Ted Mosby is wrong, sometimes good things can happen after 2am.

2.01am

It's been a hectic week at work and all Gale really wants to do this Friday night is have a few beers with his buddies, play a few games of pool and go to bed at a reasonable hour. He does not want to go to some lame party with a bunch of people he doesn't know, but somehow he finds himself agreeing to go anyway when his friend Marcus asks. Marcus is convinced he's finally in with a shot with a model he's been sniffing after for months, Gale believes that she's using only using Marcus to make her ex jealous. Marcus doesn't want to hear that, of course, so Gale feels compelled to go with him so he'll be able to offer moral support when Marcus inevitable strikes out. As he expected, the party blows. Everybody here thinks they're really cool, but actually they're laughably dumb. The music is some godawful techno crap being played far too loudly, the food is pretentiously vegan and the only alcohol is cider. Fucking cider.

He hates the city. He hates the people who live in it. And he hates cider.

When he spots Marcus' model standing alone, he immediately persuades his buddy that right now is the perfect time to make his move. The sooner Marcus gets rejected, the sooner he'll want to leave.

"I don't know, man," Marcus whines. "We've only just got here."

"Exactly, and so did she, you're both still sober. You don't want to chat her up when your slurring your words and can't stand up straight, do you?" Gale goads. He hands Marcus a platter of nibbles. "Take these over to her."

Marcus sighs but takes the platter from him. "By the way, there's a blonde over there who keeps checking you out."

Gale waits until Marcus has gone before discreetly turning around to locate the blonde. He spots her straight away, and wonders why he hadn't noticed her earlier. Even in a room full of models, she stands out. He catches her eye and she nods at him. He knows her. It takes a minute to place her and then it hits him. It's Madge Undersee. He laughs to himself. He knew she was living in the city, his mother had told him. She'd also told him to be sure to be polite to her when they ran into each other. When, not if. He'd laughed at his mother. In a city of ten million, two people moving in wildly different circles were very unlikely to run into each other, but here they are, at the same party after all. She's a girl from back home. But she's from a completely different side of town. She's the mayor's daughter. He's the son of a cleaner. They had gone to the same school, even had a few mutual friends, but they weren't friends. At most, they were acquaintances. He knows that he's going to have to talk to her because somehow his mother will know if he doesn't, so she he makes his way in her direction. He'll talk to her for a few minutes, make sure he has enough to report back to his mother and then go hang out by the food table until Marcus strikes out and they can go home.

At first, their conversation is stilted, awkward and polite. They ask after each others families and what they're working at. Then they talk about Katniss, their only real mutual friend, then a few other people they both know. And yet when enough time is passed that Hazelle Hawthorne would be satisfied that Gale hadn't been rude, he's still talking to Madge. He makes some innocuous comment about how different the city is from home and she agrees so vehemently that he laughs and they get into a discussion about how much they both hate living in it. Somehow that had leads into a discussion about the things they actually like about the city. Madge is appalled to hear he hasn't visited any of the museums or art galleries and is so enthusiastic about their virtues, he finds himself swearing he'll go. He tells her about his favorite restaurants, small little gems that she's never heard of.

When the party gets too loud, they climb out onto the balcony to continue their conversation. Gale is surprised at how interesting and funny Madge is, and even though he's trying not to, he can't stop noticing how pretty she is. By now, they're debating the fashion industry. Madge is accusing him of thin-shaming which he didn't know was a thing.

"That's not what I'm saying, you're putting words in my mouth, Undersee," he growls when she scolds him, yet again. "There's nothing wrong with being thin, if that's your body's natural shape. But some of those girls in there are clearly starving themselves to meet industry expectations, and I can't understand how that's attractive to anybody."

"I was told it was because the clothes look better on thin girls."

Gale shakes his head. "Nope, I don't believe that. No way does a pair of jeans look better on those girls than it does on you." He can't help but let his eyes trail over her curvy form. She really wears her jeans well.

Madge blushes and laughs. "I don't think it's about selling jeans. It's about haute couture."

Before Gale can respond, Marcus sticks his head out through the open window. "Hey, Hawthorne, I'm going to go."

"Already?"

Marcus shoots him a look. "It's almost two in the morning."

"What?" Gale checks his watch and sure enough it's one-fifty in the morning. How is that possible? They only just got here.

"Um, I'll be there in a minute." Marcus smirks at him and disappears back inside. Gale waits until he's out of ear shot before laughing. "Told you. She kept him around long enough to make her ex jealous and now she's sucking him off in the bathroom and Marcus is going home alone."

"Poor guy." Madge checks her phone. "Looks like my friend got lucky, he left an hour ago with that photographer's assistant. He didn't even say goodbye."

Gale frowns. "How are you getting home?"

She waves a hand in the general direction of west. "I'm only a couple of blocks that way, I'll walk."

"By yourself? We'll walk you, we're going that way."

It isn't exactly true, but he isn't going to let Madge walk home alone.

"You don't have to," Madge protests.

"You'd be doing me a favor, I won't have to listen to Marcus whine."

Madge laughs. "Alright. I'll just get my coat."

Things are a little bit awkward on the walk to Madge's apartment building. Marcus is morose and doesn't really respond well to Madge's polite attempts at conversation.

Madge points out the subway entrance to them. Luckily, it's the one they need to catch so they don't need to double back. Despite that, Gale is disappointed. It's only taken them a couple of minutes to get here and he doesn't want to say good night to her yet. "I'm just a couple of doors down, I can take it from here," she insists.

Gale shakes his head. "No, we'll walk you."

Madge is going to argue, but Marcus gets in first. "I'm just going to head down there. You can walk Madge the rest of the way."

"I'll just be a minute," Gale tells him. He appreciates that Marcus is giving them some privacy to say goodnight. "Sure," Marcus nods, not really believing him. He gives Gale a grudging thumbs up when Madge isn't looking. Gale rolls his eyes. Nothing's going to happen with Madge. Not because he doesn't want it to, but because he knows what kind of girl Madge is and she's not going to invite him in for a nightcap.

Once Marcus is out of sight, the atmosphere between them shifts. It's no longer awkward, but there's a tension between them that wasn't there before. It feels like the end of a date when you both know something's going to happen. Except Gale is pretty sure that nothing is going to happen. Not tonight anyway, but there's definitely the potential for something to happen in the future.

"This was a lot of fun; it was great catching up with you," Madge says as she comes to a stop in front of a very nice looking apartment building. Through the glass door, Gale can see a doorman watching them, ready to spring up and open the door when Madge is ready.

"Yeah, I didn't want to go tonight, but I'm glad I did," he admits. Madge smiles up at him and for the first time, Gale is glad that they only had fucking cider at the party, because all he had was two glasses. If he'd been drinking beer, he'd have had more and he might have been a little drunk by now and it would have made him do something stupid, like make a pass at her.

"Thanks for walking me home," she says. She glances at the building behind her, but makes no move to go inside.

"So, um." Gale clears his throat. It's been a long time since he was nervous around a girl before. Normally, he has pretty reliable moves but he knows they won't work on Madge. So instead he decides to take the straightforward approach. "Do you want to have dinner with me sometime?"

"I do," Madge nods quickly, blushing at her own eagerness. He grins and takes out his phone for her to enter her details When she hands it back, she leans up on her toes and kisses his cheek. She steps back before he has a chance to pull her to him and kiss her the way he wants to kiss her. "Good night, Gale; be sure to call."

"I will," he promises. He watches her go inside and waves at her through the glass before heading back towards the subway. On a whim, he dials her number. "See," he says when she answers it.

She laughs. "Goodnight, Gale."

Marcus looks surprised when Gale steps onto the platform beside him. "I really didn't think I'd see again. Did you strike out too? Not happening with Blondie?"

Gale just grins to himself and shakes his head. He knows that this is the beginning of something special with Madge.