Author's Note: I lied when I said there would be two flashback chapters. This is the only one, and it's the one detailing Gale and Katniss's shared history up until the reaping. After this, everything goes forward, any flashbacks will be within a forward-moving chapter.
Reminder, the titles are taken directly from songs. From this chapter onward, the bottom of the page will give a hint. Sometimes I will use lyrics from songs I used before. Guess the correct songs, get a shoutout next chapter. The hint for chapter 1's song will down there too. SO MAKE SURE YOU READ THE ITALICIZED WORDS AT THE BOTTOM. Friendly reminder, this is based on the films.
P.S.: I currently have no schedule set in mind right now, updates will be sporadic, but very likely no more than a 2-week wait.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
All Night Long
Katniss and I officially met under...dark circumstances four years ago. An explosion deep within the mines took the lives of our fathers. Had I not been reaped, I would've been going down those same mines, 12 hours a day in the most grueling conditions in all of Panem. When I went to the mines while survivors were emerging, she was there too. Fewer and fewer people came out, until no more came out, and our fathers were not among them. It ended our lives as we knew it. Life in the Seam was never easy, but the presence of our families made for some comfort. The loss of our fathers ended that, destroying the unit that gave us some semblance of happiness. Fittingly enough, we also adopted the role of caretaker, since I was the only aged male in the house, and Catnip had to take charge of her house with her mother's catatonia.
I met Katniss again in the forest outside the district, when I was 14 and she she was 12. I caught her examining a snare that had a rabbit in messed with her a bit, saying, "You know hunting out here is illegal?" Her first reaction was to aim a bow-strung arrow at me.
She truthfully told me, "It's not mine, I just found it out here."
"I know you just found it, because it's mine."
She responded with a slight chuckle, and lowered her bow a bit, and asked me how I made the snare. I answered her question with my own, "What's your name?" I didn't ask her the first time I saw her. She responded with a whisper, and I thought she said Catnip, which I found hilarious, hence the nickname that I have for her today. We started teaching each other the arts of archery, from her to me, and trap-setting, me to her. She was the best archer I ever met, and she told me she never met anyone so good at setting such efficient and inconspicuous traps. I never thought myself that way, but she did and still does.
For 3 and a half years, that was the relationship we had. We were always going out in the woods, and we found a spot where the first one would wait for the other, would check older snares, and see if there was anything we could shoot. Then we would go to the Hob and see what we could trade for what we caught. Sometimes we would stop by the Mellarks' bakery for some bread. It saved my family from complete starvation, and actually kept us quite well-fed. One night after his passing, all four of us made a promise that Posy would be the priority of the family, that she would be the first one to eat what she needed. Ever since then, anything edible I brought was first given to her until she had been satisfied, and the rest was split among Mom, Vick, and Rory, since I normally at whatever I trapped immediately after getting it. Katniss told me she would do a similar thing with Prim, making sure she was fed before herself and her mother. This had a kind of revitalization effect on Prim, as she appeared much more full in her frame, rather than emaciated as she had before. Before, she barely weighed 70 lbs wet. In Posy, she grew in a manner that I never saw Vick or Rory when they were growing up. This applied to myself according to my mom.
After my penultimate reaping when I was 17, I realized that something in my feelings for her had changed. It was so slow I barely noticed. I would find myself looking at her for long periods for reasons I didn't even know. Sometimes, I would even catch her doing the same, and sometimes I would pretend not to notice. As I pondered on my feelings, I realized that I wanted to be more than a friend to Katniss, and I knew it was wrong, because I looked and even felt so much older than she was. Eventually, Mom caught me staring at Catnip in the Hob a little after the end of the 73rd games.
"You know, nothing's gonna happen if you guys just keep staring at each other," she said.
She caught me off guard, all I could sheepishly say was "What?"
"You and Everdeen's daughter. Nothing will happen between the two of you if you just stare at her."
"There's nothing between us. We're just friends mom."
"That's my point, there won't be anything between you two unless you do something about what you clearly feel for her. You know Mr. Mellark pretty well, don't you?"
"Um, yes. But what does that have to do with any of this? With me or Katniss?"
"When he and I were young, he fell in love with a woman from a distance, a woman who worked at an apothecary. But he never acted on what he felt for multiple years, and guess what happened?"
"What, she ran off with someone else?"
"Not just anyone, a coal miner from the Seam, and she moved there, and left behind everything to be with him."
Is she being serious right now? "Stupid woman marrying a coal miner, and giving up the most comfortable life you can have in this district," I scoff. I can't believe that a woman, or rather anybody would do that, but I guess that means she is a good person, or at least truly loved him.
"A coal miner, with a gorgeous talent for singing."
When she says that, I feel a sense of familiarity in the description.
"And that stupid woman, has a brilliant talent for healing, something her youngest child inherited from her. But she lost her vitality and her ability to do anything after she lost him."
No, that woman couldn't be, could it? It had to be a coincidence, because that sounded a lot like Katniss's mother. It made sense though, because Mrs. Everdeen really loved her husband, maybe even too much. So much that fell into almost a coma after Mr. Everdeen's death, along in the mines. I looked at her incredulously, at which point she started giggling a little.
With a smile on her face, she articulated and confirmed my thought, saying, "That's right, the woman that Mr. Mellark never confessed his feelings to, was Mrs. Everdeen. Now, I don't know about you, but I'd rather history not repeat itself with the women in that family."
She played the mistake of history card. She's definitely right about what could happen, but she's wrong because she told me time and time again that she never wanted to fall in love, because love is weakness, and even more so, she never even wants kids. And that's kind of what I wanted in life at some point. I told her this.
She responded, "As a woman, I know what it's like to feel like that. Especially at that age. I even felt that way myself at one point. But as you can tell, I changed my mind, about children. Falling in love is something wholly different, you can't choose. It just happens. Also as a woman, the way she's been staring at you for this entire conversation makes it obvious to me that she feels the same about you as you do her. Which is also why your age difference makes no difference. Speak to her about it, or later you may regret. You don't regret what you do, you regret what you fail to do."
Once again she articulated my thought of me and Katniss's respective ages. But I realized that she was right in all aspects. And when I did glance at Katniss, I realized that she had been staring at me, evident in her miserable attempt to pass it off as if she was in the middle of turning around to go to Greasy Sae's table. I decided right there that I would follow my mother's advice, and chose to tell her what I felt for her the next time we went hunting. Except that I never did. I never grew a pair and told her what I felt for her. But little did I know, I wouldn't need to.
On one particular day, when me and Katniss were on our way to the woods about a month after the 73rd games, this girl came running up to us, calling my name. I recognized her from school but I didn't know who she was. I initially thought she was from the Seam, like me and a Katniss, since she had the same complexion most of the residents who live there do. However, the fact that she seems rather clean, with some light streaks in her hair, she was probably from one of the businesses closer to the more affluent part of the district.
"Hi Gale," she said, with an overtly flirtatious tone. What did she not see Catnip right here with me?
"Uh, do I know you?"
She gasps, though her body makes it obvious she doesn't actually care that I don't remember her, "Gale, it's me Lidia. We've gone to school together for like, our whole lives."
"Doesn't exactly ring any bells." Okay, she definitely knows she's here, but is completely disregarding Katniss. "What do you want?"
"Well, me and some of my friends are having a little celebration, it's for the kids whose last reaping was their final one. It may be for 18-year-olds like myself, but you would definitely qualify. I was hoping you would come and have some...fun with us."
This girl was seriously idiotic if she couldn't tell that my eyes were drawn to Katniss. In a tone as sarcastic as possible, I said to her, "So sorry, but I'm already busy at the moment."
The look on Lidia's face betrayed her feeling of defeat. "With…her?"
"Yes, with...Katniss."
The pouting and overly childish angry look she shot at Katniss made me laugh hysterically on the inside. "Fine. But if you want to actually have a good time, you know where to find us."
Yeah, whatever. Like that would ever happen. "Yeah, sure thing." When I turned back to look at Katniss, I saw a highly mixed face, that quickly turned to obvious anger. I wasn't certain, but I'm fairly sure that she's actually jealous right now. I still ask, "Catnip. What's up with you?"
Her response was to simply walk ahead of until we reached the fence marking the end of the district.
Out of nowhere when we were in the middle of the forest, Katniss screamed at me, "Who was she?"
Dumbfounded, I responded, "No one, couldn't you tell?"
"Yeah, I could tell that. But still. Even if she was a nobody to you, she implied that other girls weren't nobodies to you."
Oh, that was what was eating at her. Oh yeah, she was definitely jealous. I say in a rather coy voice, "Getting a little bit jealous there Katniss?"
She opens her mouth as if she wanted to deny it, but she stops before any sound escapes her mouth. After a small war with herself, she actually relented to the truth, "Yes."
I expected her to take it back a second later, but I hoped that she wouldn't. But to my delight, she didn't. The look on her face made it clear that my mom was right as she always is. For three years I had been with this girl, slowly becoming close to her, opening myself to her. She began to do the same for me. As time went by, we were close enough to read each other's faces and pretty much have a conversation with no words. I realized just how much I loved her, especially whenever I would touch her. It would feel like my body was sprung to life, I never felt more alive than I did when I was with Katniss Everdeen. I knew that I wanted this now, no more excuses, no more masks, no more denying it.
Catnip had been watching me quite closely, and could easily see my elation at her failure to deny what she said. The smile on her face made it clear that her walls were tumbling down, completely shattering. She began tracing her hand up the thin shirt I was wearing, clenching her hands into my chest, clearly enjoying their muscular feel. One of her hands reached past my collarbone and to the base of my neck.
My own hands weren't idle, I was tracing the curves of her hips until I reached the small of her back. One of my hands impulsively went to her neck of its own volition. And then sparks fly between us as our lips collide in a perfect passionate storm.
My arms wrapped around her waist, lifting her up to me as her hands scratched my scalp, feeling through my hair. I pulled at and took out her braid and let her gorgeous dark hair fall to her waist, and I ran my fingers through the curtain that formed because of it. Her mouth opened to me, and I kissed her forcefully and with a hunger to taste her further. But before the flying sparks turned to complete fire, she retreated slightly, leaving my mouth enough to say, "Not too fast."
I fully understood, and even I could empathize with her as we were each other's first time. I nodded in response, and then our lips met again. This time my back met the soft grass in the small clearing we were in. We kissed for what felt like forever, until we noticed that the sun had gone quite distant through the sky. When we finally had enough sanity to break apart, we realized that we needed to tell our families about the new development in our relationship. As it turned out, Prim had been made aware by Rory. In fact most of the school knew of our friendship and had been placing bets on when our friendship would evolve into something more. Whoever bet on us, won the bets they placed.
On Katniss's 16th birthday, I spent a large portion of the day trying to find something for her in the Hob. I found something from Greasy Sae, it was a gold-colored pin, a little dirty. It was a bird with its head turned toward the back with what looked like an arrow in its beak. She told me it was a mockingjay. She gave it to me, for free. I was so touched by the gesture. When I went out into the woods looking for her, she found me and gestured for me to come with her. She brought me to a small clearing, the one where we first kissed. There was a blanket laid out, with a small fire and some game she hunted for.
"A picnic, Catnip?"
"What, you would rather eat in one of our houses?"
I chuckled a little at that and shook my head. "Hey, I got you something." I pulled out the mockingjay pin.
She looked at it in disbelief, "How much did you have to pay for this?"
I looked at her and she couldn't believe that I managed to get this. The look I gave her made it clear that I didn't lose anything for it. Her disbelief obviously grew from realizing that. "So what are we having to eat?"
"Well, I caught three squirrels and a rabbit. We can go see if your snares got anything."
"Even with everything, that's not much of a full meal even for Prim or Posy."
She looked at me smiling and chuckled through her breath, saying, "You didn't ask me what our main course is."
"Okay, what is our main course?"
She responded by lightly kissing me. I didn't understand what she was trying to indicate, until she started to take off her jacket, and then it was becoming obvious.
"I hoped it would be you," she said rather lasciviously.
I try to resist her, and said, "Catnip, are you-"
She stopped me before I could say anything else. "The reaping is only about a month away. I don't know what could happen. You and I have applied for tesserae so many times. I don't want to wait any longer."
With that, any and all resistance shattered as we began to kiss, in a slow and sensual tongue tango, as my hand reached and ran through her loose, long, soft hair. We moved until she was below me, on her back on the blanket she laid out. Her arms moved to my shirt, her fingers scratching through my shirt, massaging the muscles in my chest, earning her a groan from me. Her hands went to my back and slid under my shirt. I broke our kissing long enough for it to slip off, discarded. I respond by slowly lifting of her shirt, leaving her with solely her black bra. I then took the initiative to remove her shoes and pants, and placed my hand and pressed where she was already wet, and obviously ready for me. I kicked off the shoes I was wearing and she then undid and removed the pants I was wearing. She reached into my boxers and grabbed me, finding me already hard and yearning for her body. She then removed my boxers, exposing me to her. She clearly reveled in the sight of me bare before her. Her breathing and my own were so sporadic and labored, we knew that there was no way to go back. I then removed her last remaining garments, exposing herself to me, and I reveled in the full sight of her. She was, and still is, so gorgeous. She grabbed me yet again and pulled me to her warm wet entrance.
"You ready, Catnip?"
She nodded. And then I pushed forward inside of her. I stopped, because she felt so tight, and I could see the tears she was holding back come out, I knew it probably was gonna hurt her. I was feeling something new myself, not really pain but something intense. When she told me ok, I began to move inside her, moving my mouth to her neck, kissing and lightly running my teeth down it. She responded by scratching down my sweaty back, branding me as her own. Her moans made it clear that whatever pain she felt had melted into pleasure. I kept feeling her clench around me at accelerating intervals, she even begged me to move faster, which I did. Our moans and gasps could be as loud as we wanted since we were out in the forest. She forcefully scratched down my entire back, making it very red. Eventually I felt her spasm and compress around me, far stronger than before, and it forced me to come, too, as we absorbed each other's screams in a forceful kiss. We lay on the blanket for a minute, me softening inside her, until we moved, with me on my back and her head on the spot between my shoulder and chest, still catching our breath.
Katniss whispered, "Gale?"
"Yeah, Catnip?"
"We should've done that the first time we kissed here."
We had a little laugh at that, before falling asleep, waking up well into the night, still naked. Catnip was looking at me as I awakened, clearly having been awake for a long time.
"You know, Catnip, I don't think our mothers will be very keen on us being out here for so long. We should get back."
She looked at me, and said, "I know, can't we just stay here for a bit longer."
I should've said no, because a bit longer turned into all night long.
Hint for previous chapter: Ed Sheeran
Hint for this chapter: Selena Gomez
