Flares | Johanna Mason

III. Home

Johanna

Ethan was scared, that much she could tell. From the night of the incident on the roof to now, on the train back to District 7, Ethan hadn't talked to her. They hadn't even made eye contact. He hadn't even eaten.

Johanna was starting to get annoyed with the situation, they needed to talk about what happened. How he was ready to throw himself off of a roof. She knows that Ethan wants to put up a front, to lie and say that everything is fine, but it's not.

"We need to talk." She said after entering his room and standing in front of the door.

Ethan snorted as he looked at her from his bed, "About what because I can't think of anything that we need to talk about."

"How about you trying to throw yourself off of the roof?" Johanna stated, venom in her tone. Empathy had never been her speciality, but empathy wouldn't get him to talk. She needed to wind him up, to get him angry then watch as the explanation came tumbling out of his lips.

"I said everything I needed to say on the roof."

"How about why you weren't at dinner."

"I wasn't hungry," Ethan told her, turning back to the book he had been reading, signalling that he was finished with the conversation.

"I didn't see you this morning for breakfast, either," Johanna pointed out.

"I wasn't hungry then either."

"And dinner last night?"

"Not then, either."

Johanna sighed, "We're not going to do this," she told him, shaking her head. "You're not going to sulk and starve yourself. You survived the arena, you should be stronger than this."

In a blink of an eye, Ethan had Johanna pinned against a wall, his eyes burning with anger. "Is that how you want to play it, appealing to my sense of duty to go back home. To continue to perform in the Capitol's fucking puppet show."

"You are the uncle of Ella Wynters," Johanna tried again. "This is not how she would want you handle this situation. She wouldn't want you sulk. She wouldn't want you to starve. She wouldn't want you to be silent."

Ethan scoffed, his grip getting tighter. "Thank you for that," he told her, his tone biting. "For reminding me of the niece that might despise me. Are you going to bring up my mum and dad now? Drive that knife in my heart in a little deeper?"

Johanna shook her head, tearing Ethan's hands off of her. "I'm done," she told him. "but so are you. If you are not sitting at the table tomorrow morning, I will come back here and drag you down there by your hair and force feed you myself."

-

She watched as Ethan paced nervously in the hallway next to the train door. They were finally back in District 7 and Johanna couldn't be happier. The Capitol brought back too many bad memories.

She would have laughed at Ethan if he wasn't in a state of panic. So she walked over and grabbed him, her hand sorting out his hair. "If you're trying to make your family think there's nothing wrong, then you're going about it the wrong way pretty boy."

Before Ethan could respond, the train doors opened to the District's train station. Johanna briefly nodded her head before gently shoving him off of the train.

"Uncle Ethan!" she could hear a little girl's voice shout as she was stepping off the train with Blight and Sage. She had a ghost of a smile on her face as she watched as Ethan got down on one knee and hugged his young niece. She didn't notice his mum and dad until his mum began to cry and hugged her son while his dad was trying to calm her down.

She could see the relief in Ethan's face that he was wrong, that his family seemed to not hate him. She met his mother's eyes as she mouthed two words to her.

"Thank you."

---

Ayla

Her son was home. Her beautiful, darling boy was back home. But he had changed, she saw that no matter how many times Ethan said that he was fine. Her heart swelled when Ella ran to her beloved uncle, never wanting to let him go again.

Ethan had took Ella out around District 7 while her and Cillian welcomed Johanna into their home. They owed her everything, she brought their son back to them. Everyone in District 7 had heard the stories about Johanna. that she was cold and heartless, an unlovable hermit but the girl in front of her was nothing like the stories had said. She was a girl that had been given a bad hand. She chuckled inwardly at how similar her son was to the other Victor.

"Do you want anything, Johanna?" She asked the younger girl, who looked at her surprised.

"No, thank you Mrs Wynters." Johanna replied politely, not wanting to seem rude.

"Please call me Ayla."

"I'm sure that you've got questions to ask me." Johanna said, getting straight to the point.

Cillian chuckled lightly at Johanna's bluntness as Ayla eyed her husband. "Yes we have. How was he?"

"At which point do you mean? Before, during or after the games?" Johanna asked, needing more information.

"After."

"He was angry, felt guilty or nervous. It depended on when you caught him." It seemed Johanna was set on giving them short responses. Either she was hiding something from them or she was inarticulate.

"Why was he nervous? The boy's never been nervous in his life." Cillian said, leaning forward.

"He was worried about how you would react. He thought that you might not love him anymore."

Ayla sighed. 'For a clever boy, he can be so fucking stupid sometimes.' Before either her or Cillian could ask another question, Johanna asked them one.

"How was it watching him?"

"It was awful to watch, I'll be honest. Having to watch your own son have to kill other children just so that he could live the rest of his life back home."

Johanna only nodded, leaving a slightly awkward silence between the three of them.

"Is there anything you're not telling us?" Cillian asked finally.

A brief flash of emotion crossed Johanna's eyes before her face turned stoic. She was hiding something, something that Ethan had done.

"No." was all Johanna replied.

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New update finally! It's a bit shorter than the other two so apologies. I'm aiming for a new part every 1-2 weeks, 3 at a push. (Depends on college and work) I've been planning ahead, with all the major plot points finalised so just need to fill in the gaps now. Any questions about the story or what's coming up, send me a message here or on my tumblr dwynters1509.