There were things that Haymitch had never wanted for Katniss, and being on Snow's bad side just for doing what she had to survive was one of them. He thought back to the previous year, the lie that the Capitol had interjected into the Game; two winners. He remembered how absurd it sounded, how he and the other mentors, even the ones whose tributes had already died, didn't like the sound of it. The Games were hard enough to get through as it was, but the one thing they had going for them was that they were straight forward—twenty-four kids went in, and one came out. Altering the rules in the middle of the competition was the first warning sign that no one was safe, and Haymitch should have known that something like this was coming for the Quarter Quell. This wasn't just about Katniss, this was about all of them, everyone in Panem who even though to put a toe out of line.

He wished she would have run away with Gale, he really did. “Yeah, you're welcome,” he replied with a single nod, thinking her smile to be infectious. A smile looked nice on Katniss, made her look pretty and much more human. Haymitch knew that she was tough, but it was refreshing to see that she was still capable of letting her emotions come through. It was something he hadn't done for years himself, and Haymitch hoped that she never lost the ability to connect with others; it would have been a damn shame. 

Hearing her answer, Haymitch breathed a sigh. He hadn't thought that anyone would bother to tell her anything, and really, there wasn't much of a story to tell. What had become of his life after the games was nothing to be proud of, and he knew that he should have died. He had already been half-dead when that girl from District 1 threw her ax, but lucky for him, she hadn't anticipated the rebound from the fore field. Haymitch didn't even remember winning.

“It was beautiful,” he said bitterly, speaking of the arena. “They [i]really[/i] outdid themselves for the big five-oh.” Haymitch went on to tell her about the sweet-smelling meadow that stretched on for miles, the perfectly blue sky, the lush, green forest and the snow-capped, picturesque mountains. “It was all a trick, though. Every last thing. The mountain was a volcano, killed the whole career pack when it erupted. Everything was poisonous, the food in the forest, the water in the streams, the [i]meadow[/i] knocked you out dead if you got too close to a flower. And the butterflies,” he shook his head, skin crawling as he thought of their stings. “The only safe thing was the rain water, and the food from the Cornucopia. At least half of us were dead before nightfall.” 

Looking over at Katniss, Haymitch did his best to gauge her reaction. He didn't want to scare her, but she needed to know just how dirty the Capitol was. He continued with his story, talking about how survived by collecting rain water and stealing food from the packs of the dead tributes. Then there was Maysilee, and thought of her death always made him sick with regret. He spoke of the birds, the way their polished beaks had sliced through her neck and how he stayed with her and held her hands as she died. Although, Haymitch left out the Mockingjay pin, assuming Katniss would eventually find out for herself. “After that, it was me and three others. One went down in combat, and the other was,” he sighed, staring into the fire, “eaten by a pack of squirrels.” It didn't sound terrible when it said it out loud, but he had watched the tape during his first interview as Victor and the way those animals tore that kid apart still haunted him. 

“That left me and the girl from 1. She caught me off guard, stabbed me in the gut. I couldn't do much but crawl away from her while trying to hold everything in,” Haymitch ran a hand over his face, emotionally taxed from the story. “Before she caught up with me, she lost an eye and there was so much blood between us that I'm surprised we didn't both die from shock. Anyway, she chased me to a cliff, right at the edge and I had turned over on my back just in time to see her throw her ax at me. She missed and it went over the side, but there's a force field there...to keep everyone in line and the thing bounced back, came flying through the air and impaled itself in her head. I passed out after that, but...still a winner, no matter how unconscious.”

The Capitol had done a good job of fixing him up, and not a scar had been left on the outside of his body come time for the interview with Caesar Flickerman. He remembered talking with the blue-haired man about his victory, but everything was so surreal. District 12 finally had a Victor, a child had finally come home, but Haymitch buried himself in the bottle and didn't think he would ever have to look back.

Prim was very clearly on edge and she wrung her hands as she waited for Gale to speak. She hoped that she meant something, that he would still want to be friends. At the moment, he was the only stable thing in her life, guaranteed to be there through everything and now that Katniss was going back to the games, Prim needed someone. Her mother was a good, kind woman, but unreliable and Gale was the only thing keeping her sane while Katniss had been fighting for her life the year before. If she lost him, she didn't know what she would do.

When he did speak, Prim licked her dry lips and nodded. She didn't want him to volunteer, and selfish as it was, she forgot that members of his family could be selected this time around and Gale had always done what was necessary to protect them. Truthfully, the blonde couldn't blame him, but she still hoped that it wouldn't come to that. Forty-eight tributes was a big number for anyone to fight their way out of, and there was no way that President Snow would allow for more than one winner for two years in a row.

Furrowing her brow, Prim continued to listen. She understood what Gale was getting at, and she knew that he couldn't protect everyone even though he wished to. He and Katniss were the same in that respect, and Prim felt useless in comparison. She would never be able to protect anyone from anything, not the way her sister and Gale could. “I missed you too,” she smiled, thin shoulders finally relaxing. “I understand why you would think about volunteering, I was just...upset about the Quell and losing Katniss again.” However, Prim couldn't help the way her cheeks flushed as Gale indirectly called her cute, and smiled in that way of his. She shook her head, cheeks still pink as she met his eyes. “We'll never fight again, okay? We're friends and I—I really care about you.”