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

-Clove-

(fun fact: I accidentally published last chapter without a title, it is now call Late Night Burden in case you didn't see it)

"Hi! So you are Cato's new friend!"

"Athy!"

"What? She looks way too nice to be friends with you."

Athena had been trying to cook something for lunch as it was a shorter day in the academy and she knew Cato would be hungry even if her appetite was down in the dumps since she came back, last time she was used was.... She'd gag each time she thought about it and would have to rinse her mouth out even if there was nothing in it.

But unlike normal, Cato popped up with his fabled new knife throwing friend after Athena once again jokingly threatened to find out who she was by her own means, maybe she went a bit hard to have the boy himself bring her but that's a thought for later, she has a guest to take care of.

"Welcome to our humble home, I'm Athena Hadley, victor of the 66th, and you are?" She smiled as she asked the girl, putting the spoon down on the ledge of the pot.

"Clove Kentwell ma'am." The girl looked younger then Cato, making Athena wonder how they became friends enough for her to hear rumors about it.

"Ma'am?" Athena chuckled in surprise. "Oh my, call me by my name please, I am only 23, I am too young to be called ma'am." She laughed it off, the girl looked so stressed to be in her presence that it was adorable. "Well? Close the door behind you and come in, lunch is almost done, I am sure we have enough for you too."

The next following minutes, until it was ready and she served it up, passed in a tensed silence.

She watched them eat while leaning back against the kitchen counter, it almost reminded her of the night Blight and Johanna had spent over on her victory tour.

She looked at the phone, she had called Finnick of course but more or less spent more time on it with Johanna, she was just so easily to talk to and had quite easily made a place for herself in her mind.

She refused to think of that one four letter word that this could be because it would just be something else Snow had against her, she only Loved Cato, no one else, she wouldn't be another Annie and Finnick.

"Athy?" She looked at Cato.

"Yeah? What's up Munchkin?" He laughed slightly embarrassed about the nickname as Clove chuckled but said nothing, if he did, she'd stop calling him that and despite him being older now, it was still how she always called him.

"Can Clove crash on our couch?"

"Like a sleep over? Sure"

"Not only today, like stay, indefinitely."

"I mean.... I would want an explanation if I were to let that happen, if it is worth it, sure."

The young kids looked at each other, looking uncomfortable as they sat in silence.

Athena watched and sighed after a while, pushing off the counter.

"Fine, she can stay, we have enough rooms for that." She could only suspect what was happening, it could be so many things but there was something rampant in the violent district 2 was.

Any disagreement could warrant a fight and since all of the inhabitants here had at least a weapon it could escalate. She had seen her fair share of corpses in the streets and they had never bothered her until her games, now each time she saw one it felt like a noose tightening around her throat.

And those disagreements didn't stay only between strangers, when he was alive, she had seen her own father kill her uncle because that man thought he had to discipline her himself, he only got one slap in.... That too, was seen in another light since she won her games.

So her mind defaulted to Clove getting in such a trouble Cato thought it would be safer to bring her here and not too her parents.... This time she won't ask questions but she knows she'll end up with answers soon enough.

And that soon enough was that night, after seeing the young people for once play like kids, a two player extreme tag with jumping over furniture and stairs and stumbling around with knives.

"There, this room is of no use, I wouldn't have you sleep on a couch." She told the girl, waving her into the room that laid unused since the couple that lived in it before was now dead. They barely even had the time to make it homey before Snow had them executed.

"Do the windows close well?"

"I think they do." Athena tried to pop the window up without opening the lock but it didn't budge. "I don't know what's going on but you are safe here from whatever trouble you got in." She said, popping her claws out and trying to jam them under the frame to see if that would open it but it still didn't move so she folded them in with another flex of her hands.

"Thanks."

"But keep in mind, if trouble follows you here, I can't protect you once you leave and I would think your family would miss you."

"I highly doubt it, I am the fifth child, the ghost child in the best of cases and well yeah, in the worse." She said, completely skipping over the explanation for the worse case but Athena didn't question, not all families are like how her's had been and even in hers there had been murder, plus in 2 it could pass of without problems with the peacekeepers most of the time.

"Alright, just keep in mind, out of sight out of mind, I will not go look for trouble, I do not know you but you are Cato's friend so you got that going for you." She pat the younger girl's head and walked out. "Sleep well." She closed the door.

She said that but she didn't think she'd have shut eye tonight.