Chapter 2 :

Effie took a look at the two tributes staring at each other warily in the living-room car and tried very hard to quench the uneasiness that had been slowly creeping up on her ever since she had drawn their names.

The girl was named Stella, she was fourteen, and the boy was named Sage and he was sixteen. They were both dark-haired with grey eyes and could have passed for brother and sister. The tears hadn't dried on the girl's cheeks yet.

"Where is your brother, Mr Abernathy?" she asked Hayden who was studying the tributes in silence. "Shouldn't he be here?"

"Call me Hayden or it will get confusing very quickly." the victor said, barely sparing her a glance. "And never mind Haymitch. I handle the mentoring."

"This isn't right." she frowned. "If two victors are available then they are supposed to mentor a tribute each."

The children were looking at her and at Hayden in turn, waiting for them to come to an agreement with such passivity she wanted to shake them. Where was the excitement? The thirst for glory?

"This is how we work in Twelve." Hayden replied more firmly. "If you expect Haymitch to lift a finger to help, you will be disappointed. The only thing he's willing to lift during Games time is a glass of whiskey."

She blinked. Haymitch did have something of a bad boy reputation – but a nice bad boy reputation, the kind that was endearing – yet the portrait Hayden was depicting was so far from his public image that she put it on a spite between them rather than on an actual laziness on the eldest's part.

"Even so. This isn't right." Effie argued. "He should at least introduce himself to the tributes."

Hayden looked at her with tangible irritation but it was quickly suppressed by a shrug. "He's in the bar car probably. See for yourself but then I need to talk to you about this year's stylists."

She nodded once and then headed out, relieved to leave the gloomy children behind.

"So…" she heard Hayden say when she was closing the door. "Do you want to be mentored together or separately?"

She wasn't completely familiar with the train yet, it took her a few minutes to locate the bar car. Haymitch was there, indeed, perched on a stool, a bottle of whiskey in front of him and a half-full glass in his hand.

"Here comes the wicked witch." he chuckled in his drink when he saw her coming in. "What's your poison, Princess?"

Her eyes glided over the Avox tending the bar. "I don't drink when I'm working."

She didn't even try to hide the reproach in her voice. It merely made him smirk harder.

"Fun one, aren't you?" He shrugged. "Suit yourself, we need to talk business anyway." He pushed the closest stool to him with his foot. "Sit." Then he looked at the Avox, his tone softening. "Go take a walk, please."

She wondered what it meant about him that he would bark orders at her but be polite with a criminal.

She waited until the Avox had left before sitting on the offered stool not without much difficulties. Her dress wasn't made for that kind of exercise and when she looked up, after checking it wasn't riding too high on her thighs, it was too find him staring without any shame at her cleavage.

"Mr Abernathy." she began, intending to make a nice speech about how they had obviously started on the wrong foot and needed to take a fresh start.

"Haymitch." he cut her off.

"Haymitch." She relaxed a little, perhaps it wouldn't be so difficult after all. "I do not think you should leave all the work to your brother. We will need all the help we can get if we want to win this year. So if you would walk back to the living-room car with me to meet our tributes I would be very grateful."

He blinked at her and snorted in obvious amusement, sipping from his glass slowly. "You're funny, Ellie."

"Effie." she corrected, through clenched teeth.

"Whatever, sweetheart." he smirked.

"You are very rude." she observed.

"Sorry." he shrugged but he so obviously didn't mean it that it only annoyed her further.

"Are you drunk?" she asked, studying the bottle dubiously. It was still quite full but who knew how much he had to drink before the Reaping or how much it would take to inebriate him?

"Unfortunately not yet." he sighed. "There's a fine line between drunk and wasted. I'm usually tap dancing on it. Your job is to keep me on the right side of it."

"My job is to see to the tributes and help you with sponsors and general organization." she objected.

"That's part of it, yeah." he agreed. He turned the glass in his hand once, making the whiskey twirl. When he spoke next, he kept his eyes on the liquor. "We need to talk about the special appointments."

"What special appointments?" she frowned, mentally checking the crash course she had been given on public relations and Livia's patient explanations about the job. She was fairly certain there had been no mention of special anything.

"Don't play the prude." he snapped. "I'm not going to dance around the subject to help your guilty conscience." His eyes darted up quickly and back at her, something that almost looked like fright flashing on his face. He placed the glass down and pushed it away from him. "I didn't mean..." He licked his lips nervously and grabbed the glass back but he didn't drink, he simply fumbled with it as if he needed something to keep busy. "Sweetheart, President Snow and I have a deal and I need to make sure he keeps his end of the bargain so you have to tell me if anyone orders a special appointment with Hayden. I will make it worth it to you. Money, sex, whatever you want. I will pay the price."

She stared at him, completely confused. "You are not making any sense at all. Are you sure you aren't drunk?"

The way he looked at her then sent chills down her spine. There was surprise and pity in his grey eyes. "You don't even know what I'm talking about… This job is going to break you."

He snorted as if it was a good joke and she was suddenly very ill-at-ease, too conscious she was alone with a man who was obviously not totally sober – if not totally insane. "I should go check on the children."

She climbed off the stool but he was quicker than her. He stood up and she found herself trapped between the bar, the stool and his body. With the heels, they were almost nose to nose but he was still bigger than her and she was careful not to make eye contact, waiting for him to step aside. When he raised his hand, she flinched. She didn't know what she was expecting… No one from the Districts would dare assault a Capitol so it was clear he would never use violence but she couldn't quite shake Livia's voice out of her head : Don't be fooled. He isn't quite as nice behind closed doors.

His fingers brushed her jaw and his thumb rested on her chin. When he nudged her head slightly to make her look at him, it was gentle, but there was something threatening about it nonetheless.

"You don't tell Hayden about the appointments. Let him think I'm a pig, you get it?" he requested.

The smell of whiskey was heavy on his breath and she winced in disgust. "Somehow, I don't imagine it will be really difficult."

He chuckled but there was no amusement behind it. "And you tell me if anyone asks for a special appointment with Hayden. If anyone gives you a grey envelope for him, you give it to me. Never let him know about that. That's our secret, sweetheart."

The prospect of having secrets with this man wasn't an endearing one yet she nodded once, desperate to get away from there.

She would ask Livia about those special appointments he was talking about.

"Good. Now for your payment…" He smiled at her. It was the familiar smile she was used to seeing on TV. The charming one. "What do you want? Money or…"

His hand left her chin, ran all the way down her neck and stopped at her shoulder. When his fingers retraced her collarbone she flushed a bright red and whacked his hand away.

"You are a pervert." she decided. "Step aside, please."

He laughed but did as she bade. She hurried to the door, fearing he would change his mind.

"You know where to find me when you figure it out." he shouted after her. "Don't tell Hayden."

Don't tell Hayden.

She should do just that, she fumed silently. And then she should tell the Head Gamemaker and make sure he would be banned from further Games. His behavior was inappropriate.

And what was he going on about with his deal with President Snow? She highly doubted President Snow had nothing better to do than make deals with victors as popular and charming as they could sometimes be.

Hayden grinned at her with an 'I told you so' look when she walked back in the living-room car, flustered and agitated. She suggested they all move on to the dinner car.

Haymitch didn't show up at dinner nor did he make an appearance afterwards when they were watching the Reapings recap. The tributes didn't linger more than necessary.

Effie was absolutely confused by their attitude. You would think they were desperate at having been Reaped instead of being enthusiastic at the unique opportunity.

"Why do they look so gloom?" she asked Hayden once they were alone. She was puzzled by it all. She had expected her first day as an escort to be a big, big, big day but it was all anticlimactic. Twelve was bleak, her victors were far from what she had seen on TV and the tributes acted as if they had never seen a plate full of food before. The way they had jumped on their meal had almost made her sick. She vowed to squeeze proper behavior lessons somewhere in the schedule.

"Because they're going to die?" Hayden offered without the slightest trace of amusement. The ironic expression quickly left his face though. He stood up and walked to the liquor cart in the corner, leaving Effie to gape at him.

"You cannot think like that!" she protested at last. "A positive attitude…"

"Effie, you look like a good person but you are very new to this so believe me when I say I am sorry but you need to toughen up…" he interrupted her. "Is there a chance they will win? Yes. With a lot of luck and if we manage to get sponsors but realistically? The odds are never in our favor. We're the poorest District, our kids are always starved and small. When they come from the Seam like those two, the dice is already cast. They know it, I know it and you need to know it too so we can all merrily pretend it's not the case."

She shook her head. "That is a very depressing way to look at the situation. You and your brother won."

"Haymitch won." Hayden shrugged, handing her a glass of whiskey. "I was lucky."

"That is patently untrue." she argued. "I happened to remember it very well. You were very clever."

She politely took a sip of the liquor she was handed but quickly placed it on the coffee table. She had no taste for whiskey.

Hayden didn't seem to notice, he walked to the window and leaned against the pane to watch the landscape rushing past.

"I hid." he recalled. "I never even killed anyone. I hid until it was over."

Hayden wasn't a particularly popular victor, she realized, because he had never made for a good show. That much was true. He had hidden in a cave for days, barely stepping out to check his snares and collect more water. She remembered a lot of people had asked at the time why the Gamemakers didn't do something to coax him out of his hiding place when they were so vicious with the other tributes.

"You won. Isn't that the important thing?" she frowned. "You were very smart in your hiding if I recall correctly."

His lips stretched into a smile. "I did what my brother said."

"And what was it?" she asked, doubting any pearl of wisdom could ever come out of Haymitch Abernathy's mouth.

"Stay alive." he snorted, taking a sip of his glass and cringing immediately after. "This thing is horrible. I don't know how he can stand it."

He placed the glass back on the liquor cart and flopped on one of the chairs again. His messy brown hair fell in his eyes and she had to suppress the urge to brush them away.

"You look up to him a lot." she ventured carefully.

"I used to." he shrugged. "He was a good guy before. The arena changed him. Now all he thinks about are girls and booze. Just wait until you meet Chaff…" He rolled his eyes. "He got Haymitch into the bottle, you know. Mom hates him."

Chaff. Eleven's victor, won the forty-fifth Hunger Games if she remembered right, and was such a fixed figure of the Games that he went on mentoring even though there were younger victors to take his place. He was a regular face on Capitol TV.

"I like you better than our last escort." Hayden offered suddenly with a genuine smile. "I hope you won't let my brother scare you off, Effie. I think we could work well together."

She smiled back, pleased to hear that. "I don't plan on going anywhere for the foreseeable future."

And she certainly didn't plan on letting Haymitch Abernathy scare her away.

Just a quick precision : a lot of you asked about Haymitch's girl. I didn't forget about her, you will learn about her eventually ;)

I'm thrilled with the reply this story got! I hope you liked this chapter! Please drop me a line to tell me your thoughts! I'm very invested in this story ^^