Happy Hunger Games, Haymitch.

Missiles

I walk back to the meeting room, as we still have 15 minutes left before lunch.
I trudge in, and see everyone murmuring amongst themselves, they stop when they catch sight of me.
"Care to catch me up?" I ask, sitting down.
Coin looks around the room.
"There's a few forms to fill out, but we'd like to legally assign you the role of Laven's father." Plutarch says.
I freeze. This is a good thing. This is good. Why am I scared? I'm scared? I'm scared. I'm scared that Laven won't want me to be her dad.
"Now what if Laven doesn't want that?" I say quietly, as if that'll stop it from happening.
"You two are the only surviving people from 12. I'm sure she'll want a stronger connection to her home. you've already proven that you're worthy." says Coin.

"Yeah, that is a good point."
"What will it mean? For us? Me and Laven?"
"You'll be assigned living quarters, you'll be in the same block in the event of a crisis, you'll be responsible for her jumpsuit being washed, for her attending school and sticking to her schedule, the list could go on." She says, in an authoritarian manner.
"Yeah. Ok. Yes." I say.
"Let me talk to Laven though."
"Ok." Coin says, dismissing the subject.
"On to the next matter, President Snow has issued a public warning against the districts. He's armed and malicious. or so he says."
"I want to sink my axe into his brain." growls Johanna.
I understand completely. Snow killed everyone I loved too.
"I think I should get to slit his throat." I say.
"We do it together." she says. Seeder laughs at this.
I smirk. The thought of killing Snow made me happy.
"Wiress and I should electrocute him. Not enough to kill him, but enough to cause him serious pain."
"What'd he do to you?" Asks Johanna.
"He put us in the games." Replies Beetee flatly. Wiress nods.
"I call dibs on his stomach" Hollers Finnick. I laugh and the room descends into a joyful conversation on how we're going to end an evil man's life.

It's soon lunch, and the victors all sit at the same table, still discussing strategies.
Today, lunch is grey gruel with a side of unidentifiable meat. I would push it away if that didn't mean I would starve to death.
I chew the meat. It's too chewy. Too weird,
but I don't have time to complain before the siren sounds.

Coin's voice sounds over the tannoy system.
"We have a level 3 crisis. Missiles have been detected. This is not a drill. Report to the bunker. We have a level 3 crisis. Missiles have been detected. This is not a drill. Report to the bunker."
It repeats over and over again until I find myself back in reality. I'm running. To where? To Laven's hospital room.
"Haymitch! Haymitch they'll get her! Come back! Haymitch!" Johanna screams. Johanna and I have become good friends. We understand eachother. We have gone through the same things. I don't look behind me. I'm sure if I sat her down and told her why I'm doing this she'd understand.

I twist through the hallways until I find Laven's room. She's sat up in bed, shaking, terrified. She sees me and stands up. I unhook all the tubes from her, leaving in the morphling before I unhook the bag and tuck it under my arm.
"1 minute until lockdown. This is not a drill." Coin demands.

"Come on sweetheart" I say, hastily. I support her and we begin walking towards the door.
We spot a crowd. We run over to them and weave ourselves in. We blend in seamlessly. After a short while, we catch sight of the doors, and sprint towards them. Laven trips slightly. I catch her and hoist her up higher. We finally make it in huge door. A man asks for our names.
We are pointed to separate blocks of beds.
"What? No!" She shrieks, looking up at me.
"We need to be in the same block." I say.
"Can't do it. Sorry." The man says, scribbling something down on the clipboard he holds in his hand.
"Please. Come on. We're both from 12."
"Haymitch Abernathy and Laven Windermore?" He asks, confirming it.
"Yes." I say. He looks at Laven. She nods.
"Well it says here that you're from 13, Haymitch."
Of course it does. Just my luck.
"Does it look like I'm from 13? You ever seen the games?!"
The man sees the desperation in Laven's eyes and points us to a set of beds.
"Thank you." I sigh.

I sit her down, hooking the morphling bag in the railing that acts as the headboard.
She regains her breath, looking disgruntled and scared.
I spot a box, I guide it over with my shoe and open it up.
A comb, a district 13 uniform, a toothbrush, and various toiletries.
She practically blurs as she snatches the comb up, sighing as she begins to run it up her hair, but her face scrunched up in pain and she drops it onto her bed.

"Haymitch, can you comb my hair?"
I groan and hang my head back.
"Haymitch come on! Please! I can't lift my arms! Unbrushed, it feels awful!" She whines.
"It's not that hard! Just try not to tear out my hair!"
"Fiiiiine!" I say, standing up and sitting on the bed next to her. Laven chuckles and thanks me. I begin to run the comb through her hair from the top but she yelps and insists its from the bottom up for scraggles.
I laugh at the word scraggles. My laughter is drowned out by Coin's voice in the tannoys.
"Missile strike is estimated in 6.38 minutes."
Laven looks at me, scared. I just keep a straight face in the hopes this will calm her down. It does, for the most part.
Her breathing continues to be shaky throughout me combing her hair through. A few times her hair made horrible noises, but she laughed at my reaction to them. I really did think I pulled her hair out.

"2 minutes until strike." Announces Coin.

Laven visibly tenses up, scared.
"My mother used to braid my hair when we had storms in 12" Laven says, looking down.

"I heard the meeting earlier."

She pauses for a while. She bites her lip, and finally talks.
"I want you to be my father." She says, looking at me, eyes full of hope.

I don't know how to react.
I smile, gesturing for her to turn around. Only problem is, I don't know how to braid hair. I've seen Katniss do it before she died, but I never paid attention to that.
Laven laughs, turning around again.
"You don't know how to braid hair, do you?" She asks.
I shake my head.
"Divide it into 3 strands, put the far left strand in the middle, then put the far right strand in the middle. Easy as pie."
I laugh at her obviously-district-12-demeanour.
I do as she says, and see a braid forming.
"1 minute to missile strike."
This time, Laven doesn't react. She's calm, so I'm calm. I look around out of interest, and see Johanna and Finnick looking at me. I look away, not caring.
I see Laven fiddling with something on her foot. I realise it's her anklet. She takes the Lavender charm off, and hands me the string.
"Tie it with this" she says. I nod.
She fiddles around with the charm, eyeing its every detail.
I finish off the plait and tie it off. I pat her back to show I'm finished, but she doesn't move. I sit down on my own bed, and realise that Laven is still staring at the charm. She misses her mother.

"Missile strike in 10 seconds"

This brings her back into reality. She shoots up, the morphling drip pulling out of her arm. She doesn't seem to notice, kneeling down and pulling the lid off the box, and tucking the charm inbetween two jumpsuits. She throws the comb in, and shuts the lid tightly, shoving the box under my bed. She sat down cross-legged on the floor inbetween beds, and looked at me, scared.

That's when the missile dropped.