Chapter Twenty-Five

Johanna's POV

"Gale what the fuck!" I screamed.

"What the fuck were you thinking! You know how I-" Gale started and then stopped suddenly and looked around the three of us. Cato, who was now holding onto the side of his face, possibly missing a tooth. Clove who was looking at him with shock and me well…

"Gale, would you just, not punch people!" I yelled.

"He deserves it," he argued back, looking at me with the same emotions in his eyes that I'd seen in Clove's only moments ago. But his were deeper and then I realized what he was about to say before. We held each other's gaze and for the first time in too long I saw the raw emotions I had fallen for in the first place.

"Get over here," I sighed, heading away from Cato and Clove, hoping if I just left the two of them together that somehow Cato could some how convince Clove to forgive him. The two of them were finally working together. It was just our luck that everything else would happen at the exact same time.

I turned around sharply and looked at Gale, who was still looking at me like I'd torn him to pieces.

"What the hell are you doing? Cato's your best friend," I whispered harshly at him.

"Best friends don't pull shit like that," he muttered, now actually looking hurt. I took a moment to think about this. Of course they didn't usually, it wasn't like we went out of our way to hurt him, in fact when it really came down to it, he didn't really have that much to do with it. He turned to walk away.

"If you walk away form this now, it's done," I called after him, knowing it was the last chance we had.

"It's already done Jo."

"Not if you don't want it to be."

"You slept with my best friend! It doesn't get much more over than that!"

"Gale would you just listen! For once in your life listen to what I have to say before you go running off like a three year old!"

"I'd rather be a three year old than a whore!"

And then I slapped him. I don't remember when I moved over to get close enough to slap him but he was there and my mind couldn't think of any other way to respond to that.

"Look no matter what you think we didn't plan it, it just happened and we're sorry but you have to grow up and learn that sometimes people fuck up and incase you hadn't noticed we're a pretty fucked up group anyway," I explained, trying my best not to yell at him knowing that right now everything would just get so much worse.

"But that's what I loved about us, we were fucked up but we were fucked up together. We weren't meant to go and be fucked up with anyone else, just us," he whispered, so that only I could hear. Like he was more scared of saying the words than my reaction, almost like he never believed he'd say the words.

"Gale you can't do this," I sighed.

"Can't what? Tell you how I feel cause to be honest I feel like we've done everything but tell each other how we feel."

"And you're choosing now? After you punched your best friend in the face?"

"No I'm choosing now, the moment I realized how much you mean to me and how much I don't want to lose you."

"Gale," I sighed, running a hand through my hair and trying not to let his eyes bore into me. How did he manage to say everything I'd ever wanted him to say, at exactly the wrong moment? Even more worryingly how did he still manage to make my insides turn to mush when he said it?

"Johanna I just, I hate the thought of you with anyone else. Even Cato, when I know he'd take better care of you than I could but he'll never feel the way I feel about you, no one will," he said, more strongly now that he knew what he was saying was affecting me.

"Gale you can't just pull stuff like this out of the blue. You can't go off flirting with other girls one minute and then saying stuff like this the next. It's just, it's not fair Gale. You confuse me with everything that you do, and I don't have time to process one thing before you're doing the exact opposite and I just, I can't take it."

"Johanna you do that as well. One minute you were ready to give us a shot and then the next you're avoiding me because Clove got the crazy idea that she liked me."

"And as soon as I told you you stormed off in a huff!"

"Because it's a stupid reason. Why do you put everyone else before yourself, why not just do what you want for a change?"

"Because you never know when you're going to lose everything."

"So you'd rather lose me than Clove?"

"No but I was just stupid enough to think that you'd stick around and actually try and make it work rather than running away."

"You mean in the same way you did?"

"I didn't run away, I was getting my head straight which you wouldn't let me do."

"You didn't tell me what was going on! What the hell was I meant to think?"

"You were meant to trust me!"

"I did and then you went and slept with Cato!"

"Because every time I turned around you were flirting with Madge. How the frick was I meant to feel?"

"Jealous," he threw out at me. And then I saw everything. Everything he'd tried to keep from me.

"You used her," I questioned already knowing the answer.

"Not intentionally, I just, she's good to talk to and seeing you actually care for once, it was just, well it was nice ok?"

"Gale why the hell would you do that? I'm still getting over you and Katniss why the hell would you want to go and throw Madge in there too!"

"Because I wanted to see if you still cared or not. Which by the looks of things you don't."

"I do care Gale, it hurt me seeing you with her and Cato was there and it was stupid and pointless and meaningless and it won't ever happen again but at the time I just thought you didn't care anymore. That you were trying to move on from me and I couldn't take it ok? And I didn't want to hurt Clove, amazingly that girl means the world to me, but I couldn't not hurt her without hurting you and I'm sorry that's how things turned out but you could have at least stuck around to talk about it."

"We're never gonna agree on this are we," he sighed and I looked at him, knowing that no matter what happened now it wasn't going to be easy.

"When do we ever agree on anything?" I smiled slightly now, looking at him.

"We both like bacon," he tried and I found myself laughing slightly with him. We stood awkwardly looking at each other, each of us trying to work out what the other was thinking. I knew what I was thinking, that every part of me wanted to kiss him, right here right now and make him forget everything that had happened in the last five minutes. To go back to how we'd been that day on the beach when there was no one else but us because those were the moments I was happiest.

"That's because bacon's awesome though," I reminded him, and smiled at the memory of waking up at his on a Sunday mornings after nights out and having him there. We always had bacon. Always.

"Yeah it is," he sounded happy. Genuinely happy like everything that had happened had been forgotten and he didn't care anymore. But I knew he did, of course he did. I would be pissed if him and Clove got together, I don't know if I'd be able to forgive him. Maybe he just needed some time to recover from it, fix everything with Cato and then we could work. Maybe.

"I think, we should-" and naturally he decided to do the opposite of what I was about to suggest we do. He leaned down and pressed his lips onto mine, causing me to gasp slightly which he used to place his tongue into my mouth. I sighed slightly as I wrapped my arms around his neck and used them to pull me closer to him and took his bottom lip between my own. Ignoring the wolf whistles from around the pitch we took the few moments to get lost in each other. The way his lips moved over mine, molding to every tiny change I made, reacting perfectly, like we were perfectly in sync together.

"Gale! Get off of my niece!" Finnick yelled from somewhere far off. Of course Gale took a few more seconds of rebellion, to peck my lips once before smiling cheekily down at me. The heat from his body still pressing against me as the sun beat down on us from above.

"Sorry, I just, wanted to do that for a while now," he grinned down at me in spite of his apology. He rested his forehead onto mine, so I could feel his warm breath as it trailed a path over my face. Normally I would complain and make some comment about it stinking but now didn't really feel like the right time.

"Don't apologize dumbass," I sighed instead, enjoying the feeling of his arms being firmly around me.

"Are you done?" my uncle yelled again from the other end of the pitch.

"Almost!" Gale shouted back quickly giving me one final quick kiss on the lips.

"Right for mentally scarring me ten laps," he ordered.

"What?" Gale asked as I stood laughing at him for a moment.

"Each," he added. Crap.

Clove's POV

"Do you want some ice?" I asked Cato, who was still clutching onto his jaw. I could have sworn I heard something cracked when Gale's fist contacted with his face.

"No it's fine," he mumbled, heading over to go sit on one of the nearby benches to recover. I stood awkwardly, wondering what I was meant to do. I probably shouldn't have stormed off after he told me about Johanna, but I couldn't help it. So maybe I was finally starting to fall for the idiot, against everything that my instincts told me; that he was a liar, that he was a pompous git, that he was a douchebag and that he'd never be able to maintain any kind of relationship that I was looking for. And yet being with him in the cupboard had made me see a different side to him, a side I didn't think he had. A side I never wanted to be hidden from me again.

"You need anything?" I asked, trying to not look as awkward as I felt.

"Some company would be good," he replied, looking up at me from where he was sitting. I wandered over slowly and sat next to him. I wanted to say something, anything to let him know I didn't blame him. That I wasn't mad, but truth was I was. I didn't think I'd wanted anything and then as soon as I found out there was a chance I couldn't have anything with him, it was all I wanted.

"Do you think you guys will be ok?" I asked, indicating over to where Gale and Johanna were yelling at each other. Not that it was an unusual site; it was just usually they were yelling over pointless things like who ate the last strip of bacon.

"Depends," he muttered back, staring at the pair.

"On what?"

"On if he forgives her or not. It's not really me he cares about remember."

"Cato he does care about you. He wants you to be happy," I replied, trying to convince him that him and Gale would be able to fix this. To be honest I doubt they wouldn't. They would get bored without each other, even if Johanna was still there for both of them it wouldn't be the same and they knew it.

"Yeah I guess," he said to himself. He was probably still sore after getting punched in front of everyone.

"You don't sound too sure."

"I think he cares about me being happy, so long as it doesn't get in the way of him being happy himself."

"Doesn't everyone do that though?"

"I dunno, I personally don't know everyone."

"Ok the majority of people I know do it, and they all seem better off for it."

"How come?"

"Because if you don't chase your dream, then someone else will. And you'll be left regretting not chasing it for the rest of your life and watching someone else live it out."

"You alright Cato?" Coach Odair interrupted our chat.

"Yeah I think he held back a bit," Cato replied. Coach didn't look convinced.

"I'd still rather you put some ice on it," he instructed, heading over to the cooler and picking up a towel to wrap the ice cubes in.

"Coach it's not necessary-"

"Well think of it as being more for my benefit than yours," he replied, handing him over the ice. Just then a round of wolf whistles were made from various points on the track. Finnick turned to where his niece was stuck onto Gales face in such a way that there was no way anyone could doubt what was going on.

"Take some time to recover," he instructed. "You stay with him, make sure he doesn't try and be macho and do something ridiculous," he asked me. I nodded once before he turned back to yell at Gale.

"I thought you said that that was never going to happen?" I asked Cato, remembering our conversation on the plane. So much seemed to have happened since then.

"I said it was unlikely. I dunno, they just got chatting again before we left," he shrugged.

"Why weren't they talking before?"

"They made out at Katniss' birthday thing."

"What? When?"

"When her little sister demanded that Katniss blow out the candles and made sure everyone was around to sing happy birthday to her they snuck off."

"Those little buggers," I muttered, remembering it well. Now I thought about it I couldn't remember either of them being there for that awful moment of horrendous singing on our part.

"Yeah. They've done it a few times but nothings ever really come from it. They just mess each other about a bit and then eventually get back to pissing each other off."

"Think it'll last this time?"

"Well they've gone public with it, which is new. So maybe a better chance than usual cause no girl is going to mess with Johanna, except you of course. I didn't think you'd get so mad," he teased and I got his underlying message.

"I was just mad she didn't tell me," I tried to cover.

"Oh so now you know about all her and Gales rendezvous' you going to hack her to pieces or something?" I looked round and caught the boyish glint in his eyes that I hadn't been able to see in the dark of the cupboard.

"No, well yeah I guess I'll have to," I stammered.

"Really cause, you don't seem nearly as mad about that."

"I'm mad, just on the inside, I figure one public slap a day is more than enough drama for me."

"If you say so."

"Oh just shut up, or it's you I'll be hacking to pieces."

"Alright calm down I was just curious."

"Sure you were."

"And what's that meant to mean?"

"You've never been the curious type."

"I'm curious about things that interest me."

"And my life interests you?"

"In a manner of speaking yeah."

"It's not that exciting."

"On the contrary, everything you do excites me," he whispered and it was only then I realized just how close he'd gotten.

"Coach he's fine!" I yelled and Coach Odair signaled for us to go and join him at the hurdles. I jumped off the bench as fast as I could and on a moment of pure spontaneousness my mind decided to make my mouth say, "Still exciting?"

"Oh you have no idea," Cato replied, looking me up and down once before I turned and headed over to the rest of the group.

Katniss' POV

I rolled over in the bed, checking my phone. The stupid thing got no signal here so really all it was good for was telling the time. I groaned slightly as I realized I was an hour late for training, meaning there was little point turning up now anyway. Besides, what's the worst that could happen?

I turned over the TV channel on to some ridiculous kids show. I recognized it vaguely, with the ridiculous characters jumping around naming inanimate objects for half an hour, but the name escaped me. It reminded me a lot of growing up, of watching shows like this with Prim when I managed to get a spare moment and mum wasn't watching depressing documentaries or news programs.

I replayed the past few hours in my head, I know I'd fallen asleep at some point but it was what had happened before then that was confusing me. Of course that confusing thing just happened to reappear from outside at that moment.

"Rise and shine beautiful," Darius chirped from the doorway.

Author's Note: Yes I know I'm evil. So one relationship all better, that's a start right? Sort of? But yeah Katniss and Darius! Mainly cause I find it shocking the lack of fics about them (specially after discussing it with a friend) so yeah, needs to be some of that! But yeah let me know what you're thinking please guys it means the world! You're all fantastic at reviewing and I do miss your reviews when they're not there! :(

-R