Prompt: Can I prompt? Please please please write something where Effie finally snaps at her mother and gives her what for, with hayffie in there too! Maybe her mother catches them or something? Thank you if you do!

AND

May I prompt too? Maybe one where in post mockingjay Elindra catches Hayffie in a tender moment and starts b***, Effie then finally sticks up for herself and tells her to back off lol. Xoxo

Facing Up

The kiss was a bad idea she knew.

There were too many things left to sort out, too many things left unsaid, too much resentment on her part and too much guilt on his. But when had they ever made the right decisions when it came down to this? To them?

In retrospect, pieces of a broken sofa digging against the small of her back while they kissed in the middle of her thrashed apartment wasn't the worst that could have happened. She suspected he had been waiting for this since her rescue, she surrendered to it with a relief that was almost overwhelming.

It wasn't brutal or hungry as it used to be. It was soft, almost tentative. Her face was cradled in his hands, his thumb kept stroking her throat. She was gripping his shirt, creasing the fabric beyond repair, tugging him closer, always closer. When her tongue poked his lips, demanding access, he almost moaned against her mouth.

That wasn't something that usually happened. He wasn't a vocal person.

It told her everything she needed to know about the last months. He hadn't really said anything but his behavior toward her had changed since she had woken up in that hospital room. He treated her less like a fuck buddy and more like… She didn't know. Like more.

He had fought to keep her away from President Coin's clutches, to save her from the parody of trials and very real executions of the Games' staff. He had apologized when she had been forced to play the escort one last time, promising that she would be free afterwards. He had taken her with him when he had moved from the Presidential Mansion to Plutarch's house for the duration of Katniss' trial. He watched her with this hollow gaze sometimes, as if he was seeing what could have been instead of what was. He hugged her at random too, buried his face in her neck and let his whole body shudder with the weight of a sorrow she had no hope of soothing. She had spent the last months in prison but his months in Thirteen hadn't been emotionally better.

They were both broken in different ways but they had never been good at putting themselves back together. Hence why the kiss was a bad idea.

And yet she couldn't stop.

It had rarely ever been like this. So tender and loving… Not a prelude to anything but just a proof of… something.

"Haymitch…" she breathed out when they eventually drew apart long enough to breathe.

"I missed you." he mumbled, not looking at her in the eye. It wasn't the first time he had confessed as much since she had woken up but, from someone who kept such a tight lid on his feelings as Haymitch did, it still felt.. good to hear. "I fucking missed you. So fucking much."

He nuzzled her cheek before pressing light small kisses under her ear and down her neck. His hands slid down her arms and to the small of her back, protecting her from the piece of metal from the broken sofa that would leave a bruise there.

"Missing me doesn't excuse profanities." she teased in an attempt at normal.

He chuckled against her neck and it was almost desperate. "Effie…"

His voice broke on her name and it hurt her.

"I'm fine." she lied. "Everything is alright now. Everything will be fine. We will get Katniss back and we will all be free."

She didn't know if she truly believed it, if she believed in anything resembling freedom. She used to feel free, in her youth, before becoming an escort and opening her eyes to the real world, before she realized Capitols were monitored, spied on and watched, before she realized her every move had to be carefully studied not only for her reputation's sake but for her safety… Freedom was a fleeting concept.

He lifted his head from her neck, gently brushing her blond curls back with shaky fingers. His grey eyes were bright and nervous, whatever he was about to say, she knew it would be earth-shattering. In truth, she knew what he was about to say. He had been hinting at it ever since she had started insisting on checking out her apartment and trying to restore it.

He didn't want to live in the Capitol and he didn't want to go back to Twelve.

Leave with me, he was about to say, we will grab the kids and go somewhere, start again. He would probably not say it in as many words. He would probably not do a good job at asking her to tag along. But she knew that was what he wanted to say. She had been waiting.

It was probably as dumb an idea as kissing when nothing was resolved.

She bit down on her bottom lip to keep herself from talking before he had finally said it. He smirked a little, his fingers trailing on her cheek, his thumb carefully rescuing her lip from her teeth.

The noise of someone clearing their throat was so familiar that Effie pushed him away in a long conditioned reflex, turning toward the sound, a blush already in place.

Unfortunately, Haymitch wasn't as familiar with that particular noise and perceived the intrusion as a threat. In a second, she was pushed behind him and his knife was out, his fingers gripping it in a dangerous stance.

The newcomer gasped and took a step back.

"Haymitch, no!" Effie panicked before he could do something stupid like attack. She grabbed his arm to hold him back. "It's my mother."

He glanced at her over his shoulder and then at the Capitol woman standing there and eventually relaxed but not by much. He did put the knife away though.

"I would have knocked, I am not a savage." Elindra huffed, tossing him a look that clearly said she thought he was. "But your door is off its hinges, Euphemia." She looked around, the usual disapproving look she always gave her apartment was back ten times stronger. "Please, do tell me you haven't been staying here."

It was the first time she had seen anyone from her family since her rescue. Nobody had come at the hospital and while she had made Plutarch check they were all alive, she hadn't gone out of her way to contact them either.

One might have expected gasps and a tearful reunion. Effie knew better.

"Of course not, Mother." she answered quietly, stepping out from behind Haymitch, trailing a hand down his arm to let him know it was alright. "We have been staying at Secretary Heavensbee's."

The title was still brand new, a few days at most, but Plutarch was boasting it every chance he got. Secretary of Communication Plutarch Heavensbee. It made Fulvia smile and Haymitch roll his eyes. Effie tended not to care.

"We." Elindra repeated coldly, her eyes darting to Haymitch and back.

"Yes, Mother." she stated, firmly enough that Elindra pursed her lips but wisely didn't pursue the subject. For now. "I was happy to learn everyone was alright. I trust you are all well?"

"Alright?" her mother scoffed. "Rufus is dead."

Haymitch's hand wrapped around her nape and squeezed gently, preemptively, in case that bit of news upset her, but Effie didn't even flinch.

"I know." she replied. "I followed his trial on TV. I meant Father, Lyssa and the boys."

Elindra didn't quite glare because glaring wasn't really ladylike but she was clearly angry at her. "Your sister lost her husband and her children lost their father. None of us is well. Although I suppose our well-being was never something you chose to take into consideration when you started cavorting with scum." Her face twisted. "I am so disappointed in you, Euphemia. So disappointed. And ashamed."

"Business as usual then, right?" Haymitch scowled. "You get she could have died, right? You get…"

"Haymitch, don't." she cut him off, shaking her head. "Would you give us a few seconds please?"

He stared at her and she could read the conflict clearly in his eyes. He didn't want to leave her alone with her mother because every time she had gone to visit her mother in the past, she had always come back to him eager to fuck the memory out of her mind, which translated as her being very upset. If he had been naturally protective before her capture it was worse now. He could barely bear having her out of his sight – and it was a problem in itself – so leaving her knowing she would likely be upset…

"Please." she insisted.

He sighed and squeezed her nape one last time. "I'll try to see what we can save in the bedroom. Shout if you need me."

He tossed a warning glare at her mother on his way out.

"You do know where I spent the last few months, don't you, Mother?" she asked as soon as he was gone, in a low voice that, she was pleased to notice, didn't shake. Her back was rod straight and her chin was up in the air in the usual air of confidence she adopted when talking to Elindra but this time… She didn't feel the same apprehension, the same terror of disappointing. She was past that point for her mother, she figured, and it didn't seem as important.

"They questioned us." Elindra declared, taking a few steps further in the living-room. She seemed to consider placing her purse and coat on a piece of furniture that wasn't upturned and then thought better of it. "Lyssandra suspected you had followed your lover to wherever he had fled. That's what she told the Peacekeepers who came to the house. That you were most probably gone with the drunkard. The shame."

And that had probably saved their lives, she figured.

"I was arrested." she countered.

Elindra's eyes snapped to her and briefly roamed over her. Assessing.

Her dress was a size too big on her now and it looked a little loose. Her make-up was light and she hadn't bothered with a wig. Elindra couldn't have been approving of her new look.

"Well. That is what you get for frolicking with rebels." her mother declared. "They are not overly fond of Capitols. You do not look worse for the wear, I assume it cannot have been that terrible."

A grim smile stretched Effie's lips. She thought back to fists pummeling on her body, Johanna's screams, whips that cracked in the air before licking flesh, Peeta's begging and Annie's sobs, the fear, the overwhelming terror…

"The Capitol arrested me." she clarified.

"Nonsense." Elindra scorned.

"They arrested me and tortured me." she continued flatly, completely detached. Her mind was elsewhere. "I wasn't with Haymitch. I was right here, under your feet, buried alive."

"All the traitors in the Games business the Capitol arrested were executed by the rebels." her mother argued. "Why would you be any different? Do not play for sympathy, Euphemia, you will get none from me. You made your bed and now you have to lie in it. You betrayed us all."

"If you are talking about the few escorts and Gamemakers the Capitol arrested, it was a preemptive measure." she explained, still aloof. "A way to control people who were deemed too close to several victors. They were not part of the rebel movement."

"But you were." Elindra insisted. "You betrayed your country. You brought shame on your family and for what?"

"I was not." she denied. "The rebels would have executed me too if not for Haymitch."

Elindra watched her before turning to the broken glass case where she used to keep the trophies from her beauty pageants. Her mother straightened a fallen cup she had won when she was six. "He saved your life?"

"Yes." she said simply. It was a tad more complicated than that but she didn't feel like going into details at the moment. She felt light headed. She leaned against the wall. "I am no traitor, Mother. The Capitol was bad."

"The Capitol wasn't ideal but it was power." Elindra declared pragmatically. "Now we are at the bottom of the food chain and I can guarantee no one will thank you for that."

"Paylor will be a good president." she stated. She had never met her but Haymitch liked the woman, they were on friendly terms, and Haymitch was a good judge of character.

Her mother hummed, clearly not convinced. Effie watched her walk to the smashed window and survey the chaos her neighborhood had become.

"Is that why he is still here?" Elindra asked. "He saved your life and now you are repaying the debt in nature? Did he buy himself a Capitol slave?"

It was a crude way of asking if she was sleeping with Haymitch, a crude way of asking the nature of their arrangement.

"He is here because I want him to be." she hissed. "And you would do well not to insult him under my roof, Mother."

Elindra glanced at her over her shoulder, a mocking expression on her face. "This isn't much of a roof although I suppose to him it must look like a palace. I cannot imagine his shack to be much more better than this ruin."

"Did you come here to insult me?" she asked frankly. "To insult my…" Her voice faltered. It had always been difficult to put a word on what Haymitch was to her but now it was even worse.

Her mother seemed to follow that train of thoughts because she turned her back to the window with a knowing look. "I came here because despite everything you are my daughter." It might have been the most loving thing Elindra had ever told her and, for a moment, Effie felt tears prickling her eyes. For a moment only. "Our house escaped the destruction. Lyssa and the children are living with us for now. Your father and I would take you back provided you apologize to your sister and pledge not to embarrass our family name again."

It was like a cold bucket of water dumped on her head after a nice warm shower.

"Apologize." she repeated. "Apologize for what? For being alive when her husband is dead?"

Elindra shook her head. "Do not be difficult, Euphemia. You claimed you followed his trial on TV… Clearly, you have friends in high places. It is no secret your drunkard is…"

"Stop calling him that." she growled.

"Do not interrupt me." her mother scolded her. "It is rude."

"I am about to get much ruder." Effie warned. "Were you even for one second worried about me at all or was it all about your reputation?"

"Of course, I was worried about you." Elindra snapped. "But did you expect me to be happy with your choice of betraying everything and everyone including your family to run away with a District dog who is notorious for his drinking addiction and his couth behavior? You left us without news for months."

"I was imprisoned!" she shouted, losing the meager amount of control she had on her emotions. She was vaguely aware that Haymitch walked back into the room. All she could see was her mother and she could do nothing to stop the hateful words slipping from her lips. "I was torn to pieces. Do you want to see the scars? Do you want me to tell you what they did? How fun they thought it was to make me scream? Do you want to hear about how I was left for weeks in a cell so small I couldn't stand? How I didn't even have to stretch both arms to touch the walls? Do you want me to describe it for you? It was so dark I thought I would never see the light again, I didn't even remember what it was like. I thought I would go mad. Do you know what it is like to be forced to sit in the dark and think for months? To feel your mind detach from your body a little more each day? Do you want to hear about the insults they would throw my way when they remembered I existed? The kind of food they fed me when it occurred to them I was not dead yet? Do you want to hear how I soiled myself and didn't even care? Do you want to hear how eager I was to die?"

And, just like that, she was back there. Back in her ridiculously small cell, back in the stench and the fear and the endless waiting for her body to finally give in, for her stubbornness to fade…

Suddenly there were arms around her and a hard chest at her back. "Effie, come back. It's over. Come back, sweetheart. I've got you. You're safe. Come on, sweetheart…" His mouth was against her neck, coaxing her back to awareness and she blinked and blinked until the cell disappeared. "That's it. Easy, sweetheart, I've got you."

And by that she figured he meant he was supporting her weight because her legs were trembling. Her fingers were prickling, which she supposed meant she had been hyperventilating. She was becoming familiar with panic attack symptoms.

"I am fine." she breathed out, her eyes finding her mother's. Elindra seemed rooted to the spot, unsure of what to do or say. Effie turned her head away. "I think you should leave, Mother."

"You should come home with me." Elindra declared, her voice not as assertive as it usually was. "We will take care of you."

"I take care of her." Haymitch spat before she could answer.

"She clearly needs to be with her family." her mother snapped.

"She is." he growled.

Elindra shook her head and while the worry didn't disappear it coupled with displeasure. "Effie, darling, come home with me. Enough of this nonsense. You are still a pretty woman for your age, I am sure we can find you a nice rich Capitol husband. You could still have a proper normal life. We will simply claim he turned your head. People would forgive everything made out of love. We will explain this was all a mistake and…"

"Fuck, you're thick, yeah?" Haymitch snickered. "She doesn't…"

"Enough." Effie cut them off, waving her hand. "Mother, I know it upsets you but you should accept I am involved with Haymitch. I have been for some time now and I think it is fair to suppose it won't change in the immediate future."

"Nice to know." he grumbled, tightening his hold around her waist.

"I have no intention of settling down with a man you judge adequate simply so you can stop being ashamed of your traitor daughter." she continued. "The Capitol has fallen. The world is changing. I suggest you start accepting this."

Elindra stared at her, her eyes sometimes darting to Haymitch. "I cannot and will not condone this joke of a relationship. He is a drunk with no perspective of a future, powerful acquaintances or not. What sort of life will he give you?"

"Probably one where we will argue from dawn to dusk and swear we are done with each other three times a week." she shrugged. "We will grow old to be one of those couples who always complain about each other to their children."

"To be fair, the kids are already sick and tired of me complaining about you." he snorted. "We're already halfway there."

She flashed him a beaming smile, simply happy he hadn't shot down her not thought through idea of trying for a life together. It was one thing to think he was going to ask and completely another to just put it out there like that.

"Euphemia, do this and we will not receive you again until you come back to reason." her mother warned. "We cannot be associated with the likes of him."

Clearly, Elindra had trouble understanding what a new Panem entailed.

"Then, please, do give my love to Father and Lyssa." she retorted. "Because if the Capitol and the worst it had to give weren't enough to make me renounce him, you certainly won't be." She shook her head, leaning a little more against Haymitch's chest. "You were never proud of me anyway, Mother. Just add this to the list of the ways I disappointed you."

Elindra huffed but remained where she was. "Again, I beg you to reconsider."

"You so do not want to test me further, Mother." she warned.

"What she means and is too polite to say is go fuck yourself." Haymitch cut in, clearly tired of the whole thing. "I'm not losing her again to the likes of you. Now, fuck off."

That was too much for her mother who stormed out, ranting all the while about brutes and uncivilized savages. If the door had still been on its hinges, Effie had no doubt she would have slammed it shut, ladylike behavior or not.

"Always with the vulgarity." she sighed, turning around in his arms.

He shrugged. "She's a bitch."

"She is my mother." she argued.

"Which makes it worse." he sneered. "Moms aren't supposed to be like that with their kids."

"Perhaps not where you come from." she granted, raising on tip toes to plant her lips on his. "It does not matter."

There was a time where it would have. She used to be desperate for her mother's approval, she used to crave it, envying Lyssa to death over it. But now… Now it all seemed so stupid.

"You're sure about this?" he mumbled in the middle of their kiss. "'Cause… You're choosing me over your family. Can't say I'm not happy about it but… Yeah…"

"You are my family." she declared and it was final. "You and the children."

Her team, but team had always been an euphemism in her mind.

"Good." he muttered, slightly embarrassed. "'Cause you're mine."

And that was worth everything.