Waking Up
morning kisses; gentle and lazy, humming in contentment, limbs still tangled together, hands wandering over soft exposed skin.
Effie opened her eyes a few minutes before the alarm clock started buzzing, her body long used to waking up at the same time every day. She strained her neck a little to get a glimpse of the sky through the window. The sun was barely starting to rise but it seemed like a clear day. They would go running on the path through the woods, she decided, Haymitch liked that better than the treadmills inside the gym. She had never told him it was harder on her knee and it was a secret she would keep.
She enjoyed the next five minutes, savoring the warm bed and the small weight of Haymitch's arm over her hip. She knew he was starting to wake up because he had tightened his hold and his thumb was drawing lazy circles on her stomach over the sheets.
When the clock buzzed, she reached out and switched it off before turning around in his arms. She smiled when she saw his grey eyes, still clouded by sleep, and leaned in to press her lips against his in a sweet kiss.
"Good morning." she whispered against his mouth.
She had worried about morning breath in the beginning but now… It was just part of their routine.
He responded to the kiss without any rush, almost lazy, keeping it soft and unhurried.
"Hi." he smirked eventually, his hand slipping under her nightgown to rest at the small of her back.
They kissed for a while, hands touching all the skin they could reach, until Effie drew back with a small wince. "We will be late."
"Let's be late." he suggested, leaning in again.
"Olympic Champions are never late." she countered. "And we do want to be Olympic Champions, don't we?"
He allowed her to escape his arms with a groan.
come back to bed kisses left on A's neck and shoulder, unhurried and tender, with arms wrapped around A's waist.
Haymitch woke up because of the cold.
He was used to it, truth be told, he had grown up in harsher weather and wasn't afraid of the icy cold that the Aspen mansion's fancy heaters were sometimes powerless to keep at bay. There was a fire roaring in the small fireplace in the corner of Effie's bedroom, keeping the temperature at an acceptable level.
It took him the few seconds necessary to wake up completely to realize it wasn't him who was cold but the bed.
He outstretched a hand, felt around for the warm body that usually slept curled up against his chest, and found nothing but cold sheets.
"Effie?" he called next, his voice rough from sleep, half sitting up.
"Go back to sleep." she whispered.
The lights were off but the fire casted enough of a glow that he finally spotted her standing next to the window. She was wrapped in a woolen shawl and was looking outside without seeming to see anything.
He kicked the blankets off his legs and joined her, automatically wrapping his arms around her. She leaned against his chest.
"I had a nightmare." she confessed, unprompted. "My knee… I couldn't…"
"Just a nightmare, sweetheart." he murmured in her neck, planting soft kisses on her shoulder, on either side of her nightgown's strap.
"You left me." she said flatly. "Like Seneca. You just…"
"Well, that's never going to happen." he snorted. "It was just a nightmare, sweetheart. Come back to bed, you're safe with me."
That was what she always said after he had a nightmare, coupled with some well-honed tricks designed to distract him but they were different people and he didn't think she wanted or needed sex at that moment.
He kept on pressing soft kisses on her neck, brushing her hair aside with his nose, nuzzling her skin only to kiss some more.
He felt her relent when she leaned her whole weight against him. She turned her head and he captured her lips.
"Never leave me." she pleaded.
"Never." he promised with a last peck, gently guiding her back to bed.
