Wildfire | Johanna Mason

𝒞𝒽𝒶𝓅𝓉𝑒𝓇 𝒻𝒾𝒻𝓉𝑒𝑒𝓃

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"I was going to go in there!" She yelled, feeling panic rise, she pushed Johanna's shoulder. "You're not supposed to go back there! It was supposed to be me! You needed to stay safe, and then you pull this shit? Why the fuck would you do that?!" There were tears in her eyes, tears Daphne did not want to see or feel.

"It's not about you," Johanna scoffed, crossing her arms. "You've heard the rumors, haven't you? I'll make Snow regret sending me back —"

"You'll die!" Daphne snapped, tears now rolling over her cheek. "You'll die a horrible death in whatever cursed arena and you'll come back dead. I don't care about the fucking rumors, you can't do shit in the arena except die or survive!"

"You don't know that—" Johanna began to sound angry as well, but Daphne was raging, and she was not done talking.

"You're going in there with the fucking Girl on Fire! The Capitol eats out of the palm of her hand! How will you ever win against her? Johanna, I saw you for a lot of things, great things, but suicidally reckless and plain stupid was not one of them!"

Johanna crossed her arms. "Are you done yelling?" She hissed. "Do you think I want to go back in?"

"Apparently you fucking do!" Daphne viciously wipes at her tears. "You volunteered! Like— what were you even thinking? All of this because of rumors?"

Johanna's jaw clenched, she groaned loudly, beginning to pace. "I can't do anything in the Capitol, in the arena, I might be able to do something!"

"Like what?"

Johanna stilled, if only for a moment. "I'll figure that out."

"So you're going to die to potentially cause something you're still trying to figure out?" Daphne scoffed. "Have you fallen on your head? Gone insane?"

"It was you or me and I made my choice," Johanna said, her tone hard and steady. She was done fighting about it. "You don't have to be happy about it, but it's done and you can't change that."

Daphne's eyes narrowed, a few tears still slipping. "If I could, I would change it," she hissed, taking a step closer. "If you survive that damned arena, I'll kill you myself."

She turned on her heel and stormed out of the room. She heard Johanna call after her; "looking forward to it, Little flower."

***

Daphne wanted to pull each hair out of her head. She clenched her jaw, clenched her fists. She was seething. Johanna truly was going to go into the arena to stir some shit up, to work out some plan she did not even have yet.

She'd thought Johanna was smart. Had thought she cared at least a little bit about her life. It was so stupid. Daphne was supposed to be the one preparing to die. She was supposed to go back no matter who got reaped, but of course Johanna liked to sabotage her perfectly okay plan.

Where Johanna lacked a plan, Daphne had one. Go in the arena. Try to survive. Survive. Or, worst-case scenario, die. She didn't want to die, but she'd learned how to die during her games. She'd been close enough to it, then.

She was stomping around in her room so loudly, probably everyone in the whole train heard. She didn't care. Daphne was angry, for good reason, too. She could not belief Johanna was going into the arena to do the exact thing she'd wanted to do.

If she'd been just a bit calmer, she'd have known it was hypocritical of her, but angry Daphne was anything but reasonable.

She wished she had another friend. Someone she could yell to. Daphne had never been good with people, but with Johanna, things were different.

She dropped down on her bed. With Johanna, it had almost been easy. They'd been through the same thing, thought the same thing. It made sense for them to be friends.

If they were just friends, why had Daphne been ready to risk her life if it kept Johanna safe? Why had she been thinking about what it would feel like to kiss her whenever they were close?

It was all rather confusing, yet made sense at the same time. Daphne cared so deeply for her, it wasn't hard to cross the barrier from friendly feelings to... more, she supposed. She wasn't ready to figure out what it meant, not when she was still so angry, still so upset for reasons she could not directly place beside the obvious.

As she sat on her bed, staring angrily at the floor, she slowly felt her anger melt away with the hours. It was no use to be angry. For all she knew, they only had a week together, and the last thing Daphne wanted was to spend that time being upset. She would take every second she could get.

***

Dinner was rather awkward. Everyone had heard their yelling, and both Daphne and Johanna continuously gave each other glares, although Daphne began to feel more desperate than angry.

But Johanna's eyes were still filled with anger. Hurt, maybe.

"Alright, does anyone want a dessert? That might ease the tension," Daniel said with a clap of his hands.

Johanna rolled her eyes, pushing her chair back. "I'm full." She said, throwing her napkin down and beginning to walk away.

Daphne bit her lip, slipping her chair back as well, rolling after her. "Johanna," she said, her voice weaker than she'd like. All the power her voice had earlier seemed to have vanished. Burned up. "Wait."

"Are you going to yell some more?" She snapped, turning around anyway.

"I—" Daphne wanted to say she was sorry. She should say that, but she wasn't sorry. She meant every word. It was stupid. It was reckless. But that would not change the fact that she was going. She couldn't change that, no matter how hard she wished she could.

She shook her head, closing the distance between them by wrapping her arms around her and pulling her body close. "I'll play nice." She whispered finally, her chin on Johanna's shoulder. "Sorry for yelling, I'll give you that."

Johanna hugged her back, her chin pressed into Daphne's curls. She didn't say anything, and neither did Daphne. They stood there, in the small hallway, hugging it out as the train was soaring through fields and forests and tunnels.

They could have stayed there for hours, but knew they shouldn't. When they broke apart, they went to sit in a little corner with chairs and a table. There wasn't really anything to talk about, but they didn't need words. Daphne's hand remained firmly on Johanna's arm, giving it a squeeze from time to time. Their frowns soon turned into small smiles, and the fondness, the unspoken tenderness, could be felt when someone walked in, as if a warm and comfortable blanket was wrapped around them. That was how both girl felt around the other, too. It was quite infectious, it seemed.

There were worse things to catch, though.

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(a/n): i'll be honest i'm not sure if i'm happy with it, but the sun is shining, i have my heart-shaped sunglasses on and my favorite shirt, so, bon apetit