Prompt: could you please write something where one of the people that effie cheats on with haymitch during the games finds out? Maybe they go to effie and threaten to expose hayffie's affair or something?
Of Wild birds, Cages and Plants
Haymitch's hands were running over her body in a proprietary manner that should have been irking her more than it did.
She was lying on her stomach across the bed in her apartment, watching the late evening light spill through her bedroom window. Anything not to dart a glance at the stupid cluster of plants in the corner. There were plants everywhere in her apartment now. Flavius was quite passionate about them.
Flavius was also quite passionate about her.
Which made the whole thing even more…
"Don't look so glum." Haymitch muttered, nuzzling the soft skin between her shoulder blades.
Haymitch certainly didn't look glum. On the contrary, she hadn't seen him that cheerful since she had told him in no uncertain terms on the train that there wouldn't be any funny business between them that year.
"I said no." she grumbled.
He snorted against her skin. His mouth travelled down the length of her spine, dropping lazy kisses on the tiny bumps. "Didn't hear a lot of no, sweetheart. Not on the drive over and not once you dropped your panties… Heard a lot of yes, though. Yes. And harder. And yes, please, Haymitch, just like that, you're so big, you're stretching me…"
"I never said that." she retorted, annoyed by the high-pitched ridiculous tone he always took to imitate her. He thought it was funny, it was anything but. "You are full of yourself."
He hummed in amusement, his lips briefly pausing at the small of her back before drifting even lower. One of his hands cupped her left butt cheek, kneading it a little, while his mouth kissed the other one. The stubble felt scratchy. She should be complaining about that.
"Funny. Thought you were full of me." he mocked, his teeth suddenly digging in her flesh.
She hissed in surprise more than in pain. "No marks!"
He growled his irritation but his teeth relinquished their claim and he licked the abused patch of skin until the sting subsided. She supposed she should have been happy she wasn't yet covered with love bites. It had been his idea to go to her place after their appointment with that sponsor. When things had gotten heavy in the car, when she had lost the fight with her good sense and finally let him kiss her like she had wanted to do since that Reaping morning, it had been him who had briefly lowered the partition glass to tell the Avox to drive them here. She had thought nothing of it at the time, it was closer than the penthouse after all… But now… Now she wondered if he hadn't simply wanted to stake his claim in the very bed she shared with her boyfriend like the beast he could be.
It turned her on that he would do that.
And it only made her feel more ashamed of herself.
What a damn mess.
Her eyes drifted from the window to the greenery in the corner, her stomach twisting with guilt. How did she always allow herself to end up in that position? Every time. Every time. She resolved herself, steeled herself… And yet…
"Can you stop brooding?" he complained. "You're ruining my fun."
His fun seemed to be aiming at getting her to accept another round if the caresses he was not so subtly bestowing to the back of her thighs were anything to go by.
"I like him." she whispered. "He does not deserve this."
She didn't need to see him to know he was rolling his eyes and, suddenly, there was an heavy weight on the back of her legs. She wasn't sure why he had straddled her, effectively pinning her down when she had given no intention to move, but his hands were on her shoulders, even more possessive than before. The massage that followed was deceptively sweet.
His hands were powerful and arousing and she wanted…
"He's boring." he spat. "That's what he is. Boring and pampered and I bet he barely knows how to stick it in."
She pursed her lips. "Language." The admonishment was more a reflex than anything else nowadays and he chuckled because, truthfully, he had said much worse while they were going at it and she might have turned vulgar at one point too. "I think he is going to ask me to marry him."
Haymitch froze, his body tensing with repressed anger.
She closed her eyes so she didn't have to see the plants anymore.
"What does that make him?" he challenged. "Number four on the list of men you're never gonna end up marrying? You've got quite the collection of engagement rings already…"
The words didn't hurt because they were true.
What hurt, however, was the cold accusation in his voice, as if she owed him… something. But she didn't, did she? He had always been clear… They had always been clear about what this was and wasn't. And…
"I am trying to be happy." she murmured and, perhaps, she didn't guard the pain in her voice enough because she was certain he heard it.
The tension left his body and his mouth replaced his hands as it roamed over her shoulders, brushing her blond hair aside so he could have better access to her nape.
"You won't be happy with any of them." he growled. "You're too wild. They'd put you in a cage like a pretty bird and make you all… dead inside. Wild birds are meant to fly. Pretty or not to look at."
Despite herself, her lips twitched. "How poetic of you."
He half-snorted, half scoffed, resting his chest on her back. He was crushing her a little but it wasn't unpleasant, not once he sneaked a leg between hers and she willingly spread them for him. The angle wasn't right and he wasn't there yet but his hips rolled and pushed and she could feel him growing hard between her thighs…
And damn how much she loved that…
"None of them fucks you right. Not like me." he mumbled in her neck. "True or what?"
"True." she conceded. "But sex is not everything."
"Not what you said when we first started doing this." he deadpanned.
She didn't laugh. She pressed her face against the creased silk sheets crumpled under her body. "I do not want to hurt them. I do not know why I do these things, why I let you convince me to do these things…"
The dry humping stopped or, at least, it paused long enough for him to nuzzle her nape. His hand ran up and down her side slowly, more gently than usual. "Cause I see you, sweetheart. They see whatever you want them to see."
That was true. Unfortunately.
He had ruined her for other people because sex with him was rough and raw and so true… He didn't want her to be interesting or to pretend to be something she wasn't. He didn't want her to fake an orgasm or to doll herself up. He wanted her naked and bare like the day she was born, he wanted the real her, the ugly and the flawed on display… And it turned him on. He called plain self gorgeous. He said…
"Princess, I want you again." he confessed against her shoulder.
Not quite a surprise given that she could feel him pressing against her core.
"Let me get on my knees." she demanded because that position wouldn't work for her, not like that.
He lifted himself up to kneel behind her and she was about to get on all four when she heard a noise. A very familiar noise.
She froze, her heart racing in her chest, hoping to be wrong…
But no.
There it was: the sound of her front door softly closing and the familiar footsteps, the jingle of keys…
She didn't wait to see if Haymitch had understood what was going on, she hopped off the bed, desperately looked around the mess they had made of the bedroom… Their clothes had flown everywhere, her bra was dangling from one of the fig trees… Abandoning her dress as a lost cause, she cursed herself for being usually so tidy because no opportune dressing gown or shirt was in sight and it would simply take too long to go fetch one in the bathroom. She opened a drawer at random and slipped the first nightgown she found over her head.
It was a soft peach color with frills at the hem and Haymitch groaned behind her. She glared at him, hoping he would have the good sense of hiding but no. There he lied on the bed, not making any move to cover himself or his – admittedly impressive – erection.
She pursed her lips, swallowing back a nasty comment about fetching a measuring tape if that would make him feel better.
"Hello?" Flavius asked from the living-room, a hint of nervousness in his voice. "Is anyone here?"
They must have made some noise and the apartment was supposed to be empty since she was staying at the penthouse for the duration of the Games. It was understandable he would be nervous about finding someone there. It could be robbers. It could be…
Haymitch's sardonic look told her what he was thinking about Flavius' bravery.
Effie turned to deal with the situation and made a floorboard creak.
"I'm calling the Peacekeepers!" Flavius warned from the other room.
"Don't'!" she called back. That was the last thing they needed: a squad of Peacekeepers meddling in their business. "It's only me!"
"Effie?" His voice was closer than she had expected and she quickly sneaked out of the bedroom and closed the door behind her. She barely had time to take two steps before she met him in the corridor. His eyes widened at the sight of her and she couldn't help but furiously blush when she realized… "Is everything alright, honey? Are you sick? You should have called me if you weren't feeling well… Do you need me to call a doctor for you?"
He was all solicitude.
His assumption that she had come home because she was sick was a perfect excuse.
The fact that he would think she was sick because she was currently…
She didn't have any make-up on. It had been smudged from all the making-out in the car and Haymitch had goaded her until she had wiped it off. She hadn't even tried to keep her wig on once his fingers had started playing with the hairpins.
She had never let Flavius see her like that and she was so very conscious of the way he was watching her… It wasn't all worry about possible illness, it was also that…
She wouldn't say he was repulsed but he clearly wasn't enjoying the sight she was presenting.
She had always been so careful to be perfect around him…
"I simply had a headache." she lied with a bright smile that would usually have worked well enough to dispel any suspicion. But she wasn't wearing her make-up and she didn't look dazzling. He was still frowning. "What are you doing here?"
"The plants." he answered slowly as if it was obvious. "I told you they need regular tending to."
"Oh, yes, of course!" Inwardly, she cringed. The plants were gifts from him and they had come with specifics instructions she had never really bothered to follow. He was around enough to take care of them anyway. She didn't mind a couple of potted plants but he had turned her apartment into a greenhouse and… "How thoughtful of you."
"Not at all." He was still frowning, studying her more closely. He didn't quite dare look at her in the face, she noticed, probably out of respect for her poor ill ugly state, but his gaze wasn't as shy when it traveled along the rest of her body, stopping here and there.
She was hoping the nightgown was long enough and that there was no unsavory proof of what had just happened leaking down her legs. As unglamorous as it was, she felt sticky and since she and Haymitch never used condoms…
She had always made Flavius wear one though.
Which was why she hadn't even tried to suggest Haymitch used one that day.
Guilt stabbed her again.
But it wasn't her legs he was staring at, it was her neck.
"Is that a rash on your throat?" he asked, sounding absolutely unconvinced.
She immediately pressed her hand where her skin was faintly tingling, vaguely remembering herself admonishing Haymitch for biting down too hard when he came.
"Is it?" Her laugh turned out atrociously fake. "It might be. I really do feel quite faint. I should rest a little before I go back to the Center. They will be looking for me."
It might have worked.
It might have worked if there hadn't been a loud thud coming from behind the closed door of her bedroom, followed by a muffled curse.
Flavius' eyes widened.
"Now." she said quickly, quietly. "It is not at all what it looks like…"
But Flavius was already pushing past her, shoving the door open, and there was Haymitch, hoping on one foot, clutching the other one in his big hands because he had clearly stubbed his toe against the velvet-clad trunk at the foot of her bed…
Flavius gasped and the cliché, in Effie's opinion, was complete.
Haymitch put his foot down, more mortified to be caught hopping than naked in another man's bedroom, she thought.
"How…" Flavius sputtered, turning toward her, furious and eyes glistening. "With… How could you?"
He looked disgusted now. And she wasn't sure it was simply because of her actions. She could follow his reasoning so well… she hadn't just slept with another man: she had taken off everything for that man, she had laid herself bare, she had made herself plain and that was just as low as a Capitol could bring themselves… She had debased herself.
She couldn't quite meet his gaze so she averted it.
Shame like she hadn't felt since her childhood when her mother used to comment on her inability to win one simple beauty pageant made her squirm.
"Easily enough." Haymitch snorted. "She's quite bendy."
Flavius glared and took a step toward Haymitch but seemed to think better of it and turned to Effie once more. She was the easier target, she supposed, and the rightful one anyway. She deserved his anger.
"With him?" Flavius snapped. "Really?"
"It is not…" she tried.
"Oh, do not tell me it is not what it looks like!" her boyfriend – ex-boyfriend, she figured – huffed. "I always knew something was off with you. I tried to romance you, I tried to be sweet, to show you proper respect and you always wanted…"
Harder. She had always wanted it harder. Rough.
There was only so much vanilla she could endure.
Haymitch flopped down on the bed, apparently finding the whole scene very amusing.
Effie licked her lips, stood a little straighter, went for the charismatic tilt of her chin that would…
Flavius remained unaffected. But was it surprising? She didn't look…
"You are a slut." the Capitol spat, pointing an accusing finger at her. "I should have known. A respectable lady would never want…"
He never finished his sentence because Haymitch was off the bed and had him pinned to the wall by his throat in a flash. There was a dangerous glint in his grey eyes.
"Now…" he growled, ignoring her faint alarmed call of his name. "You're hurt, I get it. Wouldn't like finding my woman being fucked by someone else either… Hell, I didn't particularly like it when she said I couldn't have her 'cause you were around…" His lips twitched in a smirk. "Not that it held her back long, see?" The smirk hardened. "Ain't no excuse for name calling. You yap all you want but you call her a bad word again, we're gonna have a problem you and me. Got that?"
The scant contrast between the two of them would never be more obvious than at that moment: Flavius with his nice fashionable clothes and his purple dyed hair looked so delicate whereas Haymitch, who clearly had no problem with his nakedness, was all feral snarl, hard muscles and scars and…
Flavius looked ready to soil himself and any respect or lingering affection Effie had for him vanished when he meekly nodded. He didn't even try to fight back or argue. He just nodded.
Now, a part of her got it. Haymitch was the only living Quell victor, he could be frightening when he wanted to be and, even without taking that into account, District people had a reputation. But the fact that her boyfriend wouldn't even at least arguefor her… She had gone head to head with Haymitch more times than she could count over more trivial matters. She had slapped him and shoved him and…
And Flavius couldn't even…
What?
What did she really want?
For them to fight for her?
No. And she shouldn't have expected it from Flavius either. He was too soft. Too sweet. He was Haymitch's total opposite and that was why she had been interested in him in the first place. To cure herself from an obsession that was becoming…
"Good." Haymitch simply said and let him go, dropping back down on her bed like he had every right to lounge there, as if it was Flavius who was intruding.
Effie resisted the urge to rub her face because that would have been unladylike. Although at this point…
Flavius cleared his throat, tossed her a loathing look… "I think we are done here. I will come back to collect my things tomorrow. And don't expect me to leave you the plants!"
She bit down on her bottom lip before she could tell him where he should shove his plants. It would have made Haymitch laugh for sure but she truly was in the wrong there and there was no use making it all worse.
She followed him to the front door, not even trying to explain herself because, really, what was there to say? She locked up behind him and walked back to the bedroom, feeling strangely detached from the situation.
She should have been sadder, shouldn't she? Or perhaps, if not sadder, perhaps she should have… cared ?
Haymitch was sprawled on his back, his legs indecently spread, his hands locked behind his head, a smug satisfied smile on his lips.
At least he wasn't hard anymore.
There was that.
She wasn't sure Flavius would have taken that particularly well.
"Are you happy?" she snapped. "We will have a field day dealing with the press, now! Was it too hard to be quiet for five minutes?"
He rolled his eyes. "If you didn't keep shit everywhere I wouldn't have stubbed my toe. Besides, he won't say anything to anyone."
She pursed her lips, studying him. "How can you be sure? I suppose we can threaten him. He looked positively terrified of you – and do not think I do not know you enjoyed that! But…"
"He won't say anything 'cause what is he gonna say?" he scoffed. "He got cheated on? You chose to fuck a District dog over him?"
She averted her eyes. "He does not say things like that."
"Looks the type to me." He snorted. "Certainly looked scared enough that I'd bite his head off."
"You did not have to defend my honor either." she remarked.
"What honor? Didn't know you had any." he taunted and then shook his head. "Don't like people calling you that kind of names and you know that. There's a line."
There were a lot of lines in the sand of their relationship and it seemed to her like they were crossing them all with alarming regularity.
With a sigh, she slipped the nightgown off and joined him on the bed, curling against his side. "Well… That is that, then."
"Cheer up." he teased, playfully bumping his nose against her head. "At least you're getting rid of the ugly ass plants."
She couldn't help but chuckle at that.
It was a bright side, that was true…