A/N: Hey guys thanks for reading love you all. Poor Gale! Any way Katniss will make the right choice don't worry. I'd like to thank all my reviewers this is my first Fan fiction and I love the ideas. A shout out to LeLa London my very FIRST EVER reviewer! Then a very special thanks to my beta reader MaggieMoo1113! Virtually cookies to you all! (::) (::) Okay I'll shut up now!
A night of restless sleep for me means the same for Vick, and Rory. I wake them by tossing and turning on the old squealing bed. I fall out of bed twice, and I know I am yelling in my sleep. Rory wakes me up three times, and Vick wakes me once. I know my Mom and Posy probably got less than a wink of sleep too. I hate myself for doing this to them.
I roll out of bed because the suns up, and I just can't take another minute of thinking about the stinking blond haired, blue eyed devil, which is turning my angel, my catnip, into a devil. If she goes to him, doesn't she know she'll follow him from where he came from! We all know where devils come from…
Yet, I don't want to go to the woods; everything there reminds me of her. Her smile that makes my heart explode, I used to be the only one besides Prim to make her smile.
It makes me think of her long brown hair that looks auburn through the filtered light of the tall evergreen and oak trees. I love it when she has it down, I can see my fingers run through it.
I think of her laugh hard to come by, but the most rewarding sound in the world. It sounds like the most beautiful choir singing, and ringing of the finest bell. It's as sweet and short as a wood peckers swift pecks.
I think of her perfect aim, how she's so competitive, what jerk sass we put up with from each other. Then it hits me like a wrecking ball, like being at a reaping and having your name be called. She. Doesn't. Know. She doesn't know I know, she'll be worried about me by now. Wondering where I am, she doesn't know I spied, she doesn't know I know about her town life.
Was this fate a town Mom came so there claiming her back to that lifestyle. No, my Catnip would never go that low. Yet that girl wasn't my Catnip, she smiled too easy. It took me weeks to get smiles, months after for a laugh, then almost a year later for her to trust me enough for us to hold hands or touch our backs going back to back.
This was a crushing Katniss. She didn't know what to do. She, unlike me, has never kissed anyone; I thought the only boy she hugged was me… until last night. I hate him; I hate that boy with the bread!
I started to run, I didn't want to scare Katniss even if I was a Capital load of angry at her. Then I saw her and cleared my throat just as she was about to go for a higher branch in a tall maple tree for some bird eggs. She looked down, eyes growing wide, and swung down like a squirrel monkey until she hit the ground with a light thud. Then she hit me in the shoulder. HARD.
"What the Heck Hawthorne! I have been flipping out I thought the Peacekeepers Hung you! You.. you.. you!" she screeched at me, her gray eyes nothing less than a thunder storm. Then suddenly she launched herself in my arms. I wrapped my arms around her waist and she tightened hers around my neck. I felt like my heart exploded, we've hugged millions of times, but this time I was desperate to keep a claim on her.
I pressed her closer to me, loving the feeling of her chest moving rapidly with nervous breath. Then I bent down and whispered in her ear "Sorry Catnip, though I think my shoulder is the one in need of a formal apology." I gave a small chuckle.
"D-don't joke Gale!" her voice quivered and she placed her head against my chest. "I don't know what I would do without you! I waited and waited but you weren't there!" She cried. I smiled despite myself she wanted me, not that baker boy. Did she like me? Did she think I was too old? That I didn't like her? What was going on in her head? I just had to know. She looks over to my game bag.
"Nothing? Gale Hawthorne has nothing? I bet you were just fancying your time with the company of a girl… who is she?" Katniss teased playfully nudging me. I rolled my eyes and shoved her lightly. My heart only loves you; it sings your name every day I thought. "Don't worry Mr. Love, I ran your snare line." a smug look crossed her face then it slightly fell.
Three fat rabbits, two scrawny possums and a squirrel, though Katniss must had a hard time finding game because her bag is full of pigeons. She only takes birds when she's desperate for dinner; it takes a lot for a little meat.
"I'll take the pigeons, you the possums, then the rest we need to trade at the Hobb." I get it; we were really low on everything from shoe laces to boots, to blankets not used to shreds. Even if it's only fall, we needed to prepare for the winter.
"So the baker will want the squirrel, I will trade him, Sae wants the rabbit, and Daruis says he wants two, I talked to him this morning." She listed off mechanically only showing emotion when she talked about the baker. Really? Why not me, why him? My please, please, please say you've never kissed anyone, and NOT him for sure.
"You've never kissed anyone have you Katniss?" I blurted out heat creeping to my cheeks. She looked at me, weird anger filling the dominate emotion. "That's none of your business Gale! Besides-" she stormed crossing her arms "TONS of guys would LOVE to kiss ME! I know it may shock you, but out of these woods I'm not just a huntress to people, Gale! I can have a life, I may fall in love, and I can get crushes. I AM A GIRL YOU KNOW!" she hurled at me, then I swear steam was shooting out of her ears, she grabbed a rabbit and her birds and sprinted away, leaving me standing there in the dust wide eyed, and shocked.
I knew she was a girl and had guys on their knees begging for a kiss. Believe me, I was well aware she was a girl, I didn't mean to hurt her, I just wanted to make sure she hadn't kissed anyone. I wanted to be her first and only kiss. It ripped my soul into seven pieces knowing I hurt her and drew her away from me. "Dang!" I spit; she was going to go and look for comfort from her baker about me! ME!
What am I going to do, man if there's a god in the world please, please just help me with this now. Cause, you suck at your job leaving us to starve with the capital, but if your there, know I NEVER, NEVER needed help, or wanted anything more than this before.
