Quick A/N: I follow the books in terms of descriptions, so Haymitch has brown hair and brown eyes (: Just a little heads up.
Effie sighed as she trailed behind her mother, whom was walking briskly down the street, stopping every now and then at a stall to greet the stall women and men. Mrs Trinket was well known around the town; everybody that knew her would say that Eunice Trinket was an extremely kind-hearted and friendly lady. It was impossible to bad-mouth a person like her.
"Lucia! It's been a while since we talked!"
Mrs Trinket stopped at a stall that sold tulips and hugged the old woman behind it.
"Eunice! It's so good to see you again," said the old woman with a smile. She turned to Effie and said, "Nice to see you too, Effie."
Effie faked a smile and hoped that it would pass for a genuine one. "Nice to see you too, Mrs Heyan."
"Here to buy some tulips, Eunice?" asked the woman as she gestured to her flowers.
Looking at the tulips only brought back memories of Haymitch standing at her doorstep with a bouquet of those in his hands. She thought of the shy smile on his face as he handed her the flowers and how his eyes twinkled when she welcomed him in. 2 days without Haymitch felt like 2 centuries. Countless times she picked up the phone and tried to call him, but never got pass dialing his number. She tried writing him a letter, but only resulted in crumpled paper and dried out pens.
She pinched her forearm to distract herself from thinking about Haymitch.
"By the way, Eunice," said Lucia. "You didn't have any guests coming by any time last week, did you?"
Mrs Trinket pondered for a moment before answering, "No, none that I can really remember…"
"Well, I had a man come by my stall last week, asking for directions on how to get to your house," said Lucia. "Curly brown hair, brown eyes, about a head taller than me… He looked pretty familiar. Might've seen him on TV before, or something like that."
Effie's eyes widened. Haymitch?
Mrs Trinket seemed to come to the same conclusion and asked curiously, "Haymitch? Haymitch Abernathy?"
Lucia snapped her fingers and said, "Yes, that's him! He came by, bought a bouquet of pink tulips and then asked me how to get to your house."
At this moment, Effie's heart was beating so quickly she felt like it was going to come out of her chest. Or come out of her throat.
Mrs Trinket smiled at Lucia and said, "Yes, Haymitch. A fine man. Look, Lucia, come by some time this week and catch up over a cup of tea. How does that sound?"
Lucia smiled broadly, accentuating the wrinkles on her face. "Absolutely, Eunice. See you soon! Nice seeing you, Effie."
As they were heading home, Mrs Trinket looked at Effie and said, "You never told me about your stay with Haymitch."
Effie gulped and cleared her throat. "It was great."
"What did you do?"
"Stuff."
Mrs Trinket sighed and said, "Effie, don't be difficult. What really happened?"
Effie sighed. "It was absolutely amazing. The first two days, we were just having fun and… enjoying our time together. Then on the third day, the hour before I was scheduled to leave, I don't know how to say it… But I kind of told Haymitch that I was confused and didn't understand what was going on inside my head. I told him that I needed time to think."
Mrs Trinket smiled and said, "Elaborate, please. I'm stupid, remember?"
Effie laughed slightly. "Well… I just have these really weird sensations when I'm around Haymitch. I get this abnormal feeling when I just about touch him; I feel like there are bees and wasps buzzing in my stomach and I can never really think straight." She looked at her mother. "What is this feeling?"
Mrs Trinket chuckled softly. "I believe it's called love, dear."
Effie raised her eyebrows. "If it is, why is it so hard for me to just… Let it be?"
Mrs Trinket shrugged. "Probably because he's the first person you kissed, which means you now have an emotional attachment to him and then you feel afraid of the foreign feeling."
Effie nodded and stopped suddenly. "Wait, how do you know he was my first kiss?"
Mrs Trinket grinned. "I didn't. You just confirmed my suspicions."
Effie turned fifty shades of pink and red in a split second. "Oh," she said softly.
Mrs Trinket laughed. "It's alright, Effie. I won't tease you about it or anything. But I will say that it took you 8 years or more for you two to finally realize your feelings for each other."
"What do you mean?" asked Effie, confused. 8 years or more to realize the feelings she had for Haymitch? She was pretty certain she didn't have romantic feelings for Haymitch until a few years before.
"Your mother just knows these things, dear. Your eyes would always shine when you talked about him, even when you were complaining about how atrocious and annoying he was. Besides, you never said you didn't like him. You'd say he was horrible, mean and nasty, but you never actually said the words 'I hate Haymitch Abernathy'. You might've disliked him at first, but you had already developed a sense of a relationship with him without knowing it."
Effie took a few minutes to process what her mother just told her. Annoyingly enough, her mother was right. Effie honestly could not remember a time when she actually hated that man. She disliked him and would go crazy just being in the same room as him, but she didn't hate him.
Effie sighed as her mother unlocked the front door and stepped in.
"What should I do, Ma? I didn't know what I was saying really, and he kind of took it the wrong way," said Effie quietly. "He even kicked me out."
Mrs Trinket smiled sadly and gave her daughter a brief hug. "It's okay, dear. People do stupid things. Besides, if he really loves you, he'll forgive you. He'll let you come back."
Effie let a tear fall from her eyes as she hugged her mother once more.
"Me too, Ma," she whispered. "Me too."
xxx
"Haymitch, wake up."
Haymitch groaned and rolled over, facing down into his pillow. Peeta sighed heavily and walked to the bathroom, grabbed a small cup, filled it with ice-cold water and carried it to Haymitch's bedside.
"Haymitch."
When Peeta didn't get an answer, he sighed again and tipped the cup onto the back of Haymitch's head. He didn't even finish pouring the water before Haymitch started screaming. Satisfied, Peeta placed the cup down and laughed as he saw the death glare Haymitch was giving him.
"What?" said Peeta innocently as Haymitch stood up.
"Don't ever wake me up again. I swear living with Katniss has made you a horrible person," snarled Haymitch as he ran his hands through his soaked hair. He glanced at the bedside clock and rolled his eyes. "You better have a good reason for waking me up at 8 in the morning, Mellark."
"You've been indoors for the past 3 days, Haymitch," said Peeta gently. "You need to get out. You've been feeding your geese, right?"
Haymitch mumbled a barely audible yes as Peeta opened Haymitch's closet and threw him a dry shirt. Haymitch pulled off his damp shirt and put on the dry one on.
"What are you going to do today?" asked Peeta.
Haymitch scoffed. "I don't know, Mellark. Why don't you tell me? You've been doing a good job of waking me up so far, so I'd like to know what else you intend to do to me," said Haymitch sarcastically.
"We need more people helping refurnishing the houses," said Peeta, ignoring Haymitch's comment. "I could use some help. I left a loaf of bread downstairs on your table. I'll come by again in 10 minutes. Don't wear your best clothes." And with that, Peeta walked out the door.
Haymitch didn't move until he heard the front door slam shut. He looked down at his plain grey shirt and trousers and decided whether to change or not. Maybe I should just wear a tie and suit, just to annoy him, thought Haymitch. The thought of having to change into a collared shirt made him think otherwise, so he settled with his current clothes and went downstairs.
Peeta stayed true to his word and came at 8:10, not a second too early or late. By then, Haymitch had finished eating 4 slices of bread and a cup of black coffee.
"Ready?" asked Peeta.
Haymitch didn't bother answering as he got up from his seat and walked out the front door.
xxx
It was a good day. The sun was shining, the sky was clear and blue and the mockingjays were chirping happily. The only thing that wasn't in its positive mood was the one and only Haymitch Abernathy.
He huffed as he hammered a nail into the table.
For one thing, he was glad that he had something to do, something to distract him from thinking about the fight 3 days ago. Thinking about it always put Haymitch in a bad mood and there were moments when he was so close to opening a bottle of liquor to drink all the thoughts away. So close.
"Haymitch, the nail will go through the wood at the rate you're hammering."
Haymitch whirled around and saw Peeta with an amused grin. He looked back at the table leg and saw that Peeta was right. He sighed and flipped the table right side up and saw that one of the legs were slightly shorter than the other. He grunted in frustration and flipped the table again.
"Whoa, Haymitch, calm down," said Peeta as he pulled Haymitch away from the table. "Don't need to be so harsh."
Haymitch scowled. "Is it lunch break yet?"
Peeta nodded. "I came to get you. I made sandwiches."
Haymitch followed Peeta to the backyard of the house, where there was a small crowd of people sitting in a circle, eating sandwiches and having their own little conversations.
"You're going to make me sit with them?" asked Haymitch with an eyebrow raised.
"Don't worry, Haymitch. They're friendly. They don't bite," said Peeta with a smile as he handed Haymitch a sandwich.
People made space for both of them as they approached the circle. Peeta sat down and gestured for Haymitch to do the same. Haymitch sat down next to Peeta and smiled uncomfortably at the friendly faces around him.
"Everybody, this is Haymitch Abernathy," introduced Peeta. Haymitch silently thanked Peeta for not mentioning the 'Victor of the 2nd Quarter Quell' bit. "Why don't you guys introduce yourselves to him?"
The middle-aged woman next to Peeta smiled at me and said, "Kira. I'm from Eleven."
Haymitch smiled and nodded. "Nice to meet you." He did the same for the next 6 people: Jana, Lira, Dean, Seth, Dion and Kai. The rest of them were people he recognized: Delly, Thom, Bristel and Lear, the guy whom was in charge of the mines back then.
They were all warm and kind to Haymitch and he didn't realize how much he missed having human company. It was one of the most enjoyable meals he'd had in… 3 days.
At the end of lunch break, Peeta helped Haymitch mend the table and soon enough, they had the whole house fixed up and cleaned. By the time they packed up and finished everything, the sun was setting and the others had already left for home. Peeta and Haymitch were the only ones left. They stood outside the house and admired their hard work. The windows were polished, the door was shining clean and even the walls outside were scrubbed.
"I think we did a good job, Haymitch," said Peeta proudly. Haymitch nodded in agreement. "Maybe you could ask Effie if she'd like to stay here."
He froze at the mention of her name.
Effie.
"Haymitch?"
He shook his head and mentally kicked himself for thinking about her. "Sorry," mumbled Haymitch. "I should be heading home now." He turned around quickly and started walking.
"Haymitch."
He was surprised at the firmness of Peeta's voice. He stopped in his tracks, but did not turn around to face blonde boy.
"What happened between you and Effie?"
Haymitch would not stoop so low and tell an 18 year old his personal problems. Besides, Peeta had enough on his plate. He reckoned that it must be pretty complicated living with the fearsome Katniss Everdeen. "Nothing."
Peeta stood in front of Haymitch and said in a stern voice, "Haymitch, I'm not stupid. What happened?"
Haymitch scowled and said, "Leave me alone, Peeta. I can deal with my problems on my own. I don't need your baker help."
"You just admitted you had a problem," said Peeta matter-of-factly. "Which means, something did happen between you and Effie. Besides, you didn't deny it."
Haymitch sighed in exasperation. "What the hell do you want, Mellark? Do you need help fixing your oven? Or did you do something wrong and Katniss kicked you out of the house?"
Peeta rolled his eyes. "Haymitch, it's normal for a person to be concerned-"
"Concerned, my foot," interrupted Haymitch. "There's a difference between being concerned and nosy, Peeta, and right now, you're more nosy than you are concerned. Please go away and let me walk home in peace."
"No," said Peeta stubbornly. "I'm not going to stop pestering you until you tell me what happened, Haymitch."
"Peeta-"
"Let me guess," interrupted Peeta. "She said something about her feelings being too strong and her not being able to handle them. She also said that she needed time to think. She also tried apologizing but then you closed the door on her."
Haymitch raised his eyebrows in surprise. "How and why do you know?"
Peeta shrugged. "It happened to me more than I'd like it to."
"Then what do you do? Do you tell her that she's being unreasonable and just leave her? Forget about her? What do you do?" asked Haymitch in frustration. He gave up on keeping it from Peeta. Besides, Peeta already knew what kind of situation he was in. No point hiding anymore.
"First, you need to calm down," said Peeta. "Come on, let's walk while talking."
He obliged reluctantly. Haymitch almost punched himself for taking orders from Peeta. It should be the other way around.
"Katniss did that the first few times I started staying over. At first, I'd get so frustrated that I'd stomp our her house and not talk to her for the next few days and then I'd forgive her. Then it'd happen again, and again. It happened at least 5 times. Then at the sixth time, I gave up. I told her, 'Katniss, if you're just going to keep dropping me and picking me up like I'm some kind of reusable thing, you can just forget about us ever being together.' I also told her that I'd give her time to think. For 2 days, I didn't talk to her, I didn't see her and I didn't go to her house. It was hard, but it had to be done. I wanted Katniss to choose what she wants this time, and not me to be the one running back to her. After the 2 days, she came to my house and apologized. From then on, it didn't happen again. Life wasn't perfect, but she didn't ever recite that speech again."
Throughout the whole time, Haymitch was listening intently. It was amazing how much Peeta had to go through. He was willing to go through hell and back for Katniss. Would he do the same for Effie?
When he looked up, he had reached his front door. He turned to Peeta and smiled slightly.
"Thanks. I think I needed that," said Haymitch slowly.
Peeta smiled. "Remember, Haymitch," said Peeta softly. "If you love something, let it go. If it doesn't come back, move on. If it does… It's yours to keep forever."
Haymitch stayed silent for a long time. He heard everything that Peeta just said to him echoing in his head and bouncing off the walls in his mind.
Peeta's smiled softly and said, "Sometimes you have to let go."
Haymitch looked up at him and Peeta swore he never saw him so solemn and with so much sorrow in his eyes.
"But sometimes," whispered, tears brimming in his eyes. "It hurts too much to let go."
I now have the inspiration and ideas to write this story, so expect the next chapter soon :D
The alerts for this story is almost over the amount I have for The Spark, so that's pretty exciting :P
Reviews please?
