Disclaimer: I don't know the trilogy The Hunger Games. Thus, I also don't own any of the characters that feature in my story. They are merely on loan and all I own is my imagination.
A/N: This one shot is something I have wanted to post for a couple of weeks now. I wrote it immediately after I finished the trilogy, which took me less than a week, because I was basically obsessed with the books and the different relationships in the story. I am a fan of the Katniss relationships, including Finnick and Peeta, but Gale definitely stole my heart. I don't think the Katniss/Gale pairing got closure they deserved, or enough attention, so that's where this website and all the amazing stories out there come in. Yes, I have read some of your stories and reviewed the ones I managed to finish. They tamed my obsession, so I hope that you will give my story a shot and that it will ultimately do the same. :)
Among Friends
"I don't believe in fairytales, but I think the wolves have got me…"
It was the last day the cameras would be around to track and trace her. It was the last day she would have to think about what emotion she was showcasing on her face and decide whether giving in to tears or forcing a smile would keep her alive. It hadn't been fair, but it was how things had been for… forever. Her days as a small-town huntress didn't even feel like a distant memory, but more like something from a book. A story her father used to tell her before bedtime.
The red light of the camera hadn't even faded for a full minute before she was back on her feet. Feet that used to be able to withstand even the roughest textures underneath when bare, but now looked dainty in her black ballerina shoes, the tops covered with black lace to match the lace ribbon around her dress. Her dress with the empire waistline, virgin white, despite its short hemline. She fingered the soft fabric as she kept her hands close to her body, trying to not stand out. Although she did, like a sore thumb, and how couldn't she? She had managed to survive the Hunger Games, clawing on to her humanity, and it had left marks. The scars had already begun to fade, naturally, since she had refused to let them do anything more than was necessary to her after the Games. On top of that, she was wearing a dress, something people only did during festivities or on special occasions. Not just a dress, but a white dress, a color girls were only allowed to wear as long as they were virgins. It hadn't been her idea to wear it, but everything for ratings, right?
She let go of the fabric and touched the fence encircling District 12. The power was off, as it usually was. She turned her head, looking for witnesses that weren't there. She finally got some of her privacy back and now that no one was watching her, she couldn't help but show some rebellion. She squatted down and pulled at the fence to make the hole bigger than it was. Despite her not liking the dress, it was still a gift. She maneuvered herself underneath the fence, more cautious than she had ever been and hoping the best for the dress. Once through, she kicked off her shoes, leaving them by the fence before disappearing into the cover of the trees.
The forest no longer just held good memories; images from her surroundings in the Games also crept in. How couldn't they? It was something she had to accept, but tried not to linger on for too long. This was her forest, her and Gale's. She bit her lip as she began the short trek to where they always used to meet. She wondered if he could be found there. Did everything have to change?
He wasn't there, waiting for her the way she often liked to remember him.
"Gale!" she called his name loudly, knowing how stupid her action was and how it could have lead to her death in the Games. But still he didn't show. She hadn't expected him to. Just hoped.
Things had changed between them, whether she liked it or not. What he must have thought of her, leaving—the both of them knowing that he was the only man alive who mattered to her—and then falling irrationally in love on television for everyone to see. But it had been just that, an act for the people who were watching, even though Peeta's feelings had, indeed, been more genuine than her own.
"Gale," she said his name one last time before deciding to leave.
A twig snapped behind her and she twirled around, surprised to run in to someone else besides Gale. Most people wouldn't even dare making it out here, let alone show themselves.
"Well well, if it isn't the girl on fire herself," the guy across her said, his tone somewhat demeaning.
She faintly recognized the dark curls and light eyes, probably from school or walking around town, but a name never came.
"Aren't you a little overdressed for hunting… or has the fame gotten to you? Just a little?" The guy held his thumb and index finger apart to underline his point.
She raised an eyebrow, but answered him anyway. "I was looking for—"
"Your rebound?" The guy nodded.
The lines appearing on her face showed her confusion.
He just chuckled. "Oh man, you are a virgin, aren't you?" He looked at her and she instinctively took a step back. "To be honest, I thought it was all an act. I mean you and dough boy must have gotten plenty of opportunities to—"
"When would we have gotten the opportunity?" she boldly retaliated. "The cameras were always on us. We had no privacy, no time alone. And it was an act," she added, feeling the need to defend herself even to people she didn't know.
"Well, I don't see any cameras now." The guy swung his arms out to abstractly gesture to the space around them. "We have all the privacy in the world. Even Gale doesn't appear to be here." He took an intimidating step towards her. "There's no one around to save you now, sweetheart," he pronounced the last word the way Haymitch used to.
The look in his eyes was too determined and intense, and she knew that she had better get out of there. So she turned, intent on fleeing, but another guy with almost a similar look in his eyes was blocking her way. His dirty blond locks fell so he was looking at her through hooded eyes.
"Katniss," he acknowledged her politely enough, but she recognized an act when she saw one, and she sensed danger when she was caught in the middle of it.
"Consider us your welcome home party," she heard the guy with the dark curls say.
She had to think fast and bent her knees somewhat. She sprinted to the right, having seen the large tree from the corner of her eyes. If she could only get in to that one, she would be able to outrun them and get away. But when she got there and before she could pull herself up into the tree, a third guy jumped out of it. His green eyes glimmered as he told her, "Should have brought your bow."
"Why are you doing this?" She stumbled backwards, all of her exits inaccessible.
The guy with the blond locks openly leered at her. "Because you look beautiful in that dress."
"Yeah," the guy with the green eyes agreed. "We barely recognized you in it."
The brown-haired guy came up behind her and she turned to face him as soon as she felt his breath on her skin. She was like a trapped animal. "Although, personally I think that you would look even better out of it." He reached out to touch her dress and she raised her hands ready to fight. But someone stopped her and grabbed her arms, holding them tight as he pulled her back against his chest.
"Please," she finally managed to force the word out of her mouth. Begging was usually beneath her. "I can get you food, and money."
She felt the guy holding her laugh and the one across from her simply shook his head while wrapping a strand of her long black tresses around his finger. "What we want from you is entertainment," he told her, letting go of her hair but lowering his fingers to her shoulder instead.
"Stop!" she yelled at them.
The boy with the green eyes came to stand in front of her as well and joined in, "Yes, stop! Please help her!"
Again, the guy holding her laughed."It's just us out here… sweetheart."
This sent all three of them into a fit of laughter and she began to squirm, trying to find a moment of weakness, but the hold of the one holding her was solid.
Filthy hands touched her dress, her hair, and her shoulders, now bare since one of them slid down the straps of her dress. She wanted to scream, but refused to. It would only waste her energy and she would need it. If only one of them would make a mistake or look away for too long. She prayed for a distraction and she didn't have to wait for long. She heard it, the whoosh of air, before the arrow struck the green-eyed boy in the shoulder.
He cried out and dropped down onto his knees, his face contorting with the sudden impact and pain he was feeling. All heads turned to look in the direction where the arrow had come from and she couldn't help but smile. Her salvation had come in the form of her raven-haired friend. She knew it and somewhere the guys realized this as well. Only they couldn't spot him, neither could she, but she knew he was there.
"Get up," the brown-haired guy told the one on his knees. And he did, but not to go into the forest to look for Gale. Once he disappeared into the forest, she knew that he wouldn't be back. She wisely kept her mouth shut, but the ones left behind came to the same conclusion soon enough.
"What a wuss," the blond-haired guy remarked. "It was just one arrow."
The other guy also called the boy who fled a couple of names before focusing on the situation at hand again. "Move her behind that tree," he commanded.
The blond-haired guy still holding on to her began moving backwards, pulling her with him. When they reached the tree, she sensed his presence. He was there, hitting the guy holding her over the head with his bow and knocking him unconscious.
"Run," she heard Gale tell her. And she did what he said, but didn't get very far. The brown-haired guy, the one left standing, caught her. He spun her around so her back was against his chest, and she heard the click. It was ominous.
"Not so fast." He caught Gale's attention as he held the knife to Katniss' chest. The blade was sharp; she could feel that much, even though he wasn't even applying any real pressure, yet.
Her breathing was heavy as was Gale's who had stopped dead in his tracks. He noticed the severity of the situation; she could see how he was holding himself back. His eyes revealed pure rage, but also distress and it was that part of him—the part that couldn't bear to live a life without her—that kept him from going wild. His grey eyes were beautiful in their current state, the color close to the faintest of blues.
"I should've known he was here somewhere," the brown-haired guy said more to himself than to anyone else. He cursed, thinking of the ways he could regain control of the situation again. Suddenly his eyes lit up and he briefly removed the knife to point it at Gale. "Put down the bow."
She saw Gale thinking and nodded at him, encouraging him. But the boy holding her stopped him just in time. "If you do anything stupid…" He returned the knife, placing it a little higher this time. "No doubt you're quick with a bow, but I used to work down at the slaughterhouse, so I'm quite resourceful with a knife." He dragged the knife until it was up against her throat. "You should see the things I can do with it. I know precisely where will cause the most damage."
"Gale," she said his name, barely moving her lips. She felt his gaze shift back onto her. "Take. Him. Out."
The brown-haired guy smirked, she felt the outline against her cheek and neck. He pulled her as close as he could, allowing the knife to dig into her skin a little more. His eyes continued to be set on Gale. "Hey, it's your choice," he told him casually.
She felt her heart sink when Gale dropped the bow and had to throw his bag of arrows into the woods behind him.
"You know, this might not be a total loss on your part," he spoke to Gale as if a friend would, all the while loosening his hold on her so he could turn her around. Her back was now facing Gale. "I'll make you a deal," he began, sweeping his leg underneath Katniss' feet so she was forced to fall backwards. Her back landed on a pile of leaves and her hair sprawled all around her.
Gale moved forwards, but the brown-haired guy had lowered himself on top of her within seconds, the knife once again against her throat. "Ah ah," he directed at Gale. "I'll rethink my offer if you keep that up."
"What offer?" Gale finally asked, his eyes flitting nervously from her to him.
"Well, let's go over what we all know, shall we?" His hand had now found her knee and he squeezed it, a comforting gesture if he hadn't been the one holding the knife to her throat. "You two have been seen sneaking off into the woods for years now… You," he glanced back over at Gale, "have been a little too possessive of her over the years, if you want my opinion," he finished his sentence while looking down at Katniss again. "And every time they showed your so called romance with dough boy in the local bar, he turned countless colors of green… Of course, he tried to hide it, going off with a different girl about every other night, am I saying that right?" he directed the last part at Gale again who was fuming.
"Don't know if you filled her in about that yet." He lowered the knife down to her chest, heaving as she tried to hold back all of her emotions. She shouldn't really be hurt by Gale's actions, or even be thinking about it considering her circumstances at the moment. But she did. It was eating her up on the inside and she was sure Gale could tell. "But don't feel bad," the brown-haired guy continued, pausing briefly to dip his head and kiss her. It was a short kiss because she turned her head away and her hands came up to his chest. "Get off me!"
The knife came back to her throat, shutting her up, although she didn't remove her arms. "See, you have one thing that those other girls no longer have, something that makes you incredibly desirable not only to me, but also to your buddy Gale," he whispered his name into her ear. "And I think you can guess what it is…" he trailed off as he trailed his fingers further up her leg.
She squirmed and he switched positions of his hands, using one to pin her wrists behind her back and the other to keep the knife positioned against her bare leg, picking a place way above her hemline. What happened next was expected, though the guy threatening her life didn't see it coming. His positioning of the knife was no longer life-threatening, but more sadistic and twisted, so Katniss exchanged a brief look with Gale. She braced her hands against the guy's chest and pushed with all her might, while Gale was as light and quick on his feet as ever and came up from behind. He pulled the guy off her and sent him flying against a tree. He dug the knife into Katniss' skin as if trying to hold on, but it wasn't enough. Although the cut left behind on her leg hurt and she couldn't look at the blood, it was nothing compared to the fear he had made her feel.
She thought she heard something crack when the brown-haired boy came in contact with the tree, but she didn't cringe. She had seen worse happen to people she actually had sympathy for. This left her empty, not feeling much of anything. All she could do was lay back and raise her eyes to the sky above her. She almost forgot Gale was there as well, almost. Because without giving her any warning, he scooped her up from the ground. She began to squirm, an automatic response still programmed in her brain from when she was part of the Games, only days ago, and because of what had just taken place. Her eyes flew over to Gale's, grey on grey. "What are you doing?"
"We need to get you back so your mom can take a look at that cut," he explained to her, using the voice he usually reserved for his younger siblings.
She panicked, but he paid no attention to it as he began making his way through the density that was the forest. "Gale, put me down," she demanded of him. Him carrying her was unnecessary really, yet somewhere she thought it the perfect action as well. "My mom can't know about… this." Her eyes were pleading with him, almost wearing him down, but they reached the fence before he could change his mind and all that came out of his mouth was, "Tough."
She repeated the same word, after hearing the buzzing of the fence. Electricity had been switched on, a fortunate case for her. Gale didn't say a word, though she could tell from the tenseness of his features that he wasn't pleased with how things were working out. He turned and carried her back into the woods, still not putting her down. And she didn't tell him to anymore, knowing better than to set him off. She tried not to think of anything, not yet, listening to Gale's steady heartbeat instead. Carrying her was barely taking anything out of him, not that she had expected it to. Most things didn't. One hand was lightly braced against his chest and she thought about the lines underneath, all that muscle that he had built out hunting with her. Many girls would envy her, being in his strong arms and feeling his skin through fabric. During the last two years, her mind had wandered at times, thinking about what he would like without a shirt and focusing too intensely on small details such as the stubble on his face. A face that had changed right before her eyes, from a teenager' into that of a man's.
They were at the familiar cabin in the woods before she knew it. He nudged the door open with his foot and carried her over the threshold in her white dress. Her heart sped up at the image it left behind, but was faced with reality as soon as he put her down. Her feet found their footing on the rough wooden boards of the cabin, bare and covered with dirt. She continued examining herself as he went to close the door, giving her a moment. One leg was okay, while the other had blood dried to it and some was still flowing freely. She didn't lift her skirt to look at the cut, but she felt it. Her dress was ruined, the ribbon torn, and the straps still hanging down her shoulders. She was the darker version of the story of Snow White and what really happened to her in the forest. The wolves had gotten to her…
Without thinking, she unzipped her dress and let it slide down her body. Gale only looked at her, appearing to understand her reaction. She stepped out of the dress and kicked it across the room. He couldn't help admiring the arch of her back and the litheness of her legs as she took everything out on the dress. It felt wrong, but it was also something he had always found himself thinking about, usually when he already lay in bed and was about to dose off.
"What were you thinking, wearing this dress, out into a secluded area nonetheless?" he questioned her softly while walking back over to her, forcing himself to keep his eyes on hers and not on anything else.
The grey of her eyes momentarily darkened. He was treating her like his younger sister. "I didn't pick to wear it," she defended herself. "And I came looking for you as soon as I was done with my last interview, with everything." She couldn't look at him directly when saying those words. "You were supposed to be there." She crossed her arms over her slim frame, standing across from him as securely as she could dressed in just her black bra and light pink underwear.
He pretended not to be affected by her minimally clad figure. He was. It was hard to ignore her breasts, which she had always hid so well in her boyish clothes and the lines of her body, feminine in all the right places. His eyes swept from her legs upwards, shortly stopping at her underwear. The girly color threw him off a little, but then again what had he expected her to wear underneath? Before he could spend too much time on that, he threw himself back in their little argument. "How was I supposed to know you'd come? It's not like we've spent a lot of time together lately."
She lowered her eyes and he knew he had her. But it didn't make him feel good, nothing about what had happened so far made him feel good, and the cut on her leg was a reminder of the harshness of the situation she had only just come out of. She had been unprepared. She was naïve like that at times, like now when she was standing there in barely anything and not thinking it would have any affect whatsoever on him.
"Hey," he broke their silence, taking the few steps over to her that were needed to close the distance. He pushed her chin up so she was looking at him again. "I'm glad you're back. I hate the circumstances in which we had our reunion, but I'm glad I was there… and that I got you out of there relatively unharmed."
Her eyes searched his, he didn't know for what. What he did know was that when her hand came up hesitatingly so she could brush her fingers against his forehead, it was perfect. "I'm glad I'm back too," she shared with him after having dropped her hand, a slight flush coloring her cheeks. "I don't know how to thank you for… you know." She awkwardly crossed and uncrossed her arms, feeling as if she was back on display and not knowing exactly how to act.
Gale nodded. "We better take a look at that cut," he said, hoping to change where her mind was at. "Why don't you get up on there." He nodded in the general direction of the small sink and the self-made counter next to it.
Katniss did as he asked, walking over there and pulling herself up onto the counter with ease. The muscles in her arms had strengthened over the years. She now rested them in her lap as she watched Gale look through the first aid kit that her mom had put together for them. He pulled out leaves of some kind, a clean cloth, and bandages. He laid the items out neatly beside where she was sitting before coming to stand in front of her.
He placed his warm hands on her knees, slowly pushing them apart. He heard her breath catch in her throat, a reaction she couldn't be more embarrassed about. Fortunately, Gale didn't stop to look at her because if he did, he would see it: the affection that went beyond caring for a friend, the way she had to ball her fists to keep from reaching out and touching him everywhere, and the way her eyes were burning a hole through his shirt. Absence made the heart grow fonder alright. It was almost unbearable to be this close to him and have him touch her while she had to sit back without doing anything. What had happened before, what had almost happened, wasn't as traumatic as it should be because somewhere she knew that he wouldn't let anyone hurt her like that, no matter how angry he was with her or how much had happened during their time apart.
She followed his hands as they worked on the cut on the inside of her thigh. "No more white dresses for you," he remarked out of the blue as he began bandaging up that part of her leg.
"It wasn't my idea," she defended herself, although meekly. "I didn't think it looked that bad…" she mumbled to herself.
Gale shook his head when she wasn't looking. If only she knew how irresistible she looked to him in that dress, not because it was white, but because he had hardly ever seen her in a dress, let alone one that was actually made to fit her. He had wanted to rip it off as much as the guy in the forest had, although for him it would always remain a fantasy locked in the quarters of his mind, where he could do and think whatever without having to feel guilty or be so careful.
"Was the dress just for show then?" he formulated his question as carefully as he could. From the look she gave him, he knew subtlety wouldn't get him anywhere. "Are you still a virgin?" His knuckles brushing against the front of her underwear as if on purpose, but she knew by the way he pulled back his hand as if he had just been burnt, that wasn't the case.
Her breath temporarily hitched in her throat and she was unable to speak, the contact having been so intimate and sudden. He could tell she was thrown off by his slip-up, as was he, but he could also see her eyes widen as she repeated his question in her head. Anger bubbled up inside of her, realizing what he was insinuating even when he should know her better than that. "You think I'm not?" she countered, her knuckles turning white as she pressed her hands down on the counter, her fingers turned inwards so her nails could dig into the wood. "You know the rules, only virgins can wear a white dress," she reminded him, her childish manner a sharp contrast to the mature subject matter.
He shrugged, lowering his head in shame of his assumption, although he knew that it was too late to simply drop it and let it be. He wanted to know, needed to, no matter how hypocritical it seemed on his part. He had been with girls before and he had never felt the need to tell her in so many words, although he was sure that she had assumed as much. And never once had he seen the jealousy taint her features the way it altered his. "I just figured you and Peeta would have done it by now, seeing as how in love you two were. On screen anyway." He dragged his eyes upwards to meet hers that looked as if a storm was raging in them. "But I guess that answers my question, since I don't recall there having been a big drawn-out sex scene…" He looked away. "Too bad, because that would've really increased the ratings, and your popularity."
Her hands flew up and he felt them tug at his shirt. He had to look up, had to, and before he could even fully meet her gaze, he felt it. He felt the sharp sting of the palm of her hand as it came in sudden contact with his skin. The sound of the slap rang in his ears and his eyes flew over to hers, angry at the fact that she had the boldness to actually hit him. At the same, he understood and his stance softened at the sight of her eyes, glazed until she blinked the upcoming tears away. She was stronger than that. He had only seen her cry once—right after the death of her father—and close to tears on a handful of occasions—like when her name was called to participate in the Hunger Games.
"How dare you," she breathed, her words terse as she pushed them through her teeth. "Like I asked for what almost happened to me out in the woods because I looked like a girl for once? And like I should have been a better person than all the other contestants when I did what I did because I knew it would increase my chance of making it out alive! You're the one who has me up on a pedestal, Gale." She pointed her index finger at him. "You're the one who put me up there and you have no right, no right to come at me like this!"
She dropped her hand back down, briefly turning her head while struggling with herself to remain seated and to not just go at him. He didn't understand and even if she tried to explain it to him, he still wouldn't, not fully. But she would try, for the sake of whatever remnant of their friendship she would be able to recover through this. "You weren't there with me," she began. She shook her head before locking eyes with him again, going on a little more calmly. "All the things I had to go through." She paused as images of her experiences in the Games flashed before her eyes, knocking the breath out of her for a few silent seconds."Peeta was my sanity… We both used each other," she admitted. "Our need to survive and come back to our families so much bigger than anything else. And while Peeta's feelings might have grown into something more genuine, somewhere he knew that it wouldn't last, but in that moment, when we were relying on one another for our lives… it was real enough. It was the only good thing about the Games, the one thing that made them bearable," she went on before Gale could interrupt her.
"You weren't there," she repeated. But how she had wished that he was when it was all happening, an incredibly selfish thought when she knew that it would have been his life on the line for hers. And she knew that he would have done so, exchanged places with Peeta, if she had only thought to ask.
"Catnip."
She shook her head, her hair now cascading over her shoulders, covering her up more than her arms had. "All you did was kiss me once, Gale. And you never brought it up, what it was supposed to mean, so I thought that meant—"
"What was I supposed to do, Katniss?" His hand disappeared in his hair out of sheer frustration. He began pacing, something he always did otherwise his emotions would get the upper hand. "You never picked up on any of the signs. I was in love with you. I am still in love with you, but after getting no response after I kissed you and what happened during the Games between you and—"
"No response," she mimicked his words, cutting him off. "What was I supposed to do, Gale?" She pulled both of her hands towards her chest for emphasis. "I didn't know how to react. In case you missed it, I'm not the girl guys flock to for anything, let alone kissing. So why would you?" She held his gaze. "You're two years older than I am, and you were already dating girls and doing… things," she waved both hands to the side, "with them before I even knew what sex really meant." She couldn't even say the word without color spreading across her face and making her feel embarrassed and so young compared to Gale. "You're the guy girls talked about at school." She shrugged. "While I still feel weird wearing a dress."
He couldn't help but snort at her final remark. "But you feel fine wearing just your underwear?"
It made Katniss painfully aware of how little she was wearing and she shifted uncomfortably, re-crossing her arms over her chest, though it did nothing for the bottom half of her body. His eyes had free reign and while he had taken advantage of that today, he respectfully kept his eyes on hers. "It doesn't matter," she told him.
He walked back over to her until he was standing right in front of her once more. "Why doesn't it matter?"
She didn't say anything, but quickly turned her head from him. He had been closer a couple of minutes ago, but something about their interaction had changed. She felt his fingers against her skin as he ran his knuckles across the side of her face that he couldn't see, causing her to turn her head back so she was looking at him. "Why doesn't it matter?" he repeated his question.
"Because you're you, Gale." She made the answer sound so simple. "You've been here for everything. You see me as your little sister."
He chuckled. "Obviously I don't, do I?" He kept looking at her as he placed his hands on her knees and gently pushed her legs apart once more. He was careful to mind her cut as he went to stand in between them. "I'm in love with you." He rested his arm on her undamaged leg, palm upwards and waiting.
She eyed him for a few seconds, stubborn before sighing and giving in. She uncrossed her arms and dropped her hand into his, their fingers lacing together as if they were made to. "Why?"
His other hand slid past her ear so he could grab her by the back of the head. "Because of who you are, and because you can sit here in your underwear and still argue with me…" His gaze dropped and lingered on her bare skin, making her feel like maybe he had been waiting for her all this time. "While I can think of so many other things to do," he whispered in her ear.
He felt her shiver, reacting to his touch and words. Keeping his eyes on her as if almost asking for permission, he dipped his head and caught her lips with his. The kiss was slow and sweet, reflective of her naïveté and how deep his feelings for her really went. She parted her lips almost immediately, but he took his time before deepening the kiss, finally doing so when he felt her hands at his shirt and her legs almost wrap themselves around him. He removed his hand from her hair and placed it on her bandaged leg, making sure that she wouldn't be able to wrap it completely around him. Although she might have forgotten about the pain for now, it would still hurt. She was the one who finally had to break the kiss needing air, while he took the time to place a kiss on her temple.
"Fight over?" she asked, closing her eyes as he placed another kiss.
"Uh huh." She felt his smile against her skin. "Friends?" was his question.
"The kind that share everything," she returned playfully, although her brow wrinkled up only a second afterwards. Her expression was so serious that Gale stopped what he was doing so he could properly look at her. "What's wrong, Catnip? Are you having second thoughts because if you are…" he trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence. His heart sunk as he thought about going to just being friends with her. All of this would just be a memory to hold on to.
She saw all of this play out on his face and she quickly shook her head, not wanting him to cause himself unnecessary heartache. "No, no. I just…" She bit into her bottom lip. "I just don't want to have sex… now," she added not wanting to hurt his feelings. "Or soon, I want it to be…" She searched his eyes as she searched for the right words. "I don't want to be a conquest. To you."
He squeezed her hand reassuringly, but couldn't stop from chuckling. "Nice to finally know how you really see me, Catnip."
"Stop," she told him before he could go on taunting her.
"Fine." He nodded, a smile in place. "Look, we don't ever have to have sex if you—"
"Ever is a long time," she said softly, taking him off guard as her remark was left open for his interpretation.
"We'll find a way to pass the time until you're ready. Plus, I've already seen you in your underwear, so that will give me enough to think about when—"
"Gale." She shot him a look, pulling her hand from his as she intended to get down from the counter. He tried to help her, but she didn't let him, stubborn as she tried to deal with the jumble of irritation and lust she was simultaneously feeling for him.
"Yeah, we should probably go see if we can go home."
He stood to the side while she put her dress back on, not really having another choice. Just as she zipped herself into the dress, he unzipped the hoodie he had been wearing over his shirt. Like a gentleman he offered it to her and she took it.
"Thank you," she said while zipping herself in.
He looked at her, thinking how beautiful she was even if she was never going to be the girl in just the dress. She pulled the hood over her head and hid her hands in the pockets, taking in Gale's smell. It was like a comfort blanket, a reminder that she would never be alone.
"Ready… Cinderella?"
She gave him a playful shove. "I left my shoes by the fence."
He caught her hands between his own. "Do you want me to carry you again?" he offered, his tone soft and serious. "You know, because of your leg." He saw her thinking it over. "It won't make you weak, Katniss. Plus, it's not like I'm going to do this ever again after today."
That won her over and she nodded, almost shy as he lifted her back up in his arms.
"I'm glad you're back," he let her know, touching his lips to her hair briefly before leaving the cabin.
He wouldn't be letting go anytime soon.
Please review? It turned out a little long, but I didn't feel the need to cut it into smaller pieces because I thought that would interrupt the flow. I know the characters need some fine-tuning, but this is my first attempt at a Katniss/Gale story, so this is me trying out what works for me. Who knows, maybe another one shot will follow? I had a blast writing it, which makes posting this worth it, although reviews are more than welcome! :) I write to learn and improve, something I can do thank to your comments and/or critique. Thanks for reading!