Haymitch was one hundred percent convinced Effie was the beautifulest women he had ever seen. Once, he had dared to believe the same thing, but about another, vastly different, women. Now he know he had been so very wrong. Caroline's olive skin and auburn hair, all of which Haymitch prefered not to remember in his wake time, had and could not compete with Effie's smooth and surprisingly mature cream coloured body and thick honey coloured hair. It was beauty beyond everything he ever seen, creating a hopelessly powerful feeling of want in his heart.
When he first met her, he never knew he'd love her, ever. Not that it made the meeting less powerful. No, nothing about Euphemia Trinket had ever been less than powerful, which was probably why, even through all the fog created by all the alcohol he's drunk over the years, he still remember every encounter so very clear. Maybe it was the colours that did it, too, because it stuck to his memory, he realised once. Because for every encounter, he could also tell the colour of the dress.
Ocean blue dress and she's yelling at Seeder and Chaff while throwing them out of the apartment and into the elevator, telling them to come back when they're sober and can act like real victors. They'd laugh themselves silly over her behaviour once in the elevator, he was sure.
Lime green dress and she's having an encounter with the female victor from 3, Wiress, that she doesn't think anyone sees. She give her a makeover and in the end she is rewarded with a kiss and purple lipstick on her face. Not that Haymitch was jealous. He didn't even love her then.
Snow white dress made of feathers was the dress Haymitch ruined when he accidentally cut her the first and last time she tried to wake him up on her own. He never forgot the fear in her eyes when she realised she was bleeding. That Haymitch had cut her. He didn't expect to see her no more. But he did. And the next time he sees her that terrified, she's picking a paper slip out of a glass bowl and praying for it to have his name on it.
Pink and made of silk is the dress she's wearing when she pick up the name's out of the glass bowls at the reaping and they read Primrose Everdeen and Peeta Mellark.
Lavender is the dress she wears at the Victor party for Katniss and Peeta at the President's mansion, when they meet Plutarch for the first time and Peeta joke about Seneca and Katniss get to see Plutarch's Mockingjay clock.
Orange and made of tiny butterflies is the dress she wears when she reads his and Katniss' names and suddenly he knows, for sure, that he is not going back into the games and so does she because she is kissing him afterwards and thanking him as if it was he who sent Peeta in his stead. He's never loved and hated her more.
Red and green like a christmas tree is the extravagant dress she's dressed in for the train ride to the capital and when she is crying and telling him and Peeta that she's going to give them something gold as a symbol, to show they're a team.
It is also the dress she wears, when she says goodbye to Katniss and Peeta the last time before the games and once again she's pressed up against him and kissing him and just letting everything go to instead enjoy something positive and good and by now Haymitch is sure that he loves her.
Grey overall is what she's wearing when he meet her again in District 13. She is tiny and covered scars on both the outside and the inside but she doesn't, not even for a second, let it keep her apart from him and he find himself returning the embrace, holding her steady to make her feel as safe as he possibly can. Because he love her.
That gray overall stay on for quite a while, and she slowly start to fill it out more as the scars slowly disappear from her cream coloured skin. Then…
Then she's wearing an ice blue dress with small crystals as details, attached both in her hair and on her eyelashes. They're kissing and saying good bye and Katniss and Peeta is looking at the them like they're not even surprised and they know, that two months later she'll be standing at his doorstep with her bags containing all her the things she own that she cares about in her hands.
She's wearing a lemon coloured sundress when she is standing at his doorstep with her bags and all her belonging and two months later and she look like a little Canary when she beg for him to let her stay, because, she admit, she loves him, and of course she is staying because he loves her too!
His white shirt and a pair of dark blue jeans is the clothes she's dressed in on the day when she tells him that she is expecting a baby. It wasn't expected or planned, not when they were both so old and scarred by everything they'd been through, but it wasn't any less of a happy occasion anyway. Because now, Haymitch knew, their new, free lives had truly began.
Cherry red and very practical is the dress she's wearing to the babyshower. It's huge, covering her even bigger stomach as they welcome all old friends who's still alive and able to come. Wiress and Beetee come there with Johanna and Annie and little Finnick and all of them are smiling so very brightly because they know, too, that at very last even Haymitch has gotten the life he always deserved. They all have. That they're real victors now. But not just them. A few hours later, Lyme and Brutus and Enobaria appear, just when Haymitch was starting to think they were not going to, and they're carrying gifts and being a lot more bashful and apprehensive than the others, but still very happy to be there.
Moss green sweater and black skirt is what she's wearing when they're at the Doctor's office and find out there's a reason Effie is now so very huge (though Haymitch never dare to bring it up, less he wanted to be slapped in the face): Effie is having twins. The surprise is so big and unexpected they just sit there and look at the Doctor, not quite understanding what he's saying, thinking they must have heard wrong. But the Doctor confirm it, again. They're having two kids, two small girls. Haymitch bet they'll be as beautiful as their mother.
White hospital gown is what she's wearing the first time she hold her daughters. Haymitch was right, they were as beautiful as their mother, who, even though she was sweaty and messy and dressed in an ugly hospital gown is looking beautiful than ever. She only hold the, for a moment, though, before handing them to Haymitch. He doesn't normal cry, he really don't, but that day he did. He did cry, because he have a wife and two daughters and there is no one waiting to take them away from him anytime soon.
Green skirt and rusty brown top is what she's dressed in when everyone come to see Trinity and Maysilee Trinket - Abernathy for the first time, complimenting their looks and names and congratulating the new parents, as well as the soon to be parents Katniss and Peeta (Haymitch figured that when they saw that even HE, of all people, could do it, they finally overcame their own fears and they decided to give it a try). But even though everything is going so great in Haymitch life, when he look at the small girls in the basket, he realise there is still something he need to do before his life is to be complete…
The same lemon yellow sundress that she wore the day she showed up at Haymitch's door two months after the rebellion, is the dress she's wearing the day Haymitch ask her to marry him. There's hole five seconds of silence before the answer come, and for a moment Haymitch fear that she is going to turn him down. That he had somehow managed to ruin everything they built up over the years. But when the five seconds pass, she said yes. She said yes, yes, yes, yes and then he slipped the ring on her finger and kissed her, before pushing her down on the ground to do more than just kiss (that's how they end up having their third child, their son, and when it's time for the wedding she is already showing).
Long and flowing and coloured in a pristine white with so much silver glitter is the dress she wears for their wedding, and even though it's not very flattering, because she's already showing that she's got a bun in the oven, it still made her look like a regal princess in Haymitch's eyes. Though he knew, that even she was covered in mud from head to toe, she'd never be anything else in his eyes.
But suddenly, as he's standing and watching his beautiful bride, everything suddenly seems very very real and for a moment, he have to pause. He have to pause in order to realise that he's marrying the women he spent probably a decade or more hating. That they have two daughter's that Wiress' currently holding (how could that women be so good with children?). And top it off, she's expecting a third! From the perspective of his old self, this life seemed too perfect to be true and somewhere in the back of his mind he still thought he'd wake up any moment and it'd all turn out to be another drunk dream. Except he wouldn't, because his life was finally perfect.
And so, the idyllic life none of them had ever dreamed of catching continued on its course, with more cloths and more memories.
Thick grey sweater and she's sitting on the couch with all of their three children. Squinting at a story book through a pair of reading glasses with red frames, she told the story for the two small girls on each side of her and the even smaller boy in her lap.
Blue and pink silk dresses beneath grey coats and he's sending off his two oldest to school for the first time, holding his son's tiny, soft fist in his own big and calloused hand as he watch them walk out of the victor's village, heading towards the rising sun at the horizon. When they were gone, he looked down at his third child. They had, after two weeks of fighting, finally decided to name the boy Beete, which had made the original Beete so happy he almost cried, which in itself had promoted his wife to laugh until she was almost crying, too (Haymitch realised he really, really, really needed some new, sane friends). Haymitch figured that soft old nerd was taken by surprise, seeing as they had barely talked at all before the rebellion, and they never really been very close, so to say. They never told him how much they'd fought over the name, and how his name in the end had been the most neutral and similarly liked name there was to be found.
Mint green nightgown and he is watching Effie slowly rising from bed on a Sunday morning. Before she can come much further than to the mirror, where she brush through her hair every morning before getting dressed, Haymitch see his chance and attack her from behind. Slowly approaching, his arms quickly close around her waist and he's about to kiss her when her screaming reach his ears. As if her waist suddenly was on fire, Haymitch immediately and quickly let go. The rebellion was far behind them, but there was still many scars left. Haymitch never tried to surprise her again, and she didn't ask him to.
Tight, bright pink dress and they're running across the yard to Katniss and Peeta's house. Effie was effectively pushing Maysi and Trinity along while Haymitch carried Beete, since the boy couldn't run fast enough and they were already late (of all the things there was to hate about life, Effie almost hated being late the most).
Flower print dress and Katniss is greeting them at the door, knowing Effie good enough not to mention they're late and also showing off her newborn daughter to them as they enter. They had been chosen as godparents weeks earlier but this was the first they'd actually seen the baby. However, before they could look at the tiny little toast baby (Joanna's nickname for the Everdeen-Mellark children) more, they had to let loose their own little goose on the floor to play. Once that deed was done, however, all attention was back at the baby. Both of them was curious to know what the newborn would be named.
When they asked, Katniss looked at them with amusement, before responding that they were naming her 'Effie', after the best women they've ever known. Being quite shocke himself, Haymitch quietly watched as Effie's emotions became visible on her lovely, cream coloured had always been like an open book, and now was no different. He could see in her face how shocked and surprised she was, but that also that she was flattered and happy. When she had first met Katniss and Peeta all those years ago, she surely never imagined a moment like this would ever come to pass,. Yet it did.
The new Panem was wonderful place to live in, allowing them to have wonderful lives they always dreamed of. But it didn't mean bad things did not happen…
Because Haymitch couldn't change who he was, and there was still nights when he was ready give up. When not even Effie's calming presence could chase away his nightmares and the only refugee there was for him was the one offered by alcohol. Those was the days when there was no peace in their fragile world of their and things were falling apart just like they used to when they were young and his house was just an empty grave for everything for everything that could have been, not a light and well kept home with children playing in the garden…
His big black t-shirt and a pair of shorts he doesn't recognise is the only thing she's wearing when he gets home, yet she's standing there, in the drr way, exposed to the cold air on this Autumn night. He want to ask her what she's doing there in the doorway, that she's to catch a cold if she stays outside, but he know it's no point. he know his breath is smelling of cheap alcohol and that he's stumbling as he walk forward. He know he let her down, once again, because sometimes it seems like there is nothing else that he could do. Sometimes it seemed like he wasn't deserving of this fairytale princes.
sometimes were now. Sometimes were the moments soon to follow, when she'd be screaming and crying and asking why he'd have to do this and he'd be too drunk to feel any compassion and scream right back at her, mean and intimidating. Then, he knew, she'd be backing into a corner, overtaken by flashbacks from times none of them wanted to remember, and he would be regretting, crawling up beside her and hug her tight until she'd return to him from the horrible place in her head to which he'd sent her off to.
He hated when it got like this. He never said it, but he always knew, that it was his fault. That he was the one at fault,his drinking causing him to be a bad father and husband. Therefore, to make up for everything, after every time they had a moment like this, he'd try to do so much better. For hours, weeks and months, he'd try to be extra good as a father and husband and friend and he'd try to prove that it was worth it for people to stay.
But most of all he wanted Effie to stay. Because all the way from that first ocean blue dress, to the shorts and t-shirt she always wears when she's waiting for him to come home after a day of drinking, he had always loved her and he had always remembered her. The colours of her dresses stuck in his memory and the feeling of his fingers running through her hair never left his hands through out all of those years. She was a perfection he could never deserve, that much he knew, but it didn't stop him from trying. Throughout the years, with all the dresses that she used once or many times, wore out and changed, he tried . From the moment he discovered that there was more friendship between them, to the moment they died, he tried. Because he loved her.