A/N English is not my language: please, forgive me if you'll find mistakes in the text.
EVERY TEARDROP IS A WATERFALL
"Why are you here, sweetheart? "
The drawling voice came from Haymitch's lips - cracked but still moist to the last sip of liquor that had been able to reach them before someone knocked violently at his door.
"Have you drank? " asked the woman at the door, peering into his face, marked by twenty-five years of pain, guilt, nightmares.
And now by the Quell, which put his life on the edge of a cliff . Again.
"Not your business, isn't it sweetheart? " spat out Haymitch .
He turned and went back into the house, leaving the door open. Effie interpreted it as an invitation to enter the house, too.
She had never been there. The house was tidy. He probably had a housekeeper. However, she could not help but notice the broken glass next to the TV and the colorless liquid scattered all around. The fire was slowly dying.
"Actually - began Haymitch - I had just started. You arrived before I could drink more than a sip. You were eager - I have to say - I am honored .. the effervescent Effie Trinket who comes to cheer up the gloomy atmosphere of District 12's Victors' Village! Tonight we really, really need it, sweetheart. Only Peeta came first, begging me to let him save his beloved.. but he lives just ten feet from here. So I wonder ... why such a hurry?"
Effie could not say a word. In front of her silence, Haymitch spread his arms, tilting dangerously the bottle he held in his left hand, part of whose contents spilled on the carpet. The man didn't notice, and collapsed on the couch again.
"You should not drink .. " she managed to say.
" It will not be a silly, frivolous Capitoline telling me what to do!"
Haymitch's yell was so high that made Effie taking a few steps back.
Haymitch looked at her sideways gulping a long sip of liquor.
"You know, I really think this is just the end of time. The last drop for the old Haymitch Abernathy. I don't think anyone would feel my absence , except perhaps that woman .. Ripper, but just because I bought liquor .. But actually now there are new Peacekeepers.. the new, sober, incorruptible Peacekeepers and I cannot even more drink in peace - forgive my pun, sweetheart -.. So not even Ripper would miss me, after all.. "
He barely noticed that Effie took a seat on the couch next to him.
They spent a few minutes in silence: Effie staring at the tip of her patent leather shoes, Haymitch swallowing gulps of liquor and sometimes glancing at her. Her presence made him uncomfortable, and it was weird because Haymitch never cared of the rest of the world's opinion, especially of Capitol City's. Who cared if they called him a drunkard? Or something like that?
By the way, the fact that Effie was silencing was irritating him.
"So? What's the reason of your visit, sweetie? Did you come to tell me that it will be a big, big Quarter Quell?" he urged her.
As he looked up at her, ready to intimate her to speak (otherwise she would have done better to go to her sweet bread-boy) Haymitch noticed that a tear was sliding down her powdered cheek.
A moment later, Effie was slipping off the couch and covering with rapid, little steps the space that separated her from the door. Haymitch suddenly thought he didn't want her to leave.
She had her hand on the doorknob when his fingers closed around her wrist, forcing her to let it go and dragging her back into the living room.
In a second , Effie was trapped between the wall and the Haymitch's body, he still holding her wrist tightly to keep her from going away again.
" Well, what can I say Haymitch? " she murmured "A silly, frivolous Capitoline cannot tell you anything you might be interested in, right? So, let me go.. "
Haymitch froze: he would certainly have expected a response so cold .. so resentful. Suddenly he felt disgusted by himself.
He glanced at Effie, who was trying to prevent the tears come down so copiously from her.. blue eyes?
Haymitch was blown away. Since he knew her, he had never paid attention to the color of Effie's eyes, always hidden by tons of eye shadow, fake eyelashes and other gadgets.. From that distance, Haymitch was able to observe them closely: and they reminded him the color of the cerulean Lake where he went to bathe in his childhood.
"Since when you have blue eyes ? " he asked, stupidly.
Effie suppressed a faint sob .
"S-sorry? They are my normal eyes Haymitch! The wrist .. " she said, with a grimace of pain.
Haymitch loosened his grip, realizing how uncomfortable Effie had to be in that position, but did not move away.
" Why are you here, Effie ? " he asked in a whisper.
She glanced at him, her eyes shining, her lips trembling.
"So you didn't understand, did you?"
Before Haymitch could incorporate what she said, he found Effie's lips on his. They were sweet lips, tasting of sugar.
She pulled away .
"There.. forgive me if I bothered you.." she mumbled , trying to get away .
Instead, Haymitch circled her slim waist with one arm and pulled her to him again, in a kiss deeper than the light one she had just given him. It was a long kiss, in which Haymitch tried to put all the words that he couldn't say, and in which Effie felt the loneliness , the pain , the sense of emptiness that lived in his mind.
Looking at her face, Haymitch wondered how many things of her beauty were hidden by heavy makeup and wig that the stupid Capitoline fashion required to wear. That night the wig was turquoise, a color that led Haymitch to be lost again in those just discovered eyes
Then, before Effie could protest, he dragged her into the bathroom, ignoring her yells.
She stared at him, while he put a towel under running water in the sink. She realized his intentions a second too late.
"No! Hay .. "
But Haymitch was already removing the many layers of makeup that smeared her face, revealing little by little her white skin, reddened by the rough cloth rubbing on it.
Once finished, Effie covered her face with her hands.
"D-don't look at me! I'm hideous!"
But the shock increased when Haymitch, with a fluid, simple gesture took off her wig and a hair-cascade of the color of wheat fell on her back.
Haymitch gently grabbed Effie's hands, putting them away from her face. She let him, too traumatized to oppose,.
"You're beautiful .." he said, simply .
A slight blush rose to her diaphanous cheeks .
" You are lying, I'm horrible, you are a horrible person Haymitch Abernathy! Don't you know that it is not so.. "
" How old are you Effie? " he interrupted .
Her cheeks became crimson .
"From bad to worse! You shouldn't ask a woman her age .. "
"Answer the question"
Effie looked down.
"Twenty-nine " she said softly.
Haymitch laughed. " With all that crap on I'd give you at least ten more, sweetheart" he said, then burst out laughing at the sight of her horrified response.
Then he drew her to him and imprisoned her no-longer-painted lips in a deep kiss.
He lifted her from the ground, carried her into the bedroom and laid her on the wide bed, keeping on kissing her and noting with satisfaction that she responded him eagerly, her cheeks flushed and her eyes narrowed .
He lifted her chin between his thumb and forefinger, forcing her to look him in the face and Effie plunged her gaze in his eyes. They had the color of the ice.. but seemed also warmed by the fire that, she felt it, was consuming his soul.
Haymitch felt the pleasure wrap and had to know if what he wanted was the same that she wanted.
"Do you want this, sweetheart? " he whispered and smiled when she breathed on his lips "Yes ."
Effie easily removed Haymitch's shirt from his chest while he took a lot more time to toss on the floor her corset.
He kissed the hollow of her neck, pushing her long blond hair –in a mess if compared to the perfect wig.
He left a trail of burning kisses on her shoulders, breasts, belly, enjoying the little moans that tore at her lips and also the burning that caused her long nails on his back.
She stopped him and made him go back to her lips, which – Haymitch noticed - still have that sweet taste .
Haymitch got rid of the last clothes he was wearing. His vision was slightly blurred, not knowing if it was caused by his arousal or by the liquor he drank.
"Do you want this, Effie? " He asked again with rough voice.
She gave him a pleading look muttering " Haymitch , please .. "
He entered her with one thrust , making her breathing noisily. Haymitch stared at her, and he almost got mad at the sight of her with closed eyes and half-open mouth. He trapped it in a deep, sensual kiss, more rude than those they had exchanged before, starting to move in a regular pace.
She chewed on his lower lip, gripping his shoulders and circling his waist with her legs.
Maybe they went on this way for hours and hours and finally they both reached their climax, together, stifling a cry in each other mouths .
Haymitch was lying on his back, absently stroking Effie's hair, showered upon him, overwhelming his chest.
Her breathing was regular , but he knew that she was not sleeping.
"You have to save them, Haymitch " Effie murmured against his skin.
Haymitch nodded silently and placed a kiss on her forehead.
"If Peeta will be reaped I will volunteer for him. And in the arena.. I'll do everything I can to make Katniss come out alive" he murmured.
Effie nuzzled closer to him.
He felt a tear bathe his chest.