Thank you all so much for your reviews. Very little Hayffie here, a bit of a filler chapter. Don't hate me too much. We'll get back to the concert in the next one. Also, I'm sorry about Katniss's attitude here. I never really liked how she treated Effie, and it shows here. I'll make her nicer later.

It was late. He should be heading to bed, but that would mean going up to the apartment, and it wasn't late enough for Effie to be in bed.

Not that he was avoiding her; he just didn't have the energy to talk to her. They had spoken earlier about the concerts and interviews she was in the process of organizing for when the album came out, but if he went up now he knew that there was nothing else of importance to discuss. This meant that they would eventually come around to what had happened almost a week ago. He knew she would have questions and he knew that she deserved answers, but to be perfectly honest he didn't have them, so he spent much of his time down in the recording studios, plucking away on his guitar or writing lyrics. Avoiding her. He might as well admit it.

All the time spent down here was doing wonders for his album however, so much so he was going to be hard pressed to decide which tracks made it to the public, but he was starting to find the silent rooms lonely. Which was the stupidest thing ever considering that he had always much his preferred his own company to that of anyone else's.

He had tried everything to get the kiss out of his head, from writing, to pacing, to reading. Nothing had seemed to work. He didn't exactly know why he had done it. He could make excuses that he was lonely and she was standing next to him. He could blame it all on Coin and this ridiculous tribute concert. He could even blame it on the fact that Effie reminded him so much of her.

But it was more than that, so much more than that. He couldn't explain why, but it was. It was like he had taken his first breath again after holding his breath for hours. She was so tiny in his arms, so delicate and breakable yet so strong in the way she had pulled him closer, threading her nails into his hair and moaning gently when her pushed her against the wall.

Goddamn it all to hell.

He had gone and developed a crush on Effie Trinket, a puppet and a person that was paid to pay attention to him. Could this get anymore fucked up?

"Haymitch?" He turned in his seat to look over his shoulder. Katniss was standing there with tears pouring down her face.

Apparently it could.

He quickly put down his guitar and stood, opening his arms for Katniss to fall into. He held her while she cried, gently patting her back while promising himself that he would beat the hell out of the person who had made her cry like this.

"What happened sweetheart?" he eventually asked, once she had hiccupped herself into silence.

"Peeta is being a real jerk." She replied shakily "and is completely over reacting about the music video for Fallen. And now the press knows and is going ballistic that we've broken up."

Haymitch blinked in surprise as Katniss sank slowly into the chair he had recently vacated. He knew Peeta loved Katniss, and the press had loved them as a couple, their unlikely love story had stolen the hearts of many. Peeta was the soul singer, the one that tinkered away at a guitar or piano and soothed your soul with his simple voice. She was the fire, angry at the world and letting everyone know it with the beat of her drum. Their romance was somewhat of a surprise, both of them seeming to be completely different people and yet finding such happiness in one another.

So it seemed odd that Peeta was reacting badly to a music video. He was a level headed boy, unaffected by the fame that was thrust upon him. In fact, he seemed to thrive on it. If he was pulling this stunt just for more publicity, Haymitch would have his head. But even that didn't seem like him. Which meant only one thing.

"What happened in the music video?" he asked and Katniss looked up in surprise. He was usually the first to see her stuff, but this last week he had had to much on his mind to watch another guitar smashing scene. He felt guilty for letting his niece down but he would worry about that later.

"We did an intense scene." She said awkwardly. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"Sweetheart, all of your scenes are intense. What aren't you telling me?"

"Gale and I. We did an intense...er...sexual scene...together." Katniss said almost in a whisper. "We thought it would drum up more interest, which it did, but Peeta hasn't spoken to me since he saw it until yesterday, when we had a screaming match down the hall." Haymitch frowned. It was unlike Peeta to ever raise his voice. He wondered what had gone on in the video, before remembering that it was his niece and asking himself if he really wanted to know.
"I don't understand why he's being so touchy. Madge doesn't have a problem with it." she added

Haymitch groaned and rubbed a hand over his eyes. Katniss could be incredibly dim at times, when it came to Gale and Peeta, never seemed to guess that both boys were jealous of the other. He wished she would also make up her mind when it came to which one she herself favoured.

"How did the press hear about this? Maybe they're only speculating."

Katniss shook her head.

"They quoted us Haymitch. Someone must have heard us arguing and leaked it somehow."

Haymitch sighed and sat down opposite her rather heavily. He didn't have the slightest idea as to how this had gotten out but he knew that Coin would not be happy. She hated scandals, detested the extra work that was needed for damage control and despised it when her company's name was dragged through the mud, something that had been happening rather a lot of late.

Katniss had come to him hoping that he could fix this. He had, after all, lived through his fair share of minor scandals. But he had no idea how to control the press, that job had always fallen to someone else. He was helpless in this situation.

What Katniss needed was someone who was so used to managing scandals they could probably do it in their sleep.

"Come on" he said gruffly, getting to his feet and pulling Katniss up with him "unfortunately I know someone who might be able to help you."

(())(())

His hand was on her thigh, slowly dragging it up, higher and higher until his fingertips met the edge of her stocking. Their lips locked, powerfully, aggressively, until he broke away. The muscles on his back flexed as he bent to kiss her neck, her nails clutching at his shoulders as she whispered into his ear. He pulled back as the camera panned enough to see both their faces and then cut to her walking away in a long coat.

"Well," Effie Trinket said from her position on the couch "That was quite a scene. I can see why Peeta was upset."

"It meant nothing" Katniss insisted "It was just acting."

"I'll be honest with you, but it didn't look like nothing. I'm surprised they aren't calling you worse names in the tabloids."

Haymitch looked up in surprise at her sharp tone. Katniss could be a bit of a spoiled brat at times, with a temper worse than his own. Many had learnt a long time ago that she was capable of flying off the handle at any given moment. He had to admire Effie's bravery.

"Haymitch? What do you think?" Katniss asked looking over at him, wearing an expression he recognized from when she was a little girl in trouble with her mother.

"I'll be honest sweetheart, Effie is right. It didn't seem like nothing, and it doesn't help that the press has been speculating about you two ever since you first came onto the scene."

"I don't understand why." Katniss complained "we're both seeing other people!"

"That doesn't make a difference." Effie said "the press sees what it wants to see. It's my job to convince them to want to see what I want them to see."

"Then instead of telling me what your damn job is, why aren't you out doing it?" Katniss asked, turning to glare at the other woman. For the first time in his life Haymitch felt the urge to strike his niece. He didn't even want to contemplate why. But before he could open his mouth to chide her Effie had stood up and folded her arms in front of her. He hadn't noticed until now that she was dressed in a simple tracksuit, with very little make-up on. Her hair was still in its usual up do but she looked a lot more relaxed than he had seen her before. She looked almost human, instead of being the power woman in a suit that she usually was. But she still managed to look incredibly deadly as she stared down at his niece.

"First of all" she started, her voice dangerously calm and her eyes a fiery blue "I am not employed to manage your problems. I was employed to keep Haymitch out of the news, and honestly if that means that I have to put you in the spotlight to get it off him then that's what I will do. Secondly, you will remember that if I choose to do this I will be doing it as a favour, so you could act a little more grateful and say 'thank you' like a decent human being!"

Katniss opened her mouth to argue but Haymitch quickly intervened

"Is there something that can be done?"

"I'm not sure." Effie admitted "if you pull the video now it will only go viral. I can try and dig up a story to distract them before it gets too out of hand, but I don't know if it will work. They are the darling couple after all." She broke off as Katniss growled under her breath, before turning back to Haymitch "I think the best thing to do would be to feed into it by working it out with Peeta and making a public apology. I could probably get Katniss, Peeta , Gale, and his girlfriend onto the Caeser Flickerman show tomorrow night, but I'll need Coin's approval."

Haymitch looked at his niece, who sighed and nodded

"Fine." She grumbled "I'll talk to Peeta first thing in the morning." She said, before getting to her feet. She had made it halfway to the door when Haymitch cleared his throat, causing her to stop and face Effie.

"I'm sorry for the way I spoke to you. It was uncalled for, and I'm grateful for your help." She said, clasping her hands in front of her "and I know you think I'm apologizing because Haymitch is making me, and I probably am, but it was still wrong of me."

"That's all right." Effie said, a smile lighting up her face "the press can do that to you sometimes. "

Katniss returned her smile, before spinning around and disappearing from the room.

"Thank you." Haymitch said after a long pause "she can be hot headed, but she's a good kid."

"I'll be honest Haymitch; I don't know how much I can do to stop this. She's going to have to wait for a few days to let it all die out."

"I know." Haymitch replied. She gently reached out and squeezed his hand, sending tingles up and down his arm, before fishing out her phone and walking away while frantically typing on it. She looked up once she reached the door that Katniss had left by

"I'm going to see Coin about this." She said "but as soon as this is sorted out you and I need to talk Haymitch."

He nodded and sat down, resisting the urge to hit his head against the wall. God knew he wasn't ready for this conversation.

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