And the World Turned

by savemesalzburg

Author's Note: Hey kiddies! I know it's been awhile. I know this isn't an update to Contre Qui but I'm working on that. You have no idea how many times I've started a chapter and trashed it. The rendition of the chapter that I have now should be the one that I'll be posting. In the mean time, I have another oneshot for you. It doesn't really have a set pairing. I think of it kind of as a Katniss/Gale friendship kind of fic, but you as the reader may take it any way that you like. It is based off of the song "And the World Turned" by the Gabe Dixon Band. :3 There are little snippets of the lyrics in the text, so if you don't know the song they will be there. :3 It is set at the end of Mockingjay, in between the last chapter and the epilogue. Again I apologize for the delay on Contre Qui and it should be up shortly! This has Everlark love too, so don't worry, kiddies. :3

DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Hunger Games and I also do not own the song And the World Turned.

As much as I loved living with Peeta, and as much as he made me whole, I still made sure that I found time, every once and awhile, to go to the woods with Gale. Not the Gale that I know now, though. I still go to the woods with the Gale I knew before I was a piece in the Capitol's games. I could feel him here with me. He was with me in the smell of the woods, in the touch of the moss on my cheek, and in the warmth of my father's hunting jacket upon my shoulders. Usually, I came to the woods with a bow in my hand and a quiver of arrows upon my back. Today they were left at home due to an ulterior motive on my mind, as I do from time to time. Unfortunately, these are the days when Peeta is worried the most. Because he knows these are my worst days.

And he's right. As soon as I crossed over the fence, I felt the warmth pooling in the corners of my eyes. I was clumsy, stumbling through the woods and probably scaring away any of the game that was still left here. I could barely see anything through the blur of tears. My stomach was churning, even though I had consumed nothing today. I couldn't see where I was going, but my feet seemed to know exactly where they were taking me. Before I knew it, I was standing on the shores of the lake where we had spent so much time together. Gale was the only person that I have brought here. I intended to bring Peeta here eventually, but it didn't feel quite right. This lake was a special, almost sacred place. It was once a secret shared between me and my father, and after he died, it became a secret that I shared with Gale. The sad thing was that neither of those people seemed to exist anymore.

"Girl stood on the rocks with the water at her feet, the sun on her skin, and a tear on her cheek. With her hand on her chest and the wind in her hair, underneath her breath like a beggar's prayer she said, 'I miss you, come back to me. I wish you'd come back to me.'"

My sobbing quieted to a few stray, silent tears and I stared down into the water at my reflection. Although the day was crisp and chilly, the sky was clear and the sun was shining, allowing for a mirror effect on the choppy surface of the water. What I saw staring back at me was not the Girl on Fire who had freed Panem from the cruelty of the Capitol. Instead, I saw a pitiful brat with puffy cheeks and eyes, and a dribble of snot running from her nose. A little girl in the market who wanted a cupcake from the bakery and was denied the privilege by her parents, not a girl who had shot President Coin, nor the girl who had been the bane of President Snow's existence. My fire had gone out, and if only for the time being, I was vulnerable.

The world around me was silent. All I heard was the beating of my own resentful heart.

"I miss you, Gale," I finally murmured to nothing in particular. "Come back to me." But nobody heard. And the world turned.

"And that's when the girl reached in her pocket, and pulled out a silver, heart-shaped locket. Opened it up and stared for awhile at her faded boy, with a lazy smile."

And suddenly, out of impulse that I was well-known for, I felt angry. I reached into the pocket of my pants and pulled out the mockingjay locket that Gale had given me. The picture of my mother and Prim had been taken out and placed in the collaboration book of memories that Peeta and I put together. All that was left was a picture of him, worn around the edges and faded, but still visible. A rare, lazy smile was on his lips, and I could see fleeting laughter in his breathtaking Seam Gray eyes. The faded quality of the picture was almost appropriate, because the Gale that laughed and smiled with me in the woods had faded away, too. The pang of anger in my gut turned again to sadness and despair. I felt the throbbing pain in my chest rising to my eyes and beginning to bubble out the corners again. I couldn't keep doing this to myself. Even though he was miles away and virtually unreachable, he was still destroying me from the inside out with his memory. I had to get rid of everything that still attached him to me, or else he was going to keep destroying me for the rest of my life, and I didn't deserve that. Peeta didn't deserve that.

And she walked to the deepest part of the river, and she thought about diving in. She imagined how the current would overtake her; how easy it would be to disappear. But instead she threw the locket in the cool, blue water...

And again, I was acting out of impulse. Locket in hand, I darted off of the shoreline, running until the water was waist high. I stood there, still, nearly hyperventilating from the effort that it took to run through the water. I held the locket high above the gentle waves, staring down into their murky depths. I slowly let my knees bend, allowing my body to become submerged beneath the surface of the lake. Still, the hand grasping the locket remained above and out of harm, reaching towards the heavens as if I were crying out for help. But I wasn't. And, if someone did come walking by, would they save a miserable girl trying to drown herself in a lake?

I wouldn't.

Finally, when I ran out of oxygen, I fought to allow myself to come to the surface and gasp for precious air. Waves of adrenaline began rushing through my body as a natural reaction to near-asphyxiation. My legs felt weak from the lack of oxygen in the blood flow to my muscles. The fist that clasped the locket was shaking out of fury and out of fear. Once I caught my breath, I let out a vehement cry and threw the locket as hard as I could across the choppy waves. It skipped across the surface for an instant, and then I watched it disappear into the frigid blue waves.

I was relieved that when I returned home that night, dripping wet and violently shivering, that Peeta did not ask any questions right away. I walked in the door with blue lips and chattering teeth, and all he did was run to meet me, leaving whatever dinner that he was making on the stove to burn, and wrap me in his arms. I fell numbly against his warm chest, feeling emotionally lighter but completely exhausted.

"Katniss..." was all he whispered, picking me up and carrying me upstairs to our bedroom. He set me down on the bed and wrapped me in a warm blanket. While I stared numbly at the floor, he dug through his drawers for a pair of warm pants and a t-shirt. I used my trembling hands to take my matted hair out of its braid, mildly disgusted when strings of seaweed fell out of my hair and onto my bedroom floor.

"What did you do, sweetheart, go swimming?" he teased lightly, desperately trying to make me smile. To humor him, I managed a small laugh. He would be devastated if he knew that I had tried to drown myself in a lake because I was still distraught over losing Gale. Every time I mentioned Gale, I saw that glow in his eyes disappear. And, to be honest, who could blame him for being jealous to an extent? Knowing that I had been in the woods trying to destroy myself would kill him.

I don't remember much of what happened after that. I put on the clothes that Peeta gave me and halfheartedly brushed my hair. I didn't braid it because I didn't have the energy. Peeta made me some soup and a cup of hot tea which I merely picked at. Neither of us said much, but I was happy that he was there that night. Especially when we went to bed.

That night in her bed, she let herself weep, she let herself cry herself to sleep...

The only sound in our bedroom that night was the sound of sobbing and sweet whispers of love from my kind and dedicated Peeta. He let me lay the entire night with my face int he crook of his neck, wetting his skin with my tears. His fingers traced circles on my back, strong arms holding me tight against his body, desperately trying to protect me from all of the things that were hurting me. But he knew better than anyone that sometimes you couldn't protect yourself, or the person you loved, from things that were harming them. He didn't fall asleep until I had quieted my crying and made him believe that I, too, had fallen into a restless sleep. I lay awake, feeling peace watch over me as I watched Peeta sleeping beside me. Eventually, I must have drifted off as well.

And there in a dream somewhere in the night, she saw the boy and the locket by the riverside...

Gale couldn't handle it anymore. He loved working in District 2, but he had to get out for a little while. He needed to see her. He needed to tell her how he felt before it was too late. He knew that he had made a mistake leaving things the way that they were after the last time he saw her int he Capitol. She had been the only thing on his mind since then, haunting him in his dreams. And the only way to sleep peacefully was to tell her that he loved her and that he always would, before he lost her to the Mellark boy forever. That ways why he left, with a knowing smile from Beetee, to do "research" for their latest weapon. That was why he had set out from District 2, walking towards home, trekking day and night through the woods so that he could declare to Katniss that he was sorry and that he loved her. Maybe, if luck was on his side, her heart could even be his.

Now, finally, he stood in the dark and familiar woods outside of District 12, breathing in the smells of home - the smells of her. His surroundings sent his memories flying backwards to a time, amybe not as simple as he would like, but a much simpler time than things currently were. A time where he could sit with Katniss and laugh. A time where he would watch her smile with the sunlight dancing on her temple and reflecting in her familiar eyes. But that was a time no more. The emptiness of the woods only made the feeling of these times seem even farther away than they had been when he was miles from here. Her essence and her spirit seemed as if it were no longer here. And back in a time that seemed like a century ago, she had always been with him when he was hunting. Even when she was broadcasted on live television, kissing the Mellark boy in front of the entire country.

Gale came upon the lake, their lake, and felt as empty as ever before. He thought fondly of a time, not two summers ago, when he had gone swimming with her here. That was aroudn the time he had started to fall in love with her. He remembered her body, clothed in only her undergarments, and remembered the light of the sun reflecting off of the water droples on her skin, enhancing the curve of her waist and tightness of her stomach. He remembered how he had wanted to grab her by the hips and kiss her sweet lips, tasting the lake and the sun on them. And, if he had, would she be his right now? Would she be in his care instead of the care of the baker's son?

In the moonlight, his trained eye caught sight of something shining on the shoreline, caught on one of the rocks. Cautiously, he made his way to it and picked it up. Cleaning off the seaweed and scum upon it, he saw a familiar trinket laying across his palm. The mockingjay locket. Her mockingjay locket. The one that he had given her not so long ago. Opening it, he found that the picture of Mrs. Everdeen and Primrose was gone, and all that was left was a faded, and now waterlogged, picture of him. Gale's heart dropped into the pit of his stomach. So she had just decided to throw him away, eh? Drown his memory? Or, he hoped, maybe she had just lost it. But he knew Katniss better than that. He knew how she worked and how she thought. And this was just another one of her impulsive acts.

Placing the locket in his pocket, Gale turned and took off at a sprint, barreling back towards District 12. He just had to see her. He had to give this backt o her. He wasn't going to let her forget. Not him! Not now. Reaching the fence, he tore underneath it with no hesitation. He was kicking up dust behind him, and probably still the ashes of a long-dead victim of the bombing. He knew exactly where he was headed. To her house, in Victor's Village. Upon reaching it, he found it dark. She was asleep. It was too late today.

Maybe, he thought, he could put it on her dresser without her waking. She would have known he was here, and she would come looking for him in the woods. Where he would be, waiting as he always was. As silent as the summer wind, he crept into the house and up the stairs. He knew how to open a door without making a sound, and where to step to avoid creaks on the stairs.

Upon opening her bedroom door, the sight he saw before him wrenched his heart from where it was in his chest and threw it into an endless pit. There they both lay, sound asleep. Her hair was down, archangel face hidden in his skin, and warrior body all wrapped up in him. He cradled her against his body so tightly, as if he were trying to love his memory right out of her body. He had to suppress a cry of anguish as he shut the door and made his way smoothly down the stairs. He was out the door and halfway to the woods in a matter of minutes. In the dusty square of town, he stopped to catch his breath. So that was it. She had chosen Peeta. She really had forgotten him. He thought about pocketing the locket again and taking it back to District 2 with him, but he knew that it would torture him for the remainder of his existence. It had to go. If she wanted to forget him, then fine. He wanted to forget her too. He held the locket and in one swift pull, separated the mockingjay from its chain. He threw each piece into the dirt and stomped them intot he ground. He guessed that was one thing that he had in common with Katniss. They both acted out of impulse.

Because after the destruction of the locket, Gale felt worse.

In the woods, he lifted his head to the heavens and let out an angry cry, followed by a mournful whisper of, "I miss you, come back to me. I wish you'd come back to me..."

But nobody heard,and he disappeared into the night.

And the world turned.
And the world turned.
And the world turned.