Who: Katniss Everdeen and Effie Trinket When: Second Week in August Where: Cafe What: It’s about time they meet Rating/Warning: Low/None (talk of Hunger Games) Status: Complete
Effie sat in the cafe, nervously. She wasn’t sure what she was going to say to Katniss when the girl showed up. It was weird enough meeting Peeta online, and then Katniss, and now? Now in person? She felt like she might vomit. While sobbing uncontrollably. And apologizing profusely.
None of those things were happening. Effie stared down at the Diet Coke in front of her on the table and bounced her knees nervously.
Katniss stood in the entryway to the cafe and watched the other woman for a few minutes. Hands clenched tightly around the strap of her shoulder bag, she took a deep breath and marched up to the counter, ordering herself a diet Coke before turning back to the table Effie was sat at an approaching. “Effie?” she asked, voice devoid of emotion. She had no idea how she was going to react.
Effie jumped at the sound of her name. She sprang right up and out of her chair. The poor woman was wound so tightly she might burst. At least the chair didn’t topple over backward. “Katniss!” She said, then clenched her heart. “...Katniss Everdeen?” She added. “My God, you look exactly the same.”
“I uh...thanks?” Katniss asked uncertainly. “You uh...don’t really,” she shrugged as she cast her gaze over the woman. “No outlandish wigs or make-up, yknow?”
“No, I… No.” Effie said, shaking her head a little. “I left those things in the Capitol, I suppose.” Bad joke. She nearly winced at it, then motioned for Katniss to have a seat. “Can I get you anything?”
“Uh no,” Katniss shook her head and hesitatingly took a seat opposite the other. “No, I’m good thanks,” she referred to the can in her hand, placing on the table. “So uh...how are you?” she asked awkwardly.
“I’m all right.” Effie said, settling back in her chair. She was still tense--pulled taut like she might burst. “How are you?” This was incredibly awkward.
“Just peachy,” Katniss huffed out a disbelieving laugh. “I Dream every night about people around me dying in a hundred magnificent bloody ways, crowds baying for my death and the worst things is I survived. So yeah, I’m doing pretty damn well, thanks for asking,” she replied. Katniss was irritable lately, pretty much shouted at anyone who had anything to do with the Games.
Effie nodded. She deserved it all. She deserved that and so much more for the hand that she played in those Dreams. Or, the hand she didn’t play. Whatever it was, she had to take it. She had to sit there and take it all.
“I’m sorry.” What else could Effie say? No words were strong enough for the guilt and shame that she felt.
Katniss looked her straight in the eye. The Effie in her Dreams was a complicated woman and it seemed like the woman in front of her was no less so. “I don’t want you to be sorry,” she told her, dropping her gaze to her can of drink after a few seconds. “The Dreams aren’t real. Portia keeps telling me that. Rue didn’t actually die in my arms. I didn’t actually get hunted by the Careers. I didn’t actually get chased by chimera’s who wore Rue’s eyes, but I’m finding that distinction more and more difficult to make the more Dreams I have,” Katniss took a deep breath, closing her eyes and taking the time to again remind herself that this was a different Effie before her. “You didn’t do that. I’m sorry if...sometimes I may...take it out on you, or Peeta, but...I’m struggling. To differentiate,” she paused and looked up at Effie. “Does that make any sense?”
Effie nodded softly. “It makes sense. It’s hard for me to remember every morning when I wake up from those horrible nightmares. It’s not until they end that I realize how horrific they are. I’m terrified what the Dream Effie is going to do or say next, and absolutely mortified and horrified with what she’s done so far.”
“I know what you mean,” Katniss nodded slightly. “Everytime I wake up from a Dream where I’ve killed someone I walk around for the rest of the day worrying I’ll do it in real life without knowing the difference. I haven’t touched my bow in weeks. Just in case,” she added, embarrassed by the admission.
Effie frowned a bit. “...I don’t feel like her when I’m out of the Dreams,” she said. “I feel guilt and shame--things I know that Effie would never feel. Things she may never have felt.” And that made her feel even more guilty. She sighed, relaxed back down against the chair, and felt herself deflating even more.
“I think you did…she did. At the end at least,” Katniss shrugged. “I don’t think you’d let yourself get...attached before because let’s face it, being from District 12 didn’t exact mean we were natural winners,” she said, sighing and leaning forward on her elbows on the table. “When we won, I don’t know,” she shrugged again, shaking her head. “I think you let yourself care. We weren’t going to die so you could, y’know?” she looked up at Effie.
Effie nodded. “I haven’t dreamed the end of the games yet. So far you and Peeta are the star-crossed lovers, and it’s very exciting. But also… I don’t know. I wake up feeling horrible about the way I feel about the games in the Dreams. So it’s hard to reconcile it.”
“You should feel horrible about the games,” Katniss told her directly. “They’re awful, inhuman circuses used by the Capitol to exercise their power over the masses and keep people in their place. They’re used to keep millions of people in squalor and despair while a few hundred live in luxury and freedom.”
Effie nodded. “I know. And that’s how I do feel. But the Effie in the Dreams doesn’t see it that way. She’s been brainwashed and raised in such a way that she can’t see what’s right in front of her nose.”
“She will,” Katniss told her. “Have you met with Portia?” she asked quietly, taking a sip from her coke.
“No.” Effie said, shaking her head. “I met Peeta, briefly, and I’ve met you, and there’s Haymitch, of course. Is Cinna here?”
“Yeah...Haymitch. I can’t wait to meet him, drink and all,” Katniss sat back in her chair with a sigh. “I miss Peeta,” she said, idly playing with the edge of a serviette. “No, there’s no Cinna, but who knows this place seems to...’call’ people to it.”
Effie nodded. “I’m sorry. What happened to Peeta?” She asked, looking instantly concerned.
Katniss shrugged and shook her head. “I have no idea, he just...up and left. My world’s falling apart in the Dreams and it felt like he was the only one who can remotely understand that,” she shook her head as if ridding herself of the idea. “But he’s gone and I have to figure it out I suppose,” she shrugged again.
Effie nodded softly, sighing. She shook her head. “I’m so sorry.” A beat. “...you could try talking to Haymitch,” she suggested. “He was a tribute. He might… be able to help?”
“You’ve met Haymitch?” Katniss asked quietly, still playing with her can of coke. “What’s he like? Here I mean?”
Effie’s cheeks went bright pink. “Yes.” She cleared her throat, turning her eyes to the window and back again. “I have. He’s… not at all like he is in the Dreams.”
Katniss watched Effie as she looked away. Something about the look made her curious to ask more, but the feeling passed. Replaced by the overwhelming anxiety at the prospect of meeting Haymitch, knowing they’d probably rub each other the wrong way. “Well, I’ll try not to look forward to that too much,” she replied dryly. Taking a deep breath, she decided to suck it up and approach him. “Don’t suppose you have his number do you?”
“Of course I do,” Effie said, not in a reprimanding way, but more of a supportive, anything I can do to help sort of way. She pulled out her phone and swiped her finger across the screen to unlock it, then dug out Haymitch’s phone number and turned the cell around on the table so Katniss could read it. “I don’t think he’s dreamed about you and Peeta yet, but I’ll tell him you’re going to call. And I’ll tell him to be nice.”
Katniss smiled ruefully as she took the phone from Effie and dug out her own, transferring the number to her contacts list. “Thanks, I’d appreciate that,” she told her, handing back the phone. “You think it’ll be ok? Y’know with him not having Dreamed of us yet?”
“He’s heard enough from me about the Dreams that he understands,” Effie said, softly. “He’s got his own demons, Haymitch, I think meeting you and talking about them might help the both of you. It’s not the thing I can help him with.” Even though she wanted to, she really couldn’t.
Katniss nodded solemnly, eyeing the phone number in the contacts list with trepidation. She took a deep breath. “Ok, I’ll text him and see what he says,” she decided. No matter how badly it turned out, it would be worse if she didn’t give it a chance.
“Good luck.” Effie said, nodding once. She wanted Katniss to have the best life imaginable. She really did.
"Thanks," Katniss replied. She figured she was going to need it.