Author's Note:

This story is a part of a series, The Song of the Sky Lark, where I challenge myself into pairing Peeta with different The Hunger Games characters. If you don't like that sort of thing, and especially if you're against M/M, stop reading. Also if you're anti-Katniss, stop reading. She is important and this might just end up in a threesome.

To all the others, welcome, welcome. I hope this scenario hasn't been done before. There is nothing more annoying than reading the same fic over and over again.

Prologue

The slag heap is actually a pretty depressing place. Even the name is depressing. The debris of the mining production is collected here, assembled in huge hills of dark slime. It is more than nasty. Smelly, uncomfortable, definitely not a cozy place to linger. Freezing in winter, scorchingly hot in summer.

Most couples that frequent here are teenagers, still in school. Their encounters were generally short, the boys come so fast it was almost embarrassing and the girls' bodies still inexperienced in terms of real pleasure. Most of them were obviously glad that the deed was done and their partners satisfied, judging by the way the shuffled back to the District.

Gale Hawthorne had visited the slag heap for the first time when he was thirteen years old, shortly after his father had died. That was early, even for a Seam boy. Most boys at that age still slept in their mother's bed. There was no way around that, for the poor Seam kids. Fortunately his mother slept with Posy and Vick in her bed, while he shared his with his brother Rory. It was hard to hide an erection, made touching yourself nearly impossible. Too many people in the same room, so if you felt the urge to scratch yourself, you had to do it somewhere else. Gale didn't masturbate much. There wasn't any need for that. Because the girls offered to do all the work anyway.

At thirteen Namy Howers, a girl in his class, boldly stated that she wanted him to go to the slag heap with her. Namy was a cute girl, tip-tilted nose and curly black locks. And she had a crush on him. They went, hand in hand, behind a smaller hill near the entrance where they did it standing tall, her skirt hiked up and his pants barely opened, because the ground was muddy and clothes were valuable. Her dark skin glowed pinkish when he took her, clumsy and inexperienced. She didn't have much fun, bled even. It had been her first time as it was his, and she cried a little. Gale tried his best to be gentle with her and promised to be with her as her boyfriend, so she was happy. They went again. And again.

A few weeks later another girl who was two classes above him asked if he was interested to go with her.

Laika Carrowshead was experienced and her tits were bigger than Namy's. So Gale thought, why not? He definitely enjoyed her better than Namy, because Laika knew what she was doing. She actually taught him how to get a girl off, how to make her explode with his tongue and how to hit all those right places. When Namy found out that he had been to the slag heap with Laika she had been hurt, and he felt bad.

But not so bad that he regretted it.

He actually took Namy once more. Much later, when they were sixteen and her brother had been reaped. He felt anger and hate, wanted to soothe her hurt, so he had brought her multiple climaxes that night.

Laika had married some coal miner shortly after his seventeenth birthday.

Namy got a new boyfriend after claiming that Gale was emotionally crippled, cold to her. That wasn't true, he thought, he was not cold. He just wasn't interested in these girls beyond their physical charms. They were boring.

Yes, Gale Hawthorne had been to the slag heap countless times before the summer of the 74th Hunger Games and his last ever reaping. Mostly in summer, with Seam girls from the neighborhood.

Dark skinned and skinny as himself, Gale had clear preferences. Not that there were many choices. Town girls rarely went to the slag heap and even if they wanted him, he wouldn't touch them.

He sometimes wondered if the nipples of the mayor's daughter were as pink as her lips. How Madge Undersee would look if she was lying naked in the mud at one of the heaps, but that was almost an afterthought. He never seriously considered asking her to go.

The only blonde Seam girl with the townie look was Primrose Everdeen and she was a child, and he loved her like a sister. Her actual sister was another story altogether.

He didn't think of Katniss Everdeen as a sexual being, a woman, until one of the peacekeepers, Darius, flirted with her at the Hob. A possessive urge went over him then.

Katniss Everdeen was his. His girl. He would never allow a dirty peacekeeper to put his hands on her. He liked Darius, but he wouldn't hold back when it came to Katniss. From the moment this thought of possessiveness overcame Gale he started to imagine Katniss coming to the slag heap with him. Which brought forth an erection every time, without fail.

He sought out Becca Elmskard, his latest conquest, brought her to the slag heap and fucked her hard, while imagining Katniss beneath his shuddering body. He never came so violently before.

It was not long after that, that he realized that Katniss was different. He didn't want to destroy their friendship. Because Katniss was his best friend. He was insanely attracted to her, but most importantly she was his hunting partner, a girl he actually thought of as an equal. A partner that would one day make a good wife to him.

He would start working at the mines only two days after reaping day. School would be out forever, and the days with Katniss in the woods would come to an end, become a nice, but distant memory. He would only be able to hunt on Sundays, which would restrict their short time together even further.

So Gale planned a big confession. If he survived his last reaping he would ask Katniss out. His mother, Hazelle, liked Katniss. She wouldn't mind if he brought her home with him. She definitely wouldn't mind if Katniss became her daughter in law.

No, Gale Hawthorne would never bring Katniss Everdeen to the slag heap, he knew.

When he imagined them making love it always happened at some beautiful clearing in the woods and not in the cold muds in the defines of District 12.

But everything, everything would turn out differently…