Author's Note: My first fanfiction in a long, long while, so I sincerely hope that I still have some talent left for it. A one-shot for Katniss/Gale, that, hopefully, doesn't have too many mistakes. Please let me know what you think!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Hunger Games or the characters in any way.
Katniss breathed shallowly as she gazed past the arrow in her strung bow. The young buck slowly made his way through the knee high snow, his ears twitching for any sound while he tried to find a tree with some edible bark left.
The winter so far had been terribly unforgiving and had plagued District 12 and its surrounding forests with snowfalls that lasted for days and nights so cold they could freeze off any limb left in the open. Katniss had to repress a shudder as she remembered one of the miners that had been brought to her mother's hut only days ago. Katniss vaguely remembered his family and their little home, which was amongst the smallest and unstable huts in the mining district. The door and walls had shown openings and cracks that the miner's wife had tried to pad up with strips of cloth. When the miner had been brought in, his wife had told them how their fire had been extinguished during the night and how she had found her husband in the morning. Prim had pulled away the cloth hiding the miner's ankle and she had flinched a little. Against better judgement, Katniss had dared a peek as well, but when she saw the raw flesh on the miner's foot where previously a set of toes had been, she felt her breakfast coming up fast and had to sprint from the hut.
Katniss slightly shook her head and repositioned her arrow towards the buck, which had moved a small distance to the left. Taking a small breath and a hopeful thought about a nice dinner with venison, Katniss released the arrow. At that very moment, the young buck got spooked from something else than the soft pang of the arrow being released and turned and ran swiftly through the snow, zigzagging through the dense trees and denying Katniss another shot.
Katniss released a soft grunt of disbelief and frustration as her arrow embedded itself in a nearby spruce and quickly pulled another arrow and released it after the departing buck anyway, despite the minimal chance of reaching him. For a moment she considered running after the animal, but she discarded the thought as quickly as it had appeared. She was sure footed, especially in these woods, but the knee high snow would drain her stamina so quickly, she wouldn't stand a chance against the buck's swift, hopping escape.
Instead of hunting down the buck again, Katniss suddenly turned and gazed around for the cause of the buck's early retreat. The forest looked as they always had, but coated with a thick layer of snow on the hills and the bare branches of the trees and brush. Katniss narrowed her eyes as her eyes fell on a firm branch of a nearby tree and the person who had made himself comfortable on that branch.
Sitting with his back against the tree's trunk and his legs outstretched along the branch sat Gale with a crooked smirk on his face.
"You really ought to shoot straight next time, Catnip. You're not bringing any dinner on the table this way." Gale stretched in his tree and hopped down from the branch, plopping down softly in the thick layer of snow.
Katniss' hands tightened slightly on her bow as she looked Gale up and down. Something in his stance had changed over the last couple of weeks. A hint of arrogance, perhaps.
"I'm not bringing home any dinner because you scare away any prey I encounter!" she snapped at him. Then in a softer tone, "Gale. This is the third prey you chased away in less than two weeks. You know how scarce food is right now. All I've been able to catch was a couple of measly rabbits and a skunk that tasted as bad as it reeked."
For just a moment Gale seemed to have a glint of guilt in his steely grey eyes, but it disappeared as fast as it had come. He shrugged and smirked again. "Maybe it's not me that is the problem here, Catnip. Maybe it's your-" Katniss cut his words short by pushing past him and scowling at him over her shoulder as she padded through the snow, following the trail the buck had left behind.
"Don't you dare say it's my aim, Gale. Don't you dare."
Katniss made her way through the thick snow with a scowl on her face that darkened as she heard Gale follow her. As the first snow had begun to fall Gale had begun acting increasingly strange. Scaring away prey was the least of them, but today it was enough to bring Katniss and her temper on edge. He had begun by simply being in her way. During hunts he would take the lead, which Katniss was fine with, but when he had started blocking shots in his enthusiasm to take the shot himself, Katniss had started to wonder what he was on about.
He had also being strangely protective, which he had always been, but he had added an arrogant edge to it that set Katniss' hairs on edge. When they had been tracking a boar, Gale and once again insisted on taking the lead. When they had tracked the animal to a dense underbrush that had still retained some of its greenery in that early winter, the boar had charged at them expectantly. Both Katniss and Gale had not been strangers to this situation and both of their reflexes would have allowed them to easily take down the boar with their arrows, but instead of allowing the shot, Gale had jumped on Katniss and taken her to the ground with him as the boar rushed past them and escaped. After that, he had brushed the incident off with a mix of arrogance and joking that had only confused Katniss even more.
After that Katniss had begun to avoid him and started to hunt by herself, being more successful without having Gale around to distract and confuse her. He started to barge in on her solitary hunting trips, though, just like he did now.
"Oh please, we both know you can't stay mad at me", Gale snickered behind her.
"But the winter is still so very long, Gale, and I am confident in my ability to hold a grudge", Katniss spat back. She lost her footing for a moment as she stepped in a small indent in the ground hidden by the snow. As she regained her footing, she felt Gale hover near her, which annoyed her even more.
Whirling around, she set the tip of her bow against his chest and firmly poked him.
"Keep your distance", she hissed and scowled at him. Gale seemed just as annoyed as her for a moment, and Katniss' hope to regain the old him rose, but then his arrogant smile reappeared on his face and her hope flickered out like a candle.
"You don't like me so near, Catnip?" Gale spoke in that ridiculous voice he only reserved for imitating certain people, yet now he used it in no imitation of anybody and Katniss felt another pang of frustration.
She turned around with a soft growl and stalked through the snow again, following the buck's imprints once more.
Gale tried to get a conversation going on multiple occasions, but every time he tried Katniss would throw such a powerful glare over her shoulder that he fell silent once more. They thread through the snow for an hour or so, and Katniss could almost imagine that things were back to normal, when they would spend hours following faint trails through the forest. When she could no longer hear Gale's soft pacing behind her, though, Katniss stopped and gazed around her. Gale stood a little distance away and he had pulled his bow from his back, an arrow knocked. He was turned to the side and was looking upwards to the sky. His whole stance was so.. so normal.. so Gale that Katniss stared at him in longing and missed the words he uttered at first. She shook her head and gazed at Gale who looked at her in slight confusion, before repeating his words: "There's a storm coming. We should head back."
Katniss was lost for another moment as his words bore not even the slightest hint of arrogance that he had adopted in the last few weeks. His words bore an observation that the old Gale would have made after which they would have returned to the district without argument. Now, though, Katniss frowned and regained the scowl as she remembered that she had stopped listening to Gale for now because he had been acting ridiculous and shook her head.
"I am not going home empty-handed. Not again. And since you are the one that scared away the buck, why don't yougo home and leave me be."
Disbelief and annoyance appeared on Gale's face and once again Katniss had to fight the urge to believe the old Gale had made his return. "You can't be serious. I am not letting you go out in that storm by yourself."
Katniss snickered. "You have done nothing else than let me down these past weeks. I'm better off on my own for now." She quickly turned when a sharp pang of guilt struck her side as she saw the hurt in Gale's steely eyes and began trudging off again. After a short moment, she heard Gale follow her.
"Katniss, be realistic. You'll be snowed in if you continue. We're far beyond the lake and it will take us hours to get back because of the snow."
"I don't know what you have been doing lately, but I have been trying to feed my family and have been unsuccessful because of you. I don't care how long it takes, I am catching something and bringing it home", Katniss growled back and stomped off through the snow against her better judgement. Gale was always right about the weather and even Katniss could see that the clouds were darkening and become heavier and heavier with snow.
She continued on, though, driven by her frustration and annoyance with Gale, but also by her own stubbornness and the hollowness of Prim's cheeks this morning.
Katniss continued to trudge through the heavy snow for a few minutes, when she came to a halt as snowflakes began to fall from the sky. She closed her eyes for a moment in order to push aside her pride and turned around to face Gale, who was looking at her with an uncertain expression.
"Turn back", Katniss mumbled through her clenched teeth and Gale was wise enough not to smirk at her. Instead, he silently turned around and began following their own tracks back the way they had come.
Gale lead the way for about half an hour and the snowfall steadily increased. As the snow started to climb higher and higher and sight decreased, Katniss' stubbornness began to decline just as steadily.
"It's no use," she said as she shook the snow from her hair. "We have to find shelter now." Thoughts about having to dig a snow hole flicked through her mind and her gut clenched with the claustrophobic thought of being in such a small space for the remainder of the day and most likely the night.
Gale eyed around through the heavy snowfall and rested his hand on a nearby boulder. "I am not sitting with you in an icy hole for who knows how long", he grumbled.
"Well you are not the best company either, Gale!" Katniss snapped back.
"I didn't mean it that way", Gale growled as he turned and faced her. "I know you don't do well in cramped spaces, so I am not going to sit with you in a snow hole if it makes you that uncomfortable or scared. I wouldn't put you through that." For a long moment they stared at each other until Gale lowered his gaze and looked around for another option, while Katniss continued to stare at his face.
"I think we are close to the lake", Gale mumbled and started to walk further to the left of the tracks. Katniss quickly regained her composure and followed him in silence.
Even though the snowfall refused to give more than a few meters of sight, Katniss began to see certain marks that indeed indicated that they were near the lake. She gently laid her hand on a low boulder and a few minutes later on a fallen log that still rested against a nearby tree.
After about an hour of trudging through the ever growing layer of snow, Katniss and Gale arrived at the edge of a large clearing. The lake had frozen over and was now hidden underneath a thick layer of snow that also hid the rest of the ground. To the left of where they had broken through the treeline, stood a small concrete house. Even for that brief moment that they stood still, Katniss started to shiver violently as the falling snow created a layer of icy white fluff on her head and shoulders. Even through her thick hunting jacket, she could feel the wind reaching through the fabric and cooling her bones. Suppressing her shivers and chattering teeth, Katniss quickly started to trudge towards the concrete house, and Gale quickly followed behind her.
The inside of the concrete house was bare and empty, the door was gone and the window shattered, but it gave some cover from the icy wind. Snow had been swept inside by the wind and Gale started to clear some of the snow away from the corners. Katniss immediately sat down near the wall that held a small alcove, forming a small fireplace. Hidden underneath an old piece of cloth they found the pile of dried wood that Katniss had taken care of maintaining over the years.
"Y-you know, this is all your f-fault", Katniss growled as she tried to keep her teeth from chattering.
"How is this my fault?" Gale retaliated. "I wasn't the one that trudged into an oncoming snowstorm."
"I wasn't the one that's been keeping any prey away! We wouldn't be in this mess if you hadn't started acting so stupid!"
"Stupid? I tried to look after you!" Gale snapped back. Katniss growled and dropped the branches she was fussing with and whipped herself around to face Gale.
"And since when do I need looking after? I've always been fine with you just having my back and not flinching every time I lose my balance!" Her anger heated her up for the moment and kept her teeth from chattering and Katniss firmly planted her finger against Gale's chest. He was over a foot taller than her and for once she didn't like gazing up at him. He was scowling down at her with irritation and frustration, and something more.. despair? Fear?
"Well if you've become so averse to me, then perhaps we should put an end to our hunting together!" Gale growled and took a step back and began clearing out the snow from the concrete house.
Katniss felt an unexpected pang of agony at the suggestion of ending their partnership, but felt too stubborn admit it, both to herself and Gale. She started to fumble with the pouch on her belt.
Even though the concrete walls gave cover from most of the icy wind, Katniss was shivering violently soon after she pulled dried grass from one of her pouches and made a small nest surrounded by dry branches. By the time she had retrieved her tiny rock of pyrite and steel plate from her pouch, her hands were shaking so much she had hardly any control over them. Gale gently pushed her aside and took the stones from her hands, but avoided her gaze as he gently murmured "Here, let me".
Katniss stumbled over to the corner that Gale had made snow free and pulled her knees up to her chest. She forced her jaw from chattering as she pulled her arms out of her sleeves and held them inside her father's worn hunting jacket.
Gale gritted his teeth as he worked on the fire, but relaxed as a large spark set fire to the dried grass and soon brought life to a larger fire. Gale tended to the fire for a few more minutes, but then moved to the other corner next to the fireplace and began moving the snow from that corner as well. Katniss watched him closely over the corner of her hunting jacket as he not only began to move the snow from the corner, but from the rest of the floor as well. Katniss caught herself appreciating Gale's working. It was easier to pretend he hadn't been a pain in her ass for the past few weeks. She stared at his hands as he used the large cloth that had been covering the pile of wood to remove the snow from the room and found herself wondering how those fingers would feel on her skin. She shook her head gently and closed her eyes as she cleared her thought and forced her gaze on the small fire.
After Gale had finished removing the snow, he sat in the corner opposite of Katniss and stretched out his hands towards the fire. He was still avoiding her gaze. They sat there for a long moment in absolute silence, trying to warm themselves as best as they could.
Gale's eyes fell on the open window and door that still allowed icy wind to enter the house and kept the fire small and flickering. "It's no use", he grumbled softly, "We won't get any warmer unless we close everything off."
He rose from his corner and grabbed the cloth that had been hiding the wood and turned it into a makeshift cover over the open doorway. He fastened it on the old hinges, and then walked over to the window, thought for a moment, then shrugged off his jacket. He covered the window and returned to his corner opposite of Katniss. The wind was now considerably weaker inside the room and it softened the sharp sting of the cold.
Katniss eyed him from the corners of her eyes and flinched slightly when she saw him shaking ever so slightly. Gale had been wearing a single layer under his warm hunting jacket and was shivering now that he had given it up to cover the window. The fire was not large enough to provide any real warmth and the pile of wood was not large enough to feed a bigger fire for the rest of the night. With a reluctant sigh, Katniss rose from her corner and crossed the small room, sat down next to Gale and slipped out of her hunting jacked, offering one side of it to Gale without looking at him.
He caught her gaze, though, when he gratefully took the side and huddled underneath it. He smirked slightly and Katniss stared at him for a moment as she wondered why he had hidden that grin, hisgrin, behind that mask of arrogant casualness. She returned the smirk she missed so much with a small smile of her own.
"I can't believe we ended up snuggling after all", Gale muttered softly with an humorous edge to his voice and Katniss was about to flinch until she realised that it was his usual way of joking.
She allowed him another small smile, but let it fall pretty quickly again.
"Why are you angry with me?" Gale asked her softly.
"Of course I am angry with you!" Katniss grumbled softly. "You are behaving ridiculous. You started making more noise during hunting, scaring away prey and you acted like you were some kind of rich prick. Of course I am angry with you", she repeated.
They sat in silence for a little while until Gale murmured an apology for his behaviour.
"I'm sorry.. I got a little.. confused when winter started."
Katniss let out a soft grunt. Gale did not get confused. In all those years she had known him he had been one of the only stable factors in her life. He had been her rock, her partner in times of extreme hunger and fear. The beginning of this winter had not been even that harsh, so it seemed peculiar that right now Gale got confused over something.
Katniss tried thinking back what might have happened the start of winter that could get Gale so off-balance. There had been nothing strange or peculiar that she could think off and she quickly let the issue go from her mind.
As time went by and the snowstorm continued outside of the house, Katniss' eyes began to drift slowly drift apart now and then. Her eyes fluttered open now and then as Gale fed the small fire some more branches before retaking his spot next to her in the corner. She was also vaguely aware when he put his arm around her shoulders, but instead of flinching back, she snuggled a little closer to him, thankful for the warmth he provided. Soothed by the soft howl the wind produced against the concrete walls, Katniss quickly drifted off to sleep.
Katniss woke up to an empty concrete room, a whisk of smoke still coming from the small fireplace. Two hunting jackets were draped across her as Gale's no longer covered up the broken window.
Rising from the corner, Katniss rubbed her eyes as she walked outside, looking for Gale. He was nowhere to be found, but a fresh trail of footsteps in the deep snow walked into the woods. Judging by the fact that he had left his hunting jacket behind, Katniss figured that he had gone for a morning hunt, so she decided to stay put.
She grinned slightly at the clearing she beheld. The snowstorm had added another layer to the already thick snow, allowing it to reach halfway to Katniss' upper thigh. The sky was iridescently blue with some white strokes of fluffy clouds here and there. The only sound in that peaceful setting was the soft rumble of the occasional batch of snow falling from heavy tree branches.
Grinning in sudden delight, Katniss dropped to her knees in the deep snow and started forming a ball in her hands and rolling it out. By the time she had formed a large snowball, her hands were shivering from the cold white fluff and she felt less inclined to form a second ball for the snowman she was planning to build. She had shook the fluff from her clothes and began trudging back through the snow to the concrete house, but she turned around when she heard Gale.
"Surely you won't give up now. That snowman is far from finished."
Gale came treading through the snow with his bow slung across his back and a rabbit hanging from his hand. He bore a smirk that made Katniss stare again and forget for his arrogant behaviour of the past weeks. His steely eyes were lightened by the white snow all around them.
"Well last time we made a snowman I remember you using it for target practice after we finished it."
Katniss grinned as she remembered. It had been the start of winter and the first snow had fallen one morning as Gale and Katniss had gone out to hunt. The snow allowed for easy tracking of prey and soon they had enough to feed both their families for a few days. With time left to spare, they had built a snowman out of that first snow. It had been such an easy time as they laughed and threw snow at each other. After they had finished the snowman, Katniss had made fun of Gale's aim with the bow and Gale had insisted to prove his skill by using the poor snowman as target. Katniss had rolled in the cold snow from laughter as Gale had put up a dramatic show of missing every arrow he shot, except one that knocked the root from the snowman's face and replaced it with an arrow.
Gale grinned in appreciation of the memory and scratched the back of his head a little with his free hand. Katniss cocked her head a little to the side as she realized that his face was flushed a little. Without thinking, she blamed it on the cold winter morning.
"Now those were some good times", Gale muttered softly while pulling his hand through his dark hair.
"They sure were", Katniss admitted. They really had been good times. In fact, that day out hunting had been one of the days before Gale had started acting so ridiculous. She widened her eyes and stared at Gale for a moment as he trudged his way through the snow and dropped the rabbit off into the concrete house.
"Something happened that day, didn't it?" Katniss spoke softly, and she couldn't keep the slight edge of accusation from her tone.
"What are you talking about?" Gale replied, but kept his face hidden from her. "It was just a good Sunday, that is all."
Anger flared up in Katniss as she realized he was lying. "Gale, I know you are lying! What happened that day? Why did you start behaving like a prick after that?"
"Nothing happened! We just had a good time!" Gale spat back and he turned to face Katniss. His face was contorted in.. denial? Disbelief? Desperation? Katniss did not know.
"We said we wouldn't lie to each other, Gale! You have my back, I have yours, that was the deal! You owe me an explanation for the past weeks if nothing else!" Katniss growled back at him and began trudging towards him.
Gale did not retort with another snappy comment, instead he turned his face to the side and scowled at the ground in anger.
"Don't you dare be mad at me without telling me what I did wrong. That is not fair." Katniss growled as she grabbed Gale's jaw and turned his head to face her. Gale grabbed the wrist she used and firmly kept it in place on his face as his steely eyes seemed to collide with Katniss'.
"It was you, okay? You looked so.. so.. carefree that day. Your face was all flushed from the snow and there were flakes in your hair and.." Gale suddenly gritted his teeth and took a step back, releasing her hand.
"Then why did you start acting like a scumbag all of the sudden?" Katniss asked, but for some reason her cheeks had already begun to redden.
"Because I realized that I wanted to do anything to make you that happy again! I would do anything to get you to smile like that!" Gale pulled his hand through his hair again and eyed her with unwilling grey eyes.
"You're not making any sense, Gale", Katniss whispered as she felt her face begin to redden faster.
Gale shook his head. "I didn't want you to know something had changed. I didn't want to corrupt our friendship, but everything I got close to you I felt like I needed to prove myself. I started acting stupid." Gale shook his head again and grimaced. At himself, Katniss realized.
"I can't believe this. For weeks you disturbed my hunting, acted like an ass and were overall terrible company, because you.. you liked me?" Katniss wanted to bury her head in the thick layer of snow, but she forced herself to keep her eyes on Gale.
This Gale was so much different from the old, smooth Gale that kissed girls behind the school and haggled mercilessly in the Hob. The Gale that could force wire into doing his hill en encasing animals without damaging the pelt. The Gale that had haunted a few of her dreams with his steely eyes and adept fingers. Katniss gulped.
Gale had been looking at her as she reminisced over the old Gale and let his shoulders slump down in understanding. He began turning around and trudging back through the snow towards District 12. "Don't forget the rabbit", he muttered over his shoulder, but he stumbled as soon as the snowball hit the back of his head. He turned around to see Katniss with a grin on her face, forming a second snowball in her hands.
He grinned as he shook the snow from his head. "Looks like your aim isn't a problem anymore, Catnip."
"I could teach you a thing or two, if you want", Katniss laughed as she launched her second snowball at him. He dodged it easily and sprinted at her with a smirk on his face, scooping up snow from the ground in the process. Katniss turned and ran in an effort to dodge the oncoming snow pile, but Gale easily overtook her with his head start and dumped the armful of snow on top of her. They continued their snowball fight until they both sat in the snow on their knees, breathing heavily and faces flushed from the cold. Katniss scooped up another batch of snow as a laughing Gale crept up on her and launched it at his face as he came too close.
Gale fell over backwards, laughing still, and shook the snow from his face. Katniss crawled next to him and supported her face on her arms as she looked at him with a grin.
"Please don't lie to me anymore", she whispered softly, her grin fading slightly as her tone became serious.
Gale allowed her a sincere smile that reached his steely eyes. "I promise."
Katniss suddenly leaned over him, overcome by gratitude that all this silliness was now behind them and pressed the softest kiss to Gale's lips. He wrapped his arms around her and held her in place for a moment, then released her as she pulled back. Her cheeks were a bright red as she met his grey eyes with her own.
They gathered up their supplies in silence and began the long journey back to District 12, hunting along the way. Before they reached the fence, they were holding hands, still too unfamiliar with the feeling, but too fascinated with the feeling to let go.
It was then that the harsh winter had reached its peak, and the world slowly started warming up to make way for spring.