Fluffybunny4eva: Hi! I'm not sure if you've been asked to do this already but i would love a fic of mama!effie with the victors while in the capitol. Especially her physically protecting peeta prior to his hijacking since it is often mentioned but never actually featured in your fics.(that i recall) also adding in joanna witnessing it and realizing she is not just a capitol drone. Hope it is not too effie centric but i love the bond that is created between effie, peeta and jo during their time in prison.

AND

I just read chp. 417 from HADS. Beautiful btw. I know prompts are usually centered around hayffie, but i would love a fic of the time in prison with effie protecting peeta and how they helped each other try to survive. With jo and Annie ofcourse

The Propo

Effie carefully spread the liquid foundation on Peeta's cheekbone, trying to avoid putting pressure on the most tender areas. It would take half the bottle to cover the bruises, she mused, his face was black and blue.

She glanced at Johanna who was squinting in the brightly lit room they had been tossed in and pursed her lips. She would need more foundation if she had to get them both camera ready – which meant she would have to ask the guards, which meant… Her stomach churned in dread at the thought.

She had been terrified when the guards had slammed the door to their familiar dark cell open and had dragged her and Johanna out, she had been even more scared when she had realized it wasn't just them but Peeta too. The fact that they hadn't bothered to take Annie hadn't been reassuring in the slightest.

She had firmly expected for them to be brought in front of a firing squad.

They had been tossed in there instead, in an empty room on the upper levels of the Center. The room had looked so normal that she had been confused for a second. No instruments of torture, no whipping posts, no huge bathtubs they could be drown in again and again… Just a couch, several armchairs, artworks on the walls and nice plushy rugs on the floor… A waiting room like she had seen thousands.

Then, the door had opened again and a guard had thrown a heavy metal case at her head and had ordered her to make them presentable for an interview with Caesar and promotional shoots with President Snow. What was expected of them had been exposed very clearly: Peeta and Johanna would stick to the script and do everything they were asked or Effie would get a bullet in her brain for her trouble.

Once she was done tending to the make-up, that was.

Peeta flinched and she winced.

"Sorry." she whispered.

"It's okay." he mumbled, his blue eyes wildly roaming around the room as if he was looking for an exit that, she already knew, was nonexistent.

She shifted her weight a little. She was kneeling between his legs on the plushy carpet so she could be at the appropriate height to tend to his face. It might have been awkward if they hadn't been way beyond that. She preferred being on the floor anyway. She didn't think sitting on the couch or on one of the armchairs would have been good for the gaping wounds on her back. Johanna was curled up on the floor too, propped against the side of an armchair, her eyes alert and watching the door.

Effie wondered if she was planning to make another attempt at taking the guards down. That had never ended well before but it never stopped her from trying.

"Are you alright?" Peeta asked and Effie averted her eyes because that was a stupid question.

Her movements were stiff and not as precise as they usually would be. It was almost funny how her body seemed to have gotten so used to pain her brain had stopped registering it. She hurt. Everything hurt. But because everything hurt it was hard to focus on it. So she kept on functioning. She kept on getting up when they smashed her down. She kept on mouthing back at the guards just to get their attention away from Peeta and Johanna. She kept on being stupidly brave because that was all she had in that place. Perhaps it wasn't bravery at all though. Perhaps it was simply despair.

"Of course." she answered cheerfully with a bright smile that looked like a wince.

She moved on to covering the shiner around his left eye, biting down on her bottom lip when it became obvious she was hurting him only to gasp when her teeth came in contact with her split lip.

"You think it's gonna be live?" Johanna muttered suddenly.

Effie glanced at her, at her torn uniform that had once been pristine white and was now dirty with dust and blood splatters. "Would they risk that?"

"They're arrogant bastards." Jo shrugged. "Might be worth a shot. Go off-script."

"No." Peeta snapped firmly. "They'd hurt Effie."

"I am more concerned with your safety." she frowned, cupping his cheek to tilt his head back a little so she could spread more liquid foundation on the bridge of his nose. She tossed another look to Johanna. "Please, do what they say and…"

"And what?" Seven's victor spat. "Wait to die?"

"If my life is not enough incentive. Think about Annie." Effie begged.

Johanna pursed her lips and propped her chin on her folded arms, clutching her legs closer to her chest.

Effie finished doing Peeta's make-up in silence and then moved closer to Jo, clenching her jaw not to let out any whimper of pain. The boy would worry and blame himself. Johanna didn't give any sign she would sit on an armchair like Peeta had and Effie was forced to work with the victor's legs in the way. Her shaved head felt odd under her palm, the peach fuzz uneven.

"Should save some of that make-up for yourself. You look like hell." Jo commented but it didn't have the same bite as usual. Effie didn't think she could muster any hatred for her at that moment, not with the amount of hating on the guards they had both been doing.

"I hate to break it to you but you do not look so good yourself." she snorted.

"No shit?" Johanna scoffed.

And they laughed.

Because it was stupid. The laughter had a small crazy edge to it but nobody remarked on that, not even Peeta who was smiling and shaking his head at their antics.

The lightness vanished when the door was slammed open again and one of the Peacekeepers walked in, tossing outfits on the couch and barking at them to get up and get dressed. The guards didn't bother stepping outside the room for that but, then again, any concept of privacy had flown out the window the moment they had put a toe in those cells.

Peacekeepers hadn't bothered stepping out either when they had ordered her to get undress and into the prison uniform weeks – months? – earlier.

There was no outfit for her, not that she expected any. She wasn't going to be in front of the cameras, this time around, she would be kneeling safely behind them, in the victors' line of sight, with a gun pressed to her head. That had already been established.

She helped Johanna into her dress, glaring all the while at the Peacekeepers who were openly staring. Sometimes – often – Effie thought it was lucky they were so filthy and so wounded because she had caught more than one men leering at them and that… The threat was there, hovering in the air, but they hadn't crossed that line and she didn't think they would actually do it. The fear of it was more effective. Remove too much hope and you only had broken dolls. Broken dolls weren't fun to play with.

It was difficult to make the wig stick to Johanna's head. The guards were growing impatient and shouting insults at them. Jo's face hardened under the make-up and Effie tensed. She had learned to be just as wary of Johanna's moods as she was of the whips dangling from the Peacekeepers' belts.

"Stay calm." she murmured to the victor. "Please, stay calm. We simply have to get through this. Haymitch will come. You will see. We just have to wait. He will come."

She got an impatient glare for only answer. Johanna was as fed up with her insistent empty promises that Haymitch would eventually come to their rescue as she was with Seven's victor defeatist attitude. Perhaps they were going to die. Perhaps. But if she had to die, Effie would die with her chin up. She refused to die cowering on the floor like the bitch they accused her to be.

"Please." she insisted. "Think about Annie."

Johanna clenched her jaw but gave an imperceptible nod.

Effie breathed a sigh of relief and took her hands off the wig.

She was immediately knocked aside by the butt of a gun. The punch stole the air out of her lungs and the guards who had hit her immediately grabbed her hair and dragged her toward the door, ignoring her cries of pain or Johanna's and Peeta's protests.

"Behave or she dies." one of the Peacekeepers reminded them once they were in the shooting studio and Effie had been forced to her knees. Her scalp was burning and tears were rolling down her cheeks but she swallowed them back, briefly closing her eyes when she felt the nuzzle of the gun at the back of her head.

"Is this entirely necessary?" Caesar's voice boomed out.

She hadn't even noticed him. She opened her eyelids, her blue eyes immediately finding his warm gaze. He looked horrified, he was pale under the make-up and he was staring at her with disbelief.

She couldn't tell if it was because they had been friends once upon a time, before she had been branded a traitor and an enemy of state, or because she was a Capitol citizen and if she could be treated like that despite her citizenship…

"Do you want to join her?" one of the Peacekeepers mocked. "'Cause that can be arranged, Flickerman."

Caesar visibly hesitated and then tore his eyes off her to wave at the comfortable looking couches. "Please, Peeta take a seat. Johanna, if you would wait for a few minutes, we will shoot your bit after his."

The tone was nothing but polite and you would never have thought the victors were both prisoners. Effie almost laughed again. That was Capitol manners for you.

She listened to Caesar explain to Peeta what he wanted from him in a calm professional voice, almost relaxing in the familiar surroundings. She knew TV sets, she knew cameras, she knew the frantic buzzing of technicians and prep teams… She escaped in her memories like she often did when the pain became too much.

Perhaps she dozed off a little.

Peeta did splendidly, of course.

Johanna…

Well, Effie got a few kicks in the stomach because Johanna made a fuss but the victor soon complied anyway.

Effie wondered how long it would take. For Haymitch to rescue them or for the guards to finally kill them.

Either way, she couldn't wait for this to end.