Naked

The expression that Effie made when an amused Haymitch and an embarrassed Peeta told absent-mindedly during the dinner the curios event happened in the lift, was the expected one of a mixture of incredulity, disapproval and disgust. What passed unnoticed to the superficial look that her team gave her, was instead the veiled trace of jealousy, and it was right that emotion to lead her without any ceremonies to the seventh floor and to face with hands on the hips and a icy glare, a confused and at the same time annoyed Johanna Mason.

"Oh, please, give it a cut, Effie!" she exclaimed looking up to the sky, interrupting the monologue that she had been forced to listen for more than five minutes.

"No, we have to talk about it! Does it look normal for you to make a strip tease in the lift? Do you think you've made a good impression to Katniss and Peeta? And I don't even want to think about Haymitch's reaction…"

"Don't worry… Nobody wants to touch your precious victor, don't be jealous…" the brunette interrupted her again in an ironic tone.

The hatred she had used to pronounce that sentence was more evident than what she had wanted and the sincere amazement that it caused was immediate.

"Jealous of… him?" the other woman asked in fact, raising both her eyebrows and letting herself go to a short joyless laugh.

Johanna sighed and looked for some moments away. She knew the real reason of that apparently unexplainable scene and she was also well aware of the fact that it had nothing to do with district 12's mentor. And yet that awareness, confirmed now explicitly, didn't reassure her at all, on the contrary it annoyed her even more.

Because she was allowed to be jealous of Effie Trinket, but Effie Trinket wasn't allowed to be jealous of her.

"Some kisses and some touches don't make us anything…" she finally said and this time the hatred in her voice was so strong to almost result lethal.

Effie's hands slipped weak from her body and the plastic smile disappeared completely from the face. No reproach about the use of little refine language, not even a wince or a cautionary glance: silent tears were her only reaction because hearing those words there couldn't be space for anything different than unbearable pain. And in front of the vision of black-mascara lines on the white mask made of make-up, even Johanna found herself feeling that same pain, but mixed with sense of guilt and remorse.

"Effie, don't cry, com'on…" she simply whispered moving of only a short step.

But the distance was still too much and that attempt of comfort still not convincing enough.

"What should I do, Johanna?... I'm crying because I have to keep on smiling, while I'm falling apart… Because I've fallen in love with a person who thinks that between me and her there's nothing… Because you are going into the arena and you probably won't come out of it, you could die and I… I'm crying because you have never stripped for me"

Johanna remained to just stare at her in silence, unable to hold the tears that now had formed in her eyes too. The absurd capitolist accent that usually annoyed her so much, seemed now in the desperation of the moment the sweetest and yet bitterest sound. What she had believed to be the confused combination of occasional flirts during three years was now turning into something completely different and she didn't know how to handle the new situation.

Love: it was too late to feel something like that and for her there had never been a time for that after all.

Maybe it was the reason why among all the confessions in that speech, she chose to ignore the declaration of love as well as the prediction of an ineluctable destiny and instead focused the attention on the only revelation which she could still reply to. Slowly, she approached the older woman until she could touch her and that's what she did, raising a hand to put it gently on that upset face and sticking out a little bit more to join their lips in a soft salty kiss.

" I've never stripped for you because it would have been different with you" she murmured with sincere sadness, voided right away by the trace of resentment in the next sentence "Not that you ever did that for me, anyway"

She finished that accusation with another kiss and, after putting her hand in the hated synthetic wig in front of her, she turned back in a twitch, drifting apart as if she had been burned by the contact.

Johanna didn't ad anything more and Effie didn't take long to realize that her presence was no more wanted.

They saw each other again a few hours later, while the rest of the building was almost completely asleep; it was Effie the one to seek the meeting. But it was a different Effie and Johanna could understand that at a first simple glance. Without the wig, without make-up, without heels and without eccentric clothes: she could have done something so bold only in the middle of the night and only for her. Effie Trinket had stripped for her, because even if she wasn't actually naked, it was as if she really was.

"Finally…"

It was all the brunette could manage to say without hiding a mischievous smile, grabbing the other woman's wrist and leading her inside the room. She kissed her with passion this time, and need and despair, letting eliminate the distance between their lips at first, their bodies then. They caressed each other with slight hesitation but also vibrant desire, they explored each other without any reservation and they finally both stripped, one for the other.

"You are beautiful" Johanna whispered with an unusual sweet smile on the lips, sinking his face between the escort's blonde curls.

She said that not only because it was indeed true, but also because she knew that with all the insecurities that were leading her to hide herself behind Capitol couture, she needed to hear that. For her, instead, words weren't needed: it was enough the way Effie was touching without fear nor disgust the scars she was gifted with during the Hunger Games.

That night they loved each other, they both had their first time making love with another woman, or probably making love at all, and yet it didn't seem like that. They remained embraced on the bed suddenly too big, enjoying the feeling of peace that the moment was offering, not thinking of anything else, not thinking even of death that seemed further than it really was.

Effie smiled sweetly, leaning her head on the other one's shoulder and letting their hands interlace, but Johanna couldn't. She had always believed that they had took everything from her, but she had been wrong, something was left. Effie Trinket was left.

"Promise me that I will see you again" the blonde whispered suddenly, making their eyes meet.

The immediate reaction at those words was laughing, because such a promise would have been impossible to keep with all that was going on; but yet in the capitol woman's blue eyes a light of faith and hope was shining so much that it was almost possible to really believe that.

"I promise you… We will see each other again"

The large peacekeeper violently threw her to the ground and the dull sound of the iron door that was closing behind her, was the sign of the brief truce they were giving her between one torture and another. But she wasn't alone in that new cell, as she discovered with horror only a few minutes after.

"Johanna…"

She tried to raise her head with fatigue at that call; it was a weak, far voice, that she was hardly able to recognize. But still, unluckily for her, she recognized it, as she recognized the figure curled up in a corner who was staring shocked at her. The woman was thinner, more fragile and dirtier since the last time she had seen her, but those eyes were still the same of that night. Indefinite time had been since then and in the meanwhile there had been the Games, the Rebellion, the capture. She still remembered the promise she had made and now it was coming to her with irony; during all that time she had found strength in the thought that at least the escort of 12 would have been safe, annoying and naïve as always, but unaware of the horrors of the world.

In the meanwhile Effie had detached herself from the wall and approached her almost crawling, but without daring to touch her almost for fear to hurt her, even if nobody could have said who between them was suffering more. She simply moved a strand of dark hair from the other woman's face and then took her hand.

"It's good to see you again" she began with an attempt, not much successful, to smile.

Johanna felt like crying, screaming, or at least using the little breath she had left to lament for the absurdity and the cruelty of fate that was never, ever, in her favor. But on the contrary the only thing she did was laugh, even if It was a bitter laugh, even if her chest was aching and it was making hard to breathe.

Because in the end it was good to see each other again. Seeing each other meant being alive, it meant being together.

Okay, I don't even know how this story came into my mind, but I love crack pairings and both Effie and Johanna are two interesting characters, so let's say that I challenged myself LoL As you saw, I decided to start that after the famous scene in the elevator from "Catching Fire" and ended the Capitol's prison they both ended up in, during "Mockinjay". I hope that they didn't sound too OOC and that you somehow liked it! I really would appreciate a comment about it :)