Disclaimer: I am not Suzanne Collins, therefore I do not own the Hunger Games.

Protector [Gale pov]:

I noticed them hanging around her, but I didn't think much of it at first. It was just a glance in Katniss's direction at the beginning of lunch— a glance to make sure she was eating something- that led my gaze to the group of guys. But it was just a glance. I'm surprised I even remember seeing them now.

After seeing that Katniss was getting some form of nutrition, I had nothing to worry about. Or so I thought. I settled into an easy, companionable discussion with my friends about something. I can't remember exactly what, though. I just know we were talking when the ruckus started.

It was a normal occurrence for the lunch room to go from loud to deafening at random times. Fights were a fairly common occurrence. So when I heard a fight break out over my shoulder, it wasn't a big deal. I didn't even turn around to look. I kept talking like nothing had happened.

It wasn't until someone pointed out the fight that things started to matter. My friend's expression suddenly turned uneasy at one point in the conversation, and he pointed tentatively over my shoulder. "Uh, Gale..." he said.

I turned around in my seat and saw a crowd forming around a table towards the middle of the lunchroom. Nothing was out of place there. I was going to turn around and ask him what was up when I realized what table the mob was around. Katniss's.

I didn't stop to think before I lurched out of my seat. My chair may have even toppled over in my haste. One of my friends called after me, maybe to stop me, but I barely heard him. I was moving towards the circle of students like they were a strong magnet. The only thing I could think about was why Katniss was at the center of this. And my brain went back to those guys that were watching her.

I threw the kid at the edge of the group out of my way and started shoving my way towards the middle. The crowd was thick, thicker than I thought and harder to penetrate.

I could see into the fight now and hear it too. And what I witnessed made my blood boil. There were five guys circling her like buzzards, taunting her, laughing at her. It was obvious this had been going on for a while. She stood in the center of their sick circle, looking ruffled but confident. One of the guys flipped her braid. "Pretty little thing's mad," he said in a voice that made me sick.

Katniss glared at him as he circled around. "Leave me alone," she hissed.

Another guy got a swing at her braid, another at her butt, and I was sent over the edge. I shoved people out of my way and burst into the circle.

They didn't notice my appearance at first since they were so invested in taunting their prey. But Katniss saw me. Her eyes exploded with all kinds of emotion that I didn't even begin to process. One of the guys snuck up behind her in her distraction and whispered something crude in her ear that made her wince. One of his hands caressed her neck, his breath her ear, and his other hand her leg.

I cracked. I launched myself at the thug before anything else could happen. My knuckles connected with his jaw harder than I thought possible, and then everything just turned to a blur.

The next thing I knew, I was standing over all five of them, in varying states of disarray. One of them even appeared to be knocked out. I let out a ragged breath and felt a sharp pain in my fist. When I looked down, there was blood over my knuckles and bruises already forming all over my hand.

The whole crowd around me was shocked to a stunned silence, and, frankly, so was I. Honestly, I was shocked at what I'd done. I hadn't just taken care of the aggressors— I'd beaten them. One of the guys was from the merchant part of town- the one that had touched Katniss in ways that made me sick- and I knew I'd get extra crap for touching him. And they were all older than me. Eighteen, all of them.

I swallowed audibly and made the first movement since I brought the fight down. I reached out and scooped Katniss from where she'd receded into the crowd. She looked stunned, terrified, and just plain shell-shocked. I put one arm around her, pushing her behind me, as one of the thugs managed to get to his hands and knees.

He spat bloody saliva onto the ground at my feet and growled thickly, "Bastard."

The insult rolled right off me. "Touch her again, and I'll do worse."

Before anything else could be said, someone's hand was firmly on my shoulder. I turned and saw the school Peacekeeper's unforgiving stare looking back at me. I cringed inwardly.

"This your doing, boy?" she asked roughly, shaking me.

I looked down at the heap of guys at my feet and felt that I had no other options. "They deserve every hit they got," I replied coolly.

And I was promptly marched to the principal's office.

The Peacekeeper was particularly incensed when she discovered that the principal was in an important meeting with the mayor, and she couldn't dramatically march me in with bloody, swollen knuckles and all, so she ditched me, with handcuffs even, on the bench outside the office and stalked off muttering about kids these days.

A few minutes later, the guy I knocked unconscious was carted off on a stretcher to go to the District doctor for medical attention. I still didn't regret my decisions, but I was starting to worry that my punishment might be a bit more than I was expecting.

The female Peacekeeper followed with the rest of the injured thugs in tow a minute or two later. And Katniss, too. Apparently, she got caught in the crossfire. I don't know how I didn't realize it before, but it looked like she'd taken a good knock to the cheekbone. Did I do that? I wondered.

That thought disappeared from my head real soon because I was too busy watching the guys I'd beaten up walk by. I thought maybe they'd act defiant and promise me my undoing, but they didn't. Not even close. They lowered their gazes to the floor and stumped by, attempting to cover up their obvious injuries. For some reason, it was all I could do not to smile.

The Peacekeeper marched them all into the office and probably straight to the nurse's office to get fixed up. I was worried about Katniss now, on top of the worry over my own punishment. What had she done to get that bruise on her cheek? I didn't know if I'd forgive myself if it was me. And since I was completely alone in the eerily silent hallway, my thoughts were my only company.

Unfortunately (and somewhat fortunately for me), we discovered a bit later that the principal's meeting was going to take longer than expected. Female Peacekeeper was so irate that she just left me alone at that bench and stormed off to keep more peace. I sat outside the principal's office for an hour before anything of relative excitement occurred.

The first thug, the one that called me a bastard, was the first to leave. He left with his head down, eyes away from me. I was glad of it, not sure what I would have done if he'd challenged me again. Despite the amount of time I'd been left alone to cool down, just the sight of him made my blood boil again. All I could hear was him taunting Katniss, circling her like a hawk, and I felt like I was going to snap again.

But somehow I kept my fuse from burning out and stayed firmly planted on the bench outside the front office.

The next time the door opened, I didn't even lift my head to the guy. He most certainly did not deserve to even be looked upon. This happened four more times until all of the gang was gone from my vicinity. For that, I was thankful. It gave me less to worry about. But on the negative, it gave me more time to think about my own fate... But that didn't last long, really, because the door opened for the last time, and this time Katniss walked out.

"Gale..." she said quietly, moving over to my spot on the bench.

"I'm sorry, Katniss," I quickly supplied. Might as well get it out of the way. "I... overreacted. I'm sorry."

But she looked completely shocked. "Why are you apologizing?" she asked. "I wanted to thank you, Gale."

I lifted my head out of my hands and looked her in the eyes. She seemed completely serious. Besides the bruise on her cheek, I could find no reason for guilt on her face. She blinked down at me, probably coming up with the right words to properly tell me off.

"Katniss, I'm sorry," I cut in. I dropped my head into my hands and ran my fingers through my hair. In a rush of emotion, I got to my feet, my handcuff digging into my wrist. "I overreacted, and I shouldn't have—"

"Stop it," Katniss commanded. Her eyebrows knitted together and a bit of a grin curved her lips. "Why would you apologize?"

I had several retorts on hand, but I bit them back for a moment of thought. What had I been apologizing for, really? Katniss, unlike most girls, wouldn't care that I sent a blond kid to the District doctor, so that wasn't something I needed to apologize for.

I reached out and touched her bruised cheek. "What about this?"

She shrugged. "That's no big deal." I raised an eyebrow for more of an explanation, and she sighed. "After you got three of them down, I tried to stop you, which I now realize was rather stupid of me. I went up to behind you, and you caught my cheek on a windup."

I reached out again and fingered her cheek. "Sorry—"

"Gale, honestly!" Katniss said loudly. She crossed her arms over her chest and looked up at me with amused anger. "I don't care about my cheek. Just drop it. You don't need to apologize for that."

I racked my brain, trying to think of something else I'd done wrong. All I could think of was her being horrified that I knocked a guy out, but that was a long shot. She shoots deer for fun. Several more attempts at trying to come up with something she'd be mad at me for came up empty.

Katniss smiled at me then. "See, Gale? I should be the one who's speaking. And I should be thanking you."

"There's really no need—"

But she thanked me anyway. "Seriously, Gale, you really saved me back there. I couldn't have gotten out of there by myself. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't come."

"It was really no big deal," I replied. "Seriously. You do for friends. Besides, I may have taken some personal joy in beating the shit out of them."

Katniss rolled her eyes at me. "I'm sure that was a blast."

"If we're being honest, it was," I replied, concealing a grin.

She smirked but continued on a more serious line of conversation. "But, seriously, though. Thanks, Gale. I have no idea what those guys would have done... Thanks."

And then the most shocking part of that whole incident took place. Katniss bounced up on her toes and kissed me on the lips. It was faster than a blink of an eye and very light, but she kissed me nonetheless. Nothing else was said before she smiled a little at me and bobbed off down the hall.

I was still standing there, absorbing the blow, when the female Peacekeeper came back around the corner and started to shout at me to sit my sorry ass down before she made me. No sooner was I back on the bench when the secretary stuck her head out into the hall and informed the Peacekeeper and me with tight lips that the principal was out of his meeting and he could discuss the issue with us now.

The Peacekeeper gave me a look of such gleeful malice that I was almost too afraid to look at her. She reached to the key ring on her belt and unlocked the cuff around my wrist. She somewhat forcibly shoved me into the office and sat me down across from the principal. He looked at me with a weary-worn expression and sighed.

"So, Mr. Hawthorne, would you please describe to me what happened in the cafeteria this afternoon?" the principal asked, rubbing his temple.

I told him everything, perhaps embellishing the beginning a little to make it seem as though the gang started the fight, not me. I laid out the entire fight as it had happened from my perspective, but I knew that nothing would convince him. The nurse had probably already passed along five stories from the gang. There was no way I was winning this.

The principal paused when I was finished and sighed. Just as I had thought, he had already picked a side. "Three days of suspension."

I sat back in my chair, crossing my arms, clenching my jaw.

The principal looked down his nose at me and said, "I hope you know that your actions were wrong. Violence is never a good solution."

"I understand," I lied through my teeth.

"Good. You may leave."

I really didn't need to hear another word. I got up and left just as the bell rang for the end of the day. I got into a bit of a haggle with the school secretary because she practically insisted that she needed to call my mother to take me from the premises, but eventually I got it through her blond skull that we don't have a working phone.

As soon as I was in the hall, I steered myself towards the door. The faster I got out, the better. There was one benefit to getting suspended. I could hunt all day if I wanted. It would be incredibly lonely, but extra money is always worth it.

"Gale!"

I turned around, and I watched Katniss run down the hall to meet me.

"How bad?" she asked.

"Suspension. Three days," I shrugged. "Not bad, really. Quite worth it."

She rolled her eyes at me. I neglected to tell her that the kiss was what made it all worth it.

"Sorry you have to take the blame for all of this," she said. "You were only trying to save me. I tried to tell the nurse that, but she wouldn't hear any of it."

"I experienced the same problem," I said. "But it's not a big deal. I'm ending up in the mines no matter what my attendance record is."

Normally, Katniss would hit me for a comment like that, but she stood up on her toes and kissed me again. "I can stop at your house to help calm down your mom, if you'd like."

"That might help," I replied.

She took my hand and led me to the door.

Yes. Suspension was worth it.

A/N: I love the idea of Gale protecting Katniss like she's his little sister, and I also imagined that Gale wasn't someone to ever take anything sitting down. And growing up in the Seam probably didn't help his temper ;)

Sorry for the stronger language in this one. Since I was getting into Gale's head, I figured he'd have quite a mouth on him... I apologize if you don't approve.

Also, this was super hard to write because it was in past tense. I've reread it like six times, and each time I notice more times when I slipped back into present…