Ferkelnase's prompt : i love the Prompt about their daughter Oria :) It would also be fun to read a story when she brings home her first boyfriend ;)
His Baby Girl
Peeta's bakery was heavy with the smell of freshly baked pastries. Effie was busy nodding very seriously at Rye's babble about this or that while Peeta filled a box with her order. Katniss and Haymitch were standing not too far from the large window, inspecting the young woman's new bow – her father's had become too old to be of any use.
"What do you think, Grandma?" Rye asked, his grey eyes open wide in interrogation.
At six and a half the little boy was still interested in what the adults had to say, his sister on the other hand was quickly entering what Haymitch and Effie had labeled "the age of nightmare"; at almost nine, Willow thought she knew everything better than anyone and above all any grown-up in her life. She followed Oria like a second shadow and was quickly becoming as stubborn as her mother had been – which was still less stubborn than Effie's own daughter was. Oria was now fifteen and even more rebellious than Katniss had been around that age. It didn't matter what Effie or Haymitch said, it was always wrong in her opinion even when they agreed with her. It was exhausting on a daily basis and Effie was glad for sweet Rye's easy disposition.
"Well, I think you should leave some milk for him tonight and the tabby cat might just come back." she advised, spying Peeta's amused smile. It wouldn't be the first cat the Mellarks rescued after all.
"Willow says he won't." The boy looked dejected and Effie couldn't bear that.
"You've been feeding him for two days, believe me, he will." Effie promised. "Cats are like Grandpa, they follow their stomach."
"Not with your cooking." Haymitch snorted from the window. Katniss hid a smile behind her hand probably to spare Effie's feelings.
"I've improved." Effie snapped. "You said so yourself. You love my pasta."
Haymitch handed the bow back to Katniss and walked closer with one of his trademark smirk. Rye immediately put his arms up and Haymitch lifted him up, even though he winced when his back cracked loudly in protest.
"Grandma doesn't know how to cook." he told the boy very seriously. "I think she's trying to poison me."
"You will make him scared of me!" Effie protested.
Rye looked from Haymitch to Effie, eyes sparkling in amusement. "I like when Grandma cooks chocolate cake."
"You don't cook cakes, darling, you bake them." she corrected him with an indulgent smile.
"And those are readymade." Haymitch whispered, loud enough for everyone to hear. "So it doesn't count."
"You're insufferable." Effie hissed, glaring at him.
"You know, when you two don't fight every three hours, I get worried." Peeta joked.
"He's insufferable!" Effie insisted.
"Right back at you, sweetheart." Haymitch winked.
Her irritation disappeared slowly faced with his obvious teasing and she settled for brushing Rye's blond hair out of his eyes. It was getting a bit long but the boy refused to have it cut to Katniss' growing annoyance.
"Why is there a boy pawing at Oria?" Katniss growled suddenly, looking through the window.
"What?" Haymitch roared. Before Effie could react in any way, her arms were full of Rye and Haymitch was gone. She quickly handed the boy to Peeta and hurried after her husband. She caught up with him in the street and easily saw what Katniss had been talking about. Her daughter was locked in a tight embrace with the Falders boy, they were so busy kissing they hadn't even spied the danger storming their way.
"Haymitch, now, don't go and…" she pleaded to deaf ears.
"Orianna!" he yelled so loud every passerby turned around to see what the scene was about. People quickly made themselves scarce when they glimpsed Haymitch though.
Oria obviously startled but was quick to push the boy behind her and placed her hands on her hips. "What?"
Effie mentally moaned, that was a huge fight in the making and she was sure she would get a headache before the end of the day. She watched the sun dance on her daughter's hair – black as coal with purple strands, needless to say she hadn't consulted any of them before getting it dyed – and longed for the easy days when she had been small and happy to trot after one of them.
"What do you mean what?" Haymitch snapped, taking a threatening step in the direction of the – obviously frightened – teenage boy. "Why did you have your tongue in my daughter's mouth?"
"Should I shot him?" Katniss' voice joined in. It was hard to tell if she was serious or not but Effie didn't fancy taking any risk.
"Katniss, dear, you aren't helping." she sighed before placing a restrictive hand on Haymitch's arm. "The boy clearly wasn't forcing our daughter, Haymitch."
She discreetly gestured at the teenager to run away while Haymitch was staring at her in obvious disbelief.
"Don't tell me you're alright with that?" he spat.
"She doesn't have to be alright with it, I'm big enough to decide for myself." Oria argued, folding her arms on her chest.
"You're certainly big enough to get grounded for five years." Haymitch snapped back. "Keep on talking back and it will be six."
Effie was painfully aware they were in the middle of the streets and people were looking at them from shop doors and windows. "Let's go back home and discuss the matter."
"There's nothing to discuss." Haymitch grabbed Oria's arm and started to drag her in the direction of their house which wasn't settling well with the teenager. She struggled all the way, all the more so when she glimpsed some of her friends watching the scene with small mocking smiles. "Go to your room." he ordered as soon as they had crossed the house's threshold.
"She isn't going to her room, we're having a talk." Effie countered, pointing to the living-room. Neither Haymitch nor Oria moved, both were sporting identical scowl. Enough was enough. "Now."
She rarely raised her voice in that manner but they knew that when she did, it meant business. Haymitch glared but passed in the next room without any more protest, ten years of working with her and fifteen of living with her had taught him when to fight and when to surrender. Oria seemed to hesitate between rebelling some more and compliance but in the end, she followed her father's lead and stepped into the living-room only to collapse gracelessly on a chair. To Effie's utmost despair, manners and proper lady-like behavior were as far on her lists of preoccupations as it was on Haymitch's.
Effie waited until Haymitch sat down on the couch before taking her place next to him and clasping her hands in her lap.
"Good." She tried to put some cheerfulness in her voice but it wasn't very convincing. "Now, let's talk about this like civilized persons."
"Nothing to talk about." Haymitch grumbled. "She isn't walking out of this house before she's forty."
Effie ignored him. "I wish you had told us you had a boyfriend, Oria."
"I don't have a boyfriend!" Oria exclaimed at the same time Haymitch shouted a "Are you kidding me?"
"Enough." Effie snapped. "Haymitch, our daughter is fifteen, that was bound to happen. Orianna, what do you mean you don't have a boyfriend? I do hope you don't go around kissing every boy in the middle of the street!"
She was sure her mother was spinning in her grave.
"She's still a baby." Haymitch argued, his face red.
"I have my periods, Dad, I'm not a baby anymore. I'm a woman." Oria shot back, knowing very well what that precise piece of information would do to her father. Haymitch almost choked in embarrassment and looked at Effie with pleading eyes. Talk of periods always made him uncomfortable.
"Orianna, you don't talk about such things." Effie sighed. "It isn't proper, not to mention every bit irrelevant. Now, what did you mean about not having a boyfriend."
Oria glared at Haymitch but then her anger seemed to fade to be replaced by uncertainty, she looked at Effie obviously ill-at-ease. "Can we talk about it just you and me?"
"Yeah, no." Haymitch snorted. "You will do your puppy eyes and she will give you permission to kiss boys. No."
Somewhere along the lines, Haymitch had become the bad cop and Effie the good one. She wasn't sure when they had exchanged roles. Perhaps when Oria had become a teenager and had started to crave more liberties than Haymitch was ready to give. Effie could still remember her wild years, she just wished Oria's wouldn't be half as wild.
"Why don't you go feed the geese?" Effie ordered more than suggested but Haymitch pretended not to understand.
"She's too young." he hissed through his teeth.
"It was the first time!" Oria exclaimed, all good disposition she was willing to show a few seconds before had disappeared. She was angry again and bolted to her feet. "And you spoiled everything! Now, he won't ever want to kiss me again."
"Well, good riddance!" Haymitch shouted back. "Sit down. We're not done, here."
"Oh, yeah, we're done!" the girl replied, storming out before any of them could do anything. Effie counted to three before she heard a door slamming shut upstairs.
"You just couldn't let me handle it, could you?" Effie sighed, rubbing a hand against her face.
"What is there to handle?" Haymitch growled. "She's grounded. Forever." She stared at him long enough it unnerved him. "What?"
"She's fifteen. It's natural to want to kiss boys at fifteen." Effie stated. "Every girl does. I kissed my fair share of boys."
"And look where it brought you." he snapped. "Model, then escort, all those wild parties and all those one-night stands… That's what you want for her?"
"Be very careful, Haymitch, because I have the feeling you are calling me a tramp." She narrowed her eyes at him.
"No." he was quick to reply, reaching for her hand. "No but I don't want that for her. I know what fifteen years old boys want. I know what I was after and that wasn't kissing. She's still a baby."
"A baby of fifteen." Effie argued softly, stroking his knuckles with her thumb. "You won't be able to keep boys away forever."
"I can kill them." he said a bit too seriously for her tastes. "I don't want stupid boys pawing at my baby girl."
"I would rather your baby girl felt free to come to us with boy problems." Effie sighed. "Whatever she decides to do with them, I'd rather know."
He looked ill now. "What do you mean what she decides to do? She isn't doing anything with a boy. Ever."
"So you want her to remain single forever?" Effie teased gently. "You don't want her to find a nice man who will love her just as much as we do? You don't ever want grandchildren?"
"I'm happy with the grandchildren we have. I feel old enough when they call me grandpa already." he grumbled before he shook his head. "How can you be okay with the idea of her… She's our baby, sweetheart! You were pregnant yesterday!"
"Yesterday was fifteen years ago." She smiled softly and pressed a kiss to his cheek. "Our baby is almost grown up and if she wants to kiss boys, I don't think we should forbid her. What we should do is talk to her and make sure she knows that she doesn't have to do anything she doesn't want to or doesn't feel ready for."
"It's like you're giving her permission." he lamented. "You know how she is…"
"Yes, I know how she is." Effie chuckled. "She is just like you. Tell her no and she will do it just to spite you."
He eyed her thoughtfully. "Clever. We pretend to be alright with it so she won't have anything to act all rebellious about… I like it." He smirked. "I knew there was a reason I married you."
She rolled her eyes. "And that wouldn't be because you happened to love me by any chance?" He shrugged, not committing to anything, and she whacked his arm playfully. "I will go talk to her."
She wasn't sure which one was the most difficult between the two but as she stood in front of Oria's bedroom door, she readied herself for battle. She knocked quickly – because she still insisted on manners even though she was the only one bothering with them in the house – and stepped in before being invited. She had been prepared to be attacked with snappish comments about how it wasn't her room and she should wait for Oria to tell her it was okay but the girl was laying on her stomach on the bed, face buried in the crook of her elbows, her small frame shaking with fat and ugly sobs.
"Oh, sweetie…." Effie breathed out, her heart breaking at the sight. She hurried to the bed and took her in her arms like she did when Oria was still a small child. The teenager clung to her and wept for several minutes.
"Dad spoiled everything!" Oria told her after a while, sniffling. She wiped her damp cheeks angrily with her sleeve and then curled back on the bed, placing her head in Effie's lap. She didn't do that much anymore and Effie savored the moment, combing her dyed hair with her fingers.
"He didn't mean to." Effie promised. "You have to understand, you're his baby girl."
"I'm not a baby anymore." she snapped.
"To him you still are." Effie laughed softly. "You always will be. He loves you so, so very much, Oria."
"It was just a kiss." she mumbled. "He scared Kal away."
"Well if Kal loves you, I'm sure he will come back and brave your father's anger." Effie hummed, braiding purple strands with dark ones. She really wished Oria had come to her with her dying project… She would have taken her to the Capitol, to a real hairdresser, or she would have convinced her to try wigs… She had been so appalled when she had seen her daughter's beautiful hair turned into this messy thing. Not to mention she had truly thought Haymitch was about to have a heart attack. "Was it a good first kiss?"
"Mom!" Oria exclaimed, embarrassed, but then she wriggled a bit in Effie's lap. "It was okay but then he used his tongue and it was yucky. Is that normal?"
Effie had to bit her lower lip not to burst out laughing. "Perhaps he isn't quite talented at it. Your father…"
"I don't want to know that." Oria quickly interrupted, making a face.
"I simply meant to say everything is better when you love each other." she said, knowing full well about her daughter's aversion to seeing Haymitch and her locked in any form of embrace even for a small chaste kiss. She had made them aware she found it disgusting that they were still doing that at their age which had made Effie feel like a fossil and had only prompted a vexed Haymitch to demonstrate to her in the privacy of their bedroom how young he still was. "Do you love Kal?"
"I don't know." Oria mumbled. "Did you know you love Dad before you kissed him for the first time?"
It was a difficult question to answer. Oria knew everything there was to know about the Hunger Games and the roles they had played in them but some things had been brushed upon and never mentioned again. None of them wanted to revisit those memories. It felt like it all happened a lifetime ago in a different life. The nightmares were few and far between now, the scars had faded to pale white lines that you couldn't see under dim lights…
"I don't know." she echoed her daughter's response. "Your father is a hard man to get to know. It took time to fall in love with him but it was too easy to fall at the same time if that makes any sense."
"It doesn't." Oria snorted.
"Well, we don't make any sense either as a couple so I suppose it's alright." Effie smiled softly. "Now, why don't we get back down so you can have a calm discussion with your father now that you've both calmed down?"
"Is he still angry?" Oria asked in a small voice.
"I don't think he's angry, I think he's sad because you're not a baby anymore and he doesn't want to admit it." Effie offered. "He doesn't want a boy to come and replace him in your heart."
"That's stupid." Oria scrambled upright with a frown. "That's not the same thing."
"Perhaps, but he's used to rank first in your attentions." She couldn't help a grin at the memory that sprung to her mind. "Do you remember when you were little and wanted to marry Peeta? He gave your Uncle the cold shoulder for weeks."
Oria rolled her eyes but stood up and led the way downstairs. Effie followed at a more measured step, hoping Haymitch had indeed calmed down. They found him in the kitchen, banging cupboards open and close probably in search for something to cook for dinner. He and Oria stared hard at each other for a long second, the girl looked away first.
"It's time to feed the geese." Oria said, grabbing the bag of crumbs from the kitchen counter. "You're coming, Daddy?"
Haymitch shrugged but followed her out, letting the backdoor slam shut behind him like he always did. Effie wasn't privy to their discussion in the geese pen, she never was, but when they came back they were both smiling. She sighed in relief : drama averted for now.