Prompt: :I'd loooove to read one where during catching fire at the presidential mansion hayffie is eating dessert next to each other and Effie –even though unladylike- totally loves the dessert and keeps licking her fingers and Haymitch keeps staring at her. She can definitely tell he's turned on by this so maybe she keeps doing it and licks his fingers too? I don't know, do what you'd like with it.

A Juicy Dessert

She was doing it on purpose and he just knew it.

Haymitch took a sip of his wine, fighting the instinctive urge to cough – and thus choke – when his escort dipped another strawberry in her little ramekin full of melted chocolate. Then, she brought it to her mouth in a move that was far too elegant to be casual, her head tilted to the side as she listened to whatever Cinna was babbling about.

Haymitch didn't know how their stylist could still form a coherent thought when Effie Trinket was making such a show of eating her dessert. Hell, he didn't know how no one else seemed to be bothered by it. Peeta and Katniss kept on chatting, the train kept on rushing to Six, the attendants kept on standing straight against the wall waiting to be called…

The way she sucked the strawberry with a soft, almost inaudible hum, before biting it off its stem was debauched. He had heard her make the very same noise while sucking on other things – things that belonged to him and were perking up at the sound because she had him very well trained on that front.

He accidentally met Portia's eyes. The other stylist's mirth was unmistakable, she lifted her eyebrows even as she bit off her own strawberry, far too knowing. And too mocking.

Haymitch felt himself blush.

That was how bad this whole dessert affair was.

It made him blush.

Effie had been eating strawberries coated in chocolate for close to ten minutes and he had been agonizing over the whole thing for almost as long. If he had been sure he could do it without embarrassing himself, he would have walked away from the table a while ago but there was no way he could stand up without everyone noticing his little – not so little – problem.

"That is a funny way to make a point." Effie exclaimed in a far too chipper voice once Cinna stopped talking. She laughed her fake laugh too, prompting the kids to exchange a well-rehearsed look at how over the top she was.

"What?" he asked faintly because he had zero idea what they had been talking about. All he knew was that there was another strawberry in her hand and that this one was leaking juice and that the juice was running down her thumb and…

"I think there is a nice moral to the story Cinna was just telling us." she insisted. "And that moral is… Men should listen to their wife because their wife knows better."

So it was revenge.

He had been wondering.

Well… No, he hadn't been wondering because he knew her and she had never been shy on hitting below the belt.

He chose to pass over the wife thing. She was still pissed about the argument they had had that morning and that was it. Even if he had been right. He couldn't entirely remember about what but he must have been. She was silly and he was the voice of reason. It was how it worked.

"Are you quite alright, Haymitch?" Portia asked, the teasing barely perceptible in her voice. "You look rather flushed."

"You do look rather flushed." Effie agreed.

And then she just went and licked the juice running on her finger. A quick dart of her tongue as if she hadn't been chiding him for years for licking his fingers at the dinner table.

He couldn't stop the groan.

"Headache." he lied, washing it down with what was left of his wine.

He immediately reached for the decanter and poured himself some more, refusing to look directly at his escort. He could still see her from the corner of his eye. She plopped another strawberry in her mouth, made a show of sucking the chocolate before swallowing it, slowly licked her lips once she was done…

"Maybe you should go easy on the wine." Peeta advised. Sensible advice probably.

"Maybe." he grumbled. He grabbed one of the strawberries on his plate, dunked it in the chocolate and plopped it in his mouth, stem and all.

What had that argument been about ? They fought so often he couldn't be expected to keep track of all their spats, could he? He thought it had something to do with Six since it was the next stop of the Tour. Probably something to do about the speeches…

And then it came back to him. He had objected to the use of the word resplendent, arguing that it was a word people only used when they wanted to sound smart. She had countered that she used it all the time and he had punctuated that with an exactly that had earned him a huff and being kicked off her bed. Then it had evolved into a fight about her ability to write speeches that had escalated into him bringing her PR magic into question.

Okay, so maybe he hadn't been so right after all…

"These strawberries are extremely sticky." Effie complained before she sucked the pad of her thumb in her mouth.

Haymitch was pretty sure his jaw dropped.

Portia couldn't help herself anymore and laughed into her napkin.

The weirdest thing about the whole scene was that the kids and Cinna were all staring at the stylist like her behavior was odd. Nobody was looking at Effie and accusing her of being indecent.

Because she was being indecent.

And, the worst thing was, he knew she could do worse without even batting an eyelash.

"Fine." he spat, taking his napkin off his lap and tossing it next to his plate. Then he thought better of it and spread it back over his thighs. "You win. You're the PR Queen and you know better. You keep that ridiculous word in the speech. Fine."

Now everyone was staring at him like he had grown a second head – or was wasted – everyone except, of course, Effie who was grinning like the cat who had eaten the cream.

Bad image.

Very bad image.

Well, it could have been a good one if she hadn't still been sucking on her thumb like that.

"I am thrilled you saw reason." Effie replied cheerfully as if they had been discussing that particular subject all along. "Now, we do not want to bore everyone with our shop talk, Haymitch… Perhaps you could all go have some coffee in the living-room car and let us work over the details?"

How could she do that? Boss people around with a smile and a cheerful tone without them realizing they were being herded around like cattle?

Before he could reach for the decanter again, the kids and the stylists had vacated the dining-room car and she was waving off the attendants.

"You fight dirty, sweetheart." he complained.

Once the last attendant had gone and the door to the car was closed, she stole a strawberry from his plate and sucked on it even more languidly than she had done before. How could someone make eating look so fucking sexy?

"You should know not to test me by now." she hummed, far too amused.

"Bite me." he grumbled.

"Happily." She licked her lips, tossing him a sultry look from under her fake eyelashes. "Any request as to where?"

He closed his eyes and tossed his head back, trying to think calming thoughts.

"How hard are you?" she asked and he could hear the laughter she was trying to keep in check. Genuine laughter this time.

"As fuck." He snorted. "Wasn't that the aim?"

"Very much so." she admitted in a matter of fact sort of voice. Something pinged and he opened his eyes in time to see her drop to the floor. "Oh, goodness! I seem to have lost an earring… How clumsy of me…"

"Effie." he warned just before she disappeared under the long white tablecloth.

His eyes darted to the doors. Anyone could come in at any time. Anyone. At any time.

And yet when she opened his pants, he didn't protest, didn't try to stop her, didn't tell her it wasn't clever…

Fuck clever.

When she sucked him into her mouth, he closed his eyes again and hissed…

Usually, he liked to watch while she did that but right then, it wasn't even necessary, he simply had to picture her eating her strawberries.

He had a new appreciation for the fruit.