annie odair (odetolove) wrote in thedisplaced, @ 2018-04-23 20:46:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log/thread, annie cresta (au), johanna mason (au) |
WHO: Annie Odair (AU) & Johanna Mason (AU)
WHAT: hair braiding, talking about the pirate battle & stuff
WHEN: like a day or two after the pirate battle on the cruise (way backdated)
WHERE: The Odair/Everdeen suite
WARNINGS: mentions of injury/trauma/nightmares
Johanna was having a hard time after the battle. Clearly, others were worse off, but it affected her too. Fighting reminded her of her time in the arena, of course. Murphy putting himself between the pirates and Johanna was stupidly brave but Johanna was angry about it. She was always angry about something, wasn’t she?
She took the short trip up a few floors to get to Annie’s room. It was quiet when she came close, so she figured the kids and Finnick where gone. Gale and Katniss were probably off somewhere, not the types to hang around and watch TV. Johanna hadn’t bothered putting on actual clothes, still in her pajamas-- soft pants and an oversized t-shirt. She’d live in pajamas if people didn’t get on her ass about it. She knocked softly while calling out, “It’s me!”
--
Annie had not been doing well after the battle either. The first few days had been particularly hard, with the cuts on her hands hurting, their kids being upset and Finnick being bruised up. She had not been on the network, but had retreated - as most people had done - to her room with her family for all of them to try to recover together.
The kids were the most resilient, and had gone back to playing after their minor bruises had healed, which in turn lifted Annie’s spirits. Her own cuts started to heal, and Finnick’s bruises changed colors and then started to disappear. She was still scared and worried that they shouldn’t be raising the kids in a place like this, but there wasn’t much that she could do about that.
It was almost a week before she got back onto the network, and was not at all sorry when her first conversation on there - with Johanna - immediately turned into something in person. She asked Finnick to take the kids to the pool, and collected her hair ties and clips and the jewels that Alucard had helped her braid into her hair, just in case Johanna was in the mood for something fancy. And waited for her friend to arrive.
She wasn’t waiting long. She got up when she heard the knock and opened the door, offering Johanna a small smile. “Hey, you.”
--
Johanna smiled weakly, only because Annie did it first. Johanna herself made it out of the battle pretty clean-- she had a bruise over the bridge of her nose and small blisters on her hands from the large axe she wielded. She gestured to herself, “I dressed up for you,” laughing softly.
She came into the suite and took a seat on the floor in front of the couch. That’s how she would sit with her mother back before the Games, before everything went to shit. Her parents were especially affectionate, so her hair being touched was a big deal for her.
Johanna looked up at Annie, “Are the kids okay? Let me see your damage.” She held her hand out for Annie. For some reason, Johanna felt more comfortable around Annie. She wanted to touch and hug and hold her. Maybe Finnick’s protection of the other woman rubbed off on Johanna.
--
“I see that,” Annie said, smiling warmly. She did not mind that Johanna was in her pajamas. Annie was dressed, but comfortably, in a casual and comfortable dress, but now she felt she ought to change into her pajamas too. “Sorry I’m dressed so slovenly,” she joked.
She closed the door behind Johanna and moved over to the couch to sit on it behind her, legs crossed in front of her so that her knees rested gently against Johanna’s shoulders. She offered her hands when asked, displaying the three scabbed over lines on her palms where the glass had cut into her hands. “It’s not too bad.”
--
Johanna let out a snort when Annie made her joke. She thought it was a strange turn of events that the crazy girl in 13 who Johanna would steal beef stew from turned out to be such a good friend.
She twisted from her place on the ground and held Annie’s hands. She let them go and gestured at her nose, “I got popped in the nose. I had a human shield.” Johanna frowned at that, it was one of the reasons she was here today. She turned back around and slumped, spine curved. Annie’s knees still rested against her shoulders. It felt nice and steady. “Hopefully we’re going back to Tumbleweed where the shit isn’t as violent.”
--
“Murphy?” Annie asked. She knew it hadn’t been Finnick, and she was fairly sure it hadn’t been Katniss or Gale either. There was only a limited number of people that she would have expected to intentionally be a human shield for any of them, although people here were fairly protective of each other, so maybe she was wrong.
After Johanna released her hands, she ran her fingers through Johanna’s hair, thoughtfully. “Yes. I’d like to be back in our house and away from pirates.”
She ran her fingers through Johanna’s hair again, and then asked, “How many braids do you want? Big or small?”
--
Johanna smirked when Annie guessed correctly. Maybe Finnick would have shielded her, he was always good like that. But no, it was Murphy and he was beat to hell because of it. “We were defending our room.”
She tilted her head back, enjoying the feeling of her hair being played with. It was soothing, hypnotizing almost. “I miss my house. And I want to get back to work on our shop.”
Johanna thought for a moment, still kind of dazed by Annie’s fingers in her hair. “That feels nice… oh, just do two of them, that’s how my mom always did it.”
--
“Sounds like he was defending you, not the room,” Annie said keenly. She knew she was stating the obvious, but it seemed like Johanna was trying to talk around it, and that meant there was probably something there.
She drew her fingers through each part of Johanna’s hair in turn, especially the underside of her head, so that every strand was lying across Annie’s lap and ready for her to work with. “We’ll get back at some point soon. At least I think we will.”
With one finger, she drew a line from the middle of Johanna’s hairline down over her skull, a line that divided her hair into two equal sections. She moved the hair into the two sections, and held the sections apart in her hands. “Two like this?”
--
Johanna could feel the sections in her hair. It had gone wild since they were on the boat, Johnna no longer taking the time to straighten it. It was something she picked up in the Capitol. When she first one, they loved her frizzy hair and tried to make it as big as possible. As she became a mentor, the styles changed. Styles changed so quickly in the Capitol, the bigger the better. “Yeah, like that. If I do one braid, I’ll be a Katniss copycat.” She smirked a little at that.
“Murphy thought I needed protecting. I’m stronger than him, I was armed, but he still wanted to be the one to take the brunt of the attack.” Some small part of her enjoyed being protected, being seen as important, but the other part of her was realistic. “How’d you get injured on your hands? Did you grab the pointy end of a sword?”
--
Annie smiled at that. “The Katniss braid is all the rage, you know,” she said, but she kept the sections of Johanna’s hair parted into two.
She let go of one, only to grab hold of a hair tie and tie the other section back. Then she started on the section she’d first let go, which still hung free, picking three smaller parts with gentle fingers right at Johanna’s hairline, and carefully started to braid them together, weaving in new strands as she went along. It hurt her hands a little bit, but only a dull ache when the scabs on her palms were squeezed by her finger’s movements.
“I guess the kinder way of looking at that is that he cares about your safety,” she said thoughtfully. “But also, you probably could have protected the both of you without either of you needing to get hurt.”
She paused in her braiding, because it wasn’t easy to think about how she’d gotten hurt. Her mind slipped for just a moment back to that moment, and her voice sounded a little dreamy as she described the events as she watched them play out inside her head: “We were making our way to the portal to the school. Tristan got spooked by the pirates and started to run back to our room. Finnick went after him, and then I went after them both with Magda, and a pirate came up… and swung some kind of a club at them… that’s how Finnick got hit, because he was shielding Tristan. And I grabbed a painting off the wall and smashed it over the pirate’s head.” She cleared her throat, and then resumed braiding. “And it cut my hands when the frame broke. It was a big, heavy, probably expensive frame.”
--
“All the rage,” she repeated, a touch of that posh Capitol accent in her voice. She closed her eyes, lulled by Annie’s braiding. “Are you doing a fancy braid?” She went to turn her head and immediately stopped, remembering that Annie was trying to carefully braid.
“I’m not that kind of a person. But I’ll try to see it that way, because it makes him feel even worse when I get mad at him for it. He already has self esteem issues.” Johanna felt like she was betraying Murphy a little bit by sharing this with Annie, but Annie had talked to Murphy before, she was probably aware.
Johanna’s face softened, easily since Annie couldn’t see it. “That was a good idea, using the surroundings,” she chuckled. “Yeah, everyone on that boat was expensive. Is Finnick doing all right? The kids sleeping okay?” She worried more than she let on. She was showing her hand now, but only because it was Annie. And it seemed as if everyone from Panem had a soft spot for kids because of the all-too-recent arrangement each year.
--
“Yes,” Annie informed her. “Don’t turn your head.” She paused. “Unless you don’t want it like this?”
She liked these kinds of braids, the ones that ran closely along the back of the head, then ended in freer tails at the bottom. She had not quite mastered the art of doing them on her own hair, but it was easier on someone else. Before the hair-braiding party prior to the ball that had been held on the ship, it had been a while since she’d done this kind of braid.
“I don’t know what came over me,” she said honestly. “I’ve never been able to do anything like that before. I just saw him going after Finnick, and Finnick not fighting back, and the painting was the only thing I could get my hands on.” She let out a breath. “But it worked, and we got away and into the portal. So we’re okay.”
--
Johanna sighed deeply, “All right.” She held her head still and looked straight ahead. Everything in the room was fancy and relatively clean. She missed her messy home in Tumbleweed. She was feeling lulled by the gentle movement and pull of her hair and it felt like her whole body went lax.
“I’m glad it came over you, whatever it was. Sounds like Finnick was stunned, or at least trying to keep Tristan safe. I’m proud of you, Annie.” She reached up and touched one of Annie’s hands gently.
“We just stayed holed up in the room. Barricaded the door. Stayed quiet.” Johanna had some regrets she didn’t go out to help fight in the medbay or help the people who were seriously hurt but… it was a survivor's move.
--
“Thank you,” Annie said, touched by Johanna’s pride in her. She was actually rather proud of herself, come to think of it. Normally in situations like that she was so scared as to be completely useless, and ended up running away or standing in place and screaming. But she also had never really seen Finnick or Tristan directly in danger before. Apparently she had some ability to protect her family. It was something to take pride in, probably.
She worked at the braid, gently weaving more hair in as she went, and it started to really take shape in a curve along Johanna’s head. “You did that after he got hurt?” she asked. “Or did they come in and get to you?”
--
Johanna smiled to herself, instead of telling Annie she was welcome. It was good to know that while Johanna was protecting herself, Annie was doing the same. They couldn’t band together, so it was nice that she could take care of herself. Annie had come pretty far.
“We were in bed, the pirates bust down our door. He got hurt trying to force them back out again. Murphy broke a chair over one of them. I smacked him with the butt of my axe-- the pirate, not Murphy.” She left out the part where one choked Murphy and Johanna had to land the axe in the pirate’s face. Not the sort of thing you talk about. “They went back out in the hall and we holed up.” She paused, “There were portals up? Murphy didn’t really want to leave so I didn’t make him. We seemed safe enough.”
--
“There were portals to the school that had been set up previously,” Annie said. “For the students, originally. But the school was also the safe place to go in case of emergency. I had been going there with Tristan in the mornings, to take him to kindergarten.”
Her voice had a somewhat dreamy quality to it, but at the moment it was because she was focused on the braids, not because her mind was slipping away from her. “But the pirates were in the hallways, between us and the portal, which is why we ran into trouble. We should have asked someone to come and get us, probably. After we got to the school they told us there were people doing that. I’m sorry I didn’t think to send someone back for you. I was…none of us were thinking clearly.”
--
Johanna almost shook her head, but stopped. She flapped her arm, “Naw, Annie, it’s okay you didn’t think about me. We weren’t even on the same floor.” Johanna heard the way Annie spoke and wasn’t worried by the way it sounded. It was actually kind of nice. A cloudy voice and fingers in her hair.
“I’m just glad it’s over. I haven’t been sleeping well from it. Murphy and I go to bed, I lay there until he falls asleep, and then I get up and read. Or watch TV. Me, watching TV. At least it’s not like the Capitol’s programming.”
--
“I was worried about you,” Annie said. “I thought you were out fighting. I just didn’t think to send someone for you. Next time I will.” It wasn’t something she could really hold against herself; she was usually useless in fighting scenarios, curled up in a ball in the corner and screaming while everyone else fought. She had certainly had a breakdown after they had gotten to safety, but somehow she’d managed to keep it together enough at least to act when her family had needed it. If she could remember to think of others besides her injured family and her own injuries - which was hard, those things tended to consume her consciousness - she might be able to help them too. She would try, at least. “I remember thinking about texting you but my hands were bleeding.”
She listened as Johanna described some of the effects it was still having on her. “You have trouble falling asleep, or you don’t want to sleep because you have nightmares?”
--
“A little bit of both. I can’t fall asleep because I’m thinking about the games, and then when I do fall asleep, I wake myself up crying.” She exhaled deeply through pursed lips. Johanna normally wouldn’t admit to something like that. But this was Annie, Annie wouldn’t tease her. Annie would understand.
Johanna wanted to fight-- she told people she didn’t want to unless she had to, but when the time came, she felt she had to. It was like when Thirteen went to war with the Capitol and she was benched because of her hydrophobia and morphling addiction. She felt useless. Johanna had something to prove. Even if she won her games by being a sneaky little thing, she wanted to make sure everyone knew she was something to be reckoned with. “It’s okay, Annie, we can’t always protect each other.” Johanna said this as if she believed it.
--
Annie definitely wouldn’t tease her; she’d had her fair share of nights just like that, and although they were rarer lately, they still happened sometimes. Finnick was exceptionally good with her when she was in that kind of a mental state - he couldn’t always get her to go to sleep, but he could at least calm her down. “You can call me,” she said. “If you think that would help.”
She finished the first braid and tied it off with one of her own hair ties. She ran her fingers over it briefly before starting on the second one. “I almost never manage to protect anyone. But I want to.”
--
Johanna rolled her head to the side, relaxing for a moment from holding still. “I could call you,” she agreed. “We could talk about … whatever.” Johanna realized the whole time she was in Seven after the war, she could have been with Finnick and Annie. They knew exactly what she went through for the most part, they had that in common. Besides that, Annie was easy to talk to. She navigated conversations easily, guided Johanna when she couldn’t think of what to say.
“I got Katniss out of the arena, that’s something. I couldn’t protect the other tribute from my District…” ruefully spoken, she didn’t save Blight. Or the boy in her games. Not like Katniss did for Peeta.