shake the glitter of your clothes now

Gadge January Prompt: Roadtrip

1.

"I'm getting married."

Gale choked on his Heineken. "What the fuck, Catnip?"

Katniss sighed. "I know you heard me, Gale."

"Shit," Gale said, putting the bottle down roughly on the table, and then, remembering his mother, sighed and got up to get a coaster. "You're getting married to The Baker?"

He could feel her scowl through the phone. "His name is Peeta, Gale," Katniss said sternly. "Peeta Mellark? Oh, I don't know, he grew up in the same town as us and we went to elementary, middle, and high school together? You've known him for years. Your mother gets bread from his family's bakery every Sunday."

"Right." Gale bit out. "Well, that's… I mean, isn't this a little fast, Catnip? You guys have only been dating for… god, how long has it been?"

"A year," Katniss said dully. "And we've known each other since we were five, so no, Gale, this isn't 'a little fast'. God, what is your problem?"

I'm in love with you, he wanted to say. I've been in love with you since high school when we dated for six months and I always thought we would end up together. Then, fuck, I'm pathetic.

"Nothing," he said, sighing. "Nothing, I was just surprised." Coward. "Congratulations, Catnip. I'm—I'm happy for you and The Baker—Peeta. Peeta. When's the wedding?"

Silence.

"Catnip?" Gale frowned.

"Three weeks."

"Um… what?"

"Peeta and I don't want to wait," Katniss said. "And it's best to do it during the break in between my grad school semesters and…Gale?" He'd been quiet for a while.

"I'm surprised that Mellark doesn't want some big-ass wedding," Gale said stiffly.

"He does," Katniss admitted. "You know I don't give two shits. But this is our compromise, you know? So we're just going to do it quickly. In Vegas."

"Vegas?" He couldn't imagine Katniss and Vegas in the same vicinity.

"It's a good central point for our families and friends to meet on such short notice," Katniss explained. "Believe me, it wasn't our first… or second… or third choice. But it's worth it, you know? Because we'll be getting married. Will you be able to come?" Gale hadn't heard her talk this much since they got drunk on her 21st.

Gale took a long swig of Heineken, shaking his head. This was a circus. But she was his best friend. "Yeah," he said, passing his hand over his forehead. "I'll be there."

"Thank you, Gale," Katniss said quietly.

"Anything for you, Catnip," he said tiredly.

2.

"Another whiskey, Hawthorne?"

"Make it a double," he groaned, face down on the bar and palm up, like a fucked up, quarter-life crisis version of Heads Up, Seven-Up.

"I think you've had enough tonight," Bristel, the bartender of the Slag Heap, Gale's favorite bar, said, shaking his head.

"Look," Gale said, lifting his head up. "The girl who I thought would be my wife is marrying someone else. I think I deserve a double tonight, and I'm calling a cab."

Bristel laughed, shaking his head. "So this is how the Slag Heap Slut falls."

"What the fuck?" Gale said, straightening. "Who the hell calls me that? Everyone? Is this a thing?"

"Well, maybe not everyone," Bristel conceded. "Another regular coined it and it kind of stuck. So, really, only the bartenders and other regulars know you by that. And whomever they tell it to. And all the girls you've slept with. So not everyone… but almost. Come on, you have to admit, Gale, it's kind of true. You're like Joseph Gordon Levitt in that one movie where he picks up girls all the time."

"If this is where you tell me I end up with Julianne Moore, I'm out of here," Gale said, disgusted. "I had a tyrannical principal who looked just like her."

"Well, if makes you feel any better, there's a Scarlett Johansson-type who's been nursing a drink at the end of the bar all night," Bristel said. "Maybe you should go talk to her."

Gale looked to where Bristel tipped his head. This girl was no Scarlett Johansson, by any means. To Bristel's credit, the girl at the end of the bar was gorgeous, though in a very different way. Long blonde hair—unlike Scarlett's, it's natural—good figure, not incredibly voluptuous, like Scarlett's, but there's something about her. At first glance, she's an Ice Queen, too effortlessly put together to be real, but there's too much Girl Next Door about her to make her completely unapproachable.

Gale didn't need one glance to tell him this, because the Girl at the Bar was one he'd known for years: Madge Undersee, best friend of Peeta Mellark, Katniss's fiancé. And she looked like she had a similar goal to his: get as wasted as possible.

Sighing, Gale made his way over to sit down next to her. "Of all the joints," he said.

Madge side-eyed him. "Hawthorne, what the hell do you want?"

Gale put his hands up. "Whoa, Ice Queen's a little feisty today. What's wrong, Princess? Too much contact with the peasants today?"

"Yep," Madge said, deliberately sliding away from him. "Sounds about right."

Gale wanted to be offended but he was too busy hiding a grin. Usually Madge was impeccably polite, mature, and unruffled by anything, but it seemed like he was the only person who could really get under her skin. He dubbed her 'Sassy Undersee', a title she absolutely loathed (so of course he always called her that.)

It's just their luck that after five years of not seeing each other since high school she gets a job where he lives. And Chicago's a big town, right? Especially considering they came from the same bum-fuck of a town in Virginia.

Wrong.

So they ran into each other more often than they should have and had a few mutual friends and a mutual love of the Slag Heap, because cosmopolitan singles they were, but at heart, they missed their trashy dive bars and pubs.

But they didn't like each other. They rarely agreed on anything, to the amusement of their friends, who didn't understand why they didn't just sleep with each other and resolve the UST (although both vehemently denied the presence of any UST, so it was pointless, really).

They only got along when intoxicated, although the downside was that they rarely remembered what great times they did have together, even when shown incriminating evidence via their friends' smart phones.

"So what is it, Princess?" Gale asked. "I normally don't see you with anything other than a pink-colored drink and this is clearly," he picks it up and smells it. "Whiskey. Damn, Undersee! You're balling hard tonight."

"The man I love is getting married," Madge intoned dully, turning her head towards him and then squinting in realization. "To your best friend."

Gale was taking a swig of his whiskey when she said this and started to choke. He really needed to stop drinking alcohol when any female was speaking.

"You're in love with Peeta Mellark?" Gale sputtered. "Really?" He shook his head and muttered under his breath, "What the fuckis with that guy."

"Yep," Madge slurred, popping the 'p'. "They're getting married. In three weeks. In Vegas! Peeta hates Vegas. We went there one spring break in college and he got food poisoning at a buffet and lost four hundred dollars on one machine. He said he'd never go back! Does Katniss know that? She should know that," Madge babbled. "I mean, she's his fiancé, right? And so what if she ignored him for like, twenty years of their lives and I've been his best friend since we were seven? She should still know that fact. She should—she should—know everything about him."

Gale stared. Undersee was freaking out. A full-blown, out-of-control, Undersee freak-out. Holy shit. The world was turning upside down.

"God, how am I going to stand there while the man I love marries—okay, you know I like Katniss, right? I do like her, but there's no one who knows Peeta like I do—and I'm just supposed to stay quiet when they say that one line about people holding their peace—"

Gale downed the rest of his drink. If he wasn't drunk he would never think this was a good idea, but damn did it sound appealing now. "Who says we have to stay quiet?"

Madge squinted at him. "What?"

"Who says we have to stay quiet?"

"What do you mean," Madge said, still squinting. She might have been seeing four of him.

"We go to Vegas," Gale said, "and we convince Katniss and Peeta that they shouldn't get married and they belong with us."

Madge stared at him for a long moment before rolling her eyes. "Has Posy been forcing you to listen to Taylor Swift again?"

"It's creepy that you talk to my little sister," Gale deadpanned, though he was entirely serious, "you know that, right?"

"It's not that creepy," Madge muttered. "I'm her best shot at an older female confidante. I can't help it if she finds your mother too intimidating and omniscient and Prim is out of the state in undergrad and Katniss wouldn't know the meaning of 'femininity' if it hit her in the face."

Gale started to laugh at the last part. "It's still creepy," he said.

"She friended me on Facebook first, okay?" Madge held up her hands in surrender.

"Posy has Facebook?" Gale started to turn red.

"Gale, focus," Madge snapped her fingers in front of him. "What were you saying earlier? You had some girly, Katherine Heighl-esque plan to ruin your best friend's wedding? Wait, that's a different movie."

"That's offensive," Gale said. "Even I know Katherine Heigl movies suck. And secondly, it's a good idea. Come on, we have nothing to lose. Well, except the loves of our lives. And I won't lose Katniss to the Pillsbury Dough Boy. Are you in, Undersee?"

"You are so drunk right now," Madge said, downing the rest of her gin, and, to her credit, not even making a face afterwards. "But, in the slim chance that I remember this in the morning… I'm in."

"Way to go, Undersee," Gale grinned. "You're braver than I thought."

Madge waved down Bristel for her tab. "You don't know the first thing about me, Hawthorne," she smirked.

Gale stared at her pink lips for a moment, curving in the naughtiest smile he had ever seen. It was sort of hypnotizing, and it took him a few moments before he could look away.

Gale had the feeling there was a lot about Madge Undersee that he had never known before… and he was about to find out what it was.

3.

"You're crazy," moaned a hungover Madge the next morning. "Hawthorne, are you shitting me right now? I thought that plan was alcohol-induced."

"Well it's good to see the re-emergence of Sassy Undersee," Gale noted, completely ignoring her. "I thought she only came out when drunk."

"You're insufferable," said Madge, ignoring his comment. "And that plan is stupid. It's not going to work."

"It's not stupid, it's simple and genius, and come on, Undersee, I thought you were brave. Shouldn't you have confessed your feelings to the Muffin Man years ago?"

Madge put a damp washcloth on her forehead. "Do you just sit around and think up insulting names for Peeta?"

"No, they just come to me," Gale said. "I'm actually very proud of it."

"And the worst part is, I don't even think you're joking."

Gale wasn't, but he wouldn't admit that. "Undersee. Be brave. What do you have to lose?"

"I don't know, Hawthorne, maybe just the longest and best friendship of my entire life?"

"You know my motto, Undersee—" Gale began.

"Hit it and quit it?" Madge snarked.

"Big risk, big reward," Gale said. "So are you in? Think about what happens if—no, when we succeed."

"Fine," Madge sighed, thinking about she and Peeta being together. For real. The way she had always wanted. "I'm in. Let's do this."

4.

They were supposed to fly out together and get there a day ahead of Peeta and Katniss to go over the details of their plan, but when one's best friends were getting married three weeks away, airfare from Chicago to Vegas was astronomical. Especially when their wedding was during Spring Break. So instead they left two days earlier and drove from Chicago to Vegas instead.

"It's really the most inconvenient wedding on the planet," Gale said as Madge started up her Prius. He wanted to take his truck because it was roomier but, as Madge pointed out, this was way more economical.

And she was right. So Gale pushed his seat all the way back and put his duffle bag in Madge's sorry excuse for a trunk. He had to admit that he was impressed that Madge packed so light, taking only a carry-on sized suitcase, although to be fair she wouldn't have had room for anything else in her trunk.

"It's another sign that they shouldn't be together," Madge agreed, plugging in her iPhone.

"Please don't tell me we're going to have to listen to some girly mix," Gale groaned as Madge flipped through her playlists.

"I don't know if it's girly," Madge said, "but I will admit that your sister made this playlist specifically for this trip."

"I can't believe my baby sister makes you playlists," Gale said. "It's weird."

"A little bit," Madge admitted as she headed to the freeway. "But, you know, I really enjoy our talks."

Gale looked at her in amazement. "Really? You're not bored by middle school gossip and people you don't even know?"

"It's nice," Madge said quietly. "Growing up, my mom and aunt were really close, and it just sucks that my mom could never have kids after me. I've always… I've always wished I had siblings, you know? It's lonely being an only child."

Gale's silent for a moment. "I know she likes talking to you," he said seriously. "And my mom likes it that she has you, but uh, she does expect you to tell her if Posy's doing drugs or having sex or something."

Madge gave him an amused look. "I know," she said, "your mom and I have had that talk."

"You and my mother talk?" Gale shouted. "Jesus Christ, Undersee, do you not know boundaries?!"

5.

"No," Madge groaned suddenly, eight hours, four playlists, and two bathroom breaks later, "no, no, no, no."

Gale side-eyed her from underneath his sunglasses. He was trying to nap. "Undersee," he said in a bored voice. "If this is about a flat tire, rest assured, I do know how to change that."

"Shut up, you condescending, misogynistic, asshole," Madge muttered. "I know how to change a tire, thankyouverymuch. And jumpstart my own car. But… I'm a tad forgetful."

Gale adjusted his seat from reclining to straight-backed. "Forget…?"

Madge bit her lip. "My gas gauge has been broken for a little bit: it reads that I have more gas than I do. I think I forgot to mention it when I took my car in for an oil change before we left, because the light just came on even though the gauge says I have half a tank."

Gale looked over at their GPS. It was flickering in and out. "Where the fuck are we?"

"I don't know, we passed Lincoln a while ago," Madge said. "Shit."

"Kearney's not too far," Gale said. "Can you make it there?"

"Yeah, I think so," Madge said, and luckily they did.

"We need to take this to the shop," Gale said sternly. "We can't drive there and back with this piece of shit malfunctioning."

"Hey!" Madge frowned. "It's not a piece of shit, and your part of the gas bill is substantially lower because of its advanced technology, so shut it, Hawthorne."

"Fine," Gale sighed as they pulled into a gas station before taking it to the shop. "I'll shut it."

"For now," Madge muttered.

6.

"It'll be ready for you tomorrow morning," the mechanic, a small man named Beetee, said.

"What?" Madge said. "Why is it going to take so long?"

Beetee sighed. "We don't really have a lot of experience fixing Prius's," he said. "And I just want to make sure everything's correct. I'm sorry."

"I suppose I appreciate your thoroughness," Madge said with a tired smile. "Recommend any places to stay tonight?"

Beetee answered about a nice inn down the street, and when Madge went to go tell Gale, she found herself alone.

Behind her was Beetee. "I think I saw your young man go towards The Hob." He pointed to the bar.

"Figures," Madge grumbled, stalking to the bar across the street. Smart move, she thought. People can go drink while they wait for their cars.

The moment she opened the door into the bar, Madge regretted it.

"Hey, sweetheart," came a call from the bar. "Come sit by me."

"Look at that tall drink of water."

"I could drink that all night long."

"The only thing you're going to be drinking is the blood coming out of your nose after I break it," came another voice and in the dim lighting Madge saw a tall, trim figure stand up.

Madge rolled her eyes. "Really, Gale?" She said. "How many have you had?"

Gale walked over, side-eyeing every single one of the four gentlemen in the bar who were ogling Madge. She watched him approach warily. He looked even more good-looking than normal, with his hair slightly disheveled from his nap and his clothes rumpled from the drive. He almost looked like… no. Don't go there.

"Just one beer and two shots," Gale said, grinning. "Come on, you need to catch up."

Madge glared at him. "Save the alcohol poisoning for Vegas," she told him. "Now settle your tab and let's go find a hotel."

At that, three of the four men catcalled and at that Madge spun around and glared them down. "Let's be clear," she told them. "Catcalling at me is not going to lengthen and/or thicken your tiny penises or inherently increase your archaic sense of masculinity. So stop wasting your paychecks on mediocre alcohol and take your overworked wives out to dinner or ask your children about their day. Be real men, instead of trying to sexually intimidate a woman young enough to be your daughter."

And with that, Madge took a flabbergasted Gale by the hand and left behind half dozen equally flabbergasted men.

They were quiet until the door slammed behind them. Gale, sobered by the chill of the night air and Madge's speech, shook his head in amazement. "You're incredible, Madge," he said. She was fantastic. Feisty and eloquent and strong. And he would never have said it out loud, but when she was telling those men off for being sexist pigs, she looked sexy as hell. Gale almost felt guilty for thinking that given the circumstances of her feistiness in the first place, but he couldn't help it. She was radiant.

He was so wrong about her being a meek pushover good-girl. He almost started to laugh, but he looked over at her and saw her eyes were focused, sharp, stormy. She wasn't smiling.

"Does that happen a lot?" He asked, quietly. "Guys doing that to you?" What a stupid question, he thought. Of course it did. Madge was gorgeous.

Madge sighed. She's always hated being hit on and ogled at and she just snapped. She'd never liked that attention and she always hated men for making her feel like that. "Yeah. Too often."

Gale's vision flashed to red for a moment. He appreciated a good-looking woman, sometimes shamelessly ogled, but he never stooped to the level of those men. His mother taught him better. He was trying to teach his brothers better.

Madge wasn't defenseless or unable to handle herself, he knew that, but he still hated it. "I'm sorry," he said, squeezing her hand, not realizing for a moment they were still holding on to each other. "About that back there. And for all the other times, too."

"Thanks," said Madge, pleasantly surprised. "I appreciate that."

Gale bumped into her shoulder and they shared a smile. "Dinner?" He said.

"Please," said Madge, feeling a jolt in her stomach as he placed his hand on the small of her back to guide her into a restaurant. It must be because she's hungry, she thinks. That's all it could be.

7.

At first it was a little weird being in the same hotel room, but the two quickly set boundaries: changing clothes in the bathroom, when in doubt, knock, and clothes needed to be worn at all times (this one was for Gale, who tended to walk around in nothing but boxer shorts—not that Madge really minded, but it wasn't really good for her general sanity. She and the man may have had their differences, but no matter how hard she tried, she was attracted to Gale Hawthorne—and hopefully seeing Peeta would quench that once and for all.)

Things went along fine, although it got a little weird when they were unpacking and a box of condoms fell out of Gale's duffle.

Madge raised an eyebrow. "That confident you're going to get in Katniss's pants, eh?"

Gale shrugged, smirking. "Well," he said, "I figured if not her, then someone else at least."

Madge rolled her eyes. "Man, if this is what your everlasting devotion looks like, count me out," she snarked.

"Hey," Gale protested, "if Katniss rejects me, then how I deal with it will probably be getting drunk… and getting laid. Coping mechanisms. Come on, Undersee, wouldn't you do the same thing if Mellark rejected you?"

Madge thought about it. "I would at least get very, very drunk," she said. "And if I wouldn't sleep with someone at the very least I'd be that obnoxious woman at the front row of a Chippendale's concert."

Gale's laugh boomed throughout the room. "Sometimes you're funny as hell, Undersee," he said, "in the most unexpected way."

Madge grinned at him cheekily.

As far as the rest of the night went, they didn't get drunk, but it would be a lie to say that they stayed sober all night. After dinner at a local diner with fantastic pot roast, they went to the local convenience store and purchased a couple bottles of wine to drink while watching On Demand at the inn.

Madge picked Roman Holiday. "If you're going to watch romantic movies, then at least watch good ones," Madge said.

"Roman Holiday, really?" Gale scoffed. "Well, I suppose it's fitting," he said, reading the movie summary, "considering it's about a princess."

"Just shut up and watch it," Madge said, taking a sip of wine from the plastic cups they swiped from the ice machine down the hall.

Two hours and two bottles of wine later, Madge turned to Gale, perched on the queen bed across from her with watery eyes and a satisfied smile. "Wasn't that incredible?" She gushed.

Gale was staring at the screen, gaping. "Wait, he just… He just lets her leave?"

Madge raised an eyebrow. "Well," she said slowly, "she has responsibilities, and he let her go because he loves her. He wouldn't ask her to give up who she was, her throne, and her legacy, to be with him. And although she wants to be with him, she knows that it can't work. They both know that, actually." Madge smiled at his stunned expression. "You okay, Hawthorne?"

Gale dropped his head back and stared at the ceiling. "Do you think that movie is a sign?" He said. "Like if I really loved Katniss, I should let her go?"

Madge sighed and looked at the ceiling as well. "Are you asking if we should be like Joe Bradley, Gale?"

"Well, I can't imagine Katniss as a princess," Gale said with a smile, "although I can't say the same for Mellark."

"You're calling him by his last name," Madge said. "That's progress."

Gale rolled his eyes. "What's so great about him, anyway?" He asked her.

"Gregory Peck?" Madge said innocently. "Do you want an itemized list? Because he's pretty much my idealized perfect man—tall, dark, handsome, a little brooding, really intelligent, you know, he has this rough, hardened exterior, but he really has a soft, vulnerable side to him—"

"Okay, that's not what I meant and you know it," Gale said, wondering briefly why Gregory Peck sounded so familiar to him in that moment. "I meant Mellark."

"What's so great about him?" Madge frowned. "Wait, why are you asking this?"

"I mean, Katniss is in love with him, you're in love with him… I mean, what is it about him that make girls go crazy?"

Madge made a face. "Are you… insecure, Hawthorne?"

"Definitely not," Gale scoffed. "I just need to figure out the competition."

Madge rolled her eyes. "Okay, fine, I'll bite. What's so great about Peeta? It reminds me of this quote that I heard: 'When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.' Peeta is the kindest, most compassionate person I've ever met. He cares so much about other people and it's completely sincere. He's also really smart, focused, and," Madge blushed here, "really, really handsome."

Gale groaned.

"Okay, whatever, if you don't think Katniss is hot, too, you're lying," Madge threw a pillow at him.

Gale looked at her. "Now would you like a list? Of what makes Katniss so great?"

Madge looked at him like he was crazy. "No," she said. "Unlike you, my competition is also my friend. I know what's great about Katniss. Which makes this that much harder for me."

"Yeah, I bet," Gale said. He hadn't thought about that. He knew Madge and Katniss were friends, but he never considered the effect on their relationship if Madge succeeded in convincing Peeta not to marry Katniss.

They were quiet for a moment.

"But you know what I really love about Peeta?" Madge asked quietly.

"Hmm?" Gale said, looking over at her.

She too was facing the ceiling, but he could tell just from looking at her profile that her blue eyes were soft, like they had been when watching Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck fall in love. "He was always there for me," she said. "When things in my life were really tough. When I was sixteen, my aunt died. I don't know if you remember that. But after that, my mom—they were so close, they were twins—she had a psychotic break. She was never the same, and neither was my dad, really. Peeta—he made life bearable for me during that time. He was the only good thing in my life then—loving him was the only good part of my life. I think that's important when you love someone, you know? You can depend on them, in good and bad."

"For better or worse," Gale murmured thoughtfully. "Yeah, I get what you mean. That's what I love about Katniss, too. When our dads died in that car accident, we had to grow up. Take care of our families. Without her, I don't know what I would've done and vice versa. That's what I want in my future wife, you know? An equal. A partner."

"A partner," Madge repeated with a smile. She had a sudden vision, of Gale as a husband. She knew he'd make a good one, somehow. "I like that."

"Well, what do you know?" Gale said. "We actually agreed on something."

"We've been around each other long enough," Madge said. "It was bound to happen eventually, right?"

"True," Gale said, drowsily. The wine was hitting him, quickly.

With blurry eyes, he looked over at Madge. She was already asleep.

She really is beautiful, he thought to himself. He had always known it, but this trip taught him how beautiful she was as a person, too.

He fell asleep, too, smiling.

8.

They were a day behind schedule, but they got an early enough start. Gale insisted on going back to the diner from the night before for breakfast because he was craving pancakes and Madge gave in with a laugh.

Breakfast was nice, actually, Madge thought later. They had joked all morning, stealing food off each other's plates and laughing constantly.

It was the nicest morning both of them had had in a long time. There was no work looming over them, the car was going to be fixed, the weather was clear and not too hot, and, though they were loath to admit it, the company was excellent.

Madge didn't think she had ever seen him smile so much; Gale couldn't stop staring at the way the morning light made her hair glitter like gold. She was prettiest when she laughed, he thought.

They hit the road shortly after and drove thirteen hours until they reached St. George, Utah. Gale and Madge had hoped to make it to Las Vegas that night, and though it was only a couple hours away, they were too exhausted to drive any further.

Despite that, they lay in the dark, both staring at the ceiling.

"Do you know what you're going to say to her when you see her?" Madge whispered.

"Not a clue," Gale said, and wondered, perhaps for the first time, if his plan was a good idea after all.