married, she hasn't seen much of them; they don't want to make her stressed with the performances they've got."

"Performances?"

"Yeah," Yarrow chuckled, brushing his hand behind his neck as he scratched it bashfully, "that's actually how met Sess. She was performing with one of her adopted siblings, Miss Lucy Gray, you met her earlier. She was as pretty as a magnolia in may, flowers strung through her hair and a yellow sundress the color of cornsilk. Singin' some creepy song though." he shuddered.

"But there's something about the Coveys that scream magic. Every one of their performances garners some kind of audience. That's why they got so many gigs," he chortled, "sang their way into every wedding in town, even performed at our own."

Suddenly, his eyes brightened, dusting the flour off his hands with a few claps, "say! Best way for you to get integrated into District 12! The Donner's would be delighted for some more guests, anyways!"

Coriolanus hesitated, raising his hands in surrender.

"No- I really wouldn't want to intrude... I just got here, and my lodgings need some fixing-"

Yarrow threw his free hand around Coryo's shoulder, "alright, I ain't forcing ya to come to anything, but it would be a great opportunity to meet some of the citizens, and uh," he leaned in for a whisper, "maybe apologize to Lucy Gray again. It'd make Sess happy, at the very least, and she'd be mad if I didn't mention once."

Coryo nodded, and Yarrow took his arm off of his shoulder.

"Now, I'm off to make some choco-pickles. Something about pregnancy cravings," he chuckled, walking up the steps. Coriolanus nodded, as Yarrow watched from the steps.

He sighed, the bell ringing once.

"So?" Sessile had resorted to kneading bread; she had read in some battered books they had about exhausting anger, and she turned to face him, blue eyes glinting in amusement, "what do you think?"

" I think," Yarrow murmured, "he's perfect."

---

dun dun dun!!

(and no... it's not a threesome. I had my friend proofread it and that was the first thing to come to his mind... -_-)

sorry this chapter took so long by the way! midterms are coming up, so a lot of my time was going into studying :(

lmao i think it's funny that i wrote coriolanus as getting intimidated by a pregnant woman (and yes, chocolate covered pickles are a legitimate pregnancy cravings. i don't eat pickles so i wouldn't know about the deliciousness aspect, but i did my research)

anyways!

if you have time please check out my other storybook, "ministories"!

a short chapter based on icarus and the sun will be coming out shortly!

- angEl