Prompt #2: Welcome to District 12, Effie Trinket.
AN: Not sure if I want to continue this one or not. It works fine as a one shot, but part of me wants more of a solid solution.
"I don't want to go." He pouted, arms crossed, throwing himself down on the musty chair in his family's kitchen.
His father sighed, "I know, son. But I promised an old friend I'd help him out. It won't take long. I just need to be there for him. I know your old enough to understand how difficult things are right now."
The boy's eyebrows scrunched up, "I don't want to go."
His father sighed.
Her screams filled the air.
"I told you I didn't want to go." The boy said to his father through gritted teeth.
"Go sit down, boy." His father replied
His father disappeared into the room where a lady lay covered in sheets. They were stained red, covered with blood. She was no longer moving, hair still stuck at odd angles, plastered to her pale and sweaty face.
He watched at his father and the man, who seemed to be the lady's husband, talked. Their dark figures tense, standing like they were afraid speaking would raise the dead or worse. His father glanced up, eyes full of sorrow and remorse.
"Why don't you talk to her, son? Let her know she's not alone. I'll be out soon."
A quick glance at the screaming thing and he shut the door the rest of the way, disappearing from view.
He glanced down at the screaming thing. She was so pink and... ugly.
"You know, you should stop screaming. Y'got nothin' to cry about."
She didn't listen.
"Pop says to respect your elders, kid... and... don't cry over nothin' that isn't worth cryin' about."
She sniffled, but continued to cry.
"You don't understand me, do you?"
The kid gave another wail.
The boy covered his ears. How could something so little be so annoying? So loud?
"Look lady, you got a lotta nerve-"
The baby stopped crying. She stared up at him, big blue eyes gaping and gave a big giggle.
He frowned. She giggled more.
He stuck of her tongue. She erupted in laughter.
He stuck his hand out and his breath hitched at her tiny fingers grasped his thumb. Her hand was so tiny next to his own. She looked at him, a small rattle in her other hand. And with as much force as someone her age could muster, drew her arm back and launched her rattle at his nose.
It bounced off with a satisfactory clunk. His hand flew up to his face, small tears gathering at the corner of his eyes. She giggled again, sticking her tongue out.
He rubbed his nose, glaring at her.
"That hurt." He spat at her.
She smiled in return.
"Dumb demon baby." He crossed his arms, sinking further into the green, battered chair in the unfamiliar house.
His head snapped up as he heard the voices of his father and the other man getting closer to the closed door.
He watched as they came out of the room with the lady, the other man's eyes red and blotchy. His father had his head down and he approached the baby in the high chair, picking her up and placing her on his son's lap, he bent down to their level.
"I hope you kept her company, son." He smiled. It was a half-smile, like he was too tired to smile all the way.
"I did. And she's stubborn."
His fathered just laughed good-heartedly, something the boy hadn't heard in a long time, "Just like you then."
He glanced down at the baby in the boy's lap, watching as her eyelids got heavier and heavier. It would be better this way, if she were sleeping when they came.
"You're going to see something today that I wanted to shield you from."
The boy kicked his legs in boredom, only half-listening to his father as the baby in his lap drifted to sleep.
"Haymitch, look at me, son."
The boy looked up at his father, scared of what he saw there. In his father's eyes was a desperation and anger he had never seen before.
He gulped.
"Now son, the peacekeepers are going to be here very soon. The man I came to see today, he did some very un-Capitol things. He said stuff they didn't like. They want to give him... a punishment of sorts, like a time out. Do you understand?"
Haymitch nodded.
"They don't have too many Capitol births this year. They are short of supplies to even help the mommies make babies. They decided this was a good solution. When those peacekeepers come, they're going to knock on the door, looking for their prisoner."
"It's not you. Is it, Pop?"
"No son, it's not me." He looked down at the sleeping baby, her blonde curls sticking up at funny angles.
There was a knock at the door.
His father got up to answer.
The other man looked at Haymitch and gave a watery smile, "Barely into this world and she's already leaving me. In a way much worse than her mother. Tell me, boy, how did you stop her crying? She's been at it since her mother passed."
Haymitch shrugged, finally daring to ask the question that had been on his mind the last few hours, "What happened to her mother?"
The man stopped his fidgeting. He looked down,trying not to cry again, "You see, boy, sometimes, no matter how hard we try, the people we love are taken away from us. I was suppose to have a beautiful family. Another beautiful baby on the way, this wonderful blonde girl right here, a loving wife. They took it away. I said too much and they took it all away. They wanted a baby and after last night, I only have the one. My beautiful little girl in your arms right there. They want a baby and a baby they'll get."
Haymitch frowned, "Why did they want your new baby? Pop said they don't have enough, but why do they want yours?"
"It's a better time out that way. Take her away from me, name her so she fits in, what ridiculous names they have, groom her to be just like them. It's a much better time out this way."
"What's her name? The one they gave her?"
The man barely choked out a response before he began crying again and excused himself, retreating to the room with the lady.
In the silence, Haymitch looked down at the sleeping baby in his arms. He thought of her giggles, and her stubborn and aggressive nature. He thought of how proud she had been to have pinged him in the head with her rattle.
Maybe he was wrong. Maybe she wasn't a pink screaming demon after all.
She was just a baby with no Ma, no brother or sister, and soon... no Pop. He nodded, deciding she was alright (in fact, when he admitted it to himself, the little demon was actually kinda cute) and that he'd probably cry too if it was his family that left him. He would never want to go through what this little baby was going through.
He had never been the to Capitol but they sounded like meanies. He decided there'd only be one reason to go there... to bring this pink thing back home to her Pop.
Haymitch looked down at the little girl as she gave a ferocious yawn and he decided she just had to come back home one day.
"Welcome to District 12, Effie Trinket. This won't be your last time here. I'll make sure of it. I'll bring you back home one day. I promise you."
He gave a soft kiss to her blonde curls as his father returned with the Peacekeepers.
He watched her go that day, vowing to bring her back from the meanies, to bring her home.