Prompt: Oh can you please write about the necklace Haymitch gifted her with after he won it a poker? And what it means to her? Pretty please!

A Gift By Any Other Name

Effie was nursing a cup of coffee and working on sponsors files when she heard the elevator's chime. She glanced at her watch and pursed her lips when she caught sight of the time. Six o'clock was no time to come back to the penthouse after a night out. The tributes would be up soon and it would have been nice if Haymitch had been at breakfast to advise them on how best to behave during training.

She waited until the heavy footsteps passed in front of the living-room before she called out.

"When you spend the night out you could warn me first." she said. "It would save me from worrying."

The footsteps stopped, she heard a sigh and then he leaned against the doorframe, hands in his pockets, creased clothes and disheveled hair. She was a few feet away from him and yet she could smell him from where she was sitting: liquor fumes and acrid tobacco.

"You're just worried you'll have to diffuse a scandal." he mocked, a slow smirk stretching his lips. "Or maybe you're jealous 'cause I got lucky."

The thought had, indeed, crossed her mind that he might have picked up a random woman in a bar. And, perhaps, that particular thought was why she had been up at the brick of dawn after spending most of the night pricking her ears to hear him come in. But she wouldn't give him the pleasure of admitting as much.

"I hope you remembered to use protection." she scowled. "Who knows what sort of diseases the tramps you usually go for carry."

His grey eyes were sparkling in amusement. "You do realize you're calling yourself a tramp, right, sweetheart?"

She pursed her lips and glared at him, placing her pen on her notepad, knowing she had no hope of accomplishing anything while he was still there.

"I like to think I have more class than your usual one-night-stands." she hissed.

"You like to think." he taunted before rolling his eyes. "Don't get your knickers into a twist. Fell asleep in Six's apartment."

"What were you doing on Six's floor?" she asked, narrowing her eyes at him. She didn't like him getting friendly with the notorious addicts. It would be a short leap from alcoholic to junkie.

"There was a party." he shrugged.

"No there was not." she argued. There was no party worth going in this city she wasn't invited to.

"Victors' party." he amended. "We played poker."

She let out a long suffering sigh. "Am I to understand you are into gambling now? Because I will seize control of your bank account, Haymitch. I won't let you dive in debts. Being indebted is a dangerous thing to be in the Capitol."

It wouldn't even be hard. She had been forging his signature for so long she could do it with her eyes closed.

Annoyance flashed on his face. "You're ever gonna stop trying to tell me what to do?"

She pondered that for a moment and then flashed him her most cheerful smile. "I am afraid not."

He rolled his eyes again. "I won quite a nice amount, if you're interested."

"I am not." she hummed, picking up her pen and her notepad. "Please, go shower. I am sure you wish to go back to bed but I would like you to make an appearance at breakfast first. For the children. They need to think you are interested."

"They know they're doomed and they know I know." he scoffed. "I don't want to get to know them. Stop pushing. Haven't you gotten it in our thick brain yet? You don't get attached, Trinket."

"We might win yet." she argued cheerfully. "You never know." He shook his head and pushed himself away from the doorframe. She stared at the files and her notepad rather than at his retreating back but she did look up when he turned around abruptly and came back. "Have you forgotten to tell me about the scandal you and your friends have most surely been involved in last night? I thought a night without you causing some sort of scene somewhere was too good to be true."

He took something out of his pocket and tossed it on her lap. It was a three rows necklace made of different colorful beads. She brushed her fingers on the beads and turned a puzzled gaze in his direction.

He shrugged, a sulk on his face. "I won it. Don't go making this into something special. Got no use for it, that's all. Looks like the kind of shit you'd wear, so I thought… It's just a stupid necklace."

A gift, she translated in the safety of her own mind, it's a gift.

And it was pretty. The colors were bright and it certainly wasn't coming from any famous jewelry brand but she liked it all the same. It was very her.

"Thank you." she grinned. "I would kiss you but you reek."

"Doesn't mean anything." he grumbled again before storming out.

Later on, when he emerged from his room – long after breakfast was over and the children were out of sight – she couldn't tell if he was pleased or not by the fact she was wearing it. His eyes kept shifting from her face to the necklace but she couldn't read him.

Then again…

When could she?