Disclaimer: I'm just playing with Suzanne Collins' characters and her world. They're hers. Not mine.

Winding Down

AN: Another follow up to 'Broken Clocks' and 'Winding Up'. There's some innuendo during this chapter, not too bad, but it is present, so be warned.

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Gale glances at the clock on the wall and sighs. The evening is almost over. He and Madge will have to head out soon so he can walk her home. He and his dad had plans the next morning to go to the woods and he doesn't want to be too tired to function, even if what he's currently doing is a hundred times better than sitting quietly waiting for game. Watching as Madge carefully drizzles chocolate over a layer of fudge, making delicate swirls and loops on the top, he knows his morning will be much less enjoyable.

He likes watching her. In fact, it's fast become his favorite activity. Her nose wrinkles up and her eyes focus, sometimes she bites her tongue as she makes a particularly intricate design, like her name or his, though after she cuts up the brick no one would ever know their dessert was marked with the names 'Gale' and 'Madge'.

"My mother used to do it with her family's names, then, when she met dad, she started using his name too," she explained. "She says it puts a little love in it."

Even though Gale thinks it's a little silly, childish even, there are worse things. He actually finds it a little endearing.

"Have you finished the strawberries?" She asks, as she puts the final loop on the fudge.

Gale looks at his small pile of strawberries, fresh and juicy looking, then back at Madge with a sheepish grin. "I'm working on it."

Madge snorts, picks up her tray of fudge and carries it to the cooler, while Gale plucks up a particularly large berry. He considers finishing his assignment, Madge had told him that his little pile was going to be for his siblings, but when he glances down at a glob of glistening chocolate, a much more enticing use of his time quickly comes to mind.

Tossing the strawberry back, he runs his finger through the chocolate before quietly crossing the room to the cooler where Madge is rearranging trays.

"You've got something on your cheek," he whispers over her shoulder, just barely grazing her ear with his lips.

Where his body is softly pressing to hers, barely room for a breath between them, he feels a shiver run up her back.

From his angle he can see pale pink blossoming across her cheeks, downward across her chest and vanishing down the front of her dress top, and his mind immediately thinks there are some much more interesting things he'd like to drip and drizzle in chocolate than fruit and berries.

Leaning back into him, Madge tilts her head slightly and peers up at him through her bangs, giving him a small look. "Where?"

Taking his chocolate coated finger, Gale smears a line down her cheek.

Madge yelps in surprise. "Gale!"

Laughing, he wraps an arm around her waist as she tries to wiggle away. "Hold still and I'll help you!"

"By covering me in chocolate?" She snorts and manages to twist in his arms.

"Might be fun," he chuckles. "My 'fruit' is pretty tasty plain; chocolate dipped will make it irresistible."

It takes her a second of thought, but when she works out what he's said her eyes widen and her blush deepens to a shade darker than the strawberries Gale is supposed to be dipping.

"That's-Gale that's gross!" Her nose wrinkles up and she buries her face in his chest to keep from looking at him. "And unsanitary and-and do you know how hot that chocolate is? It'd-"

He tilts her face up and presses his still chocolatey finger to her lips, smearing it on them and silencing her.

"Just kidding." Kind of, but not really.

She doesn't look like she believes him, but nods before trying to pull back. Gale tightens his arm around her.

"Gale, I need to clean up."

He smirks. "I told you if help."

Before she can open her mouth and ask another question, Gale dips in and presses his lips to the streak of chocolate. Gently, his tongue grazes over it, licking it off.

After a minute of two, when all traces of his mark are gone from her skin, Gale pulls back. He cups her face in his hands and runs his thumb over her cheek. "See? I helped."

Eyes half lidded, a little sigh escapes her lips and she makes a faint noise.

It takes a few seconds, but her eyes, a little brighter than they had been, flutter open and she smiles up at him. "I'm not sure if that was very sweet or very gross."

Gale feels his face break into a grin. "Definitely sweet."

She looks like she might say something to that, but Gale decides not to give her a chance. He swoops in again.

Her lips taste like the honey they'd used in some hard candy earlier. She'd been sucking on some and the traces of it and the lemon juice are still clinging to her tongue, mixing with the berries they been snacking on.

When her lips start wandering, to his jaw and then to the sensitive skin just below his ear, he takes the opportunity.

Kissing a line down her neck, he starts nipping at her shoulders.

His back starts aching at the angle, so in one smooth move he dips a little, catches his hands under her thighs and hoisted her up, turning and depositing her on one of her granddad's little tables.

There's a fine dusting of powdered sugar on her, and Gale lets mouth work its way across her chest, down to the dropping neckline of her dress seeking it out.

It isn't until the cuckoo clock in the front of the shop, an obnoxious thing with a mockingjay in it that pops out and sings in different melodies or phrases, starts making the same noise as the school bell that they stop.

They're both breathless and flush. Gale realizes that he has part of Madge's dress balled up and crushed in his fist while his other hand is up her thigh still, fingertips brushing the very edges of her undergarment. He's a little embarrassed, until he realizes she's untucked his shirt and both her cool hands are pressed, palm flat and fingers gripping, into the skin of his lower back.

Slowly, he feels her slip her hands out from under his clothes and watches as she settles them in her half exposed lap.

Disappointed, Gale reluctantly lets her dress unknot from his grip and slides is other hand down her leg, giving her knee a small squeeze as he does.

"It's late," she finally says.

He nods. They're parents will expect them home soon and Gale doesn't care to give Madge's crazy dad another reason to dislike him. Gale's mere existence seems to be enough to annoy him already, keeping his daughter out past the designated time would probably end in an attempted castration.

Though considering how the evening had gone Gale thinks maybe her dad has a pretty good handle on how to deal with his only child's suitor.

"We need to clean up," she says absently, smoothing out her dress and running a hand through her messy hair.

Offering her a hand down, Gale nods again. He's lost the ability to speak.

Though it only takes a few silent minutes for them to put the room right, clean up their utensils and put ingredients away, when they finally exit the shop, leaving Gale's undipped strawberries for Madge the next day, the sun has set.

Reaching out, Gale takes Madge's hand, feeling the bands of their stopped watches press together as she twines her arm around his.

As they head off, toward the Seam and the narrow little neighborhood where most of the foremen like Madge's father live, Gale smiles to himself before licking his lips. They still have traces of sugar on them.

He chuckles. "Kissing you is going to make me fat."

She looks up at him, not quite understanding.

He licks his lips again. "You keep rolling yourself in sugar."

Madge snorts. "You're the one that wanted to do unspeakable things with the chocolate dip."

Laughter booms out of Gale's chest and he shifts his hand, wrapping it around her waist and pressing a kiss to her raspberry scented hair.

His morning definitely isn't going to be half as fun as his evening had been, even if it'll be healthier.