(I own only plot.)
"Lyra! Blaze! No! Oh, God!" Katniss Mellark was losing control. Her kids were going mad. "Oh, God! Peeta!"
"What?" Her ever-calm husband strolled in, smothering a grin at his overly stressed wife.
"Tell Lyra and Blaze to quit that!" A smash and the parents jumped. "Oh, God! You kids!" Their wedding gift from their former mentor, Haymitch Abernathy and his new wife, their former escort, Effie Trinket, a beautiful, handcrafted glass vase from the Capitol, now lay in shining shards on the floor.
"It was Lyra/Blaze!" Their kids yelled simultaneously.
Peeta finally lost it. "That does it! You two, out! And no going to the park with the others for the next three weeks!"
"Aww, Dad, it was an accident!" Lyra moaned.
"Your mother told you to stop!" Peeta yelled.
A toss of Lyra's blonde hair and a flash of Blaze's dark hair and the kids were gone. "Oh, as much as I love those kids, they're a royal pain." Katniss moaned.
Peeta nodded. "I can understand that. Look, Kat, I'll clear this up. Why don't you go see Haymitch and Effie? They called yesterday, asking if you'd take them some bread and biscuits. Apparently, they're having Plutarch and Fulvia round and they're all very eager to see their Mockingjay."
"Don't call me that, Peeta. Hasn't Annie called? She said that Finn's got a little... fussy, for lack of a better word."
"No. She hasn't. Johanna did. Apparently, rumours in Seven are spreading. They've got a rumour about a Quell to mark the end of Snow and Coin's reigns. Using the Capitol kids."
"What?! Oh, God. I can't... The Capitol kids? No!"
"Look, they're just rumours. Kat, I can't tell you anything, can I?"
"Nope." Katniss ran for the bread and biscuits. "I'm running over to see Haymitch and Effie. If I don't come back after an hour, check my mother's. I might have to feed Buttercup the Third." Katniss told him.
"I can't believe your mother's still hanging on to that foul cat."
"It's her only link to Prim." Katniss told her husband, a hard lump rising in her throat when she thought of Primrose. Prim could have grown up and had kids, seen her niece and nephew, died at an old age. Katniss refused to speak to Gale since the rebellion had ended.
"I get that, but still. That cat is horrible."
"It's my only link to Prim now." The two shared a kiss, then Katniss ran across the baking hot gravel of District Twelve's Victors' Village. She rang the doorbell of the Abernathy household. One of the couple's geese attacked her ankle. "Get away, you nutjob bird! Haymitch! Effie!"
A very makeup-free Effie answered the door. "Katniss!" She exclaimed happily.
"Hey, Effie!" Katniss had developed a liking to the former escort, since her Capitol accent had faded into a combination of Capitol and District Twelve, her prim and proper attitude had relaxed some and she began to fit in a little. They'd become quite close since.
"Come inside, you must be baking yourself! We have the A/C on in here."
Katniss followed the older woman in. "I brought the bread and biscuits that you asked Peeta for."
Haymitch walked in, stone cold sober. "Hey, hey, Catnip."
"Haymitch, call me that again, I'll get that chair and shove it through your skull."
"OK, OK. How are the little Mellarks?"
"Fiesty, annoying, grounded. Need I go on?" Katniss smiled.
"What did your gorgeous little babies do?" Effie asked. For someone who hadn't been keen on Katniss having children, she loved those kids.
"Smashed up the house. Peeta's back there fixing it up."
"He's such a hard-working man..." Effie breathed.
Haymitch mocked her tone. "And here's the spoilt Capitol-turned-District-Twelve Princess, married to an ex-alcoholic. Must be awful."
She rolled her eyes. "You have no need to mock me." The "Capitol" Effie reappeared momentarily.
"Ooh, someone's getting all high-horsed."
Katniss almost threw up her cheese rolls. "Look, I'm out of here, I need to feed Buttercup the Third."
Effie whined "Take me, too! Please, Kat? Please? Ple-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-e-ea-a-a-a-ase?"
"OK... But I'm fairly sure you won't like the smell of the food he eats. And you'll certainly hate what he eats... And how I get it."
She wasn't wrong. Effie was sick watching Katniss pull out mouse entrails. "Oh, God, I wish I hadn't asked!" Effie groaned.
Katniss laughed as she fed the horrible cat. "Well, you did. You and Haymitch got plans?"
"For what?"
"Well, those geese won't last forever."
"Oh, God. Kids, you mean? No, yours are my favourites. I'll look after them with you guys."
"So... no baby you? No baby Haymitch?"
"Not as far as I know. Though... I think I'd like it."
"You wouldn't. You run around squealing if you get a paper cut. You'd never make it through one contraction."
"You have no faith in me." Effie joked.
"Nope." Katniss teased.
The two fell about laughing.
