Warning: Absolute fanservice for a naughty little (al)chemistry lesson.

Not exactly work-, school- or public-transport-safe ;)

Turn Around

Part 2

Now that I found my way into Gale's arms, staying there feels too good. Too pleasant. Too easy. Once we got close enough after abandoning the concerns dividing us, we attuned immediately. Naturally.

I squeeze even closer and sigh softly as he strokes my back and presses his lips into my hair, again and again. I'd want him to…

What am I thinking? What am I doing? What have I been thinking and doing until now?

My pulse quickens, synchronized with Gale's, as if our hearts couldn't resist beating together once they sensed an opportunity to do so.

Do I love Gale? Or Peeta? Or both? Or neither, and I'm just leading them on in moments of weakness, or taking advantage of whoever happens to be in reach?

Considering my actions in retrospect, most point to the last option. I seemed to have no idea what to do with either of them, unless there was a shadow of imminent loss and pain hovering above our heads.

After a painful succession of botched and missed opportunities I somehow ended up here, in a strange and terrible place in the middle of the war. I can't bear to be alone anymore, so I hold onto Gale as if my life depended on it. I don't want to reject his comfort anymore.

After a long moment, I slowly lift my head, letting my nose brush against Gale's chin and lips in the process. This time, I don't know who initiates the kiss, but I know I want it, so I just hold onto Gale and move my lips in tune with his, letting the sensations permeate my body. I feel heat and affection and hunger, hunger that only grows as the kiss deepens, spreading down and transforming into an enticing ache. This is not like the bygone kisses in the Arena. This is an entirely different level, and there's no point in drawing comparisons.

Peeta can't return to me and I can't return to him. Not now.

I've got Gale back and I'm not letting him go. Not now.

There's no point in drawing comparisons and something in me decided and I don't want to second-guess the choice. Now I need not only a friend, I need love; I need to feel it both in my heart and in my body, at least once.

So I shut my eyes and kiss Gale until dizzy stars erupt under my lids, colorful like peacock's feathers. When we finally come up for air, Gale stares at me wide-eyed, joy and passion and doubt battling on his face.

"Catnip? What's on your mind?" he gasps.

The questions in his eyes are too numerous to sort through and answer and I have my own to contend with, buzzing around my head like a swarm of tracker jackers.

"Many things," I whisper, tangling my fingers in his hair and bringing him closer again. "And I want to forget them all."

We are alone and stranded and we've barely stopped fighting and I want the war to cease, at least for a while, I want to close my eyes to all the suffering and death, to live before I'll be forced to succumb to it entirely.

"Make me forget everything," I whisper against his lips. "Make me forget him." At least for now, I don't get to add before Gale's lips cover mine again, and suddenly I'm not all that sure if I wanted to say the words in the first place. We kiss and that eliminates all need to talk and think about anyone or anything else.

Now I appreciate why I've never really truly madly deeply kissed Gale before. I don't think I'd have been able to stop at that, just like now. The power of our mutual attraction is too irresistible when I let it go unleashed without as much as an attempt at control.

We kiss and the flames rise higher.

Breaking the lip-contact, but pressing my body even closer, I reach behind him to lock the door. I wouldn't open it for anyone, not now. After a second of consideration, I switch off the light. The silver moonbeams flooding through the window will provide more fitting illumination. With audacity I never knew I possessed, I begin to undo the buttons of Gale's shirt. It may be now or never, and I want now.

To my consternation, he pulls away slightly.

"Catnip, you sure you really want to… like this…" his voice trails off, slightly bewildered, as if he doubted that I know what I'm doing. I keep my gaze focused on his buttons to prevent it from betraying any uncertainty.

True, I don't exactly know what I'm doing, but that doesn't matter. I just let myself acknowledge the consuming need to feel more, to feel everything I possibly can, and after the preventative shot I've been given in Thirteen, no concerns inhibit my desire.

"Don't tell me you don't want to," I answer in a low whisper. Our very immediate proximity lets me appreciate the evidence.

Gale bites his lip to stifle a groan and wraps his hands around my hips to prevent me from pulling away. "I wanted you long before you figured out this meaning of the word," he confesses. No surprise. I truly began to experience it just a while ago. "Right now, I could die of wanting you, but I'd rather die than take advantage of you."

His fingers pressing into my flesh and his voice, low and hoarse and breathless, send tantalizing shivers throughout my body.

"You can't take advantage of me. We are friends who share everything, right?"

"Of course we are, Catnip." I keep looking down, but hear the smile and hope in his voice. "You're sure, then?"

"I'm sure," I breathe into his half-open shirt. His heart hammers so loudly I can hear it and every beat seems to draw an answering throb from my body.

I lift my head and our eyes meet like mirror-reflections, twin pools of mercury glistening in the bright moonlight and smoldering with sulfurous inner fire. We might be too alike, but we are different enough to fit and that's all that matters now. I want Gale to be mine and I want to be his and anything else feels so acutely unthinkable I refuse as much as to try thinking about it.

Seconds later, our lips collide with unrestrained passion and hands impatiently tug at clothes, seeking bare skin, seeking each other, seeking conjunction. Maybe when we mix the elements in the heat and sweat of love, we'll become something more together, or at least catch a glimpse of gold amid the omnipresent lead and iron.

When the drab uniforms of war no longer separate us, we begin to explore our bodies, so familiar yet so new, our curious fingers finding both intimate comfort and salacious excitement along the paths we trace. I touch him without shame or hesitation, raw instinct guides me with the primal and unstoppable force of nature. My palms still roam over his lean muscles as Gale lifts me up and carries me to the nearest bed, laying me down to caress my war-ravaged body as if it was the most beautiful thing in the world.

White-hot fire courses along my skin in the wake of his kisses as his lips slide down my neck to trace my collarbones and then lavish attention on my breasts. Gale leaves me no time to think or reciprocate, all I can do is to moan under his touch and savor every precious second. The pleasure only grows in intensity as he moves lower to taste my most sensitive skin and overwhelms me completely when he engages his beautiful, capable fingers to bring delight instead of death.

My muscles contract around them and I ascend to heaven and fall like a shooting star, burning in the rush of heedless flight. My breath still comes in wild gasps as Gale lifts himself up to hover over me, supporting his weight on one arm.

"Liked it?" he whispers, still tracing my moist lips with his free hand.

"Loved," I sigh back. Lost in the intoxicating scent of skin and desire, I pull him into a kiss to taste my bliss on his tongue; feeling the heat and lust throb between our cradled hips.

His lips quirk into a naughty smirk as he pulls slightly away. "What d'you want now?"

In this very moment, I have one single answer. "I want you, Gale…" I whisper, his name dissolving into a moan as he slowly moves to fulfill my wish.

"I love you," he reminds me softly.

And that's what he does.

My body welcomes him with a wet kiss and accepts him with a gasp of pain as he slides deeper in, drawing blood. Even making love hurts, but this pain fills my heart instead of emptying it and I smile through a dewy sprinkling of tears as Gale gently kisses it away. When the spasm subsides, I relax in his embrace and let my legs wrap around his waist, encouraging him to start a slow rhythm I soon adapt to with ease.

We no longer move like two parts of one being, we are one being, maybe still flawed, but wonderfully complete.

I stare into Gale's eyes as he moves above and inside me, and his gaze dark with night and desire and lambent with love penetrates me deeper than his flesh. The contact, intimate on every level, sends a gooey flood of emotions crashing through my heart. I can't even discern what exactly I feel, but everything feels right. Gently, I trace the scars on his back and the edges of his bandage, but when he quickens the pace, I dig my nails deep, etching a memory of love into his skin to supersede the imprints of torment.

Our synchronized movements reach a feverish pitch and I close my eyes to see red gold. When the pleasure builds up to breaking point again, my body arches against his, taut as a bowstring, and then releases. I feel him immediately follow and for a few delirious moments we fly together, aiming for rapture and hitting the mark with ease. We are there, our bodies glued with wet warmth. Then we collapse together and Gale buries his face in my neck, whispering to my wild pulse. I kiss his damp hair and stroke his slick skin, basking in the calm beauty of the aftermath.

When I come to my senses after a short nap, I'm still tangled in Gale's arms and my cheeks burn so intensely he must feel the heat as he kisses them. I incline my head slightly to capture his lips with my own, tasting the salt of our sweat and my joyful tears.

Now I feel content.

I don't know what tomorrow brings, or what the hijacking treatment brings or what the end of the war brings or whether we'd both live to see either. Right now, I don't even want to know. Keeping my eyes shut tightly, I snuggle against Gale and feel his lips press against my forehead, a light and friendly kiss. We make no effort to speak, but our hearts beat loud and synchronized in the silence, saying everything that needs to be said. We are friends who just shared everything, love included. We turned back to each other and found home in our embrace. From there, we can step into the next stage, whatever it may bring.

But not right now.

I want to hold onto him just a while longer. In his arms, I feel safe and warm and as home as if there was our evergreen forest surrounding us, and I don't want to leave.

A/N:

I sincerely hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it ;)

Btw, the "beautiful, capable fingers" are quoted verbatim from CF. I just decided to give 'em something more worthwhile to do ;)

Please review and tell me what you think!