Vendetta

Peeta gave a half chuckle, "And you look tired Madge...you try to hide it beneath ice and stone but I can see it. You look tired, Madge, so fucking tired." –Peeta Mellark.


Chapter 11: Problems

"What kind of talk?" Gale asked, his eyes cutting back to the coffee table.

Madge shrugged, leaned back, "You. Me. Your problem with me."

"I don't have a problem with you."

"Bullshit." Madge said, her voice leaving no room for argument.

Gale shifted uncomfortably and tried for sarcastic, "Such a bad word for a proper little princess."

Madge laughed shortly, "I'm not proper and I'm no princess. If you stopped hating me for two seconds you would have seen that by now."

"And if I don't want to talk?"

Madge smiled at him, fake and unreadable. "I don't want to either but if we're going to be working together, I have to make sure we're able to work together."

"What does that mean?" Gale crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back, half of him in shadows.

"It means," Madge said quietly. "That this is my team and the man we're going after is very, very dangerous. And one wrong move could literally kill us. You could be very useful to this team but make no mistake, Gale, you're not irreplaceable. Theo is irreplaceable, Glitter is irreplaceable, you are. But more importantly, I'm not jeopardizing their lives just because you don't like me."

His eyes narrowed, "I know how to take orders."

"Do you?" Her voice was low and quiet but there was a silent warning. "Because your entire life you've wanted nothing more than to defy the people in charge of your life."

"And with good reason," Gale said, his voice almost dangerous. Eyes glittering coldly. "They ruined my life, they ruined everybody's lives that they deemed weren't good enough. They killed so many kids for entertainment Madge. Can you really blame me?"

She stared at him, "I'm not blaming you for anything. I get it Gale, I really do—"she ignored his snort of disbelief and went on—"you hated them and you hated that they had so much control over your life. You would've done anything to prove that they don't own you. But you couldn't because you had people depending on you—"there was a split second pause like she wanted to say something different. She shook her head—"so you played along and you bided your time and you rebelled in your own small way. And now that you can finally do whatever you want…you're not so willing to let that go just yet. Not even for Katniss."

Gale shifted again, uncomfortable with how accurate her words were. But also with the hidden passion in her voice, like she meant what she said. Like she knew how it felt.

She studied him, her mismatched eyes thoughtful before her face softened. She gave a sighing laughing, "I'll make you a deal. I love Theo and Glitter but they like to believe that I'm always right and for the most part that's true. The thing is…I can get a bit too intense and…personal and I need someone to pull me back when that happens."

His eye brow quirked up, "So what, you need a baby sitter?"

She pursed her lips and his eyes wandered to the movement before darting back up to her eyes, "Not exactly. More like crowd control."

He rubbed his knuckles against his leg—a habit she noticed he did when he was confused or trying to figure something out—and stared blankly at her. "I don't get it."

She gave him a smile—a real one this time that made his stomach roll in a way that wasn't entirely uncomfortable. "You will, don't worry."

With that she got up and patted his leg—making it go tingly, numb, and warm—and gave him a warm smile. "You should try and get some sleep."

Gale watched as she disappeared into the shadows of the hallway. Her words ringing in his ear, Theo is irreplaceable, Glitter is irreplaceable…

She didn't say anything about her being irreplaceable, he realized and, for some reason, this frightened him.


When Gale woke up, he was hanging half off the couch and there was something covering his eyes. He blinked a couple of times before realizing it was note, he snatched it off his forehead to read it.

Didn't want to wake you so I left a note instead. Meet us at Haymitch's old place in the Victor District.

Madge

Gale just lay there, staring at the note. Studying his newest teammate's note, looking at her neat and slightly curvy writing. It was blunt, straight to the point, yet undeniably feminine. Kind of like her.

The 24 year old man winced when he realized how much he was thinking about her. This was ridiculous. Still, even as he walked out the door—the note shoved into his pocket—he couldn't help but smile at the memory of the icy fire in her eyes the night before.


"Again." Glitter picked her head up to glare at Madge.

"Don't you think that's enough practice Madge?" Glimmer ducked her head again when Madge turned to look at her, eyes kind but firm. Not that Glimmer saw.

"Glitter—"

She flinched, "No. You're right—it, uh, was a stupid question."

"Glitter, it's fine. There's no such things as stupid questions remember?" Madge said, her voice soft and understanding but all Glitter could hear was derisive laughter and taunts. She flinched back.

Madge held back a sigh, knowing that would only make the smaller girl retreat into herself more. Madge stood up a little straighter when she saw Gale enter the back yard. His steps were sure and quiet like the hunter he is. His grey eyes turning a light slate color in the morning light. Madge mentally scowled realizing that she was doing it again.

Stop it, not everyone is a threat to you, Madge thought, squeezing her eyes shut before opening them again when she felt him sidle up next to her.

"What are we doing here?" He was close enough that she could feel his body heat even through his clothing.

Does this guy even know the meaning of personal space? Madge thought idly before answering him. "We're starting recon today but I don't feel comfortable letting everyone go out on their own without knowing how well they can defend themselves if they get jumped by Hetov's men."

"Meaning she's just being overprotective as always," Theo rolled his eyes, rolling his shoulders as he got up from the ground.

"What happened to you?" Gale frowned, noticing the way he was gingerly holding his wrist.

Theo smirked at him, coffee brown eyes twinkling his mischief. "I was too slow pulling back my punch and Mad twisted by wrist."

"She didn't have to twist so hard," Glitter glared at her. "He could've gotten seriously hurt."

Madge snorted, "He's a six foot, five inch giant and weighs 223 pounds it's gonna take more than me causally twisting his arm for me to seriously hurt him."

"Right…of course," Glitter murmured quietly, seeming to shrink as she drew back. She jumped when a heavy hand landed gently on her shoulder, she whipped her head around to see a Theo with an unsure smile on his face. Her heart stuttered in her chest, because dammit, did he have to look so cute? And hot? Was it possible to be a combination of the two? She gave him a hesitant smile back in return.

Gale raised both eyebrows and looked at Madge, "You know how to fight?"

The blonde tilted her head and said mildly, "It's been five years remember Gale?"

Gale nodded hastily, "Right of course."

She smothered a smile—thought about telling him just how long she had actually known how to fight and decided not to, girl's gotta keep some secrets—and turned back to Glitter. "All right, girlie your turn."

Gale walked over to Theo and cocked his head, "Wanna have a go?"

Theo's grin turned wolfish.

So this is mostly….filler...and boring. Really, really boring but I had to get it out of the way but don't worry the story starts on track after this. Meaning, ACTION, and ROMANCE, and most definitely TENSION. Also, so sorryfor the really late update but school's bitch and I forgot how much work it actually is. So updates will be sporadic but it WILL happen. Also, this isn't proofread because I was in a hurry to put it out, I'll get back to it…eventually.