Prompt : Love your stories! You're an amazing writer :) I have a prompt: Katniss discovering Haymitch and Effie's relationship in district 13? (Maybe throw in some awkwardness?) Keep up the good work!

I brought this prompt forward in the queue because I was having feels after that flirting scene in the movie. I didn't see the whole movie yet when I wrote this so maybe some things doesn't go with the new movie canon but let's pretend it does ;) I hope you all enjoy it!

Timing

"It should be around here…" Gale frowned as he and Katniss entered the shooting studio warehouse.

Plutarch had said Effie was in the set warehouse so they had gone looking but Katniss wasn't expecting anything that huge. It was like a maze made of scenery cardboards, fake boulders, an ocean of shelves full of props… It made her wonder what Thirteen had been doing with all that material before the war truly started.

They wandered between the shelves in silence. It was her way with Gale, always the hunters.

"It is neither the time nor the place." Effie's voice declared suddenly, loud as usual.

Katniss and Gale exchanged a glance and walked in the direction it had come from. It was difficult to get one's bearing in that place. The shelves were put at random, they had to step around cardboard sets…

"I thought you liked me better sober." Haymitch's voice taunted.

The sound of her mentor's voice made her cringe. She had agreed to work with Haymitch but she was still angry and resentful. She didn't want to see him more than necessary. It made her pause. Gale stopped walking and turned to her with a puzzled expression on his face.

She shrugged just as Effie let out something sounding like muffled giggles.

"Sober or drunk, you are still a scoundrel." the escort retorted.

"And don't you just love that, sweetheart…" Haymitch mocked. "I do like you better without all that crap on your face. It's good not risking being covered in make-up every time I do this…"

There were more muffled sounds and Gale's puzzlement turned to irritation.

"Seriously?" he mouthed.

Katniss shrugged. Effie and Haymitch's bickering took some time getting used to, she figured, as for what they were doing, she didn't have the slightest idea. Effie was odd most of the time and Haymitch wasn't much better.

"Stop." Effie ordered just then, stern enough that Katniss couldn't suppress a tinge of worry. She started walking in their direction again. "Haymitch, not now."

"I didn't thank you for taking care of me during the withdrawal, right?" Haymitch asked.

"No. And if experience proves me right, you won't." Effie retorted. "You have no manners at all." There was a shuffling noise and then a thump as if something had hit the ground. "Haymitch!"

"But I'm very grateful, Princess…" Haymitch said and Katniss could almost hear the smirk in his voice.

She quickened her pace, ignoring Gale's frantic gesturing that they should just turn back.

Finally they came into view and Katniss didn't like at all what she saw. Haymitch had Effie cornered against a wall, between boxes overflowing with fake Peacekeeper uniforms.

"Leave her alone!" Katniss shouted at him. "She doesn't have to take your bullying anymore."

She grabbed the closest thing to her on a shelf – and it was probably lucky it happened to be a rubber ball of some kind – and hurled it at Haymitch's back. She and Effie had never seen eye to eye before but she felt very protective of the escort. Effie had left everything behind to help them and, just like Katniss, she had been kept in the dark. Effie was a pawn too and she had never lied to her unlike other present people, Katniss thought, glaring at Haymitch.

Her mentor took his sweet time stepping away from Effie. It was probably a trick of the light but she could have sworn his hand had been under her shirt.

The situation, somehow, felt awkward.

"You have such a great sense of timing, sweetheart." Haymitch snorted after clearing his throat.

Effie's eyes darted from him to Katniss and then she burst into action, smoothing her make-shift dress quickly and efficiently.

"Were you looking for me, dear?" she asked in her usual sing-song voice.

"Are you alright, Effie?" Katniss asked, glaring at Haymitch with all her might. What had he been trying to do? Alcohol withdrawal made everyone unpredictable, she knew that, maybe it wasn't enough for Haymitch to tease Effie mercilessly anymore. Maybe now he wanted to make her cower in a corner.

"Alright?" Effie repeated, clearly baffled by the question. "Why, of course… What is this about?"

"She thinks we were fighting." Haymitch surmised.

"Oh." the escort said and, curiously, it was her turn to clear her throat. Odd. But it was so cold down in Thirteen, it wouldn't be a surprise if people were to become ill. "Fighting. Yes. Yes, we were fighting. Absolutely. That's what Haymitch and I do, isn't it?"

Her smile was too innocent to be trusted but Katniss couldn't fault her with a lie. It was all Effie and Haymitch spent most of their time doing.

"Plutarch is looking for you." Gale said suddenly. "He wants us back in Command."

Haymitch let out a long suffering sigh but left without any parting word and Effie followed him very closely. Katniss and Gale walked behind them, close enough that they could hear them whispering but too far to hear what they were saying. They were probably arguing some more. Yet when Effie whacked his arm and he smirked down at her, it all look more playful than their usual brand of fighting.

"What is that about?" Katniss muttered, confused. She couldn't help a tinge of sadness at the thought that Peeta would have known at once. A glance would have been enough for him to explain their weird behavior.

Gale's chuckles were deep and almost mocking. She glared at him, not completely sure as to why. He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and held her close, dropping a kiss on the top of her head.

"You're so innocent." he laughed.

No matter how long she quizzed him, he wouldn't explain his comment or what he made of Effie and Haymitch's behavior