Gale still isn't even sure how it happened. One minute, he was looking for a way to entertain his siblings that was free but also exciting, and the next minute they were YouTube sensations with millions of followers.
It all started when Katniss gave them a games console with some games and other stuff that apparently Prim got for her birthday, but didn't like. She'd laid the foundations pretty well, Prim opened it during her birthday party, tried to look upbeat and excited about such a present but basically passed it over to a salivating Rory as soon as she could. A week later, Katniss was at the door with it all in a box, claiming that Prim didn't want it and unless they took it, she was going to donate it to the charity shop.
Gale's objections didn't stand a chance as Rory, Vick and Posy all leapt around him begging him to take it. He hated charity – especially from Katniss now that she'd won the lottery – but he couldn't resist his siblings.
As much as it pained him to admit it, it was useful, too. He babysat most nights as their mother worked a lot of late shifts at the dry cleaners and nothing motivated his siblings to do their cleaning chores and homework like the promise of being allowed to play some Xbox afterwards.
Then, Posy discovered Stampycat on YouTube and she was desperate to send in a video to his Facebook page so she could be added to his Love Garden. Rory and Vick wanted in, too.
And that was how the Hawthornes became Minecraft YouTube celebrities.
Now they raked in enough cash that Hazelle could work normal hours and spend some actual time with her kids and they didn't have to shop at the local Goodwill or with coupons. It was the most money any Hawthorne ever had made and Gale was kind of proud of it.
Until the day Rory turned to him with a gleeful smile and said, "You know you're being shipped, right?"
"What?"
"You're being shipped with strawberry_fever," he explained, but Gale continued to look confused. "You know, the one who built that whole Town complex with that Peeta guy. Basically our comment section and their comment section think you should meet and kiss."
Gale scowled. He hated those two with their stupid kitsch Minecraft world where everything was all twee and happy. He probably wouldn't hate Peeta Mellark and his sidekick quite as much if Katniss hadn't started drooling over Mellark after Posy introduced his videos to her. Then he'd found her drooling whilst watching interviews with Mellark when they were fishing and the sickening realisation that she was never going to be into him dawned.
That had been six months ago, and it wasn't as if Katniss had ever even met the guy, but she still got stupidly goofy when she watched a new video with Posy. It wasn't even likely that she would meet him, but Gale disliked him on principle. First, he built stupid worlds with bakery competitions and then he'd ensnared Katniss with his dumb commentary. Gale refused to watch any of their footage or even check out what they looked like in real life on principal.
And now he was being 'shipped' with the annoying side-kick.
Rory hooted happily again. "You even have a ship name! Gadge."
"Gadge? What does that even me-?" he started to ask, before he thought better of it and decided that leaving the room was a better idea.
His siblings didn't bring it up again until they'd been booked for Minecon. Somehow there was a demand for watching them play their world in the flesh, which Gale really didn't understand, but the money was good, and the kids were excited so it wasn't something that Gale was going to turn down.
"Guess who's going to be here?" Vick crowed a few days later. "Madge!"
"Who?" Gale asked.
"Your YouTube girlfriend."
"You mean Mellark's side-kick? And I don't have a girlfriend, especially one from the internet."
Vick ignored him. "The Gadge tag on tumblr is in meltdown. There's even fanfic written about you guys meeting and it was only announced this morning."
"How is this even a thing?" Gale asked perplexed.
In the end, Katniss and Prim tagged along on the trip, too. Gale would've been excited, but he knew Katniss was only coming because Peeta Mellark was going to be there and she still had a disgusting case of heart-eyes over him.
Once the Minecon started, Gale was trying to keep his attention on the creeper assault course he'd built for his siblings to fight their way across, but the cute blonde who was throwing him speculative glances was putting him off. She was stunning in that girl-next-door way, with wavy blonde hair and big blue eyes. He'd never thought that was particularly his type, but he was sure he could make an exception for her.
"Hi," he said, flashing a charming smile. "I'm Gale."
"I know," she said with an amused expression. "I've seen your YouTube videos."
"Oh my God," someone screamed out from the small scrum of people watching Rory and Vick kill creepers. "It's actually happening."
"Uh…what?" Gale said clueless as a dozen or so phones turned towards them.
"You really don't know do you?" the blonde commented. "That's adorable. I thought the disparaging remarks regarding our world would mean you'd actually seen bothered to check us out!"
The excited fans around them and the glimpse of Katniss looking more animated than he'd ever seen her as she spoke to a stocky blond in the periphery of his vision made him realise what was going on.
"You're the strawberry girl," he said!
A flash of annoyance flared in her eyes before she said, "strawberry_fever, otherwise known as Madge."
Madge. Even if he had known her name before, he would never have pictured her as being its owner. Madge was an old lady's name and this gorgeous blonde was anything but.
"I came to see if you wanted to put your reputation where your mouth was," Madge said, staring at him appraisingly. "I was going to take you on at your creeper assault course and challenge you to complete our aesthetic building challenge. At the moment, I'm not sure you're up to it."
He snorted in derision. "That doesn't even seem fair. What do I get when I win?"
"I'll come and guest spot in your next video where you can continue to talk trash about my world and I have to suck it up. However, that's not going to happen because I'm going to win and then you have to appear in my next video."
"You're on," Gale said, sticking his hand out for Madge to shake.
Madge turned to the nearest people filming them on their smartphones and asked, "You guys got that?"
Two weeks later, Gale was in Madge's apartment, taking part in Peeta and Madge's next video – a garden competition. Any shame he had over his participation in such an event disappeared when Madge let him share her bed later that night.
