Prompt: I was wondering maybe you could write one where in district 13 the rebels are discussing their childhood and families. They all think the capitol children have it all, but after hearing about Effie's childhood of competitive pageants and not being good enough for her parents they have a change of heart. I know its similar to Sexiest Woman Alive, I just got so intrigued and I would just like to see other people's reaction. Its your choice though! :)

Childhood Tales

Haymitch wasn't a fan of Thirteen's dining hall. It reminded him too much of high school. He didn't know if people did it on purpose or if it was human nature but they all tended to navigate towards the same tables every day, toward the same people. Katniss hated it too but for different reasons, he figured. The girl had always been a loner, she had only one friend at school as far as he knew and now she only had her sister who didn't have her lunch scheduled at the same time as hers which was how she had come to sit right next to him every day for the past week, looking at the group with equal part wariness and curiosity.

At first there had only been Plutarch and him, then Beetee had joined and later, when she had stopped starving herself in an attempt to avoid the most populated areas of the District, so had Effie, dragging Finnick with her. Katniss had started coming a few days earlier, sometimes shadowed by Gale and sometimes not. The boy had no love for Effie, was certain Finnick nursed some not so friendly feelings for Katniss and generally didn't seem to like Haymitch much. In any case they had their habits now, their designated sitting arrangements and their usual table. And Haymitch didn't like it because they all acted like it was a lunch between friends – which he supposed it was – and not a hurried meal between two propos or two emergencies in Command.

"And then what happened?" Effie urged.

A smile played on Finnick's lips, a ghost of a the ones he used to flash but it was genuine enough. "Then Mags caught me and gave me such a scolding I never tried to steer a boat by myself again."

"Well, twelve might have been a little young for that." Beetee teased.

"I've always been advanced for my age." Finnick grinned with a wink. "The fishermen were pissed though."

"No wonder." Haymitch rolled his eyes.

"It must have been amazing growing up next to the ocean." Plutarch commented. "You were lucky."

"I'm sure it doesn't compare to growing up with a silver spoon in your mouth." Finnick chuckled. "That was lucky, mate."

Plutarch looked down, duly chastised.

"And you, Katniss?" Finnick asked. "No interesting childhood stories? Where did you learn to shoot?"

"My father taught me." she answered and left it at that.

"Surely there is more." Effie coaxed gently.

"Not really." Katniss snapped. "What do you want to know about? How my father died? How we starved? How many times I went to bed hungry so my sister had something in the stomach?"

Effie recoiled as if she had been slapped.

"My apologies." she said, a bit frosty. "I didn't mean to upset you."

Katniss softened a little. "Sorry." she mumbled.

"It's not her fault, sweetheart." Haymitch nudged the girl. "Those two have never gone to bed hungry. They can't understand."

"It would probably be very shallow of me to point out I go hungry more often than not lately?" Plutarch sighed, letting his spoon splotch in the admittedly disgusting gruel.

"Yeah." Beetee and Finnick answered at the same time.

The Gamemaker nodded and wisely held his tongue.

"I know hunger." Effie denied, defensive and annoyed all at once. "This is the issue with you, District people, you assume we, Capitols, have no problems."

"Oh, please!" Haymitch laughed. "Your family is loaded. What do you know of starvation?"

"I didn't say starvation I said hunger now, did I?" she retorted. "I wasn't comparing either. I was simply making an observation. You assumed I never went to bed hungry in my life. That is not the truth."

"Why? 'Cause Mommy said you couldn't have dessert?" he mocked. "Or because you were on a diet maybe? Must be hard work to maintain the skinny look when so many people are starving to death at your door." She pursed her lips and turned her head away and Haymitch felt slightly guilty. The food topic was a sensitive one. He sighed. "Let's talk about something else."

"When I was thirteen I was chubby." Effie declared before he could switch topic. "Too much for my mother's tastes. She already wouldn't register me in as many beauty pageants as my sister because she wasn't sure I could win them. Her friends mocked her because of it and it only grew worse after they realized I was putting on weight. It was unthinkable, you understand, for the daughters of Elindra Trinket not to be perfect, puberty or not. Lyssa was fantastic at it, I was and continue to be a constant disappointment." Her accent was stressed because she was irritated, her voice lifting and dropping in a clipping tone. "She monitored what I ate. There is only so many days one can eat soup without begging for solid food as I am sure you know. I was told it is the price of beauty. She offered to take me to her plastic surgeon but somehow that seemed worse to my thirteen years old self. Of course, as Haymitch is always so quick to point out, I am not the brightest. Surgery would have been over quicker." She patted her headscarf self-consciously, not daring to meet anyone in the eye. "Not that it compared to what any of you went thought, naturally. I am just saying you all think we had perfect lives… Perfect lives don't exist." She pushed her chair back and stood up, nodding at Plutarch. "I will see you back in the shooting studio."

Her cheeks and her throat were flushed crimson and Haymitch could tell she regretted this little outburst already. She was never one to cause a scene or bring the light on herself if it wasn't for a flattering tale. She walked away with a confident swing to her hips, pushing her pink sunglasses on her nose, but Haymitch knew better. He knew when she was putting an act.

"Capitols are crazy." Katniss declared. Clearly, it didn't upset her appetite because she went on eating.

"That was…" Finnick's voice trailed off.

"Unexpected?" Beetee suggested.

"Not really." Plutarch butted in. "Women who are born in a certain circle… They're little more than dolls when they're children. They're paraded around. Effie's family is wealthy but it comes from her father's business. They had the money but not… How to put it… the pedigree. It makes it all the more difficult. You have to earn your place and then you have to defend it teeth and claws." The Gamemaker waved his hand. "Her mother was very famous once upon a time, an actress, I think. She must feel her daughters have a legacy to uphold."

"Still crazy to forbid someone from eating because they're chubby." Katniss remarked.

"Beauty is everything to those people, Katniss." Plutarch explained gently. "It is closely linked to their social status. If you don't have the means to be beautiful, you are not worth anyone's time."

"But Effie is beautiful." Finnick argued. "Even when she looks like a clown."

"There are prettier women." the Gamemaker argued, not to be cruel Haymitch sensed but because he meant it. "And she's not young anymore. It would have been her last year as an escort, you know. If Twelve hadn't won last year, she would have been asked to retire already."

Gazes turned to Haymitch, clearly wondering if he had been aware. Of course, he had been aware. She looked younger but she was thirty-five, it was older than most escorts reached.

"Her sister is a beauty." Plutarch hummed. "Almost forty, I think, but she looks…"

"Lyssandra has nothing on Effie." Haymitch scorned, firmly enough that the Gamemaker didn't try to argue. Plutarch lifted his hands defensively with a small knowing smile. Beetee and Finnick were sporting knowing smiles too. He tried to ignore them, took another spoonful of gruel and then dropped the cutlery with a muttered curse. "Not a word." he warned, before leaving the table.

"Where is he going?" He heard Katniss ask.

"Grovel for forgiveness." Finnick snorted.

Haymitch rolled his eyes but didn't gratify that with an answer.

He found Effie in the propo shooting studio. She was alone and working on possible interview questions for Katniss but she didn't glance up when he stepped inside and closed the door behind him. Even when he awkwardly stood behind her chair and placed his hands on her shoulders, her gaze remained focused on the papers in front of her. He started massaging her neck out of a lack of anything else to do.

"Your mother's a bitch." he commented at last.

"My mother might be dead right now for all we know so I would thank you to keep your opinions to yourself." she snapped.

He clicked his tongue once in annoyance. "I'm just saying, sweetheart. You're beautiful. Chubby, not chubby, dolled up or not… You're beautiful."

"Thank you, I am aware." she retorted briskly.

"Are you?" he scoffed. "'Cause you're still wearing that stupid scarf."

He tugged on the bow on her head but she batted his hand away.

"Style, Haymitch." she huffed.

"Look… I don't care what your mother has to say about it." he grumbled. "You're beautiful. You don't need to do anything to be prettier 'cause you're already…" He rolled his eyes. "Fuck this, you know what I mean."

She finally glanced up at him over her shoulder.

"I never said my childhood was as difficult as yours has been. I am not comparing, Haymitch." she said. "What all of you went through, I can't ever hope to understand. But I do mean this… The Capitol isn't perfect either. We might not have starved but…"

"It's fine. Couldn't know your mother would starve you in the name of fashion, could I?" he cut her off.

"That was not what I was going to say." she sighed. "And she didn't starve me, she made me eat soup. I was never in any danger."

It wasn't A+ parenting in his book but he held his tongue on that front. "What were you going to say then?"

She breathed out a deep sigh again, covering one of the hand on her shoulders with her own. "I was going to say I noticed there is something District people never seem to lack. Love. You are all so afraid of losing each other, you love without boundaries or second thought… We don't have this in the Capitol. Most things are calculated. Fake. Even love. Genuine love without conditions is a rare thing."

That was why the Capitol had so much loved the idea of a romance between Katniss and Peeta, he knew.

He ran his thumb along her nape. "Good thing you're one of us now, then, right? You've got plenty of District people ready to love you."

He kept his tone casual but she wasn't oblivious to the implications. She knew better than saying anything to make it clearer but she pressed a long kiss on the back of his hand.

They had always had a knack to understand each other without talking anyway.