tw: only real tw is that Coriolanus is going to be pretty sexist/classist the next few chapters (but it's all so that it's more noticeable when Liville starts making him see D12 more positively)
*****
Sejanus's first letter to Liville came one week after she was sent back to her parent's house. It was the only thing she had that gave her the hope she'd leave the wretched place someday. His letter assured her that Sejanus was safe, and it kept her calm about him being gone.
Sejanus becoming her pen pal again relit the friendship she thought they lost. He confided in her about his troubles in District Twelve, and she confided in him about her troubles at home. She finally felt whole again, relieved beyond a doubt that things between them were finally being fixed.
Coriolanus's letter came three weeks into his banishment. And that letter left her feeling shattered to pieces.
He wrote her a love letter.
Nothing Sejanus wrote had ever compared to it.
The letter was so beautifully written, so dramatically written, that she read the whole thing in Coriolanus's voice without even trying to.
After receiving it, she reread it nearly every single day. And she'd sob herself to sleep afterwards, every night.
The letter came with her name written in cursive. 'Liville Wanless'. There was no return address, but it did say Sejanus's name in the corner that verified the sender. She knew right away Coriolanus had sent it, however, his clean handwriting made her certain before she even opened it. He only wrote Sejanus's name so it would get to her, she was sure of it, so that it'd trick her strict parents into thinking it was just another letter from her betrothed.
The letter was sole proof that none of the feelings Liville had for Coriolanus had ever been one-sided. That things had been real between them.
That he had been hers. Fully, completely hers.
The letter read as follows:
'Dear Liville,
Please know I've sent this letter as soon as I possibly could. And though you haven't heard from me in nearly a month, I need you to know that I think of you every moment of every day I spend here. You are never off my mind. You hold my heart and thoughts captive, as you always have. Even at night I dream of you. And truly, I wouldn't have it any other way.'
When she first read it, her eyes teared up from the first paragraph alone.
'The barracks they've put me in are cramped and freezing. But it's nothing I'm unused to. In a way, the conditions are better than there were in my penthouse at home. I find myself comforted at night by imagining you safe and warm in a bed of your own. Truthfully, any image of you comforts me. I even find myself reminiscing of our past arguments, wishing to return to a time where you disliked me, because at least then we were near each other.'
He wrote to her in a way that reminded her of poetry.
'I think of our time as class partners often. Not just our mentorship, but when we worked together in the science laboratory dissecting flowers. I think of you whenever I pass a garden. Whenever I pass a flower, even. I saw a district girl being given a bouquet of dandelions, and I found myself jealous of the district man who could so easily gift them to his woman. I wish I could find a way to get one to you now, but the flowers out here are not beautiful enough for you.'
Every paragraph he wrote dug painfully into her soul.
'I am ashamed at how pathetic I've become now that I've lost you. And the last amount of dignity I have will be destroyed if I thought anyone else may read what I have to say to you. So please, Liville, I'm asking you to get rid of this letter after you've read it. Because knowing that it will be destroyed is the only way I am able to be honest with what I write next.'
