Katniss's POV
I wake up early in the morning. I quickly get up and walk over to my new closet. I pull out some loose brown pants, a green sweater and a gray vest. I then walk down the hall towards the stairs. I poke my head into Prim's room and smile. She is curled up in a ball. Today is Sunday. When I hugged Gale yesterday, he put a slip of paper in my pocket. It said to meet him in the woods today. I go downstairs and grab 2 apples from a cabinet. I put them in my game bag and walk outside. The first streaks of sunlight are reaching over the hills in the east. I laugh and run towards the Seam. I run past the people who are on their way to the mines. They all raise their arms in weary greeting. I keep running. When I reach the fence, Gale is leaning against it. I leap at him again. He gives me a big hug and then sets me down.
He looks like he is deciding whether or not to say something, and then decides not to. He climbs over the fence, quick as lightning. Then I crawl under. We run into the woods and towards the clearing that we had met in. That was the place where we catch the most rabbits.
We check all of the twitch-ups and then he finally speaks again. "IT was really hard, not knowing if you would come home or not."
"You knew I was going to come home." I reply simply.
"No, I didn't," he says angrily. He spins around and grabs my shoulders. "What in the world were you thinking, Katniss! You scared the heck out of me! Never ever do anything like that again. When you were with the tracker-jackers? Oh, that was the worst. You could have climbed down and gotten away while that Glimmer girl was asleep. But, no… You had to risk your life. I hate it that you were so... so…"
"So what, Gale?" I say calmly.
"So ready to be killed." he says, ashamed.
"Gale," I say, holding his chin in the palm of my hand. "Look at me. You are so paranoid. If I wouldn't have risked my life, you still would have gotten me home, but in a wooden box. I had to put my life on the line so I could survive. If I would have to try to get away, they would have treed me again, but that time I would probably be stuck. They would have waited until I had run out of food and then shoot me in the night." I let go of his chin. The first tears roll down his cheek. I wipe them away.
"Thing is, Catnip, if you wouldn't have volunteered-" he says shakily.
"Prim would be dead." I say, my voice dropping an octave. "Prim would be dead. I-I might have gone into depression with my mother. How happy would you be then?" It seems I found the mark. He now starts sobbing. I reach my arms around his neck and lean into his hard chest.
We just stand there for a long time. Finally, he pushes me back gently and says, "You're right, Katniss, you always are. Just… just… you scared the heck out of me when you volunteered. Don't do it again."
"I can't, Gale." I say, laughing slightly.
"I know." he says softly and he takes my face in his hands and gently kisses me. This is nothing like the kisses I gave Peeta to shut him up. This kiss actually makes me want more. He releases my face and suddenly gets the look in his eyes that usually means, 'Should I shoot this rabbit, or knife it?' But it could mean anything now.
"Katniss Haley Everdeen," he says, going down on one knee. "Will you marry me?" I gasp he takes a small cardboard box out of his breast pocket and opens it. There is a braided silver ring inside.
"Gale…" I say, breath taken. "Of course I will marry you, but how in the world did you get the ring?"
He twists it gently onto my finger and says, "Amaryllis's mother died while you were gone and her father gave me the ring to give to you." We then intertwine our fingers and run towards the lake to fish. We sit and talk about everything. He tells me what happened while I was gone. I tell him how it felt to watch the Careers rip Peeta away from me and slice his neck in two. He hugs me at this point and we then keep fishing until we have enough for trading and feeding our families.