Game Face: Hayffie AU One-Shot

"Hey! Trinket!"

Effie lowers the magazine she's reading and watches the back of the man's head as he smashes buttons on his game controller.

"Yes?"

"You wanna play?"

"Absolutely not." Effie returned to her magazine.

"Aw, come on! It's fun! Look at that!" He gestures toward the screen, where an armor-clad character is shot and falls in an explosion of blood.

"No, Haymitch."

"Why not?"

"Because it is violent, crude, and utterly abhorrent!"

"But it's fun," he says again.

"I said no."

Haymitch whines, loudly and for several seconds. Effie tries to ignore him and read her magazine, but he is relentless.

"Okay, fine, if it will get you to shut up, fine!" Effie goes and sits next to him on the couch. He sits up and hands her a controller.

"Okay, just watch for a second. Press the A button to run and the B button to shoot, like this."

"What are all these other buttons for?" she asks, staring at her controller quizzically.

"Okay this one here? That's for zooming in and out, like that. You move this to point the camera. This one opens your inventory."

Effie sighs, not believing that he's convinced her to do this. "Okay."

"You ready?"

"Wait, what's my objective?"

"To kill your enemy."

"Who is my enemy?"

"Me."

Effie glanced at him, her eyebrows raised. "Good," she says, her lips pursed.

"You'll be eating those words, princess," he responds as he begins the round.

In less than 30 seconds, he shoots her character dead.

"For God's sake, Haymitch, if you're not going to play fair then I won't play."

"Okay, okay, I'm just joking, keep your shirt on," he says. "Metaphorically, of course," he adds, smirking at her.

"Okay! I'm sorry! Jesus!" he cries when she starts smacking him with her controller.

Over the next painfully slow half hour, Haymitch goes easy on Effie while she figures out the controls. Finally, she lands a shot at him.

"Now you got it!" he says, grinning. "And now I'm comin' for ya!"

There ensues many "oh, shoots" and "come ons" on Effie's part and many "fucking hells," and "for shit's sakes" on Haymitch's part as their characters dodge and shoot one another, but it's always Haymitch who lands the final blow.

Effie huffs in determination as he begins a new round. After a couple minutes, Effie says "Is that someone at the door?"

Haymitch instinctively turns and Effie obliterates his character in a rain of gunfire. He turns back to find a mangled body on the ground on his screen. "What!" he cries.

"Did I do it? Yes! Yes! I did it! In your face, Abernathy!"

"You totally cheated!"

"I did not cheat! I was merely using skillful diversion tactics. Which worked. Because I beat you."

"Yeah, once out of about—"

"I beat you, I beat you, I beat you," she sings as she gets up and dances in front of him. He rolls his eyes and starts to get up from the couch. "Oh, don't be a sore loser!" she says. He then surprise tackles her and picks her up, falling back down on the couch with her on top of him.

"How's that for a diversion tactic," he says. Effie continues to grin smugly. "Well. I still beat you."

He laughs and kisses her. "Play again?" he says.

"Absolutely."

They both sit back up, grab their controllers, and ready their game faces. It's going to be a long night.