Author's Note: This story starts after The Hunger Games but before Catching Fire, during the six months when Katniss and Peeta ignore each other, but she and Gale meet.

I. At the slag heap

The ground is frozen and the first snowflakes of the year are slowly sailing down on District 12, creating little hats on the slag hills.

Becca didn't want to go today, it's late, she told him, she feels tired, so much work at the cleaners tomorrow. He is annoyed that she denied him, but honestly, he can't blame her much. Everyone knows he is in love with Katniss, even Becca. They all pity him and throw him meaningful looks when they talk about the victors. The star-crossed lovers of District 12. He's not her cousin. He's not. He met Laika Carrowshead on the way back to his house and they talked for a while.

"Gale," she had said softly. "My husband is down at the Hob. Dead drunk. Do you want some company? For old times sake?"

"Yeah, Laika, yeah," he murmured and took her hands guiding her over to their hill near to the unofficial entrance, a hole, ripped into the fence.


He nuzzles her hair and breathes in her scent and for a few minutes he forgets that he hates this life and that he hates the Capitol and most of all hates himself for letting his girl get out of his grasp, for not confessing his love to her sooner.

He stares at the starry sky above him as Laika rides him to completion and he finally comes with a silent groan, feeling nothing but an uncomfortable emptiness. Laika rearranges her dress as quickly as she can, then stands up slowly. She is shivering and he watches as she offers him her hand, so thin and ghostly. He shakes his head, no.

"Go ahead," he says. "Don't wanna raise suspicion, do we?"

He tries to sound funny, but somehow it sounds hollow and weak. Laika shrugs and disappears into the darkness of the night.

Gale lights one of the cigarettes the foreman spread out a few days ago. Capitol cigarettes. For the victorious District 12. What a joke. He takes a deep drag enjoying the tabacco aroma despite it all, when he hears a girlish giggle from behind the hill. It's fucking freezing out here, so who in their right state of mind would visit the deserted slag heap now?

"You've never been here before?" a female voice says and Gale props himself up, prepares to leave, not interested in witnessing some kiddy couple fucking for the first time.

"No," a male answers, with a voice he knows, a familiar voice. "Merchants usually don't come here."

"Can't really believe that, handsome lad like you" the girl giggles, echoing Caesar Flickerman, that weird Capitol mc. "So….you and Katniss Everdeen haven't fucked?"

A pause. Then after a while the male voice answers, "No, we haven't. She….no."

Gale can't believe it. He crouches on the ground and peers around the hill. There is no mistaking it.

It's him. Peeta Mellark. With a girl he doesn't recognize. She has dark hair, so she's probably from the Seam, but he can't make out much more in the darkness.

"She's probably fucking Gale Hawthorne. Her cousin, you know," the unknown girl muses, and Gale's heart skips a beat. The girl's voice is rude, mocking even. Everyone knows that Gale is not Katniss Everdeen's cousin. What the hell is this?

"Yeah," he offers quietly. "She probably is."

Gale feels his anger rising. Why is Mellark agreeing with this girl? Why is he even out here? What's his deal?

"You know, I would have really preferred to do this in your house in the Victor's Village. More comfortable and most importantly warm."

Mellark does not answer for a while and then says, "We had a deal, Mia." He moves closer and kisses the girl on the mouth.

Gale remembers that name, Mia. She's a Seam girl in the same year as Katniss and Peeta Mellark, maybe in their class? Katniss doesn't talk to girls much, but for some reason he remembers this one as her and Katniss' hair is the same length. Mia… she even tried to ask him out one day. Katniss had been with him and looked sour, annoyed, when Mia touched his arm. But that might've been his imagination. Katniss doesn't like him that way. She likes Peeta Mellark. Who is making out with some slutty girl at the slag heap in the middle of a school night. Gale grits his teeth.

Mia pushes Peeta away, breaking their kiss.

"Yes, yess...lover boy. No need to get aggressive." She turns around and Gale gets a better look at her. She wears trousers and not a skirt, unusual for girls in District 12. Her hair is braided, lying over her shoulder. She's smaller than Katniss, her body all wrong. No, this girl is nothing like Katniss. So why?

"The way you act, you seem pretty inexperienced to me. Almost like you're a virgin," Mia laughs and empathizes the word virgin as if it is something dirty. Everything here feels wrong to Gale. It's dark but he can see that Peeta is flushing red. The blonde merchant boy steps closer to Mia and grabs her shoulders.

"Stop talking," he says and kisses her again, hard, his hands squeezing the girl's meager breasts.

Suddenly it all makes sense to Gale. Mia is right about Peeta Mellark. He went to the slag heap tonight to get rid of his inexperience. To lose his innocence. With a girl that's not Katniss. He is recreating some scenario that obviously makes sense to him, but is false. More than false. Katniss' heart would break if she knew this. Gale fists the melted mud on the ground, feels the heat and anger rising within him.

Peeta chose not do this in his house in the Victor's Village because he doesn't want Katniss to know. In reality, Gale's heart should sing with joy. He should let them fuck and tell Katniss all about what he witnessed here tonight. He doubts that she'll ever want to be with Mellark again, if she knows about this. But then he imagines the hurt on Katniss' face and knows he can't do it. It won't make Katniss magically love him, it'll only make her sad. And he doesn't want her to be sad. His Catnip. Already suffered so much.

Peeta belongs to Katniss. He is hers. A sudden surge of possessiveness overcomes Gale. This feels familiar. Familiar to the day at the Hob, when Darius wanted to trade kisses with Katniss.

This boy out there, he does belong to Katniss. His innocence belongs to Katniss. His love is for her and not for some sick, rude imitation. Gale springs to his feet, circles around the hill and runs over to them.

He grabs Peeta by the shoulder and pushes him to the ground behind him, sees the baker's hand being ripped away from Mia's bared tits. The girl shrieks and covers herself with her skinny arms. "Are you crazy?" she screams, her voice high pitched.

"Get lost, Mia," Gale growls. Her eyes flicker to Peeta, a questioning look in her hazel eyes. Even her eyes are wrong.

Mia buttons up her shirt reluctantly and then looks at Gale. "I had a deal with him." She cocks her head towards Peeta.

"Whatever the deal, it's up. Now leave before I forget myself." Mia looks scared, and then angrily spits before Gale's feet, and starts shouting "You're all crazy anyway. Fuck you!" Then she turns and runs the same way Laika left a few minutes ago.

Gale flies around and stares at the boy in the mud and weirdly enough the image of Madge Undersee comes to his mind. How he imagined that blonde town girl lying before him, offering herself to him. It makes his cock stir. Peeta Mellark's blond wavy hair looks unruly, snowflakes caught in his long eyelashes. His expression is one of shock, of a deer realizing it's not alone, a predator is near. His lips are slightly blueish from the cold, wet and swollen from kissing a fake Katniss. Gale growls again, a deep guttural sound, still fuming. Why does he feel so betrayed by Mellark's actions? Where does all this anger come from?

Peeta slowly gains control of his limbs and gets up. His hands are fisted, Gale can clearly make out his white knuckles in the dark.

"Why did you do that?" he asks, not meeting his eyes.

"You have no business with this girl, Mellark," Gale's voice is still loaded, loaded with emotion. "You have no business at the slag heap at all, do you understand?"

"Why do you care what I do, Hawthorne?" Peeta's voice is cutting.

Why indeed.

"You're not betraying Katniss with some slut at the heap, s' as simple as that," Gale tells him, knowing it's not simple at all. Peeta flushes red.

"And what about you? Am I supposed to think you decided to take a walk and ended up here by chance? Because the night is so pretty and you love to watch the stunning snowy scenery of the slag heap?"

Now it is Gale's turn to flush. There is some double standard working here, he knows. He doesn't want Peeta at the slag heap, but is an eager visitor of the place himself. Just a few moments ago he fucked Laika, a married woman, and he doesn't feel like he's betraying Katniss. He never felt like he betrayed Katniss. It's unfair, he knows, deep inside, he knows. But Peeta, he shouldn't be here. Gale feels a bit of tension leaving his body.

"Listen, Mell..Peeta. I'm not saying you're wrong about me. But…I've been here before. Before Katniss….and it's different for me. Katniss, she likes you. She would be hurt." The words sound weak, in a way. Like he has given up on her. On them ever being more than friends.

Peeta obviously also feels confused at his words, shakes his head.

"I'm not exactly sure why you need me to tell you this, but Katniss is not in love with me. She has made her choice long before we were even in the Games together. You….honestly, you have nothing to fear from me."

He's frustrating, this blonde town boy. Why can't he see that Katniss looks at Peeta differently, that Katniss' dark grey eyes become as soft as the pussy willows from the woods, when she talks about him. It would be cute, if it didn't hurt so much.

"I would appreciate if you'd not interrupt my affairs again," Peeta continues, while Gale's anger returns. "This night… tonight was important to me. I needed that."

Peeta turns around to leave, but Gale grabs his arm again, dragging him back beneath the heap until they are standing within a half a foots length of one another, Gale looking down at Peeta who is a head smaller, much smaller than him. The same height as his Catnip.

"Promise me that you won't meet Mia, or any other girl for that matter, again," he demands, fascinated by the boy's long blond eyelashes.

"Are you kidding me?," Peeta rolls his eyes at him. "I won't promise. It's none of your business what I do."

Gale growls and squeezes Mellark's arm harder.

"Promise!" he almost shouts, the sound dampened by the snow. He knows he is going about this the wrong way, but he has no idea, what to do or what to say to make Peeta give up his plan. How can he? If Peeta decides to take a merchant girl to his house, he has no influence. He can't watch him all the time. But then Peeta Mellark doesn't seem to want a busty, blonde town girl in his fluffy bed. He wants the darkness of the Seam, at the dead of night at the slag heap.

"No," Peeta says calmly, unaffected by Gale's outbursts, "Stop shouting at me. Are you really that dense? You won, okay? You're the one she wants. Do you think I would be here if I didn't believe that? So stop your holier than thou attitude and leave me be."

Maybe Peeta got his heart broken by Katniss? Just as Gale had his heart broken. Could it be that Katniss rejected the baker's son? What he doesn't seem to get is that he was also rejected. Katniss didn't choose Gale, but he still has the pleasure of her company. They meet every Sunday. She told him she hadn't much contact with Peeta, but he didn't believe her.

"What were you doing here tonight, Peeta?" Gale asks, still gripping the bakers wiry biceps.

"Isn't it obvious? I wanted, no, I needed some relief. An escape from everything that's happened to me in the last months," Peeta's voice is tired, lost.

"Do you have any idea how exhausting it is to live a lie? To pretend all the time? To look happy, when all you feel is sadness? I wanted something real for myself. Blame me if you want, but maybe, just maybe I am simply a human being, too. A man with needs."

Gale nods. This much he can understand. He's doing the same thing, in a way. And he doesn't have to pretend, he is allowed to be angry, everyone is sympathetic to his feelings. Peeta's blue eyes stare up at him, and he feels himself melting at the boy's pain. But then, he still can't allow Peeta to fuck a girl that's not Katniss.

He doesn't know why, but while Peeta and Mia having sex does feel like a betrayal, imagining Peeta and Katniss doing it, doesn't. Once the thought of Peeta and Katniss together enters Gale's consciousness he can't seem to get rid of it. It fits, the light blond of Peeta Mellark, his pale skin and muscly arms holding Katniss' thin dark form. They would kiss softly, sweetly and then it would get more passionate by the minute, with Peeta's strong hands massaging her little breasts, teasing her nipples. Her braid snaking down her bared back, caressing her skin. Little soft noises would leave her mouth and Peeta would answer with deep pants, her name on his lips.

It's not wrong, it's right and if he can't be Katniss' first Peeta Mellark should be.

"Is it true," Gale's voice is deeper now, more manly, "what Mia said?

Peeta seems to understand immediately what he is alluding to, by the way his cheeks glow. He looks away and nods.

"What have you done so far?" Gale asks gently.

"Kissed a few girls. And touched…them a bit," Peeta sighs. "What you've seen me and Mia do was the farthest I got with a girl."

He is surprised that Peeta answers at all, surprised at how openly he admits these things to him.

"And with Katniss?" Gale moves closer, feeling Peeta's hot breath on his chest as he answers.

"Only kissing," Peeta's voice quivers. "You've seen it on television. That was all."

Gale believes him, and still feels the need to probe deeper.

"You sure? Haven't seen her naked?"

"No, no. Not naked." Peeta shakes his head. His breathing becomes faster, produces little clouds that meet Gale's nipples, and somehow the nubs begin to harden.

Looking down he makes out a bulge, Peeta's pants appear a little tented. Is that because of Mia? But the girl left a while ago. Peeta is hard. And so is Gale. The fact alone should send him reeling away in repulsion, let the town boy make acquaintance with his fist, present him with a black eye. Never before did Gale get hard because of a boy. 'It's because of Catnip', he muses, 'only because I envisioned him with Catnip.'

Instead of doing something violent, like every instinct is telling him to, he does something tender. Leans down and, for the first time in his life, kisses a boy on the lips.

Peeta is smaller and leaning down to kiss is hauntingly familiar, he's done it a thousand times. It's freezing, but the boy's lips are balmy and soft. His scent is a warm scent, the scent of freshly baked bread and it makes Gale's stomach churn.

And then they are kissing for real, and he's not thinking of Katniss at all, lost in the sensation of the kiss. By claiming Peeta's mouth, he is marking his territory. That's what it feels like. He only comes to his senses when Peeta embraces his midriff and starts to buck his hips against his leg, makes him feel his erection, a barely audible moan escaping his lips. His pants tighten in response and he pulls away, only to stare at Peeta who stares back, mind in turmoil. Big question marks seem to shine in Peeta's eyes, and that's what comes out of his mouth is asked so quietly, Gale almost doesn't catch it.

"What are you doing?"

He wants to answer 'Staking my claim' but stops himself.

Peeta looks confused, and young, oh so young. How must this look from his perspective? The baker's boy is quite innocent, and Gale remembers these days. The days when you get easily aroused, no way of controlling it, you can't help it, it just happens. It would be wrong to take advantage of that. Peeta came here tonight with a clear intention. He has never been with a girl, never got his nipples teased, never tasted the sweetness of a girl's pussy, got his cock sucked or felt that wonderful tight clenching when a girl comes undone during sex.

"Listen," he starts, scared about what he is about to say, cock still begging for attention, "You're not going to meet with a girl again. If you...if you feel needy, you will come to me."

They are still embracing and he feels Peeta shudder and gaze into his eyes for a few seconds, open and vulnerable. "To you?"

"To me," Gale concurs. " I will teach you what you need to know. Are we clear? No girls for you," Gale hesitates and then adds softly, "No girls, but Katniss."

Peeta's eyes grow dark at that. "Katniss does not want me," he says, and there is no self-pity in his voice, only acceptance.

"We'll see," Gale replies pushing a golden curl from the blondes forehead, while his other hand reaches towards Peeta's crotch. His hand gently cups Peeta's groin, strokes over it slowly, once, twice; until Peeta twitches, makes a sound that is a mixture between pleasure and pain, a sound so honest and pure it makes him pull his palm away as if torched.

Gale takes a step backward, while Peeta instinctively surges his hip forward, searching for Gale's hand again.

Gale is unsure about this plan of his, uncertain about the situation, bewildered by his body's reaction to another guy. He takes another step back and Peeta stops following, arms falling to his sides in a defeated motion. However then he sees Peeta reaching for him, opening his mouth, the lips forming his name "Gale" but he is panicking, overwhelmed at his own bravado. He can't stay at the heap a second longer. He turns around and runs away, to the hole in the fence and crawls right through it, scrambles up and dashes towards the direction of the Seam at the other end of the mining facilities. Running so fast he can barely breathe, painfully aware that he is still hard, only thinking about the things he has done at the slag heap since he was thirteen and about the thing he did for the first time on this cold winter night.


When Gale leaves Hazelle and his siblings to go to work the next morning his foremost emotion is relief. His mother treated him the same when she prepared the breakfast for his siblings. Hazelle has a habit of reading her son's emotions, can look right through him. He imagines she is capable of seeing that he did something shameful last night. When he arrived in their small hut, everyone was already deeply asleep. It was only a few minutes to midnight and they don't have running water in the house so a bath was out of the question. He barely was able to calm down and fell into an uneasy sleep. He left the house without having breakfast, knowing his growing brothers need it more than he does. He is used to going to work with a growling stomach.

For the first time he welcomes it, the dark of the mines, the cold and wet, and the physical labor. It makes it easier to forget what happened at the slag heap. But then his thoughts always return to Peeta Mellark and the fact that he did kiss him. And he cannot blame the baker's boy, because he wasn't the one who initiated it, it was him, and he is scared. Scared of the offer he made to Peeta. Scared that Peeta will take him on it. Scared that he won't. He weighs the words carefully in his mind, the words he said to Peeta. It wasn't really an offer, he knows that. He practically ordered Peeta to come to him, forbid him to go the heap, and whoever Peeta Mellark is, he doesn't seem like someone who is that easily conquered. In the Games he ran with the careers to protect Katniss. Peeta always seemed to have a plan. It must have been the hormones, Gale decides. Peeta had been hot for Mia and he gave the boy an outlet.

The days go on, like they always do and he doesn't see or hear a thing from Peeta Mellark. Sunday comes around and during their hunting he almost asks Katniss about Peeta, but is afraid of what she'll tell him. He insists on bringing her back to her house in the Victor's Village, and she seems glad. He told her before that he didn't want to be in a Capitol house and Katniss looked disappointed at his words. But he can't help it. He hates the Capitol with all his heart and can't stand the fact that his Catnip has a connection to this place. Her house in the Victor's Village only reinforces the fact to him, so he cannot go there. She offers him tea, but he shakes his head, no, and turns around to leave. There is a house directly opposite to Katniss'. It's the only one with a running chimney so he assumes it is Mellark's. The blinds are drawn though and he can't be sure. Gale wants to go and knock on the door, but decides against it. Katniss is watching from her kitchen window, giving him an unsure wave. What would she think if he knocks on Mellark's door?

He meets Becca on the way back, has a feeling she has been loitering around his house for a while. He rejects her advances if only because he has just spent his whole day with Catnip and doesn't want to taint that. When he opens the door to his family's house a familiar scent wafts into his nostrils. Bread.

"Gale, Gale, look!" Vick is jumping up and down, pointing at the table. There is bread there, good hearty nut and raisin bread, two thick loaves. And cinnamon rolls, too. His siblings are ecstatic, Posy licking her thin little fingers, wet from the frosting while Rory chews on a roll. They never had cinnamon rolls before.

"Peeta Mellark brought this over," Hazelle says and gives him a sharp look that makes him wince.

"What did he want?" he asks, hoping to sound casual.

"He didn't say," Hazelle answers. "But I think that he didn't get what he was looking for."

"Mmhh," Gale says, not sure what to reply. She knows that Peeta had been looking for him, of course. Even if Peeta didn't say it. Hazelle doesn't touch the food, but allows her children to share it between them. Gale doesn't have the heart to ask her why. She doesn't think it's poisoned, but obviously has problems with the gift.

Gale comes back from the mines two days later and finds his siblings munching away on apple pie. The day after that they are presented with a hearty dark onion bread, and when he returns from another 12 hour shift on Thursday, Hazelle is waiting for him on the porch, a basket with muffins in her arms.

"This needs to stop, Gale," she says sharply before he can even greet her. "Whatever is going on, you have to talk to Peeta Mellark."

She looks troubled and he thinks he knows why. It's not pride, even though he knows it plays some part in this. It's because Peeta might just simply stop bringing gifts the next day and her children won't understand why. They are already getting used to it, talking about the baked treats all the time, wondering what's next. He nods. It seems that a confrontation is in order.

When he comes back from the mines on Friday he takes a short cold bath and dresses in his hunting clothes. Then he makes his way to the Victor's Village. Maybe he can enter Peeta's house from the back, so that Katniss won't see him.

But he doesn't even get that far as he almost runs into Peeta at the edge of the Seam. They eye each other suspiciously and Gale suddenly feels the need to say something rude to the baker's son. Peeta's eyes twinkle, barely visible under the flickering streetlamps. Then his face breaks into a gentle smile as he obviously tries to think of a good opening. He has a small bag in his arms, and Gale can smell the freshly made bread on him.

"If you have something to say, come to me, Mellark," he growls. "Stop harassing my family."

As soon as the words leave his mouth, he regrets them. Peeta's face falls. Whatever he expected, this is obviously not it. He wants to apologize, but Peeta's face hardens.

"Fine," he replies coldly. "I'm not bothering them again. Here is what I came to say. I'm agreeing to your terms."

Gale feels a rush of fear and excitement from hearing these words, a shudder of anticipation runs straight through him. Peeta's blue eyes meet his and he continues, his manner all business.

"I'm here because I want us to go to the slag heap. Together."

End Note: Could it really be? Is Gale Hawthorne a closet….. Everlark shipper? :)