Disclaimer: Lots of dialogue in this chapter.
A couple days later, Katniss still hasn't spoken me. But frankly, I don't care. Madge is getting out today. She's going to be on crutches for a while because of her leg and I know she's going to hate them because she's Madge.
When I go to get her from the hospital, the people aren't letting her actually get up until I'm here, so she doesn't drain her energy or what not. When I do get there, she looks greatly annoyed. She's changed out of the hospital gown into mandatory gray clothes and is sitting on the edge of the bed, crutches next to her. She's staring at them, like she doesn't know what to do with them. I knock on the door lightly and she looks up, her eyes lighting up.
"Finally." She mumbles, pulling the crutches under her. When she first stands up she's a little wobbly on her feet from weeks of not walking on them.
"Careful there." I tell her gently and she shoves me.
"I can do it."
I grin. That's my girl. When she finally stands on her feet and manages to walk a little, I grin again.
"I told you I could."
"I didn't doubt it, Madge." I smirk at her and walk next to her. Really, all I want to do is hold her right now, but that's a problem because of the stupid crutches. Once in the elevator, she leans against the wall. I tap the bottom of the crutch with my foot.
"Hate them, don't you?"
"You know me so well." She smiles and I press a kiss to her temple.
"I love you." I murmur against her temple and she rears her head up before pressing her lips to mine quickly. I'm never going to get tired of that. I grin as her hand runs over the scruff on my chin.
"Love you too." She murmurs back and the elevator door dings open, to reveal a startled looking Katniss. Hooray. Katniss stares at me for a second, before going into the other open elevator. I hold the elevator door for Madge as she walks out.
"She's mad, isn't she?"
"Yeah. Pissed."
She sighs, while the crutches pound out a rhythm on the ground. "We did keep it from her for a long time, Gale. Sometimes I wonder if we should have told her."
"I wonder the same thing, Madge." I lead her too where I live and open the door. "Brace yourself." I murmur and she laughs.
As soon as we enter the room, my family jumps up immediately. Yeah, I've never gotten that warm of a welcome. Rory and Vick both give her tight hugs and my mom embraces her. Posy tries to climb up into Madge's arms but she can't hold her on crutches.
"I'm glad to see you alive, Madge." My mom says as Madge manuevers herself into the living room with everyone following.
"It's good to be alive." She laughs as Posy finally gets her proper hug from Madge. Everyone sits around her in the living room and I stand behind her, wrapping my arms around her shoulder. "It's just good to be out of that hospital."
"I'm glad you're out of there, too." I murmur and I know she's smiles. My mom gives me a look and I grin at her. I'm completely and utterly happy right now. My family's safe, I'm safe, my girlfriend's safe, and if she's safe, I'm fine.
My family amuses Madge for a while, while the entire time I'm grinning like an idiot. When dinner rolls around, I tell everyone to go ahead because Madge is slow with her crutches and she whacks me with one.
"You deserved that one, Gale." She groans, but she's smiling anyways. I press another kiss to her lips and feel her smile against my lips. "I love you anyways." This only makes me smile more.
My smile fades a little when we get to the cafeteria, when I realize that we have to eat near Katniss.
"I thought the food got better once you were out of the hospital." Madge mutters and I chuckle.
"No, not really. It's pretty nasty all around." She groans sarcastically and I set her tray down. Katniss avoids our eyes and doesn't say much. She'll mumble under her breath to Prim, but otherwise, that's it. Prim flashes a smile at Madge; Madge taught her a few basic piano skills back in 12.
Mrs. Everdeen and my mom try to start conversation, but it's just awkward. There isn't much conversation besides Prim and Rory (that sly dog!) talking a little. When dinner is over, I ask Vick to bring Madge back to our compartment because I have Command after dinner for forty-five minutes. On the way there, Katniss falls in step besides me.
"I cannot believe you." She hisses under her breath and I sigh.
"Can't believe what, Katniss?" I groan and she lets out a huff.
"Can't believe that you kept something like that from me."
"We didn't tell you because you had too much on your mind!"
"Well, I wouldn't liked to know sooner rather than later!" She barks and I roll my eyes. Our conversation is stopped short when we have to go in. Haymitch sends Katniss a look and she glares.
Coin gets straight to business. "So, are our participants ready to go see Peeta?" Oh. Yeah. Madge has to go see Peeta.
"I could care less if they're ready or not." She spits out and my fists clench. I would prefer if Madge was ready to go in there, not only her, but the other girl too, Delly.
"Then should they go in there tomorrow?"
"I don't care." Well I do.
"Then it's settled. They'll go in tomorrow." Katniss glances at me, as if waiting fo me to challenge it. If I do, Coin will know my weak spot is Madge. No, I can't let that happen. "Also, in a week we will we leaving for District 2." What? I don't want to leave, not because I love District 13 so much, but because I just got Madge back today, I need more than a week.
"Fine." Katniss says stiffly. Everyone agrees, much to my displeasure. The meeting ends quickly after that. Hoping to get out of talking to people, I hurry out of there. Though, Haymitch catches up to me before I can.
"So I take it you didn't tell her about your little relationship?"
"Nope."
"Figures. She was in a pretty bad mood."
"Yeah. She slapped me when I first told her." He gives me the slow clap. "Shove off, Abernathy." I grumble and hear him cackling down the hallway. God, he's going to get on my nerves.
The ride back down to my home is slow. I just want to get back down to my family and Madge. Finally, the elevator comes to a stop and I hurry out, going to our compartment.
I hear Madge's tinkling laugh and immediately, my mood is lifted. When I get into the living room I see Madge and Rory both rolling over laughing and I grin before going into the kitchen to wash off my hands.
"You're smiling more." My mom points out when I walk in. I shrug and she goes out to the living room, herding Posy to bed. She protests, but she's so tired she falls asleep when my mom walks her too her room. Rory and Vick follow thirty minutes later. I start to walk to my room, expecting Madge to follow, but she kind of stands there with her crutches staring at me.
I motion for her to follow and her cheeks burst pink, but she follows me anyways. Once in my room, she drops the crutches on the floor and collapses backward on the bed.
"God I hate those things." I laugh and pull her into my arms, holding her close to me. She sighs into my embrace and I grin into her hair. I fall backwards on the bed and she laughs when she falls on top of my chest.
"I've missed this so much." I tell her, tangling my hand in her hair.
"So have I." She murmurs and I kiss her. "And I've missed that." I grin and kiss her again, cupping her cheeks. Her hand teases the hair on my neck as my lips run over hers. Mine travel downward onto her neck and I begin to suck gently, getting a soft moan out of her. I flip her around so I'm above her and she props herself up on one elbow. Her hands pull off my shirt and she pulls me down closer to her. When my hands tease at her shirt, and I start to ride it up, she stops me.
"Gale," she laughs into my mouth, "Gale."
"Hm?" I murmur, working on her jaw.
"Gale, your mother is in the next room." She laughs and that stops me short.
"Oh. Right." She laughs again and I chuck my shirt at her playfully. She throws it back at me and I chuckle. While she stayed with us back in 12, when it still existed, she'd usually sleep in one of my shirts so I throw one from home back at her and she stares at it for a moment.
"Was this from home?"
"Yeah, it was." I turn around and let her change quickly. When I turn back around, she's sitting on the bed, one of her legs tucked under her, and the other one, the slightly hurt one, hangs off of the bed. She's staring at her hands in her lap.
"What's wrong?" I ask, moving towards her and pulling her back into my arms, laying down on the bed.
"It's just.."
"It's just what, Madge?"
"I don't know what to think of this place."
"I don't think anyone does." I mean, I like it because I can rant about the Capitol and no one tries to shoot me, but I hate it because of Coin, and basically everything else.
"But-"
"Madge, can we not talk about this now? I haven't been able to actually hold you for a really long time and I want to hold you. We can talk tomorrow." She gives me a small smile and curls up into me.
I'm just about to cave under sleep, when Madge asks me something.
"Gale?"
"Hm?"
"What are you going to do after the war?" I haven't really thought of that yet. I'm not going back to 12, I know that. Too hard when everything's gone.
"I dunno. Maybe a different district. I really don't know at all."
"I don't know either. I don't have a home to go back too, or any family."
Pause. "You could come with me, wherever I end up going." I say softly, and her head turns from it's spot on my chest to look at me.
"Do you really mean that?" She asks, her amazing blue eyes staring intently, when I realize that I do mean it. I don't want to have to leave her, not now, or ever, really. I want her to come with me.
"Yeah. I mean it." I sincerely mean and she smiles softly at me. "I do want you to come with me, Madge."
"I believe you, Gale." She murmurs, moving closer to me and my hands find her back, tracing circles on it.
"Madge?"
"Yeah?"
"How do you feel about having kids?"
She snorts, "I'm seventeen, Gale. And there's a war going on. I don't want to bring a kid into the world."
"I know that, Madge, I mean later. After the war."
"But what if we lose and the Hunger Games keep going? The Capitol will surely send the rebellion leaders' kids into them."
"Well you're not a rebellion leader, Madge."
"But you are." She says, her head falling back onto my chest. I start to play with her hair while I think of a response. Does that mean that she wants to have kids with me? Because I do. I want to marry her. I'm not even going to deny it.
"Think of it this way. We will win the war, and then life can be easier and there won't be any kids going to the Hunger Games."
"Yeah, I don't think that life will be easier. Life's always been hard."
"Well, yeah, but it could be easier without the threat of the reaping hanging over everyone's head." I point out, and then keep going. "You have no idea how scared I was when that Quarter Quell announcement was announced. I was terrified that you were going to get stuck in it somehow." I confess to her. Even though we weren't dating at the time, that doesn't mean I didn't have feelings for her.
She feigns a shocked impression. "Gale Hawthorne, scared? What's this?"
"Oh shove off." I grumble and she shoots me a smile. "I was terrified, now don't go telling anyone that, Madge." I poke her side slightly and she grins.
"I was scared too. Thought you were gonna get stuck in it."
"I would've survived." I force out and she chuckles, running her hand along the stubble on my chin again.
"Sometimes I really wonder if you would've."
"And why do you wonder that?"
"Because you're so gentle with your family and me."
I laugh softly. "That's because I love you guys, a lot. A lot more than I should."
A/N: Sorry if this is out of the sorts. I've had the scene between Gale and Madge planned out for a little while now, so I hope y'all like it! Anyways, Katniss is really upset because, well, she's Katniss. Thoughts? Reviews? c: