Love in Blue
Author: Howlynn
Realm: The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
Story Title: Love in blue
Summary: While Katniss was falling in love with one set of blue eyes, what if Gale was falling in love with another.
Character/Relationships: Gale/ Prim. Gale/annie
I Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Author notes: I know this isn't going to make some people happy campers. I am doing odd pairs and this is the first time I have seen this tried in a non-force way. Moral majority aside, of course this could never ever happen – there is no such thing as a 13-year-old pregnant girl.
Warning: may contain any of the following ingredients –(old people, language. Spoilers, Sexual discussion, ghosts, sex, smexy lemons, smutty thoughts, sexual reference, sexual innuendo, reference to past violence, sadness, bondage, violence, dead characters being discussed, alcohol use, caffeine use, reference to man love, unintended exhibitionism, naked people, infidelity, torture, reference to adultery, reference to other persecuted unacceptable sex (threesome), reference to possible non-consent and prostitution -whew the warning alone could be hazardous) If you have any allergies to these subjects, please take appropriate measures for your maturity level. Side effects may include but not be limited to: flaming of the author, Pm grouchiness, and unwanted hair growth.
It was a habit to watch the games with the Everdeens. Nobody else really wanted to be there, as if they might rub off the bad odds and be sucked into the games themselves. Gale slugged along, he'd argued with Darius earlier. He was trying to keep his head up, when everyone kept looking at him like it was his fault. How could she be in love with him? He was lost. But they either wanted to pity him, laugh at him or encourage him, and any of those things were equally horrible.
He'd traded well today and ended up with a little extra. He stopped by Mellark's just before dark. He couldn't believe they were still open. The witch smirked at him and stood by the 'old' rack. Waiting for him to buy whatever was the cheapest. He grabbed two loaves of that then pointed at the Holiday loaf as they called it. It was hearty and deep mahogany color with rough surface and heavy texture. It was the same kind he'd eaten with Katniss a week ago. This one was for Prim.
He could barely judge his feelings for Katniss and he sure had no intent of exploring what he was feeling for Prim, but it was sliding. Prim was little. Prim was like a sister. Prim was a cute little brat. Prim was falling apart. Gale was falling into perdition.
They sat on the couch breathlessly watching the opening ceremony. Prim tried to be brave and yet his arm was soon around her. She watched in horror as Haymitch and the other mentors discussed the merits of their tributes. She scooted up close to the television. Haymitch is almost sober and glowingly clean. He is coherent and dressed in high capitol fashion; he looked like a different person. She babbled about how he must really believe in them to have that much to say. She took it as a good sign. Gale nodded and fell into her blue eyes.
When Peeta tossed the huge stake aimed at his heart, Gale sobbed and Prim held him. He just told the whole world that Katniss no longer belonged to a seam boy. They would launch the next day and he spent the night.
Where was Mrs. Everdeen? The same place she was when Posy was born, she'd checked out on Prim just like she had on Katniss before. Prim was taking care of her. Prim was alone. Gale made her not alone. She is making him think of things he shouldn't.
The first time she kissed him, he'd been so shocked he'd fallen off the couch to get away. She was twelve years old. He is angered by how he could have such reaction to her. He shames her.
"I am not. I am 13. I turned 13 and not one person in the world noticed. She's going to die isn't she Gale? I am never going to see the only person who ever noticed me again. Am I? All I have left of her is you, but you don't notice me." Prim stood there, big tears washing her cheeks, sticking her lashes into triangles.
Gale stood looking at her for a long time as fire fell from the sky and swallowed them instead of the girl on the television. "At least she saw you Prim. She couldn't have forgot me so quickly if she had seen me."
Prim goes to him and puts her hand softly on his arm. "I am not like her. I have seen you for a long time. I hope she loves baker boy. It means I can have you."
"No, Prim. You are too young." He says kindly.
"Am I? Are you sure? She's still a virgin Gale. I'm not." Prim says softly as if telling him a sweet secret.
"Prim. Tell me who he was. I will kill the… him. It better not have been Rory." He says face darkening protectively. His eyes are wide and he prays she doesn't see the way this conversation has affected him.
"No, you won't. I wanted them. If I am old enough to die, I am old enough to decide what I want. I want you," she lets her hand wander to the front of his trousers. "The way you want me, right now"
Gale wants to dash out the door. He knows the only proper thing to do is leave. But there must be something about blue eyes drawing gray. Like clouds drawn to sunny skies, it seemed like it was inevitable. Her blue eyes plead for the one deepest secret of him. He does want her.
He didn't mean it to go so far. He knows that every step is a betrayal to Katniss. He only meant to comfort her, give her a complement and explain. He didn't want to hurt her feelings. He didn't want to go as far as he did.
She is standing there looking so sad and lost, then his mind fogs with a hunger that is fed even by his knowledge that this is the most horrible thing he'd ever done. He was giving in. He meant to stop, but she made it so damned hard to not make one bargain after another with his soul.
They are shed of most of their cloths and he is so mad with the desire of her, he can't breathe. The smell of her, how tiny and fragile she felt, there was no mind left here, no honor, no victory. Each time he mustered the will to stop, she pushed a little further. He was to blame. He is the older wiser one. He is trusted.
The knowledge of how low he sinks is there. She doesn't act like a little girl and he doesn't ever get to think he's a gentleman again. He sells his soul to the heat. This is the way things just happen in the seam.
He was inside her before he knew the big picture. He took her a few moments before he could say he was falling in love, but he is falling and nothing saves him. She is not as innocent as Katniss imagined, but he is not as disposable as she imagined either.
Mrs. Everdeen didn't seem to notice a thing. She stared at the ceiling and slept. Gale held Prim and she held Gale's deepest heart and deepest dishonor by the time Katniss and Peeta were holed up in a cave, watching the rain.
"She has no idea. She is either cruel or clueless," Prim says, "I don't understand my sister, but I miss her more than anything."
"She is just innocent, Prim." Gale smiles a little at the girl in his arms while the close up shows the one on screen getting sleep syrup to save her lover she'd never loved.
"Is she? Do you think I am too?" Prim asks snuggling.
"Not anymore, I don't." he wiggles his hand down her pants.
"But you still think she is? I never killed anyone." She yanks his hand away and stands, arms crossed glaring. "She took my place. I didn't ask her for that, but she did it. But she had killed animals too. I have never killed, but because I love you, now I am not as innocent as her?"
"I don't mean it like that, Prim." Gale tries to wrap her back in his arms.
"No. If she comes back are we done?"
"I don't know. I don't think I want to be, but she will shoot me if she knows. Not kidding at all. This is wrong. I would stop if I could Prim. I just don't know if I can." Gale runs his hands through his hair. He had to imagine Katniss coming home first and it still was not in his ability to understand.
The tributes never came back. The train ride has always been one way except for Haymitch and his damned silver and blue boxed sets. He had never seen anyone come home and it was impossible to picture. It had never happened in his life.
Just like they lived separate, they died separate too. Katniss would be sent out to the Victor's cemetery. Her home? That feels too impossible. He can only picture her coming home dead like the rest of them. Even though so far only one of the many who resided there actually was a victor. Abernathy would rot out there with them someday. But now it was bigger, because Katniss would too. He could say he wanted her to win, but he didn't believe it can really happen.
"Prim, you know I love her. I love you too. I can't talk about it now. It feels like a jinx to her. I can't." Gale was serious about the bad luck.
"Talking is bad luck, but screwing you girl's sister is without superstition." Prim laughs.
"I don't know. I don't know."
"Gale. I don't think that is much of an…."
His face is turned to the screen and his attention fades as Katniss is in the clutches of Clove. "No. Please no." He sits by the screen on his knees waiting. Begging.
Prim is there and they cling to each other, no longer caring about their little fight. They take turns keeping watch through the night of the mutts at the cornucopia. The audience is treated to a great view of every horror Cato endures. Gale can't watch it happen to her. If she slips off the cornucopia and is eaten by those things he won't exist any longer.
Prim is asleep in his arms but shrieking. He has to calm her when he is so terrified he can't breathe himself. He can't fight her touch. It is life. It is the only bit of beauty he can find in this dungeon of sorrow.
They move in a place of their own peace. Away. Far away from her and her games, and when they finish, they watch the final hour. They watch the deception of the rule change stoically. They watch the way the too of them would rather die than leave the other and somewhere Prim and Gale discover that they feel the same way.
Even if it kills him, Gale is lost to Prim. The confession of his sinful love puts a smile on an angel's face. He knows. The blue eyes have won.
Katniss' body returns, but his Catnip never does. There are glimpses of her, but Prim rules his heart now. Katniss is there one night as he is beaten. She kissed him that night, but Prim stayed. Prim with her steady blue eyes and her trust and her secrets, is his.
When they kill the world around him, he manages to get a few. He saves Prim and her mother. Nothing else matters so long as she is safe. They know they must be a secret for now, but they are good at keeping secrets. They had been trained to keep every thought secret. Love is not hard to keep from people who are not paying attention.
Prim and Katniss in the same fire. One dies and the other stops existing. Gale spends time with crazy Annie Odair. Nobody else seems willing to bother with her. Gale knows Finn would hate them for just abandoning poor Annie. He cries for Prim and she cries for Finnick.
Selfish little Katniss. She thinks it was all about her. Her pain. Never did she catch on that he had shared a lifetime with her sister and only a few 'what ifs' with her. He handed her the arrow, knowing he had no need to ever see her miserable sad gray eyes again. She was only supposed to suffer for herself. She couldn't see what was in his heart.
He hadn't killed her sister. He never though it could hurt so badly to know his mind had brought the thing that killed her into the world. He had killed his own heart. Gray eyes could never compete with china blue. His, never had a chance against Peeta. Her eyes never had a chance against Prim.
Now, he had no chance at all. He spent the next years helping people, rebuilding, fixing, mending and obsessively chasing the blue eyes that haunted his every minute. He never found them, but he knew Prim would have understood what he did. She would have been proud he even tried to survive. She was the innocent one. She would never have blamed him. Prim was the one full of forgiveness and hope. That was the girl he'd loved.
Gale travels often to District 4. He plays with the baby the green eyed man missed. One day he looks up and Annie's green eyes meet his gray eyes in a different way. As time passes green and gray hurt less in each other and the world moves on.
Annie says to him one day, "Sometimes the water is blue. Some days it is gray and sometimes it is green. But it is all water."
Gale keeps going to District 4. The world is green there. One day it becomes home. Even the bread is green in District 4. Gale eats it with relish.
I actually can't help it….I love the thought of Gale and Annie. Please review – do you see Gale really playing Mr. Lonely? I think he would have been perfect for Annie.