Madge the rebel and the accomplice to Peeta. Katniss sneaking into Peeta's window and then deciding she couldn't go anymore, Corky doing all he can, but Katniss is stubborn. Yet, can she really stay away from that yummy cinnamon stud muffin? As for the Peacekeepers and the Capitol, the inspections are just the beginning and the district is just waking up to it. Katniss and Gale have to enjoy the serenity of the woods while they still can.

Thank you for the reviews, and likes. Thank you to Norbertsmom for the betaing yesterday. PS I do not own the Hunger Games

The quiet in the woods soothed Gale. The majesty and pageantry of the fall was coming to an end. Only the evergreens stood in silent defiance to the weather. With the winter fast approaching, Gale wanted to stock up on as much meat as he could to feed his family. He had mouths to feed. His two brothers were growing as nature intended and because of this had voracious appetites. Plus Posy, his baby sister, who despite not eating as much as Rory or Vick was also entering a growth spurt.

The easiest time for him to trap animals occurred in the fall. He used to his advantage. When the animals search for food he hunted them. Gale reset his snare, picked up his bow and walked toward the next trap. He grinned as he smelled the fresh air.

He loved it out here.

The woods were his home. They represented freedom. His self-autonomy disappeared the moment he stepped into civilization.

Gale slipped to the ground to check his next snare. He found a rabbit. A noise made him glance up. After searching, he saw Katniss hidden partially by foliage. Her long cord of braided hair hung down the middle of her back.

Normally, he would creep up on her with the intention to scare her. He delighted in hearing her squeal. He normally couldn't touch her. She didn't like to be held or brushed up against. She would jump away. Today though, he did not want to terrorize her. Gale observed her.

A recluse by nature, she wasn't talkative like the other girls. Nor was she flashy like most of the girls her age. Katniss could be down-right feisty when she wanted to be. But she was like him, in the sense that as soon as her feet touched the ground on the other side of the fence she lit up with happiness. Lately, she had been even more closed-off, even with the forest that surrounded them. Gale wondered if what happened three days ago with Darius affected her.

He knew it affected him.

His slate gray eyes took her in slowly, dissecting her looks. She wasn't that beautiful. Her body was slightly built, but, agile. The girls he normally took to the slag heap tended to have prettier features with curvier bust lines. They were like Delly Cartwright.

At the thought of Delly, Gale frowned. She wasn't someone he was usually attracted to. She was a Merchant, however, she did fix Posy's boots. His sister loved them so much she wore them to bed last night. He wondered what kind of state did she have to be in, to work at the Hob. Merchants didn't go there. Especially to find work.

He rubbed his face. All he knew about Delly was that she talked way too much, and was that optimistic happy go lucky type. Discovering that she was working hard to provide for her family caused him to respect her.

She was so different from Katniss. Where Delly spent the majority of time foolishly smiling, Katniss was frowning. Where Katniss hardly spoke unless she had a point to make, in the first minute Delly has spoken more words to him than Katniss had since they began hunting together at the age of 12.

There was something sweet and disarming about Delly. Gale couldn't help but smile softly at the recollection of her worrying that she had actually hurt him. Delly was a tiny thing, even Katniss was taller than her. She offered compensation for knocking into him. Katniss nearly shot him in the shoulder one time, made a hole in his shirt. She claimed it was by accident, but Gale always questioned the incident.

If it were Delly, she would most likely offer him the shirt off her back.

Delly would have to run him over with a Peacekeeper truck to do any real damage. Not that she could hurt anyone. Gale was sure that Katniss could cause him bodily harm.

From what he heard and from what he'd seen, Delly wasn't mean-spirited. She was wholesome and likable. This softened his stance on her. She was as Jeb said, a good girl.

On the other hand, Katniss was a good girl too.

But, Katniss held something special that made her appealing in a way that Delly wasn't. Though, he questioned if Katniss' charm came as a result of her loyalty to her family or her determination to survive.

Katniss was indeed a force to be reckoned with, and until Darius pointed it out to him, he had been blinded. Now it was a problem. She wanted no part of romantic love or lust or anything to do with the heart. Her claims that she never wanted kids or marriage did not matter to him when he saw her as a child. But now it was more of a hindrance and a challenge.

Walking away, he would allow her to think in private.

Gale's resolve did not last long, as twenty minutes later they were arguing.

"Gale, you were holding it wrong."

"Was not," Gale huffed.

"I'm the better shot and I'm telling you, your arm was bent. That's why you missed the deer."

"No, it wasn't Catnip," Gale snarked back.

Katniss stopped walking and crossed her arms over her chest. "Then why did your arrow miss the deer by a good five feet."

"The wind blew, Katniss." He had spotted the stag and insisted on shooting it himself. Katniss begrudgingly acquiesced and moved her bow away from the target. This did not end well. He took too long to set up his shot. His arrow scared the poor creature and the stag sprinted away before Katniss could line up her shot.

Katniss rolled her eyes. "There was no wind."

They faced each other heatedly.

"Yes, there was."

"I didn't feel a draft." Katniss defiantly stared back at him.

Gale pronounced each word as he spoke, "I felt a gust of air, end of discussion."

Katniss angrily uttered, "Are you kidding me!"

Gale watched her walk away to a rock where she slid her bag off her shoulder. Opening her bag, she began to split their catch.

"We could have had a good haul, saved money for the winter, but you will not admit you committed an error."

He heard her grumble, and he felt bad. They missed an opportunity to have good meat for the winter. Purposefully, he took a stone and tossed it in her general direction. "I didn't make a mistake Katniss. The wind blew the arrow off my mark."

The stone flew right over her head. Katniss looked at him and rolled her eyes.

"You see, I'm actually better shot than you."

This time when she glanced up at him, he made a face letting her know he was goading her.

She rolled her eyes. "Gale."

Gale's shoulders shook. It felt good to have his friend back.

Katniss still huffed as she divided the game they caught. "That's your half."

Gale hunched down on his knees and took the assortment and put it in his game sack. "So what are you going to do after this?"

"I need to collect a few herbs for my mother and Prim. She wants to stock up for the winter."

"I think it's going to be a harsh winter. Old man Nibs is proclaiming we need to be ready."

Old Nibs was as old as Ripper, if not older than Greasy Sae. No one really knew his age, but when it came down to the weather, he could always forecast when calamitous conditions were about to strike.

"Yeah, I know."

"The miners my maw knows have been preparing. Some are afraid of the changes from the Capitol."

"With all the Peacekeepers in town, I think it's a good idea if we double our efforts to make jerk. Get some more canning done so that we don't have to get any more slips than necessary. Madge told me we needed to be careful."

"Pft," Gale huffed. "Madge! What the hell does she know? All she has to worry about is what expensive dress she's going to wear."

"Listen to me, Gale. Stop bashing Madge. She's not a bad person. She's warning us to become prepared. That's more than anyone else has done."

"Alright." Gale rolled his eyes.

"You need to stop." Katniss said, "She told us about the higher production demands for the miners."

Gale stopped to think for a moment about this. "I'll give you that one." A lot of things were going on that he didn't like. A lot of his friends were talking in private about revolting. They didn't like the way things were happening.

"She said we need to be cautious. We don't know what's going on. It's not like our district has a lot of population that requires this great amount of Peacekeepers we have."

"True."

"We need to be prudent, make sure we're covered in case they come into our homes and have food in case we can't hunt anymore."

Gale conceded, but marginally. "So we'll stock up."

Katniss nodded.

"Hey, we can get some cans down at the Hob."

When she did not reply to him, he looked over at her and she was staring at a tree, most specifically a squirrel. Katniss had never spaced out like this in the middle of a conversation. He wanted to say something but he let it slide, however, a week later he couldn't take it anymore.

Her inattentiveness was driving him mad. Normally she was sharp, focused like the arrows she fired from her bow. The conversation with Darius popped up in his mind. Could she have someone she liked? Could this guy be the reason she was acting so strange? Was he the man she thought of? Gale wanted to ask her badly, but he was afraid of what she would say.

He felt unsure about their friendship and he became nervous and flustered and it translated as anger.

"Katniss," Gale snapped his fingers in front of Katniss face. This was the third time he had snuck up behind her and had not been able to get her to acknowledge him.

"Oh sorry Gale," Katniss said.

"Where the hell were you this time?"

"Look, I'm sorry. I have things on my mind," Katniss said, moving away.

"You know you can talk to me."

She quickly stammered, "It's Prim. She's scared of the Reaping."

"That will not happen for months Katniss," Gale said, dismissing the idea.

It wasn't a lie. Last week her sister woke up with a nightmare, and although it hadn't happen again, Prim was fearful of the Reaping. "I know, but she's scared, and I don't know how to calm her down."

"Look Katniss, every kid in Panem has to go through this. It's a rite of passage. Prim is going to have to get over it like my brothers will, just like we both did."

Katniss uttered, "Yeah, but the odds."

"You sister will have her name in the bowl once, like Rory, unlike you and me. We have so many slips we're the ones who are going to be picked," Gale said flippantly.

Katniss stood and picked up the animal she cleaned.

He was not done complaining as he walked behind her. His long strides caught him up to her. Soon he was ahead. "I bet you none of the merchants have to worry about how many times their names go in, unlike the kids in the Seam. We don't have the luxury of having leftovers. We're forced to get tesserae. I hate tesserae." Gale said with venom.

Katniss stopped walking.

What Gale said was true; no one liked the measly excuse for existence the Capitol doled out to the children who were eligible for Reaping. The monthly ration never lasted more than a week or two. But for many, it was the only form of nourishment they had. Gale and Katniss depended on the tesserae during those long lean months in the winter when hunting was not possible.

Gale turned to Katniss and pointed to her. "Merchant kids like Rye Mellark and his half-wit of a little brother are privileged brats, get to eat three square meals a day," Gale said this, but in his mind, he didn't include Delly with that group. "We celebrate when we get to eat two meals. I can't remember the last time I ate three times in one day."

Gale plopped down on the grass. He looked around at the wilderness around them. Katniss stood to the side silently watching him.

"The Capitol they have it easier, better than us. Their kids don't starve like ours do. They don't go to sleep hungry like Posy does. The Capitol kids don't even get reaped." Gale rubbed his face. "All because we wanted things to be fair. If they complain about the system it's laughable."

Katniss couldn't disagree. The Capitolites had money, they sent elaborate gifts to the Tributes in the Games. One even sent a Tribute named Finnick a trident.

"Seam folk have so many entries; it's why they always pick us to go into the Games." He sighed deeply and he thought of Delly a girl with holes in her clothing, who risked her reputation working in the Hob, because the alternative was to make the rounds at the Slag Heap or go knocking on Cray's door. "It ain't fair none of it is fair."

"Gale," Katniss said.

"Prim will be fine, you'll see. Besides, she already looks like one of them." Gale said roughly, dismissively. He looked as if he was exasperated with her sister. "I have to go. My mom wants me to fix a window Rory broke. I'll see you tomorrow."

Katniss jaw clenched, feeling furious. Gale always indirectly insulted her family. Glad to see him leave, Katniss sat down on a knotted tree root in the wooded glen.

She breathed deeply until she calmed down. Thank goodness he didn't see through her partial truth. It would have been disastrous. Gale's keen intellect would connect her emotional withdrawal to Peeta. Her hunting partner hated the merchants and Peeta represented every wrong thing in Panem in Gale's eyes. There was no telling what Gale would do to her boy with the bread.

She sighed deeply as her mind conjured up the gentle baker. Peeta held strength in his hands, and yet he could craft the most delicate flowers. That flurry in her heart spread to her fingertips when she thought of him. This confused her. She didn't know what to make of Peeta.

Katniss did not like the turmoil she faced.

The heavy presence of Peacekeepers in District Twelve.

The gut feeling of wrongness.

Gale's anger.

Prim's nervousness over the Reaping.

Madge giving her odd looks, leaving Katniss baffled.

And finally, Peeta, her boy with the bread, made her feel foolish and crazy at the same time.

He hadn't been in school today and she was worried. The gossip in school was that he had a broken arm. Katniss fretted about him. The debt that she owed him hung heavy on her shoulders.

He was the reason she was alive and now she couldn't even go check on him. She used her time at school to spy on him. It gave her a sense of relief to know he was fine. She was constantly trying to find a way to pay him back, but so far he had kept way ahead of her.

Every day she found some note or picture he managed to slip into her backpack. From the very first drawing, she knew it was him. She slipped her hand into her shirt and removed the latest note she kept hidden in her bra. He drew her. At first, she had not recognized her own image. The girl in the drawing who stared back was pretty, with a slight smile. Her eyes looked shinier than the silver wedding rings some merchants sported.

Every time she received a folded note she wanted to smile, but she kept her face blank. The first time he wrote to her she was shocked. But she'd re-read it so much she could quote his every word on the flowers that he found in the district. The illustrations he drew reminded her of her father's drawings in the Plant Book. The other day he wrote to her about the squirrel that lived in the tree outside his window and before that he drew the squirrel with horns and a pitchfork. She had nearly laughed out loud in class when she saw the picture.

Then there were the poems.

How or where he got a hold of a book of poetry she did not know. Her favorite by far was written a woman named Emily Dickinson "Nature is What We see."

Katniss began to recite it to herself. Her voice was low as she spoke and it sounded almost like a song. The Mockingjays began to pick up on the rhythm.

"Nature" is what we see—

The Hill—the Afternoon—

Squirrel—Eclipse— the Bumble bee—

Nay—Nature is Heaven—

Nature is what we hear—

The Bobolink—the Sea—

Thunder—the Cricket—

Nay—Nature is Harmony—

Nature is what we know—

Yet have no art to say—

So impotent Our Wisdom is

To her Simplicity."

When she finished, the Mockingjays slowly tweeted back the tune to her, and it brought her a certain amount of peace. It was the type of thing her father would have sung to her. For a moment she felt his presence with her.

She broke down in tears.

Her quiet sobbing was the only thing that could be heard in the quiet pockets of the canopied trees. She wiped her face, missing her father immensely, but finding a measure of happiness, because of Peeta's thoughtfulness. It made her feel conflicted.

Katniss was confused as ever.

He was funny and kind. He reminded her of Prim and she craved to see him at night, to make sure he was well. She bit her bottom lip. Her eyes navigated to the picture she held in her hand.

Thinking of him made her want to go see him to make sure he was well.

She stood from her spot and decided that she was going to remain firm. Yet that night, as she lay in bed, the overwhelming need overtook her. Her sister and mother were fast asleep on the other side of the room. Quietly, she made her move.