AN: One of my dear friends ended up corrupting me into the Hunger Games fandom (again), and it's not like I have other projects to work on anyways... -shot- Man, I like my one-shots. Plot plot plot gets derailed by the end, but I like it anyways.

"Haymitch," Katniss whispered, fingers digging into the table. "I feel sick."

He laughed dryly, without any humour. "I've felt sick ever since I won the games." He fixes her with a steady stare. "It doesn't go away, not really. It's one of those injuries that keeps you up at night, that is always there, even if sometimes you barely notice it."

Katniss met his gaze, with such immense sadness in her eyes that he had to look away. "Well, all pain can be numbed by the right medicine." He said with false levity, pulling a flask out of his pocket. "Care for some of mine."

Her eyes went from his to the flask in his hand and back to his eyes again, before she nodded tightly.

As he handed her the drink, their fingers brushed and he finally, finally noticed how much she was shaking. His eyes softened, and as she lifted the flask to her mouth he could see the tears brimming beneath her eyelids.

"I never thought it would be this hard to see someone else from Twelve win." Katniss was startled by this for a second, he could tell, because the tears in her eyes were hastily blinked away before she seemed to really register what he had said. When it finally did sink in, though, she looked down at the ground. All the fire that she had once had was gone. Looking up, she gave him a sad little smile before quietly responding.

"Every time someone wins, someone else loses."

Names and faces flash before Haymitch's eyes (maysilee donner, my mother, my brother, my love…) and suddenly he's just tired, tired and sick all over again.

"No one wins these games." He mutters, letting his hair cover the eyes that are dangerously close to letting the tears fall. They're sudden and unexpected, unexpected only because he thought he had cried out all his tears long, long ago.

Every year, there's someone new to grieve for.

(peeta mellark)

But every year is different, and this time the grief is all the more and all the less for having another victor by his side.

(katniss everdeen)

No one wins the games.

(haymitch abernathy)

Especially not the victors.

ANII: Short and sweet, that's how I like to look at it! I feel like even if Katniss had won all alone, it wouldn't have been any better for her.

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