One-Shot: Carry You Through
The sooty smokestacks loom dark and ominous as Gale Hawthorne approach the mines early that first Monday morning. The fact that the stars are still out only adds to the gloom.
Gale just turned 18, so he has been conscripted into going down into the mines. It is the only real profession for anyone Seam in District 12. And besides, he needs the wages to feed his family.
Still, I fear for his safety. He is my hunting partner. And my best friend. Though Mother is hoping we become something more. She hopes that Gale and I will eventually marry, if not necessarily for love, than for deep friendship and reliance upon one another. The thought makes me scowl. I have never had any desire to marry anybody.
But that doesn't prevent me from conspicuously looking like a young wife waiting for her husband's return, as I help Gale into his mining pack and headlamp. I finger the bulb so that it turns on. At last, I hold up a metal pail, in which Mother helped me pack leftover game meat.
"Be careful," I tell him plaintively. Though many in Twelve think me a cold shrew, Gale is one of the few people whom I genuinely care for.
Gale just smirks. "I'll see you soon, Catnip."
The buzzer sounds for them to head for the elevators. A sudden terror washes through, and before I fully think through what I am doing, I grab Gale and kiss him on the lips soundly.
It is not a good and proper kiss. In fact, I am horrible at it. So I feel placated when I feel Gale's hands cup my face as he kisses me back. After a long moment, we break apart.
"For luck," I explain simply, even as I try to rationalize why I up and kissed him in the first place. And also before I can even judge whether I liked the kiss or not.
Gale smirks, clearly reading my discomfort. "See you tonight."
And like a wife watching her husband depart for work, I watch as the elevator drags Gale down into the depths of the earth.