.Stone And Lumber (Johanna Mason X F.OC).

-''Everything for Cato.''-

"What is she doing here?" Athena asked Brutus who was district 2's second mentor this year, pointing at the couch in the living room.

"She was very insistent."

"And you, of all people, bent the knee and let her in?"

"She was veeeery insistent."

"Brutus."

"VERY." He held up a bottle of gin and Athena wanted to throw him out the window.

"Alcoholic bastard." She rolled her eyes. "And you. Why did you buy your way into district 2's quarters Johanna?" Athena asked, she really wanted to be alone now, feeling touches crawl over her skin and new secrets fill her mind.

Still feeling the hand tug on the collar around her throa-- She quickly undid it and threw it down on the ground with force.

She looked at her claws; she always felt protected in them but could never use them when she really needed protecting herself, she couldn't make the Capitol bastards bleed for hurting and using her.

She pulled off her belt and pulled her shirt free from being tucked in, walking straight to the other couch and flopping over the armrest, falling on her face before propping her head up on her arms and looking at Johanna.

"Well?"

It felt so wrong to hear her say her name, Johanna couldn't remember a moment Athena had actually used it, she might have but she just couldn't, it sounded wrong for her to call her that.

Watching Athena gesture to the other mentor to leave with quite a violent wave of the hand.

"I just wanted to talk."

"About?"

"Look, I didn't want to piss you off." She knows she quite annoyed 2 but was not the best at saying sorry. "But it is not everyday you tell someone you were trying to sabotage their games."

"I give you that but I played the game, this is also part of it Johanna."

"I know." She sighed, rubbing her neck. "Just antsy about this all, plus I can't sleep anymore, it gets worst in the Capitol."

"Mmmm... Memories of your own game, sleep is a loss for everyone when the games start and even before." Athena sat back up. "And don't assume things about me, there is a lot you don't know."

"Like?"

"Things for me to know and you to never find out."

"Oh come on."

"Johanna no, not fighting about this." She lit a smoke.

"Fine... I just don't want... This to be lost."

"Awe, you wanna be my friend?"

"I am leaving."

"No, no, I'll be your friend little wolf, I understand, emotions are a chore."

Johanna didn't answer... Tho wondering about what the other hid.

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The roof, how odd that it seemed to be Athena's place of escape when it was the place with the least escape possible, only one, the elevator, otherwise she'd be stuck here.

The games had started, and she had sent her tributes in, but it never stopped the Capitol and their grubby hands from reaching for her.

She pushed up her sleeve, watching the red welts and bruising on her inner forearms, just the brush of the clothing was enough to send lightning down her arms but she still grabbed her forearm and squeezed hard, sending the nerves in an agonizing frenzy but she only squeezed more.

Money, all for money, Snow selling her for whatever they wanted it, from sexual pleasure to this, her body wasn't defiled sexually this time but it still hurt... She couldn't hurt herself but if someone paid enough they could just like they had now.

She hung her arms over the drop and dropped her forehead on the railing, making the metal clang in echo, eyes closed.

She didn't know how long she stayed there precisely because her mind swirled with thoughts, those same eternal thoughts she always had.

Only moving when the numbness of her position had gotten the best of her, instead of the high sun, seeing a setting sun.

She finally let go of her arm, but the pain had not changed, now there was just the mark of her hand pressed into it.

"And here I thought you fell asleep."

She looked aside.

"You are learning my technique." She said, referring to popping up out of nowhere with no sounds. "And since when have you been watching me little wolf?"

"Not long, I just came here... Both died."

"I'm sorry." She put a hand on the younger victors shoulder. "The first deaths hurt the most."

"Do they ever hurt less?"

"No, you are stuck on this train with all of us, but we have each other, every other victor... Tho 1 and 2 usual are coo-coo." She did the 'they are crazy' hand gesture by her head.

"You are calling yourself crazy there."

"I might be." She held up her arm to pull down the sleeve but did not expecting the young victor to wonder enough to grab it and pull it to her.

Johanna's breath was lost at the sight, the skin was literally pealing up in places, blood seeming out under it in the worst bruises she'd seen in her life, the inflammation just... It looked like a rip apple that would burst if someone flicked it, the whole arm a blood mess under the damaged skin.

She grabbed the other, the victor not fighting it, pushing up her sleeve for a similar sight.

She held both her hands and looked at them before looking back at the victor's eyes.

Athena just offered her a halfhearted 'I'm sorry' look, as if she was sorry she needed too see this instead of actually being bothered because of the state of her arms.

Johanna didn't know if she wanted to kill this woman, Snow or the whole population of Panem, remaining rooted in place at the sight of the ever perfect looking victor with such blemishes, having trouble wrapping her mind around it.

She almost saw Athena as an untouchable force, somehow, the always perfect, always good, person and yet this little thing shattered that image of her.

"I still have things to lose." She said, not adding context for the newest victor to understand, Johanna looking back at her face with shock mixing with something unreadable. "Everything for Cato."