Prompt: Oh man. Please do some sort of Drabble based on "I can't stand this person but I would die for them" :'D I could totally see Haymitch saying that about Effie hahahh

Who You Could Die For

There were new goslings in the pen.

Haymitch leaned against the wooden structure and pondered that problem. He must have forgotten to pick up the eggs at some point, he supposed. Again.

"Hey."

He didn't startle but he wouldn't have claimed to have heard the girl coming either. She was still very much a hunter. He turned his head, briefly studying her to make sure she was alright. His house was always open to the kids and they came and went as they pleased but they also usually did so at meal times. Not… mid-morning.

Katniss looked as fine as she had ever been in the last six months. She looked better than she had when he had ushered her in the hovercraft back to Twelve but she still didn't look as good as he would have liked.

"What's up, sweetheart?" he asked. "No hunting today?"

It was her routine. She got up at dawn and headed straight to the woods and she usually only came back around lunch time.

Katniss buried her hands in her pockets, watching him in silence for a while. She seemed puzzled and wary all at once and he doubted it meant anything good.

He was happy to stare at his new goslings and remain ignorant for a few minutes longer. Peeta wasn't there, he couldn't help but notice. Whatever this was about, it wasn't a family thing. Or maybe it was and she felt it necessary to protect the boy from it. Or the boy was the problem. She didn't look injured but it didn't mean there hadn't been a new episode and it didn't mean she hadn't yet again changed her mind about what she wanted to do with her love life.

"Jo called earlier." she said eventually.

His worries switched targets fast. "Annie's ok? The kid?"

He hadn't been sure about letting Annie go back to Four with her baby, even with Jo there to keep an eye on things. Family should be kept close, that was what he had always thought. Annie wasn't the most stable, Jo was insane on a good day, and leaving a baby to their care…

"They're fine." she shrugged. "Jo's been trying to reach you since yesterday. Your phone's broken or something?"

"Or something." he snorted. He had unhooked it – not torn off the wall again but unhooked it. The only person he wanted to talk to with that phone didn't want to hear from him so what was the point? He didn't need Plutarch's regular but pointless calls. "What does she want now?"

Katniss didn't answer at once, she was watching again and he wondered what that was about. The two of them usually didn't bother with… diplomacy.

The girl cleared her throat. "Apparently… Effie showed up at their house yesterday morning before sunrise."

He frowned a bit and reached for the flask he kept in his pocket. It was an automatic gesture, really. A reflex born out of years of drinking when he was uncomfortable.

"Yeah?" he said, making an effort to keep his voice casual, detached. "Is it sunbathing time of the year, already?"

Katniss sighed and abandoned her defensive position to sit on the big boulder next to the pen. "Jo says you need to get your head out of your ass and do something 'cause it's bad. I'm quoting."

"Bad." he repeated, his heart beating faster. "How bad? How's she doing?"

Effie had clung to him in the beginning, just after her rescue. She had clung to him and he had thought… But she had come back to her senses after a while. He had seen her angry before but never as furious as the day she had told him she never wanted to see him again. He had begged for a forgiveness he had no right to ask for but she had turned him down.

It had hurt, of course, and it had made him angry… But he understood.

He hadn't expected much more.

He had let her down. He had repaid her loyalty with failure.

"She seemed alright when I saw her before Snow's…" she answered and then abruptly shut up. They never talked about that. Never. "Jo said… She said Effie needs you."

His jaw clenched and he looked down before taking a mouthful of liquor. "Did she say if Effie wanted me there?"

"What happened to her?" Katniss asked, sounding distressed. "Nobody said she… They told me she was arrested but she looked fine."

"Bet she did." he chuckled. "That's Effie for you. You see what she wants you to see."

She had been a long way from fine when Katniss had last seen her but he doubted she would have let the girl know that.

"She's got friends. Tons of friends." she insisted. "I don't get why Jo wants you to go. You can't stand her! Everyone knows that."

He didn't think she had that many friends left. The war had put her in a delicate position. She was either a traitor or a monster. Her official pardon hadn't come with any explanation about her role in the war. As far as people were concerned she had escaped the Purge because she had connections, friends in high places – himself in other terms.

"Can't stand her, no." he agreed, taking a swing of his flask. "That's what makes the whole thing fucking ironic… Can't stand her but I'd die for her in a heartbeat." He shook his head because that was the only thing to do and he didn't look at Katniss because he wasn't comfortable with that sort of grand declarations. He didn't even know why he had chosen to share that much. It was none of the girl's business. It was none of anyone's business. "Did Jo say if she wanted me there or what? 'Cause there's no point in me going if she's just gonna…" He shrugged and took another mouthful of liquor.

Katniss was staring at him as if he had grown a second head.

"You'd actually go." the girl deadpanned. "Just like that. You wait until you're starving to go grocery shopping but you'd go to Four right now just 'cause Effie's in trouble."

"I'd go to the Capitol if she was in trouble, sweetheart." he snorted. "Just like I'd go to wherever you are if you were. Or the boy for that matter."

"It's different." Katniss argued. "We're family."

"There were four of us in that team, yeah?" he sneered. "You're quick to forget."

She looked down. "But she wasn't… She was…"

"If you say she was with them I might kick your ass." he growled. "She put herself in danger for the two of you. You think the matching tokens stunt got her any points with Snow? Told her it was foolish. You think she listened? No, 'cause she's the most stubborn…" He stopped talking and shook his head again. "Why did she go to Four?"

Katniss shrugged. "Guess you won't find out until you go."

"I ain't going." he scoffed. "She knows where to find me… If she had wanted…"

"Haymitch." she cut him off. "You say you could die for her. You fight for people you could die for."

"Been there, done that." he scowled. "She wasn't interested."

"Maybe you should try again then." the girl advised. "Maybe you should try harder."

Which was how he found himself on the first train to Four, knowing all the while it was a bad idea.

He just hoped it wasn't too much of a bad idea.