I led her deeper into the woods than I ever had before. It was quite the walk but she didn't complain, not even when the terrain got muddy, rocky, and steep. I looked back and saw the hem of her dress splashed with mud and smiled to myself. She noticed and narrowed her eyes at me playfully but didn't say anything. We stopped to rest at a tree a few miles in. I handed her my canister of water and she drank from it thirstily.
She handed it back to me and asked, "You're still not going to tell me where you're taking me?"
I shook my head. "What would be the fun in that?"
She crossed her arms over her chest. "For all I know, you could be taking me deep into the woods to murder me, Hawthorne."
I laughed and smiled down at her. "If I murdered you, who would I bring strawberries to?"
"Oh, I'm sure you could find another girl from the town whose superiority drives you to the edges of insanity and frustration."
I started to walk backwards then, never taking me eyes off of her. "I might have to if you can't keep up, ."
She rolled her eyes and sprinted ahead of me, running at full speed. I heard her yell something about me being too old to keep up with her and I ran towards her, laughing.
We finally reached the lake after another few miles and we were both breathing hard. Madge slumped down to the ground near the edge of the water and tried to catch her breath. I followed suit and sat down next to her. I watched as her eyes drifted to the water.
"It's pretty." She said when her breathing finally returned to something slightly resembling normal.
I nodded. "Katniss and I catch our fish here."
She laid down on her back, her hair sprawled out around her head and closed her eyes. "It's even more peaceful here than at the start of the woods."
"You know how to swim?" I asked, an idea tugging on the edges of my consciousness.
Madge sat up slowly, watching my face carefully. "Yes... why?"
I pulled off my shirt and threw it to the ground in response. I kicked off my shoes too. Leaving on my pants, I stepped into the icy water and dove under, letting the shock of the cold take over all my thoughts. When I pulled back to the surface, I gasped and swore from the sting the water was leaving on my skin.
Madge stared at me like I was insane.
I treaded water as I asked, "You scared of a little cold, Madge?"
Her expression was unreadable as she stood to her feet and kept her eyes fixed on mine. Then she reached behind her back and untied her dress. My breath caught in my throat at the sight of her hands fumbling behind her. Her dress fell to her ground and she stepped out of it and then she took off her shoes. She wasn't naked, obviously. She had on blue shorts and a blue undershirt, but my eyes still trailed down her body from head to toe. The way her shoulder blades were slightly visible, the way a streak of her stomach was showing from where her undershirt didn't quite reach the top of her shorts. And her legs. Her legs were toned and long and seemingly never ending.
I wasn't sure how long I gawked at her but my stare didn't go unnoticed. She couldn't hide the smirk that was finding it's way to her mouth as she slipped into the water. She yelled out from the shock of the cold.
I coughed, finally regaining control of my eyes and mind. "Go under and get it over with. You'll get used to it quicker."
She nodded slowly and dipped under the water, disappearing for a moment. When she came back to the surface, she was shivering and yelping. I laughed at her and she splashed me a couple of times.
"See? Isn't this fun?" I asked.
"Oh, yes. I love freezing to death in the comfort of a lake!" She replied dryly.
This got me to splash her back. And she screamed in response. She swam closer to me and tried to dunk me under the water. I practically lifted her off of me and threw her a few feet into the air. She landed back in the water. I swam over to her and couldn't help but smile when she glared at me.
"You, Gale Hawthorne, are a world class jerk."
"Somebody's got to keep you grounded so you don't get sucked into the fame and fortune of your own mayor lifestyle."
She laughed. "So you get me all muddy and then force me to swim in a icy cold lake? That's your idea of keeping me grounded?"
"Best I could come up with at the moment."
She laughed again and I found myself staring at her. Her wet hair sticking to her face and making her even more beautiful than usual. She truly was one hell of a girl. All those years I had spent despising her when behind all those pretty dresses and fancy shoes, there was a girl who stood her ground, a girl who was surprisingly confident and brave, a girl who fought for the things she believed in, a girl who kept me on the edge of my seat.
I stared at her lips that were turning purple and her chattering teeth. I looked up to her eyes again and found they were focused off in the distance, staring at nothing. Her mind was elsewhere.
"Hey." I said keeping my voice gentle.
She blinked and focused back on me.
"You sure you're okay?" I asked, referring to the events of the morning with Tollin.
She nodded her head slowly and shrugged her shoulders. "It wasn't a big deal, Gale."
"Stop doing that." I snapped.
"What?"
"Stop playing it off. Like assaulting you in the middle of the hallway isn't a big deal."And because she had me fired up again and I wasn't thinking clearly, I added, "Like you don't deserve to be treated a whole hell of a lot better than that."
She licked her purple lips and exhaled loudly. "It's so easy for me to read people. It's like second nature to me. And yet, I can't seem to read you. I can't seem to put the pieces together."
"Like I said the other day, I don't want you to."
I didn't realize how close she was to me until I felt her warm breath on my frozen neck. "Why not?" She whispered.
I shrugged. "Because I like being a mystery to you. In the same way that you're a mystery to me."
"Remember that night you walked me home? I said you were afraid to get to know me. Are you still afraid?" She asked, swimming even closer to me. I felt her legs touch my own and I wondered what it would feel like to run my hands down the length of them. The thought clouded my head and I had to remind myself to breathe in and out.
"Are you still afraid?" She had asked me.
"Terrified." I whispered into the air, my voice barely audible.
She was breathing hard and staring at my lips and I knew she was wondering if I was going to kiss her. I was wondering it myself. Since when did I even want to kiss Madge? Or defend her against slime balls like Tollin? And then it hit me.
The girl who belonged to the sun was no longer just a girl. She was a girl that I cared about. A girl I wanted to kiss, protect, talk to. None of this made much sense in my head. Especially not with the always lingering thoughts of Katniss. In fact, Katniss and Madge together in the same place of my mind wasn't a welcoming thought.
So, I forced myself to pull away from her. To stop myself from doing something stupid like kissing her. Because somehow, I knew kissing Madge would be different than all the other girls I had mindlessly kissed. Somehow, a kiss like that would lodge itself into my brain and never leave.
I dove under the water and swam to the shore. Pulling myself out of the water, I found no relief from the cold in the air. In fact, I was even colder now that I was on dry land again. Madge dragged herself to the shore as well, shivering uncontrollably. I looked up towards the sky and saw a spot in the grass were the sun was shining and nodded my head towards it so Madge would know to join me there.
We walked over and dropped down on our backs, letting the sun dry our clothes as much as possible. We shivered and tried to laugh about the cold but we both knew it was almost unbearable. I picked up my dry shirt and threw it over to Madge.
"Here, wear this while you dry so you're not so cold."
She had the shirt scrunched up in her hands and was staring at me. She took a breath and said, "I could just wear my own dress while I dry, you know."
"No, then your dress would get wet."
"But so will your shirt."
I sighed and stared at her for a long moment. "I don't care, Madge. I'm not going to think any less of you if you put on my shirt so just do it, already."
"Fine." She mumbled before pulling the shirt over her head. There was no way to describe what her small petite frame looked like in my big shirt other than adorable. Her wet hair dripped down the front of it and I had to force myself to look away because I wasn't about to get caught staring at her again.
I laid back down and waited for the heat from the sun to dry us off. When we were finally almost dry, Madge slipped off my shirt and handed it back to me. She stepped into her dress and tied it back up. She squeezed out the remaining water from her hair as she put her shoes back on. We walked the many miles back to the fence in a comfortable silence.
We slipped back under it into the district and judging from the lack of children out and about, I knew school was still in session. Probably not for too long, however. I looked at the girl standing next to me, her light hair curling on its own accord due to the water, her blue eyes still as startling as ever, her lips finally pink again, and I knew I didn't want to part ways just yet.
"I'm pretty hungry." Madge said throwing a glance up at me. "How about you?"
I nodded. "Yeah, me too."
"Follow me, then." She said with a brilliant smile.
She led me through town, using the path behind the buildings so we would go unnoticed. We slipped into her house using the back door. When we were safely inside, she locked it behind her.
We stepped into the kitchen and she started pulling out food from all over the place. A loaf of bread, a cheese spread, blue berries, diced up turkey mixed in with noodles, and a pitcher of milk.
All of this could feed my family for a month. And here was Madge, pulling it out as if it was nothing. And to her, it probably wasn't. Once again, I found that I couldn't exactly be angry at her for this. None of this was her fault.
She saw me staring at all the food and she started to blush, as if finally realizing why I was so shocked. "I just...thought you wanted options."
She wasn't pitying me. She wasn't feeding me because I didn't get enough food. She was just being Madge. Kind and steady, pleasant and true. Because of this, I found myself waving off her apology and grabbing a slice of bread and buttering it. I took a bite and realized how hungry I truly was. I downed three slices before I had even taken a breath.
Madge threw some blue berries into her mouth and then snapped her fingers, as if remembering something. She walked into her living room and turned on the TV. I could see the screen from my place in the kitchen and so I continued to eat while they recapped the games. Katniss was asleep and safe as far as I could tell. Madge came back into the kitchen and took a slice of bread for herself.
"What would your father do if he knew you skipped school?" I asked curiously.
Madge suppressed a laugh and chewed her food before answering. "Probably give me a lecture on responsibility and education."
I nodded and took a sip of my milk. "What if you get caught?" I asked as I set my cup back down.
She shrugged. "Then it will be totally worth it." She looked up at me and smiled. It was such a genuine and pretty smile that nothing could've stopped me from smiling back.
We stayed that way, locked in each others eyes and smiles until a sound from the TV startled us. Madge and I both jumped up from our places at the table and ran into the living room. Just as we reached the couch, a wall of fire started descending on Katniss. She woke up, completely startled and ran as fast as she could away from the flames.
I heard Madge gasp from her place beside me and saw her hand come up to her mouth out of the corner of my eye. I couldn't help it when I muttered out loud, "Get the hell out of there, Katniss."
She ran as fast as she possibly could but apparently it wasn't fast enough. The edge of her jacket caught on fire but she quickly stomped it out. I was no longer breathing. I was fixed on the screen, torn between accepting the fact that she could die any moment and refusing to believe in anything but her safety.
She stopped and started puking and I wondered briefly what it would feel like to lose her forever. What my life would be like without her apart of me. It seemed unfathomable. It seemed like an impossible life because everything I was, everything I did, was tied to Katniss in one way or another. I would never be the same without her. When fireballs starting shooting at Katniss, I knew she wasn't likely to survive this attack. But damn it, she had to. She promised Prim, she promised me, she promised everybody that she would make it home. I would protect her family if she would protect herself. That was the deal we made. Remember our deal, I wanted to scream at her.
Her calf caught on fire and I had to look way. That could've been it. That could've been the moment I lost everything. But when I looked back at the screen, the attack was over and Katniss was stumbling towards a pond, finding instant relief in the cold water.
I was breathing again. I remembered Madge and turned to her. She bit her lip and looked up at me. "She's okay."
"Sort of." I said hesitantly. "Look at her nasty calf."
"It's treatable. Haymitch will send her some medicine."
"What if he doesn't?" I found myself saying more harshly than I had intended.
"He will." She said quickly.
Her overconfident prediction of Katniss had almost failed moments ago so I wasn't in the mood for another pep talk. "You don't know that!" I snapped.
She sighed. "What do you want me to say, Gale?"
"I just want you to stop being so sure of her fate. We just watched her almost burn to death! You can bet on her all you want but one misstep, one mistake, and she's dead!"
Madge glared at me. "Oh, I am sorry for believing in her. I am sorry that upsets you!" She yelled.
I laughed heartlessly. "Madge, you don't get it. I want to believe and I try! I try because you are just so damn sure that I can't help it. But then I watch things like this, I watch her life almost end and I realize that even if we do believe, that won't save her life. We are so powerless here!"
She looked towards the ground for a long moment, not saying anything. When she met my eyes again, I saw they were glossed over and she tried to blink back the tears. "I believe because I can't imagine not believing, Gale. I believe because I refuse to accept her practicality inevitable death. And... I believe because it's the only thing that keeps me from falling apart." Her voice broke and she swallowed hard, determined not to cry.
Her words hung in the air for a long time, neither of us daring to say anything. I wanted to go back in time to this morning, to our moments spent in the lake, to our playful banter and intense stares. I wanted to forget about the games and Katniss and the fact that no matter how much I ignored it, my best friend was still fighting for her life with every passing moment. No amount of time spent with Madge could make that not true.
So I walked away. I turned and walked out of her house without another word. She didn't stop me. She didn't call out to me. She stayed silent and still. And my walk turned into a run and then my run turned into a sprint. I sprinted through town, away from Madge and all the conflicting feelings that accompanied her. I ran with a forcefulness that I had never used before. Miles and miles away from the town and straight into the woods. It wasn't until I bent over, puking my guts out, that I realized how hard I was pushing myself. I fell against a tree, dizzy and winded.
I wasn't even sure why I was so mad. Because Madge never doubted Katniss's fate and I was jealous of that? Because seeing Katniss literally caught on fire reminded me that while I was nearly kissing another girl, she was barely avoiding death? I wasn't sure. But I did know that I missed her. And I loved her. And with her life riding on the line, I was going to have to start doing a whole lot more than just existing if I wanted her to come home.
A/N: Longest chapter yet! It all just poured out of me. I really enjoy this chapter! It's full of Gale and Madge interaction! I will get back to the other characters next chapter. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE review and thank you all who've said they love my Gale and Madge! I love them as well, I love portraying Madge as confident and sure! It suits her! REVIEW AWAY.
