This one's mine. Working on a few prompts that I can't wait to post. Feel free to keep them coming in a Review
-thamockingjayandpeeta
An Escort and a Drunk
Rated M for language and alluding to smut
"I don't expect you to understand why I'm upset. You can just add Seneca Crane's name to the list of countless others you've killed over the years!"
The two of them had had their fair share of fights over the years, but this one was quickly getting out of hand. Everybody's emotions were stretched thin at the upcoming Games, and after what they found out at dinner, it was no wonder that tempers were high.
Haymtich stared at Effie, dumbfounded. "You think I give a fuck about killing a Capitol puppet? You think I'd add him to any list, ever? Your wig's too tight. And don't you dare talk to me about killings when your perfectly manicured hands pick the got damn names every fucking year. You're just as guilty as me, Princess."
Effie looks like she's been punched, and made to retaliate when Cinna finally snapped.
"That's it! I'm so sick of this shit!" He marched to the television and turned it up, its pointless noise louder than ever.
"Really, Cinna, I expect that from Haymitch, but you? Manners, please!" Cinna eyed her something fierce and she quickly shut her mouth. Haymitch, who had a rapport already forming on his lips, swallowed his response at Cinna's look as well.
Cinna walked up to Haymitch and snatched the drink out of his hand. Haymitch attempted to struggle with him for a few minutes. "I wish you would, Haymitch. Don't make me knock you on your ass."
Haymitch snarled, ready, itching really, for a fight, but somewhere, in the still sober part of his mind, he realized he was not angry with Cinna. Defeated he stopped struggling and sighed.
Cinna eyed him for a few more moments for good measure and stepped back to stare at the pair of them. "Why don't you two just fuck and get it over with?"
It'd have been comical, the way they both stared at him, gray and blue eyes alike. The way Haymitch paled and Effie blanched proved his point.
"Seriously you could cut the sexual tension with a knife." Cinna turned around, biting his cheek to keep from smiling at the still shocked expressions on their faces. Effie was too dumbfounded to even talk to him about his language.
When he turned back around to face them he had made a decision. "You two need to grow up. You're more alike than you think." He took a deep breath. "Haymitch, Effie is a prominent member of this Rebellion. She's been helping me design Katniss' Mockingjay suit for the past several months. Effie, Haymitch has been planning this Rebellion for the past several years."
The silence that greeted Cinna was deafening.
"And Seneca was one of ours, Haymitch. I mean barely…. He might have really come around had he lived. But surely you noticed how he took your suggestions…. I mean to have two Victors? It's unheard of."
Haymitch blinked in dismay. "Seneca… Seneca was one of us?"
"Yes," Cinna replied simply. "And us includes Effie. You two have been doing this together for the past twenty years, and it's always ended in disaster. Except for last year. If we're going to pull this off I need you two to work together. I don't want anymore arguing from you two. It drives a man to drink. Now if you'll excuse me I have some finishing touches to make to Katniss' wedding dress." When he reached the door he turned back and faced them. "And if, for whatever reason, you two can't stop fighting like a married couple, at least really be a married couple."
Haymitch and Effie stood where they were, in their same spots, for several moments, the television blaring. Finally Haymitch was the first to move, but it wasn't to lower the television. Instead he sat down, shaking.
"I guess I shouldn't be surprised," Effie said, sitting down next to him. "You've certainly been acting differently for the past several months. If anybody led the Revolution, it'd be you." He was still too stunned to say anything, so Effie continued. "I wasn't crying over Seneca when I ran off at dinner. Between Peeta drawing Rue and Katniss hanging Seneca…. They're going to retaliate, Haymitch. All our work… all our plans… they're pointless if the two of them get killed."
"How long?" rasped out Haymitch.
She could have scolded him for his bad manners—complete sentences, Haymitch—but instead she sighed. "A while now. Unofficially since I first heard of the unrest in 11. I found myself… understanding their anger, frustration, and hurt. Rue was but eleven…." She shook her head sadly. "I was officially apart of this when Snow made the Quarter Quell announcement." She paused, the air thickening as her anger consumed her. "I'd be damned if I was going to send any of you back to that Arena. They were either going to kill me, or I was going to be in on the plan to take them down."
She'd said it so fiercely that for the first time since Cinna's outburst Haymitch looked at her.
"It's okay," said Effie softly. "We were wrong about each other. You thought I was a Capitol bitch and I thought you were a lowly drunk. I've been wrong about you for twenty years. You've only been wrong about me for a few months." She sounded bitter, as if she couldn't understand how she'd been so blind. "I did think you'd have picked up on it, though. I mean when the hell have you ever heard of an Escort so boldly deciding to stand with her Tributes? We were taught to literally Escort them to their untimely death with a smile on our face. We were not to get attached. Yet here I was, talking about symbols…."
Haymitch slowly started to put things together.
The butterfly dress.
The desire for gold symbols.
The Mockingjay wig.
He felt his heart give out.
"But you're an Escort," he finally blurted out.
She smiled ironically at him. "Yes. And you're a drunk. What's your point?"
He opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water for several moments. Then he turned to the bar, looking at the bottle he had poured from.
"How much have I had to drink? And what the fuck was in this bottle?"
She sighed and stood up. "Is it really that hard to believe?"
He glared at her. "How many fucking Escorts have—"
"None. I'm the first in history. But seriously, there's a first time for everything. And who knows that better than us? Us, who have two Victors? Haven't we proven that together we can change history?"
Haymitch stood up looking at her. "I don't have to… be nice to you or any shit like that do I?"
"God I hope not. Then I'd have to be nice to you. But if you could stop calling me a Capitol I'd greatly appreciate it."
She straightened her dress and started making her way out of the living room.
"What about the other part?" asked Haymitch before he could think better of it.
Effie stopped and turned towards her. "What other part?"
She was giving him a way out, but he didn't take it. "You know what I'm talking about."
Effie gave him a dark smile. "Darling, I guarantee that before you make your way to 13, I'll have had my way with you in bed."
He seemed shocked. Genuinely truly shocked. "Wanna bet?" he asked.
She walked up to him, yanking him by his undone tie, and pulled her to him, giving him a kiss that probably had steam coming out of his ears.
When her hands snaked down the front of his pants he jerked.
"I think it's safe to say I'd win," she murmured against his lips.
And when it was all said and done, he turned to her, a smug smile on his face.
"What are you smirking at? I won the bet," said Effie.
"You said you'd have your way with me in your bed. We're in mine."
Her mouth sprung open as he cackled out a laugh.
"That's only because your room was closer."
He shrugged and laughed again as she pouted. Then she brightened. "Well the night's still young." She got up, slipping his shirt on, which he thought was awfully forward of her, but he was in too good a mood to say anything. When she reached the door she turned to him. "It's okay if you can't handle a round two, though. You are awfully old."
This time his mouth dropped open.
He'd certainly make her pay for that, and he vowed he wouldn't touch her bed.
The wall maybe. Certainly the shower.
There was always the vanity.
He won that round.
Until he fell asleep in her room. After a quick discussion the next morning they agreed to give the kids a day off, and it didn't take long for her to officially win the bet.
They didn't leave her room all day.
