Odi Et Amo | CORIOLANUS SNOW

18 | amo

WORD COUNT: 3583

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"THIS ISN'T WORKING!" Kyra huffed, tossing her edited script onto her desk.

"Tanwen, we've been at this for hours!" Coriolanus groaned in frustration, burying his face into his script, as he complained, "We've edited our scripts so they fit the new presentation. You know what I'm meant to say, I know what you're meant to say. Hell, I could say what you're meant to say! We're not interrupting each other anymore, we're not going off script, we're not changing anything... so how is this not working for you?"

"Because..." Kyra paced around her bedroom as she tried to define it. 

In theory, their presentation was perfect. The minute Snow had showed up to her house earlier in the day, their shared concentration had been unbreakable. Perhaps because they weren't weighed down by the messy memories of the Plinth Residence here, or perhaps simply they were both terrified of being kicked from the course. Either way, they had focused immediately on the presentation, had kept up that focus for hours, and, even when they bickered, it stayed solely focused on their work. As a result, their presentation technically sounded structured, clear, perfect. And yet, Kyra couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing.

Running a frustrated hand through her dishevelled hair, she settled on, "Because there's still... tension."

"Well, I don't know how to fix some mysterious, invisible tension." Coriolanus mocked, letting himself fall back onto Kyra's bed in exasperation, his own dishevelled curls falling into his face.

"Great, and now we're arguing." Kyra rolled her tired eyes, expecting nothing less.

"No, I'm not arguing." Coriolanus corrected, standing from the bed and reaching for his coat draped on the back of her desk chair, "I'm going home."

"You're leaving? Before we've perfected this?!" Kyra glared at him in disbelief, moving to block the door that Coriolanus seemed so eager to reach, "Don't you care that we might get kicked from this class?!"

"Of course I care!" Coriolanus's voice was the loudest Kyra had heard it all day, his restrained irritation threating to completely spill out as he rambled on in frustration, "I care as much as you that we might get kicked from this class! Maybe even more than you, because if I don't finish this course, Dr Gaul will end my apprenticeship with her! But I don't see how practising this over and over again is fixing some sort of tension that you can't even pinpoint, when our presentation is already great!"

"I don't want it to just be great, I want it to be perfect!" Kyra fired back with a voice matching his intensity, her wild eyes contrasting her worn down appearance, driven by her resentment alone, "And sure, maybe I can't describe the tension in our presentation, but I can feel it. Fuck, it's the only thing I feel around you!"

"Then, maybe it's not our presentation, but us, Tanwen!"

"So, maybe we should talk about us, Snow!"

"What is there to talk about?!" Coriolanus shouted, his authoritative voice terrifying whenever he spoke so loud... and strangely flustering for the girl in love trying her best to be mad. Throwing his coat on the ground, he continued on bitterly, "When I saw you at that restaurant, you made it clear our night together meant nothing! When you asked me what we are, I gave you the same answer - nothing! Two people that are nothing to each other aren't an us, Tanwen. It's just you and me."