Trigger Warning: Alcoholism.


Chaffton "Chaff" Mitchell, District 11

"I suppose it's appropriate to cry now,

Over wasted time

And naked lies

Still get wasted sometimes."

TV on the Radio, Playhouses


10 Things that Chaff never told Haymitch

1. "My parents were rich."

The Mitchells were one of the richest families in District 11. Gourd Mitchell was one of the Mayor's most trusted advisors. Chaff knew that Haymitch would laugh at him if he ever found out.

So whenever Haymitch asked, Chaff changed the subject. Haymitch got the message pretty quickly. He was smart.


2. "My first crush was a boy."

Chaff was twelve when he watched the Thirty-Ninth Hunger Games. It wasn't unusual for kids Chaff's age, just discovering their feelings, to get a crush on one of the tributes. After all, the Careers were often gorgeous and fit.

But Chaff's first crush wasn't a Career, at least, not in the usual sense. The tribute that Chaff found himself tuning in for was Kuzi Heise, the boy from District Eight. The one with the dazzling smile and the impressive muscles.

He never told anyone this. He told everyone he had a crush on Coco Montclaire. Since Coco and Kuzi were in an alliance and spent a lot of time together, nobody questioned him.

The next year, Chaff watched his classmates marvel over Lua Toyota. She was only a year older than them and gorgeous thanks to the full body polish. But she was nothing compared to Baron, the tall, handsome boy from One who'd come second.

The year after that, it was Tempest O'Malley, the wild-eyed bad-boy from District 4. Chaff began to realise that he'd be like this for every year for the rest of his life.


3. "I vomited on the train because I was terrified."

When Chaff was reaped, he was an eighteen-year-old with huge muscles. It was a little embarrassing how he'd got them. He'd taken up bodybuilding as a hobby because he'd wanted to be like his first crush and he'd had the time to do so because his parents were rich and he didn't have to spend his spare time working.

So he lied. He made up a story about how he'd grown up on the streets, fighting for his food. He growled like a wild animal whenever someone called him by his full name. He put on a brave face for the cameras.

But the moment the cameras were turned away, he became a sheltered rich boy too scared to control his stomach.


4. "I joined the Careers because I was too scared to fight alone."

"I was always going to betray the Careers!" Chaff slurred, whenever he'd had too many drinks. "I had a plan. That was my plan."

The truth was that he'd realised that they'd kill him in the bloodbath if he didn't join them. He knew that they'd kill him later if he did join. So he chose the option that would prolong his life the most.


5. "I knew that they'd make me kill Tamarind."

With seven powerful fighters, the Career pack looked unassailable. The gamemakers had to send wolves to kill the boy from Four and the girl from One, just to avoid a foregone conclusion. Chaff lost his arm in the attack but was saved by a tourniquet.

The day after the attack, with only two outliers remaining, they found the alliance between two tiny, frizzy-haired girls. The girl from Five was quick. She managed to escape.

Chaff's district partner, Tamarind, did not.

"Kill her or we'll kill you," The boy from Two said, coldly. "And make it hurt."

So Chaff did.

He should've seen it coming. Tamarind was a survivalist in a maze of thorns. If it had been the twenty-four of them in twenty-four separate arenas, she would've won for sure. Once she'd made it out of the bloodbath, there was only one way she was going to die.

For years, Chaff consoled himself with the thought that, if he'd spared Tamarind, the Careers would've killed them both. But just over two decades later, a cold-eyed volunteer from District 3 couldn't take the pressure and ran from her helpless district partner to vomit. He allies spared her and calmly started carving the boy to shreds.

Chaff began to wonder if they would've let him live if he'd just refused to kill Tamarind.


6. "I can't remember how I won."

Chaff fell asleep the night after killing Tamarind. He dreamed of blood and pain and murder.

He woke up in the Remake Centre. He'd won.

He'd won the Hunger Games in his sleep.

Chaff was able to piece together what to tell people what he'd done from watching the recap. He said he'd been so angered by being forced to kill his district partner, he'd carried out his plan to murder the Careers with extra brutality. He couldn't claim to have any role in the girl from Five's death, as she accidentally ate poison without the help of her survivalist ally, but he didn't really want a part in that.

The truth was that Chaff had no memory of killing the Careers. He'd been fast asleep the entire time.


7. "I'm glad that I lost my arm."

Chaff hated sleeping with Capitolites.

It didn't last long, though. When Chaff looked at himself in the mirror, he saw a monster with a beautiful body and an ugly stump where his arm used to be. Even though he'd spent his teenage years trying to make himself look good, he'd always be damaged goods. Not even the full body polish could reconstruct an arm.

Which meant that Chaff was able to slip further and further into the shadows. It happened slowly. The boy who won the year after Chaff was a handsome Career but considered too unstable to entertain clients. The girl who won the year after that was too small, mousy and shy to steal Chaff's thunder. But Tesoro Bullion...

District 5 was known for producing handsome male tributes and Tesoro Bullion didn't disappoint. It was him and his golden curls, bright eyes and easy smile that led the Capitol to finally let Chaff go.

They might never have done it if he'd still had both his arms.


8. "I started drinking because it gave people a reason to hate me that I wasn't ashamed of. Not like what I did in the arena."

Brock warned Chaff to stay away from alcohol. The old victor had been hating his own dependence on it ever since he'd met Seeder. But Chaff didn't listen.

Chaff had given up on following his mentor's advice. Brock had also told him not to kill his district partner.

Alcohol was the only thing that made Chaff feel better. It was the only thing that gave him any power. Not even Brock's death from liver failure three years after his victory stopped Chaff. He'd given up on taking on the world sober.

He'd only won the Hunger Games when he'd been out of his senses.


9. "I never cared about the rebellion."

Chaff was happy with his life. He was happy going to the Capitol and seeing Haymitch every year. It didn't matter to him that his country was a mess and that he was falling apart with every bottle he emptied. Chaff was beyond caring.

He only agreed to help because he knew that Haymitch expected him to.


10. "Sometimes I think I love you."

Haymitch Abernathy was the best thing that ever happened to Chaff.

They met on Haymitch's victory tour, when he was seventeen and Chaff was twenty-three. At first, Chaff had been satisfied with just being friends. Haymitch was a little too young for him. Then Haymitch started closing the gap. His mind aged faster than his body. He was brilliant and moody and witty. By the time they were both in their twenties, Chaff didn't think there was that much of a difference between them at all.

Except for the fact that Haymitch had once had a girlfriend. One that was long gone.

Even if he did like boys, he was never going to get over her.

Gajin was the one who noticed.

"Settle for 'just friends'," he told Chaff, with a sad smile.

So he did. Chaff was 'just friends' with Haymitch for decades. When his best friend asked him to join the rebellion, he didn't hesitate.

Chaffton Mitchell had been many things, and he'd hid these things from Haymitch. He'd been a pampered rich kid, a cowardly Career and a lovesick, self-destructive victor.

As Brutus plunged his sword into Chaff's chest, Chaff knew how Haymitch would remember him.

A rebel and a friend.

He was fine with that.


Chaff's another surprise canon victor (but not as much of a surprise as Seeder). I've always kind of shipped Chaff and Haymitch, even though Haymitch never really got over his girlfriend's death. There aren't many openly gay people in Panem so a lot of my gay and lesbian characters end up getting unrequited crushes on straight people. I think I covered it in The Bride And The Widow but the Capitol are likely to spread homophobic lies around the districts to create divisions between the people and prevent rebellion, while allowing their own people all the freedom they want. It's much like how the Hunger Games was created to divide the districts. The lies might be more successful in some districts than others (for example, the rural districts are a little less accepting because they're like small towns). It means that Chaff never feels comfortable coming out and spends his life in secrecy.

You probably didn't expect Chaff to be an outlier in the Careers, either. There are only three outlier Careers (not counting reaped academy kids like Tempest) who ever manage to win the Hunger Games and the next one will come later this decade. I've always found outliers in the Careers to be quite interesting.

Next chapter will follow my "Every four chapters, things will get dark" rule but it'll be the last one to do so. It's not as bad as the previous three darker chapters.