5.

Haymitch dropped the girls to school on Monday morning and drove back to the house instead of going to the park. He wasn't in the mood to go jogging. He wasn't in the mood to see Effie's face.

Effie had made his life a living hell all week-end.

Not only had he been unable to stop thinking about her, to stop imagining her with some other beefy guy, the girls were so angry over what they perceived to be his stupidity that they were giving him the silent treatment. Prim was refusing to talk to him and Katniss glared and shook her head disapprovingly every time their path met. She must have talked to Johanna at some point because the news that Effie was dating someone else had gone through the grapevine and Chaff had called late the previous night, claiming he had heard from Finnick and wondering why Haymitch didn't get his shit together.

She's good for you, Chaff had claimed, you've been better since you started your lessons with her, happier.

Was he better? Happier? He hadn't noticed. He was happy to have the girls with him, they put some meaning back into his otherwise sad little life but had Effie played a part in that? He couldn't deny she had certainly helped him give some semblance of order to his life. She had helped him get some sort of routine, she was good at making him think about everything but cave-ins and drinks…

Still, if she wanted to go and date tall handsome guys named Brutus, it wasn't his problem.

He slammed the car door shut, he slammed the front door shut and, for good measure, he slammed his bedroom door shut too. He flopped on his bed and decided he would sleep some more, pretending he didn't remember Katniss' stern warning that it was how Aster had started her slow descent into insanity and that she was done taking care of people who couldn't care about themselves. He had replied that he was entitled to nap in his own damned house if he wanted to.

He wasn't depressed.

Well… Not about Effie Trinket anyway.

He didn't have to wait too long for the whistle sound but he didn't fish his phone out of his pocket. He wouldn't play her game. He wasn't a dog and he wouldn't answer to her whistle. Five minutes passed and another whistle, then another and another. When silence had come back for at least half an hour, he looked at his phone.

9:05 – You are late.

9:10 – Do you think I have nothing better to do than wait for you all day, Haymitch?

9:15 – If you are not coming, the least you could have done was warning me. That's the proper thing to do. You better not be late to your lesson this afternoon or there will be hell to pay.

9:30 – Why aren't you answering me? Is everything alright?

9:45 – I'm going home. Please, let me know you're alright. I'm worried.

His thumb hovered over the screen but then he dropped the phone next to him and placed an arm over his eyes.

He couldn't figure out why this was bothering him so much.

Katniss would have said he was an idiot.

Maybe she had a point.

Another whistle sound startled him from his drifting off.

11:43 – Haymitch, please answer me.

Again, he wanted to type something but he couldn't do it. Every time he tried, he pictured her with that gorilla of a man his imagination had designed for Brutus and he wanted to throw up – or throw back a drink.

12:12 – Are the girls alright?

She sent more texts but he ignored them, watching the minutes slowly tick by on the clock in the living-room. He tried to watch TV but it failed to catch his attention. Three p.m. rolled by and he knew he should have just told her he wasn't coming, that he didn't want to take lessons anymore, didn't want to see her again… It was cruel to let her worry over nothing but he wasn't a nice man and each time he thought about her with another guy, it was like someone was stabbing him in the guts – a feeling he was intimately familiar with – and he wanted to hurt her back.

15:06 – WHERE ARE YOU?

It was the only text she sent. Minutes tickled back and no other messages came forth. She had probably gotten bored of waiting, he decided. Maybe she had called her stupid Brutus gorilla instead. Maybe she had made him a green smoothie and…

The front door was slammed open, making him bolt to his feet and looking for the closest weapon… No use though. It wasn't a burglar, just a furious looking dance teacher.

Her hair was in complete disarray, a grey coat hanged open over her usual pink shorts and sports bra, and her blue eyes were full of angry tears. She looked him up and down, from head to toes, looking for injuries and when she found none, she pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes.

"I am going to kill you." she growled. "Do you have any idea how worried I was? Any idea?"

"Why, sweetheart, I didn't think you would care." he spat, glaring right back. "Don't let the door hit you on your way out."

"Are you drunk?" she hissed, walking closer without any sense of caution at all. Grown men cowered away from Haymitch when he was that angry.

"I wish." he chuckled. "Get out of my house."

"What is wrong with you?" she frowned, her angry slowly slipping into worry. She reached for his arm but he shrugged her off.

"'Can't say." he scowled. "Say, you had fun with your gorilla, Princess? Did you fuck him?"

Her eyes widened with sudden understanding. Unfortunately, it also brought the fury back.

"Oh, no… You do not get to act all jealous on me, Haymitch." she declared. "You were very clear that you weren't interested in me and…"

"What are you on about?" he snapped. "I fucked you. You think I fuck just any woman? You think I fucking drink green slimy disgusting things for just any woman? You think…"

"I will not be a one night stand." she cut him off. "I hinted and hinted and you never asked me out on a date, Haymitch, never. And you kept shouting to everyone who would listen we weren't dating. I won't be your friend with benefits. I won't."

"I don't fucking date." he scorned, raising his voice louder than he had meant to. "We're too old for this shit. We like each other, we sleep together, why does it have to be more complicated than that?"

"It didn't have to be complicated, I just wanted to know where we stood." she retorted. "You were clear on that front, Haymitch. You had your fun with me and I do apologize but I know myself and I know very well if I get involved, it won't be just about sex to me, so either you take your head out of your rear and you decide that you want to actually build something or we stay friends."

"Take your head out of your ass, that's the saying." he mocked. "You're ridiculous. Your manners, the way you talk, your clothes… Everything about you is ridiculous."

"So you said. Repeatedly." she huffed, shaking her head. "I shouldn't have come here."

She wrapped her coat around herself and turned around.

He wanted to let her go.

He should have let her go.

He grabbed her arm and tugged her back against him.

"Did you fuck him?" he asked.

She shrugged him off angrily. "Is that really all you care about? Do you really think it is the main point here?"

"Yes." he barked.

"Why?" she shouted back.

"Because you're mine." he growled. And then he kissed her.

Maybe he was ridiculous too.

Because he wasn't stupid enough not to see how ridiculous the whole thing was.

He had half-expected her to slap him but she responded to his kiss hungrily until her fingers tangled in his hair and she pulled his head back in a manner that was far from being gentle.

"If I am yours, you are mine." she declared. "And that includes not denying that I am your girlfriend or that we are dating anymore."

"I don't do dates." he warned against her lips. "And I'm shit at relationships. 'Haven't had one in forever."

"Fortunately for you, I am very good at everything I do and that includes relationships." she teased, brushing her mouth against his stubble covered jaw up to his ear. She bit his earlobe in a way that made him whine.

"I hate you." he grumbled.

"Good." she grinned only to squeal when he tossed her over his shoulder. At least, all those lessons had found their purpose. She squirmed and wriggled and ordered him to put her down but he held fast and carried her upstairs where he dropped her on his bed. "Ruffian." she accused but she was laughing and tugging at his belt so he figured she wasn't angry.

He hesitated though. "Did you fuck him?"

It wasn't really important in the grand scheme of things, he figured. They hadn't set any rules and therefore it didn't count. And yet…

"Would you stop being vulgar? And, on a first date? Do you really have to ask?" She rolled her eyes. "He was boring, Haymitch. And I wasn't interested anyway."

"Then why did you go?" he frowned, folding his arms over his chest.

"Because I am not the kind of women who will wait around forever for you to understand what you truly want." she replied. "Now, are we fighting or are we making out?"

He smirked but joined her on the bed. "Both."

She was a pain in the ass.

But she was his pain in the ass.

And the bright side was that the girls started talking to him again once it was obvious they were actually dating. If what they did was called dating. Aside for the regular sex, Haymitch didn't see a lot of differences: they jogged every day, he still took lessons with her even though they tended to end up in her bedroom or on the studio floor, she visited the house at random hours, insisting on them doing some cleaning, sometimes spent the night, took the girls out shopping – which Prim loved and Katniss dreaded – and became such a huge part of their everyday life that Haymitch simply started taking it for granted that she would come and go to and from his house at her leisure. Giving her a key seemed like a practical thing to do so he didn't understand why she made such a huge deal of it but he didn't complain because he was rewarded with kinky sex and nice lingerie.

For a few months, life was very close to perfect. One day he woke up with her head on his chest and he realized it had been four days since the last time he had thought about having a drink. The craving was fleeting nowadays.

The house was always loud.

There were Prim and Katniss and also Peeta who had showed up one day with a split lip and a duffel bag and had kind of moved in the study nobody was ever using. The three teenagers made it impossible to catch a breath which was alright with Haymitch because silence was his worst enemy. Silence made him think and when he thought he brooded. And in the rare instances when all the kids would be out and about, Effie would fill the space so completely, he didn't have time to contemplate his past mistakes.

Life was very close to being perfect.

Which was why he wasn't overly surprised when the news came that Aster would be leaving the clinic soon.

Prim was overjoyed naturally, she shouted the news through the house and even though Haymitch made an effort to look glad about it – he was glad for Aster – he couldn't help the overwhelming sadness. Effie's smile was bright but strained too. As for Katniss, she didn't try to force herself to look happy.

"We will still have Peeta." Effie whispered, after following him in his – mostly their nowadays – bedroom. "And it's not like we will never see them again. There is no need to be dramatic about this, really. They will be practically down the street. It's…"

He wrapped his arms around her as much to stop her from babbling nonsense as because her eyes were shining with tears he couldn't face.

"Move in." he requested.

He had been thinking about it for a while but he hadn't been planning on asking her like that.

"I beg your pardon?" she frowned, taken aback.

"Move in." he repeated, pressing a kiss against her hair. "You practically live here anyway. When was the last time you even slept at your house?"

"Are you asking me because you are afraid of losing the girls?" she asked, drawing back just enough to look at him in the eyes.

"You know why I'm asking you." he grumbled.

"It would be nice to hear it now and then." she pointed out. "However, I am not holding my breath on any love declaration. You are a lucky man I am so understanding."

He was a lucky man on more than one account.

He opened his mouth to tell her just that – but not in those words – when the bedroom door flung open to reveal Katniss.

"Manners, darling." Effie chided her, stepping out of his embrace. "Knock first."

"One day, you're going to do that and we will be naked on the other side of the door." Haymitch scoffed, before remembering that it might not happen because Aster was coming out of the clinic and that meant she would probably want her daughters back.

"I need to talk to you." the girl said, her grey eyes darting briefly to Effie.

"Well, I will go and see what the others want for dinner, shall I?" she hummed.

"No, stay." Katniss shrugged. "It concerns you too, I guess." She folded her arms and stared at Haymitch. "Are you keeping us or not?"

"What?" he scowled.

"I want to stay here." the girl stated. "And I want Prim to stay here too. So are you keeping us or not?"

"Don't be stupid." Haymitch spat.

Effie pursed her lips and tilted her head in disapproval. "What Haymitch means is that, of course, you are welcome to stay. As a matter of fact… I am moving in too. If that's alright with you, your sister and Peeta naturally."

Katniss shot her a blank look. "Aren't you already living here?"

"Don't tell Haymitch, he didn't notice." Effie grinned. "You know he is a little slow to catch up."

"Hey!" he protested. He hated when they did that, ganging up on him to mock him was something they tended to do a lot. He shook his head and went back to the matter at hand. "You can stay, yeah, you don't need to ask. But if your mom wants you back…"

"She never said anything about that and I don't think she can take care of Prim." Katniss said without the smallest hint of sympathy.

"Prim seems eager to have her back…" Effie pointed out softly.

"Prim loves her but she wants a real mom." she countered. "And our mom hasn't been that for a long time. You're here now."

Effie opened and closed her mouth a few times, unsure of what to say but Haymitch could tell Katniss' words had moved her.

"Thank you." She whispered finally. "That doesn't seem very fair to your mother, though."

"She can see Prim on the week-ends and maybe for the holidays but we have a good life here, stable." Katniss argued. "Haymitch…"

"If your mom is okay with it, yes." He said at once. "Of course, yes."

"Good." The girl said. "How about pasta for dinner?"

"Pasta, yes, absolutely." Effie beamed. "I will be right there."

Katniss shot them the disgusted look she always shot them when she thought they were being unnecessarily 'lovey-dovey' – her words – but left and closed the door behind her. He lost no time in wrapping his arms around Effie again, lifting her up from the ground in his enthusiasm. She laughed and he kissed her, just because he could.

"We make a good team." She declared, framing his face in her hands with a smile.

"Better." He countered, pressing a kiss against the inside of her wrist. "We make a good family."

The end

I hope you all enjoyed this story! I had fun writing it. Please do let me know!

I have a brand new hayffie story coming up! Since next week is movie week I don't know if it will be up next Sunday or the Sunday after that, it will depend of the state the fandom is in (we will all be quite dead by feels I think). In any case, keep an eye open for "Human Tokens" (cryptic right? I'm VERY excited about this new story).