Gale paced in his hut. He couldn't stand it. He didn't trust himself to go meet them at the station or at the reception. There'd be time for that afterwards. Endless amounts of time. The thought was dizzying.
Who would he greet first? Could he keep it together for the cameras and the families? He couldn't stand it. He wanted to smother Katniss and simultaneously smack her for her on-camera antics (even though he rationally knew she had saved them both).
And Peeta...
Where would they stand? They had left so many things unsaid. And with Peeta planning to go off and die, had he talked himself out of his feelings for Gale? That would be unbearable. To have him, but not really would be a cruel twist of fate that would surely end Gale.
How selfish are you? They both come home, and all you care about is how it affects you? Seriously? If they both ignored you for the rest of their existence, you'd still be the luckiest bastard alive.
And so it went. For much longer than was probably healthy, but what were a few more hours on the brink after these hellacious weeks.
The sun finally set, and the camera crews packed it in for the night. Peeta's face ached from smiling. He was ready to go back to scowling for the rest of his life. But wait... he had the rest of his life. The thought itself was inconceivable. What would he do with it? Before the Games he was content to coast along, but how could he go back to that after everything.
"Where are you going? Victor's Village is this way," Katniss reminded him.
Oh. Right. What was a normal existence after all?
"Do they expect us to live together too?" she asked to no one in particular. Her voice had no inflection, she merely sounded resigned and too tired to care either way.
"I doubt it. As morally lax as its citizens seem, they want their golden pair to maintain a chaste public affair. What you do in private, that's between the two of you..." Haymitch smiled wolfishly at them.
No one responded in any way to his quip. The three victors from District 12 were tired, they were homesick, and they were just so done.
But something told Peeta that things were just beginning.