Title: "Haymitch in the third quarter quell"
Summery: What if there was a rule change during the reaping for the third quarter quell and Haymitch went into the arena with Katniss, Not Peeta.
Contains: Haymitch/Effie. (Hayffie/Heffie)
Genre: Romance. Hurt/Comfort. Action.
Characters: Haymitch Abernathy. Katniss Everdeen. Effie Trinket. Peeta Mellark. And the Quarter Quell tributes.
Rating: T/M.
Author's notes: Hello, Everyone! I really hope you enjoyed chapter three. I am really enjoying writing this, I'm having a lot of fun, you guys make it so much better, so please help me out by leaving some reviews.
Enjoy chapter four! (:
Haymitch in the third quarter quell.
Chapter four.
Whilst embracing her soft bed covers, Effie could only dream of it being something else. Haymitch. Although what had happened had hurt her within the depths of her heart, she forced herself to remember that the source of Haymitch's actions were powered by his affectionate feelings towards her, although this portion of knowledge didn't cure her heartbreak fully, it allowed her to realise that she could never hate him. But, right now, all she could do was cry.
The knowledge of why she was crying remained absent from her mind, but, it allowed her sadness and depression to minimise. She just simply wished that Haymitch had confronted her and explained himself with words, she had always dreamt of Haymitch gently kissing her, but not in the way he did. But, despite her entire situation, she could not stop herself from caring about him.
She never could. She smoothed her finger tips across her closed eyes, cleaning the tears from them. She sat up and just let the silence surround and calm her, sooth her and prevent tears from stinging her clean face. No, today was about her victors, she had to repeat that in her head, she had to do her absolute best to ensure their training is exemplary to hopefully guarantee that they receive outstanding scores.
That's what was really important to her, she truly cared about the ones around her, them going back into the arena was enough to shatter her completely, but she always felt enhanced when she knew she could assist them in anyway possible.
She glanced at the clock, it was the early hours of the morning. She would not be able to put herself back into sleep so getting up appeared to be the only logical solution. She dressed herself in a pink and purple dress that's style was similar to that of the dress she wore at the reaping.
She paled her face slightly with white make-up then added shades of purple around her eyes and upon her lips to match her dress, she added flower patterned eyelashes and a stick-on diamond to the side of both eyes.
She completed the look with a pair of white heels and a crystal white wig that contained a lilac flower. She stared at herself through her mirror, she pondered her way of life, the everyday choices that she makes, does she really need to wear all these clothes, even though she was a citizen of the capitol she didn't always adore the fashion ideas. Sometimes she just wanted to feel…normal.
She sighed, she had to remember that she had to focus on her tributes, in most ways, she was just the escort, she didn't matter….That's what she thought. She wandered out of her room and was greeted by Haymitch-who was sprawled across the floor with a bottle on his hand and an alcohol stain across his torso. She smirked slightly, this was the man she loved. She knelt next to him, took away that bottle and gave his shoulders a slight shake.
"Haymitch? Haymitch can you hear me? Haymitch wake up." He remained unresponsive. She moved away-slightly repulsed by the state he was in. There were no Avox's around and she assumed the kids would still be asleep. It was up to her. She attempted to wake him with her previous solution.
"Haymitch? Haymitch wake up!" To her delight he began to make a couple of moaning sounds. "Haymitch, it's me…Effie, wake up!"
"Eff…..? Effie?"
"Yes, it's me, Effie!" He turned his head slightly and felt severe pain as a result.
"My head…" He groaned.
"You'll be fine, come on you need to sort yourself out, you and Katniss both have your first day of training today." As he heard the mention of the games he instantly lay his head down again.
"Haymitch….I know that this is hard for you, but you're strong, I know you can do this…..and it's bad manners to not show up." With that she walked towards the kitchen area, fetched him and glass of water and some miniature tablets he could take to soothe his head pains. "Here-" She handed they to him-he was still on the floor. "-Take these" He obeyed-cringing as the tablets roughly made their way down his throat.
"Haymitch…I know it's something you don't enjoy talking about, but….there are other ways to….to deal with your past…." She was afraid…afraid of how he would react.
"I know…..but last night…it all became too much…."
"I'm….sorry, Haymitch….I'm so sorry."
"Don't blame yourself"
"Oh, Haymitch! I thought you stopped drinking last night?" Katniss exclaimed.
"You clearly don't know me well enough, Sweetheart." Katniss glanced at Effie for a brief moment and shot her a questioning look that asked her if she was okay, even though she was confused and in most ways not okay, Effie nodded.
"Maybe I don't-" She snapped "-I thought I knew a brave man that would change, clearly I was just looking at a coward."
"Katniss! There's no need for that!" Effie scolded-he face flaring with anger.
"To be honest I'm surprised I survived last year" They had no idea what had gotten into Katniss, but they had no idea how she could be so ungrateful, both Effie and Haymitch would always do there best to help their tributes.
"You may not think it, but me and Haymitch always do are best to help our tributes!"
"Then how come you two have only had two victors?"
"There's only so much we can do."
"You obviously don't do enough!"
"The minute we stop helping you is the minute you look the cameras in their lens eyes and beg for it."
"I don't need your help."
"You certainly needed mine last year, sweetheart. Burn medicine ring any bells?" Katniss fell silent. "I know the circumstances are tough, but cheer up, you've got training soon."
"So have you."
"Yes, But I know what I'm doing."
"And I don't?"
"My lips are sealed, Sweetheart." Katniss stormed off, going back into the arena had been hard on her, plus what Snow had said to her before the Victory tour, Haymitch knew that…..but he has faced these games more than she has….it dawned on her then that her acts were nothing but selfish, rude and ungrateful, but she didn't want to apologise, not yet.
"Poor kid." Haymitch said, with no real sympathy in his voice.
"But, she just said all of that"
"I guess things are tough on the girl-"
"But that's no excuse to be so ungrateful"
"Maybe" Several tears rolled down Effie's face, smudged her make-up and stung her cheeks.
"Do we do enough? do we really do our best to help the tributes?"
"Sure, but like you said, there is only so much we can do, most of it is in their hands." Effie fell silent, she allowed her mind to wander back to every tribute she'd ever worked with, every name she'd ever pulled out of the glass bowls, every shy child that had walked up onto the stage, everyone that had been dressed, interviewed and eventually died, never to return home.
"Trinket?"
"Huh?" Haymitch approached her awkwardly and tapped her on the cheek a couple of time, causing her to lightly flinch uncomfortably. Then he lightly spoke.
"Focus, Trinket. I need you to keep me annoyed and organised so I don't make a complete fool of myself today."
"It's going to take more than my request for manners and correct behaviour to prevent that!" She lightly joked.
"Then you'll just have to try extra hard, wont you?"
"You need to as well, Go on. Up! Change into the designated training outfit."
"Am I not allowed breakfast?"
"Eat as you please." She said simply.
"I'm not hungry…"
"Then hurry up!" Effie giggled.
Haymitch un-horridly plodded to his room and reluctantly slipped on the training outfit, it was some kind of sliver and black suit, not really tight…..but relatively comfortable. As he emerged feeling like an out of place idiot, so did Katniss, and judging by the expression on her face, she didn't feel much better.
Effie had agreed to let the go to the training centre alone. Katniss had moved aside to talk closely with Peeta, they both carried looks of pain in their eyes and their faces were close as the whispered.
"You can do this, Haymitch." Effie encouraged softly. "Never forget about the strength you have." Haymitch looked down on her, they had not really spoken since Haymitch had stupid broken her, but he didn't want her to stay broken, he wanted to mend her. He gave her a slight smile.
"Okay, Trinket." He replied as his blonde locks fell in front of his face. Through the stray stands of blonde he looked down on her with loving emotion bubbling throughout his body. He leaned down and planted a secret kiss on her cheek. He walked away and met Katniss in the elevator.
"Today's about making friends okay, Sweetheart?"
"I've never been good at friends."
"Well, you better learn fast, friends and allies can save your life."
"How can I trust any of them?!"
"It's not about trust, it's about staying alive….you don't need to worry about hiding your skills this year, these guys know." Katniss bowed her head and let it hang lifelessly. "You ready?"
"Sorry, Haymitch…for what I said."
"We'll forget it ever happened." As the doors opened they both waltzed shyly into the training centre, heads turned in their direction, they were briefly studied before they were left alone.
"Right now, I'm not totally happy with our choices." Haymitch turned to Katniss and gave her the look of a mentor.
"Choose wisely." He advise before the travelled across the centre in separate directions. The training room was pretty silent - apart from the accessional cries of aggression and adrenalin from tributes training in combat.
Haymitch gives a nod to Johanna Mason, which she returns. He stops for a moment near a fire starting section and looks up. Plutarch watches him like a hawk, but Haymitch knows he's in no danger from him.
Soon, everything will unfold, and soon they will have their Mockingjay.
A/N: Sorry this took so long and sorry I cut it short. I hope you enjoyed it. :D