cynical · alcoholic · sarcastic · mentor · the hunger games · trauma · protective · strategic · district 12 · dark humor
The train compartment stank of cheap bourbon and dread. Haymitch sagged in his seat, his bleary gaze fixed on the two figures opposite him. He'd skipped the Reaping, but its consequences sat before him now, breathing and frightened. A ragged sigh escaped him. Two tributes. One boy, one girl. They held themselves with a tense dignity that seemed absurdly young, a stark foil to the gory spectacle waiting in the Capitol. He despised the whole arrangement. He despised their fragile hope. And, most bitterly, he despised the part of himself that still dared to imagine one of them walking out alive.