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Chapter Text

Tigris gazed at the watery image.

“can you tell us, who is this?” Mr Lovett asked, his desperation for answers lacing his tone.

“Her name was Lucy Gray Baird” Tigris spoke the name with the wonder she felt it deserved.

“and the diamond she’s wearing” the man impatiently asked

“the heart of the ocean?” Tigris stalled, mostly for her own amusement, she slowly peered round at the beholden expressions on the men behind her, and chuckled wryly “of course you already knew that”

“What happened to it Tigris?”

Tigris turned back to the portrait “don’t you want to hear more about my story first? About how this picture came to be?”

There was an audible sigh “we’re listening”

Tigris brought her shaking hands to trace the faded pencil lines on the screen one last time. If she closed her eyes she could still remember making them.

Pencil in hand, sketch pad on her knee. She had drawn. Every last ruffle, every last pleat of Lucy Gray’s dress she had captured.

And then her face. Tigris didn’t sketch faces, not usually. Mannequins were faceless. 

However this dress and this girl were so intertwined, Tigris had had to draw her too.

Innocent, sweet but also strong and defiant. Freedom personified, shining out the page at Tigris as it had then and still did now. Transporting her back to that time 84 years ago.

The ship of dreams. Sure. If your dream was to watch your twin sister be forced to marry a man she barely knows, just to save the family name. When you have to sit back helplessly and watch.

This wasn’t his dream. This was a nightmare.

“Just up here and to the left” their steward announced, opening the stately door with a flourish and brandishing his arm around the rooms behind.

He spotted Strabo passing the Steward a pound note and rolled his eyes. Such a new money gesture. So vulgar to flaunt cash in such a way.

He trailed after their party into the state room. Strabo had paid for a suite, consisting of a living room, two double rooms for Mr and Mrs Plinth and one for Grandma’am and three single rooms for him and Tigris and their darling Sejanus.

“Wow” he fought the clip of sarcasm gracing his voice, he didn’t think there had ever been a more plush prison cell.

Dark rich woods adorned the bottom of the walls, wall paper formed an opulent tapestry of swirling fleur-de-lis over the top.

The chaise lounge, the settees and foot stalls, all in  matching vermilion.

“Exquisite” Tigris sighed as she wandered around, trailing her hands across the vibrant fabrics.

“Tigris is pleased?” Sejanus smiled and he saw his sister give a stiff nod back.

Coriolanus moved out of the sitting room, passed their maids unloading their cases and out to the veranda.

He couldn’t watch those two together. It was too painful. His creative and quirky sister trying to make nice with the awkward, try hard, American boy.

They were so poorly suited it could be comical, if not for the fact Tigris was signing herself away for a life of misery. Giving up on her dreams of becoming a fashion designer to be a wife and mother for a man who only wanted her for her name and not who she was.

Coriolanus stared out at the docks. The people cheering and waving, the people who could never dream of being up here in such grandeur. The people the Snow’s would be if it wasn’t for Tigris’s marriage.

The guilt and frustration he felt at their situation burned a hole through his core.

Their father had died in the Boer war. Their mother a few years before in child birth. Left with their Grandmother from the age of 8, their dwindling estate barely carrying them a decade and now they were here.

If he could have married into money, if he could have made their fortune back himself, he would have. But it didn’t work that way for boys, no family would allow their girl to marry him without any funds,  even if there had been a girl to take his fancy which never seemed to have materialised anyway. And the only aptitude he appeared to have was for studying, but there was no money out there for a scholar.

They were stuck, and aligning themselves to the Plinth fortune and their roaring weapons trade in America was the only choice they had, unless they wanted to throw themselves on the mercy of the poor house, as Grandma’am liked to threaten.

“Great view huh?”

Coriolanus offered the other boy an unimpressed shrug as he joined him “my view across London from the Corso was far greater”

“Right” Sejanus nodded, looking glum “You don’t think Tigris will miss it too bad?”

Coriolanus bristled at the butchering of the English language “the Corso?”

Sejanus nodded

“No. Fabricia’s fashion school, yes” he answered truthfully but coldly. Sejanus was the reason she’d had to give it up after all.

“I am sorry about that” Sejanus stated sadly

“then why are you doing this to her?”

Sejanus was shoulder to shoulder with him now. Both leaning against the railing.

“my father wants me to marry into a family with a good name. Our fortune only gets us so far”

“can’t you marry into it here, in England?”

“I’m sorry, the plant’s in Virginia and so is all our money. I will encourage Tigris to pursue her interest in seamstresstry though”

Coriolanus scoffed again “from your estate in the middle of a forest?”

Tigris didn’t just want to sew. She wanted to design and learn and immerse herself in the world of fashion. It would be impossible surrounded by a bunch of country hay seeds and if Sejanus had half a brain cell he would know that.

“I do want her to be happy”

Coriolanus looked, probably for the first time, into the other’s face. Shocked at actually hearing some emotion from the other and not just the polite exchange of words.

“Do you love her?”

Sejanus dropped his gaze to the floor “I’d like to” he mumbled

“do you think you will one day?” Coriolanus continued. It was the only thing that could make this situation less awful. If the two would actually love each other.

“I wish I could” Sejanus looked at him with a stricken expression “but I just don’t think that’s possible for me” Sejanus pushed away from  the railing “excuse me” he hurriedly muttered as he left the terrace area.

Coriolanus followed his departure with weary eyes. Poor Tigris. Ripped away from everything she ever knew for a man who thought it an impossibility he would ever love her.

After they were unpacked and the other’s were settling down to be served tea. Coriolanus decided to ask Tigris to explore the ship with him.

He could almost feel Sejanus’s eyes boring into his back as they left. He felt a little bad. Him and Tigris were so close, two halves of the same person, maybe Sejanus felt left out. He was supposed to be getting close to Tigris, close enough to be married in a month or two and yet the twins barely paid him the time of day.

If Coriolanus was being reasonable he knew it wasn’t Sejanus they really hated just the fact his very existence meant they were having to leave their home and uproot their lives.

The air outside was fresh and salty now they were out at sea. England a distant sliver on the horizon.

They headed to stare out at the front of the ship, as far forward as first class would allow.

They were so high up above the waves. So high above the passengers below, in status as well as position on the ship.

Children skipped around with their ropes and hoops on the decks beneath them, adults spread out on the benches, soaking in the bright sun.

Tigris was gazing intently at something but before he could follow her eyes to see what, somebody else drew his attention.

Sejanus had followed them out here. Poor lost puppy, pining around Tigris’s feet when she wouldn’t give him a scrap of attention most of the time. Too wrapped up in her own world. But it was odd, Sejanus followed her everywhere even when he didn’t make much effort to converse with her.

It was him Sejanus mostly approached, the few times they’d been acquainted before this, Coriolanus had always assumed it was to butter him up, so he would give permission for Tigris’s hand, but he’d already given that. There was no reason for Sejanus to make nice with him now.

“I’ve heard in the warmer waters there might be dolphins” Sejanus was talking, Coriolanus hadn’t been sure how long.

“probably porpoises this close to England” he corrected, everyone always got those confused.

“wow, is there anything you don’t know about?”

Coriolanus wasn’t sure if Sejanus was making fun of him or genuinely praising his intellect, so he kept quiet.

He stared off into the sparkling waters, they looked crisp and refreshing. He did love swimming when he got time to, their fortunes didn’t allow much chance for it though, being stuck in smoky London most of his life of late.

“you enjoy the water?” Sejanus stated more than asked.

Coriolanus blinked, how could he tell what he’d been thinking? He looked across and caught Sejanus staring curiously at his face.

“erm yes” he stammered, taken aback by something he saw in the other’s expression. He was looking at him almost tenderly, like he wanted to see him properly, like he wanted to know him. The deep hues of his eyes boring too deeply into him and Coriolanus forced himself to look away, it didn’t feel right to be looking at each other like that somehow. Sejanus should have been looking at Tigris, his betrothed, in that manner instead.

He flicked his eyes to Tigris then, remembering she had been finding something interesting on the decks below.

She was still looking down there with a dreamy expression, this time he did follow her eyes and caught a girl staring back at Tigris with the same faraway look.

This girl was striking, another worldly look about her. Raven hair, piercing dark eyes and dusky skin. The colour of her dress made her stand out too. Every pastel shade imaginable interwoven into her skirts, a gorgeous embroidered floral motif depicted on the bodice.

Ahh, he realised, looking at Tigris’s mesmerised face. This dress would be calling to Tigris’s inner designer. He’d never seen anything like it and he doubted his sister had either.

“Enjoying the air sir?” Coriolanus startled as he felt the boy next to him tense. A common reaction to the man who approached them.

Gorman Hoff. A man who did survive the Boer war and now worked as the Plinth’s manservant.

“Your father would like a word back in the state room” he informed Sejanus with a terse nod. Barely subservient enough to constitute a servant master relationship. Everyone knew this man served Strabo and no other.

Coriolanus placed his arm on his sister’s to walk them back to their rooms. It was probably nearly time to dress for dinner.

“Did you see her?” Tigris excitedly whispered to him.

“I saw her dress if that’s what you mean” he conceded, he got it was a unique garment but her excitement over some steerage girl was rather baffling.

“I would love to draw that. It wasn’t just the colours it was how it was put together"

Tigris continued to wax lyrical about the dress’s design the entire way back upstairs.

“We’ll all have the lamb” Strabo announced conceitedly to the waiter. A power play so blatant, Coriolanus felt it as a physical shove to his self will.

Strabo was paying for this. You would all eat what he dictated you would.

Coriolanus didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of a reaction so nodded along. He did like lamb. He knew someone who didn’t.

“Actually the scallops for me” Tigris boldly stated with a innocent fluttering of her eyes at the waiter.

Grandma’am shot her a glare in response and looked as if she was about to say something until Sejanus interjected.

“That sounds good, scallops for me too”

Strabo glared then at having his authority questioned and Coriolanus hid a smirk behind his napkin.

Maybe he’d misjudged Sejanus, maybe Strabo was the one pulling all the strings, demanding their relocation, removing all of their independence.

Coriolanus nodded to himself as his lamb was placed in front of him, almost raw as Strabo had decided they all liked it. Maybe Sejanus could be brought on side. Maybe Sejanus could be convinced to allow Tigris some freedoms, out of the control of his domineering father.

Coriolanus raised his glass at Sejanus subtly, as he was served his scallops to show his approval at the other’s defiance and Sejanus raised it back. This, Coriolanus could work with, Sejanus was proving to be much more pliant to the Snow twin’s will than he’d ever dared hope.

After their final course was cleared away and the ladies rose to take their leave, he noticed Strabo had held Tigris back a moment and something was said quietly.

Tigris turned away with a cold look in her bright blue eyes, sucking her teeth in, a look Coriolanus knew meant annoyance.

Probably suffering a reprimand for going against Strabo’s will.

Coriolanus glanced across the table and saw Sejanus had taken note of the exchange too. Noticing Coriolanus looking, Sejanus made a finger wagging gesture and silently tutted, mocking his father’s stern telling off.

Coriolanus sniggered at him and then froze as he realised who it was he was sharing the joke with. The mirth in Sejanus’s eyes died and he looked away awkwardly.

Sejanus might have been less of an ogre than his father but Coriolanus refused to become friendly with him. He still personified everything that was wrong with the new world.

The Snow’s were an ancient family, their pedigree spanning centuries of elite society. And yet the Plinth’s, some immigrant family had bought their way into this world, the world which was slipping away from the Snow’s even though it was their birth right. The injustice made Coriolanus squirm.

He could not bring himself to share more than polite niceties with this boy. His dignity would not allow it.

After a few rounds of cards and a quick choke on the cloying smoke of a cigar, Coriolanus decided to head back to his room. He excused himself and stepped outside, the walkway there the fastest way up to the state rooms.

He’d just come round the corner at the back of the ship when he heard a shout from below.

He craned his head down the many levels to the stern, and to his horror recognised Tigris being pawed at by some lumbering steerage passenger. What was she doing down there with the lowlifes?

“Tigris!” he yelled “oi get off her” he shouted so the attacker could hear but he just smirked and stalked Tigris closer to the railings.

Coriolanus took off at a run, blind panic urging his feet forward, he headed to the stairs, he had several flights to get down to reach her though. He started calling out for help as he went but the area appeared abandoned.

As he rounded the last turn stealing himself for a fight, the first he would ever have had, he was brought up short.

“Hey get off her” was screamed in a an Irish lilt.

A small girl in an strangely familiar colourful dress was standing in front of Tigris, her body set in determined protection.

The man was looking curiously at her. In all honesty she didn’t look a match for his size.

“out the way song bird”  he drawled

“na ah Billy Taupe” she shook her head defiantly

“don’t say I didn’t warn you” and he dove for both the girls.

Lucy Gray leaned back and with deadly accuracy spat right into the attacker’s eye.

His momentum was knocked out of him as he stood still and wiped at his face, a look of disgust forming as he realised what she did “why you” he growled

Before he could go after them again, Coriolanus was spurred into action.

“Get away from them before I call for the master at arms” Coriolanus warned with icy authority in his voice.

“Who might you be to go ‘round makin threats like that?” the man squared up to him.

Coriolanus bristled with nerves.

“He’d be with me” another voice spoke and Coriolanus felt relief wash through him as he saw Sejanus making his way towards them.

He strode forwards which such confidence, his well built figure creating an imposing spectacle, Coriolanus felt himself inching closer to the safety of his side.

“You want to explain what’s going on here?” Sejanus asked, feigning a casual tone but there was a menacing edge to it.

“Nout, nout going on, misunderstanding t’ is all”

Sejanus raised his brows.

“Do we need to tell that to the master at arms?”

“No Sir no no, I were just going” the man turned tail and scarpered off into the night.

“Tigris you okay?” Coriolanus asked with concern, rushing forwards to hug her.

“Coryo I was so scared”

“Just what do you all think you are doing down here in Steerage?” more footsteps were heard and Strabo and Hoff joined their party too.

“Ah father we were just getting some night air when one of the passengers gave us some bother but it’s all been dealt with now. We’ll go back up to retire from all the excitement”

Their party headed for the stairs until Tigris cleared her throat, the males turned back to her in response.

“This brave girl just saved me from a lot of trouble. Is this the way you treat the saviour of your soon to be daughter in law?” Tigris stated challengingly at Strabo.

“Hmm” Strabo frowned then nodded to Hoff who stuck a hand in his pocket and approached the girl.

“Here” he thrust some notes at her.

The girl raised her eyebrows at the money but didn’t take it, folding her arms instead.

“Is that the going rate for an act of heroism?” Tigris folded her arms too.

Two defiant girls facing off against Mr Plinth.

Sejanus stepped forwards instead, knocking Hoff’s money wielding hand to the side.

“As it is my fiancé who you saved, let me be the one to offer my sincerest gratitude for placing yourself in harm’s way to protect her”

The strange girl gave a charming smile “it goes against every bone in my body to not help when I see someone in need”

“a sentiment I can admire” Sejanus shook Lucy Gray’s hand “I’m Sejanus Plinth, this is my fiance Tigris Snow”

She bobbed a polite curtsey “Lucy Gray Baird”

“It would be my pleasure to invite you to dine with us tomorrow evening as a display of my gratitude”

Lucy Gray beamed and looked at Tigris who looked beyond pleased with Sejanus’s proposition.

They bid her good night and Tigris excitedly skipped up the stairs at the front “Lucy Gray, she’s the girl with the dress” she whispered to him as they reached the top.

Oh. The girl from earlier, the one Tigris wouldn’t take her eyes off.

What the strangest luck that it was that very girl who had got to Tigris in her time of need. Coriolanus did not believe in fate, not when it had been so cruel to him. But he had to admit it was an extraordinary coincidence.

He glanced behind him and saw Strabo exchanging heated words with Sejanus.

“What on earth you’re playing at” he thought he heard hissed.

Sejanus must have been in a spot of hot water over his stunt with Lucy Gray. Inviting a steerage passenger to dine in first class. It was such a new money, snub to their high class, totally socially inappropriate move but Coriolanus begrudgingly thought it was brilliant.

That charismatic, sparky girl would be a hilarious addition to Strabo’s uptight stuffy dinner table.

He was also massively grateful to the girl. Coming to Tigris’s aid like that when he was too far away. If it wasn’t for her, Coriolanus dreaded to think what he would have got down those steps to find.

The next afternoon, Coriolanus was reading in his cabin when there was a knock at the door.

“Come” he lazily sighed. It was probably Grandma’am coming to bug him to keep a better eye on his sister or some equally tedious nonsense.

“Coriolanus, I just wondered if you’d seen Tigris?”

He peered over the top of his textbook to spy the unexpected visitor.

“she went for some air after luncheon” that was mostly the extent of his knowledge

Sejanus hovered as if waiting for more “that was a few hours ago now”

With a sigh, Coriolanus placed his book down “she went to see if Lucy Gray had anything suitable to wear for dinner. If you must know”

Sejanus’s furrowed his brow “she’s showing a real interest in this girl”

Coriolanus shrugged “she saved her, I think gratitude is what she’s showing”

“Right, of course” Sejanus made to leave but then paused “could I ask your opinion on something?”

Coriolanus eyed his discarded text longingly, but nodded.

“My father bought me this to give to Tigris as an engagement gift” he pulled a small white leather case from his breast pocket “I just don’t think she’ll like it somehow”

He clicked it open and inside was the biggest diamond Coriolanus had ever laid eyes upon. It must have been worth more than their flat on the London Corso was.

He stroked a hand down the delicate chain to gently press at the cold hard rock, someone had thought it a good idea to hack it into the shape of a heart. It was such a shame to render such raw natural beauty into a human gimmick.

Tigris would hate it.

He looked away from it to meet his eyes with regret, Sejanus could already see his opinion.

“Father will be livid if she doesn’t wear it” he sighed

“sorry Sejanus” he shrugged. When he’d first seen Sejanus’s complete set of parents he’d felt a sense of jealous injustice. They grew up not having one living parental figure and Sejanus had kept both.

But lately, looking at the struggle Sejanus had with his father in his life, he lost the jealousy. Strabo was a controlling, manipulative fiend, similar to how he remembered Crassus. Maybe he should be grateful he was taken down by a cannon.

“Do you at least think it would suit her?” Sejanus asked picking up the necklace to hold it up to the sunlight streaming in from his porthole.

Coriolanus squinted at the light that tinged blue through the gem. Blue was not really Tigris’s colour. She preferred muted tones so that the cut of her outfit shone, that’s what she said anyway.

“Here, hold it against me, see if it suits my colouring” Coriolanus suggested. She was his twin after all.

He undid his top few shirt buttons and Sejanus went behind him to secure the cold heavy object around his neck.

As Sejanus’s fingers brushed his nape, Coriolanus felt a strange tingle on his skin, the hairs standing up there. He took a steadying breath to calm his suddenly racing heart.

“Wow” Sejanus had come round the front of him again and was staring at where the rock now sat in his clavicle.

“what is it?” he asked in puzzlement at why the other was staring so intently.

He noticed Sejanus’s Adam’s apple bob in what must have been a large swallow.

Coriolanus shook off the other’s almost wild eyes and headed to his dressing table to see what all the fuss was about.

The chain sat around the base of his long neck, highlighting the delicate cut of his collar bones, the rock nestled in between. He had to admit the lines that the necklace made against the already sharp line of his jaw, made an intriguing picture.

His eyes rose in the mirror to meet those of Sejanus who was also looking at him through the glass.

“Striking” Sejanus stated, sounding in awe.

Coriolanus turned to face him “You mean it will look striking on her?”

Sejanus licked his lips and inched closer “what if I didn’t”

Coriolanus felt his heart pound in his chest, Sejanus thought he looked striking. That wasn’t right. Men should not be having thoughts like that about other men.

Sejanus was inches away now, his gaze never leaving his face, he looked crazed, he looked hungry and Coriolanus wanted it, he was about to close that last distance, when there was a sharp rap at the door.

“Dinner bugle” a maid’s voice called out “time to dress”

Sejanus jumped away at the same time he did. He tore off the ridiculous jewellery and stuffed it back in its box to thrust at Sejanus as he left.

“See you at dinner” Sejanus mumbled gruffly, the tops of his ears looking pink.

Coriolanus smiled as he noticed, but then stopped himself. This madness was not allowed to continue. Sejanus was marrying his sister. Sejanus would be kissing her, undressing her and taking her to his bed.

He could not be entertaining thoughts of doing those things himself. It was illegal, immoral and would be the ruin of them.

Lucy Gray looked exquisite at dinner. Tigris had adorned her in a deep red gown with black lace detail. Even Coriolanus who tended to be completely blind to a woman’s beauty had to admit she was a vision. No one would be able to tell she didn’t belong at their table that evening.

Next to the pale grey ruffles of Tigris’s frock they made an enigmatic display. One petite, one long and elegant. One dark and fiery, one pale as snow. Coriolanus couldn’t get over how right they looked together, chatting away incessantly, laughing, always touching each other’s arms or leaning so very close into each other’s space.

How had they only just met? They acted as if they’d known each other for a life time.

Sejanus was watching them with bafflement too.

“I had no idea your sister was so talkative” Sejanus admitted quietly on their way into the dining hall.

“she is with the right people” he felt the sting of the words himself but he hadn’t said it to hurt Sejanus, it was just the truth. The truth they both seemed to recognise, Sejanus was not the right person.

“do you think the grey dress was in honour of” Sejanus gestured at Lucy Gray.

Coriolanus hadn’t actually made that connection but it seemed obvious now, Tigris loved to say something with her outfit choices. He guessed the red number she’d picked out for the other girl was saying something too, but he couldn’t fathom what.

“I think you’re getting to understand Tigris better than I do” Coriolanus remarked as he realised Sejanus had picked up on her statement faster than him.

“I don’t think I’ve ever inspired an outfit of hers before” Sejanus chuckled in a self deprecating way

“does she even know your favourite colour? She can’t dress for you if she doesn’t know you” Coriolanus scolded, from what he’d seen, Sejanus spent more time asking him stuff than getting to know his sister

“I suppose not” Sejanus admitted.

Coriolanus thought the conversation over and moved forward to the dining table, but Sejanus spoke up once more.

“It’s ice blue by the way”

Coriolanus let that information slide into a vault of stuff he’d probably never think of again until he realised the exact phrasing “like Tigris’s eyes?” he asked hopefully, maybe Sejanus had never looked closely enough to realise his error, but alas

“No, hers are sky blue”

It was the one striking difference everyone always commented about between the twins, her eyes were bright like the sky and his were cold and pale like ice.

“So Miss Baird, do tell us what brings you aboard RMS Titanic?” Strabo asked, sounding anything but interested by the answer.

Lucy Gray smiled anyway and addressed the whole table, her voice clear and confident  “well my family and I, we tend t’travel where the wind takes us but I’m a singer by trade and I met a band off to perform for the good people of New York so I thought, hell, my fellow Irish sure enjoy my songs why won’t the folk of America? Oh and it’s just Lucy Gray please, I insist”

“Oh a singer” Mrs Plinth exclaimed “how delightful. You know I dabbled my hand in a few operatic lessons in my time. Is that a genre you’ve been trained in?”

Coriolanus stared at his cutlery to avoid the embarrassment of Mrs Plinth's naivety.

“Erm no ma'am” Lucy Gray chuckled “I ain’t had no training or nothing. I was just born with these pipes in my lungs and I use ‘em as the gift god granted me”

“Oh” Mrs Plinth tittered awkwardly “how novel”

“Where about in Ireland are you from then?” Sejanus asked, to move away from his mother’s faux pas.

“Dublin for a time. My folk, we don’t settle for long in one place, travel round as the fancy takes us” she paused and leaned in conspiratorially “or as the money takes us” she winked.

Strabo sat back with a look of distaste “you’re gypsies?”

“Aye” she stated proudly, looking almost pleased with Strabo’s adverse reaction to her heritage.

Everyone other than Strabo seemed taken with the charismatic girl.

Mrs Plinth even asked if she would like to join them for hymns during the church service that Sunday.

After they’d finished their coffees, Tigris excused herself to walk Lucy Gray back to steerage, which meant Coriolanus felt he had to go too, after what happened last time Tigris went down there which then meant Sejanus had to come because he insisted he did.

The four of them strolled contentedly along the board walk. The bright stars lighting their path.

“Sure was a swell evening” Lucy Gray grinned at them “but how ‘bout I show y’all a proper good time tonight?”

Coriolanus gulped nervously, the look on Lucy Gray's face spelled trouble.

“what did you have in mind?” Tigris asked eagerly

“a party! A real one”

Tigris took both of Lucy Gray’s hands in hers “lead the way” she almost squealed.

Coriolanus blew out a puff of air. Lots of noise, dancing, many bodies in a confined space and to top it all off they would be third class bodies. He was not going to enjoy this.

With a heavy head he trudged after the girls.

“You going?” Sejanus held him back by placing a hand on his elbow.

“I can’t let her get mixed up in steerage again” he explained.

“Great” Sejanus beamed triumphantly, moving his hand down his arm to grasp his hand and tug him hastily after the others.

The din of the drums and the drone of the pipes had Coriolanus’s heart beat rising to match the tempo.

Groups of dancers flowed in between ad hoc tables. Men, women, children even were dancing, sitting, drinking in a joyful cacophony.

It was the antithesis of the gatherings upstairs. Sombre, joyless occasions in the smoking room, as if the mere possession of wealth rendered you too important to appreciate joy.

Tigris and Lucy Gray were immediately swept up in the tide of dancers circling the floor. Coriolanus nervously glanced around, looking for an open space to just observe from but before he knew it, Sejanus had grabbed him again and he was carried away into the throes of the dance.

The man in front of him grabbed his wrist and Sejanus entwined his waist from behind and they were twirled around the room in time to the rapid beat.

He couldn’t help it, a jubilant laugh bubbled up from his core. He’d not felt levity like it for years.

When his feet were aching and his head dizzy from the spinning, the song finally slowed and the dancers disbanded.

“Woah” he panted as he found a chair to collapse into, Sejanus joining him to his right.

“You know what they say, the Irish sure know how to enjoy themselves” Sejanus marvelled and Coriolanus could only nod his agreement.

“Here, I’ll get us some drinks” Sejanus rose and headed in the direction of what looked like a makeshift bar.

Coriolanus should have protested, he didn’t drink, he couldn’t stand the stuff, but it was too late, Sejanus was off.

He entertained himself as he waited for Sejanus’s return, by looking around the room.

He spotted Tigris perched on the edge of the stage and Lucy Gray was up on it, in the middle of the other band members, tuning a round looking guitar type thing.

A flute player began a slow, melancholy tune and a hush fell over the room.

“Every night in my dreams I see you, I feel you. That is how I know you go on”

Coriolanus blinked in shock. Lucy Gray’s melodic voice carried hauntingly across the crowd. Every one present enraptured.

“Far across the distance and spaces between us, you have come to show you go on”

Coriolanus took a shaky breath as he realised he’d been holding it, lest he miss any of the captivating performance.

“Near, far, wherever you are, I believe that the heart does go on”

Lucy Gray was plucking her guitar strings, adding slow almost mournful chords to her heart breaking lament.

“Once more you open the door, you are here in my heart and my heart will go on and on”

Coriolanus almost had to blink back tears. Lucy Gray’s voice dripped raw emotion as if crying out across space and time for a long lost soul. He flicked his eyes away and met Sejanus’s who had returned.

They shared a long look, Coriolanus felt as if he could lose himself to the depths in the other’s soul filled eyes.

As the drum beat kicked in, Coriolanus felt it as a palpitation in his own chest.

“Love can touch just one time and last for a lifetime and never let go till you’re gone”

The words rang clear as a bell through his whole body. He became hyper aware of every beat, every quivering string, every breathy sigh of the singer.

Sejanus held his gaze through it all. An emotion like no other filling him up. Excitement, nerves, anticipation, awe and wonder.

“Love was when I loved you, one true time I hold to, in my life we’ll always go on”

Every powerful feeling he saw mirrored back at him in the expressive orbs of the other’s eyes.

On the word Love he felt, more than saw a flash of something cross the other’s features. And then a hand took hold of his where it rested on his knee under the table.

The touch sent electricity racing through his nervous system. Sejanus’s large, warm hand was tracing a pattern up his knee along his thigh. He felt his breath stutter, his heart hammered louder than the drum beat, his skin felt on fire. He felt alive.

“You’re here there’s nothing I fear and I know that my heart will go on”

The flute picked up a higher pitched, more urgent note, bringing his attention back around to the stage, the hand, hidden on his thigh never wavering though.

“We’ll stay forever this way, you are safe in my heart and my heart will go on and on”

As Lucy Gray’s immense finale rang out across the room. Coriolanus turned back to his companion. The sense of safety he always felt around the other brought to the front of his consciousness by the lyrics. Sejanus always made him feel safe. The other night when Tigris was attacked he’d been so scared, he hadn’t known what to do but when Sejanus had strode out of the night, he’d immediately relaxed. He trusted Sejanus to protect them.

And now. Coriolanus should have been a bundle of nerves, surrounded by strangers most likely of ill repute and yet, with the other by his side he felt untouchable. This close to Sejanus he felt as if he was flying.

“You want some air?” Sejanus asked quietly.

Coriolanus quickly checked on Tigris who was giggling as she tried out Lucy Gray’s instrument and nodded at Sejanus.

They headed out onto the decking, the air icy and crisp.

“She has the most talented voice I have ever heard” Sejanus said in awe.

Coriolanus nodded his agreement, that haunting song would stay with him forever, he knew it.

“The singing matched with your beauty” Sejanus sighed longingly “I don’t think my senses have ever been so blessed”

Coriolanus felt a shudder run through him. Sejanus thought him beautiful. It was so wrong but he was powerless against the effect the words had on him, he felt a thrill like no other.

“you think I’m beautiful?” he gulped down nerves as the other turned to face him, looking determined.

“You are the most beautiful creature I’ve ever laid eyes upon”

Coriolanus could only stand stock still as Sejanus cupped his head in his hands and brought his mouth down on his.

He let out a sigh as his soft lips made contact with his own. He felt his pulse whoosh in his ears. It was like nothing he’d ever experienced, he wanted to drown in the feel of the other’s mouth on his and never have to come up for air.

Sejanus sent out an exploratory tongue against his lips and he gasped into the erotic feeling. His knees almost buckled and he felt his body bowed into Sejanus’s as the other wrapped him in his arms, pulling him against his body to keep him upright.

Sejanus was licking in between his lips now, hungrily reaching deeper for more and Coriolanus let him, feeling equally as starved for contact.

The clip of shoes on the decking made them move a part.

Coriolanus panted for air as if he’d just been sprinting.

“Wow oh wow” Sejanus panted back at him, with a smile and Coriolanus felt himself blush to his hairline, suddenly feeling shy at the thought of their lewd deed.

“Here you two boys are, not getting up to no good?” Lucy Gray swung round the corner, arm in arm with his sister.

“No no not at all” he stammered, praying his blush wasn’t too visible in the starlight.

“Shame” she giggled musically “You want to share a bottle of red beneath the stars?” she asked raising a green glass bottle from behind her back.

Sejanus gave him a questioning look to which he shrugged “why not” he agreed. Tonight seemed to be a night of firsts.

“Is that the band you’re going to perform with in New York?” Coriolanus asked Lucy Gray, passing her the bottle back after he’d taken a reluctant swig of the acidic liquid.

“Yes sir” she nodded “some real talent there”

“You included” he praised, he had never heard a voice like hers

“now don’t go makin me blush” she giggled coyly

“Is New York your dream then?” Sejanus asked, almost briskly enough to be impolite

“My dream is to use my voice to touch as many lives as the good lord wills”

Coriolanus could tell the other two were inspired by her words. He wanted to be too but it also made him feel inept. Despite his difficult circumstances he was still awarded so much more opportunity in his life than this girl could ever have and yet she still pursued her dreams, not giving up because it was difficult, not like him. He was taking the easy road here, the painful, but easy road.

“what about y’all what do you dream about?”

Sejanus cleared his throat and looked around nervously  “I would love to go into medicine actually, train to be a doctor” he smiled ruefully.

Coriolanus frowned in thought. He’d never heard that before. He always assumed Sejanus was a born business man, like Strabo.

“What’s stoppin you?” Lucy Gray challenged

“my Father, he wants me to run the family business” he sighed

“You don’t wanna?” she pressed

“he manufactures weapons. Death machines. I hate myself more every time I spend a dime of his wealth, knowing where it’s come from”

Coriolanus could feel the pain emanating from Sejanus at the truth in his words.

Sejanus was almost as stuck as they were. Held at gun point by Mr Plinth’s fortune.

“My advice to you” Lucy Gray took a long glug from the bottle then passed it to Sejanus “cut the purse strings. Freedom costs nothin”

Sejanus took a drink but shook his head sadly.

Lucy Gray made it sound so easy, but she knew how to survive without money. It was so much harder for people like them. People who only knew life with it.

“Coriolanus then, what’s your dream?”

Lucy Gray turned to him with inquisitive eyes and he found himself nervously wracking his brains at how to phrase this. He dreamed of a lot, longing was his constant companion but how to put into words what he longed for.

“To be secure, to have the freedom to pursue my passions, to not live by the mercy of somebody else”

He caught Sejanus’s breath hitching when he admitted that, but he hadn’t meant Sejanus in that statement. He was starting to realise Sejanus was also just a pawn in Strabo’s power games, the same as him and Tigris.

“Don’t that sound ideal. Let me know if you manage it cos I want a slice of that life” Lucy Gray joked and Coriolanus felt himself chuckle too, his dream was of a childish make believe world, he knew it and she knew it.

“I do know a thing about living off my own charms though, not relying on nobody for nothin. It sure takes courage, but it is worth it in the end”

She reached and gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.

Coriolanus gazed out across the deck and noticed there was light on the horizon. It was nearly dawn.

“Oh my” he jumped up off his deck chair “we’ve got to get back, if they notice we’re gone there’ll be hell to pay”

Tigris stood and stretched too “you’ll join us for church later? It’s at 11”

Lucy Gray nodded her head in agreement.

As the three first class passengers hurried for the stairs, Lucy Gray hollered after them “not having to answer to no one is looking sweeter already, right?”

Coriolanus turned back to see her recline back on her deckchair, taking another sip of wine, preparing to watch the sunrise, Coriolanus imagined. The very picture of freedom.

He managed about three hours of sleep before his door was hastily rapped upon.

“Eurgh coming” he groaned, shoving a dressing gown over himself and shuffling to the door.

“Grandma’am what’s the matter?”

His Grandmother was looming in his doorway like a thunder cloud “I need to speak to the both of you. Come” she beckoned him across the hallway to her room to find Tigris already inside.

Grandma’am shut the door with a definitive click, then rounded upon them.

“Would anyone care to explain to me why Hoff has reported seeing you two down at a party in Steerage last night?”

Coriolanus shared a nervous look with his sister.

“Lucy Gray wanted to share some of her life with us, after we’d invited her to experience ours” Tigris explained innocently

“and was a drunken, seedy gathering of degenerates something you had always felt the need to experience?”

Grandma’am kept her tone cool and disinterested which for some reason made it all the more worrisome.

“It was just some harmless fun Grandma’am” Tigris tried to explain

“what is harmless about jeopardising everything we have worked for, everything we have done to secure our name and fortune?” She pointed an accusatory finger at her granddaughter and he saw Tigris draw back

“Strabo is furious” she informed them with a regretful shake of her head “you cannot see that girl again. You cannot leave first class again and you will not be seen without Sejanus at your side. Do you understand me?”

Tigris gulped and nodded at the carpet.

“And you” she turned on him then “will stop encouraging this defiance. It’s your security she’s risking too”

“We understand” Coriolanus felt the agreement like a weight settling on his shoulders, but it wasn’t a new weight to bear. Just one he’d briefly put aside for a night of madness.

It wasn’t Tigris jeopardising them. No, she was sacrificing everything to secure their position in the world and it was him who was selfishly trying to ruin it all, all for some bout of lust driven insanity. It had to end.

Tigris promptly got up and left with her head in her hands. He followed. As he entered the hallway he could hear raised voices in the next room over. It sounded like Strabo and he didn’t need to guess who it was getting the earful.

He miserably went to dress for Sunday morning prayer. It was fine, this was the plan all along. Travel to America, Tigris marry Sejanus and they would all live, locked up in a Manor house in the middle of the forest. As free to do as they liked as much as being surrounded by a bunch of pine trees would allow.

As he exited his room, Tigris was just leaving hers, wearing that meaningful blue diamond. No, nothing had really changed but why now did the sight fill him with a pain like no other?

“Oh hear us when we cry to thee, for those in peril on the sea”

The choral prayer rang out around the Chapel. Sejanus’s deep timbre to his left, Lucy Gray’s melodic high notes to his right.

The sight of the girl this morning filled him with a deep sense of mourning. She represented a life which prematurely died, that never really drew breath to begin with.

After the service, Lucy Gray waited expectantly at the side for them and it was a heart breaking sight to see Tigris tearfully tell her they couldn’t see her anymore.

Lucy Gray looked forlornly their way and he gave her a resigned smile back. With one last wave of her delicate hand she turned and headed away. Back to her life and they’d go back to theirs.

Maybe it was for the best to stay away, distance themselves from any more dangerous ideas.

“She liked the necklace then?” he asked Sejanus awkwardly.

“erm I don’t know. She agreed to wear it though” he shrugged

“and it does suit her” he tried to sound happy about it

“well not as well as...” Sejanus trailed off “but it’s right that she wears it, she is my fiancé after all”

Coriolanus felt that stab between his ribs again. All the hope he’d felt from just one night ago, erased, to be left with a sinking hopelessness. Reality slapping him square in the face. Last night was a dream, a fantastical whim. Their life still awaited them uninvited on the shores of America.

“Yes” Coriolanus agreed flatly

“no matter how much I’d wish for that to be different” Sejanus sighed

“well it can’t be different. It’s not a thing, it’s not allowed” Coriolanus tried to quickly shut down the risky conversation as he’d spotted the rest of their group heading towards them.

“Is it not a thing or is it not allowed?” Sejanus whispered urgently “those have very different meanings”

Coriolanus shrugged. What did it matter if he actually felt something or if he simply wasn’t allowed to feel something for the other? He couldn’t have him either way.

“It’s not allowed” he hissed back and went to loop his arm through Tigris’s as she approached.

He hurried her away, away from the hope he saw flicker across Sejanus’s face at his admission. He couldn’t entertain it, he couldn’t be allowed to entertain it, not anymore.

Chapter Text

“We’re to Sunday morning now, the day of the iceberg strike?” Mr Lovett's voice interrupted her story.

Tigris blinked her eyes, clearing her vision from her memory of the grand hall of the Titanic, the mosaic of the glittering glass dome sparkling above them.

Her eyes now roamed the watery depths shown on Mr Lovett’s screens. She’d once walked those hallways, bid good morning to her fellow passengers in that tea room, learnt to dance the night away in one of those rooms, deep in the bowels of the ship.

Now its carcass lay miles deep beneath her feet.

“I am getting to that point Mr Lovett” she tutted gently, such impatience in the youth of today.

“My picture, if you’d noticed is dated April 14^th 1912, the day the Titanic sunk”

“struck the iceberg” he interrupted again

Tigris sighed wearily, she had wanted to share this story, the full story, for years, if only she was just allowed to speak.

“Nana, do you need a break? Is it too much?” Maude Ivory spoke from the corner.

“No, I’m not tired sweetie, I would just like the opportunity to speak”

“Right, sorry” Mr Lovett sat back with his hands up in mock surrender.

“As I was saying. This picture is dated the 14^th of April and in it is Lucy Gray. The girl, if you remember, I’d just told I couldn’t see again”

The men nodded.

“You can all guess how long that lasted” she laughed, remembering the giddy joy she’d felt when she’d made up her mind. Finally deciding to throw caution to the wind and follow her heart.

“Now I know this story has mostly been that of my brother and that is because in all honesty, his is the true love story, his is worth telling more than mine. But I would like to share how this picture came to be”

After they’d left the Chapel that morning, her and Coriolanus had sombrely trodden back to their quarters to dress for luncheon.

The reality of their situation feeling even more hopeless now they’d had a taste of freedom.

Strabo was in a storm of a temper. Rude to the waiters at lunch, snapping at Mrs Plinth in a barely concealed manner. The three youths barely touched their herring, the atmosphere almost unbearable.

She couldn’t take it, by the time the meal was done, silent tears were running tracks down her cheeks. She could not live the rest of her life like this.

Coriolanus followed as she rushed from the room. Her feet taking her unconsciously to the stern of the ship.

“Oh Coriolanus what do we do?” she begged as he embraced her.

“you can’t do it can you?” Coriolanus sounded so sympathetic she blinked up at him in surprise

“you don’t hate me for it? It could be our ruin” she stated

“No Tigris I don’t hate you because" he sounded as if he was steeling himself before he continued "you know what? I can’t do it either”

“really?” she sobbed with relief

“Let’s go and find our girl” he picked up her hand and pulled her towards the steps. The same she’d seen her brother fling himself down two nights prior to come to her aid, but it could have been a lifetime ago.

“Let’s” another voice agreed and with an incredulous laugh she turned to see Sejanus reaching for her other hand, the three of them went down to find Lucy Gray together.

They trawled the lower decks and cabins for their friend. It wasn’t until it was nearly approaching dinner that they found her at the front of the ship, up on the railings, leaning out to sea with her hair billowing in the wind.

“Lucy Gray!” Tigris called for her

She turned her head, looking curiously back at them “you got lost again?” she laughed and hopped down to approach them.

“No” Tigris answered nervously, before turning to her fiancé  “I’m sorry Sejanus I can’t marry you and be true to myself”

She shared a look full of understanding with the boy before she turned and faced her girl.

“Lucy Gray, if you’ll have me, I’m getting off the ship with you”

“darlin’ you are most welcome to” her eyes shone as she accepted the offer.

Sejanus only looking pleased that his marriage plans were in tatters.

They each took turns climbing up onto the railings to have a go at flying in the breeze.

The exhilaration she felt as the wind blew against her face, as if there was nothing standing between her and the distant horizon was like nothing she had ever experienced. The possibilities of her life stretching before her in a way she’d never dared consider, not before meeting this wondrous girl.

The sun was sinking low in the sky when they heard a clattering on the steps behind them. As a single unit they turned, Strabo must have sent Hoff to hunt them down. After a stunned moment, watching him prowl towards them, the four of them sprinted for the bow doors, piling inside the entrance to the third class berths.

Lucy Gray quickly led them through the labyrinth of corridors. Uniformly white painted doors lining every wall.

The sound of heavy footsteps not far behind.

“the lift” she panted and they crammed inside, just getting the doors across before Hoff reached them.

Lucy Gray cranked the handle as far left as it would go to take them down.

They jerked through several floors, each looking less pristinely decorated as they went, until they stopped. Sliding the doors back open in what looked like the laundry rooms.

They burst out, giggling with the adrenaline flooding their systems until they were brought up short from their relief as Hoff appeared again from the stairway.

“damn it” Sejanus cursed.

The boys split, racing away hand in hand, heading even deeper into the crew’s area.

As Hoff approached them, Lucy Gray took her hand but stood her ground, giving Tigris a look of solidarity. Tigris could only stand with her and trust her judgement.

At the last second, as Hoff was nearly upon them, she ducked under his arm and dragged Tigris for the stairs.

They pounded their feet upwards relentlessly until they were back in third class, pausing to strain their ears. To her immense relief no sound was heard coming up behind them. They’d given Hoff the slip for now. She just hoped the boys had managed to as well.

“What now?” Tigris puffed out

“Hmm, where is the last place they’d think to look for you?” Lucy Gray asked, sounding as if she already knew the answer

“why, my cabin probably” Tigris laughed, sounding unsure

“right” Lucy Gray agreed.

And so they headed back up the decks to the first class accommodation. The Plinth rooms were empty, Hoff obviously busy with his quest to catch them and the other three must have been out at dinner.

Tigris took Lucy Gray for a tour.

“Phooey” she whistled “these rooms alone must cost more than all the gold in Ireland”

Tigris shrugged in discomfort over the great divide in their wealth status, tugging at the heavy chain weighing around her neck.

“I had meant to ask” Lucy Gray paused and reached for the gem resting against her collar bone “is this real or just a piece of ice chipped off a passing berg?”

“Oh it’s real” Tigris curled her lip as she examined the rock “nothing but the real deal for the property of Strabo Plinth”

“wowee” Lucy Gray sighed “that’s the biggest jewel I ever saw”

Inspiration struck Tigris then. This huge heart shaped trinket felt out of place against her breast, she wasn’t one for such rich colour, such sentimental symbolism. But Lucy Gray embodied vibrancy and love.

She tore the clasp off her own nape and held it out to Lucy Gray.

Looking puzzled, Lucy Gray lifted her hair up so Tigris could clip it around the other’s neck instead.

She stepped back to admire her creation.

“Oh Lucy Gray” she gasped “it’s perfect”. The deep tone of the jewel didn’t drown out Lucy Gray’s colouring like it did to her. It enhanced it.

“You really are the holy grail for a designer” she sighed wistfully “I work with models who can take a lot of colour but then need a simple cut of cloth, or models that can wear elaborate designs but only in subdued tones. But you take colour and flare”

Lucy Gray bobbed a mock curtsey “you flatter me sweetheart”

“Would you let me draw you in that dress with the necklace? The pairing could inspire a whole collection”

“It would be an honour” she giggled shyly “how do you want me?”

Tigris squealed with excitement and happily went to grab her design pad and a sketching pencil.

Lucy Gray perched on the edge of a chaise lounge, her body facing forward so the motif on her bodice could be seen but her hips to the side, the ruffles of her skirt spread out to flow down in a fan shape almost to the floor.

The shapes and lines of her drawing all but made themselves on the page. As the image materialised, Tigris paused over Lucy Gray’s features. She was trained to draw generic, faceless bodies, there as a prop to showcase the garment, but she couldn’t leave Lucy Gray blank and erase her personal contribution to the beauty on the page.

Feeling slightly nervous Tigris moved her hand to give the faceless body on the paper wide soulful eyes, high smiling cheek bones, a delicate, full mouth and ripples of flowing, silky hair.

Lucy Gray faced back at her from the page and Tigris nodded with satisfaction. Her skill may have been rudimentary but she thought she had captured Lucy Gray’s likeness pretty well.

Once Lucy Gray had given her approval of the drawing, Tigris went to lock her design sketchbook back up in the security of the safe.

There was a rattle at the door and she just had time to hastily signal to Lucy Gray to remove the diamond which she stuffed into her pocket, as the Plinth party arrived back.

“Ha haa” Tigris laughed, meeting Mr Lovett’s alarmed looking eyes “I can see you can imagine just how awkward that was. Mr Plinth just glared daggers at Lucy Gray mostly and Grandma’am, god bless her soul, couldn’t fathom quite why Sejanus and her grandson had disappeared off into the night together”

She felt herself smiling fondly now at the memory. The last one she had nearly, of her old life.

“Now, that’s what I was up to on the night of the sinking” she continued “Maude Ivory, time to cover your ears. Let’s see what the boys got up to” she laughed again at her god daughter's startled expression.

Sejanus grabbed his hand and they hurtled through the washing room, knocking sheets and table cloths hung up to dry, roughly out of their way.

Every time he dared to glance back, he could see Hoff’s grey mop of hair coming after them.

They skidded around a corner into a tight alcove to wait him out. Coriolanus tried to keep his ragged breathing under control so Hoff wouldn’t hear them, but thinking about it, that was pointless as there was an ear splitting din coming from somewhere very close by.

After some moments had passed, Coriolanus inched sideways to peer out from their hiding space to check if the coast was clear, but just as he did, Hoff turned towards him and caught his eye.

“Move Sejanus” he shoved at him to go further into the alcove but it appeared to be a dead end, until Sejanus came to a sharp halt and peered down. Coriolanus followed his eyes and saw an opening in the floor, a ladder leading down.

Coriolanus hesitated, the loud noise was deafening this close and hot smoky air was pouring from the gap. He glanced behind him warily but then saw Hoff appear at the opening to the alcove. They had no choice. Sejanus slid down the ladder and then turned to help him descend too.

The heat hit him first, the air felt heavy with it, the noise and commotion took his attention straight afterward. They were in the engine room.

“Oi” a rough voice called out “you can’t be ‘ere”

Coriolanus gave the man an unapologetic shrug and turned to high tail it in the opposite direction, Sejanus at his heels.

Passed the huge furnaces, passed the firemen shovelling coal, the engine room felt miles long but eventually there was an opening ahead, they made for a door and finally the air was cool and the world quiet again. Quiet except for their heavy breathing.

“Oh boy” Sejanus took deep drags of air “I’ve never run so fast in my life”

“me neither” Coriolanus breathily agreed “my god, that man doesn’t give up”

As they caught their breath back, they started to peer around and take stock of their surroundings.

“We’re in the hold” Sejanus realised “come and see”

Together they began exploring the stacks of cases, trunks and crates, all netted together to keep them from toppling with the movement of the ship.

A few uncoupled carriages were tethered to the floor with ropes and then a very interesting sight met them up ahead.

A motorcar, a very fine one.

“Ooh a Coupe de Ville, the newest Renault” Sejanus exclaimed in wonder, going up to gloss a hand over the paint work in wonder.

“Is that not the same as your father’s?” Coriolanus wondered, Strabo had a red car that pretty much looked like this one.

“No” Sejanus scoffed “his is a Ford model T, greatly inferior”

Coriolanus couldn’t help his snicker, he’d never heard Sejanus sound like such a snob.

“Hey” Sejanus scolded in mock offense “don’t poke fun at my love of cars. I don’t make fun of you for your obsession with books”

“That’s different” Coriolanus crossed his arms haughtily.

There was a sudden click and Coriolanus looked back to see Sejanus eagerly opening the car door.

“Aherm” Sejanus held the door, stuck one arm behind his back and raised his head snootily in the air “your carriage sir” he spoke with a plum in his mouth.

Coriolanus giggled as he played along, climbing up onto the plush seats as Sejanus shut the door and climbed up into the driver’s seat.

“Woah, what I’d give to actually drive this thing” Sejanus pondered as he moved his hands lovingly over the steering wheel.

“Come on Sejanus, you’re not the footman get back where you belong” he laughed and hoisted the boy backwards into the cab with him.

“Fine, fine” Sejanus laughed but as he realised their close proximity, the sound died on his lips.

Coriolanus could feel the heat emanating from the other. This close, could feel his breath, see the sheen of sweat glisten on his skin.

He wasn’t sure who moved first, but suddenly Sejanus was on him, pressing him back into the cushion of the seats.

Hot lips crushed against his. He gasped out hungrily as Sejanus plundered his mouth, the desperation and need even greater than the night before.

As Coriolanus scooted back to make room for Sejanus, fully on top of him, he became aware of an interesting feeling pressing into his thigh.

Sejanus was aroused. Obviously he knew what happened to men in these circumstances, it happened to him from time to time too, but never had he considered what a thrill it would be to feel another man’s arousal so close to his own.

“Oh ohh” he sighed out as Sejanus’s hips moved flush against his own.

Sejanus nipped at his lips before glancing down between their bodies “is this okay if I move a bit like this?” he asked, nervously chewing on his own lips.

“Yes, yes please” Coriolanus sighed out, grasping at the other’s back to pull his hips back down on his own.

Sejanus properly pushed his hips down then, raising up on his hands to start thrusting rhythmically, his hardness pressing delightfully into his own.

Coriolanus rolled his head back on the soft surface of the cab’s seat, grasping and clawing at any part of the other he could reach as he used his hips to talentedly wring pleasure from deep within his core.

After several deeply satisfying minutes, Sejanus pulled back and wiped his brow, it was a tad hot to both be dressed in linen suits.

Coriolanus started work on his shirt buttons as Sejanus did the same, it didn’t take long until they were both down to their undergarments.

Sejanus ran his eyes over his body and licked his lips almost predatorily. Coriolanus felt a punch of arousal straight down in his guts at how Sejanus was eyeing him up.

“What I would like to do with you” Sejanus sighed as he laid Coriolanus back down gently.

“kiss every inch of you” he stated breathily as he kissed from the inside of his wrist up to his shoulder.

“learn every crease and hollow of your body” he sighed as he pressed wet open mouthed kisses across his chest and down his sternum.

“Get to know every place that makes you gasp and squirm” his mouth was low on his stomach now, trailing down with his tongue to the waistband of his undergarments.

“Can I kiss you in here?” Sejanus whispered hotly and looked up as Coriolanus hastily nodded his head.

Sejanus pulled the remaining garment down passed his knees and Coriolanus quickly kicked them off. Sejanus sat back and smirked as he took in Coriolanus’s rock hard state, seminal fluid already leaking around the head.

As promised, Sejanus began kissing around his pubic bone, getting closer to the base of his dick but not touching it. Hot breath teasing around the area, making his hips twitch and his legs spasm.

“Too much?” Sejanus looked up at him curiously, genuinely trying to figure out his reaction.

“no more please” he tangled his hands in his curly brown locks and gently pulled the other’s mouth back down to his groin.

Sejanus went easily, involving his tongue now to lick around the base of his erection, tonguing over his scrotum occasionally too.

“You smell so good here” Sejanus panted and Coriolanus finally felt his open mouth against the base of his manhood. Sejanus mouthed up the length of him until his lips met his tip.

Sejanus gave him another questioning look to which Coriolanus responded by pushing his head right down onto his cock. He heard Sejanus take a deep breath through his nose and then pressure surrounded the entire length of him.

He felt an amazing rippling and realised Sejanus had him down the back of his throat, he helplessly twitched his hips around but Sejanus was now pinning them down to stop the movement.

After a few more swallows, Sejanus pulled back, gasping for breath. Coriolanus took the opportunity to catch up on some air too.

“You want to finish like that?” Sejanus asked wiping saliva from his chin “in my mouth”

Coriolanus felt his dick twitch in anticipation but he shook his head “I think I’d like to have intercourse with you” he asked hesitantly, he knew in theory it was possible between two men, the exact anatomical specifications were a little vague to him though.

Sejanus licked his lips and sat back as if deep in thought.

“I don’t know what I’m doing here, Coryo” he admitted “you’re my first, ever”

Coriolanus smiled, feeling a deep burst of possessiveness in his chest, he liked that this part of Sejanus would always belong to him.

“You’re mine too” he reassured “just don’t think about it too much, do what feels natural. What you did with your mouth felt phenomenal by the way”

Sejanus beamed at the praise and then looked as if he was getting back to business. He gave Coriolanus a lingering kiss on the lips and then hoisted both of his thighs up, pressing his knees up against his chest.

Coriolanus used his hands to hold them there as Sejanus dived back between his legs.

A wet tongue was quickly back to exploring his pubic area only this time it went deeper, over his testes and behind, down the crease between his legs and over a spot that sent tingles all over his body.

“Yes there, please there” he begged the other

Sejanus quickly complied, pointing his tongue and using it to swirl around the tight furl of his muscle. Over and over he felt the other’s rough tongue working against his hole, encouraging the muscle to relax.

In his delirious state, it took Coriolanus a while to realise he was an active participant in this as well and he could help get things going. Willing his addled brain to cooperate he tried to isolate the muscles that controlled the opening down there and with a deep breath he forced himself to relax it.

Sejanus's head lifted up “that’s it” he praised ducking back down and as a reward he now felt the other’s warm wet appendage licking inside him, moistening his internal walls.

His hips started moving of their own accord again, he was grinding down against the other’s face now, getting the tongue as deep as he could, but it wasn’t quite enough.

“Sejanus” he tapped at his shoulder to call his attention. He looked up and rested his head on the other’s thigh with a contented smile.

“I think I want you inside now” he stated with only a slight tremor of nerves in his voice.

“You sure sweet one?”

Coriolanus gave him an encouraging smile and reached to pull him up to face him once more.

Sejanus pulled back to cup his hand to his chin, when he pulled it back he spotted saliva glistening on his palm.

“to ease the way” Sejanus explained as he sat back and shuffled his undergarments down to his knees.

Coriolanus watched with nervous excitement as he saw Sejanus’s hand disappear between their bodies, his elbow jerked up and down a few times and then something blunt and wet pressed against the most intimate part of him.

“Just keep breathing” Sejanus instructed gently and then there was pressure. He searched the pathways in his brain again to find the nerves that controlled that part of his anatomy and willed them to submit to the intrusion, letting them go completely lax.

It must have worked as on the next press forwards, Sejanus’s hips slipped snug against his bottom and he was completely filled.

“Oh wow” he groaned out, his body never feeling anything like the deep throbbing pleasure he was experiencing.

“You good?” Sejanus was staring between them where their bodies were joined “you’re taking all of me” he stated in disbelief.

Coriolanus took some steadying breaths and reached for the other’s shoulders, pulling him down against him to share a heaving kiss.

“Will you make love to me?” he asked quietly, feeling shy for expressing his want for such a carnal desire

“anything you wish” Sejanus gazed down at him looking in awe “I never dared hope this was something I could have”

Slowly he drew his hips back, withdrawing his manhood, Coriolanus held his breath which stuttered out as the other pressed forwards and back inside.

Gradually he built up a leisurely, deeply satisfying rhythm. The feeling of something pressing so deeply inside him pulling an ecstasy from his body he never knew it could achieve.

Sejanus now had a hand up on the window, the other against the back of the seat cushion, sweat dripped off the both of them in the close, humid air of the car.

The pleasure built in gradual waves, Sejanus leaning down intermittently to press their lips together but never stilling the insistent roll of his hips.

A tingling pressure made itself known, at first behind his navel but then with more urgency the feeling spread out, going lower. He began squirming his hips, knowing he was on the brink of something but not knowing what to do about it.

“Cori, Coryo. You still okay?” Sejanus had slowed right back down again, reaching down to turn his face to his own to check on him.

“I... I need” Coriolanus found himself stuttering incoherently. He shifted his hips against the other in an effort to get the pressure back, to find the release he needed and Sejanus got the message, resuming his deep powerful thrusts.

Coriolanus trailed a hand down his abdomen to start squeezing at his almost painful dick, desperate for the tension to release from his body.

Once Sejanus noticed, he stuck his own hand down too to remove Coriolanus’s and take over, firmly squeezing and pulling at him until Coriolanus tossed his head back with a yell and spilt semen all over himself and the other’s hand.

Sejanus gasped out and began grinding his own hips desperately as Coriolanus began baring down on the other’s turgid flesh, trying to prolong the ecstatic feel of his orgasm.

Sejanus was helpless against the squeezing pressure and friction, without having time to think it through, he was ejaculating straight inside the other’s rectum.

“Oh I’m sorry” Sejanus panted against the sweaty flesh of his lover’s sternum “I definitely should have asked before I did that”

Coriolanus just chuckled contentedly “don’t worry, feels nice, cool and soothing” he sighed, thinking how he could fall asleep quite happily tangled up on the cushiony seat.

“When we dock, when Tigris goes off to live free with Lucy Gray and my father probably disowns me for being such a failure. You won’t disappear too? You’ll stay with me?”

Coriolanus didn’t need to think before he answered “I’m staying with you”

They shared a tender kiss, until a metallic slam of what sounded like a door had them both freezing in alarm.

“Quick” Sejanus hissed and tossed Coriolanus’s discarded clothes at him before hastily throwing his own back on.

Once dressed they snuck away from the source of the noise, finding a side door and bursting out onto the decks.

“Ha haaa ha” Coriolanus fell about laughing as he realised what the ship’s crew members nearly interrupted.

“Can you imagine their faces if they’d got there five minutes sooner” Sejanus snickered falling against the other.

A hurried clanging of a bell above their heads made them glance up. The watch tower was a flurry of movement and the rays of a spotlight were flung out to sea.

With dread, the two turned as one to follow its beam. Directly in front of the ship, looming up like a silent leviathan was a huge mountainous shape. Twice as high as the ship, it made an impassable, inescapable obstacle.

The collision was inevitable even as the bow slowly pointed away, the body of the ship was fated to collide.

It took a minute, maybe two. The world stood silently by as the ship continued its deadly course.

With a shudder that flung them forwards against the rails and an ear-splitting metallic scrape. They struck the iceberg.

They clung to each other as the ship shuddered, the floor beneath their feet trembling.

“This isn’t good” Sejanus’s voice shook as he looked at him with wide, panic stricken eyes.

They watched the ship sail on by, the iceberg shrinking into the distance.  

“It’s unsinkable right?” Coriolanus asked, clinging on to some hope that all would still be well.

“That’s what they say” Sejanus stated but with scepticism in his tone.

People were spilling out onto the decking now, chucking chunks of ice around and murmuring excitedly.

No one seemed particularly bothered and Coriolanus felt the intrepid fear in his heart simmer down.

“I think we should go and warn the other’s, just in case” Coriolanus decided. All the way back in the staterooms they probably weren’t aware anything was amiss.

They kicked their way through the shards of ice to head up the stairway back to first class.

Once they made it to the corridor outside their suite door, expecting the quietness of a sleeping berth, they were brought up short. Raised, tense voices could be heard behind.

With a shared look of confusion, they let themselves inside.

Tigris was in the middle of the room looking distraught, Mrs and Mr Plinth were seated on a settee and Grandma’am in an armchair by the fire.

Lucy Gray was being held at the side of the room by a strange man in a fancy uniform.

“There’s an emergency, what’s going on?” Sejanus spluttered glancing around the room in confusion

“this gypsy scum has stolen from us” Mr Plinth sneered

“no no” Tigris begged “she didn’t, she just borrowed the necklace off me for a drawing”

Coriolanus looked around at the stony faces of the group and could see that nobody was convinced in the slightest.

“Take her away” Strabo demanded

“please no” Tigris tearfully pleaded, but no one stopped them as the crew member marched Lucy Gray into the corridor her hands cuffed behind her back and a look of resignation on her face.

Tigris ran from the room sobbing, just as Hoff walked back in, looking very pleased with himself. Coriolanus just knew that man was behind whatever had happened.

“And where might you two have been?” Strabo raised an unimpressed eyebrow at them.

“It’s not important now Father, we’ve hit an iceberg”

“What are you blabbering on about boy?”

Sejanus looked as if he took a breath to speak again but just then the door was knocked upon and banged open.

“Good evening sirs, M’ams, excuse me but captain’s orders, life vests on, convene on the boat deck, we’re advising coats and hats, it’s a cold night”

Nobody moved, sitting in shock at the words.

“captain’s orders, life vests on...” the man made to repeat himself before Strabo shouted over him

“Yes we heard you”

The steward went wide eyed and backed out the room.

“This is ridiculous” Strabo grumbled

“No father we saw it, we hit an iceberg. We have to get to the lifeboats”

Strabo stood shaking his head back and fourth in annoyance

“now” Sejanus insisted

Mrs Plinth hurried out of the room, coming back quickly with a tower of life vests.

Coriolanus grabbed two and went to get his sister, shoving one over his head.

“Tigris we need to leave, put this on” he thrust a life vest in her direction.

Tigris lifted her head up from where she had it lying on her arms at her dressing table.

“what?”

“We hit an iceberg we need to get to the lifeboats”

Tigris sniffed but came over to take the life jacket.

“what about Lucy Gray? she didn’t do it Coryo”

“I know, I do. We’ll sort it I promise” he helped her secure the ties of the vest around her middle “we just need to get you to a boat first okay?”

“what? No, I’m not getting on a boat until I know she’s safe”

“okay just come on” Coriolanus figured he’d deal with that once they were on the boat deck.

Once they were back in the living room, everyone else in their vests and outerwear, Coriolanus noticed Grandma’am hadn’t moved from her spot by the fire.

“Come on Grandma’am we’ve got to get to the boats” he encouraged trying not to frighten her but he also needed to hurry her along.

“My old bones are too weary to be out in the cold” she sighed.

Coriolanus supressed a groan of frustration, maybe he should have brought a chunk of ice back to prove the danger.

“What do you mean, Grandma’am? The ship hit an iceberg we need to leave”

She rose unsteadily to her feet, keeping her balance with a hand on the mantelpiece. Coriolanus had never seen her looking so aged and weary.

She reached out to stroke a hand down his cheek “You and your sister are the most beautiful souls I’ve ever known, inside and out. I do so hope you find true happiness”

Coriolanus felt a lump form in his throat at her words. She’d never been the most affectionate but she had tried her hardest for them when they had no one else.

“Get this on then and we’ll go” he soothed, trying to get the vest over her head but she stepped away towards the bed chambers.

“I believe I shall retire for the night” she smiled wistfully at him and made her way across the room.

“Grandma’am where are you going?” he asked in shock, the other’s were already waiting at the door for them.

“Goodnight Coriolanus” she said with finality and disappeared down the passageway.

“Coryo” Sejanus called urgently and he had no choice but to go with them, he needed Tigris on a lifeboat. He’d come back for Grandma’am, just later.

The chill night air misted their breath as they made their way around groups of milling first class passengers, over to where they could see a couple of life boats being orderly filled.

“women and children first if you please” an officer was informing those waiting.

Mrs Plinth took Tigris’s hand and made to climb aboard but Tigris hanged back, not stepping inside.

“What about you?” she asked Coriolanus with a worried frown

“we’ll get the ones after the women and children okay?” he reassured her.

She still didn’t move “and Lucy Gray?” she asked insistently.

“Relax, we’re going to find her now” he was sure, given the situation she’d be free to go.

“yes” Sejanus agreed emphatically.

She searched his face with assessing eyes but finally she nodded and sat down in the boat, the officer began waving his arms.

“Lower away” was shouted to the crew.

With a sigh of relief he turned to Sejanus “where do you think they’d take her?”

“We’ll have to ask someone. Come on”

They ditched Strabo to head back inside. The first class passengers were making merry in the grand hall, sherry was being passed around and the string quartet were striking up an upbeat tune. Coriolanus wasn’t sure if the blasé attitude was due to being ill informed about the situation or well informed that they were going to be alright.

Sejanus ran over to one of the crew members “excuse me”

He turned to them, looking wary “can I help you sir?”

“Someone we know has been taken by the master at arms, where would they be?”

“Most likely E deck, his office is at the far end of the crew corridor” he stated, sounding a bit shaken up

“how do we get there?” Sejanus continued

“go right the way down and all the way to the fore” he shook his head as he informed them “but I wouldn’t” the whites of his eyes showed like a rearing horse's.

“why not?” Sejanus pressed

“I can’t say” the crew member dove passed them and ran for the stairs “just get to the boats” he called behind him.

As Coriolanus watched him flee, he saw the bottoms of the man’s trousers were dripping water. What wasn’t he telling them?

They headed for the nearest elevator and cranked it down to E deck, the elevator grated unhappily but slowly they jerked their way down.

As it came to a stop, he let out a gasp, cold water came flooding through the bars, up to their ankles.

“Holy crap” Sejanus swore

“this is really bad” Coriolanus panicked looking at the other with wide eyes “Sejanus do you think the ship will actually sink?”

Sejanus took a steadying breath “I don’t know” he shook his head “lets hurry though” he yanked the elevator gate to the side and they splashed along to the crew corridor.

As they neared the end of passage, glancing round at the rows of uniform looking closed white doors they began calling out for Lucy Gray.

Eventually they heard “I’m in here” called back to their left and they ran over. The frigid water just covering the tops of their shoes as they forced the door open through the flow.

“you came back” she smiled, her face sagging in relief

Hoff was sitting at a desk, looking bored.

“I couldn’t fathom why, shouldn’t you pair be on a lifeboat by now?” he gave them a sardonic smirk and toed at the rising water underneath the desk “didn’t you realise this ship is sinking?”

“we’ve come for Lucy Gray” Sejanus stated confidently

Hoff raised himself up and placed the key he was toying with in his breast pocket.

“well that was a waste of your time”

He made to leave but Sejanus blocked the doorway, crossing his arms obstinately. Coriolanus felt the water steadily rising up his leg, it was just about lapping at the wall on the other side of the room now.

“Hoff this room is going to be under water soon. Are you really going to sentence a 16 year old girl to death?” Sejanus tried to reason

Hoff sneered “I know what you two are” he looked between him and Coriolanus

Sejanus didn’t even flinch “what do you want, a medal?”

“you’re disgusting” Hoff spat out

“the key” Sejanus held out his hand, his gaze not wavering from Hoff’s scowling face.

After a minute more of the tense stand off, Hoff finally relented “fine” he tossed the key so it landed on the floor with a splash and barged his way out of the doorway.

With one final glance backwards, he gave them a menacing smile "you're all going to drown down here" he looked meaningfully down at the rising water and with that, was gone.

Coriolanus snatched the key up off the floor, water reaching far up his forearm and waded over to Lucy Gray, where she was handcuffed to the wall.

“Thank you oh thank you” she sobbed as she was freed “I thought I’d be left down here for the sea to take”

“It’s okay” Coriolanus soothed her “come on we need to get to the boats”

They waded through the now, knee deep water, back out to the corridor.

“We better use the stairs this time” Sejanus decided, looking up and down the corridor.

“this way” Lucy Gray led them across the corridor and up two flights of stairs until they were in a vaguely familiar passageway “this is third class” she informed them.

There was a large group of passengers up ahead of them, the noise of the hubbub getting louder as they approached.

“what’s going on?” Lucy Gray enquired at the back of the crowd.

 “They’ve locked us in” a woman informed them in outrage.

Sejanus swivelled his head around, peering up over the the crowd, making use of his superior height.

“They’re holding people back like animals. There’ll be no time to get to the boats with how fast the water’s rising, don’t the crew know how bad it is?” Sejanus muttered to them both.

“I don’t think the crew care how bad it is” Lucy Gray sighed.

“Let’s find another way up” Coriolanus grabbed them both by the arm and turned back the way they’d come.

The only way to go now was back down the stairs they’d come up. As they reached the bottom, the water was now a good three quarters of the way up to the ceiling.

“We’ll have to swim for it” Sejanus stated resignedly

Lucy Gray stepped back, shaking her head “I’m not a strong swimmer”

Sejanus quickly pulled off his life vest to place on her instead.

“we are, we’ll help you okay?”

Lucy Gray nodded but looked terrified.

Coriolanus felt his breath be punched out of his body as he pushed off into the icy water. The cold prickling at his skin like needles.

“there’s a way up to first class ahead” Lucy Gray gasped out, each word punctuated with a sharp inhale.

Coriolanus took her arm to help speed things up as they swam the way she’d directed them.

His heart sank as they rounded a bend. Another locked gate was up ahead.

“The master at arm’s office, there was a cupboard of keys” Sejanus huffed out, treading water.

There was no time for all of them to go back, Coriolanus was fast though.

He turned and powered through the water, back down the E deck corridor where they’d come from. The water was nearly to the ceiling. He had to duck, fully underwater to get into the room and dive down once more to reach the cupboard. The life vest was making it impossible to sink so he tore it off to get down low enough.

Rows and rows of keys greeted him but as he took note of the tags on them he realised these were for the rooms up stairs, they were tiny, delicate door keys. Not the thick brass things needed to open the gates.

Gasping for breath he rose to the surface. He’d have to go and get the other two and take them back up to third class. Hopefully they’d open the gates up there soon to allow them access to the boats.

He swam as fast as his cramping, frozen limbs would take him back to the others. The water terrifyingly close to the ceiling here now too.

As he got closer, the stark reality set in. There was just about enough air space to get to them. There wouldn’t be enough to get back. He was meeting up with them to certainly drown. He couldn’t leave them there though. The lights flickered ominously above him as he pushed on.

He rounded the bend to spot them both, clinging on to the ceiling, pressing their heads to the side to gasp in the last sliver of air available.

As they spotted him, their last hope, he felt as if his heart was being squeezed in a vice. The man who had held him so dearly mere hours ago and the girl who inspired him to be so brave and true to himself and he was there to tell them there was no hope, that they were about to die.

As he reached them to take a few last gasps of air, he could see they knew he hadn’t managed it, that it was over.

They clung together as the water lapped up to submerge the last inch of their faces.

The deep groaning water whooshed in his ears. The salt of the water stung his eyes and the lack of air burned his lungs. It was only a matter of time until his body forced him to inhale and that would be it. His end.

Through the murky water he thought he spied a pastel pink shape swirling about behind the gate.

There was a muted clang and all of a sudden the gate was moved aside, they were forced forward and then sent tumbling down the corridor.

As he was flung around in the gushing tide, he tried to catch his breath during the snippets of time he was above water. He was bumped and dragged along against the ceiling and walls until finally their bodies were flung against a stair way.

He grasped a banister to hold himself steady as he dragged in great lung fulls of burning air.

He righted himself eventually to see Sejanus below him, bent double with his hands on his knees, Lucy Gray was next to him, coughing up water and someone else was above him on the stairs. That was impossible.

“Tigris?” He gasped out “what are you doing here?”

“I jumped off the boat. I couldn’t leave you” she stated tearfully

“oh you’re so stupid Tigris, so stupid” he sobbed back as he went to envelope her in a shivering hug

“good job I did” she laughed, sounding almost hysterical.

Lucy Gray’s desperate shuddering brought their attention to her.

“Oh come here” Tigris pulled her over coat from where she must have stashed it on the stairs and wrapped it around Lucy Gray.

“Come on, we better get on a boat now” Tigris hurried them back up the stairs, her arms wrapped around Lucy Gray’s quivering shoulders.

“You okay?” Sejanus nudged his side.

“I don’t even know” his voice trembled with emotion. The feeling of terror not leaving him. Even now they were back up in the dry portion of the ship he just didn’t feel as if they’d shaken death from their shoulders just yet.

Chapter Text

As they made it out onto the boat deck for a second time, the change in atmosphere was almost palpable. The officers launching boats with shouts of urgency.

Flares being sent up illuminating the darkness.

People were jostling up the ship away from the bow and as they emerged further, it became apparent why. The whole of the front of the deck was submerged in sea water. Coriolanus realised with a start why they’d been staggering on their way up here, not just from their sodden garments but from the fact the ship was tilting forward from the weight of the water.

“This way” Sejanus called and led them through the densely packed bodies up to a lowering life boat.

“Hey there’s room in the boat” Sejanus called out “I have two women here”

The officer turned to look and nodded at Tigris “quickly, get in”

She hurried over but as Lucy Gray made to follow, the officer stopped her “You miss, have to wait your turn”

Lucy Gray bowed her head and nodded as she moved back to the boys.

Tigris hesitated but as Coriolanus could see their chance slipping, he moved to push her forward “it’ll be a rush at the end, take your chance now” he warned and she obediently hopped into the boat just as it was lowered away.

He saw her eyes looking sadly at Lucy Gray’s as she dropped from view.

“I guess we wait” Sejanus mumbled as they stood back to let more first class women and children shove forwards, towards the next boat.

The water was rising steadily up from the front, the tilt getting perceptibly steeper.

He looked up the deck and counted about four more boats.

“I think we should try the other side” he stated, doing some quick mental arithmetic, enough boats for maybe 200 more people. That wasn’t going to be enough. There would have to be a lot more boats on the other side.

As they shouldered their way through, his eyes spanned the decks desperately, three boats were launching and that left 3 more.

7 boats for all these people. Coriolanus knew it wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough, not when he also knew how many were still waiting inside.

Even if there was time to launch all these boats at full capacity, which looked unlikely, half the people would still be left on board.

“Oh my god Sejanus” he grabbed at his arm “there aren’t enough”

Sejanus turned back with a sorrowful expression “I know”

He felt terror try to take his breath away “what are we going to do?” he gasped out

“Here okay calm down” Sejanus held him close “we’ll be okay. We can do this, don’t panic” they were face to face now, foreheads touching and Coriolanus clung to him like a lifeline letting his calm wash over him. He trusted him, they would be okay. Somehow.

“I didn’t believe Hoff when he told me” a gruff voice sounded to the side of them.

They glanced up into the cold eyes of Strabo Plinth.

“My own son” he spat out “you’re dead to me”

Sejanus raised himself to his full height “You never know Pa, by the end of this night I might be dead to the rest of the world too” he stated without emotion

The two boys turned to walk away, spotting Lucy Gray to take with them.

“He won’t have gone back for Grandma’am” Coriolanus realised. She’d most likely still be in bed “have we got time?”

Sejanus searched around frantically. Only first class women and children were being let on board the boats. There wasn’t much point in waiting around in the cold.

“yeah come on it’s not far” they ducked back inside and down the grand stair case. Water was already pooling in the dining room. The ship was going down so fast.

“Hurry” Sejanus set off running along the B deck passage, him and Lucy Gray followed behind. As they rounded the corner to their line of rooms, the ship gave an ominous groan and the lights flickered again.

Coriolanus cast his head to the side to spot the closed doors leading to C deck straining outwards, water pouring from between the cracks.

He glanced back to the door of their stateroom, where his Grandmother slept on. He was frozen in indecision. Before there was a bang and the choice was taken from him. The floodgates of the C deck doors had burst.

“Run!” he screamed as they turned and fled, the torrent of water rushing at them.

It rapidly swelled  around their legs, tripping them so they were washed along in its wake.

Lucy Gray let out a piercing scream as they kept being dragged under.

Sejanus managed to grab onto something and Coriolanus felt a sharp lurch as he was snagged out of the water’s flow. He just managed to reach out and grab Lucy Gray as she was swept by.

They heaved themselves into a stairway and pulled their sodden bodies back up towards the boat deck.

“I’m sorry about your Grandma” Lucy Gray stated miserably.

Coriolanus shook his head in despair at the ground "she was just sleeping, probably never even woke up" he blinked away tears, there was no time for mourning yet. 

They were just so powerless against what was happening to them here. Completely at the mercy of the Atlantic ocean.

Back up on the boat deck there was carnage.

The upbeat peppy tunes of the strings had turned to mournful hymns.

Desperate shouts filled the air.

The boats couldn’t be launched properly anymore as the ship listed too sharply. They could see panicked officers hacking at the ropes with knives, fighting to launch the remaining life boats.

Lucy Gray paused and gave a ponderous look, before she pulled something out of Tigris’s coat pocket.

The hateful diamond.

“Lucy Gray use it” Coriolanus enthused “buy yourself a way onto the boats”

She stared deeply at the necklace, lips pressed into a thin line, before she shook her head. She clasped the thing around her neck with calm resolve, pulled her sodden coat more tightly around her small body and moved off across the decks towards the sound of the band.

“Lucy Gray?” Coriolanus called out in confusion “come back” he climbed up on a mooring post to try and see “come back!” he yelled.

He spotted wet foot prints, small and dainty, surely from her boots but as he tracked them with his eyes they stopped abruptly. Gone, like her, lost in the sea of panicking bodies.

There was another lurch and the ship tilted even more down to the bow end. The air rang with screams as water flooded up the deck.

He took Sejanus’s hand as tightly as his numb fingers could and they pulled there way up the slanting decking.

Suddenly, cutting through the shrill screams, familiar heart wrenching chords filled the night air. Lucy Gray’s song was being played on a violin. The strings crying out the lament. It appeared she'd chosen to spend her last moments serenading them all, one last time.

Coriolanus felt paralysed with crippling hopelessness, there was no way they were surviving this. The panicked screams of the people around them, the last noises they would ever make. The certainty of their doom rendered him immobile.

Sejanus tugged on his hand insistently “Come on Coryo don’t give up on me”

Coriolanus looked into the eyes of the one he loved and knew he had to at least try.

They fought their way up towards the stern of the ship, every step got harder as they were pitched more steeply into the air.

Hoisting themselves up railings and netting they finally made it to the stern.

This was where Sejanus had come to save him. Where Lucy Gray had come to save Tigris. But now there was no one who could save them.

With one last resonant note, Lucy Gray’s song was over. The air felt heavy with trepidation, until there was a great creaking noise and they were pitched backwards, the hull thudding back into the water. There was a whip like crack as the funnels gave way and toppled too.

The lights of the ship gave one last surge and flickered out. This was it. In inky darkness and expectant silence, slowly they began to rise once more. Every second felt like a life time but also like they were running out of lifetime.

They were straight up in the air now. Barely clinging on. Sejanus hauled himself over the barrier to perch on the other side, tugging Coriolanus over too.

They bobbed around for a few moments, with baited breath. Then with a shudder, they started to descend.

“The ship will try and pull us under” Sejanus hurriedly warned “you have to kick away”

Coriolanus nodded, a dread like no other churning in his very core.

Mere seconds later, although it felt like hours, the ship went under.

Sejanus was right. They were pulled down from the surface immediately, the ship determinedly dragging them with her.

Sejanus’s warning rang in his head and he kicked with all his might to get away.

Gasping his way back out into the frigid air. If the water from earlier felt like icy needles this was like daggers. Daggers of ice tearing the breath from his lungs, freezing his blood in his veins.

He couldn’t think through the sharp stab of pain, his brain screaming to make it stop. But he had to think, it was the only way to survive this.

Panicked passengers were thrashing around, a din of spine chilling screams as they pleaded for help from someone.

Coriolanus forced his frozen limbs to move and get away from the crowds, he whipped his head around in a frenzy to find Sejanus.

He felt a momentary surge of relief when he spotted him, paddling his way over to some floating debris. Right, that’s what they needed, some way out of the water before they froze to death.

He forced his legs to kick, his arms to reach forward to join him.

Sejanus pushed a large wooden thing over “here get on”

Coriolanus hoisted a leg up and grasped onto the other side of it to pull himself up, he wobbled around but managed to cling on. Sejanus was still in the water though and he doubted this piece of wood would take them both. He wobblingly sat up and peered around the inky blackness, using the comparable relief from the cold to think more clearly.

“look over there” he shouted and began paddling himself over towards another large floating object.

He slowly reached out for it, desperately fighting for balance and tugged it over to Sejanus, as Sejanus manipulated it about in the water, he saw it was a deck chair.

It wasn’t ideal but it was something. Sejanus pulled himself onto it, his upper body was out of the water, and his lower legs, but his core, where his vital organs were, was still submerged.

Coriolanus didn’t like it.

“We’ll swap in a moment okay, take turns” his voice came out as a shaky whisper, the cold already taking over his speech.

“Sure” Sejanus’s teeth chattered worryingly “just got to wait on the boats”

Coriolanus pulled himself closer, taking Sejanus’s hand where it clasped the top of his chair.

Sejanus slowly looked up at him. His face looking paler than he had ever seen his tanned skin looking. His lips looked blue already almost corpse like.

“I don’t know about you but I’m going to be writing a very strongly worded letter to the white star line about this” Sejanus’s mouth cracked into a pained grin and Coriolanus couldn’t help but reciprocate it.

The screams from earlier had thinned out. The only sounds the lapping of the waves and the agonised groans of people succumbing to the icy water.

“I love you” Coriolanus’s voice trembled. He had to say it before it was too late.

“No, don’t do that” Sejanus took a rattling breath “don’t say goodbye”

Coriolanus bent down to kiss the other’s frigid hand in response.

“no promise me Coryo, you’ll survive this. You’ll go live your life after this, promise me”

Despite every inch of him protesting, Coriolanus slipped back into the ocean “only if you promise me” he grit out, fighting the agony of the water as he clambered his way next to Sejanus “get on the door”

Seeing Coriolanus in the water, Sejanus panicked and flung himself onto the abandoned bit of wood, so Coriolanus could climb into the floating chair.

“Switch back soon” Sejanus’s voice trembled, but Coriolanus blocked him out. The water taking all of his concentration.

The cold made him feel woozy, the pain ebbing away until a deep weariness took him. He felt his mind floating, almost as his body was. The stars speckling away above them, calling to him.

He felt himself shoved to and fro but was too delirious to think much of it.

The next thing he knew, a sharp whistle blew out and voices boomed across the still night air.

He sat up and realised he was out of the water. Back on the door. Which meant, oh no, he twisted around to see Sejanus lolling on the deck chair. His hair frozen to his face, his skin as pale as death. No no.

“Is there anybody out there?”

Coriolanus turned away and spotted a boat, it’s torchlight illuminating the mass of frozen bodies surrounding them.

They'd come back.

He dropped off the door and shook at Sejanus “the boats are here”

He shook him again “Sejanus wake up, the boats”

Sejanus lay as frozen as the other bodies in the water.

“come on” he screamed at him, feeling tears prick his eyes.

“Eurgh” Sejanus moaned. Looking closely, there was still a slight puff of vapour escaping his lips.

“Hold on” he told the barely responsive boy and he quickly splashed away, over to the man he’d seen with a whistle earlier.

Taking a painful gasp of air he blew with all the might he could muster.

A piercing shrill rang through the night, so he did it again and again until he could hardly draw breath, until the torchlight finally fell upon him and the boat turned his way.

It felt as if it took an age. Watching as Sejanus’s chest rose and fell more weakly, watching the puffs of steam from his mouth wane to almost nothing.

Finally the boat arrived.

The crew reached for him first and hauled him out the water, they didn’t seem to realise Sejanus needed saving too.

“And pull” the officer in charge ordered after Coriolanus was offered a blanket.

“no no” he stuttered out “he needs to get out too” Coriolanus explained in desperate gasps as his body was overcome with wracking shudders.

The crew on that side of the boat peered over sceptically “sorry sir, that one’s dead” one of them informed him sombrely.

“no no he was just breathing” Coriolanus stated in agitation, shifting to the side of the boat to reach Sejanus himself.

“If you say so” the same crew member said, giving him a look of disbelief but also helping to reach out for the frozen boy.

“quickly” Coriolanus barked and the rest of the crew helped pull him up and inside the hull of the boat.

Sejanus lay unresponsively beneath them. No sound, no movement.

“yeah thought so” the crew member muttered.

They were too late. As Coriolanus had watched on, waiting for the boat, Sejanus had slipped away from him.

Grief like a solid wall of iron hit him and he crumpled. Curling up on top of the boy he loved.

Coriolanus trembled, feelings too strong they overwhelmed him, so much so he almost missed the barely perceptual rise of the chest he was laying atop.

As he felt his head being gently lifted up and down, he at first thought it was the waves rocking the boat, but the movement of his head was out of sync with the boat’s.

Sejanus was still breathing. He wasn’t dead yet.

Coriolanus jerked himself upright.

“He’s alive” he exhaled “get him warm” he pleaded.

The crew members looked at him with disbelief “look” he desperately pointed to the other’s chest, ever so slightly rising up and down.

“right ho” the officer in charged barked “coats on him”

The crew removed their outer garments to place over Sejanus’s prone form, Coriolanus tried desperately to rub some warmth into his arms and legs but it felt futile. He was still numb from the cold himself, he had no body heat to spare and this close to the water, the boat was itself freezing.

Exhaustion called to him again and he eventually found himself dropping to the bottom of the boat. The stairs were starting to fade, an orange glow taking over the sky.

“Look!” a voice hollered “a ship, we’re saved!”

Coriolanus heaved himself up on an elbow to blearily look across the water.

On the horizon, lit up by the rays of dawn was an ocean liner. No where near as grand as the ship that had sunk from beneath their feet the night before but even more majestic for it.

“Sejanus” he shook his shoulder “a ship” he shook harder “a ship has come for us”

But there was no response. He felt the other’s cheek, it was still ice cold. He could just about see him breathing beneath his pile of coats but he was totally unconscious. A crippling fear that he might never wake up again, began to snake its tendrils into his mind. What if the damage from the cold was irreparable?

The boats closest to their rescuers were already being unloaded, they’d opened up the cargo bay doors and crew members were hauling people aboard.

Most passengers got themselves up but Coriolanus saw there were others in a bad way too, having to be lifted aboard as he knew Sejanus would be when it was their turn.

Their boat’s crew rowed them closer and Coriolanus was shoved aboard first. He was shown to a dining carriage, offered warm brandy and an extra blanket. In a daze he was ushered to an armchair which he collapsed into, his eyes shifting around behind him to spot when Sejanus was brought in, but he never materialised.

What had they done with him? Coriolanus felt his breath coming short and sharp, had something happened? Had he taken a turn for the worse? He cursed himself for being so befuddled he’d not stopped to check on him, wait for him or follow him.

“Coryo!” he looked up to see his sister flying across the room “oh thank god” she flung her arms around him, all but climbing onto his lap “you’re soaked, were you in the water?”

He nodded shakily and dropped his cup of undrunk brandy onto a nearby table.

“Maybe you should be checked over by the medical staff” she felt at his frigid skin looking anxious.

Medical staff, the words rang through his head. Yes that’s exactly where he needed to go.

He dragged his uncooperative body to a stand and shuffled across the room.

“I think they’re set up down here” Tigris laid a gentle hand on his arm and steered him down a corridor and then veered out into some kind of open space, tables and chairs had been shunted against the walls and people were being laid out on gurneys.

“can we help you?” a crew member hurried over looking frazzled

“My brother’s been in the water” Tigris began, but Coriolanus’s foggy mind jolted into action to interrupt

“I’m looking for someone”

“We don’t have time for identification in here I’m afraid, these passengers are fighting for their Iives” the crew member told them, almost sternly.

There was an abrupt clanging and Coriolanus spotted in horror a poor woman begin to fit atop a gurney.

The crew member rushed over as well as some others from around the room to attend to the person in distress.

Coriolanus used the distraction to move more deeply into the room. Dozens of people lay silently. Some with their eyes open, most not.

Finally in the corner he spotted a familiar body.

Sejanus’s eyes were still closed, his skin tinged blue and lifeless. The water was melting from his hair, puddles pooling beneath his body.

Spotting a pile of cloths nearby, Coriolanus reached for some to try and dry Sejanus a bit, try and warm him up but the warmth of the boat slowly seeping under his skin was actually causing more pain as his nerves woke up, causing his fingers to spasm and tense uselessly.

“Here” Tigris reached for the cloth and took it to wipe across Sejanus instead.

“excuse me, you can’t be in here unless you need medical attention” a crew member hurried over to inform them

“my brother’s been in the water” Tigris informed him

“I’m fine” he protested weakly “just cold and tired”

“there’s first class beds available, head out there, someone will be happy to show you” he pointed back to the corridor.

Coriolanus gave Sejanus’s freezing hand one last squeeze “will he be okay?” he forced his trembling vocal chords to speak

“it’s a waiting game” the crew member told them “just need to see if he wakes up”

Coriolanus hung his head. Grief already preparing to take him under, with one last look at his lover, he left the room.

With resigned exhaustion he asked for a bed, not having a care to which class he was assigned. He peeled off his half frozen clothes and collapsed under the blankets.

He awoke in the dark, he stretched and took a moment to come to terms with his surroundings. A body shifted against his and he looked down to see familiar white blond hair. Tigris had joint him.

He snuggled closer to her for a moment, so relieved she was alright. His skin had finally shaken off the ice that had clung to it. His bones had just about lost the deep ache caused by the cold and he didn’t feel ready to drop on the spot.

He heaved himself silently over Tigris’s sleeping form and headed to the corridor, borrowing a dressing gown he found on the back of the door, before trying to find the makeshift hospital again.

It took a few attempts to get the right place. Things looked different in the dim lamp light compared to that morning’s bright sunlight and he’d been in no state to pay attention to where he was going anyway.

He headed for the corner of the room and spotted that Sejanus had been dressed in clean pyjamas and now had proper sheets on him, not just the sodden blankets from the boats.

Crew members were milling about but didn’t seem fussed by his presence so he scooted a wooden chair over to sit by Sejanus’s bed side.

He took up the other’s hand, allowing himself a moment to rejoice in the fact it wasn’t as ice cold as before.

He sat and stared at the serenity on the other’s face. Such a juxtaposition from the animated determination he’d shown the night before.

More tiptoed footsteps took his attention and he brought his head up to see Mrs Plinth making her way across the room to them.

“Oh Coriolanus, I’m so glad you’re okay” she offered him a warm smile and he was surprised to realise he felt the same about seeing her. She had never been the monster, all of the power and control the Plinth family wielded stemmed only from one member. Strabo. Who was noticeably missing so far.

“How’s he been?” Coriolanus asked.

“Oh just sleeping” she sighed, gazing with love filled eyes at her son.

Coriolanus nodded and went back to silently filling his thoughts and vision with the boy.

“Coryo”

Coriolanus jerked as he heard his name croaked from the other.

“Coryo” he repeated and slowly opened his eyes.

“Sejanus” he cupped his face “you’re awake finally, how do you feel?”

“eurgh” Sejanus twisted around a bit “sore, stiff”

“yeah that’s what happens when you try and turn yourself into an ice cream in the middle of the North Atlantic” he joked, probably from the flood of relief he felt.

Sejanus’s face cracked into a grin “you’re alive too, you survived” he breathed out, looking ecstatic.

“thanks to you dropping me back on that door again” he huffed in renewed annoyance “we were supposed to take turns. You let me on it for hours”

Sejanus shrugged “must have passed out” he answered, feigning innocence

“You nearly died” Coriolanus scolded, he still couldn’t get passed what so nearly happened, Sejanus had been minutes away from death, he was sure.

“But I didn’t” Sejanus rebuked gently.

“Sweetheart” Mrs Plinth reached across to her son then and stroked his face “you’re okay”

Coriolanus quickly dropped his hands from where they’d been stroking the other’s arm, he’d completely forgotten they weren’t alone.

“I’m fine now Ma” Sejanus soothed, but then frowned and gave his mother a questioning look, she appeared to understand right away

“Of all the innocent lives taken last night I believe the Lord has seen fit to take a not so innocent one too” she stated with grief lacing her tone. It didn't sound as if it was for her husband though.

Sejanus nodded his understanding. So Strabo was gone, Coriolanus couldn’t find anything but relief to feel at that thought. That man was capable of ruining their lives and he was gone. He could only really be glad about that.

But the mention of innocent lives made his heart jolt. Lucy Gray. What had become of her?

Coriolanus couldn’t bring himself to ask Mrs Plinth, he doubted she’d know anyway, so they sat silently, waiting for the sun to rise before heading to find breakfast.

Tigris met up with them in the dining room.

“Lucy Gray?” Coriolanus whispered in her ear.

“I’ve been down to where steerage are, twice now but I haven’t seen her. They’re compiling a list of names but it’s slow going” she sighed.

The next two days passed aboard the SS Carpathia, they'd learned, in a sombre spread of picked at meals and fleeting sleep. Shock still rendering them uncommunicative and dawdling.

It was dark and raining when there was a commotion out on deck.

Coriolanus rose from his settee in the smoking lounge to peer out the window with mild curiosity.

The statue of liberty rose out of the darkness, surrounded by the lights of the big city.

Not even an ounce of excitement filled him at seeing the famous land mark. Half of him still felt adrift in the ocean.

They were led to a hotel and given a room for the four of them. He crawled into bed with Tigris and Mrs Plinth with Sejanus.

The next day they were informed there would be a an enquiry desk set up in the lobby for family members searching for survivors of the ship wreck.

Tigris headed down, still looking hopeful. She hadn’t heard Lucy Gray’s song, the final notes ringing out as the ship took its plunge. He had. He didn’t share her hope. It appeared she'd chosen to spend her final moments surrounded by music, the thing she loved most, not by terror.

He stood silently by as Tigris asked after her name and the reception clerk scanned his papers.

He looked up with a sorry shake of his head.

“Lucy Gray Baird? no trace, sorry ma’am there’s no record of anyone with that name or description ever boarding the RMS Titanic”

Tigris turned to where he waited “she’s gone” tears streamed silently down the plains of her angular face “No one’s seen her”

Coriolanus felt his lip tremble as he reached out for his twin and clung to her “I’m so so sorry” he sobbed out. 

The horror of their experience weighing on him like a lead weight. They collapsed to the floor of the hotel lobby.

“Oh what do we do?” Tigris gasped between tears, despair hanging off her words.

“we.... we go on” he looked around hopelessly, the grief of the other’s around also getting their bad news, forming a heavy cloud around the room. So many lives snuffed out in the blink of an eye. So many grief stricken families, their loved ones never to return.

He spotted a familiar large figure making his way through the crowds, Sejanus’s face fell as his eyes landed on their heap on the floor.

Coriolanus shook his head regretfully.

“I know” Sejanus’s shoulder’s shook with sobs too and he kneeled next to them. Too much sorrow to stay upright.

“What now?” Coriolanus wearily sighed, the temptation to give up and curl up on this wooden floor forever, becoming stronger.

“We live the life that Lucy Gray lost. We take our dreams and our hopes and wishes and we make them come true through her, through her spirit. That way we’ll keep her alive with us, always” Sejanus’s voice rang with passionate determination.

Coriolanus clung to Sejanus then. Uncaring of any witnesses. This was his dream, to be with Sejanus, to love him and be loved in return and he would do that to its fullest in honour of Lucy Gray, he would not waste this opportunity for happiness. Any hardships, any obstacles he would overcome because that’s what Lucy Gray would have done and that’s what she would have wanted.

“you’re my rock you know that?” he asked him

“and you’re my everything” Sejanus answered back

“come on boys” Tigris said with a resigned sigh “we’ve got our lives to live” she pulled Coriolanus from the floor who in turn pulled Sejanus up.

As a three, hand in hand they headed out the door to face whatever life had to give them.

Tigris wiped away the tears she felt tickling at her eyelids. That was the first day of the rest of her life. Even if it was the most heart breaking day it had been the beginning of everything good.

“So the diamond went down with the ship?” Mr Lovett pressed her.

Tigris sighed, she’d thought this man might have been moved a bit by her tale but even if he had been, his hunger for treasure still won out.

“No Mr Lovett, it went down with the girl and so it will always remain, where it belongs”

The heart of the ocean would rest with the girl whose heart was even bigger than the ocean itself.

“Nana” Maude Ivory asked once back in their cabin “You never told me about that girl before”

Tigris smiled to herself “she’s been kept alive by my memories all this time. I sometimes thought she was a ghost or a figment of my imagination, brought to save me when I needed her most” Tigris’s smile became bigger as she looked at her great niece “seeing my drawing again. I know she was real and she did save me. In every way a person can be saved”

“What happened after you reached New York then?” the young girl asked.

Tigris furrowed her brows “Don’t you know the rest?”

“I’d like to hear again, now I know about Lucy Gray” Maude Ivory cuddled up on her bunk and Tigris knew she would likely be asleep by the end of this tale.

“Well with Mr Plinth gone. Sejanus sold up the manufacturing plants and they moved to Baltimore to study. Your grandpa studied medicine and became a doctor. Your grandfather became a researcher there”

Maude Ivory sighed happily “and you?”

“I moved to New York and set up my fashion business. A few years later I married your Grandpa for appearances sake, you know he was married to your Grandfather in all but name and we adopted your mother Barbara Azure. Those two made amazing parents” Tigris blinked back happy tears. None of them would have ever have been brave enough to take those leaps if it hadn’t been for the courage Lucy Gray had shown them they could have.

Maude Ivory let out a snore. Even at the age of 21 she was still as cute as the baby she’d been there to welcome into the world.

Tigris let her eyes wander across the photos she’d insisted on bringing, her prized memories of a life she could never have dreamed of before her trip on the fated ship.

There was her brother and Sejanus at their 50^th anniversary party. Their last before they died but they’d had such a happy life together, it only brought Tigris joy to look at them. Then there were the pictures of her nieces and great nieces, each dressed in something of her own design. There was one of her 70 years ago outside her boutique in New York, Songbirds and Roses. That was the pride of her life, her dream come true.

As Tigris closed her eyes on her last day on earth, her thoughts were with the beautiful girl she’d met that fateful day 84 years ago. How grateful she was that the courage she’d inspired her with, had allowed her and her loved ones to live the lives they truly wanted.

Chapter Text

Coriolanus was lounging out on the terrace, enjoying the golden sunshine when Sejanus broke the tranquillity with his clomping footfalls.

He raised his eyes expectantly to see the boy come to a stop in front of him, with a bashful look, he cleared his throat nervously.

“I was just wondering if you and Tigris would like to come and see the swimming baths with me?” he asked, restlessly fiddling with the buttons on his cuffs.

“Tigris isn’t here” he stated, half wondering if that would be an automatic withdrawal of the offer but Sejanus only smiled, maybe even more eagerly than before.

“But you’re still free?” he asked hopefully.

Coriolanus nodded “give me one minute” he stood, to head towards his quarters.

Swimming suit and towel in hand, he went back to meet up with Sejanus who waved two tickets at him and ushered him out the door.

“Oh, did you waste money buying one for Tigris?” he asked, realising Sejanus must have already purchased tickets before inviting them.

“No I only got two, women and men have to swim separately anyway” he answered with a shrug.

So he had been planning to invite Tigris to swim in a separate session to them and without actually buying her a ticket? Coriolanus cocked his head, he may have never tried to court a woman’s affections before but even he knew that was pretty shoddy form.

He hurried to catch up with the American boy, who had all of a sudden  picked up his pace and was looking a little flustered for some reason.

Once he’d stretched his way into his woollen swimsuit, which now he’d tried it on he realised he possibly needed the next size up. It had been a year or so since he last wore it and his 18 year old body, hadn’t quite stopped growing yet. No matter, he checked in a mirror in the changing rooms and he wasn’t exposing too much skin, the material just cut a little too sharply into his thighs and backside but he was sure with a bit of movement and salt water it would stretch sufficiently.

He met Sejanus out by the poolside.

“You want to relax in the Turkish baths or exercise in the pool?” he enquired.

Coriolanus had had enough of lounging around doing nothing. He wanted to do something fun.

With a playful smirk he made a beeline for the large, deep swimming pool.

Once he was poised to climb down he looked back to see if Sejanus had followed him but he hadn’t moved a muscle. Still standing where he’d been before, gazing into the empty air like he’d seen a ghost.

“Hey Sejanus!” he called over “what’s wrong? Worried I’ll best you?”

Sejanus seemed to startle slightly at his voice before giving his head a shake and walking over.

Coriolanus turned his attention back to the glorious looking water under his feet,  he deftly dropped himself down. Letting himself fall under the surface for a moment before leisurely bobbing back up to float like a star fish, relishing the delightfully warm but not too warm water and the heavenly feeling of all his weight being supported from beneath. He had to hand it to the boy, this was a great idea.

It may have been a better idea for something to do with his fiancé instead but he couldn’t be blamed for Sejanus’s failure in the planning department.

“Race you!” Sejanus hollered and went to position himself, facing forward against the wall.

Coriolanus hurried to mimic him before he counted them down and they shot off in front crawl.

They were neck and neck, perfectly matched, Coriolanus just tilted his head to the side to take a breath when he caught sight of the tan skin of Sejanus’s bare shoulder as it powerfully circled and cut his way crisply through the water.

He gulped, a tingling feeling blossoming behind his naval.

“Ha! I win” Sejanus beamed triumphantly as he reached the other side.

Coriolanus let out a frustrated sigh and shook off any distractions even the ones of a rather bizarre nature to paddle over to the edge.

“Backstroke” he stated in challenge, bracing his feet against the wall and pulling himself in tight.

“3, 2, 1. Go!” Sejanus shouted and they both launched themselves off the wall.

Coriolanus kept his eyes pointed directly at the ceiling, circling his arms like the blades of a windmill, he stretched his long legs out, pointing his toes into each kick.

He knew looking around would increase his air resistance so it was only when his fingers nudged the far edge of the pool that he could glance around and see that he had trounced Sejanus.

“He hee” he called out “one all” he cheered gleefully.

Footsteps above them drew his attention and he raised his gaze to see a few men had gathered at the side to watch.

Noticing him watching, the older looking gentleman addressed them in what sounded like a southern American drawl.

“You boys going to leave any water in that pool for the rest of us?”

“Oh I do apologise” Sejanus said but the older man just waved him off good naturedly.

“I’m just trying to show this Brit that he may come from the wettest place in the world but us Yanks can still give em’ a run for their money in the water” Sejanus continued and the other passenger laughed in response before heading back towards the Turkish baths.

“Columbia” Coriolanus stated quietly.

“What was that?” Sejanus raised his brows at him.

“Is the wettest place in the world. Not Britain” he went on.

“Right, color me educated then” Sejanus laughed, almost fondly.

They did a few more lazy laps before calling it a day. A quiet truce had formed.