I own nothing. Explanatory and self-deprecating A.N. at the end.

Johanna was in charge of both bath and bedtime, a deal that had been struck when she realized Katniss got mornings with their daughter because she wouldn't get out of bed before ten. At first it had worked out well, allowing Katniss to get work done in the evening. She didn't realize she was missing out until she had finished early one night and gone upstairs only to have the bathroom door closing in her face and Johanna declared they were in the middle of a top secret spy mission and couldn't let the enemy government operatives in. She had been supported by a giggling little girl and Katniss had rolled her eyes at the fact that Johanna was already teaching their daughter not to trust the government, but at least that meant she didn't have to do it. Except tonight her wife was due home late, so that meant she was in charge of bath time and possibly bedtime. Katniss loved Johanna, she was also hoping Johanna would be late enough that she got to do both.

She scooped the little girl up in her arms after they had finished eating, planting a kiss on her cheek as she carried her to the bathroom and tasting the spaghetti sauce that had gotten all over her face, hair, body, and pretty much everywhere else. She groaned when she got a full look at her daughter after setting her on the floor and starting the water to run the tub. The toddler was grinning happily, almost smugly, her chubby hands waving in the air as she watched her mother. Katniss narrowed her eyes and studied her. No, that grin was smug. Johanna smug. She sighed, torn between exasperation at her daughter learning that infuriating expression and total adoration over the fact that her daughter and wife already shared traits. The butterflies in her stomach made her lean more towards the latter emotion, but before she could start swooning over their similarities the little girl realized the bath was running and tried to stand herself up so she could pitch head-first into the tub. Swooping forward before her offspring drowned Katniss started undressing her, relieved that they had a kid that bathed willingly instead of pitching a fit over it. When the little girl almost dove out of her arms to get to the water she realized that willingly might not be a strong enough descriptor and quickly plopped her in the tub to avoid a concussion.

Her daughter seemed to know exactly what to do and Katniss stuck close by, mostly to assist. She provided the soap, shampoo, and buckets of water for rinsing every time a determined little hand was held out. She made the mistake of asking if should could help when it came to hair washing time and got a perfect copy of Johanna's glare in response. Not only had their daughter acquired all her mother's expressions, she had apparently inherited her stubborn an independent personality as well. That would be a nightmare to deal with when she got older, but for now she let her heart melt and obligingly allowed the girl to be in charge of her own bath. One she was scrubbed clean and rinsed off she gestured for the neat pile of toys sitting just out of her reach. Katniss acquiesced, moving them to where the little girl could pick and chose, and got a shaking head and emphatic "No!" in response. She looked at her daughter in puzzlement.

"What then?"

A tiny hand moved through the air and what seemed to be quacking noises came from her mouth. When her mother didn't do as instructed she pouted and insisted "Like Mama".

Katniss cocked her head. "What does Mama do?"

She got a look of complete disbelief, like there was no way a person could not know what her mama did. "Toys come to life."

Katniss was going to kill Johanna. Apparently her hard-ass wife, who still carried an axe on each hip every time she left the house and refused to interact with new people unless she was allowed to intimidate them, make them uncomfortable, or both, was doing adorably cute and soft hearted things with their daughter and not inviting her to take part. Not only that but while she knew their daughter loved her, Johanna was her idol. She lived for her mama – totally convinced she hung the moon and stars. Katniss wasn't at all jealous, her daughter inherited that adoration from her after all, but now she was panicking a little because she didn't know if she could pull this off to meet the standard set by her perfect-to-their-daughter wife. She smiled instead. "How about we do it together?" The lit-up face she got in response made her think she might not ruin bath time after all.

0o0o0

Johanna still hadn't made it home by bedtime so Katniss tackled that obstacle too. Bedtime was less of a hit than bath time, but through Johanna she knew it was made easier by endless stories. They had to let their daughter chose – she was unpredictable when it came to what she was in the mood for and efforts to help pick books out led to as much sass as a two year old could give. For their two year old it was a surprising amount, another Johanna inspired trait. Katniss frowned at the girl who had just given her a look that was a mix of disbelief, horror, contempt, and 'are you kidding me?' when she had forgotten the rule about choosing and tried to pull a book off the shelf too. There had even been hands placed firmly on hips with one slightly cocked out and a sigh of disgust accompanied by a shake of the head. What was happening? In the mornings her daughter was less like her wife, less . . . well, less obnoxious. Nighttime activities that were normally run by her mama also seemed to include diva training. She wouldn't be surprised if her daughter tried to brain someone with a stick the first time she went to school. It could be the terrible twos, but the time of day and the fact that she had never been like this before made Katniss think otherwise. Oh, she was going to kill her wife.

"Mommy!" She jumped a little and looked down before realizing the little girl was already in bed waiting for her. She took a step but a smile stopped her as her daughter pointed towards the stack she had left on the floor and uttered a sweet "Please?". Katniss leaned down and grabbed the pile, setting them on the table next to the bed as she climbed under the covers. A small body immediately curled into her and she put one hand down to stroke through the head of hair. It was impressively soft considering the amount of spaghetti sauce that had been in it and the fact that it had been washed by a two year old.

"Which one first?"

"Top."

That was easy enough. She cracked open the first book and began to read, getting about halfway through the story before realizing there was a confused frown aimed at her. She stopped. "What's up?"

"Not right."

What? She frowned. "How so?"

An exasperated sigh was her response. At least she had gotten sweet for a couple minutes. A lower lip stuck out and trembled a little bit. "Voices. Like Mama." She raised her eyebrows and fought back a snicker. The current book contained talking frogs, and considering how ridiculous the bath animals had to sound she couldn't even imagine Johanna doing story voices too. But tears were about to be spilled so she leaned down to place a kiss on the brunette head nestled against her side before picking up where she left off, this time with voices.

"No!" She almost jumped off the bed.

"What?" Katniss couldn't believe there was something else she was doing wrong. How much did Johanna do for their daughter?

"Start over!" Katniss arched one eyebrow down at the annoyed face and it gave way under her stare. "Please?"

"Very well. Again from the top."

0o0o0

She struggled to detach herself from the leach that was her daughter sleeping. Quickly swapping herself for the stuffed teddy bear she waited a couple seconds to see if the ruse had been noticed then crept out the door where she promptly ran into her wife. Johanna caught and steadied her, a shit-eating grin on her face. "Hello Farmer Bob" she greeted Katniss, doing an almost perfect impression of Katniss's voice for the cows who had been in the last story she had read. "You aren't welcome here until you – ouch!" Her voice reverted quickly back to normal as she was smacked – none too gently – by her partner. "What was that for?"

"You're making fun of me when it's your damn fault I had to do that?"

"Yeah, well, it's your fault you didn't listen for footsteps between sentences. There's a reason you've never caught me reading to her."
Except Katniss wanted to hear that, wanted to be a part of the next round, wanted to cuddle in the big-girl bed that was two small for the three of them while Johanna read stories in silly voices. Apparently that wasn't going to happen. Suddenly annoyed she turned towards their bedroom and marched off calling over her shoulder, "Well there's a reason you're never gonna catch me raising your kid." Shouldering her way through the door she began to strip down and change, pausing with her shirt halfway over her head when she realized she hadn't been followed. Peeking her head out the door she saw Johanna standing where she had left her outside their daughter's door, her face ashen and her mouth hanging open. Frowning she moved into the hallway and gestured with her head towards their room. Johanna didn't move and instead stared at her in shock.

"Johanna – what?"

"What does that mean?"

She didn't know what her wife was talking about. What did what – oh. Oh shit. Putting both hands out in front of her she moved towards her wife, shaking her head. "No! No no no no no. I didn't –" Right before she touched her Johanna jumped violently backwards and Katniss jerked to a halt and dropped her hands. They stared at each other, Johanna too hurt to say anything and Katniss in shock over the fact that for the first time ever, her wife had avoided her touch. Johanna suddenly whirled towards the stairs and Katniss lunged forward just in time to catch her wrist, feeling her arm stiffen as she did. "Don't leave, let me explain!"

"I don't think you need to. That was pretty clear." Johanna's voice was cold, distant, a level of chilly Katniss had never heard before.

"It wasn't, it came out totally wrong and not how I meant and you aren't allowed to leave before I explain because I can explain and we can't talk out here cause I don't want to wake her up so come to the bedroom with me and I'll explain I promise." She knew she was babbling but Johanna's body was still straining towards the stairs and she was on the verge on panicking. Johanna was easy to anger but hard to hurt. And she had just done that, had just hurt her wife by misphrasing what was originally supposed to be gentle dig regarding their daughter's behavior. If Johanna left she didn't know when she would come back or in what kind of state, so if she did end up tearing herself away Katniss was going to follow. She didn't though. Instead she stood straight, twisted her wrist out of Katniss's grip, and gestured towards their bedroom. Relief flooded through her until Johanna spoke.

"Let's go then. I can pack to stay at Haymitch's while you talk."

Fuck.

0o0o0

As soon as they entered their bedroom she pushed Johanna onto the bed, straddled her lap, and grabbed her face with both hands. A growl rose in Johanna's throat and she started to shove Katniss off her. Katniss shook her in response then leaned down until their noses where touching and their eyes met. "No. If I let you go you aren't going to listen to me and you need to listen to me okay?" Johanna rolled her eyes but didn't have anywhere else to focus and Katniss knew she had her full attention. "Okay. That was a fucking shitty thing for me to say okay? And I know that. It came out wrong because I was annoyed at never knowing how much you indulged our daughter. And when I found out all I wanted was to see you doing it because while I did a good enough job to keep her satisfied tonight I know I wasn't as good as you and I want to be there to watch you two during bath time and to cuddle with both of you while you read stories but you indicated that it was never going to happen and I got annoyed okay? And twisted a comment that was originally supposed to be lighthearted and let you know that I don't need to raise your kid because I already am because she is so much like you that between you both I'm totally doomed. She might have been made by me but she was shaped by you and when you got home I was gonna rib you about secretly turning her into you so I wouldn't beg you for a mini-Johanna. I don't know why I said it like that. I am raising your kid, I want to raise more of your kids. And I want to do it with you, not trade off between morning and night. I mean sure we spend time together the three of us all the time, but I want to do that during the evening and morning too. And while you don't have to actually start waking up at a reasonable hour and can still have time alone with her I want at least bed time to be all three of us. When I said you were never gonna catch me raising your kid that was a lie because she's almost more you than me right now and I love it. It's wonderful and I want to do it again okay?"

Johanna's eyes had fallen closed but she nodded slowly. "Okay. That was still a really shitty thing to say though."

Katniss sighed and leaned her forehead against her wife's. "It was. But I think I said it because you reaffirmed that we were gonna keep having separate activities with her everyday and I wanted you to realized that while we spend a lot of time as a family we still have solid blocks of time where it's not all three of us. And I don't know how or why that happened but I don't like it anymore. If we're not careful you really wont catch me raising your kid. Her or any of the others. And I want you too."

Johanna's body finally relaxed under her. "Any of the others huh?"

"Yup. You're in charge of the next one. That's the real reason I chose you – I needed a partner that could take half the child bearing duties." She laughed as Johanna swatted her shoulder then peeked up at her through the bangs that had fallen into her eyes.

"She's like me?"

"The amount of sass and attitude I got? Carbon copy."

Johanna gasped and reeled backwards, falling onto the bed and looking at Katniss with a (luckily) fake-hurt expression while clutching her chest. "Ouch. You wound me woman."

Katniss stuck her tongue out then regarded her wife. "Can I ask you something?"

"I'm not ready to have more yet. Ask me again when she's three."

"Not that, but good to know. Why'd you take bath time too? She splashes enough to make a shower unneeded and you still. . ."

"Aren't fond of water?" Johanna shrugged "It's only bad when I'm alone. I don't think I'll ever be over that. But as you know I'm fine when you're there. I think it was a challenge for myself, and the first time I thought I was going to throw up from nerves. But I didn't want to clean puke off the baby so I held it back, and once the bath actually started I was so busy making sure she wasn't about to slip and drown that I didn't care that I was getting soaked enough that I might as well have been in there with her."

Katniss leaned down and kissed her. "I'm proud of you. Now. Want to go prove how fine you are with water when I'm there? I'll even apologize some more."

Johanna smirked at her. "Good. I'm still very hurt. At least two orgasms worth"

"Only two? Damn."

Johanna laughed and stood, lifting Katniss as she did so. "Let's see how much hot water we have."

A.N. The goal here was fluff with some underlying conflict that (unbeknownst to them) stemmed from not being perfect parents. That was the whole reason for their freak-outs at each other, neither is totally sure of what they're doing and they're doing it without enough communication. Of course having to explain it means it wasn't written well, but I was in Katniss's head for this one and so Johanna's psyche was left unexplored. One day I will actually get enough sleep to write deep introspective shit and analyze Johanna's character again (the whole reason I started this Hunger Games fanfiction thing) and not have to explain what I was doing in author's notes. Alas that day is not today so I stuck to fluff with inadequately written conflict for this piece. Can you tell I'm not too fond of this one? (Also, the reason I tend to post things without being satisfied is because I know if I wait to go over it the next morning I'll end up sitting on it until I've lost all nerve to post it then y'all will never see it and I will have wasted a bunch of time. Ergo I post and get whiny and annoying in the author's notes).

Little fun fact, this was originally supposed to be a drabble for All The Little Things but it grew and I decided to run with it and reveal this story which was in existence as a blank document until now. So tada! This will be updated irregularly and with a lot of gaps, but I do have planned ideas that will hit what I'm interested in. I like the idea of Johanna and Katniss being all old together but holy hell I hate children and naming people. Ergo this will be more about them than the kids, the kids will not have names which I sure will be annoying, and it will be complete after a few chapters. It will not be chronological.