"Johanna Mason I will not ask you again."

Johanna groaned and stood up from her kitchen table, grumpily rounding the corner to face Jackson in the living room. Aurelia and Celadine were off with some of the Hawthorne kids playing nearby, leaving Johanna and Jackson alone for one of the first times since they came back three weeks prior.

The older woman peered down at Johanna. "They can't just strew their toys about," Jackson chided. "There is a place where the toys should go. It's not 'wherever they want.'"

"Oh sure, let me tell my previously kidnapped sisters that they've gotta put their toys away. Like it matters," Johanna scoffed with an exaggerated roll of her eyes. Having Jackson around was a blessing - though Johanna would never admit it aloud - but she was also impossibly rigid when it came to a lot of things. Cleanliness was one of them.

Jackson sighed and placed her fingers on her temple. "Sometimes I forget you're a teenager and you already know everything there is to know about the world." The sardonic smile grew on her face as Johanna gave her a petulant glare. "They need structure, Jo. Kids like structure. They need it."

"I didn't need it and look how good I turned out." She spread her arms wide, though the left took a bit more effort to put up. "The harbinger of freedom for Panem. The Mockingjay."

"Oh yeah, you're the poster girl for successful young adults. Barely remembering to take a shower every once in a while to get that forest smell off of you." She crinkled her nose. "Let me call up President Paylor right now and let her know she can step down because you're all set to take her job, once you figure out how to get up before noon."

"Not all of us had the luxury of growing up in a district with running water - hot water at that - my pampered District Thirteen friend."

"It's been quite some time since you were in the Seam, Johanna. You're not a soot-covered little orphan anymore. You're an adult." Johanna scowled and crossed her arms over her chest, not giving Jackson the satisfaction of seeing the pain in her arm reflected on her face.

"I thought you just said I was a teenager," Johanna sneered.

"Those terms are not mutually exclusive, Mason." Jackson bent down and picked up a few of Aurelia's dolls she'd left out and plunked them into the small toy box next to the couch. "Wow, would you look at that? Isn't it lovely how things just have a place?" Johanna flipped her off and Jackson laughed. "Charming."

"I'm surprised you can even see what finger I'm holding up from here," Johanna teased.

"I'm more surprised you can even lift that arm enough to flip me off, considering how frequently you're delinquent on your strengthening exercises."

"Sarcasm looks really great on you, Jacks, you should wear it more often. It really brings out the smugness in your eyes."

Jackson barely hid her smirk. "I feel like that just brings us closer, you know? The bigger asshole I can be, the more I feel like I understand you."

Johanna pursed her lips in what could only be described as a non-verbal admission of touché. She picked up a few others of the girls' toys and placed them into the toy box. Jackson watched bemusedly, before letting her smirk fall into a straight line. "Johanna," she began, in a tone one would use to call a skittish animal, but the younger girl cut her off.

"No, I don't want to have this talk again." Skittish animal was accurate; Johanna nearly spooked like a horse and ran away. Only obstinacy kept her rooted to the floor.

"We have to have this talk. Your sisters deserve to know what happened to their brother. You need to tell them. I cannot keep deflecting their questions." Jackson placed her hand gently on Johanna's shoulders. "They're very bright, your sisters. They know something is wrong. They just don't know why their big sister is hiding it from them."

"Because that's what I do," Johanna shot back, "I hide things from them. I hide how ugly the world really is because it isn't fair. Do you think I told them that I found our mother hanging in our home? How purple her face was? How her neck was beginning to come away from her head from the weight of her corpse?" Johanna's eyes pricked painfully but she pressed on. "I should tell them how their brother died in pure agony? His skin being burned away from his muscles, crackling like some kind of holiday ham?"

Jackson was used to Johanna's emotional volatility by now. The fact that they'd jumped from playful banter to a discussion of Johanna's dead family was no surprise to the veteran soldier; the only consistency in Johanna's moods were that they were inconsistent. But Johanna needed to grieve properly, and telling her sisters would be a good first step, if only the girl would be brave enough to take it.

"You tell them that your brother died a hero, because he did. He sacrificed his life for his fellow man, and they deserve to know." She squeezed Johanna's shoulder and implored, "Spare them the details, of course. They're little. But be forthright."

Her jaw tensed and Johanna felt the tightness inside her chest. "I don't want to tell them he's never coming back," she admitted through gritted teeth. "How do I tell them that, again? 'Daddy isn't coming back.' 'Mommy isn't coming back.' 'I might not be coming back.' 'John isn't coming back.' How many times do they have to hear that from me? How do I tell them it's all my fault?"

Johanna's face fell and Jackson briefly resisted the urge to take the young girl in her arms. A motherly instinct never quite leaves you, and she was no longer bound by duty to keep a distance. Jackson let her guard down and pulled Johanna in for a rare, but meaningful hug. "I will help you tell them," she said into Johanna's hair as she let the teen whimper into her shoulder. "You aren't alone."

Johanna knew that was true. She wasn't alone. She had her sisters back, District 12 itself was slowly trying to resuscitate, and many of the kids she knew from school were returning. The Hawthorne family, Peeta Mellark, Delly Cartwright, Madge Undersee. Even some kids from around the Seam. And, of course, Jackson, who had been her unexpected touchstone.

But since her heart was across the country, tangled up on a beach on the sunny side of the world, alone is how she felt anyway. Like an empty house. A hollow hearth with no fire. A quiver with no arrows.

"You have to be strong, Jo," Jackson advised in soothing tones. "At least for your sisters. Because being an adult doesn't mean having that strength all the time, it just means knowing when to use your strength to help others in their weakness, and when to have the strength to be weak yourself."

Johanna fiddled with the dog tags around her neck, pinging the thin metal against itself. Aurelia propped herself up on Johanna's left leg, cradled in her arm, weeping softly into her older sister's shoulder. Celadine let two tears fall off her cheeks, her chubby bottom lip quivering, but said nothing. Celadine appeared to age five years in the near year they'd been gone, still beautiful, but looking much older than she should. Johanna wanted to kill Snow again for robbing her of some of her innocence.

Jackson stared down at the three girls from her standing position next to the fireplace. Her brown eyes darted to each of them, then to Johanna with the touch of motherly concern that Johanna both craved and found completely alien. The closest she'd ever gotten to feeling like she had a mother was when Mrs. Everdeen was present - but the blonde woman's concerns always began and ended with her own daughters. It was different with Jackson. "Do you two have any questions? It's okay to have questions. That's how you learn. How you grieve. And you can ask us anything."

A somber pause spread throughout the room. Only Aurelia's gentle cries and sniffs could be heard over the crackle of the fire next to Jackson. "Did it hurt?" Celadine asked faintly, peering up at Johanna with wide, wet eyes. "Was he in a lot of pain? Or was it like Daddy?"

Johanna blinked. Waiting three weeks had felt like enough time before telling the girls about John, but the pain was still very fresh to her. Even their father's death still struck a sour note in her heart. "He was in a little bit of pain first, but he inhaled the smoke and went to sleep. He didn't feel anything after that." It was a lie Johanna told herself over and over again. She knew firsthand the kind of intense pain burning alive was, and she knew her brother suffered until the moment his little heart gave out. The eldest Mason swallowed down her sob. She had to be strong.

"Why is he in that bottle?" Aurelia inquired, pointing a tiny finger beyond Jackson to the rather nondescript silver urn atop their hearth. Printed on one side was his name, his rank - posthumously raised to Corporal - and his home district. In spite of the District 13 tradition of not putting epithets on the urns, Jackson had three words printed on the reverse side: Brother - Soldier - Hero.

"It's called an urn," Jackson explained gently. "When your brother was training to be a soldier, he enjoyed life in my district, District Thirteen. He fit right in," she said with a tight smile. "In that district, since we are already so far underground, we do not bury our dead."

"You live underground?" Celadine cut in, wiping at her face and aiming her inquisitive gaze at Jackson. "Like in mines?"

Jackson smirked. "No, not like mines. Um, houses, all connected. But we dug them deep in the ground." Celadine scrunched her face as she tried to picture what Jackson was describing, but coming up with nothing analogous in her limited scope. "Have you ever seen a bee's honeycomb?" Celadine nodded. "Imagine a couple honeycombs on top of one another. Then you put that deep in the ground. That's kind of what it was like."

"And you lived in the little honeycomb spaces? Where the honey is?"

The older woman gave her a nod. "Yes. But it was very large, lots of big rooms. Your brother liked it because we trained to be soldiers there. He liked to learn how to use weapons, and the basics of battle. And he was very, very good."

"John's good at everything," Aurelia boasted between sniffles.

Jackson smiled. "He was a great soldier. And how we honor our fallen soldiers in Thirteen is by not wasting their bodies in the ground. We place them in these urns to protect them. Then you can place them somewhere meaningful, or keep them here like this. This way John is always here, keeping an eye on all his sisters."

"I wish he were really here," Aurelia announced, pouting her bottom lip. "I wish he was here, and Katniss and Prim." Her big blue eyes blinked up at Johanna. "When is everyone gonna be together again?"

Johanna swallowed the painful lump in her throat. She hadn't yet told Katniss about the reappearance of her sisters. They'd spoken once on the phone since Katniss left for District 4, but only for Katniss to tell Johanna she'd be coming back in two weeks. She didn't mention Prim. Johanna didn't ask. "I don't know," Johanna evaded. "I hope soon."

"Me too," the youngest agreed with a firm nod. "I wanna see Prim." Johanna held her close to her body, placing her chin atop her pile of blonde hair, inhaling the sweet scent of her youngest sibling.

"I know you do baby," Johanna murmured. "I want to see them, too."

"Then turn around, brainless," the throaty voice called from the open doorway, causing all the heads in the room to turn. Except one. Johanna didn't need to turn around to know that voice. She'd hear it as clearly as the song of a canary in a thick forest teeming with wildlife. Katniss.

Aurelia leapt from Johanna's lap, running to the door into the waiting arms of a bright-eyed Primrose. The excited squeals of girls filled the room, and Johanna rose on unsteady legs. Her eyes met Jackson's before she turned to take in anything else. She squinted at the older woman in vague suspicion. Finally, the stone-faced expression of the District 13 native softened. "I told her about your sisters," Jackson confessed, just under the cacophony of high-pitched screaming. "She insisted on coming as soon as she knew. I thought it would help."

Johanna turned on her heel, bringing her full attention to Katniss, who had somehow eked by the whirlwind reunion in the doorway. Her hair was a shade or two lighter, bleached from the relentless District 4 sun. Her skin was just slightly darker; the smattering of freckles on her cheeks a bit brighter than they'd ever been in District 12. Her hair was spun in its usual braid, trickling over her shoulder and fraying just a bit like it did when she slept on it for a few days. Gray eyes had lost their cloudiness, at least for the moment, and Johanna felt a stirring inside her soul. She looked like her Katniss.

"It's good to see you again, Soldier Everdeen," Jackson greeted, stepping around the two girls, who stood facing each other silently. Katniss flicked her eyes away from Johanna for a moment to acknowledge Jackson's existence, and then darted back to her lover. Jackson cleared her throat awkwardly. "You know what, girls?" She turned to Prim and the two sisters. "Why don't we take Primrose down to the market they've set up, hm? Let her see the construction? And I'll let you each buy one candy from the new stand."

The excited pitter-patter of little girls receded into the distance as Jackson ushered them out the door in a whirl of coats and scarves and boots, and the click of the door behind them allowed Johanna's focus to return to Katniss wholly. The raven-haired girl looked down at their feet, at the clean wooden floors that Jackson insisted on sweeping every day, and swallowed the break in her voice. "Hey."

"Hey," Katniss called back. Johanna was relieved to hear the throaty timbre of Katniss's lucid voice. No reproach or suspicion, no tinge of pain or anger. Her Katniss. Two gray eyes fell to Johanna's side. "How's your arm?"

Johanna met her gaze on her arm and shrugged. "Fine. Better. Jackson is making me lift weights with it." She glanced up at Katniss's face. "Your skin healed."

Katniss nodded. "Finnick insisted I swim in the ocean every day. That and a salve my mom made, cleared it up pretty quickly." Johanna swallowed and let her eyes drop to the ground. Why was this so awkward? She knew what she wanted - to kiss each of those bright freckles in any place they may appear, and never let the gray-eyed beauty out of her sight for the rest of her life. Seeing Katniss made every inch of Johanna's skin ache with the need to be touched. "Your sisters," Katniss began, breaking the swelling tensity between them. "How?"

Johanna shook her head. "I don't want to press them so I don't know. I don't think I want to know. They're safe and happy and alive. I don't want to jinx it."

Katniss stepped forward and wrapped her hands around Johanna's biceps. Her thumbs traced over the twitching muscles. "Jackson?"

"Staying to help me with the girls." Johanna expelled a shuddering breath. "I'm a little overwhelmed by the sudden influx of family." Katniss leaned forward to brush her nose in the crown of Johanna's hair. Every movement they made was slow and calculated, but Johanna felt the undercurrent of coiled energy between them. "I..."

"I've missed you so much," Katniss confessed into Johanna's hair. "Every day." The sudden reappearance of Johanna's sisters was just an excuse for Katniss to get on a train. Prim had settled just fine into District 4, enrolling in their doctor-in-training program at the soon-to-be-completed hospital. Even her mother was in better spirits. But Katniss knew she could not be at peace without Johanna. She remembered thinking that loving Johanna was like catching a season fever. It made her body burn and took over her senses. Katniss found that without it - now that the venom was mostly gone and her memories were shelved as correctly as possible - she was impossibly cold.

"Prim." Johanna let the word fall like a whip, causing Katniss's lips to still in her hair. The older girl closed her eyes, afraid to deny Katniss what she wanted. Afraid to tell her how she couldn't live with Prim, how the physical marks may have healed but the mental anguish was still too pink and angry like a new wound.

"She wanted to see your sisters," Katniss explained, her eyes flicking over Johanna's head at the gleaming silver urn behind her. A reminder of exactly why she was dreading coming home. The inevitable crashing of Johanna's resentment of Primrose against her need to keep her sister close to her. Johanna tensed beneath her touch. "I don't think she's going to stay." Which was a bold-faced lie. Prim had certainly settled in nicely in 4, but she wanted to go home once her training was completed. Katniss was hoping she could slowly settle Johanna into the idea, or perhaps that having her sisters back would make her less angry over John.

Johanna avoided the obvious response: Prim was forbidden to stay. Johanna didn't trust herself to not hurt the feelings of the youngest Everdeen and therefore ostracize Katniss. Anger still rose too close to the surface of her emotions at the sacrifice her brother had made. Instead, she went with her other obvious concern. "Are you staying?"

Katniss moved her head back and trailed her hand up Johanna's arm to her chin, gently coaxing Johanna's eyes to meet hers. Once her beautiful brown eyes fluttered open, Katniss sucked in a shaky breath. "If you still want me."

Johanna rolled her eyes with a flare of her typical impatience. "You're all I want, brainless."

Katniss felt her momentary annoyance at Johanna's insult melt quickly into a wash of relief. Johanna watched the emotions play on Katniss's face until her lips crashing into Johanna's own blinded her. Katniss's hands flew up into Johanna's hair, tangling and winding in her loose black locks.

Their kiss was more than Johanna could've dreamt, and she had dreamt a lot about this moment since returning to 12. Katniss pressed the lengths of their bodies together, barely gasping for air between kisses. Johanna slid her hands around the small of Katniss's back, underneath the thick leather jacket and the thin sweater that clung to her skin. The tactile sensation of Katniss's skin beneath her fingertips made Johanna groan into their kiss. The noise encouraged Katniss to snarl and push Johanna down onto the couch. Quickly she whipped off her jacket and knelt on the cushions on either side of Johanna's legs, straddling the other girl. She clasped Johanna's face between her hands and poured herself into another kiss, arching into Johanna as she ran her hands along her back.

The passion she'd once lost for Johanna was back with a vengeance, manifesting itself in bruising kisses and ardent touches. She filled herself with the sound of Johanna's breathless gasps and tiny whimpers. Every swipe of Johanna's tongue against hers excited her in a way she wasn't sure she'd ever feel again. It was something only Johanna inspired before the hijacking. She was right; Johanna was a season fever, and she'd be sick with it until the day she died.

"I missed you too," Johanna professed as Katniss craned down to spot kisses down the column of her neck. Before this, Johanna wanted to add. I missed you even when you were there, hijacked and hating me. Most of all, she missed her Katniss. Her Katniss that she grew up with in the woods, her Katniss whom she stayed alive for through the Hunger Games. Her Katniss who was the only one to pierce through in her moments of cloudy depression. Her Katniss, hers, hers, hers. Katniss Everdeen, the girl who belonged to Johanna Mason, just as Johanna belonged to Katniss.

Even though Katniss's hips were gyrating down against Johanna's pelvis, their kiss ran sluggish and heated, slowing into a more reverent embrace. Katniss slid to the side, draping her legs cross-wise over Johanna's and squishing between Johanna and the arm of the couch. Katniss snaked one arm over Johanna's shoulder as Johanna wrapped both her arms around Katniss's middle. Katniss reached up with her free hand and traced the scars along Johanna's left bicep. She thought about the faint scar on Johanna's thigh from her first game, the small scar she had near her temple from Katniss smashing her head against the floor of the Training Center, and, as she traced her thumb along the crown of Johanna's hair, she thought of all the mental scars Johanna carried now. The loss of her family, her friends, the weight of the rebellion and all its trappings. She gulped, thinking on how she added to those mental scars.

But here they were, on the other side of the fire, burned but alive. Both of them bearing the marks of rebellion, inside and out. Their love had been broken, but their bond had not. The love could be rebuilt, Katniss felt it in their kiss. She saw it in Johanna's honest brown eyes, eyes that had not lied, but hid their love from her for years. A love she could no longer hide now; it was as plain as day.

Katniss moved her gaze up from where she'd been staring at Johanna's arm scar, to the girl's eyes, which were now drooping closed in contended sleepiness. An affectionate smile splayed on Katniss's face as Johanna leaned more into their touch. They'd been separated for such a long time, but they could still find comfort in one another. The only definitive proof that Snow truly had lost. "You are mine," Johanna whispered drowsily, "and I am yours." Her mouth opened and she expelled a loud yawn, shifting in her seat and tugging Katniss closer.

The brunette allowed Johanna to nestle into her and quickly succumb to sleep. She ran her fingers through Johanna's hair and watched the slow rise and fall of her chest.

Anything else is unthinkable.

Long winter days and nights chugged along in the Victor's Village of District 12. The clanging crash of construction and ominous whisper of shovels digging graves filled the air night and day. Madge had somehow managed to cobble together a makeshift Harvest Festival, to be attended by the refugees who'd finally begun pouring in from District 13. It was a good idea; it seemed to lift the spirits of the residents, at least temporarily. It also unfortunately meant the spirited blonde visited Katniss a lot to go over ideas, much to Johanna's annoyance.

Johanna had uneasily, and silently, permitted Primrose to stay in her house on a temporary basis. Her sisters were so exalted by the blonde's return, Johanna didn't have the heart to deny them. Prim wasn't home much - preferring instead to go into the market and help the workers assemble a small, working care unit. Johanna was glad for the reprieve, because just her existence in such close proximity put her on edge. Seeing her blonde hair only reminded Johanna of the burgundy coat going up in flames.

The same flames licked the cedar logs inside her fireplace mid-afternoon, as she awaited Katniss's return from a hunt. Katniss's presence was soothing to Johanna. Sleeping in the same bed together again, holding each other through nightmares, it was as close to normal as Johanna had felt in months. Not to mention the languid, hungry kisses in the dark that begged to be turned into something more. Johanna wanted more. She thought Katniss wanted more. But somehow, more never came.

A knock on the door broke Johanna from her stupor and she lazily got up from the couch to answer it. If it was perky Madge again with some other event she'd planned, Johanna was fixing to toss the girl into the damn hearth. Fortunately, it wasn't. The door revealed Cressida, dressed in a tight-fitting fur coat and jeans, with Pollux at her heels.

Her wide, crooked smile appeared on her face as Johanna's mouth opened. "Cress," she breathed. She wasn't particularly sentimental, but seeing Cressida unearthed all the feelings for her squad-mates that she'd long buried. Boggs, Castor, Cashmere, the Leegs, Messalla. Their lives and their deaths came flooding back to her in a rush. She took in three quick breaths to steady and compose herself before posing, "What's a good Capitol girl like you doing in a district like this?"

Cressida chortled and ducked her head. "I haven't been a Capitol girl in quite some time, Mason," she answered with a cheeky grin. "And certainly not a good one."

Johanna stepped backward and to the side to allow them inside the house. It was strange to see Pollux without his camera, and even stranger to see him without Castor. Both former Capitol residents looked very out of place in her home. "So to what do I owe this pleasure, Soldier Smolder?" Johanna circled Cressida slowly, eyeing the director up and down. "Rebellion has been kind to you," she winked.

Pollux chuckled hoarsely at Cressida's expense. Cressida shot him a playful glare before returning her eyes to Johanna. "I'm here because, as Finnick told me she told you, I'm filming the restoration of Panem in each district. Obviously District Twelve will be a main part of that, both because of yours and Katniss's status as victors and members of the rebellion, as well as the concentrated destruction here." Cressida looked around the house. "I heard Jackson was here, too."

Johanna nodded. "She is, she's just out with my sisters for a bit. This is where all the misfits the Capitol has no use for ended up. Haymitch is stumbling around somewhere, I'm sure." She motioned for the two former rebels to sit down. Johanna sat across from them on the armchair. "How can the Mockingjay be of service?"

"The Mockingjay can't," Cressida answered. "But Johanna Mason can." Johanna smirked. "I have an offer for you. We'll be here for a while filming and interviewing some of the residents, but we still have many districts to visit and revisit. Some are easier than others - Three and Four have living victors and didn't see as much damage - but some are harder to get a grasp on. People aren't as crazy to talk to us as you'd think."

"Oh no? I'd imagine once you bat your eyelashes and show them those sky blue eyes, hit them with that devastating smirk? They'd be tripping over themselves to be in your lens."

The blonde woman blushed and pressed on. "Point being, I think that perhaps you would be helpful in getting people to speak, and freely. They don't take as kindly to former Capitol citizens turned rebel filmmakers, but you're one of them. They see you as one of them."

"People don't like me. They like the Mockingjay, what I stood for, but they don't care about me." Memories of President Coin buzzed in Johanna's mind. The way she'd made Johanna feel like she was wanted, like she was worth something, only to realize she'd been being used to further the woman's plans for power. The rest of Panem had disregarded her as well.

"That's untrue," Cressida replied with a shake of her head. "You are revered in most districts, except maybe Thirteen. But I'm not going to Thirteen," she added unnecessarily, with an edge to her tone. Johanna's eyes flicked up from the floor. "You had a relationship with Cashmere, so that makes District One easier for us. I'd love to film you and Gale both in Two." Johanna's heart tugged painfully. "But the other districts - Five through Eleven - I think they'd really respond to seeing you. Sort of like what we did in Eight or Two, but without the firebombing or you nearly getting killed. Ideally." Johanna snorted. "But what's more, is that they trust you. That trust, that's what I need to make this film. To show Panem, and all the future generations, how extraordinary this revolution was. How important the people of Panem are to its success. How we have to keep each other responsible for its well being. I need you, Mason. I don't need the Mockingjay, I need Johanna."

Johanna hefted a sigh and leaned back in her chair, allowing the velvet to swallow her. Traveling the country, speaking to refugees and war victims... She wasn't sure she had the constitution for it. It was hard enough for her to walk around District 12 and see all the destruction there. Destruction she'd caused directly. But when did Johanna Mason back down from a challenge? She was a victor and a survivor, a rebellion leader and a solider. At the very least, she owed the people of Panem her time for what her antics cost them. Her mind swung back around to her sisters. She'd just gotten them back, and it seemed unfair to leave them. "How long would I be gone?"

Cressida chewed on her bottom lip in thought. "Around six months. Two weeks in each district. We'll start here, now, and then work our way across the country and back. President Paylor has allowed us access to a personal train for ease of travel."

"Wow, you've got friends in high places," Johanna surmised.

"Yes, and that influence has worked in your favor at least once." She didn't have to spell out what that meant: Katniss's pardon. "Your participation is entirely voluntary," Cressida tacked on. "But it would mean a lot to me if you would consider helping us."

Johanna tucked her lower lip between her teeth and leaned back in her chair, crossing her legs. "You know just how to wear me down, don't you? My goodness, Miss Cressida, how long have you had me figured out?"

The blonde shook her fingers through her hair, tossing them over the right side of her head. "We've been watching you a long time, Mason," she replied cryptically. Pollux nodded in agreement. "We've had our eye on you since you walked up on that stage and volunteered for your best friend's sister."

Johanna chuckled. "I suppose it's a good thing you use your powers for good then, isn't it? I shudder to think what would've become of me if only my heart hadn't already been taken by another attractive, brooding woman who knows me too well," she purred, wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.

Despite her deep blush, the other woman was unruffled. "If only," she mocked with a roll of her eyes. "And while I will need this dazzling charm, your image will be integral to the story. Since you're incapable of dressing yourself-" Johanna scowled. "-Cinna has provided your wardrobe. He regretfully can't come with us, but hopefully we can meet up at some point before filming wraps."

The door behind them opened and closed, and Effie's loud heels and even louder hair strode into the house, fast blue eyes darting all over. Johanna was suddenly self-conscious and again glad Jackson was so insane about keeping the house clean. Johanna rose to her feet, and as she expected, was embraced and kissed on both cheeks by the effervescent escort.

"Oh Johanna, it's so lovely to see you!" she squeaked, giving polite nods to the others in the room. "Everyone together again in a brand new Panem!" Johanna shot a look over her shoulder at Cressida.

"We will have a strict schedule to keep," Cressida explained cheekily.

"Don't tell me you invited Haymitch, too. I don't need a babysitter. Jackson is bad enough," Johanna groused with a good-natured smile.

Cressida shook her head. "No. Effie has graciously agreed to help escort you through each district, as she did on your Tour." Effie beamed proudly. "Of course, you're welcome to bring Katniss with you. In fact I encourage it."

"Welcome to bring Katniss where?" the brunette asked from the doorway, her bow slung over her shoulder, eyes wary. Katniss stepped around Effie, giving her a nod of acknowledgement, before standing side by side with Johanna. Two rabbits were tucked into her belt, as well as something rather large and round in the rucksack on her back.

"Katniss," Cressida addressed with a smile. "I was just asking Johanna if she wouldn't mind coming with Pollux and me as we film the restoration of Panem."

Katniss blinked a few times in conspicuous confusion. "To film?"

"To document what has happened for future generations. To show the complexion of the country now."

Katniss looked to her left at Johanna, scrutinizing the raven-haired girl's expression. "And you agreed to this?" she asked neutrally.

Johanna shrugged. "I didn't say no. I'll have to speak to Jackson, make sure she's okay watching my sisters for the better part of six months."

"Six months?" Katniss repeated, louder than she'd meant to. "But, I-I just got here," she objected.

"You're welcome to come," Cressida said again. "The districts are just as fond of you. And no one exemplifies triumph in the face of incredible adversity as much as you do. A district favorite daughter, a Hunger Games survivor, a victim of the Capitol who beat the odds. And, of course," she added with a smile, "the very obvious reason Johanna was ever the Mockingjay in the first place."

The brunette peered down at her feet, at her muddy boots caked with dirt and snow and ash. Too many conflicting emotions were pouring through her, and from her therapy, she knew she was likely to have an episode. Overwhelming emotions tended to do that to her. "I'll have to talk to Prim," she mumbled before whirling on her heel and escaping into the kitchen.

Johanna watched after her with interest, and then turned to the group. "Let me speak to Jackson first, make sure this is all okay by her. I'll have an answer for you by tomorrow."

Cressida nodded. "Sure. We're staying in the house across from yours, Gale's place. Hazelle has graciously offered to put us up." Cressida smirked. "In exchange I have to try to convince Gale to visit."

"I'll help you guilt him," Johanna supplied, "because I deserve a visit from that asshole, too."

"I'll be staying in Haymitch's quarters," Effie announced to the room with unexpected, abrupt loudness. The look in her eyes defied anyone to remark upon it. Nobody did; unbeknownst to her, it came as no surprise to literally anyone. "I'll see you all tomorrow, bright and early!"

Pollux gave a wave as he left behind Effie. Cressida squeezed Johanna's wrist as she walked away, giving a concerned look in the direction of the kitchen before exiting the house. Johanna closed the door behind the group and heaved another long sigh. She pushed her concerns about the trip from her mind and instead delivered herself to the kitchen. Katniss's kills were on the counter, dripping into the sink. Katniss stood in front of the table, gripping the back of a chair with both hands, her eyes pressed closed.

At first she thought Katniss was upset about the trip, but as she watched the girl's arms tremble, she realized that wasn't what this was. It was a flashback, or a resurgence of the venom. It would never truly go away, Johanna knew, and it was sobering to see it in person. Johanna walked behind Katniss, gently pressing the front of her body against Katniss's hunched back. She slid her hands down Katniss's arms as soothingly as she could, wrapping her fingers over Katniss's fingers.

"I've got you," Johanna whispered. "You're safe."

Katniss shuddered for a few more minutes, until Johanna felt her body relax. She rubbed her hands up and down Katniss's arms until the taller girl turned into her embrace. Cloudy gray eyes blinked a few times. "I'm sorry," she croaked, her husky voice even deeper than usual. "That happens sometimes."

"Could be worse," Johanna murmured.

Katniss cocked her eyebrow. "Could it? I guess if I still wanted to strangle you to death, sure. But this isn't much better."

"Having you here, in whatever condition you're in, is infinitely better."

"You really think so?" Katniss tickled her fingers up Johanna's arms, tracing over her shoulders until she got to Johanna's slender neck. Her thumbs felt the fast pound of Johanna's heartbeat, the tips of her other fingers tracing the back of her neck. Johanna gulped.

"I trust you," Johanna whispered. "I trust you." Johanna felt Katniss's fingers tremble around her throat. The tiny press of the pads of her thumbs against Johanna's pulse. With any quick movement Katniss could strangle her again, this time maybe crushing her windpipe entirely.

"I could kill you," Katniss said in a broken voice. Gray eyes flicked up from her hands to her lover's eyes, wide and full of the trust she claimed. "You would let me."

"No." Johanna raised her hands in the air in a show of surrender to Katniss's whim. "I would never let you do that to yourself. Because I trust you. And I love you." The gravity of that statement hit Katniss in the head like a falling tree limb. Johanna's selflessness was as endearing as it was frustrating. The venom morphed her overwhelming emotions into something other than rage; it stirred her passions. The burning of her eyes must have been as large as it felt in her heart because Johanna's own brown hues widened just a bit. She heard a sharp inhale. "Katniss?"

Katniss launched Johanna across the kitchen to the nearest wall, pinning the shorter girl against it by the throat with a grunt. She attacked her lips, keeping her hands exactly where they were to hold Johanna's head in place. It didn't take long for Johanna to respond to her, shucking off Katniss's hunting jacket and using her smaller stature to lace kisses beneath Katniss's jaw, teasing her skin with her lips and teeth.

While she allowed that for a bit, Katniss again returned her hands to Johanna's neck and moved her head backward again, mashing their lips together in a bruising kiss. The crackling of tension that burned between them in the days since she returned was aflame now, and Katniss was wiling to let the entire house burn down. She pulled Johanna up toward her, coasting her tongue along Johanna's own, then slammed Johanna back into the wall with a violent thrust. Her knee slid in between Johanna's legs, pushing against the other girl's center. Johanna's hands wandered along Katniss's flanks until Katniss caught both of her wrists and pinned them to the wall, pressing the lengths of their bodies together once more. Johanna let out a string of moans and whimpers at Katniss's rough and passionate treatment, which only spurred the taller girl on and made her entire body tremble with desire.

"Bed," Katniss ordered. Though the desire to fuck Johanna against every available wall or table was overpowering, she knew the aggression she was about to put forth required a softer surface, because she'd likely hurt Johanna otherwise. They tore at each other as the ascended the stairs to the bedroom, crashing against walls and bannisters with painful thuds, tossing clothes haphazardly around the house and tumbling over discarded shoes. By the time they reached Johanna's bedroom all their clothes were gone and Johanna's back hit the mattress with incredible force, her bare skin gliding against the cool, cotton comforter beneath her. Katniss's lips descended on Johanna, kissing and sucking the pale, vulnerable skin of her stomach and hips. Johanna squirmed and hissed in an arousing mixture of pleasure and pain as Katniss held her down by her thighs and continued to assault her pelvis.

Kill her, the venom beckoned.

No, Katniss thought. That's not what I want.

Kiss her, her more lucid voice broke through.

No, that's not it either.

Take her. She's yours.

"Katniss," Johanna whined, rocking her hips upward for some much needed contact and breaking Katniss's inner dialogue. This aggressive, kinetic Katniss was unexpected to Johanna, but it was incredibly arousing. Her body, long dormant in a sexual sense, was suddenly very awake and pining.

Katniss craned upward and pressed the naked expanse of her body against Johanna's, smothering her whines with deep, probing kisses that robbed them both of precious air. She eyed the small lines on Johanna's skin, lines where new skin had been sown in place of flesh singed off, and saw her own scars reflected back at her. They were not the same two girls who had made love until exhaustion in the Training Center. They were something all together different, violent but trusting. Fire mutts. Survivors. Lovers.

She gripped Johanna's wrists tightly and pinned them above her head, exercising both her strength and her right to Johanna's body. Her tongue swirled around Johanna's erect nipples, teasing them to even higher peaks. Scraping the gentle skin with her bottom teeth and rolling her eyes back in her head at Johanna's aroused whines.

That sweet voice. The tender quality of Johanna's voice when she was aroused, how Katniss had missed it. How she missed causing it. But there was no time to revel in it now. She was taking what she wanted, what was hers. Back when the hijacking was more of a problem, there was one thing she was always aware of: Johanna was hers, and anything that felt contrary to that was a threat. She couldn't explore that feeling for the longest time, but it sat inside her, waiting to be awakened like a sleeping big cat.

Two fingers dipped into the mess of arousal and black curls between Johanna's legs. She ventured along Johanna's folds with her index and middle finger, jogging her memory for the last time she felt the peaks and valleys of Johanna's most intimate area. It was like curling her finger around an arrow - she couldn't ever forget it.

The venom made Katniss's hands tremble but she swiftly plunged two fingers into Johanna's tight heat, growling at the loud gasp of pleasure that Johanna's mouth made. She kissed those pretty pink, parted lips and swallowed down Johanna's long, guttural moans of desire. Her body rocked in rhythm with her fingers, establishing a slow and steady push. Johanna's tiny hips rose to meet her as she pounded down inside her, letting her two fingers slide as deeply inside Johanna as she could, reaching her walls and feeling the tight press of them around her. Her lips and teeth did a waltz down the side of Johanna's neck to her shoulder, where she sucked and bit down at Johanna's pale skin with reckless abandon. She didn't care who saw the bruises later on. They were marks of ownership. The pleasure it provided Johanna was secondary to the pleasure it provided Katniss to mark what was hers. What many people had tried to take but she'd never concede.

She positioned her thigh behind her hand, her other palm propped next to Johanna's head on the pillow. Johanna's hands flew up to Katniss's shoulders for purchase as Katniss increased the ferocity with which she fucked her, holding on for dear life. The bed began to rock beneath them, smashing against the wall with a violent bang each time Katniss pushed inside her. Johanna's gasps began to rise into whimpers, which then escalated into full-blown yelps of passion. They'd always been so gentle with one another. So afraid to hurt the other, or felt the need to convey a large emotion. But now... Katniss was a feral beast; fucking her so hard Johanna thought she would split completely in half. A most pleasurable way to die.

The coiling of arousal slithered inside her belly as Katniss pistoned her two fingers in and out of her, pressing and rubbing against her g-spot with roughness and precision. Katniss was taking her, and she wanted to be taken. Coherent thought drifted out the window as her sweat-laden lover adjusted her hand so that her thumb brushed Johanna's clit with each powerful thrust. Johanna wanted to reciprocate, bring Katniss some sort of release, but she was too mesmerized by the wild look in Katniss's eyes, and too distracted by the intense pleasure between her legs. Her arousal soaked Katniss's hand, and probably the bedspread, but Johanna was too far-gone to care.

"Fuck, Katniss, oh-" Johanna cut herself off, biting her lip and trying to suppress the very loud squeals Katniss was causing her to make. All Katniss did was murmur three words through gritted teeth and Johanna lost her grounding to the planet.

"Come for me."

Her orgasm crept up through her stomach from her pussy, exploding all her senses. Katniss's sweat-slicked forehead rested on her shoulder as she held her two fingers inside Johanna, groaning at the pulsing of her walls and clit. Slowly her strong fingers swirled around Johanna's center, bringing the gasping girl down from her powerful climax.

She allowed Johanna a few, short moments of recuperation before she took her by the hips and pulled her down a few inches on the bed. Johanna squinted in confusion until Katniss's intent became very clear. Her knees shifted on either side of Johanna until they were just above her shoulders, her shins over her arms, and her soaking wet pussy directly over Johanna's mouth.

Johanna barely had time to mutter a swear word before Katniss took her by the back of the head and thrust her upward, reaching out to steady herself on the wall behind them. Johanna eagerly lapped up the leaking cum that her own orgasm had caused Katniss. How many times had she pictured this moment? Being intimate with Katniss again, bringing the girl of her dreams to the highest peaks of pleasure? Plenty of times before they were together, and many times after. The reality was so, so much better than the dream.

Katniss was a force. Her fingers threaded in Johanna's locks and pushed her deeply into her pussy, groaning as Johanna's tongue circled her entrance and fucked her with tiny thrusts. She pulled her hips back to force Johanna to her clit, growling as the girl's tongue danced along her folds and clit, sucking and fluttering against the engorged nub. Her pelvis rocked back and forth, her hand in opposite movements to speed up Johanna's tongue flicking. Katniss leaned back, relinquishing her hold on Johanna's hair to stretch the other way, propping her hands on Johanna's thighs for support as she ground her hips into Johanna's mouth.

She looked down at the girl, so intently pleasuring her and moaning into her folds, and felt the wave of emotion crash over her. It built more tension inside her belly, something that very quickly overran the venom's lingering presence in her brain, and all she could feel was pure, blinding desire. And pure, unfiltered, bone-deep love.

"Johanna, I'm -" Johanna knew. Her brown eyes flew open and Katniss could see the smugness in them, but also the understanding. Two hands came around to grip her backside and Johanna shook her mouth back and forth inside Katniss's pussy. The vibration of her tongue and the movement pulled Katniss right over the edge into a powerful, but almost calming orgasm that made a wash of relief pour through her.

They didn't stop. They couldn't stop. They pushed their bodies to painful climaxes until muscle exhaustion claimed them both. It wasn't making love, it was taking it. If Katniss needed to take her love from her in order to feel it wholly once again, she'd allow it. If it was punishment, she'd take it. Like she'd explained back in the Capitol, Katniss was always hurting her in some way or another. And it wasn't as if she didn't like the pain.

And it wasn't as if she didn't deserve it.

Author's Note: Welp it's been a while but I hope y'all are still with me. We are closing in on the finish line. The next chapter should be the last.

Thanks to Johannas-Motivational-Insults for her beta and her patience.