That characters of The Hunger Games Trilogy do not belong to me.
Cabin Fever
"We need to go now."
Katniss Everdeen, The Girl on Fire, one half of The Star-Crossed Lovers of District 12…and my best friend, pleads with me. Her grey eyes, surrounded by thick, lacquered Capitol-grown lashes, stare up at me from under perfectly sculpted eyebrows.
However, beneath all that make-up and raven-plaited hair is the girl that I spent many mornings with in feverous hunt and hidden longing. I've wanted Katniss longer than I've known and here is my chance to have her all to myself.
Then why the hesitation?
"But, we need to bring Peeta, too," she finishes firmly.
Oh yes, I forget about her fiancé.
"They'd find us," I say quietly. Even in the woods, we aren't safe. Snow has surveillance everywhere and I am a little surprised that the electrical charge for the fencing hasn't been turned on…yet. "And, what about Prim? Your mother? My family?"
"We ask them to come with us," she argues. "We can start again."
My hand reaches for hers and my thumb caresses her skin—so soft that you wouldn't even know that she was a hunter.
"And, us?"
There's a strange consideration in her gaze. "Maybe out there…we can be different."
Maybe.
Is maybe enough for me?
It must be because I entwine our fingers before responding, "Okay. We run."
There are immediate hitches in the plan.
Two days later, we gather in my home. Peeta and Katniss come together along with her mother and Prim with the pretense of visiting their "cousins". Mellark—I'm not quite ready to refer him as Peeta—has brought bread and cookies for everyone, which my siblings clamber towards, right as he places them on our rickety table.
Posy is immediately enchanted with him, even sitting in his lap and asking him questions about baking. There's a sting of betrayal seeing Mellark so sweet to my little sister and the resentment deepens when I catch Katniss watching them with a warmth that I've never seen in her eyes.
When she realizes that she's been caught, Katniss quickly joins her mother and mine at the kitchen table.
Finally, I clear my throat to get everyone's attention. Everyone looks to me and Katniss nods in encouragement.
"Katniss and I…along with Mel—Peeta have decided to leave," I announce. "We want you all to come with us."
There are questions. My mother and Mrs. Everdeen want to know where we plan on going and how we will find shelter. The kids worry about what they are leaving behind. Vick, my brother, has a girl who he's been courting and is hesitant to leave her behind.
It is Prim who finally gives us the first solid answer.
"No," she tells us, a hardness in her blue eyes. "People will need Momma and me if they get sick. They depend on us." Prim goes to Katniss, who is shocked by her words. "You can't protect me anymore and I know you're in danger…so it's right for you to go."
Katniss is crestfallen, her hands reaching to cradle Prim's thin cheeks and to press their foreheads together. They stay this way for a long while before Katniss nods in reluctant acceptance.
"She's right, Katniss," Mrs. Everdeen adds quietly. "We can't just up and leave."
"You'll be in danger." Katniss' voice rises in panic. "President Snow will be watching and waiting once he knows—"
Mellark immediately reaches out, standing from his seat to put a hand to her shoulder.
"Katniss." She swipes away frustrated tears before looking to him. "I spoke to Haymitch. He's going to take care of them. He's knows a lot more than he's admitting to and I think that, if need be, he will hide them."
This intimacy between them bothers me and my eyes find my mother who is also watching them. Then she looks to me in worry—she has always known me inside and out. Without even asking, she can sense my own insecurity about them.
They were like this in front of the cameras and I thought it was all for show.
But, there are no cameras now and that look in their eyes is just too…real.
"Gale, we're not going either," my mother says after a moment. "Your father is buried here. I've raised every one of our children here in District 12 and this is where I intend to live…and to die."
Slowly, my brothers nod in agreement and Posy reaches for my mother's hand.
Then it's decided.
It's only the three of us.
Later, I walk the Everdeens and Mellark back to Victors' Village in silence. In front of me, he and Katniss trudge together, perfectly in-sync in their steps. I remember once-upon-a-time that Katniss and I were the same way.
Catching up to them, I look to Mellark. "What about your family?"
He stares at me for a moment, mouth slack before he closes it with a shallow swallow and a tightened jaw.
We stop in front of his house, every window dark.
"My family didn't even want to live in this house with me. What makes you think that they'll run away with me?"
He steps onto his porch before opening the front door and disappearing into his house.
Immediately, Mrs. Everdeen and Prim scatter off to their home across the way.
Now it is only Katniss and me, her own lips pursed in an angry line.
She turns to me, her grey eyes hard. "You knew that would hurt him."
"Why do you care so much? It was only supposed to be for show, right?"
"It's not about being in the Games anymore," she responds, her voice thick with anger. "It's about taking care of each other. You want this to work? We have to have each other's backs! Because if we run, all we'll have is one another."
"I didn't know you were so tender-hearted," I remark mockingly.
"It's not about being tender," Katniss retorts. "It's about not being an asshole."
She doesn't even look back at me as she walks up to his door and goes inside.
We leave one night with backpacks that, according to Katniss, look very similar to the ones that they had in the Arena. They are a goodbye present from their mentor who assured Katniss that he would take care of her family.
Something in Haymitch Abernathy's eyes tells me that something is happening.
Katniss tests the fence first. To our relief, the electrical current is off and so we slip through and begin our journey.
No one speaks the entire way. We don't know where we're supposed to be going. All we know is that we have to go away, so far away that we won't ever be able to find our way back to District 12 even if we wanted to.
I lead, unable to look at either Katniss or Peeta—I might as well call him by his first name—as we are stuck together for the foreseeable future. He seems downtrodden as we walk, obviously not a hunter because his steps are heavy and, at times, clumsy. Katniss remains by his side, pulling him along to avoid deep holes in the ground that might cause a twisted ankle.
"We should rest soon," I tell them. By the position of the moon, it's about three in the morning. "It'll be easier to find shelter in the day."
Katniss nods in agreement. She sits down under a tree, her eyes hollow with exhaustion.
"Do you think we're far enough?" Peeta asks breathlessly.
It's the first time he's spoken in almost six hours.
I turn to look at the wide span of forest. There's nothing but still air around us.
"Yes." My eyes go to the untouched ground, no other footsteps—as if we are the only three people left on the planet. "We are safe."
For now.
Day 2
My eyes open slowly, adjusting to the morning light filtering through the trees. It's still cool and the air is quiet except for the birds chirping just above. I turn to see Katniss still asleep, curled into herself. She is used to sleeping with Prim spooned against her.
Sitting up, I look behind her to find an empty spot.
Peeta is gone.
"Katniss." I shake her quickly and she groans, her eyes opening blearily. "Where the hell is Peeta?"
She shoots up immediately, scrambling onto her feet, and looking around with panic in her eyes.
"Peeta…" Katniss encircles her hands in front of her mouth. "Peeta!"
I grab her arm. "You'll give us away!"
She yanks her arm from my grasp. "I don't care! I need to find Peeta!"
Katniss runs in the opposite direction, away from me, and into the thick forest. I can hear her anxious calls for him as she searches the vast terrain.
My eyes stray to the ground, catching thick footsteps heading to the east of our location and I follow them. His crooked gait causes his trail to be more pronounced and I follow it—but not before bringing a small dagger, just in case.
Fifteen minutes later, I find the end of the trail and I'm surprised when I find his footprints leading to a small cabin. Quickly, I walk inside to find Peeta sitting by the fireplace, attempting to start a fire.
I feel my anger rise. "What the hell are you doing?"
Peeta stands up, an excited smile on his pale face. It melts off when he sees my expression.
"What's wrong?" He looks behind me. "Where's Katniss?"
I charge at him, furious at his naiveté and I'm suddenly shaking him. There's nothing I want more but to clock him in the face. He needs to learn the rules of the forest.
"You never leave!" I tell him. "You don't walk off without telling either of us! What would have had happened if you got lost?"
Peeta tilts his head at me curiously, his blue eyes boring into me, a smirk drawing to his lips.
"I didn't know you cared."
"If something happens to you…" I let my hands slide off his shoulders and tiredly crumble to the ground. "…she will never forgive me. She'll never forgive herself."
We go silent, the only sound in the cabin my heavy gasps of breath. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea, maybe we should go back, but the thought of the punishment awaiting us causes my insides to freeze. Our families will be safer if we're gone as Katniss, Peeta, and I agreed to not tell them when we were going. It is better that they are ignorant.
"I'm sorry," Peeta suddenly says. He is sitting across from me. "I had a nightmare and thought I'd just walk it off. Somehow I ended up here."
I shake my head, feeling my anger dissipate.
"Just don't do it again," I say as I slowly stand up. "We should go. Katniss is—"
I'm interrupted by hurried footsteps and Katniss is rushing into the cabin. When she sees Peeta, Katniss launches herself into his arms and he pulls her close, his nose pressing into her shoulder. It's as if they had been separated for years.
"Don't you ever do that again," she sobs angrily, her sniffling wet and her face is splotched scarlet. "Don't you ever just leave—"
"I'm sorry." His lips go to her hair and he looks at me, regret in those blue eyes. "I'm sorry."
Nodding, I leave them alone to go retrieve our backpacks.
Day 7
Haymitch Abernathy must have been prepared longer than we realized.
The bags are filled with supplies similar to what Katniss had in the Arena. There are some water purifier tablets, blankets, plant identification guides (probably for Peeta), some matches, and first aid kits. We've each brought clothes that are easy to layer and to accommodate for the seasons as well as pajamas.
Our small cabin is roughly the shape of a rectangle with a stone fireplace to one side and nothing else. There is no bathroom so from what we can gauge, it must have been a day cabin used only for hunting or for refuge during bad weather. We all relieve ourselves outside, Katniss to the far right of the cabin while us boys go to the left.
On our third day, we discovered a small swimming hole about a mile from the cabin so now we had the means to wash ourselves especially since the days had grown warm.
Katniss and I hunt in the mornings as Peeta sleeps. He doesn't sleep as well as Katniss and I do because his prosthetic is uncomfortable on the hardwood floor. When we leave, I think he takes it off. Katniss has gotten into the habit of making noise as we walk up so he has enough time to put it back on before we come in.
Peeta will cook whatever game that we kill. Haymitch placed some salt into Peeta's backpack, already aware of his culinary talents. Katniss tells me that Peeta is the reason that Haymitch has looked healthier lately. Her eyes are downcast as she speaks; she is worried about her former mentor and hoping that he is coping without his two Victors.
By the end of the week, it seems that we have found a suitable situation for all of us. The three of us sleep in front of the fireplace since nights in the cabin get frigid, each of us wrapped in our blankets and using our sweaters as pillows.
I fall asleep, exhausted and wondering what the future will hold for each of us.
Day 8
My eyes snap open and I find myself wrapped in darkness, the only light in the cabin being the fading fire.
There is a gasp behind me and I wrap myself tighter in my blanket.
"Shh…it's okay." Her voice is gentle, soothing even. "Did you have another nightmare?"
"Yes." Peeta's voice is tight and he lets out a labored breath. "Cato—he cut me again, but this time he stabbed me—right through the heart. I felt the blood rush through my brain and fill my lungs. I felt myself die, Katniss."
He sounds so haunted and I bite my lip, trying not to make a sound. If they know I'm awake then they'll stop talking. I realize how much I want to know about this part of them, that part that bonds them together so strongly.
"You're here, Peeta," Katniss whispers to him. "Flesh and bone. I can feel your heart beating—" He gasps suddenly. "Here. Can you feel mine?" I can feel her shift on the floor closer to him. There's a quiet pause punctured only by their shaky breaths. "If you're ever scared, just remember that thump-thump-thump…"
"Thank you," he says after a moment.
Then there's another definite pause and the wet sound of a kiss. I'm not sure who started it, but the quiet, achy groan that escapes Katniss' mouth is enough for me to know that she likes it.
More shifting and another deeper moan cuts through the room.
This time, it is him.
"We shouldn't be doing this." His voice is muffled; I imagine because their mouths are still pressed together. "Not with Gale a few feet away."
"We've done more with Haymitch and Effie just across the hall," she replies with a light laugh.
Peeta lets out an exasperated sigh. "But, there's no one stopping us from letting it go too far."
"Who says we have to?"
That teasing lilt in her voice. She's never sounded like that around me.
The Katniss Everdeen I know doesn't flirt. She doesn't kiss or let herself get out of hand. She doesn't let someone touch her in dark rooms with nothing but linen pants in-between them.
"You'll be the death of me, Katniss," Peeta tells her and I can hear the smile in his voice.
She'll be the death of me, too.
Day 14
"Peeta has been sleeping better," I remark as I reset the trap that I've just taken a rabbit from. "He looks much more rested."
Katniss is concentrating on winding another trap, her eyes focused on the tripwire. "Oh, yeah?"
My eyes go to her hunched form. "Yeah. How about you? Have you been sleeping okay?"
She turns, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. "What are you really trying to ask me, Gale?"
"I just want to know what is going on with you," I tell her honestly. "You don't talk to me—not like we used to talk."
"We never talked," Katniss replied bluntly. "Yeah, we talked about hunting, how shitty things were with the Districts, and how we could survive. But, we never talked about one another."
I sit down on a fallen log. "Is that what you talk about with Peeta?"
She blushes just hearing his voice.
"I guess." Her eyes go to her hands, dirtied with the blood of our game. "We talk about a lot of things."
"Like what?" I urge. "Tell me."
"About what I like to do in my free time or what my favorite color is," she slowly begins. "What I want to do when I grow older…what he wants do when he's older."
I never asked her these questions. I lived day by day assuming that we would always stay this way—together in the woods, hunting together.
"So what do you want to do when you grow older?" I ask her.
Katniss stands up. "You never cared before. Why do you care now?"
Before I can even answer, she stomps over to another set of traps.
"It was Rue as a mutt…" Katniss muffles her sobs. "…I close my eyes sometimes and I see her behind my eyelids." She whimpers as I listen with my back to them. "I hate this…before I could just hold Prim and remember why I had to survive. Now—"
"You have me," Peeta tells her tenderly. "I'll be here to remind you why you survived."
"Why did we?" she asks in a hoarse voice. "Maybe everyone else is dead because we ran off."
"No, we would've heard something," he assures her. I feel my own panic calm at Peeta's soothing tone. I have to admit that he has a way of making you believe that it will all turn out right. "You survived because I couldn't go on without you."
Katniss snorts quietly—a trademark of hers. "So I'm here for your benefit?"
"No." There's that brief sound of their lips meeting. "You're here so you can live and that's enough of an important reason."
One more kiss, longer this time, and the stealthy shift as they move together once more.
"Peeta…can I see it?" Her voice is tentative, so unlike the bold, blunt Katniss that I'm used to. The insecurity of newly discovered pleasure is full in her words. "I mean…I can feel it against me…like right now or when I wake up against you."
He clears his throat softly. "But, Gale—"
"Sleeps like the dead," she promises him. "He's sleeps exactly like we did when we were kids. Vick and I used to say that he could sleep through the seasons, if Hazelle would allow it."
How little Katniss knows me now, working in the mines has left my sleep schedule a mess. I've also become hyper-aware of every little noise because I've been trained to listen for any possibility of cave-ins.
"I don't know—" A hiss escapes his mouth. "Oh…"
"Is this okay?" Katniss rasps, fascination in her voice. "I mean…does this feel good?"
A garbled moan escapes Peeta's throat. "If you keep doing it, I'm going to—"
Then he is gasping, his climax quickly covered by a sloppy kiss. The room is filled with the scent of sex and I'm ashamed of the rising erection caused by the sounds of their joined mouths. I can hear the hunger in their small, breathy cries and a pleasurable shiver rises up my spine.
This is so wrong.
"I'm sorry, Katniss," he says shamefully. "I've made a mess all over you—"
"I liked it," she interrupts. I hear a suckle of skin. "It tastes…not like what I was expecting it to taste like."
Oh God, she is licking his cum off her fingers like it's candy.
I almost come right then and there.
Day 25
I wake up before either of them.
Every night, they experiment. They don't have nightmares anymore because they don't sleep. They talk until there is nothing to do but know one another with their hands or their mouths.
Last night, I could hear how wet Katniss was as his fingers moved inside her tight flesh.
Slowly, I get dressed and head out of the cabin. My eyes go to the mountains ahead of us. If I keep walking, will I find District 13? Rumor has it that they moved underground to save what was left of their citizens from the Capitol.
I don't want to scare either Katniss or Peeta, but I heard something late last night. It seems that Snow has come for District 12. I can smell the smoke in the air and my eyes burn at the scent—or is it the thought that my family didn't make it?
Checking the traps, I retrieve a squirrel. Peeta will like this; his father favored squirrel meat as well.
Afterwards, I go and wash up by the water before heading to the cabin. However as I step onto the porch, my eyes catch sight of movement through the window.
It's Katniss.
She sits astride Peeta, the olive skin of her bare back warm in the morning light that seeps through the window, her eyes closed and her mouth open in a pleasured cry. Her movements are seasoned, knowing which way to thrust so that Peeta arches into her deeper, his own hands gripping at fleshy hips.
They've done this before—many, many, many times.
Behind my back.
They hide so much of themselves from me already.
And, it hurts.
Backing away, I turn and head towards the rumored mountains of District 13.
"We were worried."
Peeta joins me at the edge of the waterhole. I don't know if I want him there, but I'm not sure if I want him to leave. We were never friends. If circumstances were different, he would still be at his bakery and I would still be in the mines.
There is nothing that we share.
Except Katniss.
"I didn't think that it would matter whether I was there or not." I look to him, my mouth tight. "I think you'd find some way to keep yourselves entertained."
He looks at me for a moment before nodding in understanding.
"Don't tell Katniss that you know," he says before looking out over the water.
"Why?" I sneer. "Afraid she'll want to stop?"
Peeta shakes his head, unfazed by words.
"No, because all Katniss wants is to keep your respect," he replies. "She never wanted to be seen as the kind of girl that you'd take to the Slag Heap. She just wanted to make you proud of her." Looking to me, I see the fiery protectiveness in his hard stare. "In the end, Katniss is just like any woman—she wants someone to just love her. I think she's always been afraid to tell you that she was just as normal as any other girl from District 12—like you'd think less of her."
"Never." I shake my head at his words. "I just thought that things would be different when we got out here."
"They are different," he replies sagely. "Just not in the way that either of us expected."
I nod in agreement and turn to the horizon in front of us. I've been here longer than I realize as the sun is beginning its descent to welcome another sleep-deprived night.
"She loves you, you know." I look to Peeta and he gives me a kind smile. "She's just not all that good at saying so."
"Not like she loves you," I reply truthfully.
The single memory of her smile, just hearing his name, causes my heart to swell and to break all at once.
"No." There's a sharp pain in his voice. "Tomorrow, she could wake up and decide that she doesn't want to hold me, kiss me, or touch me. But you—you're always going to be in her heart. She is you and you are her."
"Did it ever occur to you that it is never good to be so alike?" I tell him. "Too much fire between us both. We'd implode and take everyone with us!"
"You're making me feel real good about being in-between you two," Peeta says with a grin.
We share a laugh at the thought.
I settle after a moment. "Hey Peeta?"
"Yeah?"
"What's your favorite color?"
He looks to me, part-confused and part-curious, before replying, "Orange."
I nod, looking out at the rusted sky. "Like the sunset."
"Exactly. And yours?"
My eyes go to him. "Blue."
Peeta smirks. "Like my eyes?"
I chuckle before turning away. "A little darker—how I imagine the ocean looks during a storm."
This shade of blue looks particularly beautiful with long blonde hair and strawberry-colored lips.
Eventually, we both stand up and head back towards the cabin. I examine Peeta as we walk; he's not the same boy that left on that train during their Games. He is hardened by the experience, but there is still that flicker of hope in the lights of his eyes. I can understand how Katniss can love him.
Because she doesn't need fire, she has her own.
What she needs is the spring—rebirth and not destruction.
Peeta is all of those things—and she needs him the most.
Katniss is waiting for us, leaning against the open doorway of our cabin with her arms crossed. For a moment, I see her as a young girl, with two braids instead of one, when she still let me call her Catnip with an indulgent smile.
"Dinner is ready," she calls out.
I'm first to step up onto the porch, giving her shoulder a squeeze, and she looks to me with those deep grey eyes—so like my own.
"By the way," I start and she raises an inquisitive brow. "Your favorite color is green."
I walk into the cabin so she can say hello to Peeta properly.
Tonight, they sleep.
It's the first time that I can't.
My eyes go out to window where the mountains are calling out to me. There's a restlessness inside my chest as if my heart is wanting to escape; it's overwhelming and I need some air.
Slowly, I sit up and look to the two beside me. They don't even try to hide that they can't sleep without one another. Katniss' head rests on Peeta's chest, her hand on his stomach as if she needs to feel his breath rise and fall from his abdomen. His arm is wrapped around her, one hand on her shoulder and his other hand over hers.
We had a good dinner; Peeta was especially appreciative of the squirrel meat though there was a moment when I saw a flash of pain in his eyes. Maybe he was remembering his dad. Mr. Mellark was always a big barterer whenever I offered him game; Katniss or I never left the bakery without a good amount of food.
Lately, I've realized how many good people we've had on the Merchant and the Seam side. I wonder if they're okay and maybe I'm feeling restless because I need to be in the fight.
Peeta and Katniss are different; they've been exposed to the atrocities of the Games. They want to hide away because everyone knows them now. The two of them have gone from children, to Tributes, to Victors, and now Rebels.
They miss the quiet.
I've had too much of it.
I know what I need to do.
"What are you doing out here?"
Katniss sits down next to me on the porch steps as I look out toward the mountains ahead of us.
"How long do you think it will take to get over there?" I ask her. "Do you think that there will be surveillance if I get anywhere within District 13's borders?"
Her gaze latches on to the backpack at my side.
"Gale, no." Her eyes meet mine. "District 13…we don't even know if it's real."
"It's real," I assure her. "I've been watching those mountains since we've gotten here. Every now and again, there's a little flash of something. I think there's a force field out there that keeps people from noticing." I take her hand, giving it a squeeze. "I can't stay here anymore. I just can't sit around and wonder if my family is dead or District 12 still exists. I need to know…I need to fight."
"Then, why?" Katniss asks. "Why did you decide to come?"
I manage to muster up a smile for her. "Because of you."
Her jaw drops slowly and she lets out a small sigh, her eyes filling with tears.
"I didn't mean to fall in love with him," Katniss admits in a quiet voice. "It just came so gradually, like I just breathed in and realized that I couldn't not be close to him…not want him like I do." She turns away. "I'm so sorry, Gale."
Her shoulders shake and I bite my lip seeing her so conflicted.
Deep down, I think she thought that we would work out, too.
I reach forward, pulling her close so she can rest her back against my chest.
"Hey now…" I give her a gentle squeeze. "There is nothing wrong with falling in love with someone." My own words tumble shakily out of my mouth. "Especially someone as good as Peeta. I can see why you need him…why you chose him. He is a good man."
Katniss looks at me over her shoulder, her lips rising in a small smile. "He is a good man—but so are you."
"One day, someone will see me like you see Peeta," I tell her. "So don't worry about me, I will be alright."
"You always were stubborn," she admonishes. "I guess I couldn't stop you even if I wanted to."
I shake my head. "You know me too well, Catnip."
Katniss lets out a slight sob at hearing her nickname. "I'm scared for you."
"Don't be." She shifts to look at me straight on and I lift her chin. "Live your life, Katniss. Live a good one with Peeta—and when the time is right…when it's safe…I will come for you both."
Katniss rubs her eyes with her fists before rising. "Can you wait for just a second?"
She disappears into the cabin and returns quickly with one of her fists closed. Sitting next to me once more, Katniss opens her hand and reveals what's in her palm.
Her Mockingjay pin.
"Take it," she tells me. "It might come in handy."
Carefully, I take the pin and place it on the lapel of my hunting jacket for safekeeping. "Thank you." I stand up and give her a smile. "I should go. The sun will be up in a few hours and I want to be at the halfway point by then." Katniss shoots up from her seat and I tug at a loose tendril escaping her messy braid. "Take care of each other, okay?"
She nods wordlessly and with a deep exhale, I turn and begin my walk towards those siren mountains.
However just as I'm about to reach the end of the clearing, a realization hits my chest.
I turn to Katniss, who stands at the porch steps in her bright white nightgown.
"I know what you want to be when you grow up," I call out.
Katniss tilts her head, her braid spilling down onto her shoulders. "What?"
I let out a trembling breath. "You want to be a mother." My eyes water. "I should've known. Even if you said you never wanted children, you were always taking care of everyone like Prim…and me." I swallow my tears down harshly. "You will be a good one, Katniss."
Suddenly, I see her running towards me, a blur of white and her arms wrap around my neck just as her mouth presses to mine.
I will remember this—this last kiss between my best friend and me.
Pulling away, I give her a rough smile. "You only kiss me when I'm crying."
Her wet eyes bore into mine and Katniss offers me a final smile, her hands running through my hair.
"Goodbye, Gale."
Day 31
I raise my hands in surrender at the uniformed men in front of me.
"State your name," one soldier commands as another presses his gun to my back.
"Gale Hawthorne, District 12," I tell them crisply.
As they cuff my hands behind my back, my jacket stretches and the Mockingjay pin catches the light of the sun, glinting off the helmet of the man in front of me.
"The Mockingjay…" he breathes out before looking to other men. "Release him!"
I am quickly freed and the man takes off his helmet, revealing a hard face and kind eyes; he offers his hand. "Commander Boggs."
Tentatively, I shake it before he walks me towards a clearing in front of a stone wall.
"There are some people underground that you may know."
My eyes open, dreams of a young dark-haired girl, rushing me out of my sleep.
However as I slowly awaken, she's disappeared—replaced with the sight of the tall ceiling of my bedroom.
Slowly, I sit up and groan. I'm older now and the spoils of war are that you live with injuries that never quite heal. That last part of the Rebellion, that moment as we all marched to Snow's mansion, I was shot in the back. It just barely missed my spine but damaged my liver—thank goodness for the District 13 medical facilities.
A small hand ghosts my back and I turn to my wife, who gives me a sleepy smile. "Are you alright?"
I lean down to press a kiss to Madge's strawberry lips.
"I'm fine. Just not feeling as springy as I once was," I tell her with a grin. My hand goes to the swell of our second child. "And, you? Did you sleep?"
"Yes. I think I'm used to her kicking now," Madge reports as she sits up slowly. "She's a wild one."
"You're so sure that you'll get your daughter." I tease. "I'm not sure that I'm up for chasing boys away from our house."
"We'll teach her to shoot and we won't have to worry about that," she replies before her eyes suddenly meet mine in inquiry. "You going today?"
I nod solemnly. "I think it's time."
Madge squeezes my hand in encouragement and I thank whoever is up there that she was spared.
However, it was not without a fight. During the fire raid of District 12, she was taken by the Peacekeepers and to President Snow as a POW.
It was myself and Finnick Odair—a Victor of District 4—who found her, shaking and shaven, in a small cell in the Capitol's Tribute Center. It was only when she tried to attack Prim that we realized the extent of her injuries. She had been hijacked; forced-fed imagery and made to believe that the Everdeens and the Mellarks were the reason that District 12 burnt down to the ground.
It made sense. Any connection to Katniss and Peeta made Snow angry. They had outsmarted him.
In District 13, she was put through rigorous therapy and I often came to visit her, trying to convince her that Katniss and Peeta were not 'mutts'—that they were her friends, how she and Peeta were childhood friends or that she gave Katniss the Mockingjay pin that I currently protected.
It took time and even now Madge still has nightmares or moments when she needs to just squeeze my hand till the edge of breaking, but she has recovered better than anyone has hoped.
When we all returned to District 12, Madge had nowhere to go and so my mother opened her home to the still-recovering girl. Prim and Mrs. Everdeen decided to go to District 4 with the Finnick and Annie Odair for a change of scenery and to open a new medical facility, while Haymitch returned to his home in Victors' Village. He offered Katniss' old home to my family telling me with sad eyes that Katniss would've wanted it.
Madge never slept at the house so we kept to staying up at night in the large living room with nothing but the fireplace to light our conversations. It was under that firelight that we fell in love with one another, where we told one another what we wanted to be when we grew up, and where we shared our first kiss.
We were married a month after that kiss.
Standing up from our bed, I press my lips to my wife's and urge her to rest a little more. Our girl is coming any day now.
Stepping into the hallway, I cross it and head into the bedroom where Ayden sleeps. Our boy—just barely six with the wise grey eyes of his paternal grandfather, who he is named after, and mop of golden hair like his gorgeous mother.
He is beautiful and everyday I'm proud of him.
Ayden groans in his sleep, burrowing himself deeper into his mattress, and I lean down to give him a kiss before placing his blanket over his shoulders.
My mornings are pretty routine now. I get dressed and prepare breakfast for Madge and Ayden before heading to town. This morning is no different except this time I stop to greet the new owner of the newly-built bakery where the Mellark Bakery once stood.
"Morning, Mrs. Mellark," I say to the woman in front of me.
Prim shakes her head in exasperation.
"If you weren't Mayor, I'd probably punch you like I used to when I was a little girl!"
I guess that Everdeens and Mellarks just seem to go together.
When Prim came for a visit to District 12 about a year ago, Rye Mellark fell instantly in love. No longer was Prim the little girl that worked in the medical ward of District 13. The tall, honey-haired woman was the medical director of a state-of-the-art facility in District 4. She had remembered treating Rye for his burns when we were underground and had admitted to my wife that she had a small crush on him as a kid.
They were only recently married and—judging by the small bump peeking through her usually slender body—she and Rye will be making an announcement any day now.
"I'll be heading…out," I tell her and she nods before reaching into her apron pocket to hand me a letter.
"Do you think it will work?" she asks in a trembling voice.
I shrug. "I don't know but I'll sure as hell try to convince them."
Rye emerges from the back room and, after we chat, he hands me a small pack of warm bread. His own eyes water in hope and Prim leans against him in solidarity.
Stepping out, I walk towards what used to be The Seam.
There is no Seam nor is there a Merchant side.
When we rebuilt District 12, those lines were immediately obliterated. District 12 had to move forward and progress, especially when I was elected mayor—a boy from the Seam…who knew? With Madge by my side, who was from a well-known Merchant family, and now the Mayor's wife—it made for the harmonious union of the two sides.
I greet a few townspeople as I make my way towards the large fencing on the border.
The fence is still not charged and mostly for show—and mostly to respect their privacy.
It will take me hours to get there but since it is still early, I should get there by late afternoon. Carefully, I duck under the fence and head north towards that familiar pathway to a long-ago escape. I feel my youth come back in the roots of the trees and remember the places that Katniss and I would keep our traps in.
I'm not sure I will find them again.
But I made a promise and I intend to keep it.
When the sun is above me, I stop and take a break to eat a little bit of the bread that Rye supplied me with. He wanted to come, but I didn't want to get his hopes up.
Branson, the eldest Mellark brother, was part of our troop and was killed when he saved Finnick in a sewer battle by sacrificing himself to lizard mutts.
Peeta is the only family that he has left.
I lost my own brother in the Capitol. Rory was part of the medical team that came to the Capitol and pushed Prim out of the border when the parachute bombs went off, killing him instantly.
It was what set off my suspicion of Alma Coin, the president of District 13, and someone must've tipped off Finnick as well—because he ended up killing her instead of Snow during that fateful morning in the City Center.
My thoughts are interrupted by a shuffle and I look up from my spot under the large tree to see a young girl, about 4 or 5, grinning at me. I stand quickly and she jets off, her two dark braids flying behind her. I follow her giggles, seeing glances of her bright-yellow dress—this dress was taken from one of our stores in the middle of the night and I quickly comped the owner.
Katniss has gotten exceedingly crafty over the years.
She makes a turn and I follow quietly.
"Flora!"
Her voice still sounds the same.
I find myself at a familiar waterhole and spy the small family sitting down for a picnic.
Katniss doesn't looked like she's aged much in our many years apart, her face a little rounded from the childbirth and from what I can see showing under her flower-pattern dress, she's expecting another child.
Peeta, however, has grown broader—a muscular form revealed through his linen shirt. The toddler in his arms looks just like him, except for the round eyes that belong to my best friend. He places their son down onto the picnic blanket before leaning over to give Katniss a kiss.
I etch this scene in my mind.
Katniss is exactly what she wanted to be.
It will do her family good to know that they are alright.
And, part of me wants to tell them I'm here.
However, the urge to give them one day more seems much more important.
Quietly, I step back and Flora's blue eyes go to where I hide so I put my index finger to my lips and she nods lightly before sitting next to her little brother.
I turn to walk the mile that leads to their home. Peeta extended the cabin as I see additions to the side, opposite of the chimney.
On one of the tree branches, a swing has been hung for the kids and in front of the cabin are planted primroses.
They live a very good life.
However, there is something that I need to give back to Katniss.
I stand Prim's letter to her sister against the door, I'm sure that Prim wants to tell her sister that she will be an Aunt in a few months' time.
Then I reach into my old hunting jacket—Madge gave me one of her hair ribbons which I weave the Mockingjay pin through before hanging it on the doorknob.
I told her that I'd give them a sign when it was safe to come home.
We'll be ready when they do.
FIN.