Sorry it's been a while everyone! College is a lot! It's my senior year though, so I'm almost done!
It's a short domestic chapter, but it was to get me back into the swing of things! Hope you enjoy!
"Hey," Gale greeted as he walked through the front door.
Johanna looked up from the box of decorations she was sorting through on the floor. "Hey,"
Cricket had leapt off the couch at the sound of Gale's voice and ran to him, putting her front paws up on his legs to say hello.
"Hey pup," Gale laughed, scratching the dog behind her ears. Cricket licked at his hand in greeting. "Okay down. Good girl,"
Cricket wagged her tail excitedly as she lowered her paws to the ground, so she was standing.
"We'll play in a bit, I have to put my stuff down." Gale said, walking to the closet and opening it.
"You talk to that dog like she's a person." Johanna said with a teasing smile after him.
"You've seen the way she looks at us," Gale retorted. "If I didn't know better, I'd say there was a human in there."
Johanna laughed a little as she pulled a leafy garland out of the box.
Gale crossed the room and lowered himself to the hardwood floor beside Johanna and leaned over to press a kiss to her cheek, making her smile. Cricket bounded over and made herself comfortable with her head in Gale's lap.
"How was work?" She asked him, laying the string of fake leaves on the coffee table.
He shrugged and scratched Cricket's head. "Pretty good, actually. We got some things straightened out that have been needing to be straightened out."
"Good," she replied, digging around in the box.
"What's all this?"
"Effie and Haymitch have more fall decorations than they know what to do with, so they gave us a box to go through and take what we wanted."
"Fall decorations?" He asked with a smirk. "So instead of real leaves, we're gonna put fake leaves around our house?"
She rolled her eyes and swatted at him with a dish towel embroidered with pumpkins. Cricket barely flinched. She was currently in her happy place and couldn't care less about what Johanna was doing. "I think it's nice of them."
"Aw, it is nice. It'll make this place look a little more like it's lived in."
Johanna smiled at him. Strangely enough, she enjoyed these domestic moments where they talked about their days and teased each other.
"Are the things on the table what you've decided to keep?" He asked.
"Yeah. Wanna help me pick some more stuff out?"
"Of course," he replied.
Johanna shoved the box between the two of them. Cricket popped up to her feet and stuck her nose curiously into the box, tail wagging.
"Cricket, do you want to be decorated for fall too?" Johanna laughed, reaching over to pet Cricket. The dog's tail only wagged harder. "Huh? Are you gonna be a festive puppy?"
Cricket leapt over Gale's legs to get to Johanna, where she started licking her face.
"Festive puppy!" Johanna cooed, laughing even more as Cricket got more excited. "Are you a festive puppy?"
Cricket barked softly and jumped up on Johanna. Jo fell back with the impact she wasn't ready for and Cricket started licking her all over. Johanna was laughing hysterically. Her face was wet with dog spit, but she was happy. She reached up a hand and roughly pulled Gale, who was just watching and chuckling, down beside her, causing Cricket to go after him, making him laugh as well.
It was simple, to be on the floor side by side, getting licked all over by their puppy, laughing hysterically while autumnal decorations were strewn about their living room. But simple was special to them sometimes. To live a normal, happy life together was something they would never take advantage of.