Rue has just been picked up by the hovercraft and Seeder is weeping openly. Haymitch worries she's in trouble when Chaff receives a message he needs to get in another room. A few minutes later Chaff, looking puffy eyed, returns. He watches the screen, and soon Katniss is receiving a parachute. He looks at Chaff, who's watching the screen intently.
"My thanks to the people of District Eleven," Katniss says.
Haymitch feels a little teary himself. The mood in the room could not be more different than it was the night he and Effie got the medicine. Finnick is gone, Wiress is gone, Augustus is railing at some Gamemaking apprentice, as though his last tribute's death is somehow her fault, and Mags is sitting very still, tears silently sliding down her face. She didn't have to come in today, Finnick didn't, but she's been staying till the end of the Games in recent years, providing her quiet support to the mentors waiting apprehensively for the end.
Just like Haymitch is doing now. He hasn't left the Viewing Room since the night of the medicine, except to eat and use the bathroom. Chaff has started making jokes about the smell. Haymitch doesn't care.
He had watched Cato turn on Peeta after the tracker jacker attack with his heart in his mouth.
Peeta had warned Katniss before Cato showed up, after realizing he wasn't at the lake with the rest of them. Cato was still suffering from the tracker jacker venom, but he was military-trained. He would never stay down for long, and he took Peeta's desertion as a personal insult.
Haymitch had watched Cato's sword plunge into Peeta's thigh, and had clenched the arms of his chair. He wasn't aware of any thought, except a feeling of total despair. He had known it was coming, even wished the boy would stay brave to the end for his own sake, and now it looked like he would find out.
The cannon Haymitch was waiting for hadn't fired. While the cameras had followed Katniss and the Careers during her explosion of their food supply, Haymitch had watched Peeta crawl and slide on his belly to a riverbank. He had rubbed dirt and mud all over his clothes and body, redistributed vines and rocks until he was one with the bank. His eyes had opened again at Katniss's explosion, but they had remained closed since. Occasionally, he muttered her name in his sleep. The cannon stayed silent.
For Peeta, at least. Marvel was dead now, Kirket, Meggie, and Glimmer, and now Rue too. He longed to help Peeta, keep that cannon silent forever, but what he needed was a team of doctors, and no one would sponsor him in this condition anyway.
Katniss and Peeta are sleeping in their cave. Haymitch and Effie are sleeping in the living room in 12's apartment. Haymitch is sprawled on the sofa, one leg dangling off. Effie is propped up by numerous decorative pillows, and is snoring soundly. A Feast is in the works, if Cato and Clove don't go after his tributes.
They wake up after only a few hours, the sky outside still dark.
"I'll call for some coffee," says Effie, her voice gravelly with sleep. She clears her throat. "Excuse me."
Haymitch blinks and stares at the ceiling. He wonders what the Gamemakers are up to, telling the tributes two can go home if they're from the same district.
Apparently, Seneca Crane is over the moon about his decision. Capitol citizens are hosting more viewing parties than any year since the Quarter Quell, he's been informed, and Seneca doesn't seem to understand his president very well, Haymitch has deduced.
Clearly, it won't be allowed. He's not sure why it's irritating him so much. All the kids are murdering each other. Killed off by the elements and each other, while people sit at home, eating bonbons and betting their jewels and their houses.
But it does bother him. He thinks of Katniss, how proud he felt watching her take care of Peeta, rush to his side. He thinks of Cato and Clove, sleeping close, justifying it with the cold night and body heat being an excellent source of heat, and ending up cuddling and kissing for all their speeches. The four of them have the hope that someone will come out with them, after a week of killing and seeing people their age die. And the Gamemakers will destroy that hope whenever it's most advantageous and shocking to the audience.
It's not as though a line has been crossed. If such a line existed, it had been crossed a long time ago, the minute the Games were suggested and implemented. It makes him infuriated, feel that old, impotent rage he hasn't felt in a long time. It's just one more way for the Capitol to fuck with the kids. One more way to twist the knife, to say, "You are not human, not like we are."
He's just about ready to start setting the city on fire when Effie returns with coffee. She's looking distinctly aggrieved, and he wonders if she's been thinking along the same lines.
They drink their coffee, watching the dark sky outside their window.
I just heard Finnick Odair has been caught cheating on Ceres Post," Effie cries out, as though she can't possibly keep this to herself a second longer.
Haymitch rolls his eyes and continues to drink his coffee in silence.
"What? Isn't he your friend?" Effie asks. "You think this behavior is to be expected in a man?"
She's watching him, waiting for an answer, tapping her ring on her cup.
"Finnick's not cheating on anyone."
Effie flies off into a tirade about men, courtship, and manners. It's the mention of manners, on top of his anger about the two tributes trick, and his current hopeful, terrified feeling about the end scene of these Games, that makes him open his mouth. Even as he's doing it, he's willing himself to stop.
"Finnick sleeps with whoever the Capitol tells him to, sweetheart. The scandals are all made up to explain why he's with so many prominent Capitol citizens."
Haymitch will be shocked if he lives to the next Games after that outburst. He downs his coffee. She even thought to pour whiskey in, but not enough.
"Thanks for the drink."
Effie just watches him leave, her face inscrutable.
A/N: This story doesn't seem to be getting much traction. Maybe it's because people have to specifically change the rating to find Mature stories on fanfiction, or maybe this just isn't the right platform for this story. I will be posting five chapters today, but if I don't get a favorite or a review, on this or Close, my other story, I'll just go ahead and take them down. I'm posting on Wattpad now, too, some original works, so maybe I should just concentrate on that!