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

-Trouble-

(fun fact: idk if I said it before but I watched an interview with Clove's actor and she said while reading the book she didn't see the backstory for Clove and she technically headcanoned one, saying several time that since a backstory doesn't exist and they let her come up with one she imagined Clove was forced to volunteer by her parents because like in canon she is 15 while the rest of the careers are 17 and 18 so I am doing something with that idea.)

That night turned into two, then three, then a week and they were bordering on a month now.

"-and like, he threw her! She flew across the room! I wish I was as strong!" 

Athena smiled, almost meaning it, as Clove had found her voice instead of the troubled shy one, an outright vicious girl sat at her dinning table as her and Cato retold her their day at the academy with excitement.

At least, Athena thought, if Clove ever gets reaped, she'll be a perfect 2's victor unlike her and, as bad as it would sound out loud, she was not pretty enough to be a Capitol sweetheart which in itself was actually a compliment but she never told the younger people that.

"She was pestering me for a spar and I said no, so yeet!" Cato said, some new young people lingo in there Athena never heard but from the gesture made by Cato it needed to be something to do with throwing something.

"Sometime you need to be rough." Athena chuckled, dropping the pancakes she made for dinner on the table, she really needed to fill the fridge but they'll be fine for tonight. "I left quite a nasty mark on the face of the boy that couldn't take no." She said, swiping with her claws for a show. "Now eat up."

In this month, Athena hadn't gotten the whole story of why she was now the guardian of two children instead of one but comments like those of the ghost child when Clove arrived kept popping up and such, letting Athena paint an image of an unhealthy home life and an unwanted child.

And so she didn't ask questions and just gave Clove clothes, food, a roof to stay under and what she could as despite being a victor, life was not that easy in the long run.

But at least Cato and she were happy and free as they could be, not burdened with her knowledge.

She reached up, touching her shoulder, pressing her fingers in the indented scar of the Capitol logo, yeah, they were free for now.

Cato would win his future games and Clove was struggling too much even with her main weapon to ever be chosen, their lives would be normal in the end, she believed in that.

-------------------------------------------------------

It was much later in the night that she was woken up too a loud noise.

There was a series off knocks on the door.

Well.... Knocks is putting it lightly, it sounded like someone wanted to dismantle her front door with their fist alone since she heard it from her room on the first floor, her door was open but still.

She put on her shoes, in shorts and a T-shirt, fixing her gloves snug on her hands as she moved from her spot with a raised brow, walking to it while lighting the dim hall lights, hearing yelling through it as she neared.

She unlocked it.

"Yes?" She asked despite a blade resting against her throat, it was held badly, the hand twisted to press the whole length of it against her neck so the pressure was off. "It is quite late to be knocking on doors at this time."