AN: About a year after the revolution, Effie returns to district 12 for the first time. First Hunger Games fic, so please be kind!
Effie Trinket shuddered as she stepped off the train. It wasn't from the cold, but from the instant flood of memories connected with this place. She took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and wrapped her coat tighter around her. Stepping off the platform, she kept her eyes to the ground even though she knew from Peeta that the person whose gaze she was avoiding rarely left the house in daylight.
As she reached the Victor's Village, she stopped briefly, almost involuntarily, as her eyes drifted towards his house, before she briskly turned around and walked to Katniss and Peeta's doorstep with quick steps.
Peeta opened the door before she could even knock, and pulled her into a warm, but slightly hesitant embrace. It made her wonder if he was ill, but soon realised he was being careful for her sake. Suddenly very aware of what hugging her must feel like, she disentangled herself stiffly. Peeta smiled understandingly and grabbed her suitcases, leading her into the living room.
"Katniss is still asleep," he explained, as he placed her suitcases by the door to the guest-room.
"Nightmares?" Effie asked even though she knew the answer.
"Yeah, but she's much calmer now. Both the nights and days are getting easier and easier. For both of us…" He trailed off, and Effie knew he wanted to ask how she was doing, but didn't want to invade her privacy.
"Can I have some tea?" she asked as she shrugged her coat off. Peeta's eyes widened at the sight of her arms, at how skinny and frail the looked, but he gathered himself quickly and darted off to the kitchen. He returned a minute later with two mugs of mint tea. Receiving it gratefully, she took a long sip before facing him again. "Ask away, Peeta. We don't keep secrets, we're a team."
"That obvious, huh?"
Effie just chuckled and motioned for him to continue.
"How are you holding up in the city?"
"It's alright. I see a doctor once a week, which is very helpful sometimes, and incredibly painful for most of the time.
Peeta nodded understandingly.
"The capitol has always been by home," she began, "and don't get me wrong, in many ways it still is… But I was really happy when you called. Being alone is much easier here than in the city."
"You're not alone, Effie." Peeta and Effie's heads suddenly turned to the staircase where Katniss had appeared. "You can stay with us as long as you want, we have no other use for the guest-room."
"And also," Peeta shot in, "we've put the house next to us in relative order, for you to use whenever you like."
Effie, being easily touched as always, teared up instantly. "Really?" she asked incredulously.
Katniss walked over to her quickly and gave her a hug. "Of course. We went over there as soon as you agreed to come visit us, and while it might not be decorated exactly to your taste, I think we did quite a good job with it."
"I'm sure it's lovely," she said, wiping away a few stray tears. "Can I see it?"
"Of course," Peeta said, darting up to get her suitcases. "I'll bring these over for you."
From his kitchen window, Haymitch watched his previous team make their way over to Effie's new house. Though he'd been completely uninvolved with Peeta and Katniss' project, he'd guessed by the colours of the curtains, the planting of trees and bushes, and the fact that nobody else would move here, that Effie Trinket, a woman he hadn't seen in over a year, was coming to district 12.
He wasn't sure how he felt about it. Their relationship had always been strained, but there was also an unspoken, mutual, respect and admiration for each other. He knew Effie was much smarter than he would give her credit for, while he wasn't as uncaring as she sometimes implied.
He felt his heart break a little bit more with every step she took. Even watching her from a distance, he could see the damage the war had done to her. There was no spring in her step, her cheeks seemed hollow, her coat was wrapped around a tiny waist, her hair tied in a loose braid, no wig, no flashy make-up, no jewellery. As annoyed as he got with her sometimes, he always wanted to protect her, and when she was captured, it had felt as much as a failure as not getting Peeta out. It tore him up, even though he didn't show it the way Katniss did.
Lost in thought, Haymitch didn't notice that he was still staring at Effie's door. It wasn't until Peeta gave a small wave after Katniss and Effie had entered, that he snapped out of it, and hid behind the curtains, feeling embarrassed at getting caught, and then feeling stupid because he felt embarrassed.
"God damnit, Haymitch, get a grip." He chastised himself, reaching for a bottle of liquor on the kitchen counter. He shook it carefully, trying to guess if there was enough left, or if he needed to get another bottle. It was almost full, but he decided to get another one, just in case. His body felt weird and his head ached, and he knew it wasn't from either alcohol or the withdrawal from it. He grabbed both the bottles and a blanket from the couch, and went upstairs and to bed. Drinking the first bottle quickly, even for him, he shoved the thoughts of his new neighbour as far away as he could, and as the alcohol hit, he blacked out.
Haymitch slept uneasily. Images of Effie disturbed him even as he slept well into afternoon the next day, awoken only by rapid knocks on his front door. Still drunk, he dragged himself off the bed, ready to yell at whoever woke him. As he stumbled down the stairs, he tripped over his own feet, landing face-first at the floor. He winced at the pain, knowing it would hurt as soon as he was sober. Better make sure that doesn't happen then, he thought to himself as his nose started bleeding. He took his shirt off and pressed it to his nose as he opened the door. "Katniss, what do you-" he begun, but it wasn't Katniss, coming to make sure he was alive. In front of him stood Effie.
If it wasn't for the increasing throbbing in his nose, he might've thought he was still asleep. But she was there, alive and almost well, and before he could stop himself, he embraced her. Surprised at his unusual show of emotion, she hugged back carefully before stepping back and looking at him. As he hugged her, he'd dropped the sweater, and for a moment her face looked almost like the old Effie Trinket he used to know as she burst out, "Haymitch, what's wrong with your face? And how long has it been since you showered, or even did the dishes? Do you greet all your guests without a shirt or was that particularly for me?"
Haymitch chuckled and shook his head. "It's good to see you too, Effs. I might remind you that I didn't know you were coming, ergo I didn't need to either shower or do the dishes, but come inside if you like." He stepped back, motioning for her to enter. She shrugged her coat off and placed it over a chair in the kitchen and told him to go get a first aid kit from the bathroom.
"I don't have a first aid kit," he said, but she insisted that he did, and he realised Peeta and Katniss must've placed it there in case of emergencies. He returned with it a minute later, handing it over to her and sitting down in the chair opposite. She carefully cleaned the wound on his nose, establishing quickly that it wasn't broken only bruised and placed a band-aid on it, mostly to annoy him.
They sat in silence for a while after that, Effie mostly looking at her hands or at the floor, knowing that Haymitch was taking in her features. Even though she had looked sick when he saw her from the window last night, he quickly understood it was worse up close. Her skin was ashen and pale - not Capitol covered in powder-pale, but as pale as he himself looked like during his worst withdrawals. He looked her over and over again, her thin wrists, hollow cheeks, dull eyes. A wave of emotion rushed over him, and it took all his strength not to crush her in another embrace. Instead, he took a deep breath and calmly asked, "how are you Effie?"
For a few seconds she just looked at him, her eyes wistful, before she softly replied. "I'm okay. Life in the Capitol didn't suit me too well as it turns out, and I missed the kids too much. I know I'll probably annoy them a bit, living next-door to them, but Peeta seems to really want me here, and Katniss will come around to it I think."
"Of course she will, they missed you too, both of them. Katniss just doesn't show it the way Peeta does." Haymitch paused, knowing what he wanted to say, but unsure of himself, of her, of all the time that had passed. Could he even get the words out? Did she even want to hear them? His eyes shifted to the floor, he couldn't bring himself to meet her eyes as he forced the words out. "I missed you too."
Effie shifted in her chair and clenched her fists nervously. Haymitch still didn't look up, sure she was going to stalk out of there now, but as he heard her sob his eyes immediately shot up. He took her hands in his, stroking them carefully, tugging on them slightly. She obliged and got out of her chair and into his. He hold her closer then, wrapped her close to his chest, as her tears fell more freely.
"I missed you too," she said, trying to calm her breathing. "No one in the Capitol understood, the few friends I had left after I chose your side in the rebellion, they didn't understand why I wanted to leave the city, and then suddenly Anya asked if it had anything to do with you and it became too much. I packed my bags and got on the first train."
Haymitch listened intently while silently nursing a headache, the effect of the alcohol he had last night giving way to a fresh hangover. Trying to process what she said proved a difficult task, so he focused on her steady breathing against his chest while trying to gather his thoughts. His hands still held hers, and he caressed them carefully, noticing that while they were much thinner than last time he saw her, they were still just as soft.
A comfortable silence fell over them for a while, both of them lost in thought. Effie snaked an arm around his stomach, carefully snuggling even closer to him, knowing this was new territory for both of them.
"Effie?" he asked, placing a hand carefully under her chin to tilt her head up so he could meet her eyes. "You're not going to go back to the Capitol as soon as the first snow falls and you decide it's too cold here?"
"Not if you keep me warm," she replied, and Haymitch laughed, relived that the old, teasing, insufferably alluring Effie was still in there somewhere, just waiting to be coaxed out.
"Not a problem, sweetheart." He smiled down at her, one of those rare, genuine Haymitch smiles that made her feel warm and fuzzy like a teenager, and she placed a soft kiss on his cheek before settling down against his chest again. Outside, the first snow of the year started falling.