Secret Alliance - Johanna Mason x fem reader

Chapter 1 - Welcome To District 7

My parents were hard working people. Actually everyone in district 7 had to be hard working to survive. We were raised to work at a young age farming lumber or helping out in the paper industry. But the paper industry was rather for the older folk that was not able to do the strenuous work of cutting down trees anymore. Leisure time was a foreign word for us. Even my seven years younger sister was already able to swing an ax properly and she was only nine years old. To give her the opportunity to concentrate on her school work, I was working hard like my parents though I was feeling depressed. At least chopping wood was a great distraction. "(f/n), the sun is setting. We're going home now. Let's go", my mum ripped me out of my thoughts. Absentmindedly I trotted after her. "How are you doing at school?", she broke the silence. "Well. As usual I guess", I shrugged my shoulders. I had not told her that I was skipping school most of the time to go to work. Otherwise (s/n) or I would have to get tesserae. "As usual? But it's your last year. I talked to your dad and we're worried about you. We only see you working. It's alright if you want to hang out with friends from time to time. After all you'll start working full time soon." "I don't mind it. We're sitting around most of the time at school and I want to be as fit as possible to be prepared if I ..." My mum looked at me indignantly. She knew what I was alluding to. The Hunger Games. We all tried to ignore it but the next reaping was going to be soon. District 7 had an advantage over most of the other districts because we were used to hard work from a young age, were able to use sharp weapons especially axes and could pick up a lot of skills inside our forests like distinguishing between different plants and learning how to swim. But despite those advantages most of the tributes of district 7 had died thanks to the career tributes. The chance for female tributes to survive was even lower. The only female victor alive was the tribute of the last reaping: Johanna Mason. She had pretended to be weak, stupid and naive. No one had minded her until she had left her hideout at the end of the game and killed the remaining tributes. Johanna was sly and cunning. I had known her for years due to school but we had not really interacted a lot. She was two years older than me and therefore had not been in my year anyway. "(f/n)!", (s/n) yelled, while jumping into my arms. I had not even realized that we had already arrived at home. To be honest I could have it way worse. I had a loving family and we were not starving. Furthermore we were living in the nature. The air was clean and smelling like pine needles mixed with other plants. "Mum if you want to, you can wash yourself first. I can start preparing dinner", I suggested. I grabbed a knife to cut some vegetables, which I was pretty skilled at. It was much easier to handle a knife than an ax. For someone of district 7 I was not skilled to use an ax in the first place. Soon my mum and I switched roles. When I was finished washing myself, my family was sitting at the table waiting for me to eat. Dad had also finally arrived. We started chatting about minor topics, while eating peacefully. This was the only time we all granted ourselves to let go a bit. Mum had started talking about her first time cooking on her own: "And then everything went up in flames. I nearly burned the whole house and district down." We burst out laughing, when the TV interrupted us. If it turned itself on, it was news out of the capitol. Some news about the upcoming reaping were announced suffocating our laughter. When the TV turned off again I stood up: "Sorry, but I need to go on a walk." I noticed that my dad was following me. So I added: "Alone." For at least twenty minutes straight I made my way through the forest holding an ax in my hand, just an insurance in case of any animals or creepy people. After a while I slid down at a pine tree. My thoughts were racing, my emotions total chaos but my face was blank. I was starring into nowhere letting my mind go blank as well. It was too much to process. The last sunlight had vanished by now and it was completely dark except for the stars and the moonlight fighting their way through the treetops. Suddenly an ax landed right above my head making me flinch slightly. I could even feel the cold metal against my head. "You let your guard down", a female voice scolded or rather mocked me. I simply looked at the dark figure. She seemed familiar but I could not grasp who she was in the dark. "Not talkative? Seriously? You dragged yourself deep into the forest all on your own and now you want to tell me you don't wanna talk?", she asked sarcastically. Now I realized. "What are you doing here instead of your great victor house, Johanna?" "Ah. Finally you recognized me. I already thought you had forgotten about me", she stated with a grin. Why was she teasing me? She behaved like we were old friends orsomething. "You want to know why I'm here? I could ask you the same", she shot back. A sigh escaped my lips. "Was it worth it?"The words left my lips before I had the chance to consider my decision to speak them out loud. Johanna pulled her ax out of the tree and sat down against a tree in front of me. "You need to be more precise if you're awaiting an answer", she clarified. "I mean winning the games. Was it worth it? Do you regret winning, killing other children to return here?" For a moment she seemed to be taken aback by my sudden change of topic. "What do you expect me to say? Of course I didn't want to kill any of them. It's a burden I'll have to carry for my whole life but I won't let Snow ruin even more than he already has. I've nothing to fear anymore. He can't get me now that he has killed my family." "He ..." My words got stuck inside my throat. Suddenly Johanna began laughing. It sounded desperate like she was concealing her negative emotions by it. "He's the president. Snow's able to do everything to you. Or at least as long as you have something or especially someone you hold dear." "Why did he do it?", I thought aloud. "Because I didn't obey", she whispered. Silence erupted between us. Worst case scenarios had always kept me awake before the reaping but I had not considered my life after surviving the Hunger Games. I had not even considered surviving them after all. "Now it's your time to pay up. What is a 16 year old doing inside the forest after curfew?" "You know how old I am?", I wondered. "Of course! Your parents were always talking about you and your little sister. They stated how proud they were." She made a gagging sound as if she was disgusted by love. "You know my parents?! They didn't tell me they knew you." "It wouldn't have made a difference", she shrugged it off. Maybe she was right about that. "Now answer my question", Johanna demanded impatiently. "Did you see the news?" She nodded, while rolling her eyes. "It all seems so senseless. Why are we even existing if we are forced to live a certain way and to die a certain way. There isn't any control. I'm going to die anyway. So why am I torturing myself by forcing myself through each day?" Johanna burst out laughing. "Hey! Not fair! I didn't laugh about you!", I complained. "It's not like that. I think I kinda like you", she admitted still grinning. "You're weird", I mumbled. "And you're talking to me. What does that say about you?", she shot back. I could not help but smile. "Guess we are both weird, huh? Nothing wrong with that, at least when no one else is around", I agreed. "Then let's make a deal", Johanna proposed. "We can give each others life a meaning every night helping us like that through the day. A secret alliance." I held my hand out to her and she grabbed it. "Deal", I approved.

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I have thought about writing a Johanna fiction for a while now because I absolutely love her. But I never knew how to start. Ironically I just started writing at night and everything developed while I wrote it.