Prompt : Hi, in your most recent fic there was something along the lines of one time where Effie ended up in peacekeeper custody. Do you already have an existing fic where this happened? If not, that'd be a lovely prompt c: (ps: I cannot say enough how beautiful your writing is, and it's so nice that you write so often and so well)
The Other Side of the Force Field
As she entered the fourth bar on her list, Effie's mood spiraled from bad to extremely bad. She had been searching Haymitch and Chaff's usual places of choice to get drunk for almost three hours without any result and she was quickly becoming tired of the wild chase. She was now desperately visiting all the bars in that part of town – a part of town that was of disputable repute – and she was ready to kill them as soon as she saw them.
Mandatory parties couldn't be missed and Haymitch hadn't come back in time to get ready for the one held that night, neither had Chaff according to Viola but Viola had Seeder to parade around and people wouldn't ask for more – a victor from each District was enough. Effie only had Haymitch and she had specifically told him to be back early enough. At that point, Effie still had hoped for them to make an appearance at the party but it wouldn't even be close to being fashionably late.
A quick scan of the bar didn't show Chaff's broad shoulders nor Haymitch's scruffy suit. People stared at her, obviously wondering what an escort was doing in a bar when she should be having drinks with the elite. She would definitely kill Haymitch.
She was about to give up on that merry chase and head back to the penthouse when she caught sight of a familiar face in the crowd. A face that crumpled in distaste as soon as she realized she had been spotted.
Effie made a beeline for Johanna Mason.
"I'm not going to that party." the young woman said as soon as Effie was near enough. "Don't care what you have to say about it or how much Argila paid you." She downed her glass quickly and signaled the bartender for another.
"Argila didn't ask me to come after you." Effie replied, perching herself on the stool next to the victor. Just for a second, she vowed; her shoes weren't designed for roaming around and her feet were killing her. "Do you know where Haymitch is?"
Argila, Seven's escort, probably wasn't even looking for Johanna, she doubted Blight would have been as difficult. Surely, she was at the party having the time of her life with Viola and having a good laugh at her expense, just like the rest of the staff.
"If he's lucky, where you won't find him." Johanna snorted in her drink.
Effie narrowed her eyes, studying the victor's unfocused eyes and the way she was restlessly playing with her coaster. Then the escort eyed the black dress the young woman was wearing – simple enough, not very fashionable, but short and tight – and concluded it wouldn't do to let her wander around wearing that kind of outfit if she was too drunk to defend herself. Once again, they weren't in a very respectable part of town - victor or not. She disliked Johanna but she didn't wish her any ill – and Haymitch would probably hold her responsible if she left her there and something bad happened.
"How many drinks did you have?" Effie asked, already resigned to dragging Seven's victor back to the Training Center with her. That certainly wouldn't be fun but that would be better than explaining to Argila why she hadn't helped when she could – she was kind of friends with the other escort after all and a drunk Mason causing mayhem would reflect badly on her.
"A good deal." Johanna replied, warning her with a glare not to comment on that. "You look like you need one. Order something but do it far from me. This bar is big enough for both of us."
"Why do you, victors, always have to be difficult?" she sighed. "Come back with me. I won't force you to go to the party." What Seven's victors were up to wasn't her problem at all. "You know I can't leave you here alone when you're drunk." Anything could happen. She could get assaulted on her way back, she could start a brawl and cause a scene, she was idiot enough to insult the Capitol in a public place… Johanna was too unpredictable to be left on her own.
For a second, she was certain Johanna would start screaming bloody murder at her but then a triumphant smile stretched her lips. Johanna's smiles, Effie couldn't help but notice, always had a dangerous edge to them.
"Tell you what, Trinket… I will play you for it." The victor nodded to a billiard table not far from there.
"You want to play pool." Effie deduced, blinking slowly at the strange suggestion.
"I win, I stay." Johanna offered. "You win, I leave." The younger woman's laugh echoed throughout the bar when Effie took too long to answer. "What's going on? Afraid to lose?"
"I'm merely surprised you would consider bargaining with me." Effie rolled her eyes. "I was expecting a flat out refusal."
"I'm bored." Johanna shrugged, jumping off her stool with an agility Effie envied. "And annoying you is always entertaining."
"You're spending too much time with Haymitch." Effie grumbled, ordering a glass of wine because she was thirsty and she should at the very least have some fun this evening.
Pool wasn't Effie's stronger area but she wasn't abysmal at it either. Many a night in her wild youth had been spent in bar such as this one and if Johanna had counted on a quick victory she was proven wrong. They bickered for thirty minutes in the middle of the game because Mason insisted that Effie cheated each time she scored – which was totally unfair – and Effie insisted that Johanna was trying to get her drunk so she would lose. Seven's victor ordered a new drink each time Effie finished her glass and by the time Effie won - because of course she won, she wasn't about to lose at a typically Capitol game while they were in the Capitol - she was quite tipsy.
"What are you doing?" she asked as she watched Johanna settling once more on a stool at the bar. "I won. We're leaving."
"You cheated." Johanna argued, pushing a margarita in front of her. "Doesn't count. You're also buying."
Effie lifted her eyebrows. "First, I didn't cheat, you are a sore loser. Second, we drank enough."
It would be difficult enough to find a car to get them back to the Training Center as it was. Effie refused to walk.
Getting drunk unsupervised was reckless. Who knew what would come out of her mouth once she had enough alcohol in her body? She wasn't a lightweight by any means but she was also aware that she could get inebriated very easily if she let herself go.
"I bet you can't out drink me." Johanna mused.
"I could out drink you." Effie argued. "But I won't. We made a deal, hold your part."
People around them didn't seem to take any interest in what they were doing but it wouldn't last, she knew that from experience. Sooner or later, someone would ask for a picture or an autograph or for a bit of their attention.
"I lied." Johanna replied with a shrug. "Are you leaving or are we drinking?"
"Why are you so bent on getting me drunk?" Effie huffed.
"Because I want to know if you're naturally annoying or if you're funnier when you're smashed." She ordered a round of shots without waiting for Effie's reply. "And maybe if I'm drunk enough your voice won't give me a headache."
The sensible thing to do would have been to walk out that bar while she could and get someone to bring Mason back to the Training Center but that would request explanations about what she was doing there in the first place when she was supposed to be at a party. Everything was Haymitch's fault. Of course.
"Can I buy you lovely ladies a drink?" a man asked, slowing to a stop next to them. He was tall, had broad shoulders and sported a dyed blue beard. Effie took in the wrinkled shirt, the cheap wig on his head and the pungent smell of cigarette and wrinkled her nose.
"No." Johanna spat. "Fuck off."
"Johanna!" she exclaimed in horror. Granted the man wasn't up to her standards and not much to look at but, really, that was no reason to be rude. "Honestly! Don't you have any manners at all?" She smiled at the man but made sure it was polite rather than encouraging. "No, thank you."
"Sure?" he slurred, placing a hand on her thigh in a very familiar manner.
She slapped it away with a wince of disgust. "Very. Please, kindly step away before I let my friend hit you."
"'Not going to hit him." Johanna chuckled in her glass. "You wanted to be polite, you deal with it. And don't call me a friend I have a reputation, you know."
The hand she had just whacked away returned to her shoulder which made her frown. "Come on." the guy whined. "Just a drink…" He leaned in as if to kiss her and she pushed him away firmly.
"I'm not interested." she scowled but the man didn't seem to understand, he only swayed on his feet and looked at her as if she was speaking a different language.
"You're used to handle drunks." Johanna mocked her, downing a shot. "What do you do when Haymitch becomes too handsy?"
The guy was coming back and Effie glanced around desperately, hoping for some help. No one moved, at best people were looking at them with amusement.
"Or maybe you don't do anything when Haymitch gropes you…" Johanna continued, drinking another shot. "Chaff says you would do anything for a quick tumble with him…"
"Chaff should learn to keep his mouth shut." she snapped, easily shrugging off the hands that wanted to grip her shoulders. "If you don't start to behave at once, I will hurt you." she warned the man. The threat made Johanna laugh so hard she almost choked.
Finally, when she was about to get up and simply make good use of her pointy shoes, another man stood up and grabbed the blue beard guy's arm to steer him away, mumbling something about not messing with escorts or victors. It was good to know some people has still enough sense in them not to try and harass an escort.
"Here." Johanna offered, sliding a shot in front of her. "Don't go and try to kill people just yet. The night is still young."
Effie knew she was being mocked but she still accepted the liquor and the one after that. She quickly discovered that she couldn't, in fact, out drink Johanna but for all her attempts, it seemed that Johanna couldn't out drink Effie either. They matched each other drink for drink until Effie quite forgot the reason why it was absolutely not a good idea to consume alcohol in a public place with a victor. Needless to say, by the time she realized she wasn't tipsy anymore but outright drunk, the crowd in the bar had thinned down and Johanna who had started long before she came along was almost passed out on the counter.
They were laughing almost hysterically but Effie couldn't have told the reason if anyone had asked. She thought Mason was laughing at her but she didn't know why she was laughing, probably because she was so far gone into tequila she wasn't sure she could spell it correctly.
"Excuse me, you're Johanna Mason. I'm a big fan of yours."
Effie glanced at the young woman standing uncertainly nearby, eyes riveted on Johanna. Nice white dress, not really expensive but not cheap either, lovely pink wig and designer shoes, she was probably closer to Effie's usual social scene than anyone else in the bar.
"Great." Johanna mumbled without even looking at the girl. "Go be a fan elsewhere."
"You are so rude." Effie giggled. She should have chided her and smoothed things up with the stranger but it seemed too much trouble somehow and for some reason it was amusing. "You're even ruder than Haymitch and Chaff and they are both very, very…" She racked her brain for a suitable word and came out empty. "rude." she finished lamely.
"May I have a picture?" the younger woman asked, apparently not getting the point.
"You may fuck the hell off." Johanna snapped, glaring at the stranger who jumped in fright.
Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, a man appeared and placed an arm around the young woman's shoulders protectively. "Is there a problem?" The man didn't look really nice, perhaps because Johanna had seemed a bit threatening, perhaps because he was in a bad mood too. Effie had half a mind to ask him if he too had been wandering around town for a friend that wasn't really a friend like she had been before she found Johanna who definitely wasn't a friend either.
"Yeah." Johanna growled. "Tell your bitch to leave me alone."
Seven's victor was more alert than she had been a few minutes ago. If Effie didn't know better she would think Mason was eager for a fight.
"I only see one bitch here." the man replied, glaring at Johanna.
"You can't speak to a victor like that." Effie shook her head disapprovingly, forgetting a bit too quickly the way Johanna had addressed the couple.
She should have remained silent, the man's eyes fell on her and he frowned. "You're not her escort. You're the drunkard's."
She was on her feet in a matter of seconds although it was maybe not a good choice because she swayed one way and then the other until she steadied herself by grabbing the stool. Still, she glared at the man. She barely registered the bartender warning Johanna that he didn't want any problem and that he would call Peacekeepers if they kept this up. "Don't insult him. You don't even know him."
"And I don't want to." the man laughed. "He's a joke, they should keep him in Twelve. No one from his District is ever going to win anyway."
Effie balled her hands into fists and stomped her foot in fury.
"Now, you got the peacock angry." Johanna's laughter echoed loud and clear but she probably wasn't expecting Effie to grab her glass and throw the liquor at the couple's face. The woman's white dress was soaked and very probably ruined.
Terrible fights had started because a dress had been ruined so, all in all, it was probably a good thing Peacekeepers came in when they did.
It was absolutely mortifying. Everyone stared at them when the men in uniform politely asked them to follow them – it was fortunate Effie was coherent enough to give her name and Johanna's otherwise she was sure they would have been thrown in jail until the next morning. She begged and begged for them to be taken back to the Training Center but they only relented when she started crying ugly tears that were as fake as the woman's designer shoes were. Johanna looked halfway between impressed and disgusted. They didn't simply let them go once they were back into the Training Center though, they brought them into the little cells in which they kept inebriated sponsors or victors and left them there.
Effie had been there many times to fetch Haymitch but she had never been on the other side of the force field before and she hated it the second she stepped in. There were already two men in there. The first one, passed out on one of the blue couch lining the walls, reeked of vomit and the second one stared at them like he hadn't seen a woman in years.
"Just try." Johanna warned him with a glare and that was enough for the sponsor to go back to his slumber. Satisfied, she collapsed on one of the couch and made herself at home. "So, Trinket, who are you going to call to get us out of here?"
Effie blinked. "Apologies?" She couldn't even muster the energy for proper sentences. She just wanted to curl up in a ball and sleep before the unavoidable nausea that came with too much alcohol hit her. Except she wouldn't be doing that in there. Who knew what kind of germs lurked on those couches or when they had been cleaned for the last time…
"You need to call someone." Johanna rolled her eyes, obviously fed up with her. She had sobered up at some point but Effie hadn't. "Argila won't come. She never does, that bitch."
"You use that word an awful lot." Effie pointed out and then turned to the force field fencing them in the cell to ask the Peacekeepers for a phone. They would release her in someone's custody. Once she had the phone in her hand Effie paused, unable to decide who to call. Her first thought was her older sister which was both surprising and stupid, her second idea was Haymitch and that was barely better since she didn't know where he was, probably in another cell like that one in some part of the Capitol. She still tried the penthouse, just in case he had gone back there to have a last drink with Finnick and Chaff like he often did. It seemed she was in luck.
"Yeah?" came Haymitch's familiar grouchy voice.
"Hello." she said after a second too long. "Haymitch…"
"Effie." He spat her name with relief and anger all rolled into one. "Where the hell are you? I waited for you all night at that stupid party, I had to make excuses for you. I didn't even get a single drink. You owe me, sweetheart."
She had forgotten about the party and she didn't care at all at that very moment. Her eyes were burning with unshed tears. She was tired, the smell in that cell was terrible and she just wanted to go home.
"Can you come and get me?" she asked in a small voice.
There was a silence on the other end and she was afraid he had left but he would never leave her when she was potentially in trouble, of course.
"Are you drunk?" It was disbelieving. She could count on one hand the number of times she had been drunk around him. Tipsy, yes, it happened frequently at parties but drunk? Not if she could help it. One of them needed to remain attentive.
"Perhaps a tiny bit." she cringed. "It wasn't my fault!"
Low chuckles echoed in her ears. "So, I've been trying to keep your ass out of the line of fire all night while you were getting wasted. If you wanted a role reversal, you could have just asked, you know."
"It's not funny, Haymitch." she snapped, wrapping her free arm around her middle section. She could feel the Peacekeepers' eyes fixed on her so she turned around but Johanna was staring too. There was no privacy in there, no space either. She wasn't claustrophobic but she started to get upset at the idea of being imprisoned. Trinkets simply didn't get imprisoned. That wouldn't do. "Please, help me."
"I'm coming." he said at once. He didn't need to ask if she was upset, he knew her enough to know just by the sound of her voice. "Where are you?"
"In custody." She closed her eyes in utter shame. "The usual place."
"You're joking!" He started to laugh, a real loud and boisterous laugh, that meant she would never hear the end of it.
"Please, hurry." She wasn't above begging. She couldn't fall much lower anyway. "It's awful in here. I don't know how you can stand it."
"On my way." He was still chuckling as he hung up.
She gave the phone back to the Peacekeepers and walked closer to Johanna. She was feeling a bit dizzy but she still didn't want to sit on one of the couches, almost certain they would stain her satin dress.
"Is your knight with a shining bottle going to come and rescue you?" Johanna mocked.
"You are mean." Effie concluded. A whole evening spent together and Effie had yet to hear the victor say anything remotely nice about anyone else.
"That's the worst you could come up with?" Johanna snickered.
"Haymitch won't be long." she told her instead.
"Of course, he won't." the victor rolled her eyes, stretching her legs in front of her. The dress was riding too high on her thighs to be proper but Effie was sure she wouldn't take kindly to her pointing that out so she didn't say anything. "He wouldn't want his little pet to get hurt."
"I don't understand." she confessed. Her right eyes was itching, she rubbed it, forgetting the fake eyelashes and the rest of her make-up. The eyelashes stuck to her hand so she took off the other one. She couldn't see a trash bin, she placed them on the arm of the couch.
"He doesn't care about you, you know." Johanna said. "You're convenient."
That wasn't strictly true even though it wasn't totally a lie either. Who knew who Haymitch cared about anymore. Effie didn't think he knew it himself. Still, she glanced at the two men who were apparently asleep. She was very, very drunk but even very, very drunk she knew some topics were dangerous.
"You are a mean person who enjoys hurting other people just so she isn't the only one feeling miserable." Effie folded her arms over her chest. "I am done playing that game with you. You can't hurt me, I won't let you. Mock me, taunt me all you want. It won't work."
She walked to the force field and leaned against it cautiously. It was strange to feel a resistance where there was nothing but emptiness although a force field was better than a wall drunks probably used to relieve themselves. She wasn't familiar enough with those cells to know what happened in there.
Fortunately, it only took ten minutes for Haymitch to arrive, vastly amused by the prospect of being the one sober and with a right to give a lecture this time. The Peacekeepers – who had been there for enough years they were friendly by now – were amused too, even more so when they told Haymitch about the almost-fight in the bar.
"Haymitch!" she exclaimed as soon as they lifted the force field. She didn't care who was watching, she hugged him tight. "I won't drink ever again." she promised against his neck. "I don't want to be in a cell ever again."
He snorted but hugged back until he saw Johanna.
"I should have known." He shook his head and nodded to Seven's victor. "I will take that one too." The Peacekeepers were only too happy to oblige.
The walk back to the elevator was mostly silent. Effie was clutching Haymitch's arm, using him as a crutch to keep herself upright. Her head was spinning madly.
"When I told you to play nice with my escort, I didn't mean get her drunk and start a brawl in a bar, you know." he said when Johanna pushed the button marked with a silvery seven.
"Don't blame me." the younger woman retorted. "She's the one who started throwing drinks at people's head. To defend your honor, nothing less. How sickeningly cute."
Her sneer was ugly. Effie wanted to tell her so but she was excessively tired and she leaned more heavily against Haymitch. He had to adjust his grip on her to prevent her from stumbling. She missed the rest of the conversation, she was too busy trying not to fall asleep.
Johanna left without a goodbye and the elevator started humming again. It chimed when they reached their floor but Effie's feet didn't seem to work properly, they kept twisting with each other.
"Oh, for fuck's sake…" Haymitch grumbled. "Put your arms around my neck."
She did as he requested but more because she would have done anything he asked at that point than because she had an inkling of what he was going to do. She wasn't sure she would have let him carry her bridal style otherwise, it did little for her quivering stomach.
It was definitely quicker though. She was on her bed in a matter of seconds and her bed was a very good place to be when she was that drunk.
"Did you really throw your glass at someone who insulted me, Princess?" His voice was a distant rumble, she snuggled against her pillow, vaguely aware of his hands working on her ankles to free her of her high heels. "Waste of liquor if you ask me."
"I ruined that woman's dress." She giggled for no reason at all. The white dress was totally ruined though, she would bet… And that was well-deserved even if it was her boyfriend the culprit. "No one insults my Haymitch."
"Yeah?" He sounded amused, she didn't know why, she was being deadly serious. "Don't you think your Haymitch is old enough to defend himself?"
"No…" she yawned. "He's a big baby. My big baby…" She giggled again and then frowned. "Don't tell him I said that."
Her eyes were closed, she was already half asleep, but she was sure lips brushed against her forehead. "Your secret's safe with me, sweetheart."