"You know, even though I hate parties, I have to admit, this wasn't half bad," Haymitch mused as he pushed the button with number twelve on it, then balanced himself against the wall of the elevator with a sigh.
"No," Effie agreed half-heartedly. It was two in the morning; she wanted nothing more than to finally be able to go to bed, pull the covers above her head and stay that way for a long-long time. Fortunately they were just eleven floors away from that goal.
"Are you all right?" asked Haymitch taking off his tie, stuffing it into his pocket and scratching his neck under the collar in relief.
"Yes, thank you," she replied a little too quickly and too politely.
He was drunk, but not nearly drunk enough not to notice. "Then you care to tell me what I have done to receive the silent treatment you've been giving me all day?" He took a step towards her and turned her way so that he was leaning on the glass with one shoulder.
"Silent treatment?" she echoed with eyebrows raised so high they threatened to knock her wig off.
"Oh, come on," he chuckled, invading her personal space even further. "We've been in this together for what... six years? I think I can tell when you are mad at me."
"Shall I remind you that the other day it was you who told me to stop talking and leave you alone just for two minutes?" she said with a sweet smile. "Try to make up your mind."
He laughed at her comment, but stayed so close and searched her face so shamelessly, that after a moment of awkward silence Effie had to start talking again. "Anyway, it's nothing worth ruining this lovely night for." She began to peel off her gloves with a sigh just to do something.
"Well, it looks to me like your night has already been ruined by it," he replied.
"I told you it's nothing." She touched his arm as they arrived to the top floor and the doors slid open.
Haymitch let her leave the elevator and followed her without a word, but as soon as they were both on solid ground, he stepped in front of her. "And I can tell it's not nothing," he said in a low voice, putting both hands on her arms to stop her and to steady himself.
"You're very sweet," she chuckled. "But you are also very drunk," she added, hitting his shoulder with her gloves playfully so that he would release her. "You should go and try to sleep it off, because we'll have a busy day tomorrow. I promise it's nothing you should worry about."
"Why bother trying to keep it a secret then?" he teased and even gave her the puppy eyes. She hated when he did that, and she was almost certain he knew that too.
"All right," she said tentatively, because after all he deserved to know the truth, and who knew, maybe he'd forget it by the next morning. Moreover, he was as much guilty in it as her anyway. "You remember those documents I gave you three days ago to sign?" she asked.
"What of them?" He knit his brows in confusion.
"You didn't sing them," she said.
"Yes, I did," he argued. "I signed all of them yesterday so that you would stop screaming my head off."
"No, you didn't." Effie tried to keep her tone as neutral as she could. "I did."
There. It was finally out.
Haymitch stared at her in silence for some time, and it was torture. "You have signed them for me?" he finally blurted out. He didn't raise his voice, but it still sounded way too loud for Effie's liking, so she leaned closer and made sure to keep hers at an even lower level.
"I went in to your room in the morning, and you were sleeping on them!" she protested in an urgent whisper. "They had to be delivered by ten, and I couldn't wake you up."
"So you have just went on and signed them for me?" he demanded, and while he never tightened his grip on her amrs, he didn't let go of her either.
"They are exactly the same every year, and you sign them every year without blinking an eye," she almost cried out in frustration.
She could feel the anger rising in her chest just like it did the night before. Unwilling to admit that he had simply forgotten to sign the papers about the rules and regulations about his mentorship, after an hour long screaming match Haymitch stormed out of the living room, threw himself on his bed like the petulant child he could be and set out to read all one hundred and eleven pages before he even touched a pen just to annoy her.
"Anyway," she cleared her throat. "I... I meant no harm. It's just a formality anyway."
His lack of immediate response was making her uneasy, and seeing her distress must have made his day, because he gave her an unpleasantly wide grin. "Don't worry, princess, it's not been the first time my signature got forged on some papers," he chuckled good-heartedly.
As much as she hated the word "forge", she couldn't help starting to get hopeful about her situation. "So... are you not mad at me?" she asked in a small voice.
"No." He put his hand on her shoulder reassuringly. "I'm not mad. If anything, I could kiss you for it."
Then before she knew it, he leaned in and kissed her.
She didn't even have the time to feel shocked about it though, because Haymitch tore himself away almost as soon as their lips have met. "Sorry," he laughed as he took a step back and covered his mouth with his hand. "I shouldn't have done that." He shook his head in attempt to clear it.
Effie couldn't tell which surprised her more; the kiss, the fact that it had ended so soon, or what she said next: "Well, shame on you." She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear and licked her lips. "I have risked my career and reputation, and you call that a kiss?"
As soon as the words have left her lips she knew it had been a mistake to tease him, but the second kiss was much more like it.
He held her close and cupped her face with both hands, and somehow even his lips felt a little softer, so when he started pulling away, Effie couldn't help following him and demand more. After a while he just gave up trying to end it and kissed her even harder, sliding a hand behind her neck to hold her steady, and it took her breath away completely.
She barely even noticed that they have left their original spot until she could feel the wall against her back, but since it was also the moment he decided to add an indecent amount of tongue to the mix, she just moaned into it and wrapped her arms around his neck.
It was Haymitch who broke the kiss again, but this time he stayed so close their noses nearly touched. He kept his hands on her too, raising his brows in a silent question. There was a hint of uncertainty in his eyes and it made Effie hesitate for a moment too before she untangled her arms from around his neck, took him by the hand and started leading him towards the living quarters.
"Good choice," he mused when Effie turned to the left, ignoring his bedroom and marching right up to hers.
"I know," she chuckled, feeling pleasantly lightheaded again, as she lead him to the bed, made him sit on it and took a few steps back. He had made far too many stylists cry on her shoulder over the total lack of respect he treated his clothes with to let him anywhere near her dress.
He didn't mind being a spectator though, and watched her every move as she extracted herself out of it and put it out of harm's way while he shrugged his jacket off and dropped it on the floor, making it really hard for her not to purse her lips with disaproval. Then he looked deep into her eyes while his waistcoat had to suffer the same fate, and she started to suspect he was doing it on purpose.
By the time his shirt landed on the pile too, she was entirely sure.
"Seeing something you like?" he asked with a grin, sneaking an arm around her legs and pulling her closer.
It was far from being the first time she had ever seen him without a shirt. Most people she knew from Twelve had very outlandish ideas about how much skin would be too much to show, but Haymitch has never had such problems, especially not after a few drinks, and so she had witnessed him wandering around the penthouse wearing nothing but his underwear before. Or nothing, period. More than once.
"Yes," she said caressing his shoulder and enjoying how she didn't have to avert her eyes this time.
"The feeling is mutual," he whispered and placed a kiss on her stomach as he started peeling off her panties.
Once they got between the sheets, Haymitch proved to be surprisingly eager to please. His lips and teeth suddenly seemed to be everywhere and even though she knew she would be left with some spectacular marks in the morning, he was too good to be stopped just to save some concealer.
Bitemarks weren't the only things he didn't care about though.
Any Capitol man would have known that she was trying to push them away so that she could get on top to protect her wig, but he ignored her signals completely and slid further down only to dip his head and start kissing her breasts. Which yet again proved to be too enjoyable to be cut short, so Effie let him go on with it for a while before she wriggled out from under him and finally got him on his back.
"If you don't mind," she breathed as she sat on his waist, balancing herself on his shoulder with one hand and feeling her wig with the other. Fortunately it was still in one piece and needed only a bit of straightening.
"Not at all," Haymitch replied with a grin and ran his hands up her thighs. "You know how much I love to be a lazy son of a–"
"Language," she cut him off with a kiss and went on to prevent any further incidents by never leaving his lips again, not even when she guided him inside herself.
It's been a while since she had been with anyone, but it only added to her need of him. She rode him a little harder than her usual style and cried out way too loud when with some help of her own fingers she managed to reach her climax only moments before he reached his. Afterwards she just let herself collapse on his chest with her forehead against the side of his neck, feeling wonderfully sated and drained at the same time.
"I though you'd be a screamer," he chuckled as he pulled her close. "Any more dark secrets you'd like to share?" he added, caressing her back.
"Dozens. But I think we've had enough of those for one night," she said with a sweet smile as she rolled off him.
"You're right. We should leave something for tomorrow night too," he whispered, then he moved to get up.
Turning on her side, Effie watched him collecting his clothers from the floor, and only raised herself from her pillows when he stepped back to the bed for a goodnight kiss.
Mentors, escorts and stylists; people ended up in each other's beds often enough during Games Season, especially the ones that had been working together year after year. Unlike relationships with members of another team, it wasn't even against the rules. It was a hard job they were doing, and everyone knew that spending so much time together under such pressure either made you hate each other or bring you really close.
As she watched him walk out of the room, she felt more than happy to know that they were to take the second option.
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