i have a Prompt if i may : Peeta and Katniss get into a fight because Katniss got jealous and Effie And Haymitch try to help out

How To Deal With Women Who Covet Your Boyfriend

The tray was slammed down on the table with so much strength that a few mushrooms spilled over. Effie's eyes shot up from the report she had been reading while actively trying not to think about what sort of meat she was chewing on, surprised to find Katniss dropping on the chair on the other side of the table.

"Hello, dear!" she greeted cheerfully. As cheerfully as she could make herself sound in a dining hall where everyone was giving her the stinking eye and where she was sitting alone at what would have been the looser table if they had still been in high school. The dining hall was very much like high school. People sat together in cliques and they didn't mix. "How are you?"

She hadn't seen Katniss in a few days, busy as she had been with the preparations for Finnick's wedding. The girl wasn't exactly doing well from what she had understood from Haymitch, but given Peeta's state that was to be expected.

"Great." Katniss deadpanned, picking up the wayward mushrooms and dropping them back on her plate, making Effie cringe a little when she wiped her fingers on her uniform. "Just great."

She pursed her lips and considered the situation carefully. It wasn't exactly usual for Katniss to seek her company. At meal times, the girl tended to sit with her family or her friends depending on everyone's schedules.

She could see the Hawthorne boy from where she was sitting. He was right there, two tables over, watching them while pretending not to do so, his little sister on his lap. The mother was there too, naturally. And she had grabbed Haymitch's shirt when he had walked by with his tray, prompting him to sit with them – but Effie wasn't thinking about that at all, he could sit where he wanted, she didn't care even if it was humiliating for her to be eating there by herself.

"Don't you want to eat with your friends?" she asked in the improbable off-chance that the girl had simply missed the raucous group in the corner.

Katniss frowned a little, briefly met her eyes and shrugged. "Isn't that what I'm doing right now?"

It was so something Johanna could have said that she stayed silent a second longer than strictly necessary. It also moved her. Most of the times, she wasn't sure Katniss even liked her. And then her victor went and say or do something like that and… Effie's heart swelled with love. It was most unsettling.

"Let me rephrase that…" Effie gently countered, closing the report she had been reading. It was a project for a new propo and it was neither riveting nor a good idea – Plutarch might have been a very good producer but he wasn't at all skilled at understanding their Mockingjay. "While I am delighted by your company, why aren't you having lunch with your friends from Twelve? Did you and Gale have a fall out?"

As thick as thieves as they seemed to be, she knew there were quite a few sources of tension between them. Peeta was one, obviously. Gale's attitude toward anyone who was from the Capitol was another. The boy was absolutely rude. Effie ignored his behavior as much as she could but it wasn't hard to deduce he hated her.

And she couldn't begrudge him the right, after all. She was an escort. She had reaped his friends.

Still, some manners wouldn't have gone amiss.

"No." Katniss denied grimly, her face closing off in that familiar sulk.

Effie's eyes automatically darted to the table in the corner where Haymitch was chatting with Hazelle Hawthorne. He was laughing at whatever she had said, leaning back on his chair, his whole attention on that woman, his arms crossed in front of his chest, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows… She was offended. First, because he looked far too good despite the tolls the withdrawals had had on his body. Second, because he was better at dealing with Katniss and it was clear their victor needed someone to talk to at that very moment.

"Perhaps I can help, darling." she coaxed.

Katniss stubbornly gulfed down two forkfuls of whatever that meat was and Effie pursed her lips because truly… Haymitch's table manners was a very bad influence on the children. She was on the verge of rebuking her when the girl stopped chewing and stabbed a mushroom as if it had personally offended her.

"You know Peeta's allowed to walk around now?" Katniss mumbled.

"I would not call it walk around." she commented. His doctors encouraged Peeta to take his meals in the dining-hall and he was allowed walks as well as the use of the kitchen sometimes… It was all part of his therapy. "He is under strict supervision still. Is that what is troubling you? Are you scared that…"

"I'm not scared of Peeta." Katniss cut her off so sharply she knew she had vexed her. That was why Haymitch shouldn't waste his time talking with dark haired women with warm smiles. He was needed in their team. Another mushroom suffered a hard stab but the fork never reached the girl's mouth. "Have you seen him?"

The question was asked in such a small sad voice that Effie's heart broke in her chest. How much more pain would those two be forced to get through? Not for the first time since she had reaped their names, she wished she could shield them from what was to come.

"Only on videos." she offered. "I am not allowed to go in his room. They are concerned I am too linked to you in his mind and that I will trigger an episode."

"Haymitch was allowed to see him." Katniss pouted.

"He tried twice so far." she explained. "It did not go so well."

Peeta had tried to attack him each time. It was always fine at first and then… She supposed it was the real reason why she was forbidden from talking to the boy. Plutarch had argued that she might be more successful than Haymitch but Haymitch had still slammed his veto down along with his fist on the table. He was worried about her safety. And it would have been touching if it hadn't been about their victor.

Katniss nodded as if to show she understood but the gesture seemed hollow, more out of reflex than genuinely meant.

"It is alright to miss him." she whispered, aware that the girl wouldn't appreciate the comment. Too sentimental. She almost expected Katniss to storm out, which was why she was so surprised when the girl put her fork down, worrying a piece of rope tied around her wrist instead of eating her lunch. She supposed the rope came from Finnick. "I know it must be terrible for you. I cannot imagine…"

She did not even want to imagine.

Haymitch had claimed to hate her for years… He had even threatened to strangle her a few times… But at no point had she believed he hated her enough to actually try it.

"It's unfair." Katniss mumbled, staring at the food on her plate, untying the rope from around her wrist to play with it. She knotted it and unknotted it only to start again. "They're all saying making me feel that way was Snow's goal, that I shouldn't let him win…"

"Never mind what they are all saying." Effie scoffed. "Men. What do they understand about anything?"

Plutarch and Haymitch meant well. Finnick and Beetee probably meant well too.

She had no doubt Gale was encouraging her to move on.

But truly…

"Johanna isn't a man." Katniss pointed out, a ghost of a smile stretching her lips.

"Johanna has the emotional capacity of a teaspoon." she retorted with a huff. "You are allowed to be sad, Katniss. You are allowed to be devastated even."

The victor tied the rope into a noose. "It's not just… that. It's… There are all those people he doesn't mind being with and…" The girl angrily tugged on the rope but it wouldn't loosen again. "I keep wishing he would just… He doesn't even look at me. He can't. Because when he does, he goes berserk. And then there's Delly telling me he will be okay, that it will get better and…" Her voice had hardened and given the way she tossed the rope aside to stab another mushroom, Effie surmised they were getting close to the real problem. "You know Delly?"

"We have not been introduced but I have seen her around." she confirmed. Red hair, freckles, pretty enough. "She is a good friend of Peeta's, isn't she? She is helping him."

"Yeah." Katniss scowled, aggressively chewing on her mushrooms.

The look on Katniss' face was familiar. She remembered it from the Quell, specifically from right after an elevator ride that had involved Johanna Mason getting naked – and the girl coming straight to her to rattle Peeta and Haymitch out.

"Oh." she let out when she realized. "You are jealous of that girl."

"No." her victor denied but her cheeks flushed and she looked a little uncertain. "It's just… He smiles at her. He laughs with her. And the way he looks at her…" Katniss awkwardly shifted in her chair. "She's with him all the time. He likes being with her."

"You are far prettier than she is." Effie declared. "And if you think the girl has inappropriate thoughts about him, then she will simply have to go. Leave it to me, dear. I will make sure she is not a problem any longer."

"No!" Katniss protested with a wince. "She's good for him. And I don't think she… I don't know." The victor shrugged. "I just… I don't know."

"I see." she said slowly. There were a lot of things Katniss didn't seem to know and that she should figure out quickly. Her gaze darted to the table in the corner again. Haymitch was nodding at whatever Hazelle was saying but his grey eyes met hers. All she got was a small twitch of eyebrows. A question she ignored if only because it would distract him from whatever bewitching story his lunch companion was spinning. "Well!" she declared cheerfully, picking up her fork to finish the now cold meat – it didn't make the taste any better. "I have quite a few tales of women who tried to steal my boyfriends if you would care to hear them. You will find I have very effective methods when it comes to dealing with them."

Such as setting the train of their dresses on fire but that was a story she would never admit to – and it had been a very long train anyway, the woman had never been in any real danger, and she hadn't meant to toss her cigarette right on the fabric…

She got a few laughs out of Katniss as she dramatically recalled a few incidents from her youth. The girl seemed a bit stunned and taken aback by her oh so proper escort's schemes when it came to getting rid of rivals. Shredding one's reputation, maneuvering to expose someone, blackmailing…

"Tripping someone down the stairs is a bit… too much." the girl pointed out.

"I did not trip her, she fell. All I did was give fate a little push. It wouldn't have happened to her if she hadn't been wearing cheap fake heels. All is fair in love and war, Katniss." she concluded with a flourish of her spoon in the air.

Her victor stared at her, shook her head, but there was a smile on her lips when she said her goodbyes and that pleased Effie. Mission accomplished. She pushed her tray away and slid the report closer, intending to finish it before she found Plutarch to explain to him by the detail why it wouldn't work. She would need to arm herself with diplomacy. She had been reduced to little more than his assistant in Thirteen and he didn't take well to his grand ideas being criticized.

She resolutely ignored the fingers that brushed her nape before grabbing the back of her chair. As if Haymitch needed the help to lower himself onto the closest seat. "What was that all about?"

"Now you take an interest?" she huffed without looking up.

"She came to you." he shrugged. "Thought it might be women stuff."

She rolled her eyes so badly it actually hurt. "It was, as a matter of fact. I gave her a crash course on how to deal with girls who think they can steal your boyfriend."

She didn't need to look to know there was a smirk on his lips. And it infuriated her.

"Taught the girl all about pushing people in swimming pools and then look all innocent, sweetheart?" he teased.

Once. That had happened once.

She was usually more subtler than that.

"Perhaps I taught her how to withhold sex until her boyfriend learns his lesson." she hummed distractedly.

"Doubt that." he snorted.

"It is good advice." she commented. "Very effective."

"Maybe on boyfriends." he retorted. "Not sure that label works here."

"Boyfriends, sex friends…" she dismissed. "There is no real difference. It all comes down to who the man wants to sleep with more at the end of the day and I am an exceptionally talented lover."

"Thought we were talking about Katniss." he mocked.

"Weren't we?" she challenged, finally looking up and straight into his grey eyes.

He had never taken his hand off the back of her chair and he was closer than propriety allowed. His hair was too long, the beard was out of control and there were dark bags under his eyes. And yet she still had to repress the urge to frame his face in her hands and kiss him right there. To stake her claim like she had advised Katniss to do.

"You know there's nothing half as fun as making steam blow out of your ears, right?" he taunted. "You were glaring at Hazelle so hard I was afraid she'd catch fire." He paused. "Or that you would set her on fire. You do have a nasty habit of doing that…"

"That never happened." she refuted. "I do not know how that dress caught fire, Haymitch. As you are well aware."

"Sure." he smirked.

"And anyway… She wasn't injured at all. That train was half a mile long, there was no danger at all. Whoever was responsible I am fairly certain they did not mean that woman any harm." she insisted.

"So you said. Several times." he pointed out.

"I do not go around setting women on fire like some sort of maniac." she huffed.

"Only women who want to sleep with me." he chuckled. Eventually he shook his head, getting serious again. "Look… You're hot when you're jealous and I ain't even gonna pretend it doesn't turn me on…"

"Jealous." she hissed. "I am not…"

"For the last time, I ain't interested in Hazelle." he cut her off. "We're friends. That's it."

Effie relaxed but still pouted. "That isn't it for her, I guarantee you."

"But that's it for me." he shrugged. "That's what matters, yeah?"

She mulled that over for a second and the let out a long deep sigh. "I suppose."