Title: Fifty Fragments
Author: beyondthescenes
Rating: M
Summary: The things that lie between. Gale and Katniss in 50 sentences.
Disclaimer: No profit is being made from this work. All characters belong to Suzanne Collins.
Author's Notes: Written for the 1fandom community on LiveJournal years ago. I wrote the 50 sentences (some AU, some canon-compliant) as unrelated pieces, but if you see any connection between any of them, I leave that to your imagination and interpretation. Also, blatant abuse of dashes and commas and semicolons ahead. :)
youth
"Gale and Katniss sittin' in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g!" Vick yells before running off to safety, and Gale grumbles about Katniss being a little too good at teaching his younger brother how to walk without making a sound.
canine
Katniss can't decide whether to be worried or embarrassed when the Peacekeepers' tracking dog, trained to find the scent of a fugitive Gale, sniffs and barks at her with gleeful certainty.
think
She'd sworn she would never settle down, get married, and have children – in this kind of world, it was unthinkable – but Gale, his eyes promising a new and better future, just might make her reconsider.
violet
Madge looks perfect, almost like a doll, porcelain paleness a striking contrast against the rich violet of her dress, and Katniss cannot help the sharp, wrenching feeling in her stomach at Gale's appreciative stare.
speak
"Katniss, remember I –" he begins, but hesitates, and then suddenly the Peacekeepers barge in to yank him away; she isn't quite sure what exactly he meant to say, but the air is heavy with it, and there's a sense of loss and regret she can't explain.
candy
Watching as she licks the lollipop, encloses it between her lips and slides it into her mouth, he temporarily forgets how to breathe.
while
He finds her covered in bruises and wounds, coloring her body in black and blue and splashes of red, and keeps sleepless vigil by her bedside as the healers mend her back to life.
ask
He couldn't precisely pinpoint when, or where, or how he fell in love with her; all he was certain of was that he was already in the middle before he even knew he had begun.
walk
With her father gone, Katniss considers requesting Gale to walk her down the aisle, give her away, and entrust her to the man waiting at the end, but decides against it; for her, it was too much to ask – and for him, too much to give.
catch
It's the highest she's ever climbed, the branches are perilously thin, and one had just snapped under the weight of her foot – "Catch me if I fall?" she calls out to him on the ground below, and he smiles, says, promises – "Always."
lack
Losing Gale meant losing a part of herself, of whatever it was that made up a person's soul, and she was certain she'd never be whole again.
laugh
Hers wasn't a very feminine one; it was loud and a little harsh on the ear, but it was clear and hearty and a little too infrequent for his liking.
fear
His greatest fear isn't death, but that she may never come back to him again.
stay
"Stay," he asks her – and so she does.
fill
They fall into each other's arms as chaos surrounds them – loved ones reuniting, wreckage burning, healers shouting to clear a path for the injured – but all his senses are filled with her and he refuses to let go of her just yet.
splash
He scoops her up without warning, and she catches the mischievous grin a little too late – "Don't you dare, Gale Hawthorne!" she yells, struggling against his iron hold and promising retribution as he unceremoniously tosses her into the lake.
race
He sits next to her, closer than usual, and she wonders if he could hear the racing of her heart.
familiar
He doesn't know who she is anymore – after the Games, this too-perfect girl with the practiced smile and camera-ready wave; after the War, this broken, bitter shell of what she once was – and hopes his Catnip is still somewhere underneath.
through
"Goodbye," they say in the same instant, and they aren't surprised, both at the timing and the sentiment; they've always been so attuned to each other, so perfectly in sync – in the way they move and think and feel, even in the cadence of their heartbeats in quiet moments like these.
home
Being near him felt like coming home, in the best sense of the word – a place of refuge and relief, comfort and peace; home, she now knows, is where he is.
loud
"Keep it down, kids!" Haymitch bellows from the other side of the wall – in his opinion the rebellion's headquarters definitely needed soundproof rooms – "Some of us are trying to sleep!"
push
Seeing Gale bleeding and unconscious fills her with fury, and drives her to stand and fight.
travel
She muses, sometimes, about the easier, default road she chose, and of what had fallen by the wayside – the future they could have had, and the love story that would never get told.
crash
"If anyone objects to this union, speak now, or forever hold your peace," says the minister, and is startled when the church's heavy oaken doors are suddenly thrown open.
second
She would have chosen Gale – in a world that was right, in a world without famine and games and war – but it wasn't, so she had to smile and pretend and entertain the elite with the next best thing.
hair
Peeta is too gentle, and she is far from delicate – "Harder," she begs, raking her fingernails across his shoulderblades, digging her ankles into the small of his back, urging him deeper, faster, rougher – and when he obliges she turns him dark-haired behind her closed eyelids.
smoke
On those nights in the arena, she would fall asleep to memories of home, of the forest, of the scent of oranges and woodsmoke on sun-warmed skin.
nothing
He could take her anger, her disgust, disappointment – but not this blank, hollow look, as if she didn't know who he was.
show
Everyday of watching the Games, the Victory Tour, the countless interviews, Hazelle sees the angerfearworryhurtpainjealousy in her son's rigid posture, the thin set of his mouth, the white-knuckled clench of his fists; and wishes with all a mother's heart that there was something she could do.
beauty
Katniss has never thought of herself as beautiful, and is skeptical when people say so – they only see her prep team's handiwork, really – but every time Gale looks at her like that, she might actually start believing it.
look
She's seen him hunt game and set traps a hundred times, but this is the first time she notices – truly notices – his proud, chiseled features, the long, lean, muscled lines of his body, the air of danger and rebellion, and she finally, finally understands what the girls at school are sighing about.
distraction
She misses her mark by an inch – to her, it might as well have been a mile – but come on, was it her fault that he was standing there shirtless and sweat-slick in the sunlight?
truth
"Are you still in love with him?" Peeta asks, and he hears the truth in the momentary hesitation, damning and deafening, drowning out her "No."
strength
And she reaches for him, drawing strength from the palm of his hand.
light
To everyone else, she is the girl who was on fire; to him, she is the girl who gave him light.
private
He wasn't as showy as Peeta, and he hardly ever kissed her when other people were around – public displays of affection just weren't his style; but the love in his eyes, in his voice, in his little everyday gestures that often go unnoticed – more than made up for it.
big
Sometimes, when the weight of the world is too much to carry on seventeen-year-old shoulders, she clings to him and breathes him in and closes her eyes at the words murmured against her forehead, and somehow the burden becomes a little easier to bear.
law
Unless incest is a common practice in District 12, thinks President Snow as he watches hidden camera footage of the forest kiss, that is most certainly no cousin.
feel
The first thing she feels as she regains consciousness is his callused hand on her cheek, and the first thing she sees is the emotion in his eyes.
day
Nights are the only real things in her life anymore, she realizes, brushing a lock of moonlit black hair from the forehead of her sleeping lover; tomorrow, as always, she'll emerge from her Victors Village mansion arm-in-arm with Peeta, stepping out into the blinding brightness of morning sunlight and camera flashes.
damage
It's her eyes that give her away – the steely gray shifts with each passing episode, softening into the muted gray of melting snow whenever she looks at Peeta – and while their physical closeness twists his heart, it's the gradual change in her eyes that breaks it.
order
Don't hunt in the forest, don't join the rebellion, don't fall in love with Katniss – but then again, Gale had never been good at following orders.
want
It's all too much for him – the adrenaline of the hunt, the relief of having her home, the thin, rain-soaked white shirt clinging to feminine curves – and he finds himself pulling her against his body and crashing his mouth to hers.
need
She was no longer aware of where she ended and he began; only of how fitting it felt to be with him, here in their forest, their district, in the middle of an unrelenting storm, harsh groans and ragged gasps lost in the crash of rain and claps of thunder.
thrill
Katniss knew she was completely at his mercy – her wrists were tied to the wrought-iron headboard by his expert hands – and she tried not to squirm with anticipation at his almost-predatory smile.
safe
And when the nightmares come he chases them away, holding her until the first signs of sunrise.
begin
She touches the criss-crossing whip scars on his back, tracing the shiny, raised lines, and replaces gentle fingers with her lips.
finish
When the final battle ends and the smoke clears, they search for each other through the rubble, and embrace fiercely amidst the blood and ashes; no words are said, because none are needed.
together
They don't know what their new, uncertain future holds, or what it may bring, but they do know that they will face it together.
mine
Fingers entwined, matching rings glinting in the early morning light, she is his and he is hers.
Thank you for reading! If there's any sentence you'd like me to spin off into its own story, let me know! I already have ideas for a couple of the sentences. :D