(AN: I've been watching so much Pokémon lately you wouldn't believe it. So … slow update, sorry! This is the definite last chapter of this and it isn't as grim as the others, I promise!

Also: I've been reading a lot of Hayeffie on here and I realize that a lot of you guys have different views on what happens 'inside' Effie. A lot of you want her to change, to hate the Capitol. I disagree with that, because I'm kind of thinking about what I would do if I was 'forced' to move from Denmark because of a war and I would still love the place to death and eat Danish food, wear Danish clothes and all that. I know this is rambling, but just wanted to put it out there.

Thank you for reviews, messages, favourites and alerts – everything!)

District 12, Victors Village

"Do you remember?" She asked. She didn't finish her question. It was often like that now, she'd trail of and stare into space while reliving some vivid memory. Haymitch drank to keep the sight of her blank eyes away and put the bottle down violently to shake her out of it.

"Remember what Effs?" He asked knowing she wouldn't reply. Instead she just got up and looked out the window. It was a rainy afternoon, but the lights in Katniss and Peeta's house were on and the rain made everything smell fresh. It hadn't been good for her to watch Snow die. She'd actually been worse of after the experience, where she'd clung to Haymitch with intensity. Maybe because she had chosen for herself to go visit him. When Katniss shot the arrow at Coin, Snow was taken back into the rose garden, but the bruises and injuries from resisting the rebels and the explosion had killed him shortly after, since he was given no medical attention. Effie and Haymitch had been there, watching him from a safe distance, while he drew his last breaths. He remembered her crying afterwards. She wasn't even happy. He never understood. He'd had to refrain from laughing out loud, while the rebel soldiers carried the body away. Then again he had been drunk and Effie was a bit more sensitive than he was. They'd moved to District 12 when the rebuilding was starting and isolated themselves in the big house in Victors Village.

"Are bombs and meteorites very alike, Haymitch?" she said while they walked to Katniss and Peeta's for dinner the next day.

"Why are you thinking about that?" he asked with a slight chuckle and took her hand and knocked on the door with the other.

"Well are they?" she asked firmly, demanding an answer.

"I guess they're very different, Effie… I don't know why you want to know," Was this some kind of trick? Where did she want to go with it?

"Never mind then…" she sighed and if the door didn't open in front of them Haymitch would have taken her by the shoulders and asked for an explanation. Her tone sounded sad and disappointed, like someone just told her, her entire family died.

"Hey Peeta," Haymitch grumbled and shook his hand. They grew up fast those little devils.

He slept terribly that night. The nightmares, which he actually had kept away for a while, had returned full power and a very clear memory came to him from the hours before what he thought was going to be his execution. A memory so full of hopelessness he almost felt he was about to die, when somehow his sleeping, subconscious brain told him the answer to maybe some of their problems.

"The meteorite!" he said loudly and sat up in the bed so fast that he felt his back crack. Effie stirred beside him and turned around to see what was going on. She'd been very silent all night, sleeping with barely any breath. Sometimes he feared she'd die in her sleep.

"Haymitch, what are you doing?" she asked and reached up her hand to touch the stubble on his cheek. He felt an urge to laugh as she did.

"Nothing sweetheart, go back to sleep, it's going to be a big, big, big day tomorrow," he said using his teasing Capitol accent. She shook her head and cuddled in closer to him and went back to sleep.

District 12, City Square

If he had to do it, it would have to be done right. There were so many points where they were different and this was most likely another one of them. Where Haymitch had never dreamt of marrying anyone, Effie had surely been planning her wedding since she was old enough to think. He wasn't very romantic, but going after some of the shows he'd watched in a half drunken state on Capitol television during the games, when he couldn't watch anymore death, a proposal required three things: roses, sweets and a ring. In his case a large dose of numbing alcohol might have to be the fourth thing, before he even dared facing her with this.

He'd bought some candy at the general store, he didn't know what to get her. He had never seen her eat candies. So he went back in and bought a bag of apples as well, he'd seen her eat plenty of those. People looked at him, but it would all make sense to them in a while, he thought. There was not a single rose in the town, but after a while of looking he realized that Effie wouldn't enjoy roses anyway. Not after her time with Snow and his fake smell of blood and roses. He bought her the most colourful bouquet he could find. It looked horrible to him.

The ring was an entirely different matter. He'd gotten up early to steal one of her rings for size reference, but her jewellery box was so organized he didn't dare at all. So he kind of tried it on his pinky finger and decided that it fit until the middle of his nail and that had to be enough for a comparison to the one he was about to buy. He stood in front of a clerk, who'd surely grown tired of him five minutes ago when he told him about his alternative form of measurement. His lack of fashion sense limited him to look desperate at the clerk for guidance.

"I want something kinda… Pretty and maybe… You know… With a sparkly-sparkle thing," Haymitch said vaguely and looked over the selection of rings in the soft, black foam in front of him. Most of them were really simple with just a single stone or maybe a pattern. His eyes fell on a ring in a dusty purple colour with a delicate glittering butterfly in the far left corner and he pointed to it.

"Maybe that one, she'd like that," Haymitch said.

"Mr Abernathy, that ring is usually for children,"

"So what? I want it," He knew Effie wasn't very well liked in District 12, but he wasn't going to let that stop him. He wasn't well liked either, never had been, so it didn't bother him. He knew it bothered her a bit though, she was usually friends with everyone.

"I guess the Capitol fashion is still strange," The clerk shook his head and Haymitch tried on the ring on his little finger. It fit to the scratch her pink flower ring had made in his nail this morning, so he guessed it'd fit her too.

"Can you put this in one of those boxes?" he asked and gave the ring back to the clerk.

"Make it pretty, please," It had to fit the woman he'd give it too right? He smiled. Before he went back he bought some food for the geese they'd started raising and a bottle of good cognac. If it was going to be fit for a celebration or to drown the humiliation, he hadn't decided yet.

District 12, Victors Village

A light rain had started again as she was preparing dinner. Peeta stood by her side. He'd been giving her lessons in cooking since she came here. When she moved in with Haymitch she'd never even boiled an egg. Now she was able to bake a simple loaf of bread and even make a decent stew mostly on her own. It made her proud. It gave her something to do. In return she modelled for him for paintings. Today they tackled a chicken. Haymitch had been gone all day, but that wasn't unusual for him. She understood. Sometimes she didn't even want to be in the same room as herself. He was usually home at dinner time, drunk or miserable on these days. Today seemed different. He was almost ecstatic when he came home and he ate the chicken and potatoes with great joy and complimented her hair, which she had been growing out for a while, since there was a pronounced scarcity of colourful wigs in the district.

As they reached the end of the meal he asked her if she'd like to take a walk. She said she wasn't too keen on it in the rain, but he insisted on her joining him on at least the porch. She sighed. Who knew what he wanted her to do out there. Look at an egg those stupid geese had laid or something. It showed to be so much more.

"Haymitch… I …" For once she was lost for words and for once Haymitch's sarcasm couldn't cover the blush on his cheeks. He'd given her the large bouquet of flowers. He didn't remember where he'd put the candy or the apples for that sake, so he just tried recalling what those romantic guys did in those shows from the Capitol. Shows he knew Effie had seen and glorified. He wanted to do it perfectly. He went down on one knee. She let out an excited shriek.

"Effie Trinket," He tried keeping a soft voice, but he was horribly nervous. He was way, way too sober to be proposing to this lady right now. Maybe he should have

"Will you marry me?" He opened the little box with the silly butterfly ring and showed it to her, awaiting her approval.

She had to count to six to believe what he just asked. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six.

"Guess that meteorite finally hit the ground," she said teasingly and let him put the ring on her finger.

"Yeah, they're still cleaning up after it," Haymitch said and kissed her gently on the lips. "That's a yes right?" he asked and suddenly sounded nervous. She laughed at him and gave him a kiss in reply.

~ The End