First, I need to warn all my fellow Peeta fans, this is more of a Gadge story than Peetniss, but you'll get all your much needed Peeta love through Katniss and her melodramatic break downs. There may be a "tad" bit of Katniss and Gale action, I haven't decided yet, but be warned.

Second, I want to thank everyone who voted in my poll for the title of this story, but in case you haven't noticed I ended up choosing a title that wasn't even on the list. It came to me while I was discussing some details, mainly the title, for this story with Solaryllis and we both really liked this title. It fits more with the original "Life Without Bread."

Now this will be told through Gale and Madge POVs and is a sequel to my story "Life Without Bread", but stands mostly by itself. Although if you haven't read that story, I suggest at least reading chapters 2 and 3 so you understand Gale's attitude and stance in this story. Also remember Gale is the Baker's boy, Peeta's dead (poor boy), and Katniss is the sad, moping victor of the 74th Hunger Games.

Gale's POV

It's been almost a week since the big reveal at the recap ceremony that Katniss is in fact the victor and is coming home. As soon as I found out about the news relief flowed through me. I don't know what I would have done if it was Lover Boy that came back…especially since I haven't been able to stop thinking about Katniss since I first started noticing her at school, just before she left for the games, and I mean really noticing her. The way she can be caring, but mysterious and hard all at the same time, or the way her hair falls softly down her back when she has it out of her usual braid…so yes, I've been thinking about her a lot. I feel like just knowing her has changed me. I've never felt so connected to someone before. Sometimes I feel like that if the world was a little different, and I had grown up in the Seam that we would have been really close, or maybe it's like those stories I've heard of back when there was religion and there were those people who believed that when you died you came back again in a different life. Maybe that's the connection I feel, that Katniss and I were really close in a past life, so I can still feel some close connection to her…is that even possible? Whatever it is, I know I can use it to help her through whatever pain it is that she's going through after the games, and my chances of her saying yes to being with me have also increased now that she'll be living pretty much in town, since we won't be from different social classes anymore.

I try to put my plans for my attack, no advance, towards Katniss away to think about another time because gym got out early today, and I get to eat lunch with Madge, the only girl who I can have more than a five sentence conversation with without her asking me out or telling me I have nice abs, not that I hate that or anything, but it's nice to have a change. Well, that and the fact that since Madge doesn't like me she'll be the perfect girl to ask about how I should ask Katniss out…ok so maybe I'm not putting my plan aside for lunch.

"Hey Madge." I'm standing behind my seat that's located across from her at the table.

"Gale? You didn't tell me you'd be in my lunch today. Come on, sit," she gestures to my seat with a smile as I obey her and take my seat.

"So…what have you been up to?"

"Thinking. A lot."

"Wow, that's different. What about?"

"The Games."

"Oh…" I can see Madge's face visibly sadden; she's never been very good at hiding her emotions.

"No, don't get sad. It's a good thing, it's her. I haven't been able to get Katniss Everdeen out of my mind since I found out she is coming home." Alone, I add in my mind.

Madge does a chuckle/cough/squeal and it takes her a while to get control of herself while I stare at her with a blank face, wondering what in the world that was for.

"Katniss? Katniss I-just-lost-the-love-of-my-life Everdeen? Seriously Gale, either you need to find better jokes or you've finally gone off the deep end if you think you're going to get her to go out with you."

"He's gone now. It was just teenage love anyways, that's not really real."

"You can call it all you want, but sometimes I would watch them in English class and I swear they could have full conversations without saying a word. Like they had some sort of connection or something. You don't lose that lightly-she's not going to lose that lightly. Now, Katniss arrives back home on Saturday, that's two days away. In that time I suggest you get a hold of yourself before you do something stupid."

With that Madge gets up, grabs her tray and leaves. I haven't even been sitting here for more than five minutes and she just leaves me. Humph, after I figure out what I have to do to attract Katniss to me I'll have to figure out what it is that bugs Madge so much about me. She's the only girl I know that has never even had a little crush on me…Katniss doesn't count, she likes me…she just doesn't know it yet. Her and that boy having a special connection? My butt. We can have a special connection too.

Madge POV

Gale is so full of himself all the time. I don't even know why I allow him to break my peaceful alone time at lunch with his sorry self. He thinks he knows girls just because practically every girl in this school likes him? Well every girl except for Katniss. I'm sure of it. I've seen him try to talk to her a few times and I notice as soon as he approaches her she tenses up and keeps looking around, trying to find an escape route, but of course "girl magnet" Gale wouldn't notice that vital piece of information, especially since he wasn't even thinking about the fact that she was taken, and I feel that technically she probably still is. I've never really talked to Katniss before, except for a few times in class when I loaned my pencils to her, but a girl is a girl and if I was that close to a boy like Peeta I wouldn't forget about him easily. Although, unfortunately I'm not close to a nice boy like Peeta, no the only boy I ever get to have more than one sentence conversations with is "my ego is bigger than a mountain" Hawthorne. Who does he think he is anyways? He'll just be making bread his whole life. My father's the mayor. He could get me connections to jobs in the Capitol or practically anywhere else if I wanted, but then I force myself to stop thinking those thoughts. Yes, I have the life that allows me to be a stuck up brat who thinks they're the best person in the world, but my father's taught me better than that, and I wouldn't want to be like that anyways…even if it meant I'd probably have more friends than I do now just from showing off that I'm the Mayor's daughter. Instead I'm little Madge that most people never say more than hi to and who has one friend. One solitary friend, and he's not even a girl who I can talk about boys with, or even a boy who would want to talk about anything besides himself, no, my one friend is Gale "I'm so cool" Hawthorne, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't even know that.

Today is the first time I've ever gotten so mad as to actually leave Gale. Perhaps it's the fact that I finally lost my patience, or maybe it bothers me that I know he's going to try and meddle in Katniss' already damaged life, and not to help her either, but to gain something for himself. That's what it always is with Hawthorne.

After two more classes the day is finally done, and I start walking home in the mildly overcast weather; it's not raining yet, but it looks like it will soon. I only walk a few blocks when I reach the bakery. Sometimes I walk in, saying my father sent me to get some bread, just so I can see Gale. Even though I'm supposed to be mad at him right now, I still feel the urge to see him, so I enter the bakery, hoping he won't try and mention Katniss again.

I enter the bakery and notice Gale's father, Pheelo, standing at the counter in the lobby. "Good afternoon, sir."

"Ah, Madge, good afternoon. Gale isn't home yet." The Hawthornes live in an apartmentish house above the bakery, just like most of the town families.

"Oh, um, I was just stopping by to pick up some bread…my father asked me to."

"Oh, of course you were," he says with a knowing smile. I think he's the only person who's seen past my cover story. My father just thinks I really like bread. Well, I have always known that Mr. Hawthorne is a very smart and logical man, but I think Vick and Posy were the only children to get that trait from him because Gale and Rory are door knobs, well especially Gale.

"Well, since you're our best customer I suppose you deserve a free loaf of bread for your loyalty to our bakery."

I have to giggle at this, "You're the only bakery in the whole district, so you don't have much competition."

"Well, I guess there will be more free bread for you in the future then."

"No, please, let me pay-"

I start fumbling in the tote that I use as a backpack for my money, but he stops me by staying, "Oh, don't worry about it dear, now here you go, and hurry along." He hands me the packaged bread and gives me a light shove towards the door, like I'm late for something and he knows it. The only thing is that I'm not, my whole afternoon is free. Hmmm…maybe Pheelo is just busy with other things and wants to get me out so that he can continue with them.

Whatever the reason is, I leave swiftly and continue walking the rest of the way home. My house is in the far corner of the district, but before the graveyard, so to get home I have to pass through the town square and the Justice Building. As soon as I walk around the corner of the Justice Building I can see my lawn, and I notice that someone is sitting on my front steps.

Gale POV

As I'm sitting on Madge's front steps I'm starting to get a bit anxious; she usually beats me home and she lives farther from school than I do, so why isn't she home yet? My anxiousness might also be due to the fact that if Mayor Undersee gets home from work before Madge does he'll probably wonder what a random boy is doing sitting on his front steps…ok so maybe I'm not a totally random boy, I've met him a few times, but I don't like talking to him unless Madge is around…and sometimes even then; he can be quite intimidating.

Suddenly I see Madge turn the corner of the justice building and I feel myself visibly relax, well until I realize that now that she's here that means I have to actually talk to her, well apologize, which is what I came here to do.

"Gale? What are you doing here? I was just at the bakery."

"You were?" I must have just missed her. I left school as soon as the bell rang today because I wanted to go home real quick so I could tell my dad that I'd be late for work because I had to talk to Madge, and still arrive at Madge's house around the same time she would, but apparently I didn't need to worry about that.

"Yes, your father gave me free bread and whisked me out the door."

I silently snicker to myself. I can see my father doing that, especially since he seems to think there's something up between Madge and I. I bet he thought I was planning on having a much different conversation with Madge than just apologizing to her…well I guess a little bit of me also wanted to come so that I could ask Madge why she doesn't like me. It's been bothering me a lot more lately and I don't know why, but I do think that knowing it would help me learn how to get Katniss to like me because if it's some bad habit I have, like biting my nails I can easily change that so that it won't be a turn off for Katniss too.

When I don't reply she urges me on again, "So? What are you doing here?" She's got the perfect condescending yet questioning look on her face while she continues to stand, looking down at me while I continue to sit on the steps.

"I…I wanted to apologize."

"Apologize?" Her facial expression actually changes to one of shock; does she really think I'm incapable of saying sorry?

"Yes. For ummm…stuff."

"What kind of stuff?" Now I can tell that she's enjoying my misery, oh well, I don't care if it helps her forgive me. Although I still don't know exactly what I'm apologizing for.

"For ummm…lunch, and what I said…"

"What did you say?"

"Madge-!"

"I want to know that you actually know what upset me."

"I don't know! All I talked about was Katniss and I wanted your help but-"

"Exactly! I'm not going to help you do something that I think is wrong. Katniss is hurt and destroyed and she doesn't need anything else to worry about right now, and I would know about hurt and destroyed people, or have you forgotten that I live with one?"

Oh yeah…her mother, who has horrible headaches from her past experiences and uses morphling to calm them. I've heard it's the only way she can get a full night's sleep now.

"Sorry…I-"

"Look Gale, you can go tell Katniss whatever you want, but don't come crying to me when she denies you. In case you don't remember, she just lost her best friend."

"Boyfriend."

"Why can't it be the same thing? And for her it was. They were best friends forever; they hadn't even started going out until a few weeks or so before the reaping for the Hunger Games."

"How do you know so much about them? Are you their stalker?" I laugh a little, it was meant to be a joke, but Madge doesn't seem to be taking it that way."

"I…never really had much else to do in class, and they usually sat right in front of me…"

"Oh," for some reason I feel like that has a deeper meaning than she's letting on, but I'm not very good with all of this sensitive stuff.

"Madge?"

"Yes?"

"Why don't you like me?"

"I like you Gale, you're my friend."

"No, I mean LIKE like me."

"Are we back in middle school now?"

"Madge, please?"

"Uh, well maybe it has something to do with moments like this, how you can't stand it that there's one girl, no, two girls that don't like you."

"I don't want to fight about Katniss with you anymore, but please just answer my question?"

"I'm serious Gale. It's the fact that you think you're so awesome that it annoys the heck out of me some times, and that's why I left today."

"So it didn't have to do with Katniss?"

Madge sighs, and then answers, "No, it did. Why don't you think about how it does while you walk home. Good-bye, Gale." With that she walks around me, up the stairs, and shuts the door behind her, not looking back, and then it starts raining.

On my way home I take her advice and try to think of a reason as to how Madge's annoyance at our conversation has anything to do with how she apparently doesn't like that I act like I'm amazing, which I am. In the end, I came to the conclusion that Madge isn't annoyed, she's just jealous that she's not as great as I am. Poor Madge.

I need to thank Solaryllis for helping me with/giving me this idea for a story. You should thank her too. When I was trying to think of an idea for a Gadge story I come up with things that had mixes of half naked Madges, rape, jails, and other horrible things (although I admit I like reading the stories like those!)…But this is probably more my forte and writing style. Sticking with naïve Gale and Madge instead of the two that are crushed by hard times in their lives, plus with this you guys get a whole other story that's related to "Life Without Bread"!

I also want to thank JezTheMockingjay74, again, for being a second eyes with the mistakes in my stories. You're awesome! Thanks!

And then I'll thank all of you readers! Thanks and please tell me what you think!