"Primrose Everdeen."
Gale lurches from where he stands, eyes seeking out the frozen twelve-year old. Her face pale with terror, she begins to walk and Gale pushes his way through the group to reach the girl. To grab her and run, to hide her behind his bulk, to do something, anything just to keep her safe, alive. Katniss gets there first and through his haze, Gale hears her volunteer. A part of him stops, but his body maneuvers forward until he can grab Prim and lift her hysterical form away from the stage.
"Up you go, Catnip," is all he manages before his throat constricts and Prim is screaming hate in his ear. He keeps his hold on her until they reach Mrs. Everdeen and he allows himself to breathe. Looking back at the stage, Gale sees the signature blonde of merchant's blood that tells him the boy won't survive a day. He moves to hug the Everdeen's, hand grazing Prim's golden plait. Images of fragile Prim in the Games flash before him and Gale pulls them in closer.
He'll have hell to pay with Prim later, but he doesn't care. As long as she stays in his arms, he can keep her safe.
"From a range of one to ten, how much do you hate me?" Gale crosses his arms, leaning by a nearby tree as Prim walks out of the house, pail in hand. She stares at him blankly for a moment too long and Gale raises an eyebrow, letting the question fill the air. Prim answers by throwing the bucket at his head.
By the time Gale finishes grabbing the successfully avoided pail, Prim's making her way back into the house. He grabs her and pulls her back out, the door shutting in front of them. Gale spins her and it is the first time he's ever seen Prim so outraged.
"Let go of me, Gale! Let go!" Prim tries to free herself from his grasp and Gale becomes aware of just how small she is. For a few moments she fights to pull her arms away from his hold but he is too strong, and she, too weak.
"You can hit me, I won't dodge," Gale drops his hands and takes a step back. He makes an offering motion and then Prim is throwing blows. There is a faint sting with each strike and Prim keeps at it until tears are dripping from her eyes. Finally she hurls herself at his chest, her sobs shaking into him.
The most painful blow is to his heart as her tears begin to soak through his shirt.
"Katniss said you were bad at hunting," Gale mentions when Prim directs him to a deer she'd managed to fell. Prim has always been fond of animals and he was skeptical when she had asked him to take her into the woods.
"I never had to be good," Prim says, sitting on a fallen tree, eyes unfocused on the dead creature. "But Katniss showed me how to string a bow when I turned eleven."
Gale looks at her, really looks, realizing that she is not as frail as she seems. She turns her pretty blue eyes to meet his gaze to find that he has turned away from her. Prim knows just how bizarre it must be that it is her who now hunts with him, when just two weeks ago, Katniss walked these woods as his partner. But she hunts with him gladly, the first smile on her face in what seems like forever.
"What? What is it?" Prim puts a hand out to her cheek when she catches Gale looking at her once more. The deer hangs from one shoulder and he looks more like a man than she's ever seen him before. Prim understands now why all the girls are jealous of Katniss for being Gale's best friend.
"Nothing," he tells her, the side of his mouth quirking up. Her eyebrows knit together, feigning anger until he answers. "It's just that, if Katniss saw you now. I don't know if she'd kill me or kiss me for taking you."
"Then Katniss doesn't need to know," Prim sticks her tongue out at him. His smile widens.
Peeta broadcasts his undying love for Katniss, something Gale had never been able to do, for the whole of Panem to see. Prim's hand reaches out to Gale when the camera pans to a blushing Katniss, little fingers encircling his tightened fist. Her gentle eyes tell him to breathe, just breathe, until the tension on his shoulders eases and his gaze returns to the final remarks. When she lets go, he returns to feeling distressed.
The kiss takes them both by surprise. But Gale more so, when Prim doesn't react to the face inching closer to hers, lips pressing harder and his tongue slipping in to meet hers.
"Where'd you learn to kiss?" Gale asks, once he has pulled away. Prim manages not to turn completely red at the question, but refuses to answer. Gale forgets his anger towards last night's broadcast as he imagines the number of boys that must have tainted beautiful Prim.
"Do you..feel better now?" Prim inquires softly, an unsure smile on her face. Gale doesn't hear it, hands running over his hair.
"But you're only twelve," Gale mumbles, looking defeated. Prim flinches and her smile falters as she is reminded that he is a man and she is just a child, just his only love's lovely younger sister. She is pretty little Prim and there are girls who'd laugh at her for thinking that she and Gale will ever be more than what they are.
Angrily, she crushes her mouth to his and makes him forget about the boys and the girls and all the things that make him worry.
He decides that her laughter can rival a mockingjay's song.
Prim likes the sound of people whispering as they pass. She knows that it must seem like she is a replacement Katniss, perpetually the younger sister, but Gale winds his hand with hers in such a way that she can pretend he truly cares.
A part of her feels weak. But Gale is strong enough for the both of them and she finds safety in his soft kisses.
"I would have volunteered, you know," Gale says out of the blue. Prim freezes, hand poised to bring the cup to her mouth. He explains by telling her about the time he tried to push through the crowd to take her back, the few seconds before Katniss volunteered. And when Katniss volunteered, he took Prim back, just like he had wanted.
"You're mistaking chivalry and affection," Prim frowns before taking a sip. The tea tastes bitter in her mouth and Prim tries to keep a straight face, making sure that Gale doesn't see the way his words affect her. To him, it seems that it's her that is mistaken.
"I would have kept you alive at all costs," Gale tells her, confused at the sudden desperation seeping into his tone. He wants her to understand just how much he cares. "I would have died just to have you safe."
"Silly Gale, saying that you'd come in to the Games for me," Prim shakes her head lightly, lips tugging into a smile that doesn't reach her blue eyes. "You wouldn't keep me safe for my sake, you would just be dying for her."
It bothers him to think that Prim might be right.
She allows herself to wish that things will always be this way. But ashes and smoke cover all the stars in District 12.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to present the victors of the Seventy-fourth Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark! I give you — the tributes of District Twelve!"
The eyes that had been watching the screen glaze over. The grip she has around his torso slackens until finally, her arms fall back to her side. Gale looks down at Prim to see a picture of tortured relief. Katniss is alive. Katniss is coming back.
"Hey, look at me," Gale takes her shoulders until her eyes meet his, confused tears dripping down her chin. He grabs her hands, entwining their fingers, trying to show her that everything is okay now. Instead her grip reminds him of the weak Primrose Everdeen that had not so long ago been called out from a piece of paper.
She pries her hands from his hold, barely fighting. And ever so quietly, Prim slips out of his life.