Prompt: I just had a very random prompt idea, in one of you older prompts you talked about how hayffie are all cute in public cause they couldn't when they were younger and that like peeta and Katniss didn't get that. So I was wondering if you could do a fic where like they talk to the kids about it or something. Only if you want

Warm & Content

Effie woke up warm and content. She smiled before she even opened her eyes, pressing her face against Haymitch's hair. It faintly smelled like her shampoo because the man had no personal space and didn't understand different types of hair needed different types of shampoos, he always grabbed the first bottle that fell under his hand. He let out a low hum in the back of his throat and she smiled harder, shutting her eyes again, too comfortable to move.

They had fallen asleep on the couch somehow, probably because neither of them had gotten any real sleep the night before, plagued by their respective nightmares. She had never taken that sort of spontaneous naps in the middle of the day before she had come to live in Twelve but, then again, she would never have still been in pajamas at three a.m. before she had come to live in Twelve either. She had borrowed one of Haymitch's flannel shirts and she was wearing the sweatpants he had gifted her with on a whim, they had little golden crowns on them and had obviously been designed for a teenager but he found it hilarious and she was more than skinny enough to fit in them. Haymitch wasn't dressed either but that wasn't unusual. He had never bothered with a shirt and was only wearing frayed pajamas pants.

He was lying on his side, his head nestled in the crook of her shoulder, his right arm was probably numb trapped between their bodies and his other one was holding fast to her waist, his hand somehow under her shirt and on the warm skin of her side. She was on her back, her legs folded and wedged against his stomach and his own bent legs… He must have tossed the couch's throw blanket over them at some point because they were both covered up to their waists.

Warm and content.

There were worse ways to spend the day.

"Go back to sleep." he mumbled.

"If we go back to sleep now we will never fall asleep tonight and we will end right back here tomorrow afternoon." she pointed out.

"So what?" he snorted. "Not that bad." Not that bad but not very normal and functional and she was desperately trying to stick to a routine in the vain hope she would feel more like her old self. His thumb deliberately brushed the scar on her side as if he knew exactly what she was thinking about. "One day at a time, sweetheart."

He nuzzled her neck and she couldn't help a giggle. She tried to push him away without much conviction. "You are all scratchy!"

"So eloquent when you wake and you haven't had coffee yet, Princess." he mocked. "Besides, thought you liked my scratchy."

"Within reasons." she protested. "You do need a shave."

Stubble, she would take. Beards, she wouldn't.

"Fine." he surrendered.

The nuzzling turned into kissing and she kept on involuntary wriggling a little because it tickled. It seemed to amuse him because he kept doing it, keeping the kisses soft rather than purposeful. She didn't think he was trying to start anything, they were too comfortable for that and he wasn't going out of his way to reach new spots. He pressed his lips against the patch of skin in front of him until she grew tired of giggling, tossed her legs over his and used that grip to drag herself down so their heads were at the same level. Then, she kissed him and he didn't really protest the change.

They were lazy kisses, mostly long pecks. Her fingernails ran up and down his bare forearm… They might have fallen back asleep again if his thumb hadn't brushed a sensitive spot on her side and she hadn't erupted in giggles again, right against his mouth. He chuckled too and pressed a series of kisses against her jaw.

"Shouldn't you be past the cute and kissy stage by now?" someone asked from the living-room threshold and Effie gasped in alarm, startled. She would have sat up but Haymitch's arm tightened around her waist, his thumb tracing gentle circles on her side, letting her know everything was fine. He didn't look particularly surprised so she supposed he had heard the boy come in at some point. Peeta had the decency to look sheepish. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

"Maybe you should stop sneaking in, then." Haymitch taunted. "One of those days, you and the girl are gonna walk in on something you really don't wanna see…"

"Haymitch." she hissed, pursing her lips at him.

His grey eyes were twinkling with amusement when they darted down to her mouth and she covered his lips with her hand before he could lean in and kiss her right there, right then just to make a point. He could be such a child sometimes… She supposed it was good to see him being so… carefree. The war had lifted a weight off his shoulders and, while there were bad days, he was starting to relax into something that felt strongly like peace.

"I am afraid you catch us on an extremely lazy day." she told Peeta after having cleared her throat. Mostly because Haymitch's tongue was poking at her palm. She tossed him a brief chiding glare, which he answered with an exaggerated roll of his eyes that told her he would now behave.

The exchange couldn't have lasted more than a couple of seconds but Peeta seemed to find the whole thing very funny because he was watching them with amusement and fondness.

Finally taking a hint, Haymitch took his arm off her waist, letting her sit up. He was slower in grabbing the back of the couch and hauling himself up. "So? What brings you in a house that's not yours, kid?"

She whacked his shoulder but it didn't really seem to bother him.

"I was just dropping a loaf of bread and a few pastries on my way home." the boy shrugged.

"Oh, breakfast!" she beamed, untangling her legs from the blanket to make a beeline for the kitchen, resolutely ignoring the amused look Peeta and Haymitch were sharing behind her back.

It was a little ridiculous to have breakfast in the middle of the afternoon, naturally, but, for once, she was starving and swallowing a decent amount of food every day had become enough of a problem for her that nobody would begrudge her any sweet. And, surely enough, her favorite kinds of muffins were waiting on a plate in the middle of the table. She snatched the blueberry one before Haymitch caught up.

Unfortunately, it was still too slow for her to take more than a single bite.

"You're a muffin thief." he accused behind her, sneaking an arm around her waist and straining his neck over her shoulder to steal a huge bite right out of her muffin. "The blueberry's mine."

"There are plenty of other flavors!" she protested.

"But that's my favorite." he pointed out.

"Well, it is my favorite too!" she huffed, faking anger only to prompt him to try and steal another bite. She kept the muffin away and they mocked struggled for a while until he decided he apparently wanted a bite of her neck more than he wanted some breakfast.

"If anyone cares, there's another blueberry muffin." Peeta commented. "There's also a rum baba and a strawberry cupcake."

Effie froze, having completely forgotten about the boy. Given the way Haymitch's arm briefly tightened around her waist, so had he. He slowly released his grip and casually snatched a muffin from the plate before walking to the counter to start up the impossibly old coffee machine.

Peeta was leaning against the wall, watching them, blue eyes dancing with unabashed amusement. Given the way they had been behaving, it felt a little as if he was the adult and they were the children, something that disturbed Effie. She didn't like being caught acting so… improper. Haymitch had a dreadful influence on her.

"How was your day, dear?" she asked in an effort to go back to some normalcy. She fished the orange juice from the fridge and poured herself a glass before taking a seat at the table, silently gesturing at another chair so the boy would sit.

"It was nice." Peeta grinned. "There are more and more customers. I'm thinking about hiring someone to help out full time now. I need someone at the front, I guess."

"I am happy to do it until you find someone, if you need me to." Effie offered. She didn't mind, she liked minding the counter while Peeta baked in the back of the store. It was a comfortable partnership and it allowed her to get to know people in the District.

Haymitch placed a mug full of coffee in front of each of them and then briefly brushed her nape with his hand, so casually it might have looked like an accident if Peeta hadn't been watching them so closely, before going to fetch his own from the counter.

"If you can keep Haymitch's hands off you for a few hours every day, I wouldn't say no." the boy joked.

"You can stop with the remarks any time now." Haymitch grumbled, sitting down at his place at the head of the table. "You wouldn't have to see it if you knocked like polite people."

"Look at you, lecturing people on their manners." she teased, cutting her muffin in small pieces.

"What can I say, you're a bad influence." he shrugged. His foot hooked around her ankle under the table but she didn't think Peeta noticed.

The boy was too busy grinning at them as if they were the most amusing thing in the world anyway. "You do it all the time. It doesn't matter if we knock or not, you're always all over each other. Katniss hates it but I think it's cute."

Haymitch rolled his eyes. "We're not all over each other."

"All the time." Peeta insisted, taking a sip of his coffee.

The foot left her ankle and Effie hid her own grin against the rim of her mug. Truth be told, they had been very free with gestures of affection of late. When she had first arrived they had stuck to their usual status quo. Kisses and hand holding and hugging had been only happening inside his house, when they were alone and nobody could see them. But after a few months, once it had become clear the children knew about them… Katniss and Peeta were always around, always coming in unannounced – the number of times they had almost caught them in embarrassing situations – and it had been gradual but natural to relax the rules around them. They didn't often really kiss in front of the children but they certainly touched each other, his hand often found the small of her back or her nape when it didn't outright grab hers, and she always snuggled against his side when they all watched TV or lean against him when they were standing and the conversation went on forever… They pecked each other's lips hello or goodbye… It had all become so natural she hardly noticed anymore.

Haymitch grumbled in his own coffee, embarrassed and annoyed because he always hated any implication that he was soppy – or had feelings of any sort but that cat was out of the bags and even he couldn't deny it any longer.

"You must make allowances…" Effie teased. "Haymitch only fell in love with me recently, you see. It is all very new for him."

He almost chocked with his coffee. "Unfair. You're more touchy feely than me. Also untrue. It's not 'cause I had my head up my ass until Thirteen that…" He stopped, threw an awkward glance at Peeta and scowled. "Do we have to talk about that now? Or at all?" Her lips twitched and she bumped her foot against his under the table. She was only teasing. He relaxed but not by much. "Anyway." he grumbled. "Ain't like we had many opportunities to be… affectionate before, boy. Cameras were always around and we didn't want anyone catching wind of this."

A plan that had failed miserably given that, by the end, almost everyone involved with the Games had either guessed or suspected.

"How old were you when you met?" Peeta asked curiously.

They rarely talked about before and while Katniss was very happy – even eager – to respect that, Effie knew Peeta was curious about their past.

"Haymitch was around twenty-eight, I was twenty-two." she answered indulgently, forcing herself to finish the pieces of muffin she had cut. She felt full already and she knew Haymitch was watching to make sure she ate enough, she also didn't want to have a conversation about how she wasn't feeding herself properly and how she would end up in hospital again if she didn't force herself. She knew it all, she didn't need a reminder. It simply wasn't that easy.

"That's old." Peeta commented.

Haymitch snorted but Effie huffed. "Why, thank you."

It had been almost fifteen years ago now.

"No…" Peeta winced. "I mean… You weren't… You know… Young." She lifted her eyebrows and the boy winced harder. "Not like Katniss and me. You were already…"

"If you're asking if we waited two years to have sex, answer is no." Haymitch cut him off, putting him out of his misery.

"Of course not. We waited three." she grinned.

"That wasn't waiting." Haymitch countered. "I wasn't interested."

"Weren't you, now?" she hummed, sipping the last of her coffee.

"You know what I mean. We weren't…" He glanced at Peeta and then shrugged, leaving it unvoiced. "Yet."

"Our affair wasn't exactly romantic in nature." Effie explained tactfully for the boy's benefit. "Tenderness and displays of affection weren't part of the deal."

"Oh." Peeta wrinkled his nose. "That doesn't sound… nice."

"It was toxic." Effie declared flatly, brushing the crumbs into her cupped hand and standing up to toss them in the bin. She kept her back on them both afterwards, busying herself with washing her mug.

"Not always." Haymitch objected quietly after a few minutes of awkward silence.

"No." she amended, tension slowly leaving her shoulders. "Not always."

There had been good times amongst the bad, particularly in the latest years. It hadn't all been all hate rough sex, then. It had been fun and sometimes light and the codependency they had fallen into at some point hadn't felt as suffocating or destructive.

"Why are we even talking about this…" Haymitch sighed. The chair creaked and, a second later, strong arms were wrapped around her waist. His chest was warm against her back through the flannel of his borrowed shirt.

"Because Peeta wanted to know why we are now so… What is the expression? Lovey-dovey?" she joked with forced amusement.

"How about I tell Peeta it's none of his business and we leave it at that?" he suggested, a soft growl in his voice.

"I'm sorry, Effie, I didn't mean to upset you." the boy apologized.

"I am not upset." she denied. It wasn't entirely true but it wasn't entirely the boy's fault either. She needed to let it go anyway. The past was in the past and they were all very happy to leave it there. She relaxed against Haymitch's chest, reached behind her for his neck and gave it a gentle squeeze. "We will try to keep the public displays of affection to a minimum from now on."

"We're on to a bad start." Haymitch snorted against her nape.

"I really don't mind." Peeta promised. He cleared his throat and stood up. "I'm going to go home. Katniss is probably wondering where I am." That was a feeble excuse. If Katniss had wondered, she would have come looking. He wanted to give them some privacy. "You're coming over for dinner later?"

"Sure." Haymitch agreed. He relaxed his hold on her but didn't let her go, not until the boy had left. He placed his hands on her hips to make her turn around and face him. He studied her for a while and then his lips stretched into a small smirk. "You wanna go back to cuddling on the couch?"

The question was so ridiculous she couldn't help but laugh, leaning against his chest until he wrapped his arms around her waist again. She locked hers around his neck, looking up at him with a smile. "What happened to the grouchy Haymitch Abernathy who wouldn't have been caught dead saying the word cuddling?"

"He lost you and got you back and he's so grateful you're in his life he doesn't care if he looks like a fool." he shrugged casually, as if it was a small unimportant thing to say.

For someone who never uttered the actual words I love you, he certainly told her a lot.

"Cuddling on the couch sounds like a great way to spend the afternoon." she grinned, eyes twinkling.

They could put a movie on.

He would hate it and make a lot of irritating comments and she would spend the whole time hushing him and it would be amazing because it was normal and boring and his arms would be around her the whole time.