Prompt : Can you write something after the "don't be a stranger scene" like Haymitch misses Effie and it's just sad

MILD SPOILERS for the movie. No I can't stop writing about the missing scenes in the movie. XD

Missing You

Once he had explained to Katniss her mother wouldn't be joining them in Twelve, the hovercraft was silent saved for the low buzz of the engine. The girl didn't look surprised or resentful, she looked resigned. He had been angry about Aster's decision to stay behind and it had been nothing compared to Effie's quiet fury.

Effie would have followed Katniss to the end of the Earth even though she wasn't her real daughter, he mused, Effie would have never given up on her child, grief or not. That was why they had been forced to part ways, after all, so Effie could stay behind and take care of Peeta while he went ahead and make sure Katniss would survive this war.

He didn't regret leaving with Katniss even if it was in a hurry but he did regret leaving Effie behind. It was harder than he had thought it would be given that they were used to living apart most of the year. It felt different now though, mostly because they didn't have to be separated anymore. Technically, nothing forced him to banish himself at the other side of the country, nothing forced him to follow the girl. He could have stayed. They could have tried.

Irony was a bitch.

He had taken Effie for granted for years. Sex had been just sex : convenient, easy, replaceable. And now… Now he had grown used to waking up next to her, he had grown used to the sound of her breathing at night when the memories and the fear kept him awake, he had grow used to turning to her every time something bad happened for comfort and reassurance that she, at least, was safe… Those months in Thirteen… She had long been necessary to make his life easier but now she had become essential. It had been a spark before the kids, a small flame after Twelve's victory, and now it was a blaze that was burning his heart and made his chest ache more and more fiercely the further the hovercraft flew from the Capitol.

She was his chance at a future, his chance at happiness.

Katniss would never know what he was giving up for her and that was just as well. She didn't need to know. He wouldn't be like her mother, he wouldn't abandon her or burden her with his own grief. He would take care of her like he had promised both to Peeta and Effie.

It didn't make it any easier.

He was already missing her.