Hi everyone! This is my first fanfiction and I can't wait for you to read it! I've always wanted to see Gale's reaction to Katniss and Peeta's kids, so this is only a one shot. Constructive criticism please! Enjoy!

Katniss's POV

"It took me five, ten, fifteen years to agree. But Peeta wanted them so badly."

The little boy's blond hair blows in the wind. Rye is only four. He is lost in his own innocence. Willow's dark hair moving in it's braid. Her blue eyes searching for her brother, three years her prior.

Peeta and I watch them contently as they play in the tall grass. I was weary at first. I did not want them to live my and Peeta's lives, threatened constantly by the hunger games and the capitol. But looking at Peeta's face, so sad, I felt guilt and finally agreed.

When I felt her stirring inside of me, a feeling so odd, I felt the mixture of joy and terror of the same night Peeta asked me to marry him. But holding her in my arms soothed my nerves.

It was easier to carry him. He is more like his father, despite the grey seam eyes. Utterly joyful at every well-being. Willow is more of my daughter. She has very little innocence left, no matter what Peeta and I try to protect her from.

The day she found the book was heartbreaking for me. Peeta had left it out the night before, just before him and I fell asleep in the big chair. Willow woke up early the next day, and looked curiously at the writing.

Before we knew it, we heard crying. Willow, mature beyond her age, had lost her innocence.

"Willow, Rye, come have to go make dinner," Peeta calls to them. They happily walk over to my husband and I. Back at our house in Victor's Village, I go upstairs to Rye's room, where I retrieve his cooking hat he always requests for when cooking with his father.

Walking down the stairs, I hear a knock at the door. The same hard, firm knock that used to come to my house, seventeen years ago.

Before I can tell her not to, Willow opens the door.

Willow's POV

A strange man stares at me.

I recognize him. He was the man watching Rye and I in the field when we were playing one day.

He looks at me up and down, I can see the confusion kindling in his eyes. Then he clears his throat.

"Do you know someone names Katniss Everdeen?" he asks.

A sly grin comes across my face. So this is who mother and father always talked about in hushed tones, when they thought I was sleeping. This man's name is so familiar on father's tongue.

I know what he did to my aunt. To mother. So I decide to play games.

"Do you mean Katniss Mellark?" I reply, mustering all my innocence to play young and bliss.

His eyes flit away. "Maybe."

"Oh, I know her." His eyes light up. "She's my mother."

Peeta's POV

I hear Willow at the door, so I wipe my hands on my apron and tell Rye that I'll be right back. I walk to Willow and she wraps her arms around me.

"Dad," she says sweetly, "This man wants to see Katniss Everdeen." Oh, she is Katniss's daughter alright.

Gale looks me up and down, something I can't quite name in is eyes. "Gale," I say.

"Peeta."

"Do you need something?"

He clears his throat. "Isn't this Katniss's house," he asks, not putting the pieces together.

I see that Willow has been playing her games. "Technically," I say.

His face hardens. "Then what are you doing here?"

I'm about to respond when Katniss walks up and wraps her arm around my waist. "Gale," she gasps.

Gale's POV

When I see Peeta and his daughter, the pieces are still murky. But when Katniss walks up, they finally click.

"Him?" I gasp out. "Katniss, why him?"

She glares at me. "Peeta, can you take the kids to Haymitch?"

He glances my way. "Sure. Do you want me to come back-"

"Yes," she says.

I try to start out peacefully. "The girl looks like you. Except for her eyes. They are-"

She cuts me off. "She has Peeta's eyes."

I can't. She married the mutt. "Kids," I growl.

She's angry. "Yes, kids. What's the matter with that?"

"Everything," I say. Her marrying Peeta, then having not one but two kids with him, everything's wrong with that!

"You said you weren't going to have kids!" I yell as Peeta ushers the girl and a boy out the door.

"Peeta changed my mind. We're safe now."

"You're never safe, Katniss! He's a mutt!"

The voice behind me. "Thanks, Gale."

I spin around as Peeta walks in the house. His house.

"Gale, I'm happy," Katniss says with tears in her eyes. "Your bomb. It was your bomb, Gale." She turns around as Peeta looks concerned and shuts the door in my face.

I hear Katniss's sobs as Peeta soothes her. Her husband. His wife.

It should've been me.