Authors note: So I read the reviews and realised barbarella-1980 was completely right. I definitely needed to ease the tension between them a little bit... So here it is, my light hearted chapter with as much Madge/Gale as I could fit in. I might do a couple more chapters like this before building up the tension again, or I might not build up the tension again at all, I haven't decided yet. It's kind of writing itself at the moment, and every chapter seems to be on a whim!
Flashbacks are sort of becoming Madge's thing, but I think it fits her. She wasn't developed very much in the books, and confusion and living in the past sort of suits her current state.
So, I think I've rambled long enough...I don't own the hunger games!
Madge.
I am still laughing when we reach the door to my new apartment. "Alright. So you were right. It was the worst idea in the history of the world. I feel so sorry for Katniss."
Gale sighs, as if he's been thinking exactly the same. "What can we do though? She doesn't like it, but it will win us the war. Or at least, I hope it will."
"Not with that script." I laugh. He bites his lip, and then bursts out laughing.
"You going in?" He asks, looking at the white door to my new apartment which is completely and utterly identical to every single door on that long white corridor. I sigh.
"Just smash my good mood, why don't you?" I ask, unlocking the door.
The apartment is plain, sparsely furnished. It has a narrow single bed with a worn bed sheet and a white chest of drawers. There are no windows, and all the plain white in one space is a bit overwhelming, however much it aims to achieve the opposite. I walk in, and sit on the bed.
The lives of the people of 13 are so bland, so colourless. I feel so tempted to march to the Capitol, grab some buckets of paint and start throwing them over people. I swear, if I did, they wouldn't know what the hell each colour was. They'd be like "Is this yellow? You know I heard a legend about this colour once, from my great great grandmother. She was a stain on our family if ever there was one, always laughing! I know! Laughing! Can you believe it? Have you ever heard anything so shameful?"
Gale stands in the doorway, biting his lip in the way, my memory informs me, that shows he is about to burst out laughing.
"Wow. Bit of a comedown for the pampered little mayor's daughter, don't you think?" He asks.
His eyes meet mine, and we both burst out laughing. Once we've started, it's difficult to stop. I'm verging on hysterical, tears rolling down my face as I clutch my split ribs.
I fling my arms around his neck, burying my face in his shoulder and inhaling his woody, Gale scent. How he still manages to smell like the woods around 12, when he hasn't been exposed to them for god knows how many weeks is beyond me. But a Gale that didn't smell like the woods wouldn't be a Gale, and I'm grateful.
"Whatever did I do to deserve that?" He asks, pulling away with a roguish grin. I feel my heart melt, and thread my fingers through his hair.
"Just being you." I answer.
"Well then." He says. "I might try just being me a bit more often."
I scoff. "Where'd that line come from, Gale Hawthorne? From your slag heap days, no doubt!"
He laughs. "I should have known better than to attempt such a cheap line on you, Miss Mayor's-Daughter Undersee. And no, as a matter of fact. It came from my heart."
I burst out laughing at the same time he does. "Okay, I think Rory may have a point about you being feminine and stupid. Just kiss me you idiot."
He laughs.
The sound of Coin's voice echoes around the room, and I jump, thinking she's entered the room before I realise that it's coming from the receiver.
She's announcing the entire population must meet in the hall, and I remember her promise about announcing Katniss's ultimum during reflection. I sigh, and meet Gale's eye.
"We should probably go." I say, pulling his hand into mine.
He looks thoughtful all the way down to the meeting. "Okay, spill. What's up?"
"Nothing. Well, I mean, nothing out of the ordinary. I was just wondering what that was about, earlier, when Katniss let slip Johanna Mason had been captured."
"Oh." I say, deliberating carefully before I answer. "Well, she's sort of a friend."
"A friend?" Gale enquires, frowning as if he isn't able to reconcile his image of me with his image of Johanna Mason, the violent, crafty girl with bitterness and sarcasm to match.
"Yeah. We go way back."
I was stood in the hallway off the ballroom, shivering. It was winter, and yet they still insisted that we wear these clothes. Sometimes, I just couldn't get my head around the Capitol. I got that they were twisted and evil and stuff, and that I'd never be able to understand from their point of view. But what I really didn't understand was why they would be so kamikaze as to wear these dresses in this heat.
It was the war of the mayors daughters, but that didn't mean the Capitol's subjects weren't allowed to compete.
Me, I wasn't so bothered. Twelve was at a disadvantage everywhere we looked, fashion included. District pride wasn't really a concept. And even if it was, it wouldn't have made a difference to me. I wouldn't let them make me up into some crazily dressed, made up puppet. Hence why I was hiding in the corridor.
"Hey there, friend of Finnick Odair." Said a voice. I jumped, and narrowed my eyes at a girl dressed in a ridiculous green dress, revealing things that it just shouldn't be legal to reveal. If there was one thing I hated, it was girls like that.
"Hey there, girl whose name I do not know and whose dress is-" I stopped myself. I was the mayor's daughter, and I had promised my dad I would behave. Just because we were the laughing stock of Panem most of the time, didn't mean we had to make a fuss about it.
"Ooh, feisty! You don't know me? I'm hurt! I thought my fan base stretched to even the most outlying of districts! Let me give you a hint. I'm Johanna Mason."
"Technically that isn't a hint, it's telling me who you are. But hi Johanna Mason, victor of district 7."
"Oho! You really are feisty! Anyways, I just wanted to tell you, the boy you've been flirting with all evening, Finnick Odair, he's in love with-"
"Annie Cresta, one of my best friends. I have not been flirting with him! He's my friend, nothing more. I'd thank you to keep your big fat nose out in future." A moment of silence."I'm sorry. It's the-"
"Games?" She asks. I nod.
"What you worried about kid?"
"My mum." I confess. "Her sister- Maysilee Donner, died in the games. She hasn't been right since."
"You love her?" Johanna asks.
"Yes." I answer, bewildered.
"Don't." Johanna asks. "It'll only make you weaker when the time comes. It'll only make you hurt more when he comes for you. And believe me, he will. He'll take it all. Everything."
Without another word, she turns on her heel and walked back inside.
It turned out, love was something beyond anyone's control. Even Johanna's. It was baby steps, but she began to care for me and I for her.
In war, there is nothing more valuable than love. Or more dangerous.
My thoughts turn to her now, all alone in a cell somewhere in the Capitol. I pictured her broken.
I blinked rapidly, but the image was burned on the back of my eyelids. My rapid recovery in command had been testament to just how much I tethered on sanity's knife edge. One moment I was sobbing my heart out, the next I was fine.
One minute I was praising Gale, the next there was nothing but blame in my voice.
Johanna Mason was strong, resilient, and had nothing left to lose. She wouldn't back down in the face of the Capitol's demands, and when we won, she would just spring right back. If there was one victor that had no need of Katniss's immunity, it was her.
But there would also be part of her that was broken, just like now, there was a part of me.
She had been right, about love. It had only ever gotten me into scrapes, only ever led me to more pain. Snow had destroyed my mother long ago, he had killed both parents, burnt everything I knew in the world to the ground and taken Annie and Johanna away. Perhaps he had broken Finnick, maybe even Katniss.
But I refused to let him break me.
I was going to fight to the death, because if we lost, it would mean death for us all. But it was more than that. Everything the Capitol had ever done, every person that had ever died... I wouldn't let it be for nothing.
One face in particular sticks in my mind. Gale Hawthorne's hand is firmly in mine.
He kisses me on top of my head, and gives my hand a reassuring squeeze. "She'll be okay. They all will. We're going to win, Madge."
"I know." I replied, smiling and leaning against him as Coin's speech began.
The reactions to the ultimum are just as predictable as they were in command. Left, right and centre, I hear noises of outrage and denial.
It never occurred to any of the citizens in thirteen that, just maybe, this was too big of an ask of a confused 17 year old girl who had been through hell and back. It had for me, and for Gale. He is watching with incoherent rage as the people of 13 voice their disapproval.
The people of 12 gave Katniss, and gave her without question, to the games. They gave her because they had no choice. Because for 74 years parents had watched on in despair whilst their children died before their eyes, knowing there was nothing they could do to save them. That this force was too big to fight.
For the 3rd time in 74 years, our child was returned to us. She was given back. But nothing in this world is given freely, and every sacrifice has its cost.
It turned out, that cost was Katniss. Not in a literal sense. In a sense that she wasn't who she once was. She may have kept her head down. She may have been reluctant to voice opinions. But everyone knew who she was. There was hardly anyone in 12 who wouldn't have nodded at her in the streets. We were perfectly happy with her the way she was.
When she came back she was different. She wasn't the way she once was. I can't imagine what she must have gone through, but I can imagine what Prim, what Mrs Everdeen, what Gale went through. Because it was the same thing I did.
They're the ones who are silent now.
They know she could ask for anything in the world, and it wouldn't be a big enough compensation for what this earth has put her through. What Snow has, what Coin has, what we all have...
"Madge!" Posy's voice yanks me from my thoughts. I whirl around, Gale's hand still in mine. I locate her in the dispersing crowd, standing in between Vick and Rory.
"Rosy Posy!" I say, Gale's nickname falling easily from my lips. She grins, and let's go of her brother's hands so she can run over to me. She hugs me around the middle, and I run the finger's of my spare hand through her hair, which is in two sweet little braids.
"When did you start doing your hair like this?" I ask, smiling.
If I am bewildered by the way Gale has managed to retain his woody smell, I am completely amazed by the fact that Posy still smells like flowers. How she even smelt like flowers in the first place, when she never even left the district boundaries, is completely beyond comprehension. I guess some little girls are just meant to smell of sweetness and beauty.
"Prim did it for me. Do you like it?" She asks anxiously, vying for my opinion. I smile.
"I love it. You look really pretty, all grown up."
"Good." She says, in a satisfied tone. "I don't like it here." she whispers.
"Really?" I whisper back. "Why ever not?"
"The clothes." She says miserably, plucking at the hem of her grey linen dress. "And the food. In district 12, Gale brought nice food. And the clothes were old, but they had pretty colours in them."
"I couldn't agree more. I tell you what, when we win the war, I'll take you to the Capitol and we'll buy the brightest coloured piece of clothing we can find. How about that?"
She laughs. "That sounds wonderful! Does Gale have to come?"
I laugh, and glance up at Gale, who is smiling good naturedly.
"No. It'll be just us girls. We'll bring Katniss and Prim too, make a proper adventure of it. And afterwards, we'll get Gale to paint our nails. He's rather good at them, you know."
Posy giggles.
"You painted nails?" Rory asks incredulously, a grin spreading from ear to ear as if it's just been announced Christmas, Easter and his birthday have come all at once.
"You're such a sap." Laughs Vick, a similar smile spreading over his face.
"What can I say?" Laughing Gale, pulling both the struggling boys into a headlock. "I'm a girl at heart."
We walk back to the Hawthorne apartment together, Vick and Rory still teasing Gale and Posy still in serious discussion about the dress she's going to buy.
"So, Rosy Posy, what are you going to do with the rest of your day?" Asks Gale when we reach the apartment, Vick and Rory having already raced in, each trying to beat the other to the ancient looking book in the corner that is their sole entertainment.
"Spend it with Madge." Says Posy firmly.
"I think I'm going to spend the rest of the day with Madge." He says, grinning. "Can you not think of something better to do?"
"No, I want to spend the rest of the day with Madge or I'll tell mummy that you were talking about the war with me again."
I laugh. I had been informed of the discussion she referred to. Gale, however, looked as if he'd just been informed he was about to go to the guillotine.
"Just as stubborn as her brother. I'm guessing it's the Hawthorne family trait?" I whisper to Gale, who laughs despite himself.
"Alright Posy, how about this. You let me and Gale talk this evening, and I'll take you to see the new piano Coin's given me tomorrow morning while Gale's in nuclear history? Just us two?"
Posy grins from ear to ear. "Will you play the funny song about the bumble bee?" She asks.
"Sure. I'll play whichever songs you want me too." I answer.
"Alright. See you later!" She says, and she runs to join the fray of the Vick/Rory argument. I laugh to myself, and turn to Gale. He's looking at me as if he's never seen me before.
"What?" I ask, brushing a stray curl behind my ear, more self conscious than usual under his remarkably sharp gaze.
"I'm going to marry you one day." He says.
I blush and, for once, don't have a smart answer.