Reprisal

CHAPTER NINE | PART TWO

     Tears of frustration almost spill from her lashline and smear her makeup, the drive home having been silent, not a word spoken from her, nor Dyess, nor Snow, nor Tigris.

Only her parents and the Plinths acknowledge one another's existence while Tawny stares out the window, Snow stares ahead, and Dyess stares at the both of them.

Tigris had kept her eyes on the floorboard of the stretched town car they had all rode in.

The first stop was Tigris, Snow's cousin getting out the car as swiftly as she can, wishing to be freed from the suffocating tension that she was certain only four people in the vehicle were even aware of – and it wasn't the Plinths nor the Gauls.

"Goodnight," She says, kissing Coriolanus on the cheek as he mutters, "Goodnight."

"Goodnight, dear!" Ma calls, Tigris shutting the door and waving to her before they drive off.

A few blocks down, the car slows once more, Ma and Strabo Plinth exiting, Coriolanus following behind them, not giving a second glance at Tawny, nor Dyess.

Minerva and Tiberius attempt to strike up a conversation with the couple, to no avail, the two of the shutting everything and everyone else out.

Tawny knew, when she saw the expression on her husband's and lover's faces as they returned from the restroom, that something had happened.

Some words had been exchanged.

And when neither of them looked at her anymore in the night, she knew what it had pertained to.

It's not until they arrive home, and she's bidding goodnight to her parents, going to shower and then readying for bed that she dares to speak.

"What happened in that bathroom, Dyess?" She asks, cautiously, though once could receive it as gentleness.

She's smoothing lotion onto her leg while he's finishing up brushing his teeth.

He pretends not to hear her, rinsing his mouth and the toothbrush off before replacing it back into the cabinet.

Just as he's closing it, her arms are wrapping around his bare torso, lips pressing to the skin of his back before her cheek presses against him.

"I saw you got your ring back." He mumbles, having noticed earlier in the night that the princess cut diamond had been perfectly replaced onto her finger after her short trip to the powder room with Tigris.

She's gritting her teeth and gently pulling him to face her, her fingertip gently tracing along the skin of his chest as she says, "I told you it was just a mishap in the lab. I accidentally grabbed Livia's ring, and she grabbed mine. She realized when she was packing to go to her mother's and left mine with Coriolanus, who gave it to Tigris to give to me. And I gave her ring to Tigris because she's going to visit her for the final fitting of her dress for Reaping Day."

It's a carbon copy of the same excuse Coriolanus had given him.

"Did you coach him to say that, or did he coach you?" He asks her.

Snow had coached her, but she doesn't dare admit to it.

That's our story, we stick to it, Tigris is sticking to it if need be , he had told her in her panic of them getting caught.

"We don't coach one another, Dyess." She nearly rolls her eyes, maintaining her skin against his, now pulling closer to him. "And I don't think you realize how much it hurts me that you would even think I'd do that ."