DISCLAIMER: HG CHARACTERS DO NOT BELONG TO ME
A/N: Thanks as always for the reviews!
A/N: This story has now been changed to an M rating
Katniss gets up from the bed and quietly puts on her gray shirt. With Gale still asleep, she goes outside and heads towards the lake, taking off her shirt as she heads into the water. She takes a sharp breath as she feels the chilly water hit her skin, and after a few moments, her body gets used to the temperature and she goes in further. She quickly washes herself off and gets out. Right after she puts her shirt back on, she sees Gale appear in the doorway of the cabin. As she walks towards the door, he comes out. Only in his gray boxers, which he had informed her was part of 13's required attire for males, she sees he has the sheets from the bed in his hands.
"I am going to try to wash these as best I can. Maybe next time we can sneak some soap from 13."
"Maybe" she says in response.
She goes inside and gets dressed. She heads back outside to begin gathering the fish, and sees Gale emerge from the lake, naked. Knowing he too needed to wash himself off, she quickly averts her eyes from him as she walks over to the nets further down the way. As she begins gathering the fish they have caught, she sees him take the sheets into the water to rinse out. Slightly embarrassed for she knows he saw the tiny blood stain on the sheets, she is not as embarrassed as she thought she would be for he too had made a mess.
She begins thinking about what happened shortly after he began kissing her as they sat by the lake. How he had brought her closer to him, how it was strange for them to be kissing each other in daylight.
She remembers how after a few moments he pulled away and got up, reaching his hand out. Following him back into the cabin, she closes the door behind her. She sets her bow and arrows on the ground before sitting beside him on the bed. They continue where they left off, kissing each other deeply when she suddenly pulls away and stares into his eyes and says, "Gale", able to read by the look on his face that he knows what she is asking of him.
"Katniss-maybe we shouldn't-" he says then pauses, unable to finish what he was going to say.
But she becomes angry and says, "I thought you wanted to be with me?"
"I do! You don't know how badly I want you. But I want you to be ready. I don't want you to do something you will regret to prove a point."
"That's not why I brought you here. I wanted to show you this place…because I thought we could have a place that's…ours. It's not the same as our woods in District 12, but close enough. And….I want to…..be with you before…we fight the Capitol. Now that 13 has been bombed, I know Coin will want us in the field more. I don't want to die…not knowing….what it is like."
He nods slowly, cupping her face in his hands he kisses her softly. Once he pulls away, they begin undressing each other. As she lays down on the bed, she looks up at him timidly as he towers above her and she says, "Can you…I mean….I don't want a baby."
He nods and bends down and kisses her, once he pulls away, he reaches down and slowly pushes himself inside of her. He stares at her face as he gauges her reaction. He sees the look of discomfort on her face, but she nods to him, signaling that she is okay. His eyes never leave her face as he begins a slow rhythm, and he feels her hands grab onto his shoulders as he begins to go deeper. She rises up pulling herself closer to him, her arms moving across his back, the feel of his scars on her fingertips. Burying her head into his shoulder, the only sound in the cabin their heavy breathing. Feeling intense pressure at first, Katniss forces herself to relax as she feels him slide in and out. As she moves back down on the bed, she feels Gale's hand move to her breast as he begins stroking and teasing her nipple as his lips brush against hers. She opens her mouth to allow his tongue inside. Once he senses she is more at ease, his movements quicken. She is not sure how long this continues before she begins to feel a pleasurable sensation when suddenly, he abruptly pulls away and moves off her and to the edge of the bed.
Realizing after a moment the reason he pulled out of her so quickly, she sits up and sees him sitting on the edge of the bed. Coming up behind him she puts her arm around him and she looks down and sees the onslaught of what was happening, the white milky looking substance shooting out of him, his hand overtop of himself.
Hoping against all hope that this method worked, she pulls his face towards her and kisses him softly before moving back down on the bed. She sees him wipe his hand on his thigh before laying down on his back beside her. She sees in the corner of her eye his head turn as he asks, "you okay?"
"Yes" she says blankly as she looks up at the ceiling.
"Do you want to….talk about it?"
"What's to talk about Gale? We had sex."
"I just want to make sure you are alright."
"It was pretty much what I expected. I used to hear the girls at school talk-Daisy Dellweather said it would hurt at first."
She sees him flinch in response, knowing she struck a nerve. She is not sure why she is acting this way, perhaps to make it clear to him she knows he and Daisy have slept together in the past.
She thinks perhaps, that is how she first figured out her feelings for him ran deeper than friendship, when she had heard Daisy tell her friends a few weeks before she volunteered for the Hunger Games that she and Gale had sex. Daisy giving explicit details in the girl's bathroom as Katniss sat in the stall, eavesdropping.
Daisy, who was a year older than Katniss but a year younger than Gale, was from the Seam as well, with trademark dark hair and gray eyes. And she and her family are here in District 13, all of them having survived the bombs.
She can't help but wonder; did he seek out Daisy's company in the last month? She doesn't know how he would have had the time but considering a lot of her time was spent here, it is possible they ate lunch together and she was not aware.
Not wanting to think about Gale and Daisy anymore, she turns over on her side, facing away from him. She can feel his eyes on her, but then hears him shift on the bed. She closes her eyes, for it was getting slightly warm in the room from the sun coming in from the windows. Before she knows it, she has fallen asleep, waking up a few hours later, seeing Gale asleep as well.
All the fish now gathered, she takes two big bags and leaves the third on the ground, planning to come back for it when she sees Gale come over. Now dressed, he reaches his hand out and takes one of the large bags and grabs the bag on the ground and together they walk back to the cabin.
Once inside the cabin she sees he has hung up the sheets to dry. She sees he has also skillfully folded the blanket on the bed, for it had been pushed off the bed once they had begun having sex.
Just as she is about to reach for her bow and arrows, she hears him abruptly blurt out, "Katniss-before we go….can we talk?"
She sighs softly before saying, "we have to head back soon."
"It won't take long" he says as he pulls her towards the bed.
She sits down, looking at him impatiently as he kneels in front of her. "I just want you to know, this wasn't just sex for me. And I hope, we don't go back to becoming strangers, now that this has happened."
She sees the look of anxiety in his eyes, for she knew her face showed no emotion. Knowing she needed to ease his concerns, given everything he has done for her since arriving in District 13, she looks down and says, "I wish we didn't have to go back. I wish we could stay here, hide down here, it be just like we always talked about doing."
He looks at her gently and says, "but we also said we'd bring our families with us."
"I know, but we could build something, expand this space somehow."
"What if they catch us?"
"I don't think they'll cut out our tongues, they need their Mockingjay to be able to speak in their propos."
He smiles at her then says, "It will take a while, most likely Coin will have us out in the field like you said, but maybe-we could hide our families to keep them safe. I guess next time we come I need to bring an axe of some sort, if I can find one."
She leans forward and hugs him, wrapping her arms around him tightly. She hears him say into her ear, "I love you."
She closes her eyes, chastising herself for being unable to say the words back, moving her lips towards him and kissing him deeply instead.
Once they reach the top of the cliff, Gale checks the snare line, and places three rabbits and five turkeys in his hunting bag.
With his communicuff back on and her communicator placed back on her wrist, they begin walking towards the fence, and she sees a deer off in the distance. She turns to Gale and motions to him as she quietly sets the two fishing bags down.
Once Boggs sees how much food they have brought back, they are quickly forgiven for arriving back to the fence late.
That evening at dinner, Vick compliments Katniss for catching such good fish as he eats his food, Gale making it known to his little Brother that he helped.
They sneak glances at each other as they eat, Vick and Prim doing most of the talking tonight, along with Posy.
She sees he how much happier he looks, though she wondered if he continued to be disappointed that she still cannot say to him that she loves him back.
Unbeknownst to her, the following night, she found herself desperately wishing she had in fact, said those three words back.