A/N So I realised I've written a Peeta/Katniss and nothing about Gale. This fic was the result. My one-shots seem to be getting shorter and shorter. Hmm. Anyway this did not turn out as I intended it but enjoy! And review!
Disclaimer: Nope, still don't own it. Still having to do exams.
He supposes he was expecting her. He couldn't say what drew him to the spot, what prompted him to one day pull a sickie (something he would never have dared back in Twelve, not least because he couldn't afford to lose that job) and duck under Two's dilapidated fence to slip out towards the rocky surface of the mountain. It was so different from the sheltered expanse he was used to back home; it felt too open but nonetheless it didn't shock him to find her there.
She was always on the other side of the fence in his nightmares, only that fence wasn't quite as accessible as the physical one. It was the boundary to the past. Only innocent Gale could cross that fence; there was no access for the man that killed her sister. Yet as soon as he reached the cave he felt her presence.
He supposes he had always expected to see her again. This was the point in all the ancient 'American' movies where he found closure and perhaps she forgave him but this was not America, where he gathered everything had been sweet and perfect. This was Panem with all its rough edges and battle scars.
When she saw him there was no running into his arms or confessions of love on her part, nor begging for forgiveness on his. They merely stood and stared. She was so familiar but the Capitol had somehow smoothed out her old flaws and insecurities that Gale knew so well and replaced them with new ones at the same time they perfected her skin.
She pursed her lips. "Gale," she said.
"Katniss," he replied.
There was no shouting or sobbing or firm words spoken between them. It was so surreal that Gale would later doubt whether it was just another nightmare for, though he could finally reach her physically, he was never going to get back into her head. When she looked at him, she gave him the look she reserved for the lowest of the low. The despicable, the unlikeable and the Capitol scum.
In that instant he knew that his Katniss had died in the war not long after he had.
"How are you?" She broke the silence.
"Coping," he admitted truthfully.
"You're well."
It was the simplicity of the statement, the way she still knew him inside out that made him realise how much he no longer understood her. And he never would again.
"Catnip…" he said pleadingly.
She shook her head. "I had to see you. One last time. Just to check."
One last time.
"You can't forgive me," he whispered. The statement made him wonder if perhaps he did know her still but her reply squashes that notion.
"Never. Goodbye Gale."
He supposes he should find some sort of closure, like in those movies, but he doesn't. In fact, the nightmares only get worse.