Losing the Game
Disclaimer: The Hunger Games is not mine. Creative disclaimer, right? Oh well, just read the story instead.
The irony of his situation is undeniable. Gale knows it as soon as Katniss holds out the berries. If she wins, then so does Mellark. Katniss is making sure of that. If Mellark wins the games, then he wins her. It's that simple.
For once, he wishes that she weren't quite so clever and rebellious. She has the arrows, not Peeta. She could finish it all in one minute if she weren't so insistent upon Mellark's life being saved. She could escape the arena and come back to District 12. Back to him.
But with Katniss Everdeen, nothing's ever that simple. If one dies, so will the other. Gale hates the way that she's intertwining her fate with Mellark's. He hates that she's putting his life on the same level as hers.
And as the two stand there on screen, for just a fleeting second that he knows immediately he will regret for the rest of his life, Gale wants her to put the berries to her lips. He forces the thought down, covering it up quickly with an avalanche of others, but that doesn't change his original hope.
Because Gale knows what will happen if she, no, they, win. He knows the lover façade ('Just a façade,' he reminds himself,) won't end when the 74th Hunger Games do. He's not really sure which would be worse; watching them both die or watching them both live as a couple. And he hates himself for repelling the second thought more than the first.
And while he wants to think otherwise, while he wants to tell himself that he would rather that she be happy, even if that meant being happy without him, he knows (and hates himself for it, but he knows) that he couldn't bear that. He couldn't stand to see her come home with him. He cares about her too much for that.
So when Katniss and Mellark each put the deadly fruit to their lips, Gale finds himself attempting to repress both silent tears and a grim smile. He's furious at himself, of course he is. But there's no point lying to himself anymore, he figures. It's not the ideal solution, clearly not, but it's better than the alternative.
And when Claudius's voice rings through the TV speakers and the two teenagers spit out the poisonous berries, Gale isn't really surprised that his emotions have not changed at all, only reversed. Now, the smile is for her, the tears for himself.
And as stupid and selfish as it makes him feel, he can't figure out whether he's exhilarated or devastated, because Gale knew that as soon as his best friend, his hunting partner, the girl he loved, had held the berries out to the other boy, Gale had lost the game.
Author's Note: Well, what did you think? I don't think that came out as well as I expected, and it was definitely shorter than I imagined, but reviews would be very much appreciated. This is my my second romance fic, so any advice that you think could help me adjust to the genre would be warmly welcomed.