Prompt : Can you write a fic where Haymitch and Effie get into a fight at the same time Katniss and Peeta do, so they each go to give the kids advice (Haymitch to Katniss and Effie to Peeta) but then they find that the advice that they are giving the kids applies to their situation as well?

We're back to book!canon =)

Symmetry

Katniss stormed out of the house without a real destination in mind, barely remembering to grab her leather jacket on her way. Most days, she was glad for Peeta's presence but there were days where everything felt off and not only because of his occasional episodes or the war. There were days where their whole relationship felt... pointless.

"Trouble in paradise, girl?"

Haymitch's laughter stopped her in her tracks as she passed by his house. He was out on the porch, sitting on the wooden stairs, drinking straight out of a bottle like he rarely did anymore.

"I could ask you the same." she snorted.

If Haymitch wanted to drink without Effie's knowledge – or, at least, where she couldn't see it – he usually used the backyard. The front porch meant he had probably walked out in the middle of an argument without thinking, much like she had just done. Giving up on her half-cooked idea to go hike in the woods, she walked closer and plopped down on the step next to him.

"So." she prompted. "What are you and Effie arguing about today?"

His face closed off and he shrugged. "What are you and the boy doing all that shouting for? 'Could hear you all the way from here. You've got a great set of lungs, almost as good as Effie's. Must be a woman thing."

Her anger flared back with a vengeance.

"Peeta wants to have kids." she announced.

"Yeah..." Haymitch chuckled, taking a sip from his bottle. "That's gonna work."

"Exactly." she huffed. "How can he even ask that?"

The war had been over for only two years and Katniss was still trying to get over everything. It was starting to get easier. Most days, she only remembered the heat of the fire and the awful noise of the bombs dropping once or twice. Most days, she could forget Finnick's screams when the mutts had jumped on him and Cinna's face when he had been arrested. Most days, the arena was a distant memory, a nightmare she could only half recall. Most days. And that was the point. She would never forget, could never forget.

"He would be great with a kid." Haymitch pointed out fairly enough.

And he was right, of course. Peeta would be an awesome dad, she already knew that. But she wasn't feeling the same yearning he was. A child wouldn't fix everything and it wouldn't help them move on, think about the future, like he seemed to think.

"Kids die." she spat.

And that was the full problem, naturally.

Kids died.

Rue died.

Prim died.

Countless of other kids died right in front of her eyes.

Kids from Twelve died quicker than anyone else.

"Kids die." Haymitch echoed bitterly, taking another sip before offering her the bottle. She took it without much thought and brought it to her mouth. The liquor was potent and she was careful with it, still remembering the state she was in after the Quell announcement. Yet she could understand Haymitch's longing for it. It was disgusting but it was a way to reach oblivion and that was a much preferable state than facing reality. He watched her as she took two wary mouthfuls before snatching back the bottle away from her and taking a long swing. "You're still young to have kids. You have all your life ahead." he said.

"I'm never having kids. Not now, not ever." she hissed. "Aren't you listening to me?"

"Yeah..." he scowled. "Be careful that doesn't become a regret."

She rolled her eyes. "It won't. You never had kids. All the better for it, right?"

The liquor splotched in the bottle when he lifted it only to abort the movement at the last second.

"I wanted them once." he confessed. "Before." He didn't have to say before what, she understood perfectly. Before his Games, before everything. "Never thought about it again after my girl died. Not until..."

The sentence trailed off.

"Effie." Katniss supplied with irritation. "You can say it, you know. It's not like we don't know what you're up to. You're living together."

"Yeah, well... It's not like we could have had them anyway." he scoffed. "Any child of mine... Too dangerous. Too dangerous to even think about that. And after the war... We're too old now. Fleeting thought anyway. I would have sucked at it and it's not something I want but it makes you wonder, you know? What might have been? Boy or girl with her eyes, my temper… Effie would have liked it, I think. Too dangerous."

It wasn't really dangerous to have children anymore but Katniss understood the feeling completely. Kids died. No one knew that better than Haymitch. He had watched plenty getting killed.

"And she understands and she respects your decision." she insisted. "She's not trying to bully you into thinking it's a great idea and that you will see the light soon enough."

Haymitch mulled on that for a while, taking a few sips of his bottle now and then.

"It's her choice, though." he replied eventually. "I can't give that to her. If she wants it..." He shrugged. "She knows that. She knows that I would let her go if she wanted it badly enough to leave me. I don't get why she even moved here most days."

"'Cause she loves you." Katniss mocked. "That's plain to see."

He made a noise that was neither a complete denial nor a sign of admission.

"The boy loves you." he pointed out.

"And I love him." she sighed. It was easy enough to admit it now, it no longer felt forced. "But we want things that are so different... I don't know how we're moving forward with that. I don't want to be like you and Effie, I don't want to fight every day of my life. That's... That's exhausting."

"We don't know how to talk." Haymitch scoffed. "That's fucked up, yeah, but as long as we're fighting, we're good. Will take that over silence any day. As for how you move forward... Draw a line." He dragged the end of the bottle in the dirt to illustrate his point. "Say you don't want kids and that's not something you're going to change your mind about. So if you do in a few years, great, but for now... You're decided. If he wants to stay knowing that, he can't hold it against you, ever. He doesn't want to stay... Well... He deserves to get what he wants too, doesn't he?"

"That's easy for you to say." she snapped. "I don't want to lose Peeta. I'm not like you. I can't just let him go if he decides he wants more elsewhere."

"You think I could let Effie go and feel nothing?" he sneered. "You think it wouldn't kill me? What do you think is going on here exactly? That's she's only here to keep me warm at night? That she's the only one who's invested in this thing? 'Cause you're so vocal with your feelings for the boy, right? You expect me to serenade her every day, maybe?"

He glared at her and Katniss rolled her eyes. "You can't deny you love her less than she loves you."

"Why? 'Cause she loved me first?" he retorted. "The boy loved you first. You love him any less than he does? That doesn't mean shit, sweetheart. I would kill for her. I would die for her. Most days, I even try to live for her. That's more than I ever did for anybody. Don't come to me and judge my relationship, you've got no right, girl. You think you know everything there is to know about me and Effie? You don't know half of it." He shrugged. "As for the boy, you're already being the selfish one. He's your Effie, see? You put him through hell. It's your job to make sure he's as happy as he can be 'cause he will always put your first. If being happy means he has to be with someone else..." He licked his lips and took an angry mouthful of liquor. "I'm not saying it would be easy, sweetheart, I'm saying we've been the selfish ones and that can't go on forever. It's not fair to them."

Haymitch had a point but that annoyed her.

"Who's being judgmental?" she grumbled. "You're saying all this but you're still sitting out here 'cause you got into a fight with Effie."

"Point taken." he granted, grabbing the wooden railing to haul himself up. "I'm gonna patch things up. You should do the same."

She sighed and kicked at the dirt at the bottom of the stairs. "I hate it when you're right."

"I'm always right, sweetheart." he snorted, patting her shoulder on his way to the door.

She didn't mean to pry but the living-room window was opened and sounds always carried in the Victors' Village.

"Heard everything, didn't you?" Haymitch snorted from inside.

"I would never be happy with someone else." Effie sighed. "I wish you would stop thinking that. I love you, you stupid man. Even when you aggravate me to the point I could murder you."

There were noises that suspiciously sounded like kissing and Katniss bolted away from that porch like it was on fire, not keen on hearing something she truly didn't want to hear.

She headed back to her house.

She and Peeta had a lot to talk about.

After all, if Haymitch and Effie could make it so could they.