Well the last chapter was heartbreaking for you Peeniss kids wasn't it? Yeah, well it sucked to write for me too. Anyways, I wrote like five chapters while on vacation, so you guys better enjoy how quickly these are coming out. Gadge or whatever it's called warning.

Muchas Gracias to my Betas, DontFeedTheDragon and rsection; both are incredible!

Katniss Everdeen POV (as per usual)

Madge perks up a bit when Rue gives her a talk about what a great friend and a good person she is and how she saved her life. Posy smiles when Madge cheers up a bit, commenting on how she's not sad anymore. But I notice how she looks drained, and just goes through the motions of the day instead of really trying. At night, Clove's face appears in the sky. Gale's also been emotionally drained all day, but when he sees that Madge isn't dead, he smiles. He murmurs her name in fact. I grumble.

The next day at school, I'm in a horrible mood. Which is why I do not appreciate Peeta's attempts to talk to me during history. It also has to do with the fact that I have decided I want nothing to do with Peeta Mellark and his pity party for me.

"What's wrong?" He asks, sensing my change in mood. I refuse to look into the blue eyes that I know are fixated on me.

"Just leave me alone," I snap.

"Okay. It's just that you seem even grumpier than usual," He mutters. I put my head on the desk, satisfied that for once the boy doesn't smile.

At the end of the school day I walk briskly to where the lower and upper school meet, hoping to get Prim and leave this place. I can feel that Peeta is behind me, but for his sake I hope he doesn't stop me. Because if he does, a whole lot of angry will be unleashed at him.

Prim seems to be happy today. As we walk she muses about her recent grades; I congratulate her without much bravado, which she points out. "Sorry Prim, I'm just not in the best mood today," I explain.

"I could've figured that one out," She says simply. "But perk up! Gales going to come home soon! There's only Marvel, Cato, Thresh, Madge, Rue, him and what's that nickname you gave that girl?" Prim questions.

"Foxface," I mutter. "I know Prim, but doesn't it annoy you what Madge is doing?"

"Oh, you mean her crush on him? I think it's cute!" She says with a small smile. I glare at her. "Protective much? It's one thing to ban me from boys, but Gale? We all might as well take a pact of chastity!" Excuse me? Prim's not supposed to talk about chastity! No. All right chill Katniss, it's a joke. And I know I can't shelter Prim from boys forever. "What do you even have against love anyways?"

"It never ends well. Not here at least," I explain shortly. Prim's been victim to my rant about romance before so she understands what I mean.

"But you love me," Prim points out.

"But I'm not in love with you," I counter.

And guess who catches up with me? Peeta. I send Prim home after she says hello to him and then turn and face the boy with a stony expression. "Seriously Katniss are you alright?" He asks. The pity oozing out of his voice is too much, even if it is genuine.

"Fine. Why are you so concerned?" I ask with exasperation.

"I'm your friend," he says simply. I scowl.

"Look I barely know you. I'm pretty stressed right now and I need space…" I trail off. In my mind I add that I don't need his pity. Nor do I trust him much. To my surprise, he doesn't reason with me, doesn't argue, but simply says fine. I breathe a sigh of relief that he's off my back.

We eat some tesserae bread for dinner with dandelion salad and some nuts that Rory 'gathered'. That means either from the woods or stealing, and we both know how hard it is to get in the woods during the Games. He says he got them in the meadow, but I decide not to point out that there are no magic nut bushes or trees or whatever they grow on in the Meadow.

After dinner I pull him aside. "I didn't know nuts grew in the Meadow," I whisper with my arms folded.

"I took them from a kid at school, it's fine," I lightly slap him on the cheek. "Ow!" Rory exclaims.

"What do you think Gale would do if he found out Rory? You're a better kid than that. If you even think of stealing one more time, I'm going to tell on you," I say with conviction.

"I'm not afraid of my mom," Rory says scoffing. He says this louder than he should, because Hazelle hears.

"Well you better be," She shouts over to him. He pales up and replies with a 'yes ma'am' and I smirk at him.

After dinner we sit around and watch the Games. The day hasn't been particularly interesting, but then the most unusual thing happens. We see Claudius Templesmith sitting at his desk. He's congratulating the six tributes who remain. But he's not inviting them to a feast. He's saying something very confusing. There's been a rule change in the Games. A rule change! That in itself is mind bending since we don't really have any rules to speak of except don't step off your circle for sixty seconds and the unspoken rule about not eating one another. I almost gag when I remember the Cannibal year. Under the new rule, both tributes from the same district will be declared the winners if they are the last two alive. The screen switches to the tributes, who are not getting it, and Claudius repeats the rule change again.

The first name Gale blurts out is Madge's. I groan to myself because I know it means that there's going to be a whole new installment of the Star Crossed Lovers Saga of District Twelve. And it makes me sick. Soon enough, Gale and Madge are searching fervently for each other, as if their lives depended on it. I realize that they are the only people left to benefit from the rule change, save Rue and Thresh, since Cato lost Clove, Marvel lost Glimmer, and Foxface lost whomever. I can't shake the feeling that this "rule change" has been enacted only to aid their romance. My nausea returns.

We see Cato mutter to himself. "Star crossed lovers. Well I hope they eat it up while they can. Because Loverboy's going down." If it were in any way possible, I would jump through that TV screen and punch him in the face.

We go home after this, hugging everyone goodnight. I give Rory a look when I hug him, and he better know what it means. Under no condition is it all right to steal. As we walk home, my mother squeezes my arm and I think I know that it has to do with the whole Gale and Madge situation. I can't help it. He's my best friend; of course I'll be protective. I know Gale had girlfriends and flirted around a lot in Twelve, but that wasn't on National Television. It's much different.

I settle into the routine that I have developed. I take a nap on the couch and have a nightmare. Tonight it's about my dad blowing up to bits in the mines, and as if that wasn't enough, I have a double header. The next involves Gale. He's finally home, finally back in my arms, and then the Peacekeepers drag him away. I run after him, but Madge blocks me. I claw at her, but Gale goes into her arms. Her sword pierces me as I wake up. I roll to my side and turn on the TV. Gale's searching for Madge, but I notice how slow he is. He occasionally grips his side, and because he took his shirt off to wrap around his wound, I can see the edges of the cut and the extent of the damage. It's definitely inflamed, and it looks as though it's swelling. I remember people coming to my mother with cuts like this on a smaller scale, and she'd start to drain the pus out… I shudder at the memory. I don't want to think of Gale having to do this. Madge is going from meeting spot to meeting spot searching for Gale. Neither of them have any luck thus far, so I decide to go back to sleep before that can change.

When I wake up it's raining outside. I look at the television screen and see that neither has found the other still. They're getting closer though. Foxface has obviously discovered that the Career camp has been blown up, and she doesn't seem even slightly upset by it. I don't blame her, I'd be ecstatic as well. She munches on roots and drinks water. She even gets a sponsor gift of bread this morning. Thresh is eating bugs, grass, and whatever else he comes across. There's a pack of wild boars and he kills one with his bare hands and eats it raw. I turn away when this happensAt school, to my delight, Peeta ignores me. He doesn't seem bitter about it at all, but instead goes about his daily chatter with his town friends. I don't know why he still sits next to me in history, though. I assume because it'll look weird if he changes seats again. I think I feel his eyes on me but I don't look over to check. I don't want to. I skip the last periods of the day to go home and check up on Gale.

I see a basil, tomato, and oil salad on the table and eat most of it. I'm surprised we even have tomatoes but I figure Prim probably got them in a trade of some sort. My mother walks in briskly and instructs me to clear the table for a patient. I take the bowl and run out before I can see what's wrong with the person. As I walk, I polish off the delish food with my bare hand, not minding the raindrops that mix in. After I'm done I wish there are more tomatoes left so that Prim can have the same food. I feel sort of guilty, but shrug it off.

When I walk back in the door an hour or so later, my mother is still at work and I am significantly wetter than I was when I got home before. I see the patient is a coal miner whose arm has been damaged and broken in some way and my mother has to reset the bone as well as clean the wounds. I remain outside until the man leaves with a cloth as a makeshift sling.

As my mother cleans the table, I look to see if there are any tomatoes left. Five large red ones sit in a row on the wooden counter. I am relieved as I cut one up and throw it into a bowl, mixing it with oil. I run out to our garden and pick some basil leaves and crunch them up as I head inside. I add them to the salad, and then find goat cheese in our icebox, a wedding gift from my mother's friend, and crumble it in there as well.

I turn on the Games to see a recap of the Star Crossed Lover's Journey playing. This is a sign that they haven't found each other yet. I doubt the Gamemakers will throw in any more drastic events until they do, because I would imagine the Lovers are enticing enough to the audience. I turn off the TV as Madge confesses her affections to Gale at the interviews.

Prim is delighted to see the salad waiting for her when she gets home. Once they have tidied themselves up and my mother has washed herself after tending to the coal miner, they head to the Hawthornes. I tell them that I feel too tired to go, and I doubt anyone believes it. I just don't feel like being around people when Gale and Madge have their sweet reunion.

I fall into the tendency of being neat which I've been experiencing a lot lately. With the Games in the background, I sweep the entire house, clean all the windows, and even have time to dust! When I finish I glance at the clock, which is still ticking too loudly for my taste. I decide I'll get my mother a clock for her birthday. I'm sure she'll be enthralled. It reads 7:23. I haven't checked on the Games in a while, so I sit myself down.

As no shocker, Gale and Madge and Rue are getting pretty close to each other. They both have the common sense to check all of the places they've been together, but just haven't met at the same time. Eventually, Gale decides to wait at the place where they set camp before blowing up the Career's stockpile. He attempts to climb a tree, but it doesn't work out so well, so he settles on sitting down, sword in hand. When Madge emerges through the trees, Gale stiffens but relaxes immediately when he sees her blond head of hair.

"Gale!" She all but yells. She runs to him and begins to talk rapidly as he stands up. "Rue's ok, but I'm sure you figured it out. Oh, I caught Clove on top of her, and she looked so smug that I stabbed her Gale, I stabbed a person to death. Oh, I feel terrible. And then I couldn't find you and I was so upset about killing her and I didn't feel like going on and… and then the rule change came and I was so hopeful, because I could have you, and we could go home, and-" Gale cuts her off by wrapping his arms firmly around her. She doesn't hesitate to squeeze him back. He kisses her forehead. I gag as this little show goes on for seventy-eight seconds. So what if I time it?

"I'm here now. We're together. And I promise that we're both going home," Gale says firmly. There's fatigue in his voice, but the strength of his statement overrides it.

Then Madge notices Gale's condition. "Oh no," She whispers. She makes him sit down and take off everything but his underclothes. And I'm almost positive she does this on purpose. She examines the wound Cato made with his sword on his leg, the burns from the fireballs, the scrapes on his hands, the bruises on his arms. When she gets to the slash in his side, she almost gags. I can't blame her. "How'd this even happen?" She murmurs in awe. He shrugs. "Okay, well the good news is that your burns are almost healed, as well as your hands, but you should wash them and get the dirt out. Your leg's getting better, but I'm going to put some ointment on it, just to be safe. And as for your side…" She trails off as she looks at the thing.

"I know you're gonna be disgusted," Gale starts as Madge puts ointment on his leg. "But I can't reach my side well, so you might have to help me with that one." Madge looks at the thing and is horrified. "Will you do it for a kiss?" He asks with a smirk. I scowl.

"Well in that case," She says blushing furiously. I raise my eyebrows a bit. I never pinned Madge as a flirt.

Gale chuckles a bit. "Alright. Works for me," He says. It all happens very fast. He puts his arms around her neck and they lean in. The kiss is almost a minute, and pretty intense in my opinion for their first. Madge is blushing when they pull away, Gale's smiling a bit, and I'm fuming a lot. "So how about we start this thing?" He pushes down on the lump and I shut off the TV as the green oozes out.

It all sets in very quickly. I had been hoping up to this point that that lover thing would die out when Madge met some untimely death. Now it's clear to me. Gale and Madge are going to be a team. They'll find some way to beat the rest. I know they will, and when they come home they'll be a couple, because it's what's expected of them. I think of how the Capitol still adores Finnick Odair and he's been Victor for almost a decade at this point. No, the Capitol will not let go of their precious Star Crossed Lovers. They'll live happily ever after and I'll go on the sidelines with Gale. So many emotions fume up in me that I feel as though I'm a teakettle about to blow my lid off. I don't care if I'm jealous, if I'm protective, if I'm whatever about Gale and Madge's romance. The bottom line is that I don't like it and that I can never stop it.

For a while I lived in a deluded fantasy that Gale would come home as sole Victor, that we would become normal after time. Sure, he'd mourn Madge and so would I, but it'd make us closer. Yeah, he'd be different, but I could accept it. The Madge coming home factor destroys this completely. Because now, he and Madge will have to do everything together. I won't be surprised if they moved in with each other. Sure, I'll hate it, but hey that's life right?

Then an idea dawns on me. Well, if Gale can be happy with Madge, then why can't I have another friend? I figure one of the reasons I was so uncomfortable with the friendship of Peeta Mellark is because I already had a leading man in my life, and that was Gale. Plus the two don't sit well in my mind together. But if Gale has a new leading lady, then why can't I? Sure, he'll only be a friend, but isn't that what Gale was?

I decide that tomorrow in History, Peeta Mellark will be pleasantly surprised.

That ending was a bit less depressing, no?

Ah, a special reward goes out to the fiftieth reviewer… The reward? Review to find out *wink wink;)