AN: Submission #7 (final one) for the Everthorne prompts on Tumblr. The theme was "Valentine's Day." This one was by far my favorite to write. It's slightly AU. I hope you enjoyed all these!

Summary: Gale sends a Valentine's Day surprise to Katniss at school as her secret admirer. Will she uncover the truth?

A red paper flower garland hangs above the school's front door, welcoming the students of District 12 as they walk into the lobby. It reminds Katniss that she completely forgot about this day. Prim wore a pink ribbon in her hair and had a bounce in her step the whole way there, but she didn't think anything of it at the time.

District 12 has a long standing tradition of celebrating February 14th, called the "Day of Love." Rumors go around each year that it was once called Valentine's Day, but no one knows why. Gale's guess is that Valentine was a playboy, and they named it after his famous exploits. Katniss has never postulated on why it exists.

Worthwhile or not, the school celebrates it with a few traditions of its own. Some of her classmates dress up in their finest outfit as they do on Reaping Day, although the color scheme falls to pinks, reds, and purples, if they have those clothes available. Girls from the Seam rarely have any fabric still colored that bright after the numerous hand me downs, but the girls from town often color the hallways in their bright dresses.

Among these girls color seems to be a matter of pride, just like the paper roses the school fashions and allows students to buy and send during school on the 14th. Seam kids rarely have the money for these gifts, so Katniss has never even considered getting or receiving one.

Gale on the other hand always sends paper flowers to various girls. He could never afford to buy them from the administration at school, so he pre-makes them at home, enlisting Posy's exuberant help, affixing the names of the girls they were being sent to, and then sneaking them onto the cart that holds everyone else's purchased paper flowers. This year he enlisted Posy's help as usual but told her she had to keep it a secret. He had something different up his sleeve.

Katniss arrives at her first class, not suspecting any flowers in her classes. So she's surprised when there's not one, but two. The first is definitely from the school. They use a special shiny paper. However, the second appears to be homemade.

Neither have a tag declaring the sender's name, but the homemade one says: "From your secret admirer." Katniss wonders who they might be from all day. During class she watches for any unusual glances. In the hallways she looks for staring eyes. After school she looks for hopeful expressions. Nothing. Of one thing she's sure though, two people sent her a flower. Her frustration makes her decide to analyze them again. She overturns the leaves and pulls at the petals, and that's when surprise hits her. There is giveaway on the homemade flower. She knows who her secret admirer is, and though she still doesn't know who sent her the other one, she doesn't care as much anymore.

Gale and Katniss meet at their rock to hunt after school as usual since very few holidays stand in the way of gathering food. When they finish hunting for the day they clean their kills by a stream. Katniss peers into Gale's game bag. "You've got quite a haul today."

"I know," Gale says with a grin.

"What are you going to do with all of that?"

"I'll probably sell most of it."

"You'll be able to buy them something special with all of this," she says.

"Yeah, I was thinking I could buy sugar for my mom to make something for the kids," he pauses, deep in thought. "She hasn't done that in a long time."

"Don't tell me you celebrate the "Day of Love," Katniss air quotes.

"Of course I do," he says. He notices her roll her eyes, so he decides not to press on that for the moment. "Do you think that this day is celebrated in the rest of Panem?"

Katniss wasn't anticipating this question, which feels like uncharted territory between them. "I guess I've never thought about it."

Gale smiles discreetly. He's not surprised at all. "I heard it was called Valentine's Day, once upon a time."

Katniss looks at him like she could care less but she can tell that Gale is at the very least intrigued enough to talk about, so she decides to humor him. "Do you think Valentine was a person?" she asks.

Gale's laugh makes Katniss think he's inventing a story in his head. "Yeah, I think he was a person who was very good with the game of love."

"The game of love?" Katniss asks.

"I bet in District 4 it's called Finnick's Day," Gale redirects, rolling his eyes. "District 1 probably calls it Cashmere's Day."

"Would it be called Gale's Day here?" Katniss asks, laughing in a teasing manner.

Gale doesn't find it funny. "What?" Gale's face is composed but his voice betrays his irritation.

Katniss swallows, knowing instinctively that she hit a nerve accidently. "Uhh...I'm sorry. That was stupid. I don't know why I said that."

Gale sits silently for several seconds and then asks quietly, not looking directly at her. "Well something made you say it," he says begrudgingly.

Katniss shrugs. "I saw all the paper roses in your bag today." She looks down, suddenly not wanting to make eye contact. This is one reason they don't talk about high school romances.

Gale's good mood bounces back. "Checking out my roses huh?" Gale nudges her shoulder. "Are you jealous?"

Katniss slides her eyes up to look at him and catches him smirking at her. She has to admit that she knows why the girls whisper about him, when he does that. It's as if the mere tug on his lips tugs at the girls' heartstrings. Not hers though, obviously.

"I got some too you know," she says.

Gale frowns. "I didn't know that. Did they say who they were from?"

"No," she smiles. "Except for one."

"What one?" he asks, resisting the urge to seize her bag and examine the contendingrose.

She digs in a pocket in her bag and pulls out his homemade paper flower. He pulls back a little, trying not to give her the impression he knows this particular rose came from him. "This one is different from the other one," she says.

He's still stuck on "other one" for a second, jealously wondering who else is flirting with her. "What makes that one different?" he asks casually.

"Well for one, this is not from the school."

"How do you know?"

"The school uses different paper."

Gale rolls his eyes. "Are you saying they only use one type of paper?"

Katniss shrugs her shoulders. "Maybe not, but they definitely don't handwrite their name on a petal."

Gale frowns and snatches it from her. There's no way his name got written on this. He would never be that obvious with her. She reaches out, brushing his fingers as she twists the flower in his hand and exposes the petal that has betrayed him.

"It says...Posy," Gale says, stunned. His sister just couldn't follow orders could she? She just started school and has been proudly bringing all her work home to her mom and Gale. In art class she has been taught to sign her name somewhere on her work, and that is exactly what she did on the paper flower. Great.

Katniss laughs as she watches Gale put it all together. "Now, my question is why did Posy give me a flower when the younger kids only give paper hearts?"

"Uhh..." Gale finds himself at a loss for words. He thought he was being so smooth. Only with Katniss are his charms befuddled. "Okay, so here's the thing...oh screw it. I made you that, obviously with Posy's help." Katniss notices how sheepish his face is. "I'm not very good at making things like that."

"I like it," Katniss says, clearly surprising him.

"You do?" He looks at her curiously.

"Yeah, but it makes me feel bad that I didn't give anything to you," she admits.

"Well if it makes you feel better, it was supposed to be a secret."

"A secret?" Katniss says, tasting the word on her lips.

"Yeah, as if I'm your secret admirer," Gale says. Then his eyes go big as he realizes he's said too much.

"You admire me?" Katniss asks. If it's true then it's the best compliment he could give her. She has respected him for a long time, not that they've touched on the topic before. Their willingness to team up and share their hauls, their devotion to their families, and their constancy with each other speaks the words for them.

Though now that she's thinking about it, she discovers her heart warming to it being declared.

"Yes, I admire you Katniss," he says sincerely with a hint of a blush. Talking like this with her is foreign territory for him. He's not sure how far into his feelings to delve into with her. He's terrified to scare her away.

She looks into his eyes and finally says something. "I admire you too."

He can't suprress the look of surprise on his face and wonders if she might mean it in a different way than he does. Silence stretches out for a few seconds, but it's not uncomfortable.

Then Katniss speaks again, "Have we been secret admirers for a long time?"

He laughs, unsure how to respond to that. "What do you mean?"

"I mean...I respect you, and I have for a long time, but I've never shared that with you. It's been a secret, I guess."

His heart sinks a little at the description of her feelings for him. "Yes, you could say that." He can't bear to say any more on that topic, so he switches it up. "So have you ever celebrated the Day of Love?" Gale asks, curiosity tinting his voice.

"No," Katniss shakes her head. "My dad used to bring home flowers for my mom though." Katniss smiles at the memory.

Gale seems faraway suddenly, as if recalling a secret longing. "Have you ever wanted to?"

Katniss looks at him. "I don't know. How is it celebrated?"

Gale shifts suddenly and Katniss can't help wondering what he's thinking. His thoughts seem locked away. "Well there are the paper roses at school, dressing up," he pauses and rolls his eyes, "and some guys buy sweets for girls they like."

Gale notices Katniss shift at the mere mention of the word "like," so he cuts the list off there.

"Those sound like things only people in town can do," Katniss says, frustration thick in her voice, not because she wants those things but because she can't have them.

Gale understands this. "People in the Seam have other ways to celebrate it."

"Cheap ways?" Katniss asks, lifting her eyebrow in mockery.

Gale sees the double entendre in her words and can't hold back a chuckle. "Yeah, I suppose so."

Katniss doesn't answer, just wrinkles her face in confusion as she tries to work out what those cheap ways are.

It takes him a few seconds to work up the courage to continue. "A lot of people have their first kiss on the "Day of Love."

Katniss wonders if this is what the kids in her grade are doing at this point. Gale is two years older after all. Older classes always brag about being more "advanced." "Why?" she asks him.

Gale stifles a laugh and a sigh simultaneously. "I guess they think if they're going to do it they might as well do it on the 'Day of Love.'"

"Does that make it count more?" she asks warily.

Gale reflects on his first kiss, which oddly enough was on the Day of Love several years ago. "No, I think if anything it's the opposite," he says honestly.

Katniss thinks on that for a while. She idly wonders if Gale has kissed other girls on this day. Maybe he's already kissed some today. "How do you pick someone for that?" Katniss asks, purposefully choosing this moment to clean her arrows, again.

Gale frantically analyzes word choices in his head. He's getting foolhardy enough to think she might be interested in doing that, and might choose him, and that it might be today. Holy crap why didn't he think this through earlier? "I think the best person is one that you feel comfortable with."

"And they just kiss..." she trails off.

"For the sake of kissing," he finishes her sentence. "Yeah."

She's silently cleaning her arrows still. He knows her well enough to know she's avoiding furthering the conversation.

"Katniss?" he tries for her attention. She looks up at him and stops cleaning.

Now that she's looking at him he's having a hard time bringing words to mind. Any words at all. She's made him temporarily speechless. Katniss looks back down at her arrows.

Then she surprises them both when she puts the arrows down and scoots closer to him. She waits to look up at him until she's right beside him. Their eyes meet and she asks him if it would be okay by glancing down at his lips. She can't voice a request like this, not even to Gale. Obviously he's the only one she's comfortable enough to try this with.

When she looks back into his eyes she finds him looking at her lips with a longing that surprises her. She doesn't want to wait for his eyes to glance back up to hers. She knows she would lose the small bit of courage it took just to draw this close to him.

She doesn't know what to do, but tries to equate the movements to finding the eye of her target with her arrow. She glides forward and presses her lips to Gale's. She tries to be gentle and not attack them but she's afraid she might have come in too fast and too sloppy. He clearly wasn't anticipating it, so she pulls back ever so slightly to give him room that he instantly takes back. Their lips brush and fall back in line, and she makes a surprised noise that coaxes him to press a little firmer, give her lips more pressure, and taste more of her. Butterflies flutter inside her and fill her head with nonsense that her body obeys, like putting her hands on the sides of his body and tilting her head to feel his lips from a different angle.

Apparently his head is spinning too, because he instantly tilts his head the opposite direction, mapping out the different angles of her lips. They're pliable and soft like he imagined. He puts his hands on the sides of her head and draws her closer. His body scoots forward and presses into her ever so slightly.

Katniss' heart is pounding as quick as if she were running through the forest. She had no idea a kiss could consume her like this. Maybe her classmates weren't so stupid after all.

Gale's hands gently slide down her cheeks and she feels his lips part slightly. She breaks away from him then, afraid of what would lie ahead in a kiss like that. Their eyes lock, questioning each other but not answering. She notices him swallow, hears both of them breathing hard. Good, it's not just me.

Katniss registers his warm breath fanning her face, and though she doesn't dislike it, she scoots away from the new sensation. She grabs her belongings and stands up. Gale follows her lead and they walk back towards the fence in silence. He knows that's all she can handle tonight, and he hopes it won't push her away from him. He wants to talk to her, but can't find the right words. He knew if he were ever going to kiss her it should be somewhere where he could escape her presence directly after, so he couldn't screw things up with words she doesn't want to hear. Kissing her in the woods was definitely not in his plans, but he smiles as he recalls her leaning in for the kiss. Maybe that's what they needed after all. Maybe it's best he didn't make a move on her.

When the fence is in sight she breaks their silence, "Does this make you my valentine?"

Gale's stomach flutters. So she's been thinking about their kiss this whole time too... "Valentine" is a term that's given to someone special, but only on the Day of Love. Most people who call each other a valentine have already begun a relationship or are at least pledging themselves for the day. He looks at her, hoping his smile doesn't look as sheepish as it feels. "If you want it to." He knows in his heart he's been her valentine all day. He's been hers for a while now, she just doesn't know it yet.

She nods, not ending the suspense with her words. "What does it make me?" she asks, a slight crease forms above her eyes.

"Whatever you want," he answers, mimicking her open ended-ness.

"Oh," she mumbles.

"What?" he asks.

"You already have one, don't you?"

"A valentine?" he asks. Katniss nods.

"I am valentine free this year," he says with a twinkle in his eye.

"So -"

"Katniss?"

"Mmhmm?"

"Will you be my valentine?" he asks, as coolly as he can manage in spite of his heart hammering in his chest.

She stops walking. "Yes," she says as her lips twitch into a smile. "Will you be mine?"

"For as long as you want," he says, not able to hold back a smile. She looks surprised at his statement, but doesn't say anything.

"So-" she says after they've crawled through the fence.

"So?" he teases, intoxicated by the events of the day.

"Do people have second kisses on the Day of Love?" she asks, and then directs her gaze away.

Gale does a double take. He could have sworn he saw a mischievous glint in her eye. "Yes," Gale answers, though he never has before. I don't plan on waiting a whole year though, he thinks as he sneaks a peek at the lips of his valentine.