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Katniss springs out of bed and gets ready in a hurry, she can barely contain her excitement. Katniss’s Aunt Effie was coming to visit her all the way from the Capitol!
Katniss loves Aunt Effie, she always brings her gifts when she visits, she helps Haymitch braid Katniss’s hair and she tells her how pretty she is.
A pair of white wool socks, a short black flared skirt and a grey sweatshirt sit on Katniss’s dresser. Haymitch helped her pick out the outfit.
She gets the outfit on fairly easily, only struggling with changing her bra. Haymitch purposefully chose clothes that he knew little Katniss could get on by herself in order to avoid any tantrums.
–
After getting all ready, Katniss grabs her blankie and goes downstairs. She sits at the window and waits for Haymitch to come.
She sits for a while until she sees Haymitch in the distance. When Katniss sees him she drops her blankie at the windowsill and rushes out the door.
“Papa!” Katniss exclaims jumping into Haymitch's arms.
Haymitch picks up Katniss and spins her around in his arms. “Hey little mockingjay” he chuckles, planting a kiss on her cheek. He hoists Katniss onto his hip and carries her back to her house.
Katniss nuzzles her head into Haymitch's chest, finally feeling safe with her Papa.
Once Haymitch gets into the house he sits Katniss on the kitchen counter. She makes grabby hands for him, wanting to be picked up again.
Haymitch chuckles, Katniss being a clingy baby always makes him laugh, it's so unusual for her. “Whaddya want for breakfast?”
“Mmm…strawberry oatmeal” Katniss says.
“Alright I'll get on that” Haymitch picks up Katniss and moves her to the living room floor.
The kitchen and living room are in the same big area of the house with no walls between them so Haymitch can watch Katniss while he's making breakfast.
Katniss dumps out a box of letter blocks and starts organizing them into groups, not to help clean but to play. First by color, all the red blocks in one pile, all the yellow blocks in one pile, all the green ones in a pile and all the blue ones in a pile. Once that's done she sorts them by both letter and color, a pile for red A's a pile for yellow A's a pile for green A's and so on and so forth.
“Breakfast's ready” Haymitch calls, placing a small bowl of oatmeal and a sippy cup full of diluted apple juice at Katniss’s spot at the table.
Katniss scampers over to the table, grabbing her spoon and almost putting it in her mouth before Haymitch stops her.
“Ah ah ahh” Haymitch scolds. “What do we say?”
“Thank you Papa!” Katniss looks up at Haymitch and gives him the biggest smile.
“You're lucky you're cute” Haymitch chuckles.
Haymitch scarfs down his oatmeal while Katniss takes small spoonfuls of hers.
Katniss normally eats less when she's like this, very unlike the starving woman from district twelve who will eat anything and everything to guarantee she goes to sleep with a full belly after so many years of not having enough to eat.
Haymitch gets up and washes his bowl before starting to tidy the house, while Katniss is still slowly eating.
The little girl soon finishes and leaves her plate on the table.
Haymitch, obviously annoyed by this, tells Katniss to go clean up the mess she made earlier while he clears her dishes.
Katniss listens to Haymitch surprisingly, but it's not like she has anything better to do. After she's done tidying up Katniss makes it her new mission to find Buttercup.
She goes upstairs in search of her cat, first searching her room, no sight of Buttercup. Next, searching the bathroom, no kitty. Then the extra room and there he was, sleeping on top of the bed, laying in a sunbeam.
In reality that room wasn't just an extra room. That room used to belong to Prim and after Prim died, Buttercup would just sit on her bed, as if he was still waiting for her to come back.
Katniss reaches out an uncertain hand towards the cat, sometimes he will bite her and be aggressive, not wanting anyone to touch him. But today when Katniss put her hand on his head he rolled over and showed her his belly, almost as if he was asking her to be pet.
She runs her hand gently over his belly until he starts purring, then she scratches his head and behind his ears, and under the brown leather collar with a silver tag that has the words “Return to Prim” engraved into it. Katniss pets him just long enough that he begins to fall asleep. But is soon awoken by Haymitch.
“Katniss come downstairs, companies here!” Haymitch calls.
“Bye kitty” Katniss says before running down the stairs to greet her company.
A car that looks to be a black cadillac with a sunroof from sometime in the sixties pulls into the street in front of Katniss’s house. Effie and Peeta both get out of the car and head towards the house.
“Papa, you didn't tell me that Peeta was coming!” Katniss squeals. She loves Peeta, he always plays with her.
“Huh, I didn't know he was coming either” Haymitch says. He's a bit confused by the slight change of plans but he's just glad it doesn't upset Katniss.
Haymitch picks up Katniss and opens the door, to his surprise Effie was just about to knock.
Effie was an extravagant woman, she always wore the strangest fashions straight from the Capital, however recently she's been trying to tone it down a bit. So today she was wearing her platinum blonde hair down with pin curls, no wig. With the pin curls her hair only reached to her jawline. She was wearing simple nude eyeshadow and blue lipstick with an extravagant blue dress with puffed sleeves and small black heels. Old habits die hard.
As Haymitch greets Effie and helps her inside Katniss is squirming, trying to get out of his arms and onto the ground.
“Down” Katniss giggles, continuing to squirm.
“Alright, alright” Haymitch chuckles, setting Katniss down on the ground.
Katniss runs to Peeta and gives him a hug.
“Hey Katniss” Peeta says in a bright voice, very different from his own.
“Will you play with me?” Katniss asks, still tight with her grip around Peeta.
“Of course I will! That's why I came”
Katniss looks up at him and beams, so happy that she found a playmate.
Whenever Peeta comes over he normally plays with Katniss but sometimes he and Haymitch have to talk about things that she's not allowed to know about so Haymitch puts Katniss down for a nap. She just wanted to make sure that Peeta was really here to play with her.
The little girl grabs her blankie from off the window sill and then takes Peeta's hand, bringing him into her bigger, back living room.
“Effie” Haymitch says gruffly.
“Hm?” She chirps.
“Now there will be no talking about anything related to the games or anything like that. When Katniss is like this she's very fragile and can't handle big topics like that. Just try to pretend that you're in the room with a real three year old, don't say anything that would upset the kid” Haymitch says, trying his hardest to keep this part of his little girl safe when the rest of her has seen more terrible things that keep her awake at night. He just wants her to be able to be carefree and happy even if just for a moment.
“I'm afraid I'm not going to be very good at this” Effie sighs.
“Just try to treat her like the same old Katniss you know but a lot younger and playful than normal. You'll be fine, if she trusts me to take care of her then how hard can it really be?” Haymitch nudges her with his elbow.
“I'm just worried that she's not going to like me” Effie whispers.
“My kiddo? She loves everyone” He chuckles. So very different then the Katniss that he's used to. “Besides you've been over plenty of times”
“Yes but all of those have just been brief visits”
“What's the difference?” Haymitch asks.
“I suppose there isn't much of a difference” Effie says.
Haymitch takes Effie's extravagant gift bags, leaving her with a simple brown box with a ribbon. He rolls his eyes “She's so spoiled”
“With the amount of things Katniss has been through, she deserves to be spoiled” She retorts.
Haymitch begins walking to the back living room but Effie stays behind.
“Are you coming?” Haymitch asks, a bit agitated.
“Yes, but first I need to leave something for my Katniss” Effie snaps
Haymitch rolls his eyes and continues to the back living room. He enters the living room and puts Effie's gift bags near the foot of Katniss’s grey sectional couch.
He settles down on the couch and looks up to see what Katniss and Peeta are doing and to his surprise they're playing together, and playing...restaurant? Haymitch isn't entirely sure that Katniss has ever been to a restaurant so he honestly has no idea why that was her choice of game.
Katniss kneels near a wooden play kitchen, making some sort of pretend dish, while Peeta sits at a small wooden table seemingly bored.
Haymitch assumes that Katniss is the chef and Peeta is the customer.
Katniss digs through a box of wooden play food and eventually pulls out two pieces of bread and a fish. She puts the selected food on a plate, pretends to fill a cup with water and walks on her knees over to Peeta.
The plate and cup are set on his table by Katniss. “Food's ready!” she announces.
“Well it's about time” Peeta remarks in a snobby accent.
Katniss waddles back to the kitchen, already onto her next task when she hears Peeta.
“Excuse me waiter” he chides.
“Yes?” Katniss asks, waddling back to his table.
“I specifically asked for two pieces of bread and two fish” Peeta sneers, still keeping up his accent.
“Sorry, won't happen again” Katniss says, taking away his plate and bringing it back to the kitchen.
“I sure would hope it doesn't” Peeta snaps.
Effie finally enters the room and sits on the couch next to Haymitch.
“What's happening?” She whispers.
“Shh, just watch” Haymitch mutters.
Back in the kitchen, Katniss digs through the box of play food again but instead of grabbing one fish she grabs two.
Giggling, she puts the two fish on the already full plate and brings it out to Peeta.
She puts the plate back on the table and slips away before Peeta can notice the error.
“Well that's more like it” Peeta chimes. “One, two….three?” Peeta barks “What kind of no good restaurant?”
He storms to the kitchen, plate in hand, he places the plate on an empty countertop next to Katniss.
Peeta clears his throat, causing Katniss to jump.
“Excuse me Ma'am” he starts
Katniss looks over to Peeta, acknowledging him.
“This appears to be the second error with my order today” Peeta says in a fairly loud voice but not loud enough to scare Katniss.
“What's problem?” Katniss asks, barely able to hold in her giggles.
“I ordered two fish and you gave me three” Peeta says in his fairly loud voice.
“Let me see” Katniss commands, taking the plate from Peeta and examining it closely.
“No, there's two fish” Katniss states.
“Well clearly there's not!” Peeta exclaims. “See? One two three” he points to the fish, counting them.
“No” Katniss insists. “One two” Katniss counts, pointing to a group of two fish and the other fish.
“What kind of restaurant hires chefs and waiters that cannot count?” Peeta exclaims, throwing the food on his plate to random spots around the room.
Katniss is now giggling so hard that she falls over onto the floor.
“Good day” Peeta sneers, walking out of the ‘restaurant’. But not too much later he comes back and helps clean up the mess.
“Your silly” Katniss giggles.
Peeta ruffles Katniss’s hair.
“Katniss” Effie calls.
Katniss waddles over to Effie, dragging Peeta along with her.
“Do you want your hair braided?” Effie asks, motioning for Katniss to sit down.
Katniss nods and sits down on the ground in front of Effie.
“Two braids” Haymitch says. When Katniss is older she likes to have one braid but when she's younger like this she likes to have two braids.
After tidying up their mess, Peeta rejoins the group.
“Can you play with my hair?” He asks Haymitch, clearly wanting an excuse to slip.
Haymitch gives him a knowing grin before nodding and beginning to ruffle his hair.
“Does Katniss remember any of this?” Effie asks Haymitch.
“Honestly I have no idea. I think she remembers bits and pieces of it if nothing else.”
There's a long and awkward pause as both of the mentors struggle for words.
“Haymitch” Effie starts. “Why do you do this?”
He stops for a second before turning to look at her. “Do…what?” He asks in an accusing tone.
“Oh I don’t know, all of this?” Effie snaps back. “How can you spend days of your life at a time doing this? How can you let this grown woman rely on you for everything?
Haymitch looks flabbergasted. “Effie, if we’re going to have this conversation, let's have it in another room.”
“Fine!” Effie chirps, storming out of the room.
Katniss looks up at Haymitch with worry in her eyes.
“It's okay babygirl, Aunt Effie just needs a quick break.”
“Aunt Effie mad?” Katniss asks.
“No, she's just stressed” Haymitch replies.
He turns to Peeta who's clearly slipping fast as he reaches for his puppy plush in his backpack.
“Peeta, can you stay with Katniss while I go talk to Effie?”
“Mhm” Peeta mumbles, not looking up at him.
“I'll be back soon, I promise” Haymitch stands up and walks back to the kitchen, where he finds Effie sitting at the dining table.
It's clear that she's about to cry, so Haymitch steps lightly.
“Effie, what is it?” He sits down across from her.
“I…I don't understand how you have so much love to give and yet, you've never asked me out. I've been waiting for years for you to make a move. All of those late nights, all of those drunken conversations and kisses mustn't have meant nothing. I just thought you were incapable of loving, but it's clear that you have so much room for love in your heart and you're choosing to push me out of it” Black mascara begins to drip down her face.
“Just because you're upset at me doesn't mean that you're allowed to be mad at Katniss.” Haymitch snaps.
“I'm not!” Effie exclaims.
“You are!” Haymitch barks “Why do you never come to visit her? Why do you ignore her when she's regressed? Why do you act as if she's a completely different person than the Katniss you knew during the games?”
“Because it's hard!” Effie yells. “It's hard to watch you care more for a girl you've known for a few years than for me, who's been your friend for over a decade!” Her mascara begins to run thicker and longer down her cheeks.
“She came home to nothing! I was all the poor girl had!”
“I came home to nothing, you were all I had!”
Effie collapses into sobs on the dining table.
–
After what feels like forever, Effie raises her head to look up at the old man. “Everywhere I've ever been, I've never fit in. Too Capitol for the districts, too district for the Capitol. I've never fit in anywhere until I met you. You were just easy to talk to and someone who never judged, I felt that I could be myself around you. Haymitch. When the last person you truly love stops trying to see you, you know that there's a reason, there always is.”
Haymitch sits and looks at Effie as if she's the most beautiful thing in the whole world.
“Haymitch, the reason I planned this trip, was to tell you goodbye.”
“Goodbye?” He asks, a tinge of panic in his voice.
“Yes, goodbye” she repeats. For the past thirty years, I have loved you. But it's clear that you don't love me back. So I've decided to stop bothering you with something you clearly don't want and focus on something else.”
Haymitch takes a second to process all the new information before speaking.
“Effie, I love you so much. Love has always been something that I find challenging. I don't want to open my heart in case I'm hurt, and even when I know that I won't be hurt, I still find it hard to express my love. Sweetheart, if you felt like this, you should've brought it up, I'd love to make more time for you, I just find it hard to start.”
Tears begin to well in Effie's eyes as she throws herself onto Haymitch. He holds her tightly and strokes her hair.
“I love you so much” Haymitch kisses Effie's head.
Effie lifts her head up to meet Haymitch's eyes, she grabs the back of his neck and the two kiss.
–
“If you wanted a date, you should've just asked, Jesus Christ” Haymitch chuckles.
“Do you promise that you'll make time for me?” Effie asks.
“Of course I will sweetheart, all you had to do was ask” he pecks her on the cheek before taking her hand and leading her back into the living room.
In the living room, they find Peeta and Katniss curled up into each other on the floor.
“They’re so adorable” Effie coos.
“Do you think they'd mind if we joined them?” Haymitch chuckles.
“I really don't think they would” Effie giggles, taking Haymitch's hand and leading him to the floor next to Katniss and Peeta.
“My back is gonna hurt tomorrow” Haymitch mutters as he lays down with Effie in his arms.
In his sleep, Peeta subconsciously moves into Effie's arms as Katniss stays huddled in her pile of blankets.
“It looks like you have a little on your hands as well” Haymitch chuckles.
“He's definitely less consistent than yours” Effie bites back.
“I love you so much” Haymitch mutters.
“I love you more” Effie returns, before both of them fall asleep.
–
Epilogue - a few weeks after
Katniss makes her bed every morning when she's not regressed. Normally, a bunch of stuffed animals fall off her bed in the night and she has to pick them up and place them back on her bed.
Last night, her fox plush fell under her bed.
Katniss lays on the ground and reaches her arm under her bed, feeling around for him.
Eventually she finds the fox and pulls him out from under her bed, however while her arm was under the bed she felt something else.
She reaches her arm back under the bed and grabs the object. She pulls it out to reveal a dusty brown box with a ribbon. It couldn't have been there for too long but yet she wonders where it came from.
Katniss cautiously removes the lid. Inside the box sits a smaller box along with a hand written letter.
Dear Katniss, I'm well aware of your regression and I would like to let you know that I will both love and support you no matter what. While I may not understand much, I want you to know that you will always be my Katniss and I love you very much - Effie
A bit confused and shocked at the letter, Katniss puts it aside and opens the smaller box. Inside the smaller box is; a picture with Effie, Katniss, Haymitch and Peeta in it. The picture couldn't have been taken long after the victory tour.
Katniss looks at it a second, bewildered she flips it over, on the back in Effie's handwriting reads:
Never forget who your true family is ♡
That picture has sat on Katniss’s nightstand ever since.