His footsteps dragged he headed for town, thoughts and emotions swirling around like seaweed in the surf of District 3. I am an invited guest, he reminded himself. Invited. Invited.
It wasn't too hard to find the bakery. It was roughly in the same neighborhood where Peeta's father's bakery had been, before everything happened. Besides which, Gale smelled bread baking from two blocks away. It was a comforting smell, something familiar contrasting with the unrecognizable surroundings. Gale followed his nose until he saw the sign: Mellark Bakery. With a deep breath and one last invited, Gale stepped up to the door and pushed it open.
A bell chimed to announce him as a customer, but it was hardly necessary, considering there were already five customers lined up in front of the counter. Gale didn't recognize the cashier, but he glimpsed a familiar silhouette facing the ovens, frantically pulling out one tray of rolls and putting in a fresh one. Gale grinned and took a place at the end of the line.
The cashier ran back and forth, wrapping up sweets and rolls and muffins and loaves, slowly ticking off the customers until it was finally Gale's turn. "How can I help you?" he asked.
"You can't. I need to speak to the owner," Gale said, in his best authoritative tone.
"May I ask why, sir?" the cashier said politely.
"Oh, he'll know why," Gale said, "once he hears me say PEETA!"
That got the owner's attention, all right. Peeta whirled around, tray still in his hands, and exclaimed, "Gale! You made it!"
"Of course I made it," Gale said, more defensively than he'd wanted to. I said I was coming, didn't I? Even if I wasn't quite sure I meant it… He deflected everything with the quickest joke he could think of. "I mean, someone has to make sure you don't chicken out and leave her at the altar."
"As if," Peeta answered with a grin. One-handed, he cleared a space on the cooling rack and set down his tray. He crossed through the counter gate and gave Gale a big hug and a slap on the back. "Good to see you again, man. It's been forever."
"Seems like," Gale admitted. "So, you finally wore Katniss down, huh?"
Peeta's smile widened. "I sure did. I think it was my good cooking. Speaking of Katniss, I'm sure you can't wait to see her. She's right in the office." He went back behind the counter, opened up a door that Gale hadn't noticed before, and said, "Katniss! Guess who's here!"
Her burns had healed, though the skin was still tight and shiny in patches on her neck. Her hair was shorter than it used to be, with her braid coming only to the shoulder instead of the waist. She was, of course, much less skinny than she had been as an underfed teenager. Yet it was still unmistakably Katniss Everdeen stepping through that door.
Gale's heart did something strange when he saw her. Shut up, he told himself. You do not have a crush on someone else's fiancée. You don't. "Hey, catnip," he said, his voice shaky with nerves.
"Hello, Gale," Katniss said. If he had hoped to hear some hint of how she was feeling, he was disappointed. All he could tell from her voice and expression was that she wasn't furious and she wasn't ecstatic, which left a whole lot of ground to cover.
"So, the big day is almost here," Gale said, awkwardly.
"Yes it is," Katniss said, and maybe that was the germ of a smile. "Have you had a cinnamon bun yet? They're delicious."
"Yes! Excellent idea," Peeta said. "Sit down, Gale, let's have a cinnamon bun to celebrate your homecoming."
Gale sat at one of the café tables near the window. Katniss came and sat across from him, still not smiling but also not frowning. Peeta came bustling over – and yes, the word "bustling" applied, cliché and all – with a plate of three iced cinnamon buns, still steaming from the oven. In spite of the huge breakfast he'd had just two hours earlier, Gale's stomach rumbled at the delicious aroma. "Those smell amazing," he told Peeta as he reached for one. Katniss reached out at the same time, and they almost both grabbed the same roll, but she drew back and let Gale have first pick.
"Don't burn your mouth," Peeta warned with another grin. "So, how's things in Two?"
Gale blew on the steaming bun as he struggled to find words to answer. "Uh, well, complicated. I usually have to make three or four decisions before I even have a cup of coffee, and every one of them comes with a political fight plus a mound of paperwork. Even taking a long weekend to come to a wedding involved asking four people for their permission. But, uh, I think I'm starting to do some good, so it has its moments."
"Sounds like keeping the peace is hard work," Katniss said, with a tiny smile. The comment made Gale nervous. He wasn't sure if she had intentionally used those words to remind him of what Peacekeepers used to do.
"It seems like you guys are busy here, with the bakery," he said.
Peeta said "I'm in a constant state of exhaustion," and sighed dramatically. "But it's fun, really. Baking was always my first love. Even the boring parts don't bother me anymore. I never realized what a luxury boredom is."
Katniss snorted. "Plus you constantly rope me into doing the boring stuff for you," she teased. "This place would be a mess if I didn't remind you to pay the bills and put in the orders."
Peeta blushed a little. "Yes, all right, my loving fiancée helps me with a lot. This bakery would fall to pieces without you and so would I. Happy?" he answered.
"Yes, dear," she said, reaching out to squeeze his hand.
The whole scene was heartwarming and adorable and bittersweet, for Gale, who distracted himself with a big bite from the cinnamon roll. "You two always have made a good team," he said with his mouth full.
"That must be why she keeps me around," Peeta said.
Katniss turned to Gale and asked, "How about you? Are you seeing anyone?"
"Uh, no, not right now," he said. Or ever. Not since the war. Not since you. "A set-up here and there, maybe, but nothing serious. I'm so busy that I'm practically married to my work."
"We see you on TV pretty often," Katniss said. "You look tired in a lot of your interviews."
Gale shrugged. "The cameras aren't flattering to people who don't get much sleep. Unless you have a full-time prep team, which generals don't get."
The cashier materialized next to Gale. "Sorry to interrupt, Mr. Mellark, but we got a call about the Cartwright order. What time will it be done?"
Peeta looked at his watch. "It's 10:30 now . . . tell them noon." The cashier nodded and ducked away. "Sorry, guys, but I think I have to get back to work. I have two more orders plus the wedding cake to finish," he explained.
"That's all right," Gale said. "Is there anything you want me to do? Bachelor party prep or anything?"
"Actually, I was thinking you should go hunting with Katniss."
The statement landed like a lump of dough that sends flour spraying everywhere. Gale looked at Katniss, who looked away to the window, and then at Peeta, who had turned to look at his fiancée, who was still avoiding everyone's gaze.
"Hunting?" Gale asked. "Didn't you buy meat for the wedding?"
"We did," Katniss said, still looking out the window. "But we were thinking fresh venison would spruce up the frozen beef." She turned and looked at Gale. "I was about to head out, when you came in."
Peeta doubled down. "So I thought maybe you two should go together, like old times. It'd give you a chance to catch up, and besides, your odds of getting a deer are better if there are two of you, aren't they?"
"Maybe," Gale said. He couldn't hear himself think over the sudden rushing of blood in his ears. "I mean, I haven't hunted in a long time."
Katniss was looking pointedly at Peeta now, but Gale couldn't tell what she was trying to tell him.
After two or three long moments of awkward silence, Katniss finally said, "Well, I'm sure you still remember the basics. I do have two bows, if you're interested."
General Gale Hawthorne was suddenly afraid. He was afraid of going back into the woods where he watched his District burn. He was afraid of taking up a weapon again. He was afraid of being alone with Katniss, the woman he'd loved, the woman who'd hated him. He was afraid that she would shoot him given the chance. He was afraid of saying or doing something that would spoil the wedding and his homecoming and his friendship with Peeta.
He swallowed all that and said, "Sure, let's go get us a deer."
