One shots

THG Oneshot 16: After The Quell

This was requested by @hungergames011 here on Wattpad. I hope you like it, and sorry for the delay! It's a direct continuation from the end of the second version of the quarter quell chapter in Inside The Mentor's Room. As always, I don't own the characters, just the plot. Happy reading, loves!

Haymitch never thought he'd have to have this conversation. Realistically, he'd known from the minute his miracle Victors had won and the Victory tour ended, kind of without major issues, that the quell would hurt. That his kids would be forced to mentor, and eventually he'd have to tell them about the sponsors and the pain of being a Victor. 

But, truly, he'd never thought he'd get to this point. 24 years of mentoring, and only one true chance to win, had made him practically immune to watching the other mentors bring in fresh Victors. He'd seen every other district bring in a wide-eyed kid, fresh from the games, into the Mentor's Room, and watched as each new Victor deflated and conformed to preserve whatever spirit they had left, to save themselves from the sponsors however they could. But he'd never had a kid to do that for, no kid to bring with him, no kid to try in vain to protect, no kid to teach how to protect oneself from the Capitol monsters. He'd begun to think he never would get a kid out of the games at all. 

Now he had two, and he had to watch both. He had to tell them how the games was only the beginning. How they may have survived the Hunger Games but all that meant was that they had to survive the Capitol and it's demands, year in and year out, until they were able to get another Victor out, until they could get that new Victor to take their place. 

He'd been pissed off, initially, when Plutarch Heavensbee had told him that he still had to mentor, that the only way Snow would accept the Star-Crossed Lovers from 12 as mentors would be if they were a package deal. They had to count as a duo, or not at all. But he was glad he was still there for them now. He remembered how painful it had been to become a mentor himself, with an uncaring escort to fill in for the second. How he'd truly been alone for ten years, until Effie, his sweet Effie Trinket, had decided to become the escort, and had picked District 12, and had helped him. 

He looked at his kids' faces. Katniss looked practically catatonic, but he knew she was just waiting for him to tell her what was going on. For all her face gave nothing away, there was still emotion in her eyes, in a way there was not in her poor mother's. Whatever fighting spirit Astrid had once had, there was none left in her, but it was all there in her and Burdock's oldest girl. Peeta, on the other hand, was an open book. Concern and apprehension, and perhaps even true fear, was written clean across his face.

Effie slipped a gloved hand into his, as she stood behind the chair he'd sat himself in. They were safe in training center, sitting in the living room of the floor made for District 12 and its tributes. The floor that, a week or so ago had been full of life, but now was mostly silent. Cinna and Portia had taken their prep teams out with them to some stylist thing, leaving just the four of them in the living room. Just the three Victors of 12, and the escort who might have as well have been a Victor at this point. 

"Are you going to tell us?" Katniss asked, snappishly, but Haymitch knew now, that she was just trying to cover up the fear she was feeling, because she hated the way it made her feel. 

Haymitch sighed heavily. "Easy, sweetheart, I'm gonna tell you everything. It's just...hard..." 

Effie squeezed his hand, lifting her head slightly. "I know that you already....you already know how twisted....the Capitol can be....But there's more to it, than just the games, and their....insensitivity." 

Her voice was soft, as if she was afraid of being caught speaking. Or as if she was ashamed of the fact that she was part of the Capitol, and therefore, part of the problem, no matter the amount of distance she tried to put between herself and the other Capitol citizens.