This is from an anonymous tumblr ask, asking for Johanna POV of Peeta Cafeteria scene :)
A part of Johanna did not believe that Peeta would ever get better, but she was not sure how accurate her thinking was as she'd been exceptionally pessimistic recently. But when looking at the facts with her brutally realistic perspective, what she saw was few people have ever been hijacked, 2. They have no records of anyone ever recovering from being hijacked, 3. It would be very hard to reverse it, and 4. Peeta attacked Katniss, the person he once cared for the most. She thought he must be too far gone if he'd done such a thing. Perhaps he was a lost cause, which made her sad to think about because he was a very sweet and optimistic person, someone she would have liked to continue being friends with.
But she was pleasantly surprised when Peeta showed up for dinner.
She looked up from her plate of bland military food to see a disheveled, wide-eyed Peeta. He was shackled with guards on either side of him, but he was functioning. She watched as he got a tray of food then made his way to the table where everyone was sitting.
"Hi," Peeta mumbled.
Everybody was shocked at Peeta's arrival, the table went silent. Delly, who was a ball of unending joy, smiled at him, Gale looked confused, and Katniss was tense with a deadly, but bewildered, facial expression. Johanna, however, was pleased that he was at least no longer restrained on a bed.
"You can sit next to me," she said, patting the empty space beside her.
Everyone at the table shot Johanna a puzzled look. The silence was awkward as ever so she decided to lighten the mood with a joke, "Peeta and I are friends, we got quite familiar with each other's screams– our cells in the Capitol were adjoined," she joked.
Annie tensed up, her eyes squeezed shut, and she looked very uncomfortable. Finnick gave Johanna a displeased look and put his arm around Annie in an attempt to comfort her. She felt bad for making Annie uncomfortable, she thought maybe everyone would find humor in her comment, but realized that it was far too soon for jokes. Annie herself endured some horrible things in the Capitol.
"Sorry, Annie" she mumbled shamefully. Annie glanced at her, curving her lips into a tense smile for a split second and giving Johanna a nod to signify that she accepted the apology.
Thankfully, Delly Cartwright broke the tension by telling Annie and Finnick that it was Peeta who baked and frosted their wedding cake. Johanna smiled to herself at the thought of Peeta making the cake — that had to mean there was improvement, right? That the old Peeta was in there, at least for a moment? The cake was lovely, it was fluffy and moist, the frosting was sweet, but not sickening. The cake was beautiful — a mural of the sea, with shells, fish, seals, aquatic flowers and plants, there was even a sailboat on the second layer.
When she had some at the wedding, it was the loveliest thing she'd tasted in years, and it was the first moment since her rescue from the Capitol that she had experienced something truly delightful. Johanna loved cake since she was a little girl, it was very rare that she could have any, only once every year or so would her family be able to afford it.
She thought maybe Peeta would keep improving, maybe things would get better, she depended on it. She couldn't handle another bad thing happening, she was worn out like an old pair of boots. Unsure of how many more tragedies she could survive — to her disappointment, things started going downhill.
"So, are you two a couple now?" Peeta asks Gale and Katniss in an unfriendly tone.
"No," Katniss hastily responds.
Here we go again Johanna thought to herself. Gale marveled at Peeta's cold behavior, which did not make things better. Oh, for fucks sake.
"Annie we should go now if we want to get our walk in today," Finnick says, interrupting the awkward, escalating conversation.
"You better treat her well, Finnick, or I might just have to take her from you," Peeta says with a monotone voice as Annie and Finnick stand up to leave. Everyone looks at Peeta, perplexed, Johanna and Katniss make eye contact for a moment, both equally confused by his words. Johanna thinks he was trying to make a joke, but it came out all wrong.
"Don't make me regret bringing you back to life, Peeta," Finnick jests tensely. Annie and Finnick look at each other, eyebrows furrowed in confusion as they walk away. Peeta doesn't seem to notice that his joke was not well received.
Suddenly, he starts to mumble to himself, it seems like he is arguing with his own thoughts. Gale and Katniss leave to avoid further upsetting Peeta, but Johanna figured it was Katniss who needed to get out of there the most.
"Peeta, are you alright?" Johanna questioned softly.
He did not respond, he only continued to mutter under his breath, growing more distraught every second.
"No, no, no, I'm a mutt!" Peeta shouted.
"No, Peeta you are not, you're okay," she tried to comfort him, but it didn't work. He only cried and shouted more about being a Capitol mutt.
Peeta's guards came over and tried to calm him and de-escalate the situation, they lifted a distressed and sobbing Peeta from his seat and carefully walked him out of the room. Delly followed close behind them carrying Peeta's dinner tray.
Johanna now sat alone, wondering if all of her hope was false. Peeta was no longer trying to kill Katniss, and he didn't think she was evil anymore, but his damaged mental state was nonetheless devastating. She ate her cold stew and soggy cheese bread in depressing silence, her chest felt heavy once again.
