Warning: These one-shots feature heavy subjects, including alcoholism, drug abuse, and torture... so far. Now adding: depression, cheating, heartbreak. I'll add more as the story wears on, just in case.

AN: Credit goes to HannahSongla for the story idea. Please go check out her Hayniss story similar to this - Sweetheart. Credit goes to Suzanne Collins for the verse and the characters. I don't really own anything but the text of these one-shots. And no, that doesn't mean the song lyrics. Enjoy c:

Verse: In this verse, Gale dies, Prim survives but her spine is broken and she can no longer walk, Cinna lives (and Portia still dies), Annie miscarries, Finnick's beauty is permanently marred, Coin survives and is merely arrested, and a bunch more. I get this verse from a Haymitch/Johanna story I read, so it's not mine. Thanks.

Song: Not About Angels by Birdy

Not About Angels

How unfair is just our love?
Found something real, that's out of touch
But if you touch the full wide world
Would you dare to let it go?

The loud shrieking of laughter pierced the Abernathy residence, floating out of the open kitchen window and into the desolate streets of Victor's Village. Any other day and this would have been unnatural, unfamiliar, and downright wrong. Not to mention very, very, very dangerous. There was no reason for laughter and pleasure when you lived under the rule of a tyrant and constantly wondered if your child would be the next to have their blood spilt in an unfamiliar place, and their was definitely no pleasure where your child's mere existence could cause the blood spill of many. But this was a time of good wishes and celebration - an era of happiness, if you will. President Snow was dead, Haymitch's wife and child were alive and safe - Katniss was still hospitalized for her serious burn wounds, but she was alive and she would continue to live -, and there had been minor fatalities for his loved ones. Katniss had lost her best friend, but she had gained freedom for her child in the process, and while Haymitch would never quite be fixed, most of his problems had been wiped away with the end of Snow and he was learning how to smile more. Especially for his child's sake.

So laughter drifted in from the house where Haymitch, and his two-year-old daughter, Hope would live out the rest of their days as soon as Katniss returned home. They were both happy - Hope didn't quite understand why they needed to do so much celebrating, all she knew that Daddy didn't drink the nasty stuff anymore and he liked to play with her a lot - because they were finally free of the expectations, of the fear, of the hiding away. Their day had started out with Hope waking her father by jumping on his bed, and then he'd awoken to make her favorite breakfast - one that both Katniss and Effie forebode - of homemade strawberry ice cream. They'd played tag in the backyard, found a baby goose, and then returned to the house where he chased her all around in a game of hide and seek until he'd caught her in the living room and begun spinning around.

"High, Da! High!" Hope screeches loudly, as Haymitch swings her around. As he swings her higher and faster, then slower and lower, her laughter changes in decibels until she is full on screaming. It would be loud enough to wake the entire District if there was one - it was the only the two of them in 12 anyways. Any other day, he would have screeched for her to quiet down, because his hangover was raging an he couldn't even see without crying out in pain. He would have stumbled and locked himself in the cellar so he wouldn't hear her or Katniss' loud shouting - which was really just regular talking. But today he laughs and yells with her, allowing her to be a child and opening the window of opportunity to be a real father to his little girl.

"Okay, honey," Haymitch says, when Hope begins to look green from all the spinning around. A wave of worry washes over him, and he begins to think that maybe junk food for breakfast was a bad idea on his part. "I don't need to be rushing you to District 4 with sickies, let's relax for a nap, yes?" As he speaks, Haymitch slows his spinning of Hope to a stop before sitting her on the couch gently. Dizzy, Hope falls onto her back, her shrieking eventually dying down into a fit of giggles. Haymitch plops on the couch beside her, staring at his child with adoration and amusement. They sit - or in the smaller Abernathy's case, lay - in quiet for a moment, Haymitch catching his breath and Hope trying to stop seeing five of everything. As soon as the world stops spinning - and the small pain in her stomach settles - Hope bolts up, staring at he father with a sudden seriousness in her slate grey eyes. Haymitch raises an eyebrow, wondering just what she could dream up now.

"Da," she says, her voice slow and warning suddenly. "Ma."

"Still not better," he says, pulling her into his lap. Hope sits with her legs dangling over his lap, and her left ear pressed against his heart. She listens to the wild thumping in her father's chest with fascination, having never heard a heartbeat before. The thumping is relaxing to the two-year-old, and her eyes flutter closed as exhaustion takes it's course on her. "She won't be better for a long time, honey."

"Go?" Hope asks, not opening her eyes. Her voice fills with her namesake, and she squirms on her father's lap. Haymitch stills her by wrapping an arm around her, before letting his head fall over the back of the couch as his own sleepiness takes over. Running a rebellion, raising a small child, and worrying day and night over the woman he wants to marry has taken it's toll on him.

"No, we can't go," he whispers. "I can't take you to the Capitol honey, a lot of people want to hurt you because of what Mommy and Daddy did to the bad man that made you hide. We have to stay here until Mommy gets better, then I'll go leave you with Aunt Effie and go get her." Haymitch explains to her, mostly because there was no reason he shouldn't tell her and he was too exhausted to keep his tongue sharp. There's a long stretch of silence, and the man actually believes that Hope has dropped the subject in favor of going to sleep.

"Eff now," Hope proposes, just when he thinks she's fast asleep. Haymitch shakes his head, partially at the way that toddlers seemed to avoid napping at all costs, partially in reply to her offer, and partially because it seems as even though she's clearly tired, Hope refuses to go to sleep. That's alright - he didn't expect for this to happen easily, and Hope was a good kid. If he asked her too outright, she would lay down for her nap willingly.

"I can't take you to her now. Effie doesn't know how to take care of a child for long periods of time, and it might be a long time until Mommy gets out," he sighs in response. Hope frowns at his reply, sitting up and staring at him with those wide slate colored eyes of hers. Haymitch pops one equally colored eye open to look down at her, and is greeted with the cutest face ever - one of curiosity, sadness and longing. He didn't even think children could master the whole 'longing' look, but apparently Hope welcomes him with new surprises everyday.

"Ma, now," Hope says insists angrily. "Want Ma."

"I want your mother too," Haymitch replies. "But right now, it just isn't about what we want."

We're no fools of "just this time"
So is it wrong to toss this life?
If your heart was full of love
Could you give it up?