A/N- They've cast Johanna! What does everyone think about the casting?
Chapter Forty-Eight- Beautiful and Dangerous
I'm woken by the mattress sinking beneath me, and then it pinging back up again. There's the sound of the springs being tested too.
"I'm not even awake yet." I moan at Finnick. "What are you doing?" I peek through my eyelashes and see him bouncing on the bed on his knees.
"Rocking your world," he replies, very matter-of-factly.
"Oh that's what that is. I thought it would feel…you know…better."
"Come on it's fun." He jumps up onto his feet and bounces a little harder.
"Urgh, how old are you?"
He bounces particularly sharply and I'm sprung right off the bed.
"Look you're up now, come on bounce with me!" He holds out his hand and pulls me up onto the bed. No sooner have I got my bearings than he shoves me back down onto my ass. I cry out in surprise and then clamp my hand over my mouth. That cry sounded like we were doing something naughty in here! His grin tells me that was his meaning all along. He offers his hand again and I tug him off balance so that he too falls with a loud grunt. I quickly climb on top of him, straddling his middle, but keep bouncing on my knees.
"Look now I'm rocking your world."
He chuckles and rubs his hands around my knees.
"You look good from this angle."
"Don't be foul, you've already dragged me into this disgusting theatrical production of yours."
"Aww but it's fun!" he moans, pouting. "Come on, give me your best."
"My best what?"
"What do you do that makes the Capitol men think they've satisfied you?"
"I don't beat their faces to the ground. That's what I do."
"Mason!" He rolls his eyes. "You need a real man to fulfil you. Maybe all your pent up aggression will just fade away afterwards."
"Holding auditions this afternoon," I say. "Now, I'm going to get some breakfast, do you want anything?"
He sits up, leaning on his elbows, an eyebrow cocked.
"You know what I want." He makes the springs squeal a few more times and then looks at me expectantly.
I grit my teeth and give him one loud, wanton groan.
"Happy?" I cock my head at him.
"Ecstatic," he replies. "Just don't move for a minute."
"Urgh! Filth!" I exclaim and clamber off the bed quickly.
He chuckles and swings his legs over the side of the bed.
"I better go, don't worry about breakfast." He pulls on a shirt and his pants while I wrap a robe around my pyjamas.
There's a knock on my door, and Lalaney's face appears in the open crack.
"Hey Lalaney, good to see you again," Finnick says, doing up his flies.
"Good morning Finnick, I've got mail here for Miss Mason." She waves a red envelope in the air and my shoulders slump.
Finnick pinches my shoulders and as usual when he tries his appalling massages I wince and writhe out of his reach.
"Finnick's just on his way out, clear the way." I take the envelope and push my Escort back to open up the door properly. "Out Odair."
A cheeky grin on his face, he shuffles past us, kissing Lalaney on the cheek and slapping my ass. I kick him in his on the way through the door.
"Have fun this morning?" Lalaney asks me with a sly smile on her face.
"Oh yeah, didn't you hear?" I roll my eyes.
"I sure did." She nods knowingly. "You know I used to work with District 4, I'm very familiar with the sound of Finnick jumping on the bed."
"Caught." I tear open the envelope with a little more force than I meant to and the paper falls out…along with two items.
"What's that?" Lalaney picks up one of them, it's a black oblong with a slight curve to one of the longer sides.
"I don't know. What's this?" I hold up a small grey plastic square with an electrical chip on one side. It looks familiar.
Lalaney gasps.
"It's… it's…" She fondles around in her blazer pocket and fishes out a similar chip. "An ID!"
I unfold the letter that came as well.
'Your help. Tonight. Disguise your face. A car at 6. B.'
It's the two devices that Finnick told me about. If the grey square is the ID, then this oblong must be the scanner. Wait, Finnick! I knew I'd seen the grey square before! It was what Fulvia had in her hand when she tossed me the magazine! Finnick must have had it and put it in her hand when he kissed down her arm. Clever boy! But where did he get it from in the first place?
"Why is Snow sending you a Capitol ID?" Lalaney frowns.
"He isn't," I reply, still studying the short letter. "What better way to pass information undetected than by using the Presidents own seal." I say to myself, putting the paper to my nose. It doesn't smell. The envelope smells of roses like usual, but the paper smells clean, fresh.
"Can you trust it?"
"I think so." I hope so.
"Is it for your….thing? With the…people?"
I nod.
"When?"
"Tonight. Will you help me do my make-up?" I need to be unrecognisable so who better to ask than a Capitol citizen.
"Gaia would be a better bet for that kind of thing you know." She looks meaningfully into my eyes. "She has better…stocks."
"What would we say to her? I practically screamed at her before the Tribute Parade because she touched my hair."
"Just say you want to look a bit different so people don't recognise you while you're out."
"Will you call her?"
Lalaney agrees and scurries away to find her little gadget that seems to have everyone's telephone number programmed in. I go to my wardrobe and throw open the doors to search my limited collection of clothes for something that would pass as Capitol chic. To be fair, all of it is Capitol-made but it's also mostly my taste. Practical pants and shirts with the odd easy-to-remove-easy-to-put-on evening dress for 'dates'. It's all too normal. I need something flashy but not too flashy. I don't even know what kind of thing I'm looking for.
I go to Lalaney's room to have a poke around her clothes. There's a lot more choice here, but still nothing quite right. She wears dresses with vibrant patterns on them but they're sort of…motherly. I need an outfit more like…Effie Trinket's. She's young-ish. I've seen her in The Pit a couple of times and since Lalaney's told me her name, I've taken a little more interest in her.
I call out to Lalaney, and Blight if he's listening, that I'm going for a walk. I get no reply.
My walk takes me as far as the elevator, and then from the elevator to the door of the suite on the 12th Floor.
I bang three times before a man opens the door. It's not Haymitch.
"You must be Cinna, the stylist." I offer him my hand.
"Johanna Mason, the Victor." An amused smile plays across his lips as he gives my hand a firm shake.
He looks relatively…normal for a Capitol citizen. I'd seen him at the Interviews with Caesar Flickerman but not really noticed this rather unique characteristic. He has gold eyeliner which I guess is part of the Capitol fashion but that's it.
"I'm looking for Effie," I tell him.
"She's out I'm afraid, looking for Sponsors to try and wake up Katniss."
"Aww still snoozing is she?" I can't help the venom in my voice.
Cinna crosses his arms and leans against the doorframe, blocking any hopes of entry.
"Did you come here for a reason or just to gush about our Tributes?"
"I need Capitol clothes and my Escort is a little old and not really my shape."
"You need clothes?" He cocks his head to one side.
"Yes."
"I'm a stylist, talk to me."
I remember Katniss and Peeta, blazing their way down the streets in their chariots with their costumes on fire. I remember Katniss twirling dramatically in her smouldering dress at the interview.
"Are you going to try to set me on fire?"
He laughs and leans away from the door.
"Come on in, I'll find something for you."
He's surprisingly accepting of my odd request. He gathers some clothes from what I assume to be Katniss's room and sneaks some from Effie's too. He ploughs his way through countless stretches of fabric muttering to himself.
"I would have loved to style you back in the day, Johanna," he says to a bright yellow shimmering piece of material. "Look at this, it would have been ideal: as bright and beautiful as starlight on one side…" he flips it over to reveal a jet black reverse, "as dark and dangerous as midnight on the underside. I was in my second year of fashion school that year and I designed a Victor's Interview dress for you as my coursework. Everyone laughed at the very idea that you'd survive when I previewed my design."
"Lovely," I say a little churlishly. "But I don't want to look like me 'back in the day', I want to look like a Capitol person."
"I'm getting there," he replies softly, still stroking the yellow 'starlight'.
It takes him about an hour to unstitch two outfits and restitch them together for me to wear. I have to admit, it's pretty good.
There's a strapless black dress with added padding at the bust to enhance my already enhanced breasts, making them look monstrous to me. Over the top I have a bronze jacket with puffed up shoulders and bronze ruche flowers around the neckline. Cinna has also somehow turned some tube socks into long gloves for me. One of Effie's scarves took a few snips to make it into an enormous bow that flops down over one side of my face.
When Cinna stands me in front of the mirror I'm speechless.
"I look just like one of them…I mean one of you."
"I haven't counted myself as one of them since my first year at fashion school," he breathes into my ear. "Do you have someone to do your make-up?"
I nod, "Yes Gaia's going to do it for me."
"Good, don't let her see this outfit." He turns me around and holds his hand out to me. "Good luck Johanna, with whatever you're doing."
I shake his hand again and then hug him.
"Thank you," I whisper.
"You're welcome. Here…" He takes a hold of the bust of my dress and turns a little of the hem inside out. It's bright yellow on the inside. "Dangerous on the outside, beautiful on the inside. That's more like the Johanna Mason of the present."
I smile, then purse my lips.
"And how many colours are there underneath your clothes Cinna?" I pluck at the collar of his black shirt.
"Honey," he says, straightening back his collar and putting his lips to my ear rather seductively, "I'm black all over."
I laugh and kiss his cheek.
"Nice try, but now I'm going to have to ask you to leave the room while I strip down. I'll see myself out."
He pretends to look disappointed but takes a step towards one of the bedrooms anyway.
"You'll make sure Gaia does a proper job with the makeup won't you? I'm not having my design forJohanna Mason get spoilt by her cackhandedness with a makeup brush."
"Of course not. Now off you go." I give him a wave and make sure the door is properly closed before I shrug off the jacket and unzip the dress.
I hope Cinna doesn't make a habit of hitting on young women, or Peeta's definitely got his work cut out for him. Of course Katniss might be different but I found that exchange rather pleasant.
