Chapter 6.
They're both woken abruptly by the sound of Johanna's mother noisily answering the house.
"Johanna! I'm home!" she hollers as Johanna hears her mother dumping her purse on the kitchen table, the clanking sound of her keys hitting the table making her wince slightly as she opens her sleepy eyes.
"I'm in the living room!" she shouts back hoarsely, glancing at Katniss who is now rubbing the sleep out of her swollen eye. Johanna frowns as she inspects the girl's bruised face. Suddenly aware of her mother's presence, she turns as the older woman clears her throat.
"Who's this then?" she asks as she removes her coat and drapes it carefully over the back of the couch.
"Mom. This is Katniss. Katniss... this is my mom."
The other girl smiles and extends her hand in greeting to the older woman.
"Nice to meet you Ms. Mason." she says with a smile as she sits up fully and smooths down her hair.
The older woman smiles, finally releasing the young brunette's hand.
"It's nice to meet you as well, dear. And please, call me Sarah, Ms. Mason is my mother." she laughs as Johanna rolls her eyes, swinging her legs over the side of the couch.
"Well mother, it's getting to be about dinner time. I should probably take Katniss home."
Her mother nods and gives her daughter a small smile that seems to say okay but don't think you're getting out of a discussion about this, and Johanna affectionately rolls her eyes, secretly glad to have a mother who's so okay about her sexuality.
The car ride back to Katniss' house is mostly silent again. They put on some music and Johanna sings along quietly and drums her fingers on the steering wheel. The rain has cleared up by that point and it's uncharacteristically chilly for the beginning of September. When they reach Katniss' house, they embrace quickly before Katniss thanks her for everything and disappears into the house. On the drive home, Johanna thinks about how much she cares about this girl, and how she doesn't think she'll ever be able to let her go.
When she gets home, her mother is sitting on the couch, two cups of coffee sitting on the table in front of her. She pats the couch next to her, summoning for her daughter to sit by her and handing her one of the cups of coffee as she does.
"So, how did you meet this girl?" she says quietly, turning to face her daughter, who shrugs.
"At school yesterday. She's new."
Her mother nods before continuing.
"So are you two dating or... just friends?"
Johanna rolls her eyes again before setting the warm cup down on the table and answering.
"More than friends, definitely." She says, thinking back to their earlier kiss.
"But not dating, exactly. I mean, we barely know each other and we haven't exactly gotten the chance to go on a proper date. We're hanging out tomorrow though, we might catch a movie or something." She says nonchalantly, giving her mother another quick glance before staring back into her cup of coffee. She stands up abruptly, clearing her throat and telling her mother that she has homework, which is a blatant lie, and they both know it. As she sits in her room, trying to read a book her thoughts keep trailing back to the same thing. I have a date with Katniss Everdeen tomorrow. We're going on a real date.
Johanna picks Katniss up the next evening around 7:30. They drive to a local movie theatre and decide on some new action film that everyone says is supposed to be quite good. Johanna doesn't pay attention to the movie because she's too busy staring at Katniss hands. One is sitting on her thigh as she taps her fingers on it, obviously not too enthralled by the plot of the movie, but the other one is just sitting on the armrest, practically begging to be held. The internal struggle that goes through Johanna's mind before she tentatively takes the other girl's hand is unreal. She doesn't want to be too forward, but then again, she's already kissed this girl and she is pretty sure Katniss has feelings for her so why not just take her damn hand? Johanna chastises herself as she wraps her fingers around Katniss' slightly smaller hand, releasing the breath she was holding as the other girl turns to her and smiles radiantly. The rest of the movie passes in a blur because she's hyper-aware of the way Katniss palms are sweaty, but not uncomfortably so, and how every once in a while her leg relaxes and their knees touch in the dark of the movie theatre. When the film is finally over, Johanna doesn't have any idea what it was even about, but she knows she had a great night anyways. They kiss chastely in the car outside Katniss' house and Johanna drives home feeling like she's on top of the world.
The next couple of weeks pass without any real event. The two girls grow closer and by the end of the month Johanna is holding Katniss' hand in the halls at school and referring to her as her girlfriend whenever the opportunity arises that she can. They hang out at Johanna's mostly, and while the girl doesn't pry, she figures out by the small comments Katniss makes sometimes about how she wishes she had a mother who was as supportive as Johanna's that Katniss' mother isn't exactly open to the idea of her daughter being gay. They're stretched out on the taller girl's bed one day, facing each other while Johanna strokes Katniss' hair when she finally gets up the nerve to ask.
"Why haven't I ever met your mother?" she asks, noticing how Katniss tenses up at the mention of her mom.
She rolls into a sitting position and glances out the window silently for a second before answering.
"I don't know." she says, toying with the sleeves of her sweater before continuing with a venom that Johanna has only heard from the girl on one or two occasions.
"Maybe because she's a homophobic bitch?" Katniss answers, and Johanna sits up and wraps her arm around her girlfriend as she notices that her eyes are filling with tears.
"I'm sorry, Kat, I shouldn't have brought it up." She says, pulling her sleeve over her hand and wiping the tears from her girlfriends face.
Katniss buries her face in the other girl's shoulders and Johanna rubs soothing circles on her lower back as Katniss quietly speaks again.
"She's not a bitch. Not really. It-it just sucks, you know? I mean, she doesn't know that I'm gay. But the way she talks about people who are... it's awful. She uses every bad name in the book for people like us, and if she found out that I'm gay...I'm pretty sure she'd kick me out of the house. And it's not like she's a bad person or anything she just... She was raised very religiously, you know? And when something like that is hammered into your head all your life..." Katniss shrugs and looks up into her girlfriend's eyes. Johanna nods carefully, pulling Katniss in for another embrace.
"It's okay. We don't have to talk about your mom anymore, yeah?"
Katniss nods and they fall back into a lying down position, their hands intertwined as Katniss stares thoughtfully at the ceiling.
"I think your mom is supportive enough for the both of us." She says, turning to her girlfriend with a smile that the other girl returns.
"Yeah." Johanna says, squeezing her girlfriend's hand.
"I think you're right."
A/N: Thank you all so much for the amazing support! It really motivates me so much when all of you guys tell me that you like the story, so thank you for all the reviews! I hope you're enjoying reading this. Thanks so much. (p.s. the invitation is still open to come talk to me at courfeyrabbit on tumblr because i have a lot of feelings about this ship and nobody to talk to about it r.i.p.)