Wrote this before Mockingjay came out, felt like typing it up for some reason.

When I originally wrote this, there was a lengthy rant at the beginning concerning Gale and how awesome he is, but I think everyone knows that by now, as well as the fact that he kind of goes all Blood Knight (/main/BloodKnight) on us in Mockingjay. Even so, I prefer him to Peeta, who still kind of annoys me -sigh- Anyway. Fic now.

Summary: How many times have Katniss and Gale saved each other's lives, here in District 12? But that boy saves her once in the Games, and she's ready to marry him. What right does Peeta Mellark have to take her away? Vague GalexKatniss

Warning: Written before Mockingjay came out, do not judge me please :P

Disclaimer: WilderKaiserin does not own The Hunger Games

No Right

She has always been mine.

I have always been hers.

Ever since that day in the woods, five years past now, we have belonged to each other in almost every possible way. We kept each other alive, we spent every day together until the day Prim's name was called and Katniss gave herself a death sentence.

Until the day she was torn away from me and I was terrified that I would be forced to watch her die.

I love her. So I watched and hoped, and despaired every day as I saw her fight for her life.

And then she was fighting for his life.

And then I began to wonder. Was she mine? Was the "I love you" cut off by a slamming train door too late?

Because it didn't look like an act. It looked too real, as he held her, as she kissed him…as she nearly died to save him.

And then they came home.

I was working twelve hours a day in the mines. It was a mercy – I barely saw them.

Our Sundays in the woods were fairly enjoyable. She seemed like Katniss the hunter, Katniss the girl before the Games.

May the odds be ever in your favor, I thought, melancholy as heavy and thick in my thoughts as the coal dust I breathed every day.

I could have kept her alive in the Games. I could easily have kept us both alive, not weighed her down like he did. I hate cameras, and I hate the very idea of the Capitol watching me, but as long as Peeta was out of the picture, I don't think I'd mind too much.

Katniss is the girl on fire. She is the Mockingjay. The rebellion has begun and will end with her.

But as I hold her while she cries, she is just a girl. She is the girl I met five years ago, studying my traps.

She has chosen me. She has chosen to fight. But at the moment she is too broken, stretched too thin as she imagines District 12 razed to ashes and her fake lover in the hands of the Capitol.

So I stroke her dark, soft hair and hold her gently to myself, hoping she can overcome her fear and guilt.

You had no right to take her from me, I think. No right to turn her into this shaking, sobbing wreck.

But I have to admit that without him, there would be no rebellion, and the rebellion is crucial. So maybe I should thank him.

But I never will.

He took from me the one person I cannot lose. The one person to whom I belong.

And he has no right to make her cry.

End

Wellllllll, that was depressing. Anyway. As I said, I wrote this before Mockingjay came out, so if there's anything that doesn't fit the storyline, that's why :P