Absolutely loved today's one shot! It was perfectly written (: could you pretty please do a follow up? Maybe oria learns more about Effie or people say things about her at school or something?

This one can stand alone. All you need to know is that Oria is my hayffie kid.

Against The Odds

Oria's silence was starting to unnerve Haymitch.

"How was school?" he asked, trying to ignore the pointed staring of people on the streets. With the tenth years anniversary of the rebellion looming ahead and the lessons about Hunger Games at school, Haymitch was starting to become a bit paranoid those days. He wasn't the only one. Katniss stuck to the woods, Peeta to the bakery and Effie had called in sick more often in the last week than in her whole time working at the Justice Building.

Oria's only answer was a shrug and even his offer to stop at Peeta's bakery for a treat was met with lack of enthusiasm. Still, he nudged her in the direction of the boy's shop, knowing his baked goods never failed to cheer the little girl up.

The place was crowded, as usual, Peeta's assistants were running around taking orders and ushering the next client quicker than it took to blink. Business was good, at least.

One of the boys tending the cash machine saw them and warned Peeta who walked out of the kitchen to greet them with a smile. Oria accepted his hug with good humor and requested a piece of apple pie that Peeta was only too happy to grant. The boy tried to engage Oria in a conversation but it wasn't better received than Haymitch's own attempts. They didn't linger and walked back home, Haymitch carrying her schoolbag and Oria carefully holding the wrapped up piece of pie.

Fall was coming on fast but it was still warm enough to sit outside for a while so Haymitch didn't protest when the girl sat on the wooden bench next to their house. She nibbled on the pastry with deliberate attention – because she didn't want to stain her clothes or because she didn't want to waste a crumb, it was anyone's guess. Aside for her undivided attention to her snack, she was flinging her legs back and forth which meant she was restless.

"So, what's up, baby girl?" he asked when he couldn't take the uncomfortable silence anymore. "How was the history lesson?"

Upsetting, no doubt. It couldn't have been easy to sit there while footage of her family doing things much too complicated for a eight years old was displayed for everyone to see.

"It wasn't cool." she said around a mouthful of pie, spitting some everywhere. Effie would have chided her until she was blue in the face but Effie wasn't there and he was very sure she wouldn't have done it in front of her mother anyway. "I don't like history anymore." He wasn't very much surprised by that but he didn't have time to voice the feeling. She finished the pie and swung her legs harder. "Is Mommy bad?"

The question left him both speechless and enraged. "Is that what your teacher said?"

Oria didn't answer at once, she wasn't looking at him either. "Miss Talia said escorts were bad people and they were all punished after the war except Mommy. She said nobody really knows why."

"Bullshit." he snorted.

"Daddy!" Oria gasped. "You have to put a coin in the swear jar now."

The swear jar was Effie's idea, of course. He still thought it was a way for her to steal his money.

"What did you learn today?" he asked, ignoring the question of proper language for now. "What did Miss Talia tell you?"

"Well…" Oria hesitated. "We watched videos. There was a big, big, big one of those Games thing with every people who won before… Mommy looked very sad but she had a very pretty dress with butterflies… Can I have the same one?"

He rolled his eyes. "Don't you have enough dresses? What did you learn next?"

"Next…" she hesitated. She looked down at the dry earth, placing her right foot on a twig and making it roll back and forth under the sole of her sneaker. "Next Mommy called Aunt Katniss' name and that means she had to go back in the Games. And then… Then…"

"Then she called out my name." he finished for her. Clearly that part had greatly disturbed her because she nodded, not looking up. He didn't need to see her eyes to know they were full of tears. "But Uncle Peeta volunteered."

She nodded again and then shrugged. "Then Aunt Katniss made the arena explode and she went to District Thirteen with Finn's Dad, Uncle Beetee, Uncle Plutarch and you but Uncle Peeta was captured with Aunt Jo and Aunt Annie. And then Aunt Katniss was the Mockingjay and she did a revolution and she rescued Uncle Peeta and Aunt Jo and Aunt Annie. And then they won." It was a big shortcut, he thought, as she went on. "Then the war was over and there was a big thing they called the purge…" She looked at him to see if it was the right word and he motioned for her to continue. "And there were a lot of trials with the people who made the Games and they were all executed because they were very bad people and then Aunt Katniss didn't kill the mean President like she was supposed to but she killed the rebel one instead and there were new elections and then a big trial and you brought her back to Twelve." she finished quickly, out of breath. "But Mommy was an escort and she wasn't in the purge Miss Talia said but if the escorts were bad people and Mommy was an escort then is she bad?"

"Your mom…" He let the sentence trail off, not really knowing where he was going with this. Effie had handled his participation in the Games very well, she had explained it to Oria in such a way the girl understood but… It was less complicated than her own involvement. "Your mom didn't know what she was doing was bad at first. It's like… that time I caught you playing with the matches. Do you remember that?" He would never be able to forget it. He almost had a heart attack. "You didn't know it was bad until I explained, remember?"

"You punished me." she reminded him with a sulk.

It had taken place a few years ago but he had shouted so hard the memory must have been still vivid.

"Yeah, true, but…" he sighed, rubbing his face. "You know when you said Uncle Peeta was captured?" He left it at that. He didn't think the teacher had gone in details and he also didn't think it was necessary for her to know everything. "Your mom was captured too. Bad things happened to her. She was punished enough."

"What kind of bad things?" she frowned.

"It doesn't matter." he retorted, more coldly than he probably ought to. "The important thing is… She was part of the team. She was one of us. You can tell that to anyone who ask about her. She isn't a bad person. She never was."

Oria curled up on the bench, wrapping her arms around her knees. It was starting to get chilly, they would need to go in soon but he wanted to make that clear first : Effie wasn't a bad person.

"Aunt Jo says you can't never know if people are nice or mean until they get mean." the little girl dutifully repeated. He made a mental note to call Jo and shout at her. "How do you know Mommy is different from the other escorts?"

"I know because…" He shrugged. "I know because she loves me and she loves Peeta and Katniss. She loved us against the odds."

"I love Mommy." Oria said. "I love her lots and lots."

"Well, then… You have it, baby girl. The rest doesn't matter." he declared. "The past is in the past. Leave it there."

She nodded thoughtfully before glancing at him with an anxious face. "You won't tell Mommy I asked if she was bad?"

"Our secret." he smiled.

"Pinky swear?" she insisted, offering her little finger.

He humored her, following the very precise steps of the pinky swear with all the gravity it required and then stood up and ushered her inside the house. She looked much better, she was chatty again – just like her mother – and he hummed and exclaimed at all the right places while she talked his ear off about whatever had taken her fancy.

When Effie finally came home, he had just started dinner.

"How did it go at school?" she asked, without even bothering with a greeting.

It had been like that ever since the beginning of the history lessons.

"Hello to you too, Princess." he scoffed, rolling his eyes. He smirked at her, imitating her high-pitched voice as best as he could. "Oh, Haymitch, you have no manners at all ! Why can't you be more like me ?" He shook his head with amusement. "Never thought I would see the day Miss Prim and Proper would…"

"Yes, I believe I get the point." she hissed.

"And now you interrupt me." he snorted, leaving the stew on the fire to steal a kiss. She played along but the worry never left her eyes. He kissed her again. "I have a very bad influence on you, sweetheart."

"Where is Oria?" she asked, shedding her coat.

"Living-room. She's doing her homework." he offered. "Go say hi. You can't be rude to your husband and to your daughter the same day. Pretty sure that's against the law."

She ignored his taunting and warily made her way to the living-room. He followed a few steps behind and remained in the shadow of the door, watching the little girl wrap her arms around Effie's neck as soon as she saw her. It wasn't long before she dragged her mother to the couch where her math lesson laid forgotten to sit on her lap. She was starting to get too big for that, Haymitch mused, time was flying.

Oria was chatting about the pie Peeta had given her and how Haymitch had said a bad word earlier so she had made sure he put a coin in the jar and Effie was nodding along, a bright smile on her lips.

He couldn't wait for the rebellion anniversary to pass so they could go back to their ordinary life.

In the last ten years, he had learned that ordinary meant happy.

And they were very, very happy.