DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING YOU RECOGNISE. THE HUNGER GAMES BELONGS TO THE WONDERFUL SUZANNE COLLINS.
A/N NEWLY UPDATED TO FIX ERRORS ADVISED BY INLOVEWITHACRIMINAL.
I had been back in District 12 for almost three weeks, and I had still not left the house. Greasy Sae would come over with supplies the Capitol had sent, keep me company and help me with the housework, and that was nice, but for the most part, all I wanted to do was be on my own. I was continually screening my calls from Dr Aurelius, not wanting or needing his help, and as for Haymitch? Well, I hadn't seen him since we got back. Peeta was meant to be coming back home soon but I didn't want to see him either. All I wanted was for Prim and my mother to be here.
Instead I spent my days laid on Prim's bed, with Buttercup curling up with me to join me in mourning. We had developed an almost friendship where he relied on me and I relied on him. I could never replace Prim in his eyes, and I never wanted to. After all, I fought to kill the mongrel before I saw how much Prim loved him. But at least we could lean on each other when the pain got too much.
It wasn't until an exceptionally painful session of nightmares that I finally picked myself up and tentatively walked over to Haymitch's. I didn't knock. After all, we had been through so much that there wasn't much point. Instead I just walked into his kitchen and almost laughed at the sight of him crumpled on the floor, a bottle in one hand and a knife in the other. I really should have come over earlier, the familiarity was the best feeling I had felt since the war.
I strode over to the sink and filled a big jug of water before pouring it straight over his head and he woke with a start. "I thought I told you not to do that!" He snapped at me, before standing up and wiping the water from his face. "Honestly sweetheart, I haven't seen you in weeks and then you come over to do this to me?"
"And I told you that until you stop sleeping with a knife this is the only way I dare wake you," I replied with a smirk. The first smile I'd made in months.
"What brings you all the way here then anyway?" He asked me, taking a sip from his bottle of liquor.
"You only live two minutes away," I snapped.
"Still a lot further than your front door, when you consider that's about the furthest you've been in nearly a month," he replied, and I glared at him.
"I've been busy," I told him. "And I only came for a drink."
"Too busy to come see your loving mentor?" He laughed. "And can if you want a drink you can get your own. The last thing I want is to get you drunk when I'm supposed to be keeping an eye out on you."
"Great job you're doing too by the way. When was the last time you came over?"
Haymitch suddenly went quiet and I knew he was feeling guilty for neglecting me. "Here," he said offering me the bottle of alcohol that I quickly accepted.
The first mouthful burnt my throat, but I can't say the second one was much better. Still, I perched myself onto the kitchen counter and kept drinking. "Do you think I'm crazy?" I asked him, hoping for a genuine answer rather than him babying me like Greasy Sae insists on doing.
"Honestly?" He asks and I nod. "I think you're mad as a bat, but I don't blame you for killing Coin. It doesn't mean I think you shouldn't have ignored your desire for revenge and accepted Coin as president though."
I could always rely on Haymitch for an honest answer, no matter how unpleasant it was. That is if you discount him not telling me about the rescue plan from the Quarter Quell. "I know I shouldn't have done it. Now even if I wanted to go see my mother or Gale in the other districts I can't."
"Of course you can," he told me matter-of-factly. "Just as soon as you convince me and Aurelius that you're better, and won't go shooting anybody else," he smirked.
"I really don't want to speak to him," I whined, taking another mouthful of liquor.
"There's no point anyway," he told me, and I raised a questioning eyebrow. "As long as you keep shutting yourself up, and only come out to steal my alcohol there is no way I'm saying you're ok."
"Haymitch!" I snapped, but he just laughed at me.
"Come on sweetheart," he said as he lifted me up if the counter. "Go get your bow. We're going hunting.
"Hunting? What good will that do?" I asked in bewilderment.
"You need to get back to normality, and you storming out here and throwing that water over my head was the first time I've seen you like your usual self for weeks.
"How would you know? You haven't been there?"
"Do you really think Greasy Sae hasn't been keeping an eye out on you for me? She'll told me how you never leave Prim's room except for a few hours a day." He told me.
"You've had people spying on me!" I say angrily.
"I was waiting for you to make the first move. To show that you were ready to get better. If I'd come over and started getting involved you would have only kicked me out."
I knew he was right, but it didn't stop me from being furious with him. I think he could sense that because he grabbed my hand and led me out of the house, towards the woods. He must have thought if I started hunting I would stop being angry, and I hoped for his sake that he was right. The last thing he would want is to be face to face with me and a bow and arrow.