Katniss woke up on her side with Johanna's arm draped over her waist. Her eyes sleepily blinked a few times as the numbers on the alarm-clock slowly came into focus. It was nearly six in the morning. She froze as she felt Johanna's arm tighten around her waist and pull her closer. Johanna sighed in her sleep and Katniss could feel the little hairs on the back of her neck sway back and forth with Johanna's breathing. She nestled her head under the covers and fell back to sleep.

Johanna woke up several hours later and noticed Katniss had turned over and was now nestled against her chest. Katniss murmured under her breath and Johanna strained to hear what Katniss was dreaming about. She distinctly heard Katniss mutter, "Don't…" before her voice stumbled into a stream of nonsense. Johanna tried her hardest not to laugh while Katniss quietly babbled in her sleep. She was just about to burst aloud when she heard Katniss faintly utter her name. She froze with her eyes wide in disbelief as Katniss sighed deeply and nuzzled her head further into Johanna's neck. Certain that Katniss was still asleep, she bit her bottom lip to keep from laughing. Her face broke open in a smile as she glanced down at the tangled mess that was Katniss's hair. She reached her free hand up and lightly stroked Katniss's hair before resting her hand on Katniss's waist.

Johanna lay perfectly still for almost an hour before Katniss began to stir. A series of quiet strangled sounds came from the back of Katniss's throat before she opened her eyes to see Johanna staring at her. She smiled briefly before sleepily groaning, "Morning." Johanna looked as if she had been awake for hours already. Katniss lazily closed her eyes before asking, "How long have you been awake?"

Johanna quietly replied, "I don't know, an hour maybe?" She glanced over Katniss's face and found her eyes drawn to Katniss's lightly chapped lips. She continued, "You talk in your sleep, you know that?"

Katniss's eyes shot open as she asked, "What?" in disbelief.

Johanna laughed before nodding her head smugly. Katniss felt a flicker of panic cross her face as she struggled to remember her dreams from earlier. Johanna said, "It was nothing bad, I promise. Just nonsense grumbling for the most part." Katniss felt her dreams coming back to her in fragments before Johanna added, "You said my name a few times." Katniss swallowed heavily as scenes from her dream replayed in her mind. One of her most recent dreams flashed before her eyes so vividly she could feel her cheeks flush brilliant red within seconds. Johanna chewed on her bottom lip as she said, "Dreaming about me, huh Brainless?"

Katniss tried to play it off casually and snorted before answering, "Only about suffocating you in your sleep." She felt the mattress shake with laughter and found herself staring at Johanna's lips as they pulled back to reveal a row of tiny white teeth. She struggled to bring her eyes back to Johanna's. There was a brief pause as they stared at each other's faces in the dim light of the morning. Katniss noticed a handful of long white scars that ran from Johanna's earlobe down to her collarbones. She reached out a hand to run her fingertips over them and heard Johanna inhale sharply. Katniss paused for a fraction of a second and then ran her fingers from Johanna's ear to her neck and back up again before looking Johanna in the eyes. Johanna froze, her eyes taking in the smallest details of Katniss's face…from the dusting of reddish brown freckles that covered her nose and cheeks to the small flecks of gold in Katniss's hazel eyes. She cleared her throat before answering Katniss's unspoken question, "I was in an accident…those are from years ago." Katniss's eyes flicked back to the scars that ran down Johanna's neck as she asked, "How old were you?" Katniss's eyebrows came together in concern as she waited for Johanna to respond. "I was helping my brother Adam in the woods when I fell out of the tree...he was fifteen, I was ten." She laughed without humor as she added, "I caught every damn thorn on the way down…we thought I'd hit the main artery. Mom nearly went crazy trying to stop the bleeding." Johanna's eyes grew distant as she started to explain, "That was the morning of the Reaping."

Katniss remembered Johanna's older brother being killed in the Hunger Games several years before she was chosen. She could faintly remember her mother's reaction when Johanna had been Reaped…her mother cried and shook her head in disbelief as the second Mason child stepped onto the stage. Adam Mason was the victim of an alliance gone brutal; mercilessly stabbed in his sleep while his allies split and went their separate ways. Johanna's eyes glazed over as memories overtook her. Katniss shook her head and put her finger to Johanna's lips to stop her from continuing.

Johanna took a shaky breath and then sighed before pulling Katniss's hand away from her mouth. She swallowed before continuing, "He was the reason my parents trained me. After sending him to the Games, they couldn't leave me unprepared. Mom went out the next day and got me my own axe. Every day it was the same routine; I'd train in secret in the woods with my dad before school and then at night mom would teach me survival skills." Katniss bit her bottom lip as Johanna explained. She knew that Johanna had won the games by pretending to be weak and then brutally killing her opponents with sheer strength by the end. She never knew why Johanna had always tensed up when her family was brought up in conversation in the past. Johanna didn't shed a single tear as she finished explaining, she was tired of crying. She steeled herself one last time before uttering, "The peacekeepers found out my parents were training me—it's illegal you know—so I was selected for the Games that year and both of them were shot in the town square as the train pulled away." Johanna paused for a moment and almost inaudibly added, "I didn't get to say my goodbyes."

Katniss felt her own tears soaking the pillowcase underneath her head. She swallowed back more tears before whispering, "I had no idea."

Johanna shook her head and replied, "I wanted you to know. You and Fin are the only ones I've told."

Katniss nodded and realized how much Johanna was different with her. Before Johanna had always seemed like a harsh and abrasive person, shutting everyone out to stay safe. Now she was starting to understand why Johanna was so disconcerting to everyone else. No one knew the kind of horrors she had experienced even before she entered the arena of the Hunger Games. Katniss shivered slightly as she recognized the fact that Johanna had only ever told one other person before her. Johanna waited silently for Katniss to make some kind of acknowledgment. Katniss just stared into her dark green eyes for several minutes before resting her palm on Johanna's cheek and sighing, "I guess we're both pretty fucked up, huh?"

Again Johanna laughed humorlessly and nodded before replying, "Yeah I guess so." Katniss felt hyperaware of Johanna's arm that was still draped over her waist. Something clicked inside her mind and suddenly the shared room didn't feel foreign, cramped, or uncomfortable. Katniss noticed that here in the comfort and safety of the blankets, she felt more at home than ever.

. . . .