11

Haymitch waited in the corridor until Katniss had disappeared in the bedroom she shared with her sister – not that he suspected she would sneak back into Peeta's temporary room but he preferred caution – and when he was certain she wasn't coming back out, he continued down the corridor to the master. He schooled his features before he pushed the door open because he knew what he would find but the sight of Effie Trinket so casually lying in his bed still made his heart pang with… something.

There was no seductive show as he had half expected. She did not lie in a subtle but artful sexy position, with her arms tossed over her head and her legs bent, anticipating his return. It was obvious she had been asleep before he and Katniss had probably woken her up by coming back from patrol. She was blinking hard even as she reached for the lamp on the bedside table, half buried under his comforter, her blond hair in disarray…

And she still looked lovely.

And he needed to get a grip very badly.

"How did it go?" she asked, her voice a little hoarse.

Then again, that was what you got for fighting outside in the middle of the night in nothing but frilly pajamas.

"Not bad." He shrugged, shouldering off the sheath that was dangling across his shoulder blades. He tossed the sword on the threadbare armchair in the corner and then took off his leather jacket, aware that her appreciative blue eyes were tracking his every move. She liked him armed to death, he had noticed the previous night. "Didn't find the Careers, though." For which he was grateful because he still didn't think Katniss was ready for that. "Lots of fledglings. The girl says she already killed four in the woods last night. We got six in the cemeteries and two in town. We didn't go anywhere near the Hellmouth. We were too tired. Not smart."

He fished his knife from his boot and placed it on the nightstand on what was apparently his side of the bed. Usually, it remained under his pillow all night but with Effie there… He didn't want to risk it. He left one stake next to it and dropped the other one on the bed. She wordlessly relocated it to her own nightstand – the nightstand closest to her, she didn't own a nightstand because it was his house and she was only there until he was satisfied nothing could get into hers while she and the boy slept thanks to the gaping hole in her living-room…

"So many fledglings… They are building an army." she commented flatly.

She didn't sound surprised.

Yet again, even Katniss had figured that out by herself.

"Yeah." He sighed, ran his hand over his face, and shed the two other hidden blades he kept on his body before taking a good hard look at her.

She stared right back.

She was less pale than she had been when he had left. It had taken a long time for her to feel the backlash of the spell she had weaved the previous night. Even when she had stopped looking high on magic – sometimes around dawn – she had still been hyper and energized beyond any natural explanation. He had spent the whole day checking on her at school between two classes to make sure she wasn't about to pass out or keel over but it was only once they had been back at his house, near dinner time, that she had finally started to feel the price of her magical feat.

He had forbidden her from taking part in the training, telling her to stay in the library with Madge and Prim instead. She hadn't been too happy about focusing on research and she had been even less happy when he had ordered her to stay home instead of coming to patrol – if possible, Peeta had been even less happy to also be grounded – but he thought a part of her had been grateful too.

"What is it?" she challenged.

He instinctively knew she would read him the riot act if he asked how she felt again – because he had spent the whole day repeating the question – so he simply snorted. "Nothing. I just like the sight of you wearing my clothes."

It hadn't escaped his notice that she had pilfered his long-sleeved old white shirt from his dresser. It had holes in it and it was so washed out he could guess at the shape of her nipples under the fabric. It really wasn't a bad view.

She immediately relaxed but flashed him a small uncertain smile and buried further under the covers. "I am a bit tired still…"

Which meant he shouldn't get his hopes – or anything else – up.

"You should turn in." he advised, heading to the bathroom.

He wasn't quite at ease with the idea of her sleeping in his bed without sleeping with him first. He wasn't quite at ease with her sleeping in his bed at all. But with Peeta in the only available guestroom… He couldn't ask her to sleep on the couch and it would have been weird to leave his bed to her and sleep on the couch himself given that they were…

What were they?

Casual. Casual was what they were.

But were they?

He was the one who had put his foot down when she had hinted to the boy they should go back to her house for the evening. He didn't want them in a house that was missing a wall. The Village might be safe from evil in theory but there were still wild animals out there and…

He just didn't like the idea.

He lingered in the bathroom, taking a shower purely to waste time, stealing a few mouthfuls from the compact bottle of vodka he kept in the cabinet… He forced himself to stop at three gulps. He couldn't afford to be drunk. Not anymore. Not with the Careers roaming.

He had hoped she would be asleep by the time he came back but the light was still on and if she had placed an arm over her eyes, she was quick to take it off and watch his progress from the bathroom threshold to his side of the bed.

If she had a problem with him sleeping naked, she didn't say.

"I found something earlier." she announced, turning to her side so she was facing him when he slid his legs under the blankets.

He frowned. "About the Reaping?"

She shook her head. "No, I would have led with that."

"Fucking hope so." he snorted.

"Caesar has a bit of a thing for prophecies and since Enobaria mentioned to you that it was foretold… I called him this morning and he did some digging…" she explained. "He found a prophecy that could match. It's obscure."

"Cause you know a prophecy that's not?" he grumbled.

He hated prophecies. He hated fate. He hated anything that reminded him he might not have as much free will as he liked to think.

"I will spare you the oblique terms. It says a past evil will rise and a bird of fire will burn the world to the ground." she declared.

He let that sink a second.

"Right. That's not oblique at all." he mocked and then let out a long deep breath. "It says he will rise? No but, no if, no except ?"

She reached for his shoulder. Her fingers weren't steady and he briefly compared it to his own tremors when he stopped drinking for too long. "It might not be the right prophecy."

"Right…" He let his voice trail off and then reached over her for the light switch. Usually, he didn't like darkness. It scared him. Too easy for his ghosts to sneak in. But right then… Right then he needed the cover of it to hide his thoughts, the terror that made his heart beat so much faster… "He's gonna come back."

His tone was definitive because he had known it would happen ever since Katniss had showed up talking about Slayer dreams.

Hell, he had known it would happen since the Hellmouth had swallowed him.

Until Snow was actual dust in the wind… He would always haunt him. No prison was a match for him.

"We will fight and we will win." she promised, gently stroking his shoulder.

He didn't need her gentle comfort. He didn't need the lies in the deep of night. He had been there before with Mabel. They had lied to each other, convinced themselves they would be different, that not only would they survive Snow but that she would be the first Slayer to survive long enough to get wrinkles…

He knew better now.

His hand slid down his torso to the huge swollen scar on his stomach.

"You should go back to England." he said.

She froze. "Yesterday, you were telling me to stay."

"Yeah, well I was being selfish." he snapped. "You should…"

"Nothing is going to happen to me." she cut him off, moving closer. He felt her lips on his shoulder, replacing her hand…

"You don't fucking know that!" He hadn't meant to raise his voice but they both lied very still afterwards, straining their ears in case he had alarmed the kids. When nothing moved in the house, he purposefully kept a hold on his tone. "He killed my mom. He turned my brother. He gutted the love of my life. There's a pattern here and the pattern is that everyone close to me dies. You should take the kids and go."

"We already had this discussion." she reminded him, sounding a little terse.

Maybe the love of his life comment wasn't very tactful given that she was currently sharing his bed.

"Not Katniss, then." he growled in frustration. "Katniss stays with me. But Peeta and Prim. You take them to England, you keep them safe."

He turned his head to look at her. He could barely guess at her features in the dark but he knew she looked weary.

"Do you truly think for one second Peeta will consent to leave her?" she retorted quietly. "Do you think Prim will desert her sister? Do you think I will abandon our Slayer? Or you for that matter?"

"What's the alternative?" he spat. "Me standing over your graves?"

He felt them moving in the dark corners. The imaginary ghosts that populated his nightmares.

Not as clear as they had been when the fear demon had attacked them, not as real, but there all the same.

He turned the light back on and sat up, hiding his face in his hands.

He was betraying too much in front of her, he knew. Too much vulnerability. Too much…

She placed her hand on his back, so light it was almost a ghostly touch.

His own hands left his face to run up to his hair, tugging at the roots…

"Effie, don't make me watch you die." he begged.

There was a long, long silence next to him but he didn't dare look at her. The moment felt too big, too suffocating…

"I am as committed to the cause as you are. I am as committed to our Slayer as you are." she whispered. "Asking me to leave to spare you possible pain is unfair. Do you think I am not worried about you? About having to bury you?" She pressed her lips against his shoulder blade. "The truth is I am an asset and you know it. You need all your assets right now."

"Effie…" he pleaded because he wasn't above pleading if that was what it would take for…

"No." she cut him off and the firmness of her tone was barely smoothed by the next soft kiss she pressed to his skin. "You are thinking with your heart. Think with your head. You need me."

He did.

They couldn't afford to be down one witch and without Peeta and Prim there to ground her, he wasn't sure how Katniss would deal.

And yet…

He bowed his head in defeat, surrendering to her logical arguments.

She sneaked her arms around his torso, plastered herself to his back, pressed a kiss to his neck… When she spoke, he didn't think her voice was hoarse just because she had a cold. "I think we should have a talk about us…"

"No." he replied just as firmly as she had earlier. "The monster who likes to stalk me and kill everyone I love's about to come back so now's really not the time to have that talk. There's no talk to have anyway. We said there would be no talk." No dating, no feelings. They had both agreed. And yet… "Don't even know if I can feel… that talk again. We're not having any talk about that. Ever."

He knew he had hurt her because her arms fell off and she settled back down next to him.

"Of course." she agreed, her voice far too chipper. "Alright."

He closed his eyes, feeling so hollow inside… He didn't keep them closed for too long though. The memory of Mabel's dead gaze was seared on his eyelids.

He needed a drink. Or a hundred.

"I could go back home." she whispered. "I know you worry but a few warding runes would do the trick. I wouldn't even have to do real magic." Her tone was light. "You could have your bed all to yourself."

He let out a deep breath and turned off the light, sliding down until he was properly under the blankets. Then he rolled to his side and spooned her.

"Don't want my bed all to myself." he muttered. "I like you in it."

She rested a tentative hand on his forearm and, when he didn't protest, tugged his arm until it was wrapped around her.

"We will get through this together." she promised. "We are a team, aren't we?"

He buried his face in her hair, breathed the familiar smell of her shampoo and wondered why he found it so soothing.

"Yeah…" he relaxed. "Yeah, we're a team."

He wasn't certain it would be enough to stop an evil almost as old as the Earth itself but…

He was willing to hope.

AAAAAAAND it's a wrap. Did you enjoy it? Let me know your thoughts! Any predictions for what happens next?

Episode 7 will start on the 1st of December (yes it's in a while but I've been a bad girl and I need time to get some episode ahead of all of you :p )