Prompt :I love your writing and it you would be an angel if you could write a fanfic where haymitch catches effie going to the doctor in district 13 and finds out she is taking anti depressing pills, you can throw in other characters if you want, thanks

I'm going with canon for this one, since it's implied she takes sleeping pills in the book.

White Night

The soft clicking of the door disturbing the otherwise silent room made him look up from the file he was studying. Haymitch frowned when he saw Effie standing there, obviously equally puzzled at finding him in the deserted Command room in the middle of the night.

"What do you want?" he asked.

"Tea." she replied, making a beeline for the electric kettle and the basket of tea bags. Command was the only place in the District where those were so readily available – it wasn't coffee but it was a hot beverage and that never went amiss in a District where the temperatures were so low. He watched her rummage around the basket until she found what she wanted, patiently waiting for the water to boil.

"Why are you up so late?" he insisted, closing the file.

She was still wearing the same ridiculous customized uniform but the scarf on her head was loose and looked dangerously close to slipping off. He could glimpse dark blond curls already.

"Why are you?" she replied, grabbing a cup and making a quick work of preparing her tea.

"Can't sleep." he shrugged. "Nightmares."

He left it at that. She was very familiar with his nightmares, the penthouse was big but not enough that she had never heard his screams. Without liquor to knock him off or at least soothing the night terrors away and his knife to make him feel safe enough to close his eyes, sleep was something he only considered when he was ready to drop from exhaustion.

Command was as good a place as any to waste time away until morning, the readily available hot water was a plus. He grabbed his own empty cup and slid it in her direction down the table. She grumbled at his lack of manners but filled it nevertheless.

He was dreading the day when Coin would finally figure out why the stock of tea bags disappeared so quickly.

"So?" he asked, once she had placed his newly full cup in front of him.

She sat next to him and relaxed in the leather chair, her eyes on the dark screens at the other side of the room. "I tried to go to their doctors but they won't give me my pills. They say it's a waste of resources."

"Pills?" he frowned.

"Sleeping pills." she sighed. "You know I take sleeping pills."

The rebuke was gentle but slightly annoyed, as if he should have known better than to ask. Perhaps he should have. He did know she was taking sleeping pills, she had offered him some enough times over the years. He didn't like them, they made him drowsy. Besides, they didn't mix that well with alcohol.

"It's just pills." He rolled his eyes. "They're not even that strong."

"But I need them to sleep." she retorted. "And since you usually fall asleep clutching a bottle I don't think you have any room to lecture me."

"A bit wired, aren't we, sweetheart?" he snorted.

She brought the cup to her lips, blew on it to cool it down and took a cautious sip before wincing. There was no sugar to soften the taste and he had to admit it wasn't very good. Certainly not the fine stuff she was used to.

"This is vile." she declared. "What are you doing?"

She nodded to the file that held nothing important but reports about Twelve's refugees. He couldn't say he had been very focused on it to begin with.

"Trying not to sleep." he offered honestly. "So… Do you need the pills or do you need the pills?"

She had been there for weeks now, he was certain that if it had been a little secret addiction, she would have found herself in a nice padded cell next to the one they had kept him in during his withdrawal.

"I just…" Her voice trailed off. "The pills prevent the dreams."

"And what does Effie Trinket dream about that's so frightening?" he chuckled, taking a sip of his own disgusting tea. "Your wardrobe is destroyed? They don't have shoes your size in the shop? Your wig catches fire?"

He could picture the latest very easily and he didn't hide his smirk.

"Precisely." she laughed but it was her fake laugh. It sounded like breaking glass to his ears. "Can you imagine the horror?"

She hid behind what he had dubbed her escort's mask. Bright smile and cheerful face. Her eyes said it all though, they weren't shining like when she was truly happy, they were exhausted and sad.

"Tell me." he nudged her with his elbow, causing her to spill some of her tea.

"Haymitch!" She clucked her tongue in annoyance at his carelessness. He didn't pay any attention.

"Come on, you know my demons." he pressed. "What are yours?"

She hesitated, making her cup turn this way and that on the table.

"Jenna. Dagyl. Flora. Quill." she whispered at last and a chill spread down his spine. "Should I continue or do you understand?"

The question was certainly rhetorical. Of course he understood. The names were painfully familiar. Tributes. Dead tributes they had failed to save.

"Same demons as mine, then." he stated, forcing detachment in his voice.

"I suppose we do have some things in common." she joked, finishing her tea in two long swallows. "Well… I won't bother you any longer."

She rose to her feet but he grabbed her wrist.

"It's stupid. You not sleeping in your room, me not sleeping here…" he ventured. "We can as well not sleep together, sweetheart."

She sat back tentatively. "What were you working on?"

"I haven't the faintest idea." he answered honestly, opening the file again.

Effie was a lot better at organizing than he was, she read the reports, she summarized them for him and he listened to her voice rather than to her words because it was easier to focus on that than on his temptation to fall asleep right in that chair. Eventually, they moved on to propos and possible lines they could feed Katniss – or try to at the very least. He was still considering the merits of a catching phrase over another when he felt her head drop on his shoulder. He didn't say anything, letting her fall asleep.

He would wake her up at the slightest sign of nightmare.

At least one of them would sleep safe that night.