Chapter 10

The sound of metal pots and pans clanging and banging in the kitchen, and the sound of voices speaking to each other softly drifted to his ear, waking him up from his fitful sleep. He remembered his dream so vividly that it took him awhile to convince himself that he was still at Effie's apartment and had not lost both Trinkets in the train enroute to Twelve.

His mother had appeared in his dream telling him he could never do things right that he destroyed everything near him before disappearing in a puff of smoke. His brother came next, accusing Haymitch of replacing him with Emmanuel, sobbing hysterically no matter what Haymitch said to convince him otherwise. And then his girl joined his brother. She stood over them as Haymitch crouched over his brother, stroking the boy's back, glaring at Haymitch with eyes so red that he backed away in haste.

"You're bringing them home," she stated. "You think you can start a family with them. They'll die just like you let us all die."

Her laugh had been cruel and in the dream, Haymitch covered his hands over his ears screaming at her that it wasn't true, that he was just trying to help them. Then she was gone and he heard Effie's voice in his sleep.

"… should probably start packing. Better to be prepared."

It was then that he realised Effie wasn't speaking in his dream. She was talking to Emmanuel in the kitchen. His shirt was drenched in sweat and he was exceedingly tired even though, glancing at the clock, he had managed to sleep for five hours.

"When are we leaving? Has Haymitch told you anything?"

"No, he hasn't."

"I should probably call Peeta and Katniss," Haymitch announced himself as he entered the kitchen. "Tell them you're staying with me. My house could probably use with a bit of tidying up."

"When do we leave, Haymitch?" Emmanuel asked again.

"Whenever Effie feels like travelling."

"Oh," she replied, startled, unaware that it was up to her. "I'm… I'm fine with anything, Haymitch. Really. Whenever is convenient for you."

"Good. Then pack up, my home awaits me."

Haymitch walked out to the living room, a plate of toast in his hand. Effie's eyes lingered on his retreating back, taking in his sweat drenched shirt and the bags under his eyes. As Haymitch dialled Peeta's number, he heard Emmanuel in the kitchen, asking Effie about District Twelve.

"What sort of things would I be able to do there?"

"I'm not sure, sweetie. Haymitch said the district has changed, so we'll see, alright?"

XxX

The scene that faced him the next afternoon was a racket he had never experienced in his life before. Haymitch was sprawled on the sofa, a bag of chips lying on his stomach as he munched on them watching the Trinkets argue it out at the doorway of Emmanuel's bed room.

"Why can't I bring them both?" Emmanuel cried indignantly.

"You're bringing too many things," Effie said. "You've got your luggage, your backpack, your guitar case, and your violin case. Make a choice – the guitar or the violin – you cannot bring both."

"Too many?" he screeched. "Look at you! You've got two suitcases. TWO! And let me also point out your hand bag, lying at Haymitch's feet at the coffe table."

"My purse contains my medications. I'll have you know, young man, that my medications takes up a lot of space!"

Haymitch scoffed.

"You have two weeks of medication, Effie," Haymitch pointed out. "The rest will be sent every fortnightly thereafter. I checked with Dr. Abel, so I know."

She opened her mouth in shock. "You're supposed to help me not rat me out!"

"Oh, well, it was entertaining. Carry on," Haymitch waved his hand at the pair of them.

His own duffel bag was on the floor next to him and he had been ready since an hour ago. Haymitch opened a second pack of chips - something he was indifferent to until Emmanuel introduced him to it - watching them with a lazy, amused smile. He was enjoying the fact that for once, Effie was not screaming at him for something he's done. It was a refreshing change, to say the least. Usually Effie would be breathing down his neck, urging him to hurry or they would be late but today, well, today she had a different demon to handle.

"Alright, alright! I'll leave the violin at home," Emmanuel conceded with frustration.

Half an hour later, they were ready to leave the house. Emmanuel chatted all the way while they were in the taxi and he did not stop talking even as they sat together at the bench waiting for the train to District Twelve.

He was seated in between the two adults, oblivious to the smile Effie gave Haymitch over the top of his head.

"He talks when he's excited," she mouthed.

"Sounds like someone I know," Haymitch muttered.

XxX

The moon had begun to peek from the clouds when the train pulled into District Twelve. Emmanuel had his nose pressed against the window as he peered to see the station even though he had been there before. Effie had somehow fallen asleep, her head resting against Haymitch's shoulder.

Initially, Haymitch had found the whole situation rather awkward but as the train left District Eleven bound to Twelve, the weight on his shoulder became a familiar feeling.

"Hey, Effie, we're here."

Effie blinked, siting bolt upright, two bright spots colouring her cheeks. "Did I fall asleep on you? Oh, Haymitch, I'm so sorry!"

"It's fine. My arm's a bit sore, but nothing a good massage wouldn't solve," he winked.

Effie blushed and dropped her gaze. It took his brain a moment to realise how that sentence had probably sounded to her.

"That's not what I –"

He broke off when Emmanuel knocked against the window from the other side, having already alighted from the train. He beckoned them to hurry, pointing to the two figures behind him, steadily approaching closer to where Emmanuel was.

"Effie!"

Peeta rushed forward and enveloped her in a hug followed by Katniss. Emmanuel stood beside Effie, looking at them shyly.

"Hello," he greeted. "Ummm, I never thanked you for your hospitality when I came by the last time."

"Oh, it's perfectly alright, you were preoccupied back then. You're all better now?"

"I'm fine, yes," Emmanuel smiled. "Haymitch took care of Effie like he promised he would."

Katniss bend forward slightly so that she was eye to eye with the teenager, even though at fourteen, Emmanuel was already about the same height as Katniss. "One thing you must know about Haymitch is that he's all bark but he doesn't bite. You figured that out yet?"

"I think so."

"Good," Katniss straightened up before turning to Haymitch and winked. "Peeta's truck is out front. Let's go."

Emmanuel called shotgun and slid into the front seat. He questioned Peeta about District Twelve, pointing to the various buildings he saw along the way.

"What's over there?"

"The meadow."

"What's the meadow like?" he asked quickly, barely giving Peeta the time to catch his breath.

"I'll take you there one of these days. How about that?"

"Awesome!"

Haymitch sighed dramatically at the back seat. "I have to live with his incessant chattering? As though dealing with one Trinket for nearly two decades isn't enough."

Emmanuel craned his neck to look at the adults at the back seat, directing his question at Katniss. "More bark than bite, right?"

She nodded in amusement. The rest of the journey continued in very much the same manner with Emmanuel grilling Peeta about the district and its lifestyle, while next to him, Katniss and Effie made small talk. Haymitch stared out of the window, the dream he had earlier replayed itself in his mind like an infinite loop.

No, I'm not going to get them killed. The war's over.

"You're probably tired. So we'll leave you to settle in, but please, come over for dinner," Peeta invited. Haymitch didn't realise that they had arrived at his house.

"Thank you, Peeta. We'll be there," Effie smiled, closing the truck door with a click.

Opening the door to his house, Haymitch noted that the kids had indeed cleaned it. He could actually see the floor of his living room instead of it being covered by bottles of liquor or food wrappers or his clothes and his house smelt of something fragrant instead of the normal pungent odour he was used to.

He showed Effie and Emmanuel to their bedrooms and left them alone to unpack while he went down to the cellar, thinking that that would probably where Peeta or Katniss would have stashed the alcohol.

Haymitch was right. Lined neatly on the rack are his liquor bottles. He took a bottle off the rack and turned around, nearly bumping into Emmanuel.

"Woah," his voice was ripe with wonder. "Are these all yours?"

"Yeah, and this place is out of bounds to you."

Emmanuel snapped out of his trance and shrugged his shoulder. "Sure. That's an unhealthy habit, you got there," he said as they climbed the stairs up. "You're supposed to keep an eye out on Effie. You can't do it drunk."

"I know what I have to do," Haymitch replied, feeling slightly annoyed. "Go away and play with your guitar or something."

"Nah, I think I'm gonna explore this place. I'll be outside!"

XxX

Emmanuel was hardly at home over the course of the next few days. He was always out either with Katniss or Peeta, or wandering around the district on his own. It made Effie restless with worry but each day, he returned home in time for dinner, safe and with a million stories to share.

"You should be careful, Em," Effie had said one night.

"Why?"

She hesitated and when Haymitch was alone with her later on, she told him quietly that she was worried about how people would treat Emmanuel, a boy from the Capitol.

"It never occurred to me but what if they wanted to exact revenge? They could do it through him."

Haymitch made a sound that sounded somewhat between an annoyed grunt and frustrated sigh. He wanted to tell her to open her eyes and stop thinking so lowly of his people but held his tongue.

"He isn't the only Capitol boy in this district. There are others too - children of liaison officers. If you're worried about him being a foreigner - don't. There are families from different districts here now. We're all living together. It's not the same anymore since the last time you were here during the Quell."

That managed to put her slightly at eased although she still glance out of the window every few minutes if Emmanuel was slightly late for dinner.

Emmanuel on his part seemed unaware about how worried Effie was. While he made it a habit to always ask after Effie - if she was doing okay, if she slept alright and if took her medicines - he still kept it a point to go out and have fun. He ventured to the edge of the woods with Katniss who seemed to enjoy spending time with Emmanuel ("he reminded me of Prim," her voice soft as she told Haymitch over dinner once), promising him that she would take him deeper into the woods one day. Peeta brought him out to town, introduced him to the people that he knew and even allowed Emmanuel to man the cashier at his bakery shop sometimes.

"Effie, I met this woman yesterday. Her name's Greasy Sae and she sell soup. Wild dog soup!," Emmanuel told Effie that morning, shuddering slightly. "I've never had that before. Have you? During one of those times that you visited?"

Two weeks since their arrival, Emmanuel came home late for dinner on one occasion. Effie had called Peeta asking if Emmanuel had been with him but apparently, according to Peeta, the boy had gone off with his friends.

"Friends?"

"He's made a few," Peeta answered. "Listen, Effie, don't worry. I'm sure he's just lost track of time. If he's not back by eight tonight, I'll go search for him with Haymitch, alright?"

Fifteen minutes to eight, Haymitch was cursing the boy silently. Haymitch was in no mood to be venturing out at night looking for a teenager who didn't know how to keep time. Just as Effie was pushing him out of the door to go search for Emmanuel, the boy could be seen walking up the walkway carrying a huge cardboard box. He kept looking down at the box every few seconds as though whatever was in it would jump out to attack him.

"Where have you been?!" Effie screeched from the doorway.

"I'm sorry, I was with my friends. Her geese laid eggs a few weeks ago and it's hatched recently. Look," he pointed to the box that he had set down on the coffee table.

Haymitch peered in and saw two goslings with their yellow plumage sleeping against each other.

"Oh my," Effie breathe out. She reached out a hand to stroke the soft fluffy bird but quickly retracted it when one of them stared to move. "Why do you have them in the box?"

"They're kind of adorable, aren't they? I thought we could keep it."

"Absolutely not! Return it at once," Effie said. "You cannot just bring in animals to the house, Em."

"But it's Haymitch's house. Can we keep them, Haymitch? And raise them?"

"I'm not raising them. If you want to keep them, you raise them. When they're grown up and have more meat to them, we can make a dish out of –"

"WHAT? No, no, we're not eating these poor birds."

"I'm joking," Haymitch winked. "It needs a pen."

"Can you help me build a pen?" he asked, ignoring Effie as the two males in the house moved to the back yard to find a temporary place to keep the goslings.

XxX

"I'm glad he's enjoying himself," Effie said, one afternoon, watching Emmanuel feed his pets. "Although I can't believe you let him keep the birds."

Haymitch said nothing. They've had the same conversation for nearly a week now with Effie absolutely refusing to come anywhere near the birds.

"You're spoiling him, and when we return home to the Capitol, those birds are going to be left alone," she commented.

"I'll look after it, and you send the boy back every holiday so he can take over," Haymitch answered simply.

Effie gave him a radiant smile, her eyes lighted up making the blue of her irises to shine beautifully.

"What?" he asked, feeling slightly unnerved by the way Effie was looking at him. Haymitch held her medications in the palm of his hand as he waited for her to swallow the pills one by one. Effie didn't answer him. "Is it better to be away from the Capitol?"

"It is," she made a face as she polished off the last pill with water.

"You should learn from your nephew – go out, take a walk or something. You've been here for three weeks and the furthest you've been is to their house next door."

"Give me some time, Haymitch. It's just – I don't know how everyone will react when they see me. I've done some terrible things to their children – "she broke off, her eyes darting everywhere but Haymitch.

"It's been two years, Eff. You'll see that a lot has changed," he tried to tell her. "You said we needed bread right? And that we ran out of milk?"

She nodded.

"We'll go get some tomorrow. We'll go to town."

"I – Okay."

"We'll just get the bread and the milk, and then we'll come back. And when you feel better, we can stay out a little bit longer, and you can irritate half the town just by being your usual flamboyant self."

She couldn't help but laugh softly at that. Of course he would try to help but it wouldn't be him if he didn't add in a snarky remark or a sarcastic comment somewhere.

"You've been talking to Dr. Abel, haven't you?"

"Of course not," he rolled his eyes.

XxX

"I'm taking Effie to town today. We need bread and milk," Haymitch said, watching Emmanuel arranged their breakfast on the table.

"Really? Cool! I'm going to help Peeta at his shop so I'll probably see you there."

Haymitch raised an eyebrow.

"Is he paying you for your labour?"

"What? I'm not working for him. I just hang around," Emmanuel said.

"Like a nuisance?" Haymitch inquired. His face was expressionless but Emmanuel heard the teasing in Haymitch's voice.

"Very funny."

As was his practice, Emmanuel disappeared right after breakfast. He zipped through the house in a hurry, clearing his plate and washing them quickly before stooping down to kiss Effie's cheek and waved at Haymitch as he dashed pass the front door.

"Ready?" Haymitch asked, waiting for Effie.

"Do I look okay? Or is this too much? Will it remind them of who I was?"

He looked at her. She resembled nothing of the Effie Trinket that everyone knew. Effie had stopped being that gaudy, colourful woman since she was rescued. She stood in front of Haymitch wearing light brown sandals, her polished toenails peeking out from it and she had on a yellow dress stopping right above her knee.

"You look fine."

Effie smoothened out her dress, took a deep breath and walked out of the house, ready to go into town.

I wasn't very sure about this chapter so I hope it was alright.

In Chapter Eleven, we'll see a change in Haymitch's and Effie's relationship.