16

This is a fire pit. It's prism-shaped. It's outside. The peak of a local Appalachian mountain is not far away-or up.

Up here, the air is clean. And everything moves slower...unless it's falling, and at this altitude, that's been known to happen.

Johanna lies atop the prism, on her chest. It's flat. You'd expect a would-be prostitute of a had-been president to have riper boobs. OTOH, she was tortured in the Capitol's captivity for as long as Peeta was...

She's in the buff. Her back is long. Her ass is humping. Her upper legs are overstocked.

Like a spot in the middle of her back, Peeta massages her back's most sensitive spot. He's hard...and he's overwhelmed by the local plain, made of human skin, that constitutes an older woman's back.

Peeta wouldn't call this cougar dating. Cougars are usually a decade older, or more, than their "prey." Johanna's only five years Peeta's senior. And in accordance with the "half your age plus seven" rule...

Interesting; two years ago, Johanna would've been too old for him. This year, however, he's just perfect for her, age-wise and everything...

If only he weren't married... But then, she's already said she doesn't care, hasn't she?

Johanna asks him if he's done this with Katniss yet. He tells her he hasn't seen her since it happened.

Johanna smiles. She seems to be glad that Peeta's this small. She has plans to sexually subdue him. He can just feel it...

But then, she has already. He's rubbing her back, and he can think of one reason-or two reasons, rather-why he shouldn't.

She asks him if he misses Katniss. He pauses, realizing he doesn't know what to think about that. She asks the question louder. He misinterprets the raised volume's meaning, and answers with an instant "NO!"

He keeps rubbing her sensitive spot. She tells him if he's wandering away from it.

Sometimes she bends her legs. Peeta flinches when she does. At his size, her heels are like incoming asteroids. And her ass cheeks are like a pair of dome-shaped hills.

Johanna seems to purr when Peeta hastily admits he doesn't miss Katniss. Part of him wishes he were a better liar under pressure.

And to think that Katniss always trusted him to do the talking during their travels in the Capitol prior to the Hunger Games. But here, small, on a potential dominatrix's back, it's easy for him to wish he had an envoy of his own.

Johanna admits that she's missed Peeta a lot since they last parted ways after the Revolution. Bed's never been colder. She confesses her depression even then; she'd always dreaded that Katniss would get the boy in the end, and not her. And to think that she, Johanna, and Peeta shared the same confinement as captives in the Capitol.

Peeta confesses that Katniss did a lot to help him then, including advocate for him when the rest of the rebels were convinced that he'd turned traitor. He couldn't just break her heart like he didn't need her. Johanna's a scary girl, but the Girl on Fire is scarier. Snow himself couldn't kill her, and he killed everybody.

Johanna chuckles, and admits that she's always been more of an nihilist. She believes that Snow didn't kill Katniss by chance, and not because he wasn't "meant to."

Johanna isn't pretending to be weak for Peeta. But then, of course, they know each other; and therefore, Peeta knows-and has seen firsthand-how dangerous Johanna can be inside and outside of a Hunger Games arena-but mainly inside.

This is no Hunger Games arena. Although Peeta would be bluffing if he said that his life hasn't felt like another Hunger Games ever since he tried to trick Katniss into divorcing him.

At least there aren't twenty-three other youths trying to kill him. But then, most of the animals that've attacked him aren't known for their relatively longer life spans...

"Katniss married you." Johanna turns her head, and smiles. "I wouldn't have. I would've fucked you until one of us died...preferably me."

Well...she's certainly no wife, in or out of marriage. But then, Katniss probably could've told Peeta that.

Or, so Peeta assumes. But then, it's been SUCH a long time since Katniss has been herself...

Johanna tells him she likes him better when he's this small. He's not very deterring when it comes to protecting her, but at least she won't have to wrestle him to keep him all to herself-away from prettier girls who make better bids-with bigger boobs, and more refined habits...

Peeta keeps rubbing the "secret spot" on her back. For some reason, he feels like he's found his calling...and it couldn't have been farther from Katlanna.

What sounds like a horn blares across the sky. Peeta looks around. A mosquito has dared land on his mistress's rump. It's lowering its proboscis into her soft fatty ass flesh...

Peeta doesn't hesitate. He abandons his post, and charges the vampire leviathan.

It's a long charge. Peeta's surprised he doesn't get tired before getting to the target.

He climbs up her ass cheek like an animal. But then, it's an animal he's attacking, isn't it?

Peeta gets there. The mosquito doesn't budge. He claps his hands. He shouts. He waves his arms. He tries to rip the damn vampire's legs off.

They're stronger, and a lot more stubborn, at this size. Peeta had no idea.

Peeta screams when Johanna pancakes the mosquito with her open hand, spanking herself. At least she didn't spank Peeta. Her hand was WAY too close. It could've crushed her. It just fell out of the sky, spontaneously, like something huge and flat. Peeta's lucky the wind didn't blow him into her A-hole.

"Hmm, skeeters," she brushes the vampire's carnage off her bum. "Hate those things."

As she sweeps, she creates earthquakes over her bum. To Peeta, it's like watching a carcass get ripped to shreds.

Then, Johanna reaches out her pinkie finger. She helps Peeta back onto her bum.

"You've earned a break, little one," Johanna turns her head, and smiles. "Enjoy a nice long nap on one of the best two mattresses in Panem, courtesy of what my mama gave me...seventeen years before Snow killed her."

Peeta tries to rest...but doesn't know if he can. At least she left him on the ass cheek that isn't smeared with mosquito carnage.

"And for the record," Johanna adds, "if you were Snow, I wouldn't have killed just the mosquito a while ago. That sorry bastardous excuse for a president murdered my whole family, and not just my mother, because I didn't become his whore. Panem's better off without him. I'm not gonna lie; I'm glad Katniss did what she did; I just wish she'd have saved another arrow-and a nuke-tipped one-for Snow."

Peeta isn't entirely sure Panem is without Snow. Ever since meeting Katlanna, Peeta's been undermined with a terrible suspicion that Katniss has become so obsessed with Snow-after having been obsessed with nothing but him during the Revolution-that half of her has become him.

And yet, Katlanna is so...playful, and good humored. It's hard to believe someone as pleasant as that could be Snow's legacy. Snow was cruel and vile. And any children he had who would've survived the final Hunger Games would've surely grown up to be just like him...even if they did look up to the Girl on Fire behind his back.

But Katlanna is also dangerous, and needs to be put down. Peeta merely means she's more amiable than Snow was; he is by NO means suggesting that he's warming up to Katlanna, or the cold-shouldered bitch Katniss's similar-yet-unrelated obsession with Buttercup has made her.

"But I'm happy to be your whore, Peeta," Johanna adds, "just so you know. But then...it's you who's mine now, isn't it?" She giggles, and rests. Every now and then, she startles Peeta with her asteroid-sized heels, as she bends her legs spontaneously.

"Rest long and easy, little one," she adds. "We've got a lot of work to do for the rest of our lives."

That sounded scary to Peeta when she said it. And yet, his more masculine parts actually anticipate what cruel sexual feats she could possibly have in store for her tiny new gigolo...