The house wasn't quiet that afternoon. There were screams of annoyance in the boys, and squeals of happiness in the girls. Hazelle and Ms. Everdeen were chatting contently as they stirred pots, set utensils, and laughing every now and then when they saw Posy crying whenever Katniss tried to pick her up out of her crib in the living room. "I don't understand." Katniss complained, sitting back on her heels while Gale tended to Posy, shushing her softly in her tiny ear.
"What don't you understand?" Gale asked still in his parenting tone, packing Posy away in her tiny rocker.
"Why children don't like me." Katniss explained to him.
Gale raised an eyebrow at her, standing up and walking to the favored couch where he was going to plant himself. He laughed as he saw her seriously curious expression. "Not just children Catnip. Animals, babies, and anyone else your own age hate you too." He stopped and seemed to think about something. "Honestly, I think most adults hate you too. They just put up with you because you have the cleanest kills." He added smugly. He was teasing her though. He loved doing this too her. It was cute, the way she acted. But if she knew that's why he was doing it, well it wouldn't go down well.
"Gale Hawthorne!" Katniss exclaimed with red cheeks. She dashed over to him; arms crossed and then slapped him hard against the back of his head. He laughed and apologized and made room for her on the couch.
She opted for the floor beside him instead, still being too stubborn to accept his repayment. "Aw Katniss, don't be mad. I was kidding. I like you, Sae likes you. I'm pretty sure Buttercup likes you too." He ruffled her hair because she was facing away from him.
"He does not, and you know it." She huffed and smoothed down her hair. Gale could almost swear he heard her sniffle.
"Catnip, don't be mad. Catnip, look at me." She didn't budge her head. "Fine be that way." He muttered not angry but more to himself. Gale got up from his lounging spot on the sofa, which he would later regret doing and stooped before her. She wasn't crying but her eyes were shiny. "Okay, Katniss, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that. I'm just cranky 'cause I'm hungry." He joked.
She chuckled weakly and looked up at him. "Me too."
This caused him to smile. "Why do you care if Posy likes you or not, though?"
"I don't know. I just don't want kids to hate me. I feel like I scare them or something. How will that help me in the future?" She furrowed her brow as she said this, making Gale think that maybe she was thinking this over too hard. Gale was mildly happy at her response though. She told Gale many a times that she never wanted kids, never wanted anything to do with them, and he was starting to lose faith.
What he didn't know was how fast Katniss could change her mind about her beliefs, or what she thought was morally right. When Katniss saw Gale with a baby Posy, merely a toddler and he did so well with her; Katniss knew that if she wanted anyone to help her raise a family it would be him. No matter how angry he was about the world, he still would lose the stoic pose around children and let them into his heart.
"You just have to treat them like they're equals." He hinted.
"How in the world am I supposed to do that?" She said in an exasperated tone. The only parenting she had ever done was with Prim when she was younger, and Katniss was very strict and very over-protecting.
Katniss didn't sit too well with the idea that she was supposed to act like little kids had as much authority as her. "Like this:" Gale exampled.
He then called for Vick, Prim and Rory to come to the living room. They hustled in from the side room. Rory's face was flushed like he had just been outside, and Prim and Vick were blue with laughter. When Gale and Katniss eyed them for an explanation Prim took to answering. "We made him do a dare where he had to take his pants off outside."
Rory blushed. Gale and Katniss' mouths twitched as they tried to stifle their snickers. They both knew Rory had a crush on Prim and he needed as much coverage as he could get. "Watch Katniss." Gale whispered into her ear. "Prim. Vick. You know better than to put Rory's health on the line." He started, looking towards Katniss for her reaction. "Vick, next time tell me what you're up to when it comes to dares so I can join in on the fun. Can you do that Vick? For me?"
Vick nodded. "And we'll make sure you incorporate your ideas too." Prim added shyly.
"Good. Thank you. Go have fun." Gale said dismissing them.
"Naw, I think we'll pass, it's too cold outside and we're done playing. I'm too hungry." Rory said taking a spot on the couch. Prim and Vick were quick to follow suit.
"Damn it." Gale muttered under his breath. "Come on Catnip. Let's go to my room." This was why Gale made sure to grab the couch while the kids were outside.
"Alright." Katniss agreed, getting off of her rear and following him to his room up the stairs.
"Did you see how I did that, though?" He asked her as they went up, making sure like any teacher would to a pupil, that she was paying attention.
"Yeah, you left them to decide what they thought was good behavior and then secretly threatened them by making them ask you to supervise them while they would think you were there to add to the entertainment." She said, spot on.
He opened the door and nodded. "Exactly. That wasn't too hard, was it?"
"No, I bet I could do it in my sleep." She challenged.
"Ha, I'll put you to it one day." He walked over to his small shelf and pulled out a set of cards. Katniss seeing his intentions grabbed two pillows and two blankets and laid them out across from each other. She handed Gale a blanket when he was seated and wrapped herself in the other and plopped onto the pillow. Meaning it cushioned her butt from the hardwood floors. "Still doesn't beat the sofa." He whined, copying her action. "Spit?" He asked her.
"Why that game? You suck at it."
"Practice makes perfect Catnip. Plus we're playing War after you win. I always win that game." He said with a sadistic smile.
Katniss laughed at his expression and then turned somber. "Aw, you player! We're going to spend a minute playing my game and the next hour playing yours. Unfair." She threw her hands up in the air. They both laughed. They both knew Katniss didn't mind playing war with Gale. She just thought that it was a really stereotypical game, that didn't require any skill, just luck. She mentioned this to him. "It's just because the odds are in your favor… every time."
"Not for everything, though." He said emotionlessly.
"I'm sorry Gale." She said as she took the deck from his hands and split the deck into two.
"No, don't be." He said hopping out of his depressed state. "Let's see how long it takes before you win."
Katniss didn't really notice how much more enthusiasm he had put back into himself.
Gale was scared. He didn't want to admit it, but he was scared. He had his name in forty-two times this year at the reaping. His last one, fortunately. But still, he had a huge chance of getting reaped for tribute. Gale was willing to sacrifice himself for the good of his District, willing to go down into the mines if it meant he could help his family, but there was no way in hell Gale could let himself die in the Capitol's hands.
This might have been selfish of him to think, but he hoped Katniss would be as furious at the Capitol as he was right now. They killed his father, four years ago on this day and didn't do anything about it.
Gale and his family could have died if it hadn't been for the sanctuary called 'forest'. Katniss and her mom and sister could have disappeared along with them if he hadn't found her when she found the woods. And Gale knew he would do anything and everything to make sure Katniss would never go hungry. He cared too much about her now.
Even though she was two years younger than him, she was still the same level of maturity, the same level of skill (if not better), and the same level of fire. He was a raging soul, and so was she, he could see it.
And he loved the heat that she brought him.
"I won."
"What? Impossible!" He exclaimed. He looked down and saw that, yes, she had in fact gotten all her cards onto the two correct piles and had slapped her delicate hand on the smaller pile. "Dang girl. You're getting faster."
"I know." She said giddily. Today was a happy day and they could both feel it in the air. It was Thanksgiving, and this was the third time they were spending it together. The two of them would work from dawn until dusk in the woods collecting firewood, evergreen leaves to freshen up the house, blackberries, and cranberries from their secret patch, a turkey or two for their families and a few for trading with people at the Hob and round the District, roots like the ones Katniss was named after, and herbs that could flavor their stew. This year they were pretty sad on not finding any potatoes.
"New round?" He asked her as he basked in her happiness.
She set the cards up again, her in the lead with way fewer cards, and him struggling to pile his cards neatly so that he could hold them in his hand. "Ready? Spit." He watched as her hands flew adding the Ace to the King and then so forth down the hierarchy, and then going back up the scale. He tried to keep up with her, adding a card in here or there.
He was actually sweating by the time she said: "I win. War?"
"Oh thank God." He said to the air. "Finally something I can win at."
"You're so competitive you know that?" She informed him.
"I've been told that on occasion." He said nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders.
"You're so suavé right now, you know." She said pushing him on his shoulder. He chortled and divided the deck.
"It's pronounced suave." He corrected her. "Not suavé."
"Whatever Gale." Katniss didn't really mind being corrected. Katniss was internally thinking about how Gale was so angry at the world that even his favorite card game was named 'War'. She felt bad that any child who had to basically become the father of his sister and brothers had to live like this.
She wanted Gale to have some sort of relief from his duties which he thought he was in charge of. Sometimes she could think that she was his relief. And that that was why they were friends, soul mates, whatever you called them.
All she knew is that, she wasn't romantically involved with Gale, but that she knew if she brought it up, inevitably it would turn out that way. And she didn't really mind. He fueled her, and made her task of surviving become living. That was all she really expected in life.
After the Reapings of course. She still had three to go. Who knew what would happen in those three years. She could be dead in two.
After they had been playing the game for an hour and a half, Gale's mom called them both down for dinner. They both looked to the window at the same moment. It was so easy to become involved in each other's thoughts and to not feel pressured to talk around one another that the time flew. "You win." Katniss said glumly as she counted her cards. Unlike Spit, War was the game where you had to have more cards to win. Katniss seemed to only win where no cards benefitted her.
She wondered if it meant anything symbolic. She didn't find anything that could be though.
"Catnip, we have cold cranberry sauce, and warm cranberry sauce. Which one do you want?" Gale whispered into her ear as they sat at the table cramped with not three, not four, but seven people. He passed her the bowl of roots while he did so.
"Warm, please." She said sweetly. She dropped two heated 'katniss' tubers on her plate and passed the rest onto Prim.
"Alright. Come with me." They both stood, their chairs scraping against the floor. Not that the noise was noticeable, there was lots of happiness floating around the table, you could barely tell they had left. They headed to the far corner of the kitchen. "Get me a bowl, would ya." Gale instructed Katniss as he stirred the warm cranberry sauce on the cooling stove.
She reached up to get one from the high cabinet. She grunted as she felt her stomach press into the sharp counter and her toes rolled as she reached higher.
"Oh my g-, Katniss." Gale said exasperatedly. He reached behind her head to grab two bowls. His chest pressed up against her back and the sudden warmth made Katniss melt. She hadn't realized how cold it was.
"Brr. It's freezing in here." She commented.
"That's why we're eating the warm cranberries. Duh." He said flicking a bit at her.
"Gale! That's food!" She scolded, but throwing a mushy carrot slice at him anyways.
"Katniss! That's food!" He mimicked. He sent another purple splatter towards her. She laughed when she thought it disappeared, but then cowered in humiliation when Gale pointed towards her chin.
"Hey!" She cried. She grabbed a big wooden spoon and then held it over Gale's head. He stopped laughing. She reached behind him, dug her spoon into the thick, mahogany sauce and slopped it down the front and inside of Gale's shirt.
Gale gasped in the sudden touch and jumped up in surprise. He turned to find Katniss bent over laughing so hard that she was having trouble breathing. He got a sudden idea and filled another spoon with cranberry sauce and held it above her head.
"Gale, don't you dare even think about it." She said darkly. How in the world? Gale thought.
"Truce then." He stuck his hand out below her for her to shake. She did and then they filled their bowls politely. "Um, Catnip…" He wiped the remaining stain from her chin while looking into her eyes. Did she feel it too?
They walked to the table and sat down and joined in the conversation. They kept sneaking glances at each other. They were sweet innocent glances, until Katniss felt something stirring up against her leg.
"Buttercup!" She screamed. Her bowl splashed the juices against herself, Gale and the table. And she literally jumped up onto her chair. "Damn that little son of a- oh sorry!" She apologized bashfully, looking down and remembering the children at the table.
"It's alright Katniss." Hazelle said.
"Thanks." Gale couldn't help but noticed how she batted her eyelashes when she was scared.
"So Rory, tell me what game you'd like to play after dinner." Gale asked, taking the spotlight off of Katniss.
"Truth or Dare." Rory said mischievously. Prim giggled.
"No." Gale said. "How about we tell stories? Or play checkers."
"Boring." Rory feigned yawning.
"Fine, Katniss and I will go on a walk and you guys can play whatever you want."
"Yay!" The children cried. Gale scoffed, shook his head and held his hand out to Katniss. "Milady."
"Ew Gale." Katniss scrunched her nose up and took his palm.
"Ew yourself." He said mockingly. They giggled as they walked out of the Hawthorne's house and into the frosty air.
"Ah, winter, couldn't get any better than this." Katniss sighed.
"I bet it could." Gale said, staring out in front of them. She tried to pinpoint what he was looking at but, all she could see were the swirling white flurries against the grey sky. After about a minute of thoughtful silence, Gale speaks up. "Have you ever wondered what life would be like for us after the reaping?"
Katniss can't say she's surprised at this question. But the thing is, she has thought about it. Very recently, in fact. She doesn't want to have to get married, because that obviously leads to children, but she also doesn't know if she can prove her love to anybody. She thinks she's so rusty on the emotion that anybody willing to come close enough would regret it. "Not really." She said, hoping he would drop it like he usually did when it came to things like this in their conversations.
"I have." He told her. "I've thought about it a lot."
"Oh." Katniss mumbled sadly. Gale didn't know why though.
"I think we should run." He paused and looked at her for permission to continue. "I think if we prepared from starting now, we could leave by after the reaping."
"That's not even-, you can't even think that I would agree to something stupid like-, Gale that's preposterous!"
"No it's not." He said calmly, un-like Katniss who was over the roof in hysterics, at least for Katniss that's what it looked like. "Katniss we would take our families with us."
"We have too many kids, Gale. Prim in the woods? That's something I would like to see."
"Fine, we won't do it, I'm sorry I brought it up." He snapped angrily. Katniss felt guilty. She didn't want Gale to be mad. Today was a rough day for both the Hawthorne's and the Everdeen's.
"Please don't be mad at me." She pleaded looking up at his side profile. He was scowling, and that wasn't making the day any better. She could fix that. Maybe that was what proving affection was: showing someone how much you care about them by going to a certain extent to make them happy.
"I could never." He scoffed.
"Hey I know, let's go get a cookie."
"And split it with the rest of our family? A cookie? Seven even pieces?" Gale shoved the idea out of his mind. "I had a better idea." His eyes sparkled.
"Just us can share it then." She said compromisingly, though she actually was never going to suggest bringing it home.
"Oh yes, and then I have a better idea of how to spend the rest of our walk." He was smiling again, and Katniss felt a weight coming off of her chest. Again, she didn't really become affected by his moods, but it did enhance her abilities to think straighter. Again, she didn't feel romantically involved with Gale, but she did know for sure that if he wasn't in her life, she sure wouldn't be okay with that.
They walked and chatted about school and its stupid teachers while they headed towards the Mellark Bakery. It was the classiest bakery in District 12 and they traded squirrels with the head baker: Mr. Mellark.
Ding. The chime above the door made a twinkling orchestrated sound when Gale and Katniss opened the door and entered the floury bakery. Warmth surrounded Gale and goose bumps rose on his arms under the sleeves of his hunting jacket. He heard Katniss shiver and he gave her a warming hug to heat her faster than the air inside would. She thanked him gratefully and turned to see one of the Baker's sons watching them from behind the counter. Katniss remembered this boy from a long time ago, but couldn't place his name. "Hello…" Katniss said.
"Peeta." The boy told her.
"Hello Peeta." Gale saw the expression Peeta gave to Katniss and he did not like it at all. He wanted them out of the bakery as quickly as possible but didn't want to ruin the moment between them. Gale admired Katniss's red nose and flushed cheeks. Strands of hair were flying away from her face and out of her braid and her jacket was giving her as much protection from the snowflakes as Gale's was. She leaned over the display of goods and scanned over her selection. "Gale, is this one covered in enough frosting?" She laughed and pointed to the cookie with the softest looking dough and thickest coating of forest green frosting. It was so Katniss to look for the greenest cookie.
Gale noticed the boy staring at Katniss longingly, like he wished to be in Gale's place. This made Gale happier. Maybe that was mean though. Gale leaned behind Katniss, front touching back and told her that maybe more frosting would his day even better.
Katniss looked at his close proximity and shoved him away from her playfully. All the while, Peeta was staring at their little exchange and re-thinking the rumors that had been going around school. There were rumors that they were just friends. That they didn't even hunt together anymore.
He thought those could be true since he hadn't seen them walking to school together anymore. What he didn't know was that Gale stayed in the woods longer than Katniss did because recently they had begun talking more to each other than hunting diligently, and Gale just didn't give a fuck about school so he came late.
There were other rumors that Gale had girlfriend. Sometimes Katniss was mentioned in the list of possibilities, but Peeta just ruled those out as quickly as possible. He liked to think that Katniss wasn't in to older guys. But unfortunately, to Peeta's dismay Katniss looked plenty into Gale Hawthorne right now, at the moment. Peeta guessed that he didn't even stand a chance.
He knew his looks were plain, that he made up for that with his 'sweet' personality, but that Gale was completely luscious in the eyes of every female in the district, and he probably had the most heated personality.
Peeta was jealous. "I can put more frosting on it if you want?" He offered.
Gale and Katniss looked at each other and held a silent conversation. Too much money to do so. Gale pointed out, meaning, shaking his head slightly and pointing to his pouch of coins which he kept on his hip at all times.
Katniss stared longingly at the frosting tube in Peeta's hand and then back to Gale. I have money. She jerked her head towards her pocket, where the two extra coins were weighing her pants down unevenly.
Its fine how it is. Gale's look said with finality. "We'll take it as it is." He said without breaking eye contact from a squinty eyed Katniss. Gale smirked.
"How many do you want?" Peeta huffed. This speech was ingrained in him. All he wanted was to talk to Katniss. Not get her a cookie which she was most likely splitting with Gale. Peeta was jealous.
"One." Katniss replied. Quick as a fly she popped out her two coins and placed them on the counter.
"Catnip," Gale warned, looking sternly at her two extra coins being put on the counter, whereas he had many extra coins he had been saving for two months. Katniss smiled slyly at Gale and he exhaled audibly. "Is that enough for the cookie, Peeta?" He asked looking at him.
"Just one more coin." Peeta lied.
"No, no. Peeta, that's not very nice." said another voice from behind the swinging doors. They all turned to look at Mr. Mellark coming from the back room. He wiped his hands on his dirty apron and stuck his arm out for Gale and Katniss to shake. "Mr. Hawthorne, Miss Everdeen. It's been a while. Where have you been?" He asked them.
"Squirrels are going extinct. This one here shot them all out of the sky. Haven't seen one in two weeks. Sorry Sir." Gale explained kindly bumping hips with Katniss. Katniss snickered at Gale.
"I hardly shot them out of the sky, you snared them all." She jabbed a finger at his chest. They both growled at each other, teasingly.
"Alright. I believe you two. Break it up." Mr. Mellark laughed. "I'll go get you the cookie from the fresh rack and two coins is all you need."
"Thank you Mr. Mellark." They said gratefully. He nodded at them and he took his plump self to the back room to package their order. Gale and Katniss reminisced briefly what it would be like to live an easy life as a baker.
"So," Peeta said, recovering from his dark actions. He was back to being friendly. "What's up with you two lately?" He inquired, hoping to get some information from the primary source.
"Nothing really. We're just having dinner together tonight with our families 'cause it's a holiday. You know?" Gale said hoping to soil any of Peeta's plans with Katniss. It was a full on full girl world war between the two boys, but Katniss didn't notice. She only appreciated Gale's protecting aura. Townies made her feel inferior. That made her angry.
"Oh, that's right. Happy Thanksgiving." Peeta smiled at Katniss. Katniss smiled back politely. "We have some extra food if you want to take that back to your families." Peeta offered, and that was his first mistake.
Katniss' brows crinkled as she eyed him angrily. She thought about how rude that would seem to a Seam person, but not to him. "Afraid you're gonna get fat, eh?" she said lightly, replacing her face with a mask of no emotion.
"No, sorry. We'll pass." Gale shot flatly agreeing with Katniss.
"Unless you have some extra cranberry sauce." She decided to Peeta, looking at Gale and then afterwards going: "eh, eh." Poking him in the stomach. He tapped her on her nose.
They both laughed, and Peeta felt he was missing some part of the joke. "Um, sure." He said, not knowing what else to say back. While he went back to the kitchen to get some of the sauce, he knew that Gale and Katniss had to be more than friends. Friends don't act like that. He thought. Maybe they were friends, but somewhere along the road, the lines between friends and lovers got blurred. That made Katniss off limits. Peeta concluded glumly. He met with his father to walk back into the front room where Gale and Katniss were talking. He placed the container into the same bag as the cookie and waited with his father by the revolving door to listen in on their conversation.
"Katniss, don't put your money on the counter when I can."
"Why not?" Katniss asked. Peeta noticed her voice hadn't raised.
"Because," Gale answered simply.
Peeta knew that it wasn't going to be enough for Katniss though. "Because I need the money more than you do? No. I'm doing it because I owe you. This is me making it up to you. I want you to enjoy the day today." He could only hear her for the next part. "No, Gale, don't be sad, he would have wanted you to be happy today. He would have wanted you to be grateful for what you have."
"Thanks Catnip." Gale whispered to her. "I am grateful." Father and son walked in on the two hugging each other. They released and Katniss looked a bit red from them walking in on their private moment, but otherwise she looked normal.
"Here you are, you two." Peeta's dad said to them. Gale thanked them and gave Katniss the bag. Peeta felt bad that they couldn't have one full happy day because of their fathers and money and starvation in their lives. Peeta wanted to be able to help Katniss with that. That's why he threw her the bread.
As soon as they exited the bakery Peeta's father turned to Peeta and said: "They sure are as close as two people can possibly get."
"You think they're a couple, dad?" Peeta asked.
Mr. Mellark turned around and looked Peeta in the eye with a smile. "They're inseparable. Even if they don't know how much they mean to one another now, they'll know soon."
"So I don't have a chance." Peeta grumbled to himself following his dad back to the dinner table.
"Son, I hate to say it but, I don't think you have a chance unless you have a huge piece of luck come your way."
Outside the bakery Gale and Katniss were heading towards home again, but Gale remembered what his idea was after they bought the cookie. "Alright, my turn." Gale said with slight enthusiasm. His eyes brightened and Katniss' heart thumped. She was excited too… if only she knew where they were going.
"Ooh! More surprises. I love them." Katniss said feigning excitement. Her face was morose. Gale laughed.
"C'mon Catnip." He took her hand and led her to the edge of the town, close to the entrance of the western mine.
"Gale, it's getting darker, maybe we should head back and do it tomorrow." Katniss said worriedly, twilight was forming and she still had no clue how close they were to they're destination.
"Hell no! We're so close anyways." He pulled her into an abandoned tool shack so that they could have shelter from the wind.
"Is this it?" She asked, unimpressed.
"No. But it will do."
"Okay so why did you bring me here?" She said actually wondering what thing they were going to do here near no civilization. Her heart sped up with anticipation and she unintentionally leaned forward towards Gale.
Gale smiled at her reaction and took out the cranberry sauce. He smiled evilly at her and watched her eyes widen. "This was not part of my plan in the beginning." He beamed at her.
"Oh goodness." She backed away from Gale as he dipped two fingers into the food. "Hold on, hold on." She said as he raised his arm. "Let me have some, it's only fair."
He mumbled, knowing about how he couldn't live without being fair and gave her a dollop. "On the count of three?" She nodded. "One."
"Two." She smiled.
And she flung her dollop of cranberry sauce at his face!
Right on target, as she suspected. Gale growled: "Three." And threw his own amount at her face. She ducked and scooped some more up from the container which he had placed on the ground.
They continued to throw small amounts at each other until there was no more and they were rolling on the ground laughing, covered in small purple spots. "We're the most un-Seam like people I've ever met." Gale told her in-between breaths.
"Har, har. It was worth it." She disagreed with him.
"It was a waste of some good cranberry sauce." He sighed.
"Not entirely." She wiped off a bit of it from his cheek and put it against her tongue. "Bleh! Nasty! Ours is way better." She commented with a puckered face. "They may be bakers, but they're not chefs."
"I bet that horrid mother of theirs made it." Gale agreed eating some that he got off of her forehead.
"Sour, like her." They said in unison.
"Cookie time?" Katniss asked Gale after ridding her mouth of tangy cranberry sauce.
"Cookie time." Gale pulled the green cookie out of the wax paper covering and split it in half. "To being grateful for what you have, how you spend it, and who you spend it with."
"Amen." Katniss agreed feeling light inside. Could Gale mean he's grateful for Katniss being in his life? She was. He was literally the only person she could confide in. She was only ever herself when they were alone. To Prim, Katniss acted like the adult, hiding Prim from the horrors of the world. To her mom, Katniss was the sullen, quiet and hostile daughter that never opened up. To Hazelle, she was the kind hunting partner of Gale. To her peers, Katniss was a closed, quiet individual that was rebellious and dangerous. If she ever lost Gale, she wasn't sure she could open up to anyone else again. If she did, she would have to, to remain alive. She couldn't really think of a world where Gale was not important to her. If there was, Katniss would sure have to be a messed up person by then.
"Amen." Gale chinked cookie halves with her. He hoped Katniss understood what he meant when he toasted to their friendship. He wasn't sure if they would ever become something more, but he was fine if he was the most important man in her life. After her father of course.
When they got back to Gale's house, everyone was sitting in front of the fire in the living room. Gale and Katniss helped themselves to the last pieces of turkey, and stew. They politely gathered a bowl of sweet cranberry sauce to split and then sat down at the table adding comments here and there to the funny stories being told around the room.
The house was quiet that evening as they all held hands to thank the spirit somewhere up in the clouds for the beautiful orange sky that blessed them a few hours before, for the bright orange and blue fire that rose from the coals their own people had mined to keep them warm, and for many other things that they were grateful for. When it was time for the Everdeen's to go back to their home, and Vick and Rory were sent to bed, Ms. Everdeen and Prim waited by the door for Katniss to say goodnight to Gale.
"Thank you for splitting the cookie with me." He said, tugging on her braid.
"Shh. I don't want anyone to get jealous." She shushed him. Her hard exterior was back up, and Gale knew he wouldn't be able to bring it back down again anytime soon. He wondered if this would remain in her mind. If the possibility of them could be in her mind for the future. He realized that maybe they only shared this day the way they did was because it was a bittersweet day for both of them, and she just needed more love than usual. Maybe she was going to forget the moment they had when he told her he had been thinking about the future. He didn't think anything done today would affect her when he brought it up again. He pictured it going down like this:
'If we didn't have so many kids.'
'I never want to have kids.'
"I might, if I didn't live here.'
'But you do.'
'Forget it.'
"Jealousy is the worst trait." Gale told her. It's a subtle warning, but she won't pick up on it.
"I'm jealous you got the bigger half." She admitted to him, eyes widening innocently.
"Me too."
"What? How can you be jealous?"
"Goodnight, Catnip." He said as he lightly shoves her out the door with a smack to her bottom.
"Hawthorne!" She shook her fist at him. "I'm going to get you tomorrow for that."
"I'll put you to it." He challenged her. He watched as she got this devilish gleam in her eye. He loved the fire that he brought out in her. It made living in the Seam worthwhile.
"Bring the extra cranberry sauce tomorrow." She said meaning for when they met in the morning before hunting.
"The poor wasted cranberry sauce." He said with sympathy. Katniss turned to see her mom and sister walking down the road towards her home.
"Yes, the poor 'wasted' cranberry sauce. 'Night Gale." And she dashed down to meet her family, puffs of white coming out of her mouth as she breathed in and breathed out.
"Goodnight Katniss." He said quietly and closed the door.