Prompt: Effie and Haymitch taking a walk in the meadow post mj

The Lucky Ones

Effie hated the meadow.

It became quite pretty a couple of years after the war, grass had grown greener than ever before and wild flowers had found their way through winter... A lot of couples came out there for a stroll in the spring but Effie hated it, too aware of what was lying underneath and unable to forget or ignore it. She usually went out of her way to avoid it.

"Don't think about it." Haymitch ordered her, as they walked along its edge to get back to the Village. It was the shortest path and he was tired so she hadn't protested. He had twisted his knee in a drunken stupor a few weeks earlier and even though it was now healed according to the doctors, it ached when it was humid or cold. Today had started like a beautiful day but the temperature was quickly dropping and she longed for a fire roaring in the fireplace.

"It's difficult not to think about it when it's right there." she argued. "How people can simply act as if it is not a mass grave I will never understand."

"We've become very good at ignoring death." he snorted. "That's how you survive, sweetheart. Otherwise you just give up, lay down with them and wait for death to take you."

"I suppose it's one way to look at things." she granted. The meadow was a sort of symbol in Twelve, she figured. Life had prevailed over death, grass and plants had grown, the damages of the war weren't visible to the eye anymore. She couldn't get past the fact that when they walked in the meadow, they walked on corpses, on people. It seemed so disrespectful to her...

"They didn't do much better in the Capitol." he scoffed.

Every District had a mass grave somewhere and the Capitol was no exception. Instead of dropping every unidentifiable corpses in a meadow, they had dumped them in a huge hole and had placed a statue over it to mark the passing of so many anonymous citizens. It was frightening how many of those anonymous people had been children.

"Is there a good way to do this?" she sighed.

Haymitch shook his head, leaning more of his weight on her arm. It was a habit for her to link their arms together when they walked, something saved from their time as mentor and escort, but lately, it had been more for his sake than for hers. He wouldn't use the walking stick the doctor had recommended. He was too proud for that.

"The only good way is to remember you're alive." he said.

"We're the lucky ones." she admitted.

She had doubted it for a long time after the war, when the nightmares and life in general had seemed unbearable, too cruel and complicated to face, but now... Now she had Haymitch and the children, she had a life she never thought she would have, simple and far from the glamorous Capitol parties she used to like, but she loved this life. She loved that Haymitch, Katniss and Peeta would always accept her for who she was and love her despite or because of it. She loved that she could go to sleep next to Haymitch every night and wake up next to him every morning. She loved when they bickered because it rarely escalated to the huge arguments they had before the Games and then they could patch things up. Nothing was unfixable.

"Something like that." he smirked, squeezing her arm. She burrowed into his side and they continued their walk past the meadow in a comfortable silence.

Life always prevailed.

And they were the lucky ones indeed.