Author's Note: This is my first go at writing Hayffie but after watching the movie I couldn't help but ship them, even if I hadn't thought about it very much during the books. I hope you like this! ~ KennyEchelon
Haymitch stood in the bar carriage, swirling his bottle of liquor as he became more and more intoxicated by the minute. Muttering something about how he never wanted a mentoring job, how much he hated children and how he was going to be responsible for the deaths of two more this year, he knocked back the remainder of his glass.
At least they were promising this year, but promising didn't mean they'd survive. Even though they had more potential than the last 24 years' tributes it didn't mean they stood a chance against the other districts, especially the Careers.
He could never get used to sending kids off to their deaths.
Haymitch would drink as much as it took to make him forget the lost lives he was responsible for and as the years went by and the total went up, he compensated by increasing the amount of alcohol he consumed. Twenty four years had been a long time and failing to keep over forty people alive wasn't something he could forget easily.
He'd managed to scare the Avoxes into always making sure there was a steady supply of brandy, whiskey and vodka in the carriage, regardless of how much he drank. The withdrawal symptoms weren't pretty and they didn't really want to deal with the knife Haymitch carried around at all time.
The red-headed Avox girl brought in another pitcher of liquor, acting warily of the drunken man in front of her. It was her job to tend to him and the tributes but no matter how long she was forced to work for the Capitol, it wouldn't be enough to learn how to deal with Haymitch's particular brand of drunkenness.
He was already at the state of inebriation where the edges of his vision were growing fuzzy and fading to black. He was almost at the limit of becoming blind drunk and he proceeded to down the rest of the bottle before stumbling out into the corridor.
He held onto the walls for dear life, trying to keep himself upright after the alcohol had rendered his legs near enough useless. It had taken a considerable amount of drink to get him into this state due to his body's resistance to the stuff after years of intoxication. He vaguely thought about returning to his room to use the wall as target practice for his knife before catching sight of what looked like District 5 passing by. The motion outside the train made Haymitch's head spin and he had to face the inside of the carriage to force down the wave of nausea before carrying on walking.
"Jesus fucking Christ" he hissed to himself.
The compartment door next to him slid open and out popped Effie indignantly. "Manners, Haymitch. I do not want to hear that sort of language, especially in front of the children."
She wagged a purple polished finger in his face and his eyes went in and out of focus following it. "Those kids have already heard enough goddamn language without me helping. They're just too good to start using it" he slurred, pushing his hair back off his face. Effie drew herself up importantly and began to protest against her colleague's foul mouth before it crashed against her own in a drunken kiss tasting of strong liquor.
She struggled, not accustomed to being forced upon.
Eventually Effie managed to put her hands in front of Haymitch's shoulders and push him away from her and he staggered backwards. "Always wanted to do that" he smirked, wiping traces of lilac lipstick away from his face. Effie blushed which went unnoticed because it was concealed by a layer of make-up. "Well ask next time. A gentleman always asks a lady."
"I ain't no gentleman and I see no lady" Haymitch teased and watched Effie fumble for her pocket mirror before inspecting her own appearance.
"That wasn't very polite" she reprimanded "And this lipstick was designer!"