"Mom, where'd you put the leftovers?" Gale asked his mom once he'd searched the house from top to bottom.

"Leftovers? Gale we haven't had any leftovers since your da-"She smiled nostalgically

"Maw," Gale said trying to keep her in high spirits interrupting her, she continued though.

"I'm guessing Rory at it all while we all were asleep." Hazelle looked over her oldest son's shoulder.

"Rory." Gale growled. "I should have known."

"Gale, why do you need last night's food?" She asked putting her hands on her hips.

Gale smiled and straightened. "It doesn't matter. Since I can't find it, I don't need it." Inside, Gale was fretting Katniss' face when he showed up without the sauce. He stayed up the majority of the night wondering what she thought she could do to surprise Gale with the cranberries. Maybe she was just trying to mess with Gale, to put his mind to the test.

That girl! She was clever.

Gale was just one step ahead of her… as always.

"Well luckily for you I saved some cranberry sauce that I was going to give to Posy." She said and suddenly Gale's mood shifted considerably.

"Mom, save it for Posy. I don't need it."

"That's the thing Gale, you never take what you want. You only take what you need." Hazelle walked over to the sink and grabbed a wet rag.

"Because I don't want it. I don't need it either though. Posy deserves it."

"Why don't you deserve it Gale?" She asked him with no trace of lightness in her voice. He shrugged. "Baby I'm so proud of you." She reached out for her son's hand. Gale took it and blushed modestly. She squeezed his hand and then held out the towel.

"Wha-?"

"Here." She said and handed it to him. He took it quizzically. "You need this. Go wash up before you meet Katniss."

"Yes ma'am." He grumbled. She laughed and patted him on the shoulder as he turned to go to the bathroom.

While he was freshening prior to his mother's instructions Hazelle chuckled at the obliviousness in her son and her daughter. Though Hazelle did think of Katniss as a daughter, she also did know that soon they were going to have to face the next step in their relationship. It was obvious the way that they looked at each other that they had stronger feelings. Katniss was lucky she had met such a nice boy like Gale. Hazelle thought. She dried the dirty dishes from last night and took to mending a customer's shirt.

"Bye. I'll be back in a few hours." Gale announced as he walked back into the room.

"You take your time Gale." She watched Gale shake his wet hair and put on his father's hunting jacket. He grabbed a game bag and then walked out the front door. She began to drown in her thoughts when she heard a door open.

"Can I take the cranberry sauce, actually?" Gale asked out of breath. Hazelle nodded. "Thanks." He quick grabbed the sauce and dashed out again.

Meanwhile, "Katniss!" Prim cried from downstairs. Katniss sprinted towards the kitchen, zipping up her jacket frantically while entering the room.

"Yes Prim?" Katniss asked in a scared voice. Katniss was formulating a plan while getting dressed for Gale and his little inappropriate slip up from last night.

"Buttercup ate the cheese I made for you." Her eyes were shiny and her blonde hair was in a tangled braid. She was holding Buttercup in her arms, but didn't look very upset with the pleased cat. Prim just wanted Katniss to not get mad. She didn't want Katniss to not like Katniss. She hoped her big sister wouldn't bring any harm to her lovely kitten. Katniss disagreed when Prim would call Buttercup a kitten.

It was a straggly, brawny, ugly cat.

"Little Duck, don't worry. It's okay." She cooed, kneeling in front of the remorseful Prim. "I can still cook him, if you want." Katniss reminded her, feigning a sweet sugary accent.

"NO!" Her little sister said shielding Buttercup. Katniss laughed and regained her height over Prim. She ruffled Prim's hair like Gale did to her previously and then told her that she wouldn't unless Prim was at school.

Prim knew Katniss was joking but still scowled. Katniss chuckled again at her sister's annoyance. "Love you Primmy. See you in a few hours."

"Going hunting with Gale?" Prim inquired.

"Yes, and I need to set up something awesome to get food all over him. So I need to leave quickly." Katniss explained, pulling on her hunting boots and grabbing her burlap bag. She also stuffed some rope and wire into her bag hoping that Gale hadn't beat her to their meeting spot on the hill overlooking the valley yet.

"Katniss, that's a waste… of food!" Prim exclaimed, horrified.

"It's for a good cause." Katniss disagreed and kissed Prim on the forehead.

"Make it messy then." Prim reluctantly added, muttering it so that maybe Katniss wouldn't hear. Of course Katniss had trained hunting ears; Katniss flashed Prim a malicious grin and shut the door.

On the way to the meadow- she lived closer to the fence than Gale did- she visualized her trap which Gale would no doubt fall into. She traveled stealthily through the uneven terrain and set up a snare where when Gale would sit underneath it, with the sauce attached, the sauce would dump over on his head.

Katniss shook her head and undid the trap. It wouldn't work. She tried another setup. She quickly conjured up another idea and set to work.

It was called the Apache Foot Hold Snare, her father taught it to her long ago and she could never recreate it. But she has a mission. Or so she tells herself.

She dug a small hole that was large enough to fit Gale's foot, but small enough to stay concealed. She tied the rope strategically in a tree behind the hole so that when the rope tightened it would activate a rock balancing on the same branch. Hopefully the rock would fall and hit the bottom side of the bow and cause the other side which has the sauce on top to fly towards the hole… she aimed for the sauce to hit Gale's face.

Then she sat down, fiddled with her fingers and some extra rope and waited.

Gale hurried to the meadow… He was scared that maybe Katniss has already gotten there, maybe already set up some embarrassing trap and had already hidden herself among the blackberry bushes around their meet up place.

He slowed as he reached the rock, tuning his ears to every sound and silently stepping around little mounds of pine needles and small sprouts of ivy where Katniss could have hidden a twitch up snare.

"Katniss?" He hissed into the bitter air. "Where are you?" He scanned up in the trees and down on the ground in front of him. He saw nothing. Maybe he got lucky and he beat Katniss here.

"Behind you." The whisper sends chills down his back, and not the good kind. A noose slipped over his head and he jumped in fright.

"Catnip." He smiled and laughed at her victorious smirk. "That was well done… You see I thought you were going to have some more elaborate plan where you-"

"Gale," She interrupted him, still pleased with herself. The plan was going as she thought it would. "We both know you're the only one who's good with snares. I get tangled in them whenever I try to make the ones you taught me."

Gale didn't notice her baleful smirk and basked in the compliment. "I'm the best." He puffed out his chest, puckered his lips like a Capitol person and strutted a few feet in front of her. She laughed and he dropped the stature.

"Uh-huh, you're the best." She mumbled and took the noose necklace off of him. "Where's that sauce?" She demanded an answer stopping in the middle of her tracks and holding her hand out.

"And you're welcome." He said scornfully.

"Thank you." She answered apologetically. She smiled like a small child and her eyes practically begged for the food. Gale had a soft spot for children who wanted food.

"Here you go then." He put the small container in her hands and she dashed off in front of him like a bird. Her hair whipped behind her and he remembered once that he had had a dream where she let him take out the braid. Where she let him run his fingers through her hair. Where she let him cut her hair. Where she got mad at him and told him he could never touch it again.

Now he remembered why he hadn't thought of the dream recently. It was so like Katniss to get mad at him for doing something spontaneous like that even though she's the one who said he should do it. He didn't want to dream about Katniss and have her treat him like she did in real life. He wanted to have her be kind and thoughtful in his dreams where they could do whatever they want and not have any consequences.

He was always frustrated easily when anything like this popped up in his mind. Katniss wouldn't be who she was right now if they lived in a different world without the Games and President Snow, and then they wouldn't have met; but sometimes Gale wished that she would cut him some slack. Couldn't she tell after all this time that they had spent together that he had this weird pulling sensation towards her, that he almost wanted to have her off the 'market' and settled down with him. He didn't care if they were from the Seam as long as he was with her.

She was like freedom, and Gale desired that. He craved her presence. She had become such an important and big part of her life, and her absence would absolutely destroy him. He really couldn't imagine a world without her anymore. And every day he wished that they could be in each other's lives more and more. It wasn't healthy falling for someone this fast and this seriously.

He didn't try to chase her down and see what she was up to, and Katniss was surprised at this. When she turned around to see what was taking him so long for him to chase her, she saw that his eyes had a funny wistful look to them, that they were glazed over with a yearning fire playing in them. She shrugged and didn't consider what it could mean.

She placed the open container on the other end of the set bow and sat down in front of the hole about two yards away from it. Gale would walk into it and set off the chain reactions.

She licked her lips anxiously and watched Gale approach her.

Gale broke out of his thoughts and trotted up to Katniss stopping fifty feet away. She was biting her lip and staring at the valley way beyond there little overlooking rock. Heat flashed through him when he saw her lips. Were they as soft as her skin looked or would they be hard and insulting like her modesty? Gale figured they would be insulting. If he ever approached her like that, well, she would humiliate him like he was just there in his briefs.

He blushed and then accidently snapped a twig in half and she looked at him intently. "You know, I was wondering if we could find some good game and then go to the Hob and maybe get something for Posy and Prim. We would have to be diligent though?"

"Sure, sure. I owe her anyways. Come sit." She agreed passively. Gale looked at her for some explanation. "I bagged some candy from Prim's stash to bring you." Katniss didn't know why, but she felt like she had to do nice things for Gale, to impress him or something.

Thing was, she didn't have too. Gale loved her the way she was. The things she did for him were nice little perks, but he had a small flickering flame of hope in him that it was because she liked him too.

Well of course she liked him, just not that way. Or she didn't know or not if she liked him that way. She hadn't ever had any sort of feelings this serious before. So she couldn't tell the difference.

It was better to keep quiet at this topic for her. It made life easier. "Poor Prim, she's going to have a rough day." Gale said sarcastically, allowing himself to make fun of what he thought Prim's reaction was going to be when she saw her depleted pile of goodies.

"I'll buy her some more after hunting today, like you suggested." Katniss scoffed. Gale made a step towards her. He took another, and another, and another.

Katniss practically buzzed with excitement. He was so close. Three more steps. Two. One.

"What the-?" Gale looked down, breaking contact. "Katniss!" He growled. It was too late. The rock had already tipped over and hit the rigged bow. He tried to duck as the cranberry concoction headed his way. His foot that was in the hole kept him in place and he realized he had to try his very best to keep a manly poker face so that when it splashed all over him he didn't look like a ninny. Katniss had out smarted him and Gale was sure she was very much enjoying the show.

Ploosh! The lumpy, sticky berries smacked up against his forehead and ran down his face and onto his jacket. He didn't have a smile on his face but his eyes told Katniss that he wasn't mad at her. When she made sure of this, she burst out laughing, and a few tears somehow found their way onto her rosy cheeks. The image of Gale with helpless eyes, positively dripping with humiliation… and vermilion colored cranberry sauce, foot stuck in a snare that he knows and has mastered setting, he might as well be wearing a dress saved for Reaping day.

"Not funny, Katniss. Everdeen, I'm going to kill you." He warned her. Katniss took the threat lightly and rolled onto her back, wheezing into the air.

"It's very funny, Gale Hawthorne." She corrected him smirking like an idiot. "Sir, I'm going to have to ask you to manage your temper or else I'm gonna pee my pants."

He extracted himself from the snare and hole and ran towards her. She screamed and bolted upright. She managed to get to the base of a tree which she smartly decided to climb since she knew she was in trouble…but not danger… Gale would never dream of hurting her.

"Yield." He ordered, turning her around and pressing her back into the tree. She yelped in surprise but managed a goofy grin and a messy shake of her head. "Yield, Catnip."

"No." She scrunched her brows at him but loved the way her nickname sounded in his formal, warning tone. "I told you that I was going to get you for that."

"That was way escalated." He pointed out. "Now, yield." He leaned in towards her. Both of their hearts beat faster, and Gale didn't want the moment to end. He leaned in even further. Her heart felt lighter than it had in years. Her brain was spinning at the proximity. Sometimes Gale went a little off his rocker. She snickered. And then snorted when she remembered the way Gale looked when the cranberry sauce collided with his face.

"Hell no!" She shoved him off of her playfully and walked to pick up her bow and her sheath of arrows. "I won't say I regret it, 'cause I don't. But I am sorry."

Gale lost his angry flare as quickly as it came. His shoulders came down and his face went back to normal flushed color. He chuckled airily and followed after Katniss, picking up his bow and his own arrows. He picked up both their game bags and headed down the hill to start hunting. "You're ingenious Catnip, you know that?" He nudged her as he told her, as an apology for his rash behavior.

"Yup. I knew that a long time ago." She joked, nudging him back.

"No you didn't." He mumbled. And they settled into silence for tracking.

By the end of the day they have shot eight squirrels and one red-tailed fox, snared five rabbits from Gale's snare lines, and gathered a full game bag's worth of strawberries and blackberries. They also stumbled upon a grove of wild parsley.

"To the Hob?" Gale asked her formally, mocking Effie Trinket's horrible Capitol accent.

"To the Hob!" Katniss replied with equal verve. They smiled at each other and walked in synchronized hunting steps towards the fence. When they stepped inside the district, they dashed across the meadow and made way to the Hob.

"Katniss, Gale." Sae called to them from across the Hob. She was smiling with her grandmotherly snaggle tooth. "What do you two have for me today?"

That was so like Greasy Sae, to get straight to the point. "We're willing to trade two rabbits for two bowls of soup."

"Alright." She patted the two empty bar stools by her countertop. "Let me find my ladle."

"You're going blind, Sae." Gale laughed.

"No makin' fun of this ol' hag." Greasy Sae scolded him teasingly pointing at herself. "Here ya'll go." She said with her heavy southern accent while she handed them their warm bowls.

"We won't. Thanks Sae." Katniss said.

They slurped their soup in silence until a certain redhead decided to join them for a spell. "Katniss, you're looking fine today, got anything for me?"

Gale shifted uncomfortably. "Katniss, we have to go buy Prim and Posy something, remember?" He steered her away from Darius, but Darius followed them out the Hob and down the road.

"Thanks Sae. Bye Darius." Katniss said awkwardly before being dragged out by her wrists from Gale. Gale scowled.

"Anytime." Sae laughed, watching Gale pull the girl out.

"Wonder what that was about." Darius mused to Greasy Sae.

"The boy's in love and is a jealous type."

Darius' mouth went into a big O and he said, "Oops. Did I cross a line or something? Sure wouldn't want to get on his shit list."

"Gale, is this too pink?" Katniss poked Gale in the arm and pointed to the fat spool of coral ribbon.

"Yes." He laughed.

"Fine then. This one?" She pointed to the neighboring spool: salmon.

"Love it." He said mimicking Effie Trinket for the third time that day. "Let's find Prim something now, and then let's go home."

"I'm starving." They both said. They tittered. Then as if on cue both of their stomachs rumbled like lions. They laughed again.

"How 'bout this?" She picked up a little book with a soft light blue leather cover. On the inside there were creamy white pages with blank lines.

"She'll love it." He said softly in her ear coming up behind her. "And I found this for us." He shows his hand out and she sees one stick of rock candy, forest green. It was so Gale to choose the darkest, greenest piece of candy. Gale was pretty pleased with himself when he saw the rock candy.

To him it symbolized that Katniss was his rock and his confidant, that she was sharp, hard, and beautiful. She sparkled like the candy was shiny, and she was unique and one of a kind like the organic shape of the candy. And forest green because it was her favorite color.

To Katniss this act of kindness was to repay her act of kindness with candy earlier that day. But it touched Katniss' heart because Gale chose the color that calmed her the most and it proved how much he cared about her. She touched his arm lightly. "Thank you Gale."

"No problem Katniss." Goose bumps rose on his arm under her soft skin. Did she feel it too? Gale asked, hoping that the intimate moment that just passed hadn't gone unnoticed.

She put her hand back to her side and grabbed the ribbon and the journal from Gale's grip and walked to the front of the store. They quickly paid for the goods from the store owner and sat outside on the steps of the store. "Here." Gale said warmly, handing her half of the stick.

"It's so sweet." She told him, her teeth crunching on the candy. "But now it's stuck in my teeth."

"Don't worry me too." He said testing new waters with the candy by using his back teeth to bite down on it. "Don't make fun of me if you see anything."

"I can't promise anything." She chuckled. "Same for me though."

"Don't count on it." They sat in comfortable silence listening to the sounds of the wind blowing by.

"I can't wait to see Posy's face." Gale said anxiously, shaking his leg.

"I can't wait to see Prim's."

"Well, we'll tell each other tomorrow." Gale announced.

"Full detail please."

"Of course, Catnip." They walked home together in the dark. He dropped her off at her house first, he insisted, even though it was an inconvenience.

They said goodbye and then she shut the door and he walked home alone.

"Prim look what I got you." Katniss said taking off her boots and walking into the small living room where Prim and her mom were reading attentively. Prim looked up and her whole face glowed with happiness and gratefulness.

"Oh Katniss, you didn't have too." But Prim reached for the package anyways. "Katniss, I love it… It's beautiful." Prim gasped. Her blue eyes melted even further if it was possible. Katniss pinched her cheeks and smiled down at her.

"I love you Prim."

"Thank you Katniss, I'm going to keep it forever and ever. I love you too." She reached over and hugged Katniss fiercely.

"Goodnight Little Duck. Goodnight Mother." And Katniss went to bed, hoping to wake on time to go meet Gale in the woods again before school started for the week.

"Posy, look what I got you." Gale said placing his jacket on the kitchen table where he also dropped off his game and Katniss' that she forgot to take home. He would give it to her tomorrow. He found Posy and Vick sitting together in the living room doing a puzzle that Gale made for Vick on his seventh birthday.

"Gawle!" Posy squealed, hopping up from the floor on her two and a half year old legs.

"Posy, a pretty princess like you deserves a pretty pink ribbon." He pulled the satin salmon sash out from his pant pocket and tied it in her shoulder length hair. "You'll be just like Katniss and have a long pretty braid." He told her rubbing her nose with his. She laughed like tiny bells and Gale's spirits lifted.

"Kat-nish." Posy tried the word and to her it sounded strange and foreign. She looked up at Gale's handsome face for approval.

"Yes, Posy. I love you."

"Wuv?" Gale grinned at Posy and couldn't help but feel the painful tug at his heart that Katniss never wanted to have kids, and he so badly did. This was his last Reaping, shouldn't he start to find somebody to settle down with? All of his friends were starting to get serious. Why was he the one going back and forth from this girl to that girl? He wanted Katniss but took out his 'frustrations' on the Slagheap girls.

He could only imagine a future with Katniss. He hoped she felt the same way. Gale put Posy down and gave Vick a goodnight kiss. "Bleh. Gale." Vick whined.

"Aw, come on buddy, I'm not that old."

"Sure, sure." Vick replied casually, yawning and then going back to the game. Gale knew he picked that up from Katniss. That thought made his grin turn into a smirk. That was his Catnip.

"I'm going to start dinner." Gale announced taking himself to the kitchen. He cut the rabbit quickly when he remembered they gave the fox to the butcher: Rooba. That didn't cross his mind when they did that. Did Katniss remember? How many extra coins did they really get from Rooba? He'd figure it out tomorrow after school. Then he tossed the meat into a small pan above an open flame stove.

"Smells edible Gale." Rory teased. Gale noticed now how tall Rory was getting. Still a foot and a half shorter than Gale but still, Rory was only twelve.

"Thanks. You want to taste it first?"

"As much as I'd love to, no thanks."

"Suit yourself."

"Gale do you think Prim likes me?" Rory asked after a moment of settled silence.

Gale's brows twitched and he rubbed his hands together while formulating an answer. "Ask her yourself, little brother." He ended up with. He ruffled Rory's hair.

"Why should I when even you haven't even done that?" Rory fought back.

"Yes! Prim likes you! No need to raise your voice!" Gale yelled at him, slopping the meat and some horrible flat grain bread onto five plates.

"Check yourself before you wreck yourself Gale." Rory smirked.

"Mmhmm." Gale grumbled.

The family ate together and then split off to go to bed or finish homework which they didn't do earlier. Gale clomped off to bed, fatigue finally hitting him. He hoped Katniss wasn't hungry. He slid out of his boots and pants, changed his shirt for a clean white cotton one and then went to his separate bed on the far side of his bedroom. Gale was fortunate, he got his own bed, Rory and Vick had to share. Posy was fortunate, she got a separate room.

Gale wasn't one to complain though. Gale might have lived in the Seam, but he had all the things he needed to make him potentially happy:

Posy, Rory, Vick, and his mother, they all made him very happy. Food which helped him sleep at night. A solace which he called the woods. A weapon which made him feel in control. A future that he knew was planned out.

Now all he needed was the girl that would fill in the other half of his visions. The thing that would bring him the most fun and joy. The girl that he needed was, Katniss Everdeen.

If only she could read his damn mind.