Author's Note: I don't own any of the rights to Hunger Games.

She supposes there's some type of irony in it. A mere 3 weeks after what she calls 'The Toilet Debacle', when all the guys' toilets had mysteriously been out of order and they'd had to share with the girls, none of the girls showers are draining and have been closed for major plumbing renovations. Apparently the architect hadn't accounted for the fact that girls shed a lot more than guys, and generally have longer hair, leading to giant hair clogs. As a consequence, the only functioning showers in the C building were in the guys' area. Thankfully, to avoid 'inappropriate mixing', the administration had allotted specific times for each gender to shower. There was just enough time for Madge take a shower before the girls' time was up.

Madge hurried into her dorm room, threw her bag down onto her bed, and pulled off her tennis shoes. Slipping into her flip-flops and grabbing hold of her neatly piled shower things, she shuffled out the door towards the showers. When she reached the door connecting the two sections of the C building, she slowly pulled it open and peaked through. The hall was empty. Madge scampered down the hall and ran into the shower area of the bathroom.

She had made two miscalculations when deciding she had enough time to shower. One, she'd forgotten how relaxing a nice hot shower following a workout is and lost track of time and, two, that no one else followed the time allotments as strictly as she did. It was five minutes to 6 pm, five more of her minutes, when a portion of what sounded to be the male soccer team trouped into the showers. Madge thanked all the deities above that the showers weren't communal. She then stood quietly under the hot water and hoped no one would notice or care that one shower had been occupied when they all came in and that the occupant wasn't leaving it. They couldn't take too long after all, she figured guys were generally less careful about hygiene and they must be starving after practice and want to get to dinner quickly.

It was only when she heard Gale's name mentioned that she started listening in on their conversation.

"Hey Gale, how's that head doing? That was a nice header you managed to pull off, I got the feeling though it was completely unintentional," she heard Finnick, the team captain, asking.

"It's probably still in the clouds, you saw how he was practically drooling as he watched her leave the athletic center."

"Shut it Mellark." Madge could imagine the look on Gale's face. It was probably along the lines of mock anger.

Gale had started softening up with regards to Peeta, she thought it had something to do with some amazing pass Peeta had made to Gale, setting Gale up for a goal to win one of the big matches earlier in the season. Much to her and Katniss's chagrin, they never stopped talking about it. She was thankful for the newly formed friendship as it made hanging out with Katniss, Peeta, and Gale more comfortable. It also meant though that Gale hung out with them more. Previously, it had mostly been Madge with the two love birds and every once in a while Katniss would go hang out with the gruff Gale on her own. Now Madge had to put up with Gale's grunting form of conversation when Katniss and Peeta got all gushy. Thankfully, neither was too inclined toward PDA and so she didn't have to get through many conversations with Gale alone.

"You'd better make your move soon" one of the other team members said.

"Yeah, coach almost made us run another set of laps because of you."

"It's nothing," came Gale's voice again.

"That was not nothing," Finnick again, with his I'm the all knowledgable, too handsome for my own good voice. "I thought it looked very much like how I used to stare after Annie before she acknowledged my existence."

This started all the guys going on about the wonderful attributes of their respective girlfriends. Madge cringed, she definitely did not want all this information, but she had been hoping someone would name the girl Gale had been eyeing up. She usually didn't associate him with romantic feelings, it led to no good.

The guys were taking longer to shower than she'd anticipated. She was going to be late for her date if they kept talking for too much longer. Katniss had set her up on a blind date. Normally Madge wouldn't have agreed to go. The only reason she had was that Katniss insisted Madge would really like the guy and that he'd been trying to work up his nerve to ask her out for ages. Madge wasn't sure how she felt about that. Sure, it was nice to know some guy had liked you for a while, but what type of person was he that he hadn't been able to figure out a way to tell her on his own? What type of guy needed Katniss's help wooing a girl? Peeta had practically had to do a school wide announcement before Katniss had realized he was asking her out on a date.

Finally, people started leaving. Madge turned off her shower, dried off, and began dressing so she'd be ready for her escape when the chance came. As the room quieted, Madge was able to catch part of a conversation between Gale and Peeta.

"Don't you need to be heading out? She's going to be waiting and she hates it when people are late."

Gale chuckled, a noise Madge very rarely heard him make and had finally admitted to herself that she rather liked. "I don't think you need to worry about that. I have a feeling that she's going to be late too."

"Hawthorne, you've got to be kidding yourself. She's never late, never."

Madge frowned to herself. Who was this girl they were talking about? She didn't like to sound of it. If Gale got a girlfriend it would mess up the group dynamic. She'd be the fifth wheel, if that was even a thing. No, Gale and all this girl talk did not sit well with her.

"Trust me lover boy. You probably have more to worry about than me, Katniss doesn't like to be kept waiting either."

"You've got me there. I'd better go before she starts planning a squirrel dinner as punishment."

Madge heard the patter of feet and then the bathroom door opening and closing. The room now seemed entirely quiet to her. She decided to count to 100 before leaving the shelter of the stall, in case there was some really quiet guy still there. She had no desire to see a naked man-boy today.

She'd gotten up to 30 when a voice interrupted her counting.

"Coast is clear Undersee."

She groaned, then stuck her head out past the shower curtain and peered around to make sure Gale wasn't lying to her before emerging completely. She was greeted with the sight of a well-toned Gale, thankfully wearing shorts, with his towel draped over his shoulder. She took in the way his wet hair was mussed up and adorable looking, that is, until she saw the smirk on his face.

"Pretty dress. It's not often I see someone getting out of the shower wearing one."

She scowled at him, "You mean except when you see yourself in the mirror?"

He looked surprised then started laughing. "Wow Undersee. I wouldn't expected that from you."

"How did you know I as in the shower?"

"Not many guys, or girls for that matter, that I know wear pink flip-flops with daisy's on them."

He was looking at her with amusement and it was making her uncomfortable.

"Well I've got to go. I have a date to meet." She didn't know why, but she was hoping that mentioning her date to Gale would throw him off kilter like hearing he had a date had done to her.

He grinned at her. "Why don't you wait Undersee, save him a walk?"

"Huh? You know who he is? Why would Katniss tell you?" She was not comfortable with the way he kept smiling and laughing at her. This wasn't the Gale she was used to. She didn't know how to respond to this Gale.

"Go put your shower stuff in your room then come back to my room. I've got to change quickly then I'll bring you over to him."

"Well," she said feeling haughty for some reason. "Maybe I don't want to meet him anymore. If he's not at the meeting place yet then he must be late and I don't like it when people are late."

He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the bathroom. "Speak for yourself Undersee."

She didn't know why, but she followed Gale's directions. She dropped her stuff off in her room and checked in her mirror that her hair was done nicely. After slipping into a pair of flats, she locked her door and walked back through to the guy's floor and knocked on Gale's door.

After a few moments, the door opened, revealing a very nicely dressed but uncomfortable looking Gale. He was wearing nice khakis and a button up shirt, buttoned all the way up. His hair was combed and parted off to one side. He pulled the door shut behind him and locked it.

Clearing his throat, he looked at her, seeming unsure of himself. All in a rush he said, "Madge, I'm your date. I've liked you and Katniss were roommates freshman year. She finally got sick and tired of me mopping around and told me to do something about it. So here we are." He rubbed the back of his neck, then continued, "If you're completely disgusted with that idea, we can just scrap the date or go somewhere as friends. No pressure."

She could feel her mouth forming a smile and a bubble of happiness filling up inside her. "I would love to go on a date with you. Next time though, make sure you're on time," she jokingly scolded.

"Same goes for you," he grinned. "Where to then?"

"Anywhere, but first let's get you sorted out a little." He looked down at her, confused.

Madge stood on her toes to bring herself up closer to his level and ran her fingers through his hair, messing it slightly. She hadn't realized until that moment how long she'd wanted to do that. Then she unbuttoned the top two buttons of his shirt.

"There. Much better."

"My turn now, right?" Gale asked, once again smirking at her.

She laughed and hooked her arm with his, starting to pull them down the hallway. "Not this time sir. We need to go on a few dates first."

"A few dates? Well, I'll try and hold out for that then." He leaned down and kissed Madge's cheek. She could feel herself glowing with pleasure.

I was going to write about 'The Toilet Debacle' but it just wasn't flowing. Maybe one day we'll find out exactly what it was.