One-Shot: Are You, Gorgeous?
The first time Gale Hawthorne lays eyes on Johanna Mason, it is in District 13. And the intimidating Victor from District 7 introduces herself by way of flirting with him. More than that, hitting on him.
"Your cousin isn't afraid of me," she tosses over her shoulder to a bedridden Katniss. Gale can tell from her tone that she believes that about as much as she believes that pressurized coal can change to pearls or that the moon is made of cheese – not one iota. She blatantly runs a hand along his bicep. "Are you, gorgeous?"
A normally unflappable Gale blushes, flustered, and even turns his head all the way about to watch Johanna saunter out of the medical ward, her hips swaying tantalizingly, accentuating the curve of her bum, especially in those standard-issue Thirteen gray pants.
He tears his gaze away to find Catnip actually smirking at him. "Scared?" she quips.
'Terrified,' he mouths back in a moment of brutal honesty. He's seen Johanna Mason enough on TV to know that she can be flirtatious one moment, cold-hearted murderous the next as she cleaves your face into perfectly symmetrical halves with nothing but a blunt axe.
Later, he's barely said goodbye to Katniss, walking back to the apartment he shares with his mother and three younger siblings, when, strolling down a deserted hallway, the door to a supply closet at his immediate left suddenly bangs open and Johanna's sharp hands are forcefully yanking him inside.
The sound of the door slamming shut again has barely faded before her lips are on his, kissing him furiously. Gale wastes no time in kissing her back, and within moments, she has flung down his trousers and is holding his manhood cheap in her fist, pumping him up and down almost angrily. Johanna climbs him like a tree and he urges her legs to twine about his torso, just before they both stagger back into the wall. Johanna moans like a whore and spreads her legs for him desperately; he slams into her without mercy and they both rut against each other frantically, Johanna's svelte body sliding up and down as he fucks her good and rough. They mate like two dogs in heat, and for the purposes of their lovemaking and how each of them likes to make love, that suits their aims just fine.
When they both cum with relieved shouts and in seconds of each other, Gale can't help but feel terrified and flattered all at once that she was clearly lying in wait for him.
He is also simultaneously wary and exhilarated to see where this might lead.
After that frentic first hook-up, Gale and Johanna take the time to get to know each other. In between rounds of sex in whatever hidey-hole they can find in this subterranean bunker of a district. Gale has to silently thank Katniss for mapping out all of these supply closets ahead of him – his best friend has become quite talented at finding unused storage facilities in which to have her psychotic breakdowns about Mellark in private. He'd thank her in purpose too, except she would then wonder and ask of him what he is using supply closets for. He'd dare not say – not to her, which only makes his trysts with Johanna all the more forbidden, and all the more exciting. He's not sure what Katniss would say if she knew he was sleeping with her ally. Gale is intuitive enough not to use the word 'friend,' as he suspects both of the most important women in his life, after his mother and sister, would take offense to being referred to collectively as friends, and certainly not with each other.
Jo tells him about the lumberyards of District 7, and of her mentor, Blight, the one who was her district partner in the Quell and apparently risked everything, up to and including volunteering for the arena, to help Katniss and Peeta. Gale tells her about the coalmines, and the feeling of being down in those shafts. Of how living in Thirteen sometimes brings some of those claustrophobic triggers back.
The bodily quivers to these feelings of claustrophobia are never worse than the night that Peeta warns them of the Capitol bombings and they all have to retreat to the bomb shelter. In the darkness, strewn out on a sleeping mat, Johanna holds him.
And then she mounts him. She mates with him. They make love.
He only hopes his mother and siblings don't hear. But just in case they did, Gale makes a point of bringing Johanna round to their apartment one night for supper, much to her amusement. Jo teases him about his 'bringing her home,' but he can tell she enjoyed it. What is more, contrary to her public image and insistence on how she never wants to have kids, she is very engaging with Posy and the boys.
He braces himself for his mother inevitably cornering him one day and asking him what the hell he's waiting for.
President Coin announces the mission to extradite the captured Victors who have been granted immunity. She names Gale as the commander who will lead the team. Where saving Mellark's ass is concerned, even if he did indirectly help them avert oblivion, Gale doesn't like his enumerated marching orders. Where Gale putting his life in danger is concerned, Johanna Mason likes it even less. After one planning session, he emerges to find the female Victor from 7 and his girlfriend/partner waiting for him. Coin has just laid out her timetable for the mission; she expects for Gale and his team to be ready to ship out within the next week – apparently, they are waiting on something from Beetee, and that it will involve Katniss and possibly Finnick Odair. Coin has assured Gale that this piece of the plan will be presented to all involved at their next meeting tomorrow.
The normally irascible axe girl is unusually soft as she floats to Gale's side. "What is it?" she asks, peering up into his face.
Gale sighs, running a hand over his face. "The President made clear this mission is risky. It has to be a dead-of-night operation and conducted efficiently for it to even have an outside chance of working. Even then, the probability of being caught remains…. significant."
Johanna looks stricken. He knows she once said that no one can hurt her, because there is no one left whom she loves, but her expression now makes clear: she cares for him and his safety. Deeply. She squeezes his palm, and Gale sends her his most confident smirk. "It'll be all right, Jo."
"But what if it isn't?" she searches his eyes.
"What makes you think it won't be?" Gale's grin broadens, trying to put his girlfriend at ease.
Johanna shrugs, her big, brown eyes glistening with tears. "A feeling. I used to think everything would be all right, as long as I had control. Then Snow made it clear who's really in charge."
Gale tenderly brushes her russet bangs out of her eyes. "Your family?" She has opened up to him about this. When Johanna first won the Games almost five years ago, President Snow predictably tried to whore her out the way he did Cashmere Delacroix. The way he did Finnick. Johanna bravely refused, and in response, Snow had her family murdered. Even then, Jo was never put on the prostitution rotation; perhaps Snow feared what she might do to his clientele. The whole sorry episode might seem like it ended in a draw, but everyone knows who really won – it has clearly haunted Johanna, who is now trembling.
Glancing up at Gale lovingly, Johanna suddenly blasts out:
"Will you marry me?"
Her proposing first is in character, and classic Jo.
Gale blinks rather rapidly at her question. Then, beaming, he takes her by the waist, pulls her against him and kisses her passionately. Johanna melts into it instantly.
"Yes," Gale murmurs against her lips. "Let's do it before I have to leave."
Johanna gasps with joy and leaps into his arms, climbing him like a tree. The couple staggers back into the far wall, heatedly kissing and beginning to rock their hips against each other.
Johanna and Gale bring their faces quite close to each other, embrace and kiss deeply, causing the small congregation of close family and friends to burst into applause. Immediately, all three of Gale's younger siblings – Rory, Vick and little Posy – rush forward to tackle their big brother, interrupting the wedding kiss. The new Mrs. Hawthorne doesn't seem to mind, throwing her head back and laughing musically.
When Gale and Johanna had gone to Coin asking for help throwing together a wedding, the President hadn't lifted a finger, and even objected loudly, claiming that throwing lavish parties was well outside District 13's budget. The newlyweds simply went ahead and mounted a ceremony their way, enlisting help from comrades to push some mess hall tables aside and clear a space in the common area one evening after supper.
Connor Murphy, Johanna's only remaining fellow Victor from 7 and who has made quite a name for himself in the Mechanic's Garage of Thirteen, escorts Johanna down the aisle to give her away. Dalton, a former cowhand from District 10 who is also an ordained minister (a risky title, as all religious observances are strictly forbidden in Panem; Dalton apparently self-taught himself benedictions in the ancient, forbidden languages) blesses and marries the couple. Gale and Johanna decide to blend marriage traditions from both their homelands to feel that they are now truly man and wife. Johanna is quite taken with the concept of a Toasting, listening attentively as Gale and Katniss show her how to do it. Gale is proud of Katniss for making this effort, not only because she and Johanna have not always gotten along, but also because such a tutorial would surely remind her painfully of Peeta. And indeed, she got emotional one time, and to her fellow Victor's credit, Johanna noticed and was genuinely comforting.
Gale and Johanna feed each other a piece of burnt bread. Giggling, they kiss again, Dalton chortling at how they are so eager.
The next part of the ceremony, according to Johanna, is the silliest part – the District 7 marriage custom is to traditionally chop down a sapling and lay it flat on the ground. Then the bride and groom are to jump over it when prompted. Chaff used to tell of how his people in neighboring District 11 do something similar, a tradition that apparently dates back to the slave-holding days of the ancient American South. Unfortunately, they are deep underground and beneath a no-man's land, just bombed and with no healthy trunks to speak of, much less to cut down. Luckily, someone manages to find a long piece of lumber from the Wood-Working warehouse that suits Johanna's purposes nicely.
It does appear a little ridiculous, and much laughter is involved, when Gale and then Johanna have to "jump the log." Johanna laughs as she lifts up the skirts of her simple white dress – something borrowed from Hazelle, her new mother-in-law – and hops over the piece of lumber. Gale tugs his new wife close and kisses her again to cheers and wolf-whistles; closing her eyes, Johanna casts her bouquet of wilting daises and weeds aside. Annie Cresta is the lucky person to catch it.
Eli Cartwright – moving slower these days but with a face as nicely aged as a bottle of wine – strikes up a tune on his fiddle so the bride and groom can have their first dance, and the evening ends with Gale carrying Johanna across the threshold of her apartment while the folk from Twelve sing the traditional wedding song.
The next morning, Johanna has to watch her new husband depart on a high-stakes mission.
Gale is clearly nervous about having to leave his blushing bride, his new wife. He tells her so, and she confesses with uncharacteristic vulnerability that she feels the same. But that was why they Toasted the bread and jumped the log, right? They had agreed that nothing should be unsaid. And, if the worst should happen, Gale knows his spouse will be provided for – Johanna is a Hawthorne now, and possesses all the familial rights therein, including being provided for by his mother and siblings. He tells his wife of this, despite her readily professing – mostly as a front – that she doesn't need to be pampered or fussed over. Neither Gale nor Johanna has ever cared about things like tact. They're plainspoken people, they speak as they find - they really are a perfect match.
Gale bids farewell to Katniss, trying his level best to hide how he is stewing over being sent away from the people he loves like this, lest his best friend think he is dishonoring Peeta and his sacrifice. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to say goodbye to my wife." He crosses over to where Johanna is waiting and kisses her rather indecently. She kisses him back fiercely and wraps him in a tight hug.
"You'd better come home to me…. you hear?"
Gale pecks her lips one last time and heads for the plane. He spots his wife drift over to Katniss, who actually takes her hand in solidarity. Together, Gale Hawthorne's wife and pseudo-cousin watch the hovercraft lift off and zoom out of the hangar bay.