Chapter 3: Sharing A Bed
Haymitch led the way but it was Effie's hand on his arm that made him slow down and fell back.
"I know you know where the rooms are but it's their house now," she spoke to him quietly, "so let them show it to you."
"I am terribly sorry about this," Mrs. Abernathy apologised to them over her shoulder as they climbed the stairs up to the second floor, "but the children will be home soon. Anyway, here you are. You can spend the night here."
"You can't be fuckin' serious," Haymitch said with a frown. "There's another room. Trinket can stay there."
"That's Aria's room," Mrs. Abernathy informed him.
"You've gotta to learn to share, kids," the future Haymitch told them nonchalantly. "Might as well get used to having a room together. It's gonna be that way for you before long."
Haymitch stared. He couldn't possibly be this annoying at sixty-six years old. He wanted nothing more than to wipe that self-satisfied grin off his older self's face.
"How long exactly?" Haymitch narrowed his eyes. "How long before I marry her?"
"Ah, ah," Mrs. Abernathy clicked her tongue. "Let that be a surprise, and I don't see what the problem is. Perhaps this will help you both have a better understanding of each other."
There was nothing innocent about the smile on her face, Haymitch thought. It was the smile Effie put on when she had to charm sponsors into giving her something she wanted, it was a smile that meant she had something up her sleeves.
"It is highly improper," Effie piped in, giving her opinion on the matter. "Whatever will people say?"
"Nothing," Mr. Abernathy replied. "Cause no one except Beetee and the both of us will know about you. Nobody's gonna say anything."
"I'll take the sofa in the living room," Haymitch grumbled.
"I don't think you quite understand my husband. Your situation is very delicate. There are only a handful of people who know of this trip of yours. If you sleep in the living room, Haymitch, our daughter is going to wonder who you are, and she is a very persistent young woman. She won't stop until she gets an answer and we'd rather she not know. So until we send her off to her Aunt Jo, I'm afraid, you will have to stay in your room."
"So, what you're sayin' is, you're hidin' us away?" Haymitch asked, the dissatisfaction was clear in his voice.
"Yeah, kid, keep out of sight," his future-self scowled. "Any more problems?"
"If you don't mind me asking, who is Jo?" Effie asked out of curiousity. "I don't think I know of anyone by that name."
"Oh, you will meet her soon enough, a very charming young lady. Quite a character," Mrs. Abernathy answered which piqued Haymitch's curiousity. There was something in her voice that clued him in that Jo might not turn out to be Effie's favourite person.
"Aunt Effie? Is my sister here already?"
A hush silence fell on four of them and they exchanged a mortified glance. They had forgotten about Rye in the next room.
"I'm coming, darling! Well, have a pleasant night you two. I shall see you both tomorrow. Try to be nice to each other," Mrs. Abernathy patted both their arms.
The older man looked at them in turn and then he lowered his voice, "Aria's going to be next to you so... try not to be too loud tonight."
"What?" Effie gasped, her eyes widened in alarm. "We - We're not going to be sleeping together tonight, are we? It is not tonight that we - "
"I only see one bed. Anythin' can happen, yeah?" Mr. Abernathy smirked. "Come on, Haymitch, don't tell me you don't think she's a pretty one?"
"You need to mind your own business," Haymitch snapped irritably and pulled the door shut. He made sure to keep it locked, just in case his future-self or his future daughter decided to walk into the room in the middle of the night.
The door was barely closed before there was a knock.
"What?" Haymitch hissed.
"I mean it, when you both argue tonight try not to be too loud," Mr. Abernathy said through the door. "Sorry to put ideas in your head and destroy your expectations, sweetheart."
"I wasn't expecting – Oh, never mind," Effie shook her head when they heard his retreating footsteps. "You are terribly improper."
"Me? Shouldn't you be taking it up to him?"
"You're him and he's you. It's one and the same. We are both very meddlesome people," she complained, "very meddlesome indeed. Who would have thought? But oh, I can see right through the ruse. It is quite obvious, really!"
"What are you on abut now?"
She paused and the colours flushed her cheeks. "I – I just thought that... Don't you feel as if they are trying to ... get us together?"
He raised an eyebrow.
"I don't care what happened to me between now and then, sweetheart, but I don't play matchmaker, not now and not in the future."
"You really should be careful about what you said. Never say never, as they saying goes," Effie told him and in the 74th Games, she would be the one to remind him about what he said on this very day. "Now, what are we going to do?"
He shrugged, dropping into the armchair next to the window.
"I think I shall have a long, warm bath," Effie announced unnecessarily as if he had asked.
The problem came later when he realised that he could see her shadow through the opaque door bathroom door which was facing the armchair he was sitting on. As the water filled the tub, he was her silhouette moving in the bathroom, taking her wig off and slowly peeling off the dress. Gritting his teeth, he shot out of the armchair to the bed, determined to push the images aside but even though he could no longer see her, his mind was still imagining her in the bath with her skin glossy from the soap and the water up to her chest, covering her breasts.
Haymitch was a man and most often than not, when she was standing in front of him nagging about something or the other, he let his mind wander. He tried to picture what she really looked like beneath those puffy dresses and tight skirts, and if her hair was soft and curly under those wigs - he was right in guessing she was blonde, seeing her future-self had answered one of his questions at least - but imagining her in the bathroom was taking it too far, he felt. He blamed future. His emotions and his mind was a jumbled mess.
When she emerged, Effie was wearing a robe, the waistband tied tightly and securely around her waist. Her head was wrapped in a towel and she wasn't bare-faced. The make-up on her face was less severe, no bright eye shadows and unnatural lip colour, but she still powdered her face very heavily.
"You travelled into the future with your make-up bag?" he asked snidely.
"Oh, don't mock me, Haymitch. You hardly gave me the time to prepare myself but my future self - Mrs. Abernathy, I mean - had the foresight to leave some essentials she thought I might need when she set-up this room for us, cosmetics being one of those. Haymitch, really, don't lie on the bed with your shoes on," she glared at him as she picked up the jacket and the vest he discarded on the floor.
Haymitch ignored her, folding his arms across his stomach and staring at the ceiling.
"I need a drink," he announced, lifting his head to see her holding up his jacket. "Is my flask in there?"
"There's nothing in here. You shouldn't - "
She stopped abruptly at the sound of thunderous footsteps in the hallway. She pedalled back to the bed and knelt on it, next to Haymitch.
"Give it back," a girl screamed.
"Catch me," a boy taunted. Rye, he placed a name to the voice.
"Don't run! Mama'll get mad, I swear. Come on…"
"Aria, catch him! Don't let him get – Why'd you let him get away?"
"Dinner," Haymitch heard his own voice thundered across the house. "Get your asses down here. I ain't calling again."
Haymitch heard Effie said something about children running around in the house but he was no longer paying her any attention. This house, his house thirty-five years in the future, was alive with the sound of children running and laughing. Downstairs, he could hear the five of them talking. He could hear Aria's exasperated cry of "Dad! It's not funny," which was followed soon after by Rye's and his future-self's amused laughter. There was a family having dinner in the kitchen and he would one day be a part of it.
He pressed the heel of his palm against his temple. This was too much. It was too much to take in all at once – being married, being married to Effie, having a child and a family.
All he had ever known since he was seventeen was an empty house littered with empty bottles, a house people generally avoided and a Village where only he existed.
"Are you alright, Haymitch?"
He raised his head and made a sweeping glance around his room that was so different than what he remembered it to be.
"This was my brother's room," he said trying to distract himself. "It was his room. I've never came in here since he – since he died. It was only his for two weeks but - " Haymitch rose to his feet and went over to the chest of drawers at the corner of the room. It was the only familiar piece of furniture he recognised. He pulled the top drawer. It was there, exactly as he had left it when he last played it with his brother. "This was his. I bought it for him after I won."
He turned, showing Effie the wooden chess board.
"They changed this room but - "
"They still kept what's important," Effie finished. "What about Aria's room?" She asked softly.
"It was Mama's," he answered, telling Effie more things than he had ever told her in the years that they worked together.
"Why don't you teach me how to play?"
Haymitch's lips quirked upwards. "Maybe next time," he said and flopped back down on the bed, ignoring the affronted look on her face.
If Effie expected him to be a gentleman and sleep on the floor, she would find herself sorely disappointed. He never claimed to be a gentleman.
The bed dipped as she lay next to him, careful to keep a respectable distance between them. In the end, she grabbed the bolster and put it in between to create a barrier.
"Your side, my side," she declared proudly.
"You're acting like a blushing virgin," was all he had to say about her behaviour. "Are you?"
"You've been in the Capitol long enough to know how things are. I'm not," she answered candidly which surprised him since he had expected her to evade answering the question. "But I am not in the habit of sleeping on the same bed with a man I am not in a relationship with."
"Never had a one night stands, sweetheart?" He asked, almost mocking in nature.
"I usually leave when the person I'm with falls asleep. It helps prevent awkward morning after."
Again, the honest answer surprised him.
"Really? I never thought you're one of those," he smirked. "Always thought you're the one who'd want to snuggle and talk."
"Maybe one day, I'll do it with you," she teased and he promptly stopped prying.
XxX
Sleep never came easy for him unlike Effie who was already asleep, her hands pillowed under her head. In her sleep, she looked different to him; younger, at ease and more human, more real.
Instead of spending more time tossing and turning, Haymitch snuck out of the room and then paused in the hallway. The door to Aria's room was slightly open and the bedside lamp was on. He moved quietly and took a peek. The girl was sleeping on her stomach, her mouth opened slightly and even as the floorboard creaked, she slept on.
This is a girl who never had to watch her back, he thought. She grew up protected by her parents, by him.
Not wanting to be caught watching Aria, Haymitch retreated and went to the kitchen. He searched high and low for something to drink before calling it quits and returning back to the room empty handed.
That old man is fucking sober. Not a single bottle in the damn house, he cursed angrily. At least Effie's future-self was nice enough to leave her compact powder and lipsticks while his future-self couldn't even leave a bottle out especially since it seemed that the old man had somehow expected their presence on this very day. What an asshole.
Like Aria, he settled down on the bed, flat on his stomach and eventually fell asleep feeling annoyed before being woken up by one of his recurring nightmares. It was fortunate that his knife didn't make it through the journey with him because the probability of him hurting Effie who was sleeping next to him was rather high.
The bolster she had put between them was on the floor next to the bed, and she was pressed against his side, her arm slung across his mid-section. He carefully angled his hip away from her and flung her hand away from him.
She yelped, sitting upright in surprise.
"What happened?" she asked.
"You were spooning me."
"I did not," she gasped.
Outside, Victor's Village was quiet. The sky was still littered with bright stars. Dawn had not broken yet and the rest of the occupants in the house were still asleep except for them.
"I'm going to get somethin' to eat."
"I'm coming with you," she said in a hurry, not wanting to be left alone. "We have to be really quiet. We don't want Aria to wake up and find us."
They moved to the kitchen as quietly as possible with Effie clutching to the back of his shirt because she claimed he knew the house well enough to walk through it in the dark with his eyes close unlike her and she would need to be guided.
Effie fixed coffee for them. He found a loaf of bread, cereals, oats and fruits. He even held the jar of peanut butter curiously in his hand.
"You look like you've never had that before," Effie commented. "That must be Aria's."
"I've had these in the Capitol but never in Twelve and it's definitely not somethin' I'll ever have in my house."
"I've never seen your house this well-stocked. I could barely find a bag of tea or a clean glass when I came for the Reaping. I must be doing a very good job of running this kitchen in the future. Oh, this is my favourite!" she exclaimed excitedly, pulling out the non-fat yoghurt and began preparing her breakfast.
"Hmmm."
"It doesn't feel right to eat their food," Effie hesitated, carrying her bowl of mixed fruits and yoghurt.
"I don't think it's a problem. I speak on behalf of that old man up there. Go ahead and eat," he shrugged.
They sat across each other on the kitchen counter quietly, each minding their own business and it never occurred to Haymitch that this was a scene of domesticity until his future-self disrupted their moment.
"Look at you," Mr. Abernathy snickered. "One night in the same bed together and you're having breakfast without even arguing. I ain't interruptin' anything important, yeah?"
"You're an asshole," Haymitch said as he walked past his older self. "Stop making comments like that."
"I apologise for his behaviour. He's just grumpy."
"I should know," Mr. Abernathy winked. "Sorry, sweetheart, but you need to get back upstairs. My girl's awake and she's going to come down any second. It won't be the entire day that you've got to stay away. She's going off to District Seven soon until this is solved."
"I understand. I don't wish to be of any inconvenience and really, I think all of this is my fault. The fact that we're here… It is entirely of my making. I shouldn't have gone for the watch."
"You couldn't have known," Mr. Abernathy murmured. "And he didn't blame you, did he?"
"Haymitch? Oh, no, no he didn't. It's surprising really. I thought he would have been extremely angry with me but I supposed, he is as shock about all of this as I am."
XxX
The door to their room opened and Haymitch looked up from where he sat, playing chess against himself.
"She gone yet? Your daughter…"
"Yeah," Mr. Abernathy nodded. "You're free to be in any part of the house now. Just don't leave the house. We've got to contain who you interact with."
"Yeah, fine, so what's going on?"
"I spoke to Beetee an hour ago. He's the only one who can fix the watch so he's taking the midday train in District Three. He should be here tomorrow.
"Fix it? How long is that going to take? Didn't he make more?"
"I was under the impression that we could leave for home once Beetee arrive with a new watch," Effie sat on the bed, crestfallen and disappointed. "It will be awhile then."
"After what happened to you both, he thought it was wise not to create more," Mrs. Abernathy said.
"A damn good thing, too. Imagine the catastrophe it'd cause if the watch is marketed to the people in the Capitol or if it fell in the wrong hands… People would jump timelines as they damn well please without any regards for its consequences. Think about it," Mr. Abernathy implored. "The first thing you asked me was why I've never went back into time to save Mama and Lief. If you thought that, Haymitch, how many others thought the same? How many others will jump forward to stop themselves from dying? Or change their future?"
"Did you ever – " Effie ventured to ask.
"No," Mrs Abernathy shook her head. "We don't want to know. You have the only watch that is capable of moving a person from one time to another."
"You never wished you had it back?" Haymitch asked.
"Once," his future-self admitted, "When I thought I was going to lose her during the war. I wanted the watch to go back in time."
"What is going to happen to me?" Effie asked, afraid. "What is this war? Why am I – What will happen?"
The knowing look that his future-self exchanged with Effie's future-self did not sit well with Haymitch. It must be terrible enough that he would want the watch back to get to Effie sometime down their timeline.
"You made it," Haymitch said gruffly to Effie, in an attempt to pacify her worries. "Whatever it is, you made it, sweetheart, that's all that should matter."
Poor people have no idea what's in store for them. Their future selves, a hayffie shipper. I hope you've enjoyed reading this chapter. What do you think of it?