Everlark: finding love, an after mockingjay story

Chapter 13 Talk with Haymitch

Peeta's P.O.V.
What just happened?

I got to see her. She was right here. With me, talking to me, and showing that amazing smile that makes butterflies fly around my stomach making me feel fuzzy. So close, but still too far.

What did I do wrong? Did I upset her? Did I make her uncomfortable? Probaly. She left. Ran. Every time she gets uncomfortable she runs away or escapes some other way. That's one of the things I've come to know.

It's already afternoon, so I decide to do something since I really haven't anything before this.

I decide to grab my jacket and walk out and notice how warm it actually is out here. Sunny Spring day, I could stay here all day but instead I kinda have to -and partly- I want to go to Haymitch's. I knock on the door a couple times not getting an answer, so I barge in and immediately smell the strong stench of alcohol. I have to cover my nose and mouth so I won't puke right away.

"Haymich?" I cough but speak rather loudly.

Silence

"Haymich!"

This time I yell and hear some low grumbling from the left side if the house, so I walk there.

"Haym-

"You know, loverboy, you can be quite annoying sometimes"

There I see Haymich, sitting in a dirty armchair near the fireplace. His eyes are looking at my direction, but he doesn't seem to be focused in this moment at all.

Surprisingly, though, he asks me;
"So they finally got tired of you or what?" He laughs at his own -only haymitch can laugh- kind of joke.

"Ummm. Yeah I got to go home just yesterday" I answer him, kinda unsurely.

Uncomfortable silence fills the air for a minute or two. All I'm doing is looking at my interesting shoes and trying to bear the smell. Haymitch only sits and stares at his almost empty bottle.

"Ooookaay, and why are you here? Already having a trouble with something?" He finally breaks the silence.

"Well, not something but umm... Someone."
I  mumble to his floor.

Silence.

Unbeareble, long silence.

I'm almost deciding to go back to my house and say this was a bad idea untill the house fills with laughing.

Haymitch just starts to laugh his drunken laugh.

"So you-
you say you already had a trouble with her stubbornness?"

He asks rambling, chuckling between words.

"How did you know who I was talking about?"

"Well who else would the legendary loverboy be talking about?"
He asks grinning and swinging his hands around.

I look down, a little embarrassed. Is it really that clear?

"Well anyways, no it wasn't her stubbornness, I think it was actually my fault"

"How so?"
He asks confused, not laughing anymore.

"Well I got home last night and found her sleeping in my bed and so-

"She- she was sleeping in YOUR bed, in YOUR house?"
He asks, still confused.

"Uh. Yea, I don't know how she got there and more importantly why she got there, but there she was, sleeping in my room, on my bed as peacefully as a person can sleep" I shrug.

"That's nothing like what sweetheart would do..." I hear Haymich mumble under his breath, not convinced with what I'm saying.

I sigh.

"Yeah and so in the morning I was baking in the kitchen, because Dr. Aurelius said that if could help with my memory. I only noticed she was downstairs when she asked me "How did you get in here Haymich" I smile a little at the coincidence. And I explained I was here, not you, and she hugged me." I say almost daydreaming and smiling still.

"Hold on. Sweetheart thought I was in your house making food for her?" He asks so confused and chuckling, from the weirdness, I guess.

"Yeah" I try to laugh, but it comes out sounding nervous chuckling.

And then the uncomfortable silence tries to beat again, so I open my mouth without anything coming out.

"But then my fire alarm suddenly went off, and we ran around the room, until the whole room was in a mess. And at this uncomfortable point I asked Katniss if she would like to have those unburned pancakes, but she said 'she wasn't hungry', and ran off." I finish my story.

Haymich sighs biting his bottom lip probably trying to make sense of what I just said.

"I wish I could understand her thoughts but I don't... All I can say is that she felt uncomfortable or she's hiding something" he answers me tiredly trowing his hand backwards.

Hiding?

"What do you mean, what she could be hiding, Haymich, I don't think there's really anything, she's just as depressed as we are, she can't arrange any-
Again I get cut off with Haymich

"I MENT HER FEELINGS!"
He yells, standing from his armchair to yell at me right in the face, so I have to take couple steps backwards. Then he just walks past me to the kitchen.

Her feelings?

What are Katniss' feelings?

What is that supposed to mean?

I get snapped out of my thoughts by Haymich's fingers.

"Wake up, boy" he says and pauses for a moment.

"You're not gonna understand, if you don't even try"
He pauses for a short moment and then continues.
"Now go. I don't know what it is, but I say this; If you let her go for once, then there's no way she's going to come back and stay sane anymore."

I nod quickly, not even really realising what he just said, but I walk out of the house confused as ever.

Too short, but I was determined to get this one out.