Haymitch knew exactly that Effie had watched him for the whole dinner, and after a while he liked it. First he had thought she would look at him because she was distracted by his bad manners, but then he realised that she blushed whenever he returned the look, and that she was probably observing his face because she was fond of him. And yet her gaze made him feel uncomfortable, because whatever Effie did: it was annoying. He couldn't enjoy his salmon when she stared at him like this. At some point of the dinner, he started to return the look constantly, and she dropped her gaze and concentrated on the food. But now he had to watch her nonstop, or she would continue observing him. He grunted. Why was this whole love-thing so complicated?

Had he really thought that? No, he hadn't. He hadn't meant love-thing, he had meant Effie-stuff. Yes. Only a fool would fall in love with someone like Effie. It was stressful to watch her while eating, her green locks, the painted lips, the bright eyelashes. Oh, she looked so overdressed.

Heather, who turned towards Effie to speak to her, attracted Haymitch's attention.

„Why did you change your hair colour?", she asked in a low voice and Effie smiled at her, very pleased because someone had noticed the lack of her golden wig.
„Oh, I bought this wig especially for this ocassion", she fluted and patted the green locks. „It was for Katniss. I think green is her favourite colour, and I wanted to do her a favour, because it's her birthday."

Katniss, who was eating a huge piece of potato, just stared at her, then she gulped and said: „Uhm, yes, thank you, Effie, it looks good."

„Oh, my dear, everything for you."

Effie was all smiles and Haymitch choked on his food when he saw the expression on Katniss's face. Yes, life was a lot more fun when Effie was around.
After they had finished, Hazelle and her children went home and Katniss, Peeta, Haymitch and Effie sat at the table, talking about this and that. Haymitch and Katniss let Peeta and Effie do the whole conversation stuff, but they had a lot of fun. Effie was unintentionally hilarious and they had a good time. Hours elapsed very quickly, and when they finally left the dining table, it was almost 10 pm. Katniss and Peeta went home, and Haymitch led Effie outside.

„C'mon, I have to show you someone."

„Someone" meant „geese", but she didn't need to know that. She would just be scared of them and react very disgustedly. The geese were waddling around in Haymitch's back garden, and when they saw Effie, they immediately started hissing.

„Oh!"

Effie gave a small jerk when one of the animals made a run for her, and she hid behind Haymitch, making small upset noises. He laughed, patted the goose and turned round to Effie.

„Effs, geese, geese, Effs", he introduced them to each other and Effie stared at him in shock.

„Let's... let's go inside, alright?", she asked with a a shaking voice and Haymitch smirked.

„Are you afraid of them?"

„No, of course I'm not, I'm just tired, I want to go inside now!"

She sounded as if she was about to cry, and he shooed the geese away, said „Well, then I'll tuck you in", and they moved indoors. Maybe he should have shown her the babies first, they were cute and not at all frightening. But Effie would like the geese one day. Of course she would.

They went upstairs and Haymitch accompanied Effie to her room. Once they were inside, he took the box of chocolates and without knowing what he did he pushed Effie on the bed and offered her one of the chocolates.

„Eat it."

He touched her mouth with the choc, but she shook her head, probably just to defy him.

„No."

„Eat it, or I'll stuff it into your mouth."

Effie surrendered and cautiously bit a small piece off. Haymitch ate the leftover -it was filled with apricot- and smiled.

„It tastes good, but maybe not as good as you do."

He stroked Effie's cheek, not because of love, but because he wanted to see her soften under his touch. Their lips met, but Effie pushed him away from her, her anger was writ large in her face.

„You can't play with me", she hissed and he enjoyed the fury and the pain in her eyes. She jumped to her feet and Haymitch shook his head. He imagined wrapping his arms around her and kissing the shit out of her, but she would probably not be very amused by it. She breathed heavily, and Haymitch rose to face her.

„You should be thankful", he whispered, „I thought there is no other man for you? Well, of course there's not. No one is interested in poor Effie, just drunk old Haymitch. So, what are we going to do now?"

She stared at him, and he saw her eyes well up with tears. Oh, how much she hated him now. He had humiliated and insulted her. He didn't even know why.
„Yes, what are we going to do now? Just do it, Haymitch Abernathy. Do it if you dare", she said. He knew that she wanted to mess with him, that she wanted to challenge him, and he loved her for that. „Just kiss me one more time, if you're a man."

And he took her hand between both of his and placed one single, gentle kiss on it. A low sound escaped her throat, a mixture of sigh and laughter, and he knew that she wanted him to continue. But he let her hand go, reached for another chocolate and ate it.

„Night, Effs", he said, leaving the room and closing the door.

Oh, I can play with you.

Effie left her room, knowing that Haymitch wouldn't see her because he was still asleep. Haymitch did never sleep at nights, only daylight could make him become tired. Today she was glad of it, because she really didn't want to meet him after what had happened yesterday evening. She really had to get it through his head that she wasn't just his toy, that he could not kiss her whenever he wanted to, just because he was bored or because he wanted to upset her.

Effie didn't know when Katniss's birthday party would start, so she called her, wished her the happiest birthday of her life and found out that the guests would meet at Katniss's house in the afternoon. Effie was delighted, because that meant she would have enough time to change her nail colour. Unfortunately, she hadn't thought of her new green wig that was totally out of harmony with her dark red nailpolish. She returned to her room and spent an hour with removing the red polish and applying blue one. Navy blue, lovely. She glued tiny, emerald green, dragonfly-shaped rhinestones on her nails and contentedly considered the result. It looked beautiful.

Haymitch was still asleep, and Effie decided to look for some flowers for Katniss. At least it was her birthday and Haymitch didn't even have a gift for her. And Katniss was a young woman, so there was no way she couldn't be delighted by some mellifluous flowers. Effie hoped so. She actually wasn't so sure about Katniss's view of flowers, but... what was the point? It couldn't hurt to gather a decent bouquet. It was the thought that counted.

She went outside and in Haymitch's garden, he would certainly have some flowers there. But she didn't find much, just a few yellow and pink blossoms. Small white five-leaf flowers twined round an old apple tree at the bottom end of the garden and overran the grey stonewall that shielded the backyard from view. Effie wanted to pick them, but their stems were covered with thorns, and she didn't want to prick her fingers.

Suddenly, a hoarse noise interrupted her thoughts. Effie turned round and saw the cause of the sound. A hissing goose! She backed off, because several of the animals stepped out of a small shelter next to the house, and they started snorting and flailing as soon as they saw her.

„Shoo!", she said half-heartedly, trying to get back to the house without crossing the path of these wild beasts. She had totally forgot about Haymitch's pets! Why had he even purchased them? They were aggressive and disgustful. Before she could even get some steps nearer to the house, the birds mobbed her and hissed at her. She took fright. What would they do to her?

„Hey, are you chumming up?"

Effie spun round and saw Haymitch standing in the back door. He smirked at her and she sighed with relief.

„Oh, Haymitch, take your monstrosities away!", she begged him and he shooed the geese away.

„Monstrosities? Please, Effie. Show some manners. They never talked about you like that."

„Yes, because they are animals! They can not even talk!"

Effie surrendered, and Haymitch took her hand and led her to the small shelter. The home of his geese. He showed her the babies and Effie had to admit they were cute. They were white and fluffy, but also very dirty and covered with filth and other things Effie didn't even want to think about. She refused to hug them, and so Haymitch took her inside and they had a small breakfast. After that they went for a walk and Haymitch led her to a beautiful flower field near a small forest. Effie wanted to pluck some flowers for Katniss, but Haymitch laughed about the idea of giving Katniss a bouquet, and so they just sat down on a picnic rug Haymitch had taken along. They watched the sky and the bees and the blossoms and the trees in silence, and sometimes they looked each other in the eye and knew there was no need for conversation. It was when Haymitch picked a daisy for her when Effie realised he didn't behave like a man, but like a young boy on his first rendezvous. She accepted the small white-and-yellow flower, watched the soft, tiny petals and didn't know what to say. She couldn't believe that rude, disrespectful Haymitch had picked a daisy for her.

He seemed to think the same, because he said „Oh, give me that stupid flower!", whipped the daisy out of her hand and threw it away.

„But... I wanted to keep it!", said Effie, confused by his sudden roughness.

„Then help youself. There are enough daisies for everyone", he said, pointing at the meadow that was spotted with small white flowers. „It couldn't compete with the bouquet of roses I sent you, anyway."

But Effie thought that maybe sometimes a single daisy given away out of love meant much more than a hundred of expensive roses.

Early in the afternoon, they left their meadow and went home to get Katniss's birthday present, then they visited her party. There were a lot of people, Effie was totally surprised by the number of party guests. But of course everyone wanted to spend time with Katniss. She was the mockingjay. A rebel. A victor. And Effie was her escort. She bursted with pride.