you lose yourself, you reappear
Gale/Johanna. Past Gale/Katniss.
482 words. Set post-series.
Summary: Johanna is more of an annoyance than anything else and that's probably what gets Gale in the end.
Originally posted here.
Johanna is skittish like a stray cat, thin and rangy. She takes in everything with sharp eyes and curious fingers. She doesn't look much different than she did in Thirteen. If Gale has learned anything in playing revolution, it's that struggle doesn't go away; it only shifts.
"Haven't been back to Twelve?" she asks, casual as she examines the things he has been working on, all kinds of reconstruction. The work leaves a more sour taste in Gale's mouth than it used to.
Gale rolls his eyes, because he knows what she's getting at. "There is no District Twelve." It's an echo of another day. It's bitter and it's cruel, but there's no one here to hear except Johanna and she's not one to judge anyone for being bitter.
But that doesn't mean she won't poke at wounds. "Oh, Hawthorne," she says. "Don't tell me you're still hung up."
"I'm not," Gale says, with a kind of piss-poor determination that just comes off hollow. "If I was, you'd have my permission to shoot me."
Johanna picks up a gun and puts it to his chest and because she's Johanna, she pulls the trigger. Gale's lucky it's empty. "Bang bang," she says.
- - -
Johanna takes so goddamn long to come that Gale's arm starts to cramp. He has to pull away to shake his hand out, crack his knuckles, stretch until he hears his elbow pop. Johanna stares at him disbelievingly, perspiration at her temples, short hair tossed up and rumpled.
"So fuckin' dramatic," she says.
- - -
Johanna sits on the countertop in Gale's kitchen, which is also his living room. His apartment is his apartment alone. A floor above are his mother and Rory and Vick and Posy, in an apartment that is accessible to Gale only if he goes through the main lobby of the building like any visitor. Apartment living. That's new to Gale. Newer still is having two rooms entirely to himself, a bed without three little kids in it kicking him while he sleeps, space he is solely responsible for – but a different kind of responsibility than what he knew before.
So he doesn't really mind Johanna sitting on his counter eating food from his fridge. That's another new thing – having enough food, enough to share with someone who isn't his family and isn't Katniss. But Katniss is his family, even now.
He doesn't mind Johanna in his bed, half his height and half his weight but taking up three times the space. She kicks too, viciously, and pushes him away with her spindly hands before rolling up in all the blankets with only her head poking out. Gale would end up sighing, staring up at the ceiling, a little chilly. But he wasn't bothered, really.
Johanna is more of an annoyance than anything else and that's probably what gets Gale in the end.
Gale/Johanna. Past Gale/Katniss.
482 words. Set post-series.
Summary: Johanna is more of an annoyance than anything else and that's probably what gets Gale in the end.
Originally posted here.
Johanna is skittish like a stray cat, thin and rangy. She takes in everything with sharp eyes and curious fingers. She doesn't look much different than she did in Thirteen. If Gale has learned anything in playing revolution, it's that struggle doesn't go away; it only shifts.
"Haven't been back to Twelve?" she asks, casual as she examines the things he has been working on, all kinds of reconstruction. The work leaves a more sour taste in Gale's mouth than it used to.
Gale rolls his eyes, because he knows what she's getting at. "There is no District Twelve." It's an echo of another day. It's bitter and it's cruel, but there's no one here to hear except Johanna and she's not one to judge anyone for being bitter.
But that doesn't mean she won't poke at wounds. "Oh, Hawthorne," she says. "Don't tell me you're still hung up."
"I'm not," Gale says, with a kind of piss-poor determination that just comes off hollow. "If I was, you'd have my permission to shoot me."
Johanna picks up a gun and puts it to his chest and because she's Johanna, she pulls the trigger. Gale's lucky it's empty. "Bang bang," she says.
- - -
Johanna takes so goddamn long to come that Gale's arm starts to cramp. He has to pull away to shake his hand out, crack his knuckles, stretch until he hears his elbow pop. Johanna stares at him disbelievingly, perspiration at her temples, short hair tossed up and rumpled.
"So fuckin' dramatic," she says.
- - -
Johanna sits on the countertop in Gale's kitchen, which is also his living room. His apartment is his apartment alone. A floor above are his mother and Rory and Vick and Posy, in an apartment that is accessible to Gale only if he goes through the main lobby of the building like any visitor. Apartment living. That's new to Gale. Newer still is having two rooms entirely to himself, a bed without three little kids in it kicking him while he sleeps, space he is solely responsible for – but a different kind of responsibility than what he knew before.
So he doesn't really mind Johanna sitting on his counter eating food from his fridge. That's another new thing – having enough food, enough to share with someone who isn't his family and isn't Katniss. But Katniss is his family, even now.
He doesn't mind Johanna in his bed, half his height and half his weight but taking up three times the space. She kicks too, viciously, and pushes him away with her spindly hands before rolling up in all the blankets with only her head poking out. Gale would end up sighing, staring up at the ceiling, a little chilly. But he wasn't bothered, really.
Johanna is more of an annoyance than anything else and that's probably what gets Gale in the end.