The pesky sunrays pour in through the window waking me. I half-asleep tell them to go away but obviously it doesn't work.

Yawning, I do a half-hearted stretch and rise out of bed. Slipping my calloused feet into pink tartan slippers Posy brought for me ("Rory helped me pick them out!").

I will never admit this but they are so comfortable I kind of love them.

Not as much as the blonde lying in my – our bed.

As Vick says how the hell did I get such a gorgeous girl to marry me?

By the way thanks Vick.

She does look beautiful right now, stealing most of the covers, her tousled blonde hair splayed out across the pillow.

She won't wake anytime soon unless I call out the forces.

Time for pancakes.

If I kiss her she won't move a muscle but crack out the food and then she wakes up.

It's insulting actually.

At least she likes my food.

Predictably she comes scampering down the stairs when I'm dishing out our pancakes – complete with cream and strawberries. Her favourite.

"You know what I like" she says seductively. The light catches on her gold wedding band making me grin. I had one word engraved in it. Mine.

It's not cocky if it's true.

"You know what I'd like" I unwisely put my hand on her forearm, therefore effectively causing her to stop eating and a scowl to appear on her face which looks so alien in other circumstances I would laugh.

The scowl slips after a few seconds.

Amateur.

"If we could skip that Doctor's appointment later – we both know what the most effective method of producing babies is" I gesture towards the sofa suggestively and she rolls her eyes.

"We have been trying for over a year Gale. Katniss has had a baby by now. Katniss." Yes we were there when she was in labour and she held the baby like it was a bomb.

She is the most sickeningly loving mom now though.

"Maybe we did it wrong?" she looks confused, picks up our empty plates and walks over to the sink where she says over her shoulder "How can you do it wrong?".

"I don't know!"

"Maybe we should ask…"

"The day I ask the Mellark's for sex advice is the day the hell freezes over" she shoves a dish into the soapy water with more force than necessary and angrily grumbles.

"Well they seem to be getting it right"

I walk over, wrap my arms around her waist and kiss her exposed neck. She relaxes into me before turning around and taking my lips with hers.

"Ok we'll go" I mumble against her lips.

"We were always going to go"

Yeah who cares about my opinion I'm only the husband.

Her dragging me to our well-christened sofa stops me from being annoyed though.

- At the clinic-

"Mrs Hawthorne have you ever suffered any serious trauma?" The uptight looking female doctor says. She has lipstick on her crooked teeth.

"Well during the District 12 bombing I was taken by the Capitol and…" As she answers the uncomfortable question I tighten my arm protectively around her waist. Even though Snow has been dead for 10 years I still feel the need to protect her from the memories.

Crazy? Or Romantic?

Don't answer that.

"Well I'm so sorry Mr and Mrs Hawthorne but Mrs Hawthorne the torture you went through has rendered you infertile. There are other options available…" From the word infertile everything else might as well have been in another language.

No children. I will never have a child with my hair and her eyes. Her hair and my eyes. All her. All me.

Greasy Sae will never fulfil the longing to see a child that's a mix of us. Apparently it could take over the world. Or at least the people around their age.

The whole way back home we are both silent until just outside our home Madge speaks.

"Are you going to leave me? I understand if you do you've always wanted children so much but…"

She's cut off by me slamming my lips against hers and telling her forcefully.

"I love you more than anything in the world, I could never leave you. God It should be impossible thinking back to how we felt when we were kids how much I love you Madge"

"Gale Hawthorne I love you so much"

As I pin her against my bed I think that a life that's just be and Madge may not be so bad after all.

I really love writing one-shots!