Effie took them all ice-skating their fourth day in the Capitol. Haymitch tagged along with the group, relieved that he had gotten her to promise that she wouldn't drag him onto the ice, that he could sit in a nearby café and have a hot drink or watch them from outside. Effie had been agreeable because he had attended every other event she had planned. He would never admit it but he was having a good time in the Capitol. Maybe it wasn't all bad.

"Haymitch, I would like to introduce by good friends Juliana and Drusilla. We've all known each other since we were children." Effie said. Today she was wearing a white dress which still seemed incredibly bright to him. He wondered how someone could be that blinding in a 'neutral' colour. She had told him that she was inviting some of her Capitol friends along. His horror at the suggested had not surprised her but neither had it persuaded her to disinvite them. Katniss, Annie, and Peeta were already skating, and Annie's son was sleeping in his pushchair.

Juliana had a similar look about her to the one Effie did now, clearly of the Capitol, still too overdressed to be from anywhere else, but far more natural than before the rebellion. Like Effie she wore natural make-up and she her own hair rather than a wig, chestnut brown, and she smiled warmly at him and shook his hand. She had kind hazel eyes. Before the rebellion she likely would have worn contacts, blue, green, and a number of unnatural colours were fashionable in the Capitol but now shade of brown had ever been desirable, although Haymitch got the sense that she had never dressed as theatrically as everyone else in the Capitol, she didn't seem the kind who wanted to draw attention to herself. He immediately liked her. Looking at Drusilla it would have been easy for Haymitch to think he had time travelled, she looked exactly as ridiculous as anyone from the Capitol ever had, dark blue wig, lips and eyes a matching colour. He recognised her as another escort.

"Yes, I was an escort." Drusilla announced proudly as if reading his mind. He noticed the look passing between Effie and Juliana when she said it. "A far higher regarded District than little Effie though, I hope she won't mind me saying." With that she was marching off.

"Well some of us decided not to sleep our way up to District 2." Effie muttered under her breath as Juliana laughed, shaking her head.

"You'd think the rebellion would have taught her to be a little less proud. She escorted vicious killers who delighted in the games, Effie escorted the face of the rebellion and numerous children who were unprepared and killed for sport and she still looks down on her." Juliana said to him, shaking her head, and he actually smiled as she tried to involve him in the conversation.

"Haymitch, Juliana can't skate, I was rather hoping you'd keep her company." Effie said brightly. She had cunningly waited until the last minute to ask because she knew that even he wasn't rude enough to refuse with Juliana right in front of him. He nodded in agreement and she clasped her hands together. "Wonderful! Have a lovely time you two!" She kissed them both on the cheek before she left.

"You don't have to stay with me, I've heard enough about you from her over the years to have realised that you don't like company all that much."

"No, I don't mind at all, I'd love to hear stories about Effie when she was younger that I can torture her with later." Juliana laughed and took a seat at the table he had found himself and he sat down opposite her. "So Effie used to complain about me a lot?" She laughed again and Haymitch was glad that Effie had at least one friend with a decent sense of humour. He didn't see Drusilla as the type to laugh at anything much at all.

"Every year after the games ended I had dinner with her during which she vented for several hours about exactly what you'd done that year. I liked to tease her and say I thought she had a thing for you because it wouldn't bother her so much if she didn't and then she'd rant for another hour or so about how ridiculous that was. It was one of the best parts of my year. I think it helped her cope with the games as a whole, not just to cope with you. I never actually expected to be proved right about her crush on you though…" She trailed off as Effie pirouetted past them on the ice. "She's always been such a show off. I used to be able to do that…"

"And you can't anymore?" Haymitch asked, curious but not wanting to ask her what might have seemed a very invasive question outright. Effie was a good influence on him. Juliana grinned and bent at the waist, disappearing under the table for a moment.

"Think fast." she said as she came up and threw something at him that landed neatly in his lap. He jolted sharply when he realised that he was holding a foot – a prosthetic of course, but no less shocking. Juliana grinned. "The best part of having that thing is throwing it at people, the looks they give you. I don't think it'll ever stop being funny. There was a bad snowstorm one year, it was like one minute there was nothing and the next six feet of snow was trapping you inside. I got snowed into my freezing cold basement when I went down to find some candles. My foot practically fell off before they could amputate it." Haymitch realised he had been right about her, she wasn't like other people from the Capitol who would convulse in horror if they had to wear an ugly prosthetic, not openly tell the story and rejoice in making other people squirm using it. Haymitch couldn't think of what to say but she was still grinning so he took it as a sign he didn't have to be overly serious.

"Would you like your foot back?" Haymitch asked her with a smirk and she roared with laughter and nodded, wiping tears from under her eyes as she took it back and dived back under the table presumably to affix it back.

"Haymitch!" He heard his name and looked over to the skating rink to see Effie and Annie gliding past arm in arm. "Where is Juliana?" She popped up and Effie made a started sound.

"I was just putting my foot back on. Thought Haymitch would get a kick out of it." She laughed loudly and suddenly. "Kick, right, because it's my prosthetic foot?" Haymitch nodded in appreciation and then pretended not to find it funny when Effie glared at the pair of them. They looked at each other and tried not to snigger.

"Oh for goodness sake, it's bad manners to remove limbs in public, Juliana! I knew you two would get along well." Effie said with a sigh, waving them away before she skated off again.

Haymitch spent a very nice afternoon chatting with Juliana until the others were tired of skating and decided to come and join them both. Effie introduced the others to Juliana who seemed very pleased to meet them all. He assumed they had all familiarised themselves with Drusilla already. An afternoon with a genuinely pleasant person had done nothing to dull the immediate distaste he felt for Effie's other friend. Even Effie herself didn't seem to hold her in particularly high regard. They all decided to go to a nearby restaurant although Haymitch wondered why they were obligated to invite her.

Drusilla managed to get a few digs in over dinner which everyone mostly ignored, but the worst came as they were leaving.

"He's not good enough for you, Effie." Haymitch heard her hiss into Effie's ear. Effie carried on fastening her scarf around her neck and didn't respond. "I mean look at you now, living in District 12 of all places! Come home, away from the cesspit of common people and dirt and I promise I won't mention this little lapse in judgement again." Effie stared very hard at her.

"I'm perfectly happy where I am, thank you for your concern." It was the closest thing to a sneer that he had ever heard Effie say. Unlike all the times he bothered her and she looked irritated at best, he could see the true anger flaring up in her eyes now, and Drusilla shrunk back away from her. Once she was far enough back and definitely not going to speak again Effie gave her a delightful, innocent smile. "It was so lovely to see you, do keep in touch!" She waved enthusiastically and linked her arm with Haymitch's as she guided them both out of the restaurant. She didn't speak on the way home but Haymitch could hear the spiteful woman's voice with every step.

Everyone else went to bed almost immediately after they got in and Effie wandered into the kitchen to catch up with the dishes. Having so many people around generated a lot of mess which Effie didn't like to leave uncleaned. He stood in the doorway and watched her.

"Haymitch, you're loitering, please either pick up a dish cloth and help me or make yourself useful elsewhere." Effie said without even turning around to look at him. He didn't know how she could tell when he was in a room, he thought he was fairly good at sneaking around, especially now he was sober and didn't trip over things all the time. He took a cloth and started drying what she washed up and she smiled at him gratefully. "See? Being helpful isn't so difficult. What did you want anyway, I know you didn't intend on actually helping."

"I heard what she said, Eff."

"I'm well aware of that, you were standing around three feet away, I'd be concerned if you hadn't." Effie said with a small smile as she handed him a plate to dry and started scrubbing out the mugs which had begun to pile up.

"Effie…"

"Haymitch…" she said, mimicking his tone, taking her hands out of the basin and drying them. "I have known Drusilla for nearly my entire life, and I have never once paid a moment of attention to any of her ridiculous opinions, and I don't intend to start tonight. I do love her, and most of the time she is a fairly pleasant individual, not that you'd know it, but I knew what she was going to think of you, she's already said far worse about me living in District 12. I wanted you to meet her and Juliana today, Juliana because she is my closest friend who cares about my happiness and Drusilla because I wanted her to know that I am happy despite her opinions which I will continue to ignore. I was treating today rather like a wedding rehearsal and it is safe to say she will not be getting invited to the actual event."

"But you know she's right. I'm not-"

"Haymitch if you finish that sentence I will pour the basin of water over your head even though it will ruin my floor." Effie said, holding a hand up to halt him, and he had to smile. "Neither of us is too good for the other. We entirely deserve each other after what we went through, especially you, Haymitch, and I never want to hear you saying otherwise. In fact, you will promise me this second that you will never say that you aren't good enough for me, and you will uphold that for the rest of our lives."

"Fine." He was aware that he was starting to fold too easily with her, he needed to start putting up more of a fight sometimes or she might get the (entirely accurate) impression that he was wrapped around her little finger. "I won't every say I'm not good enough for you."

"Thank you. Now, finish the dishes, please, I would like to go to bed." Effie instructed him brightly. He rolled his eyes but didn't argue with her.

"I won't be long." he assured her as she walked towards their room.

"Do them properly, I'll be inspecting them tomorrow morning!" she called back over her shoulder.