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[Johanna rolls her eyes right back. She's genuinely irritated, but the hugeness of the movement is more to mock Kate than demonstrate her feelings. Like wow. With a huff of breath, she grabs for her shorts, lifts her hips up off of the bed a little so she can pull them on without actually standing.

Beneath her sarcasm and irritation, Johanna really does know what Kate is suggesting--and her caginess was probably anticipated, to a degree. It's easier to be a bitch than to feel any real feeling, to second guess herself--or, worse, to let herself think of what it means, that Kate would offer-- that. Keeping people closed out can still work even if they're making kind and patient offers. You just have to work harder at it. Be bitchier.]

Come on, I didn't even whittle you a ring yet. You're that easy?

[Seeking an argument instead of seeking attention usually works better.]

[ Kate's made her point, and Johanna clearly understands the offer or she wouldn't be dancing weirdly around it trying to piss Kate off. It's not unexpected-- if anything it took a lot longer than she thought it would to get to the point where Johanna shoves her away and starts needling to compensate for whatever slight dropping of walls occurred for a few hours there. She gets it, sort of.

She's not going to make the offer again or press any further, but she's also not so easily riled today. Instead of getting irritated she grins at Johanna's dig and pitches her voice up an octave or so, bats her lashes over her shoulder. ]

But you're so good with trees, I just know you'll whittle me the prettiest ring there ever was.

Edited 2015-02-03 19:52 (UTC)

[Some days, there's no way to combat Johanna's bitchiness, days where even ignoring it won't work, where she works really hard to be unbearable. Ignoring her just pisses her off.

Today isn't that day. Despite her defensiveness, Johanna grins at Kate's simpering routine. She leans back on her hands, elbows locked.]

How do you know I'm good with trees. You've never seen anything.

You're just so good at everything! Climbing them, and chopping them up, and dressing like them.

[ Kate keeps up the act just that little bit longer before dropping it with a lingering curve of a smile. She pushes up a little further onto her forearms, and turns to look back without quit so much neck-wrenching. ]

Did you ever have a treehouse?

[Dressing like them oh HA HA HA]

Shut up.

[More fond than genuinely irritated. The tree dresses weren't her fault. There's a line that could be crossed when it comes to making fun of them, but since they really did suck, it's usually okay. (Usually.)]

Are you asking me that because, oh, District 7, trees, tree-houses-- [in other words are you still making fun of her] --or because you're really asking.

[ Kate grins when told to shut up, a bright flash of good humor and better teeth. She rolls back onto her side, curled a little beneath the blanket so she can set her chin on her fist and look up at Johanna.

She shakes her head. ]

No, I'm really asking. I mean that's what made me think of it, but did you? I always wanted one. [ One of the few things a little girl in the city can't get no matter how rich her parents are. ]

[DON'T INSULT HER TEETH she has great teeth the Capitol made sure of that]

They couldn't keep an eye on us if we were in treehouses.

[They. It might sound like she means adults, parents--but really, she means Peacekeepers. Just thinking of them makes her hands feel tight, like she should be gripping at her axe. Instead she laces her fingers together and stretches them out in front of her.]

We climbed a lot of trees. And sometimes we made little platforms. If you had to be up in the higher branches, it was easier. We were supposed to take them down when we were done, but they got left up overnight sometimes. And I've slept in trees before.

Don't tell me you expect a whole house. I'm not even sure I want to do a ring.

[ IT WASN'T ABOUT JOHANNA'S TEETH it's good x and better y see never phrasing anything like that again wow

Kate listens, and makes a face at the idea of treehouses not being allowed, skeptical and affronted at once. This is the true injustice in Panem, clearly. As for Johanna's reluctance she drops her mouth open in faux shock. ]

Are you jilting me? This is what I get for trying not to be so easy.

[ She doesn't keep up the act as long this time, head tipping to one side, jaw on her knuckles. ]

We weren't allowed to build treehouses either. All the trees in the city that are big enough are in the park, and if you tried the police would stop you. And my father refused to let me try to build one at our beach house because the neighbors wouldn't like it and it would ruin the line of the property, or something pretentious like that. [ Which she clearly still thinks is terribly lame, judging from the scoff in her tone. ]

Learn to balance better.

[It's good advice. Balance between too easy and too hard. But Kate's overdone reaction makes the corner of her mouth tug up again. Stupid.]

But you poor thing. Why didn't you just build it anyways? It's not like they're very hard, and you probably had plenty of stuff laying around--even if you are probably crap at construction.

Wow, hey. What makes you think I'm crap at construction other than my total and complete lack of experience? I could be naturally gifted.

[ Kate's teeth catch in her lip but don't quite hold in a flare of a grin. ]

So they're that easy? Easy enough you could build one here?

You're naturally something, all right.

[And, sister: it ain't gifted. Johanna shifts her weight all onto her right hand, so she can use her left to scratch, lazily, at her collarbone.]

Probably. Yeah. If I wanted to. It'd just be putting walls on a platform. You're not seriously asking me to build you a treehouse, are you?

Bitch. [ Kate says it with a grin. She is so gifted that she feels no need to defend herself further, so there. ]

I'd help! And maybe I'd owe you one. Come on, [ She drags the word out because that is a surefire way to persuade people ] it'd be fun. We could drag a couple mattresses up there somehow, get a change of scenery from these ugly little rooms.

[Pitiless, Johanna looks over at Kate. Dragging out onnnnn is not the way to her heart.

...although, unrelated to Kate's little show of pleading--a treehouse would be pretty cool. A nice change of scenery. God, fuck space for making her think that way.]

How many nails do you have? I'm not doing wood joints for a whole house.

[ Fuck space, Kate's thought exactly. ]

Uuuuuummmmm I will look into that. There've got to be some or maybe someone can make some? I'll figure it out. Tomorrow we can go pick a tree?

There was a forge or something. Wasn't there? Everyone who ran it is probably gone now. Gone, or dead, or disappeared, or-- whatever.

[She flops her hand out in something like an empty-handed shrug. Eh. Dispassion at its greatest.]

If they're gone, free nails. And any tree will work. It's not like there's a type that's better for treehouses.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I'll ask around. Someone must know where it is.

[ Free nails, yay. As for the tree she lifts a brow. ]

Really? Doesn't it matter what sort of branches and what shape they are and stuff?

Well, yeah--

[Like, duh, and with a sigh Johanna puts her weight back onto her hands again, kicks her feet out in front of her with her heels braced against the floor. She stretches her toes inside of her socks. The wool makes them look almost webbed. She think of Finnick, for a second, and smiles.]

But it's not like there's one tree. And all the trees in the garden are pretty big. They probably made them that way on purpose, pumped them full of some chemicals so they'd grow faster.

Probably. Or hauled them in here fully grown with some sort of gigantic crane.

[ Kate does some unnecessary mime with a clawed hand and jerky, robotic arm movement. ]

So we should have plenty of good tree options, then. Now I'm having all kinds of Swiss Family Robinson dreams. --It's a story about a family that gets shipwrecked on a deserted island and they have to survive there til they're rescued. They build some really awesome treehouses with all kinds of bridges and pulleys and skylights and stuff.

[The little pantomime show gets a huge eyeroll. And good job explaining your reference, Kate--but the explanation doesn't make Johanna any less skeptical.]

How did they build anything if they were on a deserted island?

There were trees, and bamboo and stuff. And this was back a couple hundred years ago, [ Kate says, warming to the subject a little bit. ] so their ship was wooden, and when it got broken up on the rocks in the storm pieces of it washed ashore. So they had some tools and you can make hammers out of rocks or rope out of grass, stuff like that. They were resourceful. [ Also fictional, that helps. ]

[She makes a quiet noise, something like a scoff.]

I know you can make tools. But you're telling me that a whole family of tool-makers just washed up on an island--and they could build houses.

Come on.

It was a long time ago!

[ Kate's defense comes with a little bit of a laugh. She shifts, ostensibly just to get her elbow and head and pillow all jammed into a more comfortable arrangement but it also makes more room on Johanna's side of the bed. Just in case. ]

People had to know how to do that stuff themselves, then. But I think that really was the family business. They'd packed up everything and were sailing halfway around the world to help build a new colony, but they never made it because of the pirates and the storm.

A family business of what. Everybody was just good at everything? That was the business?

[She huffs another laugh, brief and pitched.

Except, okay--]

What pirates.

Yes, their family business was being geniuses. [ Kate reaches out to swat at Johanna's elbow, fingers swinging intentionally just wide. ]

I mean they were all pretty smart, but I think they were engineers. Builders. And they were prepared to move to the jungle so they must've known stuff. [ She makes a whatever gesture. ]

Anyway, pirates. So the reason they ended up shipwrecked was they were trying to escape from some pirates. A whole fleet of them ruled the area around there and they were mad these ships were coming through, so they were going to attack. So to get away their ship raced into a storm and too close to the rocks and wrecked.

[She leans away a little, even if Kate wasn't really planning to hit her, or whatever--but it's practically flirty, helped by the way that she's grinning at her.]

So what happened to the pirates? They just gave up? They thought they were dead, but no, they were just jungle-living geniuses, and they all lived happily ever after?

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