This prompt was sent to my ask box on Tumblr:
"OKAY SO IDEK IF YOU TAKE PROMPTS OR IF THIS IS HOW YOU REQUEST THEM BUT MY MIND JUST CAME UP WITH AN IDEA AND I'D LOVE IF YOU'D WRITE IT. Okay, so you know that soulmate au about how your soulmates last words are like tattooed on your skin? Well how about Effie's is 'I love you' and she grows up thinking it's all sweet and her soulmate is super lovely ect and then she ends up with Haymitch and the first time he says he loves her are his last words and oh please write it I CANNOT HANDLE THE FEELS"
I kept it short but hopefully made up for it with the angst! Enjoy and feel free to send me any prompts!
I love you.
The words had been etched into the delicate skin of her wrist since she was born. She didn't question what they meant until she was five, when she realised her mama said those words to her every night.
"Everyone has them, my sweet flower," her mother had explained. "They say it'll be someone's last words to you."
"You say it to me every night, mama," Effie frowned. "I don't want you to say it anymore. I don't want you to go."
"It wont be my last words to you. It will be the last words of someone special, someone who steals your heart."
Effie had clutched her chest at that point, a pout on her face. She didn't like the idea of someone stealing her heart.
xXx
It turned out that Effie wasn't very good and protecting her heart from being stolen like she'd been so determined to do since she was a child. When she was 25, she met him.
It had started out as complete disgust on Effie's part, doing nothing but look down on the unwashed, drunken mentor. She begged to be moved to a different district to be away from this man, but she was told year after year that if she could bring her tributes up to a good standard, she could be moved.
She failed every year and, by the time she reached 30 years of age, she was still partnered with Haymitch.
That was the year of the 74th Games, the year everything changed.
They'd fallen into bed the night their tributes were announced as winners. For once, Haymitch had stayed sober and it was as if she was communicating with an actual human being.
He wasn't the best lover she'd ever had, but there was a tenderness to his touch which drove her crazy. She couldn't resist him after that.
xXx
Feelings were never discussed between the pair, perhaps because there weren't any. He never stayed with her after they'd been intimate, and Effie understood it was because he feared hurting her in the throes of a nightmare. She often heard him yelling out in the night, but he always kept his door locked so she couldn't get to him.
She began to realise she was falling for him when she felt her heart break as she read out his name at the reaping for the Quarter Quell. But she decided she would never tell him. Haymitch seemed the sort of man who would run if there was so much of a hint of feeling. She didn't know what had happened to him after his Games, but she knew relationships were not something he would let himself get into.
But still, after the reaping, things were different between them. It was like they were closer, like they brought eachother more than just a release of frustration. He started staying with her, letting her sleep in his arms. When she woke up in the mornings, he was still sound asleep, as if she brought him comfort. He certainly brought it to her.
Things didn't change when they moved to 13 to fight the war against the Capitol. Granted, they saw less of eachother, but they truly sought solace in one another throughout their time in that underground bunker. Effie was scared and Haymitch was tired. They fixed eachother.
When the time came to storm the Capitol, Effie insisted on going with Haymitch, intent on standing by his side. He eventually caved, and they stood side by side on the balcony of one of the City Circle buildings as they watched the battle below. But Haymitch soon noticed the hovercraft coming in on the horizon, coming straight towards the building that had become the Rebel stronghold in the past few weeks. He knew it was over before she did.
"Effie," he said quickly to her. "Your words. What are they?"
Effie frowned and rolled up her sleeve, showing the writing on her wrist.
"What's wrong?" She asked, looking into his eyes and seeing something in them that she'd never seen before- fear. When he turned to glance over his shoulder, she followed his gaze and saw the hovercraft less than a few hundred metres away. That was when she knew.
"I…I love you," he said, quietly but it was all Effie could hear despite the sounds of panic beginning to rush through those stood out on the balcony with them.
Without a word, Effie took Haymitch's arm and unbuckled the wristwatch she realised he'd never taken off, an apparent effort to hide those four words written there.
The words had only just crossed her lips when the bombs dropped on the building.
I love you too.