A Promise

"So you're doing it, then?" Chaff snorted and Haymitch could picture him shaking his head. "Told you you had already decided…"

"Yeah, yeah…" Haymitch rolled his eyes, shifting Effie's borrowed phone to his other hand, wrinkling his nose as the pungent smell of the white roses in the conservatory attacked his nostrils. He hardly wandered this way and now he remembered why. He much preferred the garden. "You told me so. Congrats."

Chaff chuckled in his ear. "Would ask how it's going but I've got the feeling if I ever hint at that girl and sex, you're gonna kick my ass…"

"Probably." he acknowledged because Effie wasn't like the one-night-stands of their youth. He wouldn't discuss her or what they did. "Not sure it's gonna take though. Might not happen at all."

"Do you need me to give you the birds and the bees talk again?" Chaff mocked.

"You never gave me that talk." he scoffed.

"Sure had to give you a few pointers the first time I took you to a bar…" his best friend argued and… Fine. Fine. That was true.

"She's got a… condition." he explained, making his way out of the conservatory through the door that led back inside the Mansion. He was feeling antsy that Saturday and he had felt the need to… do something, even if it was only going outside, walk around the grounds and breathe in the fresh spring air. He had tried to get Effie to come with him but she was curled up on the couch and refused to move. "She's got to follow a treatment. Hormones mostly."

"Ah, shit… That sucks." Chaff commented but Haymitch had the feeling he was saying what he thought he wanted to hear.

"Yeah. It does." he sighed. It wasn't as bad as Haymitch had feared it would be. She injected herself with stuff, she had pills to take… But, hell, didn't that wreck havoc on her body. She never let him know but he knew she felt nauseous from time to time, the mood swings were beasts – to the point Peeta had sort of set up a second desk for himself in a corner of Katniss' so he could escape her sometimes – and she kept asking him if her face was puffed up. She may or may not have slightly rounder cheeks but he wasn't going to tell her that. The facts that it had been two months since they had started and she had had her period twice weren't helping either, no matter how many times he told her they couldn't expect it to work right away. "We're going on holidays soon. A whole fucking week and a half on a desert island…"

"Your life's so weird, man…" Chaff laughed. "Got to run. Fay's gonna have my head if I don't go supervise the work in the orchard."

They exchanged goodbyes and Haymitch slipped Effie's phone in the back pocket of his jeans, taking the stairs that led up to the residential floor two at a time. It was the week-end, which meant the Mansion was mostly deserted, which meant he wasn't being followed everywhere by Peacekeepers… That was a nice break. But still, it was one of those days where he felt trapped and would have loved to just be able to leave the Mansion and stroll around the city.

He was wondering what were the chances of getting caught if he tried to sneak out by himself… Boggs was off for the week-end, after all… He'd like to think he could sneak around his replacement…

But then he saw Effie, still curled up on the couch in a shirt she had borrowed from him and bright blue panties only, and he smirked. "Hey there, sweetheart."

She glanced up at him, her lips stretching into a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. It had stopped reaching her eyes last week when she had started bleeding. "Did you have a nice walk?"

He made a face, not bothering to hide his frustration. She knew more than anyone how much he liked to freely roam around and how much it frustrated him not to be able to. "Went around in circles." He placed her phone on the coffee table and leaned over her to check the pad she had been scribbling on. "What are you working on?"

She immediately scrambled to hide it from view but not fast enough that he couldn't see she had been sketching something… A bodice of some sort…

She rarely did this anymore. It used to be a hobby of hers, or so she had told him, sketching clothes, but lately it had been replaced by all the wedding things he didn't really want to be involved in.

"Do not snoop." she chided. "This is a… secret project."

"A secret…" he repeated and then it dawned on him. "Is that the wedding dress, sweetheart? You're designing it?"

"Of course I'm not designing it." she huffed. "I am not a stylist and Portia would be terribly vexed. I was just… daydreaming." She cleared her throat. "And Portia did say I should start seriously thinking about it because wedding dresses aren't made in a day so…"

"Can I see?" he asked, curious.

"Absolutely not." she declared, managing to close the pad without flashing him a glimpse. She wedged it between her side and the back of the couch. He was tempted to try to get it anyway, just because he was lacking anything else to do, but then with the pad gone, he had a perfect view of her in his shirt and… Damn it but he loved it when she was wearing his clothes… "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Her tone was suspicious.

He was still leaning over her, one hand on the back of the couch for balance, it didn't take much more to lean a little further until his face hovered over hers. "Cause you're beautiful."

"Oh…" she breathed out, her cheeks flushing a little. "I very much doubt that… I am not dressed and I do not have any make-up on and I hardly even brushed my…"

He kissed her before she could touch her hair, deepening it a little when she hummed against his lips. He put a knee on the couch, intended to find his way between her legs…

She drew back and licked her lips, her blue eyes blown up with desire. "I don't think it's the optimal moment for that, Haymitch. Let me check the app…"

He caught her wrist before she could reach for her phone. She had an app that told them what the best moments were to have sex and while it had been fun at first, now it felt…

"How about we do it for the fun of it?" he challenged.

She was tempted but her eyes still darted to her phone. "It might hurt…"

"Won't hurt anything at all." he grumbled. "Babies are made by having fun all the times."

"Not when the mother has a defective uterus." she argued.

"It's not defective." he countered. "It just needs a little help."

She pouted. "It does not seem to be helping a lot."

"Maybe if we obsessed less about when we're supposed to fuck and how we're supposed to fuck…" he suggested, shaking his head a little. "I've been reading stuff, you know… Studies, they show if you're gonna obsess over it, it's not gonna help any…" Her pout turned into a sulk and he could take a wild guess and bank she wasn't entirely happy about him telling her what to do or not to do. "Just saying. Maybe we try to forget the app from time to time…"

"You say that because you want to have sex all the time and the app won't let you." she pointed out, her lips twitching a little as she fought a smile.

"True." he granted, kissing down her neck. "I've got not self control. It's sad, really…"

"Extremely sad." she agreed, sliding down the couch a little, parting her legs so he could settle between them.

"You're telling me it hasn't made you frustrated at all?" he challenged, sneaking his hands under her shirt – his shirt. He was trying to decide if he wanted her to keep it while he fucked her when she took the decision from him by slipping it off.

Faced with her bare breasts, he decided that had been the best option.

He immediately leaned down to suck one in his mouth.

"Perhaps a little." she hummed, arching her back, pushing more of her breast into his mouth… He wasn't complaining. "Although, the quickies in your office are fun…"

They were fun.

A bit rushed because her stupid app always decided the middle of the day was the best time to conceive a baby but they were fun.

"Plutarch has been asking questions…" she murmured when he didn't answer.

He let her nipple slip out of his mouth, tugging at it a little with his teeth if only to get a moan out of her. "Don't talk about Plutarch when we're fucking, sweetheart…"

"Language." she chided. "And we are not fucking yet. You are still dressed."

"Do something about it, then." he taunted. She lifted an eyebrow but lost no time in tugging at his clothes. "What kind of questions?"

"I think he's onto us." she clarified. "Should we tell him?"

He shook his head. "Not until it worked."

"Katniss and Peeta know…" she pointed out. "And they are just our assistants…"

"Katniss and Peeta are family." he corrected.

"So is Plutarch in a way." she retorted, pausing with his newly removed shirt bundled in her hands. "He won't be happy…"

"Which is why we ain't telling him until there's something to tell." he argued. "Look… We can't hide it from the kids. They handle our fucking schedules…" Their assistants knew everything about their lives. It would be extremely hard to hide something like that from them and, in his opinion, not worth it. He trusted the kids with his life and he trusted them to be discreet about it. They were both loyal. They were both like children to the two of them. They were… family. "Plutarch's gonna try to tell us it's a bad idea…"

"It is his job." she sighed. "From a PR point of view…"

"We ain't looking at it from a PR point of view. We're looking at it from our point of view." he cut her off. "And our point of view is that we want a baby, right?"

She smiled. "Right."

"So let's save Plutarch's breath." He shrugged. "He can shout and be angry about it once there's something to shout and be angry about. Spare ourselves the lecture."

"I do not think he would be angry." she insisted. "Just… irritated by the complications."

"Can we stop talking about Plutarch?" he retorted.

"Certainly." she hummed. "What would you like to talk about, Sir?"

He shot her a look and roughly slid her panties down her legs.

"Minx." he accused.

Her blue eyes were twinkling like crazy. "Always."

He hoped that was a promise.

Do they have self-control? Hayffie? *snort* I hope you enjoyed this little one! HUUUUGE drama next week! Think flashing trailers and big gasps! ;) Theories?

Please let me know your thoughts!