AN: I'm going to explain this story a little more now that you've continued reading past my prologue. I've already stated that this will be a dark fic. But strangely, I'm not going to write anything worse than what was hinted at in the original books. I'm just leaving out the rebellion. Our main characters (in my mind, over 18 years old, due to story content) stay under the control of Snow and the Capitol in a world where its grip on the rest of Panem is completely secure. Katniss's stunt with the berries only serves to irritate Snow, causing him to take an even unhealthier interest in making her life miserable while still making a profit off of her like he has victors in the past. The entire first book plot and characters apply to my story while only ideas and characters will come from the second and third books. For example, you'll meet the other victors but under completely different circumstances.

If anyone has seen a story with a similar idea, I'd love to know about it since I haven't read every single one of the 18k+ fics in this fandom.

I hope that clears up a lot about the origin and ideas behind this story. I hope too, that you will tell me what you think. Tell me you love it, tell me you hate it, tell me anything but please tell me. The one review I received to the prologue spurred me to get the first chapter out. So yes, I'm shamelessly begging readers to leave a review. What can I say, I desperately want to know what people think of my first attempt at Hunger Games fan fiction.

Enough of my begging, enjoy the chapter!

Act 1: District 12

So Much It Hurts

Gale was lying down on the blanket he always brought, his hands tucked behind his head and his eyes closed. Katniss stood at the edge of the small clearing for a few moments before she disturbed him. He looked so peaceful right then and she hated to shatter that. She never felt as calm as he looked. Keeping her eyes just on him, she resisted the urge to scan the trees and rocks that surrounded him for any sign of cameras. She'd received a note a month ago telling her to stop that.

'Act like you're not being watched. Looking for cameras is distracting for my audience.'

His audience, several of the wealthier Capitol citizens who paid a steep price to watch her degradation and humiliation. If only she knew their names as well, she'd add them to the list she'd made in her head. The list where Snow's name sat right at the top.

She must have unwittingly made a noise while she thought of the Capitol and its depravity. Gale's head turned slightly in her direction before he sat up and smiled at the sight of her. She didn't know how he managed it. He didn't like how they were forced to keep their relationship a secret but he accepted her reasons.

It was too dangerous.

Their families could get hurt.

She had to keep up appearances concerning her marriage to the baker's son.

He'd accepted them because he thought that the Capitol didn't own what the two of them shared out here in the world beyond the fence. Because he thought she freely made the choice each time to come to him, to love him.

She managed to slightly raise her hand, a pathetic wave of sorts when he stood and said her name.

"Katniss." He was beautiful as he walked over to her. Tall and lean with an undercurrent of strength of will that she wished she could duplicate. "I was starting to worry."

"No you weren't, you knew I'd get here." He smiled again but only for a moment before he snaked one hand into her hair and pulled her in for a long, deep kiss. Despite everything, she liked it when he kissed her. Little actions like these could make her forget everything but the feel of his lips.

He didn't waste any time as he let his other arm sweep under her backside and lift her up. He carried her over to their makeshift bed and set her down on her feet, never breaking the kiss. His hands immediately began to work at the bindings of her clothes. He knew she couldn't be here long, she never could. He took what she allowed him to have. He pulled her shirt up and off before making short work of her bra.

"Have I told you how beautiful you are?" He asked when he broke away from her mouth to look at her slim figure. She was still thinner than she should be despite having enough food on which she could grow fat twice over. Winning the games had made her a rich woman but they had also robbed her of an appetite. Eating was always an ordeal these days. She knew it worried both the man who was unfastening the clasp to her pants and the man she'd left to worry about her back in the Victor's Village. Neither of them mentioned it anymore, since it just made her more despondent than she already was these days.

"Every time I see you." The words sounded mechanical, even to her. The warmth that had been worming its way into her drew back suddenly as Gale stepped away to remove his own clothing. She sat down on the blanket and stared at her dirty hands. She hadn't even bothered washing them before running out here to carry out her orders. She slipped them under her thighs as shame washed over her. She saw his shirt drop behind him and heard the sounds of his pants rushing to meet the ground as well. She never helped him undress, she couldn't bring herself to aid in the production of the show anymore than she was already forced to do.

Gale knelt down in front of her, still wearing the last scrap of clothing covering his already obvious arousal. He always left it on until the last possible moment, observing her continued discomfort with male nudity. She shivered when he set his hand on her knee and pushed it to the side. He never seemed to get enough of the sight of her.

Still on his knees, he leaned forward and kissed her while his hand glided up her inner thigh.

He pulled away from her mouth to run demanding little kisses across her cheek and nibble on her ear. She felt the little smile against her lobe the moment his fingers touched her most intimate of places. Only Gale would find her lack of preparedness to be something to celebrate.

"Uh oh." He whispered into her ear.

"Gale, you don't have…" He silenced her breathy protest with another kiss.

"You promised. Every time you weren't ready for me yet that I could…" And he kissed her again. She remembered the promise without needing to be reminded of it. He loved kissing her down there. If he had his way, she knew he'd start off every one of their encounters this way. Days like this, when she came to him first, she didn't mind as much but when she was with Peeta first…

She let him push her to lie back on the blanket and he pressed his mouth to hers one last time before leaving a wet trail down the length of her body. She squeezed her eyes shut and threw her arm across them. He'd told her she looked unbelievably sexy when she did that, like she was wearing a blindfold. He wouldn't have told her that if he knew that she did it to cover as much of her face as she could from the eyes of their observers.

Katniss couldn't help the moan that escaped her when he spread her and began his ,at first delicate, play between her thighs. Gale excelled at this skill almost as much as he did at hunting. In a way, it was just another of his all too effective snares. He lulled her body into a sweet state of calm bliss, the same way he lulled small animals to the promise of an easy meal. Then, just when she thought she'd melt into the ground beneath her, he'd furiously work to pull every ounce of pleasure from her body with his skilled fingers and tongue.

She groaned unintelligible nothings to the forest canopy above them as wave after wave of rhythmic pleasure crashed through her. She pushed his head away from her before her oversensitivity and his overzealousness broke her sanity.

"I love to watch you come." He talked too much as far as she was concerned. He always had. Before the games, it had been his ravings about the evils of the Capitol. After, it had been his amorous exclamations and statements. The first time they'd met up again, after she'd been given her orders, he'd started on a fresh rant about how terrible the games were and how awful the Capitol and its leaders were. Silencing that rant, out of sheer terror over what could happen to him if he continued, had made carrying out her task simple. She'd thrown herself at him to shut him up. Ever since then, he didn't talk much about the Capitol and whenever he started to…

She didn't respond to his words. She never had any idea what to say to them so she'd just look away and wait for whatever he chose to do next. Gale naturally took charge of their amorous activities. She silently thanked him for it. It was so much easier to let someone make all the decisions for her. Whether with actions or words, Gale told her what to do, where to lay, where to touch him and how to move. Peeta didn't give her that luxury. He wasn't the dominant personality like the man who was crawling up her body now. Gale kissed her again as he settled between her wide spread thighs.

"Do I have time to play with you more?" He said between kisses to her neck and the upper swell of her small breasts.

"Not today."

"Why?" He'd always been demanding, as a hunting partner, as a friend and even more so as a lover. "Doing something with your husband?" He spat out the last word. She understood why he didn't like Peeta even though she thought it was unfair. Even if everything were just as it seemed to Gale, even if the marriage were purely for show, it would still be wrong for Gale to blame the baker's son. But if he knew the truth, knew that soon after returning back to the Victor's village she'd be in a very similar position with her husband. It terrified her to think about what would happen if Gale found out, of where he would direct his anger. Since he couldn't attack the nebulous Capitol or the people behind it, would he seek out Peeta?

"I'm having dinner with Prim and my mother." She lied. He roughly pinched one of her nipples, making her gasp while staring intently into her eyes. Sometimes she suspected he knew when she was lying but if he did, he never voiced it aloud.

"I guess I should get started, before you have to run away from me again." She knew he resented this situation but not enough to put an end to their encounters. He looped one forearm under he knee and pulled her leg up to rest against him before he used his free hand to guide himself into her. He slid in easily, his previous activity having paved the way. He hissed as he slid into her and she moaned. Katniss closed her eyes and felt him rest his forehead against hers as he started at a demanding pace. One of her hands found his lower back while the other coursed into his unbelievably thick, dark hair.

After a few minutes of steady thrusting, he suddenly lifted her slightly off the ground where their bodies were connected and droved into her fiercely, more so than he normally would. Any and all tenderness Gale showed during their couplings took place before, during his version of foreplay but never now. She always felt like he was trying to capture her somehow when he was pumping in and out of her. It was some sort of need he couldn't keep control over once he started.

She loved it.

Whatever it was that consumed him, pulled her into it as well. Soon she was lost in the feeling of him, crying out with each particularly brutal thrust. She heard his quiet grunts and knew he was close. His strangled moan was the final harbinger as he shook with his release. He stayed pressed firmly inside of her until his breathing began to even out.

"I love you so much it hurts, Katniss." He breathed against her lips before pulling out of her and rolling off to the side.

This was the moment she dreaded the most, when she remembered who she was and why she was here. She sat up immediately and stood on slightly wobbly legs, steadying herself for a short moment before walking the few short steps to the small brook nearby.

"Must be some dinner your mom's cooking." He said offhandedly when she crouched down to wash what he'd given her into the cold, slowly moving water. She didn't need to turn around to know what his face looked like then. It hurt him every time she ran away like this. Maybe it was a reminder that even though she was here with him now, she wasn't and could never be truly his. She would never go home with him. He could never hold her at night. She would never be his wife. She never defended herself against the comments he made. She welcomed them. She deserved them. She wrapped herself in the feeling of them to keep the tears at bay.

She heard him sigh. "I'm sorry Katniss."

"Don't be. You have nothing to apologize for." She couldn't keep the hitch out of her voice as she finished that statement. She knew she sounded as pathetic as she felt.

She heard him stand and move behind her as she stood up, having finished her cleansing ritual. She let him slip his arms around her and rest his head on her shoulder.

"I wish…" he didn't finish. He didn't need to. She knew what he wished. She found she wasn't sure if she wished for the same thing or not.

OoOoO

Meg: Thanks for the first chapter review. Thanks to you, I was so happy to see any interest in this story that I worked hard to get this next chapter out. Let me know what you think!