Love comes in all shades | Coriolanus Snow x OC |

8. Step by step

Coriolanus spent the rest of the night studying the newspaper that his grandma'am stored behind her bed. She had a whole pile of them just in case there's a war again, as she said. If an armed conflict would occur at least they wouldn't have to worry about warming themselves up for a couple of weeks. They had enough newspapers for that. But that night they served another purpose as Coriolanus kept on reading the culture department, hoping that he'd find inspiration there. He had to make his tribute desirable and approachable for the public. He needed the audience to care about her and in order to do that he had to make her interesting for them. If he succeeded in that maybe they'd like to see her survive and watch the games for her.

Speaking of which, he also studied the previous games. Just on a superficial level for now, but he planned on borrowing a book on that topic from the Academy's library. Although, he already found out some interesting information about the games. No newspaper, even the special articles that took a couple of pages of the magazine, dwelled on tributes - neither their background nor characteristics. Nothing. People who wrote it barely even mentioned their names. In some of the cases they didn't even write the name of the winner, instead offering a curt note that the annual hunger game was won by a person from a particular district. It was so...inhumane. And as he realized that, he decided to check something else. The less personal the news coverage was, the less people cared about it, causing them to lose interest in the live broadcast and thus the overall low engagement in the event. Except for the parties organized to celebrate the date. They seemed to make people thrilled. And he could easily see why. They were lavish and extravagant. In essence, they represented everything that people living in the Capitol desired to possess and aspired to be.

And yet, he had a very different reason to like them. They brought him luck last night with Elise. He could still feel her lips softly brushing against his cheek. Each recalling of the moment caused him to crave going back in time and pulling her closer. Oh, he wished he'd kissed her right there. He wished to taste her. To seal the deal between the two of them. Alas, it would be too reckless. She probably drank that night and hence kissing her and moving any further would be frowned upon. What if he'd decide afterwards that she didn't feel that way and it was alcohol talking for her? She'd have that excuse, whereas he'd be painted as a guy who took advantage of her. That was out of the question. She'd ruin him and she was supposed to lift him up. It was literally the only purpose of having her in his life. That and those lips, the thought anchored in his mind, making it impossible to get rid of it and hence he decided to embrace it. There was nothing wrong in enjoying side perks of the relationship that was forming.

Alas, thinking about her was unhelpful at the moment, distracting even. He had to stay focused on a different task at the moment, the one concerning his tribute and his role as a mentor. Firstly, he had to start referring to her by her actual name rather than her role. Lucy Gray Baird from District Twelve, he said inside his own head a couple of times before repeating it out loud. He had to practice to make it sound rather affectionate, almost as if he was actually concerned about her well-being. Almost as if he personally cared about her survival. Secondly, he had to make her interesting for others. He had to make people invested in her character.

And thirdly, he had to make her trust him. She needed to believe that he wanted what was best for her. Without it all of his careful studying and hours spent on planning would go to waste. It was the key to moving forward in this...adventure. If he gained her trust, she'd listen to him. And she needed to do that because...

Suddenly his mind went blank. He didn't know why she would need to do that. What would be in it for her? He already knew that her chances for an actual survival were meek. She was probably going to die within the first two minutes in the arena. It became a common knowledge ever since he saw her for the first time. Moreover, it was obvious before her name was even mentioned during the reaping. Otherwise Casca Highbottom wouldn't set things up the way he did. If they knew all of this, there was no reason to think that this girl didn't know that as well. And hence he had to approach her differently. He just didn't know how yet.