Original Prompt : Can you do one where Effie goes on a diet and Haymitch tells her she's beautiful the way she is Please, please, please :D

Fashion Requires Sacrifice

"No, thank you." Effie refused the chocolate box with her usual polite smile. Haymitch thought nothing of it until she passed on dessert too during dinner – if you could call dinner the salad and the three green peas she ate. He waited until the kids had gone to bed and Cinna and Portia had left to discuss the matter though, knowing she was less likely to answer with an audience.

"You're alright, there, sweetheart?" he asked, when she pulled out another list of sponsors for them to review. He watched her from the liquor cart, taking in the small frown that seemed perpetually glued to her face since the Quarter Quell Reaping and nervous gestures. She looked up at him, from the couch she was sitting on, with obvious confusion. "You barely ate anything."

Her mouth opened in a silent "oh", obviously, she was surprised he had noticed as much. "I'm perfectly alright, thank you." She smiled sheepishly. "I'm actually on a diet. I know it seems silly with everything else going on but..."

Diet? He rolled his eyes and finally turned his attention to the liquor cart. "Seems silly to me with or without anything else going on. What are you dieting for?" He was careful with the amount of whiskey he poured into the glass : enough to soothe the anxiety, not enough to get drunk, that was the deal he had made with the kids.

"Well..." Her cheeks were a little flushed. "I've gained a few pounds."

"Yeah?" he snorted "Where?"

He studied her features more closely but couldn't, for the life of him, find anything unappealing in her body. Legs that went on forever, an ass to damn a saint, just the right amount of breasts and her face... Well her face would probably be better without the white powder and bright colors she insisted on plastering on it, but her eyes were so blue he had troubles escaping their scrutiny sometimes.

"On the hips, if you must know." She sighed. "Although, for future reference, that is not something you should ask a lady."

The dress might have been a little tighter around her waist, it was hard to tell when she was sitting down. Her clothes always seemed ready to burst anyway. "There are children starving out there and you're here, negating yourself the right to eat what you want because... Because, what? You couldn't fit in one dress or two?"

"Because Cinna had to adjust four of them since Victory Tour." she snapped. "Those dresses are unforgiving, fashion requires sacrifice."

"Screw fashion." He sipped his whiskey slowly, watching her pretending to read through the list of sponsors when he knew she was just fishing for an excuse not to look at him. "You don't need to lose weight, you have no weight to lose. You should eat more."

She stared at him like he was crazy. "But... Don't you think I look fat? The dress pinches at my waist, everyone can see it!" She stood up to prove her point but he didn't really see the difference. "Here, see?" She twirled slowly and if it was supposed to convince him to look at her – flat – stomach, she was mistaken, he couldn't care less about her hips, there were other things to look at. He enjoyed the show though. Those dresses were tight.

"Sweetheart, no one is ever going to look at your waist, you can stop starving yourself." It was hard to put down the glass and walk away from the cart, harder still not to take the bottle with him. In a way, he was grateful for Effie and her quirks, it distracted him. "As for you being fat, that's a stretch." He went to slump on the couch and she sat back down, immediately handing him list after list.

"I'm just trying to look my best." she said "I'm not as young as I used to be."

She wasn't old either. "You're beautiful. That won't change because you gain or lose a few pounds so you can stop being ridiculous and starving yourself." He tilted his head to better watch her. "How can you not know how good you look?"

"Careful, Haymitch." she joked, but her smile was pleased. "You're paying me a compliment."

"That's no compliment, that's the truth." He shrugged "Take it the way you want."

She stared at him for a few seconds and then cleared her throat, nodding to the forgotten paper in his hand. "Sponsors?" she reminded him.

They went to work and the subject was dropped but Haymitch was pleased to see, just before they separated for the night, she had found that chocolate box again.