Gale gasps far too loudly in the quiet house as I pull his underwear over the remainder of his hips and down to his mid-thighs. I know I should reprimand him, shoot him a look of warning to remind him of the extremely thin walls and of our families sleeping behind them, but I can't bring myself to. I am far too preoccupied with the sight of my best friend, naked, in front of me.

A blush I don't even attempt to disguise rages up over my chest and rises through my cheeks, warming them thoroughly. I don't dare look up to Gale's face, or anywhere else for that matter. My eyes remain trained on the fabric of his underwear. It's one of the few times I've ever felt so embarrassed and vulnerable in front of him, which in my mind I know is ridiculous, because we've known each other so long and we trust each other so much; not to mention the fact that I am practically fully clothes in Gale's borrowed wear, and he is the one vulnerable and naked at my mercy.

The thought brings a small smile to my lips and grants me the valour to remove the boxers from Gale completely, pulling them down his legs and dropping the grey material somewhere to my side.

"Catnip…" he says in a strained voice, and only now do I look up at him.

Gale is watching me with black eyes. It seems that I am not the only one who is suffering from blushes, and without even considering my actions, I reach up and press my lips gently to each of his rosy cheeks. He pulls me closer with an arm around my waist and a hand on my neck and we share an intimate hug. Awkward from the outside I'm sure, but a reassurance for both of us.

If words weren't our forte before, they certainly aren't now, so neither of us bothers saying anything aloud. Communicating through looks and gestures are our usual safe zone and they don't fail us in communicating now.

I pull back from Gale and he lets me go, trailing his fingertips over my skin, making me shiver. I retake my position, kneeling between his legs and look back to his face. He brushes a wisp of hair out of my face and lets his fingers find my lips. I kiss them and he smiles, so I go with an unfamiliar instinct and open my mouth slightly, taking two of his digits inside.

As I run my tongue over his callouses, Gale gulps hard in both shock and arousal; his pupils contract and expand before me in milliseconds. The sixteen year old awkward teenage girl in me, tells me that this very new and very strange situation Gale and I have found ourselves in should not be in any way sexual or arousing (having someone's fingers in your mouth doesn't immediately scream romance) but I cannot deny that it is.

I give Gale's fingers one final suck and push them out of my mouth with my tongue. His mouth hangs open and his hand flops uselessly to the sofa's edge.

"Stop gawking, Hawthorne." I can't resist the urge to ridicule him, despite the inappropriateness of the situation.

A smirk tugs at the edges of his mouth but the low growl, which accompanies it, makes the fire rage in my belly.

For the first time I allow myself to look at Gale properly. He's leaned back against the sofa, completely naked, cheeks still tinged pink and his arousal still very much apparent. Not that I'm complaining.

I lean forward, a fire still burning within but nerves betraying the flames, making me tremble slightly. I think I'm hiding my anxieties well until Gale uses a finger to tip my chin to look at him. His black eyes contract to a stormy grey and he opens his moth slightly, closing it again, pleading with me to understand his unspoken question.

I nod and smile up at my best friend. I want to. He strokes my cheek. He's nervous too.

His fingers leave my face and I nervously allow myself to touch his erection.

If I was concerned before about Gale being too loud, I certainly am now. As my hand wraps around his length, he throws his head back onto the couch and clenches his fists in the cushions.

"Shit, Katniss." He hisses far too loud. Gale must realise the situation we are currently in and brings a hand up to his mouth, biting on the palm. His chest rises and falls rapidly, the quick, shallow movements indicating just what an affect my actions are having on him.

I love it.

Although butterflies are still invading my stomach, as I begin stroking Gale in somewhat of a rhythm, and he becomes harder in my hand, my confidence grows, forcing down the butterflies. The muffled groans and hisses coming from above me are intoxicating, they feed my frenzy and my rhythm becomes more regular.

Confidence growing, I halt my actions. Gale looks down at me ad I watch him through my lashes.

"Cat…?" he whispers.

I drop lower, pressing a kiss to his erection.

xxxxxxxxxXxxxxxxxx

There's something tickling my face irritatingly.

I ignore it.

It happens again.

I ignore it.

It happens a third time and I have to admit defeat. I am awake, or rather, I am no longer in a deep sleep. Awake may not be the best term for my current state.

The tickling continues its assault on my nose, but I'm still too drowsy to adequately analyse the feeling, so I just scrunch up my nose displeasingly. It fails to cease and I begin to picture Buttercup pawing around my head, tail wafting across my nose.

I swat absently in the direction of 'Buttercup' but hit nothing and only succeed in waking myself up even more, though I have yet to open my eyes. I consider nudging Prim next to me, hoping she'll remove the flea-ridden pest, but it still appears dark beyond my eyelids and decide to let her sleep.

For the time being, the tickling seems to have stopped, but I remain very much awake now; no hope of falling back to sleep. I assess my situation without opening my eyes or making too much movement.

From what I can gather, it still appears to be dark. There is a distinct lack of light seeping through my closed eyelids. There's something heavy resting over my torso and I'm at a loss as to what it could be. A wiggle of my toes confirms a blanket is resting over me. I take an extra moment to dwell of the pressure on my torso, but I'm having difficulty placing the feeling. I can only suspect that it's Prim sleeping against me, but for the life of me I cannot work out which part of her it could be.

The thing, whatever it is, tickles my face again and I make the executive decision to actually get up. I do an awkward half-stretch, and breathe in deeply.

I stop dead, mid-breath, and slowly exhale.

I sniff again, this time slower, memories of the night before, suddenly flooding my mind as the scent rushes through my system and blood rushes to my cheeks.

Gale.

Without opening my eyes, I know I'm not in bed with my little sister and her stupid cat. I know I am on the Hawthorne's living room floor, wrapped up in blankets and pillows. The heavy feeling on my waist shifts slightly, tightening, and as the form beside me moves, light attacks the back of my eyelids.

Not still dark then.

Something touches my face again, but this time the feeling is accompanied by a muffled giggle. I'm alert enough to know that it's coming from Posy.

"Shush", someone whispers- Prim.

Gale groans and shifts again next to me. His hand moves down my back and rest on my bum. I can only pray that our bodies are covered with a blanket.

Another tickle. Another giggle. Another groan.

"Leave them alone, you two", that's Hazelle.

"Let them sleep", my mother.

I open one eye, only for my pupils to be assaulted by the sunlight. It takes a second for that eye to adjust, but once it does, I open a second.

Gale's face is inches from mine, scrunched up slightly as his sister dangles a frayed string of ribbon over his nose, and my own sister watches, sniggering from the side. I don't dare move, now knowing at least half our family is watching us, but Prim notices my open eyes before I can come up with a plan.

"Oh, Katniss. You're awake." Prim says, nudging Posy. Posy looks in my direction, retracting her hand from Gale. Both girls shuffle backwards slightly, I suspect at my expression (which part of my suspects is livid) and guilt floods both of their expressions.

I honestly can't decide if I am extremely angry, extremely embarrassed, or extremely guilty. I can feel my face becoming hotter by the second.

Ideally, I want to stand up and run away from this situation faster than I have ever ran before in my entire life, but Gale's hand on my bum is preventing me from moving too much, and frankly, I have no idea what I would do once I had started running.

"Hey, Mom." Prim says standing up, but keeping her eyes trained on me, "Katniss is awake." I follow her movements, sitting up as much as the still sleeping Gale will allow, and watch as Prim goes to stand by our mother. She ducks behind her slightly.

"I'm not going to attack you, Prim." I assure her, but the tone of my voice isn't comforting and she doesn't move.

"Are you sure?" Prim asks.

"Yes", I sigh, rubbing my eyes.

My mother turns to me. The mixture of emotions raging inside me condenses itself into one huge feeling of guilt. I want to apologise, though I'm not sure what for.

Hazelle enters my field of vision and comes to stand next to my mother, handing her a mug of something hot. They wear almost identical expressions of amusement and my guilt subsides slightly, embarrassment making another appearance.

"We…", I begin to explain, but quickly realise I have no explanation I am comfortable with. There in no universe in which this situation plays well for either myself or Gale.

Speaking of Gale, I chance a glance at the boy beside me. He is shirtless. I could kill him. All this would have been awkward enough without him only being half dressed. I curse him in my mind. I managed to get dressed properly last night, how come he didn't?

Posy has gone back to tormenting her brother with the ribbon. When she sees me watching, she stops sheepishly.

"Sorry, Katniss", she says quietly and fidgets with the ribbon. I can't stay mad at her and instead make the conscious decision to redistribute my anger at Gale.

"It's okay, Pose", I assure her, sitting up fully and pushing Gale's arm off me. I lean in close to the four year old and whisper, "I think it's time he woke up. Why don't you do the honours?" Her face lights up at my invitation and I watch as she prepares to pounce on her older brother.

Before Posy gets the chance to attack Gale, I untangle myself completely from his grasp, and still avoiding the amused faces of my mother and Hazelle, sit on the edge of the sofa to watch the show.

Posy stands up and takes a few dramatic steps back from her brother. She grins at me, her stance ready to run. I give a tiny nod of approval and apparently that's all she needs to initiate her launch.

Even as a tiny four year old, the trajectory of her jump and the perfect landing on Gale's stomach, induces an eye-watering "ooft" from him as the air is knocked from his lungs.

Gale sits up violently, almost head butting Posy in the process, and whips around, seemingly searching for the danger. His eyes land on me and I can't help but let out an extremely unattractive snort of laughter. Prim is in hysterics behind me and both of our mothers are snickering. Gale looks from me to our family behind, to Posy on his lap, and back again to me.

"What the fuck?" he asks, having managed to gulp air back into his chest.

"Gale said a bad word!" Posy shrieks, looking instantly to her mother.

Hazelle comes into my field of vision, walking around the sofa to stand by her eldest son. "I'll let it slide." She smiles at Posy, "You did just almost kill him."

Prim laughs again but stops immediately when Gale shoots her a look. I follow his gaze to my sister who then looks to me. "It was Katniss! She told her to." Prim shrugs at me, not the least bit concerned she has thrown me under the bus.

Gale raises his brows at me and I feel slightly flushed at the attention. "Hey," I deflect, "I am the innocent one in this." Even as the words leave my moth I know that's not true. Gale smiles but his expression is disbelieving of my innocence, rightly-so.

"It's true." Posy says sheepishly, pouting slightly and cuddling up to her big brother sweetly. "It was all me, it wasn't Katniss' fault. Sorry."

Part of me knows that Posy is doing this because she knows I will have to repay her with a story or by playing a game with her, but the other half of me is grateful that someone in this house seems to be on my side. Prim, who would usually be fighting my corner, seems to be taking far too much pleasure in my discomfort and embarrassment. Our parents seem to simply be amused by this whole situation.

"I forgive you, I suppose." Gale squeezes Posy and kisses her forehead. "Now, get off." He pushes her off his lap and she giggles when he tickles her waist, running for cover behind Prim.

I watch as Gale pushes the blanket off his legs and heat suddenly rushes to my face. I don't know whether to laugh or cry, but I know that I am overwhelmingly grateful that Prim and Posy seem to have gone into the kitchen, presumably to get breakfast. This doesn't change the fact that our mothers are seeing exactly what I am seeing and the raised brown Hazelle is giving her son, makes me acutely aware that they too, have noticed.

As Gale stands, I chance a glace behind me at my mother and our eyes connect immediately. She wears an almost identical expression to Hazelle's of what I can only identify as amusement and little of something else- maybe even embarrassment.

I turn back to Gale to see he has noticed the three sets of eyes trained on him.

"What?" he asks, eyes falling onto me.

I can't physically bring myself to do anything other than blush furiously and look at my feet.

"Seriously, what the hell is going on?" he says at the lack of answer.

A crash that sounds suspiciously like falling cutlery sounds from the kitchen grabbing all of our attention. I look towards the door.

"It's fine!" Prim calls from that direction and my mother rolls her eyes.

"I'll check on them." She says, going into the kitchen, but she pauses just before entering to give me a poignant look that I cannot decipher.

"I'll be there in sec." Hazelle calls and turns back to Gale and I. I'm dreading what she has to say, her expression now more serious than it was before. When I look to Gale, I feel pity for his utterly bamboozled expression. He looks from his mother to me, urging one of us for an answer.

Hazelle pats Gale's bare shoulder. "Put a shirt on, son."

Gale glances around our makeshift bed until he spots his t-shirt, still balled up in the same corner it was discarded in last night. "Yeah, sorry, Mom. I was hot." He says, shaking the top so that it the right way around and pulls it over his head.

Hazelle hums. Her raised eyebrow returns. "I found it quite chilly last night" she looks to me "didn't you, Katniss."

I say nothing, don't even nod my head, and although I can tell Hazelle is teasing both of us excruciatingly, I don't think I've ever been so scared of Gale's mother.

She knows.

She knows about Gale and I. And the worse part is, I'm taking this all alone because Gale doesn't seem to have a clue that his mother and my mother, have put two and two together.

Hazelle shakes her head and slaps Gale's back affectionately. "Go and wake your brothers for me, will you?"

He nods, still not realising the painfulness of the situation he has currently got both of us into with his attire.

Hazelle follows my mothers' path towards the kitchen and Gale shoots me a questioning look. I stand up once she is in the other room and he pulls me closer towards him by my waist.

I'm about to either die of embarrassment or kill Gale (I'm not really sure which will come first), when Hazelle pops her head back around the door. We jump apart and my blush returns.

"And Gale?" she smiles.

"Yes?" he says quietly.

"If you don't want us to notice next time, don't put your underwear back on backwards." And with that, Hazelle disappears back into the kitchen and closes the door, leaving Gale to gape at the door.

He looks at me, his expression unchanging.

My blush has yet to budge. I silently curse him again for not being able to get dressed thoroughly after our…activities.

Realisation eventually dawns on his face, which quickly turns to horror. "Dear God." He whispers.

I press my fingers into my eyes. "You had one job."

A/N: Dear God, indeed. I am SO sorry for the delay in updating. I have a thousand excuses and I'm really very sorry. I swear I'm not giving up or anything, just please be patient with me. Sorry for being terrible. I've got a lot on. :)

But thank you SOOOOOOOO much for reviews and such. We had a death in the family and sometimes just reading the nice comments was so uplifting when I felt down. Thank you so much for reading. I hope you enjoy.

Reviews appreciated. xxx