Marking Coriolanus Snow - 1/1 | Snowbaird Fanfiction

Just before ao3 goes down... I posted the first story for the Snowbaird smut week (I am laaaaate I know).

Prompt: virginity

Enjoy! 🥰

Mockingjay's screams

Link:

@snowbaird-events 💖

The first run of the Smut week will start in three days!!!

For those who need a reminder, here are the prompts!

Day 1 - June 16 : virginity

Day 2 - June 17: hickeys/marking

Day 3 - June 18: bondage

Day 4 - June 19: exhibitionism

Day 5 - June 20: breeding

Day 6 - June 21: mirrors

Day 7 - June 22: outdoors sex

The results of the poll were leaning towards June, but in the end, after consideration, we’re officially gonna make two runs of the event!

What does that mean?

You can post your work either in the first run (which will take place from June 16th to June 22nd) but if you miss it, you can also participate in the second run, which will take place in august (exact date to be determined)

During the second run of the smut week, we’ll also be reblogging works from the first run on corresponding days!

The purpose of this is to give an opportunity to people who might miss the first run to still participate in the fun;; it’ll also give us an opportunity to revisit things posted in the first run! 🥰

Posts with the prompt list, rules and further details will be made later, but in the meantime don’t hesitate to send an ask or dm if you have any questions!

For prompt 2 Snowbaird Valentine event: rose

@snowbaird-events

in this case bed of roses

Two weeks until the first run of the AU fest event!!!

WAIT IS THE CURSE OVER???

From February 14 to 29 - head to @snowbaird-events for the full details!

The original post won’t get much reach bc the event blog is still shadow banned, so if you’re interested in participating/seeing others make content for it, please reblog!

Another day another prompt 💃

Snowbaird Valentine Event

This is the first story in chronological order! I am super excited to post. It's more heavy then the others, but, oh well...

As usual thank to @snowbaird-events and @burntblueberrywaffles and all the discord snowbaird server 🥰

6. Rainbow

He remembers it as if only one day had passed.

The slow search in the forest, the rifle weighing in his arms, the growing concern for Lucy Gray who did not answer his call. The orange shawl on a bramble, dirty and abandoned; the terror that paralyzed him and then the pain of the snake bite.

And then his head, which split in half.

Kneeling on the hard ground of the forest, looking at the wound on his arm, time stretched on and on. The damn birds began to sing. The terror that Lucy Gray is lost or hurt is swept away by the burning sensation of betrayal; the rain falls and he feels it like bullets on his head, on his body. 

"Lucy Gray!" a scream filled with frustration as rejection takes hold of him, as it paralyzes him, as he cannot believe that, that she, that....

And, then, two arms wrap around him.

"I'm here," Lucy Gray murmurs, her head resting on his back, "I'm here, Coriolanus. It is not poisonous. It's not poisonous, I swear."

Coriolanus does not know whether it is reality or a dream - a nightmare - and he crumples in on himself, grabs his head. He closes his eyes and the world is a kaleidoscope; he is in a house of mirrors, where Lucy Gray's songs bounce and taunt him, where those damned birds do not stop tormenting him. He sees them, even with his eyes closed. He sees their beaks now pointed, their little legs full of deadly claws.

"Make them stop" he sobs, as he cries in agony "Make them stop".

The only foothold he has with reality is the grip of Lucy Gray's arms on his waist. She anchors him, holds him still, shuts off all excess as he feels himself dying inside little by little, as betrayal mingles with rejection and finally pain.

As he turns back, slowly, one labored step at a time.

She, who is singing, perhaps to try to console him, perhaps to stem the enormous panic attack that has pervaded him, stops. The Mockingjays echo her notes for the last time and then the forest fades away; only the sound of rain remains.

Coriolanus calms down. Slowly, as the minutes tick by, he comes to recognise what is tangible and what is not. The grip on his waist. The weight of Lucy Gray on his back.

Real or not real?

With difficulty he pulls his fingers away from his head, frees his ears from the hands he had pressed against them, in an attempt to turn off any noise - real or imaginary. He opens his eyes. He straightens his back, one painful inch at a time.

He turns around, inhaling at the top of his lungs.

And she is there.

Lucy Gray is there. She's still holding him by the waist but she's flinched, to be seen.

"Forgive me" she tells him, the tears on her face mingling with the rain "I was afraid".

Coriolanus bursts into tears again and holds her in his arms. Lucy Gray caresses him, comforts him. She no longer sings, does not allow the birds to imitate her, to torture him again. She merely waits for him to vent everything with tears, until Coriolanus feels drained and without strength.

Eventually, they break away. They stand up. Lucy Gray grabs the rifle and Coriolanus grabs the shawl. They hold each other's hand.

They walk back to the hut by the lake.

The rain slows down and, by the time they arrive, it has disappeared completely. They sit on the shore of the lake, indifferent to the wetness. They are already soaked from head to toe.

Lucy Gray puts the gun down behind her and takes the shawl from his hands; she drapes it around her shoulders again. She smiles, but her eyes are still sad.

"You lied to me, Coriolanus" she tells him, neutral, without accusing him "And then I saw it. I saw, in your eyes, when we found the weapons, that you were thinking of leaving me."

Coriolanus has no excuse. What Lucy Gray is telling him is true.

He turns his face away, stares at the horizon, for he does not have the courage to look her in the face.

"... I was lying to myself" he whispers finally "Because if I say it, I must also admit that it is true".

Lucy Gray sighs.

"Sejanus?"

Coriolanus nods.

"I thought his father saved him" he finally admits "I tried to save him. They denied me the call" he turns again to look at her "I swear, Lucy Gray" he concludes, fiery.

Because it is the truth. It is the truth and also the only way he can live with himself now.

Lucy Gray caresses his cheek and smiles. She is still sad. There is still the second unfinished business between them.

"You are not made for this life, Coriolanus."

Coriolanus closes his eyes and leans against her hand. He inhales deeply, and then turns back to the horizon.

The rainbow has sprung up.

"We'll make it work," he replies, his mind back to work - healthy again, ready to look for the best way out.

"How?" asks Lucy Gray.

Coriolanus begins to speak, staring at the rainbow. The serenity after the rain. The promise of a thousand colors.

Lucy Gray, his girlfriend.

Whom he plans to save, paying any price.

***

At the base no one noticed his little outing that morning. The nurse to whom he shows his arm reassures him that the bite is not poisonous, and that it is normal for snakes to come out of their lair during the rain.

Coriolanus faces his last days as a Peacekeeper in District Twelve, before being transferred. The searches are still going on; Mayor Lipp is still inconsolable, wracked with grief - he is still staring at the Covey house, eyes out of their sockets, looking for a culprit he will not find. The weapons are safe at the bottom of the lake. Lucy Gray stands guard over their grave, waiting for the all-clear.

Coriolanus searches the Coveys' wretched house under the watchful eye of the mayor and manages to tell Barb Azure in half a voice where Lucy Gray is and why she is there. The house is clean. The Peacekeepers continue their tour.

And, finally, they arrive at the mayor's house. Coriolanus did not even have to make an effort to get the general to accept his suggestion. "It's obvious the mayor didn't kill his daughter, but wouldn't it be a smart move for the Rebels to hide the weapons in the one place we'll never check?" The search is approved. Coriolanus slips into the kitchen with an excuse.

He recognised the signs, in the pallor of Mayor Lipp's face, in his bloodshot eyes, in his never-quenched anger. He has spent a lifetime behind Professor Sickle's skirts, he can tell when a person has decided to drown their pain in a bottle. And slipping white powder - rat poison - into the half-open bottle in the kitchen is child's play.

The next day he will be in District Two. Less than a week and Lipp will already be dead.

Lucy Gray will be able to go home.

***

Things went better than expected.

Coriolanus wasn't sent to Two, but he went home. He won the Plinth Prize and Dr Gaul has taken him under her wing. He'll pretend to follow her and her beliefs to exploit her connection with President Ravinstill and, then, when he's sure of his role in society - Coriolanus Snow, future president of Panem - he'll end the charade and get rid of her too.

Meanwhile, he just took care of old Dean Highbottom. That was personal, of course, but still related to Lucy Gray. If he hadn't sent her home, if he hadn't expelled him and forced him to join the Peacekeepers... If, if, if.

He risked losing her. His Lucy Gray, his precious songbird.

He risked losing her in more ways than one - he doesn't like to think about it, he doesn't want to admit it even to himself, but Coriolanus knows that as his head cracked, if Lucy Gray hadn't been ready to grab hold of him and keep him grounded in reality, he would have risked stepping beyond the insane and the unforgivable.

For this, Highbottom deserved to die.

That is why Coriolanus knows that, from now on, he will do whatever it takes to achieve his goals. Without any more qualms; without any more moral restraint.

Coriolanus walks the streets of Capitol City, hugging himself in his red coat to counter the air that has become crisp. Dawn has dawned a few hours ago, but it has rained during the night, and the winter sun has failed to chase away the moisture that now seeps into his bones.

He reaches the huge roundabout before the Corso, imagining the Dean writhing as the poison-corrected Morphamine takes effect, and suddenly he sees it: behind the Statue of Justice a rainbow rips through the sky, filling it with hope.

Coriolanus smiles. He thinks about how Dr Gaul approved not only his Victory Tour project, but also his request to have Lucy Gray move to the capital, and then perhaps the Coveys, the following year. What better way to introduce Panem to its Victor than to have her seen happy and surrounded by the loved ones she risked losing in the Hunger Games? Hope, mixed with the pain of remembering those who did not survive. Bread with which to nourish Panem and its Districts, in a way that is congenial to his Mentor and at the same time allows him to hold on to his Lucy Gray.

“Of course I will take care of everything,” recalls the conversation with Dr Gaul “Lucy Gray and the Coveys will be my welcome guests. Pluribus Bell has offered its club to allow them to practice and perform for curious citizens. Don't worry, I have everything under control”.

Control.

Gaul's favorite word, the sure way to gain her approval.

Wonderful as the rainbow after the rain; Lucy Gray and her colors, which he will see again in a few days.

Wait for me, my love , he thinks, eager to fulfill the promise he made to her on the shores of the lake, I will come for you.

And then nothing will be able to separate us any more.

💖💖💖

Link on ao3:

It's Valentine! That means... 😏

Snowbaird valentine event!

Thanks to @snowbaird-events and @burntblueberrywaffles and all the snowbaird server for this beautiful event! 😍

There are seven prompts and I decide to write some little short stories all in the same "au". There will be plenty of fluff, silliness and happy ending. Also, this is a fix-it. I will post even on ao3 in the collection and I will link the story at the end.

So, let's start!

Here is the first story

1. Valentine

The first time he heard this he thought he had misunderstood.

"... Valentine..."

He looks up from the newspaper he is reading and sees Lucy Gray and Tigris confabulating on the other side of the living room. They giggle, see that he is looking at them and turn away, covering their mouths with their hands and lowering their voices further.

I wonder what they are up to , thinks Coriolanus. He doesn't give it much thought, even though the male name pinched his ears uncomfortably, since it was Lucy Gray who pronounced it. With a lot of enthusiasm.

Mentally, he shrugs his shoulders. It must be a model from Tigris' new atelier or something. He has nothing to fear anyway.

Right?

***

He seems to hear it everywhere.

This time he went out, with Lucy Gray and Festus and Persephone. A nice double date.

He is coming back from the bathroom when he sees Lucy Gray half lying on the table, leaning towards Persephone and saying something to her with a bright, amused air.

"... Valentine..." it's that name again. His ears perk up and a shiver seizes him and he marches determinedly towards the table.

"What are you talking so cheerfully about?" he asks, smiling quietly.

Persephone chuckles and Lucy Gray returns to sit composed, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Nothing interesting, sweetheart," she replies to him, "Persephone was telling me that her parents will probably give her a cat for her birthday."

A cat named Valentine?

Coriolanus watches her, quiet. Something doesn't add up.

He realizes only later, when he goes with Festus to pay: Lucy Gray was acting. She was not authentic.

She is hiding something from him.

***

 Even with Clemmy - even with Clemmy!

Lucy Gray stopped by the university after a morning of errands downtown and he caught her talking under her breath to Clemmy on the threshold of the chemistry room.

"... Valentine..."

Clemensia smiles and giggles, which is quite unusual for her.

"Good morning, girls," Coriolanus greets them, trying to smile but feeling his face get stuck in a paresis. He is starting to get irritated.

He doesn't like the excited glow in Lucy Gray's face.

Who the heck is this Valentine?!

Lucy Gray laughs and is already in his arms. She stands up on her toes and kisses him ardently.

Immediately Coriolanus calms down. Surely it cannot be anyone special if Lucy Gray continues to seek him out in this way, even in public, even when it would be better to avoid it.

***

Then suspicion sets in again when even Festus gets involved.

This time he catches them together. A very stupid thing, at the supermarket. He passed by almost by chance because of an unforeseen gap in university schedule to buy a treat for the evening, because he knows Lucy Gray loves them. And he has seen Lucy Gray and Festus so close that they almost brush against each other as they look at the pastry shelves.

Immediately a burning anger invades him and closes his stomach.

Really? Just what... Four months in the capital and Lucy Gray is already cheating on him with one of his friends? With his best friend?

And then he feels it again, as he is pinned down at the beginning of the lane, unable to advance towards them - and maybe it's just for the best, because right now he just feels pervaded by a murderous rage.

"... For Valentine..."

What is that, a code name? The name Lucy Gray calls Festus by in some moment of passion?!

The idea is so ridiculous that it almost distracts him, and then it is Festus who notices him.

He smiles like it's nothing, approaching him perhaps too quickly, leaving the cart behind.

"Coryo! Don't you have class with Gaul now?"

There it is, the admission of guilt. You wanted me to be busy, didn't you?

"She's absent," he replies, flatly. Lucy Gray emerges from behind his back.

"Isn't that an odd coincidence? I wanted to buy a treat for tonight and ran into Festus instead."

She's acting, too. Again.

Coriolanus merely looks at her and nods, without smiling.

“Then I think I'll go back to the university. I came for the same reason,” he replies, without any inflection in his tone of voice, and turns his back on them and leaves before either of them can retort.

***

It is the fourteenth of February and Coriolanus has spent a sleepless night, pondering in fevered fantasies whether to make a scene to Lucy Gray and leave her, whether to behave stoically and leave her before she can do so and face his own pain alone, or whether to go down on his knees and beg her forgiveness for whatever he may have done and, above all, for the return of his love.

Pathetic.

He gets out of bed because he has nothing else to do and goes through the bathroom to settle down. His expression is terrible. It's been so long since he's sulked with someone that he almost struggles to recognise himself.

Pathetic. And it's all that damn Valentine's fault.

He still finds it hard to believe that it's a nickname for Festus - by the way, does he have to say something to Persephone? Maybe she has some idea what's going on? Or is he going to come across as a paranoid lunatic?

(... But, on the other hand, Persephone might also be involved. Festus is too libertine to settle for a monogamous relationship, yet he is so happy with her. Surely there is something going on).

(Ok, now he's definitely losing his mind).

He goes back to his room and gets dressed, elegant as usual. In less than an hour he has to be at the university. He will think about his own heart problems when he gets home, assuming he can stand up all day after the sleepless night.

A delicious smell comes out of the kitchen. Something chocolatey. Perhaps Ma’ might have outdone herself...

When he enters, however, he finds only Lucy Gray and a gorgeous, huge heart-shaped cake on the table.

"Happy Valentine's Day!" she exclaims, jumping in excitement.

Coriolanus's heart sinks and begins to pound at the same instant. What does that mean?

He asks her, almost in despair.

"What does it mean?! "

Lucy Gray rounds the table and throws her arms around his neck. She kisses him and her mouth tastes like chocolate.

"It's a Covey tradition," she explains to him, "An old lost holiday. Valentine's Day, the fourteenth of February, the day of lovers. And it's customary to exchange chocolate treats."

The relief is so great that it almost makes him bend his knees. Coriolanus pulls her close to cling to her.

"So... In these weeks..." he murmurs.

Lucy Gray laughs and kisses him again, this time for longer.

"I was telling everyone about the tradition" she replies to him “I made sure Tigris took Grandma’am away this morning, with an excuse. I explained it to Percy so she could organize something for Festus and I told Clemmy so she would spread the word among the girls, at the university, to bring back the tradition. And finally, I asked Festus what your favorite chocolate dessert was and for help in choosing the ingredients”.

Coriolanus starts giggling, hysterical.

Hell! He was hysterical. All in his mind, as usual.

A celebration! Valentine's Day.

The celebration of lovers.

Only Lucy Gray could come up with something so absurd and romantic at the same time.

"Do you want to eat the cake?" asks Lucy Gray, after his outburst.

Coriolanus tilts his head, observing her.

"You said Tigris and Grandma’am aren't here, right?"

Lucy Gray widens her smile and Coriolanus kisses her again.

"I'll just taste the chocolate like this, for now," he tells her, taking her in his arms and pushing her towards the table, well away from the cake "And then, if there's time left over, we can eat the cake too."

Lucy Gray, in response, grabs him by the hair and pushes him back to her lips, squeezing her legs behind his back and trapping him against her.

Exactly in the one place he wants to stay for the rest of his life.

💖💖💖

Link on ao3:

Reminder to anyone who might want to participate to the Valentine event, you still have until the 29th to fill one (or several) of the prompts!! 🥰 (late entries are accepted as well)