"You killed my pet!"
Haymitch was having a mild panic as Lily continued to look at him like he had broken her heart. She was beginning to tear up, her breath steadily quickening. There was something about her silent whimpering that crushed his chest. A loud tantrum he could handle but not this. Her face was too sorrowful to be owned by a child.
Lily Mellark looked like someone she loved had died. Well, someone - something - did.
"Pet?" Haymitch said, exasperated. "That was not a pet, sweetheart. That was a rat, a huge rat."
Her bottom lip wobbling, her eyes looking at him with resentment he hadn't seen before. He didn't expect any less; he shouldn't have thrown a knife at the damn thing in front of Lily. The child was probably traumatized but Haymitch, in his defense, only acted by instinct. He saw a huge rat a size of a kitten in his living room, he killed it. It was valid.
"And we people, we kill them rats. You wanna know why, 'cause their pests."
"You killed George!"
"Oh fantastic, you named the damn rat. It was a miracle that thing hadn't bitten you."
That was when the tears started to fall. "I loved him!"
"That's such an overused statement." Then an image flashed through his mind, ten years from now Lily saying the exact same thing when Haymitch rejects the boy she loves. "Let's pray that never happens," He mumbled to himself.
"The old man at the Hob gave it to me this morning. He said it could be a pet!"
He sighed, "Okay maybe some could become a pet but come on Lily. A rat? Not a dog or a cat, a rat?"
Lily only responded by crying harder, now resorting to hugging the pillow in his couch tightly.
And just when Haymitch thought it would never end, an idea popped into his head that made him smirk.
ooo
"Mama, mama!"
Lily's enthusiastic voice burst into the Mellark house.
"What is it, Lily?" Katniss and Peeta went out the door to welcome their child in. They stopped in their tracks when they saw what she was holding.
"I got a new pet!" Lily beamed at them, one could compare her to a child who just got a birthday present.
"What is that?" Peeta asked, hesitantly.
"Haymitch gave it to me! It's my new pet, a baby goose!"
Katniss, by reflex, glared at Haymitch across the street sitting at his front porch.
On his face was a mischievous smirk Katniss would really love to wipe off.
AN: I am on a roll, aren't I? But school is nearing and soon there won't be time to update. I hope you loved this one. I sure did, it's one of my more enjoyable ones - I think. Thanks for the support guys!
Let me know what you think! ;)