Watching Annie
(Johanna "babysits" Annie for a night.)
Johanna's in her apartment in the Capitol, enjoying her one night off when there's a knock on her door. She starts when she hears it, grabs a knife off the table, and opens the door.
Then she rolls her eyes. "Finn," she half smirks, half scowls, letting him in, along with the girl hanging on his arm—Annie Cresta, victor of three years ago.
"Jo," he answers with a similar expression. "I need a favor." He purposefully lets go of Annie and lets her wander further into Johanna's apartment, out of earshot when Finnick lowers his voice to a murmur. "I thought I'd work out nights off while she was in the Capitol, but I couldn't get tonight," he says. "Can you watch her? Distract her? Take her out for a drink or two?"
"Me? Take your pet out for the night?" Johanna puts the knife down and closes the door behind Finnick. "What are you paying me, Finn?"
"Please, Jo."
"You know I'll do it." She rolls her eyes again, and Finnick's charming smirk is back. He calls over to Annie, who wanders her way back towards them. "Jo and you are gonna have a girl's night," he tells Annie. "And I will be back later." He kisses Annie's cheek—as if he doesn't want more—and then is gone from the apartment.
Johanna looks at the remaining victor and says, "I couldn't get one night off."
Annie tilts her head at Johanna and smiles. Johanna swears that the girl knows she's mocking her.
"So I'm gonna need some alcohol." Johanna grabs a shawl that her stylist left for her and wraps it around herself to prepare for the cool Capitol air. "So we, are going out. Come on." The last words are an order, and she takes Annie's hand and leads her out, shutting the door behind them.
A cab ride and some settling later, they have a small, tall, round table in a dark club with flashing lights. Johanna has a sickeningly sweet blue drink in front of her with matching blue ice, and Annie the same drink in magenta.
The difference is that it's Johanna's fourth glass and Annie hasn't touched hers yet.
"So what do you like to do around here?" Johanna asks, because she likes to think she's not a total bitch, and she can give Annie some choices.
Annie blinks. "I like to swim," she says.
It's Johanna's turn to blink. "Swim? Where the hell do you swim around here?"
Annie points out the glass wall to the reservoir that strolls around the Capitol.
"That is fucking unsafe," says Johanna, and downs the rest of her glass, slams it on the table. "And fucking illegal."
Annie shrugs. Finally she sips at her drink.
Johanna orders another drink for herself, lightheadedly, and then says, "You know what, never mind. Let's just dance. You should like to dance." She grabs both of Annie's hands and pulls her towards the dance floor. Because Johanna can entertain one mad girl for one night, right?
The song is fast and pulsing and electric, but Annie sways, her dress swirling around her, slow and peaceful, her eyes closed and head raised towards the stars.
Johanna snaps her fingers in front of Annie's face. "Try this, angelfish," she says, and takes her hands again, starts to dance like the song demands—jumping with their arms stretched above their heads, swaying from side to side with each hop and the beat.
Annie goes along with this.
And Johanna gets some peace before Annie seems to get tired. She's not much of a victor, in Johanna's mind, at least.
"Fine, we'll get back to your drink," she says, and goes back to their table, but orders Annie a new drink because who the hell knows what's been put in it by now?
Annie drinks all of it this time and then asks, "Can we dance my way now?" innocently.
No, no we can not, Johanna thinks, because then she'll also be marked the lunatic of the Capitol. But she's getting drunk by now, so instead she says, "Why don't we swim?" because that seems like a better idea, somehow.
Annie's eyes light up. She takes Johanna's hand this time and leads the way out of the club, and down the street. They reach a gate that Annie hops over as if it's nothing, and Johanna follows, then they're going down stairs that run parallel to the street, and they stand on another sidewalk with the reservoir just past another gate.
And Annie starts stripping.
"Whoa, what the hell are you doing?" Johanna asks, because she might pull the same stunt herself, but Annie's her responsibility and Johanna's nobody's.
"I can't swim in this dress," Annie says, as if this is the most obvious thing in the world. She steps out of the dress and her shoes and, in bra and underwear only, crawls over the gate and hops into the reservoir.
"Are you fucking insane?!" Johanna calls after her. But she steps out of her heels furiously and pulls her own dress over her head, throwing her shawl on top of it. Then she's over the gate and with a deep breath, underwater.
It's cold. It's fucking cold, and when she surfaces, gasping for air, she can't see Annie anywhere. Finn'll kill her. "Annie?!" she shrieks.
And a head of wild, soaked brown hair appears. Annie giggles and then leans and floats on her back.
It's dark where they are, and no one will notice them here. Annie's probably searched a lot for this spot. Johanna wonders if Finnick knows about this madness.
She shivers, and then says, "When can we get out?"
Annie does a backflip through the water in response. "Don't you like it?" she asks, eyes wide.
"No, no I do not fucking like this," Johanna snaps, and Annie looks upset. Great. If she starts crying, Finn'll kill her further, and slower.
"Okay, okay," she backtracks quickly, "we can swim."
"But you don't want to swim."
"You didn't want to dance."
"But you didn't care."
That hurts a little. Because Johanna does care. Not about the dancing, but about Annie. "I'm sorry," she gets out, which she rarely says.
Annie shrugs. She swims in a circle around Johanna. "It's okay." She pauses. "You think I'm mad, don't you?"
"I think we all are," says Johanna.
"But especially me?"
Well, she is. "Yes," Johanna says, because that last drink was a bad idea.
"But you love me," says Annie, as if it's a question. "You just don't say it a lot. You don't say it to Finn either, but you love him too."
"Yeah," says Johanna. "I do."
Both of them just float for a while.
Then Johanna hears a camera click.
"No," she says, "Shit, no." She grabs Annie's hand again, under the water, and starts to pull her towards the gate. "Get your clothes on and then run."
Annie seems to understand. They scramble out of the water, the air freezing against their skin, and over the gate. More camera flashes, and murmurs from the group of photographers on the other side of the reservoir. Annie's not getting dressed fast enough. Johanna shoves her own dress and shawl over Annie's head and puts on Annie's, which doesn't fit her right, but then she grabs Annie again and they run, even with Johanna in heels.
Up the stairs, over the other gate.
They get to the corner of the street, and even though the traffic's flowing, Johanna says, "This way!" and they run through the middle, blessedly getting across safely, and running towards a dark area, seemingly not pursued, since they'd been on the other side of the reservoir….
Johanna stops, sucks in air, almost falls from the drinks. She hears someone approaching and pulls Annie against her, out of sight. Annie's about to say something—"Shh," Johanna shushes, and puts a finger over Annie's lips.
No one comes.
They make their way through back alleys to Johanna's apartment building. Johanna ditches her heels at the ground, and they climb up the balconies to Johanna's own balcony, where she unlocks the doors with a card stored in her dress. They go inside, and Johanna makes sure the curtains and doors are shut, auto-locked, behind them.
They catch their breath.
"Let's get you cleaned up," she tells Annie, and carefully takes her clothes off of her, along with her own, and throws them all in the wash. She gets into a nightgown, towel drying her hair, and preps one for Annie for when her hair's dry. Annie, so vulnerable and trusting, lets Johanna do everything, pat her down with a towel almost gently, wrapping it around her, and then leads her into the bathroom to blow dry her hair.
Annie starts when Johanna turns on the hair dryer and Johanna knows the feeling, so she automatically babbles, "Sorry," which isn't like her even if it is automatic.
Annie nods in response, and Johanna blow dries Annie's hair slowly, brushing it out to as much as it was before carefully. Then she pulls a nightgown down over Annie's head, and leads her toward the bed. They both can sleep before Finnick gets back.
Johanna lies next to Annie in the bed, and Annie curls up close to her. Johanna leans over and grasps Annie's chin. "Promise we won't tell Finn?"
Annie nods.
"Good girl," says Johanna, and kisses Annie on the lips, then shuts the light.
END