Chapter 2
(Gale POV)
I sit waiting for her in the meadow, ring tucked away safe in my pocket. I'd called her after I figured dinner would be finished and asked if she felt like meeting me in the meadow for a little while. I didn't mention the woods of course. I watch her walking up, still wearing her cocktail dress from dinner. And as usual, she looks beautiful.
"Hi!" She calls out as soon as she sees me and I'm on my feet before she can even sit down.
"Come on." I whisper with a sly smile as I nod my head towards the fence. When I do, her entire face lights up.
"Really?" She almost squeals in excitement.
I grab her hand and together we make our way through the fence and out into the woods. As soon as we're hidden by the trees, she tugs at my hand, pulling me to kiss her. I lean down and press my lips against hers once, not letting it deepen too much yet. I want to get her to the clearing first.
"What's the occasion? You never want to come out here anymore." She asks after I pull back from the kiss.
I shrug and smile. "Just felt like getting out here. Wanna go to the clearing, sit for awhile?"
She nods eagerly and we make the short trek through the woods to the clearing. Once we're there, we sit, her with her back leaning up against my chest, cradled between my legs.
"I didn't think I'd get to see you today. You have no idea how upset I was hen I found out I'd missed you stopping by." She says as she leans her cheek against my arm.
"I was really only coming by to see if you wanted to meet me out here after dinner. You didn't miss anything. Where were you?"
She lets out a long exasperated sounding sigh. "I needed a break. Went to see Tripp and ended up losing track of time."
"Break from what?"
"From being locked away in that house. I swear sometimes I feel like I'm going to suffocate in there. Now that I don't get to go to school, it's like I'm trapped in there all day long and the only people I ever get to see are the people who work for my father."
I feel a wave of guilt wash over me. It's my fault she's stuck in there, even though she doesn't know that part yet. "How's the schoolwork coming along?" I ask casually.
"It's not. I'm so behind on everything. This tutor is trying to kill me. You should see the amount of work he keeps piling on me. And today, I missed our session and as a result, I have to take a double session tomorrow. I'll probably have to stay up all night just to catch up."
"That bad, huh?"
"I can't even tell you how miserable I am with this new arrangement." She tells me.
I don't answer her. Just kiss her neck a little. She's so tense that I can tell she isn't exaggerating how stressed out she's feeling. Hopefully, after I propose, the tutoring arrangement won't seem so awful because she'll have a reason as to why it's happening. "You look beautiful in this dress by the way." I mumble against her shoulder.
"I've really missed this you know? The sitting out here at night, wrapped up in your arms. Having you tell me how pretty I am." She almost whispers. Her eyes are closed and she's leaning her head against my right arm.
"Me too." I whisper back as I carefully pull the ring from my left pocket without her noticing.
"We should come here more often." She continues, eyes still closed as she relaxes in my arms.
"Mmhmm." I agree as I kiss the bare skin of her shoulder and ever so lightly trail my fingertips down her left arm, working my way towards her hand. When I reach it, I put my palm under hers and slip the ring on her finger. "Marry me." I whisper as it slides right on. My heart pounding so fast that I'm sure she can feel it against her back.
"What?" She says aloud, sitting up and staring at her outstretched hand with her mouth open. She shifts around and looks at me.
"Marry me." I repeat. My heart racing now.
"I...I don't understand...What are you doing?"
I'm a little taken aback but figure she must just be in shock, I know she hadn't seen this coming. I clear my throat a little and smile at her, taking her hand in mine. "I'm telling you that I'm crazy in love with you and want to spend the rest of my life with you. Marry me Madge."
"Is this my mother's ring?" She asks me, her right hand reaching to touch it, fingers tracing over it.
"No. I tried to get it but couldn't. So I had this one made to look like it. So when you see you can think of her."
"You designed me a ring?" She asks, her voice still stunned. And she still hasn't said yes. She still hasn't answered me.
"Do you like it?" I ask, nervousness starting to grow.
She nods. And then she doesn't say anything. She just sits there, staring down at her hand. At the ring.
I wait a long moment before I speak again. "So what do you say? Will you marry me?" I finally ask. I'd thought she'd say yes right away and now that she hasn't, it's making me very, very nervous.
She quiet and still for a moment longer before she finally, finally looks up at me. "I'll marry you."
Relief floods through me and I lean forward, crashing against her mouth, needing desperately to kiss her. She said yes. She'll marry me. She leans into the kiss and happiness just flows through me. All the nervousness vanished. Nothing but pure elation remaining.
"I can't believe this is real. This moment. I had no idea you were going to do this. Not tonight. Maybe not ever. I just...I had no idea." She gushes.
"I know. I had to work really hard to keep it a secret from you. Been avoiding you pretty much all week because I was afraid I'd be so excited about it that I'd slip up and ask you before the ring was ready and before I could get you alone out here."
"It's perfect. The ring. The way you asked me. It's so perfect. Fairytale perfect."
"I'm glad you said yes. Had me nervous there for a minute." I smile at her between kisses.
"Of course I said yes. I just didn't expect it is all. My father's going to be so happy with you, you have no idea."
"Actually, I do. I already talked to him about it." I confess.
"You already talked to my father?"
I nod. "Yeah. Didn't want to ask you and then him say no. But he happily gives us his full blessing in case you were wondering." I laugh.
"When did you talk to him?"
"About a week ago."
"And he knows you're out here with me, proposing right now?"
"Oh no! He has no idea I'm asking you out here. Actually, I'm sorta gonna need to get the ring back from you tonight before you go home. I have to ask you again, at your house over dinner and we have to pretend that it's the first time I've asked you."
She looks at me. "What?'
"This proposal, the one tonight, it's how I wanted to ask you. Here, where we first kissed, alone just the two of us. Your father wanted something a little more public. I couldn't let that be the way I asked you. Couldn't do it at dinner in front of strangers and your father. So I'm going to ask you twice. Tonight, well, tonight was just for us. Tomorrow I'll ask you at dinner for everyone else to see. But I swear you have to pretend like you had no idea."
"I'm so glad you did this. And of course I'll pretend to be surprised, no worries. What did your mother say?"
"I, uh, haven't mentioned it to her yet."
"Why not?" Madge asks, her face falling a little.
"Because she won't be too happy that I'm planning to get married so young."
"Well, we still have a while. I still have school and so do you. And I won't be 18 for awhile either. We've got time for her to warm up to the idea before it happens."
As she says this, I realize that she thinks we'll have a long, two year engagement. She doesn't realize I want to marry her as soon as possible. "Actually, I was thinking we'd do it a little sooner than that."
Surprise covers her face once again and she stares at me for a split second. "How soon?"
"Your father thinks 3-6 months. I was thinking we'd do it sometime before the next reaping."
"3-6 months! I'm only 16 years old! And what on earth does us getting married have to do with the reaping? They'll still put our names in you know."
"Well, what I was thinking is that we would do it before the reaping so that we could use your dowry money like your mother did. So we could set up another account of anonymous sponsorship funds. That way if anything happens, you'll be safe again." I explain.
She starts to pick at the hem of her dress and I know I've upset her. At least a little.
"It wasn't the dowry money idea that made me ask you though so don't think that, okay?" I say softly.
"What was it? I know it wasn't very long ago that you weren't sure it was something you wanted."
"After the Celebration Ball, when we were in your room and you tried to break up with me, I felt terrified, like the air was being sucked right out of my lungs. The very thought of not being with you was so unbearable that I realized I'd never be at a place in my life where I could be without you. That was when I knew I needed to marry you. The dowry idea just makes me feel more urgent about marrying you sooner."
"Will you still want to marry me if I won't do it yet? If I ask for a long engagement, I mean?"
I lean forward, kiss her slowly. "I'll marry you whenever you want. Tomorrow, Next month, Next year. I just want to marry you. But I do want you to think about how much it could help you to have the funds there waiting for you if you get reaped."
"That money isn't supposed to be for me though. It's supposed to go to your family."
"So we'll use it for one of them if they get reaped. You, them, it doesn't matter. If any of you gets sent to the games, I want to know that you'll be coming back. I'd want us to have done whatever we could to make that happen."
"I understand what you're saying, I do. And I see how it makes sense. But I don't know if we're ready to get married in a couple months. We'd have a lot to think about, so much to figure out."
"Like what? Let's figure it out."
"Like what about school? And us not being 18? And where are we going to live until it's time for you to become Mayor? And are we going to start having kids right away? There's sort of a lot to figure out."
"Well, the school part is already figured out, your father took care of that. The tutor you despise so much? It's so you can finish school before we get married. Or shortly thereafter anyway. And my instructors have been giving me extra work to take home so I can finish early too."
"The tutor is because of us getting to married?"
"Are you mad? I know you hate it, not going to school anymore." I ask with a sheepish grin.
"Not mad. But I still don't love the extra schoolwork."
"And us not being 18 doesn't really matter. You can marry at 17."
"But I'm only 16."
"Your birthday is coming up. But even if it wasn't, your father would sign permission for you."
"I didn't know you knew when my birthday was." She smiles.
"Of course I do. And, as for where we'll live, your father has that handled too. After we marry, I'll move in with you. Though I do sorta wish we were going to be able to have our own place for a little while."
"Is there any of this that my father hasn't yet decided or handled for us?" She asks with a roll of her eyes.
"Yeah. The kids part he never even mentioned. That's gonna be just our decision."
"I am not ready for kids. Not even close to ready." She tells me as she searches my face trying to see what I think. She's starting to stress, worrying way too much about the details and all I want is for her to be able to savor this moment and remember it as perfect.
"We've got plenty of time for that later. There's no hurry. And there's no hurry to decide anything. All I needed to know was if you'd marry me and I already got my answer on that." I reassure her then lean in to kiss her, my hand finding hers, fingers intertwining. And I kiss her until I feel her relax again.
"I love you, you know that?" She tells me as she gazes up at me.
"I know. And that makes me the luckiest guy in all of Panem."
(Madge POV)
As we stand outside my house, saying goodnight, I take one last look at my ring, my very perfect ring, and slip it from my finger, handing it back to him.
"I'll give it back tomorrow, I promise." He whispers as he leans his forehead against mine, brushing his hand against my cheek.
"God, I wish you could stay." I whisper as I tug at his shirt, wanting him closer, needing him to kiss me.
He kisses me, a subtle moan escaping him. "Me too." He murmurs beneath our lips. He pulls back though and I know we have to say goodnight.
"See you tomorrow, at dinner." I tell him.
"Sweet dreams my love, see you tomorrow." He places one more kiss on my lips and then I watch as he leaves, glancing back at me more than once, a smile on his face. When he's out of view I go inside and straight up to my room. If anyone were to see me right now there's absolutely no way I could hide my happiness.
In the privacy of my room, I fall back onto my bed, floating on happiness. I can't believe he asked me to marry him! I can't believe I'm engaged. It's like a dream that I never want to wake up from.