Another modern au, hopefully you are not sick of those!

Prompt We're stuck in different cities, so we wont be together for Christmas. We end up talking on the phone for hours, to the annoyance of our families

And Yet

Snowflakes were lazily floating down the sky and slowly but surely covering roofs and gardens in a thin layer of white. The picture was postcard perfect for Christmas in a small country town and Haymitch couldn't help but think she would have loved it.

"It's snowing." he said, awkwardly adjusting his hold on the phone as he leaned on his elbows on the kitchen counter to better see through the window over the sink.

"Oh, is it?" Effie exclaimed with a regretful touch of delight. "It is so hot here…" That would be California for you, he figured. "I wish I could be home with you…"

It wasn't the first time she expressed that she would have preferred to be in the Seam for Christmas but it was the first time she had put it quite this way and he wasn't entirely sure what to answer. Had she meant home in a general sense or home as in his house?

She had moved to these parts of the country only six months earlier, to hide from a scandal that had ended her modeling career, and straight across the street. It hadn't been smooth sailing at first. They had started a neighboring feud that might have been bloody hadn't they realized they would rather put all that animosity into angry sex. He hadn't meant for the fling to become serious because he hadn't been interested in having a woman around regularly in decades.

And yet.

And yet she spent most nights at his place, she had picked new curtains for his living-room – helped him pick, she insisted but since he had had no interest in purchasing new curtains in the first place he wasn't fooled – and the crux of the matter was he was happier when she was around. He was happier when he had her to bicker and banter with, when he had her to steal a kiss from, when he had her close enough to touch…

And, in the few days since she had taken a plane back to Los Angeles to spend the holidays with her family, he had missed her in a way he hadn't thought could be possible at his age. He missed everything: the sound of her laugh, her perfume, the scent of her shampoo, the way she grinned at him with twinkles in her eyes when she was planning some mischief, the way she scolded him about his language or his manners… He missed her. Somehow, somewhere he had grown attached and…

"The kids are having fun." he offered, not quite sure what else to say. He could hear the raucous from the kitchen. Katniss, Peeta, Finnick, Annie and Johanna… They were all playing board games while Chaff and Beetee babysat baby Finn – that was a disaster in the making. "They're having a monopoly war."

"Oh, dear… That sounds dangerous." She laughed. "We are still having lunch here. I sneaked away to call you."

"You should be eating." he immediately chided. She ate like a bird and counted every calorie she put in her mouth. He didn't think it was healthy and had slowly but surely started training her out of that habit. Hell, he had started cooking again for her – to Chaff's unending amusement…

"How naïve of you to think food at a three hours long Trinkets' Christmas lunch is meant to be consumed." she deadpanned but the sarcasm in her voice wasn't entirely directed at him, he didn't think. "My mother already commented twice that I was eating too much while we still were on the salad course. I am currently missing the roast, which is no sacrifice for me. I had some salmon and it was delicious but I am full."

He wasn't pleased with that and he wasn't pleased with the way those people were treating her. She hadn't said much about her family. Just the basics. Parents, sister, a sleazy brother-in-law who took liberties when no one was looking, two nephews… All he knew was that they had whole-heartedly approved her disappearance from the public scene after the scandal to save their own reputation but they didn't approve of her new plan of actually staying in the country and had summoned her back for the holidays.

He was a bit scared they would convince her to stay and she would never come back.

"Haymitch." Chaff called, pushing the door of the kitchen open. "You're gonna spend the whole day in the kitchen or what?"

Haymitch turned around and tried not to take it too personally when Chaff rolled his eyes when he spotted the phone. To be honest, Haymitch had been on the phone more often since she had left than in the last two decades.

"I'm coming back soon." he grumbled. "What? You can't entertain yourself for five minutes?"

Chaff shook his head but there was a touch of amused fondness on his face. "You're head over heels for her, ain't you?"

He placed a hand on the mic quickly but, he figured, it was too late. She may have heard it.

"Don't be stupid." he spat. "I'm coming back soon. Just…" He gestured awkwardly with his hands, phone and all, and Chaff, with a wink full of implications, finally scampered away. He brought the phone back to his ear and cleared his throat. "Sorry."

"Not at all." she replied politely, in a far too detached way.

Yeah. She had heard his best friend's stupid comment.

And that made his heart race in his chest in a very uncomfortable way. They hadn't talked feelings. He didn't want to talk feelings. They hadn't even discussed what they were doing. He had made it very clear first thing he wasn't looking for anything serious and she hadn't even batted an eyelash before saying they could keep it casual and non-exclusive. The non-exclusive part, he strongly believed neither had taken advantage of, but the casual part? She had been through a lot that year and she probably didn't want any more complications so even if he was getting a little too attached…

Maybe he should have taken advantage of her absence to remind himself he didn't need nor want a woman in his life. When he had dropped her off at the airport – and they hadn't clung to each other for five minutes like lovesick teenagers, they had hugged because that was what close friends did, no clinging at all had occurred despite what the kids had told everyone – he had been determined to enjoy his bachelor holidays. He certainly hadn't been planning on talking to her every day on the phone and on incessant texting in-between calls.

And yet.

"Do you have to go?" she asked when the silence stretched a little too long.

"Nah." he dismissed immediately even though he probably should have jumped at the opportunity to escape the awkwardness. "They don't need me."

"I am sure they missed you. I have been monopolizing you, haven't I?" she pointed out, a bit sadly. "I should probably head back too. My mother is bound to send a search party soon and I am afraid my skills at hide-and-seek are a little rusty."

"Where are you hiding?" he asked, just to keep the conversation going a little bit longer.

"The pantry." she hummed. "It will take them a while to think of the kitchen but a cook or a maid is bound to give me up eventually."

A cook or a maid.

He didn't even know people still had those.

He knew her family was loaded – hell, he knew she was loaded even if, all things considered, she was good at not throwing it too much in his face; she wasn't a snob, she simply was very casual with money in a way that clearly showed she had never lacked for anything – but hearing her it put like that…

"They are annoyed with me too, you know." she added.

He frowned. "The cooks and the maids?"

Plural.

Not just once but several.

How mad was that?

"My family." she corrected, a bit hesitant. "They say I have been spending the whole time on the phone. My mother is like the Spanish inquisition… She suspects I am hiding a boyfriend."

He snorted. "Are you?"

He asked the question before he could think twice about it and immediately regretted it. He had meant it as a joke or maybe as a way to get confirmation she wasn't actually seeing anyone else but he had failed to consider the obvious implication. In this situation… He was the one she spent all her time on the phone with. He was the potential boyfriend.

"I am not sure." she admitted. Her voice was curbed into a nonchalant cheerfulness that rang false. He could hear the vulnerability underneath, the fragile part of her she always kept hidden. "Are you my boyfriend?"

"No." he replied, his tongue moving before his brain could catch up.

"Oh." It was flat and disappointed and maybe a little hurt.

He closed his eyes. Idiot.

That, right there, was why he didn't want to get involved with anyone. He always made a mess of things.

"I'm too old to be anyone's boyfriend." he said quickly.

"I see." Her voice was still flat. "Perhaps I should go. If I reappear before dessert I might just avoid another lecture on…"

"You're still coming back, right?" He blurted out, panicked. Because if she thought he didn't care, if she thought he was just into whatever this was for sex…

He could hear the frown in her voice. "Coming back?"

"Home." he clarified. "You're still coming back home?"

"Yes, after New Year's Eve… I told you… You said you would pick me up from the airport…" she hesitated. "Haymitch…"

"Okay. Good." he cut her off, coughing a little to hide his embarrassment. "Just, you know… I thought maybe… I know you're a city girl…"

"I love L.A." she granted. "But I cannot put a foot outside without being harassed by paparazzi… I am coming home, Haymitch, I miss the Seam. I miss the quiet." She marked a long pause and then audibly licked her lips. "I miss you."

It was a bit uncertain.

It was also everything Haymitch hadn't known he wanted to hear.

"I miss you too." he confessed, his voice turning a bit gruff. "And when I say I'm not your boyfriend, I don't mean…" He let his sentence trail off, waiting for her to pick it up because she had a gift for doing that, for understanding what he couldn't quite say out loud… But this time she didn't. This time she waited and he could hear her familiar breathing in his ear and… It was too easy to close his eyes and imagine they were in bed together, snuggled close to fight the chill in the air… "Look… Wasn't exactly expecting you but… I'm glad it happened. You changed… You changed a lot for me. You…" He stopped again, frustrated by his inability to word his feelings properly. That had always been a problem. "I'm just an old drunk and…"

"Do not use that word." she cut him off. "And you have been sober three years, Haymitch. You told me so yourself."

He had. And he was holding on. For the kids mostly. And lately for her maybe. But…

"I don't want to stop." he told her quickly, like you would tear off a bandage. "Us. I don't want to stop us. I want us to be an us. Like… Not in a casual way. Or whatever. You know."

"I…" she started only to be interrupted. He heard the creaking of a door on her side, the high-pitched voice of another woman asking her what she was doing sitting in the pantry. "I will be right there, Lyssa." The woman said something he didn't quite catch. "Tell Mother I just need five more minutes." He waited a bit impatiently as her sister remarked that their mother was less than pleased with her runaway act and then, in a more playful tone, asked if she was talking to the secret boyfriend she wouldn't admit to. "I am… He's… He objects to the boyfriend term actually. We really need to invent a more mature term for adults in a serious relationship."

"There is another term." her sister joked. "It is called marriage."

Haymitch almost choked on his own saliva. He coughed and coughed… He missed the resolution of that conversation trying not to die the most humiliating death possible. And it was only once he had downed a glass of water and stopped coughing like an idiot that he answered her worried questions. "I'm fine."

"Oh, good…" she sighed in relief. And then there was an awkward pause. "So. My sister embarrassed me, Chaff embarrassed you… Let's never introduce them."

He agreed to that easily enough.

She didn't ask if Chaff was right and he had feelings for her and that was a relief. She never poked where he knew he was raw and that was part of the reason why he…

The kitchen door opened wide again and Katniss appeared, arms folded in front of her chest and sulk firmly in place. "You're worse than a teenager, I swear. Put that phone down and come spend time with us. It's Christmas for fuck's sake!"

"Language." Effie rebuked, clucking her tongue, clearly having heard all of that.

"Effie says to mind your language." he repeated, glaring at her.

Katniss lifted unimpressed eyebrows, raising her voice a little. "Hi, Effie! Tell your boyfriend to stop missing Christmas, please."

And there it was again, that word.

"I'm not her boyfriend." he grumbled. "We ain't sixteen…"

Effie was laughing in his ear and it didn't help. It didn't help because the sound of her laugh always made him soften a little inside.

"He ain't her boyfriend, he's her afternoon delight." Johanna cackled, joining Katniss on the threshold. "You're coming or what, old man?"

"Next year, ask her to stay." Katniss advised, rolling her eyes. "What's the point of going to LA if you're gonna spend the whole time on the phone anyway?"

Next year. It was asking him to project a lot.

And yet…

He could see it. The next Christmas… Effie right there with them where she belonged…

"I will call you back later if I survive Mother's tongue-lashing." she promised in his ear, right on cue. "And, Haymitch… Yes, I would like us to be… an us."

That should have filled him with terror…

And yet…

I hope you're enjoying those little one shots! Please do consider letting me know what you thought of this one if you came this far!

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