Modern AU. This is a continuation of the previous chapter (dog walking).

His hair is dripping; his skin glistens with sweat. He strips out of this clothes starting with the t-shirt, soaked through in places. Stepping into the stream of cold water, he takes a deep breath. He grabs the bar of soap and starts scrubbing. When he steps out of the shower, he's still uncomfortably warm. He dries himself quickly and wraps his towel around his waist to go to his bedroom. By the time he's pulled on a fresh t-shirt and shorts, his skin is already pricked with a thin sheen of fresh sweat.

A light on his phone is blinking. He flips it open and sees there's a new group message waiting. He opens it and a smiles stretches across his face.

Katniss: I'M SO HAPPY I FOUND MY CAT BUTTERCUP! 3 THANX FOR YOUR HELP! U R THE BEST!

There's a whole row of happyface and cat emojis at the end of the message.

He shakes his head, a quiet laugh in his throat. The message, obviously, is from Katniss' sister Prim. (Emojis are not exactly Katniss *thing*. Nor exclamation points – or any punctuation, come to think of it.) Prim's overwhelming joy to have Buttercup back makes the extra efforts today worth it. Knowing Katniss owes him one doesn't hurt, either.

The day had started off routine. He'd taken Posy to futbol practice, which meant hopping a bus to 19th street and then walking. It wasn't far, but in the heat it was pretty miserable. Vick tagged along but disappeared as soon as they reached the Dark Days Memorial Garden to join some friends playing Pokemon Go. According to Vick, there were three Pokestops in the park and the memorial garden was now a Gym. Gale and Posy had gone on to the playing fields near the parking lot at the west end of the park. When Posy was done, they found Vick soaking wet from the waist down after splashing in the fountains of the memorial garden – the kids' favorite way to cool off in that sunny section of the park. Of course that meant Posy had to jump in a fountain too, if only for a minute. At least Vick and his friends were smart enough to keep their Pokemon devices dry. Other than the wedding party trying to take photos in the memorial garden and the clueless white girl wading with a dog through poison ivy along the trail, it had been a pretty typical Saturday morning.

Hazelle had made sure there was lunch waiting for them in the fridge, so as soon as Gale roused Rory from the book he was reading and Posy and Vick had changed out of wet clothes they all sat down to eat. Then Gale cleared the dishes while the others were getting ready to catch another bus to the closest indoor mall because it had air conditioning and none of them wanted to sit in their little apartment during the hottest part of the day. But then he'd gotten the call from Katniss, begging them to join a search party for Prim's lost cat Buttercup. At the very park they'd been at that morning. The Everdeens had lived in the apartment next door when they'd moved in six years before, but a year ago had moved to be closer to the college campus when Katniss had received an athletic scholarship. So now they lived about 5 minutes walking from the park, and apparently someone had seen a cat that looks like Buttercup in the park that morning. They'd texted Katniss (whose number was on all the flyers Prim had posted in the neighborhood). Naturally, Prim had demanded they go at once, and Katniss was trying to rally the troops to help.

Of course they went. As soon as Rory heard Prim's name, it was inevitable. He even helped Gale pack up what they'd need to take. Not that Gale wouldn't have helped anyway. Of course he would have, it was just that Hazelle was working so he had his siblings to take care of and everything. At the park, Gale splurged on pool passes for Vick and Posy so he wouldn't have to keep track of them too – after making sure they'd been coated in sunscreen and giving them a serious talking to about staying in the fenced pool area until he or Rory came back for them. Vick, of course, was only half listening, since he was already back to playing Pokemon.

Then Gale and Rory changed into long jeans and tucked plastic gloves from Hazelle's cleaning supply into back pockets, and went to meet Katniss. Katniss, Prim, and their friends Darius and Leevy who where helping were gathered by the parking lot. The cat had been MIA for five days and Prim had plastered the neighborhood with flyers two days before. Prim explained to everyone that a cat, hopefully Buttercup, had been seen running into poison ivy along the park trail that morning. She passed out handfuls of Buttercup's favorite cat treats and they spread out along the wooded part of the trail.

It was Darius who spotted the feline first, but apparently scared it off by trying to approach it too quickly. It happened to run toward Rory and Gale. So they found themselves stalking a cat through thickets of wild blackberry and poison ivy until finally Rory coaxed it out and fed it treats as it twisted around his ankles. There was no mistake – the cat was definitely Buttercup, and between Darius, Rory and Gale they managed to get it corraled and into the box Prim had brought from home. Gale could barely keep a straight face at his brother's glowing face when Prim threw her arms around Rory in excitement.

Now the Hawthornes are back home, cleaned up and watching tv in the living room and telling Ma about their day. So, in the end, everything has worked out. Still smiling from Prim's message, Gale picks up the phone, his fingers swiftly typing out a response.

Gale: De nada hermanita

A minute later his phone buzzes with another message.

001-654-8912: So chuffed you found your pet. :-) Makes up a bit for my scratchy ankles!

It's to the same group, from a number that's not in his phone. He'd assumed it was Leevy's, but suddenly he knows exactly who it is. Chuffed? Nobody says that around here. It's from una gringa loca from this morning, no doubt. She must have seen the cat in the woods and been the one to contact Prim.

The real question is, now that he has her number, what's he going to do about it?

To start with, he saves the number in his phone. He sits on the edge of his bed, phone in hand. If he texts her, it's just gonna be a random text from an unknown number. He tries to remember something from their run-in that morning that could help him now. He comes up with a lot of inappropriate shit (i'll scratch your itch...) that would work if he was texting, say, Johanna, but this girl is not Johanna. And even Jo probably wouldn't take too kindly to some of his ideas, if they were coming from a stranger. Finally he settles on a message.

Gale: We met at the park, you and your dog, me and my sister. Bad circumstances. Maybe we can meet again.

He dawdles in the bedroom, but there's no response. It's not until a half hour later, when he is sitting on the corner of the couch with his brothers, that his phone buzzes again. Gale angles the phone so nobody will see what he's doing as he texts ...

UGL: How did you get this #?

Gale: You texted me

UGL: No I didn't.

Gale: "001-654-8912: So chuffed you found your pet. :-) Makes up a bit for my scratchy ankles!"

Gale: You found my friends cat, my # is on her thank you message

UGL: Oh. Well I'm glad it worked out for your friend. What's your name?

Gale: Gale. Yours?

UGL: Madge.