note1: Hi there :) I'm fairly new to and this is my first work I've decided to submit. Please enjoy~
note2: disclaimer- The Hunger Games belongs to Suzanne Collins, I take no credit for her amazing novels/characters.
note3: Tired of these yet? But this is some Gadge drabble that I came up with at 3.00 am when I could sleep, so yeah... XD
He followed the lazy movement of his hand with his smoldering, grey eyes. He'd tried and failed to sleep that night and before he knew it his legs had taken him to the field, their field. And now here he laid, his arm outstretched and fingers tracing patterns in the starry sky above him. Maybe it was out of his suppressed worry that within every clump of stars, he could only see her face spread among them.
"Katniss…" he whispered, desperately wishing that his voice could span the districts, the world even, simply to reach her and let her know that she was always on his mind. He'd stopped counting the days since she'd been in the Games after he saw them kiss, her and Peeta. Now he was just consumed with thoughts of Katniss. It wasn't so much about his worry for her survival but now, more about her utter betrayal.
Once upon a time he had known that girl, they had been two pieces to a puzzle no one else could ever decipher but now, she was a just stranger wearing the mask of his best friend and childhood love. He wondered if this was part of the stranger's own twisted games. If he kept his fidelity, would it be returned with her love? If he continued to hope, would she someday stand by his side? In a way, this stranger was even crueler than his Katniss. With his Katniss, at least she was honest with him.
"Gale!" A soft voice carried to him by the winds of District 12. It was sweet sounding with genuine concerned laced through it. Gale picked his way back to the source of it with ease. "Madge?" a mixture of curiosity and scorn threaded in his voice. The blonde girl whipped around from where she was leaning with her back against the fence. She smiled in relief and the brightness of that smile surprised him. The sixteen year old seemed to have escaped from bed, dressed in a plain night gown and ratty slippers. His mind flashed back to the Reaping and he decided he liked this white nightgown instead of the frilly silly little thing she had on.
"I snuck by your house and when you weren't there, I figured you'd be out here." She replied while looking down shyly at her feet. "You could get us both caught hollering like that." He said coldly but Madge only smiled wryly, almost causing him to surrender to her charm. "My father would do anything to protect me, and I would use all my power to protect you Gale, for Katniss. Besides, who's to say the mayor's daughter has never bribed a Peacekeeper before?" Gale found himself scowling at the Katniss comment, like somehow Madge owed it to the tribute to make sure he was okay, but also grinning at the bribery comment and Madge's sly smile that made her seem a little less uptight than he originally thought.
"So what brings innocent ol' Madge to a risky place, in the middle of the night, just to see me?" he asked as he closed the gap between him and the fence, only mere centimeters from Madge's face. Had she always been this pretty? He was struck by her wholesome beauty. Her Seam grey eyes mingled with blue and reminded him of a clear, sparkling river. He was attached to Katniss so often that his eyes never wandered to another girl and Gale suddenly found himself backing up. This was dangerous. Madge's sweet smile was tinged with sadness as she rambled on.
"I was just worried, and I figured you'd want to know that she's doing okay. She's surviving, she still has a chance." She meant Katniss of course and Gale couldn't help but press himself into the fence out of his own sick desperation. "You're sure? What about Peeta?" He was angry at his this selfish curiosity but he had to know, worry drawing his gaze to her own grey-blue depths with a fierce intensity. "Yes… she's doing everything she can for him." Something about her reserved tone made him suspicious but Gale immediately softened when he saw her trembling hand gripping the chain link fence in an attempt to steady herself.
With barely more than a thought, he covered that small hand with his own. His hand engulfed her thin finger and he was surprised at the fragility he found there. He took her hand not out of comfort but out of a need for solidarity. As if to proclaim that here and now, this moment, was more real. Madge blinked up at him with steady eyes. "Gale… will you watch the Games? I know it's hard for you but you can't keep torturing yourself by sitting out here and thinking about the 'what ifs'. We just have to believe that Katniss is strong enough to make it, otherwise she might as well be dead already." Madge had squeezed her eyes shut tight and slipped her fingers from his. Somehow that simple gesture made him feel lonelier than before.
Her blonde hair blew in the breeze and she shivered slightly. Something protective rose in him and he almost longed to hold her tight before he shook his head. This was Madge he was thinking about, the Mayor's privileged daughter. "Go home Madge." He spat, as if the harshness in his words would harden the confusing mess swirling within him at the moment. She flinched, her eyes going wide with alarm. However she managed a trembling smile and a faint, "Good-bye Gale. Please take care of yourself." At the sound of her receding footsteps, Gale turned away and delved deep into the forest once more. There was no point in going home.
Gale found a less open spot under the tree but with a swatch of the sky still in his sight. He didn't know what to do about Katniss and he doubted he would ever know 100% what to do, but for the first time in a long one, he felt tired and just wanted to forget about her and sleep. His eyes still found idle patterns in the sky as they grew heavier and heavier but this time he didn't see a bow and arrow, or the dark plait that always fell down her back. Gale saw someone different woven in the stars. He saw a slim, tiny figure with a plain white nightgown. Right before he closed his eyes for the night, he saw tumbling blonde hair, eyes that quenched any thirst with their clear, watery grey-blue pools, and a smile the outshone even the stars and the moon.
note4: Review me! Depending on you guys, I may even add more chapters?
note5: Oh by the way, this takes place post-feast scene.
thank you and sincerely, retracethelines