I realized when I edited this that maybe I said no angst and this could qualify as tiny tiiiiiny angst but it seems I have lost all power of recognizing angst when I see it so I will let you judge.

Prompt "Ice skating? Really?"

A Few Of His Favorite Things

"Ice skating?"

Katniss' eyes followed him as Haymitch moved around the messy kitchen. He tried not to pay too much attention to the girl perched on his table, legs swinging like she was a five year-old instead of an eighteen year-old. He grabbed two jars of jam, strawberry and apricot and tried to decide which one Effie would like best for their picnic. Well… It wouldn't be a picnic, it was too cold for that. More like a snack. At least, he hoped it would turn out to be a snack because any way he could get her to eat was good.

Strawberry was her favorite but she had been partial to Sae's apricot jam lately. She rarely left a toast if there was apricot jam on it…

"Really?" the girl insisted, as if he simply hadn't heard her before. "You're taking Effie Trinket ice skating?"

Unable to decide, he put both jars in the basket, closed it and placed it behind Katniss on the table, amongst the heap of blankets and ice skating shoes he was planning on bringing. "You said the ice on the lake was thick enough for it."

"Yeah but I meant…" She made a face. "I didn't mean for you to take Effie ice skating."

He had forgotten the thermos of hot cocoa. It was glaring at him from the kitchen counter. He grabbed that and packed it in the basket, a frown on his face. "Who did you want me to take ice skating, then? You?"

He had meant it as a joke but he realized the moment the word was out of his mouth that maybe that was what the girl had been after when she had mentioned the lake. They hadn't been spending much time together lately. Well… They always had dinner together, either at the kids' or at his place, but it wasn't one on one time. He had been busy helping Peeta try to rebuild the bakery and then since Effie had showed up…

The kids didn't see how bad it was.

She kept the act up for them. Every day she showed up for dinner and she was her flamboyant self. The act rang false and the kids didn't buy it – they didn't buy it enough that they had both separately - and together - laid the problem down for him several times – but while they had figured out her sudden prolonged visit meant she wasn't doing okay, they also weren't aware of just how not okay she was.

They weren't aware she sometimes hid in the wardrobe in the guest room or that when she didn't come to dinner because she had a migraine that usually meant she had spent the day curled up in bed. Her migraines could last days. She was barely eating. She was barely communicating at all.

The only thing she was only too willing to do was clean up his house from top to bottom. He tried to pick up after himself because bad smells triggered her and she would get upset if something was less than spotless. It annoyed him, of course, but… He wanted to help.

So, yeah, in the midst of Effie's problems, he hadn't had a lot of free time. Not enough to go on a binge like he had been desperate to do for a while and not enough to go on walks with Katniss like he had started to do after Peeta had come back and she had finally put an end to her self-isolation.

"Shit, sweetheart…" he sighed, pausing what he was doing to study her. "You wanted to go together?"

Katniss' face closed but she took pains to look detached like she had any hope at all of fooling anyone with her pitiful acting abilities. "Don't be stupid. I don't need you to go ice skating if I want to go. I can go by myself."

He almost asked why she didn't take the boy and then thought better of it. Peeta's prosthetic was good but he wasn't sure it was that good. And going ice skating by yourself wasn't as fun, he figured.

"You know, you could come with us." he suggested.

Not quite what he had had in mind when he had planned the outing but he could work with it. Effie wasn't exactly interested in couple activities at the moment so he doubted she would mind if Katniss crashed what she wasn't even aware he had intended to be a date.

"I don't know. You didn't invite me." Katniss objected, a bit petulantly. "You were all about Effie."

"She could use some cheering up, that's all." he retorted, a warning in his tone.

Peeta had welcomed Effie with open arms and Katniss had seemed happy enough to see her at first but it was obvious she didn't quite know how deal with the fact her visit looked less and less temporary and more and more permanent. Katniss tended to toss some gibes her way sometimes that were fair all things considered but that made Effie feel bad. And feeling bad was the last thing their escort needed at the moment.

"From her life of glamorous parties and her lines of boyfriends?" Katniss snorted.

He tilted his head to the side, looking at her with unusual seriousness. Instead of resorting to sarcasm, he lifted his eyebrows. "Do you need me to tell you that's a lot of bullshit?"

That was what Effie had told the kids: that she was perfectly happy in the city, that she partied all night, had numerous suitors and an amazing job… The charade was running thin, though, if only because of the job she hadn't gone to in three months.

"No." the girl admitted, a bit sullen. "I know she's not doing great. I'm not an idiot." Her sulk deepened. "But seriously? Ice skating? She's gonna hate it."

"Who is going to hate what?" Effie asked, a fake smile on her lips, clad in head to toes in winter gear like he had told her.

Damn but she looked far too good in the thick black pants, the pink woolen sweater and the white boots lined with fur he had gotten for her at the market. Her face was covered with make-up but even the make-up wasn't enough to hide the bags under her eyes and just how tired she seemed. She had aged in the last couple of years but Haymitch still thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.

He wasn't sure how much she had overheard so he cleared his throat and gestured at the table where the stuff was waiting. "That's my surprise. We're going ice skating."

She had been having a rare good stretch, this week. She got out of bed, she moved around the house, she actually answered when he talked to her… It made him hopeful the worst was behind them.

He had thought he would need to convince her to take the trek to the lake and that he would have to coax her into trying to wander on the ice but the moment her blue eyes fell on the skates, her whole face transformed. For a brief moment, it was like nothing had happened, like she was the same woman who had put his life upside down. She was radiant with plain simple joy.

"Truly?" she asked, crossing the distance to the table. Haymitch stepped aside so she could reach for the skates. She carefully ran her fingers along the blade. "I love ice skating! I have not been since I was… Oh… Twelve, at least."

She beamed at him and then at Katniss who looked far too surprised.

The girl should have known by now… Effie was never what you expected.

"You know how, then?" he asked. "Won't have to teach you how not to fall on your ass?"

"Language." She still chuckled and jutted her chin up in challenge, a twinkle of mirth in her eyes. "I bet I can even teach you a thing or two. I was not too bad, you know."

"Bet you can." he agreed easily enough. He hadn't been since he was sixteen and, then again, at the time, it had mostly been stolen moments with his girl and his group of friends on makeshift skates while poaching so… He wasn't that great. "Katniss, here, seems to think she's an expert though."

"Are you?" Effie laughed. "I cannot wait to see! When are we leaving? Oh, I need my hat! And gloves! I will be right back!"

She dashed away with much more energy than Haymitch had seen from her in months. It made him glad. It hadn't been such a bad idea after all.

"Better go get your skates." he advised. "Seems like you're coming with us, like it or not, now."

Katniss pulled a face but hopped off the table to go get her own skates, a spring to her steps.

Left alone in the kitchen, Haymitch found himself smirking.

Making his girls happy, he decided, was his favorite thing.

Haymitch is a big softie for his girls ;) Did you like it? Let me know!