A/N:

Edit: 13/7/12

Edit: 5/11/12 (awkward commas and a few reconstructions of sentences)

Edit: 12/11/12: Oh my god, the VIEWS for this. Seriously. It makes me happy so many people are liking this story (or at least reading it, there are so many different countries people are from!) but can I just say; you CAN review even if you don't have an account ;)

Hope you enjoy this (many other people seemed too 0_0) and reviews will be swell.

It was a hot spring day in District 12 and sweat was drizzling off his skin when Gale experienced his first awkward moment with Katniss.

Gale often forgot that Katniss was two years his junior due to the fact her archery skills were far beyond her age's normal capability and that she also differed from the other girls at school. She didn't talk about things that made Gale want to die when he was forced to listen about them like clothes and make-up and boys. (To be fair, he'd doubt Katniss would want to talk to him about boys and besides, Katniss was far too mature to be interested in pointless things like one-week relationships).

They'd been hunting together for a year now, and Gale would say they were good friends. Before, he wasn't too sure about her. He never usually trusted people quickly, but the fact he found her in the woods with her intentions the same as his, to feed her family, proved easier for him to be friends with her.

It was a Sunday when Katniss' naivety showed.

Gale panted as they trampled along the forest floor, the cracking of sticks following them in their wake. Their haul wasn't good that day; the heat of the glaring sun encouraged animals to take shelter and therefore meant less of them to shoot. He wanted to get home and have a wash because he was beginning to stink. Sooner or later he'd be scaring the animals away with his smell.

"Let's go back to District 12, Katniss. All the animals have taken shelter-"

"What about those rabbits?" Katniss interrupted. Confused, Gale emerged behind Katniss and peered at what she was observing. It took him only a few seconds to realise what they were both watching.

He suddenly felt extremely uncomfortable and heat rose to his cheeks. Along with the agonising heat from the sun, he felt like they were on fire. But when he looked over to Katniss her expression didn't show embarrassment. Instead, she looked a little perplexed and confused.

"Gale, what are they doing?" Katniss frowned. Gale swallowed, or at least tried to. His throat was quite dry.

Gale knew exactly what they were doing. They were mating. The rabbits were having sex. Quite aggressively at that.

"I don't know," Gale lied as he continued to stare at the rabbits. The male one didn't falter his movements because two humans were watching him. Due to the rapidity of the humping of the female, the male even fell off once. When he did this, Katniss inquired Gale more firmly.

"Gale, what are they doing? Why did one of the just fall off?" Katniss asked. "Are they dancing?"

"Dancing!" Gale couldn't help but snort with increased embarrassment. "Oh... no. They're not."

"How do you know they're not when you said you didn't know what they were doing?" Katniss challenged him. Gale stared at her questioning face and tried to swallow again. His throat remained dry. Sweat was dripping off him like a waterfall and his cheeks were red-hot. Katniss was in the same condition as him except her cheeks were red with anger.

"Gale! Why aren't you telling me?" Katniss half-shouted, growing annoyed at his silence. How he wished she was older than thirteen so would've already learnt about sex in school. Gale covertly glanced back at the rabbits that were still at it. He cursed their probably strong sexual desires, because why would they do it now in such sweltering temperatures?

"They're... they... are..."

"Yes?"

"They're having sex." Gale finally spat out. He had to get this over with; he was beginning to feel dehydrated. Katniss' expression changed from anger to perplexity again.

"Sex?"

"Yeah..."

She looked back at the rabbits. Still going strong.

So Gale killed them both with two arrows.

When Katniss turned to him with a look of surprise, he gave her a shrug that he tried to make as nonchalant as he could.

"We need more game, don't we?" he said. Thankfully, Katniss was satisfied with this, until they put the rabbits in their game bags.

"Gale, what's sex?" she asked. Gale clenched his fingers over the game bag he was holding. Why was Katniss so questioning? She was just like him.

He looked down at his hands and then back at her. She didn't look uncomfortable or ashamed to be talking about such a thing, which proved she had no idea what it was. Gale was suddenly cursing Mrs. Everdeen. Shouldn't she have talked to Katniss about this already? He wasn't meant to give her this talk. He didn't deserve to feel so humiliated to give her this talk. But when Katniss had a question, she'd want an answer. She would not talk to him for days if he just ran off to District 12 due to cowardice of the topic.

"I don't think I know enough about... it, to talk to you about it," Gale said finally. He held the handle of his game bag tighter, thinking about the male rabbit frozen in time when it was mating. Maybe he should've waited until they were done.

"You seem to know something about it," Katniss said. She frowned a little. "You seem embarrassed."

"Do I?" Gale said as casually as he possibly could. "How? Is it because I have a red face? Because that's just because I'm sweating and it's really hot out here-"

"You're talking a lot now. You don't usually talk very much," Katniss pointed out. "What is sex, Gale? Why does it make you so uncomfortable?"

"I'd rather not talk about it."

"If you tell me now, you'll never have to talk to me about it again." Katniss said.

"Ask..." Gale began but realised that there was no one Katniss could ask. He wouldn't let her ask her mother, knowing of their broken relationship now on Katniss' part. Obviously not Prim... who else did Katniss have?

"Tell me. I want to know why it makes you squirm," Katniss insisted. Gale paused as he weighed his options. He came to the conclusion he'd just have to tell her otherwise she wouldn't be very happy with him for a while. Gale let out a sigh and then let his game bag drop to the forest floor. Katniss looked triumphant that she had managed to convince Gale to explain this seemingly taboo word.

"Katniss... people and animals have sex... to make babies. That's how... you were conceived. After your pa-... I think you get what I mean, right?"

Katniss nodded seriously, intrigued.

"Those rabbits were trying to make babies by having sex... but, I killed them before they could..." Gale cleared his throat. When Katniss didn't say anything for a moment he thought he was done explaining so picked up his game-bag.

"Could you show me?" Katniss asked. Gale dropped his game bag again. His fingers froze at Katniss' words.

"Show you what?" Gale said stupidly.

"How they do it?" Katniss said.

"No!" Gale replied almost immediately. He was considering running off now and leaving Katniss before she said anything more. "No way! We can't!"

"Why not? Don't get me pregnant or anything, just show me the principal," Katniss clarified.

"Oh God..." Gale muttered to his hands as they covered his face. The suddenly mental image that came to his mind would forever haunt him. He wished he could escape this situation right now and put another guy in his place... but he felt his stomach go cold when he thought how a guy could take advantage of Katniss' naivety. Better him than anyone else. "Katniss, I can't show you how to... have sex. Um..."

"Why not?" Katniss repeated. It was unbelievable how innocent she looked. She truly had no idea what was involved during the activity.

"Because... people who have sex... they're not..." Gale began awkwardly, desperately trying to think of the right words. "They're usually married... sex is a... sign of love..."

"I love you," Katniss said. Gale mouth proceeded to drop open when she continued, "As a friend."

"I don't mean friendship love. I mean romantic love," Gale explained. "We... don't have that. Um... and... we're too young..."

"Too young?" Katniss questioned. "Then how do you know what sex is?"

"Because the teachers at school told my grade one day," Gale said.

"Then why don't you tell me what sex is?"

"I just did,"

"I mean, what it involves? How do you get the babies?"

Gale went silent.

"I think we should start to go to the Hob, otherwise the animals are going to decay under all this heat-"

"Gale." Katniss said firmly. She looked him straight into the eyes. She even took a few steps closer to him. To maintain distance, Gale went a few steps back but ended up colliding his back into a tree. How come Gale was so intimidated by a thirteen year old girl? "Tell me now. The faster you tell me, the faster we can go to the Hob and trade and the faster we can get home."

"You'll find out in school," Gale said quickly. "You don't need to know now."

"But I want to know now."

Another step forwards.

"It's not important,"

"It obviously is; it makes people, right?"

Another two steps.

"Katniss, I'm not very knowledgeable on this subject-"

"You seem to be hiding something from me. What is it?" Katniss said the last few words very slowly and clearly. She less than a foot away from him now and was even on her tip toes so she could be as nose to nose as him as possible.

Gale swallowed.

He almost choked due to the dryness of his throat.

It was impossible to look anywhere other than Katniss' eyes which seemed to be boring into his soul. It seemed as if she could discover all of his secrets by merely staring into his irises. His pupil was like a door to his brain. She was entering it and was forcing him to say anything she asked him to say, anything she wanted to know that he knew...

Gale was sweating more than ever.

He opened his mouth to begin what would've been a surely painstakingly awkward and lengthy explanation, when Katniss burst out laughing. His personal space was returned to him as she stepped back and clutched her sides, letting out such a pleasant yet mortifying sound that was unfamiliar to him. He'd never heard Katniss laugh so fiercely and strongly. It was alien to her.

"What the hell?" Gale exclaimed, infuriated. "Why are you laughing?"

"You should've seen your face!" Katniss cried, wiping away a tear that had been squeezed out of her tear ducts during her moment of mirth. "Oh Gale, it is such fun tormenting you-"

"Wait, what? You knew what sex was all this time?"

"Of course I did. I'm not that naive," Katniss said seriously. Her laughter had immediately stopped. It hadn't lasted very long; however, she still held the remnants of a good chuckle on her face. "I wanted to see what you would say if I asked you."

"How do you know?" Gale asked, curious. "When did you learn?"

"At school," Katniss said, matter-of-factly. "They decided to tell us about it a little earlier, so we're more aware or something."

"So you mean, you were kidding all this time? You knew all along?" Gale said. "You wanted to watch me writhe as I tried to explain sex to you?"

"That's right," Katniss said. She looked pleased with herself. She picked up her game bag that she had dropped on the forest floor, not like Gale noticed, and began to walk off. Gale followed her hurriedly, desperate to find out more details.

"So you know... you know what happens during... sex?" Gale said. Katniss nodded.

"It doesn't sound very nice for the female, though. I don't think I'd ever want to do it," Katniss said. Gale coughed. He decided that it'd best if he left this topic alone for a long time. What perhaps Katniss didn't know was that sex was supposed to be a good thing, and the implications she had made a few minutes previously were so horribly image inducing that they'd probably return to haunt them both later.

When they were almost at the fence, a rabbit came across their path.

"Oh, a rabbit," Katniss commented.

"I hate rabbits," Gale said in reply as he lifted his foot up to smash the living daylights out of the furry creature. It darted away before he could.

The End