I had time so you get a chapter even if I've only just updated two days ago.
10
Haymitch wiped away the trail of blood from her cheek with the back of his finger. His hands roamed her arms and up her sides, checking for any other signs of injuries.
"You okay?"
"I am, I'm fine," she nodded, pulling him in for a hug. "I froze. I'm sorry, I froze."
"Can't blame you – those things are terrifying. But you did great, sweetheart," he told her earnestly, cupping her face between his hands and then he let out a chuckle. "Turns out, those damn shoes of yours were good for somethin'. Who would have thought? Your heels can kill."
Effie beamed at him, lips curling into a pleased grin.
"What did I tell you? Didn't I say I can take care of myself? You should never doubt my – "
Whatever Effie meant to say was swallowed in a kiss. Haymitch captured her lips to silence her because right now, she was acting too smug and too proud. He didn't need a 'I told you so', he knew she was more than capable. She was Effie Trinket after all but that didn't mean it made him worry any less.
When he drew back, Effie laughed lightly and pressed another kiss to his lips.
"Twice," she whispered, still proud.
"Twice what?"
"I've saved your life twice now, haven't I?"
"Oh, so you're keeping count?" he mocked.
The self-satisfied grin was back, now more unbearable than ever. "I must admit, it does feel good to do the saving once in a while. See, you can save people without the element of kidnapping in place," she teased him lightly.
He groaned. "It's been years, sweetheart, you can't just -"
Haymitch broke off abruptly, tilting his head to hear better. They exchanged a look. He knew she had heard it too. The voice was disjointed and unclear, but it was unmistakable that it was the sound of a human voice, a cry echoing between the trees.
"Finn," they concluded that the same time.
"It's him, isn't it? I'm sure it's him," Effie's eyes roamed their surroundings, trying to locate him.
Haymitch nodded. "Sounds like him. He didn't sound so far off. They must be nearby."
Without another word, Haymitch tucked the gun back into Effie's belt, slung his rifle which had fallen when she pushed him and gestured for her to put on her shoes back.
"Come on, we can track them."
Effie and Haymitch began moving towards the direction from where they had heard Finn earlier, picking up pace and running when they heard another echo of "hello" reverberating through the trees.
Finn was calling out for help at an interval, shouting once and then keeping quiet for a long time before he called out again. It was probably a smart decision so as not to attract the dinosaurs.
"Finn!" Effie called out once, just to let the boy know that they had heard him and if he really was close by, Effie hoped they had the sense not to wander off far. "Quickly, Haymitch," she urged as she ran pass him.
Haymitch was bent forward, examining something on the ground when the tyrannosaurus burst through the foliage on his left.
"Oh, shit," he cursed and grabbed Effie's hand, pulling her towards the man-sized space in a large tree. It was a tight fit for two adults but it was the only hiding spot.
The tyrannosaurus roamed the area, sniffing the air before coming to a stop near the tree. It was too close for Haymitch's liking.
It could smell our breaths.
Haymitch clamped his hand over Effie's mouth and pressed his own face against the crook of her neck, muffling the sound of their breaths and trying to cut off their scent.
Effie's fingers coiled around his wrist, digging her nails into the soft flesh of his inner wrist and trying to get his attention.
"Ay…mit," she tried to speak.
"Shush," his breath warm against her neck.
Effie fidgeted, kicking her legs in alarm. Haymitch pressed himself further against her. It occurred to him that she might be trying to tell him something but at the moment, it couldn't be more important than him trying to keep them both alive so he kept his hand firmly against her mouth.
The tyrannosaurus turned its head this way and that, searching and growling when nothing turned up. Time seemed to stretch forever before the predator moved away and Haymitch breathed a sigh of relief.
He dropped his hand and Effie pushed him away slightly, batting away something neither of them could see on her legs.
"Ow! Ouch! Something's been climbing on my leg, Haymitch," she cried, on the edge of hysterics. "Ugh!"
There was nothing he could do to help her from here so he squeezed out of the opening. She followed suit in a hurry.
"Quickly, Haymitch, it's climbing up my skirt. I can feel it. Haymitch!"
"Will you shut the fuck up?" he snapped, kneeling in front of her.
Haymitch lifted the edge of her skirt and immediately saw what was bothering her.
"Ah," he chuckled. "Will you look at that?"
He lifted the small reptile no bigger than the palm of his hand by its tail and let it dangle between his pinched fingers.
"Oh my," Effie gasped in disbelief. "That was climbing up my leg?"
"Yeah," he nodded, settling the animal on his palm as he studied it curiously.
"Haymitch… Haymitch, no," Effie frowned. "No, no, put it down right away."
"This is a dinosaur, yeah? Never seen one this tiny – what's this?"
"That is a baby velociraptor and it will grow fast. Give it a few weeks and it won't be this small anymore. Will you put it down? You're looking at it the way you'll look at your goslings."
Haymitch raised an eyebrow, not even looking at Effie. His attention was focused solely on the infant in his hand.
Effie sighed, already fearing the worst. If Haymitch had a weakness other than liquor, it was animals, especially if they were a baby or worse, helpless. She had seen it with her own eyes how careful he was with them - at times, she couldn't help but wonder how he would be with his own child except that was a line of thought she crossed out as soon as it came unbidden – and Effie was certain, she was the only person to realise this about him.
Soon after the war ended, Haymitch had come across a pair of geese, not fully an adult but not a little gosling either, on sale at the market. Thinking that they would most likely end up on someone's dinner table, he bought them and reared them which led to him having a whole flock in his backyard. When she had asked, he had simply grumbled under his breath about how "they are as noisy as you. Fills up the silence when you ain't around," and she had dropped the subject.
One night, during a winter storm, he found a kitten half buried in the snow with a broken leg. Haymitch didn't make a fuss, quietly settling the kitten in a shoe box and nursing it back to health for a few weeks. Effie loved the kitten, stroking its soft fur whenever she came to visit during the weekends but she knew he wouldn't keep it. He had casually talked about felines with Finn on the phone and on purpose no doubt because the next thing she knew, Finn had a pet kitten much to Johanna's chagrin.
Haymitch had a big heart; capable of wondrous things, capable of caring so much more than he let on – all words she would never utter out loud in his presence, of course, because he would never hear it – and she had seen it again and again with the way he loved her, the manner in which he treated the children, the way he tried to make Finn happy and so it shouldn't come as a surprise to her the way he handled the fox but it did.
The cub had wandered into his geese pen and instead of chasing it away and scaring it off from ever coming back, Haymitch had bundled that poor thing, fed it something to eat and given it to Katniss to release it back into the wild. "The mother's probably out looking for it. Shouldn't separate it from its cub," he had said.
"Haymitch," she touched his shoulder gently.
"This is a raptor?" he asked with a note of incredulity.
Haymitch nudged the small reptile until it lay on its side on his palm. He inspected its legs, running the pad of his fingers against its developing claw.
"You really need to put it back where you found it."
"Which is where, sweetheart? Up your skirt? I gotta say, I don't like the idea of it being that close to… well…there," he smirked. "Ain't I the only one allowed anywhere near there?"
"Really, you are ridiculous," she huffed. Effie walked back to their hiding place in the tree. "I think we found one of the raptors' nests."
Her announcement went unanswered, ignored for the most part as if she hadn't just made a huge discovery. When she turned around, she saw that his attention was once again on the raptor.
He was enraptured. It was plain to see. She supposed, even he was not at all immune to the wonders and marvels that the dinosaurs had to offer despite his initial objections to it. He had not seen it in the adult dinosaurs, not truly except with the tyrannosaurus when he had found it horrifying and brilliant that it was a human creation but this… This raptor was not created by humans. It was hatched from an egg.
The baby raptor hopped up his arm and on to his shoulder before Haymitch picked it by its tail yet again to place it on his palm. Effie feared that he might have temporarily forgotten what a full-fledged adult raptor could do because right now, he was not doing as she was asking him to.
Effie rubbed her temple.
Somebody tell Haymitch to stop right now.