On day 9 I give you fluff :p I hope you enjoy this! Let me know!

Prompt "If you throw that snowball at me…"

The Snowball War

Despite Effie's most heartfelt hatred for the cold, winter might have been her favorite season in Twelve. It was postcard pretty. She had never seen real snow before she came there and it looked much better than the fake one they used in the city. It heaped in tons of white around her house, forcing Haymitch and Peeta to regularly plow a way to the main streets of the Village – and in lesser measures to town. It turned black faster in the streets but around her house? In her garden? It looked wonderful.

She wasn't sure how she always let herself get roped into snowy pastimes that should have been deemed too childish for a woman her age either. She had walked out to pass a thermos full of hot coffee to Haymitch and Peeta who had been digging out a path to the children's house and, suddenly, Katniss was out there too and for some unforeseen reason they were building a snowman.

Well, she and the children were building a snowman, Haymitch was grumbling about being left to do all the work by himself.

The snow wasn't that high yet, though. There was no real urgency and Peeta was having so much fun…

So was she.

She had never done anything quite like this before coming to Twelve – her mother would have had a fit if she had been caught playing in the snow like an urchin – but she had become an expert at molding snow into whatever shape she liked. The children always asked her to do the face because she always managed better than a simple carrot for a nose and two stones for the eyes…

She felt Haymitch's approach at her back just as she was putting the finishing touches to her detailed face. Katniss was trying to make an old hat fit on the snowman's head…

She glanced at her – still undefined – significant other with a grin, spotting the ball of snow in his gloved hand. "Oh, I do not need any more, darling. Thank you."

"Are you sure?" he insisted, his voice just that side of teasing that bordered on threatening.

She gave him another glance, noticing the smirk and the mad twinkle in his grey eyes. She quickly put some space between them, lifting her hands up in a defensive gesture. "Haymitch."

He chuckled, sounding far too innocent and kept advancing toward her with measured steps. "Yes, sweetheart?"

The children had stopped working on the snowman to watch them with obvious amusement. No help there, Effie figured.

She schooled her features in a stern expression, pursing her lips a little, a warning of her own in her voice. "If you throw that snowball at me…"

He threw the snowball at her.

And it hit her square in the face.

She squeaked at the shocking cold and then glared at him. He was laughing, of course, slapping his knees at the good trick he had just pulled.

Well.

Two could play that game.

She gathered a heap of snow in her hand, took aim and threw it. He stopped mid-laugh, shocked by the snowball that had just hit the side of his head. He looked up at her, his smirk turning predatory. "That's how you want to play it?"

"I am not the one who started it!" she retorted, hurrying to gather more snow because she had a feeling she would need it.

Too late though.

She could barely duck in time to avoid another snowball and she had to run to escape the next one. She may or may not have been laughing all the while. She tried to toss one or two back over her shoulders but the children had just gotten into it and it seemed to be a game of ganging up on Effie, which was very unfair.

At least until Haymitch accidentally got Katniss straight in the chest, hard enough to make her loose her balance. The girl fell on her butt and didn't look pleased at all.

"Take the right side!" she ordered Effie and Effie obeyed without discussion.

They tried to flank the boys with various degrees of success.

After a few minutes, Haymitch probably got tired of the game because he stopped throwing snowballs to march directly on her, no matter how much snow she tossed at him. She knew exactly what he was going to do and she squealed, trying to run away…

He could move fast though and her legs, long as they were, were still shorter than his.

He grabbed her around the waist, triggering another thrilled squeal, and carefully tossed her in one of the heaps of snow from where he had dug the path to the children's house. She sank like it was melted butter and it was cold.

But Haymitch wasn't done.

He wasn't happy until he had sneaked a fistful of snow down her scarf, prompting her to scream like she was being murdered. The cruel man only laughed.

Eventually he dropped next to her, still chuckling, and she rolled on her side to mock-glare at him.

"I hate you." she professed but she couldn't quite stop smiling, not when she could hear the children running after each other, playing together and laughing in pure joy.

"No, you don't." he denied with one of those smirks that made her want to lock him in a room and have her way with him.

Which was exactly what she was going to do to warm herself up.

"No, I don't." she whispered, leaning in to press a kiss to his chapped lips.

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