#what if he started roasting me like double chin no jaw havin ass

[iii-maniii]

I wonder if face ID thinks I’m cute or ugly

[allonsysilvertongue]

Wiping History

“What will happen when we get to your arena?” she demanded. “I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.“ 75 arenas and one colossal task for Effie Trinket. Hayffie. Post-MJ. Previously. 

14. Settling

Effie blew lightly over the steaming mug of her morning coffee, a silly smile still etched on her face. She must have replayed the scene in the park about a hundred times by now. The shower this morning was spent in a daze as she remembered what it was like to have him kiss her.

It was unbecoming, truly. She was not a teenager anymore and having Haymitch Abernathy kiss her shouldn’t make her like she was walking on clouds but it did.

It was a relief to finally be able to let it all go; to finally look in the mirror and know that the person staring back at her was no longer full of anger and resentment. It felt whole to be able to forgive the one person who mattered the most to her and knew that even through her cold treatment of him, he stood steadfast by her. He truly was a gem, not that she would tell him in case it gets to his head, but he was a good man, and at times, she felt underserving of him.  

The knock on her door startled her. She placed the mug carefully on a coaster before making her way to the door.

Haymitch, she noted happily when she saw his back through the peephole.

They did not make plans for him to drop by her place this morning after they parted ways the night before and she had simply assumed that they would meet at the Parliament as was their usual practice.

“Haymitch,” she beamed.

Her good mood was so apparent that he looked on at her with amusement.

“Did I make your morning?” he teased.

“Perhaps… Perhaps… Or it could be that my coffee beans were roasted perfectly this morning,” she looked at him over her shoulder as she sashayed back into the kitchen, all the while aware that he was staring at her ass.

“I – uh – I know I don’t usually come over before we fly off to the arena but I spent the night… I was thinking about…” he exhaled. “I just wanted to see you. Before we head off to work…”

Likely to catch her alone, she mused.

She turned, resting her hands on the back of a chair, smiling indulgently at him. He slowed down at the kitchen entrance, watching her before coming around to where she was only to kiss her hard.

Effie reciprocated without missing a beat, tangling her fingers in his hair just as he took a step forward until her back hit the kitchen table. He lifted her up easily enough.

It had been so long and yet they moved as if the time apart from each other was just a minor inconvenience to what should always have been.

“I came for this,” he drew back just enough to tell her that before kissing the side of her neck.

“I deduced as much,” she told him.

They took their time kissing and neither Haymitch nor Effie tried to take it any further than just mindless touching and patting.

“You’re beautiful,” he murmured as he swept her hair behind her shoulder.

Raising her head to meet his gaze, Effie ran a finger down his stubble cheek. His grey eyes were bright under the morning light and his gaze was intense.

“What are you thinking about?”

“There are four more arenas,” he answered, “and it’s not over fast enough. I want to get you out of here, take you home like I told you I would. Can you imagine the look on the kids’ faces when they see you walkin’ down the pathway in the Village with your suitcase in tow to my house…”

They would be surprised but they would welcome her. They were a family which meant she would always have a place in Twelve and in their lives but the others…

“We’re not getting ahead of ourselves, are we, Haymitch?” she bit on her bottom lip worriedly.

Effie had tried to picture herself in District Twelve him, and while she knew she would be safe in Victor’s Village with Katniss, Peeta and Haymitch, keeping herself secluded in there forever was hardly an option. Hiding was not living but the thought of the reaction from the locals had her stomach in knots.

Would they ever be able to accept her? Would they be able to look beyond her past and understand that like them, she was just trying to find somewhere to begin her life again?

“What do you mean?” his face scrunched. “You want this, yeah? You havin’ second thoughts, sweetheart?”

“No, no,” she was quick to placate. “I am just… uncertain if my presence would be welcomed. I – I was an escort and that is not a fact that I could run away from.”

He relaxed just slightly knowing that it was not him she had a problem with.

“Not everyone will be welcoming… But they won’t do anything to you. Not with me, Katniss and Peeta there. No one will dare but being accepted… It’ll still take time, sweetheart, but you’ve got to start first, yeah? They’ll see that you ain’t that bad. It’s already public knowledge that you aided Katniss and Peeta every way you can during the Games and the Rebellion, that you were imprisoned for that … People know ‘bout you and Jo and Annie, you know? People know you make trips to Four to visit Finn, and if you’re all bad, you’re the last person Jo would let near the baby. The smart ones will understand. The ones with half a brain and can think for themselves… You don’t be a victor’s friend after the war, especially if you were from the Capitol, if there’s nothin’ about you we like,” he chuckled. He ran a thumb across her cheekbone comfortingly. “Beside, when this program is broadcasted and people get to see that you’re the one in-charge of getting the arena destroyed… Well, that won’t hurt your case either.”

Effie nodded and embraced him, comforted by his word and his warmth.

“We deserve this, sweetheart,” he muttered gruffly in her ear. “Just this one thing – you and me together – no more Games, no more Rebellion, no more Snow or Coin telling us what to do, where to go, when to see each other….”

“Yes,” she agreed, running her finger up and down the back of his neck. “We do.”

“Anything else that’s worrying you?” he asked to which she shook her head. “Good. I’m starving. What’d you have?”

All she had was toasts and jam which seemed to satisfy him. They spent breakfast discussing the remaining arena and the memorial to be built with the names of the fallen tribute in its place. When they finally left her apartment to the Parliament to meet Katniss and Peeta, Effie’s good mood from that morning had double.

She greeted the man by the newspaper stand and smiled at strangers passing by her.

Once in a while, she would glance his way, noting the ease in her heart and the calm in her mind knowing that despite all the anger and rage, they had made it this far. For the first time since the war ended, Effie felt at peace and she felt hopeful, as if the new beginnings everyone was talking about after President Snow fell was suddenly meant for her too.

As they crossed the road, Effie slipped her hand in his.

She felt him tense a little.

“Is this okay?” Effie asked, quite aware that they were in public and that he might not be comfortable with it at all.

“Yeah,” he muttered. She felt his fingers flexed before his grip tightened. “Yeah, of course, sweetheart.”

By all accounts, this was not something new. They had held hands before but it was never like this. It was never without reasons. They had never held hands simply because they wanted to.

It was always out of desperation like when Katniss and Peeta nearly at the berries or when Peeta’s heart had stopped beating after he hit the force field or out of the need to seek comfort like he had done after destroying Chaff’s arena.

This felt nice, simply because.

Effie held on to his hand again as they watched Katniss wandered into the cave where she and Peeta had hid during the 74th Games. The girl came out, jaws clenched.

“Let’s go,” Katniss commanded.

“What’s in there?” Haymitch asked as they walked behind the kids.

“Countless of Capitol proposals… It was thought to be romantic,” Effie explained. “Katniss fed him and cared for him. It was a kind of intimacy most people in the Capitol hardly knew. It didn’t help that it was there that…. they first had their kiss after all.”

Haymitch snorted. His own note, ‘you call that a kiss? – H’ had been an exhibit in the cave.

The arena was destroyed the same way the 75th had been. Katniss torched the place. They departed on the hovercraft even as the flames were still ferociously roaring within the contained arena.

Sending Katniss and Peeta off was easier than Effie thought it would be, largely because she knew she would seem them again soon. Neither Haymitch nor Effie had even alluded to the fact that at the end of this, Effie would be coming to Twelve. Not that she believed in such a thing, but she would rather not jinx it.

The 71st to the 73rd Games was quickly dealt with without much affair. By that point, Haymitch wanted to see it end. Since she was the person in-charge, Effie released him from his role as the representative of the victors and from his duties which meant, he was free to leave.

As they lay sprawled on the sofa in her apartment, she promised that she would see him in District Twelve once she had seen through the rest of her tasks.

“Don’t see why I need to go,” he hummed, running his fingers through her hair with his chin propped on the top of her head. “I can stay until all this is over. Nothin’ much to do in Twelve anyway. I haven’t been around in Twelve for a while, what’s a couple more weeks? We’ll leave together.”

The thought of having him with her for a few more weeks made her snuggle a little closer to him.

Two weeks after they first kissed in the park, they had their first argument. Effie came home from the office to see him lounging on the armchair, feet on the table and whiskey in one hand. The dirty dishes from their breakfast that morning which she had asked him to help her with after he kept her in the bedroom longer than necessary were still in the sink. The bed was still unmade and his dirty clothes were still on the floor of her bedroom.

She had nagged until he became annoyed with her it and shouted at her, at which point she had screamed back before leaving the apartment with a loud slam of her door.

Haymitch found her at the stairwell, smoking and staring into nothing.

She glared at him when she saw him approached.

“Don’t want me around…?” he asked, lowering himself on one of the steps.

“Don’t be silly,” she exhaled, flicking the ashes off. “I had a really long day, Haymitch, and the last thing I needed was to come back to a dumpster.”

“I know,” he nodded, rubbing the back of his neck guiltily. “You wanna talk about it?”

He plucked the cigarette out of her fingers which only made her glare at him harder and crushed it under his boots before patting the empty space next to him. Ten years ago, if someone had said she would be sitting next to Haymitch Abernathy at dimly lit stairwell talking, she would have questioned their sanity.

“How does Katniss manage?” she asked, resting her head on his shoulder. “With her book…”

“The memorial, yeah? It’s getting to you…”

“Yes. It’s just… there were so many tributes, Haymitch. Thousands of children….”

He brought his arm around her shoulder, squeezing it gently to provide whatever comfort he could give.

“When I had to help her with it, I got through a session with a hell of a lot of whiskey. That ain’t you, is it?” he chuckled.

Instead of answering, she lifted her pack of cigarettes.

“That won’t do either,” he frowned. “Look, sweetheart, one day at a time, alright? If it gets too much, then what you got to do is to stagger the years. You shouldn’t do too many years in one day. What’s the rush?”

“The faster this is over the faster we – “

“I know,” he cut her off before kissing her head. “You want it to be over and you want to leave but don’t put this pressure on yourself. You’re the one setting the deadline which means you can move it up ahead if you need it. I ain’t leaving till you’re leaving so…” he shrugged. “One day at a time.”

Knowing that he was right, she nodded and stood up, offering a helping hand to him. The moment they entered her apartment, he quickly jostled her in the direction of the bedroom before she could see the mess in the kitchen and get annoyed once more.

Effie fell asleep the moment her head touched the pillow. It felt like she had only dozed off when the noises and clanking in the kitchen woke her up. Pushing herself out of bed, the first thing she noticed was the lack of dirty clothes on the floor. They were all in the laundry basket. Bleary eyed, Effie moved silently to the kitchen.

She saw him there quietly washing the dishes. Effie watched him with such fondness in her eyes.

“Hey,” he greeted over his shoulder. “Thought you were asleep... Came to make sure I didn’t break your plates, huh?”

“You were noisy…” she pouted. “What are you doing? It’s in the middle of the night.”

“You had enough stress at work, I don’t need to be another one of your problems,” he answered nonchalantly. “As much as I enjoy arguing with you and finding ways to make it up to you, seeing you all worked up ain’t my favourite thing.”

Laughing, she approached him and wrapped her arms around him. She kissed the spot between his shoulder blades.

“This was unexpected and sweet. You know, I think I can get use to do this sight… You washing and drying dishes. It’s very domestic.”

He snorted.

“Just wondering…” he started, drying his hands as he turned around to face her. “I wore you down, yeah?”

He sounded so smug. At first, she didn’t understand his question until she remembered the night she came to Twelve with news about the arena and the conversation they had.

“You did not,” she returned. “I came to my senses.”

~ Fin.

That’s it! I promised you I would finish the fic and I did. I’m proud of myself and I hope you’ve had a fun time reading Wiping History. Please leave me your reviews for the last time for this story and let me know yours thoughts on it :)