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Haymitch Abernathy (Hunger Games) (drunkstrategy) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-11-01 23:58:00

Who: Haymitch and Peeta
What: Dinner
Where: Haymitch’s place
When: Late October
Rating/Warnings: Low/None
Status: Complete



Haymitch couldn’t help but feel relief that Peeta had suggested a start over. Emotions had been high when they’d first met with Peeta assuming Haymitch had been ignoring posts he hadn’t seen and Haymitch assuming Peeta would hate him on sight anyway for the part he’d played in the dreams. After all it had been obvious he’d backed Katniss and worked to get her sponsors.

But the group picnic had gone fairly well and then more recently Haymitch had been there to bail him, Annie and Jo out of jail after they’d gotten a little carried away in drowning their sorrows. So now seemed like a good time to start over.

He’d made a lasagne, thanks to a recipe from Portia and was waiting for him to arrive. Katniss was out with a friend she’d said and he couldn’t help think it was for the best since she needed to have her own do-over with Peeta.

It was finally time for Peeta to attempt to reach out and rebuild the bridges he had slightly torched earlier. He had been angry when he started dreaming and wrote Haymitch and Katniss off as people who wouldn’t help him through it. He had never thought of Haymitch as someone who he would hate because of the dreams, but just annoyed that he wouldn’t help talk him through things. Thankfully they were replaced by Johanna, Annie, and Gale. He spent time with them on that group picnic, but they didn’t really get to talk. But, now it was time to repair things because Haymitch had done him a solid of helping him in a time of need.

So, when the dinner invitation came after the bakery delivery he was a little surprised. He readily accepted and came over with a couple loafs of bread and a small chocolate torte. He was fine with Katniss not being around because that would be a separate meeting he needed to have. He rang the doorbell and waited patiently for his mentor to come to the door.

It had probably helped that Jo, Annie and Gale hadn’t been as close to Peeta in the dreams as Haymitch, they would be able to help him here in a way Haymitch couldn’t. Sometimes the dreams and reality were far too close and part of Haymitch worried that he’d make similar mistakes or slip into old habits if he allowed himself to focus on them too much.

Opening the door he greeted Peeta with a nod and small smile, “Hey, come on in” he said standing back to allow him in, “I’m gonna need to start exercising soon” he added with a pointed look at the baked goods, “Not that I’m complaining” he was quick to say because it all looked amazing.
“Thankfully working in the bakery is a bit of a workout for me, so I tend to balance out. But, don’t worry, I’m really good at giving everyone tons of fattening food,” Peeta commented with a laugh as he walked into the house. It was nice to join the man for a meal and hopefully a truce on what had happened in the past. They could start over fresh and Peeta knew this would be a much better way to start things than the meeting at the bakery all those months ago.

“Where would you like me to put this stuff? It smells great in here,” Peeta was just slightly surprised to hear Haymitch suggest food. He wondered if the man cooked it himself or bought it from the store. The Haymitch in the dreams certainly didn’t do much in the way of cooking. It tended to be him or Katniss that had to help the man keep going during the worst of it.

Haymitch had similar hopes too so with the both of them wanting to start fresh perhaps things could work out well after all. He was certainly willing to step up more and do whatever he could to keep them on good terms.

“Kitchen is probably the best place” he said, leading the way, “Thanks. I got the recipe from Portia actually so it’s bound to be good even with me cooking it” he joked. Had Haymitch been as drunk here as he was in the dreams this would never have happened but being a recovering alcoholic he was able to function much better.

“I haven’t seen Portia in quite a while. How is she doing?” he had forgotten to make contact more constantly with Portia, but she had a high class career that seemed to be moving at a fast pace. Maybe he would have to make sure that they invited her along the next time they had Hunger Games dream gathering. He wandered into the kitchen to place the stuff down, “And I’m sure it will be just fine, but if the food turns out bad then at least we have dessert. I can guarantee that it will taste delicious.”

“She’s good. Busy with a new film project, they seem to be giving her more and more responsibility” Which was great for her but meant she had less time to see friends. “That is a very good way of looking at it” Haymitch smiled, as he showed Peeta where to set his stuff down before gesturing for him to sit at the table, “What can I get you to drink?” he asked.

“That’s awesome though. I’m sure she’s super pleased to be working really hard. I would love to have a fabulous job like that, but I do have to admit I enjoy mine,” Peeta explained as he placed the items on the counter and then went to the table where Haymitch gestured, “And as for a drink, whatever you’re having. I’m easy to please.” It was completely honest when he said that because he wasn’t quite sure what Haymitch had around the house to drink.

“Oh she definitely is, I’ve never met someone who enjoys their job quite as much. Though like you I enjoy mine as well” he smiled, he honestly did like running his company. “I tend to stick to soda, I don’t keep alcohol in the house” he told Peeta, just so he knew.

“It is a great thing to find a job that you finally like. It took some time for me, but I’m glad it happened now,” definitely beat being out in the desert and possibly dying. He didn’t regret joining the service, but he was happy to be out of it now. He gave a nod to Haymitch, “I was going to assume that, but didn’t want to be incorrect. Soda is just fine by me, thank you.”

“I am too, nothing beats getting up in the morning and not dreading going into work” Haymitch said, moving to pour out two glasses of soda. He was coming up on over twenty years of sobriety soon, strange when he thought of it that way. Especially with the temptation the dreams put in his way.

“So, changing the subject. Are you all finished with the dreams?” Peeta wanted to know what he could or could not say during this conversation. He didn’t know where he or Katniss were in the dreams and he assumed Portia was finished because unfortunately, her story did not end well. At least if Haymitch was finished then he could have someone to talk to who experienced what he did because Gale didn’t get to see his life after the battle.

“I am yes” Haymitch nodded, “Raising geese in the rebuilt district twelve was the last thing I dreamed of. The end of my story I believe” Portia had been finished before Haymitch had even arrived into the OC she was the most experienced of them all and had one of the roughest endings.

“Is that what you ended up doing? My dreams got a little vague after the children were born,” Peeta explained and couldn’t help but chuckle at the idea of Haymitch raising geese. At least things seemed a little better in District Twelve by the time his dreams ended. The happy ending made him feel a little better about it all. He wouldn’t be afraid of his dreams.

Haymitch nodded, “Don’t ask me why geese though, I don’t have a clue. Not sure how I was looking after them really either since I was drinking again” he shrugged, things had resolved themselves and the games had been stopped which really had been the goal. So he guessed it was a victory of sorts.

“Well, I think geese are pretty self-sufficient, so you really shouldn’t have to worry too much,” Peeta couldn’t help but chuckle again. He hadn’t realized that was what the man was doing, “How far is Katniss? I don’t want to bring something up and she has no idea what I’m talking about or possibly gets upset for spoiling her.”

“True, maybe that’s why I picked them” Haymitch said, smiling, “Katniss? Last she said she had just been rescued from the arena in the quarter quell” she was someway behind but he was glad of that since the dreams took a toll on her.

“Oh,” that surprised Peeta. Pretty much all of them had been dreaming at a similar pace and finished with their dreams. It surprised him that Katniss was so far behind, but had possibly been dreaming longer than the rest of them, “Well, she’s got the rest of us when things start to get too intense in the coming dreams.”

It wasn’t all that surprising to Haymitch, it seemed to him there was no set pace at which people had the dreams. He knew others who had finished long before those who shared their dreams even when they had started at a similar time. Katniss’ sleep patterns were likely very different to others as well. “She knows. She finds it hard to talk about them, she didn’t dream much before these started and as you know they do feel very vivid and real. It knocks her off balance but she’s getting there”

“Well, at least she doesn’t get captured by the Capitol, which is a small favor. I think that was probably the worst of it and definitely took its toll on me,” he also knew that it was affecting Annie and Johanna a lot as well. That month long period where he was being tortured nightly and it was bleeding out into real life was probably the worst experience he had from the dreams. The battles he could handle, it was like his real life already, but the torture was the worst, “I’m glad she doesn’t have to go through that aspect of it. I know there’s a lot of other things to go through, but we’re all here.”

It wasn’t really a case of whose dreams were worst, they were all pretty horrific after all they’d all experienced the games. But in real life they had varying degrees of experiences. “We are and we just have to help each other when and where we can” Haymitch nodded, after all they all knew what they were going through, though sometimes it was nice to talk to someone away from it all.

He wasn’t trying to rank whose dreams were worse, but he was thankful that Katniss didn’t have to experience the torture of the Capitol. He wished he couldn’t make things easier for Katniss, but he couldn’t just take her dreams away from her especially since things got rough at the end for everyone. The consolation prize of children seemed like a juxtaposition, but it at least made him feel a big better. “Alright, we should shelve the dream talk before we get too depressing,” Peeta suggested with a small smile. He didn’t want to focus on that, he wanted to be friends with Haymitch in this world.

“That is a very good idea” Haymitch agreed, the dreams were not conversation to dwell on when starting fresh. Like Peeta, Haymitch also wanted to get to know everybody in the real world and this was a good way to go about it.