Chapter 9
(Gale POV)
After I calm my nerves down, I punch the code on the keypad and let myself in. When she hears the door open, Madge appears in the doorway of the bathroom, smiling at me.
"Hey there." I say, not able to wipe the smile from my face. She looks amazing as ever. Hair pulled up and I'd swear she has gloss on her lips though I have no idea where she would've gotten it from.
"Hey." She replies as she leans against the doorframe.
"You ready?"
She takes a deep breath, from nervousness I think, and nods her head. Part of me wants to take her hand as we walk but I'm too unsure about it so I hold back. It would ruin everything if I were to scare her off before the date even begins.
"So now will you tell me where it is you're taking me?"
"Nope."
"Aww, come on! You've gotta give me something here!" She pleads.
"Sorry, no can do. Trust me though, it'll be worth the wait."
"I've been dying all day!" She confesses, guilty grin on her face.
"It'll be worth it." I say again, glad she's been as excited about this as I've been.
We take the elevator down several floors and when we get off, Katniss is waiting for us.
"Alright, here's your temporary passes. You have 3 hours clearance, thanks to Haymitch. It's closed right now so you'll have the whole place to yourself, no workers getting in your way or anything. Anyway, have fun, I'll see you later." She tells us holding out the temporary passes I'd asked her to get for us.
"Thanks, I owe you one." I tell her gratefully as I take the passes and she slips onto the waiting elevator. Before the doors of the elevator close, we share a glance and she smiles. I'm so thankful she was able to help make this date happen.
I turn to Madge and she's looking at me suspiciously, trying to figure out just what it is we're about to do. Before she even has a chance to ask me any questions, I pull a dish towel I swiped from work out of my pocket and hold it up to her. "Okay, you have to put this on."
"What?"
"Gotta blindfold you. Makes for a better surprise."
She pauses, eyeing the blindfold cautiously and I have a split-second moment of panic thinking I took it too far with the blindfold but then she turns around, back to me as she holds up the towel to her eyes and says, "Well, if it's for the element of surprise then I guess I have no choice in the matter. Help me tie it."
"That's the spirit." I say as I blindfold her. I love that she's willing to play along with me on this. "Okay, we have a little bit of a walk and there's some stairs too but just listen to me and I'll make sure you don't fall or anything." I tell her as I go over to the door and punch in the code Katniss wrote on my pass.
"Alright, lead the way." She says as she blindly holds out her hand for me to take it. Smile still on her face.
I stare down at her hand before I take it and lead her through the door and down some stairs. I'd of course wanted to hold her hand and help lead her down the stairs but I was prepared to just talk her through it or let her hold onto my arm or sholder if that made her more comfortable. The hand though, that's a good sign.
"Do I hear water running?" She asks me as we make our way down the final flight of stairs.
"You don't hear a thing. And I'm not telling you anything yet." I tease. She's right though. Water is pouring down the walls all around us, pooling in the center of the enormous room.
She gets the most adorable pouty look on her face and I have to choke down a laugh.
"I heard that." She says pointing out that my stifled laugh didn't go unnoticed, blindfolded or not.
"Okay, I'm gonna let go for a second but don't move an inch and don't you dare peek!" I instruct her. I wait for a second to be sure she won't move and then I go over to where Katniss set up the media player I'd asked for and turn on the music before I hurry back over to Madge and untie the blindfold.
She looks around for what feels like an eternity and her eyes look up at me. "What is this place?"
"It's the water reservoir for 13. This is where all the melted snow and rain from above ground runs down and collects before it gets sent through the filtration system and filled into tanks for use."
"And we're allowed to be down here?"
"Katniss works in the Defense Center and they can get clearance for pretty much every part of 13. I begged her for this favor. Wanted someplace special for our first date. If we'd been back home in 12, I would've taken you to the woods or the lake. Figured this would get us pretty close."
"I like it. It's like being by a waterfall or something." She says softly as she sits down on the blanket that's spread out on the concrete landing. "Can we touch it?" She asks me.
I nod. "Go ahead. I warn you, it's cold though." And I watch as she timidly leans over and reaches down and dips a pointed finger in the water. She shrieks and pulls it back laughing.
"Told you so." I taunt playfully as she rubs her hands together trying to erase the cold of the water.
"How'd you even know this place existed?"
"Saw it briefly when we got our tour of 13. You should take one of those yourself, you know. It's astounding what they've manage to build here, how they make use of every single thing they have."
"Maybe I will."
"I have one more surprise for you." I say as I pull out the heart shaped cookies and present them to her.
"Oh my gosh, are those real cookies?" She exclaims in excitement.
"Yeah. Had them made just for you."
"You have no idea how much I've been wanting something sweet like this!" She tells me as she closes her eyes, taking a bite.
"Glad you like it." I tell her as I watch her enjoying the cookie. This is going really good so far.
"Here, don't you want one?" She asks as she pushes the other cookie towards me.
I shake my head slightly. "No, those are just for you."
She gives me a look, breaks it in half and holds part out to me. I take it, if only because I like the gesture. And because part of me knows that she won't take no for an answer.
"The music is a nice touch." She comments.
I realize she doesn't know that I learned how to dance so I stand up and hold out my hand to her. She leans her head to the side as she takes my hand and stands.
"Gale Hawthorne dances?" She says with raised eyebrows.
"Only for Madge Hawthorne." I say softly as I gently place one hand on her waist and pull her towards me, careful not to get too close for her comfort level but close enough to still dance with her. As we waltz around to the music, I keep my eyes on her the whole time. Her eyes meet mine and she bites her bottom lip, then smiles.
"You're pretty good at this. Did I teach you?"
"Uh, no. Peeta taught me so I could surprise you at our wedding. But trust me, I would much rather have had you teach me."
She stops dancing because she's laughing so hard. "I..I'm sorry! I know I shouldn't be laughing, it's just I never would have pictured Peeta Mellark teaching Gale Hawthorne how to waltz!"
"And what would you have pictured Gale Hawthorne doing?" I ask, laughing myself as I remember how awkward it'd been dancing with Peeta.
"Not dancing with boys, that's for sure. I don't know really. You were always kind of a mystery to me."
"No, tell me. I wanna hear."
"Well, I knew you were always hunting, always out in the woods whenever possible. Kind of like you weren't afraid of getting into trouble. And I noticed more than a few girls falling at your feet regularly, which you didn't seem to have much of an issue with."
"So you think all I did was hunt and flirt with girls?"
"Well, isn't that what you did?"
"Alright, alright, I think we both can see I've expanded my interests a little since before you were in my life." I concede.
"Seems like that goes for both of us. But I should maybe give you more credit than just hunting and girls. I remember watching you with your family and you always seemed so happy around them."
"You were watching me? When was this?" I ask, not having heard about this before.
She blushes and looks away from me. "I don't know."
"Oh yes you do! Come on, out with it!" I tell her, grinning big and letting her know she isn't getting away with not fessing up to watching me.
"Just at school or at the viewings of Katniss's games. Like the one were you didn't have any shoes on. Do you remember that one? Well, because of Prim I was sitting with your family and I remember watching you with Posy. She fell asleep in your arms and you carried her home like that. It was easy to see that your family was important to you."
"I remember that day."
"Me too. You were mean to me every single time I saw you that day. I never could figure out why you hated me so much."
"Hey, I know I was mean but trust me when I say I didn't hate you. A lot of that wasn't even about you."
"What was it about then?"
I hesitate because I hate thinking about how rude I used to be to her but then again, this is exactly what I wanted. A chance to talk to her and for her to get to know me. The current me. The new me. The one that isn't ugly to her. "Well, for starters, when I was rude after you bumped into me with your bag of groceries, that was more about how it made me angry to see you buying stuff for dessert while I was struggling to feed my family of five plus Prim and Mrs. Everdeen. It was a lot on my shoulders and it was just an inopportune time for me to see you with a sack full of luxuries, you know?"
"That makes sense. I can't imagine how hard it would be to be so young and have all that responsibility." She says, nodding in what looks like honest understanding.
"And when you noticed I didn't have shoes on, I was short with you because I was embarrassed that you'd noticed. It made me defensive."
"Gale? Why didn't you have on any shoes? If it's okay for me to ask."
"I always want you to ask me anything. It's always okay, I promise. And I was barefoot because when I'd gotten home from school that day, I found out Vick's shoes had lost their sole and we had to glue it back on. The glue had to set all night and he didn't have another pair of shoes to wear in the meantime. I couldn't let him go into town being the only one barefoot. I did it to support him, to make him feel better. And it wasn't the least bit embarrassing until this pretty girl noticed and pointed it out to me."
She blushes again when I call her pretty and I realize I haven't yet told her how pretty she looks tonight. "By the way, you look just as pretty tonight. Really pretty."
This only serves to make her blush deeper and she bites her lip again. "Thank you." She whispers.
It's quiet between us for a moment before she speaks again, returning us to our previous conversation. "One more thing about that day since we're already on the subject of it…Later on that same night, like in the middle of the night, I saw you in the meadow and you were mean then too. What'd I do that time to bother you?"
"Oh Madge, you weren't bothering me. You never bother me. So you really want to hear about that night? The whole story?"
She nods. I hadn't wanted to tell her this one particular story again. Wanted to keep it for myself but maybe I should tell her. Maybe she'll be happy knowing it again. "I'd gone for a walk and then laid down in the meadow to kinda clear my head of all the mounting stress and I was so exhausted that I fell asleep. As you remember, you spotted me laying there and thought something was wrong and rushed right out to help me. And then I woke up to find you standing over me, staring at me, and again, I was rude to you out of my own embarrassment."
"How is me finding you asleep in the meadow embarrassing?"
"That's the best part. I was dreaming about you." I admit to her, feeling a little embarrassed now even though somewhere in her mind, she already knows this story.
"But…but your lips, they were… you were kissing…" She stutters out in astonishment.
"Yeah, I know. Totally embarrassing, right? To be dreaming that you're kissing this outrageously gorgeous girl only to wake up and find that very girl standing over you? I was mortified." I tell her. I leave out the whole thing about the nightgown with the ruffles. I still want to keep that to myself for now.
Her mouth turns up at the corners as she smiles at me, taking in what I just told her. "I can't believe you had a dream about kissing me before we were ever even friends."
"Yep. I couldn't believe it either when it happened. I mean, I always knew who you were, it wasn't like I didn't notice you or think that you were nice to look at but it was around this time when I for whatever reason started becoming very intrigued by you. Like you'd cross my mind at the most random of times. Not that I would've admitted it to you back then though."
"Really?"
"Mmmhmm." I murmur. We're sitting on the blanket now, facing each other and she's doing that thing where she bites her bottom lip again. And it makes it really difficult not to lean in and kiss her right now. I don't think I was this nervous the first time I kissed her. I wait though. Somehow, someway, I wait.
"Okay, time to move on to the next part of the date." I announce as I get to my feet and reach my hands out to help her up.
"There's more?"
"Yeah, there is if you want there to be."
Her cheeks color a touch as she replies, "I want there to be." She says it so softly and tenderly that it makes my heart flutter. She's enjoying this. She likes being on this date with me and isn't ready for it to end yet. And what's more, after I helped her to her feet, she didn't let go of my hand. She keeps holding it.
"Me too." I say as I lead us back up all the stairs, looking back once over my shoulder at her to smile, her hand still tucked into mine.
After we leave the water reservoir, I take us to the Agriculture Center to the area where all the trees grow.
"This is where I've been coming when I miss the woods. It isn't the same but I like how the trees smell. Makes it feel less like we're stuck underground."
She closes her eyes and I watch as she inhales, taking in the smell. "It does smell nice. Like being at home almost."
I lead us over to a bench and sit down, still holding tight to her hand, afraid if I let it go for any reason that I won't get it back. "It's peaceful here, that's why I like it. And we don't have to have special passes to get in here."
We sit on the bench, side by side for the next hour or so just talking with each other. She asks me about things I like or dislike, shares with me about herself, most of which I of course already know but love hearing just the same. Eventually, she begins to yawn and I realize that as much as I never want this night to end, I should probably bring it to an end and get her home to bed.
"Looks like I better get you home before you fall asleep on me." I tell her as I stand up and pull her to her feet.
We walk in silence but it's an almost comfortable silence as opposed to the awkward ones we've had since we got to 13. The whole way back to our place, I try to decide if I have enough courage to kiss her or not. She's been so receptive to me all night but the fear of rejection has me really nervous and questioning if I should try or not. It's been such a perfect night that I'm scared to ruin it if she isn't ready for me to kiss her yet. As we get off the elevator and walk to our door, I decide I just have to do it. I have to kiss her. To end this date and not kiss her might actually kill me.
As we walk inside, I let the door close behind us but stay standing right by the door. It feels like the official end of the date place to me. I turn to face her and I'm standing so close to her, still holding her hand. Her bright blue eyes are wide and the way she's biting her bottom lip gives me the encouragement I need. I reach out and take her other hand too, intertwining our fingers.
"I had a really great time with you tonight." I whisper as I lean in closer to her face.
"Likewise." She whispers back. She's so close to me that I can feel her breath against my face as she speaks.
My heart is racing as I whisper back "I'm glad." And then before I can chicken out, I lean down and press my lips against hers. And it's the closet thing to heaven that I've felt in weeks.