Though now she lived in the districts, she was capitol born. She knew all of his hardships and never looked at him any differently. She handled him with such gentleness, and kindness. She was a rare bird, His Nightingale. Just like he had been for h...
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Coriolanus stood on the empty train platform, awaiting Juniper's arrival, Goodness. He wasn't even sure if she'd remembered him after all these years. Part of him secretly hoped she didn't. It would make things a lot easier. A long-stemmed white rose balanced between his shaking thumb and index finger. It had been Tigris's idea to bring her a gift.
"Something to break the ice," she said.
She had came home very late on the night of the reaping, but he stayed up waiting to consult her, to tell her of his humiliations and fears for Juniper who was alive after all. She refused to let the conversation spin into despair. He would when a prize; he would have to! And have a brilliant university career. As for the apartment, they were to find out the specifics first. Perhaps the tax would not affect them, or even if it did, maybe not so soon. Maybe they could scrape up enough for the taxes somehow. But he was to think of none of that. Only of the Hunger Games, and how he might make a success of it by doing whatever he can to help himself and Juniper.
At Fabricia's reaping party, Tigris said, everyone went nuts over Juniper Eliora Gael. His tribute had "star quality," her friends had declared as they drunkenly slurped their posca. The cousins agreed that he needed to make a good impression on her especially given the circumstances. To save her and help her win, she would need to be willing to work with him. He wasn't gonna treat her like some condemned prisoner, but as returning guest. As his friend. Coriolanus had decided to greet her early at the train station. It would give him a jump on the assignment, as well as an opportunity to win her trust back.
"Imagine how terrified and alone she must feel, Coryo," Tigris had said. "Not only that but to be returning to a place that once stripped her of everything she's ever had. Especially being ripped apart from you. I still remember her screams...If it was me, anything you could do to show me you still cared and never forgot about me, would go a long way. No, more than that. Like I was still of value. Take her something, even a token, that lets her know you still value her."
Coriolanus instantly thought about his grandmother's roses, which were still loved by all the Capitol. The old woman nurtured them arduously in the roof garden that came with the penthouse, both out of doors and in a small solar greenhouse. She parceled out her flowers as if they were diamonds, though, so it had taken a good bit of persuasion to get this beauty. He remembered when they were younger, Juniper had always loved his grandmothers roses.
"Please...I need to mend my connection with her. And you remember she always used to say you have the most beautiful flowers in all of the capital."
It was a testament to how worried his grandmother was about their situation that she had allowed it.
A few days had passed since the reaping. It was rather hot in the city today and even though it was just past dawn, the train station was beginning to bake. Coriolanus thought of leaving for a moment and coming back later, but he decided he just couldn't risk missing her train. The only information he could get out of his downstairs neighbor, Gamemaker-in-Training Remus Dolittle, was that it was supposed to arrive Wednesday. No rules had been laid out, per se, but he thought most of his classmates would wait to meet their tributes at a session overseen by the Academy the following day.
