Prompt: How Hayffie would have found their way to each other if Effie had been a different district's escort at the start.

The Road Not Taken


1.


When Haymitch spotted Viola Summercket on the stage in the middle of the Square, he almost turned around right then and there to go find more liquor. He was tipsy but not drunk and it would take a lot more than a light buzz to deal with that woman.

Cray, Twelve's Head Peacekeeper, winced in solidarity but jutted his chin toward the stage all the same, tapping his wrist to remind him it was time.

Haymitch took his seat next to the Mayor, deeply unhappy.

Could Viola feel him scowling at her back during the whole Reaping? He hoped so. She had been assigned to him the previous year and it had been a disaster of epic proportions. He hardly ever got along with his escorts but this one was taking the cake. She was awful to the kids, haughty and mean to the point of cruelty… He hated her and he had threatened to push her down the stairs – he had literally gone to Head Gamemaker Torello and had threatened to push her down the stairs if the man didn't replace her.

"Thought we had an agreement." he sneered at her as soon as they were on the train, away from their tributes' ears. "You were supposed to be gone."

"Do you think I enjoy still being stuck with your pathetic little District?" she retorted with a hiss. "I was supposed to be promoted to Eleven but a little slut snatched it from right under my feet. They offered her Twelve and it was not good enough for her. It seems Torello found her arguments more compelling than mine but, then again, Effie Trinket has always been easy. At least your disgusting friend will have fun this year…"

As it quickly turned out, Chaff wasn't having any fun.

When Haymitch finally found him at the Parade, his friend looked ready to tear his hair out of his skull.

"Save me." Eleven's victor begged as soon as he spotted him, his good hand grabbing his sleeve. "My new escort's a bitch."

He lifted his eyebrows and snorted. "Trade you for Summercket."

Chaff paused, made a face and then scoffed out a laugh. "No, thanks. She ain't that much of a bitch."


2.


It took Haymitch a whole week of painfully trying to shield his tributes from their own escort to figure out that, what Chaff called being a bitch, most victors would have called being efficient.

After the interviews, in the chaos that was the backstage area, Haymitch had all the troubles in the world not strangling Viola. There she was, putting down the kids in front of everyone, making fun of them…

Meanwhile, from the corner of his eyes, he could see Chaff's new escort praising their tributes even though they hadn't done much better than Twelve.

Viola made one cutting remark too many that reduced their girl to tears. All the other tributes were watching and, if Summercket cared that she had just painted a giant target on the tribute's back, it truly didn't show.

Haymitch really got angry at that point. He lost his thin grip on his patience and good senses.

Insults left Viola Summercket cold. She laughed in his face.

His hands closed into fists and he would probably have shoved her away if Chaff's escort, in her little blinding pink sequin dress, hadn't suddenly appeared between them, her expression pleasant but slightly bored. "Viola, darling, your face is melting. You might want to go touch up your make-up before someone realizes you are actually a witch."

Summercket sneered at her but pulled out a compact mirror from her purse and, with a last glare for both of them, stormed away. Eleven's escort rolled her eyes at her departing back and then turned toward his tributes. She crouched down in front of the still sniffing thirteen year-old girl and patted her shoulder.

"Now, now, honey." She clucked her tongue. "I thought you did very well for a first public appearance. Never mind Viola, she is a bitter old woman who would not recognized talent if it hit her on the nose. Dry me those eyes. Chin up, smile on."

Haymitch stood there, gaping a little, because…

"You've met Trinket yet, Haymitch?" Chaff asked, sounding a bit aggravated. "She can't keep her nose out of other people's business."

The woman stood up and flashed him a bright dazzling smile, outstretching a hand. "We haven't had the pleasure yet, Mr Abernathy. I was a big fan of yours growing up."

Now, Haymitch didn't make a habit of shaking escorts' hands, never mind those who professed to be fans… But she had come to his tribute's rescue when it would have been easier to remain at a safe distance and giggle with everyone else and she looked…

Her eyes were very, very blue.

He shook her hand.

He shook her hand for far too long.

Her smile brightened even more and then she was gone, ushering her own tributes away, leaving him to stare at her, wondering what the fuck had just happened.

Next to him, Chaff snorted. "Forget it, buddy. I ain't trading you."


3.


Chaff let out an irritated groan and Haymitch looked up in time to see his friend's escort strode straight to them with murder in her eyes. She had been with Eleven two years now and while their paths didn't cross often, they crossed enough that Haymitch was more and more envious of the other victor.

The woman wasn't exactly horrid to look at – far more attractive than his own escort – and he didn't even bother pretending he wasn't looking. She was wearing a long-sleeved white excuse of a dress that was mostly see-through, except where it counted, with a V neckline that practically reached her navel and a long white scarf fashionably knotted around her neck that fell over her right breast and down her back… With the golden wig, the gold lipstick and the glittery make-up, the whole thing looked… ethereal.

He wasn't as put off by her Capitol looks as he was with other women.

But it might have to do with the long legs or the bright blue eyes that the excessive make-up never managed to dim.

Chaff was lucky to be able to look at her all day. That, and she could actually hold her own in a conversation. She was witty. And feisty. And she was better at handling the children than a lot of escorts he had seen over the years.

He had to compose with Summercket and the woman wasn't improving with age. It was their third year together and Haymitch was honestly considering murder to get rid of her.

"Chaff." she said as soon as she reached the table they had commandeered in the corner of the room the party was taking place in. She managed to make it sound both polite and aggravated but she never stopped smiling. "I thought we had an agreement. Less drinking, more working."

"Seeder's working the crowd." his friend retorted. "Go annoy her."

The woman pursed her lips and Haymitch hid his smirk behind his glass of liquor. She was glaring daggers at his best friend and… Well… Angry wasn't a bad look on her. At least, until she turned her narrowed eyes to him.

"My apologies, does this amuse you?" she challenged.

Haymitch lowered his glass, not bothering to hide his smirk anymore.

"A little." he acknowledged. "Cause you know you ain't getting him out there whatever you're gonna say."

"So I should just quit trying." she huffed. "Is that what you are saying?"

"I'm saying a beautiful woman like you should be dancing, sweetheart." he answered, flashing her his best charming smile.

Her composure went from irritated to amused in a second. "I will be very soon, as a matter of fact. Seneca just asked me for the next one."

Haymitch didn't spare a glance in the Gamemaker's direction.

He shrugged, downing what was left of his drink. "He's gonna be disappointed."

"And why is that?" she hummed.

He outstretched a hand, barely paying attention to Chaff who was watching them with his eyebrows raised.

They stared at each other for a long moment, grey and blue clashing in a challenge of will…

When she eventually slipped her hand in his, he had never doubted she would.

"I am not sleeping with you." she warned, as he led her to the dance floor.

"Tonight or ever?" he mocked.

She pursed her lips and declined to answer.


4.


The year after that, her third year, was the first time he kissed her.

Their tributes were both dead, Chaff was being an asshole to her and Viola was hitting on his last nerve.

Their eyes kept meeting across the room full of sponsors, escorts and victors, the looks becoming more and more charged with something he wouldn't have been able to explain.

When she slipped out of the room, he followed her down the corridor. They had long reached a deserted area of the Games compound when she finally stopped, whirled around and pushed him against the wall. He didn't even think about protesting. When her mouth crashed on his, he responded to the kiss eagerly. Violently.

It was brutal and urgent and primal and everything he had never known he needed.


5.


He loved Chaff but he hated the fact that his friend seemed to enjoy making Eleven's escort cry so much.

"Can't you go easy on the girl?" he grumbled when it happened one time to many. "Fuck, Chaff, you know half the teams want to steal her from you, yeah?"

Chaff rolled his eyes and muttered something about escorts all being the same and Haymitch being besotted.

Haymitch almost punched him for that one.

He wasn't besotted.


6.


"I wish I had not turned down Twelve's position." Effie confessed against his lips. They were in a dark corridor again, hiding behind a huge potted plant, stealing a rare moment of calm. "Then we could do this all day and all night and I would not have to deal with your friend's wandering hand."

Haymitch kissed her harder.

He vowed to talk to Chaff again about his tendency to grope her against her will.

He didn't tell her he had already put in a request with Torello about a transfer and had been denied.

He and Viola deserved each other, he had been told, and Effie was too good at her job to be wasted on the likes of Twelve.


7.


He told himself he would have moved on from his slight obsession the next year but they somehow ended up right back in bed before the first day was even through.

He tried to be discreet as he sneaked out of Eleven's floor but he bumped into Seeder just as he was reaching the elevator.

"Haymitch." she said, an amused smile floating on her lips.

"I was…" he winced, fishing for an excuse to explain his presence on their floor. "Discussing strategy. For an alliance."

"Is that what you young people call it now?" the old woman teased.

Haymitch refused to be flummoxed but he was slightly red in the face when he finally managed to make his escape.


8.


"I'm gonna kill her." he muttered against Effie's back, lazily kissing along the slight bumps of her spine.

She snorted. "I tried to trip her down the stairs once, at a fashion show. It did not work. She is resilient."

He muffled his chuckles against her skin, not at all bothered by her confession of attempted murder. If there was one person in the Capitol who understood his hatred for Viola Summercket, it was Effie.

The sheets creased under her when she shifted so she could see him. He immediately kissed her mouth, unable to resist the impulse when she looked like that. Naked on white sheets was her best look.

Her hand pressed flat against his chest, pushing him back a little.

"If you truly want her gone, I may be able to make it happen though." she said.

He frowned. "Are we talking real murder?"

That didn't quite settle well with him. He hated the woman but…

"Of course not." she huffed, rolling his eyes. She pushed him down and straddled his hips and even though he tensed a little he let her do as she pleased because… "She is sleeping with the secretary of Communication who, as it turns out, is married to a good friend of my mother. It is only a matter of letting the information slip in front of the right people. I can guarantee they will ask her to step down. They will want to avoid the scandal."

He stared at her, a bit afraid and a lot aroused. "You're devious."

She grinned at him. "Don't you forget it, darling."


9.


At the end of that year, he put in a request for her again.

He wasn't surprised to find it denied even though Viola had made a public statement about deciding to retire.

By the time that year Victory Tour rolled around, Effie was promoted to Six.


10.


"They are drugged to their eyeballs from dawn to dusk." she complained as she frantically tear his shirt off his shoulders.

He didn't bother replying as he lifted her up and pinned her against the wall, attacking her throat with his mouth.

What was there to say? That his new escort was an idiot and the only good thing he could say about Della was that, at least, she wasn't mean?

Any escort of his was always going to be lacking.

None of them were her.


11.


"There is going to be an opening in a Career District next year." she whispered in the dead of night, as they laid curled up, legs tangled, sweaty and short of breath, in his room in the penthouse. Twelve's tributes were gone, his new escort had better things to do than hang around, they mostly had the place to themselves those days.

Her words made him freeze though. "Which one?"

"It is unclear yet." she hummed. "Prudence is retiring. They will probably shift people around. Brutus will insist on keeping Valeria but it is likely there will be a free slot in One."

"Don't take it." he immediately demanded.

She scoffed. "Are you crazy? If they offer it to me…"

"Effie, the way One and Two do business…" He propped himself on his elbow so he could look at her. "They pimp their escorts out when the sponsors aren't interested in them, sweetheart."

She didn't flinch or look otherwise disturbed. She simply shrugged. "So what? It is only sex, Haymitch." It was the first time in a long time he was reminded of how different they were. He must have made a face because she cupped his cheek with a slight frown. "Would you be jealous? It would only be business, you know, it wouldn't be…"

"Jealous?" he spat, jerking away from her touch. "Jealous of what? Don't make more out of this than it is. We're just having fun."

She looked hurt suddenly but she hid it behind a skilled mask of composed indifference. "Well, then. I fail to see why you would get so upset about me occasionally sleeping with sponsors…"

"Talking like a true Capitol." he accused, leaving the bed and getting dressed with angry moves.

"Yes, that is what I am." she retorted.

"Won't forget it again. Don't worry." he promised, storming out.


12.


He didn't see her again that year.

Avoiding her wasn't that hard, which made him think she was doing her own share of avoiding too.

He refused to admit it hurt.


13.


"You're miserable." Chaff rolled his eyes. "Grow a pair and go see her 'cause I can bear much more moping from you, buddy."

Haymitch scowled at him over his glass of whiskey. "Thought you didn't approve."

"I don't." Chaff shrugged. "Never stopped you before, what I thought about it, though."


14.


He heard through the grapevine that she declined the position in One.

When Finnick approached her though, she didn't refuse him.

Four was a good fit for her. She worked well with its mentors and it was a Career District so she wasn't bitching about wasting her potential on Districts that would never win.

Still, he held on to his grudge because…

Well…


15.


He shouldn't have been surprised when she dragged him into a supply closet right before the next year's Parade.

They weren't good at apologies.

They were good at fucking each other brainless though.


16.


The year Katniss Everdeen volunteered, Haymitch felt the lack of having a competent escort keenly.

A plan started to take shape in his mind, a plan that could ensure he would finally managed to save a kid – even though it would cost him the boy – but it was only a rough idea and he needed someone to talk it through with.

Anything he would say to Effie on the subject would get back to Finnick, though. It wasn't that he didn't trust her, it was that she had her own tributes to protect.

So he struggled on his own, planting the seeds of the star-crossed lovers story…

But it wasn't enough.


17.


"I need access to Crane."

Effie pursed her lips, her arms folded in front of her, half-protective and half-accusative. "You have your own escort, Haymitch."

"Yeah, and she's useless, and I need access to Crane." he insisted.

"You are asking me to betray my tribute by helping yours." she retorted. "You know I cannot do that."

Four's male tribute had died during the Bloodbath and the girl was amongst the Career pack with Peeta. The pack that was hunting Katniss down.

"Effie, please." he begged. "I can get that girl back. I know I can. I just… I can't do it without you."

Her face was a blank mask and, in the end, she shook her head. "I'm sorry. I can't sacrifice my tribute for yours. I hope you get her back, Haymitch, I really do… But I cannot help. Not if it means betraying my girl."


18.


The worst thing was… He got it.

He wouldn't have betrayed his tributes for hers even if she had begged him on her knees.

And she was very good at making him agreeing to things he didn't want to do when she was on her knees.


19.


Of course, then, Katniss dropped a tracker jacker nest on Four's tribute's head and she died stung to death.


20.


"I'm sorry." he told Effie and he meant it.

Most of the other mentors were giving him dark looks because of Peeta betraying the alliance but he ignored them.

Effie didn't really look angry. Mostly, she looked sad and tired. "I will talk to Seneca for you."


21.


He never planned on getting both Katniss and Peeta back.

He never planned on the poisoned berries.

He never planned on the whole thing becoming a lot more complicated.

He never planned on Thirteen still standing either.

He never planned on Cinna convincing him to join the rebellion.

He never planned on the fact that, apparently, all his friends had been involved for some time.


22.


Victor Tour was awful.

It was an endless affair that dragged on and on and on, leaving him frayed at the edges and beyond exhausted. His escort tried to help but she simply wasn't good enough. She was clueless and didn't understand the stakes.

Haymitch had to write the speeches, had to coach the children, had to teach them basic skills like waltzing…

Everything would have been more manageable if only he hadn't been alone to do all of that, if only…


23.


He didn't get to see Effie until the ball at the Presidential Mansion and, even then, it was short. A brief greeting in passing. She barely looked at him, barely smiled. The perfect picture of indifference.

Taking their distance was probably clever so he didn't try to contact her during the rest of his stay in the city.

But he wasn't entirely surprised when they bumped into each other by accident in a deserted corridor of the compound either.

"We cannot be seen together." she whispered. "Seneca…"

"I know." He nodded, grim. "Didn't mean to drag you into this. I'm…"

"Do not dare say you are sorry." she hissed. Her face softened. "I miss you. I miss you so much I am going crazy but I cannot take the risk. I…"

"I get it." he promised. "It's fine."

It wasn't.

But they were no strangers to pretending.


24.


He wished he could say he had seen the Quell coming but he hadn't.


25.


On Reaping Day, the brand new escort neither he nor the kids had met yet called out his name.

He didn't have time to finish forbidding Peeta from doing it before the boy volunteered.


26.


On the train, he watched Effie call out Annie's name, heard the latent anger in her voice soon replaced by sorrow when Mags volunteered. There was a sob in her voice when she called Finnick.

He couldn't even blame her for the show of emotions. She wasn't the only escort who had troubles keeping her composure.

He wondered if she was watching the live feed right then, in her own train, biting her nails while she waited for Twelve's results.


27.


He found her eyes over the crowd as soon as he put a foot on the City Circle. He didn't approach her, not yet, even though it took all he had to look away.

There were almost none of the usual mentors around. Most of those were backstage, back to being tributes.

He spotted Alina and made a beeline for her because she was one of the only the only friends he had left on that side of things.


28.


He found Effie on the roof well after that night dinner.

He didn't even ask how she had gotten there because it would have implied sneaking on Twelve's floor without anyone detecting her – which meant that the most likely explanation was that she had used the Avoxes' entrance, which was forbidden.

She was in his arms before he could even open his mouth.

He kissed her because words would never have been enough to convey what he wanted to say.

He could almost taste her fear in the feverish kisses, how terrified for him she had been.

"If… If I asked you to run away with me…" he hesitated. He hadn't planned on this. He had planned on doing the sensible thing and leaving her behind where she would be safe and…

"Yes." She didn't hesitate. "Yes."

"Even if it's dangerous?" he insisted. "Even if… Even if it means betraying your city?"

She searched his eyes for a long time, licked her lips… "I love you."

He wasn't ready for those words. He wasn't ready for them but fuck if…

He kissed her again and again and again until he forgot what he should have said, what should have been the careful answer to that.


29.


"I told Heavensbee she was on my list too." Finnick told him.

"Thank you." Haymitch sighed, rubbing his face. "If there's anything I can…"

"If Annie were here and I were in your shoes…" the boy cut him off. "I wouldn't trust them to keep her safe. I'd keep her with me even if it's risky on that hovercraft." Finnick gave him an ominous look. "I'll make sure Stella knows to send her to you at the right moment."

Haymitch didn't have much confidence in Four's other victor currently turned mentor again but he appreciated the gesture anyway.


30.


When Effie showed up in the penthouse, out of the blue, with a fishy excuse about paperwork for the alliance with Four, Haymitch didn't hesitate once second before following Finnick's advice.

Plutarch raged and ranted when he arrived to the meeting point with an escort in tow – an escort that wasn't even his – but the man eventually calmed down when he realized just how much of a pressure point Effie could have been in the hands of the Capitol.

It turned out the Head Gamemaker had a soft heart.


31.


"What happens next?" Effie asked him, after the disaster that was the arena breakout.

The hovercraft wasn't too far from Thirteen and they were standing next to a window, even though there wasn't much to see outside. The night was thick at this height.

"Ain't sure." he sighed. "We try to win this war, I guess."

"And after that?" She leaned against his side and he automatically wrapped an arm around her to steady her against him. "Let's say we win, what happens after that?"

He glanced around but nobody was paying attention to them so he risked dropping a kiss on the top of her head. "Whatever you want."

Her blue eyes were sparkling.

She was a little afraid, he could see that clearly, but she was also resolutely not showing it.

"A dangerous promise to make." she remarked.

"I live dangerously, sweetheart." he countered.

She leaned in, brushed her lips against his…

"I will take you up on that promise, Haymitch." she warned.

He certainly hoped she would…


A word for a poor author?