Thanks everyone for reading and for all your support. Thanks to Belle453 for her beta. :)


Purnia's home wasn't in the best neighborhood, but it wasn't in the worst neighborhood either. Her apartment was on the second floor of a tall building, all concrete and glass, a little run down. Gale checked his communicuff as he stood in front of the solid oak door. 7:45. He was a little early, but hopefully it wouldn't be a problem. He wasn't going to just stand outside her door for fifteen minutes. Everything was in place, so Gale rapped his knuckles soundly on the door three times, listening to the knocks echo through the door.

Runa opened the door and for a split second she froze before her eyes narrowed at him. "Gale?! What are you doing here?"

Purnia appeared behind her in the apartment in a chunky sweater and fitted pants. Her hair was bleached blonde and straight, her eyes stark blue. A branching blue pattern splayed out from the outer corners of her eyes - not camouflaging the scars like Runa's tattoos, but certainly distracting from them. He saw how they could pass for sisters so easily. Her skin was scarred along one side of her cheek and jaw, and across the backs of her hands. Where else, he couldn't say.

Runa was still staring him down. She hissed, "Get out of here. I told you to stay away from us."

Gale was beyond disappointed, realizing Purnia hadn't told Runa he was coming. He'd known it was a possibility, but it told him that it wasn't going to be easy winning her over. He could imagine Runa slamming the door in his face without warning. He had to trust that Purnia would help him out. Not wanting Runa to feel ambushed, he looked to Purnia before returning Runa's gaze. He lied, "I came to see Purnia. I didn't know you would be here. I'll go ... "

He turned away, continuing his ruse until Purnia declared, "You will not."

Runa turned to Purnia and Gale looked from Purnia's unreadable expression to the angry stiffness of Runa's shoulders.

Purnia continued, "It's my home. I'll decide which visitors stay. Gale, it's been a long time. We were about to have dinner. Please. Join us." Gale slipped quickly past Runa into the apartment, before she could object.

Runa looked from Gale to Purnia, stricken. "What? He's .. staying? You can't be serious."

Purnia shrugged. "Well it would be rude to kick him out after he's come all this way. I don't see what the big deal is. He's no threat to us. Now come on, let's eat."

Gale repressed his smile. She's good, he thought. Sneaky. He was going to have to watch out for her. He turned to Runa, saying, "after you."

Runa was stuck. She followed Purnia stiffly out of the room. Gale trailed after, and sat where Purnia set a new place at the square table, shifting two take-out containers out of the way. Runa sat awkwardly to his right facing Purnia who was to his left. In the space across from Gale stood a small vase with a profusion of lavender spilling out from it. The soapy sweet smell pervaded the room.

"Thank you for the flowers Gale," Purnia said with a slight smile.

Runa's eyes widened as she looked between Purnia, the flowers, and Gale.

Gale tried not to smirk, but failed. "You're welcome." He'd picked lavender for their color, as close as he could get to the fake violet in Runa's eyes. Runa set her jaw.

Gale worried they were overdoing it, but Purnia had goaded him into it. He'd been assuming she was helping him, but what if she'd only invited him here to set Runa against him for good? No - he didn't believe that. She'd gotten him here, and she'd gotten him in the door.

Still ... Runa was already on edge - Purnia didn't need to mention the flowers. For some reason Purnia wanted to push Runa further. He knew she could handle herself - she'd proven that - but Gale's instinct was still to go easy on Runa, give her time to get used to his unexpected presence. As Purnia passed dishes around the table, Gale remembered what she had told him. No debts. No help.

Each dish Gale passed to Runa she took robotically, heaping food onto her plate. Blankly accepting another tray from Gale, Runa connected the dots on her own. She looked sharply at Purnia. "You knew he was coming," she said incredulously. "That's why there's so much food. You knew it. And you didn't tell me? And you!" She whirled on Gale with a withering stare. "You have no right."

"I thought she would have told you," Gale said. Keeping his voice even, he looked at Runa's violet eyes, glaring at him with barely restrained fury. "I'm here to settle our account." Purnia looked at Gale in surprise.

Runa narrowed her eyes. "Stop thinking you owe us something. You don't."

"Yes I do," he said placidly. Ignoring Runa for the moment, he quietly folded his napkin and placed it on the table and turned to Purnia, who was looking slightly panicked herself. Somberly he told her, "Purnia. It's time to clear the air. You know I can't settle my account with you and still you invite me into your home. I owe you my life, that's not the kind of debt I can repay. I will never turn you in. I will never betray you or hurt you or your family knowingly. You could tell me to walk out the door and never come back, and no matter how much I hated it I would do it. You have my complete loyalty. " His mouth twisted into a smile as he added, "In the meantime, I guess I'll just try not to piss you off until you need a kidney or something."

A look of understanding passed between them. Purnia cracked a smile. "Thank you Gale," she answered civilly, playing along with him. They both knew he wasn't here for her.

Gale turned back to Runa. She looked stiff as a board, angry eyes boring into him. Brushing off the hostility practically radiating from her, Gale said sharply, "Runa. I hate your deceptions. But my debt to Purnia protects you too, since I couldn't expose you without exposing her too. I'd like to say I owe you nothing, but I'd be wrong." Runa glared back silently.

Gale continued, "It's a small debt, so I've let you ignore me for two weeks, but I'm relentless when I have a debt to pay. You won't get rid of me until you swallow your pride and let me buy you that chocolate brownie sundae."

A guffaw erupted from Purnia. Runa nearly choked on an involuntary laugh as she tried to maintain her hostility through her confusion. "What?"

"A sundae. I owe you."

"You owe me ... a sundae?" Runa looked at Gale as if he had two heads. He couldn't blame her really. He knew it sounded crazy. That was his plan - to turn her expectation about debts owed upside down with such a small silly claim.

Runa shook her head and stared at her plate, shoving a forkful of food in her mouth. Calmly Gale explained. "You agreed to let me take you to dinner. That's a binding verbal contract. Of course, there were no witnesses, but we can ignore that formality. During said dinner, you ordered a chocolate brownie sundae. Then I went and said something stupid and ruined your evening before you could get it. So, I'm here to make it up to you and to get you your sundae. I'm not leaving until you let me."

Runa sputtered, "You don't have to –"

Gale interrupted her smoothly, "I told you. I pay my debts."

Purnia rolled her eyes and said, "You might as well get it over with and agree. Besides, what's not to like about brownies and ice cream?"

Runa looked at him suspiciously. Venom still in her voice she asked, "So that's it? If I let you get me a sundae, you'll leave me alone?"

"No promises. But I won't owe you anything. And I guarantee I won't leave you alone while I have a debt to pay."

Sighing she gave in and told him, "Fine, you owe me a sundae. And nothing else."

They finished dinner with Runa sulking over her food and Purnia asking pointed questions about Gale's life in District 2. As Gale helped clear the dishes, he caught Purnia smirking at him. "Hope you do better with dessert, Hawthorne."


It wasn't too long a drive to get back across town, but to Gale each excruciating minute stretched out into what felt like hours. Alone again with Runa. Madge. She sat with arms folded across her chest, alternating her frozen stare between the road and the view beyond the side window. Sitting next to him, she was close enough he could have reached over and caressed her thigh. If she'd allow it. He knew she wouldn't. That sort of move was out of the question based on the icy reception she'd given him so far. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel instead.

"How's the gang?" Gale asked.

"Fine," Runa answered shortly.

Gale tried again to get her talking. "Any more expeditions this semester?"

"None you're invited on."

This was going nowhere. Gale pursed his lips. "I didn't ask for an invitation. I just wanted ..." he trailed off, not sure what to say.

"What, to help?" Runa snapped. "I've heard that line before."

Gale couldn't let her give up on him. "That's not what I was going to say. I was just curious."

"You're curious about a lot of things that aren't your business."

Gale glanced over toward her, but she was facing away from him. Gale flipped on the hazard lights and pulled the car off to the side of the road.

"What are you doing?" she asked him.

Gale put the car into park. He didn't look at her, keeping his eyes on the dark road in front of them. "Maybe this is easy for you, but it's not for me. You've had ten years to create this whole new life of yours, and I've had about ten minutes to adjust." He looked over at her through the dim light filtering in from the street. She looked ready to bolt out the door, but at least she was looking at him. Listening. "Every time I look at you I see Madge and I can't say that name. I see these scars and I can't ask about them. I see this incredible woman that is somehow all Capitol and all District 12 and I can't ask how she does it. And I can't really blame you since you probably only remember me as a first rate jerk. But if you can change so drastically don't you think I might have too? Can't you give me a chance?" He faced back toward the road, letting his frustration pour out. "I don't even know what I'm allowed to ask you. I try to buy into this whole Runa thing and ignore that I knew you ten years ago, and you still give me hell for asking about the wilderness group, which should be as safe a topic as anything. So you tell me, what's left? What am I allowed to say?"

Gale felt the lump forming in his throat and cut himself off before emotion took control of his voice. He couldn't look at her, for fear that none of it mattered.

After a minute, Runa spoke. "It's not. It's not easy for me. I had everything figured out before you showed up. Now, I don't know anymore."

She sounded sincere. She didn't say anything else, but Gale still felt a spark of hope. He put the car back into gear and silently pulled back onto the road.

Then Runa said quietly, "Tell me ... about Vick."

"About Vick?" Gale asked. "What about him? You met him. He hasn't been causing any trouble has he? I sort of told him about you before I really knew it was you - but he thought I was crazy, and I told him not to tell anyone anyway. It was on the camping trip and I needed to talk to someone - there was no one else. I swear, I've only mentioned it to him and my Ma, that's it. And they'll never tell anyone."

Runa answered, "No, no trouble. That's not what I meant. Just - what's it like? You and him."

"He's my little brother," said Gale. "He drives me up the wall sometimes, he can always tell if something's on my mind and won't leave me alone until he's gotten it out of me. It's ... weird I guess, he ... doesn't really remember our dad. He was too young. I used to feel more like a dad than a brother to him, not that I really knew what it was like to be a dad or anything. He was just a kid when ... umm, during the war. But now he's all grown up. In college. Making Ma proud. Learning about wilderness survival. Making me proud. I think."

"Do you visit him a lot? Go hiking like the other week?" she asked.

Gale didn't want to tell her that he hardly ever saw Vick. "Some. Not as much as I'd like, but it's easy enough to visit during the weekend. The wilderness group thing caught me by surprise. We were supposed to go camping last spring and I sort of bailed on him. I guess he got tired of waiting for me to take him."

Somehow it worked, talking about Vick to her. She'd ask him something, and he'd answer - whatever came to his mind. Finally he asked her, "Okay, you've heard all about me and Vick. What about you? What do you think of him?" He glanced quickly over to her before looking back to the road.

"I can't ..." she demurred.

"Come on," he insisted. "I've answered all your questions."

"Well ... he looks just like you. Like you did. I almost didn't believe it when I first saw him - it was at an on-campus thing, sort of an activities fair. It was like seeing a ghost." Her words reminded Gale of the first time he'd seen her across the fire, like a ghost from his past. She continued, "... no offense, but he's nothing like you. Or at least, not like I ever saw you."

Gale glanced over again. Runa was looking down at her hands. Was it the dim light that made her face seem flushed? He wanted to keep watching her, but he forced his eyes back to the road. "You mean he's not a self-centered contemptuous brute?" he asked. He could only imagine what she'd thought of him back then.

She giggled a little. "Give yourself some credit. You had to deal with a lot more than any teenager should. Vick's just ... a lot more carefree." Gale wasn't sure how he kept the car on the road. Had she just defended him?


Gale pulled his car into the lot at the restaurant where they'd eaten dinner two weeks earlier. The scene of the crime, he thought, remembering Spinner's words. Inside, the table they'd eaten at on their date was empty and waiting. Gale pointed it out to the hostess, who led them over. The waiter came and Runa ordered her sundae, then looked at Gale expectantly. He ordered a coffee.

"What about your shortcake?" Runa asked seriously.

"I don't need it," Gale said.

"Yes you do," she insisted.

"What? Why?"

Runa sighed impatiently. "I'm not eating alone. Besides you promised me a taste. So if you're so worried about owing me a stupid sundae, I think you owe that to me, too," she dared him.

Gale's mouth stretched into a grin. "I guess you're right," he agreed. He turned to the waiter and nodded. "And one shortcake please".

Gale bit back a smile watching Runa eat her sundae with small bites of the dense brownie and gooey ice cream and took his time with his shortcake. Piling his fork with the crumbly cake, a couple strawberries, and a fluffy lump of whipped cream, he offered Runa her taste of the shortcake. His long arms reached easily across the small table. Runa covered his hand with her smaller one to steady the fork as she ate it - two bites to his one.

"What do you think?" he asked her about the dessert.

"Mmm.." She nodded and raised a hand to cover her full mouth. "Delicious. Almost as good as this sundae." Swallowing, she pushed the sundae toward him. "You should try it," she said with a nod toward the dish.

Obliging, Gale cut off a corner of brownie with his fork and tried to scoop some of the melting ice cream up with it to try. The ice cream dripped through the prongs of the fork as he raised it to his mouth. The brownie was chewy and rich. Runa laughed quietly. Eyes dancing she told him, "You know they make these things called spoons?"

Jokingly he glared at her, then smiled and shrugged, pushing her dish back in front of her.

When the shortcake was gone but for one last strawberry and Runa had polished off every last crumb of her brownie, Gale sighed loudly. "I know what I said before, but ... I don't know, Runa."

"What?"

He stabbed the last strawberry with his fork and spun it in front of him. "I might have been wrong. I might still owe you."

Her eyes narrowed at him. "What do you mean?" she asked.

"Well, all those Saturdays we sold you strawberries?" Gale hemmed and hawed, feigning embarrassment. "You sort of overpaid. Ethically it's a bit of a gray area. I didn't force you to overpay, but I still feel I owe you something."

"You said after this sundae we would be even," she said.

Gale nodded. Sheepishly he answered, "Well, technically you - Runa - and I are even. I guess it's Madge I still owe the strawberries to. If you ever see her, you can let her know for me."

Runa gave him a doubtful look. "If I see her," she said ironically.

After Gale had paid the check, they left the restaurant. It was a cold night, and Runa huddled, arms crossed in front of her to keep warm. Gale turned up the car's heat, allowing air warmed by the engine to blast in as he steered back toward Runa's campus apartment. He was tempted to extend the drive with a detour, but he didn't want to push his luck. The trip was far shorter by car; they were at her place in minutes. Usually Gale might hope for that lingering silence when he pulled up to her curb, but he still didn't trust that Runa wouldn't just bolt the minute he stopped the car. Gale had already decided he wasn't going to watch her walk away from him tonight. He was quick to hop out of the car. She even waited with an indulgent smile and let him open the car door for her. Walking to the front door, he stretched his fingers and brushed them against the back of her cold hand. Curling his hand around hers, he felt the edge of a callus from archery on her hand and stroked his thumb across it lightly. It still seemed crazy to him - the girl he had known as Madge Undersee, archer and survivalist.

At the door she turned to face him, or more accurately his chest, since she didn't turn her chin up toward him or invite a kiss. She moved her hand in his and he let go, freeing her. "Thank you," she murmured. "I ... had fun tonight."

She crossed her arms in front of her - maybe defensively, or maybe she was just cold. He lifted his hands to her shoulders and rubbed them down and up over her upper arms a couple times, hoping to transfer some of his heat to her, wanting the connection between them. "Me too," he said. He leaned down and kissed her cheek, right at the anchor point she used for archery. With his lips still next to her cheek he told her quietly, "I don't want there to be any confusion here. Tomorrow I'm going to call you. And I'm not calling because of some debt, and I'm not calling to dig up your secrets. I'm just calling for you." Then he released her arms and backed away. "Good night Runa," he said.

"Goodnight," she answered. He turned and walked back to the street. He paused as he opened his car door, seeing her still standing where he'd left her. Then she waved and disappeared into the building.