Title: look away as i start to fall
Fandom: The Hunger Games
Rating: T
Words: 539 words
Characters/Pairings: Johanna/Finnick/Annie
Prompt: Johanna/Finnick, closing my eyes because i see you at night for kolms.
Summary: When he makes his way to her bunker, she lets him in at the very first knock. Spoilers for Catching Fire/Mockingjay. Originally posted at the girl on fire ficathon.
Disclaimer: I do not own The Hunger Games.
When he makes his way to her bunker, she lets him in at the very first knock. He half-expects her to bare it all, what with Katniss roaming around somewhere and Johanna's fondness for lounging around in the nude, but she's wearing a tank and shorts instead. (He checks for the fresh marks of morphling, is relieved to find fewer than he had feared.)
She thinks that something about this entire scene is off, that his time would be better spent reciting bad poetry to his radiant wife with eyes like the sea, but humors him anyway. (That isn't to say she won't be difficult.) "My, my, Mr. Odair, the son of the sea god gracing District 13's very own hydrophobic soldier with his presence. And to what do I owe the pleasure? "
He leans against her door frame, tall and huge and indestructible. "Well, Ms. Mason, as much as I trust you to hold down the fort, I thought I'd kindly warn you that Beetee said he'd let the good doctor know straight away if you even so much as look as though you're trying to steal more drugs."
Johanna rolls her eyes, waves him off with a salute that would impress even Boggs . "Aye, aye, captain. I promise I'll be on my very best behavior. Victor's honor and all." And then, after a long slow minute, she takes a sniff of her little bouquet of pine. "Good luck with Annie. With everything. Even your super fancy new clique you're calling a 'squad'. Whatever. I mean it."
It's when she turns away from him under the pretense of sweeping up fallen needles that he takes a good look at the familiar band around her wrist. The rope is tied off with a loose knot (not meant to be secure, not meant to be lasting), and so he smiles, the way he always did for the cameras, when he held on to something he had no choice but to hide. "When have I ever needed luck? Besides, it seems like you might need it just a bit more. Apparently the only rations they have left are those beans you're so very fond of."
She follows with nothing less than a raucous fit of snorts, half from exhaustion and more so from worry. She catches her breath and stands on her tiptoes, kissing him softly on the cheek. It's less sloppy than she thought she could manage, but it's just enough.
He understands what her silence is trying to say: "This is it - I'm letting you go now, so don't you dare mess up."
Had he known that she would have been better for it, this is what he would have said: "There aren't many people left in this world that I care so much about, but you, Johanna, are one of them."
Had she thought he would have felt stronger for it, this is how she would have replied: "Stop being so sentimental, Finnick. There's no one else watching and we both know you'll be coming home soon."
(They never did say those three words, not to each other at least.)