Better Games

22. nervous

Banging, loud, furious banging.

"KATNISS! OPEN THIS DOOR WE'RE DYING OUT HERE IT'S FREEZING WTF HOW DO YOU LIVE HERE!"

"Language Joanna."

"Oh he's too young to repeat me."

I opened the door to see Joanna standing in front of me with her luggage slung over her shoulder.

"You haven't changed." I said.

"And you have? Emo little sh*t" she grinned, dropping her bag and pulling me into a bear hug.

"Language!" Peeta plead a little louder. She rolled her eyes which made me smile.

Behind her Annie stood smiling up at me, holding a toddler on her hip, Finn. Peeta was next to them carrying their things.

"Come in," I said to the group as I took Joanna's bag from off the ground and lead them inside out of the cool weather.

"It's not even that cold it's barely fall," I said to her still walking into the house.

"Yea well when you live in a tropical haven for almost two years if I'm not sweating then I must be freezing," she complained jokingly.

Annie followed us inside with Finn as Peeta shut the door behind him and brought their luggage into the foyer. The four of us settled in the living room to have a look at one another.

"Katniss!" Annie exclaimed as she handed Finn over to Joanna to hug me. "It's so good to see you I'm so happy we could come."

"Of course," I said. "It's lovely to have you here Annie."

"It's been so long," she said with a far off look in her eyes, her arms still on my shoulders.

The sweet girl had been through so much, sometimes I forgot she won her own Games. Since the Quarter Quell when Joanna told me she went a little... for a while I expected to meet a different woman. But after watching her with Finnick after she was rescued from the Capitol I only saw a sweet girl who was insanely love. I guess Finnick held her together, that they helped each other pick up the pieces. It was a familiar notion to me, one I related to more-so than ever. Some would say I'd gone off it since the Rebellion, and yet Peeta has made me the closest to whole again that I've felt in ages.

Annie talked to me about the journey and how different District 12 was to her familiar Four as we settled onto the couch. From the corner of my eye I could already see Peeta stealing Finn away from Joanna to gawk at the tyke. A different type of happiness I'd never seen before illuminated his face. It was sweet to see him with Finn, he looked so happy, so natural, but I couldn't help but cringe inwardly, afraid. I tried not to dissect what this meant.

After the four of us talked for a bit Peeta handed Finn over to Annie and she took the time to introduce him to me.

"Katniss, meet Finn," she turned him towards me.

The child was small, and quiet. His eyes were huge and they bore into mine in a way I couldn't describe. He looked so much like the woman in front of me, and so much like the man missing from all our lives. The child sucked his thumb and snuggled closer into his mother's embrace. I edged closer into Peeta, who was now standing next to me.

"He looks so much like him," I said to her, breaking the small child's gaze. I could still feel his eyes on me.

"I know right, it was like a gift," Annie smiled and look down at him. She kissed one of his chubby cheeks.

Finn's other hand had somehow found Peeta's finger and held it in a tight grip. Peeta didn't mind at all and started cooeing at him again. I was torn in a way I couldn't comprehend as I looked from Peeta to Finn, Finn to Peeta.