8

Effie escaped through the door that led to her private gym, eager to put some distance between herself and Haymitch's attentive – and a little infuriating – gaze. Ever since she had been injured… She appreciated him looking out for her but it was becoming a little too much and, truth be told, Peeta's own brand of hovering wasn't helping matters either.

What infuriated her more was that they were both aware she was relatively fine now. She hadn't been able to heal herself two nights ago when the demon had hurt her but, the previous night, she had felt rested enough to attempt the spell and it had worked as it should. The cut on her shoulder was now a long reddish line that would more than likely leave an unseemly scar and the ugly bruises were gone. Her body was still stiff and would remain so for a while but she was more than equal to the task of moving around, do some research or even train.

It seemed she wasn't the only one with similar ideas because her gym wasn't empty.

She paused on the threshold before going in, watching the girl who was pummeling a punching bag with some confusion. She hadn't been aware Katniss was in her house, never mind in her gym. The girl preferred Haymitch's basement to train and Effie had to admit it was better equipped for Slayer training than her gym. She must have gone to some troubles to set up the punching bag because Effie only took it out when she felt she really needed it.

"I thought you were taking a day off?" she teased the Slayer who barely took her eyes off the punching bag long enough to glance at her. "Wasn't that the point of Peeta's quite convincing speech about hosting that movie night tonight?"

"I needed to think." Katniss muttered.

Effie lifted an eyebrow and tugged out her yoga mat, starting to stretch despite the protests of her battered body. "I did not take you for someone who thought better when they were hitting a bag."

The girl half-shrugged with obvious annoyance but she was in her gym and Effie concluded that meant she wanted to talk to her.

"I think better when I shoot." Katniss eventually declared, finally stepping back from the punching bag. "But the targets are in the garden and one of them is gonna find me in two seconds flat."

She didn't ask if she was talking about Peeta or Haymitch. At the moment, she could perfectly relate with the girl's need for some space far from worried males so she only nodded her understanding.

Some dark strands of hair had escaped the hasty braid and stuck to her face wet with perspiration, the Slayer distractedly pushed them away and flopped down on the floor, in front of Effie. She started unraveling the thick protective wraps around her hands.

"Do you want to discuss what is troubling you?" Effie probed after a few minutes of silence. She had intended to run on the treadmill but that seemed rude with someone else there, like a dismissal.

The girl's hands were free now and she flexed her fingers before picking up the thick bands and nervously playing with them. "I've been thinking."

"So you said." Effie remarked with a small smile.

Katniss shot her an impatient glare that lacked heat. "Funny."

"I think so." She grinned but her face softened. "What is going on, darling?"

The girl bristled a little at the endearment, like always, but she suddenly slouched, a little defeated. "Did you want it? To be Called?"

Effie had expected boy troubles – and she might even have been looking forward to that particular brand of normality – not that line of discussion.

Her mouth suddenly dry, she stood up and gestured at Katniss to do the same. "Let's spar."

She wasn't sure what had gone through her head to suggest that when she had just come out of the hospital. She despised physical fighting, she did, even if she recognized it as a necessary evil. Haymitch had claimed he had been in the wrong earlier this week but she couldn't get it out of her head now. He wasn't wrong, she knew. It was stupid to rely only on her magic. And…

"Okay." Katniss said uncertainly, leaping to her feet. She looked a little surprised, probably because Effie didn't often get inside the ring, not even when she trained her. "You're sure you're up for it?"

Her grey eyes darted to the red line poking out of her apple green sport bra.

"Try to avoid hitting my shoulder and it should be alright." she hummed in answer, kicking the yoga mat and the thick bands of gauze to the side so they had some space to move around. Katniss had already assumed a fighting position so Effie did the same.

It felt wrong.

Her stance was perfect, naturally, Caesar had made sure it would be. Decades from now, when she would be old and wrinkly, she was certain she would still know how to fall in that particular position from sheer instinct. But it felt wrong. It had always felt wrong.

As if she was trying to wear a costume that was too big for her. Ill-suited.

They circled around each other for a few seconds. Katniss was watching her, studying her because she hadn't seen her fight often enough to know her style yet. Effie did know the Slayer's style. She had helped mold it, after all.

Effie had always favored a defensive sort of fighting but Katniss was too brash and didn't have the patience for it so she wasn't surprised when the girl attacked. Quick punches to the right that Effie dodged easily, the witch answered that with a sweeping kick aimed at her legs but the girl hopped out of the way before her ankle could make contact – proof if any that Effie's insistence that she kept with the jump rope was bearing fruits. She darted a punch toward her stomach that Katniss supply bypassed, the girl used her momentum to sneak behind her back and would have probably brought her down if Effie hadn't anticipated and stepped aside, whirling around to face her once more.

They circled each other again.

"You didn't answer my question." Katniss insisted before rushing to her.

Effie dodged, resisting the urge to call to the magic bubbling beneath her skin.

"I would have loved the glory of having my name remembered for eternity." she finally admitted. "But I would have been a pitiful Slayer."

Katniss frowned and her distraction allowed Effie to land a hit to her knee. The girl went down but rolled to the side and back to her feet before the Watcher could press her advantage.

"Why?" the Slayer asked right before she did a turning kick that had Effie stumbling back even though she had clearly pulled it. Her breath caught in her throat and she grunted in pain, pressing her hands against her abdomen. "Shit! I forgot about your ribs! Are you okay?" Hands grabbed her arm and Effie forced herself to breathe deep. "Haymitch's gonna kill me."

There was real anguish in the girl's voice so Effie composed herself, hiding the lingering pain as best as she could. "I am fine. Do not fret. Haymitch is doing enough of that to drive me mad as it is." She shook her head. "Shall we?"

Katniss wrinkled her nose. "I'm not sure. I don't want to hurt you more than you already are."

Effie didn't particularly relish getting hurt but a foolish part of her felt she had something to prove. "Nonsense, I am perfectly fine. Get back in position."

The girl reluctantly did as she was bid and they moved around the room again, watching each other like hawks. They were well into that prelude to the dance when Effie spoke again. "I lacked discipline."

Katniss scoffed and stopped moving, her concentration broken. "You lacked discipline?"

Effie took advantage of her distraction to attack, managing to hit her but narrowly avoiding the weak kick the Slayer aimed her way – clearly, Katniss was determined not to hurt her again.

"I know." she mocked. "It is quite unfathomable but I was terrible in my youth and I am afraid I resented my position dearly. My Watcher…" Her voice softened with affection. "I am grateful he was assigned to me. Someone else might not have been so patient."

"You didn't like being a Potential, then?" the girl insisted with unabashed curiosity.

Effie didn't really want to talk about that. She never really did. She had alluded to her past with Haymitch but they hadn't gone into details and…

She broke her fighting stance, turning her back on Katniss under the pretense of reaching for a bottle of water she kept in a corner of the gym. She took a long mouthful, aware her playing for time was obvious.

"Being a Potential…" she explained once she could not delay anymore. "It means leaving your family at a young age. It means your whole life changes from one day to the next, you lose that secure perfect life of normality to be thrust into a world of darkness where you are expected to learn to fight in preparation for something that might never happen. Some are found as young as infants and I often thought that it is the kindest fate. They know no other life."

Although the former Potentials she had met and who had been entrusted to Watcher families from their infancy all lacked… something. They were empty shells, killing machines that revered the Council and would have slit their own throat rather than risk disappointing them.

"But the best Slayers were all Potentials." Katniss remarked in a strange tone.

Effie frowned and turned around. "Who told you that?"

She could hardly believe it had come from Haymitch who specialized in rogue Slayers.

"I've been reading." the girl confessed, avoiding her eyes. She crossed her arms in front of her chest, looking fragile and defensive all of a sudden. "Maybe if a Potential had been Called instead of me, they would have stopped the Careers already. If Haymitch didn't have to teach me everything…"

"Katniss." she said firmly, waiting until the teenager met her eyes to continue. "Iris Abernathy and Johanna Mason are easily considered two of the greatest Slayers of the century and they were both rogue Slayers. The Council likes to pretend Potentials are better and, yes, it is true they have the advantage of extensive training, discipline and knowledge, but what they often lack is heart."

"But…" Katniss argued and Effie lifted her hand to prevent her arguing.

"It crushes you." she cut her off. "Waking up every morning knowing your whole day will consist of training to kill, spending half your nights roaming cemeteries knowing you are lacking the supernatural power that is your birthright and that your only purpose in that moment is to survive another night so you might prove worthy, that you might be Called… It is natural selection at its finest. Half the Potentials die in training." She stopped abruptly, swallowed, schooled her features in an expression of levity… "And when a Slayer, when one of your sisters falls and another is Called, when you know you are too old to ever become a possible choice anymore… Well then…" She chuckled but it rang false. "You disappoint your Watcher who has been spending years hoping he would get to become the Slayer's Watcher. You disappoint yourself because you were not deserving and destiny passed you by."

Katniss was standing very still and when Effie stopped talking she took a hasty step forward, reaching out as if to offer comfort.

"As I said, I was lacking discipline." She laughed it off and if it sounded a little false… Well… "I may have been disappointed when Maysilee Dormer was Called but I assure you it didn't last long. In truth, deep down, I was relieved."

And so had been Caesar. Because he had known Effie didn't have a chance to survive past a year.

She placed her hands on Katniss' shoulders, turning uncharacteristically serious.

"You may not have the training and you may be stubborn and too impulsive but you have what it takes to be a Slayer, Katniss." she promised. "I see it in you. You have greatness. You have heart."

For a moment, the girl looked a little overwhelmed, then she swallowed hard. "You call other Potentials sisters?"

"Potentials, Slayers…" Effie smiled. "It is a sisterhood. We are all linked albeit at various degrees." She brushed the end of the girl's braid over her shoulder with a tenderness she usually refrained from displaying, knowing Katniss didn't really appreciate effusions. "I can only confusedly feel it but you… The bond is even more special for a Slayer, I believe. A Slayer's path is a lonely one but she is never alone." She tapped her chest, over her heart. "They are all here. All the women and girls who came before you."

Katniss hesitantly nodded her understanding. "I dream about them sometimes."

"I do too." she confessed. "But the dreams are hazy and I can never truly remember them. Like the Slayer dreams, they've lost their strength once I became too old to be Called."

A fragile smile stretched Katniss' lips even though her face was a little guarded. "So we're family too, in a way."

Effie laughed at that. "Well… I do hope our connection to the Slayer line is not the only thing that makes us family but yes, yes, I will play the role of the older sister if you wish."

Katniss snorted. "Seemed to me like you were playing mother."

Acknowledging the joke for what it was, Effie lifted her eyebrows, faking offense.

"Oh, no, no…" she refuted. "I am far too young to be your mother, dear."

She was rewarded with Katniss' own peel of laughter.

It was a nice moment they were sharing and Effie appreciated that small lull in the storm of their lives for how precious it was.

And yet she wasn't bitter when Peeta showed up on the threshold, concern all over his face when he spotted Effie. "There you are! Haymitch couldn't find you… Are you okay? You aren't training, are you?"

It was only because the worry in his voice was very real that Effie bit back her irritation. She exchanged a look with Katniss – who discreetly rolled her eyes – and then plastered a cheerful smile on her lips.

"Not at all!" she lied. "Actually, darling, I was thinking we should have a snack… How about you make us some of those delicious pancakes?"

Peeta beamed, never as happy as when he was allowed to show his affection by cooking her something, and led the way to the kitchen, closely followed by Katniss. The sound of their conversation drifted away as Effie lagged a little behind them, simply happy to watch them together…

Was she playing mother?

Probably.

She couldn't say she minded.

Not when she loved them both so much she thought she could burst from it…

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