Prompt : I feel like effie would be pretty fucked up post-mj. Could you please do a couple of fluffy scenarios of other characters noticing how much better she is when aymitch is around

Healing Festered Wounds

Peeta

They never talked about their time in the Capitol, the time where they had been staring at each other from the other side of barred doors in a dark corridor. They also hardly talked about the time before that. It sometimes felt to Peeta as if they had started brand new lives right after the end of the war, unwilling – or unable – to go on living as who they used to be.

Peeta wasn't the same boy who had first declared his love for Katniss and had been naïve enough to think she loved her back. He wasn't the highjacked mutt the Capitol had made of him either.

He was someone new.

Someone a little screwed-up, haunted by flashes of nightmarish memories that left him feeling around the bed at night for Katniss. Someone who could still wake up before dawn to open his bakery, look up at the dawn sky and think that it would be a beautiful day. Wounds were healing. Slowly but surely.

Sometimes though when you left them untended for too long, wounds festered.

For someone as self-centered as she was, Effie could be selfless to the point of foolishness. After her rescue, she had spent so much time pretending to be unchanged, taking care of everyone and everything that needed her attention, that she had let her wounds fester.

Peeta had watched from afar in the beginning, too worried about his still recurrent episodes and Katniss' reaction to his return to get involved. When he had finally been released from the hospital and sent back to Twelve, Effie had fussed over him until he boarded the hovercraft and had made him promise to call every day so she could check up on him. He had thought at the time it was out of worry for him, he had only realized later that it was out of fear of being left behind by her team again.

He had kept his promise and had phoned her regularly with updates on everyone and everything. He had told her about Katniss' welcome, Haymitch's excessive drinking even for their mentor, and his plans to reopen the bakery.

It had taken him a whole year to rebuild his parents' bakery. He had asked her to come for the opening even though there would no grand party, just a quiet celebration with Katniss, Haymitch and a few other friends from the District. She had refused at first and that had been when Peeta had started to watch her more closely, to pay attention to the catch in her voice when they talked on the phone. It had taken some convincing to get her on that train but Peeta had never regretted the hours he had spent talking her into it.

She had never gone back to the Capitol.

Wounds festered when you left them untended for too long.

The woman who had shown up to the bakery opening… She had frightened them all. Too thin with hollow eyes and a broken laugh. She had stubbornly stuck to her cheerful act, brushing aside their concern and exclaiming in delight at everything in the new bakery.

Peeta never knew what Haymitch had told her, how he had convinced her to stay. Whatever had passed between them that night, he and Katniss had never been privy to it. All he knew was that the next morning, she had moved her suitcases in Haymitch's guest room, had had the rest of her things shipped from her apartment in the city and had found a job as a seamstress at the only clothing shop in town.

They never talked about what had happened in the Capitol cells but Peeta could still see the ghost of that time pass on her face sometimes. In those moments, he recognized the quiet spark of desperation in her eyes, the second of uncertainty; he, too, still had difficulties making out the nightmare from reality.

Katniss helped his wounds to scar though. She was is constant, his everything.

Effie…

He wasn't certain what Haymitch was to her, he and Katniss had countless debates about it but short of bluntly asking their former escort and former mentor about their relationship, there was no way of finding out for certain. They never kissed in front of them, they never implied anything else was going on aside for their odd friendship made of endless bickering and shouting matches that more often than not carried all the way to their own house.

Six months after Effie had come to stay in Twelve, they were still wondering what exactly was going on between the two.

Yet, Peeta had an inkling.

When her eyes were lost in the distance and she was distractedly humming at whatever anyone was telling her, it was only Haymitch's gentle squeeze of her shoulder that would bring her back. When she was upset, it was Haymitch's embrace she sought…

He kept her sane, just like Katniss kept him sane.

There was an odd sort of balance in their team. Katniss and Haymitch would never know what it had been like for them in the Capitol – they could try to explain but words would never be enough to express the terror and the pain – but likewise, he and Effie would never understand what those long days in Thirteen had felt like for the two of them.

He didn't pretend to know what Haymitch and Effie shared exactly but he knew love when he saw it and, right now, as the four of them lingered in Haymitch's kitchen after dinner, he was seeing it. Effie was chatting with Katniss – who was nodding but not listening to a single word – and Haymitch placed a mug of steaming tea in front of her, she took it without pausing in her speech, reaching out to squeeze his hand in thanks and flashing him a bright smile. Haymitch smirked and tossed a gibe at her about her nonstop babbling which, surely enough, launched them in a bickering match that left Katniss and him counting the points.

It was good to see Effie like that. No longer the shadow of a woman who had showed up six month ago, no longer the bright and bubbly escort either, but their Effie. There was annoyance in her eyes when she argued with Haymitch, a spark similar to the old Effie, but there was a softness there too, a fondness.

She was always more lively around Haymitch, Peeta observed. He brought the fire out of her. And he helped the wounds heal.

Annie

"Cut the tomatoes, will you?" Annie requested, washing the salad and putting it to dry.

Unlike Johanna and to his credit, Haymitch did as he was told without trying to get out of it. She glanced through the window over the sink, checking that Finn and Johanna were still in the backyard. She trusted Johanna with her life and her son's, but she didn't like not having Finn in her line of sight. Bad things happened when people left her line of sight. And the two years old was too eager to explore his surroundings.

"How are things?" he asked, after the first tomato. "You're doing okay in Four?"

Coming for a visit had been Johanna's idea but it was a good one, she mused. She was happy to see her friends again.

"It's lonely." she hummed.

"Really?" he scoffed. "With Jo and a two years old to keep you on your toes?"

"Everywhere is lonely without Finnick." she sighed.

She wished such declarations wouldn't always bring a heavy silence. She was only telling the truth and if people couldn't handle it, then they shouldn't ask…

"For what it's worth…" Haymitch cleared his throat awkwardly. "That boy loved you with everything he had."

"I know." she nodded, the familiar lump finding its way to her throat. She would never get over it. Never. There were wounds that were never meant to heal and Finnick being ripped from her had left a gushing gap in her chest. Her heart was gone and the only piece left was for Finn.

Through the window, she watched as Katniss, Peeta and Effie arrived and exchanged a few words with Johanna. The former escort picked up her son and cuddled him close to her chest, the child obviously laughing in delight at seeing his adoptive aunt.

"Effie would make a good mother."

He must have been drinking something because he coughed suddenly, almost choking to death on what, after a glance, she determined to be a mouthful of whiskey. Some spilled on the tomatoes but Annie paid it no mind. It would give some flavor to the salad.

"Don't go and put ideas in her head, sweetheart." he sputtered, wiping his mouth on his sleeve.

Annie hummed and went back to her watching, rocking slightly on her feet. She loved seeing Effie. Effie was a good friend since the war. They had hardly met before that since Annie rarely went to the Capitol but Finnick used to love her and had told her so much about her she had always felt like they were already friends. She loved to see Effie. But seeing Effie reminded her of cells and screams of pain and fear.

"You're okay?" Haymitch frowned.

She felt the salad being gently pried away from her hands as she started to rock harder.

In the backyard, Effie burst out laughing at something Finn babbled. The sound carried through the window.

It made Annie relax.

"She never laughed anymore before." she whispered.

She felt the tension gradually leaving Haymitch's body as he peered in the backyard. "She's getting better."

"She was lonely without you." Annie declared. "Like I am lonely without Finnick. It's good she found you again."

He rolled his eyes. "She knew where to find me the whole time. I was never lost."

"I think she was." she observed. "But she is found now."

She patted his shoulder and ignored the way he was looking at her. People always looked at her that way. Either she didn't make any sense or she made too much.

Johanna

Visiting Twelve was the only idea Jo could have to stop Annie from brooding. Everything in Four reminded her of Finnick and there was only so much she could take. She was itching to take off as it was, to go back to a life that didn't involved nappies, bottles, blanky, toys and an over-excited two years old stumbling after her everywhere she went calling her "aun'y 'o".

So maybe coming to Twelve was more than just a way to stop Annie from brooding. Maybe she had just been planning on taking off in the dead of night and leaving Annie and the kid on the others' hands because Finnick had been her best friend and she owed him for not being there to protect him, true, but Haymitch owed him just as much and so did Katniss. And the boy would help because he was that kind of person and the escort would only be too happy to dote on the kid. They wouldn't let Annie and Finn go back to Four on their own, they would keep them here and Jo would be free to go away.

She would miss Finn, of course. She would miss his grin that reminded her so much of Finnick, she would miss the hugs goodnight, she would miss his toddler smell… But it would be better for her to leave now. She had been thinking about it for weeks.

Yeah. That had been the plan.

And yet, she had been sitting on a rock near Haymitch's house for almost half an hour already, her two bags at her feet and she still wasn't moving. She wasn't exactly surprised when she heard footsteps. Maybe it was past midnight but nobody in that Victors' Village was good at keeping regular sleeping hours.

She looked up and wished it was anybody else.

"What are you doing here?" she sneered angrily.

"I could ask you the same" Effie Trinket huffed, wrapping a woolen shawl more tightly around her shoulders. She was only wearing a pink nightgown and stupid heels. "I've been watching you from the living room window."

"Figures you would be the spying neighbors kind." she scoffed.

Trinket's blue eyes lingered on the bags and she pursed her lips. "Are you running away?"

"Running away means I have an obligation to be here. I don't, okay?" Jo snapped. The escort pursed her lips even tighter, tilted her head and narrowed her eyes. She had seen her give the same look to Haymitch enough times to know what it meant but she couldn't care less. "Don't start sprouting your shit on me. I don't care for your advice, Trinket."

"No, you never did." the older woman sighed. "But if I may… And this coming from someone who ran away from the people she loves most for a whole year after the war… It won't help you."

"Yeah? And what will help then? Fucking Haymitch senseless?" she snorted. "That's your style, not mine. Didn't spend my whole time in prison moaning his name."

That was a low blow and she regretted it a little. Prison was best left not discussed. Everyone had had their weak moments in that place and Trinket writhing in pain on the floor calling out for Haymitch hadn't been the worst.

The escort took a step back as if she had physically assaulted her. "You are always so mean."

"You made me mean." she snarled. "You and your people. And now what? I have to play mommy to a kid who's not mine for the rest of my life? Why?"

"Because you love him." Trinket answered very simply. "And because he loves you."

"That doesn't mean shit." Johanna spat. "You love people, they die. That's the rule. You forgot already?"

"The Games are over." the escort replied, almost begging.

"The Games are never over." she retorted harshly. "You're actually stupid enough to think the other shoe won't drop?"

"If it drops I will face it with my family and not running away like a coward." Trinket hissed. "Being estranged from them won't stop you from loving them."

"Is that what you tell yourself at night? That they're your family?" she laughed and it was nasty maybe but she couldn't help it. Trinket had a way of making her cruel. Even after all this time, even after what they had shared in those cells… She would defend Trinket if anyone ever tried to hurt her, she would defend her because under all the resentment and anger they were sort of twisted friends, but when they were together, she couldn't stop herself from jumping at her throat. "You're not their family. You're just the stray Capitol bitch they picked up along the way."

"Shut up."

The growl startled her and she bolted to her feet, turning around to find Haymitch there, wearing only a pair of sweatpants. Clearly he had gone out in a hurry because he didn't even have shoes on. Her skills must have really gone down the drain to let Haymitch Abernathy sneak out on her unnoticed. He wasn't the swiftest person in the world.

"Oh, Haymitch, you're going to catch your death!" Trinket exclaimed, quickly joining him to try and convince him to take her woolen shawl. He wouldn't take it. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders instead, bringing her close to his side and very much glaring at Johanna.

"She's family." Haymitch said in his most dangerous tone. "And if you have a problem with that you can…"

"Don't." Trinket cut him off. "She's hurting, it's alright. Go back inside, I'm coming. It's alright. Just… Go back inside."

Haymitch didn't move. His grey eyes darted from Trinket to her, obviously torn between respecting her wishes and his need to stop Jo from hurting her.

It made Johanna cackle. "Aren't you cute. All protective and shit."

He opened his mouth but Trinket kissed him before he could say anything. It was just a peck, a way to interrupt him. It made her want to throw up all the same. She would never understand how he could do that with a Capitol – even if said Capitol was sort of a friend.

"Let me handle this, please." Trinket requested in a whisper.

He brushed his fingers against her cheek in a tender caress that made Jo's stomach churn even more – because sex with a Capitol she could maybe understand but love? – glared one last time at Jo and headed back toward the house.

It occurred to her as she watched Trinket watching Haymitch that perhaps that was the problem right there. She was jealous.

She had to take of Annie and Finn. She had to be the strong one. She had to keep herself together and push the pain and the memories down because Annie couldn't do it most days and Finn was innocent and deserved better.

Trinket had Haymitch to take care of her. She didn't have to be the strong one, she didn't have to keep herself collected and she could let go of the memories because there was a safe place to talk about them.

And yet Johanna had been reaped and tossed in an arena at seventeen when Trinket had been happily playing queen of the bees.

It wasn't fair.

Trinket's eyes widened when she looked back at her. "Are you crying?"

"Shut up, I'm not!" Jo mumbled, wiping her eyes with her sleeve in a quick move.

The escort bit her bottom lip in a second of reflection and Johanna watched, with dread, as determination swept across her features.

"Don't you fucking dare!" she snarled.

It was too late though, Trinket was already advancing toward her and wrapping her arms around her and Jo could struggle all she wanted, the escort had a death grip.

"Don't fucking hug me!" she screeched. "Don't!"

"It's alright, it's alright…" Trinket hummed in her ear. "The first time Haymitch hugged me after I came back here I cried for three hours. It's alright. Let go, Johanna. Let go."

She didn't want to but she did.

The sobs wrecked her body so hard she almost fell to the ground. Trinket didn't let her though. She held her tight against her smaller and frailer body. She refused to embrace her back, she wouldn't embrace an escort, so her arms were dangling at her sides, utterly useless. It didn't seem to bother Trinket. She petted her short hair and repeated again and again that it was alright.

She hadn't cried since prison.

She hadn't cried when Finnick died, there had been no time, she had Annie to take care of.

"You will get better." Trinket promised.

"Bullshit." she grumbled. "You've got Haymitch to coddle you. Who do I get?"

"Annie and Finn." the Capitol replied without missing a beat. "Us, too. Me. We were in there together, Johanna."

She pushed Trinket away, rubbing at her eyes angrily before grabbing her bags and making her way back to the empty house she had commandeered for Annie, Finn and herself. She would leave another day. For now, Finn and Annie were all she had.

Katniss

Katniss tossed the dead squirrel on Haymitch's kitchen table, dropped her game bag and her bow in the corner and hopped on the counter.

"Coffee." she demanded.

Haymitch glanced up from the newspaper he was reading with mild annoyance. "You know where it is."

"Please?" she tried, having learn a trick or two from Effie's book in the last year.

He rolled his eyes but stood up and poured her a cup of still warm coffee, refilling his own while he was at it. She watched him with hawk eyes as he handed her the cup and went back to the kitchen table to continue his reading, absentmindedly sipping from the mug in his hand. She studied him for a few more minutes.

"Any reason you're staring, sweetheart?" he asked, without looking up from the newspaper.

"You're barely drinking these days." she observed casually.

Peeta kept telling her Effie was doing better. Katniss didn't know about that. She loved her but she wasn't good at reading Effie, she could barely understand her on the best days. Haymitch was another story entirely though and he, on the other hand, was certainly doing better. He had plummeted so badly back into his alcoholism after the war, she had been certain even through her own depression that his liver would give before the year was through. But it hadn't. And then Effie had come back, looking so thin and ready to lie down and die, and…

"Effie's keeping tabs." he mumbled awkwardly, turning the page without looking at her.

"She's always been keeping tabs and it never stopped you before." Katniss snorted, sipping from her mug. It was good. Warm and bitter like she and Haymitch liked it best. Peeta and Effie always sweetened theirs with cream and sugar, something else Katniss couldn't understand.

"Yeah, but we have a deal." he shrugged. "I don't drink more than half a bottle a day and she eats the whole plate."

Coaxing Effie into eating a proper amount was difficult on the best days. At first, Katniss had thought it was Twelve's cooking she didn't like but Peeta had said it was a deeper problem. Effie hardly ate more than what was necessary to keep her alive and functioning. She was getting better though. She had gained some weight lately.

Haymitch willingly giving up on his daily amount of liquor was surprising though.

"She's good for you." Katniss said.

It was an unnecessary comment maybe but it never failed to surprise her, how good Haymitch had been since Effie had come around. She knew they were friends but it was the same kind of friendship she shared with Johanna, all snarl and gibes and while she loved Jo, she wouldn't have wanted her around on a daily basis.

"Yeah." he simply agreed, taking another sip of his coffee.

"You're good for her too." she offered. "She perks up when you're around."

Grey eyes finally left the paper to study her. "Your point?"

She shrugged, turning the mug in her hands distractedly. She didn't really have a point, just… "You should make a move, you know. I can tell you like her – in a more than a friend way, I mean… Peeta and I have been talking and… If you like her in a more than a friend way, you should tell her. "

Haymitch's lips twisted but he kept a blank face. "Are you giving me dating advices, girl?"

She rolled her eyes. "I'm just saying."

He chuckled, leaning back on his chair to look at her before toasting her with his mug of coffee. "Look at you all grown up, handing advices to the poor old bachelor…"

"I'm just saying." she repeated stubbornly. "She's good for you, you're good for her. We're all good like that. You're next door, we have dinner every night… She's beautiful, you know? Without her wigs and stuff, she looks good. What if someone asks her out and she says yes? You will be left alone, she will leave, no more evening dinners… Everyone will be miserable."

"So, I'm supposed to date Effie to keep up the status quo." he snorted. "That's what you're saying, right? We should just hook up so the family life isn't disturbed."

She wasn't sure about family life. It had been some time since she had a normal one. Even before Prim and Thirteen… She stared at her cup of coffee, unwilling to voice that yes, she wanted to preserve what they had because it felt good, it felt normal. It was like having a regular set of parents who weren't dead or gone to whatever District because the grief was too much to bear. She knew it wasn't her parents' fault but she couldn't help but resent them leaving her, some days she resented Prim too.

Peeta, Effie and Haymitch were all she had left. She hadn't been so sure about Effie, at first, having always kept herself removed from her. She didn't do so well with women trying to mother her. But Effie was stubborn and she had stayed and fought for her and… She didn't want to lose her any more than she wanted to lose Haymitch. Haymitch was her mentor and probably her best friend in a weird way and the father figure she didn't know she wanted but there were things she could only tell Effie because Effie was a woman and she wouldn't mock her like Haymitch would.

"I'm just saying I don't want to risk Effie leaving for another guy." she mumbled. "And being friend and all is fine for people like you and me but people like Effie and Peeta, they want romance."

"Aren't you the little expert now." he taunted. "You're telling me you only feel friendship for the boy?"

The voice was dubious and she flushed red. "That's not what I said."

"I hope so 'cause I'm not going back to that romance mess of yours." he scowled. "You can't ever make up your mind, that's your problem. Who turned your head this time?"

"No one! I love Peeta, shut up." she hissed. "It's not about me, it's about you and Effie."

"What about me and Effie?" he asked, lifting his eyebrows and bringing the mug to his lips once more.

He was mocking her, she realized.

"You know what? Do what you want." she snapped, slamming her half full cup next to her on the counter and jumping from her perch. "I don't care."

"I don't know what's cuter…" he smirked. "The fact you're playing matchmaker or the fact you're thinking I've never gone to town with Effie."

Her eyes widened in horror at the way too vivid image. "Ew! Haymitch! Seriously!"

"What?" he laughed. "Five seconds ago you were practically begging me to bang her so she wouldn't leave."

"Romance!" Katniss shrieked. "I said romance!"

"Yeah, well…" he shrugged. "I don't do romance. She's fine with it though. And she never complained about the sex before, she's usually very vocal about liking it, so I don't think she's going to leave anytime soon…"

She let out another distressed shriek and fled the kitchen, barely remembering to grab her bag and bow on her way out. Trust Haymitch to put those horrid images in her head.

She met Effie in the street and couldn't even look at her in the eyes.

"You look distraught, dear…" the former escort frowned. "Is something the matter?"

She only mumbled a vague answer and ran away as fast as she could.

Maybe those two were good for each other but they weren't good for her sanity.